Love Inspired Historicals discussion

Hi Everyone! Just a heads-up that we'll be starting our July Q&A tomorrow. This month's will be a bit abbreviated because Laura Abbot won't be able to join us, so we'll run Monday to Wednesday then wrap up with giveaways on the 4th of July!

Joining us this week to chat about their books will be
Renee Ryan to tell us about The Outlaw's Redemption, Louise M. Gouge to introduce the latest of her Ladies In Waiting, A Lady of Quality and RITA nominee Cheryl Reavis to tell us a bit about An Unexpected Wife.

Get your questions ready!

Those sound like some great titles!! Can't wait!

See ya tomorrow Renee to have a little chat about this outlaw...
Thanks for the reminder Deborah, books look interesting.

sounds exciting.

Just before we get started on this month's Q&A, I wanted to mention that Laura Abbot would very much like to have joined us this week but isn't able to. She's planning to join the group and may be able to get in later in the month for a chat about her July book Into the Wilderness. Laura has written many books for Harlequin's Superromance line and is delighted to be making her debut with LIH!

Happy Canada Day/Fourth of July week, everyone! Starting off our July Q&A is Renee Ryan! Renee's latest LIH novel is The Outlaw's Redemption continuing her popular Charity House series.

I love the premise of this story, which pits former gunslinger, Hunter Mitchell against fiery beauty Annabeth Silks in a tug-of-war for his young daughter, who is Annabeth's niece. Both Hunter and Annabeth want what's best for little Sarah, but they have very different ideas about what that is.

Renee, can you tell us a bit about how The Outlaw's Redemption connects with the previous Charity House books and tell us about what inspired you to write this particular story?

Hi everyone! Happy Canada Day & July Fourth. I like the sound of The Outlaw's Redemption. How many books are in your Charity House series Renee?

Since I won a book last month please don't enter me so someone else gets to win!

Sounds wonderful Monica!

Hi Renee, good to see ya today and this wonderful series looks like a great read...have not read it YET...
How did you get the idea for Charity house? Back in the early days I can see where this would be something needed. children only need to be cared for and loved. I love the idea of your outlaw getting redemption. Had he met AnnaBeth before this book? I think they both need to find and share love with this little one.

I was just wondering what books were being featured this month! Always fun to move into a new month!

Renee -- I have a soft spot for outlaws who seek redemption. Your book sounds like a winner!

Personally I love your characters' names, Renee, so evocative! Hunter and Silks!

Renee, your new book looks really neat. I enjoyed reading several of your others!

im late but have been waiting for Hunters story since you gave teasers about it before it sounds cool and to see how you redeem him will be fun. I remember him in the other book where hes the outlaw.
Funny how they talk to you.
When you were researching the book did you find any interesting tibits?

happy Canada day and Happy July 4th

Great that in research you find more characters and adding more books...like this idea.
Thanks for telling us how it all got started. will be looking for your books in this series.

Oh thats so cool about new characters. Didn't know that about the lawyers.

Hi Renee! I have to say whenever I am deciding on LIH to buy if there are any of yours, I always add those to my cart because I have loved every one I have read from you! I am so looking forward to this one! I am a sucker for the bad boys too, something about an Outlaw.. Sigh! :)

What if I set my next book around a baby farm for prostitutes by-blows?

Not everyone would think "What a great setting for an Inspirational series!" ;) But you've certainly made it work, Renee!!

Thanks for the Canada Day wishes everyone! Maybe that's what kept the rains away until after the baked bean and brown bread lunch at our local historic house. Once it was over, the heavens opened! My daughter is working there this summer and got to wear a historical costume for the event. She looks like she could have been a character in one of our western romances - a school marm, maybe. I posted a picture in our photo area: http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/...

Our featured author for today is Louise Gouge. Two years ago I was fortunate enough to make my LIH debut in an anthology with Louise and I have to say the title of her July book could easily describe her - A Lady of Quality!

This book is the latest addition to Louise's Ladies in Waiting series and it is a story of intended revenge. Handsome diplomat Lord Winston is smitten when he meets Catherine, even though she is only a paid companion. Little does he guess the lady's designs on him are anything but romantic. She holds him responsible for a great wrong done her father - a wrong she is determined to avenge! But as she comes to know his lordship, Catherine discovers he is an entirely different man than she assumed he must be. A man it might be all too easy to care for...if only pride and old loyalties did not stand in the way.

