Two for Waterloo!

Waterloo is a big deal in British history. European history, really. It marks an end and a beginning, and changed the way Europe looked for a hundred years. So when I was asked to write two novellas to commemorate the event, how could I resist? I read so many stories of bravery and heartbreak in my research for these books, I wanted to do the conflict and the people who took part in it, as much justice as I could.

Samhain asked me to write a novella, so I came up with “It Started At Waterloo.” Waterloo wasn’t all about the soldiers. Heroism off the field was provided in plenty by the surgeons, who learned some revolutionary techniques in treating seriously injured patients. 

It Started At Waterloo

Does she love him enough to let him go?

After three straight days working beside surgeon Will Kennaway to treat the wounded of Waterloo, Amelia Hartwell collapses on the nearest bed to sleep. Surely she can be forgiven for not caring that the warm body sleeping next to hers is Will’s.

Amelia’s status-hungry mother, however, couldn’t be more pleased to have an excuse to get the painfully shy, socially awkward Amelia married off, albeit to a less-than-ultra-rich husband.

Will doesn’t keep his title a deep, dark secret. His little-known earldom simply affords him the financial freedom to focus solely on healing the sick. But now that he has a wife to think about—and to admire, thanks to her unstinting bravery at Waterloo—he reluctantly takes up the mantle of earl to do his duty.

Missing her meaningful work as a nurse, Amelia finds herself floundering in society’s glaring spotlight, wondering if Will regrets being forced to marry. Perhaps it might even be better to give him his freedom, even if doing so will break her heart…

Warning: Steamy, battlefield kisses under a tent canvas lead to steamy scenes in the bedroom.

Coming June 16th from bestselling and award winning historical romance author Lynne Connolly
Preorder and Read an Extract From:
Samhain
Kindle
Nook
iBooks
Kobo

And then there is Dreaming of Waterloo...

Fenella has introduced the concept of the boxed set. I didn’t take the plunge until last year, but a contemporary collection, “The Naughty List,” brought me up to date. The books sell like whoa and damn, so when I was approached to write a story with a Waterloo theme, I was more than ready. Even more so that the authors I’m working with are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and friends. Mind you, working on a box set has proved the downfall of not a few friendships, but this one cemented ours.

We all had our separate jobs, and we’ve all done them. As well as presenting a fully written and edited novella, we introduced a new London club to the scene. That was my job. A club for officers who served at Waterloo, called The Incomparables, set up in St. James’s, on the site of a club that had gone bankrupt.

Our heroes are all members, but they have very different backgrounds. I wrote about a soldier nicknamed “Lucky.”

Paul “Lucky” Sherstone was a younger son who inherited his title from his brother, but remained a soldier. After an injury early in his soldiering career, he never sustained another scratch. Men vied to be in his regiment, and Wellington threw him into every difficult encounter, turning him into a lucky mascot for the army.

Not surprisingly, Paul arrives home a complete wreck. Dashingly handsome, a popular commander, but inside he’s feeling the strain. And he arrives home to a wife he barely knows. They married before he left for the army. Now Hetty is used to running her own life, and so she doesn’t exactly wait for Paul with open arms.

I loved writing about this couple, and now I’ve started, I want to do some more! The box set isn’t out yet, but we’ve hit the Amazon.com bestseller lists already, so I’m a bit (a lot!) excited about this one.

Here’s the details. Oh yes, and the set is 99 cents or the local equivalent!

The Incomparables: 6 Heroes of Waterloo and the 6 Ladies They Adore

This limited edition box set includes 6 scorching romances that commemorate the 200th anniversary of the June 18, 1815 Battle of Waterloo.

From the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels to the Battle of Waterloo and beyond, join these six unforgettable heroes as they journey back from the physical and emotional trials of war and discover the passion that thrills the body can also heal the heart. 

Coming June 18th from bestselling and award winning historical romance authors Cerise DeLand, Sabrina York, Suzi Love, Lynne Connolly, Suzanna Medeiros and Dominique Eastwick.

