I
am delighted to welcome Catherine
Kullmann to the blog.
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| Catherine Kullmann - Author |
Hello
Catherine – It was lovely to connect with you through The Romantic Novelists’
Association’s Historical Interest Group on Facebook and I’m looking forward to
reading about your Regency writing experiences. But before you tell us about
your latest release - The Potential for Love - here are a few
questions that will hopefully give your readers and followers an insight into
some of the things that matter to you.
Arabella: How did you
manage to get your first Regency novel published and what did you learn from
the experience?
Catherine: After
receiving several warm declines from publishers, I decided to go ahead and
self-publish. Fortunately, because of trying the agent/traditional publisher
route, I had several books in the pipeline by this time and so was able to
publish the first three within 24 months. This helped build a brand and I would
recommend any author wishing to self-publish to have the second book well on
the way before publishing the first one. The other thing I learnt was the
importance of marketing and how time-consuming it is.
Arabella: If you could
choose, which would it be: A walk in the woods, a walk along a beachfront to
dip your toes in the sea, or a day shopping for clothes?
Catherine: My
first choice will always be the sea. I live ten minutes’ walk away from it. Our
local strand has a huge tidal difference and when the tide is out I love to
walk barefoot on the firm sand and splash in the little puddles and rivulets
left behind by the tide. You just have to be careful that you don’t get cut off
when the tide turns as it races in.
Arabella: Who or what
inspired you to write your latest Regency release, The Potential for Love?
Catherine: My
books are set against a background of the off-stage Napoleonic wars. Where
previous ones considered the situation of women left behind when their menfolk
disappeared over the horizon, many never to return, The Potential for Love considers
the aftermath of these wars.
Arabella: Learning the
special symbolism of flowers became a popular pastime in the 1800’s.
A Pink Rose symbolises: grace, happiness and gentleness, and a Forget-Me-Not symbolises: true love
memories. Do you have a favourite flower, and does it hold a special symbolic
meaning or sentiment for you personally?
Catherine: I
love all flowers, but daffodils are my favourite. Not only are they harbingers
of Spring that have cheered up many a grey day, they have inspired such
wonderful poetry. So many of us have ‘wandered lonely as a cloud’ with
Wordsworth but I love Robert Herrick’s Sweet Daffodils too. According to my
book on The Romantic Language of Flowers (Gill Davies and Gill Saunders), they
can signify ‘chivalry, regard, respect, sunshine, uncertainty, unrequited love
& deceit’. What a range of meanings! I’ll take sunshine and uncertainty,
the essence of Spring.
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| Welsh Daffodils |
Arabella: Some authors
write at first light, others need a gallop across the fields or a glass of
Madeira before putting pen to paper. When writing, are there any “essentials”
you need to help the words flow?
Catherine: I
need to have the decks cleared—breakfast, the newspaper read, the crossword and
the daily chores done. It is usually mid-morning before I sit at my desk.
Arabella: You’re
halfway through the work-in-progress, you’re about to kill off the hero and
there is going to be no happy-ever-after. In other words, you’re stuck! If you
had to contact an “author/publisher/editor friend” for guidance, who would it
be?
Catherine: I’m
a very solitary writer and don’t seek guidance on writing matters elsewhere. I
would never kill off a hero—I believe in a happy end— but I do wonder ‘what
happens next?’ When this happens, I consult my public timeline containing all
the historical and trivial events I could find for the time in which the book
is set, and also the many diaries, letters and memoirs of the period. Generally
I find a new starting point. In The Potential for Love, for example, Thomas
accompanies Arabella’s family to see Edmund Kean play the title role in Richard
III, an occasion that helped me progress several plot lines.
Arabella: Your next
Regency WIP (work in progress) is on schedule, and it’s time to take a break
and relax. Which Jane Austen adaptation would you choose to watch (again J)
?
1) Persuasion
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Northanger Abbey
4) Mansfield Park
Catherine: Persuasion.
