December Releases

Henriette Gyland UP CLOSE

Choc Lit

Paperback

£7.99

7^th December 2012

Too close for comfort…

When Dr Lia Thompson’s grandmother dies unexpectedly, Lia is horrified to have to leave her life in America and return to a cold and creaky house in Norfolk. But as events unfold, she can’t feeling that there is more to her grandmother’s death than meets the eye.

Aidan Morrell is surprised to see Lia, his teenage crush, back in town. But Aidan’s accident when serving in the navy has scarred him in more ways than one, and he has other secrets which must stay hidden at all costs, even from Lia.

As Lia comes closer to uncovering the truth, she is forced to question everything she thought she knew. In a world of increasing danger, is Aidan someone she can trust?

henriettegyland.wordpress.com

Lindsay Townsend  TWELVE KISSES

Muse it Up Publishing

Ebook

December 14th

$2.00

She has twelve days to win his heart.

He has twelve nights and twelve kisses to prove his love.

  

Website: http://www.lindsaytownsend.net/

Lynne Connolly, BORN ON THE BAYOU

Ellora's Cave

ebook <<...>>

7th December 2012

$7.50

When Jace Beauchene, guitarist for Murder City Ravens, goes home to confront his unhappy childhood, he finds instead the sexiest woman in the world. Seeing the broken-down old plantation house all gussied up and new makes him realize he can’t go back, and Beverley Christmas makes him want more for his future. She lights up his nights, dazzles his days, makes him want more than he has a right to. But he’ll take it.

Beverley didn’t realize men like Jace existed. Rampantly, unashamedly sexy, he shows her how to live, how to open up to new experiences. She’s spent most of her life learning her trade in the great kitchens of the world; now Jace shows her what bedrooms are for. And every other room in the house. But their paths lie in different directions. Unless they can find a way to combine what they both want, their red-hot affair will leave them both burned.

 http://www.jasminejade.com/p-10538-born-on-the-bayou.aspx

Margaret Mounsdon, SECOND TIME AROUND

Thorpe

1 December 2012

£8.99

Widowed Elise Trent is forced to re-think her life when her mother in law accepts a marriage proposal, her daughter gets involved in an action group and she is implicated in a spate of country house burglaries.

www.margaretmounsdon.co.uk

http://margaretsromanceworld.blogspot.com

Freda Lightfoot, THE DUCHESS OF DRURY LANE

Severn House

Hardback

29 November

£19.99 recommended price.

Passion, jealousy, scandal and betrayal - a true-life Regency Romance of the rise and fall of an extraordinary woman born into extraordinary times. Growing up in a poverty-stricken, fatherless household, Dorothy Jordan overcame her humble beginnings to become the most famous comic actress of her day. It was while performing on Drury Lane that Dorothy caught the eye of the Duke of Clarence, later to become King William IV. Her twenty-year relationship with the Duke was one of great happiness and domesticity, producing ten children. But ultimately, Dorothy's generous nature was her undoing and she was to be cruelly betrayed by the man she loved.

http://www.fredalightfoot.co.uk

Sally Quilford A CHRISTMAS MOON

Siren Bookstrand
ebook
12th December 2012
When Evie Price’s brother goes missing for years, she sets off on a journey to Eastern Europe to find him. Engaging the help of Professor Raphael, Evie must try to undo an age old curse. Along the way she learns about a supernatural life that she never knew existed. Can she and Raphael shed light on the dark? Or will the darkness destroy them both?

http://quillersplace.wordpress.com/ 

Wendy Soliman THE FORSTERS Book 1/ Compromising the Marquess

Carina Press

E-book

10^th December 2012

$5.99

Leah Elliot sells society gossip to a London scandal sheet. When she spreads rumours about Hal Forster, the Marquess of Denby, he’s almost forced into an unsuitable marriage by default. To make amends, Leah offers to pose as his paramour, with life-threatening consequences…

 www.wendysoliman.com

Vanessa Devereaux VANILLA FREE CHRISTMAS 

Evernight Publishing
ebook
3rd December

This Christmas, the best gifts are waiting for those who have been naughty…And the toys under the tree are not for children. Sexy Santas, naughty elves, and dominant shifters are ready to spread some very kinky Christmas cheer. It's a good thing the ladies in our stories are looking for anything but vanilla.

www.vanessadevereaux.com

Vanessa Devereaux NAUGHTY NOELLE
Evernight Publishing
ebook
14th December
$2.99
While heading home on Christmas Eve, CEO Shaun Cullen notices that the lights on the main floor are still on and decides to turn them off. There he finds a slip of red paper and upon reading it learns it’s a dirty letter to Santa and signed by someone called Naughty Noelle. He discovers she’s the alter ego of employee Ellen Nelson, and the letter is not only her confession about everything bad she's done at work, but also her lust for him. Will he fire her or will he visit her dressed as Santa and hand out some of his own form of punishment?
www.vanessadevereaux.com

Candlelit Christmas by Elizabeth Beacon

“So what sort of plot are you looking for?’ I asked my editor in October 2011 when the call came to write a Christmas Regency for Mills and Boon.

