Today at eclecticwriter.blogspot.com 3 books by Diane Scott Lewis are featured. "BWLAuthor #Historical romance #German hero #British heroine

 

Unwed and pregnant, Norah Cooper flees England to hide with her cousin in Brittany before Germany’s 1940 invasion. After her baby is stillborn, she's trapped under the Occupation. Norah consoles herself by sketching wildlife. When she’s caught near the coast, she comes under scrutiny of the German commandant, Major August von Gottlieb.

August loathes what Hitler is doing to his country and France but is duty-bound to control the people in his jurisdiction. The young Englishwoman piques his interest. Is she a spy? He asks her to sketch his portrait so he might uncover the truth.

Soon, their relationship evolves into a passion neither can deny. He plans to sabotage a major war machine of the Reich, while she secretly helps the Resistance. Will their love ruin her and end in heartbreak? Or will they overcome the odds and survive the surging threats.

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Outcast-Artist-Bretagne-Diane-Scott-ebook/dp/B0C24NLLBK

 

Her Vanquished Land

Blurb: In 1780, Loyalist Rowena Marsh insists on spying for the British during the American Revolution. As a girl, she must dress as a boy, plus endure devastation and murder as she decodes messages for a mysterious Welshman. The tide has turned in the rebels’ favor. General George Washington appears to be winning. The loyalists are bombarded by threats and lost battles. Rowena stays determined to aid the British cause and preserve her family as they’re chased from their Pennsylvania home.

She struggles with possible defeat and permanent exile, plus her growing love for the Welshman who may have little need for affection. The war might destroy both their lives.

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Vanquished-Land-Diane-Scott-Lewis-ebook/dp/B07VY58VPQ

 

Ghost Point

Blurb: Luke, an oysterman, is tangled up in the fight over the Potomac River rights in 1956 Virginia. He loves his wife, but they clash over his illegal dredging of oyster beds. His life is under threat from Maryland’s notorious Oyster Police.
Yelena, the once pretty, popular girl, struggles to rise above her dull existence as Luke’s wife. She defies her husband and takes a job in a used bookstore. A mysterious older man is interested in her, or is he simply after her husband for his unlawful activities as he inspects the murders out on the river? She's tempted to plunge into intrigue and perhaps more. Can Luke and Yelena rekindle their love or drown in the hurricane of their actions? Will the crew-killers be found before Luke becomes their next victim?

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Point-Murder-Thwarted-Potomac-ebook/dp/B098PRQ1YQ

 

 

Diane Scott Lewis is visiting and talking about her latest release #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #romance #World War 2 #German hero #British heroine

 

1. Tell me about your latest release or the book you wish to feature? Genre?

My just released novel (May 1^st) takes place in 1941, in Brittany France under the German occupation. Outcast Artist in Bretagne (historical fiction/romantic suspense) tells the story of Norah, an Englishwoman trapped by the German invasion. She comes under the scrutiny of the German Commandant, August von Gottlieb, a man weary of war and detesting Hitler’s Policies. Together they discover a passion neither has experienced before. Can they destroy Hitler’s plans and flee to Switzerland?

2. Where did the idea arise? I watched a mini-series called Island at War, where the German commandant was a complex character who thought himself a civilized man. I modeled my Major von Gottlieb after him. A big challenge was how to make an (on the surface) anti-hero into a hero. Toss in a damaged heroine, an artist, determined to find a way home, and I had my protagonists.

3. How much research was involved? Did you stay on point or be distracted by wanting to look at just one more thing? I tried to stay on point. And there is always the desire to look at one thing more. I did a lot of on-line research, plus read an excellent book, Hitter’s Gateway to the Atlantic, by Lars Hellwinkell. I also did a virtual tour of a German submarine. I read the history of Brittany as well, to get the background for my Breton characters.

4. How long did you take to write the book? About a year. I was working on something else, but shelved it for later as this story took over.

5. Now a bit about you. How long have you been writing? I’ve been writing since I learned to write. I’ve always love to tell stories, throwing my characters into difficult situations and figuring out how they can succeed or overcome. I usually wrote historical stories. But I did write a contemporary murder mystery at age ten. What is your Sun Sign?  I’m a Libra, supposedly well balanced, but that isn’t me. I do like things to make sense, though they rarely do. In high school, my best friend (another Libra) and I wrote up a chart and characteristics of the different signs. It was fun.

6. Do you write in a number of genres of stick to one? I usually stick to historical fiction, but I’m currently working on a Young Adult novel with my granddaughter. Great fun. There’s also an historical aspect to the story.

7. Where on the internet can you be found?

https://dianescottlewisauthor.blogspot.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=diane+scott+lewis&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss

Bookbub:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/diane-scott-lewis-999d8de3-fdae-46d4-8758-665f9362c2ae

FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/Diane-Scott-Lewis-277223019312535/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3999998.Diane_Scott_Lewis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dhparkin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DSLewisHF

 

 

Friday. Diane Scott Lewis is Visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #BWLAuthor #Historical fiction

Day 1

1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

I’ve been an author since age five, but I worked as a radioman in the navy and in admin for the navy in civil service.

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

I prefer historical fiction, but I’ve written a mystery and a paranormal: both historical of course. Most of my novels are what you’d call historical fiction with romantic elements. I’ve set the majority of them in the later eighteenth century.

