Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors !
So this week I’m moving on to my current novella that’s up on pre-order on Amazon. It’s book two in The Matchmaker’s Ball series, called 10 Things I Hate About the Earl.
10 Things I Hate About the Earl
BLURB:
Between love and hate there is a pencil-thin line to walk…
Miss Katherine Locke is irked to start her third Season dancing with the disagreeable Lord Haversham, her brother’s friend and her own arch enemy. After a particularly odious run-in with the earl, Kate declares she hates everything about the man. When her brother challenges her to come up with even ten things she doesn’t like about Haversham, a gleeful Kate is itching to put quill to paper to point out everything she finds wrong with the man. Unexpectedly, she finds the task harder than she thought because she keeps remembering things she secretly likes about the gentleman instead. Frustrated, Kate shoves the list in a drawer, determined to stop thinking about Haversham. But can she?
Marcus, Lord Haversham, is in a tight pinch. His estates are failing and, worse, he’s just lost three thousand pounds to his best friend, Lord Ainsley. Ainsley’s solution: have Marcus marry his shrewish sister, and he’ll cancel his gambling debt plus give him ten thousand pounds for her dowry. With nowhere else to turn, Marcus agrees, praying he can keep word of the wager from Miss Locke long enough to charm her into marrying him.
When Marcus discovers Kate’s list however, he can’t keep himself from trying to show her how wrong she is about him. But in the process, will he be able to avoid falling in love with the stubborn woman?
I’m very excited to see what you think of my newest book in The Matchmaker’s Ball series. Meet Miss Katherine Locke–a young lady going into her third Season with few options for matrimony because of her shrewish nature. Her brother has a notion that she should marry his best friend. Trouble is, Kate hates the man with a passion! Enjoy! I’m beginning at the very beginning. 🙂
EXCERPT:
Stuffed to the gills, Lady Hamilton’s ballroom glittered with candlelight, fine silks and satins, and every type of precious jewel known to the world. The music had a lively air, the first dance being a waltz, and Miss Katherine Locke would’ve thought herself fortunate to be out again in Society after a long, dull winter in Somerset save that her partner, Lord Haversham, was the rudest man in London.
Well, his lordship was about to discover that Kate Locke wasn’t one to suffer fools lightly.
“So, you refuse to allow your sister to waltz, yet you are quite willing to stand up with me and dance this, according to you, most scandalous of dances.” Kate smiled into the odious wretch’s face. “My lord, I should say that smacks of hypocrisy.”
“Indeed,” Lord Haversham turned them skillfully at the end of the floor, “I would say it showed a want of character in your brother for allowing you to dance it with me. The waltz should be danced by married couples and no one else.” He pulled her close against him, so their bodies almost touched.
And a little bit more…
She gasped at her proximity to the rogue. How dare he make a spectacle of them on this crowded dance floor?
“You see?” he whispered, peering into her face, his gaze intent upon her mouth.
All she could see were his dark eyes, and the crisp scent of his sandalwood cologne filled her nose.
“Ainsley should be horsewhipped for allowing it.”
“I’ll see to it he horsewhips you if you don’t let me go.” Kate gave a hopping step and smashed her foot down on top of his.
Lord Haversham lurched forward, jaw clenched.
For the briefest moment, they stood pressed together in a warm embrace that made Kate tingle all over. Then outrage swept through her, and she pushed him away. “How dare you?” she seethed, trying to get away from him.
“That was your fault, and you know it. And if you make a scene that results in me having to marry you, I swear I will lock you in the tower at my grandfather’s castle and throw away the key.”
10 Things I Hate About The Earl is available for pre-order on Amazon for just .99! Grab your e-copy here!! It will release on Amazon on September 17, 2024!
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the WWW snippets here! There are some great stories out there!
So when I turned the book in, my editor was less than impressed with both characters. They always had a volatile relationship–Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Benedict come to mind–which tended to make them not as sympathetic as they might be. My excellent editor basically said I needed to make the hero more heroic and make the heroine’s motive for refusing him crystal clear–which is how I came to re-write almost three quarters of the book. I basically had to start their relationship from scratch, kind of ignoring part of their history as it had been written, and show an attraction between them that could blossom except for one impediment: Lady Augusta is in love (or so she thinks) with somebody else.
off adventuring around the world, but she was stuck in her role as the daughter of a peer. So I took that as her motivation for rejecting Julius–who has a title and has his life mapped out for him. And history very kindly came to my rescue because the time period of the mid-Victorian era was filled with men exploring the wildest places of the world, with none more famous than Richard Burton (the explorer not the actor) who during the time the novel is set was off adventuring in Africa and the wild American West. So he’s the man Lady Augusta met when she was an impressionable teenager and fancies she wants to marry so she can explore the world with him. And it became Julius’s motivation to convince her he was the better choice as far as husband and adventurer went.
young lady determined to marry the man of her choice no matter what her father said. I really loved the heroine of this story, Lady Celinda Grantham, and began to plan a series of sweet books that all took place during the Season of 1820, a series called Handful of Hearts. And I decided Celinda needed to be introduced to my readers as the friend of Jenny Crowley in A Kiss Beneath the Mistletoe.
Eventually, I wanted all the books in the series to have the word “Heart” in the title, so I changed the name to Hearts Beneath the Mistletoe, got my indie editor, Danielle Fine, to create a fabulous new cover, and the book became the prequel to my Handful of Hearts series.
You can still read the original story, ‘Tis the Season, in my collection of the four flash fiction pieces called All Wrapped Up. It’s available for Free here on 
she fled for the far side of the circle. She could hear her pursuer’s soft laugh as he drew closer to her. She glanced back to find him only a few paces behind her, his eyes intent on her as he reached for her. He’d have her in his arms in moments. Had she made her point that she would not simply fall into his arms as Celinda had done with Alec? Could she now slow her stride and show him she did wish to be captured? Wanted his kiss?
