Amazon.co.uk' s Summer sale includes M&B historicals

Amazon.co.uk has put 138 different romances on a half price sale. including M&B historicals and the very popular Lords & Ladies collection. It is a chance to pick up a bargain. Off the top of my head, I saw several Nicola Cornicks including The Last Rake in London. Louisa Allen's The Outrageous Lady Felsham was there as was Elizabeth Beacon's Less than A Perfect Lady. And Michelle Styles's Viking Warrior Unwilling Wife and An Impulsive Debutante as well as Michelle Willingham's The Warrior's Touch.
It could be a great time to pick up a bargain.

Georgina Devon: Fifi -- the Chihuahua in rhinestones

The cute, down trodden looking dog is Fifi. She's wearing her pink rhinestone coat. We call her our Rhinestone Chihuahua (a play on words with Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy and if you remember that song...well, you're my age and that's not good!). If you look closely you'll see her pink sweater under her coat. It's 68 degrees Fahrenheit in our house and she's freezing!. The book cover posted with this blog is my North American one for Her Rebel Lord which is still available as an ebook at eharlequin.com. On the cover the heroine wears a pink dress (kinda like Fifi's coat ), but Jenna de Warre has the hero, Duncan McNabb, in his disguise as The Ferguson to keep her warm.
Fifi, unfortunately, has to sleep on an electric heating pad to really stay warm. It's so hot here in Tucson most of the year, I hate to turn the heater up to 70! But if Fifi lived in 1746, and she was a pampered dog (and they didn't have Chihuahuas in England then), her heating pad would have been a brick or rock that had been heated in the fire, taken out and wrapped in cloth. Luckily for Fifi, things have changed.

Still, Her Rebel Lord opens in Jenna's stillroom and it's cold there. She has a small brazier to keep her warm but it doesn't put off enough heat because she's in a stone castle. Just imagine how cold she would have been, although she was likely much more tolerant of the temperature than you or I or Fifi!

Just one more way our lives are so different from the people we write about. But human emotions never change - we are humans no matter what century we are born and live in. That's the real truth of our books.

Thanks again the Michelle for posting this and Fifi's picture and the NA picture of Her Rebel Lord!

Best,
Georgina Devon

Georgina Devon: The Dog in the Red Coat

The dog you see in the dashing red coat with black trim is my miniature pincher, known as Rosebud – normally. If she’s in one of her, “I’m the boss” moods, she’s the Queen Mini. If she’s on guard duty in the backyard, she’s the Mighty Mini.

However, if you extend your imagination and add gold epaulets, gold buttons down the front and make the coat a cut-away, then add a dress sword, white breeches and black boots, you are starting to have the uniform of an English officer during the time of the 1745 Jacobite Uprising. This was the last great battle between the Jacobites (those who favored a Stuart on the British throne) and those who wanted the German Hanovers on the throne. We all know who won.

When I first started HER REBEL LORD, I had to decide which side my hero, Duncan McNabb, was on. He is Scottish on his father’s side and English on his mother’s. He inherited his English title through his mother (some titles can pass through the woman if she is the only remaining heir), but his heart is with the Jacobites. The English redcoats (remember Rosebud above) killed his father. Duncan chooses to fight at Culloden for Bonnie Prince Charlie to avenge his father’s death and because the Stuart prince was the rightful heir to the crown. But Duncan fights under a different name so as not to jeopardize his English title since he has no heir.

There are cases where the head of a clan fought at Culloden with his younger sons while his heir stayed home. That way, the heir would not be accused of treason if the uprising failed and with luck the title and lands would remain in the family no matter what.

Duncan escapes Culloden with his life. Many didn’t. Taking up his English title, Duncan takes on an alter ego, The Ferguson, named after his father’s clan, and forms a smuggling gang that’s sole purpose is to get surviving Jacobites out of Britain. It becomes his life’s work.

Jenna de Warre is the only child of Bloody Ayre, an Englishman who fought with the Duke of Cumberland. But her dead mother was Scottish. Jenna’s cousin, Gavin, fought at Culloden alongside Duncan and is now on the run.

