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Guest Posts

Guest Post with Therese, author of India’s Summer and Giveaway (US only)

August 3, 2012 by Darlene

For your Friday enjoyment I have Therese, author of India’s Summer here at the blog with a guest post!  This book sounds like a fun and great read for the summer months and today you have a chance to win yourself a copy while enjoying this wonderful guest post from Therese…

 

I find it difficult to believe that India is a fictional character she has become such a part of my life. Once I had the outline for the plot, I created a Facebook page for her and within a few weeks she had more “friends” than I did. I had mixed feelings about this, but then she was single, young, beautiful and funny, so I had to get over myself.

I lived vicariously through her, upgrading her status regularly; how it was going with Adam, the gorgeous hot perfectly sculpted actor she was dating. I posted photographs of them running along the beach or at a party at Chateau Marmont. My friends would ask, “How’s India?” more often than they’d say, “How’s the writing going?”

India’s quest is driven by my belief in the importance of listening to the inner voice that tells us when it is time to make a shift; time to fight through our fears and take a leap. India has spent sixteen years teaching grade school in London. She is desperate to reinvent herself but has no sense of direction. When she takes a literal leap across twenty feet of burning coals, it becomes a metaphor for her life.

Ten years ago, on the last day of our family summer vacation, I walked alone along the ocean’s edge in Malibu. I waded ankle deep into the water and began to cry my heart out. I knew I didn’t want to go back to England. This was where I belonged. We flew back to London the next day, and within six months we had emigrated. It happened that fast.

I began sending long e-mails to my friends back in England, and soon I had a wealth of true stories larger than life. I also had two culture-shocked teenagers, and writing kept me relatively sane. Many of the women in India’s Summer are struggling parents trying to do the best they can for their kids.

Living life in the fast lane in Los Angeles, I learned quickly that nobody “has it all.” Behind the veneer of opulence and privilege is a world much like anywhere else. Many of our friends live their lives in the glare of the media. The reality is very different from how it is portrayed in the press. I wanted to write about my town in a way that shone a light on some of the universal issues that affect us all. I wanted to debunk the myth that this is simply Tinsel Town. Writing this has been a labor of love for me.

 

About India’s Summer

INDIA’S SUMMER by Thérèse is the story of India Butler, single and about to turn forty, who travels from London to LA to reinvent herself. In a world illuminated by the flashbulbs of the paparazzi, she discovers the true meaning of “having it all’ while spending the summer with her sister Annabelle, a famous Hollywood actress, and her brother -in -law, a legendary rock musician.

They welcome India into their opulent, fast-paced lifestyle, whisking her from fabulous fundraisers to parties each more opulent than the last. This does nothing for India’s confidence and she maintains a wry detachment until she begins dating Adam, a gorgeous A- list actor. In an attempt to appear more successful she lies to him about her career.

Disaster strikes and India is drawn behind the veneer of Hollywood glitz and glamor and into Hollywood’s private lives. As her illusions about the perfection of their LA lifestyle fade away, India has an epiphany about her own real talents. .
India is in her element until her new life in LA unravels.

Excerpts from India’s Summer
Buy at: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, B&N, Kindle and Nook

 

About Therese

Thérèse taught English and Drama at a grade school in England, before launching her highly successful promotions company in London. She produced many events for an eclectic range of clients; from receptions at St. James’s Palace for Prince Charles to fundraising telethons with David Bowie. For many years she managed her husband’s career and in 2004 was given the title ‘Lady’ when her husband received a Knighthood from the queen.

Moving to Los Angeles ten years ago gave her the opportunity to devote more time to her writing. Having two teenage children gave her plenty of fodder for her first novel; How To Stay Upwardly Mobile When You’re Spinning Out of Control.

She hopes one day to wake up French, (not English) and be living in an apartment (with blue shutters) overlooking the fountain of L’Eglise San Sulpice, Paris.

