News and Events:
Return of the Scandalous Lady, Book Four in the Perilous Secrets series, is out at last. Here's a blurb:
Years ago, Frances Templestone left her husband and ran away to France with a lover. Now she’s back, widowed and more mature, but mostly unrepentant. A social pariah, she stays out of sight while her daughter Julia has her first London season.
Until Julia, who is as impetuous as her mother, sneaks out to a masquerade with an unsuitable man. Frances hastens to the rescue, and when she sees Julia about to get into a coach with a handsome stranger, she accuses him—very publicly—of being a rake who ruins innocent girls.
Soon she learns that Jasper, Lord Canterwell, is a respectable man. He wasn’t at the masquerade seeking an easy conquest. On the contrary—his daughter is missing, and he is searching for her everywhere. Aghast, Frances offers to help him. Rudely, he spurns her.
But Frances is determined and Jasper is desperate. Might a scandalous lady with a warm heart and a lively mind be just what a respectable gentleman needs?
Lady Rosamund and the Plague of Suitors, Book Three in the Rosie and McBrae Regency Mysteries, is out at last. Here's the blurb:
Lady Rosamund’s plan for a quiet return to London society goes awry when she rescues a woman fleeing along the road—the mistress of her brother, Lord Derwent. Rosamund takes her in, meaning to sort matters out with Derwent—but he has left town in a hurry, and soon the Bow Street Runners are after him for murder. If that wasn’t trouble enough, several suitors are vying for Lady Rosamund’s hand.
Luckily, Gilroy McBrae is in London to help Rosamund save her brother. Will their strained relationship, along with his rivals for her heart, impede the race to unmask the real murderer before Derwent is caught and hanged?
In other news, I've almost finished writing book 4 in the Perilous Secret series. I don't have a title for it yet. The heroine is Frances Templestone, who was a secondary character in both The Infidelity Curse and Embracing the Scandal. She deserves a happily ever after, so I'm giving it to her in book 4.
The Infidelity Curse is book 3 in the Perilous Secrets series. For those who read The Smuggler's Escape and felt sorry for Lucretia Tifton, who was stuck in a horrible marriage, I have good news for you. In The Infidelity Curse, Lucretia gets her happily ever after at last. :)
Embracing the Scandal, a novella in the Perilous Secrets series, is now available on its own. (It was previously available in an anthology, Christmas Kisses, along with stories by Cheryl Bolen, Samantha Grace, Lana Williams, Collette Cameron, Sasha Cottman, Donna Cummings, Suzanna Medeiros, Alina K. Field, Alanna Lucas, and Heather Boyd. THIS ANTHOLOGY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK, but can still be found in both soft and hardcover.)
2020's Christmas novella, Unwise But Not Dishonorable, was originally published in the anthology Mistletoe and Mayhem. Now it's available on its own! It's part of the Perilous Secrets series. Both the hero and heroine were secondary characters in The Smuggler's Escape. Now they have a story of their own.
Lady Rosamund and the Horned God (book 2 in the Rosie and McBrae Regency Mysteries) is out now!
Lord Bellweather's Lady, a Magical Regency, is now out! The hero is half-fairy and quite a challenge for the beleaguered heroine, but she proves her mettle in the end. (For those who enjoyed Lady of the Flames, it's a very loosely connected sequel.)
His Lordship's Incorrigible Wife, a sequel to The Smuggler's Escape, came out on June 16th, 2021
The 13-author anthology, Winter Wishes, is no longer available, but my story, A Kiss Upon the Wind, is now available on its own. (Buy links are on both the home page and the book page.) Why is Lady Isolde’s father prepared to pay £10,000 to marry her off for the third time? Find the answer to this and other intriguing questions in A Kiss Upon the Wind!
My Regency romance, The Smuggler's Escape, is the first in my Perilous Secrets series. It's about a lady smuggler in the southeast of England. It's a revised version of a book I wrote years ago. After writing several books with love scenes in them, I got tired of writing those scenes -- sort of a 'been there, written that', like having a car chase in every book. But anyway, when I wrote the scenes in the smuggler book, I was in my love scenes heyday, so to speak, and I'm enjoying reading what I wrote then and hope you will too. There's also lots of adventure and strife -- fun to write and hopefully suspenseful to read. His Lordship's Incorrigible Wife, is the second in the series, and The Infidelity Curse is the third. Embracing the Scandal, the novella in the Christmas anthology, Christmas Kisses, is also part of the Perilous Secrets series.
My short story, "The Last Page", was included in the anthology Crime Travel, which was released December 8th, 2019, Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day. (I'm likely to do that any day, but it's cool that there's an actual day assigned to it.) The stories are all about crime and time travel -- a fun combo, don't you think? It certainly inspired me to write one. :)
My two novellas, The Reluctant Seductress and Love at First Dance, which were previously published in separate anthologies, are now available together as Yuletide Nights. Actually, there are four novellas in this particular story universe. The other two were published years ago -- Under a Christmas Spell and Under a New Year's Enchantment. All four books have characters who are my version of incubus or succubus -- not demons, but people who have an uncanny talent for sending erotic dreams. During the Napoleonic Wars, they were harnessed as spies to use this talent, whether they wanted to or not. Now the war is over and they are trying to adjust to ordinary life again. Except that they're not ordinary at all...
~ * ~
HEART OF CONSTANTINE was the WINNER of the HOLT Medallion Contest, Paranormal Category, in 2014. This award, given by Virginia Romance Writers, is a huge honor. I was thrilled then, still am, and always will be. (That’s why this announcement never goes away.)
Years ago, Frances Templestone left her husband and ran away to France with a lover. Now she’s back, widowed and more mature, but mostly unrepentant. A social pariah, she stays out of sight while her daughter Julia has her first London season.
Until Julia, who is as impetuous as her mother, sneaks out to a masquerade with an unsuitable man. Frances hastens to the rescue, and when she sees Julia about to get into a coach with a handsome stranger, she accuses him—very publicly—of being a rake who ruins innocent girls.
Soon she learns that Jasper, Lord Canterwell, is a respectable man. He wasn’t at the masquerade seeking an easy conquest. On the contrary—his daughter is missing, and he is searching for her everywhere. Aghast, Frances offers to help him. Rudely, he spurns her.
But Frances is determined and Jasper is desperate. Might a scandalous lady with a warm heart and a lively mind be just what a respectable gentleman needs?
Lady Rosamund and the Plague of Suitors, Book Three in the Rosie and McBrae Regency Mysteries, is out at last. Here's the blurb:
Lady Rosamund’s plan for a quiet return to London society goes awry when she rescues a woman fleeing along the road—the mistress of her brother, Lord Derwent. Rosamund takes her in, meaning to sort matters out with Derwent—but he has left town in a hurry, and soon the Bow Street Runners are after him for murder. If that wasn’t trouble enough, several suitors are vying for Lady Rosamund’s hand.
Luckily, Gilroy McBrae is in London to help Rosamund save her brother. Will their strained relationship, along with his rivals for her heart, impede the race to unmask the real murderer before Derwent is caught and hanged?
In other news, I've almost finished writing book 4 in the Perilous Secret series. I don't have a title for it yet. The heroine is Frances Templestone, who was a secondary character in both The Infidelity Curse and Embracing the Scandal. She deserves a happily ever after, so I'm giving it to her in book 4.
The Infidelity Curse is book 3 in the Perilous Secrets series. For those who read The Smuggler's Escape and felt sorry for Lucretia Tifton, who was stuck in a horrible marriage, I have good news for you. In The Infidelity Curse, Lucretia gets her happily ever after at last. :)
Embracing the Scandal, a novella in the Perilous Secrets series, is now available on its own. (It was previously available in an anthology, Christmas Kisses, along with stories by Cheryl Bolen, Samantha Grace, Lana Williams, Collette Cameron, Sasha Cottman, Donna Cummings, Suzanna Medeiros, Alina K. Field, Alanna Lucas, and Heather Boyd. THIS ANTHOLOGY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK, but can still be found in both soft and hardcover.)
2020's Christmas novella, Unwise But Not Dishonorable, was originally published in the anthology Mistletoe and Mayhem. Now it's available on its own! It's part of the Perilous Secrets series. Both the hero and heroine were secondary characters in The Smuggler's Escape. Now they have a story of their own.
Lady Rosamund and the Horned God (book 2 in the Rosie and McBrae Regency Mysteries) is out now!
Lord Bellweather's Lady, a Magical Regency, is now out! The hero is half-fairy and quite a challenge for the beleaguered heroine, but she proves her mettle in the end. (For those who enjoyed Lady of the Flames, it's a very loosely connected sequel.)
His Lordship's Incorrigible Wife, a sequel to The Smuggler's Escape, came out on June 16th, 2021
The 13-author anthology, Winter Wishes, is no longer available, but my story, A Kiss Upon the Wind, is now available on its own. (Buy links are on both the home page and the book page.) Why is Lady Isolde’s father prepared to pay £10,000 to marry her off for the third time? Find the answer to this and other intriguing questions in A Kiss Upon the Wind!
My Regency romance, The Smuggler's Escape, is the first in my Perilous Secrets series. It's about a lady smuggler in the southeast of England. It's a revised version of a book I wrote years ago. After writing several books with love scenes in them, I got tired of writing those scenes -- sort of a 'been there, written that', like having a car chase in every book. But anyway, when I wrote the scenes in the smuggler book, I was in my love scenes heyday, so to speak, and I'm enjoying reading what I wrote then and hope you will too. There's also lots of adventure and strife -- fun to write and hopefully suspenseful to read. His Lordship's Incorrigible Wife, is the second in the series, and The Infidelity Curse is the third. Embracing the Scandal, the novella in the Christmas anthology, Christmas Kisses, is also part of the Perilous Secrets series.
My short story, "The Last Page", was included in the anthology Crime Travel, which was released December 8th, 2019, Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day. (I'm likely to do that any day, but it's cool that there's an actual day assigned to it.) The stories are all about crime and time travel -- a fun combo, don't you think? It certainly inspired me to write one. :)
My two novellas, The Reluctant Seductress and Love at First Dance, which were previously published in separate anthologies, are now available together as Yuletide Nights. Actually, there are four novellas in this particular story universe. The other two were published years ago -- Under a Christmas Spell and Under a New Year's Enchantment. All four books have characters who are my version of incubus or succubus -- not demons, but people who have an uncanny talent for sending erotic dreams. During the Napoleonic Wars, they were harnessed as spies to use this talent, whether they wanted to or not. Now the war is over and they are trying to adjust to ordinary life again. Except that they're not ordinary at all...
~ * ~
HEART OF CONSTANTINE was the WINNER of the HOLT Medallion Contest, Paranormal Category, in 2014. This award, given by Virginia Romance Writers, is a huge honor. I was thrilled then, still am, and always will be. (That’s why this announcement never goes away.)
Crazy Earl looking deceptively sweet while asleep.
