Secondary characters? How many do you need?

Tags

Black Wolf Books, Cornwall, Historical romance, Newbook, O'Roarke's Destiny, Romance, Shehanne Moore, Smugglers, Wreckers

 

SHEY : Dearest Silv, may I say how very kind of you it is to ask me here today  to my blog. I just can’t get over it. The great honour it is. To answer your question about Lizzie I wrote her out because she had no further use …

SHEY. Yes, Lizzie-alas–was adding nothing to the plot.

Nor did I need her after chapter one for the main reason I use a secondary character, that is to hold a mirror to a lead in some way, their personality, their actions, perhaps show them as I did with Dainty and Mitchell Killgower in The Writer and The Rake, in a better light and also I suppose not to make the whole thing too claustrophobic –as I also partly used Susan for in The Unraveling of Lady Fury, and give Fury a sort of confidant.  Lizzie was not going to fulfil any of these things and letting her stay was going to change how I saw this book. So why have her?  There’s also a one scene appearance by a few children, but while they are contributing to the story there, they’re what you might term decorative extras. Spear-carriers in theatrical terms.

Overall I don’t work with a huge cast of speaking characters but I do generally work with more throughout.

Shey. Indeed I think we got that. The world of Doom Bar Hall itself, despite being smack bang in smuggling and wrecking country, is a tight world. Destiny is a loner, probably a high functioning depressive who bashes through her daily routine and set of tasks with tunnel vision. She’s not one for friends—she’d never been what you might call popular, except with the men she drove to distraction years previously–and she confides in nobody, the family were larger than life that way locally. She’s a product of that family.  So to have put in a single scene where she does would have been wrong for her as a character and unbalanced the book.  Divers may swagger  into that world full of confidence and control,  underneath he’s a man on the edge, holding it together and no more. I won’t give away too much of the plot by saying why he’s at this stage when the book opens. He has a sidekick, Gil,  to show there’s another side to him and to mirror some of this ‘disintegration’ but that’s it re Gil being there.

 And because he could be trusted. A hard thing to come by, not just in this world but the world he inhabited. That dancing, dark and shady place of gnarled shadows and twisted paths, haunted by the need to keep one step ahead where nothing could ever be as it seemed. Not even himself.”

  

There’s reasons for Orwell–Destiny’s brother

 face as long as a six fiddle cases, and twenty four rainy days,

and as for Lyon?

.

Shey. He has  quite an appetite.

You knew everything but nothing of what he was really thinking. Hand him a farthing out the goodness of your heart and he’d still need to know where both came from. The farthing and the goodness. Probably your heart too.

Shey I think it’ s important when you are creating a world for a book and I try with each book to create a world, to think of the things that help show it.  And for me in this book it wasn’t the wider smuggling picture which is actually central to the story, but the putting of this hero and heroine and what unfolds in this world between them, centre stage. I felt that could only happen with a small playing ensemble, so even the servants had to go.  I think it’s sometimes something to consider in terms of cementing  a setting, depending on what that setting is. This one was not the world of ball gowns and dance cards and it’s not a pretty one of smuggling either.  And now before you open the voddie and do the Cossack dance… a book trailer.

 

Once he’d have died to possess her, now he just might…

Beautiful, headstrong young widow Destiny Rhodes was every Cornish man’s dream. Until Divers O’Roarke cursed her with ruin and walked out of Cornwall without a backwards glance. Now he’s not only back, he’s just won the only thing that hasn’t fallen down about her head—her ancestral home. The home, pride demands she throw herself in with, safe in the knowledge of one thing. Everything she touches withers to dust.

He’d cursed her with ruin.

Now she’d have him live with the spoils of her misfortune.

Though well versed in his dealings with smugglers and dead men, handsome rogue Divers O’Roarke is far from sure of his standing with Destiny Rhodes. He had no desire to win her, doesn’t want her in his house, but while he’s bent on the future, is there one when a passionate and deadly game of bluff ensues with the woman he once cursed? A game where no-one and nothing are what they seem. Him most of all.

