Ancestral Trees
Family trees can bore the pants off many people,
but I find them fascinating. Delving into the past might have many heartwarming
repercussions, and some even more startling discoveries. It was truly an
eye-opener when I began to squirrel into my family history. However, I loved the
experience so much it made me want to write about my own family black
sheep, and maybe invent some totally new ones for fictitious family stories.
I'm currently writing a family saga set mainly in Scotland the plot loosely based around events my ancestors took part in. It is in no way a biography, and yet is not totally fictitious either. What is true is that my family tree was at the heart of planning what I hope will become a three book series. That's what's currently on the writing table, but what have I done before where I've created a family tree?
The family tree for my contemporary mystery Topaz Eyes absolutely begged to be written next, but I wanted
the challenge of making a more complicated one. I had to have some reasoning
for bringing a long-lost family together, though. It took only a short
think-time for me to decide to combine a plot that had a coming-together of
hithertofore unknown family members, and venues I also really wanted to feature
in my writing. My target publisher was Crooked Cat Publishing, who publish across all fiction genres, so Topaz Eyes would be a lot more mystery and less of the heady romance, but curiously it is the romantic entanglement between Keira and Teun which underpins the whole mystery.
Distant third cousins are involved in
a quest to find priceless jewels that were scattered amongst the family
decades before. I needed a good reason for the third cousins not to know each
other, and indeed, not even to have heard of each other. Setting my mystery in
Europe gave me a great excuse for having some family members leave the country
of their birth- some to move a relatively short distance away, but others would
emigrate to the US.
That fitted the generation around the late 1930s when many fled the approaching
horrors of Nazi Germany. I worked out that if my original ‘matriarch’ was giving birth
to a family during the 1880s that would give me a fantastic start point for my
family tree structure.
At that stage I sharpened the pencils and
got an A3 piece of paper to sketch out on. That deadpan phrase ‘write what you know’ was in my mind. I would use a personal family situation to my advantage, but Geertje Hoogeveen- the matriarch - and her offspring are totally fictitious.
I’d already included the European cities of Barcelona, Paris, and Tallinn in my fun contemporary romance novel – Take Me Now - but I next wanted to
include venues such as Amsterdam, Vienna and Heidelberg.
Heidelberg? That was a fabulous location to start at since I adore Heidelberg,
and Amsterdam would
be almost the place to end. I’m not giving away the plot, but I did have to
make many changes to the structure of the family tree as the novel developed.
It took quite a bit of mathematics to get the dates correct for each generation
but it eventually worked!
The founder member of my Topaz Eyes family tree is an Amsterdam woman, called Geertje Hoogeveen.
Since the members of the tree are European I had to do a bit of research to get
the best names for my protagonists. To make it easier for the reader there is a
convenient little copy of Geertje Hoogeveen’s tree included in the book and how to
pronounce the names isn’t too bad, since I chose fairly easy ones.
A peculiar invitation to Heidelberg
embroils Keira Drummond in the search for a mysterious collection of
extraordinary jewels once owned by a Mughal Emperor; a hoard that was last
known to be in the possession of Amsterdam
resident, Geertje Hoogeveen, in 1910.
Who among the progeny of Geertje – hitherto unfamiliar third
cousins brought together for the quest – can Keira rely on? Distrust and
suspicion among them is rife.
Which one is greedy, and determined enough, to hire thugs to
tail her… and worse… as she travels to Vienna
and Minnesota? Can Keira even trust Teun Zeger - a
Californian she is becoming very drawn to – as they pair up to unearth the
jewellery?
As they follow a trail of clues, will they uncover the full
collection before the hired gun kills them? Details remain furtive and
undisclosed until danger and death forces their exposure. And who harbours the
ultimate mystery item that is even more precious than the Mughal jewels?
Greed, suspicion and murder are balanced by growing family
loyalty, trust, and love.
Please enjoy this little bit to tide you over till you get your own copy...
At this point all the third cousins, and Keira Drummond, have been summoned to Heidelberg, the mysterious arrangements to get them there very suspicious.
“Would you ditch the mystery, Jensen, and just enlighten me
as to what you think I have that interests you? And tell me why you couldn’t have
asked for it in the letter you sent to me? I came here of my own free will –
granted – but I’m not hanging around any longer if you’re going to drag this
out, for I’m damned sure I’ve no idea what you’re referring to.”
Jensen’s
reply lacked emotion, his face a blank screen, his gaze focused on Teun as
Keira regarded the by-play.
“Teun. It
may come as a surprise to you, but you actually know more about this invitation
than Keira. At least you knew from my letter I had something of family interest
you might be glad to take back to the USA with you. Keira had no such
suggestion made to her.”
Tension
rose in the room, which didn’t only radiate from Teun.
Keira sat
uneasy, also unwilling to be in the dark any longer. “Would you please explain
why you think I may have something you want, Herr Amsel?” She found herself
reluctant to use his first name, considering the antagonism now mounting.
“All in
good time, Keira. And please call me Jensen. I don’t set out to be anyone’s
enemy. I believe each of you can provide access to items belonging to the
collection. All the pieces are likely to vary in monetary value but, viewed as
a complete entity, it will make an impressive display. It’s a historic set… and
unique.”
CC Bookstore W.H. Smiths Waterstones; Apple Itunes...
Wishing you a happy Sunday.
Slainthe!
I love exploring family history too, Nancy, and keep thinking I ought to incorporate some of mine into a story. For my next release, Irish Inheritance, I invented a rather complex family tree. Like you, I had to adjust some of the dates to fit, and I spend ages looking at the UK, Irish and American censuses!
ReplyDeleteHi, Paula. Thanks for visiting. I haven't had time for much ancestry recently but when the new census for 1911 was released there was such a flurry of activity!
DeleteThe 1901 census was released during the time I was deep into family history, but the demand was so great that the whole system crashed within a few hours, and we had to wait a few more weeks for it to come online again!
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