A new North and South Christmas story

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I’m always excited to see more North and South stories published. So I’m happy to interview author Claudia Lomond, whose Christmas story was just released for sale this week!

When and how did you fall in love with North and South?

I first watched the mini series when I was about 15 and developed a bit of a crush on Richard Armitage (along with millions of others!). I’d watch it whenever I saw it repeated on TV, but one day in early 2019 I got a huge urge to watch it and then…here we are! I immediately started to write my first North and South fanfiction “A Life Together” and set to work reading all the brilliant stories by other authors.

Were you a writer before this? How long have you been writing fan fiction? And where can we find your other North and South stories?

I have been writing fanfiction since I was 14. As a child I was diagnosed with severe ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and as a result was off school and pretty much bed bound for three years and with lasting disabilities for the rest of my life. During my time in bed I would use my limited energy to write stories about the things I watched and read. I have consistently been publishing fanfiction since then (way back in 2005) in a variety of different fandoms (and thankfully under several usernames because I never want to look at my old stories again). Some of my main fandoms have been Phantom of the Opera, Doctor Who, Labyrinth and (of course) North and South.

You can find my completed and in progress work on fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own and Wattpad under the username darkpartofmydestiny. I write a variety of genres but I think I am known within the N&S fanfiction community for my slightly saucier stories, so do check the rating before you read!

I have also written several articles that have been published in online magazines. I love writing and am passionate about helping others find their voice.

Is this your first time publishing your writing?

Claudia Lomond

It is my first time publishing fiction. I am very excited!

What made you decide to publish?

I’ve been a keen reader of variations and continuations for various fandoms online, as well as romance novels published via Amazon and Kindle Unlimited and have really wanted to branch out into commercial publication for a while.

One of my closest friends, Lizzie, also known as Elizabeth Hades on fanfiction sites, has been encouraging me to commercially publish for several years and her belief in me has really made me able to take this step. The Christmas Foundling was previously available on fanfiction websites, and I decided that this short and sweet Christmas story was the perfect place to start my self-publishing journey.

I am also moving to another country early next year and I really want to build a career that I can take from place to place with me!

Can you tell us a little about your story? What do you hope readers will get from reading it?

The Christmas Foundling is set on Margaret and John’s first Christmas as a married couple. On their way back from a midnight church service, they discover a baby abandoned by the mill gates with only a note addressed to “Miss Margaret” to tell them anything about the mother’s identity. Margaret deals with her conflicted emotions of wanting to care for the baby and a desperate search for the child’s mother.

I hope that readers will come away with a feeling of warmth and the spirit of the season. The story for me is a tale of charity but also of Margaret’s own journey - she sees the child without judgement or pity, and encourages others to do the same. She acts with love, even if others around her do not understand.

Have you found your John Thornton?

I have! I got married on 4th November this year so I am very newlywed! He is incredibly supportive of my writing and supports all of my slightly chaotic schemes. I do sometimes feel like the Margaret to his John - he works very hard and I have to prise him away from his desk late at night!

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Buy on Amazon

What an exciting time for Claudia! She’s barely home from her honeymoon and now she’s publishing her first fiction novel! I hope you’ll join me in wishing her well on her new adventures in marriage and in publishing.

If you want to collect a few more Yuletide stories, check out More Than Thornton’s Christmas page with book selections here.

A North and South Christmas Story

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More Than Thornton is pleased to announce a new North and South novella by Caroline Malcolm-Boulton.

The Woollen Olive Branch is a festive retelling of Elizabeth Gaskell's beloved classic novel, North and South.

As the winter nights draw in, Margaret Hale feels increasingly overwhelmed by her feelings for John Thornton, the man whom she refused, and in turn, he longs to tell her that he still loves her faithfully, in spite of their past misunderstandings.

Having not seen each other for several weeks following first the incident at Outwood, and then his jealous condemnation of her character, the hero and heroine of the story miss one another sorely, both praying for an olive branch to offer the other in friendship at Christmastime.

Here’s an excerpt from The Woollen Olive Branch: A North and South Retelling

by Caroline Malcolm-Boulton (The Scribbler CMB)

“John turned it over in his hands to inspect it more closely. It was perfect in its imperfection. It was lengthy and thick, but not extravagant in either way, and the yarn was robust yet delicate, promising to wrap his neck in woollen warmth. There were tiny holes here and there marked by frogging, nothing really, but it was charming to think, rendering it seamless to his eye, because it told him that Margaret, despite her flawlessness, could make mistakes. The thought that she had made this with evident care caused his heart to gallop in his chest, and while his former self would have doubted that true forethought had been knitted into its folds, loop by loop, there was a demonstration of dedication to every purl. But there was one detail which interested him the most.”

