Waxing Philosophical with Abigail

Just last night I said to Abigail, “I have too many characters floating around in my head and all of them want their stories told now.” It bears mentioning that it was past midnight, I was wandering through my house in the dark because I couldn’t be bothered to fumble around for light switches, and these words were only the last in a long, meandering monologue delivered to remind myself it’s better to have too many stories bobbing on the surface of my brain than none at all. Also, Abigail is my dog.

Neurotic little fur-ball that she is, Abigail is the keeper of all my secret frustrations, setbacks and snafus. Partly because she likes to hang out in my office with me while I write, but mostly because she listens so well, always understands where I’m coming from and sympathizes with every word I say.

Abigail knows I have six stories – and more than twice as many characters – swimming around in my mind just now. Six stories in various stages of completion. 

A few pages of notes scribbled on scraps of paper in the middle of the night for Lady Sylvia Grenville’s jaunt from London to Montana.

An outline of Lady Bernice’s seemingly never-ending fascination for Lord Jamison.

Two two rough chapters of Miss Kate Price’s trials and tribulations as one of Lord Dunaway’s six daughters.

An unfinished novella featuring Kiljoy, the disreputable Duke of Mountjoy who, oddly enough, captured the hearts and imaginations of readers in Unraveling the Earl.

A half-written story for Miss Veronica Ogilvie – the woman readers love to hate in Pretty Poison.

And, finally, a nearly complete novel for Miss Harry O’Connell, appropriately entitled Courting Chaos, as this book has caused all sorts of mischief and mayhem in my life of late.

Is it any wonder I’m a bit scatterbrained at present? That I engage in philosophical discussions with my dog in the wee hours of the night? If I could just get one story finished…

Oh, who am I kidding?

Certainly not Abigail.

One story finished will only lead to another just beginning, and three further along in the telling. Characters wading out of the water will only make room for more to dive right into the churning sea. 

In the words of Lilith Aberdeen, in Taming Beauty, upon her first sight of the ocean, “But this…it’s so…vast…endless…I feel dizzy…or something rather like it.”

This, my friends, is why I write, and why I’ll continue sharing all my troubles and triumphs with a little dog while fictional characters are carried on the current of my mind. Because writing six stories simultaneously makes me feel dizzy…or something rather like it. 

If you haven’t yet read Taming Beauty, now is the perfect time to remedy that lamentable situation. I have expanded the story-line a tad and spiced up the naughty bits a smidgen, transforming a lengthy novella into a full-length novel just this side of short. Also, you’ll be ahead of the tide when Courting Chaos, Book 2 in my new Dunaway’s Daughters series, comes out later this year.

Taming Beauty is available for Pre-Order now.

Be sure to enter The Taming Beauty Pre-Order Giveaway for a chance to win a swag bag of goodies including a signed copy of Pretty Poison and My Darling Gunslinger, 2 Wine Bottle Corsets and 2 Corset Bookmarks.

Learn more about Taming Beauty

All Sorts of Sizzle

It’s August and for most of us that means scorching days and sultry nights. The perfect weather for staying indoors with a Sizzling Historical Romance. So from August 14 through the 20th, 36 authors have joined together to offer 36 ebooks with Heart, History and Heat for only $0.99.

From Sensual, Steamy and Spicy to Racy and Erotic.

Novels, Novellas and even Boxsets, all will be on sale for only $0.99  each August 14-20 at

The Sizzling Historical Romance Sale

 As an added bonus, we’ll be giving away a Kindle Fire and Six Classic Sexy Historical Romances that captured our hearts and inspired us to write. These are vintage stories from the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s that every fan of the genre simply must read. 

Sizzling Historical Romance Giveaway

*****

And while we’re on the subject of Sizzle, my latest Sexy Historical Romance is now available.

The Mad Earl’s Daughter is an Erotic Romp from beginning to end. Two hundred and eighty pages filled with all sorts of dallying and debauchery, mystery and mayhem, and a touch of madness. It is not intended for the faint of heart or sticklers for regency propriety. Or any sort of propriety for that matter.

