A lost art?
Since my latest book, Dear Lord Wycliffe is epistolary (all except the epilogue is written in the form of letters), I’ve been thinking a lot about letters.
Letters have greatly influenced me over the course of my life. For two years, I wrote and received letters from the man I eventually married while he was living across the country. I learned things about him that I don’t think I would have had we only talked face to face. Or at least not as quickly.
My mother, almost to the day she died, wrote letters. She wrote to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She wrote notes to her neighbors, those who were older, alone, or sick and suffering. She did this while battling cancer for the final time.
I have many of her letters, and I prize them.
I can’t deny the immediacy of texting. Email is useful. But I’m sorry that we don’t often put pen to paper and write to people we care for.
This is only one reason why I wrote an epistolary novel. Dear Lord Wycliffe is set in 1793 London and Arpinge/Folkestone in Kent. Two friends who share their experiences, their successes, their foibles, their romances. We also visit Paris and The Hague through letters from Lord Wycliffe. Through these letters, we experience the French revolution, adventure in England, and mostly Romance.
I hope you enjoy my newest romance, and perhaps you’ll feel inspired to write a letter to someone you love.