Stolen for a Song?

It’s the beginning of the month, which means it is time for the next installment in the Ladies of Almack’s series, Lyrics and Larceny.

In Lyrics and Larceny, we meet Lady Patroness and shadow-shaper Annabel Fellbridge’s cousin Hartley, who has been shaken from his self-absorbed ways by Demetria Pouli, a bewitching Greek soprano who is taking London by storm. When a rash of jewel thefts seems to accompany her recitals, Annabel fears Demetria may not be what she seems. As it happens, she isn’t—but a happily-ever-after for Hartley and Demetria isn’t necessarily out of the question, thanks to the Ladies of Almack’s…

I’ve made use of my fondness for classical mythology in this story, as you will see…and have dropped a few hints that another figure from classical mythology—a little boy equipped with bow and arrows—might be making an appearance soon. I hope you’ll enjoy this latest story in the series: it’s light-hearted fun for not-so-light-hearted times.

Lyrics and Larceny can be purchased directly from the publisher, Book View Café, in both EPUB and MOBI formats as well as from all the usual online bookstore outlets. Print versions can be found at Barnes and Noble and Amazon. (affiliate links may be used)

Book View Cafe

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Kobo

Smashwords

Apple

In addition, the next three books in the series are available for pre-order at all vendors, so if you're enjoying them, you can grab ’em now. Happy reading!

 

Sort of, but not quite Retro Blast: Skin Deep

Today is re-release day for Skin Deep! A slightly revised version of the story first published in 2016 is now out through Book View Cafe; while it’s the same story, it’s been polished (ask any author: once you release a book, you immediately see all the sentences you wish you’d worded differently or the commas you should or should not have used) and repackaged a little. But it’s still the same award-winning, starred-review story...and one I’m still very proud of. You can buy it direct from Book View Cafe in both MOBI and EPUB formats, as well as at all the usual on-line bookstores.

 

And just to remind you what selkies are...

 

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For those who aren’t familiar with them, selkies are a type of shape-shifter, a magical creature that can take the form either of a seal or a human.  They’re a Celtic creature, from the islands and west coast of Scotland as well as the east coast of Ireland. But unusually for shape-shifters, they don’t just change from one form to another: in order to assume his (or her) human form, a selkie takes off his or her skin and puts it on again when it’s time to return to the sea. In human form they’re said to be very beautiful, dark-haired with shining eyes—so beautiful that humans who see them often fall madly in love with them. But they also often have rough skin on their hands as well as webbed fingers.

The most common stories about selkies usually involve a human happening upon them at one of their dances, for selkies were said to gather on beaches at the full moon to take off their skins and dance together in the moonlight. Smitten by their beauty, the human (usually a fisherman out late at night to check his nets) would sneak over to where the selkies had left their skins and steal the one belonging to the fairest selkie maid, forcing her to remain in her human shape. Though she would beg for him to return her skin he always refused, and would somehow convince her to marry him (maybe she figured that if she stayed close to him she would be able to find her skin again.) They would marry and raise a family together...but years later the selkie would find the place where her husband had hidden her skin  (often led there by one of her own children, who has no idea what the soft furry cloak he or she has found is) and snatch it away to return to the sea...though in some of the stories she would return to visit her children.

It’s a beguiling image, isn’t it—the beautiful selkies, laughing and smiling as they dance on the beach with the sea glittering beyond them in the moonlight, the smitten fisherman watching them from behind a boulder, perhaps? I’m not sure if that’s the image that drew me, or the fact that seals are pretty neat creatures to begin with...but the selkie legend has always held a strong fascination for me, so it was inevitable I’d write about them one day.  But in Skin Deep, I’ve turned the selkie legend more than a little upside down...and given it a happily ever after ending.  

Charles Bewitched is here!



It's here!

For all those readers of Bewitching Season who've asked me when Charles "Chuckles" Leland would get his own story, I am delighted to announce that Charles Bewitched is here!

First, the blurb:

They'll never believe him back at school when he tells them how he spent his summer vacation...

In this novella follow-up to Bewitching Season and Betraying Season, 16-year-old Charles Leland is not looking forward to his summer holidays from Eton--not when he has to spend them cramming history to make up for a less-than-stellar grade last term. Even the thought of staying with his sister Persy and her husband Lochinvar while his parents are in Ireland can't cheer him up.

But studying quickly takes a back seat to finding out what has happened to Persy, who disappears from home the day he arrives. All signs indicate that she's been kidnapped by gypsies. But a gypsy boy named Nando convinces Charles that her disappearance has a much more otherworldly explanation.

Now Charles must brave the perils and sheer strangeness of the fairy lands to save Persy from being forcibly married to a powerful fairy lord. With the help of the fairy lord's own younger (and alarmingly pretty) sister, a copy of History and Policy of the Norman and Angevin Kings that he's supposed to read before September, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria, he might just do it...but will he also be able to save himself?

This novella was fun to write...I mean, Charles! It was also a fun way to wrap up, at least for now, the Leland Sisters series. I'm not saying I'll never come back to it...but for now, my writing for young adults is moving in other directions (and centuries!)

Also interesting was the process of publishing this story--finding professional editors and cover designers, learning how to format files and eventually upload them--it's been an education! I'm particularly pleased with the cover designed by YA author and designer Lisa Amowitz; she was able to take the image of a modern young man (who is totally Charles as far as I'm concerned) and turn him into a lad from 1842, thanks to a clothing image graciously lent to me by Christina, proprietor of Elegant Ascots (www.elegantascots.com), whose shop I serendipitously found on Etsy!