Preorder and read extracts from:
Amazon
Kobo
All Romance Ebooks

Our Blog: http://incomparablesclub.blogspot.com/

Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/736061146513329/

Read more about this steamy collection!

Interlude with a Baron by Cerise DeLand

Emma wants only an interlude with the man she’s adored for years. But Drayton Worth has spent five years riddled with guilt for hurting her—and he’s determined to have more than a few nights in her bed.

Tarnished Honor by Sabrina York

Daniel Sinclair is a broken man with war wounds that are physical and spiritual. He’s weighed down by grief and guilt and tormented by his tarnished honor. When he meets Fia Lennox, a beautiful and brave Highland lass in dire need of his protection, he sees in her his chance for redemption…or utter damnation. Because despite his valiant attempts to resist her, he cannot.

Love After Waterloo by Suzi Love
When Lady Melton and her son join Captain Belling and the last wounded soldiers evacuating from Waterloo to London, she expects clashes with army deserters but doesn’t anticipate how falling in love with the antagonistic captain will change her life.

Dreaming of Waterloo by Lynne Connolly

They called him “Lucky,” but not all injuries are physical ones. Plagued by headaches and living nightmares, Paul, Lord Sherstone returns to London to a wife he doesn’t know and an estate he has to manage. He daren’t let her close, even though he is falling in love with her all over again.

Married and abandoned in a month, Hetty learned to manage a large estate and fend off would-be lovers, but a threat emerges much closer to home and from an unexpected place. In need of help she turns to Paul but since his return he has only shut her out. Refusing to give up on the man she fell in love with five years ago, Hetty has to persuade her husband to let her into his bed—and his heart.

The Captain’s Heart by Suzanna Medeiros

A man who is determined to fulfill his duty at the expense of his own happiness, a woman who wants only one taste of true passion, and a case of mistaken identity. Can Captain Edward Hathaway and Grace Kent overcome the guilt that continues to haunt them both and find true love?

For Love or Revenge by Dominique Eastwick

Captain Roarke Wooldridge is about to find out that sometimes love does heal all wounds.But when his need for revenge collides with desires he never believed he would feel again, will he be able to put aside the scars of Waterloo to embrace his future?

The benefits of a box-set.

Box sets became popular a couple of years ago and are now produced by most writers. I thought you might be interested in why so many writers are happy to sell several books -sometimes as many as ten - for under £2.

When I discovered you could have three or more titles put into a virtual box set and thus recycle single titles I was delighted. The first three I did were in June 2013 and I sold hundreds, making me believe that this was a new and very lucrative way to increase my royalties.

This is the first box set that I had done, and I have since put up another five – all of them so far Regency. Jane Dixon-Smith is my fabulous cover designer and owe a large part of my success to her covers. I spread the word to all my writer friends and they all did the same thing with equally spectacular results. I think we caught the beginning of a trend because box sets certainly don't sell anything like the numbers they used to. However, as soon as I have three or four single titles I bundle them together and put them up. I'm not sufficiently skilled to put in the contents page, so again Jane does that for me. Readers are getting a bargain and writers are getting extra royalties by recycling titles that have already been published. When trawling for something new to read I discovered a ten author crime box set. This included a title by an unknown to me writer - Diane Capri – this was, I suppose, Lee Child fan fiction as it was about two FBI agents searching for Jack Reacher. As there was an introduction from Lee Child this was obviously with his support and permission. I immediately downloaded the box set because of this book, and then found a couple of other writers that I enjoyed. I've now read all Diane Capri's books. I thought this would also be a good idea for a group of Regency writers – we all have our own fan base but by grouping together we would introduce our own readers to different writers and we should all benefit. So the Regency Quintet was born and now a Summer Edition has been published because the Valentine Edition has done so well. The first edition has been far and away the best seller of all my books and although, Amanda Grange, Elizabeth Bailey, Melinda Hammond, Wendy Soliman and myself did this initially as a promotional and marketing exercise we now view it as an important part of our income. The Summer Edition includes Monica Fairview as Wendy had to drop out.

