New Release! ANGEL OF LUSIGNAN is out!

ANGEL OF LUSIGNAN
Curse of the Lost Isle - Book 8
medieval fantasy romance

Find it on Amazon HERE

Out today in kindle and in paperback. Don't miss it. This lauded series, based upon authentic legends, is now complete.

Set in Aquitaine, ANGEL OF LUSIGNAN tells the most popular legend of Melusine the Fae, as she founds, with knight Raymond of Forez, the famous and infamous family of LUSIGNAN. Their descendants, later became royalty and reigned in England, France, and in the Middle East. Among them, Eleanor of Aquitaine and her descendants, and the king of Jerusalem and king of Cyprus. Lusignan and their other estates of Vouvant and Mervent became the cradle of the Valois and Bourbon royal dynasties of France.

Although the book is a complete story in itself, if you are like me, you'll want to read the complete series, especially as this character grows from novel to novel, from Scotland to Luxembourg, to Forez, and to Aquitaine.

This was a labor of love. My mother still lives in the land of Melusine, and suggested long ago that I bring Melusine's story to the world at large. Here it is. Thank you, Mom for suggesting it. I enjoyed writing the series. I hope you enjoy reading it

Blurb:
Young knight Raymond of Forez, blaming himself for his uncle's death in a hunting accident, falls off his horse at the very sight of the lovely Melusine. He has no knowledge of their turbulent past. Even less that she is an immortal Fae with angel blood... afflicted by a curse. He doesn’t believe in the local legends... yet how can he resist such beauty and loving wisdom?

Melusine, who waited for him in Aquitaine, is full of remembered love. But can she trust this young knight with her mission, or her deadly secrets? In this explosive religious climate, the Church is suspicious of everyone, and the slightest rumor of witchery or Pagan magic could send them both burning at the stake. Can their love overcome the curse this time?

Here is the entire series: Find it on Amazon HERE

  

 Also check out the boxed set of the first four novels in the series HERE

HAPPY  READING!

Vijaya Schartz
  Romance with a Kick
  http://www.vijayaschartz.com
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Who Do I Write For?

Who do you write for?  In the days before ebooks and self-publishing became a valid business enterprise, the answer to that question would be either "INSERT NAME OF PUBLISHING HOUSE HERE" or "I'm not published yet".  Now the answer is not so clear-cut.

I just released Sass Meets Class, a sweet romance set in Arizona Territory.  It is different from my other books in almost every respect and there is a reason which I will get to soon.  First, however, I want to mention what got me thinking about this.

In trying to promote Sass Meets Class, I've been doing some interviews.  This is a pretty thought-provoking activity.  I had to think about when I wrote it (2001) and why I wrote it (coming up) and what inspired me (visiting Arizona).  Where did the characters come from (hell if I know).

Obviously, since I am putting my work out there for purchase, I hope that readers will give my books a try, be happy with what they read, and come back for more.  However, Sass Meets Class is so different from the others that I'm wondering whether readers will feel bamboozled if this is the first of my creations they've picked up and they then go on to one of my spicier, edgier medieval books, Unbidden or Redeemed.

OK, blah blah blah, why did you make Sass Meets Class so different?  

Because I wrote it with a specific publisher in mind.  I had a pitch meeting with an Avalon editor at the 2001 RWA Convention knowing full well they published only sweet, clean romance.  She asked for a full manuscript and I wrote it.  A very long time later it was rejected for having too much stuff about English nobility.  Fair enough.

There is much discussion in the author world right now about traditional versus self-publishing.  I won't even attempt to address the business aspects of it because I am a noob.  I do remember, over a decade later, how challenging I found it to write within the confines of someone else's rules.  Don't get me wrong, I am fond of Sass Meets Class or I would not have released it.  I revisited the manuscript twice before letting it loose in the cyber-world and enjoyed the revision process both times.  However, in this new publishing world of ours, we self-pubbed authors enjoy creative freedom.  Since Avalon didn't buy it, I could easily have dropped in some stronger language and a wedding night scene to make it seam with the heat level in earlier books.  Why didn't I?   I think for these characters in this setting, two impassioned kisses is enough.  I also like that romance lovers of any age, sex, and sensitivity will enjoy Sass Meets Class as it stands.  In a way, it is a marketing experiment to see if clean American historical romance is more palatable to the market than my Carolingian noblemen.

See, there I go with the nobility again....

In the end, with no publisher to tell me different, I have to write for myself with my reader in mind.  Nothing makes me happier as a writer than when other people enjoy my stories.  Perhaps the best way to bring them alive for other people is to make my characters and their challenges ring true for me.

What do you think, readers and writers?  How far from the expected creative road can an author go before you feel you've been led down a false path?