Therese’s website
Therese on Facebook
Therese on Twitter

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US only)

I have one copy of India’s Summer by Therese up for giveaway to my US readers. To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do be sure to let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway.

This giveaway is open to US residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, August 18/12.  Good luck!

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Filed Under: Guest Posts

Guest Post with Amanda Grange, author of Pride and Pyramids & Giveaway (US/Can)

July 20, 2012 by Darlene

Let’s welcome Amanda Grange, author of Pride and Pyramids: Mr. Darcy in Egypt, to the blog today!  I have only had the pleasure of reading one of Amanda’s books and that was Mr. Darcy, Vampyre and I just loved it so I was looking forward to reading this one.  My review will be up tomorrow and I have to say it’s another winner for me.  Amanda’s books are such fun!  Today she joins us to talk about her love of all things Austen...

 

I first fell in love with Jane Austen when I read Pride and Prejudice at the age of thirteen or fourteen. I absolutely loved the book, and not just for the romance. I loved it for the humour, the recognisable characters and the memorable lines. I went on to read all Austen’s novels very quickly and liked them in greater or lesser degrees. I wasn’t old enough to appreciate Persuasion or Mansfield Park, but I adored Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Northanger Abbey.

A few years later I saw my first Pride and Prejudice adaptation, the BBC serial starring David Rintoul as Mr Darcy. He was everything I thought Mr Darcy should be: tall, proud and arrogant. Elizabeth Garvie was a delightful Lizzy Bennet, teasing and sparkling. I’ve watched the adaptation more recently and it looks a little formal by today’s standards but it still holds a special place in my heart.

I continued to read Austen’s novels on and off over the next twenty or thirty years, always finding something new in them. I think that’s one of the reasons they stand the test of time, because there is always something new to find. As a teenager, I loved Marianne Dashwood but as I grew older I came to appreciate Elinor more and to admire her common sense. I found I could identify with Anne Elliot, instead of thinking she was very elderly, as I had when I was thirteen! I admired her quiet courage, which allowed her to endure a broken heart uncomplainingly and I felt a sense of deep satisfaction when she found her happy ending.

I loved seeing all the adaptations, which brought new facets of the novels to the fore, and then I started writing my own adaptations in the form of the heroes’ diaries. It’s all brought me a great deal of pleasure, and although I love many novels, it’s only Jane Austen’s books which fill me with an urge to write about her characters and wonder about what happens next. There is something magical about her books which I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s because they are all so different, whilst retaining the core elements of humour and romance. They have very different heroes and heroines, but they all have that indefinable Austen magic.

_________________________

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us Amanda.  I have to say that I didn’t start reading Austen novels until much later in life and in the last few years I’ve really come to enjoy all the different adaptations that are out there – my favorites being Pride and Prejudice ones of course!  I agree, there is something magical about them!

_________________________

 

About Pride and Pyramids (from Amanda’s website)

A sequel to Pride and Prejudice, set fifteen years after Elizabeth married Mr Darcy.

The Darcys are pulled into the Regency craze for Egypt in this romantic and adventurous Pride and Prejudice continuation.

When Elizabeth, Darcy and their lively children go to Egypt with Colonel Fitzwilliam’s younger brother, romantic interludes between Darcy and Elizabeth intertwine with the unraveling of a mystery dating back to an ancient Egyptian woman. They find long-hidden treasure, thwart a theft and betrayal by the ever villainous George Wickham, and lay to rest an ancient ghost.

Read an extract
Buy at: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and B&N

 

About Amanda Grange (from Amanda’s website)

Amanda Grange was born in Yorkshire and spent her teenage years reading Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer whilst also finding time to study music at Nottingham University. She has had eighteen novels published, including six Jane Austen retellings which look at events from the heroes’ points of view.