This sounds like a juicy story, Louise, with so much drama and deep emotion! Can you tell us how this book connects with the other Ladies in Waiting stories?

I know so many will love this book being a regency (I think). While I am not a Regency reader I like the look of the book. Did you learn any tibits in your research.

I am really eager for Lord Winston's story having read of him in A Suitable Wife.

Is this the last book in the Lady in Waiting series? If so, what are you currently working on?

Thank you so much, Deb, for your lovely introduction.

I'm sorry to be so late this morning, but my computer is giving me fits. LOL! Thanks, everyone, for your interest in my book. I had so much fun writing this one. Yes, Jenny, it's a Regency. And yes, I found some lovely bits of research while I wrote my three Ladies in Waiting books. I was greatly interested in the lives of ladies' companions during that period. Usually, a companion was an impoverished aristocratic lady who was forced to go to work, a dishonorable thing for any aristocrat. There was supposed to be enough money to support everyone in the family in a lavish style. It was never to be earned in trade, but always inherited. The actual money was supposed to come from the farmlands owned by the title holder. Isn't it great to live in a time when women can work at jobs if they want to?

Jane, this is the third book in the series. The other two are A Proper Companion and A Suitable Wife. You can learn more about those two books at my website http://blog.Louisemgouge.com

On Monday next, Louise will be my guest on my blog. AND I LOVE REGENCY ROMANCE, Louise!

Hi, Renee. I'm so glad to hear you love Regencies. They're great fun to write, but I needed lots of help on the research from real experts. LOL!

Lyn, I'm thrilled to be your guest. See you on Monday!

Hello Louise, I have just started book #1 in this series and loving it, great story and just want to hug this lady and help her when she loses everything and not sure where to turn...so glad that a strong wonderful man was there to help from the beginning. can't wait to read the next stories.
Victorian stories remind me of time in history when life was lived more gently, do you feel that the aristocratic folks of today are like ones of old or different somehow?

Thank you, Paula. Anna was one of my favorite heroines ever to write. I hope you'll continue to enjoy the second and third books in the series.

I can't wait to read A Lady of Quality! I have it coming in the last order that I placed so hopefully it will be here soon. So if this is the end of the Ladies in Waiting series what are you currently working on?

Hi, Laura. I'm so glad you're enjoying my Regency series. It was so much fun to research and write. At present I'm working on a western series. I know. Quite a change! But there will be an Englishman in there someplace.LOL!

Louise, thanks for being with us! I know many of our readers will be enjoying your Ladies in Waiting series and looking forward to your western one!

Today's features author is Cheryl Reavis. I so enjoyed her last LIH book, The Soldier's Wife and was delighted when it became a RITA Finalist in the inspirational category. I wouldn't be surprised to find An Unexpected Wife in that same position next year!

This book is about the special sweet grace of second chances. Robert Markham's life was shattered by the Civil War. Now he is trying to rebuild it with the help of Kate Woodward, whose finace was killed in one of the final battles. But Kate is haunted by another secret tragedy - giving up the baby she'd borne out of wedlock. The road to healing and new beginnings won't be an easy one for Robert and Kate, but with faith and love to guide them, perhaps they can find their way...

Cheryl, is there any connection between this book and The Soldier's Wife apart from the time period? What is it about the period following the Civil War that inspired you to write these stories?

