How my Fictional Village got its Name

By -
My new book is now available for Kindle in the UK!  Click here to download it. (It doesn't yet seem to be available elsewhere in the world, but I'll let you know.)
I've already had my box of ten free author copies, and started giving them away. I quite forgot to warn local friends that the village where the book is set is called Thundersley. This was quite an oversight, given that the village where I live is called Thundersley so it may have come as a surprise to them to see my home town detailed in the pages of my novel. 

I didn't deliberately name my fictional village after the place I grew up as any kind of sentimental tribute (although I do love where I live). Neither is the fictional village of Thundersley in the same place as the real village: the real village is in south Essex, whereas the fictional version is in Suffolk.

Originally the village in my book was called Easterfield, a name plucked entirely from my imagination. Readers of my previous books will remember that my 2008 novel was called Easterfield, and in fact Fields of Glory is set in the same village, with some of the same landmarks--for example, the heroines of both live in a house called Westleigh, Catherine Waters in 1850 and Eleanor and Patricia Field in 1942.

My publishers didn't want the village to be called Easterfield because that tied it too much to my previous book which is now out of print. They didn't want anyone thinking they couldn't buy this book because they hadn't read the previous one, for example. They're both standalone novels, although readers may have a wry smile as they recognise characters from the previous one - Alex Farrell has portraits of his ancestors on his walls, for example, and those ancestors are characters in the first book.

So I sent a list of possible village names to my editor, including Witnesham which is the actual village which stands where my fictional village does. From that she picked Thundersley as being an evocative, appealing and typically British name, and I was quite pleased to honour the place where I have been so happy for so many years. The real Thundersley is nothing like my little Suffolk farming community, but it is a beautiful, historic and characterful large urban village, and I'm glad it can be honoured in print.
In the book, Thundersley Hall is a grand manor
house which is bombed. This is the nearest we have to
a "real" Thundersley Hall.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eight Things I wish I'd known about Electric Cars before I bought one

By -
Image
  Last September my husband and I bought an MG 5 LR EV Exclusive. That "LR EV" stands for "Long Range Electric Vehicle." Our first electric car. I'd long been thinking that we were the ideal family for an electric car. We rarely drive long distances, we have our own driveway, and with three members of the family suffering from asthma we're keen to be part of cutting emissions. Hubby said he would have been okay with a hybrid, but that sounded like fence-sitting to me. With the price of a litre of diesel touching £2.00 at the time (US$8.40 per gallon) and the petrol crisis still fresh in our memories, I was keen to get away from the need to buy fuel at the forecourt. Our diesel Kuga was approaching the end of its contract and it was time to choose a new one. So off we went to the Ford showroom and asked what electric cars they had. Only two: a Mustang (a sporty beast) or a Transit van. The Mustang looked very pretty, but wouldn't fit Roderic's hockey
Read more

I Wore a Skirt to Church on Sunday

By -
Image
I'm very grateful to have permission to reproduce here something by Carrie Stringham Teasdale. I've never met Carrie, but her words had quite an impression on me so I sought her out to ask whether I could share them on my blog.  As background this past Sunday, 16th December, was designated by a group of Mormon feminists as "Wear Pants [Trousers] to Church Day". They felt that being required to wear a skirt or dress to church is indicative of the oppressive and patronising attitude in the LDS church towards women. Now, whilst I'll readily admit that it is a patriarchal church, I personally have never felt less valued or respected in it, or in any way inferior to my brothers in Christ's church. I also only ever wear skirts or dresses because I find them way more comfortable than trousers. In fact, I don't currently own a pair of trousers (that fit). I have held some pretty major callings (on the Stake Public Affairs Council, YW President, Primary Preside
Read more

The Importance of Reviews - and Chocolate

By -
In my last blog I talked about the expense of publicity and why, therefore, it is important to attract readers through other means. Social networking, blogging and and just being "out there" apparently helps people to know your name and have an interest in your work. A gripping, intriguing and well-written back cover blurb is vital, but personally I think you can't beat reviews and recommendations. If someone else has read the book and loved it - especially if they are someone I know and trust - then there's a good chance I'll want to read it too. When a potential buyer is considering the book on Amazon a good review might be the difference between clicking "buy" or not. To this end, I have a proposal. The "Chocolate and Reviews for Books" proposal Here's how it works: You, the author, email me a word document of your book (to anna [at] buttimore [dot] org [dot] uk - and include your postal address in the email). I post you a bar of British
Read more