Why A Family of Psychics?

            And the answer is – why not?  I’ve been fascinated with psychic gifts for a very long time.  Several times I have put the touch of a psychic gift in one of my characters in a story.  The Murray clan in my Highland novels have a lot of them.  Mostly a healing gift or the ability to see ghosts.  A little twist in the character.

            Then I got to thinking on how it would be nice to have that little twist have more of a part in the story.  I wanted to do a story where that gift was right up front, became a much bigger part of the plot.  Yet, I also didn’t want to go whole hog paranormal.  I just wanted to have real, but psychically gifted, people and I wanted to stay with historicals.

            The first decision I made was that I would have to come forward in time.  Past the time where people like that would be declared witches and be tortured and killed.  That brought me to the late-Georgian times.  Since I also like the clothes they wore then I was happy with that choice of time period.  Decided England would be the setting as I was already doing a lot of stories with Scotland as the setting.  Another nice little change of pace.

            Next I set up a family, one that always had psychic gifts and had become secretive and reclusive.  Had to be in the old times just to stay alive and it isn’t all that safe in the more modern times of late-Georgian England either.  When research showed me how very many psychic gifts there are, I made it a large family.

            First I researched, and researched some more.  There are a lot of books and articles on psychic gifts.  Some better than others.  I also happen to have two very good friends who are psychics.  They are my go to people when I write myself into a corner.  I need that backup to make sure that I don’t break any rules when I write myself out of it.

            And thus were born the Wherlockes and their cousins the Vaughns.  Matching gifted, somewhat eccentric people with someone who can truly appreciate them is actually more fun than I thought it would be.  In IF HE’S DANGEROUS Sir Argus Wherlocke gets to meet his lady.

            Sir Argus bugged me a lot.  He kept turning up in the other Wherlocke tales so I knew he was demanding his own story.  But he can mesmerize people, make them say and do whatever he wants.  A tough guy to match.  So I give him one independent, intelligent, and a little eccentric lady called Lady Lorelei Sundun, seventh child of the Duke of Sundun.  I also give Lorelei one very important character trait that makes her perfect for Sir Argus with his mesmerizing voice and night sky eyes.  Resistance.

 

            I hope you’ll give the tale of Sir Argus and Lady Lorelei a try.

            The first chapter of IF HE’S DANGEROUS can be read on my website:  www.hannahhowell.com