“Oh, we’ll leave that to you.”

Which should be music to a writer’s ears, but with all the great Regency Christmas books and stories that had gone before, it seemed to me that some very choppy waters lay ahead of me as I sat there wondering what on earth to do.

First step had to be investigate a Regency Christmas. Right; strip out tinsel, Christmas trees, jolly, fat Santa. Subtract Christmas cards, crackers and a huge Christmas dinner. Carols? So Victorian darling! Twelfth Night more important to Regency revellers than Christmas Day? Oh, surely not?

Left with Christmas-lite, I only needed to write, pass over for editing, revise and proof read a book by the end of March. It felt a bit like trying to reassemble the turkey from the wishbone up. Most historic houses were shut for winter by then and none seemed quite right anyway, so I went for a walk with the dog and saw the local manor house, built on the side of a hill and miles from the nearest village. Tweaked and set back in time, Hearstease Hall now awaited as much Christmas cheer as I could get away with.

Being snowed in the Christmas before last helped, but I needed a hero – needed one then as well, but no disgruntled, passionate and sexy hero stumped in when I was snowbound. A romance couldn’t develop fully in the time it takes a southern whiteout to melt, so my hero and heroine had a past and suddenly the story sprang into life. A few hours off from winter to salt the story with the heroine’s midsummer memories and by Christmas the hero and heroine were finally cooking with gas. The result was published this November as Governess Under the Mistletoe and Linda Sole, writing as Anne Herries, is the author of the other half of Candlelit Christmas Kisses.

Although Linda and I had no contact whilst writing our respective books, somehow we both produced heroines who lost everything then had to work for a living. Our heroines also rejoice in very dark hair – which could come as a shock to our readers, as the cover shows a blonde beauty, clearly very happy to be swept off her feet by those Christmas kisses.

Would I do it again? I’m not sure it could work twice and my editor may be regretting that conversation even as I write. It made me think very hard about Christmas and what it means, even while stamping about doing a Scrooge, complaining about the whole rigmarole and panicking about that rigid deadline.

If anyone else gets the call, I wish you the best of luck and understanding friends and lovers. I’m glad I did it, and equally glad I haven’t got to do it again this year!

Available from:

 Mills & Boon

Amazon 

Independent Releases for November

Talli Roland CONSTRUCT A COUPLE
ebook
£1.49
Is any relationship strong enough to survive a string of secrets?
www.talliroland.com

Mary Nichols THE DANBURY SCANDALS
ebook 
£2.17
When Maryanne Paynter is ten, her beloved mother dies and she is taken by her great uncle to live with the Reverend Mr Cudlipp at Beckford. Her life is unexceptional until, a little before her twenty-first birthday, Viscount Danbury takes her to Castle Cedars, the country estate of the Duke of Wiltshire where she is taken to see the Dowager Duchess. It is the beginning of a new and bewildering life, not made easier by old scandals and the occasional reappearance of the intriguing man she met in the wood, who seems to have a string of pseudonyms and disguises. There is mystery and danger, a proposal and more scandal and Maryanne, in the thick of it, does not know whom to trust. 
www.marynichols.co.uk

Susan Palmquist HOW TO WRITE A ROMANCE NOVEL
ebook
13th November
$4.99
Do you have an idea for a romance story but don’t know where to start? How To Write A Romance Novel will show you how to get ideas, shape them into a story that’s unique, and guide you on steps to creating memorable characters. It also covers two crucial aspects of the genre, emotion and sexual tension. Whether you want to write for Mills and Boon/Harlequin or pen more erotic stories like Fifty Shades of Grey, How To Write a Romance will get you started and help get you published.

http://susanpalmquist.com/how-to-writing-books/

Victoria Connelly Postcard from Venice and Other Stories
ebook
11 November
£1.59
The third collection of short stories by the author of A Weekend with Mr Darcy and The Runaway Actress.
www.victoriaconnelly.com

Liz Fielding A STRANGER'S KISS

eBook

7 November 2012

£2.55 (launch price 77p)

When Tara Lambert appeals for help from a stranger, it's an "out of the frying pan" moment and things go downhill from there when she encounters him for the second time.

http://lizfielding.blogspot.com

Interview with Frances Brody

Frances Brody’s crime novels are set in 1920s Yorkshire and feature Kate Shackleton, a First World War widow turned sleuth. Writing as Frances McNeil, Frances published four sagas and won the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin Award for the most regionally evocative saga of the millennium with Somewhere Behind the Morning. She has written extensively for radio, theatre and television, and was nominated for a Time Out Award. Frances lives in Leeds and when not writing, she reads, watches television, practises yoga, walks in the Dales, and spends time with family and friends.