And when everything she touches turns to dust, what will be his fate as passion erupts? Will laying past ghosts come at the highest price of all?

September 13^th 2019 Black Wolf Books.

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Character Interrupted. An interview BY Jean Lee

Tags

Black Wolf Books, Character development, Fallen Princeborn Stolen, Historical romance, interview, Jean Lee, London Jewel thieves, Loving Lady Lazuli, Shehanne Moore, Small Press, Splendor, Starkadder Sisterhood, Ya author

 

#Author #Interviews: #historicalromance #writer @ShehanneMoore discusses #character development, #series #writing, #research, & starting a #smallpress #publisher

Jean Lee – Let’s first begin with what you write—smart, sexy, historical fiction. You delve into various time periods with your books, such as the 9th century in The Viking and the Courtesan and the 19th century in Splendor. What process do you go through when choosing the right century for a story’s setting? That is, if Splendor took place in another century, would it still be the Splendor we know?

Probably not. The stories are influenced by the time, the characters too, although they don’t always abide by the constraints of them. Mind you Splendor would be a shopaholic , running up debts galore in any time because some things are timeless. She’d be having to manage everything too. So I guess a bit of both would be true. I generally stick to the Georgian/Regency period—it’s a sort of genre in own right. BUT I do like to dabble and I do spend time thinking of how I will set a book physically within that period, in terms of imagery etc.. There’s also things that happen when I write.

I mean there was never meant to be a Viking in The Viking and The Courtesan. That was a straight Regency. But then halfway through chapter two, the little voice whispered, ‘You know that Viking story idea you have, the one you’ve never really got the idea for the heroine ‘s goal in? How about you just use it here?’ Much as I want to ignore that little voice, I can’t.

Jean Lee. – Such a question should mean I ask you about research, too. I know you’re very passionate about your research to keep the period lifestyle true to history. 

Visit my pages on BookFunnel & Instafreebie today!

Jean Lee. What’s your process in making the research phase as productive as possible?

You know people think I do a lot of research. I don’t . Too much can kill a story and read like a Wikipedia cut and pastes. At the end of the day I don’t want to know every detail of the time a story is set. I can read a history book for that. I want to read of the things that are universal. The things that stand the test of time. But I have always loved history, especially social history, ever since I can remember. I guess that’s what I have at my fingertips when I write. And of course, I will check a historical timeline detail where it is pertinent to a character, or setting, if I want a certain backdrop.

Jean Lee – One thing I love about all your books is that these characters are layered with feeling. They desire, they hate, they aspire, they love, they fear. Your books are so, so much more than the “meet-cute” kinds of romances out there populated by characters with little more than a single quirk each. These characters can get downright wicked, like Devorlane Hawley in Loving Lady Lazuli. How do you bring together both light and dark natures into your characters to keep your stories compelling and un-put-downable?

SHEY – Now Jean, it’s all right, I won’t set the dudes on you and the check is in the mail. You are way too kind. I just love characters. I want to write about the human condition and let’s face it sometimes it’s downright ugly. Okay, Devorlane Hawley, for example, page one, is not a man you would want to meet. He’s plainly gone to hell in a hand cart, is behaving outrageously and now he’s come into the dukedom because his older, perfect brother is dead, he’s for turfing out his sisters, his late mother’s ward, installing some floozie he’s scoured London to find and setting up a pleasure palace in the ancestral home. By page two/three he’s noticing that his home is nothing like he remembered, it’s a mess, his oldest sister is a drunk and that’s needling at what humanity he has, because it’s plain these years have been hard and the family have regrets. The fact is he’s the family black sheep, the man who made the kind of messes we can all make when we’re young. And that law-abiding, God fearing family let him go down for a crime he never committed, largely for  the sake of peace. By the end of chapter one he’s spotted the woman who did commit that crime and his goal instantly changes. Now he’s becoming the architect of his own doom in many ways.

