WIP: Damage and Neglect

Here’s a teaser from the first part of “Charred Hope,” a novella for Love’s Perilous Road. It is the hero and heroine’s second meeting. The day before she all but threw him out when he came unannounced to bring her something. When she opened it, she was flooded with chagrin and embarrassment. She has come […]

Preparing for Battle

From Snowed by the Wallflower, in which our reluctant hero prepares to face his fate— “I should never have let you spend so much time with my grandfather’s valet!” John Conlyn, Earl of Ridgemont scowled at the giant of a man who had once been his batman, with no more duties than to keep his […]

Darkness and Light

Here on the east coast of the US, the day begins to darken by 4 PM. Add to that general dreariness and grey clouds and it is fair dim this month. Luckily it is the season of light. There is a reason our ancestors of most traditions put their light festivals in late December! As […]

Abolition in New Orleans

Welcome Rue Allyn, with the facts behind the fiction in her novel, The Creole Duchess What you may not know about ‘the Underground Railroad.’ 1. Just in case you are unfamiliar with the term, “The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses… in the United States used by enslaved African Americans…” […]

Life is good!

We have new books to celebrate. While I have been absent from this blog, Duke in Name Only went live and got some much deserved attention on Facebook. The early reviews are terrific. This is an exciting story filled with adventure, danger, discovery, and romance…that holds your attention start to finish with a happy ending […]

Joining the Army in Portugal

This week I took ship and rambled to Portugal with Dorothea O’Toole who has recently wed to a colonel. The lives of the camp followers were, well, appalling in some ways. Yet those women are as cheerful as they are tough. They contribute heroically to the well-being of the troops without compensation and little respect. […]

Oh Glorious Day

Easter brings us so much joy. It overflows into every corner of my life. This looks to be a sunny—and super busy—week. I am working away on a short story that will be ***FREE*** to all my newsletter subscribers. The winner of my made-to-order contest asked me to feature a gorgeous hero, a lute playing […]

Can’t Hide Forever

For months Phillip, the Duke in Name Only, lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, with the Archers in relative obscurity as “Artie.” His past was bound to catch up with him eventually! It happens while he is away, buying lumber to rebuild Archers’ Roost. ***** “We should check the lumber yards in Saint Louis. We could […]