Fragrance of Violets

I started my third novel while I was waiting for decisions from publishers about the first two.  My first attempt reached about 12 chapters before I decided it simply wasn’t working.  There was too much introspection and not enough action, or conflict between the hero/heroine, or external conflict(s).

I put it on one side for a time while I concentrated on the revisions my critique partners were suggesting for His Leading Lady.  By the time I came back to it, I’d worked out just what the various conflicts were going to be. 

One was the same as the original – the heroine had never forgiven the hero for destroying their friendship as teenagers.  But now, in addition to that, Abbey has an unresolved conflict with her father who deserted his family when he was young, and Jack blames himself for the accident which killed his fiancée.

The external conflict comes from the Lakeland village where I decided to set the story.  People in the village haven’t forgiven Jack for a newspaper article he wrote several years previously.

The forgiveness theme gave me my title – Fragrance of Violets.  This is based on a quotation from Mark Twain – ‘Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet bestows on the heel which has crushed it.”

The village in the Lake District is a real village.  I’ve given it a different name but anyone who knows that area will probably be able to recognise it. It’s a place I know well as I’ve visited it frequently.  My parents had a caravan at a farm just outside the village, I later took over the caravan and my daughters have happy memories of their time there when they were children and in their teens.

Fragrance of Violets was accepted by Whiskey Creek Press at the end of January and will probably be released in early 2012.