Review of Ghosting Academy

  

 

GHOSTING ACADEMY

LS Delorme

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GENRE:  paranormal psychological thriller

 

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BLURB:

 

It’s been years since Amelie abandoned her home to become an elite agent of the Academy.

 

In its embrace she has found support and stability, but in return the Academy uses her gifts for destruction and control. For ten years, she has chosen to live only for the moment, neither questioning nor considering the motives of her employer. But when Amelie and her pod of fellow agents, “graduate” into becoming strategic operatives, they are spirited off to an isolated island. Here they uncover a labyrinth of deception and lies far more sinister than any they ever imagined, including Verite, a new virtual reality game, in which time has no meaning and your blood holds the keys to your soul.

 

In the Ghosting Academy, consciousness is currency, morality is shackles and there is no death.

 

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Excerpt:

 

Widget picked up a needle and motioned to Amelie. She grimaced and shook her head.

            

“I hate these things. Vaccinations are the worst,” she muttered.

 

“No, death is the worst. This is just a little prick in your arm,” Majo said.

 

“So can I assume you have already signed up for Evermore then?” James asked with a smirk. 

 

“What’s Evermore?” Amelie asked.

 

“Do you never read the news?” James said.

 

“Not unless it’s pertinent to my job. Why?” 

 

“It’s been all over the news lately,” Majo replied. “There is a company that claims to be able to move your consciousness from your body and into a virtual world that they have created.”

 

“Created to your specifications,” James added, getting up as Widget nodded to him. 

 

“So they say that they can identify and isolate your actual soul, and move it?” Amelie turned to face James, who was stoically getting his vaccination.

 

“Oh, they don’t mention souls at all,” Majo said. “They only discuss consciousness.”

 

“And they know it works?” Amelie asked.

 

“The gamers who did the beta testing all came back singing its praises and wanting to go back in,” James replied. “Who knows, maybe the human race has finally found a way to cheat death.”

 

Review: 

 Ghosting Academy by L.S. Delorme offers readers an intriguing glimpse into a world where the lines between agency, morality, and reality blur dramatically. The story follows Amelie, a dedicated agent of the Academy who has spent a decade honing her gifts for the sake of her employer. Initially, the Academy provides her with a sense of belonging, support, and stability, yet this comes at a significant cost—her autonomy and ethical compass. As Amelie and her fellow agents transition into strategic operatives, they are thrust into an isolated environment filled with deception and darker truths than any of them had anticipated. Delorme's narrative is a compelling exploration of the consequences of blind allegiance to a powerful institution. 

 

Throughout the first ten years of her tenure at the Academy, Amelie exemplifies the idea of living in the moment, casting aside questions of morality and the motives behind her assignments. This mindset reflects a broader theme in the novel—the seductive allure of power and the ease with which it can corrupt. The transformation from an elite agent to a strategic operative serves not only as a pivotal plot point but also as a metaphor for the loss of innocence and the awakening to the complex realities of the world around her. The introduction of Verite, the sinister virtual reality game, serves as a crucial device within the narrative. It challenges the characters’ perceptions of time and consciousness, suggesting that one's very essence can be commodified. In this dystopian setting, consciousness becomes a form of currency, and the inherent value of human life is undermined. Delorme skillfully uses Verite to illustrate how technology can manipulate and control, raising questions about the ethical implications of such advancements. As Amelie navigates this labyrinth of deception, readers are compelled to ponder the extent to which society is willing to sacrifice its humanity for the sake of technological progress. However, the story is not without its issues. 

 

The awkward sexual dynamics that permeate the plot can detract from the central themes, leaving some readers feeling uneasy. These elements may feel like an unnecessary distraction from the otherwise gripping narrative. Additionally, while having read earlier books in the series can enhance the depth of understanding and character backgrounds, the story does stand on its own, making it accessible to new readers. In conclusion, *Ghosting Academy* is a thought-provoking exploration of power, morality, and the human experience within a haunting landscape. L.S. Delorme crafts a narrative that is both engaging and cautionary, reminding us of the potential perils that lie within unchecked authority and the allure of technological escapism. As Amelie confronts the realities of her world, readers are invited to reflect on their own lives and the choices they make in the face of societal pressures and the complex web of morality. Ultimately, Delorme's work serves as a powerful reminder that while the pursuit of knowledge and advancement is essential, it must never come at the expense of our humanity.

