Blakefields Mansion
What has possessed the normally level-headed Isabelle to abandon her childhood friend among strangers and make a madcap dash across windswept moors in a frantic search for help?
Two months earlier - the summer of 1856 - and the two girls are eagerly anticipating a stay at the imposing Blakefields Mansion in the West Riding of Yorkshire. They dream of grand balls, dashing young men, and mysterious, elegant ladies. But the reality will prove very different.
Intrigue upon intrigue builds to an unexpected and dramatic climax.
As they come to know the various gentlemen – the Lord of Blakefields; his cheerful friend and confidant; the ambitious but seemingly honest guest; the enigmatic neighbour with a dark past - it becomes less and less clear who will turn out to be the champion of decency and integrity.
Blakefields Mansion and its soon-to-be-released sequel, Stonecrest, are both realistic historical romances set in a tempestuous period of England's history. Queen Victoria is on the throne; social values are beginning to change - something that Isabelle will discover as she learns that true friends and true love are to be valued above either fame or fortune.

If you enjoy the likes of Austen, Thackeray or Dickens, then Blakefields Mansion is for you.
Interview with Clive A S West What part of the world are you from? South West England although I now live in Central Italy
What was the first important thing that you've ever written? I've literally drawn up thousands of contracts and legal letters and I've long since forgotten which was the first important one. In terms of creative writing, I'd have to say that it was a series of training articles that I did for upwardly mobile employees.
Did you keep a diary as a child and do you still write one today? No. I've tried many times but I just don't have the discipline. I really admire those who do (like my wife, fortunately) but 'it ain't me babe'.
Which book are you currently reading (or are just about to read)? Because of the Westerns I'm ghost-writing, I'm reading some books written at the end of the 19th century to help give me a better feeling of the era and the way of life 'on the trail'.
What made you take up writing as a career?As I said, I've always been a commercial writer so it was a natural thing to become a freelancer when I got disabled. I enjoy writing and I get a real feeling of the wind in my hair when I've got a subject and I know where it's going.
What have you written so far that's been published? I've written a series of twist-in-the-tail stories while I was in a lymphedema clinic (I've got 'worse case scenario' as far as that disease goes). I read them out to my wife every day and put them together into a book when I got home. That's called Hobson's Choice. Since then, I've written a full length blockbuster called The Road. That's about the corruption that surrounds the construction of a new road and how this affects the people whom it touches. Despite its seemingly 'cold' subject matter, it's actually a very human story - just read the (genuine) reviews on Amazon to see that I'm not alone in thinking this. I've also written a patient's guide to lymphedema and a self-helper for interview candidates telling them how to take charge of their job interviews. My latest book is a Victorian romance called Blakefields Mansion which I'm co-writing with Jen Smith - it's very much in the style of Austen, Thackeray and Dickens and is a mixture of romance and dawning social awareness.
What books do you have in the pipeline? I'm able to write in my head - often in my sleep - and I've got 3 stored up there at the moment. The one which I'd most like to finish is a tortured view of life seen through the eyes of a serial killer. A follow-up to Blakefields Mansion will soon be published (it's provisionally called 'Stonecrest') and another volume of twist-in-the-tails (called 'A Snake In The Grass') is at the final polishing stages. On a different tack, I recently spent nine months in hospital (having gone into a coma and then having a 2kg tumour removed). It was followed up with a further 6 months living 24/7 on our sofa while I waited for medical assistance to organise itself. My wife wants me to put that into a story but it's still a bit painful to recall - maybe later.
What or who inspires you? I'm inspired by the events that I've seen - many bad, sadly. I'm a keen observer of patterns and I love the use of probability trees to help me consider all possible outcomes of any given event.
How do you begin a story, chapter or scene?I take what I hope is an interesting event and then ask myself - what if ...? I then run with it. My stories must always be possible and plausible: as a reader I don't appreciate slipshod tactics such as skipping over contradictions and plot hitches therefore I try to make sure my own writing is watertight in that respect.
Which famous authors do you admire? That's easy but it does depend upon the context.  Asimov for his sheer perceptiveness regarding the way people behave. Technology may change but people don't.  RD Wingfield for his witty dialogue. Just read his Frost books and be prepared to be blown away by the man's talent.  Tom Clarke for the gritty realism of the brilliant Muck and Brass series (for my book, The Road) Alan Bleasdale for Boys from the Black Stuff (again, for The Road) Robin Hobb (Margaret Ogden) for her wonderful and detailed fantasy worlds. I appreciate the attention to detail that goes into her writing - the 3D worlds she creates are amazing. Maybe I should say the 3C's (Culture, Customs and Characters) - something we should all bear in mind when we're writing any kind of fiction.
How do you come up with your characters? Most of my characters are composites of people I've known although I'm at great pains not to make any individual a 'real person'. I love colorful people and I've been told I do my 'bad guys' particularly well. They're the ones who give me the most pleasure describing, I do confess!
How would you describe your style of writing? I like to think my writing has a light touch. I'm a plot fiend and I try very hard to make sure that I never resort to deus ex machina devices. I hate books like that and I assume my readers feel likewise.
