I've written about the imposter syndrome before - the nagging feeling that you are not a REAL author. The cure for me was the day, a couple of weeks ago, that my publisher wrote confirming that they would publish my second manuscript. I was so elated! Now I believe that I'm a REAL author and I no longer feel like a fake.
The title that I gave the book, 'The Unlucky Governess', may not end up being THE title when it goes to publication but it is a book about an upper class girl who is left unexpectedly destitute and the only way to keep herself out of the poor house is to get work as a governess. It does not go well.
Dickens always put a 'too-good-to-be-true' character in his works; Little Dorrit, Mr. Jarndyce, Joe Gargery, Lizzie Hexam. I love these characters. I believe that there are still people in the world who are good, through and through, like them. I also love these types of characters in books who give the reader relief from the harsher characters and themes. I put a couple like that, the Burleys, in this book. They cross paths with my heroine, Sophia, and are a constant safety net. Critics may say they are unrealistic. I reject their premise. I have encountered many people like them in my life who pay it forward and never seek anything in return.
Sophia secures a position in a house in Scotland, but it soon turns sour and she has to leave and find work elsewhere. The only job she can find, as a teacher for a small village school for miner's children, is far below her station, but she is desperate. The children are illiterate and poor but she feels that she is making a difference, until the mine closes and she finds herself unemployed again.
She is hired as a governess once more, back in England, but there are serious problems in the household that lead to her eventual dismissal and her return to the Burleys.
Interwoven in her journey is a certain young nobleman who helps her in her distress and falls deeply in love with her, a fact his mother opposes vehemently!
I have not been given a date that this book will hit shelves yet, but I hope that you will come on the ride with Sophia. STAY TUNED!
The title that I gave the book, 'The Unlucky Governess', may not end up being THE title when it goes to publication but it is a book about an upper class girl who is left unexpectedly destitute and the only way to keep herself out of the poor house is to get work as a governess. It does not go well.
Dickens always put a 'too-good-to-be-true' character in his works; Little Dorrit, Mr. Jarndyce, Joe Gargery, Lizzie Hexam. I love these characters. I believe that there are still people in the world who are good, through and through, like them. I also love these types of characters in books who give the reader relief from the harsher characters and themes. I put a couple like that, the Burleys, in this book. They cross paths with my heroine, Sophia, and are a constant safety net. Critics may say they are unrealistic. I reject their premise. I have encountered many people like them in my life who pay it forward and never seek anything in return.
Sophia secures a position in a house in Scotland, but it soon turns sour and she has to leave and find work elsewhere. The only job she can find, as a teacher for a small village school for miner's children, is far below her station, but she is desperate. The children are illiterate and poor but she feels that she is making a difference, until the mine closes and she finds herself unemployed again.
She is hired as a governess once more, back in England, but there are serious problems in the household that lead to her eventual dismissal and her return to the Burleys.
Interwoven in her journey is a certain young nobleman who helps her in her distress and falls deeply in love with her, a fact his mother opposes vehemently!
I have not been given a date that this book will hit shelves yet, but I hope that you will come on the ride with Sophia. STAY TUNED!
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