Meredith Allard's Blog, page 38

FAQ Part 3

These are some general questions I’ve received, so though they’re not directly related to the Loving Husband Trilogy, I thought I’d answer them here:

1. I see you publish historical fiction. Will you publish me?

Maybe. I’m the Executive Editor of The Copperfield Review (named for the Dickens novel, not the magician—yes, I’ve had that question too), an award-winning literary journal for readers and writers of historical fiction, and we take great pride in publishing up-and-coming names in historical fiction. You can find the journal’s guidelines here. Here are some hints I have for authors who want to submit their work to literary journals for publication.

2. When/why did you start writing historical fiction?

Like most things about my writing, I started writing historical fiction by accident. I knew since high school that writing of some kind was in my future, though I didn’t know myself at that time what kind of writing it would be. At first I thought I’d be a journalist, but one high school journalism class showed me the “Just the facts, Ma’am” style of news writing didn’t work for me. In college, I turned my attention to screenwriting. I took a number of screenwriting classes, and I even worked for several film production companies.

Around this time (1994), I had seen Ken Burns’ PBS documentary about the American Civil War, and I had an inkling of a story I wanted to tell about how brothers, brought up in the same family, could come to fight on opposing sides in a war. When I sat down to write the screenplay, I realized, at about page twenty, that the screenplay format was too small for what I wanted to do. Screenplays are merely blueprints for directors, actors, set designers, costume designers, directors of photography, and the many others necessary to make a film. There were times when I worked in “The Industry” when I felt like the screenwriter was the least important person there. I didn’t want to write a blueprint. I wanted to describe exactly what the characters were wearing. I wanted to go into detail about the room they were sitting in. I wanted to get into the characters’ heads and wonder why they made the choices they did. In order to do that, I needed to write the story (which became My Brother’s Battle) as a novel. Thus, my journey into historical fiction had begun.

3. What other books have you written?

My other books can be found under the My Books category.

The only common denominator in my books is they’re all historical in one way or another. Other than that, each book is completely different from the ones that came before (except for the Loving Husband Trilogy, of course). I write about whatever I’m fascinated with at the time, which is why my subjects are so varied.

4. What are you writing next? When is your next book coming out?

At this exact moment I’m taking a break from writing fiction. I think I popped a few synapses in my brain finishing Her Loving Husband’s Return, so I’m giving myself a couple of months to recover. I do know what I’m going to write next, but it’s too early to give details other than it’s going to be a love story that takes place in Victorian London. I’m not giving myself a deadline for this new book, but some time in 2014 is a fair guess.

5. Did you name Sybil in Victory Garden after Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey?

I can say with 100% honesty that no, the Sybil in Victory Garden was not named for Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey. Sybil in Victory Garden is a minor character with a line or two in one scene—hardly worthy of a raise of Lady Mary’s eyebrows, or Mr. Carson’s for that matter. I know the period of Victory Garden is the same as in Downton Abbey (1917-1922), and it deals with many of the same subjects (mainly woman suffrage and World War I), but I wrote VG way, way back in the old-timey days of the late 1990s, long before Lady Sybil or the Earl of Grantham were glimmers in Julian Fellowes’ eye. So though Victory Garden was published in 2012, it was written 14 years before.

I am, I’m embarrassed to say, only lately come to the world of Downton Abbey, which is odd for someone who loves a good historical story as much as I do. I had heard all the raves about DA, but I was busy writing the Loving Husband Trilogy and my brain was too full of James and Sarah to take much notice. Recently, on a ten hour flight from London, there was an episode of Downton Abbey available to watch, and I did, and like so many millions before me, I was hooked. I now understand the phrase “binge-watch Downton Abbey” because I’ve done it myself. I watched all three seasons, something like 25 episodes, in two days. I’ve even started following a number of Downton-related feeds on Twitter to keep up with the latest news. For fans of the show, I found a great website called Downton Abbey Addicts.

