Like the first season of the popular TV show Downton Abbey, my new release THORNBROOK PARK is set in the Edwardian era, a time of great change in England, most especially for women. The ladies in my novel all respond differently to the progressive climate of the time. Sophia, Countess of Averford, is slow to embrace change. She’s content to read the fashion and gossip pages in the London Times and rely on her husband for political news. She isn’t exactly sure how she feels about women voting. The 1908 Summer Olympic Games in London brought an interest in outdoor sports like tennis, archery, and yachting to Edwardian women, but Sophia prefers garden parties and leisurely afternoons. Sophia maintains Victorian sensibilities in her Edwardian world. The novel’s central heroine, Eve Kendal, a recently widowed visitor at Thornbrook Park, is temporarily dependent on the charity of her friend Sophia. Eager to manage her own affairs, Eve turns down the Earl of Averford’s offer to let his solicitor look into her investments. She is not afraid to stand up for herself, and to take matters into her own hands regarding the romantic advances of Captain Marcus Thorne. Eve plays tennis, and she…

Thanks very much for having me here today to celebrate my new release, MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT. It’s the last in my Regency Mischief series, and I hope readers will find the story funny and touching. Here’s a little list with the lowdown: 10 Fascinating things about MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT 1. It’s a love potion story! But it’s not a magical potion, LOL. It’s something made from flowers—think morning glories, which can cause hallucination. And, in this case, romantic mischief. 2. It’s a love triangle story! The hero, Colin, the Earl of Ivorwood, is in love with his best friend’s fiancé, Miss Josie Cardworthy. Her fiancé has been away at war for a year when the story opens, and in the meanwhile, she’s had a chance to become very good friends with Colin, whose property adjoins her family’s home. But she has no thought of ever being attracted to her handsome neighbor… at least not until her eyes are opened. 3.  Colin and Josie sometimes play a little game that Josie calls “not-dancing.” She doesn’t realize Colin has a very good reason for not dancing. 4. I’ve always had a soft spot for those still-waters-run deep guys, and Colin is one…

In ONCE UPON A KISS, Justina (Jussy) Penny knows that the last sort of man she would ever fall in love with is anyone remotely like the character of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. When Darius Wainwright comes to her village with his arrogant nose in the air and an apparent stick up his posterior, she’s certain he is absolutely the Wrong Man for her. So when the obnoxiously proud fellow condescends to join her humble family for dinner one evening, she knows just what to do to keep him at arm’s length. Or so she thinks. 1. Wear something… unusual. “There you are, Jussy,” her father exclaimed and then immediately looked confused. Her mother, who had been in the process of offering a tray with a sherry glass to the rector, was frowning, frozen in place. The Wainwright person, seated on the couch beside her sister, winced in her direction and kept his lips very tight. “Good evening, everyone,” she said politely. “Oh, good! Sherry. I’m fair parched.” As she advanced with arm outstretched, her mother swiftly moved the tray out of her reach and set it on the pianoforte, forgetting the rector, who was left clutching at…