No-one’s all bad—I think it’s important to remember that when you write. But we are all flawed in some way, a bundle of contradictions, the sum and substance of our life experiences. That’s what I’m trying to blend. Ultimately underneath everything Devorlane Hawley isn’t a bad man. In some ways he’s man interrupted by his earlier experiences– and what has shaped his life since has been hardship and brutality. So the race is on then to see if he can become the man he could be, or are the flaws going to get in the way. I spend a lot of time peering through my fingers going… I wouldn’t have done that, to my characters when I write. AND I let them drive everything. I seriously never have any idea where a story is going next.

Jean Lee- Yet another thing I dig (someday I’ll learn to write questions better), particularly where the  London Jewel Thieves are concerned, is that the series doesn’t just revolve around one heroine; rather, each book focuses on a different character of a group. I love how these different perspectives give us a richer look into their world, as well as fresh looks at characters we’ve met in the other books. Which heroine came to you first? Did she bring all the other thieves with her, or did they start telling you their own stories later on?

Good question. Actually the heroine of a short story I have yet to turn into a full length, came first. The idea was there of the jewel thief gang and being forced into stealing because for one reason or another they’ve fallen into the clutches of the man who runs this gang. BUT Cassidy Armstrong aka Sapphire from Loving Lady Lazuli came first in terms of the writing. Originally it was a standalone but as I wrote it, and I was working the background, I thought of that short story and the whole thing just fell into place. The idea of giving the women the name of a jewel, of the Starkadder Sisterhood, and of setting the books after the gang has broken up. So it’s about them having to find their feet by whatever means and keeping one step ahead when there’s prices on their heads.

Jean Lee – Lastly, congratulations on beginning your own small press! I’m so excited to see what Black Wolf Books will bring to readers—your own books, and the books of other authors. You’ve been writing for publishers for a number of years, but now you are both publisher and writer. How would you say your earlier experience prepared you for this change? What’s been the biggest “culture shock,” as it were, with donning the publisher robe?

Shey – Thank you so much Jean and ALSO for having me here today AND congrats on your own forthcoming release. Sure to be a rip along read. MAY I SAY HERE ON TO MY FOLLOWERS, JEAN IS WELL WORTH CHEKING OUT.

Shey- I have wanted to set up Black Wolf Books for about four years now but life got in the way. But I’m there now. I think the writing industry is in a constant state of flux. When I first subbed back in 2012, you still went the traddy route. Yes there were self published books but not so many, nor the same amount of tools to do it. I mean Amazon makes it so damned easy actually now. I have a lot of experience in the writing business that goes way back before 2012 and I’ve been able to use most of it now.

I think the biggest shock…well learning curve was formatting for ebooks and for paperback. Amazon does make it easy I just got in a flap till I mastered it. I initially paid a formatter for the print version for Splendor. I was too scared to do it, in case I messed it up. But when it came back like a dog’s dinner, I stood at the foot of the mountain and told myself to get up there. That it wasn’t anything like the time I took over the editing and design of a magazine and didn’t know how to draw a text box…

Jean Lee. Are you looking for submissions right now? If so, what kind and do you have any guidelines to share?

Shey – Well we are not officially open in that I didn’t want swamped. I wanted to feel my way, get out my books, and the Mr’s book, before dealing with what could be an avalanche. And often I think publishers can take on way too many authors without concentrating on the ones they have. But we already have a signing of a YA author who has a trilogy. So I say to folks, contact me through my blog contact right now. And really so long as it’s good, I’m not laying down all kinds of conditions.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this is that I’ve seen a lot of authors get raw deals, not been able to get a book out cos it’s not fitting the mold, despite having books out. My aim in setting up BWB is to help authors. Believe me, I know how brutal this biz can be.

Jean Lee –  Lastly lastly I’m hoping you’ll allow the little Hamstah Dudes, that precocious batch of knowledgeable cuties  who share amazing author interviews & writing advice on your site, to come on over for a moment and have the last word, as they’ve been very good and patient all through our chat.the last word, as they’ve been very good and patient all through our chat.