Thank you so much to those of you who have been contacting me with questions or comments. I love hearing from my readers. You guys are the best.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Tidbits, Victory Garden Tagged: Downton Abbey, Loving Husband Trilogy, Victory Garden

Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ Part 2

1. How do you come up with story ideas/characters?

For the story ideas, something—a news story, something I’ve seen, something I’ve read—captures my imagination, grabs hold of my brain cells, and won’t shake loose. I have a lot of ideas that float through my brain at any and all times of the day, but the ones that become novels are the ones that latch on and won’t let go. The Loving Husband Trilogy was born from True Blood and reading vampire novels. Victory Garden was inspired by a news report that said women weren’t voting in high numbers (this was more than fifteen years ago) and I was reminded of a story I read in school about women who were arrested and force fed for fighting for the right to vote. My Brother’s Battle was inspired by the Ken Burns documentary about the American Civil War. Woman of Stones came about because I was reading the Bible a lot in those days, and I’ve always loved “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”—in a nutshell, the secret to peace on earth. One of my next projects has been brewing in one way or another for more than ten years, born from my love of Dickens and my fascination with Victorian London.

As to the characters, those are more of a mystery to me. I don’t know how to explain it except to say that to me, the characters are already there, inherent in the story, and it’s up to me to figure out who they are and what role they have in this tale I want to tell. The characters and the story are too intertwined—I can’t separate them one from the other. When I started imagining this vampire mourning his long-dead human wife, that vampire was James, even if I didn’t always know his name.

2. How do you research the history in your fiction?

I know we live in the Internet age, but I’m still a fan of the old fashioned way of researching. I enjoy going to the library, searching the stacks, and weeding through the books to find exactly what I’m looking for. It’s no surprise to me that Sarah is a librarian! One of the nice things about the Internet is that I can do a lot of my library searching from home so I know where to go when I get to the library. I still like to take my notes by hand. That’s a personal preference, but I feel like I absorb the information better that way. I do like that more and more we’re able to access whole books on the Internet, and Google Books has been a strong resource. I love the Internet for on the spot research, like if I realize I need a date or a street name or something of the sort, though I often cross reference the information with several websites.

When I first started writing historical fiction in the dear, dim past when I began My Brother’s Battle (written from 1994-2000, with major revisions in 2012), I studied everything I could find about the American Civil War, and trust me, there’s a ton of information out there. Shelby Foote dedicated twenty years of his life to writing about the American Civil War. My earlier drafts of the story had a ton of research that wasn’t part of the fictional story I had created about Benjamin Honeysuckle and it caused the narrative to drag in places. By the time I got to Her Dear & Loving Husband in 2009, I learned that the purpose of historical fiction is for the history to illuminate the fiction, not for the fiction to illuminate the history. Paragraphs of facts that have nothing to do with the story, or that detract too much from the plot, slow the story down. As a result, I learned to do general research on the historical period for my own knowledge, but in my writing I’ll only use bits of history that makes sense within the story. In other words, Her Dear & Loving Husband isn’t a treatise on the Salem Witch Trials; instead, details of the witch hunts are used to help illuminate James and Sarah’s story.

3. Do you believe in paranormal elements, reincarnation, Wiccans? What do you think happens after we die?

I’ve had a lot of questions about whether or not I believe in the supernatural elements of the James and Sarah books. I don’t believe in vampires or werewolves. I don’t think it’s so much about believing in Wiccans because they’re really there. There are many all over the world who consider themselves Wiccan. Do they have magic powers like Jennifer and Olivia? I know Wiccans cast spells, and I’m not one to judge whether or not their spells work!

As for reincarnation…I certainly don’t know. I believe that human beings are composed of body, mind, and spirit. I believe we’re more than our earthly experiences and five senses show us. I watch Super Soul Sunday on OWN, and I believe a lot of Oprah’s experts when they talk about the soul. I do believe our souls go on after our human bodies die, and I think it’s possible that those souls go on to be reincarnated.

The Loving Husband Trilogy is fiction, and the reason I love writing fiction above all else is because it allows me to explore the possibilities. Reincarnation may or may not happen—I don’t know for sure one way or the other—but writing these books was my way of wondering aloud what reincarnations (and vampires and witches) might look like if they were real.

