Love is in the Heir

When I am researching a book, I often find fascinating bits of information that turn my intended story in an entirely different direction. Such was the case with Love Is in Heir.
 
While researching astronomy during the Regency, I came across a figure so wonderfully brilliant and quirky that I knew she had to play an important role in Love Is in the Heir. And she did.
 
Her name was Caroline Herschel.
 
Caroline Herschel. Caroline Herschel stood only four foot three inches tall, was a successful professional soprano, a brilliant mathematician and astronomer, and in her eighties was still sweeping the heavens with her telescope. Even more surprising in a time when most women did not have careers, Caroline Herschel became one of the world's foremost authorities on comets with several major discoveries to her credit.
 
Caroline left Bath in 1782 when her brother William (who discovered Uranus, by the way) accepted a position from King George III.  She continued to work as her brother's assistant until he died in 1822, when she began focusing on her own work.  Eventually she claimed her own fame in astronomy by making several important discoveries and by cataloguing nebulae by position rather than by class. This earned her the coveted gold medal of the Astronomical Society.
 
Bath Comet. But I decided to bring Caroline Herschel back to the Bath for my story, to observe the fictional Bath Comet (based on the Comet Encke, and the Fire Ball that passed over Bath and other locations in England in 1783.)
 
Beechen Cliff. If you want a great view of Bath, and my hero and heroine did, there is no better place than Beechen Cliff, near Prior Park.  Of course, I can't promise you that if you hike all the way up the cliff that you will find a handsome astronomer there, like my heroine, Hannah Chillton did. But it can't hurt to try, can it?

View of Bath from Beechen Cliff

The Lizard, Cornwall. Readers might notice that my hero, Griffin St. Albans, and my heroine, Hannah Chillton, met and honeymooned in the same location--at The Lizard, in Cornwall.  More precisely, Kynance Cove.  After visiting the location, I could not stop thinking about the absolute beauty of the spot.  Okay, I look a bit windblown here (and I was!), but I wanted to share a picture author Sophia Nash took of me at Kynance Cove (shown below right).
 
Cupid. Recently, readers have been asking me where I got the idea for a matchmaking falcon. Well, time to dish. The inspiration for Cupid, my heroine's falcon actually came from Ashford Castle in Ireland during a family vacation. While my husband fished on the lake, my two daughters and I splurged and took falconry lessons.  I admit, the pointy beak and sharp talons on my falcon, Wexford, scared the heck out of me at first.  Soon though, however,  I forgot to flinch when he landed on my forearm to grab a piece of raw rabbit (I never got to used to seeing that).  The bird was amazingly clever.  And so, when I sat down to write Love Is in the Heir, I decided to include Wexford. Only now, since his job was bringing couples together, I renamed him Cupid. So there you have it.
 
I hope you enjoyed this peek into the inspiration between the lines of Love Is in the Heir.

(posted 6.01.06)