In just a few short days, provided the airborne ash cloud from Chile complies, I’ll be winging my way to Dallas and then on to New York. But before I go I wanted to do one last post.
If you subscribe to my newsletter you’ll know I published my first M/M regency romance last week. Almost an Equal is the first in a loosely related series based on the characters of a fictional London gentleman’s club, The Hunt Club.
In the 1800’s sexual relationships were against the law and punishable by hanging. The last men hanged for the offence were John Smith and James Pratt in 1835, but the punishment wasn’t abolished until 1861. Thank heavens for that. If you’re interested in how history viewed homosexual relationships head over to Homosexuality in the 18th Century. There are links to trials and newspaper reports between 1684 and 1824. I found reading through them quite chilling. There seems to be a lot of gaps in the transcripts where details have been deliberately omitted from the records perhaps to avoid offending the delicate sensibilities of the time, but conversely, there are so many slang terms for gay men in the 1811 Dictonary of the Vulgar Tongue that leaving them out seems absurb.
Here’s peek at Almost an Equal.
When Nathan Shern, Duke of Byworth’s, empty sham of a marriage is threatened by a fellow duke he is naturally aggrieved. He cannot allow the potentially damaging contents of his wife’s diary to reveal the depths of their estrangement because exposure of his secret dalliances with other men would taint his innocent children’s lives. Not to mention end his life. So, without revealing his mission to his steward, Henry Stackpool, a man he trusts for everything else, Nathan undertakes to steal the diary back alone.
Former pickpocket and molly house whore, Henry Stackpool, works hard to keep his position as right hand to a moral man, the Duke of Byworth, but he fears his kind hearted employer is ill-equipped for a confrontation with his unstable opponent. Yet Henry cannot reveal his knowledge of the threat without exposing the secrets of his past or his keen interest in Byworth’s safety. So when fate places Henry in harms way, he risks his hard won reputation to retrieve the diary. Yet he too is held captive, and when Byworth comes to his rescue his lies are revealed.
Can Byworth forgive him for his deception and will Henry keep the country life he’s grown to love?
So far the story has been well recieved and if you enjoy it too I’d love to see some reviews pop up around the web.
Next month, just for newsletter subscribers, I’m posting a chapter-a-month of a work in progress, Love Me True. If you’re not a subscriber yet and want to read from chapter one click on the newsletter signup link and leave your details. The mailchimp process is simple and easy.
So that’s it from me for a few weeks. Internet access while I’m away might be scattered so I’ll be concentrating on the excellent information presented at the Romance Writers of America Conference, catching up with my wonderful critique partners and hoping to make many more friends!
Back on the 12th.
Heather
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