Love Inspired Historicals discussion

Hi everyone! It's February, the month of romance and beginning tomorrow we'll have a chance for a sneak peak at some of the new LIH offerings for this month!

Tomorrow, we'll welcome C.J. Chase who will be answering questions about her Regency inspirational, The Reluctant Earl.

On Wednesday, we'll have chance to ask Rhonda Gibson all about Groom by Arrangement.

Finally on Thursday, award-winning author Dorothy Clark will tell us how her hero, Ezra Ryder, goes about Courting Miss Callie!

This is going to be so much fun! Can't wait!!

These all sound like great reads. Can't wait!

cool love this chance to chat with the authors for the month.

Oh good more authors to chat with, great stories to find out more about. thanks Deb, will see ya tomorrow

Sounds like fun! Looking forward to it!

I look forward to these Q & As each month! See everyone tomorrow!!!

Can't wait to find out about CJ Chase's The Reluctant Earl! I'm a sucker for a Regency!

So glad to see everyone eager to hear all about the February books! Our featured author for today is C.J. Chase.

C.J. and I share something in common -- we both won the Golden Heart, Romance Writers of America's competition for unpublished authors that led to sales to Harlequin!

The Reluctant Earl is C.J.'s second book for LIH, a Regency romance with undercurrents of intrigue. C.J., I love how this book grew directly from the real history of the time. Can you tell our members more about "The Year Without a Summer" and how it affects your story?

For anyone who missed it, during our LIH Quiz Tournament, here is C.J.'s amazing book video for The Reluctant Earl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed-7z...

I love the sound of The Reluctant Earl. Does this story connect with your first book C.J.? What are you currently working on??

Can you tell our members more about "The Year Without a Summer" and how it affects your story?

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Yes, like Deb, I won the Golden Heart. One of the editors judging the contest bought my manuscript for Love Inspired Historicals, and here I am!

As you might guess from the snow on my book cover and the fact it takes place around "The Year Without a Summer," my characters could use some warmth. In 1816, an unusual combination of solar and volcanic activity resulted in some bizarre weather patterns during the summer. It was cold, wet, and very gray. There was snow in London -- in July. In Maine, there was frost in every single month of the year. There were places in England that recorded only 9 days of sunshine for the entire summer. You can probably imagine what havoc this caused for the harvest that year.

The war with Napoleon had just ended, and the British army and navy were drawing down. So, by winter Britain had high unemployment, food shortages, and rising prices. It was a volatile combination. I set my book against the civil unrest of that winter. My heroine Leah is a governess whose meager salary doesn't cover the expenses for her sister's care. Her employer is a government official, so she decides to ... supplement her income by spying on him. At least, until the Earl of Chambelston catches her in the act!

"The Year Without a Summer" was the last major famine in the western world and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. It's a tragic backdrop, but I think it offers so many valuable lessons for us. What lengths would you go to in order to protect someone you love? Would you take matters into your own hands, or could you trust God to provide?

Laura AKA Loves 2 Read Romance wrote: "I love the sound of The Reluctant Earl. Does this story connect with your first book C.J.? What are you currently working on??"

Hi, Laura. The hero of this book is the older brother of my first book. This one isn't a sequel, so you don't need to have read the first book. But if you have, hopefully you'll remember a couple of the characters that reappear in this one.

At the moment, I'm (supposed to be) working on a book set in Scotland during the Clearances. (I say "supposed to" because I've been fighting a cold for over a week. Luckily this is a cyber party so no one has to worry about catching it from me!)

Good Morning C.J.
Do you go by initials only for any special reason? was the first book you wrote from the manuscript where you won the Golden Heart? that is a very lucky first book if that is so...I have been seeing this book and thought Leah looks like a character who has lot of spunk and will find what she needs to find..thanks for sharing with us today.

What an exciting way for your story to start, CJ!

The Year Without Summer and The Highland Clearances were two of the main events that prompted my various ancestor families to immigrate to the Maritimes. I guess it goes to show that even devastating things like that can lead to something better.

Deborah, I have to tell you about a fun experience that happened because of the recent contest (600th person to LIH). I won a book, if you remember, and I'd already read it so you gave me Stacy Henrie's Lady Outlaw instead. I just got it in the mail so I emailed Stacy to thank her for the book. She emailed me back and then asked me about my last name "Western" because she has Westerns in her ancestry. We looked through my husband's ancestry in the area where she asked us about and found out that she and my husband are related! They have the same great-great grandfather! Her great-grandfather and my husband's great-grandfather were brothers! Isn't that amazing?! You never know what you might find on this blog :)

Hi, Paula. Did you see the scene in the one Indiana Jones movie where Indy's dad said, "We named the dog Indiana!" Well, many years ago, when I was still a kid, my cousins had a dog named CJ, and someone in the family realized those were my initials too. Yep. I was named for the dog -- kind of. When I sold, my agent and editor both said it looked I'd spent hours coming up with the perfect penname, but it's just my real name. CJ from my parents and Chase from the cute guy I married.

