Friday, March 15, 2024

Real places, good fiction! What's a good story made of? See much in my LORD ASHLEY's BEAUTIFUL ALIBI!


What's a good story made of?

Lots of things. But one element every author of historical fiction knows is that often the place is just as important as the characters and their conflict.

Here in SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I take you to so many places that are real...or were. Each one has a special importance to the period...and the story I'm telling.

One of those places is St. Denis Basilica in north central Paris. It is on the periphery, almost to the Peripherique Wall, centuries old.  Older is the church that was originally built there and is now this lovely building.

But its magnificence was not always revered. In fact, during the Revolution, the church was pillaged. Ransacked. 

Why?



Inside this lovely church rest the kings and queens and families of the monarchs of France. From ancient to medieval, babies, children, siblings, kings to Louis XIV, and, yes, the remains of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, Louis XVIII and Charles X.

I post here only a few of the marvelous statuary in this church. I urge you to go and marvel at the collection. Do go down into the crypt to see the black granite coverings to the tombs of Louis and his wife Marie. Walk around to see the alcove where their son's heart is buried. Do find Louis XIV in one wall.

Why do I put this in LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI? The scene is very important in the novel as our heroine get north to St. Denis and attempts to make contact with her agent who feeds her news from the south of France. The aura of death and sadness pervades the scene.

The bath house near St. Denis to which she goes is typical of Paris at the time. For both men and women in separate rooms, the bathhouse was useful to those who wanted to bathe and had no means at home.

Here is a model of one. My picture from the Carnavalet Musee in Paris.

Built in 1787, this luxury public bathhouse remained fashionable under the Empire and the Restoration. Around 1830 however, its success declined in the face of competition.





Friday, March 8, 2024

Agents of my fictitious merchant Scarlett Hawthorne attempt to topple the little general while they fall delightfully in love!

We read romance for the joy of falling in love. But we read historical romance for the drama of living in different era. 

In my new series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I give you sixteen spicy historical romances. Each one will come with a kick of loads of accurate historical detail. The agents of merchant Scarlett Hawthorne will fall in love not only amid actual events, but many will participate and solve mysteries many experts ponder even today.  

https://books2read.com/u/mdPpVd



Sweeping you from London to Paris during the years Bonaparte ruled, I am tickled to open the series by a trip down the road to Malmaison and show you the problems of navigating Josephine and Bonaparte’s court. The intrigues of spies, ambassadors, merchants, military men and the women who loved and aided them create a canvas of actual events that shaped the fate of millions. 

Over the years of Bonaparte’s rise and reign, espionage agents of all nationalities tried to stop him. Many failed. Like the attempt in LORD ASHLEY’S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI to abduct Bonaparte in June 1800. A few succeeded, like the attempt of the British government to plant agents throughout the Continent during the peace of the Treaty of Amiens. 

Merchant's house, 17th Century

Some of these events were documented, like the abduction of the duc d'Enghien. Others still remain mysteries, such as the identity of the mysterious English woman who for decades sent thousands of coded secrets home to London. And the lady who stole documents from Talleyrand in Vienna during the Congress of 1814. 

In SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I take you to those cities that live in our history books—and palaces, churches and streets I have walked. They are places that exude their own charm—and hold for the people of that time secrets and challenges for agents of all countries. 

Varennes, France

You will go to the tunnels beneath Compiègne and to the palace where Napoleon took his second wife and within minutes of arrival escorted her to their bedroom. You will go to Reims, where kings were crowned, and enter the caverns of St. Denis in Paris where they were buried. You will go to the church in Varennes where gendarmes captured Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and sent them to Paris to die. You will go to Baden where a greedy German margrave sold out his subjects to Bonaparte for land and money. You will track Bonaparte and his aide Caulaincourt as they race away from Moscow and are tracked by agents all the way to Paris. 

Amboise, curtain walls, on Loire

I will also take you to other seemingly insignificant places that really existed. A public bath house, the smelly abattoir of Montmartre, then south to the huge fortress of Amboise and the vineyards of the Loire. To Verdun where the citadel becomes the prison for hundreds of British trapped inside France by the wily new emperor. 

A panoply of stories, the series will be a rich discovery of the challenges of fighting an enemy while falllng in love with one irresistible person. I hope you enjoy them all, from this first search for a missing friend, to the action-adventure of saving an entire family from death, to the rewards of stealing Bonaparte’s gold and more. 

Through each story, one man and woman will try to save the world from a despot—and save each other and the love they treasure above all else. I hope you have enjoyed your tour of Paris and northern France in this first novel of the series. Come with me as I take you to those times and places where kings walked, Bonaparte reigned and where espionage agents of my fictitious merchant Scarlett Hawthorne will attempt to topple the little general while they fall delightfully in love.

Monday, February 12, 2024

A nibble of new newest cherry, LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALBI!


Excerpt, Lord Ashley’s Beautiful Alibi, All rights reserved, Cerise Deland. Copyright 2024.


“We must stop,” Augustine murmured, though like a besotted girl, she arched her neck to give him greater access. She could not wish him gone—and oh, how she wanted him to stay and give her more of his lips and his arms and the stories of his childhood. Through those brief tales, he had become a boy, a solemn and vital person whom she could trust for the moment, for the task, for her needs. But no more. Not a bit more….

He lingered, his lips on her throat and her shoulder as he seemed to inhale every essence of her. With a small blessing of his open mouth to the hollow of her throat, he drew back.

He took his time, his enchanting ice grey eyes examining her. With deft moves, he fluffed the ruffle at her bodice and pulled down her skirts over her knees.

