A lady – beautiful word! — is a delicate creature, one who should be reverenced and delicately treated. It is therefore unpardonable to rush about in a quadrille, to catch hold of the lady’s hand as if she were a door-handle, or to drag her furiously across the room, asContinue Reading

“The advantage of the ball in the upper classes is, that it brings young people together for a sensible and innocent recreation, and takes them away from the silly, if not bad ones; that it gives them exercise, and that the general effect of the beauty, elegance, and brilliance ofContinue Reading

I decided to start a tradition this year of releasing short reads for Christmas. My first one is entitled “A Christmas Oath,” and is 12,600 words. More than a short story and less than a novella in size, it is more commonly called a novelette. As usual, I have aContinue Reading

One of my hobbies is searching my British ancestry on my mother’s side of the family. Part of my research includes reading British newspapers in search of articles on my ancestors. My third great uncle was a Justice of the Peace, Alderman, and successful businessman, so I’m always looking forContinue Reading

While writing The Legacy Series, I needed to extensively research the reality of marriage and divorce in the 19th century. It’s fascinating reading when you take romance out of the equation and check back into reality. Truth be told, marriage and divorce was nothing like it is today. Marriages inContinue Reading

While writing my award-winning novel, Dark Persuasion, I spent a fair amount of time researching Victorian courting, engagement periods, wedding preparations, marriage ceremonies, and honeymoons. The entire process felt so romantic to me that I focused quite a bit on the wedding between my heroine and hero. The Wedding TrousseauContinue Reading

Every time an author sits down to write a book, you ask yourself a lot of questions. Is the story any good? Is the plot okay? Are the characters believable? Is there enough conflict and suspense? Is it too predictable? The list goes on and on. I just received aContinue Reading