Saturday's Blurbs featuring 3 Books by Roberta Grieve #MFRWAuthor #BWLAuthor #Historical romance #War #Foundling Hospital

Daisy’s War

At the outbreak of World War Two, Daisy is too young to join the WAAFs like her glamorous sister Sylvia and opts to work in the NAAFI which serves the soldiers and sailors stationed in the dockyard and garrison near her home on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. She has vowed to stay true to her childhood sweetheart, Bob. But he is serving overseas and she fears he will not return. Enter tall, handsome Christopher, known to his friends as Lofty.

Farewell Innocence

Orphan Ruby knows no other life than the Foundling  Hospital where she was brought up. Sent to work as a kitchen maid for a wealthy family her life hardly seems to change until she meets handsome policeman Jeremiah (Jerry) Locker. Love blossoms and then she is assaulted by the son of the house and she fears there can be no future for her with Jerry. Things get worse for her when she accused of involvement in a spate of burglaries being investigated by Jerry.

Can Jerry help prove her innocence?

Madeleine’s Enterprise

Madeleine Shaw’s father has died suddenly leaving enormous debts and his former business partner, Ralph Newman, is demanding payment.  If she marries him the debt will be wiped out. But Madeleine has fallen in love with Naval Lieutenant Stephen Harker, a friend of her late brother.

However, Madeleine has no time for romance and determines to concentrate on solving her family’s financial problems. Women in early 20^th century were not supposed to start up their own business – that was men’ s work. But Madeleine will not let anything stand in her way of her enterprise, not even her love for Stephen. 

Friday Roberta Grieve is Visiting #MFRWAuthor #BWLAuthor #Historical #Romance #Proof reader

Before I became a published author I did several jobs. I started as a junior reporter on a local paper and always worked with the written word - as assistant to a small publisher, proof reader in a print works, editorial assistant to a local newspaper editor and finally as a library assistant which I did for 22 years. This varied career was a good grounding for the discipline of writing. However, I always wanted to be a writer and wrote short stories and articles in my spare time.

My books are historical romance which is quite a wide genre allowing me explore different eras and write about the problems and challenges my heroines encounter. My favourite era is Victorian but my more recent books have been set during the two world wars.

My latest release is ‘Daisy’s War’ which is set at the beginning of World War Two on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent where I grew up. This is the first of a trilogy called ‘A Family at War’ and I have just started on the second book which will continue Daisy’s story but also tell more about her WAAF sister Sylvia.

I read very widely in different genres but my early favourites were the saga writers like Catherine Cookson. I always wanted to write stories like hers.

I have a website – www.robertagrieve.co.uk and a Facebook page www.facebook.com/RobertaGrievewriter

Saturday's Blurbs featuring Books by Roberta Grieve #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Russia #India #England

ON WINGS OF SONG

Rebellious society girl Arabella Raynsford, terrified that her double life is about to be revealed, and to escape from her arranged marriage to rich Irish landowner Oswald Delaney, flees to the Crimea to join Florence Nightingale. 

With the connivance of her maid, Maisie, she has been leading a double life as popular music hall singer Bella Forde. She has also fallen in love with penniless engineer Nat Sloane, a match her ambitious mother will never agree to. 

She finds fulfillment in working with Florence Nightingale in the hospital but cannot forget Nat or her stage career. 

Will she ever sing again and will she and Nat find happiness?

Available from Kindle

FULL CIRCLE

Ladies’ maid Daisy March is eagerly awaiting the return on leave of her employer’s son, Naval Lieutenant Jack Davenport. Surely this time he will defy his family and declare his love for her. But it is not to be and she is accused of stealing and summarily dismissed. 

When she takes up nursing on the outbreak of World War One she is dismayed to discover that Jack’s sister, Georgina is also among the new recruits. 

They are posted to Malta where Daisy hopes to be reunited with Jack. When scandal threatens both girls they are united in friendship. But tragedy strikes and it seems there will be no happy ending for either of them.

Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, SCRIBD, Thalia

THREADS OF SILK

Ellie Tyler’s dreams of going to art college and getting away from life in postwar London’s East End are shattered when she is forced to give up her education and go to work for her father’s boss in a disreputable night club. She has fallen in love with Harry, her foster brother, who is away in the army.

She consoles herself that when he returns he will rescue her from her unbearable situation. But then she suffers horrific abuse at the hands of her father and runs away, ending up in a small Essex village. She manages to find work in one of the remaining silk mills in the area and, with the encouragement of the mill owner, slowly begins to rebuild her life, re-discovering her creativity and gaining confidence from her success as a designer. But, although she still dreams of Harry, her first love, she feels she can’t face him after what her father did to her, and she cuts herself off from her family. Will she ever find happiness, or will those ‘threads of silk’ bind her forever to her traumatic past? 

