Christmas and Hanukkah have passed, and I hope your celebrations were happy. Now is the usual time to start thinking about resolutions for the New Year.
I haven’t made any, and don’t intend to. Last year I decided my only resolution would be to take baby steps into the future. I think that’s probably one of the few resolutions I’ve ever kept!
What I need, I suppose, is motivation!!! With that in mind, here are some words of wisdom from famous authors of the past:
When you’re as old as I am, it’s always nice to hear that it’s never too late. But actually, I found this bit of advice more in tune with the author and the upcoming holiday:
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Share it in the comments below.
You can find more suggestions for your New Year’s resolution prep at Parade.com.
Image credits: Depositphotos.com
And this time I’m sharing three fantastic new collections of stories about every Regency romance reader’s favorite topics: weddings and dukes.
My fellow Bluestocking Belle authors, Jude Knight, Cerise Deland, and Elizabeth Ellen Carter, have stories in this multi-author collection, released 9/27/22.
The Boast—pride goeth before the fall…
After facilitating the match of the season, Lady Pandora “Pansy” Osbourne, has boasted that she is the best matchmaker The Ton has ever seen. Always willing to bring her cousin down a peg or two, her cousin, Lady Octavia Sewell insists that was no feat of matchmaking at all, as the couple involved were clearly destined for one another despite Pansy’s meddling. A bitter argument ensues and a dreadful challenge is issued. Pansy must do more than say it… she must prove it.
The terms of the wager are set!
Pansy must produce no less than one match per month between people who have been notoriously unmarriageable—spinsters, bluestockings, rakes and fortune hunters, oh my! But there’s more riding on this than simply her pride! If Pansy loses, she will have to give up her most prized possession—a tiara that belonged to their grandmother will be forfeited into Octavia’s grasping hands.
Download the prologue here: https://BookHip.com/SVWMCTV
Bring on the Dukes! This collection includes stories by fellow Bluestocking Belles Caroline Warfield and Elizabeth Ellen Carter and is available for pre-order for the 12/29/22 release.
“It was a dark and snowy night…”
Winter has come and the holiday seasons have arrived. ‘Tis the season to be jolly for most, but beneath the joyous celebrations lurks moody, dark, and seductive dukes that make England’s most famous bard’s brooding lords look like charm boys. But this isn’t a tortured Danish prince or a tormented king with three conniving daughters. This is…
A Duke In Winter.
Ten of your favorite historical romance authors have come together for this wintery collection to set your pulse racing. Melt the snow a little with this collection of sexy tales of moody dukes and the women hot enough to warm them.
Indulge in the most unexpected of winter romantic tales!
Available for pre-order at Amazon.com
This summertime collection of stories released in August 2022 and was a USA Today Bestseller!
Welcome to a rollicking summer in Regency England, where the weather is warm, the ladies warmer, and the dukes sizzling-hot!
For lovers of historical romance, lose yourself in this collection of never before published Regency tales. From gambling halls to ballrooms, you’ll enjoy a summer with a wide cast of unforgettable characters. Themes from your favorite summertime songs have inspired these tales, so get ready for fun, fun, fun or a little old lady who drives her phaeton far too fast.
It’s glamour, passion, and adventure in one magical summer in Regency England!
Available at Amazon.com
Welcome to my June 2022 Quarter Days’ blog.
A couple of months ago I discovered a new-to-me Regency romance author, M.C. Beaton, in a roundabout way.
My sister and I were discussing what we liked and disliked about the cozy mystery series Agatha Raisin set in the modern-day Cotswolds, and, since the books are almost always better, I bought the first book in the series, The Quiche of Death. Surprisingly, the film version followed the plot almost to a tee.
It must have been karma or those pesky algorithms when shortly after, my daily Bookkbub deal included a Regency romance by M.C. Beaton.
If you’re a long-time Regency reader you might know of her books written under her maiden name, Marion Chesney. She was incredibly prolific. In addition to her ninety-nine Regency-set romances and romantic suspense stories, and the Agatha Raisin mysteries, she’s the author of the Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series, and the Edwardian Murder Mysteries featuring Lady Rose Summer.
Did I say she was amazingly prolific? Some scoff at self-publishing authors “churning out” books, but plenty of pulp fiction authors in the golden age of traditional publishing were writing and publishing lots and lots of stories and books.
I’ve read and enjoyed several of her Regencies because I love her voice, her cheeky sense of humor, and her daringly outlandish plots. Characters of all ages find love in her stories.
