Showing posts with label secrets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label secrets. Show all posts

Saturday, January 2, 2016

THE BLIND DATE - MARGARET TANNER


TRUE CONFESSIONS – MARGARET TANNER

 
In my late teens in the 1960’s, I worked for a large government department in a typing pool with about twenty girls in it. Yes, I am that old.  I started off with a manual typewriter and we had to type up an original and four carbon copies of every report or letter we did. I used to arrive home every night with black carbon marks on my sleeve. And don’t get me started on the woes of changing a typewriter ribbon.  But I digress.

 In those times in the typing pool, a blind date was a thing of ridicule. You were looked upon as desperate because you couldn’t find a man of your own, and had to rely on some other girl’s generosity to introduce you to her brother, her boyfriend’s mate etc.

 Anyway, every year there was an annual ball, and if you didn’t attend, you were socially ruined. It was then public knowledge that you couldn’t get yourself a man.

 My girlfriend and I cringed when everyone else was discussing their ball gown etc. and we hadn’t even been asked. Well, our fear of missing out on the ball and the subsequent humiliation led us to contemplate a desperate plan - the blind date. She lined me up with the guy living across the road from her, and I lined her up with my cousin who had just broken up with his girlfriend.

 We had a great time at the ball, and no-one ever knew our dark and deadly secret. We had attended the ball in the company of our blind dates.

 My cousin ended up going back to his girlfriend, and I ended up marrying my blind date.

 
I have written two novels set during the 1960’s, Make Love Not War which is published by BWL and a soon to be published BWL novel, Daddy Dilemma. These are called Vintage novels by some people. I knew I was getting fairly long in the tooth but I didn’t think my heyday would be considered Vintage. I would rather be called antique, I mean, that does put you in mind of something desirable and expensive, so I could live with that.

 
BLURB:  MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

Make love, not war was the catch cry of the 1960’s. Against a background of anti-war demonstrations, hippies and free love, Caroline’s life is in turmoil. Her soldier brother is on his way to the jungles of Vietnam. She discovers she is pregnant with her wealthy boss’ baby, and her draft dodger friend is on the run and needs her help. 

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

MARGARET TANNER - SECRETS


SECRETS - WE ALL HAVE THEM

How many of us have secrets?

I doubt if there would be many people who don’t have at least one secret. I don’t mean of the dark, dangerous variety, but some of us may well have a secret that could place us in danger. Fortunately, I am not one of those.

My secret – I am a chocoholic. How many times have I told my hubby that I no longer eat chocolates, then I sneak off to my several hiding places (not to be divulged on pain of death), where my secret stash is hidden. You should always have more than one hideout for your illicit goodies just in case one of them is discovered. I don’t want to be like Old Mother Hubbard – who went to the cupboard to get her dog a bone, and when she got there the cupboard was bare and the poor doggie had none. Change that to and when Margaret got to her secret stash, the chokkies were gone and she had none. A disaster of that proportion could not be allowed to happen, hence a few hiding places. I call it my insurance policy.

In many families there are secrets that will never see the light of day, except if someone in the family is into Geneology. My sister has unearthed some shocking scandals as she undertook research into our family tree. I swear, I could write a book about it. One of the most shocking secrets was the fact that my grandmother had a baby when she was unmarried and only eighteen years old. The baby died when he was only 6 days old. A couple of years later she married my grandfather. No-one knew that, it remained hidden for 120 years, until my sister unearthed the information during her research.

Another relative spent time in jail in the 1880’s for aiding and abetting Ned Kelly, a famous Australian bushranger (outlaw). Then there were all the “premature” babies that were born to aunts and great aunts. Not to mention one great uncle who had two wives. Then there was a cousin who ran off with a man who was older than her father. That caused a stir. Especially as the man had a wife and 4 children. Still, can’t be all bad, thirty years later, and the couple are still together.

In my experience, and I do have to quantify this by saying I mainly read historical romance because that is what I write, there are often dark secrets lurking in the background. Some of these could be life threatening, in any case at the very least they threaten the hero and heroine’s chance of getting their happily ever after ending.

In my novel, Allison’s War, the heroine’s secret is that the baby she is expecting does not belong to her husband.

 

In Daring Masquerade, my heroine pretends she is a boy so she can gain employment with the hero. Then, of course, she falls in love with the hero. I mean, what can she do about it?

In my novel, Haunted Hearts, (the only contemporary I have published), the heroine discovers that her father-in-law has been going through her cupboard drawers and stealing her panties.
 
So, you can see that secrets abound in my novels, and I am sure I am not alone in this regard. A secret can drive our stories along, add passion and drama, and keep the reader wondering what is this secret? How can it be resolved? Will the hero and heroine get their HEA?

 Margaret Tanner writes historical romance for Books We Love.


 


 

 

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