Although initially we thought of this as a way to add extra shelf life to already published single titles, we now think that perhaps putting new titles in a box set and bringing this out first might be a better way to go. The Christmas Edition of the Regency Quintet box set will therfore have at least two brand-new titles in it. What do you think? Do you buy a multi-author book set because they are such incredible value, or in the hope of finding a couple of gems from writers you don't know? What I do know is that I now look out for multi-author box sets rather than single author. A bit like a pick and mix bag of sweets – there might be something delicious you didn't expect to find. Happy box set hunting. Fenella J Miller

Georgette Heyer's birthplace gets a blue plaque

On Friday afternoon, I found myself standing outside a late 19^th century semi-detached house: 103 Woodside, Wimbledon, together with a small crowd of about fifty people. We were waiting for the unveiling of one of London’s famous blue plaques to commemorate the life and work of the much-loved novelist, Georgette Heyer (1902-1974). She had, in fact, lived in a number of houses in London but this house best fitted the English Heritage criteria: Georgette Heyer had been born there; it had changed very little since 1902; and passers-by could see the plaque from the pavement.

103 Woodside gets ready. The plaque is up behind the red curtains and the press are waiting.

 

 

There were four speakers: Professor Martin Daunton from English Heritage; Dr Jennifer Kloester, Georgette Heyer’s biographer; Major General Jeremy Rougier, her nephew; and Susanna, Lady Rougier, her daughter-in-law. Stephen Fry, writer, actor, broadcaster, and appreciative reader of Georgette Heyer, would do the honours, formally pull the cord and reveal the plaque.

The four speakers: l-r: Dr Jennifer Kloester; Stephen Fry; Susanna, Lady Rougier; Major General Jeremy Rougier

 

 

Professor Daunton opened the proceedings and began by settling the pronunciation of ‘Heyer’- with so many family members present, he had to get it right. ‘Heyer’ rhymes with ‘mayor’, and ‘Georgette’ is pronounced in the French way with the ‘g’ soft, as in the second ‘g’ in ‘garage’. He then gave us the background of the blue plaque scheme and said that the committee had been delighted to honour Georgette Heyer with a plaque.

Professor Mark Daunton: deputy chairman of the English Heritage Blue Plaque panel

 

 

Dr Jennifer Kloester, Georgette Heyer’s biographer, spoke passionately about Georgette Heyer’s career and why her novels are so loved for their wit, intelligence, and historical accuracy, adding that they also show the importance of the social mores of Georgette’s own Edwardian upbringing.

Jennifer Kloester speaks

 

 

Susanna, Lady Rougier, talked about Georgette Heyer as a person: a formidable woman, always elegant and stylishly dressed, she could be intimidating. In fact, the first time she met her, she was so terrified that her knees were shaking. Fortunately, Georgette Heyer took to her and Lady Rougier recalled numerous gossipy phone calls, and her kindness and generosity. She said that Georgette Heyer wrote her novels extremely fast, usually in a couple of months – a feat many of us would like to be able to emulate.

Sylvester

 

 

Major General Jeremy Rougier, Georgette Heyer’s nephew, spoke amusingly about his aunt. He once asked her why she continued to live in Albany on Piccadilly, an address which, in those pre-double-glazing days, suffered badly from traffic noise. She replied that it was equidistant between her two favourite shops: Fortnum and Mason’s and Harrod’s! 

Stephen Fry speaks

 

 

Stephen Fry spoke enthusiastically of Georgette Heyer’s stylish and witty novels. He’d discovered them at school and has loved them ever since. He finds them great comfort reading if ever he’s under the weather. (I was amused to hear that Nigella Lawson is another Heyer fan.) He then pulled the cord and the curtains slid open to reveal the plaque. We all cheered. This was followed by a bit of checking to see if the curtains really had opened.

Just checking!