Woman said of Mr Darcy’s Diary: “Lots of fun, this is the tale behind the alpha male,” whilst The Washington Post called Mr Knightley’s Diary “affectionate”. The Historical Novels Review made Captain Wentworth’s Diary an Editors’ Choice, remarking, “Amanda Grange has hit upon a winning formula.” Austenblog declared that Colonel Brandon’s Diary was “the best book yet in her series of heroes’ diaries.” Her paranormal sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy, Vampyre, was nominated for the Jane Austen Awards.

Her books are on sale in the Jane Austen Centre, Bath, and the Jane Austen House Museum, Chawton, as well as regular book outlets. Amanda Grange now lives in Cheshire.

Amanda’s website
Find Amanda on Goodreads
Find Amanda on Facebook

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of Pride and Pyramids by Amanda Grange to share with my readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry simply leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway!

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, August 4/12.  Good luck!

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Filed Under: Guest Posts, Sourcebooks Blog Tours

Guest Post with Heather Gudenkauf, author of One Breath Away & Giveaway (US/Can)

July 17, 2012 by Darlene

I’m pleased to welcome Heather Gudenkauf, author of One Breath Away, to Peeking Between the Pages today as part of her blog tour with BookTrib.  I reviewed Heather’s newest release yesterday (my review) and I really enjoyed it.  She’s fast become a favorite author of mine and definitely one to watch.  One Breath Away is an emotional and suspenseful story of a gunman entering a school and it really makes you question just what you would do in that situation.  Today Heather joins us to discuss what draws her to write suspenseful women’s fiction…

 

I’ve enjoyed writing since I was a child – yes, I was one of those kids who did a fist pump whenever the teacher assigned a writing project -but as is typical with most writers, I was and am, first and foremost an avid reader. As a child my favorite place in the world was our public library and I spent as much time as possible with my nose in a book. I loved mysteries and plowed my way through all the Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew Mystery books. One of my favorite mystery series growing up was The Boxcar Children which I recently learned was originally published in 1924. I read all the books that were available when I was a child, and again as an adult I read them to my own children with enthusiasm. Who can resist a story about a tight knit set of orphaned siblings, an abandoned boxcar, a dog, and the mystery surrounding a long lost grandfather?

As I got older, I continued to enjoy mystery and suspense novels but my interests expanded to a variety of genres, including books that explored the intricacies of the human heart: Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Elizabeth Berg’s Pull of the Moon, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and so many more. I’ve always admired the way writers could take me away to different places and times through the written word. I knew I wanted to try my hand at writing but didn’t sit down and seriously begin until after I was married and had my children. But when I did, I remembered all the stories and books I’ve read through the years, remembered how deftly authors could arrange the words on a page to be suspenseful, heart wrenching, or heart-warming – to evoke all varieties of emotion. My hope is to do the same for my readers.

 

About One Breath Away (from Heather’s website)

In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town’s children in her hands. Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen-year-old Augie, already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch, will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

As tension mounts with passing each minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

Check out other tour stops over at Book Trib for more reviews, guest posts and interviews & giveaways!
Reading Group Discussion Questions
Buy at: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, B&N, and IndieBound

 

Enjoy the Book Trailer…

 

About Heather Gudenkauf (from Heather’s website)

Heather Gudenkauf is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden.

Heather was born in Wagner, South Dakota, the youngest of six children. At one month of age, her family returned to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where her father was employed as a guidance counselor and her mother as a school nurse. At the age of three, her family moved to Iowa, where she grew up. Having been born with a profound unilateral hearing impairment (there were many evenings when Heather and her father made a trip to the bus barn to look around the school bus for her hearing aids that she often conveniently would forget on the seat beside her), Heather tended to use books as a retreat, would climb into the toy box that her father’s students from Rosebud made for the family with a pillow, blanket, and flashlight, close the lid, and escape the world around her. Heather became a voracious reader and the seed of becoming a writer was planted.

Heather Gudenkauf graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education, has spent her career working with students of all ages and continues to work in education as a Title I Reading Coordinator.

Heather lives in Iowa with her husband, three children, and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Maxine. In her free time Heather enjoys spending time with her family, reading, hiking, and running. She is currently working on her next novel.

