Blog Tour: The Silver Ladies of London by Lesley Eames, Guest Post

The Silver Haired Ladies of London by Lesley Eames

Published: 1st July 2018

Publisher: Aria

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Blurb

1920’s London. Featuring four attractive heroines, a scandal, a secret and a silver Rolls Royce.

Dismissed without references when their employer’s valuable necklace goes missing, friends Ruth, Lydia, Jenny and Grace try to rebuild their lives far from home in London.

A surprise inheritance of a beautiful silver Rolls Royce leads them to set up in business as female chauffeurs. But they soon discover that driving is a man’s world and find themselves facing a future fraught with constant challenges.

Soon their business; romances and even their friendship are under threat.

This is a heart-warming story of friendship, loyalty, courage and love. Perfect for the fans of Elaine Everest and Daisy Styles.

Guest Post

The Silver Ladies of London by Lesley Eames

For me, writing a story is like walking into the biggest, most gorgeous sweet shop in the world and gazing in wonder at jar after jar of exciting possibilities. Pear drops, pineapple chunks, mint imperials… Or in my case characters, plot, setting…

I’ve written dozens of short stories for the women’s magazine market but in writing my saga, The Silver Ladies of London, I had a bigger sweetie bag to fill than ever before. Bliss!

Terrific characters are a must as far as I’m concerned: I want readers to enjoy my characters and to care about them as they work through their personal issues and the obstacles they encounter. 

For my lead characters I chose Ruth, Lydia, Jenny and Grace. These young working class women have very different personalities with different strengths, weaknesses, aspirations and goals. They also have different problems in their lives but the friendship they develop as they work together in service at Arleigh Court, a prosperous household in provincial England, helps them to cope – until their circumstances change quite dramatically. Friendship, courage and loyalty were themes I wanted to explore as the story developed.

I set the story in the early 1920’s because this was a fascinating period in British history. The Great War was over and prosperity was returning to the country, bringing with it fashion, fun, jazz clubs, cocktails and glamorous cars. For some people, that was. For others there was grinding poverty with slum housing, precarious health and precious little in the way of employment rights or state financial support. Women had to contend with discrimination too, despite the vote having been given to some but by no means all of them. This social landscape offered a rich source of challenges and opportunities for my four girls to navigate, together with some fascinating themes for me to explore.

In my stories, characters, setting and storyline influence each other but as a writer I also have two magic words that I can summon to open up a whole host of ideas and potential directions. These words aren’t Abracadabra and Shazam but What if? Having decided on my characters, setting and themes, I summoned up the magic to ask myself a whole series of questions:

-        what if the girls are involved in a scandal?

-        what if they’re dismissed without references and forced to return to their homes and the problems they’re trying to escape or manage?

-        what if they can’t find new jobs locally because their reputations are in ruins?

-        what if they try their luck in London instead?

-        What if they use the surprise inheritance of a silver Rolls Royce to set up their own business – chauffeur-driven car hire with themselves as chauffeurs – in what is basically a man’s world?

-        What if love comes calling but is… complicated?

-        And what if one girl has a secret that threatens romances, business and friendship alike?

Answers rushed back at me and gradually Silver Ladies began to take shape. Not that it was an entirely smooth process. Certainly there were times when the dinner burned because I was so engrossed in my characters’ adventures but there were other times when I wanted to take an axe to my computer in frustration because I couldn’t get the words to flow in the way I wanted.

Writing is an emotional process for me. I get caught up in my characters’ tears and laughter, and I also have to process my own excitement and fears over how the story is – or might not be – developing. Whether I’m high or low on the emotional spectrum, writing is compulsive, however, and there’s nothing more rewarding. Except for my lovely family, of course (better say that in case they’re reading this).

Sometimes readers ask me questions and one question I’m being asked at the moment is which of the four girls is my favourite? It’s a question I can’t possibly answer because I like and admire all of them.

Another question I can’t answer is which of their love interests do I like best? How can I choose between dashing American, Harry James Dellamore, and shrewd Owen Tedris? Or between glorious Johnnie Fitzpatrick and everyone’s friend, Luke Huxtable?

Although I can’t choose between them I’m keen to hear what readers think of all the characters in the story, even the minor ones. There I have to confess to a teeny, tiny bit of favouritism because I had especially good fun writing about two of the minor characters: forthright Maggie O’Hara and granite-faced Lady Violet. I hope readers enjoy them too.

Lesley x

About the Author

Born in Manchester but currently living in Hertfordshire, Lesley’s career has included law and charity fundraising. She is now devoting her time to her own writing and to teaching creative writing to others. In addition to selling almost 90 short stories to the women’s magazine market, Lesley has won the Festival of Romance’s New Talent Award and the Romantic Novelists’ Associations Elizabeth Goudge Cup.

Follow Lesley

Twitter: @LesleyEames

Facebook: @LesleyEamesWriter

Buy now links:

Amazon: mybook.to/SilverLadies

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2sXL6zw

iBooks: https://apple.co/2t9HJFb

Google play: http://bit.ly/2sXBl4r

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction