That’s a working title, but it’s better than ‘Thirteen’, which was the working title of Delamere 11 until yesterday. As I search back through my notebooks, I see other options written at the top of pages as ideas occurred: ‘Attempting Fate’ was another – a nice play on words, perhaps, but only slightly to do with the intricate plot of this one, where some characters are tempting fate by breaking superstitions. ‘A Baker’s Dozen’ was another, but that’s weak, except it gave me an idea for book 12, which may be the last in this series – and the title won’t be ‘A Baker’s Dozen.’
I keep handwritten notes as I go, and for this first draft, there are 16 pages of them. If I look back through the book to previous novels and their notes, I find A Depraved Indifference has 14, whereas Snake Hill only has 7.5, because some books are easier to keep track of than others.
A Night of Opposites, or whatever it is called, has a detailed backstory to it, but this is only known by the villain and by the reader- there’s a challenge for you. How do the characters find out what we and the baddie know without making it too easy? It’s a case of connections, and some are thin, but vital. Details are also vital, which is why I keep the notes. Often, when I am on a new page of notes, and something important is further back, I repeat that word as a reminder at the top of the page I am noting on. Therefore, I look back and find oddments at the top of the pages, and for the current WIP, some read like this:
11. Orlando Active 1887 onwards. | 61/married at 25/son born 1859/ died 1882. | Jinks | Blanch | Ormolu clock | “Opposite” | 6 is next door | Exploding cocoanuts |
That last one is real but not what you might think!
I shall ask you what you might think once the book is out there, and that should be out in April, depending on how the second draft goes.
That’s all for later. Here, for now, if you are looking for something spicy to read and you missed the last newsletter, here’s a list of titles that might spice up your life this spring.
M/M Erotica – March
Romance / Active/Erotica and Romance / LGBT
The title says it all – Anything goes in these 71 erotic novels.
Well, this week seems to have caught up with me. It’s Saturday, and I’m not prepared. I have to get my newsletter out this morning, and I should really be posting a blog post, but as I am totally unprepared, I thought I would put the basics of the newsletter here as well as send it out in the usual way. Doesn’t that negate the need for a newsletter? Yes, I can see what you mean, but no, not if you’re one of the many people who haven’t subscribed.
This month, as always, I have a list of promos for you. As I tend to save the writing news for this blog and my social media pages, the newsletter is primarily a listings update.
March Promos & News from Jackson Marsh
Hello, and welcome to March!
There is no need to rush out and buy me anything, but March is my birthday month. Strangely, I share the date with Archer, Lord Clearwater (and another character I can’t recall off the top of my head). As if to celebrate reaching the age of the year of my birth (63), I have a series of promos listed below, and as usual, browsing is completely free.
In other news: (This section is for the newsletter readers only.)
New Titles and Authors
#1 Backlist Bump 2026
Genres: Romance / LGBT Hosted by Elle Keaton There are 63 titles in this collection of backlist titles, all LGBT-themed. In this collection, I am trying to promote some backlisters of my own, namely, ‘The Mentor of Lonemarsh House’ and ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.’
Romance, Romance / Billionaire, and Romance / LGBT How about a selection of 80 MM and straight Romance novels from a wide variety of authors? It’s mainly straight romance, but I have thrown in three Jackson MM titles to see if we can’t convert some of the bodice ripping to breeches ripping.
Romance / Active/Erotica and Romance / LGBT The title says it all – Anything goes in these 71 erotic novels. Including ‘The Mentor of Wildhill Farm.’ (NSFW)
Mystery & Suspense / British Detectives, Mystery & Suspense / Crime, and Mystery & Suspense / Thriller There are 33 titles in this list, including novellas and full-length novels, and they are, or are supposed to be, at least the second book in a series, to show that the series is more than just the initial book. In this one, I have ‘A Fall from Grace’ and ‘A Depraved Indifference’, two of the (currently) 10 Delamere books.
There are 35 exciting titles in this collection of ‘must-read’ thrillers and mystery novels. Among them, you will find my ‘Deviant Desire’, the Clearwater Mysteries, book one.
There are 134 titles in this large and very varied collection of titles old and new. All mystery, thrillers, spies, assassins, various eras and tropes, everything you need for some thrills.
“There are currently ten books in the Delamere Files series, and I suspect I’ll be reading all of them.”
That was the last line of a review of ‘Finding a Way’ that appeared in a Facebook group last November.
“As always in these books, the fairly placid opening chapters begin to speed up, until the heart-stopping denouement brings everything to a climax.” Posted by the same reviewer two days ago, about ‘Acts of Faith’, book seven in the series.
In between times, he has written a thoughtful, accurate and positive review of each book in turn, and says he intends to finish the series. Sounds like good news for me!
I’m mentioning this today because the reviewer, Ulysses, is not alone. I recently found positive reviews of the series on other Facebook pages, and that made me think of other indie authors and their fans out there.
These pages and groups have worked well for me, albeit randomly, and they would, I am sure, like a few more followers. These aren’t the kind of pages where you only see promotions, though there are plenty, they are more concerned with the literature and its authors.
All I list here are great communities, but there are many more. I hope these will be of interest to readers and authors alike.
By the way, if you search for my name within the group, you should find all the reviews published there to date.
Queer Romance Ink
As usual, click the image to follow the link. You might have to join the groups in order to browse.
There will be another newsletter on 7th March, so make sure you are subscribed.
I’ll have some new listings for you, some promos to explore, where LGBTQ+ novels are on special offer or simply being advertised, and there will soon be news of Delamere 11 – check back on Wednesday.
Still with no definite title, Delamere 11 is progressing well. I have to admit, this is the first one where I have kept so much detail in my notebooks as I go. Not that the mystery is particularly complicated (no more than usual), but because there are backstories of minor characters which have to be accurate, believable and interesting, and yet, which have to be consistent.
Some books write themselves.
‘Snake Hill’ was one of these, where I started with an ending, and then started with the start, and the two seemed to meet logically along the way. This time, I have started in the same way and know where I am heading, but I have approached the first draft with a more critical eye than usual.
Because there are many tiny details to be sure of, and because some characters have altered the story for me along the way (mildly), I have had to go back, read again, change or update, and then carry on. Yesterday, for example, I reread five chapters of draft one, in effect turning them into a draft two, while also continuing draft one further along in the story. All the time jotting notes such as 24 years in an asylum, or, Rememberthe Spiritualist Magazine, and Mr Phinigan Slack, secretary and illusion maker, Drury Lane. They mean something to me!
As for word count, I am at 66,000 words, and am starting to build towards a climax of the main mystery, the backstory subplot (highly connected to the main mystery), and a subplot for Baxter, while hopefully continuing to keep the reader guessing while ramping up the tension. This appeared today in a review/summary of one of the series seen on a popular Facebook page: As always in these books, the fairly placid opening chapters begin to speed up, until the heart-stopping denouement brings everything to a climax.
I have been receiving several of these excellent write-ups of late, and on Saturday, I intend to share with you some pages on Facebook that have been more than generous in their praise and support of the Delamere Series (and Clearwater), so you might also join the groups and find more indie authors to read.
On which note, the end of the month approaches, and that means a last few departing book fares to advertise, and soon, some new ones to tell you about.
Promo
To end this month’s promotions, I will leave you to browse one of my favourites, and in this case, you have two options. Clicking one gives kudos to Jackson’s list, and the second, to James’ list, and you’re welcome to click and explore both, one, or neither. See you on Saturday.
Today’s work in progress update is to let you know that I am now over halfway through the first draft of ‘Thirteen’ (working title, and it’s book 11 in the series), and had just had my midway twist. The trouble is, I wrote it a couple of days ago, and have had a day off in between, and now, I can’t remember what I wrote, so today will start with reading back. I turn to my notes, and find them of some help, although, as you can see, they may baffle some people, including myself.
That is one page of 11 so far on this story alone. As I write the chapters, I jot down important facts for later, and then, when the mood hits, I filter the notes and write up a file that I can edit as I go. Here, for example, is a chart I made up to keep track of the murders in ‘Acts of Faith.’
In the case of ‘Thirteen’, I have a file called ‘Tie ups’, which is where I note plot points, conversations, clues and questions that I must come back to and answer later in the book. I can’t show you that or tell you too much as that would give away spoilers.
Do all authors do this? I don’t know. I do know that some authors plot and plan their entire story before starting out. They make up lengthy backstories about their characters, they, as they do when making a film, will have a character ‘bible’, and list all their traits and mannerisms, loves and hates and so on ad infinitum. Then, they will so the same with the plot, and draw grids with action lines and other grids with emotional throughlines, great big red arrows for twists and, beneath, a rough wordcount. Then, they will start writing.
I have tried that approach, and it’s not for me. In the case of Delamere Eleven, I was reading a newspaper from 1893, looking for ideas, when I came across a mention of the Thirteen Club. I’d not heard about them before, so I did some research, and later that day, started writing the book. I had a rough idea where the story would end up, and nothing else. That’s the fun part about making it up as you go – I only know as much as my characters know. I write, mainly, from the point of view of my leads, Jack and Will Merrit, and now, Ben Baxter (sometimes others). These are the investigators, and they have no idea what they are investigating until they begin, and neither do I.
When starting a new story, I set a scene for something to come, and near the start of the story/scene, I make sure the ‘domestic’ matters are up to date. (I have a nasty habit of placing characters and keeping readers informed of their lives. Example: in this book, Simeon is learning to drive. Is that relevant to the plot? It might turn out to be, I don’t know yet.) How the scene/story will end, I can’t tell you, not at the start because Jack and Co don’t know what’s coming their way either.
Therefore, I make notes as I go. Notes and ideas. They drop into my head as I’m bashing the keyboard, and I take a hurried moment to write something down, which is why my handwriting is so messy. Later, after reading back what I have written, I will adjust them or file them in the Tie Ups file. Also, when an idea occurs, I note it at the start of the next chapter. I finish, say, Chapter Nine, reread it and type up a list of where the story is going next. This I do under a new document, in this case, ‘Chapter Ten.’ Not only does this remind me of what I was thinking, but it usually gives me a PoC. A Point of Chapter, as I call it. Every sequence, section, scene, needs a point of some sort, and if you set off on a new chapter with the PoC in mind, you can’t go wrong.
Where you go wrong is when you forget to make notes and rely on your characters to remember what they were going to do, talk about, or discover. Sadly, without you knowing, they don’t know, so all you can do is knuckle down and see what they are going to throw at you next.
Yesterday, when setting up today’s writing, I prepared Chapter Fifteen, and the first few notes read:
Friday morning Jack bad night worrying about Larkin Catch up on hotel visit Ned’s findings
There you go. That’s what we can expect to find in the next chapter, except there are 540 words of notes and reminders, so who knows what Jack is plotting. Not me!
If you’re still up for it, here’s a promo to promote and check out this week – if you can.
LGBTQIA+ Book Fair
Genres: General Fiction / LGBT and Romance / LGBT
Here’s another mixed bag for you. There are 41 titles here, ranging from Victorian MM Mystery to contemporary love stories.
It’s February 14th, and you must choose one Valentine from fourteen. Who will you pick as your date?
This is just for fun because, sadly, I can’t bring my characters to life anywhere else but on the page. But, if you could invite one of them to step from the past and go with you on a Valentine’s date, who would you choose?
Below, in random order, are fourteen characters from the Clearwater, Larkspur, and Delamere Mysteries. I have put their name and their main series so you can see who’s who.
When you’ve made your choice, put a comment on my Facebook page and let’s see who you think would be good to take on a date, and why. (You can copy and paste the photo too, if you want.)
Delamere Eleven (Working title, ‘Thirteen’) is now up to 40,000 words of its first draft. It’s an unusual case (of course), and nearing the halfway point, Jack is thinking about giving it up because he’s not getting anywhere. Baxter and Charlie are having a ‘marital’ difficulty, and I don’t yet know what because Baxter hasn’t told me, and Ronny wants to learn how to drive. It’s all a game of Unlikely Families at Delamere House right now.
This website & Jackson emails. I have some technical issues. Mainly, my emails. I’ve been having trouble with Outlook over the past couple of weeks. It would open, download the house email (the address that comes with the internet provision), but then freeze. After several frustrating hours trying to get to the bottom of things, it turns out that my Symi Dream and Jackson Marsh sites sit on shared servers, and these no longer support the email addresses attached to the accounts – or something. It’s all to do with not having a dedicated server, and I was thinking about migrating away from the host company anyway. The help centre is outstanding, but if I can’t reply to emails…
So, the news really is that I want to move everything you see here, and everything that’s archived, over to a new company, and I have no idea how to do it. In fact, I want someone at this yet-to-be-found new company to say, ‘Give it here, we’ll do it all for you,’ but that’s unlikely. Therefore, if these pages go dark for any length of time, you will know I lost my websites in the move.
Valentine’s Day – Your Clearwater Date will be…?
Call back here on Saturday and take your pick from a set of Clearwater characters, and then decide which one you would go on a date with. Look out for that, and look out for this:
How about 71 new ideas for something to read? That’s what you have in this collection of all kinds of stories LGBTQ+ in theme. This is a BookMojo promo.
Valentine’s Day is but a week away. Any plans? If they involve reading, then I have a list of suggestions for you at the bottom of this post.
As for me, I expect we shan’t be going to a fancy restaurant or the cinema, ice skating or laughing in the park because we don’t have any of those things on the island. If we do go out, it will either be to the bar where two TVs play at once, or to the café by the playground where there’s always a children’s party to go with your onion rings, or we’ll go to our taverna for some chips, which is about all they cook at this time of year. Chips and liver.
I am wondering, though, if and how I could use Valentine’s Day as a background theme to one of my mysteries. (Let’s shorten it to VD; it’s easier to type.) It’s been done before, as you will see from the list below, but there’s no reason VD can’t be used as a theme/background/plot device in an original way.
I went to have a look at the National Newspaper Archive to see what the nation’s thoughts were on VD in 1894. By then, the sending of cards was very popular, and VD was celebrated. There are articles in the papers telling us that it is not as well observed as it used to be, in a religious sense, but the exchange of fancy, anonymous cards and greetings on VD was popular. Poems were much involved, too, especially in Britain.
I found this, then, current thought in the Aberdeen Express, on February 14th, 1894, and it made me smile.
To-day (sic) is St Valentine’s Day, and we notice, with great regret, that here, there and everywhere in print, ancient and very superstitious doings are advocated, by means of which the gentle saint is to aid and abet lovers and other foolish folks. We need not point out to our readers that all these things betoken vanity and gross ignorance, and that the only correct way of invoking the aid of the “holy blessed martyr” is to place two bay leaves, after sprinkling them with rose-water, across a pillow, and repeat the formula:
Good Valentine be kind to me, In dream let me my true love see.
I imagined that was written by a strict and dour Scotsman of some cloth or other (we notice with great regret… superstitious doings… vanity and gross ignorance). Lots of bluster and fear of God behind the voice. But then, he made me laugh by cutting his dour tone and telling us how to cast a spell. Maybe he wasn’t a man of the church after all.
What he gives us is an idea for something you could do on Valentine’s Day, and if you don’t have a special someone whose pillows you could sprinkle, then surprise a neighbour, or even a stranger. I am sure it would lighten their day.
Enough silliness. I am away to beaver away on Delamere Eleven, but I will leave you with the list – the promo list of 30 titles where Valentines come in the guise of murderers and assassins.
Click, browse and share, and I’ll get back to chapter ten…
Killer Valentines: MM Assassins and Murderers
Genres: General Fiction / LGBT and Romance / LGBT
There are 30 titles, including Deviant Desire, which is one of only a few historical fiction-themed covers, as far as I can see. It’s hard to see what with so much naked flesh also going on… Looks like there’s a mix of genres within the MM murderings.
My news this week is that I am now on chapter ten of Delamere Eleven with a working title of Thirteen. Funnily enough, this one isn’t about numbers, plural, but is inspired by the number thirteen.
After my Christmas and New Year break, I turned my mind to the next Delamere mystery, and found I was looking at an empty folder. When this happens, when I know I must write something but don’t have the ‘hook’ that starts the flow of inspiration, I turn to the news of the time. In this case, January 1894. (A couple of weeks after the events in the Clearwater Tales Vol. Two, ‘1893’, if you haven’t discovered that yet.)
It was while browsing the National Newspaper Archives that my eyes fell upon an article that appeared in The Sketch on January 17th, 1894, and an idea began to form. I had been looking for something else, but as I read the article, I became more and more intrigued with what I was reading, and, by the time I’d finished, I had found my ‘hook.’
This is the word that I use when I mean background, setting, or gimmick. For example, as ‘Follow the Van’ was set among London music halls, so Number Eleven could be set among the Thirteen Club. Rather, it could begin there, and I could build a mystery around their ethos to ridicule superstitions in the way ‘Acts of Faith’ was built around martyrdoms.
The Holborn Restaurant (Edwardian photo), where the Thuirteen Club held their dinners.