5. I want to write historical fiction. What is your advice for me?

I have some general advice for writers of historical fiction here. Really, my best advice for anyone who wants to write anything is to take your time learning —find your unique voice and figure out what you want to put out into the world. Reading, if the writer has done her job, should be easy, but writing isn’t easy.

6. Geoffrey? Really?

I’ve had this question asked a few different ways, and it always makes me smile. I can’t say too much for those of you who are still reading Her Loving Husband’s Return, but it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to learn that there’s more to James and Geoffrey’s relationship than meets the eye. The clues are there, mainly in Her Loving Husband’s Curse. A couple of you have written to me to say you figured the mystery out before it was revealed at the end of HLHR. Well done! I love it when readers read with an eye for detail.

7. Will there be a Book Four? Pretty please?

I’m thrilled that there are so many of you who love James and Sarah’s story so much that you want it to continue. What I can say for certain is that at this moment I have no plans for a fourth book. From early in the writing process I saw this as a trilogy, and I think the story is wrapped up pretty well at the end of Her Loving Husband’s Return. I already know the next two books I’m going to be writing, and they’re very different from the Loving Husband Trilogy—one is a modern-day love story, and the next is right back to historical fiction with a setting in Victorian London.

Having said that, I’m also a never say never kind of person. I know that as soon as someone says “I’ll never…” the universe has a funny way of throwing that exact thing right back into the person’s face. That’s why some singers are on their seventh “Farewell Tour.” If an idea occurs to me that I’m excited about and that I feel will add more to James and Sarah’s story, then by all means I’ll write it. I can’t say when that would be, or if it would definitely happen, but I’m open to the idea.

Keep those questions coming! FAQ Part 3 next week.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, News, Tidbits Tagged: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Loving Husband Trilogy

Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ Part 1

Her Loving Husband’s Return has been on the Amazon Best-Seller List since the day after it was released. Thank you.

I’ve received a number of questions about The Loving Husband Trilogy, so I decided to answer some of the most frequently asked questions here. Some of these I’ve answered in bits and pieces in various interviews. Today, Part 1.

1. Where did you come up with the idea for The Loving Husband Trilogy?

Here’s my answer in this previous post. Between watching True Blood, reading Charlaine Harris, Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, and the Twilight books, believe me, I had a brain full of vampire waiting to get out. Luckily for me, that vampire turned out to be James Wentworth.

2. Did you always know it would be a trilogy?

I did. From very early in the idea gathering process for this story I knew the connection between James/Elizabeth/Sarah and I knew the ending as we find it in Her Loving Husband’s Return. The further I went into mapping out the story, the more I knew I wanted to cover several different historical periods. In order to keep the story as I saw it a manageable length, I split it into three books. In an earlier interview I said as a joke that I wanted to avoid writing a 900-page tome that would send readers screaming for mercy. I wasn’t too far off. The combined page count of the Loving Husband Trilogy is 818 pages.

3.  How did you come to set the stories in Salem? Have you ever lived/visited there?

I decided to set the story in Salem by accident. I was deciding where to set the story, and I deliberately stayed away from the Pacific Northwest and Louisiana in the U.S. since other well-known literary vampires live there. I thought of my hometown Los Angeles or where I live now in Las Vegas, but neither of those felt right. Too bright, I think. Then I decided that if I wasn’t going Northwest how about Northeast? I pulled up a map of the U.S., looked at the Northeast, saw Massachusetts, and there in a little dot near Boston was Salem. That’s it. It took me as long to decide to set the story in Salem as it took me to write these sentences.

I have never lived in Salem or anywhere in Massachusetts. I was born in New York, but we moved to the West Coast when I was seven and I consider Los Angeles my hometown. In fact, I had never even visited Salem when I wrote Her Dear & Loving Husband. Thank goodness for the Internet, websites about Salem, and Google Earth. I did finally visit Salem in July 2011 while I was writing Her Loving Husband’s Curse, and I loved it. In fact, I wanted to move there. Luckily, everything in Salem was where I thought it should be. You can see my posts about my trip to Salem here.

