I caught myself right in the middle of it this week.
Me, in one of my other lives an energy counsellor, telling people how to relax and use their energies effectively,
stressing out over the publication of Bloodlines-Traces.

‘Tom!’, (over Skype) ‘we promised our readers the sequel would be out May 16 2016. We can’t postpone again.’ (rolling eyes)

The almost 5 year path since publishing Bloodlines – Touch Not the Cat, November 11 2011, seems to be riddled with delays.
This time, at the very very end, the last few meters of the marathon, it’s getting the proof copy done that  has been delayed, for reasons known only by the uncontrollable forces outside of us. 
We expected it to arrive end of last week, but so far Tom has been stalking his mailbox for nothing.

Along the way of writing Bloodlines -Traces we’ve felt embarrassed a number of times  when we had to postpone publication, having been far too optimistic on when we would finish the novel.
Most of the delays were caused by reasons too personal to display on Facebook.
Yet the advertising world of today, or maybe I could even state – today’s world -, expects precision planning.

30 years ago, when I was doing my very first marketing course, it was Mr Kotler who taught me that when you bring a product on the market you need to make sure all watches are synchronized.
Don’t start advertising when the product isn’t available yet, and o dear, did this conviction latch on to my conscience.

It was Joe Marich, long time publicist of Michael Crichton, who taught me this rule doesn’t entirely apply with books. With books you start advertising half a year ahead of publication.
A little voice in my head however is telling me those books are most probably already written and printed when advertising starts.

With Tom and me it was a totally different process. Toddlers we were in the way we played around.
As ‘accidental authors’ when writing Bloodlines -Touch Not the Cat, the learning curve was already unusual. We didn’t have an audience yet; we didn’t even know we were going to be published authors; it simply was a lot of fun and inspiration.
With ‘Traces’ we did have people waiting for the sequel, even more so , it is thanks to readers asking for more, that we decided to go for it.
The way we went about producing ‘Traces’ however, was as inexperienced as the way we jostled writing our debut.

Having said all that; what I do feel good about, is the blunt honesty of our process.
Personally I resent the commercials in which life is pictured as one golden glow.
‘As long as you use ‘this or that deodorant’ or drive ‘such and so car’, life will be perfect.’
Or the  articles in flight magazines, showing off overpriced suitcases, silver clean holiday beaches and sunset minarets of exotic destinations. They never show you the plastic bags homeless people use to carry their belongings in, or the whales’ carcasses  stranded  because of  plastic polluted oceans; or the poverty of the people who live in the backstreets behind the sunset minarets.

At least, I tell myself , we have always been honest about being new kids on the block and never pictured ourselves any better than what we were capable off. We openly showed, we were first timers at writing Bloodlines – Touch Not the Cat and first timers at writing it’s sequel Bloodlines – Traces.

It was a huge learning curve, actually more of a roller coaster ride with double looopings (yes 3 o’s), Double Axles, Triple Toeloops and Flip Jumps (all terms derived from ice skating) that left us in different states of well or not so well being, at times even  affecting our co-authors relationship.

To be honest; in retrospect it is nothing short of of a miracle we actually ever came to a point of publication and that our friendship came out stronger at the other end of the tunnel.

Now the question may rise…will there be a third one.
The answer: not telling

Bloodlines – Traces however… will be there … in May… bare with us… just a few more days

picture: courtesy of www.freepik.com

‘How do we proceed on the story line without repeating what already has been said in Bloodlines Touch Not the Cat‘

Or, related to this:

‘Should we write a sequel in such a way it can be read independently?’

In that sense Bloodlines-Traces is just as much of an accident as the first book.
What started Traces off were the leftovers.
It seemed a shame to toss them out, plus holding back certain parts of the story lines had not gone unnoticed to some of our readers.

‘What happened to Katherine after Alexander left?’, we were asked many times,

as well as:

‘How, (or even why!) did Alexander die?!’

The good news is historical fiction offers ample opportunity to bring characters back to life.
As a result, Traces reveals what happened to Katherine and Alexander while offering a look into the early hours of feminism and the atrocities of World War I, including the enormous mistake Churchill made in his younger years.

We take you sightseeing in Victorian and Edwardian New York, Chicago and Edinburgh, in times when people still stopped to watch a car ride by, the telephone was an invention only used by few and communication and connectivity in general offered a totally different perspective.

As with Bloodlines Touch Not the Cat, writing Traces was a joy. Researching historical fact, fine tuning language, phrasing sentences in Victorian, American or British (Scottish) English and discussing character development, proved to be fulfilling ways to spend our leisure time.

End of 2013 we had a draft ready. Inspired ideas for a book cover popped up spontaneously and set designer Graham Booth to work, while we asked our Facebook followers to help us choose the right cover by publishing a short list of examples.

Then the draft was sent to our editor Hans Offringa, who did a great job pointing out story line glitches and language bloopers, which was enjoyable as well, as some were very funny.
Did you for instance ever hear of ‘the clinking of knives and forks finding their way over the breakfast plates’? Well we did in our creative minds☺. In retrospect we had to admit it resembled the description of a skating ring.

‘Traces’ became as much part of our lives as its predecessor had been, co-authoring a creative effort in need of attention and on our minds even when we were living our other lives in our separate countries.
It never occurred to us the pink bubble could burst, which teaches you never to take prosperity for granted.

