I should really migrate the thread from Story Ideas because it is more than an idea now. The thread with most of the story details is currently here: http://forum.chyoa.com/threads/cockshoots-hall.268/ Specifically to bladeray001, I answered Patzo's question in that thread ... she had to hurry to the cupboard. I have had a real struggle with the floor plans, which has caused a loss of momentum, but expect the rest of the details to be displayed in the near future. I could have put in all the doors but I hope people can work out where they are for themselves. Please let me know what you think of the floor plans and any questions you might have? I have finished a map of the grounds and will be posting it soon, although I think the woods should be off limits to all indoor servants, except for Cockshoots Hall's greatest secret, Still Room Maid Flora, of course. If you have any questions on the characters on any ideas for stories, you can write to me on this thread or PM me or just go ahead as it is unlikely I will not approve.
You can cut and paste it ... and after that I find the link on the page starts working. I am not sure what the problems is.
Just passing through to congratulate you on this story, Beeble42. The amount of work and dedication you're putting on designing the house, the characters and their daily life is amazing and will surely provide an instant, complete immersion to the readers. I'll make sure to follow every thread! A question, just so we can see how far the characters' sexual freedom go; you've said the Earl always fucks his models, did he do the same to Angelica when she modelled for him?
... he just might have, duskford, he just might have ... he locked the door and shut the curtains so I couldn't see. One thing I will say, libertines do experiment with social norms. I just wanted to thank you as well for taking the trouble. I like to visualise everything so I did not think I really needed maps, but when I started making one I had more ideas, such as the squash court and the swimming pool. The billiards room originally occupied the whole end of the wing but then I thought I'd like a room where people got hot and sweaty without sex and checked on the dimensions and the history and realised it was feasible. I was just going to fill the North Wing with more personal studies and the music room, but that space looked so tempting ... Then finally I had to think about the dome. Originally I was going to have a mechanical divide between the Earl and Countess' room for extra privacy but that just was not practical, so skylights solved the problem and I could keep the divide in the bathroom. I think it's an invaluable tool for future writers - it's not as though a swimming pool can just appear, even if it is so small you walk staight into the water from the door!
Oh, it's a spoiler, then? Ok, I'll be waiting to read how that one and the other plots develop within the story. The maps helped a lot on visualizing the house while reading, in a story where the house seems to be as much as a character than the actual characters it's great to have something to guide us readers in there. I like the diversity of rooms, giving the the characters' lifestyle, it's hard not to imagine there isn't someone having "fun" somewhere at all times.
OK The story is good to go. Let's hope people bite. Please point out inconsistencies and I will clear them up and any questions I will answer. Perhaps I should link in some inspirational pictures. I have my own story about a royal visit in which there is minimal mention of my characters, but the house design players a significant role.
If you're looking for people to bite (as contributors), then certainly chat it up here on forums. You've added a few inspirational pictures (half-clad maids and suchlike); more could be in order. Musing on what sorts of thread-end hooks might attract contributions: perhaps hinges which could swing one way or another. Establish the scene flow and who's involved to start, then set up some real either-or choices (follow Person Y who looks like she's going somewhere to do something naughty, or stay/go elsewhere in anticipation of a hinted assignation? drink or don't drink one of Flora's mixtures? Press Mona's point of view to someone important to you/her, or minimize it).
A story suggestions thread with lots of ideas! Well done! https://chyoa.com/story/cockshoots-hall-great-house-of-love/thread/story-suggestions
I am good with ideas and I like to think I'm a passable writer, but I guess because I don't write simple stories such as having a sorority house where everyone's a slut - I'm not saying I'm not in favour of that scenario - then my stories do not seem to attract other authors. I'll admit that for the Ivor Bigun stories it's a bit difficult but I seem to have a mental block in knowing how to carry out what you described above. I thought the story suggestions would be enough on their own. However, as mentioned earlier, I did have this idea for a Royal Story: http://chyoa.com/story/7115/thread/199915 The Queen or the Earl will send the butler to find the King but the equerry will find an excuse for his failure to appear so for the next 30-45 minutes, the occupants of the Royal Suite will be undisturbed ... of course there are always the chambermaids ... Although she ws probably a one man woman, Queen Victora fucked like a rabbit, which possibly explains many of her descendants voracious sexual appetites. None more so than Prince George, Duke of Kent, born in 1902, a drug taking bisexual, who even after being married to http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgqt739Qb81qcfftgo1_500.jpg worked his way through a raft of famous, infamous and ordinary people, e.g. Noel Coward, until he died during WWII. I feel he would be good friends with Percy.
Patzo, I did my research (Debretts Peerage), and though it seems ridiculous, these are the rules: The eldest son is known by either his father's secondary title or the immediate lower level of the title ... in this case Viscount ... but after being introduced he will subsequently be addressed as Lord. All daughters, as in Downton Abbey, are to be referred to as Lady. Any other sons are styled The Honourable (or The Hon.) and are called Mister. The whole mad situation just makes a fantastic situation for erotic fiction. You don't need S&M gear, the restraints are in the society.
That is strange, but I guess I can see where it would come from, the firstborn son being the heir and so on. Too right. I think that's what makes the premise exciting. Besides the loads of characters writers can bounce off each other, this setting, where the lines between the aristocracy and the servants are so stark, means every relation carries an air of taboo. "We can't, BUT WE MUST." You know the repression runs deep when incest is a lark in comparison.
