Romantic adventure set in the 1850s
Readers who like a good dollop of history with their historical romance will, I trust, enjoy DAISY ASHTON ABROAD. Daisy, the Cinderella heroine, having been booted out of her childhood home, is determined to become a nurse and serve in the Crimean War. Lucas Denton is a diplomat, disappointed that his and others’ efforts have failed to prevent the war. When Daisy joins a party of nurses sent to the front, Lucas arranges to be their government escort, concerned for Daisy’s safety. So the scene is set.
The 1850s was a decade of contrasts. It began with the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in the famous Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, to celebrate international achievements. Yet life for many was still quite primitive, there being no robust sewerage system for London, which had regular outbreaks of cholera. It ended with the Crimean War, closely followed by the Indian rebellion of 1857/8 that was to end the dictatorship of the British East Indian Company but replace it with British rule.
Most readers will have heard of Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp, but perhaps be unaware of the controversy that plagued her time in the Crimea, from a less than robust recruitment system that led to many nurses being sent home in disgrace, to her rivalry for personal authority with both the army medical officers and a particular Catholic Mother Superior, who led a party of nuns to the front. The journals and correspondence of several of these women inspired this fictional story, which is written in the form of Daisy’s own journal.
Out now, available on Kindle, KDP Select and in print from Amazon. See HOME page for link.

​To all ROMANCE fans out there. The shortlist for the annual RNA romantic novel awards has been announced. It includes a chance to find new authors in the Debut Novel category, as well as the best in contemporary, historical, comedy, fantasy etc. Winners will be announced on March 7th.

Review of 2021
This is the time for me to say, once again, thank you to all you readers for dipping into my various novels in the past year. You won’t be surprised to learn, in the continuing period of uncertainty and constraints on ‘normal’ life, that feelgood reads have been the most popular. My trio of tribute novels to Georgette Heyer (Classic Regency Series) accounted for well over half my past year’s sales. Nevertheless it was gratifying to find new readers for just about all my published titles somewhere in the world.
I read numerous novels by others this past year and my two favourites were TJ Klune’s ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’ and Alexandra Walsh’s ‘The Catherine Howard Conspiracy’ (both reviewed on Goodreads if you want to read my comments).
What next? I’m currently writing a historical romance set around the Crimean War in the mid-19th Century. I’ve also gone ‘wide’ distribution with a few of my older titles, which you’ll soon find on a range of digital retailers, including library suppliers.
All good wishes for 2022 and enjoyable reading!

News of interest from the UK Romantic Novelists’ Association
 
Are you a keen romance reader, but NOT a member of the RNA? Here’s an opportunity to become involved in judging the RNA’s annual Romantic Novel Awards. For more information see:

​Interested in the professional expertise that goes into those books you read? The RNA makes annual awards to Publishing Industry Professional. Here’s the shortlist for this year’s awards:

2021 has some new categories, including Narrator of the Year and I’m personally delighted that my recording artist for Surprised by a Duke is on the short list. For more on Naomi Rose-Mock’s versatile voice see:

Fact or Fiction?
 
Our RNA chapter recently discussed the question of how accurate factual background needs to be when writing fiction. To what extent can we adapt the truth on the grounds that we don’t want the facts to get in the way of a good story?
 
This set me thinking about my own approach. Given that I write principally historical fiction, the factual context of the period I’m writing about and the public figures of the time are important as well as the current issues of the day. That awareness feeds the dialogues between my characters, their political views etc. So where do I set the boundary between truth and story-telling?
 
I start with an idea of the period in which I’m considering placing my story and research it thoroughly. How? I check out the main events of the year/s I’m interested in, including economic, social and political issues as well as the weather, natural disasters, clothing, furniture, buildings of the time, publications etc. With luck and a following wind, something will leap out at me, an event, or a scandal and then I’m off…
 
I use a number of sources including the British Newspaper Archive (a subscription source, but well worth it for 18th century onwards), Hansard archives and other relevant archives, plus any books written at the time and often available at the British Library—if you live in the north like me the Reading Room at Boston Spa can now obtain most items so you don’t need to go to St Pancras. Quite a lot of older items have been scanned in and can be viewed digitally at home, but you do need to join (an easy and free process).
 
