Those of you who have read Gods of the Deep will already be familiar with Berg based socialite and detective, Lady Catherine, the character who is proving to be quite popular based on some of the feedback I have got privately. Naturally being the sort of lady who likes to be seen being seen, it was very easy to persuade her to agree to a photoshoot.

So, we took ourselves to Deansgate, near the centre of Manchester, and to the John Rylands library which is one of my favourite locations in the city and which provided a perfect backdrop for the shoot.

Of course, being a fictional character, Lady Catherine could not attend in person. She is obviously far too busy being fabulous to concern herself with such petty matters as posing for her own photographs. However, she managed instead to manifest in the form of professional model and occasional Cosplayer, Penny Dreadful.

Penny was very enthusiastic about this shoot. When she read the story Heart of the City, which introduces Lady Catherine, she was filled with ideas about how to bring the character to life and we spent a long time discussing the details of costume, hair, make up and props. We then spent almost 2 hours on location, with a couple of brief breaks in a convenient nearby pub for costume changes, doing what we could to produce the best images possible. There were some issues with reflector stands blowing over in the wind, some problems finding some good light and a few passers by near the library gawping but other than those it was a very smooth shoot.

You can see some of the results of the shoot in this post and there are others on my Flickr account. Comment on the ones you think best portray the character. You can also buy a copy of Gods of the Deep to learn more about Lady Catherine and what she gets up to. It may also interest you to know that I am currently percolating ideas for the sequel… More on those as they develop. Currently they include explosions.