So...where can you find Charles Bewitched? As a novella, it is only available in e-book form...but that means you can purchase it from the Amazon Kindle Store, Barnes and Noble's Nook Store, and Kobo, with the Apple iBookstore coming soon.  Any other places that you like to buy ebooks from? Let me know and I'll see if I can place it there.

I sincerely hope you'll have as much fun reading it as I did writing it! And now...I'm off to Atlanta!

Courtship and Curses is here!!

Today my third young adult history fantasy hits the shelves!

Courtship and Curses is a stand-alone book that shares the same world as Bewitching Season and Betraying Season…and in fact is sort of a prequel, as we meet Lady Parthenope Hardcastle—whom my readers already know as the mother of Persy and Pen Leland—as a young woman making her own debut in society.

But the main story belongs to Lady Sophie Rosier, only daughter of the Marquis of Lansell…and a witch who has lost her mother (and teacher in all things magical), her ability to walk without a cane…and her magic. Or has she? When a series of murderous magical “accidents” begin to befall important members of the War Office—including Sophie’s father—just as Napoleon returns from Elba and is preparing to re-ignite war against England, Sophie needs all the help she can get to navigate her first London Season, stop the assassin, and figure out just what she feels for Parthenope’s cousin, Peregrine Woodbridge…and what he feels about her.

Kirkus Reviews called Courtship and Curses a major homage to Jane Austen…but really, it’s an homage to Georgette Heyer, who singlehandedly established the Regency romance genre and continues to delight readers ninety years after the appearance of her first novel. If the divine Miss Heyer had written a YA fantasy, I hope it might have resembled Courtship and Curses…and I hope that you’ll pick it up when you’re next looking for a fun read.

What reviewers are saying:

“[A] cheery Regency fantasy….Doyle’s gift, on display in earlier historical fantasies (Bewitching Season, 2008, etc.), lies in creating vivid female characters and the bonds between them.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Doyle has a talent for writing historical fiction…”—VOYA

Where you can learn more (and read the first chapter!)

Where you can buy it:

Barnes and Noble: hardcover and Nook

Your local independent bookseller

Amazon: hardcover and Kindle

Powell’s

Books-a-Million

Indigo

The Book Depository

And of course, since this is launch week, I’ll also be giving away a copy to a randomly drawn commenter on today’s or Friday’s post…so stop back in on Friday, too, when I’ll be talking about writing historical fantasy.

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Last week, during our 500th Post discussion, we offered either a copy of Courtship and Curses or The Captain’s Courtship to a randomly-drawn commenter…and that commenter is Faith E. Hough! Faith, please drop me a line here to let me know which book you’d like and to arrange mailing.

How I Spent My Weekend, plus a little Shameless Self-Promotion and a Giveaway or Two

I’m delighted to announce that Betraying Season is being released today in paperback from Square Fish/Macmillan!

For an excerpt and other notes about the story, please visit my website.

For on-line ordering info, you can check out your local independent bookseller or Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's, or the Book Depository (which has free international shipping!)

And to win a free copy, just post a comment today or on Regina’s post Friday. I’ll be picking two winners this week!

Now, as for my weekend...

I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the country that's seen a fair bit of history, and once a year, not too far from me, some of that history comes to life. Every fall for the last forty years at the Wayside Inn, the Annual Colonial Faire and Muster of Fifes and Drums has delighted visitors with a mock battle between reenactor minutemen and Redcoats (need I say whom always wins?), craft demonstrations of 18th century life, and best of all, a full day of fife and drum music provided by the fifteen or so fife and drum corps invited from all over New England. I can't, alas, play you the music, but I can give you an idea of some of the wonderful costumes worn by the reenactors. Makes you understand why Lydia and Kitty are constantly swooning over Wickham and his friends in Pride and Prejudice, doesn't it?

These folks of the Middlesex County Volunteers wore wigs and all--very sharp!
Have to have Minutemen, of course (the Stow, MA Minutemen, to be precise):
And Redcoats to skirmish with the Minutemen:
And let's not forget the Navy, both the officers...
And the sailors. Some of these guys went barefoot, which takes reenacting to a whole different level of dedication:
Don't you love...

...a man in a uniform?
Enjoy!

It's Here!

I’m taking time out from our usual topics today to celebrate…Betraying Season officially hits shelves today!!!

Here’s the jacket flap description:

Penelope (Pen) Leland has come to Ireland to study magic and prove to herself that she is as good a witch as her twin sister, Persy. But when the dashing Niall Keating begins to pay her court, she can’t help being distracted from her studies. What Pen doesn’t know is that Niall is acting upon orders from his sorceress mother, who wants to use Pen’s powers for her own ends.

Although it starts as a sham, Niall actually falls deeply in love with Pen. But even if he halts his mother’s evil plan, will Pen be able to forgive him for trying to seduce her into a plot against Pen’s friend, the newly crowned Queen Victoria? And what of Pen’s magic, which seems to be increasingly powerful?

It was a delight to research this book…I only wish I could have included an actual visit to Ireland as part of my research. Maybe some day… It was also interesting to create the magical system that appears in it, from which I borrowed heavily from Celtic mythology and folklore.

If you enjoyed Bewitching Season, I hope you’ll give Betraying Season (dubbed “another page-turner” by Kirkus Reviews) a try…and to make it easier, I’ll be giving away signed copies this week to randomly drawn commenters in both today’s and Friday’s post (Tuesday's winner to be announced Friday, Friday's winner to be announced next Tuesday). And if you live in the New York/New England area, I’ll be signing Betraying Season on October 10 at Baker Books in North Dartmouth, MA, on October 18 at Books of Wonder on W. 18th Street, NYC, and on October 31 at Where the Sidewalk Ends, Chatham, MA—stop by and see me if you’re in the area! I'll announce further signings as they're scheduled.

Don't forget to comment!!