Then I explore the ‘what ifs’ and this is where my imagination roams wide and I adapt known events to suit my fictional story. For example, in researching the Boer War (the context for two of my novels) I looked at the actual records of volunteer civilian doctors and Red Cross nurses and found that one civilian surgeon was listed as ‘missing’ after the conflict, as was at least one of the nurses. Did they die? Probably—but supposing they didn’t? Might there be a reason they chose to ‘disappear’? So was born the theme for Miss Deacon Investigates, in which an inquisitive government inspector sets out to unravel the mystery.
I have done considerable research on the role of women spies in the 1st and 2nd World Wars. How to use such a popular time period and be different? So I created a female character who’d been a spy in both and brought her to life through the eyes of her great niece, who by chance discovered the family connection. The result was The Year I found Great Aunt Alice, a past-meets-present novel.
On a lighter note, I researched the Great Exhibition of 1851 and discovered they had toilet provision for visitors in the Crystal Palace, at one penny a go! So I created my own sanitary engineer and the baby daughter who was born in said toilets and what befell her when she grew up. No, I chose not to call it ‘The Sanitary Engineer’s Daughter’--In for a Penny sounded much more catchy.

How do you decide to read or listen to a particular book?
 
What influences my own choices are, in no particular order, as follows:
 

• A genre I like or feel like trying
• An author I’ve read before and enjoyed
• A recommendation by a friend
• A series I want to follow
• Something escapist and life-affirming for that feel-good factor
• The monthly choice of someone in my book group (excellent, because it makes me read something I might not have picked off the shelf)
• A cover and blurb that draws me in
• The opportunity to read or listen to a sample (at this point if I don’t care for the writing style or the voice I won’t download it)
• Spotting a published review which gets me interested
• As an author myself, reading around my own genre (mostly historical romance) as much as possible
• Non-fiction for the purpose of researching a period as background for my fiction writing
• Non-fiction on a topic that interests me

 
What I do not look at are star ratings or other readers’ reviews (although I may read the latter afterwards out of interest to compare to my own views). Why not? Partly because they are not always genuine. Sad to say. Goodreads is currently investigating matters to do with misuse of ratings and reviews, for example.
 
As authors, we try to signal by the cover and blurb what the reader can expect. In romances, the level of sexual content can be an issue (for readers who don’t want it as much as for those that do!). In my case I have and I haven’t included explicit scenes, while some authors consistently either do or don’t. Maybe I’ll present a future blog categorising my books accordingly!

Venture into Audio
My latest project has been to prepare the first of my Classic Regency Romances, SURPRISED BY A DUKE, for production as an audiobook. It’s common knowledge that audiobooks are taking an increasing proportion of the market, particularly digital audio for download, and that many listeners are choosing a subscription service to obtain them. This is my first venture into this new world and is due out later this month. I will add the link to my HOME page when it goes live.
As a volunteer in my local library, I’m aware that other formats are still much in demand, such as large print as well as audio on CDs for those with sight difficulties, who perhaps also find digital activity challenging. So I do support those who argue that the expansion in digital download should not be at the expense of abandoning CD production, which continues to be an important provision.
One of the first questions I was asked was, “Are you narrating it yourself?” Well, definitely not was the answer to that! I don’t have the acting skills or the professional recording studio. If you’re interested in learning more about the world of audio production, watch out for various interviews on the Romantic Novelists’ Association BLOG post (see link ‘Blog-Author interviews and more’ on HOME page and scroll down to check out the ‘Ask an Industry Expert’) posts
And don’t forget you can use the contact form at the foot of the same page. I’d be interested in what readers think about audiobooks.

Classic Regency Series,  Book 3

It is now 100 years since Georgette Heyer’s first novel was published. To celebrate that centenary and in honour of a prolific author widely hailed as the Queen of Regency romance, I have produced a series of three Classic Regency Romances. Many of you will have read the first two (Book 1: Surprised by a Duke, Book 2: Tricked by a Duke) and the third is out this month. Protected by a Duke tells the story of an aristocratic young woman trying to escape a forced marriage and the Duke who assists her.
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Out now on Amazon Kindle, KindleUnlimited and in paperback.