Family Heritage

Often writers are asked where the idea for a novel or story has come from. It’s hard to answer that because even though something might inspire the beginning of a novel, by the time you have lived through that character’s life with them for months or years, well, things change.

One element that seems to creep into my novels is my interest in genealogy. At some point in my early teens, we were given a copy of Bacon and Allied Families, published in 1958.  I spent hours and hours looking through it, wondering about the people who were listed among its pages.   Since I already had an interest in English history, I recognized the name of Francis Bacon, and was very impressed by the Sirs and Lords. Also impressed that I was included in the same book… well, I would have been but  the book went to print before I could be included.

But, in just this one page there are so many ideas for stories. Royal court intrigue from a Lord High Chancellor to physician to a Queen (too bad he didn’t influence her into choosing a Stuart heir, but that’s for an alternate timeline novel); about Drinkston, Suffolk noted as being one of the oldest villages in England; family that moved from England to the New World, General Nathaniel Bacon ‘the Virginia Rebel’; Sir Nicholas created a Baronet by James I; to Lord Francis Bacon, philosopher and statesman and credited with the quote I love and included in Brendan’s Cross: “Knowledge is Power”.