Good morning! I'm so glad to be here again. Thanks for inviting me. Deborah, in answer to your questions, no, there is no connection between the two books other than my intense interest in the time period--which I think stems from growing up in an area rich in Civil War history. There is a connection, though, between the heroine in THE SOLDIER'S WIFE, and the hero in one of my contemporaries, BLACKBERRY WINTER. I can't remember if I've ever mentioned that before in a public forum, but it was a matter of satisfying my own curiosity--based on an actual event in my childhood. My grandfather and my uncle took me and several of my cousins on a long walk one Sunday afternoon, and on the walk we came upon the ruins of an old cabin. On the ground were many pieces of broken china scattered about. It was...unsettling. HOW did this happen and who did it? I never forgot about it, and I used the cabin and its broken china as a "prop," as texture for the story, in BLACKBERRY WINTER. But the "who" and the "how" just wouldn't go away. Add to that a Civil War ballad about a dying soldier who wants his brother to tell his wife what has happened to him, AND a story a friend told me about an event in her family, i.e., a soldier suddenly showing up at her widowed Civil War ancestress's farm to help her, because he had promised her dying husband on the battlefield that he would. I had all the elements I needed to explain that cabin--so I wrote THE SOLDIER'S WIFE--just so I'd finally know how all those broken dishes got there--even if I had to make it up...(cont.)

Good morning Cheryl, WOW you sure are a big time Rita winner with your books, looking back you have many under your belt...I don't think I have read your books but sure will be looking for them now. I enjoy second chance stories so this one is right up there for me.
Did you have the male/female from north and south on purpose and why?
thanks for sharing with us today

(cont.)...Re: AN UNEXPECTED WIFE, the heroine, Kate Woodard, was a secondary character in two of my Harlequin Historicals, THE PRISONER and THE BRIDE FAIR. Over the years, I'd gotten a number of letters from readers who wanted to know what happend to her and urging me to give Kate her HEA. Because of her situation, a LIH seemed the perfect opportunity to finally do that. The hero, Robert Markham, was a "prop" in THE BRIDE FAIR. When I picked him up and dusted him off, he seemed the perfect man for Kate--not because he needed redemption, but because she did.

Hi Paula-O. Having a hero and a heroine who are already enemies was very deliberate. In the romance genre, the dominant theme is LOVE CONQUERS ALL. I wanted them to have something really difficult and complex to overcome.

Cheryl, your book sounds wonderful. I love the Civil War time period, and the years before and after. Has your family lived in the same area for generations, and is there a family connection with the Civil war also?

Thank you, Barbara. My mother's side of the family has been in this area (Rowan, Cabarrus and Stanly counties in NC) since the 1700s, i.e., German settlers who came from the Palatinate region of Germany via Pennsylvania. Two great great grandfathers fought in the Civil War; one of them didn't survive. Oddly enough, the one who did was at Gettysburg and a number of other famous battles where the mortality rate was very high. I've drawn on certain elements of their and the family's history, for several Harlequin Historicals, e.g., THE BARTERED BRIDE, THE CAPTIVE HEART, THE FORBIDDEN BRIDE. I'm glad to know you love the Civil War time period. I think that makes two of us, LOL.

Thanks, Renee. So does your OUTLAW'S REDEMPTION. And what a great cover! I'm in such good company.

I am fascinated by the civil war and even more so after seeing some of the places in America recently. Seeing Gettysburg was a real highlight but also hearing how the town had to deal with the aftermath which we don't always think about.

This sounds like a really good book.

Oh add me to the list of Cilvil war time period lovers! I got to see Chickamauga battlefield also.

I enjoy reading about the Civil War time period. I will have to check out The Soldier's Wife. What are you currently working on Cheryl?

Hello, Ausjenny. I first saw the Gettysburg battlefield when I was a student nurse. We had been sent from our little hospital school of nursing in NC to a big state-run hospital in Western Pennsylvania to study psychiatric nursing for three months. On one of our days off, several of us packed a picnic lunch and drove to Gettysburg. It had such a profound effect on me. It was pouring rain that day--as it did the day after the actual battle because of the fierce cannonading, and I knew my great great grandfather had fought there when he was hardly more than a boy. It's hard to describe the feeling I had--sorrow, I suppose because of the terrible loss of young men's lives on those three days. I think I felt the same way about that battlefield as I do about the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. That Gettysburg visit, though, is probably the reason I will often give my Civil War heroes-- on both sides-- the Gettysburg experience. In keeping with that, Gettysburg is where the hero in AN UNEXPECTED WIFE, Robert Markham, was so traumatized that he couldn't face coming home. The bottom line: I'm delighted to add you to that short, Readers Who Like The Civil War Era list.

