A word from the Authors

Communication via the Internet has changed many lives and brought together people who would never meet in different circumstances. It was the Internet that brought David and I together and in the same context we started to write together. Those early attempts were made on a review site and before long we had started to write stories together.

I had found my writing partner and soon knew that I would like to write a book together. Ideas were tossed around but proved to be difficult. How could we “marry” our joint ideas?

After much thought we decided on a historical novel where we could use our different writing styles to cover a certain period in time.

Book One started in this style, but by book two we were captivated with our characters to the point when we knew that our characters had taken on a life of their own. We gave each other characters to follow and the result was way above our expectations. Our characters had literally sprung to life!

As authors we were experiencing something new and exciting. Every single part of the collaboration has resulted from e-mail only. Just as I have seen David’s characters, so he saw mine and they became ours to share.

The characters are not based on anyone living although many parts of the narrative consist of real places and people. (See the Index.)

Apart from some minor details, all the research for the book has been through the Internet. These sites were free to use and I heartedly commend them to any aspiring author. The journey was long but well worth it.

 Lisa Fuller. 

Five years ago I would not have even dreamed about writing a novel. Five years ago I would not have thought I had a book in me. That was before I joined a review site on a whim and met Lisa.

 From little seeds do mighty oaks grow and the same was true for us, we started small doing joint reviews on that site but we grew and our goals and ambitions grew with us until just over a year ago we decided to put together a book of short stories. Once again it grew and as we wrote so the stories slowly became a novel.

We each have our own individual style of writing but they are not so different at heart and both styles have joined together to bring Halleswell Hall and the Meverall family to life.

We have lived with the Meverall’s for a year now and they have become part of our lives as we have melded each one into their part of the history of Halleswell hall, characters that grew until they took on lives of their own. We even ended up referring to them by name and knowing what facet of their character we were discussing purely by knowing the character.

It is amazing to think that we have achieved what we have purely by E mail. Would our writing have turned out any different if Lisa and I had known each other in the “real world?” Who knows but I do know that we are immensely proud of what we have achieved.

It hasn’t been easy, in fact it has been much harder than perhaps either of us had expected but we have grown into it and learned huge amounts. I think we are now both much better writers than when we first began this project, especially me and I have Lisa to thank for encouraging and pushing me into fulfilling my half of our dream that I hope you will enjoy.

 David Povah.