Little Tidbits about my Crescent Bay Series

Tugging on your heartstrings . . . 

Okay, Regency readers, just remember this:  I love you all and I love that you love my Regency romances!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  But my poor contemporary romances are languishing on the digital shelves . . . sigh!  :-(    Why?  I'm not sure because my beta readers and those who've reviewed them seem to like them, and I certainly enjoy writing them "almost" as much as I do my Regencies.  

So, I'm asking:  can you give them a shot?  These are not trashy stuff, I assure you.  Hey, I attended Catholic school from elementary through high school!  God forbid Sister Mary Joseph ever found out, I'd be dead meat .  . .

To start you off, my Crescent Bay series, book #1 and #2, go on sale tomorrow (May 2) through May 7 -- both will be free on Apple, B&N, Kobo and more -- here are the links for Hold You in My Heart and Straight from the Heart.  Unfortunately, Amazon will not let me reset the price to free unless I'm a "select KDP" author.  However, if you show them the offers at their competitors, I believe they'll honor the sale.

And, as so many of us Indie Authors ask, if you would leave an honest review on either or both, I would truly appreciate that.  So many of us depend upon reviews for future sales.

But now let's have a little fun, shall we? 

In Hold You, Amanda Gallagher opens a vintage home decor shop and her family members help her create various "rooms" throughout the shop.  Her cousin, Giana, creates a Boho corner (vintage hippie style) and I got the idea from a website and Justine Blakeley's book, Jungalow.  Awesome book!  Here's an example:

Takes your breath away, doesn't it?  Of course, my husband would run from the house screaming if I did this in the living room -- ha!  But I just love the bold designs and colors, especially during a dreary New England winter.  

Here's another image that inspired the side garden to Amanda's house where several scenes take place:

Not sure about the umbrella but you get the idea -- private, romantic and cool during the hot summer months.  The perfect setting for a romantic interlude, right?  

And who are Amanda Gallagher and Nate Russell?  

Sometimes a writer has images already in her head about her heroine and hero; sometimes not.  The two characters organically form as you write.  But for Amanda and Nate, I did have two distinct ideas for my characters.  Here are the posted images from Instagram:

I hope you'll give them a chance and read Hold You in My Heart.  Each time I finish a romance, I find myself a little sad to say goodbye to my characters.  If I can bring them back in the next book, great, and I think that's one reason so many authors create series -- they're reluctant to let go!  

Next blog posting will feature Giana and Ryan - completely different from Amanda and Nate, but just as much fun, in Straight from the Heart.  And naturally I'm already making notes for book #3, Heart's Journey, featuring Simone and Marc.  But in the meantime, I'm writing the final romance of my School of Sophistication, featuring Lady Caro and her long lost love, Julien Roberge, which should be ready for release in early June.  

Happy Reading!

Claire H.  

New Release is here!

 

Yes, after six years The Darcy Variations has been released for your reading pleasure!  It's been a long time in the making, often neglected in a digital drawer, waiting patiently for me to return and set it free.  My bad.  But life gets in the way while you're planning for it, right?  And that's what happened to Kate Malone and Anthony Slade (aka Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 21st century).

However, they kept tap, tap, tapping at my little brain box until I pulled up the draft and dusted it off, read through what I had written back in 2017, and decided to give them my best efforts.

Stay tuned to my social media sites and here for some fun Darcy trivia questions, information about narrowboats, the tango and other fun stuff.

linktr.ee/clairehadleigh

 

 

 The Final Day of NanoWriMo '22:

Countdown to NanoWriMo 2021 begins!

Yes, it's that time again - National Novel Writing Month - and it's an exciting time for writers of all levels of experience.  So my congratulations to all who are participating this year!  However, this can be a somewhat grueling time as well.  To write 50,000 words within 30 days is no easy feat.  There'll be pitfalls and backtracking, the gnashing of teeth and the aching cramps in fingers and back, the eyes that feel like they're on fire.