Welcome to the RNA Blog, Frances, I believe your writing life started with radio and TV scripts. How did that come about and what were the particular challenges? 

When I started writing, I was thrilled to have my sketches broadcast on The Northern Drift, a programme that gave opportunities to many writers at the start of their careers, produced at the BBC in Leeds by Alfred Bradley. I caught the knack of writing for radio and my short stories were accepted for the BBC Morning Story slot by a Manchester producer, Gillian Hush. My first radio play, THE SUN AND THE DEVIL, was based on the story of the Pendle witches. Setting, characters, plot and a strong idea were all there. Alfred Bradley sent some of my work to a television producer and commissions followed. I also found a niche in BBC Schools and enjoyed writing history and drama programmes. It was good training because often I had to work under pressure, and be very conscious of story structure, timings and clarity.

Your first novels were sagas, tell us about those and why you eventually turned to crime?

My mother’s family stories provided the basis for, SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE MORNING. Perhaps because I was used to scriptwriting, I chose the first person, present tense. (Later changed to past tense at the suggestion of my agent). My sagas are set in the twenties and thirties, in Yorkshire and Lancashire. In SISTERS OF FORTUNE, the daughter of a banker and the daughter of the bank commissionaire take turns to tell the story. If you write about a bank, there must be a robbery. If there is a robbery, perhaps there will be a murder. I turned to crime for the next book, DYING IN THE WOOL.

Does romance play any part in your crime stories? 

Yes! Love and lust are such powerful motivations.

Your crime novels are set in 1920s Yorkshire. What was the attraction of this period and setting for you? 

We are all influenced by the stories we hear as children. I used to stay with an old lady, a courtesy aunt, Amy Barker. The twenties were her period and she never tired of talking about the old days. Although I have travelled and lived in other places, I always come back to Yorkshire – a diverse and surprising county.

Frances sitting at the end of the rainbow.

As a busy writer with many strings to your bow, how do you organise your day? Tell us something of your work schedule?

I usually start work at about 8 or 9 in the morning. It helps if I’ve stopped at a point where I know I can pick up straight away. That doesn’t always happen as I may think of something very urgent that I have to do, such as fill the washing machine or put peanuts out for the birds, and then wait to see which birds come first. I try to press on with the draft as far as I possibly can. If there’s a sticking point, I’ll try to move on and come back to it. At present, I’m reading through a draft of the next novel, with a cruel red pen in my hand.

If you were starting out afresh what advice would you give yourself as a fledging writer.

If someone gives you an opening, or a piece of advice, try and understand what’s behind it. Stan Barstow once said that booksellers were never quite sure how to classify his novels. Be clear about your genre. When I was writing for theatre, a well-known actor asked me if I had ever been to the Riverside Theatre, where she was working on a new project. I told her that I rarely came to London because I had to walk my dog. Oh dear.

Which character from your many books would you most like to trade lives with?

My sleuth, Kate Shackleton, but I’m not as clever as she is so some mysteries might remain unsolved.

Oscar Wilde said he could resist anything but temptation. Which temptation do you find the hardest to resist?

I have a terrible tendency to make soup, whether anyone wants it or not.

Can you tell us something of what you are working on now?

I’m revising my draft of the fifth Kate Shackleton murder mystery, to be delivered early February. I daren’t tempt fate by saying more.

Deirdre Fitzpatrick is married to a man who wants to know where she really goes when supposedly taking care of her sick mother, and calls on the expertise of Kate Shackleton, amateur sleuth extraordinaire, to investigate. 
THE GENTLEMAN Everett Runcie is a banker facing ruin and disgrace. His American heiress wife will no longer pay for his mistakes, or tolerate his infidelity, and is seeking a divorce. 

THE MURDER When a chambermaid enters Runcie's hotel room, she is shocked to find that he is alone, and dead. Suddenly Kate is thrown into the depths of an altogether more sinister investigation. Can she uncover the truth of her most complex, and personal, case to date? 

Find out more about Frances: 
http://www.frances-brody.com 
http://www.frances.mcneil.co.uk
http://Facebook.com/FrancesBrody 
Twitter @FrancesBrody 

Thank you for sparing time to talk to us today Frances. We wish you continuing success with your books. 
Best wishes, Freda 

Interviews on the RNA Blog are for RNA members, although we do occasionally take guests. If you are interested in an interview, please contact me: freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk

Interview with Diane Allen

I’m delighted to welcome to the RNA Blog debut author Diane Allen, who many of us know as the General Manager of Magna Books. Diane was born in Leeds and started her working life as a glass engraver. After taking time off to raise a family she found her real niche in life with a local large print publisher. She lives in the Yorkshire Dales with her husband and loves sharing time with her four beautiful grand-children. 

