One of the best suggestions I received about Substance of Shadows from author friends is that I should make the novel a little more omniscient. Yeah, that’s popular right now. 🙂
But you know, the novel wants to be omniscient. There would be an omniscient narrator who could pull things together easily, although the identity of the omniscient narrator would be a bit of a surprise. Still, shooting for that old fashioned Victorian feel. Need to pull away from the modern prose a bit.
Another thing I needed to do was get my houses right. My blocking was getting pretty obnoxious. Rooms were blending in weird ways. I went out to find template houses to pattern my three homes on. These houses will contain most of the action of five books, so they themselves are characters to some extent.
What houses am I using as my templates? Glad you asked. I’ll be happy to tell you in this series of entries!
Marcellus’ House: North Lees Hall This would not be the first time North Lees Hall has been used as a template for a literary home. Mr. Rochester’s House in Jane Eyre, Thornton, is believed to be North Lees Hall. Because it’s a really tall tower house from the Renaissance, it was easy for his mad wife to kill herself falling from the tower.
Marcellus needed to move out of Mistraldol. Diana, his wife, doesn’t care much for it, and there’s that whole problem with Esme and her demon Ma’at. So he opted for something smaller and nearby, and he doesn’t have a grand name for it. I found North Lees to be well situated in the Peaks where the story is set. It also comes with a handy floor plan, so that’s one I don’t have to construct.
Next up: Galt House
