Last week I mapped out a novella to be released for the holiday season in November. Unlike my Dangerous series, this one is a stand alone story that will be self-published. Gulp. I embarked on the project mostly to learn about the publishing process. I also did it because I couldn’t get one thought out of my head: Can I set a Regency story in Venice? Of course I can!
Venice and the Grand Canal (Francesco Guardi, 1750)
Traveling to Venice didn’t hurt the process. Neither did discovering a nice little book on my last day there, In Venice and In The Veneto With Lord Byron. Now I have Venice 1818-1820 at my fingertips. Add some of my own photos and characters that began speaking to me and I was ready to go.
The story will feature a headstrong Englishwoman so determined to see Rome for herself she convinced her young brothers’ guardians to let her join his Grand Tour to keep him out of trouble. It also features a lonely widower, a physician racked with guilt that he wasn’t able to save his wife from typhoid years before. And the brother? Keeping him out of trouble proved impossible, particularly when they got to Venice and he fell in with Byron. Swimming in the Grand Canal is really not a great idea. Now the brother is ill, the doctor is angry, and Lady Charlotte Tyree is stranded. What’s a lady to do?
I can’t wait Caroline!! I’m so excited!
Sounds like a great book. Can’t wait to read it, Caroline!
Sounds great! I love Venice and this premise intrigues me! Jillian Chantal