 

Jean Lee – Many thanks to Shey for sharing her experience and stories with us! And don’t worry, Hamstah Dudes–Blondie’s working on a Halloween picture just for you. Hopefully I can stop by Shey’s site to share it! 🙂

 

 

The Stockings WERE hung by the Chimney with Care……….

Tags

Cinderella, Etopia Press, Historical romance, London Jewel Thieves Series, regency Romance, Shehanne Moore

 

 

It’s all a question of making the right moves in book 2 of the London Jewel Thieves series and since the gang were scattered to the four winds, Splendor, their former skivvy, has made a lot of those, with her betrothed and jewel thief, Topaz in tow. But when one wrong move is all it takes to destroy everything she’s planned, can she stay on course against the one man in London with the potential to bring her down. Especially when she loses to him in a chess game where the prize is herself.

Kendall Winterborne, the Earl of Stillmore’s pet hates may be marriage, scullery maids and pretence. These are nothing to losing, or being thwarted. So he’s going in pursuit of the woman who’s left him flat.

Checkmate? Or Endgame? As one move leads to another, one thing’s for certain, he’s going to have to move fast if he wants to keep the woman he loves.

 

 

Addie Jo Ryleigh and a certain Temptation

Tags

Addie Jo Ryleigh, Historical romance, Soul Mate Publishing, The Duke's Temptation, writing

 

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH Of course I do!! In fact, we have a little female who has become part of the family.  My youngest son got her for Christmas last year. Hamsters are adorable *wink wink*

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH Hmmm…not sure I could figure out how to insert a hamster into a story but I’m always up to the challenge. After all, in THE DUKE’S TEMPTATION, Phoebe was a doll loving, pirate hunting, three year old.

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH There is just something about historical romances that I enjoy. I think it is the extra rules that stand in the way. And how breaking those rules add to the tension. Such as with the Regency period were the brush of a hand could mean just as much as a kiss. Or when the lack of an introduction can’t stand in the way of a determined female. Not to mention the beautiful settings. A glittering ballroom. A ducal estate. So many possibilities.

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH The path to publication for THE DUKE’S TEMPTATION was a long but educational one. Being my very first release, it traveled with endless baby steps. Not sure which direction I wanted to go, I first queried agents while submitting my story to various contests.

Thanks to some contest wins, I had a few requests for my manuscript but it wasn’t until an editor at Soul Mate Publishing judged a contest when I found a home for Gabe and Elizabeth’s story. I continue to learn as I work on completing the Men of Circumstance series. As slow going as my path has been, I wouldn’t change a thing.

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH. As much as I love the cover for THE DUKE’S TEMPTATION, I’ve always had my own vision of Gabe. Part of my writing process is putting a face to my characters. If the good fairy was graciously granting my wish, I would hunt down Alex O’Loughlin to star as Gabe.

While it has always been easy for me to find an actor for my leading man, I have issues with their counterpart. In the end, I could see Candice Accola as a beautiful and determined Elizabeth.

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH.  I don’t have a special Christmas recipe but I wish I had more time to bake all the yummy goodies that come with the holiday. I keep telling myself…someday.

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH. With three young boys, Christmas will once again be filled with watching them enjoy the season and building great memories and traditions. We don’t have any big travel plans. We still live close to our extended family so we will spend the weekends around Christmas going from here to there. It gets to be a busy time but in the end it is all worth it.

ADDIE JO RYLEIGH. I continue to work on The Men of Circumstance series. I’m deep in edits for The Runner’s Enticement (book two), Nate’s story. It is slotted for release early summer 2016. I’m also finishing book three. It will be sad to one day finish the series but having Gabe, Nate, and Marcus’s stories completed will be a huge achievement.

 

Chapter 1

LONDON, ENGLAND

JULY 1816

Gabriel St. James, the sixth Duke of Wesbrook, locked his gaze on the lady—if one could even call her that. Having never dealt with this particular kind of lady before, he was not acquainted with the proper protocol.