Heather’s website
Heather’s blog
Find Heather on Facebook
Follow Heather on Twitter

 

Be sure to sign up over at BookTrib so you can join in the live chat as Heather discusses One Breath Away!  Click on the picture below.

 

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have one copy of One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf to share with my readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry simply leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, August 4/12.  Good luck!

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Filed Under: BookTrib, Guest Posts

Guest Post with Robin Nolet, author of Framed & Giveaway (US/Canada)

June 28, 2012 by Darlene

I’m really pleased to welcome Robin Nolet, author of Framed, to Peeking Between the Pages today.  I read and reviewed her first novel The Shell Keeper (my review) a while back and I really enjoyed it. Robin also wrote a guest post for me at the time on her inspiration for her first book The Shell Keeper if you’d like to check that out as well. Rumor has it she is writing a sequel to it and while I can’t wait till it is published I’m happy she wrote another one in the meantime.  Framed sounds fantastic and as soon as things settle down at home I plan on delving in and reading.  Robin is a fantastic writer with a great knack for storytelling so I hope people give her novels a try.  In my opinion you won’t be sorry.  For now we’ll learn about the book and enjoy the guest post that Robin prepared for us where she discusses her inspiration for Framed…

 

I grew up with books. Summertime found me curled up with my latest literary love on the back porch swing or the crook of a large branch of the silver maple out front. I clearly remember my thirteenth summer when I was physically living in suburban Illinois but mentally inhabiting the Smokey Mountains alongside Catherine Marshall’s remarkable Christy. That may have been the year a little part of me started to feel the writer’s itch.

Fast forward to my adult years, when raising three extremely energetic boys left me with little free time to read but badly in need of some sort of escape! That’s when I discovered mysteries. I love all kinds, from the classic Agatha Christie to Robert Parker’s wise cracking tough but tender Spencer. I’ve devoured enough installments of Sue Grafton’s books to make alphabet soup! The most challenging mysteries came from the pen of P.D. James. That gal knows how to plot! But I also enjoyed the fun escape of the cozy-style mystery-though I hate that term, since murder is hardly something to cozy up to!

I’ve heard that the term comes from the tea cozy, a snug wrap of sorts designed to insulate a teapot. I suppose it implies you should be drinking a proper cup of tea while reading such a book, but since these are often devoured on beaches or at pools, in airplanes, or late at night after the kids are in bed, you might prefer anything from iced tea to a nice Pinot. I know I would!

In my mind, the genre’s traits include a non-professional sleuth; no private eyes or CIA operatives here. Our hero…or more often heroine is more likely to be carpooling kids or sorting mail in a post office or perhaps even a young woman whose aunt is a ghost! From Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldie Schultz culinary mysteries to Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy mysteries to Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity series, there is quite a variety of heroines and locales.

In general, the crime is a little less graphic than Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta investigates. And the sex, while certainly implied, is nothing as graphic as some of the Harlequin romances! It’s the everyman-or woman-aspect of these mysteries that makes them so appealing. It could be your neighbor, your relative or even YOU that stumbled across that dead body or accidentally picked up that bloody knife. It could be YOU trying to prove your innocence before the law arrives to take you away…or the real murderer decides you’re too much trouble alive!

Of course, authors often weave aspects of their own lives into their writing, but finding my protagonist and crafting my plot took some thought. I didn’t have any ghostly relatives hanging around-not even a legend of a ghost! I could cook up a culinary murder…but then my relatives might hesitate to come for Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t deal in a profession that sees a lot of violent crime. Unfortunately.

However, I do have a background in construction and real estate and if ever there was an environment ripe with emotions that was it–a tale with deadly intentions wasn’t all that hard to imagine! Add in soccer moms (and dads), single parents, attractive sub-contractors, best friends, secret affairs, the PTA, a puppy with a sixth sense and a heroine with a tendency to daydream and Framed was born.

