Romance writers beware, this is story extracted from the Belle Assemblee's Anecdotes of Illustrious Females for November 1813.
Mademoiselle De Scudery
This lady, who was a celebrated romance writer in the reign of Louis XIV (1638-1715) met with a curious accident when travelling with her brother, who also employed his talent in composing works of fiction and being at that time engaged in writing together a work when on their journey at a considerable distance from Paris they began to speak of the various incident they meant to bring forward in the course of the composition; the hero of with they had named the Prince Mazare.
"What shall we do with Prince Mazare?" sad Mademoiselle Scudery to her brother; "is it not better that he should die by poison, than b a poniard?"
"There is time enough yet," said her brother. "We can dispatch him when we please, but we have not yet done with him."
Two merchants in the next apartment overheard this curious conversation, which they concluded intimate a conspiracy for the murder of some Prince, whose real name these cruel people had disguised under that of Mazare. Full of this discovery, they immediately told their suspicions to their landlady of the inn, who with the merchants resolved to acquaint the police officer with what had happened. The officer immediately put the travellers under arrest, and escorted them, strongly guarded to Paris; and it was not without extremely difficulty and expense that they procured their liberation.
The moral of the story is -- be careful who is listening while you brainstorm your story
Until next time.
Some things don't change do they, Ann? Fellow authors Louise Allen and Annie Burrows are collaborating on a Waterloo trilogy and I was having coffee with Annie B where we were brainstorming a battle scene, much to bemusement of the gentleman sitting at the next table, who wondered what on earth we were doing with the salt and pepper pots, napkins and menu!
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