Kathleen Buckley's Blog

 

Be sure to check every day for chances to win. I’m takingpart in this, and my post will go live at 4:15 a.m. Eastern time on August 22,2024.

I’m also on a blog tour every Wednesday from 8/28 to11/13/24. 

The first stop on 8/28/24 is at https://elainepcantrell.blogspot.com/Hope. Dreams. Life...Love and the second, also on 8/28/24, is at  http://www.romancenovelgiveaways.com/ Romance Novel Giveaways.

Below is the schedule forthe rest of the tour (unless there’s some unexpected change):

...

An Offer for aSpinster (Book 1 of Willoughby) by Dorothy Sheldon caught my eye out of a bunchof similar books  because the last nameof my best friend in grade school and junior high was Sheldon. I previewed thefirst page and found nothing to put me off  so I bought it and I’m glad I did. The Regencyromance genre in the age of self-publishing is a very mixed bag.

Sheldon is the realdeal. No flubs that I noticed except a word or two  (“surreal” for one) that were not in use atthat time and ...

 How do you feel about the current fad for authors to crank out multiple novels per year? I notice it most in the romance community but maybe it’s penetrated other genres as well.

Some of my favorite authors are doing this, and I think it’s a pity. To write fast, the books must be shorter and less complex. They’re dessert rather than the entrée. Personally, if I’m hungry for a book, I like a main course rather than a bon-bon.

In the case of historical romances, research sometimes becomes a casualty, as in one recent Regency romance in which someone is wearing a bowler hat. /p>

 It’s rare to review a novel as disquietingly relevant to ourcurrent problems as Censored Angel by Joan Koster. The central figure, IdaCraddock, was a writer, proponent of birth control, and mystic. Her oppositionto Anthony Comstock, a postal inspector from 1873 to 1907, who used hisposition to prosecute anyone who published, advertised or sent throughthe mail anything he considered obscene, is the central theme of Koster'swell-researched novel.

A religious zealot, he censored any mention ...

 I don’t usually review non-fiction but as Writing Regency England by Jayne Davis and Gail Eastwood (two of my favorite romance authors) is such a useful resource, I’m going to plug it.

 I’ve been doing research for my mid-eighteenth century books since 2013 and when I beta-read Writing Regency England, I knew I was going to buy a copy as soon as it came out.

I read a lot of historical romance and it’s a rare read that doesn’t make me grit my teeth, even when I love the story. Granted, not everyon...

 

By Sword and Fan is now officially out and I'm just as thrilled as I was at the worldwide release of the previous eight. Maybe even a little more, because this one took longer to write and revise. Like the others, it's set in mid-eighteenth century England. 

 Here's a brief excerpt:

“Gone!” Archbold’s low, furiousvoice left Margaret in no doubt that he would have cursed if he had been aloneor only with a man. She rode forward to join him.Two ponies with sidesaddleswere loosely tethered in a li...

 By Sword and Fan, my ninth novel (can it really be the ninth?) is up on Amazon (release date is 10/18/23) for $3.99. Somehow that makes it real. This novel was a particularly hard slog for me.

Despite the slightly Freudian cover, your twelve-year-old or your great-grandmother could read this without embarrassment. 

Meanwhile, I'm about 5,000 words from completing the first draft of  Hidden Treasures. Then I've got a novella (I think) with a Christmas theme in progress.

After that, I have an idea f...

 How do you plana road trip in mid-eighteenth-century England? If it’s to take place on theGreat North Road, it’s not difficult, as that was the main road running north, and the modern A1 motorway parallels it. But ifyour characters venture elsewhere, it’s more complicated. For A PeculiarEnchantment, I needed to trace Adelaide and Gervase’s route from London toNorthumberland in detail and it couldn’t be by way of the Great North Road (forfear of pursuit).

Searching 21stcentury maps for e...

 How do you plana road trip in mid-eighteenth-century England? If it’s to take place on the Great North Road, it’s not difficult, as that was the main road running north, and the modern A1 motorway parallels it. But if your characters venture elsewhere, it’s more complicated. For A PeculiarEnchantment, I needed to trace Adelaide and Gervase’s route from London to Northumberland in detail and it couldn’t be by way of the Great North Road (for fear of pursuit).

Searching 21stcentury maps for e...

 It started out all right:

And who doesn't like free books? Here's the link to the reader sign-up:

https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.knight.1297/posts/pfbid02nBfsSVThPTjspTuYd6oPjXYdU4VPTWi5UzdjKyejWdXCuZ6xvLsDWnd5q3AZeAkKl

The Summer Fling does run from July 4 to August 4, 2023 but the book I'm offering is my second, Most Secret, not A Peculiar Enchantment. Lots of other authors are participating and they're giving away ebooks, too.  

Set atthe outset of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, it involves ...