My Bloggiversary with Author Interview and Fantastic GIVEAWAY!!!

Enchanted by Josephine celebrates its 1st year Bloggiversary!!!  

What started out with the idea of writing about what I love most- my passion for history, reading and writing, blossomed into a world that expanded into so much more than that.  (If you’d like to view that very first post, see here:   ) My bookblog has led me to meeting some of the nicest like-minded people I would have otherwise never met.  I’ve shared books, ideas, creations and a passion for history that has done more for my spirit and knowledge than solitary reading enjoyment could ever have fulfilled.  I’m thankful to all my readers and good friends out there- You made this all possible!

Along the way, I’ve also met fantastic historical fiction writers that have completely mesmerized me with their tales of intrigue, passion, sorrow and regality.  And, one very special author in particular, Sandra Gulland, has been instrumental in my starting to blog about history…and my favourite historical figure, Josephine…

For this merry occasion, the incredibly talented, Sandra Gulland, author of the Josephine B. Trilogy and Mistress of the Sun, has kindly agreed to grace my blog with this terrific interview! 

Please welcome, Sandra Gulland!!!

 Previously, I mentioned how Josephine is my muse for inspiration.  Can you tell us who or what inspires you to create the exquisite books you write? Do you have a muse?

Thank you, Lucy! I love books, and always wanted to write one. My muse? Research, I think: I’m always inspired as soon as I begin.

I am always fascinated by the way you bring out the endearing qualities in your heroines that other historical writers often fail to see or underline; especially Josephine, and Louise as well.  How do you choose your heroines-what is it about them that makes you want to write their story?

I became fascinated with Josephine quite by accident. When I began to write, Josephine appeared only as a shadow — and then, by degrees, the work came to be about her.

It seems that a question, a simple curiosity, starts it off. For Josephine, I was curious about the prediction that was made in her youth, that she would become “more than a queen.” Could it be true? (It was.) For Louise, I was curious how a timid young woman could become such an incredible horsewoman...and then mistress to the married Sun King. She was devout: how did she reconcile this with her faith?

I don’t really choose my heroines — rather, I become interested in a person, and then one thing leads to another. At a certain point, I have to ask: Is there a story here? And so far the answer has always been yes. 

We are very curious to learn about your next project.  Can you please tell us a bit about that? Any similarities between the heroine of your next book and those of past?

Claude des Oeillets is very different from both Josephine and Louise. She was raised by her actor-parents on the road, and although she had a daughter by the Sun King, she was never more than a confidential maid to his mistress, Madame de Montespan. Both Josephine and Louise were of the lower nobility. Claude is not noble in the least.

What I love about her (in addition to her spunk) is her involvement in the fascinating world of the theater. It was the period of the French theatrical renaissance. Claude’s mother was a theatrical super-star, yet even so, it was a life of constant poverty, and a way of life considered to be profoundly sinful by the Church. Actors were shunned! No doubt Claude thought her problems were solved when she got a position as maid to a woman of the Court, Madame de Montespan — only to become embroiled in a world of witchcraft and poison.

It’s a big story!

Since today is a festive day here on EBJ- we’d also love to hear about any special anniversaries or festive times foreseen for 2010 that you may be part of or planning.

Every year, just before New Year’s Eve, my husband and I and our two adult children share our resolutions for the year ahead. Last year, my main resolution was to finish the first draft of Claude’s story: and I did! My resolution for the year 2010 will be to finish a second and third draft. When I send that last draft to my agent, I will be feeling quite festive! 

Lastly, can you tell us something memorable about your travels and what your favourite destination is?

Paris is my favorite destination: always. How lovely that my research takes me there so often! My husband and I will be returning in the spring, staying in the neighborhood where Claude des Oeillets lived.

One memorable trip was a private tour through the chateau of Fontainebleau, into the dark and cob-webbed servants’ quarters. Every trip is a revelation.

Thank you for inviting me onto your blog. Congratulations!

Thank You so much, Sandra !

And now...  for this very First Bloggiversary, I have a special GIVEAWAY to give homage to my Muse…someone you’ve no doubt come to learn about and love (not much choice on that if you stick around here awhile;)  the beloved namesake of my blog:  Josephine! This historical muse has inspired me to read, write and illustrate about that enchanting time which is the past. So, quite appropriately, to help celebrate this memorable year,  I will be selecting 3 winners for a fantabulous GIVEAWAY of:

The Many Lives and Secret  Sorrows of Josephine B., by Sandra Gulland 

Tales of Passion Tales of Woe, by Sandra Gulland 

The Last Great Dance on Earth, by Sandra Gulland 

 ALL 3 COURTESY OF Sandra Gulland and Diane Saarinen!!!  Can you think of a better mix than this amazing Author and fantastic Assistant!  These ladies are terrific- Thank you so much for making this possible!

 Open to US and Canada   Winners announced on Jan.3rd, 2010

To Enter:

1 Chance:  Leave a Comment

2 Chances every time you tweet or blog about this (send me the link)

3 Chances: Become a Follower of my blog (If you're already a follower, you get this automatically).

5 Chances: Post about this on your Sidebar

5 EXTRA Bonus Points for every new follower referred by you (mention this in your comments)

Good Luck to All! 

Once again, Thank you for celebrating this wonderful day with meJ  You guys are great and I appreciate all your kind support throughout.

What a great way to close up the year..and with this, I wish you all a Very Happy New Year!

