Sweet Lenora was my first dip into historical fiction. I carried the idea around with me for a long time, a vague story line about a young woman who grew up the daughter of a ship builder and then stows away on a ship. A call for submission by my publisher at Champagne Books put the idea front and center. The call was for a novella featuring a ‘dark hero’. A sea captain with a shady past came to mind—and with him the young heiress I’d been thinking of for a time began to take shape.
A novella is short—about a third or quarter the length of a full novel- and this seemed a great opportunity to dip into something new. I wrote Sweet Lenora. These characters had a lot more to tell me, so I wrote another novella, To the Wind, which picks up where Sweet Lenora leaves off. Then I wrote a third novella, All Things Returned. The characters still weren’t done with me, but the publisher didn’t want any more novellas. So I wrote Sweet Auralie, a full length novel that completed the story.
What I loved best about this series was the development of the characters over time. Lenora Brewer goes from being a willful young woman, with lots of spirit but also a big dose of naiveté. Over the course of the series, she grows into a capable and wise woman. Anton Boudreaux begins as a daring and fearless young man with an equally big dose of bravado. He grows into a true leader and a man who can open his heart to his wife and family. The two together grow as a couple, too, from first infatuation to deep and abiding love and devotion.
What I didn’t like about the series, though, was that the books seemed scattered. Because they were written without a roadmap they weren’t marketed together. And, sales wise, they stood as individual entities without a lot of cohesion. Putting them together into a single package solved this problem. Now you can read the journey beginning to end as a single read.
To celebrate the Sweet Lenora bundle, I’m giving away three copies of the new e-book. Click the button below and enter for a chance to win!