The Divinity School 4

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Welcome to weekend writing warriors. Many fine authors, and me, contribute short snippets for your delectation.

Since it seems that our Regency spy romance is much more popular than our science fiction, this post introduces the sequel to The Art of Deception. Amanda’s reading was interrupted by a summons to attend on her mother. Amanda’s mother made it clear that she must attend the assembly. After a short carriage journey, it only being six or so miles between Coalpit Heath and Chipping Sodbury, they have arrived.


The carriage’s arrival in front of the hall interrupted Mrs Bentley’s cutting reply; a servant, dressed something like a footman, opened the door; he offered an arm and at her mother’s urging, Amanda descended; not gracefully, as her mother would remind her in a few moments, but nonetheless without tripping.

She waited for her mother and father before entering the hall.

It looked entrancing, an orchestra scratching out a dance, and – far more important – an excess of young men.

That did not last long; a veritable flock of young ladies, chattering among themselves came through the door behind them.

The excess of gentlemen vanished in an instant; Amanda sighed, found a seat at the side of the room, and pulled a small sheet of paper from her reticule –  You can take the book from the mathematician, but not the mathematics – she started writing out a problem in symmetric polynomials, at least what she could remember of it.

Her father interrupted her a few minutes later, “Amanda, dear.”

“What is it, now?” She did not look up.

“May I present Mr Jameson?”

Amanda’s attention snapped away from the paper, and she managed to squeak out, “Delighted.”


My sincere apologies for abusing semi-colons.

Coalpit Heath is a real place on the outside of Frampton. Most of it is rather nice, unlike this farmhouse next to the tracks.


It’s literally on the wrong side of the tracks.

I don’t have a good picture of the remains of the coal works from the early 19th century because we were always either in a hurry to get walking or it was too dark by the time we returned. They and numerous pit mines supplied the fuel for the iron works at Iron Acton. The villages remain, but little sign of the industry is visible.

Google maps shows the site, if you happen to be in the area.


The Art of Deception, first in a series of late Georgian/early Regency spy novels is now up.. You can get the first part here.

Illegal aliens is up for order on Amazon. In the end, the way to fix my mistakes was to issue a new edition. I still used kindle create but in a more native way to produce a “reflowable” book.

You can get a copy of the first four chapters on instafreebie.

You can find my, well our, works here.

Author: Amelia

A mild-mannered professor of computer science in real-life, I remove my glasses in the evening to become, well, a mild-mannered author in my alternate reality. I mostly write sweet romantic fiction, although with an occasional science-fiction or paranormal angle thrown in. I have interests in history, mathematics (D'oh), and cryptography. I'm also something of an Anglophile, and know that country pretty well. In addition to writing, research, and more writing, I volunteer with the scouts. I'm something of a nature-nut, enjoying long walks in the country with almost ultra-light gear, boating, and identifying wildlife.

16 thoughts on “The Divinity School 4”

  1. If one is attempting to catch the eye of a suitable suitor at a ball one must not: a) perform mathematical problems regardless of how many excessive males have been swooped up by chattering flocks of young ladies, and: b) display shortness of temper by asking, in a frustrated manner at said ball, ‘what is it, now?’

    1. That’s been my experience. Not the most pleasant in the world, but one can’t write a romance where the heroine just watches everyone else have fun. Thank you

  2. I apologize for being a little late to respond – though I did do the social media things in a timely manner.

    I spent most of last week trying to convince my co-author not to release worms and virii into our mutual university in response to the inanity of the IT people. (I think it worked – though one can never tell). Don’t p.o. a skilled systems engineer, especially one who knows the details of the TCP/IP stack and what mknod actually does.

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