How To Impress A Marquess Mood Board

It’s release day for How To Impress a Marquess! Finally!

Let’s talk a little bit about the writing of this book.

HTImpressMarquess_med

The other two books in the Wicked Little Secrets series possess strong external plots that borrow from the mystery genre. I diligently studied in depth one technical aspect of Victorian life to write them. In Wicked My Love, I studied the Victorian banking system. Isn’t that exciting? And with Wicked Little Secrets, I spent hours pouring over Old Bailey court records so I could accurately reproduce several such records in my book.

The plot of How To Impress A Marquess is more internalized than the others in the series, and advances with the characters’ emotional progression. I needed less technical information and more sensual details. It’s the details—what my characters might have worn, what they would have looked at, what would inspired their daily conversation—that gives me greater access into their psychology.

The Victorian era spans a long period, beginning when Queen Victoria was coroneted in 1837 and ending just after the turn of the last century at her death. During that time, English culture would vastly change. My previous Wicked Little Secrets series books were set in the 1840s and carry a more Dickensian feel – by and large England was less sophisticated and poorer. By the 1870s, the British Empire was near its zenith. With a powerful middle class, society became even more stratified, and art and culture flourished.

I set the story in 1879 because the conservative prime minster Disraeli was still alive and England wasn’t engaged in too many international wars, just a handful here and there. However, that set the book at the tip of the Impressionist movement. Degas just was showing his work in Paris, but Monet wasn’t really on the scene yet. However, that period was rich in the sensual, lyrical works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Both my characters are influenced by the art of the day. George, the Marquess of Marylewick, projects a starchy, unyielding exterior that hides his repressed artistic desire. He is more influenced by the light and ephemeral nature of Impressionism. Lilith, a wild bohemian and secret author is much more attracted to the distant, unattainable beauty found in the works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

I had also an issue with fashion. Wicked Little Secrets and Wicked, My Love are set in the 1840s when the skirts were full but not yet reaching the epic proportions of the 1860s. By the 1870s, the skirts had slimmed again but kept an expansive bustle. I really didn’t have a mental fashion reference for the 1870s aside from the movie “The Age of Innocence”.

I turned to Pinterest for help. I’ve included some of the images collected on my boards that that helped me capture the feeling and spirit of How To Impress A Marquess.

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