No, my Golden Heart winner wasn't the first book I wrote. In fact, I was a finalist in five (yes, 5!) other Golden Heart contests before winning and selling. Some of us just take longer to put all the pieces together...

Deborah wrote: "What an exciting way for your story to start, CJ!

The Year Without Summer and The Highland Clearances were two of the main events that prompted my various ancestor families to immigrate to the Mar..."

Deborah, when I told my husband I working on a book set during the Clearances, he said, "You do remember you publisher requires a happy ending, right?" Such a sad time. But as you said, God can take evil and injustice and turn it into something good.

As for the start to The Reluctant Earl, I was a little concerned about how the whole searching-a-man's-bedroom scene would go over. But as it turned out, my editor liked that part so much she had me rearrange the beginning of the book so that scene happens in chapter 1.

Mary wrote: "Can't wait to find out about CJ Chase's The Reluctant Earl! I'm a sucker for a Regency!"

Mary, I loved some of the old "traditional" regencies. The Regency-set LIHs are probably as close to them as anything being published right now.

Valri wrote: "Deborah, I have to tell you about a fun experience that happened because of the recent contest (600th person to LIH). I won a book, if you remember, and I'd already read it so you gave me Stacy He..."

That is so fun Valri. I have been commenting on the Get lost in a Story blog since it's Intrigue Week. I sent one of the authors a friend request on facebook. She accepted and mentioned that my last name was the same as her mother's last name. I don't know if we are related or not since Wisniewski is the Polish version of Smith & Jones.

I understand not working with a cold CJ. I have a sinuis infection right now. I haven't gotten a chance to read your first book so I will have to see if I can find it used somewhere. There is a big booksale coming up next month so I will keep my eyes open. If not I am sure I can find it on Amazon.

Wow a year without summer boy would that drive me mad. when it gets dull I feel a little down. Just last week it was overcast not much sun and hardly hit 20 which for summer is cool here and it was almost depressing. This week we have sun and its hot again but not to hot. I wold find it hard to have a summer with no real warmth and heat.

Will there be more in this series?

Laura, a big book sale sounds like fun. I could really use a good book and a large cup of hot tea about now. Happy hunting.

Ausjenny wrote: "Wow a year without summer boy would that drive me mad. when it gets dull I feel a little down. Just last week it was overcast not much sun and hardly hit 20 which for summer is cool here and it was..."

One fun historical tidbit about that summer: It was so cloudy and miserable that one group of English tourists in Italy entertained themselves inside their villa by making up creepy stories. Mary Shelley wrote down her ideas in a novel we know as Frankenstein.

From my research on that summer in North America, it sounded like the cold came in waves. The temperatures would warm a bit for a couple weeks and people would replant their gardens -- and then another cold front would move through with frost or even snow.

As for any more books, the one I'm working on now is only loosely connected. It really could be a stand alone book. Someday I'd like to come back to the niece of this book's hero (who was just a fun character to write). But she was only 18 at the end of the book, so I have time.

Thanks for asking about the name, that is always a question of mine, names fascinate me, whether real life or fiction. :)

For anybody who watched the video, it was a draft version uploaded by mistake (don't you hate computers some days!)

This is the finished version! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed-7z...

Melody wrote: "Thanks for asking about the name, that is always a question of mine, names fascinate me, whether real life or fiction. :)"

Melody, I can spend hours trying to come up with the perfect names for my main characters. (In this book, I chose the name Leah for the heroine because she was the older, plainer sister.)

CJ, the heroine of my current wip is named Leah, but that's where any connection to the Biblical character ends. :)

I spend a lot of time on getting the names right, even for the secondary characters. I like using surnames as first names for my heroes, because it was fairly common practice for a son to be given his mother's maiden surname as a first name.

Which makes a perfect segue to today's featured author and book! The hero of Rhonda Gibson's February LIH is named Jackson Hart.

I love the premise of Groom by Arrangement! Jackson steps off the train in Durango, Colorado only to be mistaken for the mail-order groom a friend has arranged for widow Eliza Kelly.

Rhonda, welcome to the February Q&A! Can you tell you how you came up with this fun twist for your story opening?

I love to read the mail order brides so this one with a groom and then to be mistaken for the groom even better, what a twist. Hi Rhonda good to see ya back with us, what made you decide on a groom instead of the typical mail order bride?
I am anxious to read this one.

I love the twist of not only a mistaken mail order spouse but that it's a mail order groom. I will have to check it out. What are you currently working on Rhonda??

It sounds like a great book! I like the reversal idea!

That sounds awesome! :) So going to have to check out that book!

Love the twist now I need to read this to find out what happens. How did you come up with the idea?

I hope everything's okay with Rhonda. I know she lives out in New Mexico so maybe she'll be dropping in at the end of her day.

I haven't heard anything from Rhonda in a few days so I assume something must have come up like computer crash or Internet problems. Too bad, because I would love to have heard more from her about Groom by Arrangement.

Our featured author for today is LIH reader favorite, Dorothy Clark, to talk about her February book Courting Miss Callie.

Dorothy, I see this is the second book in your Pinewood Weddings series. Can you tell us a bit about how it is related to Wooing the Schoolmarm?

I like the sound of Courting Miss Callie. How many books are in your Pinewood Weddings series? What are you currently working on?

I hope everything is okay with Rhonda.

Deborah wrote: " Our featured author for today is LIH reader favorite, Dorothy Clark, to talk about her February book Courting Miss Callie.

Dorothy, I see this is the seco..."

Hi Deborah. Thanks for inviting me to take part in the Q&A. I really enjoy visiting with our friends here on Goodreads. Our readers are so savvy I always learn something new.

Yes, Courting Miss Callie is the second book in my Pinewood Weddings series. There are two strong links between the books in this series--first the heroines, Callie Connor (Courting Miss Callie) and Willa Wright (Wooing the Schoolmarm) are lifelong friends with each other and Sadie Spencer (heroine of the third book)and Ellen Hall (possible fourth book.) The second connection is the village of Pinewood, where the stories take place. I've really enjoyed creating the villagers who are in all the books.

Deborah wrote: " Our featured author for today is LIH reader favorite, Dorothy Clark, to talk about her February book Courting Miss Callie.

Dorothy, I see this is the seco..."

Hi Deborah. Thanks for inviting me to take part in the Q&A. I really enjoy visiting with our friends here on Goodreads. Our readers are so savvy I always learn something new.

Yes, Courting Miss Callie is the second book in my Pinewood Weddings series. There are two strong links between the books in this series--first the heroines, Callie Connor (Courting Miss Callie) and Willa Wright (Wooing the Schoolmarm) are lifelong friends with each other and Sadie Spencer (heroine of the third book)and Ellen Hall (possible fourth book.) The second connection is the village of Pinewood, where the stories take place. I've really enjoyed creating the villagers who are in all the books.

Good morning, everyone. It's so GOOD to be back to visit with you all. I've been going through major, time consuming medical situations with my husband and my widowed sister since August--as well as trying to meet book deadlines--and haven't had the opportunity to be online. I wanted to be here earlier this week but... Enough!

I love these Q&A sessions. Your comments about our books are so insightful and helpful. And it's so nice to get to know you all. I hope you have all been well and busy and happy.

All right, let's get started. I'm excited to be here again and I'm looking forward to answering your questions and perhaps picking your fertile minds with a few questions of my own. : )

I see my anwer to Deborah's question posted twice. I don't know why that happened, but hopefully, if it was something I did, I won't do it again. : )

Laura AKA Loves 2 Read Romance wrote: "I like the sound of Courting Miss Callie. How many books are in your Pinewood Weddings series? What are you currently working on?

I hope everything is okay with Rhonda."

Hi Laura. I'm glad you like the sound of Courting Miss Callie. I really enjoyed writing Callie and Ezra's story. My contract was for a three book series, but there may be a fourth book...a Christmas one. My editor expressed interest when I mentioned it to her so I'm working on a formal proposal for that fourth book at the moment.

Hi Dorothy this looks like a great story and I was wondering if you might start doing more books in this same village-I think stories of different folks living there beyond this one series might be good. I like reading books that have characters you remember from another book.
thanks for sharing today.

Hope all is well with Rhonda missed her yesterday...

C.j. wrote: "Can you tell our members more about "The Year Without a Summer" and how it affects your story?

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Yes, like Deb, I won the Golden Heart. One of the editors judgin..."
Cj, I just saw a special on a year 1783 similar to this on PBS--it was the year of an icelandic volcanic eruption, very similar to the one in 2010 that grounded air traffic. My son and his wife didn't get to go to Ireland for their belated honeymoon.

In addition to the lack of sunshine & decimated crops, cloud of noxious gases killed thousands in northern Europe.

Now I really want to read your book!!!

Oh it will be good to read this book loved the first one and remember Callie. Can you tell us about the hero in this book.

Paula-O wrote: "Hi Dorothy this looks like a great story and I was wondering if you might start doing more books in this same village-I think stories of different folks living there beyond this one series might be..."

Oh, thank you, Paula! I have thought about using Pinewood village in future books. I think it would be fun to see the village grow through the years in stories with the descendents of these villagers as the heroes and heroines. Does anyone else care to comment on that idea? I'd love to know how you all feel about it.

That would be cool seeing how the family grew up etc and the decendents.

Ausjenny wrote: "Oh it will be good to read this book loved the first one and remember Callie. Can you tell us about the hero in this book."

Thank you, Jenny. I'm glad you loved Wooing the Schoolmarm--and that you remember Callie. The hero in Courting Miss Callie is a young, very successful and wealthy businessman from New York City who is tired of being used and persued for his money. He disguises himself as a logger and travels to Pinewood to visit his cousin where no one knows of his true vocation or worth. And then he meets Callie and his real troubles begin! Poor Ezra... : )

Oh That sounds so cool Dorothy I feel for Ezra.

Ausjenny wrote: "Oh That sounds so cool Dorothy I feel for Ezra."

And well you might, Jenny. LOL It's amazing what a snarl his innocent act gets him into. But he's not called the hero for nothing...