At the beginning of 2014 reality intervened with fiction through personal circumstances forcing us to slow down.
While activity flared up in October of that same year; it was stalled again in March 2015.
Perhaps this should teach us to be less forthcoming on our Facebook page about book cover samplings and promises of publication, for isn’t it one of the first rules of marketing to make sure to have your product ready once you start advertising?
On the other hand, this is a creative process we are talking about, not a bag of beans. The actions of sharing information with our audience are based on genuine enthusiasm and a feeling of being connected to our readers; like family, the genealogy of our book.
Our page would have been a whole lot less entertaining if we hadn’t shared our proceedings the way we did.

We still aim for 2015 to publish Traces,
but ask you humbly to bear with us a little while longer.

Ingrid Schippers

Here’s how we found her;

One day Tom was volunteering at the Oxfam second-hand bookshop in Troon, Scotland, when he found a little inscribed bible with the name and address of a ‘St. John’s Church,’ in Brooklyn, New York.

Research showed the church still exists and when Tom contacted the current pastor, he was delighted, as they were just organizing an exhibition on the history of the church.

Thus, the bible was shipped to New York and Bloodlines -Touch Not the Cat found its way into the church magazine:

Mr. Tom McKerley wrote to tell me that a beautifully preserved Prayer Book, published in 1850, was found in a bookstore where he works with the following inscription:

“For Miss Clementina Dorrington, from the Pastor and Brethern in Church, George F. Seymour, God Bless and keep you my dear child. (something unclear then) near to cherish by living in this church.

I shall use this Book in solemnizing your marriage.

St John’s Church, Brooklyn NY, 25 Oct 1866″

Tom then mailed me the little book and it will be on display on June 10 at our Solemn Evensong when we celebrate our 186th Anniversary!  Incidentally, Tom is an author himself and has written a novel called Bloodlines – Touch not the Cat which looks very interesting and you can see more about it by clicking here. I am getting the book for my Kindle from Amazon!

Even though Clementina’s bible was shipped back to Brooklyn, a character by her name remained behind in Scotland. The fact that an 1850 bible ended up in a second hand bookshop in modern day Troon, could lead to a nice genealogy story in itself.

More research showed there had been an actress by the name of Dorrington in America in the 19th century.

With a little mystery writer’s privilege and genealogy imagination, we have now changed her into a character in Bloodlines Traces, estimated publishing date: April 2014.

One of the very good questions asked during our talk at the British Club in The Hague this month, concerned the use of different styles, spelling or accents while writing BloodlinesTouch Not the Cat.

Set in Victorian America, 19th century Scottish Highlands as well a modern day Raleigh, North Carolina and Scotland; the mystery novel offers a wide variety of different ‘voices’.

For sure you can’t have airplanes fly over in 1896 and we did indeed ‘mind our words’ as well as the topics that would or could not be discussed.

Childbirth in the 19th century for instance was a big no no. As much as we go to Lamaze training classes and share our experiences, fears and expectations now; this was absolutely impossible till around the nineteen sixties.

In that sense writing a ‘switching-back-and-forth-in-time-genealogy- mystery-novel’ is like a school for general knowledge; the things we discover, sometimes causing dramatic change in perception of how things were or are supposed to be.

Here’s an example:

“Women,” Pullman said crassly, “nothing but trouble, what?”
William looked up at his friend. “This is different.”
Pullman contained a sigh. To him women were most of all a necessity to secure the continuation of a family line.
“Is your brother still alive?” he asked.
“And kicking, yes for sure.”
“Then why bother. What makes you think he will want you there now?”

This scene is in the sequel Bloodlines – Traces.
The scene is set in Victorian Chicago. A lot of research hides behind each line.
First of all ‘Pullman” is a genuine historical figure. He lived in Chicago and contributed some amazing inventions that changed the face of the earth.
The perception of women seems discriminating to us now, yet it wasn’t till the mid-seventies that women obtained legal equality in the United Kingdom. American movies dating back to the seventies show an image of women that would nowadays be regarded as politically incorrect. A detail we tend to forget; not to mention racial discrimination and the views on homosexual relationships, all themes mentioned one way or the other in our Bloodlines series.

As for language, it was the expression “Alive and kicking” that caught our attention. It sounded very modern; very American as well; not something an 1895 Victorian would use.
To our surprise, research showed the expression was already used in the 18th century and first seen in print in 1801 in the sentence:

“I left them (the crabs) all alive and kicking your honour, when I came to church”.

It’s these little treasure chests of knowledge that not only enhance the reading experience of a genealogy mystery novel, but also the writing.

Bloodlines-Traces will be available April 2014;
Bloodlines Touch Not the Cat , in print and as e-book, is for sale with all big on-line bookshops and in stock or can be ordered from your local bookshop.

To have your own copy signed or to order a autographed copy: send a mail to info@touchnotthecat.com

To pre- register for an author signed copy of Bloodlines-Traces send a mail to info@touchnotthecat.com heading: pre-register Traces

For information on the author guided Bloodlines Touch Not the Cat Highland Mystery Tours go to: http://www.schotlandopmaat.nl/nl/find-your–roots–uk-.html