Update on Next Release

Very excited, getting close to the release date for "Betrayed in Brighton!" It's funny, but in Book #2 of the Merry Widow series, Lady Alexandra and Major Pendleton are the heroine and hero of this Regency romance novella. They appeared as secondary characters in Book #1 (Snowbound Seductions), and I liked their relationship so much that I decided to feature them in the second novella.

It was almost a natural progression in terms of a timeline: by March 1815, only a few months after the end of Book #1, Napoleon escaped St. Helen's and re-joined his armies. So after only about two months together, Pendleton is sent away by Wellington and the War Office, undercover behind enemy lines.

But Alexandra had no idea of his assignment, assuming the British would strike and be done with the pesky Napoleon. Time seemed not to matter; time was on their side, wasn't it? And so, as I worked on this story and these two special characters, the layers of betrayal -- time, war, desire and one bloody-minded traitor -- seemed to grow and add depth to the story line.

By the time I handed the manuscript over to my beta reader, I felt as if both characters, but especially Lady Alexandra, had grown beyond the two-dimensional. They had suffered, were still suffering, and the complexity of their emotions and misgivings made them real -- at least to me.

I'm still on target for a June 1st release and am anxious to send my creation to the public readership. I'd love to see Alexandra and Pendleton capture your hearts as they've captured mine. As soon as the links are live, I will post them here on the blog, on my website and send out alerts on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there -- and pick up a romance novel to make your day complete!

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More Secondary Characters

As promised, I'm back with some tidbits of info on another favorite secondary character who has appeared in several of my Regency romances -- the Dowager Lady Rutherford. I needed a character who would balance out Lady Caro (see last week's blog entry), someone who was smart as a whip, tough and yet hiding a soft side. The dowager seemed to fit the bill for when she first appears in Snowbound Seductions , she's ornery, feared by all (even the duke) and willing to use her ebony cane like a Scottish claymore. So, the first British actress who visually inspired me, mostly for the dowager's physical attributes is Phyllida Law. If you're an Acorn TV or Brit Box fan, many of you will recognize Ms. Law. Phyllida Law She's appeared in so many series and movies, and is also known as Emma Thompson's mother. She is a wonderful actress and, to me, captures how I visualize the dowager. And in my work-in-progress, Wicked Wagers , we'll see a b...

Sources of Inspiration

I've been working on my first Regency romance novel and, although I've read most of Jane Austen and seen so many of the excellent BBC movie variations, one still needs a bit of inspiration when working through the writing. It's usually those small details, descriptive of the landscape or the manor house, that gives a work that added level of veracity, of impact for the reader. Why else would readers want historical romance? I have to think that it's the time period that intrigues, a bit like a time tunnel. Go ahead, pick your period -- there's probably a romance set in each one. That's why I love Pinterest. If you can control the time spent on the great "P" -- and that's a big "if" -- there's so much out there to help spark those imaginative ideas or get a writer over the hurdle of writer's block. Here's a few that I chose to help keep me churning out those words: Image captured from Pinterest Wouldn't thi...

Of Ladies and Lacy Fichus

Apologies all around for not writing more frequently on my blog -- something I'm determined to correct in the coming weeks. Today I'm going to talk about my main character, Miss Julia Charlotte Montford, the heroine of Wicked Wagers , due to release in October of this year. Julia is a feisty one -- spoiled, often impudent, headstrong and all too often making wagers. If she lived in today's world, she'd probably be buying lottery tickets by the yard! But one day she makes a wager with the ex-cavalry officer, Benjamin Malory Burton, and her life will never be the same. Oftentimes we writers scour the internet and sites like Pinterest to find an image that sparks the imagination of both the writer and the reader. Many times it's an actress or actor, but this time I stumbled on a series of paintings by John Hoppner, who lived and painted in the late 18th century into the early years of the 19th century. And I found Julia -- here she is -...

Claire Hadleigh

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