Exactly, this is partly why English families have retained so much power over the centuries, because primogeniture ensures the estates stay in one piece. Therefore it is a reminder that, while their sisters can marry, the younger brothers have to make their own careers. Not only do the aristos have power over there tenants and servants, there is a distinct hierarchy amongst the servants (this is slightly distorted/perverted in Cockshoots Hall by people like Flora and Sandy for whom the family have particular affection). Nicholas is supposed to be the most powerful outdoor servant so should really have a rank of 1 and be in charge of disciplining but maybe he was too brutal with his whip with one of the juniors and Sandy and Seamons went to sort him out until Frank intervened. One thing I will add to the details is the pay structure: Pay is Rank + Skill + Length of Service so for Flora who is 4 in rank but high in the other 2 categories her pay is probably above the Head Kitchen Maid, Head Housekeeper and certainly above the Gatekeeper. Thinking about it, the Head Kitchen Maid has been learning from Madeleine so maybe Martha and Flora are about equal which is nice for the friends.
I want to second duskford in saying the level of detail you've given this story is tremendous, Beeble. The house plan is particularly stunning, as I can clearly see the influences and considerations you've taken. I'm working my way through the story and the suggestions page, and a few things are forming in my mind, but I want to flip through everything first before I commit anything. Anything less wouldn't do the effort you've done here justice
Thanks, Yarkoz During a teacher training course I took one those "What kind of learner are you?" analytical tests. I turned out to be ridiculously biased towards the visual. I see my stories before writing them down. I don't know if other writers do (I am sure Tolkien must have!) but it helps in giving an almost fully realised (as mentioned the swimming pool was a surprise to me but as the idea hit me I instantly saw all the Fosketts dangling their legs in the pool) world and luckily in the case the floor plans were a great way of transferring that vision. Going back to my teacher training course I remember having to write an essay on desk arrangements and the U shape was one I looked at. It gives maximum visibility for all students of other students and maybe it influenced the design. I could have had a dense multi-story building full of hiding places like Highclere Castle or those mad Tudor houses, or have a quadrangle like in Chatsworth House and Buckingham Palace but I wanted it as open as possible.
Judging by the floor plans, I was imagining a quadrangle actually, before I realized the rear of the estate was open. That design does allow more access to the grounds and with greater visibility all around. And besides, maximum visibility means maximum fun I remember being in Austria on a school vacation and we visited Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, and it has a somewhat similar design, with a central core of the building flanked by two extending wings and the grounds extending quite far behind it with gardens and colonnades and what have you.. Granted, something like that is much larger than a country estate in the English countryside, and Schonbrunn had a courtyard out front anyway where the stables and staff quarters were. On a side note, even though I'm not sure about the validity of whether different, distinct categories of learners exist, some people are very hyper-visual in their imaginations. Tesla actually could always imagine how his designs would function as if it existed already, and even saw malfunctions and flaws that sent him back to the drawing board. That's why he was insistent on Niagara Falls as the sight for the hydroelectric plant, because he already saw his alternating current generator operating perfectly. Leonardo da Vinci probably had this too, judging by his anatomical drawings, particularly of the growing fetus which might as well be an ultrasound, or his many engineering drawings which captured the fundamentals of flight before anyone else worked out the equations for it.
Ditto, Yarkoz I and a few schoolmates visited it at night and there was a ball on, so they did not let us in. I have since visited as an adult. Just to prevent any confusion and it might be me that is confused, the rear of the house is on to the lake. The front faces the gates although if you wanted to take the best photograph you would probably photograph it from the other side of the lake. I realise that it would be natural for the wings, and certainly the annexes, to be behind the property, plus all the major rooms are at the back, but the geography didn't really allow it. Yes I know I could have changed it by allowing a drive through the trees and around the lake but this way round leaves the servants more exposed. When I was looking for a location outside High Wycombe I found that patch of land and thought it was an excellent location, secluded yet accessible. I couldn't believe it when I saw the woods were called Cockshoots, so I was never going to waste that name.
Nice, this it? -- "Great Cockshoots Wood." God bless the British. If that's it, I see how the geography is more amendable to low-lying lakes and ponds, and how you easily plunked a few more in and around the glades and wooded areas, especially given the Wye River being not too far away. Adjust the geologic history a bit, and oh my, a perfect waterway for boating! Maybe Angelica takes the occasional cruise to study the local aquatic life? (I can see her writing letters to the National Geographic Society or the National Audubon Society -- or for them, depending on the situation.) And really, a lot of estates are more photogenic from the rear in my opinion. Like you Beeble, I managed to get back to places in Europe I wanted to see again as an adult and, with my wife, we backpacked around Hungary and the Balkans not that long ago, and Buda Castle is gorgeous from the rear. On a hill, overlooking all of Budapest from the front, extensive grounds in the back (until you hit the downtown area anyway, then it becomes a maze of cobblestone streets that lead nowhere -- we found that out the hard way).
Spot on - just fantastic luck. There are other manor houses nearby but this seemed so perfect. I had been looking around that area because of the Hellfire caves and the Mitford Girls - sadly too young for our story but maybe in the next generation when Wickers has renounced his title and with the Countess gone off to live in a commune with other artists, they could visit. Claude would now be Earl and has married a young poet who understands his relationship with Christina. Angelica has followed in her father's tradition and has a constant supply of models. The other children occasionally visit. Been to Budapest a couple of times, but I much prefer Prague ... true Bohemia. When I went a few years after the Velvet Revolution it was as though they were catching up on everything that had happened culturally in the last 30 years. I haven't considered central Europe as a setting but with those dark castles and big houses there might be something there. Also Melk or Salzburg are good settings for a naughty archbishop. My next story is Gothic but set in the wilds of Yorkshire, not the Pennines of the Brontes, but the North York Moors as well as London and North Africa. However 2 characters have to travel through Europe by land so it'll be interesting to see what route they take.