Jenna and Duncan meet over Gavin’s unconscious body that is sprawled in the mud in a freezing rain near Carlisle. Duncan plans to smuggle Gavin to France. But Gavin must heal more before he can make the journey.

Jenna discovers The Ferguson is really Duncan, Lord Byrne, the dandy who’s recently moved to the area. This knowledge puts her in a dangerous position. She has a secret people will kill to know or to protect.

A healer, she offers to help Duncan with any escapees who are ill. Working together they fall in love.

Duncan can and will risk his life for the Jacobite cause, but can he risk the life of the woman he is beginning to love – the woman who’s carrying his child?

That’s the basis of HER REBEL LORD. The real truth is that men and women fought and died for Bonnie Prince Charlie. After Culloden, wearing a tartan was against the law in Britain. This law remained in place until George IV, enamored of Sir Walter Scot’s tales, made it legal to once more wear a tartan.

I wish to thank Michelle Styles for making this blog possible. She had to put it on the site and upload Rosebud’s picture and the book’s UK cover. I’m technically challenged.

Best,
Georgina Devon

Despite being technically challenged, Georgina has crafted a wonderful romance HER REBEL LORD which is out in retail this month in the UK. It is also available for e-book download.

Mills & Boon Historicals are now e-books

Mills & Boon Historical along with all the other Mills & Boon books are available in e-book format.
This means books like the hugely popular Lords & Ladies series as well as the M&B Historical can be easily downloaded in an Abode format

Summer Sale at Mills and Boon Online!

Mills and Boon Online are having a summer sale, offering a number of books at really prices. Anne Herries's A Wealthy Gentleman, Louise Allen's Not Quite A Lady and Michelle Styles's Sold and Seduced are all in the sale for 99p. As M&B does flat rate shipping to the UK and North America, now is your chance to stock up.

An Interview with... Anne Herries

Anne Herries is a firm favourite with many Harlequin Historical readers. The 2004 winner of the RNA's Romance prize, she is once again a finalist for the prize with her Regency -- An Improper Companion. This month, Anne has a book out in both Harlequin Historicals as well as Mills and Boon Historicals. She kindly took some time out of her busy schedule to answer some of our questions.

1. What attracts you to your chosen time period?
I write all time periods, from Anglo Saxon to WW11 and the occasional modern story, but Regency is a favourite. It is partly to do with the clothes, I think, though I like the manners very much. It all depends on the idea that comes for the story, which always suggests its own period. I enjoy the cut and thrust of conversation that can be taken two ways and is often amusing when writing Regency.

2. What is about the heroes from that time period that excites you?
I like laid back Englishmen who have exquisite manners and a sense of honour but also a wicked sense of humour. I also like swashbuckling pirates and that type of hero, but I think the cool English hero who is hardly ever ruffled but always comes to the rescue is my favourite.

3. What is the worst thing about being a writer?
Having a book refused. Each book you write is like a child. You give birth to it painfully, with a lot of blood sweat and tears, as well as laughter, and if it is rejected it hurts like hell for a while. However, most of us have to go through it and you just have to pick yourself up, grit your teeth and do it all over again.

4. Although many writers know they want to be a writer from an early age, was there something in particular that made you decide to pursue your dream?
I don't think I thought about it until I was in my thirties, because I was always too busy doing other things. I was very imaginative as a child and always making up stories in my head, but putting them on paper didn't occur to me until I had to stay home with my beloved dog. He couldn't get out much and hated being left so I read and knitted until I was bored. I then decided to write my book, and the first one duly went off to M&B - who sensibly lost it, or so they said when I asked nine months later. It was such awful rubbish that they did the only sensible thing and denied all knowledge. I learn quickly though and my second completed book was accepted by Robert Hale. It was a year or so before Devil's Kin was taken by M&B and longer before I got a second accepted. However, once I got into my stride I did OK.

