Cover Reveal of An Honorable Deception

Cover Reveal of An Honorable Deception

by | Feb 22, 2024 | Announcements, Book News, Books, Cover Designs

It’s Time!

For TWO Cover Reveals!!

Say what? Yes, that’s right, I have TWO new covers to show you.

First is the one you might be expecting…book 3 in The Imposters, An Honorable Deception. With book 2 releasing in a few short weeks, it’s no surprise that the cover for the final book in the series is ready for you!

But I also have the cover for my Christmas novel to show you, which will actually be releasing before this!

Today, though…Imposters. Unleeeesssssss you REALLY want to see the cover for Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor too. In which case, read on! 😉 There’s info at the bottom on how you can see that one a week early too!

But First…

Our Hero, Yates

First we have Yates. Technically Lord Fairfax, an earl…but if you’ve read his sister’s story in A Beautiful Disguise, you know he’s far more interested in running their P.I. firm and playing with the retired circus animals that live at their estate than attending the Sessions.

I don’t often write muscle-bound heroes, but Yates HAS to be…so that he can toss and catch his sister on the trapeze. And building ledges. And wherever else they need to get into and out of for their clandestine work. But in addition to all the muscles, Yates has a heart of gold and will do absolutely anything to protect the people he loves.

A New Acquaintance

Lady Alethia Barremore

Lady Alethia hires the Imposters to help her find her dearest friend–her Indian ayah (nanny) who has gone missing. As the daughter of a former viceroy of India, Alethia has made a splash in her first season by wearing Indian finery. But she’s also apparently made enemies, because she’s shot three times leaving her meeting with Mr. A of the Imposters. What have she and her former ayah, Samira, stumbled into?

And an old friend…

Lady Lavinia Hemming

Lavinia is still reeling from the family secrets that nearly undid them all in A Beautiful Disguise, and she’s still regaining her strength from the bout of Scarlet Fever that weakened her heart and nearly killed her. She doesn’t knew who in the world she can trust when her own family would betray her–but when she discovers her dearest friends are the Imposters, she’s relieved to find that their secrets are noble…and she promptly recruits herself, so that she can help them find Lavinia’s friend.

But…

as clues lead them deeper into the darkest of society’s secrets…

Alethia, Yates, and Lavinia soon learn anew that the gentry isn’t always noble…and truth isn’t always honorable. Amidst burgeoning love and old betrayal, scandalous secrets will test the bounds of redemption in this exhilarating series finale.

Ready? Here it is!
The cover of An Honorable Deception!

Isn’t it beautiful??

I love the autumn colors and how they work so well with the beautiful rose of the dress.

Now…you may be wondering which of the ladies this is. Alethia? Lavinia? From the character images I shared above, you may even notice that they bear a passing resemblance to each other.

That’s no accident, friends!

So to discover which one is the “heroine”…which one steals Yates’s heart…you’re just going to have to wait and read the book! 😉

Lucky for you, you can:

Pre-Order Now!

NOW

What about that second cover??

Well, you can come back next week and see it here on the blog or in the newsletter, no problem. There will be a post much like this one, with some character images and a bit about my Nutcracker-inspired story.

But if you want to be the FIRST to get a peek, you can do so by ORDERING either of these two books! Pre-order from my shop, and you’ll get an email within minutes with the second cover!

(Of course, you’ll still want to come back next week for the full info! LOL)
Pre-Order Now
Pre-order Now
Word of the Week – Silly

Word of the Week – Silly

by | Feb 19, 2024 | Word of the Week

If you look up silly in the dictionary today, you come across a couple definitions.

1 a: exhibiting or indicative of a lack of common sense or sound judgment
   b: weak in intellect
   c: playfully lighthearted and amusing
   d: trifling, frivolous
2: being stunned or dazed

Those all match the uses I know I’ve seen for the word, right? And it’s a word I’ve used a lot when my kids were younger for when they were acting goofy. Silly is a word we often said with laughter, with joy. It’s a fun word.

And I had no idea that it began life meaning something rather different.

In Middle English, the word was spelled seely, and it was taken from the Old English equivalent that meant “happy, fortuitous, prosperous.” The Old English came in turn from the Old German selig, which means “blessed, happy, blissful.”

The fact that the pronunciation, and hence the spelling, changed is no great surprise–that long double E was shortened and changed to an I in either speech or spelling or both in all sorts of words. But the progression of the meaning is fascinating.