4. How did you decide which historical periods to use?

The decision to use the Salem Witch Trials was a no-brainer once I decided to set the story in Salem. Since I wanted the historical periods to echo what was happening to James and Sarah in the present day, I needed to choose the historical periods carefully. The Trail of Tears and the Japanese-American Internments happened to coincide with the way I saw the story progressing. To a degree, you could say the history informed the story; in other words, once I decided on the historical periods that helped me shape the plot.

5.  How long did it take you to write the books?

It was four years, almost exactly to the day, from when I first pressed fingers to the keyboard typing out the ideas for Her Dear & Loving Husband (in April 2009) until Her Loving Husband’s Return was published (in April 2013). It took longer than a year for me to write Her Dear & Loving Husband because it took time for me to find the narrative thread. The plot was more complex than other novels I had written, weaving the way it does between the past and the present, and it took time for me to work it out.

I read about these authors who publish 3, 4, 5 books a year and I’m amazed by them. When all is said and done, it takes me about a year to write a book. Keep in mind I’m not writing the whole time. I have to live with an idea in my head for a while before I ever start writing. I have to kick the idea around, soften it up, pull it here and tug it there to see if there’s anything in those odd daydreams. I kicked the idea around about the vampire missing his long-dead human wife for about six months before I ever began writing about James and Sarah. Once I start writing, it can take anywhere from 4-6 months for me to have a draft I’m happy with, and then the editing process is intensive because I’m persnickety about how the words read on the page. The editing process for me takes 1-2 months.

6.  Do you have editors/beta readers?

You betcha. It’s imperative to have other sets of eyes read your fiction. As authors we can get caught up in our own heads and we forget to make our stories cohesive for our readers.

Her Dear & Loving Husband wouldn’t be the story it is without the help of an amazing romance author and critique extraordinare, Laurin Wittig. I saw the story so clearly in my head, but I was having trouble articulating it on the page. With Laurin’s sharp eye and finely tuned comments, I was able to finally write the story I meant to write in the first place. Once I figured out what I was doing with Her Dear & Loving Husband, writing the next two was an easier process, though I always have editors/other readers helping me.

Here’s a Loving Husband Trilogy F.Y.I: The original title of Her Dear & Loving Husband was The Vampire’s Wife. Laurin suggested that The Vampire’s Wife was too much of a giveaway about the story, so after stumbling across Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” I changed it to Her Dear & Loving Husband. The revised title has the same idea as the original title, but it takes a little more digging to figure out what it means. And I love that the poem was able to serve as a connection between James and Elizabeth and James and Sarah. Little things like that make me happy.

Part 2 of the Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ coming soon.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, News, Tidbits Tagged: Her Dear and Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, historical fiction, Loving Husband Trilogy, vampires, writing

Where Did the Loving Husband Trilogy Come From?

I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs since I have absolutely nothing I have to do, and it feels…odd. Since I feel like I should be writing something, I decided to respond to a few e-mails I’ve received regarding the origin of the James and Sarah saga. I’ve told bits and pieces of the story in previous interviews, but here’s the scoop in its entirety:

The story was inspired first by Twilight simply because if I hadn’t read the Twilight books I never would have watched True Blood on HBO, and it’s more accurate to say the Loving Husband Trilogy was inspired by True Blood. If I’m being entirely honest, I should say it was directly inspired by great acting from Stephen Moyer.

There’s an episode early in the first season of True Blood (I think it’s episode four, but don’t quote me) where vampire Bill is giving a talk at Sookie’s grandmother’s church. Someone shows Bill a picture of his family from his human days before the American Civil War, and Bill becomes so emotional at the remembrance of them. That’s what clicked my brain into gear. Here’s this vampire who has everything humans only dream of—extraordinary strength, immortal life—and yet he becomes so emotional at the sight of the ones he loved as a human. That episode of True Blood aired somewhere around October 2008 (at least I think that’s when I saw it; again, don’t quote me). So thank you, Stephen Moyer. And, no, your eyes did not deceive you—I did plant a few odes to True Blood throughout the Loving Husband Trilogy. The most obvious example would be that James cries blood.

