Story Connections – Page 8

Golden Summer (Kate Greenway)

A young woman waiting in a garden by the gate. Photographic print after Kate Greenaway. See page for author, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

I thought the picture above of a young woman in a garden would go well with the excerpt of Elizabeth in a garden below from The Tenant’s Guest.

Elizabeth stood just beyond a low border, watching Cecily play with her children in the garden. The ball rolled toward the large tree that shadowed the far corner, and Lucas Abbot, the elder brother at nearly four years of age, ran after it while Aiden Abbott, the younger brother and just three months past his first birthday, swayed slightly and then took one wobbly step followed by another equally unstable step before falling with a plop to the ground. The action of dropping so ungracefully to the ground did not please the young child. His scowl before he took to crawling after his brother made Elizabeth smile. He was a determined young man. A little fall was not going to stop him from pursuing his goal, which at this moment was the ball with which his brother was taunting him.

Cecily waved to Elizabeth. “Come, join us.”

Elizabeth, having just returned from what had proven to be a rather disturbing call at the parsonage and wishing for some time to think about all Lucy had shared with her, would have made her excuses and gone into the house. However, the motion of his mother had turned Aiden toward Elizabeth, and the ball was seemingly forgotten in favour of the new arrival.

“Izabef!” Lucas, ball in hand, reached her before his brother could. “Will you play ball with me, Izabef?”

Elizabeth tousled the boy’s hair. “Of course. Do you wish to run before I throw it?”

The young man’s head shook furiously from side to side. “I want to race it.”

“Very well.” Elizabeth took the ball from his hands and squatted down. “Ready,” she warned. “Go.”

The ball rolled along the grass, passing just beside Aiden, who stopped and sat, looking first at Elizabeth and then the ball — clearly unsure which should get his attention.

*The Tenant’s Guest* is on sale until the end of this month, and *And Then Love*, the book before this book is free until the end of next month. If you don’t have these two books, now’s the time to get them.

Meet the Characters: These two are off to the races, literally.

Today, I’ve got a couple of paintings paired with the book description for Other Pens, book 5, Addie: To Wager on Her Future. I decided not to do an excerpt today because next Tuesday, I plan to start sharing chapters of the book on a weekly basis here on my blog. I’ve shared all the other books at one time or another on the blog, but not book five. So, since my Thursday story has completed, I thought it would be a good time to give Addie and Robert’s story a read-through.

So, without further ado, here is what the book is about:

Whoever said nothing ventured, nothing gained never had her heart on the line…

Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a trainer, a jockey and a stable lad. George Stubbs, 1765. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Meet the Characters: Tom and His Angel in Disguise

If you’re looking for books that have prim and proper young misses who sit and wait to be rescued by their knight in shining armour, this book isn’t for you. 😉

The heroine of Tom: To Secure His Legacy, Faith Eldridge, is all that is prim and proper until it become “necessary” to be otherwise, and frankly, for Faith, those otherwise times seem to pop up on a regular basis, as in more than once per week.

First, there was that time her brother’s friend fell from his horse and nearly died when she stepped in to play the part of nurse maid. (Mr. Bertram doesn’t remember that she was there, sitting next to his bed, while he convalesced. Or, at least, she hopes he doesn’t remember.)

Meet the Characters: Mary Crawford and a Privateer

What is a privateer?

That’s an important thing to know when reading book three in my Other Pens series, Mary: To Protect Her Heart.

This is the definition of privateer from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

1660s, “private man of war, armed vessel owned and officered by private persons, usually acting under commission from the state,” from private (adj.), probably on model of volunteer (n.), buccaneer. From 1670s as “one commanding or serving on a privateer.” As a verb, 1660s (implied in privateering) “to cruise on a privateer, to seize or annoy an enemy’s ships and commerce.”

Why would you need to know what a privateer is before reading Mary Crawford’s rather bumpy road to happily ever after?

Because the hero of her story owns and has sailed on privateers, which makes both him and the ships he owns privateers. 😉 Yes, it is a word that refers both to people and things.

And if you read that definition thinking that privateering sounds a lot like piracy, you wouldn’t be alone in that opinion. Even at the time when privateering was being practiced, there were those who did not see privateers as defenders of the country but rather no more than legalized pirates.

How is privateering different from piracy?

To state it simply, a privateer sailed under a letter of marque from the government which allowed them to legally attack and capture vessels from a nation with whom the government was at war. When a vessel and its cargo were captured, they were brought back to a port and the prize was evaluated as to whether or not it was legitimate and then, if it was a clean capture, it was listed and sold. The privateer owners and crew shared in the amount of money brought in by such sales.

If you look up the history of privateering you will see that there were rules the privateers were supposed to follow and that there was also often confusion over whether things were done legally or illegally. It was definitely not always all neat and tidy.

And that describes the hero of Mary: To Protect Her Heart pretty well. He was a man of stalwart integrity, don’t get me wrong. However, he was also someone with whom few, who were wise, would wish to tangle.

But before we meet him, let’s look at story connection.

Meet the Characters: Charles and Evelyn

We’re moving on to book two of my Other Pens series this week. You’ve met these characters already if you’ve read Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy since both of these characters are good friends with the main characters in book one.

This is how I like to build series. Each book is a stand alone, complete romance, but what happens in earlier books lays the foundation for and adds to the fictional world in which the characters live.

I like reading, and therefore, writing, series that are like this since it really gives me a feel for a place and society/group of friends or family that I might wish were real enough to visit. So when, I say, “step into their world” at the end of this little promo video I made for the series, I hope you really do feel like you are doing just that when your read any of my books!

Now, back to Charles and Evelyn, also known as Mr. Edwards and Miss Barrett. Let’s step into their world as they are at a play in chapter 3 of Charles: To Discover His Purpose.

You’ll notice some other familiar faces – Aunt Gwladys, Constance, Henry, Trefor – in this partial scene because everything that happened in the last book is what this book is building on.

And, I have another fun addition to the end of this post like I did last time. It’s another video but much longer.