The journey went something like this. From “happy” it moved into “blessed.” But “blessed” was used primarily of religious giftings, so silly began to mean “pious” or “innocent” around 1200. As with many other words that had something to do with “innocent,” by the end of the century, it could mean “harmless”…and from there, it shifted to “pitiable” and “weak.” Throughout the 1400s and 1500s, it evolved into “feeble in mind, foolish, lacking reason.”

Of course, we know that innocence does not mean foolish…but all too often, we equate the two.

By the mid-to-late 1800s, the idea of being knocked silly, as in “dazed or stunned by a blow” entered the picture. But just a bit before that, in 1858, we also a see that connection to childhood things that I associate the word with–“a silly person” was one who wrote for or entertained children (how fun is that?).

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Why Do I Love You?

Why Do I Love You?

by | Feb 14, 2024 | Thoughtful Thursdays

There’s a famous poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning called “How Do I Love Thee?” You’ve probably read it. But if it’s been a while, here’s a quick refresher of this beautiful, short poem (which is in the public domain):

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

You know what I love about this poem? That it doesn’t try to explain why she loves Robert. It doesn’t enumerate his good qualities or how she feels in his presence. It doesn’t talk about the way her heart goes pitter-patter when he smiles at her. It’s not about the why. It’s about the how.

And there’s something so very true about that approach to love, isn’t there? Because we rarely know why we love someone. We just know that we do. We know how it changes us, inspires us. We know how it creates life within our existence.

I am so incredibly blessed to have a husband who tells me many times a day that he loves me. Many times a day, he’ll just look over at me say, “You’re so pretty. How are you so pretty?” Or “I love just looking at you.” I mean, I’m no supermodel. And he usually says it when my hair’s still wet from the shower or a mess from bed. But when I get ready for the day and walk out–which I do most days even when I’m staying home to work, he’ll comment on that too. He’ll tell me how nice I look, how beautiful I am, how lucky he is.

And when I return the sentiments, this man I love so much will sometimes say, “I don’t know why. I mean, everyone should love you. I don’t know why you love me.” It’s become part of the dialogue, part of the script, part of the game. And over the years, my answer has changed. Sometimes it’s teasing, sometimes it’s ooey-gooey. But lately…lately I’ve settled on what I deem the truth. “I love you because you’re you. I love you because you’re my hunny.”

That’s what love is. We don’t just love the things someone does, the words they say, the way they look. We love them. And when we love the core of a person–the place from which all those other things flow–that’s when love roots deep. When it gets at the kind of love God has for us. Our Lord doesn’t love us because we pray or sing or come to church. He loves us. First. Because we are His. Because we are us. And then all those other things…those rise up and overflow from that love. Because He loves us, we learn how to love Him. And when we love Him–not for the things He does or the Words He says, or the way He appears, but for who He is…then our faith becomes unshakable too. Because our faith is just our love for Him.

I certainly didn’t love my babies because they’d done anything right or were great people the moment they were born. I loved them before they were ever even put in my arms because they were them. I didn’t know who that was yet. But I knew they were. And they were mine. Just like David. Just like the family I was born into. Just like my Lord.

On Valentine’s Day, we might give a gift to our special someone (or even many special someones, if you have kids!). We might plan a nice dinner or put on nice clothes. We might try to look our best for them. But if that doesn’t happen this year, you know what? It’s important to remember that those things aren’t part of the why. We don’t love people because they take us out to dinner. We don’t love them because they remember to buy cards. We love them because they’re them. We love them because we can trust them to love us for being us. All those outward things…yes, they can be an indicator of that soul-deep love. But they’re not always. They don’t have to be. People can take all the right actions and not have the right heart. People can have the right heart and not know the actions you want them to take.

Today, this month, this year, let’s not focus on the why. Not in our own lives, and not in other people’s. Let’s not ask why they love the people they do. Let’s praise God for the beauty of love that exists without reason. Love that exists because we do. Love that provides the strength, provides the goodness, provides the words and actions.

Let’s smile, because we know that the answer that may sound like a cop-out is actually the truest answer of all. Why do I love you? Because you are you.

Word of the Week – Flirt

Word of the Week – Flirt

by | Feb 12, 2024 | Word of the Week

With Valentine’s Day upon us, I thought it would be fun to pick a “romantic” word to examine today…and flirt wins because it’s a rather hilarious evolution. Because it didn’t always mean what it does now!