Of course, I had way too much fun writing this book…and I may have made my family a little nervous reading up on the finer points of murder, but in the end I think it’s a book anyone would love to tuck in their beach bag or pull out after the kids are in bed. My heroine, Kay Conroy, turns out to be a decent sleuth. However she couldn’t have done it without the help of her best friend and Supermom, Maddey.

Friendship–that’s one of the other things that cozy style mysteries are so well known for. Kay wouldn’t have gotten near so far without Maddey’s tenacious friendship, not to mention a very handy gym membership, to spur her on. Likewise, a love interest might come in handy when your life’s on the line. And yes, I do admit that a certain landscaper was modeled after actor Sam Shepard. He fits the laid back, effortless masculinity of Sam Barnett to a tee!

Ultimately, I think it’s the relationships that make the book. When you reach the last page and close the cover I hope you’ll miss the world that Kay, her friends and family inhabit. I hope you’ll come back for the next Kay Conroy mystery–beverage optional!

 

About Framed

When housing contractor Kay Conroy finds her son’s soccer coach dead on his kitchen floor, her well known dislike for the man soon turns into a motive for murder.

Now, anxious to aim the finger of guilt elsewhere, the quick-witted but daydreaming single mom must squeeze her own investigation in between car-pooling her son and overseeing the construction of a home for a local socialite. The evidence she discovers puts her at the top of the suspect list even though she knows she’s being framed. Meanwhile, there’s an attractive landscaper she’d like to know better and an amorous CEO she’d like to lose.

With the aide of her salty-tongued best friend and the sixth sense of her puppy, Kay digs for dirt. What she finds are broken hearts and bottom lines…not to mention danger!

Framed is a fun read with entertaining characters and a mystery that will keep readers guessing to the end. Plus it has a wonderful friendship between the protagonist (Kay) and her best friend (Maddey).

Framed is the first novel in the Kay Conroy Mystery Series.

 

Buy at: Amazon.com, as well as for your Kindle and Nook

 

About Robin Nolet

Robin, a refugee from the humidity of the midwest, lives in Colorado where she writes with the assistance of her faithful Golden Retriever, Maddie, and a large supply of Twizzlers. Robin’s writer’s resume includes honors from the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (Colorado Gold Contest), Pikes Peak Writers (Paul Gillette Memorial Contest), and the Denver Women’s Press Club. Being the gabby and opinionated sort(but in a good way!), she has written hundreds of humor/commentary columns for local newspapers, and a regularly featured blog/column for the Denver Post HUB section. In addition, for many years, she helped with the intake and judging of manuscripts for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold contest.

Robin’s blog
Follow Robin on Twitter

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of Framed by Robin Nolet (eBook or Paperback – your choice) up for grabs to my readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do please let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, July 14/12.  Good luck!

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Filed Under: Guest Posts

Guest Post with Sandra Byrd, author of The Secret Keeper & Giveaway (US/Can)

June 19, 2012 by Darlene

 

Good day everyone!  I’m really pleased to welcome Sandra Byrd, author of The Secret Keeper, to Peeking Between the Pages today.  I’ve been a fan since reading To Die For (my review) and The Secret Keeper (my review) was another winner for me!  It was again what excites me about historical fiction and that is learning something while getting a really good story in the process.  Today Sandra joins us to talk about Mother Mourning: Childbed Fever and Tudor Women…

 

Black death.  The Great Pestilence. Plague. Sweating Sickness.  The very words themselves cause us to shudder, and they certainly caused those in centuries past to quake because they and their loved ones were often afflicted by those diseases.  But when we survey the physical ailments that afflicted sixteenth century women there is one death that caused the deepest fear among women: Childbed Fever, also known as Puerperal Fever and later called The Doctors’ Plague.