5. How long after you first started submitting, did it take for you to have your first book accepted?
I think it must have been about a year before the second one actually went to a publisher. I re-wrote it eleven times!

6. What is the biggest challenge you face when you are writing a book? The beginning, middle or end?
I always know how a book will end and once started at the end, and then wrote the beginning and joined the two bits up. However, I wouldn't recommend it and I start at the beginning these days. If you aren't too sure where you are going the middle bit can be a bit daunting, because it is often slower than the dashing start we all try for and endings are always satisfactory. I don't usually have too much trouble anywhere, but if I do I go back and revise the first chapters and that usually sorts out any problems I have. Of course my editors sometimes want changes, and that can be difficult when you first look at what they want, because it may mean rethinking something you thought was a must. I have learned not to think in the negative. It can be done, it just takes some thought and work - and the biggest thing is to accept that they have the right to ask for changes. The publisher pays for everything. They put their name to the book as much as the author and they have to sell it to make the business pay so it is silly to sulk because they want to change a name you like or something similar. Just get on with it!

7. When you are not writing, what do you do?
I like shopping, especially for shoes. I enjoy going for a nice walk with my husband, and we walk a lot in Spain where we take holidays as often as we can, which is about four times a year. There I swim, walk, read, do a little bit of writing and go out for meals. I also like watching good films on TV - like the Jane Austen season. I also like the Internet, blogs and email - perhaps too much.


8. What are some of your favourite movies?
Gone with the Wind. Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre etc. I also enjoy good crime films. I like watching Midsomer Murders.

9. Who are some of your favourite romance authors?
I am a big fan of the classics and Margaret Mitchell, but if we come to modern authors there are a lot of them. I review books with some friends for Romance authors. and we always give favourable reviews. I have no interest in hurting people, especially authors like myself. So I set up the redrosesforauthors review site in order to give something back to a career that has been good to me and help authors, particular those who are just starting. I have recently reviewed Nicola Cornick, Fenella Jane Miller, Marina Oliver, Karen Rose Smith and lots of other authors. Not just regency but magic and all sorts, and I loved quite a few of them. I could never say one was my favourite because tomorrow I shall read another book that will blow my socks off.


10, What does your writing cave look like?
It looks as if a bomb hit it! I have books everywhere, not quite floor to ceiling but nearly. My husband complains the bookcase is too heavy. I have a lovely modern flat screen computer he bought me for my birthday and also a lap top. My desk at this moment is barely visible from the clutter, and finished manuscripts cover most of the floor. Most people peep in at the door and run away.

11. Can you tell us about your future books?
I am in the middle of writing a single M&B Regency title, because I've done several series for them, but after this one I have to finish the third in the Dynasty trilogy. The first came out in USA this month - Forbidden Lady. I am not sure when it comes out here, because there is a Regency trilogy scheduled for later this year, and I think they want two other Regency stories after that. For Severn House I am writing a crime series set in the 1920's and I had a wonderful review for the first from Booklist yesterday so I am still glowing. I may write some sagas for someone, but that is in the future. Mostly it is M&B and the crime that I have in mind for now.

M&B H April Release: A Most Unconvetional Courtship by Louise Allen

Respectable gentleman…accidental pirate!
Benedict Casper Chancellor, Earl of Blakeney, is the kind of elegantly conservative English lord that Alessa despises. She wants nothing to do with him – even if he is shaped like a Greek statue come to life! But the maddening man seems determined to wrest her away from her comfortable life in beautiful Corfu. Worse, he’ll return her to the bosom of her stuffy family.
The Earl hasn’t anticipated Alessa’s propensity to get herself into a scrape. Now, in order to rescue her, this highly conventional Englishman will have to turn pirate!

Buy A Most Unconventional Courtship

M&B H April Release: A Worthy Gentleman by Anne Herries

She’d put the shadows of her past behind her…
Now, Miss Sarah Hunter was delighted at the prospect of a Season in London – and at the opportunity to spend time with the man who’d once saved her life! But Mr Elworthy was much changed. Rumours and secrets tarnished his honourable name, and the ton had begun to wonder where the truth of the matter lay. He found a staunch champion in Sarah – but as she defended him she was inexorably drawn into the mystery…
The Hellfire Mysteries Three daring gentlemen who’ll brave all for the sake of the women they love!

Buy A Worthy Gentleman

M&B H April Release: Rake's Wager by Miranda Jarrett

The rake’s reform
Miss Cassia Penny’s inspired style has always set the fashion – and Richard Blackley is in need of her talent!
Blackley, coming from an impoverished background, is determined to establish himself as a proper London gentleman. When Cassia loses a wager, he collects by demanding her services to refurbish his run-down estate. He quickly realises her beauty is the most perfect adornment his home could have.
Now, as Cassia restores the old house, she begins to transform Richard. The unlikely pair are drawn together – until the appearance of a secret from Richard’s past…

Buy Rake's Wager

M&B H April Release: Sold and Seduced by Michelle Styles

In just seven days, she will beg for his kiss!
Lydia Veratia made one mistake - and now her freedom is forfeit to the man who all Rome knows as the Sea Wolf. Sold into marriage, the one thing over which she still has control is her own desire. So when Fabius Aro offers her a wager - if she doesn't please for his kisses in the next seven days, then she will have her independence - Lydia thinks it will be easily won.
But Aro is a dangerously attractive man. And Lydia is finding his lips more and more tempting...


Buy Sold and Seduced

M&B H April Release: Wanted! by Pam Crooks

He’s looking for revenge…
Tough, rugged, and a dead-eye shot – Ross Santana is the kind of man a woman wants at her side…and in her bed. She’s a wanted woman…
Respectable, refined, her town’s virtuous bank-teller – Lark Renault hides a dark secret.
And he wants her for himself!
Their new passion heals old scars: but the bounty-hunter and the outlaw must find a way to work together against the danger on their trail!

Buy Wanted!

Wed Under Western Skies UK, May

I just received one whole copy of this anthology with the beautiful cover!
For three special women, love will be found in the most unexpected of places!

ABANDONED by Carolyn Davidson
The sole survivor of a wagon train raid, Elizabeth Travis has been left with amnesia. Cameron Montgomery comes to her rescue and takes special care of her. But how can she desire him while she's a woman with no past?

ALMOST A BRIDE by Cheryl St.John
The only unmarried woman in town, Charmaine Renlow has been waiting years for her beau to propose, and she's had enough. Maybe it's time to move on to greener pastures...like single father Jack Easton's homestead!

HIS BROTHER'S BRIDE by Jenna Kernan
Only a desperate woman would marry a man she'd never met, even if it was her dying husband's last request. But with a young daughter to protect, Clara Justice is desperate, so she accepts the proposal from Nate, the black sheep of the family...

M&B H March Release: The Tenderfoot Bride by Cheryl St John

A new start, a new home…
Linnea McConaughy was not the sturdy widow rancher Will Tucker expected to manage his household. Instead, she was a tiny slip of a woman whose eyes betrayed a desperate need to find a place to belong. Will found himself wanting to protect her and offer her a home with him…
…and a new love?
Linnea knew that she had to keep her past a secret, even though her attractive employer had shown her kindness, even tenderness. But could Will ever accept her shameful past – and another man’s baby?

Buy The Tenderfoot Bride

HH And M&BH March Release: Innocence and Impropriety by Diane Gaston

Jameson Flynn is a man with a mission. Nothing will knock him off course. Until one summer's evening in Vauxhall Gardens, when a woman's song reminds him of the world he left behind.
Rose O'Keefe's beautiful voice and graceful, earthy sensuality have made her a sensation among the pleasure-seekers of the night. In such dissolute company, how long can it be before her virtue is compromised?
The man who can make or break Flynn's career desires Rose as his mistress. Soon Flynn will have to choose what matters to him most—success or love….

Read the excerpt

Buy
Innocence and Impropriety