Guest Post and Giveaway Once Upon A Wallflower by Wendy Lyn Watson

Published August 12th, 2013

Description:

A Perennial Wallflower…

When Mira Fitzhenry’s guardian arranges her engagement to one of the most scandalous, yet devastatingly handsome lords to ever grace the peerage, all of society is abuzz. After all, the man has left a trio of dead young women in his wake, including his first fiancée. 

A Gothic Villain…

Expecting to scare the chit away within five minutes of meeting him, scarred and brooding Nicholas, the Viscount Ashfield, is intrigued by the unfashionably lovely Mira, but his family’s dark secret means he must fight his attractions. No matter what his heart wants.

As the wedding approaches, Nicholas and Mira grow ever closer, yet so does the very real danger. Will the truth bring Nicholas and Mira together or tear their love apart?

GUEST POST

History’s Mysteries

(MB's topic)

My writing repertoire includes a fair number of contemporary stories (cozy mysteries and chick lit mysteries), but historical romantic mysteries will always hold a special place in my heart. Specifically, I like to set my romances—with their elements of mystery—during the Regency or late Georgian period.

Why write historical romance? There are a number of reasons. First and foremost, I love the romantic patina the Regency period has developed over the years. When I write contemporary novels, I feel an obligation to present the world my characters inhabit the way it really is . . . hard edges, frank language, and gritty details included. Historical settings, especially Regency England, provide an author with more idealized surroundings in which to let romance bloom. 

From my research, I know that the Regency period was every bit as hard and gritty as our time. Drinking to dissipation was common, many people lived in extreme poverty, the London was filthy, and sex was fraught with all the contemporary pitfalls (unexpected pregnancies, STDs, broken hearts). Like most authors, when I write historical romance I tend to gloss over all those hard realities. I can live in the roses and romance world of Jane Austen, and my readers can escape with me to a world made gentler by the passage of time.

For me, the historical setting provides an added benefit. I include elements of mystery in everything I write. Mysteries set in the Regency period are solved through interrogation and reasoning. There were no cell phone records, money trails, fingerprint and fiber analysis, or typing of blood. Indeed, in most communities there wasn’t any formal law enforcement institution at all. It’s freeing to write a mystery that is solved solely through logical deduction and intuition. In fact, in Once Upon a Wallflower, one source of internal conflict for the heroine is that logic points in one direction and intuition points in another, and she must choose between the two.

I love the blend of mystery and romance, and I strongly believe that the two together can create the most emotionally engaging and intellectually provocative stories. Historical settings (especially Regency England) make the romance more romantic and the mystery more mysterious. I enjoy writing contemporary romantic mysteries, too, but historical settings will always be my favorite.

Thank you, Mrs Wendy Lyn Watson

Goodreads ** Amazon

TOUR SCHEDULE

About the author:

Wendy Lyn Watson writes mysteries of all types: contemporary, historical, and cozy. Whatever the time or the tone, her mysteries always feature a dose of humor and a dollop of romance. Her first cozy series, the Mysteries a la Mode, feature the owner of an ice cream parlor in a small Texas town.

Once Upon a Wallflower, due to be released in August of 2013, is a Regency-set romantic mystery. While Wendy does not commit (or solve) mysteries in real life, she can kill a pint of ice cream in nothing flat. She also enjoys 80s music, Asian horror films, quilting, and vegetarian cooking.

While she was born in Ohio and has called half a dozen states home, she currently lives in a college town in North Texas along with her husband and their three cats (Iphy, Squeak-a-Doodle, and Todd Baryshnikov).

She loves to hear from readers, so find her on:

Website ** Goodreads ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Pinterest

Author's Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway