Tag: murder

Research rabbit hole ~ 1931, the oldest profession

East Street

Being a writer means stepping out of your comfort zone and trying to understand other people’s lives and motivations. Nancy, one of the main characters in Seventh Daughter, was a prostitute, and my research into her backstory uncovered many interesting facts and tales. For instance, East Street was the home of Southampton’s brothels in medieval times. They were known as ‘the stews’ because they had hot air or vapour baths, and the authorities tolerated them because the fines levied against the women and their customers were an excellent source of income. On December 19th, 1544, they were closed after a series of incidents and disturbances. This didn’t stop prostitution in the town. Instead, it moved it to other locations.

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A fresh start

There’s something to be said for starting the day off with a nice walk. When that day also happens to be the first day of a new year, doubly so. It helped that the first day of 2022 dawned crisp and cold, a truly golden start to the year. After all the madness of the last two years, I hoped this was a good omen for the year ahead. I’m fairly sure I wasn’t alone in being tired of all the panic, rumour, conspiracy theories and restrictions at this stage. Commando and I strolled across the Common, admiring the layers of gold, grey and blue through the bare branches of the trees. The wonderful Gareth had already been round putting out his signs and the set up crew were on the flats putting out the poles and chains of the parkrun finish funnel. The sky was the real star of the show though. It looked like being a beautiful morning, which was just as well, because drizzle would have put a dampener on my plans.

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Procrastination, photos and a murder mystery

My Mum and Dad

It’s a well known fact that writers are great procrastinators. Walking is one of my favourite procrastinations. Often ideas come to me while I’m strolling about but, in February 2021, in the middle of a strange lockdown limbo, with nothing but cold, damp weather and Commando at home looking for work, going outside wasn’t exactly tempting. My work in progress, the next big writing project, had begun well but my research kept sending me off on strange tangents. Let’s be honest, most of the interesting facts I discover never ever make it onto the page and research often ends up as just another excuse to procrastinate.

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