The Parlor Maid in the Library with a Candlestick.
Hugh Forsythe has been living his life on the straight and narrow since turning his back on a family legacy of swindling, bamboozling and fortune-hunting. When he is hired to find a parlor maid who disappeared with a startling stash of priceless heirlooms, Hugh finds himself falling back on old habits in order to investigate the odd assortment of miscreants and unmarried women living in the mysterious house at Number 8 Huntley Street.
The Carpenter in the Dining Room with a Hammer.
Miss Annie Wellesley is in trouble. Someone is asking questions up and down Huntley Street and it is only a matter of time before the answers lead directly to her door. Deciding only a husband can save her from the secrets haunting her past and threatening her carefully crafted future, Annie sets out to seduce the handsome carpenter hired to refurbish her house. Amid the rubble of renovations, passion transforms into love, repairing Annie’s broken heart and restoring Hugh’s battered honor. But Annie is hiding more secrets, scandals and siblings than she can count and all too soon skeletons are popping out of the woodwork. 

A Paisley Past

I’ll let you in on a little-known secret – I did not set out to be a writer of erotic romance. 

When I began my first book I intended the story to fall within the realm of sensual romance, a bit of spice sprinkled throughout an otherwise purely romantic tale. The original manuscript was laced with purple prose – those silly euphemisms writers use to describe various parts of the body… buds, pebbles, pearls, etc. Oh, and just so we don’t ignore the manly parts…arousal, manhood and staff.

Alas, after months of sending out queries and receiving only silence or politely worded rejections in return, I decided to take a walk on the wild side. I added length and depth to the sex scenes and replaced the trite euphemisms with breasts, nipples, clitorises, cocks, shafts and the occasional erection and penis. 

I did not add a menage a trois, bondage, or even a spanking scene to the book. It was straight lovemaking between a man and a woman without benefit of toys, gadgets, whips or cuffs. And only one instance of rough handling by my hero. To put it simply, the story was barely erotic and then only by the grace of a few added details and naughty words.  

Armed with a sexier version of the original manuscript, I sent out another round of queries to publishers of erotic fiction. Much to my delight, I was soon under contract for a three book series with a publisher who shall remain nameless.

Thus Portrait of Passion was born. And soon afterward, died a slow, torturous death. Lost in the netherworld of books that aren’t erotic enough to satisfy fans of the genre, yet a touch (to a cock or clitoris) too racy for readers with a preference for more traditional sensual romance. 

By the time I recognized the abyss into which Portrait of Passion had plummeted, it was too late. I was under contract to write two more erotic romance novels to complete the series. I edged Widow’s Wicked Wish a tad nearer to the erotic side only in terms of the frequency of sexual encounters and a faint hint at the darker desires my heroine might enjoy in the not too distant future.

When I began the third book I decided to do more than take a little stroll on the wild side. Unraveling the Earl is a far more wicked and wanton tale, thanks to the heroine who is…well, wicked and wanton. Her past is littered with debauchery of all sorts, some of which trickles into her relationship with the hero of the story. There is a spanking scene, though it’s only two light taps instigated by the heroine during a light-hearted bit of role-playing. And she does wind up tied to a bedpost with a lavender ribbon, a scene which leads to all sorts of hilarity and mayhem. Oh, and she strips herself bare and diddles her goodies for her hero’s entertainment.

The antics of the heroine of Unraveling the Earl lead me to quite a dilemma, a crisis of conscience you might say. 

You see, in preparation for the day I would re-release the Idyllwild series, I read the first and second stories, marking naughty words and entire paragraphs and pages for deletion or revision in order to transform the stories from barely-erotic to slightly tamer sensual romance novels. And hopefully lift them from the abyss so that readers browsing for a book might actually discover them, perhaps even read and enjoy them. 

But then I started reading Unraveling the Earl.

And I came to the realization there is no way to transform this tale into anything other than what it is – a story wandering the fine line between erotic and sensual romance. A tale of a woman with a past so far beyond checkered it more closely resembles a garish paisley print, an enlightened acceptance of all the many and varied ways men and women make love, and a desire to please her lover in all ways. Thus pleasing herself in the process, selfish bit of muslin that she is.

I love this story, I ate and slept and dreamed this story while writing it. I was tormented and taunted by Georgie’s secrets and motives and her refusal to stay on the path to redemption. I was charmed and enchanted by Henry’s need to peel away her many layers, to discover the inner workings of her mind and finally solve the puzzle that is her heart.

The story will not work without her licentiousness, without her willingness to prey upon Henry’s desires for her own selfish ends. If I delete all the raunchy bits and pieces, the reader will never know Georgie, never see beyond her scheming and lying to the lost and heartbroken woman hiding behind it all, never believe an inherently good and kind man like Henry could fall in love with her.

