My Coffee Pot Guest: David Lawrence - Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon

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About the Book

Book Title: Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon

Author: David Lawrence

Publication Date: February 21, 2023

Publisher: Broadbound Publishing

Page Length: 245

Genre: Historical Fiction / Queer Fiction / Romantic Comedy

William Dempsey was a wonder among wonders.

By 18, he had risen from a gang of London street rogues to be the personal plaything of the Marquess of Argyll. Maintained in splendour, celebrated at masquerades – with everything he could wish for.

Now all has come crashing down. He is put out in the rain without patronage, his West End apartment, or a place among the ton.

So on a stormy night, he arrives at a house in Southwark. Marathon Moll’s in the Mint – the bawdyhouse he worked in during his ascent and where he earned the name Blue Billy.

But is Marathon Moll’s a place from which to rise again? For there is one in the crowd, who catches his eye. Who takes his hand and promises something better.

Or does Moll’s signify a return to his roots? For one day, a second and very different young man raps on the door. Takes his hand and asks him to return to his past.

To the cat language of vagabonds. The canting dialect of thieves.

To the schemes, and the dreams, of his youth.

 Voyages into the Past

by David Lawrence

 

I think what attracts me so much to history is that special quality it seems to share with fractals ­– the closer you look you tend to find more dimensions which often share the qualities of what is more immediately visible. Perhaps this is a bit high-flown, but this is how it felt while I was setting the time and place of my novel, Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon.

 

1771, the year in which this book is set, was the year Captain Cook returned from his first voyage around the world. This journey of discovery was of course one of Great Britain’s most celebrated achievements in the 18^th century, and, as a writer, I zeroed in immediately on it because I was seeing parallels between Cook’s journey and the journey of self-discovery of my protagonist Billy. This all felt right, so I dived in and read about Captain Cook, much of which I had forgotten over the years (if I ever knew it, I was not particularly keen on history growing up).

 

However, one thing I am certain I never understood was that Cook’s 1768-1771 voyage in the HMS Endeavour was not the first of its kind by Great Britain. Not by a long shot. Cook himself credits the notes of his predecessors with certain of his successes, for instance a less-hellish passing through the Straights of Magellan than many before him. Sure enough, in 1766 there was the circumnavigation expedition of one Philip Carteret. So too a similar voyage of one Samuel Wallis. Both voyages will be forever overshadowed by Cook, but nevertheless their commanders survived to tell tales of daring, adventure, and loss every bit as engaging as those of Cook.

 

At the same time I was exploring these lesser-known voyages, I was struggling to find a voice for one of Billy’s romantic interests. Tom was to be a man older and wiser than Billy and I wanted him to be a member of Cook’s crew just returned to England. Yet somehow it wasn’t working. I tried (and tried) to make it work. It should have worked, Cook’s voyage felt to be so fitting a mirror of Billy’s emotional journey. And yet it just felt wrong.

 

So, I put Tom aside and returned to my history books – to Cook, to Carteret, to Wallis. Then I arrived at the 1764-1766 voyage of Commodore John Byron.

 

And then, somehow, everything started clicking.

 

At first, I believed this voyage was more interesting to me because Commodore Byron was poet Lord Byron’s grandfather, and I learned that Lord Byron had himself been interested in this voyage. Without a doubt this got my attention, but that was not why this expedition was waking me up creatively. What woke me up was the sudden, absolute certainty that Tom was a member of Byron’s crew, not Cook’s. Some startling details I was reading about the Byron expedition were bringing to life everything I wanted to say about Tom.

Commodore Byron
(© public domain )

 

Chief among them was this – Commodore Byron’s voyage is remembered today, when it is remembered at all, for everything he failed to do and achieve. An amusing quote from historian Walter Besant’s account of Byron’s voyage states “he seemed to avoid discovering the archipelagos through which he passed by a kind of miracle,” among other snarky comments. Yet if you read Byron’s account of his voyage, there is an entrancing description of a storm at sea and its aftermath, a heart-breaking account of a scurvy outbreak, and some beautiful descriptions of the things he observed which are absolutely compelling.

Lord Byron
(© public domain)

 

Byron’s was an expedition of few discoveries, with mistakes and oversights, and overshadowed by the achievements of others, and so this spoke to me as so much more telling of life as it actually is. This, I finally understood, is what I wanted to convey to Billy through Tom, as an older and wiser man.

 

And, wonderfully, all that research into Cook was not for nothing.

 

As it turned out, Cook’s voyage offered Billy and Tom plenty to speak of while getting to know each other. Cook did factor into my story. Only not at all as I had first imagined. Because what I needed to do was looked deeper into that fractal, further into the past, at something which was not as visible as what had first grabbed my attention. Yet with qualities just as complex and engaging, and in this case far more appropriate and meaningful to my story.

 

Buy Links:

This title is available on #KindleUnlimited?

Universal Link: https://geni.us/bluebillysroguelexicon

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BRL44NKZ

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRL44NKZ

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BRL44NKZ

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BRL44NKZ

ABOUT THEAUTHOR

David Lawrence is the author of two queer historical novels – ‘Hugh: A Hero without a Novel’ and ‘Blue Billy’s Rogue Lexicon’. As a writer, he loves taking a deep dive into the politics, social norms, and events of 18th century England while presenting humorous and unique coming-of-age tales.

A native of the American Southwest, David has spent much of his life in Great Britain, France, and Finland.  He now lives in the American Northwest – Helena, Montana – with his Finnish partner. 

By day he loves hiking under the Big Sky of his beautiful adopted state. By night, however, he prefers wandering the byways of 18th century London…

Website: 

https://www.davidlawrenceauthor.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/people/David-Lawrence-Author/100076409556304/

Book Bub:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/david-lawrence-f5720fa5-1e3a-47f2-9880-a3f7bc6ee286

Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-Lawrence/author/B09DP9TN3G

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21723054.David_Lawrence

 

 

 

 Follow the Tour

 Twitter Handle: @cathiedunn [note: author is not on Twitter or IG]

Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #QueerFiction #RomanticComedy #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page:  

https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-tour-blue-billys-rogue-lexicon.html

note: Helen has not yet read this title - it is on her TBR list!

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