What a long, strange trip it’s been.

At long last, the day is here!  My Regency romance, To Woo A Wicked Widow, releases today at e-tailers and in Barnes & Noble Book Stores across the country. Read on for my Release party Giveaway below.

I have been working on this book since  I got the germ of the idea from the Weather Girls’ song “It’s Raining Men” that I heard while driving to work one day in Fall 2010. I wondered how women of the Regency could find a large group of men all at one time and place.

My first idea was a men’s club, like White’s or Brooks’ but I needed the women to form a club. But that was impossible during the time. Young girls were sheltered and their every move chaperoned. Widows, however, had a bit more freedom when it came to men. But where could I find a lot of widows all together. The idea hit immediately–the aftermath of Waterloo. There must be a huge number of widows caused by that battle alone. And they might band together during their year of mourning and form a Widows’ Club.

That Christmas, romance author Judi McCoy invited me to join the Chesapeake Romance Writers, the local RWA chapter and in January she did a workshop called “Post-it Note Plotting.” I was one of two members who had an idea for a story that needed fleshing out. So my group helped me plot pretty much the basis of what became To Woo A Wicked Widow. Those little post-it notes sat on my desk literally for years while I pursued other writing projects until at last, on a writer’s retreat in the summer of 2013, I pulled them out and finally started writing the book. I pitched the book at RWA that summer, got requests that turned into rejections, re-wrote major parts of the book, re-pitched it in 2014. More requests led to more rejections but also to feedback on what to work on to make the book work.

In April of 2016, I sent a new version of To Woo A Wicked Widow out to those agents who had expressed an interest in reading another revision. And I got the call! I signed with Kathryn Green Literary agency in April of 2016 and in June of 2016 (unforgettably as I sat down to dinner with my husband on our 25th wedding anniversary), I got a text from my agent that Kensington Publishing had offered a three book contract for The Widows’ Club series.

Two years, and still a lot of work later, To Woo A Wicked Widow is here. Book 2, Wedding the Widow, will release in July of this year, and Book 3, What A Widow Wants, which is just finished, will likely release about this time next year.  So the trip continues.

I just purchased my book at Barnes & Noble!

The Barnes & Noble where I purchased my copy of To Woo A Wicked Widow

For anyone in my neck of the woods (Central Virginia), I am celebrating Widow’s release this coming Saturday with a Book Launch Party at the Barnes & Noble in the Newtown Shopping Center in Williamsburg, VA from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. If you’re in the neighborhood, please come by and party with me!

To celebrate today’s release, I’m giving away two signed copies of To Woo A Wicked Widow. Comment below for a chance to win a copy.

Books in The Widows’ Club Series