99p ~ You Can't Go Wrong!

The two instalments of my family saga about the Lanchester family, KINGS AND QUEENS  and LAST CHILD are both on offer for 99p/99c from today, September 17th, until midnight on Wednesday, September 23rd.  Click on the titles for Amazon links!

You can see details for the books ~ blurb and over 90 x 4/5* reviews ~ on the links above; in brief, they're two episodes of a contemporary drama about a family who own a property developing empire ... with a historical twist.  Kings and Queens is about Harry Lanchester and the six women in his life, which might remind you of a certain Tudor king... it's a modern day retelling of the story of Henry VIII and his wives.  Last Child is about Harry's children, Jasper, Isabella and Erin, who closely resemble Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I.

Please note: no knowledge of history is necessary!  Both books are essentially just modern day dramas, and can be enjoyed without any reference to the characters' historical counterparts.

My new book, The House of York, will be out in October, all going well, cross fingers and touch wood.  You can read more about it HERE

Many thanks to anyone who downloads!

What does 'I love you' actually mean?

Alas, it often means very different things, even to two people who are uttering those three little words to each other at the same time.  How many times have you heard a brokenhearted friend say "I don't understand; how could he just go?  He told me he loved me!"?  You may have said it yourself.  

Perhaps one person was saying "I can't imagine my life without you in it", while the other just meant "You're so exciting and exactly what I'm looking for, right now".

Sometimes it means the more sinister "I have an ideal in my head about the person I will love, and I want you to be 'it'"~ more on that one later!

I thought about this whole subject a great deal whilst writing my latest book, Last Child, because it features so many variations on the man/woman relationship.  Although not 'romances' by any means, my books do tend to be based around affairs of the heart, and I draw not only from my imagination but also from my own experience and observation of others.  This aspect of life has always been both interesting and so important to me, perhaps one of the reasons why I've never allowed it to fall into the second place necessary when you have children (actually, that's only just occurred to me!). 

Children or not, it isn't so important for everyone; there are those like Hannah (she appears in both Kings and Queens and Last Child), who prefer to keep such extremes of emotion at arm's length: "Some people need romance and passion like they need air to breathe, and some don’t.  I belong to the latter camp.  I’m happy to be a friend and confidante to those who need help in related crises, but have no desire to experience the despair that so often follows the joy."

(Sensible?) people like Hannah are just not made for the 'grand passion'; those explosive chemistry type of affairs, illicit as such things so often are, in which the two people have an immediate lust thing going on but also "that indefinable ingredient ‘X’ that turns attraction into love" ~ I won't say which two characters the one in Last Child involves!  The sort of love that leads people to leave long term partners, make crazy decisions, and tends to either burn itself out, painfully, or keep flickering away forever, even if the two are not together - think Burton and Taylor!  Even if we haven't the film star qualities of these two and our affair does not involve exclusive hotels, yachts, huge diamonds and newspaper coverage, I think everyone should have at least one of these sort of experiences in their lives!  Shame they don't always end in happy ever after...

In the second part of Last Child I've written two characters who, sadly, mean completely different things by those three little words.  His 'I love you' means 'I'm very fond of you but I'm really in this relationship because it gives me everything I need socially and financially', whereas, alas, hers says: 'I am obsessed with you to the point of not being able to live without you' ~ yes, for those who know their history, it's my modern day Philip of Spain and Mary Tudor.  

Old family friend Will Brandon makes this observation about 21st century would-be king Phil Castillo: “Lucky fella; a cushy job with a generous salary, a place in the bed of an attractive young woman whenever he wants it, and a nice little rent-free bolthole in the village when he doesn’t.  Can’t be bad, eh?”

...whilst poor Isabella feels like this:  "The ferocity of my love for him scared me, sometimes.  I couldn’t think about anything but him.  We’d be sitting at home watching television, but I’d be unable to concentrate on the programme.  I’d gaze at his face, study its angles and expressions, and I’d want to devour it.  Sometimes when we made love I left bite marks on his skin; he said he loved my passion, but I think it scared him a little, too."

Philip of Spain and Mary Tudor

This sort of relationship can work if the less enamoured is basically a decent person and appreciates where his/her bread is buttered (a young woman being totally spoiled by her doting, older, rich husband, perhaps!); sometimes love can grow out of such a situation, though more often than not the one with more to offer ends up with a broken heart.  I'm so glad I don't have the psychological make-up that allows me to be as eternally obsessed with someone as Isabella is with Phil; I know someone who suffers this affliction (poor her); her 'love' for the man in question colours her whole life, even if she rarely sees him. 

