April 7, 2008
New Works in Progress Section
Posted by Tracy Grant under Mélanie and Charles Fraser, The Mask of Night, Tracy GrantYou may have noticed that the Books page on the site now includes a Works in Progress section. Here you will find links to detail pages for both The Mask of Night , the third Charles & Mélanie book, which is written but not yet published (hopefully it will be soon, but I still don’t have anything definite to report), and the fourth, as yet untitled Charles & Mélanie book, which I am just starting to write. The Mask of Night detail page includes links to the excerpts I’ve posted in the Dear Reader blog, as well as Historical Notes. The detail page for Charles & Mélanie Book #4 so far only has a brief paragraph about the book but I’ll be updating it as I develop the novel.
Do take a look and let me know what you think. I thought it would be fun to make these two books and other future books this week’s blog topic. Any questions about The Mask of Night or Book #4? Any suggestions of things you’d like to see happen in these books or other subsequent books? Any thoughts or questions raised by the Historical Notes or the excerpts? Any questions about members of the Fraser family (or extended family) who haven’t appeared in the books yet?
This week’s Fraser Correspondence addition deals with one of those family members. Aspasia Newland, Chloe Dacre-Hammond’s governess, writes a letter to her sister about the wedding of Lady Frances’s daughter Judith in April of 1817.
April 8, 2008 at 1:34 am
Wow! After reading “Beneath a Silent Moon”, I had a feeling that Simon and David might have some trouble in the future.
(Or perhaps I’m suffering from deja-vu?)
I wonder if this is the first time David has faced Simon’s very different ideals?
Whatever Melanie’s past, she and Charles do agree on certain basic points.
April 8, 2008 at 6:27 am
I’m glad you saw David and Simon possibly clashing in the future in “Beneath a Silent Moon,” JMM, because I was definitely foreshadowing it :-). At least, I knew where their relationship was going in “The Mask of Night” when I wrote “Beneath.” “Mask” began in my head as the study of three couples–Mélanie and Charles, David and Simon, and David’s sister Isobel and her husband Oliver. It’s interesting to compare Mel and Charles and David and Simon. Because you’re exactly right, despite their very different backgrounds, Charles and Mélanie share certain core beliefs. David and Simon have much more similar backgrounds (thought not precisely the same–Simon’s father was a wealthy merchant’s son who went to Paris to study painting and his mother was an artist’s model, while David is the son of an earl and countess). But Simon’s and David’s world views are father apart, largely because David is more of an aristocrat to the bone than Charles is. Even Charles and Mel can disagree on tactics, which they do in “Mask.” And if this isn’t the first time David has faced Simon’s different ideals, I think at least it’s the first time his faced the depth of the gulf between them.
April 8, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Much as I like the character, David does have a certain sense of… entitlement. It will be very interesting to see his reaction to Simon’s other “activities” as well as Melanie’s secrets.
April 8, 2008 at 10:29 pm
With David, I tend to think of it as “noblesse oblige.” He does have a strong sense of his position, but it’s more as a duty and responsibility than as an entitlement. However, certain assumptions about the way the world should, from his view, be ordered go with that sense of duty and responsibility. He can see past some of it, but not all. I don’t deal with him learning Mélanie’s secrets in “Mask”–I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to play that, though I know it won’t be easy–but he does confront Simon’s activities, and also some surprising truths about his father and sister. David’s father was also Charles’s chief in his intelligence days, which makes for an interesting dynamic.
April 9, 2008 at 6:12 am
Weighing in with my tuppence here.
I have to say (ironically, considering my own endeavours) that I’m avoiding most of the excerpts of Mask of Night, as I’m fascinated with the mystery of how what you think will happen to the characters will compare with what I come up with in my mind. To ask questions outside of the books seems a kind of cheating….
I find it interesting to put off the comparison of my ideas with the “real” ones as long as I can. (I use the quotation marks in deference to your earlier posts about the various reactions of readers to your words — we never do read the same book as another person did, or even the one the author wrote.)
Cate
April 9, 2008 at 6:38 am
Cate, I’m fascinated now to compare what you think will happen with what’s in the books. Even if you don’t want to post what you think will happen (which you could always do, and I’d promise not to comment on it), you have to at least write it down before the book is published, so we can compare the two without your thoughts being colored by your reading of the book, if that makes any sense.
I’m end-read books and read spoilers for my favorite television shows, so I would undoubtedly “cheat” by asking questions of the author. Although some of my friends who are fond of literary analysis would claim that what the author says is irrelevant and all that really matters is the actual words in the book. Then again, the excerpts are words from the book, so reading them isn’t precisely “cheating.”