Update on My New Romance Series

An indie author wears so many hats -- writer, marketing and publicity guru (hopefully!), sometimes her own graphic designer, webmaster and more. And naturally, things fall through the cracks just as in other parts of our lives. So now that summer is little more than a memory and here in New England, we're hitting the height of 'leaf peeping season' and Halloween is only ten days away, I thought I'd mention that "Hold You in My Heart" offers a lovely summer setting with steady doses of funny, steamy scenes!

So here's Nate Russell -- 6'4" of lean muscle, turquoise blue eyes and dark, wavy hair that's a bit too long. He builds racing craft, is a single dad and has a ten-year-old daughter who he loves dearly. His only real hang-up is that he doesn't trust women, especially beautiful women as his wife up and ran off nine years ago. Trust issues, for real. But along comes Amanda Gallagher and he feels the ground under his feet slipping and sliding, not to mention she makes his motor race like a NASCAR contender!

Amanda is from the NYC area -- smart, feisty and sexy. She's also confused, frustrated and attracted to that grumpy, quiet Nate Russell whose sending all her lady parts into a tap dance! And how the heck does he make eating ice cream an erotic act? Join the fun as Amanda and her BFFs tangle with the hunky Maine men in this new series!  And book #2,"Straight from the Heart" will release later next spring!

Happy Reading and, as always, an honest online review

is most welcome!  Thanks for stopping by and don't 

forget to sign up for my newsletter!

Time to get cozy!

 

Okay . . . summer's almost just a memory at this point, while autumn in New England is underway -- chilly mornings, early sunsets.  Time to break out the logs and start those fires going.  And favorite fall recipes are being pulled out of the bookcase or recipe boxes -- does anyone keep a recipe box anymore, I wonder?  I tend to dog-ear my cookbooks or shove a post-it note on favorite pages.  

Anyway, as I write this, I've got a butternut squash soup going in the crock pot and hope to get several lunches for work and when home and working on my next novel.

What's the next one?  "Romancing a Rogue", which will be the #3 Regency romance in my "School for Sophistication" series, featuring Marcus Burton, a reformed rogue who's just returned to England after a 2-year exile in India for his disruptive rogue-ish ways that offended family and friends.  But he finds himself attracted to his business partner's younger sister, Lady Catherine Wesley.  However, since he values his head to stay attached to his body, he refuses to succumb to his attraction, knowing that Lord Wesley (aka the brother) would not like to see his sister de-flowered.  

But Catherine has other ideas . . . and has no intentions of staying the sweet spinster forever.  Naturally, she turns to Lady Caro and the dowager Lady Rutherford for lessons in seduction -- and so, the fun begins!

If you haven't already read book #1, The Viscount and the Virgin, or #2, Wicked Wagers, please take a moment and click on these links.  After all, the novels are only 99 cents!   If you have time, please leave a review -- good, bad or indifferent -- as indie authors rely heavily on reader reviews, especially on sites such as Amazon.  But, hey -- no pressure . . . !

Stay tuned as I start posting excerpts on my giveaway page on my website OR you could sign up for my newsletter here and get timely updates, notices of freebie sales and more.  I post about once every two or three weeks, so I won't be inundating your mailbox, I promise.  I'm also active on Instagram and Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

 Until my next post, stay safe and happy reading!   Claire H.

 

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

Rumi

 

Happy Book Birthday!

 

 

A new series begins way up on the coast of Maine as the sassy, sexy women of New York invade the quiet coastal village of Crescent Bay.

Runaway bride?  Check.

Tall, dark and handsome guy in work boots and tool belt?  Check.

Lots of fun characters to keep you laughing?  But of course!   

Available at most ebook retailers for only $1.99!

 Happy Hot Summer Reading!

