Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Guest Post from Shana Galen

A Gentleman for All Seasons
Available Now!

The tiny village of Hemshawe is the sort of place where nothing ever happens...until a handsome ex-soldier and his matchmaking sister let the imposing manor house at the edge of town. The friendly Londoners shake up the staid people of Hemshawe, and villagers see each other in a new and oh-so-appealing light.

Suddenly long-sparring enemies become lovers, a town festival heralds a new start for a fallen woman and a dandy, and a man who has given up on love gets a second chance with the woman he never forgot. And the matchmaker herself?  She won't rest until she finds her own happily-ever-after...

A Gentleman and a Veteran
By Shana Galen

Today is Veterans Day, and I have the utmost respect for veterans. My dad and my grandfather served during times of conflict. In my new anthology, A Gentleman for All Seasons, not only did my co-authors Vanessa Kelly, Kate Noble, and Theresa Romain, and I each write a story with a hero we hope readers will love, three of our four heroes are veterans.

The unrest of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon led to war in Europe. The Peninsular War meant many of the men who lived during the Regency period had served abroad or were part of the regiments protecting England. Think of George Wickham, whose regiment is stationed briefly in Merryton, where Lizzie Bennett lives in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

A Gentleman for All Seasons revolves around a brother and sister, Bertram and Georgie Gage, who let a house in a little country village for a year. Bertram served in the 13th Light Dragoons, and now that he’s returned from the war he wants to make sure his sister has peace and quiet to recover from an illness. Bertram reunites with a woman he loved before the war, and their story is told in Theresa Romain's “Those Autumn Nights.” My hero is Peregrine Lochley, who served with Bertram in the 13th. These friends have been through hell and back, and when Lochley needs a place to stay briefly after his father exiles him from London, he knows he can count on his friend Bertie. Of course the former soldier and London dandy falls for the last woman he expects in “The Summer of Wine and Scandal.”

Kate Noble’s “A Madness in Spring” also features a veteran. Adam Sturridge was in the Foot Guards. But all his military training has left him unprepared for the feelings he develops for his childhood friend Belinda Leonard. Vanessa Kelly’s hero Fergus Haddon may not be an ex-soldier but he is a sexy Highlander. He’s also just the man Georgie Gage needs. Now that she’s recovered from her illness, she’s tired of being coddled. Fergus doesn’t try to coddle Georgie, and the little matchmaker finally makes her own match in “The Season for Loving.”

This was such a fun anthology to write, and we loved crafting stories with four different heroes in four different seasons. Winter, summer, spring, or fall, we have a hero for them all!

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8 comments:

  1. Thanks for hosting us today, Lady Celeste! :)

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  2. Thanks for hosting us, Lady Celeste - wonderful post, Shana. My dad was a WWII naval aviator. Thanks to your dad and your granddad for their service!

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  3. Hello my favorite authors!
    Veteran's Day holds a special place in my life. My parents were Holocaust Survivors. They both lost many dear relatives to Hitler's Concentration Camps. My father always said that if the United States had not entered
    WW II the outcome of the war would have been very different. So while I congratulate you all on the publication of this lovely new book; let me also pause to thank Veterans for putting your lives on the line to help save the lives of so many others.

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    1. Flora, I never knew that about your parents. Thank goodness they survived. We're fortunate the war ended the way it did.

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    2. Thank you Shana. As I told Vanessa, I do not often share this part of our family history. Veteran's Day felt like the right time to do so.

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  4. Oh, Flora, your parents must have been so brave. Our thoughts, prayers, and love is with you today. And thank God for all the heroic and courageous men and women who liberated the world and preserved our freedom. *hugs*

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  5. Congrats on the release of A Gentleman for All Seasons. I'm reading it now and thoroughly enjoying it!

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