Mary Jo Putney

Mary Jo Putney

Patricia Rice

Patricia Rice

Susan Fraser King

Susan Fraser King

Anne Gracie

Anne Gracie

Nicola Cornick

Nicola Cornick

Andrea Penrose

Andrea Penrose

Christina Courtenay

Christina Courtenay

Mary Jo Putney

Remembering Mitteleuropa

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I’m still locked in mortal combat with the current book, so I’m offering another classic travel blog: a riverboat cruise on the Danube.  Rivers were the interstates of the past, and so much of European civilization developed along the waterways.  How better to explore than in a boat holding maybe 150 friendly, intelligent passengers and serving lots of really good food?

Like a plot element, the idea of a riverboat cruise simmered in my lizard brain for years, and in 2006, I thought it was time to do a cruise in Southern France.  Except that all the French cruises were booked for the time slot we had, and we ended up cruising the Douro River in Northern Portugal. It was great.

This year, I decided it was time to book that French cruise.  Urp. Once again, Southern France along the Rhone was sold out.  Which is how we ended up cruising Danube Riverthe Danube.  Again, it was great—the Mayhem Consultant and I are easily amused, and any interesting new place will be fun.  (Update 2023: we’d booked a French riverboat cruise for autumn 2022, but for a variety of reasons we cancelled it. I think I’m doomed never to travel the French rivers!)

Prague

Our Danube cruise started with a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague, which isn’t on the Danube, but really, how could we go to Eastern Europe and not see Prague?  The city has been an intellectual and creative center for centuries, and under the blighting hand of five decades of Soviet rule, it was spared rapacious developers tearing down beautiful old buildings.

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A Christmas Tart!

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ChristmasTar_The Christmas Tart Stands Alone! 

By Mary Jo

I have a weakness for writing Christmas novellas, but many people never read the original anthologies.  This is why I love publishing older novellas independently because good stories deserve a second chance at life.

Because I love writing novellas, in an excess of enthusiasm in the early '90s, I agreed to do two novellas the same year. Ooops!

For the Signet Victorian Christmas anthology, I wrote my Beauty and the Beast story, The Black Beast of Belleterre, which had to be written really fast!

Then I had to write another story really fast for the Signet Regency Christmas anthology.  Hence The Christmas Tart.  I have no idea where the story idea came from, other than the fact that I wanted a light, suspension-of-disbelief-type story.

 

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One Wicked Winter Night

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OneWickedWinterNightby Mary Jo

I really enjoy writing novellas because the whole process of "Inspiration! Disillusion! Panic! Frantic finishing! then, Success!" is compressed into a much shorter time span.  It's also possible to explore story ideas that aren't complex enough for a full length novel, but will still be fun.  So I was happy when Kensington invited me to be in a Christmas anthology with two other Kensington historical authors, Madeline Hunter and Sabrina Jeffries.

Seduction on a Snowy Night was published in 2019 in a trade paper edition, and the next year in a mass market size.  Now Kensington has come up with the very fun idea of publishing each of the novellas separately as a freestanding Christmas novella. Hence my story. One Wicked Winter Night, has just been released with a lovely new cover. 

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Dragons and more!

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Because…Dragons!

Mary Jo

DragonAudioI'm been under the deadline hammer for far too long, and even missed the fact that the audiobook edition of my novella, The Dragon and the Dark Knight, had gone live in July!  (The time it takes for audio platforms to approve projects various greatly.) The narrator is the ever wonderful Siobhan Waring.

Since time is in short supply, I decided to rerun the blog I did in 2020 when the e-book version was released. The Dragon and the Dark Knight!  

I've written a number of novellas and shorter works because they're an enjoyable change of pace and give me the chance to go to new and different places. They can also be quirkier or more humorous than full length novels.  In short–fun! 

 

 

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What We’re Reading

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Our Word Wench WWR posts are always popular, and our July reads start with Nicola Cornick:

Shrines of GaietyNicola here. My favourite read this month was Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson, which is set in London in the 1920s in the glittering and criminal world of the Soho clubs. I picked it up because the story, about the Croker family and their entertainment empire was inspired by that of the infamous nightclub owner Kate Meyrick, several of whose daughters married into the aristocracy, including the Craven family. The book perfectly captures the complicated and glamorous world of 1920s society. The character of Nellie Coker, the matriarch, is compelling, as is the plot in which the police on one side and Nellie’s enemies in the criminal fraternity on the other, are all aiming to bring her down. Her eldest son, Niven, is a great romantic hero. My major grumble was that the romance strand was left hanging, which was very frustrating for those of us who like happy endings! I’ve enjoyed some Kate Atkinson books more than others but this was one of my favourites.

US link here: UK line here.

I also picked up The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware and thoroughly enjoyed that too. Mrs WestawayHarriet Westaway, struggling to make ends meet and even to survive in Brighton after her mother’s death, receives a letter that seems to answer all her prayers. The Cornish grandmother she never knew has left her a fortune. But Harriet’s grandparents died 20 years before… didn’t they? Desperate for the money, she decides to chance it and see if she can get away with the fraud, which brings her into the Westaway family circle and a whole host of secrets waiting to be revealed. This is a gothic thriller with all the trappings – a creepy old house, an equally creepy old family retainer and various weird relatives hiding all sorts of secrets. I found it a page-turner and went on to read another of Ruth Ware’s books, The It Girl, straight after.

US link.  UK link

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