THE TROUBLE WITH SIN *FREE* until 10/15/13
The Trouble with Sin (Devilish Vignette #2) is a comic romp that follows on the heels of Devil in the Making. It is also a prequel to Jewel of the East ( book #5 in the Devil DeVere series) coming in January 2014.
The Trouble with Sin … Is the devil within… Aspiring poet Simon “Sin” Singleton, has lived his life only for larks, laughter, and ladies of easy virtue, eluding defying, and flouting all manner of authority until his impetuous misdeeds finally catch up with him. Having lost his muse, his allowance, and even his friends by edict from a tyrannical father and puritanical mother, Simon is ready to drown himself in drink, until receiving an ingenious proposition that could change everything.
The wages of Sin is……twenty-five percent of the net! It seems a fantasy come true when Simon is offered an independent income by combining his two great passions– poetry and lewd women –by writing poetry about lewd women! Unfortunately, maintaining anonymity may be much harder than he thought…
Victoria’s Titillating Tidbits
I am often asked where I find the inspiration for my characters. And while occasionally I model them after a particular person, most often they form as an amalgamation of several different people, as was the case with Simon Singleton. I knew Simon had to share some traits with his best friend DeVere, but I also wanted him to be a man apart and not under DeVere’s shadow. The two historical figures that merged in my mind were the Irish poet Samuel Derrick, later the Master of Ceremonies at Bath, and another would-be poet, soldier, and renown Regency-era rake, Colonel George Hangar, 4th Baron Coleraine.
Derrick (once described by James Boswell as “a little blackguard pimping dog”) was reputedly the true mastermind behind Harris’s famous Directory of Covent Garden Ladies. Although the Ode to the Milkmaid of St. James is my own effort at lewd verse, most of the poetry quoted by Simon in the story may be attributed to Samuel Derrick.
It was also in reading about Hangar’s colorful life that Freddie came into being, as one of Hangar’s youthful misadventures was to elope and wed a gypsy girl who later ran off with a tinker! (Hangar never remarried!)
The Magdalen Charity was also a very real organization. First established in 1758 in Whitechapel “for the reception of penitent prostitutes”, it’s stated mission was: “to provide for women and girls on the streets a safe, desirable, and happy retreat from their wretched and distressful circumstances.” The first Magdalen Charity House opened in a former hospital with fifty beds and accepted six penitents the first day. By 1760, it boasted 131 female residents. In 1765 Queen Charlotte became a patroness, and the charity expanded to larger quarters. By 1769 over 1,500 women had passed through its doors, with most staying a period of three years.
THE DEVIL DEVERE SERIES (in reading order)
A Wild Night’s Bride #1
The Virgin Huntress #2
The Devil You Know #3
The Devil’s Match #4
A Devil’s Touch #4.5
Jewel Of the East #5 (coming January 2014)
PREQUEL VIGNETTES (in reading order)
Devil in the Making #1
The Trouble With Sin #2
Ned’s Folly#3 (late 2014)