Medieval and Tudor medicine centered around both astrology and the common belief that all health and illness was contained in balance or imbalance of the four “humours” of bodily fluids: blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm.  Therefore, the letting of blood or sniffing of urine were common manners to address or diagnose illness. Although it seems ludicrous to us today, this understanding of medicine had reigned supreme for nearly 2000 years, coming down from Greek and Roman philosophical systems.  It’s been said that perhaps only 10-15% of those living in the Tudor era made it past their fortieth birthday.  Common causes of illness leading to death? Lack of hygiene and sanitation.

Decades  before the germ theory was validated in the late nineteenth century,  Hungarian physician Ignac Semmelweis noticed that women who gave birth at home had a lower incidence of childbed fever than those who gave birth in hospitals.  Statistics showed that, “Between 1831 and 1843 only 10 mothers per 10,000 died of puerperal fever when delivered at home … while 600 per 10,000 died on the wards of the city’s General Lying In Hospital.”    Higher born women, those with access to expensive doctors, suffered from childbed fever more frequently than those attended by midwives who saw fewer patients and not usually one after another.

In 1795 Dr. Alexander Gordon wrote, “It is a disagreeable declaration for me to mention, that I myself was the means of carrying the infection to a great number of women.”   Although they did not realize it at the time, it was, in fact, the sixteenth century doctors themselves who were transmitting death and disease to delivering mothers because the doctors did not disinfect their hands or tools in-between patients.

Because illnesses are often transmitted via germs doctors (and busy midwives) could infect the young mothers one after another, most often with what is now known as staph or strep infection in the uterine lining.  Semmelweis discovered that using an antiseptic wash before assisting in the delivery of the mother cut the incidence of Childbed Fever by at least 90% and perhaps as much as 99%, but his findings were soundly rejected.  Infected women had no antibiotics to stop the onslaught of familiar symptoms once they began: fever, chills, flu like symptoms, terrible headache, foul discharge, distended abdomen, and occasionally, loss of sanity just before death.

This kind of death was not only no respecter of persons, as mentioned above, it perhaps struck the highborn more frequently than the low born. In fact, fear of childbed fever is often mentioned when discussing Elizabeth I’s reluctance to marry and bear children.  In the Tudor era  Elizabeth of York, the mother of Henry VIII, died of Childbed Fever as did two of Henry’s wives: Queen Jane Seymour and Queen Kateryn Parr.  Parr’s deathbed scene is perhaps one of the most chilling death accounts of the century, beheadings included.

 

 Elizabeth of York, Jane Seymour, and Catherine Parr

 

Although Semmelweis was outcast from the community of physicians for his implication that they themselves were the transmitters of disease, ultimately, science and modern medicine prevailed.   Today, in the developed world very few of the newly delivered die due to Puerperal Fever.  Moms no longer need fear that the very act of bringing forth life will ultimately cause their own deaths and therefore can happily bond with their babies, instead.

1The Doctors’ Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis, Sherwin B Nuland, WW Norton, 2004
2Oliver Wendell Homes: The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever

_________________________

Thank you for this very interesting guest post Sandra.  I’ve always been horrified when reading historical fiction just how scary it was for women in childbirth.  They were so scared of the plague but never once thought that they could carry germs themselves to those in childbirth.

_________________________

 

About The Secret Keeper

The author of To Die For returns to the court of Henry VIII as a young woman is caught between love and honor. Juliana St. John is the daughter of a prosperous knight. Though her family wants her to marry the son of her father’s business partner, circumstances set her on a course toward the court of Henry VIII and his last wife, Kateryn Parr.

Sir Thomas Seymour, uncle of the current heir, Prince Edward, returns to Wiltshire to tie up his concerns with Juliana’s father’s estate and sees instantly that Juliana would fit into the household of the woman he loves, Kateryn Parr. Her mother agrees to have her placed in Parr’s household for “finishing” and Juliana goes, though perhaps reluctantly.

For she knows a secret. She has been given the gift of prophecy, and in one of her visions she has seen Sir Thomas shredding the dress of the king’s daughter, the lady Elizabeth, to perilous consequence.

As Juliana learns the secrets of King Henry VIII’s court, she faces threats and opposition, learning truths about her own life that will undo everything she holds dear.

Buy at: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, B&N, and IndieBound

 

About Sandra Byrd

Sandra Byrd has published more than three dozen books in the fiction and nonfiction markets, including the first book in her Tudor series, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn. Her second book, The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr, illuminates the mysteries in the life of Henry’s last wife.

For more than a decade Sandra has shared her secrets with the many new writers she edits, mentors, and coaches. She lives in the Seattle, Washington, area with her husband and two children. For more Tudor tidbits, please visit www.sandrabyrd.com.

Sandra’s website
Find Sandra on Facebook
Follow Sandra on Twitter

 

Be sure to follow along with all the other tour stops on Sandra Byrd’s tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours!

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd to share with my readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thanks, and please let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, July 7/12.  Good luck!

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Filed Under: Guest Posts, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours

Guest Post with Lloyd Lofthouse, author of The Concubine Saga & Giveaway (US/Can)

June 14, 2012 by Darlene

I’m really pleased to welcome Lloyd Lofthouse, author of The Concubine Saga to Peeking Between the Pages today.  I have been a long time fan of Lloyd’s and have read both of his books: My Splendid Concubine (my review) and Our Hart, Elegy for a Concubine (my review) and loved both of them immensely!  Lloyd is a wonderful author who’s writing and stories never fail to capture and hold my interest.  The Concubine Saga is a combination of both of these books in one convenient book which is awesome because I guarantee once you’ve read the first one you’ll want to move on to the second one right away!  Lloyd is on tour all of June with Premier Virtual Author Book Tours so be sure to check out the other tour stops for reviews, guest posts, and giveaways. Today Lloyd joins us to talk about his fascination with China and how a trip he and his wife Anchee took opened up a whole new world in his writing…

 

During the decade that I researched and wrote “The Concubine Saga”, it never occurred to me to ask why I desired to bring back to life the love story that Sir Robert Hart wanted to conceal from the world.

However, this may be easily explained. As a child, I had a passion for reading historical fiction and nonfiction. In fact, at the time I also produced my own crude historical-fiction comic books to mirror the history that I was learning.

Fast forward several decades to 1999 when I met my wife and was introduced to the real China.

Anchee was born in China about the time of the Great Leap Forward (1958 – 1961), which failed due to droughts, famine and poor planning resulting in the deaths of millions of rural Chinese from starvation. As a teen, she experienced the chaos of Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). Then in the 1980s, she came to the United States and several years later graduated from the Chicago Art Institute. By the time we met, she was already a US citizen.

Before 1999, the extent of my knowledge of China was about zero, which is equal to what most Americans know of The Middle Kingdome even today. Those sketchy opinions of China came from the American media and politicians running for election—what I learned from those sources was exaggerated and mostly wrong.

While we were dating, Anchee introduced me to Robert Hart (1835 – 1911). She said I might be interested in an Irishman that went to China in 1854, bought a concubine, fell in love with her and left China in 1908 as the most powerful and influential Westerner to have ever lived and worked there.

Our first trip together to China was in 1999. By 2008, I had traveled to China several times and hiked the Great Wall, visited the Ming Tombs, seen the terra cotta warriors near Xian (China’s ancient capital), cruised along the Li River in Southeast China, visited the Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, Prince Gong’s (Kung) Palace, and spent days walking the streets of Shanghai in addition to other cities.

You may visit my Website and see many of those places. The following link will take you to a menu that will lead you to my photos.

http://www.mysplendidconcubine.com/2008ChinaTrip.htm

While reading Robert Hart’s journals and letters, which were published by the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, I discovered that today’s China exists because of what the British, French, Germans, Russians, Portuguese, Japanese and Americans did to it in the 19th and early 20th century.