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links: 

 

Lexy is the author of the “Limerent” novel series. She has also been a travel writer and author of The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland Hong Kong and An Expat Mom’s unofficial Guide to Disneyland Paris. She is an ex rock musician, ex science grad, recovering attorney and now an expat writer. Her love of writing stems from an eclectic life. As a navy “brat,” she grew up in various states across the US until her father retired to North Carolina when she was a teenager. As an adult, she has continued this “tumbleweed” life, having since lived in 3 countries, 9 US states, and 21 cities around the world. But, through all this change, her love of writing has been the one constant. Writing the Limerent Series allows her to use her unusual past to help create new worlds. Lexy now lives in Paris with her husband and two very cool sons.

 

Website:  https://www.lsdelorme.com/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lexyshawdelorme

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lsdelormeauthor

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lexyshawdelorme

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexy-shaw-delorme-357830/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lsdelormeauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexy.delorme

 

Free to read on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/Ghosting-Academy-Psychological-Thriller-Limerent-ebook/dp/B0DGF3C9M5

 

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

LS Delorme will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

Enter here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f5058

Follow the tour:

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Jury Duty is Murder

  

 

JURY DUTY IS MURDER

Kate Damon

 

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GENRE:  Cozy Mystery

 

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BLURB:

 

The verdict is in; a famed athlete is headed for prison. The jurors have done their job and are free to go back to their lives.

 

But after being sequestered for four months, life as some knew it no longer exists.

 

HAROLD ASHMAN’s house is almost destroyed by a careless driver. Exotic dancer, CEECEE LAINE, discovers that her boyfriend is two-timing her, and she no longer has a job. Actor ALEX MANNING learns his career is down the tubes, and 72-year-old, HELEN RYDER, discovers her family is plotting to put her in an old folks home.

 

Then things take a turn for the worse. When former jurors start dropping like flies, CeeCee, Helen, Harold, and Alex are convinced there’s a killer on the loose. Now the feuding foursome must find him before he kills them—or before they save him the trouble by killing each other.

 

 

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Excerpt:

 

The ringing telephone woke me up. Without opening my eyes, I felt around until I touched the nightstand and finally, my phone. “Hello.”

 

“Wake up.”

 

I groaned. “Alex, what do you want?”

 

“I need you to wake up.”

 

I forced myself to sit up. The clock on the radio said it was after ten. “This better be important.”

 

“Something is terribly wrong,” Alex said. “It’s the thirtieth and nobody’s dead.”

 

“Hallelujah.” I hung up and dived back into my pillow. The phone rang again, and I groaned. Only Alex would think that no dead bodies meant something was wrong.

 

I rolled over and grabbed the phone. “Now what?”

 

“No one’s dead.”

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

When Kate Damon is not writing, she and her husband enjoy RVing, spending time with family and friends, raising Monarch butterflies, and playing a wicked game of bridge.

 

Writing as Margaret Brownley, she has published more than 40 novels and is a New York Times bestselling author. Known for her memorable characters and humor, she is a two-time Romance Writers of America Rita finalist.

 

Not counting the book she wrote in sixth grade, and the puzzle of the missing socks, this is her first mystery.

 

Links:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/katejuryduty

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/juryduty17

Tiktok: http://www.tiktok.comKatedamon1

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565155275435

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.

 

Enter here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f5032/

Follow the tour:

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2024/10/blurb-blitz-jury-duty-is-murder-by-kate.html

PIECES OF YOU

  

 

PIECES OF YOU

April Farlow

 

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GENRE:  Christian Living

 

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BLURB:

 

Knowing who you are has always been challenging, and in today’s world, more and more voices are coming from more and more places telling us who we should be. The result? A broken sense of identity that we’re struggling to put back together.

 

In Pieces of You, April Farlow shares how she discovered her identity is formed by the God who made her. Along the way, she’s learned that if we want to put the pieces of who we are together in a real, lasting way, we have to look to Whose we are for help.

 

It’s time to take a look at the unique pieces that make up who you are …

 

The pieces you compare …

The pieces informed by the father figure in your life …

The painful pieces …

The pieces of your relationships …

The pieces on which you’ve built your beliefs …

The pieces that give you rules and boundaries …

The pieces that show what you value …

The pieces that give you purpose …

The pieces that help you build a vision for what’s to come.