 

 

I’ve always enjoyed behind the scenes stuff, so I hung around to see what happened to the white wooden pelmet with the English Heritage logo and the curtains. When the guests of honour had left, Trevor Ramsay, the English Heritage blue plaque installer, moved in with a ladder and an electric drill. His assistant posed herself at the bottom of the ladder. Trevor climbed up, removed the curtains and the cord and threw them down to his assistant who neatly folded them for use next time. He unscrewed the nails which held the pelmet in place and carefully took it down. He then photographed the plaque for his records and that was that. It took a matter of moments, though he told me afterwards that he’d had trouble getting the plaque up. It was larger than usual – due to ‘Georgette’ being a long name, and positioned high up on the circle - and correspondingly heavy.

Trevor Ramsay does his stuff. Note the folded red curtains – they will be used again

 

 

Jenny Haddon, Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson from the Romantic Novelists’ Association had prepared a wonderful spread for us in St Mary’s church hall (the church where Georgette Heyer and Ronald Rougier were married in August 1925). It was good to sit down, eat the delicious sandwiches and cakes, drink our tea, coffee, or champagne and talk to fellow Heyer enthusiasts. I was delighted to meet our very own Amanda Grange and we chatted happily about our favourite scenes and characters.

Amanda Grange and Elizabeth Hawksley. I love Amanda’s elegant green shoes! The church where Georgette Heyer was married can just be glimpsed in the background.

 

 

The actor Ric Jerrom gave some splendid readings (the scene where Venetia meets Damerel from Venetia, and the terrific denouement from The Unknown Ajax), and we heard a few more lively reminiscences from Georgette Heyer's friends and relatives.

Friday’s Child

 

 

The afternoon ended as we raised our glasses to the ever-green memory of Georgette Heyer. It was an exhilarating occasion and I’m thrilled that Georgette Heyer, who has given so much pleasure to so many people, has been remembered in this way.

The plaque revealed.

 

 

For more information on the blue plaque scheme go to: www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques  They have an excellent account of the blue plaque installation for Georgette Heyer.

Elizabeth Hawksley

 

 

 

Austenesque fiction and the Battle of Waterloo

We’ve been focusing on the Battle of Waterloo on the blog this month, since this month sees the centenary, and we thought we’d take a look at Austenesque stories which feature Waterloo. For those who don’t know, Austenesque fiction creates new stories for Jane Austen’s characters. The books we’ve found on Amazon all feature characters from Pride and Prejudice. Since Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, two years before the Battle of Waterloo, the stories are either sequels or What If? stories.  As always, if you know of any books we’ve missed, please leave details in the comments so we can update the list. Thank you!

Mr Darcy’s Waterloo: Darcy and Elizabeth What If? #9

"What if Mr Darcy's first proposal had taken place in 1815? And what if Mr Darcy and Elizabeth had met again in Brussels, where they were caught up in the Battle of Waterloo? "

Amazon UK              Amazon US

Pemberley to Waterloo: Georgiana Darcy’s Diary Volume 2.

“Georgiana Darcy and Edward Fitzwilliam want only to be together. But when the former Emperor Napoleon escapes from his exile on the Isle of Elba, Britain is plunged into renewed war with France … and Edward is once more called away to fight.”

Amazon UK           Amazon US

Wickham: Pride and Prejudice Continues – Book 3 

It isn’t clear if the book actually contains Waterloo, however it seems likely as, according to the blurb, “Wickham is bored with his wife, Lydia, and his lot in life. . . They both yearn for change. When Wickham leaves England to fight against Napoléon’s army in France, they both get their chance.”

Amazon UK           Amazon US

The Three Colonels 

"Love reigns supreme for our three brave colonels at the start of this epic tale. Colonels Fitzwilliam, Buford, and Brandon are enjoying their courtships and their early married lives  - until Napoleon escapes from exile."

Amazon UK      Amazon US

If you're in the mood for Regency romance without Jane Austen’s characters, then check out some of the new Waterloo-based Regency fiction in our posts below. 

Or, if you’re looking for an antidote to Waterloo, then our 5-book set of Regency romances will entertain you with tales of a reluctant bride, an impoverished governess, an independent young lady with no need for a husband, a mysterious gentleman and a madcap adventure concerning a poet and a wealthy lady.

Amazon UK          Amazon US

Whatever your choices, we wish you happy reading!

