Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Susana Ellis on BEAUX, BALLROOMS AND BATTLES

This week, we're pleased to welcome author SUSANA ELLIS with her latest release, BEAUX, BALLROOMS AND BATTLES: A CELEBRATION OF WATERLOO, a collection of co-authored works about the Napoleonic Era. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of Beaux, Ballrooms and Battles. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.

For Readers who enjoy a bit of history with their Romance… 

A historic confrontation 

Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles is a celebration of the bicentenary of the showdown between Wellington’s “Infamous Army” and Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Wellington’s Allied Army consisted of a hastily organized mélange of inexperienced men from several countries who didn’t even speak the same language. 

A backdrop of war 

While life in Regency England continued much as it had been, the war with Napoleon was a constant source of preoccupation as young men who eagerly set off to become heroes in battle sometimes returned with life-changing injuries or worse, didn’t return at all. 

Nine stories of love tested by the trials of war 

A collection of sweet Regency stories of courage, hope, and the miracle of love surviving in uncertain times, brought to you by nine distinguished historical romance authors.

**Q&A with Susana Ellis**

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I liked school, so in elementary school I thought being a teacher might be fun. In high school, I found a book about freelance writing and read it several times and thought it would be wonderful to get paid for writing stories. When it came right down to it, though, I had to be able to pay the bills, so I became a teacher after all and put my writing dreams on hold for awhile. So when I left teaching and needed something to do for the rest of my life, writing seemed the way to go.

What is one thing your readers would be most surprised to learn about you?

As a Spanish/French teacher, I spent four summers studying in Spain, one summer in France and one in Mexico. I lived with one family in Santiago de Compostela for three summers in a row, and have hired the artistic daughter of the family to do the artwork for the cover of my story, Lost and Found Lady, when it is released separately. Living in another country is an experience that inevitably changes your world perspective. I wish everyone could have such an opportunity.

Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.

Catalina, my heroine, briefly considers becoming a nun to escape the tedious fate of most Spanish women she knew—marriage to a domineering man and a life of drudgery. She compares herself to the 17^th century nun, Sor Juana de la Cruz of Mexico, who eschewed marriage to become a nun and have the freedom to study and write. Considered one of the most intelligent people in the country, she wrote in favor of women’s rights to education at a time when such views were considered sacrilege.

Is there a writer you idolize? If so, who?

I’m a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series, to the point where I bid $600 in an auction to have lunch with her in Phoenix in 2013. I envy her ability to create characters that inspire the sort of devotion her Jamie and Claire have done. I feared that the television series would never be able to measure up to the books, but from what I can tell from the first half of the season, Ron Moore has outdone himself. And, in case you didn’t know, the second half of the season—in the U.S. at least—starts in two days!

Every writer dreams of getting “the call.” What were you doing when yours came? Who got to hear the good news first?

When I first started, I envisioned a long hard road to publication, so I didn’t submit anything the first year. Then some of my writer friends told me that submitting and getting rejections was an important part of the process, so I submitted my Regency short story, Treasuring Theresa, to the Cotillion line at Ellora’s Cave. Expecting months of wait time, I was surprised to get an offer for it in four days! The first thing I did was email my Spanish teacher friend Ellen, who called me during her lunchtime at school. I also emailed my friend Selene Grace Silver, who was the one who challenged me to write a short story in the first place. I was over the moon!

About the Author

Susana has always had stories in her head waiting to come out, especially when she learned to read and her imagination began to soar. Voracious reading led to a passion for writing, and her fascination with romance and people of the past landed her firmly in the field of historical romance.

A teacher in her former life, Susana lives in Toledo, Ohio in the summer and central Florida in the winter. She is a member of the Central Florida Romance Writers and the Beau Monde chapters of RWA and Maumee Valley Romance Inc.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

Susana’s Parlour • Susana’s Morning Room

Excerpt Thursday: BEAUX, BALLROOMS AND BATTLES by Susana Ellis

This week, we're pleased to welcome author SUSANA ELLIS with her latest release, BEAUX, BALLROOMS AND BATTLES: A CELEBRATION OF WATERLOO, a collection of co-authored works about the Napoleonic Era. Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of Beaux, Ballrooms and Battles. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's post or Sunday's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.

For Readers who enjoy a bit of history with their Romance… 

A historic confrontation 

Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles is a celebration of the bicentenary of the showdown between Wellington’s “Infamous Army” and Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Wellington’s Allied Army consisted of a hastily organized mélange of inexperienced men from several countries who didn’t even speak the same language. 

A backdrop of war 

While life in Regency England continued much as it had been, the war with Napoleon was a constant source of preoccupation as young men who eagerly set off to become heroes in battle sometimes returned with life-changing injuries or worse, didn’t return at all. 

Nine stories of love tested by the trials of war 

A collection of sweet Regency stories of courage, hope, and the miracle of love surviving in uncertain times, brought to you by nine distinguished historical romance authors.

** An Excerpt from Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles: A Celebration of Waterloo**

September 14, 1793

A beach near Dieppe, France

“I don’t like the look of those clouds, monsieur,” Tobias McIntosh said in fluent French to the gray-bearded old man in a sailor hat waiting impatiently near the rowboat that was beginning to bob more sharply with each swell of the waves. “Are you sure your vessel can make it safely all the way to Newhaven in these choppy seas?”

The old man waved a hand over the horizon. “La tempête, it is not a threat, if we leave immédiatement. Plus tard…” He shrugged. “Je ne sais pas.”

“Please, mon amour,” pleaded the small woman wrapped in a hooded gray cloak standing at his side. “Allow me to stay with you. I don’t want to go to England. I promise I will be prudent.”

A strong gust of wind caught her hood and forced it down, revealing her mop of shiny dark locks. Tobias felt like seizing her hand and pulling her away from the ominous waves to a place of safety where she and their unborn child could stay until the senseless Terreur was over.

“Justine, ma chère, we have discussed this endlessly. There is no place in France safe enough for you if your identity as the daughter of the Comte d’Audet is discovered.” He shivered. “I could not bear it if you were to suffer the same fate at the hands of the revolutionaries as your parents did when I failed to save them.”

She threw her arms around him, the top of her head barely reaching his chin. “Non, mon amour, it was not your fault. You could not have saved them. It was miraculeux that you saved me. I should have died with them.”

She looked up to catch his gaze, her face ashen. “Instead, we met and have had three merveilleux months together. If it is my time to die, I wish to die at your side.”

Tobias felt like his heart was going to break. His very soul demanded that the two of them remain together and yet… there was a price on both their heads, and the family of the Vicomte Lefebre was waiting for him in Amiens, the revolutionaries expected to reach them before midday. It was a dangerous work he was involved in—rescuing imperiled French nobility from bloodthirsty, vengeful mobs—but he had pledged himself to the cause and honor demanded that he carry on. And besides, there was now someone else to consider.

“The child,” he said with more firmness than he felt. “We have our child to consider, now, Justine ma chère. The next Earl of Dumfries. He must live to grow up and make his way in the world.”

Not to mention the fact that Tobias was human enough to wish to leave a child to mark his legacy in the world—his and Justine’s. He felt a heaviness in his heart that he might not live long enough to know this child he and Justine had created together. He could not allow his personal wishes to undermine his conviction. Justine and the child must survive.

Justine’s blue eyes filled with tears. “But I cannot! I will die without you, mon cher mari. You cannot ask it of me!”

“Justine,” he said, pushing away from her to clasp her shoulders and look her directly in the eye. “You are a brave woman, the strongest I have ever known. You have survived many hardships and you can survive this. Take this letter to my brother in London, and he will see to your safety until the time comes that I can join you. My comrades in Newhaven will see that you are properly escorted.”

He handed over a letter and a bag of coins. “This should be enough to get you to London.”

After she had reluctantly accepted and pocketed the items beneath her cloak, he squeezed her hands.

“Be sure to eat well, ma chère. You are so thin and my son must be born healthy.”

She gave him a feigned smile. “Our daughter is the one responsible for my sickness in the mornings… I do not believe she wishes me to even look at food.”

She looked apprehensively at the increasingly angry waves as they tossed the small boat moored rather loosely to a rock on the shore and her hands impulsively went to her stomach.

“Make haste, monsieur,” the old sailor called as he peered anxiously at the darkening clouds. “We must depart now if we are to escape the storm. Bid your chère-amie adieu maintenant or wait for another day. I must return to the bateau.”

“Tobias,” she said, her voice shaking.

He wondered if he would ever again hear her say his name with that adorable French inflection that had drawn him from their first meeting.

“Go, Justine. Go to my family and keep our child safe. I promise I will join you soon.”

He scooped her up in his arms and carried her toward the dinghy, trying to ignore her tears. The old sailor held the boat as still as he could while Tobias placed her on the seat and kissed her hard before striding back to the shore, each footstep heavier than the last.

