Georgina's News

Dear Readers:

During the month of December 2010, twenty-two Harlequin Historical Authors have teamed up to create an online Advent Calendar. You can find the calendar here, as well as on the other individual author sites.

Each day, click on the calendar to visit the host author's website, and you can win prizes such as signed books, gift certificates, and holiday goodies. You will be asked to complete a task, such as posting a blog comment, searching for a hidden ornament, or answering a question about an excerpt.

Please check the author's web page for your instructions and to see what the daily prize is. You can enter once each day, at each of the twenty-two websites. The more sites you visit, the better your chances to win!

On December 23rd, a random drawing from among all 22 authors' entries will determine the grand prize winner of a Kindle 3-G. Please see the official eligibility rules for this giveaway.

Happy Holidays from the Harlequin Historical Authors!

Look what is new with Georgina Devon!!

Fifi -- the Chihuahua in rhinestones

Fifi The cute, down trodden looking dog is Fifi. She's wearing her pink rhinestone coat. We call her our Rhinestone Chihuahua (a play on words with Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy and if you remember that song...well, you're my age and that's not good!). If you look closely you'll see her pink sweater under her coat. It's 68 degrees Fahrenheit in our house and she's freezing!. The book cover posted with this blog is my North American one for Her Rebel Lord which is still available as an ebook at eharlequin.com. On the cover the heroine wears a pink dress (kinda like Fifi's coat ), but Jenna de Warre has the hero, Duncan McNabb, in his disguise as The Ferguson to keep her warm.

Fifi, unfortunately, has to sleep on an electric heating pad to really stay warm. It's so hot here in Tucson most of the year, I hate to turn the heater up to 70! But if Fifi lived in 1746, and she was a pampered dog (and they didn't have Chihuahuas in England then), her heating pad would have been a brick or rock that had been heated in the fire, taken out and wrapped in cloth. Luckily for Fifi, things have changed.

Still, Her Rebel Lord opens in Jenna's stillroom and it's cold there. She has a small brazier to keep her warm but it doesn't put off enough heat because she's in a stone castle. Just imagine how cold she would have been, although she was likely much more tolerant of the temperature than you or I or Fifi!

Just one more way our lives are so different from the people we write about. But human emotions never change - we are humans no matter what century we are born and live in. That's the real truth of our books.

Thanks again the Ross for posting this and Fifi's picture and the NA cover of Her Rebel Lord!

The Dog in the Red Coat - Thursday, January 08, 2009

The dog you see in the dashing red coat with black trim is my miniature pincher, known as Rosebud – normally. If she’s in one of her, “I’m the boss” moods, she’s the Queen Mini. If she’s on guard duty in the backyard, she’s the Mighty Mini.

However, if you extend your imagination and add gold epaulets, gold buttons down the front and make the coat a cut-away, then add a dress sword, white breeches and black boots, you are starting to have the uniform of an English officer during the time of the 1745 Jacobite Uprising. This was the last great battle between the Jacobites (those who favored a Stuart on the British throne) and those who wanted the German Hanovers on the throne. We all know who won.

When I first started HER REBEL LORD, I had to decide which side my hero, Duncan McNabb, was on. He is Scottish on his father’s side and English on his mother’s. He inherited his English title through his mother (some titles can pass through the woman if she is the only remaining heir), but his heart is with the Jacobites. The English redcoats (remember Rosebud above) killed his father. Duncan chooses to fight at Culloden for Bonnie Prince Charlie to avenge his father’s death and because the Stuart prince was the rightful heir to the crown. But Duncan fights under a different name so as not to jeopardize his English title since he has no heir.

There are cases where the head of a clan fought at Culloden with his younger sons while his heir stayed home. That way, the heir would not be accused of treason if the uprising failed and with luck the title and lands would remain in the family no matter what.

Duncan escapes Culloden with his life. Many didn’t. Taking up his English title, Duncan takes on an alter ego, The Ferguson, named after his father’s clan, and forms a smuggling gang that’s sole purpose is to get surviving Jacobites out of Britain. It becomes his life’s work.

Jenna de Warre is the only child of Bloody Ayre, an Englishman who fought with the Duke of Cumberland. But her dead mother was Scottish. Jenna’s cousin, Gavin, fought at Culloden alongside Duncan and is now on the run.

Jenna and Duncan meet over Gavin’s unconscious body that is sprawled in the mud in a freezing rain near Carlisle. Duncan plans to smuggle Gavin to France. But Gavin must heal more before he can make the journey.

Jenna discovers The Ferguson is really Duncan, Lord Byrne, the dandy who’s recently moved to the area. This knowledge puts her in a dangerous position. She has a secret people will kill to know or to protect.

A healer, she offers to help Duncan with any escapees who are ill. Working together they fall in love.

Duncan can and will risk his life for the Jacobite cause, but can he risk the life of the woman he is beginning to love – the woman who’s carrying his child?

That’s the basis of HER REBEL LORD. The real truth is that men and women fought and died for Bonnie Prince Charlie. After Culloden, wearing a tartan was against the law in Britain. This law remained in place until George IV, enamored of Sir Walter Scot’s tales, made it legal to once more wear a tartan.

I wish to thank Michelle Styles for making this blog possible. She had to put it on the site and upload Rosebud’s picture and the book’s UK cover. I’m technically challenged.

Best,
Georgina Devon

Amore and More! Romance Writers Tell All...

Released: 12-02-08

Discover the mouth-drying, heart-thumping world of the modern romance at one of four Amore and More! writing workshops sponsored by the Pima County Public Library - just in time for Valentine's Day! These free, two-hour workshops will whet your appetite for the Tucson Festival of Books in March.

Dip into the world of the sensuous sentence and the vivacious verb and learn what romance writing is all about. Don't forget that romance fiction generated $1.375 billion in sales in 2007!

The moderator for all panels is 2008 Tucson Saguaro Romance Writers' of America Chapter President Linda Reed.

The trailer for "Betrayal" will be coming soon! Keep checking back for more updates!
Click here to get your copy today! Click here to read an excerpt!

View the trailer for "Her Rebel Lord" here!
Click here to get your copy today!
Click here to read an excerpt!

I am the editor's pick for the month at CORA and my book is
the 500th in The Lady series.
Click here to view!