This is your debut novel, Diane, tell us how you got the idea, and what it was that particularly attracted you to the saga genre? 

I’ve always enjoyed history, especially local history and the tales told on my mother’s knee of families past and long since gone. So, it was a natural progression to elaborate and bend the truth into a story. I’ve always had a love of sagas, through my position at Magna Large Print Books and have appreciated the time and research that goes into writing them.

How did you devise the hero and heroine?

Oh, my heroine, Alice, I’m afraid there is a little bit of me in there. I lost my mother when I was not much older than Alice and I remember thinking along the lines of Alice, with my older brother always there for me. I also used to go walking up the fell to do my thinking, like Alice, and still do to this day. These are the only similarities, just thinking about what Alice gets up to in the graveyard further on into the book, believe me, I’ve never done what she gets up to on those pages. Shame on her!

My hero, Jack, is completely fictitious, he’s the perfect boy next door, the lad you never look at but then you slowly realise what a good catch he is.

The book is set in the Yorkshire Dales, was the choice of setting an easy decision for you to make? Did it involve much research?

Setting my book in the Yorkshire Dales was an easy decision. I love my Dales, it is where my heart is and where generations of my family were born. Research came easy with a family that soaks up history and facts like sponges to pass on to the next generations. Of course I had to check dates and fashions but a lot of it was knowledge of the area that had been handed down from past generations.

As the General Manager of Magna Books in Long Preston, how do you find time to write in your busy schedule? Do you have a secret hideaway or special time in which to write?

Through the daytime I give myself 100% to Magna and the Ulverscroft Group. However, once my youngest son left home to get married, I found myself getting bored with long nights of television or reading through the winter months. It was then I decided to try to write. Now I’m strict with myself. If I’m not too tired I make myself write at least two hours in an evening. I’m not always in the right frame of mind, especially if I’ve had a hard day in the office, and those are the days I know I’ll not be productive.

My hideaway I must confess, is my kitchen, I plug my laptop in, sit at my pine kitchen table, make countless brews of coffee and thank God that I’m not watching the football with my husband. It’s partly my husband’s love of football that is to blame for my new career in writing, bless him!

You can obviously call upon years of experience in the book industry, what advice would you give to an aspiring writer? 

Write about things you know, be true to yourself and above all keep your feet on the ground. Remember, that you are only as good as your last books sales.

Do you edit and revise as you write, or after you have completed the first draft? Which method works best for you? 

I do a little bit of both, I’m afraid my fingers and imagination sometimes do not communicate very well, to my astonishment. The blunders I sometimes make are unforgivable, so obvious when you go back to correct the first draft or read the previous evening’s work.

As Honorary Vice President of the RNA, do you think they have been successful in improving the standing of romance, or is there still more work to be done?
 
I think the promotion of romance has improved over the last few years. However, there is still work to be done and one must not lose sight of the many faces of a romantic novel.

Which was your favourite book as a child? 

I loved the Little Grey Rabbit books by Alison Uttley (showing my age now) and Enid Blyton. If your saga was turned into a movie, who would play the hero? It would have to be a young Sean Bean, because he’s a Yorkshire man, albeit from South Yorkshire and not the Dales.

So what next? Will there be a sequel to FOR THE SAKE OF HER FAMILY, or something new?

My second novel has just been accepted and continues the story of my Dales families, Mrs Dowbiggin the cook in FOR THE SAKE OF HER FAMILY making her appearance in the last few chapters as a young girl. At present it is called FOR A MOTHER’S SINS, but may change. I’m also forty thousand words into a third book, which continues with the same family.

1912 in the Yorkshire Dales and Alice Bentham and her brother Will have lost their mother to cancer. Money is scarce and pride doesn’t pay the doctor or put food on the table.

Alice gets work at Whernside Manor looking after Lord Franklin’s fragile sister, Miss Nancy. Meanwhile Will and his best-friend Jack begin working for the Lord of the Manor at the marble mill. But their purpose there is not an entirely honest one.

For a while everything runs smoothly, but corruption, attempted murder and misplaced love are just waiting in the wings. Nothing is as it seems and before they know it, Alice and Will’s lives are entwined with that of the Franklands and nothing will ever be the same again.

Available from all good book shops and many supermarkets, or Amazon.

Find out more about Diane Allen. 

Website: http://www.diane-allen.co.uk/ 

Linked In: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/diane-allen/12/703/967 

Thank you, Diane, for sparing time to talk to us today. We wish you every success with your new book.

Best wishes, Freda 

Interviews on the RNA Blog are for RNA members, although we do occasionally take guests. If you are interested in an interview, please contact me: freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk