Historical Research -- Army and Navy England 1810

During the Reluctant Grooms Series, I had several characters in the Navy, as well as in the Army. I spent hundreds of hours doing research--most of it never used in any of my books. It's the necessary evil to writing good historical fiction. I know more about the Peninsular war fought in Spain and Portugal than I ever really intended.

I've put together a basic list of the different officers from the two branches of service in England in 1810



Navy                                                               Army

Admiral of the Fleet                                          Marshall/Field Marshall
Admiral                                                             General
   White
   Red
   Blue                                                                Brigadier General
Commodore (Ret. Capt.)                                   Brigadier
Captain /                                                             Colonel
Master and Commander                                    Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Commander                                     Major/Commandant
Lieutenant                                                         Captain
Sub-Lieutenant                                                  Lieutenant
Ensign                                                               2nd Lieutenant
Midshipman                                                      Officer Cadet
***                                                                     ***
Warrant Officer                                                 Sergeant Major
Petty Officer  
Yeoman                                                             Sergeant
Leading Seaman                                                Corporal
Seaman                                                               Private

Lieutenant in His Majesty's Royal Navy

You'll notice there are three distinct Admiral's position for the Navy:

Admiral of the Fleet is the Commander in Chief. His command ships always fly the White Flag. They are traditionally first in the line of defense with the Fleet. They are the largest and most heavily powered Ship of the Line. They are called the Admiral of the White.

The Admiral of the Red is the second line of defense on the ocean.
The Admiral of the Blue is the third line.

The Captain of a vessel is not always the Master and Commander, but he should be. A Master and Commander knows everything there is to know about the ocean they travel on. Maps and stars are their best friends. He is the Master of the ship (as it were and knows how to do every job on it) and the Commander of his men. (Very important for dealing with personality disorder. Can you imagine living on a floating city for months at a time? I think not.)

It is striking to read accounts how the Royal British Navy dominated the oceans during that time
period. They had a superior battle plan and superior ships. Ports on every continent, (barring the Poles) and trade with the East.

Foot Soldier

The Army arrived in India (as early as 1682) to protect The East India Company against the sitting Rajahs. Toward the 1750's and into the early 1800's, the Army was an integral part in the trade from the East. A lot of people made a lot of money.

Officers in both the Navy and the Army, usually bought their way into a commission. Second and third sons of noble houses made up most of the officer positions. However, if you were considered a good leader, you would be promoted within the ranks.

Both the Navy and Army had certain "other" occupations that I learned. In no particular order, function, or ranking-- a basic list of gentlemen's jobs within the service.

Navy                                                  Army

Boatswain (Bo'sun)                                Hussar
Coxswain                                            
Yeoman of
  Powder Room                                      Foot Soldier (infantry)                
 Surgeon                                                 Home Guard
Master Gunner                                            Calvary
Master of the Sheets                                     Dragoons
Master of the Sails                                            Royals (King's Own
First Mate                                                           Queen's Own,
(all of the above)                                                 Prince's Own)
Second Mate
(all of the above)


I confess, I do know more about the Navy rather than the Army. In THE CAPTAIN'S COINCIDENCE I wanted Richard Gaines to be an authentic hero. I watched Russell Crowe in Master and Commander Far Side of the Universe a lot while I wrote that book. It's mind-blowing to realize over 400 men lived on boats like that for months at a time.

I took a virtual tour of the U.S.S. Constitution, to get some ideas on how big a Ship of the Line actually was. I also spent a lot of time emailing a sailing aficionado on the other side of the world. I researched gun powder, how to load a canon, different types of canon shot, how to sail. I do know the basics of sailing, however, these are huge vessels sailing in huge waters. It really is a whole other world entirely. I think the research was well worth it.

Doing research should never be boring. I love watching period films and are always eager to see new adaptations of old classics. I get a feel for the clothing, accents, and affectations of the characters especially if the film is a true historical drama. I've been known to take notes.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Peninsular_War_Map_
"Peninsular War Map 1808–14" 
by Derivative work: Marcus British Relief Map of Spain.

I think it's important for a writer to understand as much as they can about the period they're writing in, otherwise they look foolish. I like to be able to point at a few of my reviews that say I knew the Regency era. I'm glad they wrote that. I'm very proud of all the research that I do.

I've always loved maps and find them extremely important in every aspect of historical fiction. I don't think you can write historical without some kind of map. If only to give you a point of reference, and a working timeline. Your hero really can't come home from the Battle of Prussia unless you know it's already been fought.






Very soon, I'll begin another phase into the research I need for the Army. Henry Wade is going to be an interesting character.

For those of you who write -- Do you do a lot of research, do you wing-it, or are you somewhere in the middle?

For those of you who read -- Do you appreciate a writer who's done the research, or do you tend to skip over those parts of the book?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2015

Filling in the Backstory

Good Morning.  Backstory is the past -- who the characters were, what they did, where they came from to get them to this point in the book. Some characters have no backstory and just appear on the page. Others have too much backstory and need to have their own book just to keep up.

Henry in 1811

This is where I am with Henry Wade, Marquess of Dunbury. In the Reluctant Grooms, Henry appears as Olivia's old flame. All of sudden he's there and messes everything up between her and her new boyfriend
John. Well isn't that what old boyfriends are for?

But Henry's got his own problems and he quietly goes away in the last book. The thing is, I liked Henry and his backstory and that's what THE LADIES OF DUNBURY is going to be about. Henry, and how he arrives in London, why he's been away, and what he's going to do with 6 nieces.