Six Degrees of Historical Separation

There’s a game that has been around for a few years that I absolutely love. It’s based on the idea of six degrees of separation; the theory that everyone in the world is a maximum of six steps away from each other so that a chain can be established to connect any two people. A while ago the BBC History magazine introduced a game called six degrees of historical separation – a challenge to see how broad a spectrum of historical characters you could connect in six steps. I’ve been playing it ever since and I challenge you to do the same!

Here’s one of my favourites, William Craven to Nellie Melba!

1.William First Earl of Craven 1608 – 1697. Soldier, cavalier, secret second husband of Elizabeth of Bohemia.

2.Elizabeth of Bohemia, 1596 – 1662, daughter of King James I, married Frederick the Elector Palatine, who was offered the throne of Bohemia in 1619.

3. Bedrich Smetana 1824 – 1884 A Czech composer whose music was inspired by Bohemian history and legends. His orchestral music includes the symphonic poem Richard III.

4. Richard III, King of England from 1483 – 1485, re-interred in Leicester Cathedral in 2015.

5. Thomas Cook 1808 – 1892, born in Melbourne Derbyshire, was also buried in Leicester. He founded the world’s first travel agency Thomas Cook and Sons in 1872 and offered “Grand Circular Tours of Europe” and trips to Egypt and the United States.

6. Dame Nellie Melba, 1861 – 1931 was an operatic soprano and one of the most famous singers of the Victorian era. She trained in Melbourne Australia and took the pseudonym "Melba" from the city. 

Okay, so maybe I have too much time on my hands! But if you like historical research and obscure facts, have a go at creating your own six degrees of historical separation!

SUMMER READING – BOOKS GALORE

These days there are so many good books to be read, but just in case you haven't enough to pack in your holiday suitcase, here are a few more you might like to add…

 

With the Waterloo Bicentenary looming Annie Burrows, Louise Allen and I having been talking a lot about Randall's Rogues, the men at the centre of the Brides of Waterloo trilogy, published by Harlequin Historical.

We decided to use an artillery unit for the basis of our three books, but a unit made up of artillerymen who were too rough and ill-disciplined to fit in elsewhere. They have been turned into a crack team by their commander, Colonel Lord Randall, with the help of Majors Tom Bartlett and Adam Flint. 

They are all rogues (except, perhaps Lord Randall, who is a serious, no-nonsense career soldier) but our three heroes are all redeemed by the love of the right woman. Randall meets his match in the independent, free-thinking Mary Endacott, Tom Bartlett is tamed by Randall's sister Sarah while Flint, perhaps the stoniest of all the rogues, finds his heart melting once he encounters the beautiful Rose.

 

We are all delighted with the reception these three books have received, all of them earning 4* reviews in Romantic Times and I was honoured to be able to launch the trilogy at Westminster City Archives during their special Waterloo commemoration event.  The first two books, A LADY FOR LORD RANDALL and A MISTRESS FOR MAJOR BARTLETT are out now, and the last in the trilogy, A ROSE FOR MAJOR FLINT, will be published in July.

And an added treat for those who enjoy Regencies is a second Regency Quintet, the Summer edition, which is an anthology of novels by Fenella J Miller, Liz Bailey, Amanda Grange, Monica Fairview and myself (writing as Melinda Hammond).

My contribution to this quintet is GENTLEMEN IN QUESTION, a romantic adventure set in 1792: 

The terror of the French Revolution forces Camille, the young Comte du Vivière, to flee his homeland and seek refuge with his relatives in England. For Madeleine, the arrival of her handsome French cousin marks a change in her so far uneventful existence and brings her into contact with the enigmatic Beau Hauxwell. Soon she finds herself caught up in a dangerous web of intrigue involving both gentlemen, but which one is the villain?

This special compendium is only available on Kindle, from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

So I hope there is something in this mix to take your fancy. I am off to enjoy the re-enactments and events taking place at Waterloo itself in mid- June, and will report back, hopefully with pictures!

Happy Reading

Sarah Mallory / Melinda Hammond

www.melindahammond.com

www.sarahmallory.com