The Brazen Spindle

As some of you may or may not know, “T. R. Pippin” is a pen name.  I started writing my romances, including Brazen, under that name as I was marketing children’s fiction at the time and didn’t want the adult subject stuff crossed with the middlegrade fiction stuff.  But truthfully, the vast majority of my writing involves adult themes–  not erotica or anything like that, but not G rated either, whether for strong language (see the Marine pilot in Warbird), or for romantic bits (see Brazen or Legacy).  Sure, thematically, my military science fiction stories might not have a lot to do with my romances, but hey, I’ll let you guys decide what you want to read of mine.

Short story long, I’m consolidating my noms de plume, so if you’ve arrived here via an older edition of Brazen Spindle, please hop on over to

www.parishwhittaker.com

See you there, and Happy Reading!

David Parish-Whittaker, aka “T. R. Pippin”

I’m happy to say that A Fairytale Divorce is on track for release this spring.  I’m finally happy with the story arc, and managed to trim a needed twenty odd thousand words from the original rough draft.  So, for all of you who were hoping to return to the world of The Brazen Spindle, you haven’t long to wait.  It’s more of a “side-quel” than a sequel, though, as it has different characters (although you’ll recognize at least one).  It’s set off the main plateau where the events of Brazen happened, and you’ll get to see that world.  It’s a more traditional countryside, where magic isn’t taken for granted as much as it is on the plateau, and the transformational fog is more the stuff of rumor, at least among the common folk.

But trust me, there’s plenty of magic in store for our characters to run into.  For one, a messy divorce proceeding ends up with the two main characters sentenced to spend that year and a day in each other’s bodies.  And as master and mistress of a large country estate, they’ll both discover the hard way that it truly is two separate worlds that men and women of that time inhabit.  Will they make it through the year unscathed?  Will being enchanted like this bring them together or tear them apart?  I won’t tell you, but let us just say that there’s more than one turn on the road to answering those questions.

Oh, and there’s horses.  Why?  I could say something here about the symbolism of riding in pre-industrial times as it relates to social status and literal mobility.  I’d be right, but really, I’ve got horses in the story because I like horses.  So there.

Anyway, I don’t inflict novels on the public without a good amount of proofreading and polishing, so it will be a few weeks at least before release.  Stay tuned!

TR

Well, maybe if Ned actually knew how to ride....

One thing I only touched on briefly in The Brazen Spindle was why on earth even someone at wit’s end would decide to become a highwayman of all things.  One has to understand that in Ned’s time, Highwaymen were viewed as bold adventurers, dashing and reckless.  And, by the by, sexy as all get.  Musicals like The Three Beggar’s Opera (later redone by Kurt Weil as The Three Penny Opera) reinforced this image of a short lived hero, feared by all men and loved by all women.  But not only fictional highwaymen got this treatment, as the epithet to the notorious Claude Duvall demonstrates:

Here lies DuVall: Reder, if male thou art,Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart.Much havoc has he made of both; for allMen he made to stand, and women he made to fallThe second Conqueror of the Norman race,Knights to his arm did yield, and ladies to his face.Old Tyburn’s glory; England’s illustrious Thief,Du Vall, the ladies’ joy; Du Vall, the ladies’ grief

Duvall was perhaps the archetype of the gallant highwayman, and was the subject of more than a few stories of possible factuality, such as the one related William Pope.   According to Pope, Duval held up a coach with a nobleman and his lady. Seeing they were about to be captured, and determined not to appear afraid, the lady took out a flageolet and played. Duval thereupon took out one of his own and played as well. He commented to the noble that his wife played extremely well, and would, no doubt, dance just as well, and asked her to dance. They danced on the heath and when they were done Duval escorted her back to the coach. There he remarked that her husband had neglected to pay for the music, and stole four hundred pounds from him. (thanks to www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk)

While the truth was that most highwaymen bore as much resemblance to this ideal as Somali pirates do to Jack Sparrow, it was definitely an image held by the people of the time.  Even a complete thug like Dick Turpin, known to torture his victims when “needed”, would become the subject several chapbooks and even a play extolling his horsemanship and gentility–  some written a good hundred years after his death!

Even the levelheaded Mary Wollstoneraft wasn’t immune to their charms.  As she wrote in in 1794, it was her belief that:

…in England, where the spirit of liberty has prevailed, it is useful for an  highwayman, demanding your money, not only to avoid barbarity, but to behave  with humanity, and even complaisance.

Why the romanticism?  Well, for one, it was a time of social turmoil, culminating in the vast enclosures of common land in the early nineteenth century.  Ned’s feelings about the aristocrats were hardly unique, even in non-revolutionary England.  The highwaymen were seen as latter day Robin Hoods.  Well, they stole from the rich, at any rate.  And if they didn’t give to the poor, well, at least they had style.

And yes, they did say “Stand and Deliver!”

Oh, I know.  If you’re reading this, you probably already own a copy.  And thanks!  But just so you know, Smashwords has given Brazen Spindle the Premium stamp of approval.  Mostly, that just means it’s well formatted, not an incoherent nightmare, and written by an incredibly good looking author.

Fine, I made the last part up.

But it also means it’s going live on Barnes and Noble in the next few days, so tell all your Nook toting friends they can pick up a free copy for the next week or so.

Finally, thanks again to all of you who’ve downloaded the book.  Makes me happy to think that hundreds of folks are enjoying my silly tale.

TR

There are a few things with chapter hyperlinks I had to sort, but it looks as if the Amazon Kindle version will be out soon.  Frankly, all things being equal, I’d still recommend getting it from Smashwords:  you don’t get it via whispernet, but their .mobi files work fine on Kindle are DRM free (mind you, if you want to give someone a copy, I’d prefer a download off Smashwords, rather than just passing it on)

TR