So join me for weekly survival tips which I'll be posting on Tuesdays here on the main page of the blog; older posts will be compiled on my NanoWriMo page (see tab above).

Good Luck & Happy Writing!

Claire H.

New Reading List for New Year

Well, it's time for a change!  Oh, sure, I'll still be reading my romance novels (already have a stack waiting by the fireplace), but I still have this feeling that I'd like to expand my reading choices, to stretch myself, both as a reader and a writer, sort of replenish the well of inspiration.

So here's my new reading theme for 2018 --  Armchair Travel!  Yes, it's easy, not costly and yet I can travel as far and as wide as I'd like, when I like.  Doesn't that sound wonderful?  And, in the meantime, these books may spark the little gray cells as to new venues for my romance stories -- it's a win, win, as far as I'm concerned.  Once again, I am not providing links to purchase;  this is purely for your exploratory pleasure! 

MEMOIRS:

A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller by Frances Mayes

Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train by Ina Caro

Thistle Soup: a Ladleful of Scottish Life by Peter Kerr

Sea Room: an Island Lifein the Hebrides by Adam Nicholson

Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett

The Dog who ate the Truffle: a Memoir of Stories and Recipes from Umbria by Suzanne Carriero

(I just love this cover!)  The Woman who Fell from the Sky: an American Journalist in Yemen by Jennifer Steil

A House in Fez by Suzanne Clarke

That Summer in Sicily by Marlena de Blasi

Thousand Days in Venice by M. deBlasi







FICTION NOVELS:

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

Heartbreak Hotel by D. Moggach

The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard Morais







Do you have any titles you'd like to share on this subject/genre?  Just leave a comment!

"There is no frigate like a book."  Emily Dickinson

Threads of Feeling

In "Captive for Christmas" (just released last week; see Books above), I wrote a brief scene between Felicity Drummond and Chandler Rhys in which she shows him a one-hundred year old scrapbook that her grandmothers and mother kept of the orphans who came to live at the family estate over the years. This is based on true fact, and that is what I love about historical fiction -- using facts and events to create a world more rich for the reader.  

archives, Foundling Hospital Museum

sample fragment left with a female child

The Founding Hospital was founded by Thomas Coram who wanted to give abandoned children a decent life. The hospital opened its doors in 1741, and children were accepted anonymously so women were not publicly shamed into abandoning their babies elsewhere.  The mothers were encouraged to leave a small token, which was then added to the admission books with the details of the child. The tokens include ribbons, fabric scraps and baby clothes. The scraps range from plain rough worsted to the occasional piece of fancy silk brocade, indicating the mothers came from all levels of society. 

The exhibit, Threads of Feeling (2008), displayed some of these tiny tokens that mothers left with their babies when they gave them up, and there are over 5,000 pieces in the Museum's archives.  The book, Threads of Feeling, by John Styles is still listed in Amazon,  and in the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of Selvedge Magazine (UK), Shelley Goldsmith wrote a wonderful article about the exhibit.

19th century fashion:

One of those dreary days here in New England -- cloudy, cool and damp. Home after a bit of surgery as a result of too many days / years in the sun and at the beach! Yes, remember the days of using baby oil as a suntan lotion? Who was to know back in those days?  No heavy lifting or working out (ho, hum, not a problem for me), but the stitches are a bit painful and now I have an amazing hairdo with headband reminiscent of the 1960s!

So I spent some down time going through my collection of ephemera -- papers, kimono scraps, vintage postcards and more. Just want to do something creative and fun in between writing my next Regency romance (sneak peak coming soon!). 

I picked up this portfolio years ago. I believe it was produced in the early 1900s and is a collection of 100 years of fashion from the 19th century, one page for each year. Below is 1800 - check out that gown on the right! OMG, how did they keep from popping out of their dresses, I ask you? No wonder the Regency period was so racy! 

But I think this will be fun to try and incorporate into my writings -- actual gowns and accessories that existed back then rather than racking my pee brain to come up with something that would probably resemble the Victorian era.  Now I can be accurate and pay homage to the era!