Monday, February 6, 2017

Introducing You To Our Special Promotion Celebrating #Canada150

The Series:

Each of the Canadian Historical Brides novels features a historical event in one of the ten provinces and three territories of Canada. The books, based on actual historical times, combine fact and fiction to show how the brides and grooms, all from diverse backgrounds, join in marriage to create new lives and build a great country.

Brides of Banff Springs

Brides of Banff Springs
Now available at your favorite online and print bookstores

Coming in March 2017

His Brother's Bride

His Brother's Bride
Coming in March 2017

Coming May 1, 2017

Romancing the Klondike  
 

Coming July 1, 2017

 
 
 

VISIT THE BWL BRIDES BLOG

 
2017 Blog Themes
JAN: The Beauty of Canada
Take a virtual tour of the splendors of Canada through the eyes of each authors.

FEB: Who's the bride?
Our authors will be introducing the brides from their books and telling you a little bit about their story. Warning: may involve teasers, but never spoilers.

MARCH: Facing Challenges
Writing historical and/or non-fiction can be a challenge. Read about each author's struggles as they work to bring their stories to life.

APRIL: Plotting
Writing any story can lead to a need to keep track of details, but when you are dealing with a historical setting, the details pile up. Read about the strategies each author uses for keeping track of details and writing their story. Are they a post-it note person? Do they create book bibles they follow faithfully? Are they pantsers, or careful and meticulous outliners? Read April posts to find out.

MAY: A Day in the Life
Let's face it, being an author is glamours and thrilling (ok, maybe not). So let's take a look into a typical day in the life of these authors - do they work a day job and then spend a few hours each evening flesh out a scene in their latest WIP? Maybe they are retired and write as the mood takes them. You will have to check each post to find out.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Queen Anne Stuart by Rosemary Morris




Tangled Love
By
Rosemary Morris

I have written three books set in the reign of Queen Anne Stuart. Each one is firmly set in past times.
Tangled Love set in England in 1706, during Queen Anne Stuart’s reign, is the story of a daughter’s sacred oath to her father, a Jacobite, two great estates, duty, betrayal and passionate love. PG
The inspiration for Tangled Love came when I read non-fiction about the Stuart Kings and Queens.


The Future Queen Anne Stuart

More often than not, when I mention Queen Anne people assume I refer to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s ill-fated queen. In fact, I am referring to Queen Anne Stuart, who reigned from 1702 to 1714. During her reign, the Duke of Marlborough, an ancestor of Winston Churchill, led the country to victory against the French in the war of Spanish succession. During her reign the Act of Union with Scotland, which has repercussions today, was passed

