Historical Memoirs | Author, Jane Lark's stories

I have finally taken my first step into historical fiction 😀 I am thrilled, and so proud of this book, and so I guess if you’ve loved all my factual posts on this blog then this is probably the book for you… Try it… It’s definitely Pride and Prejudice style and looks at how she developed that story and absolutely – no zombies! 😉

Praise for my non romance works

‘Once again Jane Lark spellbound me’ – BestChickLit.com

‘Jane Lark writes so beautifully’ – Sorcha O’Dowd Amazon reviewer

‘Jane’s portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo and the feelings both Ellen and Paul had to go through are described excellently. As mentioned above, this book is a lot more heart-wrenching’ – Heidi (The Lost Love of a Soldier)

‘Goodness, this lady can write emotion!’ – avidreader Amazon reviewer

A story of Jane Austen’s life you will not know…

The Authoress

Jane’s father dies and a dark cloud smothers her desire to write. She becomes dependent on her brothers, and is reduced to living among vagabonds and prostitutes. Her life has become the gothic horror she had imagined for Susan. But everything begins anew when a distant cousin dies and the unimaginable forces of fate takeover.

Fate leads Jane to step through the door of Stoneleigh Abbey, into the life of riches lived by her ancestors. It sets her imagination alight once more when she is drawn into the setting of her cousin’s fight to inherit the beautiful property which Jane falls in love with. During her stay moments of reality inspire fiction, creating a collage of ideas and written images which become the foundations for her stories…

And you, my blog readers, were involved in this story from the beginning, if you look back through my blog posts you’ll see my first posts on Stoneleigh Abbey years ago. I had the idea for the story then, but it’s taken a little while to work out how to put it together just right 😀

I hope you enjoy the story!

It’s only available on Amazon as an ebook right now, as I’m looking for a home for it that will put it in print, but I didn’t want to keep waiting to get it out to my readers until then, so here it is. The Authoress by Jane Lark

We went to Hastings the other week to discover some 1066 facts just for fun, but when we were there, look what I discovered… These ancient cave carvings under the cliffs above the town of Hastings in the UK.

No one knows when this carving was cut, but it’s in an area called the chapel. The natural cave has been especially sculpted to become a wider, arched area, and at the other end is this carving of a vessel; also undated.

In the 1700s the caves the chapel is in were used by violent gangs of smugglers, who owned the coast of Britain in the same way the mafia operated. They would kill any man, or woman, who crossed them, without fear of being caught. One smuggling gang whipped a man to death in an inn for giving their names to the customs officers. Another man was buried alive, and a third thrown down a well, for telling tales on the smugglers. They ruled by fear.

People who work in the caves in Hastings today hear in-explicable sounds, like things being dragged across the chapel floor, and the props used in the caves to dress them for their visitors experience are moved from one cave to another, for no reason, and no one admits they have moved them.

I have written before about the 18th and early 19th century love of gothic tales, and scary places. Well the caves at Hastings were no different. They were dug out further for the use of visitors in the late 1700s, when smuggling died out.

Look at this amazing walk way…

That was the entrance carved into the caves, and a ballroom was carved out too. Can you imagine spending your Halloween dancing in a cold, damp, dark cave?

I don’t have any Halloween stories in my historical books, but if you fancy trying one of my contemporaries, Jason’s and Rachel’s Halloween party scene is FREE. Click on the I Still Love You cover on the righthand side further down to download.