“Thank you,” she said with a true smile, though she breathed rapidly, in no way recovered from his thrall. “We have done a good job of displaying our interest in each other.”

“Have we?” Ashley’s bass voice was gruff, the question in his voice asking a thousand more things than the obvious. 

She nodded, hiding her gulp. “Yes, just now, two have come to the doors and left.”

“Polite of them,” he said and cupped her cheek. “We cannot go in yet to the salon.”

“No?” Her mind was too full of him, her question too whimsical.

“You are flushed. And I am not fit to face anyone.” His brows rose by little degrees to reach the black shock of hair that had fallen—with her help she was sure,—over his broad brow.

She giggled.

He rolled his eyes and hands on his hips, considered the stars.

“How long do you need?” Lured, she glanced down. My, my. She flashed him a wicked pout.

“Hours, if you keep that up! You may not have had lovers, darling, but you’ve learned how to entice a man!”


BUY LINK:  https://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Beautiful-Alibi-Scarlett-Affairs-ebook/dp/B0CSTSTYNQ


Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Want to visit Malmaison? Paris? Josephine's court?

In my new series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I give you the excitement of falling in love during the tumultuous time when Europe was awash in revolutions and the rise of one unknown man to power shook the Continent and the foundations of every other country.


Sweeping you from London to Paris, I am tickled to take you to Malmaison and the problems of navigating Josephine and Bonaparte’s court. The intrigues of spies, ambassadors, merchants, military men and the women who loved and aided them create a canvas of actual events that shaped the fate of millions. 


Over the years of Bonaparte’s rise and reign, espionage agents of all nationalities tried to stop him. Many failed. Like the attempt in LORD ASHLEY’S BEAUTIFUL ABLIBI to abduct Bonaparte in June 1800. A few succeeded easily, like the attempt of the British government to plant agents throughout the Continent during the peace of the Treaty of Amiens. 


Some of these events were documented, like the abduction of the duc d’Engien. Others still remain mysteries, such as the identity of the mysterious English woman who for decades sent thousands of coded secrets home to London. And the lady who stole documents from Talleyrand in Vienna during the Congress of 1814.


In SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I take you to those cities and towns that live in our history books—and palaces and streets I have walked. They are places that exude their own charm—and hold for the people of that time secrets and challenges for agents of all countries. 


You will go to the tunnels beneath Compiègne and to the palace where Napoleon met his second wife and within minutes escorted her to their bedroom. You will go to Reims, where kings were crowned, and enter the caverns of St. Denis in Paris where they were buried. You will go to the church in Varennes where gendarmes captured Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and sent to Paris to die. You will go to Baden where a greedy German margrave sold out his subjects to Bonaparte for land and money. You will track Bonaparte and his aide Caulaincourt as they race away from Moscow and are tracked by agents all the way to Paris.

 

I will also take you to other seemingly insignificant places that really existed. A public bath house, the smelly abattoir of Montmartre, then south to the huge fortress of Amboise and the vineyards of the Loire. To Verdun where the citadel becomes the prison for hundreds of British trapped inside France by the wily new emperor.


A panoply of stories, the series will be a rich discovery of the challenges of fighting an enemy while falllng in love with one irresistible person. I hope you enjoy them all, from this first search for a missing friend, to the action-adventure of saving an entire family from death, to the rewards of stealing Bonaparte’s gold and more. Through each story, one man and woman will try to save the world from a despot—and save each other and the love they treasure above all else.


Thursday, February 1, 2024

BON-BONS! Josephine's court ruled Society! See how in LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI!

Have you ever wondered how people got on in that very rare high society?


In 1802, Bonaparte and Josephine dominated social life in Paris. They lived in the Tuileries, a palace along the Seine, given them as their abode by the constitution of the Consulate.


I did. And so I have read about it so much, I decided that the doings of Bonaparte and his wife merited my attention to them in my new series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS!


Society did revolve around Josephine and her friends. Most notable among them were Madame Tallien and Julie Recamier, a widow who was scandalous in all she did. She even went nearly naked at the opera!


Many however did not care for the man who took so much power to himself. 

And as in the first chapter of ALIBI, we see one of the attempts at the assassination of Bonaparte. In June 1800, a group of rebels who may have had funding and advice from British agents, did attempt to abduct the First Consul on the road to Malmaison, Josephine's and his home soouth of Paris.


Today that original road is well paved. Leading to the well-preserved enclave adored by Josephine are modern sidewalks adorned with the Emperor’s emblem, bees, embedded in the cement.




Thursday, January 18, 2024

Bon-bon! Cover reveal for LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI!

 


This wonderful cover, designed by talented Dar Albert, is for the first in my new series, LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI!

A panoply of stories, the series will be a rich discovery of the challenges of fighting an enemy while falllng in love with one irresistible person. I hope you enjoy them all, from this first search for a missing friend, to the action-adventure of saving an entire family from death, to the rewards of stealing Bonaparte’s gold and more. Through each story, one man and woman will try to save the world from a despot—and save each other and the love they treasure above all else.

This debuts March 21. BUY LINKS TO COME!


Sunday, December 24, 2023

IF I LOVED YOU wins BEST HISTORICAL, WIN $45 GIFT CARD!














 













 

Giveaway –

 

Enter to win a $45 Amazon gift card:

 

https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750244






What makes IF I LOVED YOU a must-read?

 

"This strangers to lovers romance includes everything you adore in a historical romance—spice, drama, a dashing hero, real historical detail and poetic prose that inspires and enchants!"