After that episode, I started wondering… What would happen to a vampire who lives forever? Obviously, the humans he loved would have died at some point. Would he forget about them and go on? Would he have trouble moving on? What if he fell in love again? What would that look like, and who would that be with? If he was so in love with his wife, could he ever love anyone else?

I didn’t have any immediate sense that there was something tangible in those oddball wanderings. I like to tell stories, in case you haven’t noticed, and I’m always kicking scenarios around in this empty head of mine, most of which come to nothing. When I was still thinking of this idea about the vampire six months later, I decided to see if there was anything to it.

The exact date I began writing was April 15, 2009. It was a Wednesday. I remember the date because I was off for Spring Break that week. I had just come back from a few days in my hometown, Los Angeles, to spend some time by the beach and visit my favorite coffee/tea joint—Urth Café. Back home in Vegas, I woke up that Wednesday morning and the crazy vampire idea was distracting me again. I made myself eggs, toast, and coffee, sat down at the computer, started typing out whatever I knew about this vampire and the woman he loved, and never looked back. In case you were wondering, James’s official birthday is April 19 because that was the day he found his name. When it comes to character names, I feel like the name is inherent with the character; in other words, they already know their names, but they leave it to me to guess. I feel like the miller’s daughter scrambling to guess Rumplestiltskin’s name. Is it Bob? Is it Herbert? Is it Randolph or George or Ichabod? At some point I do guess correctly, and that’s without the help of a messenger spying on the One-To-Be-Named.

Since I’ve received so many e-mails lately asking about the Loving Husband Trilogy, and a lot of the questions are similar, I’m in the process of compiling a Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ I’ll be posting here in a few days.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Tidbits Tagged: James Wentworth, Loving Husband Trilogy, Sarah Wentworth, True Blood

Her Loving Husband’s Return is Here!

Okay, everyone…

First of all, thank you, thank you for all the messages I’ve received concerning Her Loving Husband’s Return. It’s been very exciting to me knowing there are so many of you out there eager to learn the fate of the Wentworths. I hope everyone finds the ending a fitting conclusion for the James and Sarah saga. A few of you have told me you’re halfway done with the book already! Wow!

The book is now available through Amazon for Kindle. For those of you with Nooks or iPads, it will be available from BN and Apple in a few days since it takes that long for Smashwords to feed it out to the other companies. The book is available through Smashwords for all formats, including Nook and iPad, right now. You can find the link here on the right sidebar. If you’re not sure about Smashwords, or you’ve never done business with them before, I can tell you it’s a reliable company. Smashwords has been my distributor for two years and I’ve never had a problem with them. When you buy the book through them, they give you directions on how to download it to your e-reader.

My brain is on overload since I’ve been burning the midnight oil making sure the book was ready to go today. I’ll have more to say about Her Loving Husband’s Return, and the Loving Husband Trilogy, over the next few days. The only thing I can say for now is that when you discover the secret of the ending, don’t tell! That’s part of the fun of reading, isn’t it? That’s one thing I’ve found about the three books of the Loving Husband Trilogy–they’re hard to talk about without major spoilers.

Enjoy the conclusion of the Loving Husband Trilogy. Happy reading!

Filed under: Her Loving Husband's Return, News Tagged: Amazon, Her Loving Husband's Return, kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Just Three More Hours for Her Loving Husband’s Return!

Hi everyone. Just a quick note saying that Her Loving Husband’s Return is now available from Smashwords for all formats, including Nook and Kindle. When you buy from Smashwords they give you directions on how to download onto your e-readers. It will be available on Amazon in just a few hours. Don’t forget…I’m on Pacific Time here in Vegas and it’s just 6:40 a.m. here!

