Step Into The Story

Yesterday I was guiding tour parties around Ashdown House on a lovely, hot and sunny summer's day. For the first time we had other events happening at the house and it was fabulous! First there was an early music ensemble playing in the gardens. When we were on the roof balcony we could hear "Greensleeves"wafting up to us on the breeze which was wonderfully evocative. Then there were the living history re-enactors. A horse and carriage was taking visitors around the estate and it was extraordinary to see a historic vehicle using the old Ashdown carriage drive and the road down to the stables. But for me the absolute best bit was having the living history re-enactors wandering about the house and gardens and chatting to us all. On the guided tour we talk about the reasons that the staircase at Ashdown is so wide and one of them is to accommodate the breadth of ladies' skirts. I'd never seen a lady in period dress trying to ascend the stairs until yesterday and now...

I can't believe that it is almost July! Where has the time gone? Probably on my last ditch, desperate attempts to complete my draft manuscript which is due in on 30th June! After that I'll be getting ready for the RWA Conference in Washington which I'm looking forward to very much indeed! I can't wait to meet old friends and make some new ones. I'll be offering a special conference giveaway for all readers who are going to be there and a special website contest for all readers who can't make it, so no one gets left out. Details will be coming out in my July newsletter! So it's an exciting month. July sees the publication of Book 2 in my Brides of Fortune trilogy, The Scandals of an Innocent. Scandals is Alice and Miles' story. What happens when a ruthless rake tries to blackmail a housemaid-turned-heiress into marriage? He gets a great deal more than he bargains for! I love this story because Miles really is very, very bad - he's a real rake, not a f...

Happy February! As I write it's frosty and cold here in the UK with a wind that is apparently straight from Siberia! So here is some hot-off-the press book news which I hope will warm us all up! Firstly the UK edition of Unmasked is in the shops this month. Isn't the cover gorgeous (although I did have to look twice to see what the heroine has in her hand - I thought it was a banana rather than a mirror!) I love the covers they are giving my books in both the UK and US! This edition has lots of extra pages giving some historical information about the background and setting, including some fascinating facts about nineteenth century highwaymen - and women! To celebrate the UK publication of Unmasked and the US publication in March of my new book Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress (more on that later in the month!) I have a special contest on my website. I'm running it jointly with the very lovely and talented Amanda McCabe whose book To Deceive a Duke is currently in the UK...