He studied the darkening sky as the sailor climbed in the boat. “You are sure it is safe?”

“La Chasseresse, she is très robuste. A few waves will not topple her, monsieur.”

“Je t’aime, mon amour,” she said to him plaintively, her chin trembling.

“Au revoir, ma chère,” he said, trying to smile, although his vision was blurring from tears.

Will I ever see her again?

He stood watching as the dinghy made its way slowly through the choppy sea to the larger ship anchored in the distance, grief-stricken and unable to concentrate on anything but his pain. When the ship finally sailed off into the horizon, he fell to his knees and prayed as he had never done before for the safety of his beloved. He remained in that position until drops of rain on his face reminded him of the Lefebre family waiting for him in Amiens.

With a deep breath, he rose and made his way to the nearby forest, where his horse waited, tied to a tree.

“Come, my friend. We have a long, wet journey ahead of us.”

Setting foot in the stirrup, he swung his leg over the saddle and urged the horse to a gallop, feeling his heart rip into pieces with every step away from his beloved.

About the Author

Susana has always had stories in her head waiting to come out, especially when she learned to read and her imagination began to soar. Voracious reading led to a passion for writing, and her fascination with romance and people of the past landed her firmly in the field of historical romance.

A teacher in her former life, Susana lives in Toledo, Ohio in the summer and central Florida in the winter. She is a member of the Central Florida Romance Writers and the Beau Monde chapters of RWA and Maumee Valley Romance Inc.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

Susana’s Parlour • Susana’s Morning Room

Guest Blog: Susanna Fraser

This week, we're welcoming author Susanna Fraser, whose latest novel A DREAM DEFIANT is set in Spain's early 19th century during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. The author will offer a free copy of A DREAM DEFIANT to one blog visitor in the winner’s choice of PDF, EPUB, or Kindle format - please leave your email address to be considered in the drawing. Here's the blurb:

Spain, 1813

Elijah Cameron, the son of runaway slaves, has spent his whole life in the British army proving that a black man can be as good a soldier as a white man. After a victory over the French, Elijah promises one of his dying men that he will deliver a scavenged ruby necklace to his wife, Rose, a woman Elijah has admired for years.

Elijah feels bound to protect her and knows a widow with a fortune in jewels will be a target. Rose dreams of using the necklace to return to England, but after a violent attack, she realizes that she needs Elijah's help to make the journey safely.

Her appreciation for Elijah's strength and integrity soon turns into love, but he doubts she could want a life with him, knowing the challenges they'd face. As their relationship grows, she must convince Elijah that she wants him as more than a bodyguard. And she must prove that their love can overcome all obstacles, no matter the color of their skin.

**Q&A with Susanna Fraser**

What made you choose to write an interracial romance set in the Regency?

Several years ago I’d been reading about black Union soldiers during the American Civil War, and the fact that leaders on both sides were surprised that they had what it takes to be good soldiers. In my Napoleonic Era research, I’d encountered stray references to black soldiers and sailors who fought for both France and Britain, so I thought, “Why so surprised? Those Napoleonic generals you admire so much could’ve told you that.”

So I’d been wanting to write a black soldier hero for awhile. As for why an interracial romance, that was largely for storytelling reasons. Some of Elijah’s fellow soldiers disapprove of his romance with Rose, and he himself wonders if she truly knows what she’s letting herself in for in marrying across the color line. But I also learned in my research that Britain’s black population in the early 19^th century skewed heavily male. When those men married, it was almost always to a white woman of similar financial and/or social status. So while a couple like Elijah and Rose would’ve been unusual, they wouldn’t have been unique, and their marriage wouldn’t have carried the same stigma it would’ve held in America at the same time. While Britain still had slavery in some of its colonies, it also had a strong abolitionist movement and no slavery in the British Isles themselves, all of which contributed to it being a more welcoming environment for free blacks and interracial couples.

Most Regency heroes and heroines are from the aristocracy, or at least the gentry, while in A Dream Defiant Elijah is a corporal and Rose is a common soldier’s widow who was a housemaid before her first marriage. How is writing commoners different from writing upper-class characters?