Would you say your books are realistic? I know they're realistic! In The Road, the sheer number of dirty dealings that I've seen during my years in the construction industry form its basis. It's chillingly realistic, believe me. In Blakefields Mansion and Stonecrest, I've been at great pains to get everything right - from the tracks that they would have rode down to the actual times of the trains. I've checked the birth and death certificates of any real characters, downloaded the house floor plans, read the legal statutes - you name it.
Could you describe your plots in just one sentence? In The Road, the story is one of how the corruption centered around the construction of a new ring road impinges on the lives of the ordinary people who come into contact with it. In Blakefields Mansion, the story is of how a romance gradually develops between two people who, in turn, have come to appreciate that true friendship is the most valuable gift of all and that it is not based on class, gender, attitudes etc.
Which part of your books gave you the most trouble and why? In The Road, significant chunks of the book follow young people. I wanted to get the interchanges - dialogue, actions, dress, tastes - as accurate as I could. It took considerable research but I think I got there in the end. In Blakefields, I remember getting bogged down with dance cards would you believe? What dances occur when, who holds the cards, where they came from, how did men remember who they'd arranged to dance with, how did a lady reject an invitation, what happened if no-one asked her to dance and so on!
Did you learn anything from writing the books?Yes, in The Road, I learnt about ecstasy and I also discovered a lot about offshore banking and moving money around. Blakefields Mansion really boosted my knowledge of history and law. So much happened. My specialist subject at university was public health engineering so I was able to use my knowledge to write about cholera but I'd little idea about how much attitudes changed towards it in the space of just a very few years. It went from it being 'A curse of God' to 'this is how we treat water' in the blink of an eye. Not only that, John Snow (who finally convinced people what cholera really was) introduced the idea of an incident map - the same kind of thing that is used to plot the activities of serial killers today.
If you were to rewrite your bools, what would you change? In The Road, I'd definitely try and find a way of splitting it into 2 volumes. I'd then be able to put the books out at a lower price per book and this would probably attract more buyers. They might also feel less daunted by two thinner books. In Blakefields, I'm torn about whether I should have created more balls but I decided at the time that it would end up appearing as just padding and thus detract from the story. There was so much more to include but it was always going to be a balance between detail and story. My feedback so far is that I 'got it right' but it was definitely something that I was and am aware of.
Is there anyone whose help you'd particularly like to acknowledge? My wife, Damaris West, who is also an author, helped me very considerably with editing, characterization and also with snagging. Corny as it might sound, I couldn't have done it without her. Blakefields Mansion was co-written in conjunction with Jen Smith, a lady who lives in Illinois. It was her original idea and storyboard that we worked together.
Does the e-book format give rise to any specific challenges or benefits? I wouldn't say that there was much in the way of challenges about it although it is always awkward to include images or tables because of the nature of the reading software. As far as benefits go, e-books are the way forward - we sell twenty to thirty times as many copies of an book in electronic format as we do in its physical counterpart.
If you had to pick a genre you'd not previously written in or considered, what would it be and why? I'd love to write a fantasy saga. I know there's a lot of that about at the moment (with the HBO serialization of the George RR Martin books) but I'm sure I could come up with something original. I'm also quite sold on doing a series of ultra-realistic (used advisedly, of course!) dystopian novels.
How much time do you set aside for your writing? Like most authors (I'm sure), 'not as much as I'd like'. My work involves getting our publishing business up and also ghost-writing. I'm currently involved in a non-fiction book about cyber-crime (definitely the most technically challenging book that I've ever written) and also a series of Westerns (again, with the idea of being realistic).
Is writing going to be your career for the foreseeable future? I'd like it to be. Obviously the publishing business is in there, too. I don't want to split them.
Do you have any news you can tell us? I've written the first three chapters of that serial killer book I mentioned earlier in the interview. I won't say too much but it's in the First Person (that makes it a little unusual) plus it's from his birth (which is definitely rare). I really want to finish that!
What advice would you give new or would-be writers? Everybody has their own way of writing but what I do is to figure out a plot from beginning to end and write it up without bothering much about side plots, setting or details not directly relevant to the story line. I even skip over dialogue. Once I've done that, I return and fill in the missing pieces. I then return a third and fourth time to polish and edit it. Doing it this way avoids continuity breaks and also ensures that I do actually have a viable and plausible story. Far too many people get bogged down with minutiae. Of course they matter but they shouldn't come between you and the story. My books tend to get about eight edits before they get released - yes, that's a lot of work but it produces a more 'fluid' book than if you grind away word by word.
What would you like to say to your readers? I get a genuine pleasure out of writing although I'd hate to think what I write is 'comfortable'. I want people to enjoy my books but also to stop and think - even with the romances where I endeavor to cover all the emotions and not just love. For example, in my short stories, several are dedicated to creating situations which are 'obvious' (only so because we are all inherently prejudiced and blinkered) but turn out to be anything but. I like to challenge people - I hope I succeed - as well as entertaining them, of course! Clive West writes for Any Subject Books Ltd

Jen Smith's BioJen Smith was born in Rockford, Illinois and has always had aspirations as an author. She comes from a family of nine and is the second born to Dewey and Deanna Smith. She’s also spent some time living in Mississippi (where her family lives today) before moving back to Rockford in 2012 where she now cares for her Grandmother and Great Grandmother.
Apart from being a passionate writer, she currently works in the veterinary profession as a veterinarian assistant and is aspiring towards finding her notch in the world.
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