Truth be told, he shouldn’t be so taken aback by the situation. He was, after all, his father’s son, and therefore destined to live the same debauched life. It still burned that after years of struggling against it, in the end, he’d had no choice but to grudgingly accept his place within the family line of scoundrels. His father had made sure there was no alternative.

He narrowed his eyes on the vision before him. To have his debauchery presented in such a fashion was something else entirely. Something he wasn’t certain he could withstand. He couldn’t deny that he gambled more often than not, consumed his fair share of liquor, and was a rake of the first order, but there were some lines he refused to cross. He’d vowed to never fully become his father.

That obviously failed. Not even he could dispute the proof standing there. The very evidence that confirmed he was more like the previous duke than he thought.

As much as he desired it, he could no longer ignore her—all thirty-six inches of her. Despite his confusion, there was no doubt the pixie-faced, three-year-old standing before him was his daughter. His illegitimate daughter.

There, he’d done it. He finally found a word to describe her. Daughter.

Fury pumped through his veins and caused his hand to tighten on the all-too-brief letter that had arrived with her. How the hell could he not have known he’d fathered a child three years ago? Denial might have been his gut reaction but in actuality there wasn’t a need for him to validate the information. He knew it was true. Her features might be feminine, but almost every scrap of her proclaimed she was a Wesbrook. From her wavy ebony hair that gave a hint of unruliness, to the way she raised her tiny chin under his scrutiny.

If that wasn’t enough to give credence to the girl’s lineage, her eyes said the rest. Penetrating blue eyes—a blue so rich it reminded him of the field of cornflowers growing wild on his estate—surrounded by lashes as dark as the night. Only one person had eyes like that.

Cecilia Fairchild, the child’s mother . . . the woman he’d almost married.

Social Links:

Website: www.addiejoryleigh.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AddieJoRyleigh

Twitter: @AddieJoRyleigh

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/AddieJoRyleigh

Author Central: amazon.com/author/addiejoryleigh

Buy Link:

The Duke’s Temptation now available Amazon

Tea for two and two for tea…… Meet two special ladies

Tags

Ancient World, Elizabeth Ellen Carter, Etopia Press, French, Historical romance, Moonstone Conspiracy, Percy Blakeney, regency Romance, Romance, Shehanne Moore, Soul Mate Publishing, Spies, The Viking and The Courtesan, Time-travel, Viking Romance, Vikings

 

 

http://antoniavanzandt.blogspot.com/2015/07/women-of-certain-character.html?spref=tw

https://sharonstruth.wordpress.com/?p=1275

 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=107371819608880&ref=ts&fref=ts

 

http://www.noelleclark.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/reticules-women-of-dubious-backgrounds.html

Isn’t that a shame?  Seriously it is my pleasure today to continue my blog tour HERE and well as over on the author Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s blog. Let me tell you the ladies had great fun sending questions back and forth across the globe since Elizabeth lives in Australia and I live in Scotland.

We are not blogging today exactly no. The girls are. I think they might be the best of pen friends…..  And we are swapping book extracts and book blurbs and covers. http://eecarter.com/index.php/a-trans-temporal-tea-party-for-two/

So mine are over with Elizabeth. Let me hand you over to my new heroine Lady Malice, lover of shoes and wrecking marriages and hopefully a certain man….

is here and there with the lovely Abigail, heroine of Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s book,

They are having tea. So I think we should just let them talk away about shoes, men and lunatic asylums….

Lady Malice.

My dear, how do you like your tea? Even if I personally prefer coffee, Shehanne saw to it that I like tea, out of fine bone china cups with a dash of lemon. And also, before we go further, may I ask where you got your shoes?