While people are people and love is love, the constraints my characters face on their lives and choices are different from those experienced by a duke and an heiress, or even a duke and a governess. For example, when Rose’s first husband dies while she’s following the drum at his side with Wellington’s army in Spain, it isn’t just acceptable for her to remarry within days, it’s expected. Each company within the army was allowed a certain number of wives “on the strength” who would draw rations for themselves and their children while serving as laundresses, cooks, and the like. A woman who lost her husband lost that place, so unless she could afford to go home to England (which most of them could not), she had no choice but to remarry to support herself and her children. So behavior that would’ve been scandalous and horrifying in a wealthy, aristocratic woman was normal for someone like Rose.

Poverty was of course an overwhelming constraint on most men and women in Rose and Elijah’s social class. Limited funds meant limited choices, just as they do now. But when my hero and heroine find themselves with a small fortune, they have a freedom which that Regency standby, the impoverished nobleman, might lack. Without generations of family history and expectations, not to mention ancestral homes and lands in desperate need of repair and attention, they can choose to follow their own dreams for the future.

What did you find most difficult in writing this book?

A Dream Defiant is the first time I’ve successfully completed a novella. It’s 28,000 words, while my previous books have all been in the 90K range. I’m used to sort of spreading out in my story world, but to complete this much shorter work I had to learn to tighten instead. I had to limit the scope and resist the urge to wander off after backstory and subplots. It felt like taking a snapshot instead of making a miniseries—but I did my best to make it a significant, complete snapshot. Whether I succeeded or not is now in readers’ hands!

What is your process like? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Somewhere in between, but closer to the pantser end of the spectrum. I’m definitely not the type who goes in with a twenty-page outline, character interviews, goal-motivation-conflict charts, or anything like that. That said, now that I’m published and am trying to increase my writing pace, I can’t just sit down before a blank page and hope to come out with a manuscript in 12-18 months. A lot of plotter approaches don’t work for me because they feel like building a story rather than exploring and discovering it, but I’m finding less seat-of-the-pants ways to approach my exploration and discovery process. I usually begin a manuscript knowing how it starts and how it will end, but with only a fuzzy sense of what happens in between. Lately I’m using Save the Cat or The Writer’s Journey to help me map out how to get my characters from Point Inciting Incident to Point Happily Ever After.

What are you working on now?

My next contracted book is a 2014 Regency Christmas novella from Carina, but I’m hoping to have at least one and preferably two releases between now and then. I’m working on a full-length sequel to A Dream Defiant set mostly in America after the Battle of New Orleans, and I have an idea for a series set during the Napoleonic Wars about the children and grandchildren of Scottish and Irish men who fled their homelands for the Continent after the failed Jacobite risings of the 18^th century

Learn more about author Susanna Fraser:

Website: http://www.susannafraser.com/

Blog: http://authorsusannafraser.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @susannafraser

Excerpt Thursday: A Dream Defiant by Susanna Fraser

This week, we're welcoming author Susanna Fraser, whose latest novel A DREAM DEFIANT is set in Spain's early 19th century during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Join us on Sunday, when the author will offer a free copy of A DREAM DEFIANT to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:

Spain, 1813

Elijah Cameron, the son of runaway slaves, has spent his whole life in the British army proving that a black man can be as good a soldier as a white man. After a victory over the French, Elijah promises one of his dying men that he will deliver a scavenged ruby necklace to his wife, Rose, a woman Elijah has admired for years.

Elijah feels bound to protect her and knows a widow with a fortune in jewels will be a target. Rose dreams of using the necklace to return to England, but after a violent attack, she realizes that she needs Elijah's help to make the journey safely.

Her appreciation for Elijah's strength and integrity soon turns into love, but he doubts she could want a life with him, knowing the challenges they'd face. As their relationship grows, she must convince Elijah that she wants him as more than a bodyguard. And she must prove that their love can overcome all obstacles, no matter the color of their skin.

**An Excerpt from A Dream Defiant** 

In this excerpt, Elijah Cameron, A Dream Defiant’s hero, has just witnessed his friend Sam Merrifield take a mortal wound in a squabble over plunder in the aftermath of the Battle of Vittoria in Spain in 1813. When Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force defeated the French, the French abandoned their baggage train as they fled the field. Since the baggage train in question was unusually rich, containing among other things Joseph Bonaparte’s royal treasures, Wellington’s soldiers, being only human, abandoned their pursuit of their enemies to get in some good looting.

Elijah turned to Merrifield, who sat bent double in the open carriage, gasping for breath and clutching at his wound. Blood pulsed out from beneath his fingers, his face had gone dead white under his sunburn, and his breathing sounded strained and wet. Elijah reckoned he couldn’t last long. All for the sake of a little gold and some shiny stones.