 

As we work to put those pieces together, we’ll look to the God who made us, knows us, and loves us to guide us. Because when you take all your pieces—the good, the bad, the broken, and the beautiful—and place them in your Heavenly Father’s hands, there, you’ll find peace. There, you’ll find security. There, you’ll find a real sense of who you are and Whose you are.

 

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Excerpt:

 

As it turns out, relationships are complex, wonderful, and constantly changing. Whether it’s a relationship with a spouse or significant other, a family member, a coworker, a friend, or just a neighbor we cross paths with occasionally, we don’t always appreciate the complexity or influence these relationships have on the pieces of who we are. We don’t always see how they shape not just how we see who we are but how we see who others are, too.

 

Relationships are complex. They’re made up of people who are flawed and imperfect, and we will inevitably get it wrong a time or two. And that means they likely deserve way more work and attention than we give them. After all, relationships can influence who we become. They leave a permanent tattoo on our skin, our personality, and our ability to have other relationships. They’re strong enough to give us a common bond yet powerful enough to tear us apart.

 

But you don’t need me to tell you this, do you? You experience the complexity of relationships in your life regularly.

 

I mean, even science is backing us up here. Social psychologists have claimed that our identity is often shaped by what we think other people think of us. If the people we’re in relationship with label us as beautiful, we believe it. We hold on to that if they say we’re smart, personable, or athletic. We think it about ourselves. We let it become a piece of who we are.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

April Farlow has spent the last 20 years motivating audiences to get out of their comfort zone, speak up, and represent their values. In corporate environments, one piece is missed—the ability to talk about forming your identity in God. Today, as a speaker, author, coach, and non-profit leader, April is changing this by sharing her faith journey and helping others do the same with clarity and conviction.

 

In 2017, after speaking to a group of foster youth, April founded Lydia’s Place, a ministry serving young adults who have experienced foster care or homelessness. April and her husband have four girls and live on a mini-farm outside of Athens, Georgia.

 

http://www.aprilfarlow.com

http://www.instagram.com/aprilwfarlow

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

 

The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

Enter here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4993

Follow the tour:

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2024/08/nbtm-virtual-book-tour-pieces-of-you-by.html

THE FATE OF OUR UNION

  

 

THE FATE OF OUR UNION

Hildebrand Hermannson

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GENRE:  Fantasy

 

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BLURB:

 

A mountainous thundering bull breaks up battling tribesmen, summoning three struggling youths, as an insidious unseen enemy turns tribes against tribes—pitting rich against poor, sons against fathers, and men against gods. Its insatiable hunger for division threatens to plunge mankind into a dystopian realm ruled by man-eating wolves.

 

A miraculous seven-headed horse, a symbol of unity, assembles the struggling youths of extraordinary origin into a journey of self-discovery. There Sunu the Saxon Poet, Rufus the Roman Stoic, and Keresaspa the Sarmatian Priestess must overcome pride, aversion, and unforgiveness; there they must learn from historical heroes, philosophers, and amazingly similar gods to battle the unseen monster and its rising wolfmen.

 

Fated to part ways to face the demons at home, Sunu, Rufus, and Keresaspa must reunite as they bring divided peoples together to fight the source tearing everyone apart. They must heed the divine wisdom of the seven-headed horse and justly wield the seven magic weapons they’ve mysteriously been given to overcome the unseen enemy and understand the higher purpose of the mountainous thundering bull.

 

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Excerpt:

 

 

Sunu the Saxon and Rufus the Roman meet Keresaspa the Sarmatian (CH 7 of The Fate of Our Union).

 

Sunu and Rufus leaned in, beholding her sapphire blues—then she punched them in the face.

 

The woman sprang forward from the mountain while they fell backward onto brown pasture. As they stood up, she kicked back like a mad bull, hitting their chests.

 

Fallen back to the pasture, Sunu and Rufus rolled on the damp grass to face each other, then looked up at the woman to see her aiming an arrow, a cloud above her brooding face.

 

“Scavengers!”

 

They rolled away from her rapid-fire, bronze heads nipping at their skin. Sunu pulled a crimson arrow from his blood bull cloak and shot up to his feet. He extended his right arm, catching a whizzing red shaft with the Gauntlet of Truth and snapping it while whipping the Fetter of Awe with his left hand, lassoing the woman by her waist.