3. What is your latest release? A historical set during the American Revolution, Her Vanquished Land. But my story is told from the loyalist point of view, the people who sided with the British. Rowena decodes messages for the British, but the rebels are winning, and her world is about to be destroyed. And what of her attraction to the mysterious Welshman who runs the spy ring?

4. What are you working on now? A story set in Greece, A Spark to Ashes. I recently re-visited there for a navy reunion, and it’s where I met my husband. I thought of creating a Mary Stewart type romantic suspense set in the 1950s.

5. Do your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

Not at first. I’m an eclectic reader. I used to read true crime stories and Hollywood biographies. Now I do read more historical fiction to hone my craft.

6. Where can we find you?

http://www.dianescottlewis.org

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=diane+scott+lewis&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss

Bookbub:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/diane-scott-lewis-999d8de3-fdae-46d4-8758-665f9362c2ae

FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/Diane-Scott-Lewis-277223019312535/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3999998.Diane_Scott_Lewis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dhparkin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DSLewisHF?lang=en

Friday, Diane Scott Lewis is talking about Heroes, Heroines and Villains #BooksWeLove #MFRWauthor

1. Do you write a single genre or do your fingers flow over the keys creating tales in many forms? Does your reading choices reflect your writing choices? Are there genres you wouldn’t attempt?

I started writing historical fiction when I was a child and it’s still my preferred genre. I do read a lot of historical novels, and non-fiction for historical research. I recently wrote a vampire novel, A Savage Exile, but the setting is historical, on the remote island of St. Helena during Napoleon’s exile in 1815.

I used to think I wouldn’t attempt horror novels, but my vampire novel nudges in that direction.

 2. Heroes, Heroines, Villains. Which are your favorite to write? Does one of these come easy and why?

In my recent novel, A Savage Exile, I loved writing the villain, Hudson Lowe, a person with few boundaries and ugly intentions. Great fun! Heroines come much easier than heroes, probably because as a woman I can delve deeper into a woman’s mindset, emotions and so forth.

3. Heroes. How do you find them? Do pictures, real life or plain imagination create the man you want every reader to love? Do they come before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?

 My heroes are always flawed and never the Alpha-males with muscled, perfect bodies so popular in romantic fiction. I like a man who is real, has a temper, harbors secrets, can be selfish, mysterious, but always, deep down, good at heart. Oh, but, he’s usually very handsome. Sometimes I’ll base my hero’s looks on a movie actor, with his own quirks of course.

My heroes at first come from the plot, but as I write (I don’t outline a story) he grows and changes as I get to know him better.

4. Heroines. How do you find them? Do pictures, real life or imagination create the woman you want the reader to root for? Do they appear before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?

 My heroines are me inside, tough, determined, and outspoken, but beautiful on the outside. They are never perfect, however. They have insecurities, and other flaws. In my research into the eighteenth century, my favorite time-period, I found many women with the strong qualities mentioned above. Many believed in women’s rights, wrote books on the subject, so don’t let anyone tell you that those ideas didn’t materialize until the twentieth century.

As with the hero, my heroine grows and changes as I get to know her.

 5. Villains or villainesses or an antagonist, since they don’t always have to be the bad guy or girl. They can be a person opposed to the hero’s or heroine’s obtaining their goal. How do you choose one? How do you make them human?

 I’ve only ever been in one villain’s POV, in A Savage Exile. I did give Hudson Lowe some good qualities; his love for his wife is one, his agony over what happened to turn him into a vampire is another, so the reader can understand him as a person.

 6. What is your latest release? Who is the hero, heroine and or the villain?

A Savage Exile is my latest release. The hero is Ali Saint-Denis, a conflicted man with a terrible secret. The heroine is Isabelle, a French maid, who falls in love with him, despite her suspicions as to his strange predilections. I’ve already mention the villain, Hudson Lowe.

 7. What are you working on now?

A historical murder mystery set in Cornwall, England during the American Revolution. It’s called The Apothecary’s Widow. Here’s a blurb: Who poisoned Squire Pentreath’s scold of a wife? The apothecary who prepared the infusions—Pentreath owns Jenna’s building and wants to sell and push her out, one of the manor’s disgruntled staff, or the beleaguered husband himself? Two disparate people, Jenna and Pentreath, must come together to solve the crime before either one of them is sent to the gallows.

 8. How can people find you?

            Website: http://www.dianescottlewis.org

         Blog:  http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/

            Twitter:  https://twitter.com/DSLewisHF

            Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/diane.parkinson.794

Thursday's Who Janet Lane Walters Has Been Reading #amreading

While sorting through some paperback books to alphabetize them I came across a book I hadn't read. Must have put it on the shelf and forgotten I'd bought it but I sat down and read the book. The two others read this week were both on the Kindle. Love the diversity of what venue a person can choose for reading.

A Christmas Promise by Mary Balogh - This is a really good Regency romance and Ms. Balogh never fails to satisfy my reading tastes and give that warm feeling.

Betrayed Countess by Diane Scott Lewis was an interesting read and the heroine a woman in development. The story begins during the French Revolution and sends the heroine off to England to a life of toil. I do hope there will be more of her adventures since the book left me hanging in mid-air hoping for a happy ending.

Fatal Deception by Marie Force - Really enjoyed the action and adventure in this romantic suspense. I should have begun with book 1 of this series so I could follow the development of the main character. That will happen and I feel I won't be left unsatisfied.