And so, I have only made some minor revisions, given all three stories fresh edits and beautiful new covers, and re-released them in the hope that readers are willing to walk the fine line between erotic and sensual romance to discover my books. And that when they do, like Henry, they will fall in love with Georgie, just as she is.

“I was never good or clean or whole, my lord. I have always been wicked and broken and dirty. I am vengeful and covetous and impulsive and selfish, and I like that about myself. I like my murky morals and my stubborn streak and my dubious loyalty and my greedy desire to claim what I want, no matter the cost. I like it all and what’s more so do you.”        – Miss Georgie Buchanan  

             

    Portrait of Passion                                 Unraveling the Earl

                                     Widow’s Wicked Wish

A Love Letter to My Husband

My Darling,

I came across these lines in a book today and they made me think of you and me and us.

“You go, do what you must do, think on me, on what I cannot give you as well as what I can. And if there comes a time when you want me as I am, when you see me not as something imperfect and flawed, but as a woman with whom you wish to share your life, then ask me.”– Now Face to Face by Karleen Koen

I have been struggling since you left. Struggling to make sense of how we came to be here. I thought I had worked it all out in my mind and my heart. I had convinced myself that I was healing, that I was stronger, and that I was putting away my dreams of a lifetime together. But I was fooling myself. I was really only biding my time until you came back to me.

Once upon a time, I began a love letter with these words. My Darling was the love of my life but we were separated by three thousand miles and a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to a future together.

Sometimes finding our Happily Ever After is all about second chances. Occasionally it’s simply a matter of recognizing a second chance when it’s dangling right before you. More often than not it’s far more complicated, requiring us to be braver and stronger than we’ve ever imagined we could be. Brave enough to offer up our heart even when we are not entirely certain it won’t be broken again and strong enough to receive the offering, to hold onto the heart that’s been lovingly and trustingly placed into our keeping, to hold onto it against all odds the second time around.

So while I wrote these word (with the help of Karleen Koen), they might have been written by the heroine in Widow’s Wicked Wish. Like me, Olivia believes she has put away her dreams of a spending her life with the man she be loves. And like me, Olivia is given that most precious of gifts – a second chance at love.

This was not the first love letter I wrote to my husband, nor was it the last. In fact my most recent love letter was included in Widow’s Wicked Wish:

Thank you to my husband, the hero of my heart, for choosing me, my son and a menagerie of pets over your dreams of children of your own. I’ll never forget the sacrifice you made to give me my very own happily ever after.

Widow’s Wicked Wish is available for Pre-order on Amazon

Read an Excerpt

Portrait of Passion, Idyllwild Book One

When I began Portrait of Passion I never dreamed it would be the first in a three book series. I did not consider how difficult it would be to find a publisher. I never imagined I would spend months both dreading and anticipating opening my email. Nor did I truly appreciate how happy I would feel when I finally found an offer for acceptance amid all the rejections.  I did not ponder the perils and pitfalls of promotion. I didn’t even have a Facebook or Twitter account.

And I certainly never considered the possibility that I would come to love the story and the characters I’d created.  

But I did fall in love with Beatrice and Simon, and with the tale of three siblings bonded by blood, love and a small estate in the North of England. It broke my heart to see Portrait of Passion and the Idyllwild Series all but disappear into the netherworld due to a convoluted and complicated set of circumstances over which I had no control. 

I now have both the rights and the creative control of all three books in the series back in my loving hands. 

So it is with great pleasure and a bit of giddy excitement that I am re-releasing the Idyllwild Series, beginning with Portrait of Passion. Widow’s Wicked Wish and Unraveling the Earl will soon follow. 

I hope you too will fall in love with Idyllwild, with Beatrice and Simon, with Olivia and Jack, and with Henry and Georgie. 

For a limited time, Portrait of Passion is available for $0.99 and free on Kindle Unlimited. 

And not only Portrait of Passion. More than forty wonderful ebooks will be on sale for $0.99 May 22nd through May 28th at The Historical Romance Sale! Don’t miss out on these great deals and even better reads! 

Congratulations to March’s Corset winner, Julie Stafford. I’m afraid April came and went with no corset giveaway and no newsletter, but I hope May’s pretty little pink and black corset will make up for my missing an entire month.