Ahh, my first ever blog post!
I feel so excited to be entering the realm of ‘blogging’ and being able to share a new side of myself with you all, one where we can explore things together in a shorter format than a novel, and longer than 240 characters on Twitter.
I thought the content of this first blog would be hard to come up with. I knew I wanted it to be something to do with writing, specifically relating to my Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series, but was struggling to pin down the precise topic. Then, I realised, what better way to start this blog than to introduce you to my hometown, whilst sharing about the fictional seaside city of Brighton… *ahem* Britchelstone, and how it came to find its name.
A Brief History of Brighton
I’m a Brightonian born and bred. I've lived in this small and vibrant coastal city for all twenty years of my life. There’s a lot of history here… in fact, there’s evidence (in the form of a flint dagger) that one of the chalky cliffs to the east of Brighton was a Neolithic camp. However, Brighton, as we know it now—well, sort of—wasn’t really in the forefront of historical significance until the Saxon chieftain Ælla founded what is known as Sussex, land of South Saxons (the borough of Brighton and Hove, for nonlocals, resides in East Sussex; I chose to place the borough of Britchelstone in a county called Nothelm, named after one of the other Saxon kings of Sussex.)
(Ælle holding a shield with a design representing Sussex, taken from John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy")
Brighton’s first written mention was in the seventh century Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, where it was referred to as ‘Beorthelm’s-tun’, or the ‘town of Beorthelm'. By the late eighteenth century, Beorthelm’s-tun had become known as Brighthelmstone and had evolved into a small but lucrative fishing village. Though Brighton, which meant 'New Brighthelmstone' as a name didn't become a common term until 1810, when it became the official name of the fishing village, it was first recorded in 1694, when an (unknown) writer stated...
'Our poor town of Brighton has been this day suddenly surprised by 4 French ships and pestered by them since 11 am. As yet they have not done us much harm, having positioned themselves so near to us as to shoot over the town.’
...due to the English battles between France and Holland in which the enemies prevented fishing vessels from performing their duties and declining the population of Brighton/Brighthelmstone as it wiped out many job opportunities for the townsfolk, as well as them facing a higher risk of attack from being on the coastline in the way of the French and Norman ships.
('VIEW OF BRIGHTHELMSTONE [BRIGHTON], IN SUSSEX.' BY WALPOOLE / HOGG C.1784)
The Birth of Britchelstone
So, where does Britchelstone come from? Well, as you can see above, Brighton’s name has evolved over the course of history. There are even more to list, from the original Beorthelm’s-tun, to the Bristelmestune, Britchelmeston, Brighthelmstone, and eventually Brighton. Britchelstone, the fictional city in which The Fire Within My Heart (book one of the Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series) is set and where Nikolaos and Scarlet reside, is a combination of several of the original names—mainly, ‘Brighthelmstone’ and ‘Britchelmeston’.
I struggled to decide on whether or not to set the series in the actual Brighton, but in the end, settled on the decision to base it in Britchelstone so the option to take some creative liberties was there. This has given me the ability to play and toy with the city somewhat whilst still staying true to a lot of the culture of my hometown, such as the artistic flare, annual festivals, and quirkiness of good ol’ sunny Brighton. Although Nikolaos and Scarlet live in an unnamed area of Britchelstone which doesn’t quite reflect the reality of Brighton, almost everywhere else in the books are based on real places in the city, with descriptions stemming from what is really there.
Book two in the series, my current work in progress (title reveal will be coming in February 2021, but, my gosh, I just want to share it with you all now!) is mostly set in Glasgow and Edinburgh, with no creative liberties taken—well, hardly any!—and everything being true to the beautiful lands of Scotland.
The Fire Within My Heart (book one of the Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series)
The Future of this Blog...
It has been absolutely lovely getting to share with you all a little bit more about the world I’ve built for my assemblage of paranormal creatures, as well as a brief history of the city where I live. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.
I plan on writing a new post every fortnight, releasing every other Saturday and rotating between four topics. The next post, which will be out on December 19th, will be exploring witchcraft, focusing on the winter festival of Yule. I hope to see you all there! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop them below.
For now, I bid you all adieu...
I'd like to say a massive thank you to Em (@EM_Writing) who proofed and edited my first blog post, offering guidance in this new pursuit. Em's five star, scifi Novella, Moon-Sitting, can be found here.
I enjoyed learning about some of the history of Brighton! Names change a lot over the years, so seeing the transition from older forms of English into modern one was neat. I was wondering where the name "Bitchelstone" came from, so I'm glad you made a blog post about it. I look forward to seeing more posts in the future. You used the perfect amount of images and text, very professional and highly readable!