We start off the discussion of characters in Gods of the Deep for its 10th Anniversary but looking at Lady Catherine de Berg

Lady Catherine was not the original name for this character. In the first draft of the first paragraph of the story Heart of the City, she was male and called Sir Anthony. I had the concept of a dilletente detective in a fantasy world – a noble who has a secret, scandalous life in the underworld. I even started to write it in the style of a noir detective story. However, I ended up with a serious case of writer’s block after writing that first paragraph. I sent it to a few people who all thought it was great but there was something not quite sitting right with me.

Then, not quite in a dream, I had an inspiration. Sir Anthony told me that he preferred to be a she, so Lady Catherine was born. I went back and edited the first paragraph, mostly just changing pronouns. The noir style remained as did the scandalous dilletente.

The name Sir Anthony Finchley appears later in Gods of Diplomacy (published in Out of This World Alphas and later in Lurking Omnibus) and I also had it in mind that Catherine may have had a brother or a father called Anthony but other than that the story was now all about Lady Catherine.

So, Lady Cstherine spends her time investigating crimes, solving enigmas and shooting at villains (and zombies). She is a modern hero for an older time.

Learn more about the characters in this story as we progress towards the publication date of 28th February…