I entered another Jodi Taylor writing competition recently which I’ve already written about, which is either a sign of creative enthusiasm or a complete inability to leave well alone. I’d surmise both. I didn’t think I’d be in the running this time, having been fortunate enough to have my story published last year, but here we are.

This one’s set in the world of St Mary’s, Jodi’s Taylor’s established world in her books, which means time travel, general institutional chaos and a very specific tone which belongs to the author and the success of her novels. She’s funny and still consistently writes in a way which harbours big emotions other than humour, it gives the characters depth and it’s one of the reasons her world works so well. The humour pay-off is developed sometimes in how calmly everything is reported after it’s all gone slightly, or entirely, wrong.

What I always notice when I read the St Mary’s series is that it’s fresh each time. She can build what appears to be a genuine love of history into the chaos of a contemporary organisation which claims, reasonably, to be good at documenting historical events, though with the caveat of some major mishaps. All for the entertainment of the reader.

So again, my mission was to stay within that brief. Keep it real, base it on a real historical event, make it in keeping with the expected creative events at St Mary’s and the rules she’s created in that world and, my own preference, to keep it in a voice similar to her own. It works incredibly well so if it’s not broke – don’t fix it.

This particular incident involves Boudicca, a leaf blower and the impact upon modern and historical art. Now, I don’t know Jodi Taylor’s own process but when I’m researching something, perhaps for the current manuscript I’m working on with my Co-writer-in-arms, I tend to read widely. Not always just the obvious. In this instance it popped up that there is a statue on the Victoria Embankment of Boadicea (as she is also known, Boudicca is meant to be more technically correct is pronunciation and spelling from the ancient Roman historian Tacitus more than the Latinised version. I prefer Boadicea but choose accuracy over elegance.)
As is fairly standard for me, I like to write in reality to blend with the fiction, it makes the fiction so much more compelling I think. The reader begins to perceive and appreciate how perhaps events could have been the way I’ve described and then that begins the process of entering into the suspension of disbelief which in so strongly drummed into us in performing arts. Where the reader is invested in this possibility, or at least willing to indulge the option.

It’s an interesting thing, writing into someone else’s world. You can’t push too hard and you can’t stray too far. You have to understand how it works and what about it works, so that you can continue the flow. Which is a useful exercise in itself, even if nothing comes of it.

Voting opens on the 26th, which adds a slightly unpredictable element. Public votes are a curious thing – look at our voting system in politics. In this sort of thing people respond to what sticks, what makes them feel something, sometimes in what order they read it, what lands with them or what makes them pause for half a second longer than the rest. And sometimes it’s about who will have their friends vote.

If you fancy a look, it’s here:
https://www.joditaylorbooks.com/p/st-marys-institute-of-historical-0e2