That’s what I am doing, and I have started with a rough draft of the action plot, which will change as I go through, because I tend to set my detectives mysteries without knowing myself the who and why of the crime. I also have an idea for an emotional subplot into which I want to weave some erotic or more graphic scene, because it’s been a long time since we’ve seen any of that on the Delamere pages.
While doing this, I have also had an idea for a ‘How To’ set of articles to assist new authors in my genres, which may or may not turn into a publication. Watch this space.
So, I am definitely back into creative mode and plodding on. Meanwhile, I am also taking an active part in various promotions to hopefully boost not only my readership, but also that of other indie authors. I have a few ongoing promos this month, as you might have seen from the recent newsletter, and I’ll drop them here along the way.
Let’s start with this one, which is only running until February 19th:
MM ROMANCE BOOKS $4.99 and UNDER
Genres: Romance, Romance / Active/Erotica, and Romance / LGBT I have my Mentor books in this promotion of 28 books. These are all MM Romance themed, and as the title says, they’re all on offer and priced under $4.99.
This was a question I posed to a search engine the other day, simply out of interest. I guess I wanted to check whether AI had naughtily rummaged inside any of my books, but was pleased to see that all the information gathered came purely from my own blurbs and website. It’s an interesting summary, and here’s what it said, with a few notes from me.
Jack Merritt is a central character in The Delamere Files series of gay romantic Victorian mysteries by Jackson Marsh. He is portrayed as a 24-year-old carter and [ex-] labourer at the East India Docks who becomes involved in investigative work with the Clearwater Detective Agency. [Carter = cabbie, I guess.]
Here are the key details about Jack Merritt: [Misspelt, I note, but not by me – I hope.]
Background and Personality: Originally from a humble, working-class background, Jack [initially] lives in Limehouse with his grandparents, Reggie and Ida Merrit. He is characterised by a “bewildered look of innocence,” deep thinking, and a sense of vulnerability that contrasts with his, at times, dangerous investigative work.
Role in the Series: Jack is one of the key investigators, working alongside Will Merritt and with the guidance of characters like Jimmy Wright. He matures throughout the series, evolving from a labourer into a dedicated, albeit sometimes insecure, detective.
Relationships: A significant aspect of his character is his romantic journey, particularly his relationship with Larkin Chase.
Key Storylines: In A Case of Make Believe (Book 5), Jack takes charge of the agency’s new staff and a difficult missing person case. In A Fall from Grace (Book 2), he learns detective skills and navigates his professional and romantic life.
Jack Merritt is often depicted as having a “charming and innocent” perspective, often serving as the reader’s lens into the complex social and criminal world of Victorian London.
Not bad. He is my MC, for sure, closely followed by Will Merrit (left), and, later in the series, Benjamin Baxter. The cast list for Delamere seems to grow with each new book.
We started with Jack, Will and Larkin, then added more of Max the butler, then Baxter, and as the Clearwater characters began to take a back seat (Jimmy Wright, Mrs Norwood), so came along Mrs Sparks, Simeon and Ronny Felman, and more recently, Charlie Inning. Around them, we’ve started to see more of the police connections, including, in the last book, Tom Bradley of the City of London Police.
Now then. A few people have hinted that they would like to see more of Tom (he was painted as charming, sensitive, cute…), and I am thinking about working him into a subplot in book eleven.
(Left: Ben Baxter.)
I am not sure, but I think it’s about time we shook things up in the Baxter/Charlie relationship, as it’s never really been a settled one. It’s always been a bit mad passion followed by cooling off, followed by being an open relationship and then not… We shall see.
The point is, I am working on book eleven, so far untitled, and as you can see from last week’s post, it has something to do with the Thirteen Club. This was a real club/society, and gave me the idea of using such societies and associations as the background for the mystery.
In the past, Jack, Will and the rest have been involved in criminal gangs, the Old School network, the music halls, the theatre of Grand Guignol, the London sewer system, creepy castles, the reading of a will, serial killers and the martyrdom of saints, and rural smugglers. In the most recent book, ‘A Depraved Indifference,’ although they saved lives, the criminal escaped and is still out there…
It will be interesting to revisit this online search for ‘Who is Jack Merrit of the Delamere files?’ and see what it comes up with.
MM Promos and Others
Meanwhile, don’t forget there are still some promos running, if you want to explore them or simply give a random click to boost my reputation for sharing. Here are two new ones:
