Friday 28 October 2016

First Sentence Friday: HEYC Ch 18

Last chapter!
Her Endearing Young Charms
Chapter Eighteen: The atmosphere at breakfast the next morning was quite different from their usual scattered conversation.

I wonder why.


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Tuesday 25 October 2016

Comparisons - the Bad and the Good

The other day I was doing a regular review of my career path. (This is a good thing, if one wants one's career to go in the direction one wants it to.)  I asked myself these questions:

Where am I?
Where do I want to go?
What do I need to get there?
What's stopping me?

This last question is rather important. It reflects upon those things that keep me from where I want to be. Without stoppage, any career would be stellar and magnificent.

Right now, mine's not.

It's a necessary question, but comes with pitfalls. One of those is comparisons.

Comparison can be a useful tool, but only if applied correctly. It is all too easy to fall into a false comparison trap. Fr'ex: one of your peers had three books released last year, one of them award-winning. It's too easy to look at that, look at the pathetic one book you just managed to eke out and wonder why your career's in the dumps.

Or maybe you did release three books, but none of them won awards, or sales weren't that great, or you have no idea when your next book will be written, nevermind come out. Or maybe you realised you needed a Pullman option for your ticket for the Query Train as you watch fellow travellers hopping off left-right-centre.

I gave in to a moment of self-pity. Why is my writing career not where I wanted it to be? We all have twenty-four hours in our days and I only spend eight of them sleeping. What have I been doing instead of turning out high-quality books at a phenomenal rate?

Then I look at the products of my Twenty-Year Plan. They have grown up to be strong, capable, respectful and respectable members of society.  When I compare them to the products of others, the real truth comes out. All the energy I've been pouring into this project rather than into my books has paid off better than if I'd turned it the other way.

I have five more years left of the Twenty-Year Plan. Then, when that's done, I can turn myself fully to the Fifty-Year Plan.

But for now, I shall be mostly content with the process I've got now.

(Mostly.)

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Her Grace is doing NaNoWriMo this year. She will have a publishable book at the end of it.

Friday 21 October 2016

First Sentence Friday: HEYC Ch 17

Her Endearing Young Charms
Chapter Seventeen: The more she thought about it, the more Merrybelle didn't want to go to the Blandfords' ball.

C - H - I - C - K - E - N. That am the way you spell chicken.


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Her Grace knows what to do when the rent comes 'round.

Friday 14 October 2016

First Sentence Friday - The White Feather Ch 8

First Sentence Friday - The White Feather Chapter 8 - Final chapter!

The day of their wedding delivered on its promise of rain.

Is it a spoiler to announce a wedding at the end of a Romance novel?

I hope you've enjoyed First Sentence Friday for The White Feather. If you've had the opportunity to read it, I ask a favour; please leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads or wherever you purchased your copy. Honest reviews help authors more than you know and help your fellow readers find great books.

If you haven't read it yet, get The White Feather now from Amazon or your favourite ebook retailer.

Out now from The Wild Rose Press.

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Never be afraid to tell me what you think of my  novels. Loved it? Great! My job here is finished. Didn't love it? Any reason why? Any feedback you give me helps me improve on later books.

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Her Grace thanks you.

First Sentence Friday: HEYC Ch 16

Her Endearing Young Charms
Chapter Sixteen: Alexander stared at the worksheet before him.

Today's FSF brought to you by Randomosity.


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Her Grace is random.

Friday 7 October 2016

First Sentence Friday: HEYC Ch 15

Her Endearing Young Charms
Chapter Fifteen: Lord Alexander entered the Boar's head with Sir Peter Andrews, the local Magistrate.

Pre-orders are up for my next book. Grab yours now!


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Her Grace will keep writing them as long as you keep reading them.

First Sentence Friday - The White Feather Ch 7

First Sentence Friday - The White Feather Chapter 7

His future bride was not the only lady in his life he needed to keep happy.

Here's a brief word about Church of England Special Licenses. It seems that nearly every Regency Romance novel features Our Hero fetching a special license for marriage.

In reality, they were rather rare. In novels, it seems that Special Licenses were more a way to get married quickly--say, that day.

Historically, when getting married in the Church of England, There were three ways of going about it:

1. Calling the Banns: this was the cheapest (free) and easiest way. In your parish of residence, announcements of your forthcoming marriage were made each Sunday for three weeks. If nobody objected, you and your betrothed could get married.

2. Common License: issued by an bishop, archbishop or archdeacon, a common license waived the three-week bann-calling period. However, you could only get married in the jurisdiction of the clergy who issued it. All licenses cost money. Sometimes a couple got a license for no other reason than a financial status symbol.

3. Special License: these could only be issued by the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but allowed the wedding to take place in any parish.

How do you think James went about it?

Get The White Feather now from Amazon or your favourite ebook retailer.

Out now from The Wild Rose Press.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | KoboBooks | The Wild Rose Press