I thought it was time to provide an update on my progress with Cade’s Point, the sixth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Don’t be concerned if you think you’ve missed book 5, Serpent’s Teeth. I’ve written it but haven’t published it yet. I hope to publish both at the end of the year, hopefully in time for Christmas. Grant at Milktown Writers has also asked if I’d talk of the subject of Scrivener and how I use it at one of our future meetings.
So, I think I’ve hit a milestone with Cade’s Point in that I’ve set the first draft of the outline. Scrivener is brilliant at helping the writer organise his or her work. I’ve made my character sketches and I’ve mapped out all the chapters, and the outlines of what happens in each.
The inspiration for Cade’s Point is the establishment of Europe’s first public free school in Frascati. Existing readers will know that Sir Anthony established a vineyard in Frascati at the end of the first book, The Spy who Sank the Armada. So Joseph Calasanz, the driving force of the school has recruited Standen as a teacher. It’s just as well for him, because there are those who believe that educating the poor is morally wrong, and attempt to sabotage his mission. That’s where the title comes in. Jack Cade is a character in Shakespeare’s King Henry VI part two. He is also against educating the masses: “Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used…” Cade also insists that anyone who can read or write should be executed: “Hang him with his pen and inkhorn about his neck.” In reality Jack Cade did not have this hatred of education. Shakespeare borrowed that from the earlier Peasants’ Revolt, where the anger was directed at the tax collectors who whilst not of aristocracy or the priesthood, had to be literate and numerate.
So all that remains is to write the book. I have no doubt that the plan will shift as I write, that’s normal. The characters will start to take over, and drive me one way or another.