 

She held out her bow as he yanked her his way.

 

Sunu grabbed his mace while she nocked an arrow. As her skidding shins stopped near his bare feet, he batted the bow and arrow out of her hands. Rufus confiscated her archery while Sunu seized her sword and aimed it at her head.

 

She jerked back, nostrils flaring red, arcing her shoulders to slide out of the Fetter only to feel it tightening further. “I’ll be no man’s forced bride—not for the conqueror of hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands!”

 

“Bride?” Sunu winced, glancing at Rufus as he ran to his side. “I thought you had beauty, but I said no word of you being my bride.”

 

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Writing tips

Create a plot map for your book to use your time efficiently. Find maps online for guidance. Give tentative names to the chapters you want to see in your book, and write your ideas for each chapter. Keeping the big picture in mind will spare you countless revisions.

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Hildebrand Hengest Hermannson’s deep-rooted fire for Indo-European culture and Western Philosophy ignites his first novel, The Fate of Our Union, the inaugural piece in a planned series. His work draws inspiration from the national epics The Saga of the Volsungs (Norse), Mahabharata (Indian), Aenid (Roman), Odyssey (Greek), Táin Bó Cúailnge (Celtic), and Shahnameh (Iranian), weaving these rich cultures into original stories featuring fantasy world-building, dynamic characters, and intricate plots and themes. His Wild Hunt of thought breathes life into his spiritual, ethical, and cultural interests, inspiring us all to strive for imperishable virtue.

 

Website: https://www.hhhermannson.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HHHermannson

Twitter: https://x.com/HHHermannson

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hhhermannson77/

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hhhermannson/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214514568-the-fate-of-our-union

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZS7TD5V?ref_=pe_93986420_775043100

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

 

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

 

Enter here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f5041/

Follow the tour: 

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2024/10/fs-nbtm-tour-fate-of-our-union-by.html

Georgia's Folly

 

 

GEORGIA'S FOLLY

Deborah Chase

 

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GENRE:  split time historical fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

For fans of "Antiques Roadshow" and "American Pickers" - this is the one for you!

 

Beginning at a cluttered flea market and ending at a glittering art auction, Georgia’s Follytells the compelling story that blends past and present and the search for a valuable and illusive antique. Chloe Bishop grew up in foster care. She loves shopping at flea markets, picking up family heirlooms like old pottery or vintage furniture to fill in for the family and home she never had. As Chloe walks through the Brooklyn Flea Market, she stumbles upon the diary of Miss Georgia Potter, a young woman who had lived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Civil War. The yellowed pages reveal the impact of the war on daily life and spotlights the role of women including Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton and Louisa May Alcott. Like Chloe, Georgia Potter was a passionate collector and her diary lists her collection of valuable antiques—including the Holy Grail of 18th century furniture—a Chippendale settee. Well versed in antiques, Chloe is aware that There are only five known examples and a sixth settee would be worth more than $4 million.

 

Chloe immediately contacts Ben Thompson, the man who sold her the diary. Ben is a picker who drives his RV across America, searching for collectibles to sell to dealers. He is estranged from his wealthy, prominent family who cringe at his chosen career. Ben agrees to take her along to search for the valuable and iconic settee. As Ben and Chloe head to Gettysburg, they are unaware that Gregor Petrov, a shady antiques dealer and Harrison Kent, a respected but unscrupulous art expert are trailing them.

 

The search for the settee takes Chloe and Ben on fast paced journey from the Gettysburg battlefields to the 18th century street of artisans in Philadelphia to a historic mansion on the banks of the Hudson River. Traveling together in the small RV, Ben and Chloe draw closer. In the confines of the RV, embroiled in an unimaginable quest, Chloe confides that she is also in search for the father she never knew while Ben struggles to explain his complicated family to a woman who never had one.

 

In a thrilling ending, the rare Chippendale settee is not Chloe’s only valuable discovery.

 

 

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Excerpt:

 

 

The Diary of Miss Georgia Potter

March 4, 1861

 

Today is my birthday and I am now officially an old maid at age twenty-five. Mama was horrified that Uncle Joshua gave me a large, golden eagle that once hung over the fireplace in Lord Dumfries’ home in Bath. According to Uncle, it was a gift from George III in 1776. But I loved the eagle, as I do all of Uncle’s gifts.  Mama rolls her eyes when Uncle brings me a new treasure. She calls it Georgia’s Folly.

 

After dinner I went to the kitchen to thank Annie for the birthday feast. Liam was leaning against the kitchen table.  Pushing back a shock of black hair, he flashed a smile and handed me a small package wrapped in brown paper.  Inside was a heart shaped charm on a silver chain that had belonged to his mother. Liam explained that it was a Celtic knot that symbolized everlasting love. Someday I will be able to wear it but for now it is tucked deep into this diary.

 

This year I share my birthday week with the Inauguration of President Lincoln. Uncle is pleased that Lincoln was elected, but he is still worried about the talk of secession. Most of the customers for Potter carriages are in the South, especially Virginia and Georgia.  The weather in Gettysburg is far too cold and wet to ride in the Potter carriages, but in the South, our Phaeton carriages are famous.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

I grew up in a family filled with art and antiques.  On the high end, my uncle, William Lincer, lead violist at the New York Philharmonic, was an art lover whose collection was sold at Sotheby’s. On the low end, her father, writer Allen Chase took me to flea markets and estate sales.  He sparked a lifelong fascination with tales of lost treasures that ranged from plundered Egyptian tombs to trainloads of art stolen by the Nazis.  It was this love of history and antiques that inspired my first novel, Georgia’s Folly

 

I was a founding editor of the Berkeley Wellness Newsletter and the author of 12 books including The Medically Based No-Nonsense Beauty Book (Alfred Knopf), Extend Your Life Diet (Pocket Books), Fruit Acids for Fabulous Skin (St Martin’s Press), Every Bride is Beautiful ( Morrow), and with her husband Dr Neil Schachter co-author of Life and Breath  (Doubleday) and  The Good Doctor’s Guide to  Colds and Flu (Harper).  The books have been a selection of the Book of the Month Club and my articles have appeared in Ladies Home Journal, Self, Glamour, Redbook, Family Circle, Parents and Good Housekeeping.

 

I am a graduate of Bronx High School of Science and a winner of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. A graduate of New York University I earned a degree with a duel major in journalism and history.  

 

A native New Yorker, I like to spend my weekends at an upstate home where a big kitchen and an endless supply of estate sales indulge my duel passions for cooking and collecting.

 

Website: Deborahchase.com

Facebook: @Deborahchase

Instagram:@writinglife2

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Georgias-Folly-Deborah-Chase-ebook/dp/B0DGWF6J7G

 

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

The author will be awarding a $50 Visa card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

Enter here:

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f5030

Follow the tour: 

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Hidden Treasures

  

 

HIDDEN TREASURES

Kathleen Buckley

 

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GENRE:  Sweet Historical Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

Allan Everard, an earl's illegitimate son, is dismissed from his employment at his father’s death but inherits a former coaching inn. Needing to make a new life in London, he begins by leasing the inn to a charity.

 

Unexpectedly orphaned, Rosabel Stanbury and her younger sister are made wards of a distant, unknown cousin. Fearing his secretive ways and his intentions for them, Rosabel and Oriana flee to London where they are taken in by a women’s charity.

 

Drawn into Rosabel's problems, with his inn under surveillance by criminals, Allan has only a handful of unlikely allies, including an elderly general, a burglar, and an old lady who knows criminal slang. A traditional romance.

 

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Excerpt:

 

Despite his active night, Higgs came in with hot water as Allan opened his eyes.

 

“Eight o’ the clock and a fine summer’s day,” his rascal announced, “if you happen to like the country, which I do. I’d move back to the fields and hedgerows of my youth if it wasn’t so pestilent hard to make a living there. If you’re meaning to stay more than another day, I’ll see about having your shirts and neckcloths washed,” he added inconsequentially. 

 

“I need to speak to one of the Stanburys’ neighbors. With luck, we’ll leave tomorrow. How will you occupy yourself today?” 

 

“I’ll have a quiet talk with Phelps. He spent yesterday listening to the folk around here. Grooms and stable-hands mostly, but a few others as well. I’ll write down what he learned. Don’t forget to lock what you don’t want to lose in your portmanteau. Countryside’s not as wicked as town, but there’s ding-boys everywhere.”

 

“Says the Ding-boy General.” 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Kathleen Buckley writes traditional historical romance (i.e. no explicit sex). There are fewer ballrooms and aristocratic courting rituals in her books and more problems than does-he-love-me/does-he-not. Sometimes there’s humor. Kathleen wanted to write from the time she learned to read and pursued this passion through a Master’s Degree in English, followed by the kind of jobs one might expect: light bookkeeping, security officer, paralegal. She did sell two stories to the late Robert Bloch, author of Psycho. And no, he wasn’t late at the time.

 

After moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, she wrote her first historical romance, striving for Georgette Heyer’s style, followed by nine more.    

 

In Kathleen’s gentle romances, the characters tend to slide into love rather than fall in lust. Their stories are often set against the background of family relationships, crime, and legal issues, probably because of her work in a law firm. 

 

When she’s not writing or reading, she enjoys cooking dishes from eighteenth century cookbooks. Those dishes and more appear in her stories. Udder and root vegetables, anyone? 

 

Kathleen Buckley’s current work in progress is her first historical mystery, tentatively titled A Murder of Convenience. 

 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/kathleen_buckley

Website: https://18thcenturyromance.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/18thcenturyromance/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kathleen-Buckley/author/B072J2GPZ3

 

 

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Topic: Pros and cons of writing in your genre

 

I set out to write historical romance, as Georgette Heyer’s Georgian and Regency novels are my gold standard. However, the romance genre requires that the love interest be the overriding element of the story. To me, that feels a bit confining. My books have always had much more going on (as Georgette Heyer’s also did). This may mean they’re actually historical fiction with a romance subplot. 

Historical fiction’s genre expectations are lengthier than those of romance. They boil down to this: a feeling of authenticity of time, place, the way the characters act, speak, think, and the problems they face. At the same time the characters must be understandable to modern readers. 

The plus side of writing historical romance or historical fiction is that the setting is exotic: another time with a different way of life at the very least, interesting background, and different problems. The genre is also reliably popular.  

For some writers, the necessity of doing research (intensive research in the case of historical fiction) is a drawback. For me it’s a positive: I was the nerdy student who prayed for a juicy term paper assignment. For my stories I’ve read up on legal issues, watched hours of flintlock pistols being fired and have dozens of 18^th century books on my Google Play. These include cookbooks, parliamentary history, an English/French dictionary, a manual used by magistrates, the Gentleman’s Magazine, and books on English dialects, among others. Sometimes I have to buy an old book that’s not available otherwise (like a book on riding sidesaddle or on flintlock firearms). The last two were essential for my ninth book, By Sword and Fan, in which the female character might need to dismount and remount. An unusual pistol also featured in the story.

For me, the drawback comes at the writing of romance in historical fiction. What works in a contemporary romance can be jarringly anachronistic in earlier periods. Ladies in the eighteenth century (my period) usually had far less freedom than they do now, unless they were widows. Even easy companionship in public with a man could be censured. The kind of conversation we would consider normal and necessary for an unmarried man and a woman to get to know each other would paint a female as too free and easy.  As one conduct book for a lady’s instruction pointed out, men would take any lack of reserve as an invitation. Privacy with a man, except one’s husband or a close relative would be rare. 

Love—and sex—were far freer in the lower classes.The girls were less chaperoned and thus less protected both from predatory men and their own inclinations. Among agricultural workers in rural England, both premarital sex and pregnancy carried little stigma, as young people could seldom marry until they had saved enough money to set up their own household. But historical fiction seldom deals with the working classes: their lives were too limited and often too grim to be appealing to modern readers. But working twelve hours or more a day, six days a week, leaves little time for the sort of activities that make an entertaining story, so my novels are set among people who are at least gentlefolk, and occasionally titled.

Sometimes in historical romance novels the characters are assisted in gaining some acquaintance by   having them fall in lust at first sight. I’ve never encountered this phenomenon, myself. Men may first be attracted by a woman’s appearance but lust alone seems unlikely to lead to the required “happily ever after”. My characters generally meet in circumstances appropriate to the period. Their love grows slowly and with decent reserve, and without explicit sex. 

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

Kathleen Buckley will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

Enter here: 

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4922

Follow the tour:

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2024/06/nbtm-virtual-tour-hidden-treasures-by.html