I discovered that the British and French fought two wars (1839 to 1842 and then 1856 to 1860) with China to force the Emperor to allow them to sell opium legally to his people. Most of that opium came from British India making the British Empire the greatest drug cartel in history. However, the UK was not alone. Merchants from just about every nation in the West sold opium to the Chinese.

To learn more, I researched “God’s Chinese Son” by Jonathan D. Spence; “The Devil Solider” by Caleb Carr; “Dragon Lady” by Sterling Seagrave; “The Manchu Way” by Mark C. Elliot; “My Country and My People” by Lin Yutang—in addition to many other books and hundreds of pages from articles.

In fact, I learned from Caro Cipolla’s “Guns, Sales, and Empires” that while Buddha traveled to China on white elephants, Jesus Christ arrived on cannon balls. Due to the treaties China was forced to sign ending the Opium Wars, Christian missionaries were free to travel anywhere in China to spread the Gospel and convert the heathens—at least those that were not lost to the opium.

Letting those missionaries in led to the Taping Rebellion (1850 – 1864), the bloodiest rebellion in human history. The leader of the Tapings was a failed Confucian scholar that converted to Christianity and then claimed to be the younger son of Jesus Christ.

In fact, Robert Hart played a crucial role to end the Taping Rebellion. In addition, East Asian scholars see Sir. Robert Hart as the godfather of China’s modernism.

Due to my early interest in history and writing, it was only natural that I wanted to write “The Concubine Saga”, which focuses on the passionate, bitter-sweet love story between Robert Hart and Ayaou so readers may see for themselves what happens when two dissimilar cultures collide.

In “Entering China’s Service”, Harvard scholars said, “Hart’s years of liaison with Ayaou gave him his fill of romance, including both its satisfaction and its limitations.”

 

About The Concubine Saga

No Westerner has ever achieved Robert Hart’s status and level of power in China. Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Hart became the “godfather of China’s modernism”, inspector general of China’s Customs Service, and the builder of China’s railroads, postal and telegraph systems and schools.

However, his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine. Sterling Seagrave, in Dragon Lady, calls her Hart’s sleep-in dictionary and says she was wise beyond her years.

Soon after arriving in China in 1854, Hart falls in love with Ayaou, but his feelings for her sister go against the teachings of his Christian upbringing and almost break him emotionally. To survive he must learn how to live and think like the Chinese. He also finds himself thrust into the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, the bloodiest rebellion in human history, where he makes enemies of men such as the American soldier of fortune known as the Devil Soldier.

During his early years in China, Robert experiences a range of emotion from bliss to despair. Like Damascus steel, he learns to be both hard and flexible, which forges his character into the great man he becomes.

In time, an ancient empire will rely on him to survive, and he will become the only foreigner the Emperor of China trusts.

Full of humanity, passion, and moral honesty, The Concubine Saga is the deeply intimate story of Hart’s loyalty and love for his adopted land and the woman who captured his heart.

“My Splendid Concubine” was the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

In the sequel, “Our Hart, Elegy for a Concubine”, he was the only foreigner the Emperor of China trusted.

Both novels have come together as one in “The Concubine Saga”.

Tour Stops with Premier Virtual Author Book Tours
Buy at Amazon.com
Also available on Kindle

 

About Lloyd Lofthouse

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart [combined in this single volume], which earned honorable mentions in general fiction at the 2008 London Book Festival, 2009 San Francisco Book Festival, 2009 Hollywood Book Festival, 2009 Los Angeles Book Festival, 2009 Nashville Book Festival and was a finalist in historical fiction for the National Best Books 2010 Awards. Lloyd Lofthouse grew up in Southern California, served in the Vietnam War as a U.S. Marine and lives near San Francisco with his wife and family with a second home in Shanghai, China.

Lloyd’s website
Lloyd’s blog
Lloyd on Facebook

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US & Canada)

I have one copy of  either a paperback or Kindle copy (your choice) of The Concubine Saga by Lloyd Lofthouse to share with my readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, June 30/12.  Good luck!

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