Lady Abigail

Without sugar, thank you my dear. Sweet is not really my cup of tea, if you don’t mind me saying so. And these shoes? They’re lovely aren’t they. Since I’ve befriended Sir Percy Blakeney, his wife has introduced me to the most marvellous cobbler – she’s French you know. Not the cobbler, Sir Percy’s wife. And your boots they’re very… one of a kind?

Lady Malice.

Oh indeed. I buy all my shoes at Madame Faro’s. I mean I did and works of art they were too but now living several hundred years ago what can one expect but revolting Viking shoes?

Now, I really do think the past is something we should all draw various veils over but before we go further, may I ask, given some of your misfortunes with the Prince Regent, and indeed, Sir James Mitchell, if you are needing a marriage wrecked at all?

 

---

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Lady Abigail

First that Irish Radical poet Eamon Dauncey, then it was my friend Lady Jane and now you? I see my reputation proceeds me. I like men, they like me. I don’t wreck marriages, well, not deliberately, any way. What I need is a man who challenges me and who keep up with me, and I have to confess, there is something about that agent of Sir Percy’s, Daniel Ridgeway who has a habit of getting under my skin. And what about you, and that big Nordic god there? Sin… now that’s an interesting name…

Lady Malice.

Well, yes. Of course it is really short for Sinarr. My dear, I hope I said nothing wrong. May I assure you neither of are like our names….. Sort of not like our names. Ahem.

 Lady Abigail.

I’m thinking of moving to Italy – Naples specifically. Lady Hamilton is a wonderful hostess, I’m given to believe. I understand that you’ve been abroad too. Would that have been Italy as well or further afield?

Lady Malice

 

Not exactly. No. As I explained to my not so dear husband, that was Scandinavia. Norway in fact since they treat giraffes better there. I must say though, Italy is a divine place I would not have minded visiting. But alas one’s marriage wrecking skills are no long required so I doubt if I will ever visit there now. I am led to believe that you are very skilled in certain departments.

Lady Abigail

I have to confess to a certain skill in picking locks. Very handy for opening a rival’s diary or rescuing lovers from French mental asylums.

Lady Malice

Asylums? Do you know the swine I married had the temerity to put me in one?

Lady Abigail

While we’re in a confessing mood, do you boast an unusual talent – apart from the obvious, of course!

Lady Malice.

Well, I suppose that time travelling might come into that category. Of course it is a family trait. Did you know my grandmother was apparently a NYT best selling author? I didn’t until I kissed my husband. Tell me, this Daniel…what is he like? How did he end up in a French mental asylum?

Lady Abigail

Ah yes, the straitjacket – I’ve had experience of those – only from the outside…

Daniel… Daniel is an unusual man and most times I don’t know what he’s thinking. That annoys me greatly. In my experience, men are so easy to read, their needs are so simple – food and sex… but Daniel, he’s different. I wish I knew what he was thinking, but I don’t. I digress. The straitjacket. Daniel was in one of those because of me – well indirectly. We were searching for a confederate of Daniel’s when we were ambushed by Colonel Alexis Roux from the France’s new secret division of the Committee for Public Safety. He has a nasty habit of locking up suspects in a mental asylum for ‘private’ questioning. With some help, I had to rescue him.

Lady Malice

Goodness, re food and sex and men’s needs, here was me of the opinion that most men think with one thing and that thing isn’t their….well,… let me not digress either, except to say that noticeably you rescued him. Let me not tell you about the scrapes I get Sin out of because of his big…mouth.

Lady Abigail

I’m not sure I know what a New York Times is. I only read the London Times. But I’m rather intrigued by time travelling. How did you discover that you had this most remarkable gift?

Lady Malice

Hmmmm. Well, do you know I kissed my husband finally? Yes, after five years. It was as simple as that. And then there I was in Saxon England in the middle of a Viking raid on a convent. As to how I got back to Regency London, well, that involved a little more but I am a great one for keeping things clean. Now I know you will be thinking…excuse me? Indeed Shehanne’s editor thought the very same. But once it was explained re this being a family trait and secret, no more was to be said, except we are looking at a series, like you with the Moonstone. Now I see all this rescuing stuff. I trust you and Daniel ARE an item? I would worry if you were not. Also, pray tell us that your author is going to write more Moonstone books.