Available from Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords, Thalia 

Friday's Guest Roberta Grieve #MFRWauthor #BWL Publishing #What She Was #Historicals

Day 1

I was a reporter on a local paper for several years then changed direction to work in a library. Both of these careers influenced me in a way. The newspaper writing exposed me to all sorts of human interest stories which fired my imagination and, in the library, I was able to discover writers who also influenced me.

My novels are loosely described as historical romances and |I have set stories in various periods from Victorian times up to the Second World War. I love doing the research and putting my heroines into different situations.

Since a very young age I have always been an avid reader of all genres (except westerns) but I was drawn to romance with a historical background because of my admiration for Catherine Cookson who was my favourite writer as a teenager.  I always dreamed of writing like her – not sure if I have achieved that though.

My latest release is Song of Memories, a story of lost love and eventual reconciliation.

My next book will be ‘Madeleine’s Enterprise’. Left destitute after the death of her father, Madeleine has to find a way to recoup the family’s fortunes. Her mother thinks marriage to a rich man is the answer but Madeleine refuses to marry for money and determines to start her own business.

My website is www.robertagrieve.co.uk. I am on several Facebook groups including WriteWordsWrite and Goodreads.

Saturday's Blurbs featuring Books by Roberta Grieve #MFRWauthor #Books We Love lTD

Song of Memories

Returning to her Moscow apartment one bitterly cold day in 1937, Natalie Fisher finds the place trashed and her family gone. Like so many in Stalin’s Russia they have been arrested and probably killed. She has fallen in love with her second cousin Stephan, a talented violinist. She has just discovered she is pregnant and in despair goes to the British Embassy for help. There she meets diplomat, Lawrence Sinclair, who proposes marriage as the only way to get safely back to England. She accepts, convinced that Stephan is dead and worried about the future of her baby.

Back in England she tries to be a good wife to the much older and rather old-fashioned Lawrence and mother to daughter Stephanie. But after being injured when they are trapped in a bombed house, Lawrence discovers that he is not Stephanie’s father and he and Natalie become estranged.

Over the years, Natalie finds consolation in her daughter and her piano, often playing an old Russian folk song - her ‘song of memories’. Stephanie inherits Stephan’s gift for music and dreams of being a concert pianist.

Meanwhile Stephan has survived incarceration in the Siberian gulag, escaping to America. After the war, he returns to England and, unable to continue his career as a violinist due to his sufferings in Siberia, he becomes a music teacher and composer.

Each holds on to the dream that the other has survived and that one day they will be reunited.

More Precious than Jewels

Due to a family feud, Grace has been separated from her childhood sweetheart, Adam, a poor fisherman. When he joins a team of deep sea divers and goes away, Grace, thinking he has deserted her, marries the man chosen for her by her parents. She accompanies her new husband to India but soon learns that there are secrets in his past. Adam also travels to India with the diving team and hopes he will be able to reassure himself that Grace is well and happy.

But she is in trouble. Will Adam arrive in time to help her?

Farewell Innocence

Orphan Ruby knows no other life than the Foundling Hospital where she was brought up. Sent to work as a kitchen maid for the wealthy Preston family, her life hardly seems to have changed until she meets handsome policeman Jeremiah (Jerry) Locker.

They fall in love, but when she is assaulted by her employer’s son and finds herself pregnant it seems there can be no future for her with Jerry. It seems things cannot get any worse for her. But then she is accused of involvement in the spate of burglaries in the neighbourhood.

Can jerry prove her innocence and can Ruby overcome the stigma of an illegitimate pregnancy?

All my books are available on Amazon kindle and Kobo.

Friday's Guest - Roberta Grieve #MFRWauthor #Books We Love Ltd. #Who she was before

I was a reporter on a local paper for several years then changed direction to work in a library. Both of these careers influenced me in a way. The newspaper writing exposed me to all sorts of human interest stories which fired my imagination and, in the library, I was able to discover writers who also influenced me.

My novels are loosely described as historical romances and |I have set stories in various periods from Victorian times up to the Second World War. I love doing the research and putting my heroines into different situations.

Since a very young age I have always been an avid reader of all genres (except westerns) but I was drawn to romance with a historical background because of my admiration for Catherine Cookson who was my favourite writer as a teenager.  I always dreamed of writing like her – not sure if I have achieved that though.

My latest release is Song of Memories, a story of lost love and eventual reconciliation.