 
As sister Erin observes about Isabella:
"Love’s a weird thing.  It so often has so much other stuff attached.  Sometimes it’s more the fulfilment of a need.  Exhibit one: Izzy and Phil Castillo.  When she met him she was starved of love and affection, and just needed a good shag, in the opinion of most of the men at Lanchester Estates.  She saw mirrored in Phil’s empty blue eyes the image of herself in which she needed so badly to believe but was never truly convinced by, so when she felt her dream slipping away she clung to it by any means she could because she was terrified of going back to how she was before."

The final third of Last Child brings with it three more faces of love: duty, true soul mates, and that curious one of which my character Amy is guilty ~ she thinks she feels true love for her husband, Robert, though she is more in love with an ideal.  
Robert says: "Amy doesn’t really love me, anyway, although she thinks she does.  She loves her fantasy of me as one of the heroes from her stupid romantic novels, not me, the real me, how I really am."

I think this is more common that people realise (or admit), particularly amongst women who, when younger, daydream about their wedding day/future marital bliss, and amongst men who weave fantasies about their ideal woman - anyone who has been in a relationship with one of those men who tell you they adore you then try to change everything about you from your friends to your hair colour to the height of your heels will know what I mean by this one!

Being the object of this sort of 'love' should make the recipient want to say "Oh, excuse me for not being the person you've made up your mind I ought to be - not!!!", but, sadly, it all too often makes low self-esteem even lower; men who think love = protection and control have a radar that detects the sort of women who will put up with it.  As for women for whom "I love you" means "I want you to star alongside me in my fantasy of a perfect life.  Here are your lines and stage directions; if you deviate from them I will sulk" - they need a course in growing up!

As for 'duty' love, Robert's relationship with Amy begins because he is on the rebound, but grows into something genuine; however, he feels guilty for falling out of love with her almost before the ring is on her finger, and tries to make the best of it.  Erin thinks such duty is misplaced:
"If you don’t love someone, don’t stay married to them.  End of.  Don’t waste her life as well as your own.  Let her find someone who loves her, instead of putting her through years of anguish."  

As for Erin and Robert, their connection is a continuing theme throughout the book.  But are they true soul mates, two people who fit together so perfectly, or is their love destined to bring nothing but heartbreak (she says, as though writing a blurb for a romance book.....!)???

I hope if you have downloaded the book you enjoy finding out, and, whether you have or not, that you can relate to some parts of this post; I'd be interested to hear about anyone's own experiences, and promise I won't use them in future novels!

Last Child - cover reveal!

Writing a blog post on Christmas Day?  How sad does that make me????


But Him Indoors is busy doing bloke-ish things, and I have just received this - the cover for my soon to be published novel, Last Child, which is the sequel to Kings and Queens!  I'm absolutely overjoyed with it, it's exactly what I wanted!

I hope it will be out in February 2015.

Here is the (rough!) first draft of the blurb:

LAST CHILD is the sequel to Kings and Queens, Terry Tyler’s modern take on the story of Henry VIII and his six wives.

Harry is gone, his legacy passed on to his children.

Thirteen year old JASPER amuses himself in Lanchester Estates board meetings by imagining the directors as Harry Potter characters, but discovers that first love is somewhat less than magical...

Eldest daughter ISABELLA is lonely and looking for love; she returns from a holiday in Spain with more than just a suntan…

… while wild, independent ERIN, battles with her two passions: her love for transport manager Rob Dudley, and the need to do justice to her father's memory.

Last Child reconnects with old favourites Kate and Hannah, and introduces new characters into the lives of the Lanchesters: the ambitious Jim Dudley, Rob's long suffering wife Amy, and Raine Grey, whose nine days as PR manager for Lanchester Estates has a devastating effect on her life.

Will Harry's children suffer for the mistakes he made?

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived...

**Kings and Queens and Last Child are both just 99p/99c from April 23-26 only**

... those six women who married that most famous of English kings, Henry VIII.  I've read so much about all six, and find that in fiction they're portrayed differently each time.  Anne Boleyn: hard-hearted and ambitious or a pawn of her father and uncle?  Katherine Howard: victim or gold-digging minx?  We don't know for sure ~ all we can do is read the best researched books on the subject. 

My novel Kings and Queens, is a look through a mirror at their story, taking it into the twentieth century; it tells of Harry Lanchester, successful property developer, and the women in his life.  I wrote it because the women have always fascinated me; I used to draw them when I was a child.  Writing it gave me an opportunity to present them as I saw them, even though I am not a historical fiction author.

I've given my own opinion of the six here, and a word or two about how I translated them into my own characters ~ it's far from an in-depth anaysis, just a brief snapshot of each.  

Which was your favourite of Henry's wives?

 ~ Catherine of Aragon ~

The first wife, to whom Henry was married to for longer than all the others put together, and whose religion mattered more to her than anything else, even having a close relationship with her daughter, and her own happiness and comfort.  I know Catherine was a dutiful, loyal, selfless woman who was loved by many, and so supportive to Henry when he was young, a truly good wife ~ but I've never warmed to her very much.  Of course, it's impossible to put myself in the position of a 16th century member of the Spanish aristocracy who'd been brought up to revere the Virgin Mary above all others, but I tried to see her just as a woman, too. I put all of her sterling qualities into Cathy Ferdinand, Harry's first wife, but also her stubbornness - and what I consider her decision not to acknowledge certain realities.

Maria Doyle Kennedy as Catherine of Aragon in the Showtime production of The Tudors

~ Anne Boleyn ~

Probably the most well known, and certainly my favourite.  Anne Boleyn was enigmatic, alluring, beautiful, intelligent, witty, clever, with enough feminine mystique to bring a King to his knees.  So much has been written about her; I hardly scratched the surface.  Historian David Starkey devoted more than a third of his book Six Wives to her.  A wonderful picture of her early years and formation of her character is given in Gemma Lawrence's La Petite Boulain.  For me the big question was always whether or not she really did love Henry, or whether her seduction of him remained a political move, as portrayed in Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl.  I like to think there was genuine love on both sides; I showed this in the grand passion between Annette Hever and Harry, in my novel.  Being set in the 20th century, Kings and Queens is somewhat light on beheadings, though my husband pointed out that eventually poor Annette did, in fact, lose her head...

Natalie Dormer as Anne, in The Tudors; I thought she was perfect in this part

~ Jane Seymour ~

Jane Seymour is often thought of as the 'good wife', meek and mild, the antithesis of Anne Boleyn.  She was said to be his favourite, not least because she was the only one to bear him a son.  I wonder, though; had she not met an early death, might she not have bored him or displeased him, too? Also, I wonder if her marriage to him was every bit as much a product of her own and her family's ambition, as that of her predecessor.  I show this in Jenny Seymour, Harry's third wife; as well as being demure and sweetly girlish, she is also very determined, a little smug - and very sure of what she wants....  

Anita Briem alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the Showtime production; I preferred her as Jane, rather than Annabelle Wallis who played her in the subsequent series

~ Anne of Cleves ~

Oh, poor Anne of Cleves!  She is my second favourite after Anne Boleyn. Many people know, now, that it's a myth that she was ugly; I read that Henry never actually called her a 'Flanders Mare' at all.  It was more that they had an unfortunate first meeting, the 'chemistry' was not there, and she'd had a very sheltered upbringing and had no idea how to be alluring to her husband.  Once the unconsummated marriage was annulled, she continued to be welcome at Court and outlived them all; I have illustrated her disappointment and subsequent survival in Hannah Cleveley, who has proved to be most readers' favourite character in Kings and Queens.

 Joss Stone made a charming Anne of Cleves!

~ Katherine Howard ~

I always felt sorry for Katherine Howard.  She was little more than a child; in those days you didn't get any choice in the matter if the King of England wanted to marry you ~ and thus her youth was cut short.  Of course she was not wise to have begun an affair with Thomas Culpepper, but she was a young girl in love who was too daft to realise what would happen.  In Kings and Queens, however, I decided to make Keira Howard something of a gold digger; keeping the story feasible was one of the biggest problems I faced, and I reckoned that this would work better as an up to date translation of her circumstances - not to mention her somewhat lurid past....

Tamzin Merchant as Katherine, facing her death

~ Catherine Parr ~

Here's another one I felt sorry for; Catherine Parr, who wanted to marry Thomas Seymour, and had to quell not only her feelings for him but also her Lutheran leanings, in order to marry the ageing king.  I knew little about her before I did my research, and was surprised to find her one of the most interesting; I hope this comes across in the character of my final wife, Kate Latimer, which was one of the chapters I enjoyed writing the most; she, too, has turned out to be a readers' favourite.

Joely Richardson, intelligent, dignified and charming, which is how I saw both Catherine and Kate.

Kings and Queens is essentially a contemporary drama; it is not necessary to know anything about these fascinating ladies in order to enjoy it.  For those who would like to know a little background about the life of Henry VIII before reading, there is a link to my mini-bio blog post in the front of the book.  

Here is the book, if you would like to have a look:

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

ps: February 2015
The sequel to Kings and Queens, LAST CHILD, is now live.  I've written about it, with links, HERE