Lady Abigail 

Ah, that remains to be seen… my author Elizabeth is somewhat of a time traveller herself. At the moment she is in 3rd century AD Rome, has some plans to spend time with her handsome husband in Medieval England (perhaps she will see you and Sin there if you’re planning another jaunt).

I understand that Sir Percy has asked if Daniel and I would like to continue in his employ and we’ve not yet made up our minds, so you never know.

Lady Malice

Well, these authors are so selfish, aren’t they that us humble characters can but live in hope. More tea? Or would you, like me, prefer something stronger?

Excerpt FROM The Moonstone Conspiracy by Elizabeth Ellen Carter.

“I’m glad you remembered our appointment.”

Abigail recognised the droll voice and so did not even bother opening her eyes.

“It’s not yet midnight,” she replied and felt the couch shift as Daniel’s weight settled down into it.

“In our business, we take opportunities whenever they occur.”

Abigail opened her eyes and opened her fan to hide a yawn. He did not look fatigued. If one was to assign his expression right now, she would have described him as being studiously nonchalant.

“And what business are we in, Mr Ridgeway?”

“A very dangerous one.”

“I don’t recall signing up for a dangerous business,” she retorted, keeping her voice low to prevent anyone overhearing. “If my experience of your business over the past two years is any guide, stultifying boredom would be a better description.

“You can tell Aunt Druscilla that my obligation to her is complete. I’m going abroad at the end of this season.”

A slow feline grin spread across his face.

“Are you now?”

Fatigue fled and Abigail straightened in her seat, ready to rise to the challenge.

“Are you going to stop me?”

“I don’t particularly care what you do after this season,” he told her. “If you can’t give me what I want by the end of June, then you’re not half the woman Blakeney thinks you are.”

Excerpt 2

Daniel picked his moment carefully. He watched Sir Percy’s wife leave with another group soon after the announcement was made. And although he made no especial effort to hide, he nonetheless remained in the shadows. He pulled out a cigar and lit it on a nearby taper. As soon as he heard the footman call for Sir Percy’s carriage, he stepped forward into the carriage and waited for Blakeney to join him. “Send me to France, Percy,” he said as soon as the carriage jolted into motion. “I’m not going to do that,” Blakeney replied. “You can’t just leave Jonathan there!” “He signed on knowing the same risks as you.” “He has a wife and children!” “And you seem inordinately fond of them,” Sir Percy snapped back. “You saw the list you gave me tonight. A dozen good men and women dead because of the Jacobins. I’m not prepared to risk more. Not until we know what we’re up against.” “It could be too late!” “You took an oath when you joined the League, Ridgeway. One to command, all to obey. Bear that in mind.” Daniel leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees and exhaled long and sharp. He felt Percy slap him on the back. “Just wait a week until we know the lay of the land. I haven’t studied the documents you gave me and Parliament hasn’t even prepared a response to the National Committee’s declaration of war.” “A week is a long time, Percy,” Daniel warned. “So is eternity, dear chap. Don’t lose your head. As you well know, those Frenchies have a devilish way of parting you from it.”

Ellen Carter’s debut novel, Moonstone Obsession, was published in 2013 by Etopia Press. Earlier that year, the Regency adventure romance had been shortlisted in the Romance Writers of Australia Emerald Awards for Best Unpublished Manuscript. Set in England and France during the French Revolution, it was heralded as ‘edge-of-seat adventure and intrigue’ and ‘a rollercoaster of love, blackmail, ill-gotten gains, treason and trickery’ with Carter described as ‘a writer worth keeping an eye on’ with ‘a hint of classic suspense novelist Daphne du Maurier’.

