Great news! Bantam-Dell is re-packaging and re-issuing the Rogues of Regent Street series. Dangerous Gentleman and Ruthless Charmer will be re-released in January, 2008. If you’ve been looking for some of my older titles, now you’ll be able to find them.
And I am working on a new historical series: . Charles and Diana were not the first Prince and Princess of Wales to suffer marital woes.
More than two hundred years ago, another Prince of Wales lived an extravagant lifestyle and bedded extravagant women. In 1795, with mounting debts staring him in the face, Prince George agreed to a marriage arranged by his father in exchange for money from parliament to pay off his debts.
Prince George and his bride, Caroline of Brunswick—a distant cousin—did not suit. George was physically repulsed by Caroline. Caroline was rather perturbed that George did not give up either his mistress or his “wife,” a Catholic woman he claimed to have married illegally. Upon consummation of their marriage, wherein they conceived a child, the pair separated, never to live as husband and wife again.
Caroline was, for all intents and purposes, banished to Blackheath, where she gained a reputation for outrageous behavior and many lovers. George was no saint, impregnating women across a broad spectrum of social classes, but he pointed a finger at his wife at every turn.
When Caroline adopted a baby boy in the early nineteenth century, speculation began to abound that she bore the child herself and would put him up as heir to the throne over their legitimate daughter, Princess Charlotte. With succession suddenly at issue, George insisted that Caroline be investigated and brought to justice on a charge of High Treason, with a goal, at the very least, of divorcing her.
In 1806, the king established a council to look into the allegations of bad behavior surrounding Princess Caroline. Friends and staff were suddenly hauled away to be questioned. And because she was being investigated for treasonous charges, she was not welcome in royal households and fell out of royal favor—particularly the king’s, with whom she had managed to maintain a good relationship.
But Caroline was canny—she could see what lay ahead and began to write a series of letters to the king, decrying his poor treatment of her when she hadn’t even had a formal charge brought against her. She countered every accusation in amazing detail in an attempt to prove her innocence. And she hinted at things that had gone on in the royal family she might be forced to reveal if the “Delicate Investigation”, as it was publicly called, was not brought to a halt.
For months, the king waffled. The council found that she had not borne the child, and was not guilty of high treason by reason of adultery, but that she was guilty of bad behavior. The prince demanded a more thorough investigation. And Caroline suggested if she was not restored to favor, she’d have no choice but to publish the correspondence between her and the king, as well as reveal these deeper, darker, secrets, of which the royal family had a few: incest, murder, and bastard children, as a start.
The threat of publication of what was simply known as The Book hung over the king’s head in late 1806. When Caroline claimed to have had five hundred of these so-called books printed, the king acted. Caroline had won public favor; he went against his son and chose not to bring charges that could not be substantiated, and moreover, would look to the public to be manufactured, and restored Caroline to favor.
My new series is about people caught up in what was a very high-profile and serious scandal.
In the The Book of Scandal, slated to be published August, 2008, a lady in waiting to the queen is implicated in the scandal and is forced home to a husband she has been estranged from for three years. Their marriage crumbled after the death of a child, and now they are forced to live with each other again after that awful tragedy until the scandal blows over. But as they begin to determine if they can put their marriage back together again, someone is out to put them in harm’s way.
Remember the paranormal romance series I told you about? That has been put on hold indefinitely for a couple of reasons. After much consideration about my career goals—and the great success of Jonathan’s Story, the tie-in novel I wrote for The Guiding Light—my publisher and I agreed that my talents might be better suited in contemporary women’s fiction. I agreed. And as I cannot physically write an historical, contemporary, and paranormal series at once, we have jointly decided to put the paranormal on hold for the time being. But that doesn’t mean you will never see those books! Right now it only means you won’t see them in the next several months.
I will fill you in on the details of the new contemporary books as soon as I develop them (note to self: develop concept for new contemporary books).