Filed under: Her Loving Husband's Return Tagged: Her Loving Husband's Return

For Your Consideration: Book 3 Cover Reveal

Summary

“I need to get home,” James said aloud.

He heard shuffling behind the wooden plank separating his quarters from the rest of the barrack.

“We all need to bloody well go home.”

What would you do to return to the only one you have ever loved?

James Wentworth’s secret is no longer a secret, and now he and his beloved wife, Sarah, have been separated. While suffering his own internment, James is reminded of his time with Japanese-Americans in the Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II, and he cannot allow the past to repeat itself. With the help of his friends—Chandresh, Jocelyn, Timothy, even the irreverent Geoffrey—James learns what it means to return, and he is determined to return to his Sarah no matter the challenges—or the consequences. In the end, it may be up to Olivia, the most powerful of witches, to grant James’s most fervent wish. Will James and Sarah be reunited once and for all despite the madness surrounding them?

Prologue

In seventy years so little has changed. Then, the gate was taller than the tallest person, electrified, eager to shock to the death. Looming above the fence were eight high-standing towers with armed guards with submachine guns who looked down upon the people as though they could be, should be shot for amusement’s sake. They were at one with the enemy across the Pacific Ocean, many decided. They had to be. They were traitors. They were spies. How else can we separate the good ones from the bad ones? How else can we know the loyal ones from the conspirators? We must round them up like cattle and pen them here where they’re safe from us and us from them.

Looming above the barracks, higher than the gates, beyond the guard towers, were the mountains. Always the mountains. They encompassed everything within their distance—one vast, jagged, granite wall stretching toward the heavens from the deepest valley in the Americas, cascading Vs flecked with icy snow, unmistakable even through the wintry clouds. The mountains were everything everywhere. If the gates, the guard towers, and the armed military police weren’t enough to remind you that you were a prisoner here, the mountains shouted your helplessness. You are here, the mountains said, and we will trap you here forever.

I remember when the bus stopped in Manzanar near the guard station, a lonely shack at the edge of the camp, one window on either side, misshapen rocks slapped together with mortar, a pagoda-style roof. The guards spoke to the bus driver and barked directions as though the people inside were orange-clad prisoners linked by irons, but they were only families—fathers, mothers, children, grandparents. I remember the anxiety in those inside the gate, their quick-scanning eyes wide as they drew as close to the barbed-wire fence as they dared, searching those on the other side for missing family or friends. I remember the fear in those outside as they stepped off the bus and shivered in the bitter desert cold. Their clenched hands grabbed family members while they stared without seeing the nighttime landscape of brush and tumbleweed that promised blinding dust storms, the horizon flat until the mountains. Always the mountains. The bewildered people outside clutched their bundles of luggage, all that was left of their former lives. The people from the buses were herded inside, shouted at, tagged and numbered. Already they were losing themselves. When the gate slammed and locked behind them they looked toward the outside as though they would never be free again.

So, yes, I have been here before. I have walked this arid wilderness. I have heard the sand blow a maddened howl in the night. I have seen the white-glow moonlight reflect the saw-toothed horizon. Through it all, the mountains have remained the same. After all, what is seventy years to a mountain range that has watched millennia pass away? Now, the gates are taller since they guess we can jump anything less. Now, the gates have silver coating, the barbs deemed no longer necessary since they guess the barbs cannot pierce our preternatural skin. Now, the military police carry guns with silver bullets, which we secretly laugh at. Now, I am the one who has been carted away, considered too unpredictable to be out among polite society. Yet the barracks, the mess halls, the natural barrier of the mountains between us and everyone else in the world…so much of it is the same. There are nights when I cannot make the distinction between then, when I was here from compassion, and now, when I am the one encaged. But do not worry for me, my love. Now, with this silver-coated gate and these imposing mountains between us, I am reminded all too strongly how I cannot be without you. Soon, Sarah. I will hold you in my arms soon. Be patient this little longer, my love, and I will return to you. I will.

