Guest blogger - Hazel Statham

We'd like to welcome Hazel Statham to the blog today.





Thank you so much, ladies, for inviting me once more onto you blog. Previously, my visit coincided with the publication of LIZZIE’S RAKE, but now I’m touring to promote my new Avalon release, THE PORTRAIT.





Inspiration for THE PORTRAIT came to me from a song whilst watching the film ‘Hawks’, which is the story of two young men dying of cancer, but determined to enjoy life whilst they can. In the song, the singer utters the words ‘I want to be the man that you think I am’, which, in the theme of the film, translates into wishing he was strong and healthy for his girlfriend’s sake. I took that thought and translated it into a hero returning from war with devastating wounds.




When he had joined the ranks of those fighting against Napoleon, Edward Thurston, the new Earl of Sinclair, had recently entered into an arranged betrothed with Lady Jennifer Lynton, but a cannonball wreaked such damage on his noble frame that he had no desire to continue with the marriage. In other words, he wanted to be the man she thought he was, not the wreck he perceived himself to have become.






However, during the campaigns, it was seen that he relied greatly on a miniature he carried and it was to this he clung during his time spent recovering in a convent on the Portuguese border.

For differing reasons, Lady Jennifer had also decided to end the engagement. She felt slighted that Edward’s letters had been impersonal with little but trivialities in their content. Why should she trot down the isle with a man she hardly knew and made no attempt to inform her of his injuries?

Will Edward find happiness with the girl in the portrait or will he stay firm in his resolve not to wed? His head dictates on course, his heart another!

If you have time, please read an excerpt at the link below

http://www.hazel-statham.co.uk/excerpt-the-portrait.htm

Regards to all,

Hazel Statham

Hazel Statham lives in England and has been writing on and off since she was fifteen. Initially she was influenced by Austen, the Brontës, and Sabatini but when she turned seventeen, Georgette Heyer opened up the romance and elegance of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She immediately knew she had found her eras and wanted nothing more than to re-create them in her work.
Her latest book is the Regency romance novel, The Portrait, released by Avalon Books in August 2010.
Hazel lives with her husband, Terry, and a beautiful Labrador named Mollie. Apart from writing, her other ruling passion is animals, and until recently she acted as treasurer for an organization that raised money for animal charities.
You can visit her online at www.hazel-statham.co.uk and her blog at http://hazelstatham.blogspot.com/

Guest blogger - Hazel Statham

We'd like to welcome Hazel Statham to the blog as our guest blogger. She's here to talk about her new Regency, His Shadowed Heart. Over to you, Hazel!





Thank you so much, ladies, for allowing me to participate in your blog. I am the world’s worst blogger but I would like to tell you about my new release ‘His Shadowed Heart’.

Can a shadowed heart be healed? Can love grow where least expected? The Earl of Waverly believes not. How wrong can he be!






After the death of his first wife, Richard Moreton, Earl of Waverley believes his heart irreparably damaged and constantly repudiates his sister’s efforts to draw him back into society with the purpose of finding a new bride. His wife had died giving birth to a daughter, Julia, and he now centres his whole life around the child.
He refuses to even consider taking another wife, until he meets gentle Caroline Northam and hope blossoms. Now he finds that a heart he had thought irreparably damaged was merely wounded and love grows. Dare he share that love with his wife or will memories of the past rise to haunt him?
Caroline Northam is an orphan, shunned by society because of her father’s suicide. Dependent on relatives’ generosity, she contents herself with caring for her cousin’s children before being forced to return to her aged aunt. She has a gentle and caring nature, but beneath her shyness lies a lively mind. At the couple’s first meeting, she finds the earl abrupt and aloof. However, he takes her completely by surprise when, at a ball held at her cousin’s house, he singles her out, insisting that she is placed under his sister’s aegis.

Her own heart immediately engaged, Caroline falls under the spell of this charming lord and wishes nothing more than to ease his melancholy. Nonetheless, she is totally unprepared when he arrives at her cousin’s house to make her an offer. The marriage is to be in name only, and though he speaks no words of love, she is unable to resist and accepts. However, she is not prepared for his coolness on their wedding night when memories of his former wife invade the bridal supper and he unfeelingly dismisses Caroline from his company.
Over the ensuing months, nefarious deeds and strange happenings conspire to keep the couple apart. Can their love survive the test or will the perpetrator emerge the victor. Only time will tell.

I fell in love with the Regency period when, at seventeen, I read ‘Regency Buck’, my first Georgette Heyer novel. I had been writing since I was fifteen but the rich tapestry of this era immediately influenced my writing and I wanted nothing more than to recreate my own Regency world.
That world opened up to include the Peninsular War, which I touch briefly on in most of my books. I also have a short story, ‘The King’s Man’, on my website where I tell of a sixteen-year-old boy going off to the war and the ravages it wreaks on his life. I believe in making the story fit the fact, not the fact fit the story, so if I state fact, it is as accurate as I can make it. I enjoy the research that goes hand-in-hand with the writing of historical novels, knowing that it can only add depth and credibility to my work.

‘His Shadowed Heart’ is my third published Regency and I have three more waiting in the wings. I love this era and will continue to portray it as closely as I can. On my website you will find excerpts and reviews of all my current work.

Thank you, Hazel, the book sounds fascinating!

‘His Shadowed Heart’ is available both as an e-book and paperback and can be purchased from Wings ePress and Fictionwise as well as Amazon