Monday, June 01, 2015

Newsletter June 2015; An adventure in Dallas, and two new releases!


International Party at RT 2015

This month could be a huge, huge, newsletter, so I’ll give you my news as briefly as I can. Then I’ll put a couple of extra posts out, for the two new releases I have this month. I’m posting all over the place, too, so prepare yourselves!
First, my American adventure, and this year, it really was something!
I left the UK on the 28th April, and flew to San Antonio on a pretty uneventful journey. An uneventful 16 hour journey. My friend and colleage, Desiree Holt, met me and I had a wonderful week with her. We went to Bandera, Cowboy Capital of the World, and I treated myself to a pair of cowboy boots. Well, what else do you buy? They are so comfortable, I can’t believe I never bought a pair before. And a Stetson for the hubster. Crushable, the man said. We had some storms, but nothing compared to what was to come.
I flew to Dallas and stayed with two wonderful people. I had planned to see a little of Dallas, but the storms were growing by then, and it was good to have a few days to try to get some work done, and to prepare for the madness that is the RT Convention.





I arrived at the RT hotel, the Hyatt Regency, Dallas, on the Saturday before RT. I really enjoyed meeting the early arrivals. On the Sunday I went to Dealey Plaza for the Kennedy exhibition there. It was a really great exhibition. Whoever had arranged it had taken lots of care over the presentation. Even though the Sixth Floor was packed, I had plenty of time to look at the displays, which took us through the life of Kennedy, his family, the concerns of the time and the political atmosphere. Everything was used beautifully, from artifacts from the time, to video clips and written accounts. By the time I reached the window, which was set up as Oswald had arranged it that fateful day, I had chills. They even dealt with the controversies surrounding the conspiracy theories without detracting from the intensity.
No photographs are allowed on the sixth floor, but I went up to the seventh floor, and took photos from that vantage point. It appears that Oswald nearly missed his moment, as the white cross on the road was not the best angle he could have taken. The sight really brought home that fateful day in November, 1963.
After that sobering but fascinating interlude I hardly had time to draw breath before RT started! I had events I had to attend scattered over the entire convention. On the day before, we had a great meeting of all the international attendees. People come from all over the world to attend RT, from Thailand to Australia, Azerbaijan to Europe. We met in the hotel, and had a great time exchanging gifts and chatting.
On the first day of the convention, I inducted two or three hundred virgins (I didn’t count!) Aided and abetted by the owner of RT, Kathryn Falk, and my fellow conspirator, PJ Schneider, we warned, advised and helped said virgins to make the most of their first time. I appeared at the events organised by my publishers Samhain and Kensington, and talked with my editors. I went to dinners and cocktail parties. I dressed up for the evening parties. At the end, I was exhausted, and slept for most of the drive to Kathryn Falk’s ranch, where I spent the last week.
The ranch is always a delight to stay in. And this time it was like the Revenge of the Thunderstorm. Kathryn leaves close to Dallas, and we got the full force of the weather. By my last day, I was rattled and hummed. The drive to the airport was hairy, and when I got there, the airline put me on an earlier flight, which left an hour later. While the airport was in chaos, the airlines did the best they could to get everyone away, and in the end, I caught my connection to Manchester, UK. Unfortunately, I had a seat next to the lavatory, and no window view. Not the best of seats. I did mention it to the woman at the check-in desk, who said I had a good seat because it was an aisle seat. Thoroughly rattled, I took her word for it, when I shouldn’t have. The seat was terrible. Don’t sit in row 40 on an Airbus 300-330, that’s all I can say.
So when I arrived home, I slept and slept and slept. And then I slept some more.
The trip was amazing, and inspirational in lots of ways. I saw new parts of the US, got a bit of work done and got lots of inspiration!
And now for the two new releases. I’ll show you the covers and put the brief details here, but I plan to put out more details and excerpts nearer the time of release.
June, 2015, marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. The battle and the defeat of Napoleon marked the way Europe would look for another hundred years, so it’s important as well as being a fascinating period in history. I’ve written two novellas about two very different couples to mark the anniversary, and the stories have rekindled my interest in the Regency. There are more stories to tell, and I really want to do them. Both books are available now for preorder.
The first is Dreaming of Waterloo, part of an anthology to commemorate the battle. I have the honour to share the book space with some great authors, and this book is going out at 99 cents, as a box set. 
About the Story:
They called him “Lucky,” but not all injuries are physical ones. Plagued by headaches and living nightmares, Paul, Lord Sherstone returns to London to a wife he doesn’t know and an estate he has to manage. He daren’t let her close, even though he is falling in love with her all over again.
Married and abandoned in a month, Hetty learned to manage a large estate and fend off would-be lovers, but a threat emerges much closer to home and from an unexpected place. In need of help she turns to Paul but since his return he has only shut her out. Refusing to give up on the man she fell in love with five years ago, Hetty has to persuade her husband to let her into his bed—and his heart.
Preorder now: LINK HERE
Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/736061146513329/

The second release is It Started At Waterloo and it features one of the surgeons at the battle, who turns out to be more than the heroine thinks he is!
Does she love him enough to let him go?
After three straight days working beside surgeon Will Kennaway to treat the wounded of Waterloo, Amelia Hartwell collapses on the nearest bed to sleep. Surely she can be forgiven for not caring that the warm body sleeping next to hers is Will’s.
Amelia’s status-hungry mother, however, couldn’t be more pleased to have an excuse to get the painfully shy, socially awkward Amelia married off, albeit to a less-than-ultra-rich husband.
Will doesn’t keep his title a deep, dark secret. His little-known earldom simply affords him the financial freedom to focus solely on healing the sick. But now that he has a wife to think about—and to admire, thanks to her unstinting bravery at Waterloo—he reluctantly takes up the mantle of earl to do his duty.
Missing her meaningful work as a nurse, Amelia finds herself floundering in society’s glaring spotlight, wondering if Will regrets being forced to marry. Perhaps it might even be better to give him his freedom, even if doing so will break her heart…
Warning: Steamy, battlefield kisses under a tent canvas lead to steamy scenes in the bedroom.
You can preorder the ebook at any good bookstore or at the publisher Samhain.
Here’s the Amazon link:

Keep watching for more details of these new releases!



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