Filed under: Her Loving Husband's Return, News Tagged: Her Loving Husband's Return, The Loving Husband Trilogy

Book Three Right on Track

Progress for Book Three of the Loving Husband Trilogy is moving along nicely. It needs to be formatted for e-books, and it still needs some sprucing up and proofreading, but all the pieces of the puzzle are there. I’ll be doing a cover reveal next week on Saturday, March 16, on this site as well as on other websites with hosts from Bewitching Book Tours. I’ll also be posting the new prologue which features the new historical period. Here’s a hint: the historical period for Book Three was mentioned in Her Loving Husband’s Curse. I’ve had the cover since October, and it’s been hard to keep it to myself for so long. While I love all three covers, I think the third one is my favorite.

I’ve been a little weepy as I’ve been working through the manuscript these past few weeks. Partly, the weepiness comes from the realization that my journey with James and Sarah is nearly done. Partly, the weepiness comes from my love for the ending. This is the ending I always envisioned for the Wentworths, and I’m so happy that I’ll be able to share it soon with readers.

James and Sarah fans will be pleased to know that all our favorite characters are in Book Three—Jennifer, Chandresh, Timothy, Howard, and Martha are there to help James and Sarah through. Of course baby Grace is there. Olivia plays a particularly important role in Book Three, and Geoffrey shares some information with James that will forever change their relationship. There’s a new character I particularly love for her fortitude, and I hope readers like her as much as I do.

I’m getting excited about the impending release of Book Three. I hope you are too.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, News Tagged: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Loving Husband Trilogy

Loving Husband Trilogy Update

I’ve received many e-mails from James and Sarah fans asking about Book Three so I thought I would post an update here. I’ve gone quiet lately, mainly because I’ve been hard at work on the conclusion of the Loving Husband Trilogy. When I’m in writing mode I tend to stay focused on my project like a horse with blinders, and I’m definitely in writing mode these days.

I had hoped for an early spring release for Book Three, but then my mother was in the hospital most of December. Unfortunately, sitting in uncomfortable hospital chairs next to your sick mother doesn’t do much for the creative process, at least not mine. My mother is feeing much better now, thank goodness, and she’s back to her feisty gal-from-Brooklyn self, thank goodness. Since January, I’ve been working through the second draft of Book Three, and I can say, finally, I see the end in sight. The pieces have begun to fit together in a way where I can see the story I wanted to tell all along. It will still need fine-tuning when the second draft is done. The way words fit together matters to me, and it takes some carpentry, some sawing and gluing to construct sentences I’m happy with. I’m working on Chapter 15 out of what looks to be 22 chapters in all (including the prologue and the epilogue), so I should have the second draft finished by the middle of February. Another four or six weeks for dusting, sweeping, and other necessary cleaning, and that gets us to April, which makes the tentative publication date for Book Three Friday, April 19, 2013. I bet a number of you have already caught the significance of the date—it’s James’s birthday. If I can get it out sooner, I will, but I don’t want to rush it out to get it out. Book Three is the keeper, the point that makes the whole story worthwhile, and it needs to be the strongest of the three. This is what we’ve been waiting for after all.

I’ve had a number of questions about the title for Book Three. It definitely has a title. It even has a cover. I’m going to do a cover reveal at the beginning of March so everyone can see the amazing cover from Dara England—along with that much-looked-for title. Be warned—the title doesn’t necessarily mean what you’ll think it does. When the cover reveal goes up, so will the new Prologue, which features the new historical period for Book Three. Hopefully, that will give everyone a boost until April and the conclusion of the Loving Husband Trilogy.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to let me know how much they love James and Sarah and the eternal love they share. James and Sarah have touched my heart, and I’m happy to know there are others who feel the same way. Please do keep the messages coming my way. They always make my day.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, News Tagged: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Loving Husband Trilogy

Gift Card Giveaway Winners

Exactly 444 people entered this contest. I think that’s a record! Thank you to everyone who participated. Here are the winners:

1. Amber L.

2. Lisa V.

I’ll be participating in more giveaways in 2013. Happy Holidays!

 

Filed under: Giveaways Tagged: Giveaways