Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes

In the past I've been a member of the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild and of Romance Writers of Australia. More recently I've attended two biennial weekend conferences of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia. 

Yet, while everyone around me surged ahead with their novels, I continued to write as Louise Wilson in my comfort zone of non-fiction. 

Progress as the writer Louisa Valentine crept forward at a snail's pace despite my selection of a seemingly perfect pen name. I chose Louisa Valentine for two reasons: a) I liked that my grandmother always called me Louisa and b) an earlier married name of mine was Valentine.

This year I gave myself a figurative rap over the knuckles and decided to 'do something'. I entered a short story competition for historic novelists, where the story length could not exceed 3,000 words. By converting a factual story of my forebears Stephen and Sarah Flockton I ventured into writing creative non-fiction.  They married twice in 1827, the first time at Melbourn, Cambridgeshire and the second time at All Hallows Lombard Street, London, when the groom adopted his wife's surname.

Given today's attitudes, 'Ahead of His Time' might have been a good title for this story but in the end my focus was romance and I went with 'Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes'. A more experienced novelist won the competition but it was fun to try and the judges commented on the high standard of entries.

P.S. I invite you to 'Like' or 'Follow' my Louisa Valentine Facebook page.