My next book will be ‘Madeleine’s Enterprise’. Left destitute after the death of her father, Madeleine has to find a way to recoup the family’s fortunes. Her mother thinks marriage to a rich man is the answer but Madeleine refuses to marry for money and determines to start her own business.

My website is www.robertagrieve.co.uk. I am on several Facebook groups including WriteWordsWrite and Goodreads.

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Writing ABC - A is for Action and many more #MFRWauthor #writing

Not sure this will succeed but I'm going to try and see if I can find one thing for each letter of the alphabet that applies to writing fiction. With a little help from my friends and fellow writers,

A is for Action - Action is essential to a story. We've all read stories when we're pushing for the writer to give us some action. Now my take on action doesn't mean there has to be a car chase or some equally physical bout of fighting. Action can be softer but there has to be some kind of movement. A good argument can be action so can thinking about what has or will happen. The action cam be how one character responds to another and what steps they are about to take. Showing these steps toward reaching a goal can be action even though there are nothing high speed.

Action can also cause problems and to make the reader weary. Some stories seem to be all action. The characters are never allowed to take a breath. Nor does the reader have this respite. They may finish the book totally exhausted mentally and wonder why they chose this author.

Writing love scenes are definitely a place where action enters the equation. I read a book where the active love scenes continued and continued and continued. I found myself skipping pages. to get past the love scenes happening in two chapters out of three. This also applies to other kinds of action. I've read books where the characters argue or discuss heatedly a certain problem. But they do this again and again in chapter after chapter.

So one has to remember Action is important to a story but there are other elements that also unite with the story. One thing I have when I've gotten that rotten rough draft down is to start rewriting and when a segment of the story seems boring, and if it bores the writer, think of the poor reader. Then I know it's time to throw in a little action to make the slow scene work.

What do you think about Action and do you have other things concerning writing starting with A is for...

A is for Adventure and Anticipation  - Roberta Grieve Adventure - it's always an adventure starting a new novel. You may have an idea of what's going to happen to your hero and heroine but as the story develops things start to happen hat you hadn't anticipated. Anticipation - that's another A.

Never thought of these two. Not only is adventure the start of a new project but some stories are filled with Action and Adventure, What do you think?

A is for Art
A is for art. The art of writing. I was pleased when the board for our local Art Hop recognized writing as an art when they included local authors in the festival. Writers don't paint on canvas, but they do create scenes and characters for readers to "see" on the pages of the story. When viewing a sculpture or painting, emotions flood through me--delight, dislike, wonder, calm. Don't we as authors create emotions for readers--love, hatred, wonder, fright, peace? Art is creating and writers do create scenes and emotions, if not in sculpture or wall hangings, but definitely within the reader's mind. J.Q. Rose at http://www.JQRose.com 

A is for Antagonist: a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

As writers, we know a good antagonist – call him/her or it villain, nasty character or what you will – are necessary to put in the way of our leading characters getting what they want. An antagonist need not be thoroughly evil. In fact, the more sympathetically they are written, the more real they become rather than just a cookie-cutter villain.

An antagonist need not necessarily be a person, but a character’s alter-ego: good versus bad as in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Or it could be the environment, think movies such as Reese Witherspoon’s Wild or George Clooney and Sandra Bullock’s Gravity. In a fantasy the antagonist could be any type of ‘he who must not be named’ – what fun to create your own version of J.K. Rowling’s Voldemort.

The stronger you make this character, the more blocks he/she puts in our leading characters’ way, makes for a much more interesting and unforgettable read.

Victoria Chatham

http://bookswelove.net/authors/chatham-victoria/
www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaChatham
http://victoriachatham.blogspot.ca.

A is for Atmosphere
Renee Simons Just think about that classic cliché, "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night." Sets up the atmosphere for a mystery or an adventure story and puts the reader in the middle of the scene.



Renee Simons

Books We Love Ltd.

https://www.amazon.com/author/bookswelove.netsimons.php

Renee Simons

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A is for Anti-Hero Via Kathy Fischer Brown

Anti-hero An archetype that can be traced back to Greeks and Roman literature and theater, but took off in the 19th century as the Byronic hero. These guys are not always morally correct; they usually serve their own interests, and often act as a foil for the hero. In movies, Clint Eastwood's early spaghetti western characters and his later portrayals in movies such as "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Unforgiven" show a man who is a loner with a past who ends up doing good out of circumstance rather than intention. In modern literature, he is Salinger's Holden Caulfield or Kerouac's Dean Moriarty...or those lovable rakes and bad boys across numerous Romance genres, who are reformed in the end through the love of a good woman.

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