“The necklace,” Merrifield gasped. “Pick it up!”

It wouldn’t do him any good once he was dead, but Elijah did as he asked. Even caked with dirt from the road, the thing shone, enormous stones red as fresh blood, linked in a chain of bright gold.

“They’re for Rose. Give them to her.” Merrifield’s breath was growing more strained, and he labored for the words.

What use would a queen’s ransom in jewels be to a soldier’s wife? Elijah supposed he shouldn’t think ill of the dying, but for all Merrifield’s goodness, he’d never had a steady or practical moment in his short life.

“Knew they were for her,” Merrifield continued. “Red for Rose. So pretty…coins I’d spend…but this…” He swayed, turning yet paler, then leaned forward with surprising strength and grabbed Elijah’s hand, the one holding the necklace. “Give these to her, from me, tonight. She can…be what she wants, now.”

He nodded assent. For Rose Merrifield’s sake, he would’ve agreed to far more onerous tasks. But before he could speak, Merrifield’s grip slackened, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into the carriage.

Elijah shut his eyes for a moment. To lose a man like this, a soldier he’d trained from a raw recruit, with the battle over… He bent over Merrifield’s body—the breath and pulse were gone—and laid a hand in benediction on his friend’s forehead. “I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” he murmured. He remembered, but left unspoken, what followed in the burial service: We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.

“He’s dead?”

Elijah started and turned around. He tried to hide the necklace, crumpling it in his hand, but it was too big to wholly conceal.

It was Adam Lewis, another private from his company, staggering under the weight of his own overloaded packs and gaping at the gory scene.

“Yes,” Elijah said shortly. “A Frog stabbed him.”

“Over that?” Lewis nodded toward the necklace. “That’s very fine.”

“I promised to give it to Rose.” Of all the people he would rather not know about the thing, Lewis came near the top of the list, but it couldn’t be helped now. Elijah quickly glanced about to make sure no one else was looking, then reached inside his open uniform coat as if to scratch, tucking the necklace away. It made an uncomfortable lump pressed between his shirt and trousers, but the coat concealed it. He’d find a better hiding place for it later. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Why not? You are going to give it to her, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. I keep my word. But if everyone knows about it, it won’t do her any good, don’t you see? There’s men who’ll try to steal it from her, or else force her into marriage so they can claim it for themselves. It must be a secret. Don’t you understand?” he asked, for Lewis was staring at him with a vacant expression.

“I reckon I do…”

“Promise you’ll keep it secret then, for Rose’s sake. You like her, I know you do. You wouldn’t want this thing to be a curse to her instead of a blessing, would you?”

“No…”

He hoped Lewis was finally beginning to think. Elijah would have to warn Rose that Lewis knew, so she’d know better than to say yes if he attempted to court her. She deserved a better man, one as good and clever as she was, who’d value her for more than a handful of gold and sparkling stones. “Swear it, then.”

Lewis blinked. “Very well. I swear to God I won’t tell anyone.”

“Good.” Elijah hoped it was enough, and that Lewis would remember even after he got drunk tonight. If Sam Merrifield had given his life trying to win a treasure for his Rose, the least Elijah could do was guard it well and pass it to her in secret. The new widow would have half the company buzzing around her for the sake of her beauty and her cooking already. He didn’t like to think what sort of courtship she’d endure if everyone in the regiment knew her husband had, in an odd sense, left her a fortune.

Five more soldiers from their company drew near and gaped at Sam’s body.

“Poor Sam,” Roberts said.

Pritchard, ever morbid, leaned around Elijah’s side for a better view. “Poor Rose.”

“Wonder who she’ll marry next?”

That was Yonge, who had hopes of being the happy bridegroom himself if Elijah didn’t miss his guess. Surely she wouldn’t pick him, though. She deserved so much better. But what if she’d never seen Yonge’s cruel streak?

 “Show a little decency,” Elijah ground out. “Can’t you wait till her first husband is cold before you speculate on her second?”

“But she’ll have to marry someone, and soon,” Pritchard said.

“I was born and brought up in this regiment. I know the rules,” Elijah said. Soldier’s widows generally did marry again within days, especially when the regiment was on campaign. They needed one man’s protection to save them from falling prey to the many.

Learn more about author Susanna Fraser:

Website: http://www.susannafraser.com/

Blog: http://authorsusannafraser.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @susannafraser