Travel Through Time, by Jill Hughey

Travel Through Time:  In my last few blog entries I have been discussing the kinds of research needed to make historical fiction accurate, or at least not ridiculously inaccurate.  For most historical novels, the author has to become familiar with the modes of travel.  Even the most protected or ignored romantic characters get at least one or two journeys in their story (think of Jane Austen's Emma or Anne Elliott). How did people get around in the world?  How long did it take to go from point A to point B?  Would they enjoy the trip or would it be an arduous or dangerous undertaking?

Even if our main characters never leave their homes, other players probably have to come and go from our setting in order to keep the story interesting.  Understanding the ways people travelled during a time period can be a challenge but can also add a wonderful element of human progress.  I wrote a short romance call Sass Meets Class- soon to be released - set in Arizona in the 1880s.  I had a very specific time span in mind due to some other actual events that happened around my location.  This was also when railroads were just being built in the region so I had to determine exactly when each line was completed and how that might affect the hero and heroine's movements.  It actually worked out quite well because I was able to bring my hero back to the love of his life much more quickly by train than when he left her behind on horseback.

This leads into how the time required to make a journey can be important to the story.  Figuring out the timeline of a story is one of the biggest challenges for me as a writer because I am always so impatient to start writing!  Once I have the timeline though, a journey has to be accounted for somehow, even if mentioned in one sentence.  For Redeemed, the second story in my Evolution Series, I had to figure out how long it would take my hero Doeg to return home from the Carolingian Army's summer camp in the year 834.  (Determining where the army camped that year was a whole different research topic.)  I knew he would be on a horse.  I had to decide what route he might take, how many miles or leagues that route would add up to, and how many miles or leagues a fully-loaded horse can travel day-after-day-after-day.  A good reference book for the correct time period is invaluable for this kind of information (I use Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne), especially the routes and speed of travel.  Obviously Doeg's horse would not compare to the modern horse so there is some value in finding as much information as you can from the right time in history.  It is doubtful that any book or internet search could tell me exactly how long it would have taken him to ride from Langres to Regensburg but I owe my readers at least a credible estimate.

The rigors of travel were very different depending on the time period, wealth of the traveler, mode of travel, and location.  Many of us are familiar with first kisses stolen in the confines of a luxurious carriage or the forbidden assignation in the deep of night at an inn.  Most of my characters live a slightly more rustic life.  In Unbidden my hero and heroine, David and Rochelle, travel for four days with a small group of travelers.  Unlike Doeg's eleven-day solo journey that I covered in one paragraph, I wrote something about every day of David and Rochelle's trip so David would have time to woo Rochelle as she tried to resist her developing affection for him.   Obviously they could not just float along talking to each other.  The logistics of the trip had to be at least mentioned or more preferably used to establish a strong sense of what traveling would be like in 831 Francia.  Where would they sleep?  Answer:  one night in the open, one night in a monastery, one night outside the walls of a monastery.  During one day they are in a huge thunderstorm with no shelter.  On another day Rochelle is set upon by two petty thieves.  Obviously these occurrences set up opportunities for David and Rochelle to interact but they were also very real dangers of travel in the Middle Ages.  Could one of them, on the other hand, get a bad case of poison ivy?  Preferably not, because poison ivy is indigenous to North America, not Europe.

Research, research, research.  Soon I will blog a little more about sources.

Some of my favorite "classic" romances are set on sailing ships.  What is your favorite or the most unique travel scenario you have encountered in books set on the planet Earth?

PRINCESS OF BRETAGNE - Curse of the Lost Isle Book One

I wasn't expecting it to be published this month, but it all happened at once. My first book in the long awaited medieval series CURSE OF THE LOST ISLE, titled PRINCESS OF BRETAGNE, is out today from Books We Love Ltd.

The publisher's cover artist did a super cool job, and used cover model Jimmy Thomas (my favorite), and I am thrilled. The book is available today in kindle on Amazon for $2.99. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Bretagne-Curse-Lost-ebook/dp/B007K1EGAM/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_11

Here is what the book is about:

From history shrouded in myths, emerges a family of immortal Celtic Ladies, who roam the medieval world in search of salvation from a curse. For centuries, imbued with hereditary gifts, they hide their deadly secret... but if the Church ever suspects what they really are, they will be hunted, tortured, and burned at the stake.

806 AD - Alba (Ancient Scotland)

As the Vikings raid the coast of Alba, Pressine of Bretagne sets out to seduce King Elinas of Dumfries, chosen by the Goddess to unite the tribes against the foreign invader. Elinas, still mourning his departed queen, has no intention to remarry. Head-strong and independent, Pressine does not expect to fall for the very attractive, wise and noble ruler... Furthermore, her Pagan nature clashes with the religious fanaticism of the king’s Christian heir, who suspects her unholy ancestry and will stop at nothing to get rid of her.

I hope you check it out and give the page a like and agree with the tags.


Thanks for being such loyal followers.


Vijaya Schartz
Blasters, Guns, Swords, Romance with a kick
http://www.vijayaschartz.com/


Vijaya's books at Amazon.com:
https://www.amazon.com/author/vijayaschartz