Will We Really Come Back New?

There are three rules for writing a novel. 

Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. 

~ W. Somerset Maugham

Last week I shared that I finished the first draft of Lord Bredon & the Bachelor's Bible, Book Two in my House of Lovell series (a Mia Marlowe historical). This was an important part of clearing the deck of my writerly duties so I'll be free to enjoy our world cruise without the stress of knowing this book is due to my editor shortly after we return home.

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This week, Lord Bredon's friend came home for a visit. The Singular Mr. Sinclair arrived in my inbox after having a grammar/punctuation make-over from my publisher's copy editor. I have to give it a read, checking to make sure I agree with all the changes. If I don't, I need to put comments into the margins to explain why the original wording should be left as I wrote them. 

I really love this story. My heroine, Lady Caroline Lovell, has an unusual goal for her time. She longs to travel freely like her brothers all will after they graduate from Oxford or Cambridge. During the regency era, independent travel was frowned upon for young ladies, but a  gentleman's education was not considered complete until he'd made his Grand Tour. 

Samuel Johnson, 18th century poet and essayist, wrote: "A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see." In addition to Italy, a well-born young gentleman spent a couple of years wandering the capitals of Europe, soaking up the culture, developing fluency in several languages, and generally sowing whatever wild oats he wished without discommoding his family too much.

Not that Lady Caroline would ever do such a thing. She just wants to see the world. Here's a peek into her diary:

Is there a more alluring sight in all the world than the sun rising over an unknown sea?

~ Lady Caroline Lovell, the only daughter of the Earl of Chatham, who has never in her life set foot on a watercraft larger than a rowboat.

Did I mention she has an active imagination? Lady Caroline doesn't even know if she'd be sea sick, but she clearly has an adventurous spirit. She pines for the exotic, wishing to not only see new things which are so very different from her own insulated world, but also to see if she might be a different person in those new places.

Princess Cruise Line's marketing tag line is "Come Back New."

I think there's something to that. Even beyond the obvious refreshment of a cruise experience, travel has a way of changing a person. I'm expecting to think new thoughts, to deepen my understanding of the world, to make new friends, to be moved, inspired, dismayed, thrilled--ultimately to feel so many things on our journey. This world cruise is our Grand Tour. Whoever I am upon embarkation, like the characters in my novels who grow and change through their story, I will be a different person when we leave the ship in Ft. Lauderdale in April.

I'll come back new. 

Have you ever had an experience that  profoundly changed you?

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