The Cinderella Princess
    
When the future Queen Anne Stuart was born on the 6th February, 1665, neither her uncle, King Charles II, nor her father, James, Charles’ brother, heir to the throne, imagined she would become the last of the Stuart monarchs. Charles’ seven bastards had proved his virility, so it seemed certain he would have legitimate heirs to the throne, but his queen was barren. However, his brother and sister-in-law, James and Anne, the Duke and Duchess of York, had produced heirs, an older brother and sister for the latest addition to their nursery, Baby Anne.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
Princess Anne and her older sister, Princess Mary, grew up in their nursery but their four siblings died. One can imagine the effect of these deaths on a small girl with poor health, whose weak eyes watered constantly.
With the king’s consent, in the hope that her eyesight could be improved, her parents sent the four-year old to her grandmother, widow of the executed first Charles, who now lived in France.
In a portrait of Anne as a small girl her eyes, set in an oval face with a mouth shaped in a perfect cupid’s bow, are wary.
In 1699, Anne’s grandmother died, and the child passed into the care of her father’s sister, Henrietta Maria. In 1670 Anne’s aunt died. Her eyesight only slightly improved, Anne returned to England.
By then her mother was unpopular because she had converted to the Church of Rome. James also converted, but the politics demanded the king’s heirs, Anne and her elder sister, Mary, be raised in the Protestant faith.
The princesses were sent to Richmond-on-Thames, where they benefited from country air. Their indulgent father visited them regularly, showered them with gifts and often stayed for several nights at Richmond Palace. Yet all was not well with the family. In 1673, due to the Test Act, which excluded anyone who did not take communion in the Anglican Church from public office, James was forced to resign as Lord High Admiral and to give up all his other official positions. In that age of fervent religious allegiances, what effect did religious controversy have on Anne, a stubborn child?
At that time, motherless Anne’s history had all the ingredients of a fictional heroine, but what would she make of her life?  After all, she belonged to the tragic Stuart family. It is not surprising that the princess living in the shadow of her older, cleverer sister, Mary, became deeply attached to twelve-year old Sarah Jennings, the daughter of a landed gentleman, and future wife of The Duke of Marlborough, with whom her friendship would last into middle age.
Years later Sara wrote: We had used to play together when she was a child and she even then expressed a particular fondness for me. This inclination increased with our years. I was often at Court and the Princess always distinguished me by the pleasure she took to honour me, preferably to others, with her conversation and confidence. In all her parties for amusement, I was sure by her choice to be one.
Anne was pretty with plump features, red-brown hair and her mother’s elegant hands of which she was very proud. However, she was shy, easily ignored and all too aware of her short-comings – her poor education did nothing to boost her confidence. As Sarah said years later: Your Majesty has had the misfortune to be misinformed in general things even from twelve years old. 
Undoubtedly, there was no reason to provide Anne and her sister with a better education because it was probable that the Queen would provide an heir to the throne. In Anne’s day few women could read and write – perhaps only one in a hundred were literate. For Anne it is likely that little more than dancing, drawing, French and music were required to prepare her for life at court. Her general education was neglected but not her religious education, which was rigorous and founded her life-long belief in the teachings of the Anglican faith.
Anne and Mary continued to live apart from the court and their indulgent Roman Catholic father and fifteen-year old step-mother, whom James adored and who would bear a son. Expected to be virtuous, the sisters could not have been totally unaware of the licentiousness of the court, and that their uncle, the king, and their father had illegitimate children, whom they had acknowledged
Lax though the second Charles’s morals were, he took some interest in Anne, who would be one of the best guitar players at court. She also had a pleasing voice, so he ordered the actress, Mrs Barry, to give Anne and Mary elocution lessons. These stood Anne in good stead when, as Queen, she addressed Parliament, and no doubt when she and Mary took part in some of the masques and plays popular at Court.
However, Anne and Mary grew up in the company of clerics and women, secluded from Whitehall with little to entertain them. One can imagine the boring conversations, stifling closets (small rooms) and endless card games. Later Sarah wrote: I wished myself out of Court as much as I had desired to come into it before I knew what it was.
In spite of the boredom, and storms that lay ahead, the Anne dearly loved her sister. So much so that when Mary married her Dutch cousin, William of Orange, in 1677 while Anne lay sick of smallpox, her father, who visited her every day, ordered that she should not be told her sister had departed for the Continent. The charade went as far as messages purported to be from Mary asking about her health being delivered to Anne.
As soon as |Anne recovered, she had to cope with separation from her sister. Fortunately, she still had Sarah’s companionship, and enjoyed the vast grounds of Richmond Palace. However, this tranquillity would soon be disturbed by the so called ‘Popish Plot’, in which, according to a criminal called Titus Oates, Catholic families planned to murder Protestants in London, overthrow the government and, amongst other things, kill the king.
After the subsequent hysteria Anne’s father and stepmother were sent to Brussels in March 1679. She visited them in August accompanied by her chaplains. However, she was never allowed to enter any one of the many Roman Catholic Churches.  When her father and stepmother went to
Scotland, Anne visited them between July 1681 and May 1682. Never again would she leave England.


An Eligible Princess

The king did not have a legitimate heir, so Anne was third in the line of succession.
Anne’s sister, Mary, her stepmother Mary of Modena and Sarah Churchill married when they were fifteen. It was time to find a bridegroom for Anne. In December, 1680, Anne’s cousin, Prince George of Hanover, the future King George 1, had visited the English court, which was still recovering from the Popish plot. It is possible George came to view Anne but not ‘taking’ to her, he quit the realm without approaching her father or the king for her hand in marriage. Subsequently, perhaps it was the case of a woman spurned for, to the end of her life, Anne disliked George so much that the succession to the throne was endangered.
Even if George unjustly found his cousin unattractive others did not, and a scandal ensued when John, Lord Mulgrave, a womaniser, made what was described as ‘a brisk attempt’ on the Lady Anne. Mulgrave denied it. He claimed he merely ogled her. The king and Anne’s father were alarmed. Mulgrave forfeited his offices at Court before being despatched on a leaky frigate to Tangiers. It seems Anne was not indifferent to Mulgrave. He remained one of her personal favourites. When she succeeded to the throne in 1702, he was appointed Lord Privy Seal and Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1703 he was created Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.
Early in May 1683, the king was closeted with the Danish envoy to his court at Whitehall. Not long afterwards, Anne was told she would wed the younger brother of the king of Denmark, thirty-year old Prince George, who would arrive in England to marry her within three months.
Anne’s large, fair-haired husband-to-be had fought by land and sea against the Swedes. The rumour that he had saved his brother’s life in battle made him seem glamorous, and might have intrigued the Lady Anne. When he arrived at court an eye-witness described him as: “a comely person… with few pockmarks on his visage, but of very decent and graceful behaviour.
Ten days after Prince George arrived in England he married the Lady Anne, appropriately on Saint Anne’s day, the 28th July, 1683. Throughout their marriage Anne and George were close to each other, and she loved him very much. Unfortunately, Anne suffered 12 miscarriages and each of her five children died when they were young.

The Queen (in brief)
Anne’s uncle died in 1685, leaving a country torn by religious controversy. The throne passed to Anne’s Catholic father. He became so unpopular that he was forced into exile in 1688, after which Anne’s sister Mary and her husband, William of Orange became the new king and queen of England. Some English Protestants, who had sworn allegiance to Mary and Anne’s father, refused to take a new oath of allegiance to William and Mary, and joined James II in France. When Anne inherited the throne after her father’s death in 1702 many Protestant exiles returned to England. Others declared themselves Jacobites and supporters of James II son, who could not inherit the throne because he was a Roman Catholic.

https;//www.amazon.co.uk/Tangled – Love - ebook/dp/B01LZRP7AE

https;//www.amazon.com/Tangled – Love/ebook/dp/B01LZRP7AE

Published by Books We Love.

Available as e-publications and paperbacks.

Early 18th century novels by Rosemary Morris

Tangled Love
Far Beyond Rubies
The Captain and The Countess

Regency novels

False Pretences
Sunday’s Child   Heroines born on different days of the week. Book 1.
Monday’s Child  Heroines born on different days of the week. Book 2
Tuesday’s Child  Heroines born on different days of the week  Book 3

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Romance by Katherine Pym


CLICK HERE FOR PURCHASE INFORMATION


My dad landed a job at NASA in Houston. We moved from Wisconsin in 1965 and I went to school with the astronauts' kids. The change in environment was extreme but also exhilarating. Everything was new. I went from a strict Roman Catholic high school to a Public high school. A lot of the kids were from elsewhere. They were street wise, and new student numbers dwarfed the original kids who were born in that part of Texas.

One friend I'd made was Teri. She had one of those bodies all women wished for, and the boys craved, but she already had a steady. One day after lunch, she waved me over to where some kids were. 'Kathy,' she pointed to cute guy with dark hair and beautiful eyes, 'this is Ricky. You two will go to the prom and we'll double.'

Did I say she was also bossy?

We went to the prom and that began a four year, almost exclusive, friendship. We went everywhere together, skipped school and explored places we shouldn't have. We went to college, shared a lab table during Biology class.

The Vietnam War was at its worst. Men died every day. One beautiful spring day, the sky amazingly blue, Rick stopped me as I ran up the stairs of a campus building, headed for class.

'Kathy, I've quit school.' He gazed up at me and shrugged.

Me at an Army Post (USO) during the Vietnam War
I knew he'd be drafted and sent to war. I'd never see him again, and if he survived, he'd be irrevocably changed. News said how horrible it was in Vietnam. The guys couldn't trust anyone, not women or small children, who might carry loaded bombs. Life meant nothing, there. If Rick survived the brutality, it would forever damage his gentle soul.

I couldn't say anything but, 'Okay,' and continued into the building.

Life moved forward. I met a guy and we were to be married. Before this, I drove to Rick's house to tell him goodbye. The army had drafted him twice but after tests revealed he'd broken his neck in a car accident, he was deemed unacceptable.

I said goodbye and we kissed. His taste and smell were the same. I wanted to melt into his arms but I'd made a commitment.

Years later, after two boys and a nasty divorce, I found myself in Houston again. I did not know if Rick was still around or not, and if he were, was he married? My son and daughter-in-law took me to his house, where a tiny old lady lived.

My daughter-in-law said, 'She's old. She's really old.' Pause. 'Old is good. Old is really good. Go see if she's his mother.'

I got out of the truck and low and behold, Rick's mother stood at the door. When I bounced onto the porch my son said, 'Is he married?' (Might as well get to chase.)

She shook her head. 'That didn't work out.'

She let us into her house, showed us pictures of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. The house was the same as all those years ago. Nothing had changed except she had a window air conditioner that pumped cool air. She gave me Rick's number which I called and left a message but later that night, when we turned off the television for bed, and he hadn't called, I figured he had another.

The next morning, around 8:30A, he called, excited. He told me of his life, that he now worked at NASA for the Space Shuttle. He was a physicist, a think tank. He measured the lack of air, calibrated the pool where the astronauts trained.

He was there when movies such as Armageddon and Apollo 13 were filmed, nudged elbows with the crews and ate lunch with them. He'd gone to Russia to calibrate spacesuits, while I worked at Boeing in Seattle and bought airplane parts.

We'd both been divorced about the same time, chose never to do so again, had sons, and both worked in the aeronautical industry. Once I returned to work after my visit in Houston, I found Rick's name in the Boeing directory. I was amazed. We hadn't seen each other for more than 30 years yet our lives had run in parallel. We thought the same and did much the same with perhaps, a dimensional path that kept us separated.

At Monterrey with Rick and our pup, Maya
Soon, we married and took up where we had left off. We explored places I didn't want to go alone, went into Canada, traveled down the seacoast to Cannon Beach Oregon, saw the redwoods in Northern California, explored Wyoming and New Mexico.

We went from being alone almost 24/7 to being together 24/7, yet the transition was amazingly smooth. Both our families accepted us with open arms, even our grown children.

I can say, now, life is really good.













Friday, February 3, 2017

IT WAS ALL GREEK TO ME



Since February is the month for romance, Diane Scott Lewis is sharing her Greek adventures...

February is a time for romance, though my story took place in early March, 1974.

I joined the Navy at nineteen to see the world. My first duty station (and last as it turned out) was at the Naval Communications Station in Nea Makri, Greece. How exciting, a foreign country with ruins, columns, sheep dawdling in the road, who could ask for more?



My very first day, I was chatting with my sponsor near the front gate. A motorcycle and rider roared onto the base. The man stared at me. He took off his helmet, revealing thick dark brown hair, and large brown eyes.

I asked my sponsor who the man was.

She said, “That’s George Parkinson. He’s trouble, stay away from him.”

Trouble? What more does a California girl growing up in the 60’s have to hear? Plus, there was that motorcycle.



Days later in the Zeus Club, I was among a throng of young men far from home with few American women to date. I was the first radioman female to be stationed at Nea Makri. Only two other single young women lived on the base at this time.

I had Singapore Slings lined up in front of me the moment I sat down.

George Parkinson was there, laughing, talking with everyone. He’d been on base for three years before I’d arrived. Then I heard his horrible secret. He was married.

When I finally got to know him, he said he was legally separated, his wife back in the states. Instead of a dastardly rogue, he was shy and good at heart.

I joined him in his motorcycle group, flying down the road past ancient sites, Mount Olympus, Delphi, Sparta, through fragrant orange blossoms, eating calamari, thick brown bread and tomatoes swimming in olive oil, along with big hunks of creamy feta cheese. 

Only two months later, when he asked me to marry him, I said yes.

Then I was called before the Senior Master Chief, the highest enlisted woman stationed there, and told: “You know he’s married, don’t you?” The same with the female ensign, the same dire warning: I was dating a married man.

Finally, George contacted his mother back in Pennsylvania, she obtained a lawyer, and plans were in place for his divorce.

Of course it took a year. George and I did the unthinkable, we’d moved in together. My doctor told me to go off my birth control pills because they suppressed my ovaries, and guess what, soon I had a bundle of love on the way—and still no divorce in sight.

One day driving to the base, a Greek man decided to pass me on his motorcycle and smashed into the back of my little VW. He crashed, broke his leg and since I was American it was automatically my fault. I had to go to court and convince the Greek Judges why I shouldn’t be thrown in jail. My baby would be born in lock-up. Fortunately, they believed my story and the case was dismissed.

Then Turkey and Greece attacked the island of Cypress, both wanting possession. America refused to take sides in the conflict. Greek students rioted over the American military being on their soil. Each morning we had to check under our car’s wheel wells to make certain no bombs had been planted. The US Fleet was ordered to evacuate Athens. I worked in the Message Center, and frightening warnings of attacks on Americans buzzed over the teletypes.

At last everything settled down, George’s divorce came through, and I planned a wedding in three days.



I can’t say my adventure overseas was boring, and George and I will soon celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary.

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