In fact, flirt began life in English around 1550 as the very opposite of what we think of today. It means “to turn your nose up or sneer at someone.”

Say whaaaaaat?

Not long after that, flirt and flick were used interchangeably…and then flirt and flit would be used interchangeably. This is a word that just didn’t know what it wanted to mean!

So how did it come to land on its current meaning? Etymologists have several theories. It could be because flit was used frequently to describe the actions of “giddy girls.” Or it could have been influenced by the French fleureter, which was “to speak sweet nonsense,” a word that was used to describe bees flitting from pretty flower to pretty flower and was borrowed to describe people who did the same, especially in conversation.

At any rate, our current meaning had evolved by the 1770s…and this flitting, flicking, flirting word finally settled on a meaning. And it hasn’t looked back since.

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Not Inspired

Not Inspired

by | Feb 8, 2024 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I’ll be honest. Though 100% of my income comes from creative endeavors…I don’t always feel inspired.

I don’t always want to write.

I don’t always want to design book covers.

I don’t always want to typeset a book.

I don’t even always want to work on sprayed edges or create beautiful pages or pretty up my website.

There are days and weeks when I don’t want to do any of the things that I do. Days and weeks when I’m tired and burned out and just don’t feel creative. There are days and weeks when I do all the normal things to jump start that creativity–I read and watch favorite movies or shows or try something new or just get extra sleep–and still. Nope. Don’t wanna. Don’t care. Don’t feel it.

And I can indulge that for a little while. I can give myself those times of refreshment and renewal for a few days or even a week, because I know they’re actually an important, crucial part of the creative process.

But here’s the thing…if you let a fallow time go on indefinitely, you know what you’re likely to stay? Fallow. Unproductive. Dormant.

At some point, you have to fire up the tractor and start plowing up those fields of creativity again. You have to start planting seeds. You have to get to work. And then…then the growth will follow. The flowers will bloom. The fruits will ripen. The harvest will come, eventually. But not until we get up and start moving.

So often, I have to get to work whether I want to or not–just like everyone else. And you know that saying about “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life?” Yeah, that’s nonsense. Even when you love it, it still requires WORK. It requires EFFORT. It requires MAKING yourself do things even when you’re not in the mood.

It’s supposed to. Because nothing in life always comes easily, with no problems to solve or inertia to push through or attitudes to overcome. Even the things we love take work.

No, wait. Let me rephrase that: Especially the things we love take work.

Think about it. The best, healthiest relationships don’t just exist from sheer luck. They’re solid, healthy relationships because you’re always tending them. And while most of the time that might be easy and fun, it isn’t always. You know that. Every married couple has to have hard discussions. Every best friend needs to be there through the times they’d rather skip. Every parent has cried tears over their child at some point.

It’s the fact that we put in the effort, that we deem it worth working for and at and on, that makes those relationships strong and healthy.

The same is true for our creative pursuits. Inspiration is, in a lot of ways, like a person. It comes for a visit on its own now and then, yes. When the mood strikes. But quite often, you have to be the one to invite it. You have to open the door to it. You have to feed it and get it talking. And then…then it opens up.

But not always–or even often–on its own.

I don’t always feel like being creative at the start of a day. The creativity comes because I sit down and start creating. I don’t always feel inspired. But when I start creating, the inspiration comes.

Ironic case in point: this very article. It was time to write my blog. I didn’t know what I wanted to write about. Quite frankly, I rarely know what I’m going to write about when I sit down. I just sit down. And I silently whisper a prayer. And I get started. I open up a new post, I stare at the screen for a while, and I start casting about for ideas. What have I been thinking about this week? What’s coming up in the next little while? What have David and I been talking about? And then I write a title. And then I come up with the words to match it.

When I write a book, I don’t always feel a strong drive do unfold this story right now, when it’s time to write. But it’s time to write. So I sit down, and I open my document, and I silently whisper a prayer, and I dive in. And then the characters take hold of me, the story lures me onward, and the inspirations comes.

Professional creatives don’t wait to be inspired. Professional creatives chase the inspiration. We sometimes have to wrestle it into the seat beside us. We work for that creativity. We work at it. We work on it. And you know what? When you’ve invested that much time and effort into building a strong relationship with inspiration…inspiration shows up for you. Just like your best friend.

Don’t wait for the mood to strike, my friend. Sit down and get started anyway. Create something. The inspiration will follow. It doesn’t like to feel left out. 😉

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