Patricia Osborne on connecting with her characters and writing a family saga.

Today, I am welcoming family saga writer Patricia M Osborne, to my blog, as she celebrates being the Chindi Authors’ Author of the Week.

In her post Patricia elaborates on writing a family saga and shares the bond she makes with her characters. Over to you, Patricia…

“Firstly, thank you to Carol for inviting me over to her blog during my ‘Chindi Author of the Week’ which happens to coincide with publication of my second novel, The Coal Miner’s Son.

“As a writer, I’m sure I’m not unique in falling in love with my characters. This is why I love writing a family saga series. It means I can stay with my characters for longer. However sometimes it is necessary to lose a character and bring in new ones.

“A family saga is about life and you can’t have life without uncertainties and losing people we love. That can be no exception in a family saga and sometimes a character needs to die. When this happens I grieve and you will find me sitting over my PC crying as I mourn for my lost character.

“On the other side of the coin I get to keep some characters and create an even stronger bond with them. In The Coal Miner’s Son, two new characters join the saga that aren’t in fact human but animals. One, Millie, who is a young jet-black horse, and the second, Tassles a beautiful red setter. Tassles stays with me for longer as she’s featured in Book 3, ‘The Granville Legacy’ too.

“Creating a character takes a lot of thought and as writers we need all the help we can get. I find ‘Character Creation’ by Linda Anderson in Creative Writing, A Workbook of Reading, Edited by Linda Anderson a great asset, along with K M Welland’s Creating Character Arcs.

“My debut novel, House of Grace, is written in the first point of view of Grace Granville but in The Coal Miner’s Son, Grace has less of a voice and the narratorship is taken over by two narrators, nine-year-old George Gilmore, and his estranged Aunt Elizabeth, both telling their stories in first point of view. In Book 3, ‘The Granville Legacy’, Grace returns along with George, but George as a man.

“I love my characters and my characters become more than friends but family.”

About the Books:

Blurb for The Coal Miner’s Son

After tragedy hits the small coal mining village of Wintermore, nine-year-old miner’s son, George, is sent to Granville Hall to live with his titled grandparents.

Caught up in a web of treachery and deceit, George grows up believing his mother sold him. He’s determined to make her pay, but at what cost? Is he strong enough to rebel?

Will George ever learn to forgive?

Step back into the 60s and follow George as he struggles with bereavement, rejection and a kidnapping that changes his life forever. Resistance is George’s only hope.

Available via Amazon and all good bookstores: The Coal Miner’s Son

Blurb for House of Grace:

All sixteen-year-old Grace Granville has ever wanted is to become a successful dress designer. She dreams of owning her own fashion house and spends her spare time sketching outfits. Her father, Lord Granville, sees this as a frivolous activity and arranges suitors for a marriage of his choosing.

Grace is about to leave Greenemere, a boarding school in Brighton. Blissfully unaware of her father’s plans, she embarks on a new adventure. The quest includes a trip to Bolton’s Palais where she meets coal miner, Jack Gilmore. Grace’s life is never the same again.

Is Grace strong enough to defy Lord Granville’s wishes and find true love? Will she become a successful fashion designer? Where will she turn for help? House of Grace is the first book in the historical fiction family saga trilogy.

If you like Mr Selfridge and House of Eliott then you’ll love this riches to rags 1950s/60s saga. Delve into House of Grace and follow Grace Granville as she struggles with family conflict, poverty and tragedy.

Available via Amazon and all good book stores: House of Grace

About the author:

Patricia M Osborne is married with grown-up children and grandchildren. She was born in Liverpool but now lives in West Sussex. In 2019 she graduated with an MA in Creative Writing (University of Brighton).

Patricia writes novels, poetry and short fiction, and has been published in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her first poetry pamphlet ‘Taxus Baccata’ is to be published by Hedgehog Poetry Press during 2020.

She has a successful blog where she features other writers and poets. When Patricia isn’t working on her own writing, she enjoys sharing her knowledge, acting as a mentor to fellow writers and as an online poetry tutor with Writers’ Bureau.

The Coal Miner’s Son is the second book in the House of Grace trilogy.

Discover more about Patricia M Osborne and her work via: Twitter | Facebook | Patricia’s Pen