We visited Bath some years ago and I reread Persuasion while we were there. I
got just as much of a thrill in tracing Anne’s and Captain Wentworth’s
footsteps as I did in visiting the places associated with Jane Austen herself.
 |
| Persuasion - Jane Austen |
Arabella: In Georgette Heyer's "Frederica", when Alverstoke is
contemplating the merits of Miss Frederica Merrivale, his thoughts turn to her
two brothers. Alverstoke believed he had allowed himself to yield to
the blandishments of Felix (detestable imp!); then Jessamy had got himself into
a scrape (tiresome young chub!), and as for Frederica, she had
been as cross as crabs, and was a top-lofty little pea-goose.
What endearing nick-names or slang expressions have you used, (if
any), for your characters in your Regency novels?
Catherine: I don’t know if they are endearing.
Generally, I use slang sparingly but, in The Potential for Love, Francis Nugent
is a friend of the Malvins. He is a member of the Fancy (a fan of boxing). When
he visits Thomas, he treats him to a blow by blow account of the best mills he had
witnessed, letting his cheroot burn out on the little plate while he
demonstrated how, “Haydon then planted a desperate right-handed hit upon
Smith’s upper works that made a dice-box of his swallow. Smith’s claret flowed
freely but he was full of game and put in a most severe blow on Haydon’s jaw,
flooring him.”
Arabella: Do you have
any great writing, publishing, or marketing tips you’d like to share to
“want-to-be” historical authors starting out on their writing journey?
Catherine: Research,
research and research. Not only the big events but also the quirky trivia that
bring an era to life. I have a large research library and also collect
engravings of the period. I was
surprised when I started out to discover the wealth of hand-coloured prints and
engravings that help set the scene. The internet is another wonderful resource.
I have a huge document called Historical Facts & Trivia where I save
everything that I come across, whether I need it immediately or not. It is
invaluable.
Thank
you for joining me on Arabella’s Blog and Chit-Chat, Catherine. And about your "essentials" to help you write…I too have to have everything ship-shape and
Bristol fashion before I can put pen-to-paper (or fingertips-to-keyboard). My
mind has to be clear of “things to do” leaving the muse to flow. (Not always
easy when something like a pandemic is threatening the world).
All
the best and wishing you lots of happy-ever-after writing…
Stay
safe.
Arabella
About Catherine
Kullmann
 |
| Catherine Kullmann - Author |
Catherine Kullmann was
born and educated in Dublin. Following a three-year courtship conducted mostly
by letter, she moved to Germany where she lived for twenty-five years before
returning to Ireland. She has worked in the Irish and New Zealand public
services and in the private sector.
Catherine has always
been interested in the extended Regency period, a time when the foundations of
our modern world were laid. Her books are set against a background of the
offstage, Napoleonic wars and consider in particular the situation of women
trapped in a patriarchal society. She also blogs about historical facts and
trivia related to this era.
You can find out more
about Catherine’s books and read her blog (My Scrap Album) at www.catherinekullmann.com
Website
and Social Media Links
Book Blurb: The Potential for Love
When
Arabella Malvin sees the figure of an officer silhouetted against the sun, for
one interminable moment she thinks he is her brother, against all odds home
from Waterloo. But it is Major Thomas Ferraunt, the rector’s son, newly
returned from occupied Paris who stands in front of her.
For over six
years, Thomas’s thoughts have been of war. Now he must ask himself what his
place is in this new world and what he wants from it. More and more, his
thoughts turn to Miss Malvin, but would Lord Malvin agree to such a mismatch
for his daughter, especially when she is being courted by Lord Henry Danlow?
As Arabella
embarks on her fourth Season, she finds herself more in demand than ever
before. But she is tired of the life of a debutante, waiting in the wings for
her real life to begin. She is ready to marry. But which of her suitors has the
potential for love and who will agree to the type of marriage she wants?
As she
struggles to make her choice, she is faced with danger from an unexpected
quarter while Thomas is stunned by a new challenge. Will these events bring
them together or drive them apart?
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