UK Amazon link

Interview with the author

If you’ve attended some of the North and South talks given by Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, you may already recognize the author, Caroline Malcolm-Boulton! Caroline presented a few of the talks, including the one about John Thornton as a gentleman.

I’m pleased to welcome Caroline to my blog. I’ve asked her to talk about how she fell in love with North and South and to give us her thoughts about writing fan fiction.

Falling in love with Gaskell’s story

I first came across North and South at age eleven when the 2004 BBC series aired. Growing up in a family that had always cherished the classics, we were excited every time a new adaptation came to our screens, so it was a real treat to sit down and watch it together. Even so, I’m sorry to say, that like most people, we’d never heard of North and South before, given that Elizabeth Gaskell did not, and still does not, get the recognition she deserves. Still, while her lack of applause and appreciation is inequitable, it did have a silver lining, which was that we were able to watch it without knowing what was to come.

And well, it goes without saying that I fell in love immediately.  

I was captivated by the storyline, the drama, the costumes – all of it! It was also really fun to see so much of Edinburgh, a city I live close to and know very well indeed. And being only eleven, I was really too young to be influenced by the Richard Armitage affect, so I could just enjoy the story for what it was: an inspiring and timeless tale of love and the struggle for equality in all areas of life.

One of my fondest memories is watching the station scene for the first time. Up until then, we had this tiny box-like television, but we then got a new one that had high definition sound and picture, and the first thing we watched was the last episode of North and South. It was winter, so it was dark, and I vividly recall sitting in awe as the final scene played out, the beauty of all the creative elements coming together perfectly.

Over the next seventeen years, my fascination with North and South grew. I read and watched it frequently, I studied it at university, and I was involved in a touring stage adaptation of it in 2015, helping to write the script and also being privileged to play Fanny Thornton. Now, on the brink of my thirties, I work as a freelance Arts and Film/Television journalist, and am delighted to say that I’ve dedicated much of my time to exploring the life and legacy of Gaskell.

Writing Fan Fiction

Then, in 2020, I discovered fan fiction. I’d heard of fanfic before, but to be honest, I didn’t really understand it, and I thought it was a bit weird. However, when Covid-19 hit, everything in Britain was closed, apart from supermarkets and pharmacies, meaning that many items, such as books, weren’t easy to get your hands on. This posed a problem, because I’d read all the books in my small flat, and I didn’t have an e-Book, but one of my friends worked for the postal service, and she was feeling overburdened by the immense increase to her workload with everyone buying things online. Therefore, I felt it wouldn’t be right to sympathise with her and then go off and order something myself, so I didn’t know what to do.

It was then, for reasons that I will never know, that I thought about trying fan fiction. I intentionally chose to start with North and South, partly because it’s one of my favourite books, but also because I instinctively knew that other fandoms, such as Jane Austen, would maybe be a bit too busy and overwhelming for a newbie.

It proved to be one of the best decisions of my life.

I quickly became aware of the diversity out there in terms of styles, takes on characters and themes, and even quality of writing. Some stories were exceptional, doing Gaskell justice, and some were not to my taste at all. It’s incredible to see the infinite number of options there are for retellings and continuations, and each writer clearly has a very personal relationship with North and South. But then I realised something. If these people had the right to write their respective interpretations of my favourite book, then why couldn’t I?

So I did.

And here I am, two years later, with over half a million words and 33 stories so far.

It’s been an incredible journey, one which I hope is far from over, and I’ve learnt a lot about myself, grown as a writer and reader, and met some wonderful fellow fans along the way. It’s also prompted me to encourage others to write, because I strongly feel that writing has numerous benefits in terms of a person’s cognitive and creative welfare, and I’ve been proud as punch to see so many friends take up the pen. Fan fiction is a unique genre, and I appreciate if people feel unsure about it, but I’d highly recommend they give it a go. I always say that reading a new book, an original book, is like going on an adventure, we don’t know where it’s going to take us. But reading fan fiction is like coming home to something familiar and safe, to people and places that we hold dear in our hearts, and there are no two characters whom I hold more dear than John and Margaret.

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The Woollen Olive Branch (Before We Were Us)

By Malcolm-Boulton, Caroline

Buy on Amazon

More Than Thornton is excited to see one more story added to the collection of North and South books for our shelves (or Kindle)! And because Caroline is such a prolific writer, I know there will be more stories coming in the future. Fan fiction readers, stay tuned!