Her second novel, Warrior’s Surrender, was published by Etopia the following year. Set in Northumbria in 1077, it sets the relationship between a displaced Saxon noblewoman and a Norman baron against the turbulent backdrop of England in the years following the Norman invasion of 1066. Reviewers found the novel ‘a fast moving and passionate read’ with ‘strong characters, an intriguing plot, and plenty of action… a sexy romance to be savoured’. Readers agreed, voting Warrior’s Surrender Favourite Historical Fiction in the 2015 Readers & Writers Down Under Readers Choice Awards.

Also in 2014, the short story Moonstone Promise, spinning off from Moonstone Obsession as part of Etopia’s Valentines Heat anthology, followed the fortunes of one of the supporting characters back home to 18th century Pittsburgh in a tale of ‘second chance romance’.

Warrior’s Surrender (now in print as well as eBook) was named Favourite Historical Fiction at the 2015 Readers & Writers Down Under Readers Choice Awards in March this year.

Carter moved up to 1802 for the light-hearted romantic short story Three Ships, part of the Christmas 2014 anthology A Season To Remember, and ventures briefly into contemporary romance for the first time with her Romance Writers of Australia annual Little Gems competition placegetter, The Tin Bear, publishing in August 2015.

And another Moonstone Obsession character, the sinful Lady Abigail Houghall, features in the full length novel Moonstone Conspiracy, coming from Etopia Press in 2015.

Carter is currently working on her fourth novel, set in ancient Rome and tentatively titled Dark Heart, which will bring together the elements for which she has become known in just a few years – in-depth historical detail woven through gripping adventure and captivating romance.

The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats. A former newspaper journalist, she ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years.

 

Web: http://eecarter.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethEllenCarter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EECarterAuthor

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eecarterauthor/

 

Buy Moonstone Conspiracy here: Etopia Press Bookstore Amazon Barnes and Noble iBookstore Kobo Google Play All Romance Ebooks Scribd

 

 

 

Not a bosom was heaved in the writing of this book

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Catherine Cavendish, Historical romance, regency Romance, Shehanne Moore, the Viking and the Courtesan. new release. New book, Time slip Romance, Viking, Viking Romance

 

 

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Blurb The Viking and The Courtesan

 

In 898 AD she wasn’t just from another land.

Wrecking a marriage is generally no problem for the divorce obtaining, Lady Malice Mallender. But she faces a dilemma when she’s asked to ruin her own. Just how businesslike should she remain when the marriage was never consummated and kissing her husband leads to Sin–a handsome Viking who wants her for a bed slave in name only?

She came from another time.

Viking raider Sin Gudrunsson wants one thing. To marry his childhood sweetheart. Only she’s left him before, so he needs to keep her on her toes, and a bed slave, in name only, seems just the thing. Until he meets Malice.

One kiss is all it takes to flash between two worlds

But when one kiss is no longer enough, which will it be?  Regency London? Or Viking Norway? Will Malice learn what governs the flashes? Can Sin?

Where worlds collide can love melt the iciest heart?

 

 

 

Of shoes, ships and Malice in Vikingland…a Cover Reveal

Tags

Cover reveal, Erotic historical romance, Historical romance, Romance, Shehanne Moore, Shoes, Soul Mate Publishing, The Viking and The Courtesan, Vikings

 

 

 

 

In 898 AD she wasn’t just from another land.

Wrecking a marriage is generally no problem for the divorce obtaining, Lady Malice Mallender. But she faces a dilemma when she’s asked to ruin her own. Just how businesslike should she remain when the marriage was never consummated and kissing her husband leads to Sin–a handsome Viking who wants her for a bed slave in name only?

She came from another time.

Viking raider Sin Gudrunsson wants one thing. To marry his childhood sweetheart. Only she’s left him before, so he needs to keep her on her toes, and a bed slave, in name only, seems just the thing. Until he meets Malice.

One kiss is all it takes to flash between two worlds

But when one kiss is no longer enough, which will it be?  Regency London? Or Viking Norway? Will Malice learn what governs the flashes? Can Sin?

Where worlds collide can love melt the iciest heart