February news and other stuff

 

As the world goes mad, we can retreat into the past and remind ourselves - it was always like this.

News

The more I read history books and look at past newspapers and letters, it's weirdly comforting to realise that the world was always in some kind of chaos. But they muddled through, and we will, too.

I'm writing again! I've found the joy again, the ability to lose myself in a book, reading and writing, too. Maybe we really are turning things around.

So, new stories!

Happy February!

Remember this?

It started a new collection of stories. There are two novellas in Dragonblade anthologies that are shortly going to come out as standalone stories. If you wanted to buy Once Upon a Midnight Dreary, or Star of Wonder, you'd better hurry up, because they're coming off the shelves soon. Or you could just wait for the novellas, brand new covers and officially part of the Brazen Burrells series.

It started with Lyon Eyes, when the hero's sister married into the Burrell family. I could just see the story unfolding before my inner eyes. It's a joy.

Perhaps moving to the Regency era was the answer.

The series is called The Brazen Burrells. It's about Frank's three sisters, and their daring attempt to find husbands in the London season. Each sister gets a book of her own.

The three sisters are getting older, but they and their mother are determined to have at least one season. If one of the sisters can find a husband willing to sponsor the others, then maybe more.

The Burrells are like many of the women on the edge of society at these times. They are respectably born, but not a member of the "club" that was high society, the interwoven network of families that ruled the country at that time.

What they have is spectacular beauty, and what we might call chutzpah. Or plain cheekiness, and just enough money to hire a house in Mayfair. They have a modest dowry apeice, and that's about it.

They become that season's sensation. May, 1816 was when the only daughter of the Regent, and heir to the throne after him married, so 1816 was a busy season. it was also the Year Without A Summer, but I'll talk about that another time.

Of course there are obstacles, and of course there are sexy, handsome heroes to sweep my heroines off their feet.

Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it?

But it isn't. Not entirely.

I based their stories on the Gunning Girls, three Irish girls who took London by storm in the mid eighteenth century. There were three, but it's the oldest two most people concentrate on.

Maria Gunning married the Earl of Coventry. She died young, but I'm not putting that part in.

Elizabeth Gunning lived much longer, and married two dukes. She was known as the Double Duchess.

They did spectacularly well. Elizabeth had eight children over the course of her two marriages, which makes my eyes water slightly!

So I wrote a series about them, but I only used them as inspiration. So while that kind of success didn't happen often, it did happen, and now I'm writing about it.

Anyway, I do hope you're all doing well and thank you so much for helping me to keep my career alive. See you soon!