Strange Holidays This is an unprecedented year, isn’t it? Here in London, we are in a newly declared complete shutdown. The streets have gone silent under the strings of Christmas lights.  We had tickets for a Pantomime performance, which is a big English thing that I do not understand and so thought we would explore. But, cancelled. We were going to take a drive in the country around Christmas and enjoy the traditional landscape. But we’re not supposed to leave the area. No farflung trips either, obviously. So it’s really home for the holidays this year! Our neighborhood is fairly empty and feels safe. Also we have food and warmth and lots of stuff to watch on various streaming platforms. Thank you, Roku! I’ve had Zoom visits with friends. Ebooks are a blessing. A few keystrokes, and there’s a new story ready to carry me away. What would we do without those? (I really don’t know!) We feel healthy and are grateful. Still, it seems like time to consider all the ways to be cozy and festive while staying in. The Spanish heroine of my new book EARL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL is comforted and reminded of her lost homeland by familiar…

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Jane! Please tell us a little about yourself and the fourth book in The Way to the Lord’s Heart series, A DUKE TOO FAR. I’ve been writing Regencies for quite a while now. I love spending time in that world. The Way to A Lord’s Heart series is a sweeter saga than The Duke’s Sons, and A Duke Too Far focuses on the youngest couple in the group. The heroine hasn’t even made her bow to society as yet. Peter Rathbone, the impoverished Duke of Compton, has lost his beloved sister Delia and is at a loss as to what to do next. The crumbling family estate is in ruins, his finances are in disarray, and he didn’t have the usual upbringing expected of an aristocrat. How do these hardships and unique personality traits shape the man Peter has become?  I think they made him both more resourceful about practical matters (like carpentry) and more reticent in society. He knows he’s not the rich aristocrat people expect on hearing “duke.” When we meet Ada Grandison soon after the death of Delia, one of her closest friends, and she believes Delia may have left a clue…

My new book is called How to Cross a Marquess. Five years ago, Roger Berwick and Fenella Fairclough rebelled when their fathers tried to marry them off. They would not be ordered about! A whole lot has happened since then. They’ve both changed, and now a fiery attraction has flared between them. It’s just too ironic. Circumstances have brought these former enemies much closer than they ever could have anticipated. But various people don’t like that idea at all. The path to a happy future is convoluted. So for these two: H is for history. Theirs is complicated. O is for oh! Neither expected the passion that has flared between them. So surprising with someone you’ve known for most of your life. But people change. W is for the worrisome anonymous letters spreading rumors about them through the neighborhood. How do you fight an invisible adversary? T is for time. There seemed to be so much, and now there’s nearly none. O is for opponent. But who is it? C is for choleric. Roger finds his temper sweetened by his lovely neighbor. R is for reminiscence. Roger’s mother has much to recall. O is for overset, as circumstances spiral out…