All About Wicked Affairs Four: WICKED SECRETS

I had a blog comment asking about the next in the Wicked Affairs series and promised a post regarding the plot.

For those of you who have read Book Three, Wicked Lord, you'll remember that Edward Chase, Lord Redding, has a sister Alizabet Standifer, Lady Archer. She has been married less than a year to Charles, but alas, there marriage is not made in heaven.

So here is the blurb with which I enticed my publisher, Ellora's Cave.  The title is WICKED SECRETS.

The Earl of Archer, Charles Standifer’s infatuation with his wife has turned into the cold reality of marriage misery. Vows are not so easily broken but when he gives into temptation all the secrets of the past threaten to destroy them and their marriage. He would give anything to have his wife, but she will have none of him.

The reserved and compassionate Alizabet, Lady Archer knows she will never please her husband in ways that matter to men yet she cannot deny the love she has for him in spite of the heartbreaking betrayal.

He has never doubted her affection for him, but that has done nothing to assuage his sexual need. When Charles discovers the revelation of Alizabet’s shocking past, can he be the man and husband she needs? Or will he forever be denied his rights to the alluring yet unattainable woman he calls wife?

So I must warn you now, if you didn't pick it up in the above blurb: There is an affair - a no excuses, out in the open affair. We all know this happens but the real trick is the attempt to redeem the hero. I know some readers think that this is very unheroic to portray such an event but for those who have read the Wicked Affairs series you know that all of the books involve the troubles of marriage. And we know that institution is far from perfect. 

What do you think? Is it impossible to write a true, fulfilling romance when an affair is a large part of the story?

French Revolution: Bloody Buoy

A new TALES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. A book from 1823, Bloody Buoy, talks of the "multitude of acts of HORRID BARBARITY, such as the eye never witnessed, the tongue never expressed or the imagination conceived, until the Commencement of The French Revolution."

Vol III Page 25:
Caption Leroux attests that the murder of the ninety priests was a most wanton act of cruelty, contrary to the professions of the committee itself; for that they were only to be sent, it was said, into perpetual exile. He says he was ordered before the committee, and threatened with imprisonment for having permitted two of them to get on board his vessel.
Captain Boulet, one day, in weighing anchor, saw four or five hundred dead bodies raised up by the cables; and adds that there were on hundred and thirty women confined at Mirabeau, who disappeared all at once.

Vol III Page 113:
The same witness says, I saw a great number of persons conducted from the place of Equality, to be shot at the Mauves. There were women and children of all ages amongst them. My heart could not support this spectacle; I ran home, saddled my horse, and rode to the place of execution. When I arrived the poor creatures were all on their knee, and the soldiers were preparing to fire. I rushed through them, and had the good fortune to save eight of the children, the oldest of which was twelve years of age, the rest were shot with their fathers and mothers.

While I am posting this from the historical perspective, it is a reminder that class warfare has no good end.

New Covers

There is only one thing I like in my in box more than a contract and that is the resulting cover art for a new book.

So, folks, here is what I have coming up in the next several months. Check out these awesome covers for upcoming releases. No dates available yet so just keep a look out at the Ellora's Cave Coming Soon page. And, of course, I will post on Facebook as soon as I hear.

On Thin Ice, Book Two in the Cold Play Series

Courtesan's Passion, Book Two in the Birds of Paradise Series

Wicked Secrets, Book Four in the Wicked Affairs Series

One Last Night, the first of a new series (I hope,) but hasn't been named yet

What do you think?

And I mustn't forget to mention that these covers were all designed by Dar Albert. I LOVE the distinctiveness of themes within each series.