And Laura AKA Loves 2 Read Romance, I'm delighted to add you to the list, too. I'm working on a proposal for another LIH. This one will be about Sergent Major Perkins, who is a secondary character in AN UNEXPECTED WIFE and THE BRIDE FAIR. I got an email from a reader today who says she is in love with him. I thought I'd help that along by telling her who he looks like to me (I'm a visual writer--pictures or actual trips to actual places are SO helpful.) Who does the sergeant major look like in my head? Hugh Jackman, of course. And Robert Markham looks like Daniel Craig. Writing is such a great job. LOL

If you have a minute and eleven seconds you're not using, and I haven't already pestered you about this, here is the link to the book trailer for AN UNEXPECTED WIFE on YouTube if you'd like to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2jW9V...

Cheryl I found Gettysburg very moving also. the painting up the top of the visitors centre of Pickets charge moved me to tears with the presentation they had. I felt so sorry for all those who lost there lives. Watching Gettysburg this year I cried so much cos so many lost there lives. Being there and seeing the scale of the battle was almost overwhelming.
I found the same at Chickamauga the volunteer there at the visitors centre was so knowledgeable that it was fun listening and as my friend said to her she had a captive audience in me. I often forget these battles were only a matter of days but have left just a huge impact on history and the areas. I think I may have the Unexpected wife.

I also had the same impact at Richmond in the church there listening to the history and about patrick Henry's speach. I also saw the vietnam memorial and you are right it is moving and what the artist did was really good.

It's a good thing we didn't go to these places together, Ausjenny. I expect we would have unnerved the visitor center volunteers to no end. My great great grandfather, who didn't survive the war, is buried at Richmond. After the war was over, there was never enough money to bring him home.

Thats sad Cheryl.
I am not so sure we would unnerve them. The one at Chickamauga you could see she was excited to have someone rapt at what she was saying. My friend told her she took me on a drive round and I was mentioning names on monuments and talking about them and how she didn't even know who a lot of them were.

At the church in Richmond I could have listened for hours we only had an hour there but it was so good. (after the guide at Jamestown she restored my faith in guides). She was so passionate and had us eating out of her hand. I thanked her after and told her how I could have listened for hours. I am not sure how often they get told thanks or good feedback. I know we all clapped when she ended but to actually make the effort to say thankyou. We did in Yorktown when the lady ended and told her how good it was. But this time I sort her out to thank her.

I loved the tour I did and most was good (Harpers Ferry was a huge disappointment but it was before summer and we really got left to look around without a guide or much info) Also Constitution hall wasn't that exciting. the play was great but the rest even the americans were not that interested or was it the zillion school kids. We would have loved more time in Amish country where we only got an hour or so for lunch.

My Pastor is a huge American History fan too and his Wife not so much. When they went to Gettysburg she was ready to leave after less than an hour and he could have stayed all day. I should have been there she could have gone to the outlet shopping and I would have toured all day. I felt we needed more time there and would have loved to stay longer. Its one place I would go back to.

Ausjenny wrote: "Thats sad Cheryl.
I am not so sure we would unnerve them. The one at Chickamauga you could see she was excited to have someone rapt at what she was saying. My friend told her she took me on a drive..."

I just remembered something about Gettysburg--that it's supposedly a place of "ghostly" encounters. Not the deliberately sought, roam around on the battlefield in the middle of the night kind, but the broad daylight unexpected kind. I suspect that they're actually reenactors getting a feel for the time period--or maybe having a little fun with the tourists. We have Civil War reenactors here during the October Homes Tour, and the interesting thing to me besides their authentic look, is how serious they are about it. They stay in character no matter what they're doing.

Cheryl wrote: "If you have a minute and eleven seconds you're not using, and I haven't already pestered you about this, here is the link to the book trailer for AN UNEXPECTED WIFE on YouTube if you'd like to see ..."

I watched this and it is so peaceful and lovely,thanks for sharing

Paula-O wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "If you have a minute and eleven seconds you're not using, and I haven't already pestered you about this, here is the link to the book trailer for AN UNEXPECTED WIFE on YouTube if you..."

My pleasure, Paula-O. A company here in NC called GWE did it. I thought they did a really good job of capturing the gist and the tone of the book in such a limited format.