New Romance Series in the Works

 It's been quite a few months since my last post -- my apologies!  Do you find the pandemic wreaking havoc with your sense of time?  Sometimes I have to stop and look at the calendar in my writing cave, and I've started wearing a wrist watch again!  And now that spring has finally sprung here in New England, I'm finding my attention levels drifting away from the writing, wanting to dig in the dirt and plant things.  

So I'm trying to stay on track by building some boards on Pinterest for "Hold You in My Heart", the first romance in my Crescent Bay, Maine series.  For starters, here are a few pics of how I envision Nate Russell, the hero.  He's a master carpenter and excels in creating custom millwork for boats, as well as racing sculls for crew teams throughout the country.  

What does Nate Russell look like?  Tall, muscular, tan with thick dark hair and eyes the color of the ocean; tends to wear his hair longer than most . . . 

This handsome guy is the Italian actor, Giulio Berruti.  Very popular on Pinterest, so you can check out my board on Nate Russell to find other pics!  

 Next up:  my heroine, Amanda Gallagher.  In the meantime, why not sign up for my newsletter and find out about release dates, sneak previews of covers and sales?  Also, here's a link to the first "romance snippet" for "Hold You in My Heart". 

Happy Reading and Enjoy!

 
 

Holiday Chronicles #1

 

As we draw near the final holidays of the year, many of us are stressing for a variety of reasons.  Some are personal; others may be related to the pandemic, jobs, children and more.  So, what do we do?  If I think about the Danish attitude of "hygge" and their beliefs in how to deal with winter, I'm finding some comfort in that set of beliefs.  That we should embrace winter and, to the best of our abilities, find solace and comfort in the quiet winter months.  

Easy for some; more difficult for others.  

Let's start with the simple things we can control.  The small details of daily life.  One thing.  One day at a time.  

Here's my first effort.  Comfort.  I'm all about comfort -- to stay snug, to enjoy a good book and a glass of wine by the fire.  No fireplace?  Lots of candles, then!  My daughter has been recycling old, used candles, melting down the wax, adding store-bought wax melts and a wick.  We've all been saving empty jam jars, salsa jars and such so she can do her magic.  And some of her mixes have been quite amazing!  But light is important.  Whether it's a fireplace or a bank of candles on your coffee table, it helps.  The glow of a single candle flame makes a difference, symbolizing hope and home, I believe. But now that the sun sets at about 4:30pm, light makes a difference.  Experiment.  Add a mirror or two throughout your rooms as they reflect more light.

And what's the recipe for today's posting?  The dreaded mince pie!   So many people still think that mince pies include meat.  Ugh.  That was the case years and years ago, but today mince pie is somewhat like fruitcake (without the weight).  Here's a quick history of mince pie:

For us here in the states, the mince pie probably came over with our ancestors, predominately from northern European countries.  But where did it originate?  Best theory is that the European crusaders brought back many of the cooking traditions from the Middle East where meat, spices and fruit were often cooked together.  Today in the UK, over 3 million mince pies are consumed yearly.  But here on this side of the Great Pond, they're harder to find.  This year I could not find a mince pie to save my life, which made me sad.  My dad and I always looked forward to that spicy concoction at Thanksgiving, eschewing the more popular pumpkin pie.  My dad was of Scottish and Irish descent, so I suppose that's where his love of minc pie came from.  

Possible Recipes to try:

SpruceEats:

 BBC Good Food:

*Pillsbury:  This one cuts the time with prepared pie crusts! 

Happy Hygge Eating!

The Hounds and Sheep of a Regency Romance -- Uh?

 Sometimes a writer just has to do some silly stuff.  Why?  Because as we create our stories the imp within demands some quality time, and because you want to pepper your story with believable facts that help embellish an historical romance with a degree of veracity.  

Several of my historical romances have these little streaks of humor and/or facts, so in Wicked Wagers I included a few odd but fun touches:  first, the Irish Water Spaniel.  In reading through one of the many issues of Country Living (the UK edition) I tend to hoard, I came across an article about this somewhat rare breed.  But, I must confess, it was the image of these wild and wooly hounds that made me want to incorporate them into the romance.

Pretty cute, uh?  These dogs are excellent retrievers for waterfowl, which was perfect for the area that WW is set -- on the west coast in the Whitehaven area, not far from the Lake District. 

How can you resist a dog that looks like this, I ask you?  And when I did some research on this breed, they indeed were being cultivated in Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century, so it's feasible that Julia Montford, the heroine, could have been involved in breeding these hunting dogs.  According to the American Kennel Club, they are friendly, even a bit clownish.

And now to the sheep . . . .  Say hello to the Lincoln Longwool breed, first introduced in The Viscount and the Virgin, when the viscount struggles to rebuild his estates after his older brothers had almost destroyed them. 

According to Wikipedia, the Lincoln is the largest British sheep, developed specifically to produce the heaviest, longest and most lustrous fleece of any breed in the world.  The versatile fleece is in great demand for spinning, weaving and many other crafts, even to this day.  

Talk about having a bad hair day . . . ;-)  

 

And finally, the Herdwick sheep, brought to England during the Viking invasions over 600 years earlier.  This is a hardy breed perfect for the long, harsh winters in the mountainous area of the Lake District.  They've even been known to eat their own fleece to stay alive during long winters, if necessary. 

I decided to add them to WW because Ben's older brother, Charles, is now the squire and has a herd of 500 head of Herdwicks, common to the area.  Between Gabriel Montford and Charles Burton, these two characters are always "wagering" on their herds as they lay bets on Ben and Julia's courtship throughout the romance.  Must be a guy thing?

Well, so there you have it.  Hounds and sheep in a Regency romance.  Pretty exciting stuff, right?  Hey, writing is a very solitary life, so I guess I need to get out more . . .

"I suppose we are all getting to look mildly fictional -- "
E.B. White

HAPPY READING!

Who is Ben Burton?

This blog entry was suggested by one of my colleagues, Jo-Ann Roberts, who urged me to post something about the hero in Wicked Wagers, the second romance in The School for Sophistication series, which is due to go live on October 15.  After all, she wrote, "Readers want to know what the hero looks like!"  Okay, Jo-Ann -- this one's for you!

Here is how I imagine Benjamin Malory Burton to look -- he's tall, rugged, has honey-gold hair, deep blue eyes and a set of lips that makes my heroine, Julia Montford, swoon time and time again.  Some of you may recognize the actor, James Norton, best known for his starring role in the British TV mystery series, Grantchester.  As I scoured the images on Google and Pinterest, I kept returning to Norton.  I've never watched the series (my bad!), but there was something about Norton that rang true for a former British Cavalry officer from the Napoleonic Wars.  And when I stumbled on this image, I was convinced I'd found Ben Burton.

Can't you picture Norton in the formal black-and-white evening wear of the Regency period -- substitute the bow tie for a silk cravat, right?  Breeches and Hessian boots?  You bet! 

The character of Ben is somewhat gentle for all his height and muscular build.  He's a tease, loves his little nephews and is willing to work with his hands to repair a dilapidated hunting lodge.  In other words, a man who is willing to work to build a future for himself and the woman he loves. 

But he's also a man with a plan and his determination to woo and wed Julia pushes him beyond his normal rough-and-ready demeanor.  Nothing, however, goes smoothly in the course of seduction, and yet Ben is willing to turn to Lady Caro and the Dowager for their help in learning a little sophistication.

 

And that's what makes him a hero, in my mind. 

 

 

You can order Wicked Wagers here (more vendor links are still loading, such as Barnes and Noble, and is also available for pre-order on Amazon here.   

 

And if you haven't read the first book in The School for Sophistication series, The Viscount and the Virgin, you can find the ebook vendors here.  

 

 

"The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp.

The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story."

Ursula K. Le Guin

 

HAPPY READING!

 

Claire H.