 I'm a "visual" writer, meaning I can't write without a picture. In creating my backstory for Henry, first I had to come up with pictures. And because Henry's life

Henry in 1777

spans such a significant part of Olivia's, I needed an actor who was young and then old. Enter Sean Bean.

We all know Mr. Bean from Sharpe. He played a soldier. And I'm sure this is the wrong uniform and probably even the wrong time period, but this is how I "see" Henry when he was young and in love with Olivia.

And then we have Henry when he finally returns from the wars. When he begins his life again in London as the Marquess of Dunbury. When he doesn't really yet know how Olivia feels about him. When he realizes he has six nieces he has no idea what to do with except marry them off.

Henry is a complex character. He's held on to a lot of baggage over the years -- his love for Olivia, his hatred for Reginald, leaving his father for the wars. It's almost as if he's spent thirty-five years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. I only want to make him happy (as an author), but it's going to be very hard. Henry doesn't know how to be happy. As a Colonel in His Majesty's Army, he's a soldier whose job is to kill people. I don't think you can find happy in that.

As I told you last week, I've written several chapters in the first book. However, this may not necessarily be the first book that gets published. I'm still working out the details with the writing. And I also realized, writing this series is going to be a LOT harder than the last one. I knew it, but as I started writing I said to myself, "What was I thinking tackling this project?" I know what I was thinking, I wanted to get to know Henry a little better. For such a secondary character in The Reluctant Grooms, he was very complex and I wanted to show the world who he was.

Henry striving to find the happy

Thanks for stopping by.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2015

I'm Back -- Writing the New Series

Well, it's certainly been awhile, a couple of months anyway. First, I had to deal with a few personal issues, then a few professional issues, and then I had to clean my house. For those of you who do not write for a living, you have no idea how hard it is to keep the dust bunnies at bay.

set for Easter dinner

Anyway, I began to map out the new series story arc about a month ago. I took a weekend and laid all my notes out on the dining room table, went through each packet, and then made up an outline. The following weekend, I made up outlines for each of the books, and corresponded them with the overall series arc. Something I hadn't done with The Reluctant Grooms series. (I wrote that by the seat of my pants.)

what it looks like today

However, with this series, as it meets up with The Reluctant Grooms in various ways, I thought it best to outline. Hopefully, I won't lose my way.

I have started writing and finished the first five chapters of Book One. There will be 6-8 books in this series, I haven't actually decided yet. I'm trying to come up with a prequel that won't confuse my readers, but it's hard. I have everything in my head -- getting it down on paper is the worst part.

I've also done a few mock-ups for cover art, but have yet to speak with my cover designer about those yet. I'm wondering if I should have the "ladies" on the covers. Yet, as I was cruising the latest Regency romances on Amazon recently, I noticed more and more cover art that looks like mine. I want something different this time.

I've also re-edited all 9 volumes of The Reluctant Grooms. For the final time. I hope. I cleaned up the inconsistencies, punctuation, and any other flaw I found. And this also gave me the cleaned files for uploading to paperback, which I am on my way to converting. So for those of you who would like paper versions, they will be out before the end of June.

So here we are. I'm going to try and maintain a regular blog schedule over the summer. I'll post on Sunday mornings to keep you updated on my progress. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, on the days that I write, I'll post my word count. gallgher_anne  (My Twitter handle)

I'm looking forward to this series. It's going to be a bear to write -- new characters, new research, new storylines -- but I think it will be fun. I get to fall in love all over again.

See you next week.

PS  And no, I did not tell you the name of the series because I don't want to jinx myself. Call me superstitious.

PPS I'm hoping to have the first book completed by the end of the summer.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2015

Goodreads Ask The Author

Good Morning. For those of you who have read my books and are wondering about certain aspects of the writing, or characters, or research, or what-have-you, I've finally opened up the Ask the Author page on Goodreads.  https://www.goodreads.com/AnneGallagher    I've set my preferences to "daily" so I will get email alerts whenever you pose a question. I will try to answer within 24 hours. When I have enough questions, I'll post them to my blog for the general readership. I'm also going to try to do a Twitter feed with this as well, but haven't worked out the details yet.

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In other news, WHEN ALL HOPE IS LOST was supposed to be published today. However, due to some exceedingly worrisome wonkiness with both my desktop and my laptop, I've run into some
very nasty snags in my formatting. I've been working on this issue for the last several days to no avail. After spending more than 6 hours on the internet looking for solutions, I think I know what the underlying problem is, and hopefully, will have this book published by the end of this week, if not sooner.

**Yes, I did end up publishing this book today. It should be available on Amazon Monday, on Smashwords today, and Barnes&Noble, Kobo, and Apple by the end of the week.


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I have uploaded the first three books in THE RELUCTANT GROOMS series to Google Play. Unfortunately, they are only in PDF format. (Another formatting issue.) I'm working on having the rest of the series up and running by the end of March.

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Also, as soon as HOPE is published, I'm going to begin the work to get the rest of my paperbacks in order. I'm hoping those will be finished by the end of April for those of you who like paper between your fingers. Eventually, I'm going to offer the series in one complete set in paper. I'm looking at a few printing companies in my area to design a "box" to hold them all. You'll be able to buy them from here for less than what you would pay through Amazon or CreateSpace. I'll let you know when that happens.

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And finally, because I've been living with 1970's pineapple wallpaper and a "unique" maroon and beige color scheme upstairs in my house, for the remainder of the spring, I'm going to be remodeling, painting, and putting in new floors in my house. So if you don't see me, you can bet that's where I'll be. I've been trying to do this since I moved in 3 years ago, but writing has taken up all of my free time. Now the series is complete, I NEED to do this for my own sanity.


Thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.

Anne Gallagher (c) 2015