In The School for Manners series, a pair of eccentric middle-aged spinsters, poor, but “high ton,” take in unruly young ladies and launch them into society in madcap fashion. In the series A House for the Season, an odd set of servants blackmailed into servitude by a corrupt property manager, deal with even odder tenants every season.
In The Regency Intrigue Series, heroines take on mystery and murder. One of Beaton’s most daring heroes in this series is the ghost of a Georgian duke who is able to materialize every night.
It’s pretty wonderful that even after an author passes on, the stories are there to entertain future generations.
Do you have a favorite author who’s no longer with us? Please share in the comments!
0 1 Read moreI’m back with a Quarter Days’ post to tell you about a bevy of new Regency romances for your reading pleasure. Desperate Daughters, A Bluestocking Belles Collection With Friends releases May 8, 2022, and Claims of the Heart, the third book in my Macbeth Series, releases April 12, 2022.
Desperate Daughters includes my novella, Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match.
And good news! You can preorder the collection and my standalone full-length novel today for only 99 cents each.
Love Against the Odds
The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.
The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.
When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.
They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.
So they start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and al fresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the season to a close?
Lady Dorothea’s Curate: by Caroline Warfield
Employed at a hotel, Lady Dorothea Bigglesworth had no use for a title. It would only invite scorn, or, worse, pity. Plain Miss Doro Bigglesworth suited her fine. Ben Clarke dedicated his life to helping the neediest. It gave his life meaning. He tended to forget the younger son of a viscount went by “Honorable.” Neither saw the need to mention it to the other, until they were formally introduced— in a ballroom in York. Shocked.
Concerto: By Mary Lancaster
At the age of 27, Lady Barbara has long accepted her position on the shelf. She is thrilled to put aside her music-teaching in order to help her beautiful young sisters find eligible husbands. But then, a chance encounter with an unconventional and mysterious young piano tuner has her heart in a spin. Can she trust him? And can she save him from the lethal threat hanging over them both?
The Butler and the Bluestocking: By Rue Allyn
On arriving in York to visit his godmother, the honorable Malcolm K. Marr did not expect to find her house locked and empty. Nor did he expect to have to break in to the house to find shelter. Least of all did he expect to be awakened at mid-day after the break in to find a woman with the bearing of an Egyptian goddess demanding to know what he was doing in her house.
The Four-to-One Fancy: By Elizabeth Ellen Carter
Fate has given twins Ivy and Iris Bigglesworth a season in York. They vow to marry only brothers so the sisters will never be apart. But what are the odds of finding and falling in love with two eligible brothers? Hearts race when they meet two handsome cousins who are betting their future on a risky racing venture. Soon the twins learn there are more than fortunes to be lost on a four-to-one fancy.
I’ll Always Be Yours: By Ella Quinn
All her life Miss Harriett Staunton believed she was the natural daughter of an earl. In the merchant society in which she was raised, that only garnered improper proposals. Knowing she would never wed, she moved to York, far away from her London family.
Lord Sextus Trevor needs to wed. Unbeknownst to him his father has arranged a marriage. But before he is even told about the betrothal, he’s whisked off to York, where he meets Harriett Staunton and must find a way to defy his father.
Lord Cuckoo Comes Home: By Jude Knight
Dom Finchley only came to York as a favor to his half-brother, who asked him to attend a meeting there. After a devastating break with the Finchley family followed by ten years at war, he is keen to get the favor done and then leave to build the home he’s never had. A place to call his own.
Then he meets Chloe.
Chloe Tavistock is past the age for the marriage market, and unfashionable in her shape, her opinions, and her enthusiasms. She is not going to find a husband in York, whatever her fond brother might think.
And then she meets Dom.
Two people who have never fitted in just might be a perfect fit.
Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match: By Alina K. Field
He’s not just a perfect image of a soul-stirring hero, but a perfect-for-her match.
After years of putting up with her late husband’s rowdy friends, Honoria, Lady Twisden has escaped to York where she can paint, investigate antiquities, and enjoy freedom. Then her stepson appears with a long-lost relation in tow. Promised York’s marriage mart and the hospitality of his cousin’s doddering stepmother, Major August Kellborn is shocked to find that his fetching hostess is the one woman who stirs his heart.
A Duke For Josefina: By Meara Platt
Lady Josefina would much rather spend her time studying plants and their healing properties, but her father, the Earl of Seahaven, has died and left the family impoverished. Marriage seems her only alternative until she meets the handsome Duke of Bourne in an apothecary in York’s ancient Shambles. He offers her an intriguing proposition, a fake betrothal and a king’s ransom as reward if she returns with him to his estate and finds a cure for his sister’s illness. But will the true reward be his heart?
A Countess to Remember: By Sherry Ewing
Sometimes love finds you when you least expect it…
Patience, the young Dowager Countess of Seahaven cares for a bevy of stepdaughters, and a Season for each to find husbands seems out of reach. There’s been no chance for romance herself but fate intervenes in the form of Richard, Viscount Cranfield, in York for his sister’s Season. Will Patience allow herself time for love?
Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bMwL17
Claims of the Heart, a brand new full-length novel, is the third story in my Macbeth series. If you read Fated Hearts and wondered what became of Macbeth’s daughter Lucie, this is her story:
Since a perilous fall, Lucie Macbeth has been seeing more than a settled future as the heiress to a Scottish barony. The visions plaguing her include a man—one far above her class and breeding, and English to boot. He’s engaged to a duke’s granddaughter as well, and thus wholly inappropriate. Though she can’t marry him, and she won’t become any man’s leman, when the Sight warns her of danger to him, her conscience and her heart tell her she can’t walk away.
Since returning from Waterloo, Major Lord Rudgwick has been rusticating in the country teaching himself how to live as a man with only one hand and pondering how to end the engagement he contracted before his world turned upside down. But then a letter arrives from an old army comrade, requesting Rudgwick’s aid for his daughter, Lucie Macbeth, the woman he met one year earlier, the woman whose claims on his heart he can’t deny.
I wish you all happy reading, and I’ll see you in June for some Midsummer magic!
0 0 Read moreI’m reprising a post from a Christmas past. Some of you know that my husband of thirty-nine years passed away several weeks ago. I’ve been preoccupied with honoring his life and grieving, so I’m sharing this earlier Quarter Days blog. Enjoy!
In past posts, I talked about the English Quarter Days of Midsummer’s Day and Michaelmas.
To refresh your memory, Quarter Days were the four days during the year when rents were paid, servants hired, and contracts commenced. The last Quarter Day of the calendar year was the grand holiday of Christmas. Though the Quarter Day was December 25th, Christmas celebrations went on for twelve days.
We romance authors flood the lists every year with Christmas novellas, and not just the contemporary lists. Christmas Regency romances abound and sell well. But how to get the details right for our hero and heroine? How did the Christmas celebrations aid or interfere with a Regency hero’s wooing? How did they celebrate Christmas?
As I pointed out in an earlier post, Christmas falls around the time of the winter solstice. The pagan festivities of the season were Bacchanalian revels of feasting and drinking and other “wicked” practices. To encourage some order, the early Christian church designated December 25th as a religious holiday.
So, people went to church…and then they feasted, drank, etc.
Under the Puritan rule that resulted from the 17th century English Civil War, the observance of Christmas was banned. The Lord High Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, and his Puritan cohorts decided that English people needed to be protected from carnal delights of holiday celebrations. Christmas became a regular workday. Anyone celebrating could be subject to penalty.
The Puritans carried this attitude across the Pond. Christmas was illegal in their American colonies also.
With the restoration to the throne of Charles II (a man greatly given to Bacchanalian revels), Christmas was also restored in the English calendar of holidays.
Christmas as we know it was documented by Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol. In the story of Scrooge and Tiny Tim, Dickens brought to life the quintessential picture of a Victorian Christmas.
But if you’re writing a Regency-set Christmas romance, don’t pull out your copy of Dickens and copy his story world. To quote a post I wrote a couple of years ago:
Decorating with evergreen boughs and mistletoe (and kissing under the mistletoe!), wassailing, acting out pantomimes, and singing carols, were part of the Regency holiday celebration…Christmas trees and Santa Claus did not become popular until Victorian times.
Click on the link to read the rest of that post.
Or, the title most of us know it by, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, was written by an American, Clement Clarke Moore, in 1823. Dutch and German holiday traditions influenced the celebration of Christmas earlier in America than in England. Prince Albert, Victoria’s German prince, is credited with popularizing the Christmas tree in England.
Dickens brought us A Christmas Carol in 1843, but check out this series of illustrations by cartoonist George Cruikshanks. Even before Scrooge made his appearance, the early Victorians were holding over-the-top celebrations of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
No matter what holiday you celebrate, I wish you all the best in this season of holidays! Hold your loved ones close, and treasure every moment!
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When it comes to stealing a Lyon's fortune, it takes two to right a wrong.
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More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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