Book Review: These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer

 These Old Shades, by Georgette Heyer,

Hurray for another excellent Heyer novel! Set in the time of Louis XV’s reign in France, the Duke of Avon, a distinguished English noble known for his no-heart aloofness, succumbs to what appears as accomplishing a good deed- though, for everything there is a purpose...

The story originates with the Duke of Avon claiming a street fight with a young hoodlum late one night. After some ruffling, the Duke discovers that the boy is actually running from his brother. The Duke ends up saving the boy from this terrible fate by purchasing’ him for a price- literally. The young man (figuratively speaking) becomes the Duke’s page- his name, Leon.

Leon owes his (?) life to the Duke and is forever thankful to him. He shows his gratitude through honorable service and total loyalty- he absolutely adores the Duke and is totally awestruck by him. The Duke has his reasons for having purchased this ‘page’…there is much similarity between this young man and his notorious rival, the Comte de Saint-Vire. What is the relation exactly? The Duke soon finds out and is ready to accomplish his mission. Leon primed and prepared by the Duke’s sister, will be presented in due time for his ‘debut’…

In all his nobility, the Duke, who is renowned for his grandness and, is an honoured and well received guest among the Royals. Everyone in high circles knows who he is; though his popularity is more due to the fear he brings along with his shrewd and calculating ways. As it would seem there is an alterior motive for the Duke taking such time to care and prepare Leon…will he use the page as a revenge or payback towards St-Vire? And what is so strange about this Page? Hmmm…These Old Shades is intriguing, comical, historical and entertaining, all in one.

You have got to get this book! For anyone who loves Heyer, this book will fulfill more than it promises. The period and characters are wonderfully described- it’s 18th c France and England at its best. There’s even mention of the Duke’s encountering Louis XV, the Queen, Madame De Pompadour, and other favourite historical figures. Set in my very favourite historical period, These Old Shades is destined to top my Heyer list.

Loved it! 

Thanks to Danielle from Sourcebooks for sending me this entertaining book:)

We Wish you....

Many Blessings for A Wonderful Holiday Season!! And hope you've had a very Merry Christmas too!!

 

   Venetian Christmas decoration

Announcing 2nd Winner of Giveaway....

And here's to my Second Winner of Searching for Pemberley:

Susieqtpie!!!!

Congratulations!!!! Please email me your contact info:D

Announcing Giveaway WINNER...

On this picture perfect snowy winter day here in Montreal, I am delighted to announce my tropically sunny Floridian winner of Searching for Pemberley...

The Winner is...

Laura Hartness of The Calico Critic!!!

Congratulaitions Laura!!  Please email me your contact info:D

Author Guest Post + GIVEAWAY!!

Today, I have the great pleasure of receiving Mary Lydon Simonsen

 

author of Searching for Pemberley, here on Enchanted by Josephine!

Thank you, Lucy, for inviting me to post on your blog! Today I’ll talk a little bit about why I chose post-World War II England for the setting of my latest book, Searching for Pemberley, and why I decided to write my novel from an American point of view.

“Write what you know” is a basic rule for many authors. Because I am a baby boomer, I grew up hearing stories from my parents and aunts and uncles about their wartime and postwar experiences. My mother and father had lived in Washington, D.C. throughout the war, and like everyone else in the District of Columbia, they worked for the government. My uncles fought in the Pacific and European theater of operations, and one aunt worked for a government agency in a bombed out Berlin in 1945. I wanted to know everything about their experiences, and when I began to write Searching for Pemberley, I drew on many of their stories for my novel, including that of my main character, Maggie Joyce, who worked for the State Department in Washington during the war.

I have often thought that I was born one generation too late because I love everything about the 1930s (except for the Great Depression) and the 1940s (excluding a war being fought across the breadth of Asia and Europe). The clothes, music, dances, and movies of those decades have great appeal for me. Like my parents, Maggie grew up in Minooka, a dirty coal-mining town in the Pocono Mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania, during the Depression era. In order to escape the ugliness outside her window, she would read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and be transported to a simpler time.

Ever since I first read Austen’s novel decades ago in my high school English class, I have been reading about the Regency Era. It was a time of balls staged in candlelit ballrooms, where women, attired in Empire dresses, performed complicated dance steps with their partners, men who would be dressed in a dark coat, waistcoat, elaborate neckcloth, breeches, and high leather boots, and where “polite” society was truly polite and followed an unwritten set of rules about how a man and woman would interact.

After the war, Maggie goes to work for the Army Exchange Service in London where she learns that the characters of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, the main characters in Pride and Prejudice, may have been based on real people, William Lacey and Elizabeth Garrison. She travels to Montclair Manor in Derbyshire, which may be the storied Pemberley, to find out. While there, she is befriended by Jack and Beth Crowell, who live in a nearby village, and who know if the legend is true. They have their own love story, which is set against the background of the First World War.

In Searching for Pemberley, the epic events of World War I and World War II are contrasted with the elegance of the Regency Era, so I had the three time periods that I was most interested in in one book and where decades of reading and research were put to good use.

The experience of growing up during the Depression and being swept up in the great political and military events of the Second World War shaped the people of my parents’ generation. I admired their perseverance in overcoming the poverty of their youth as well as how they answered the call of their nation to go fight in a war in places so far from home and so different from their own experiences, which is why I chose to write Searching for Pemberley from an American point of view. I wanted to tell their stories. One of those young people affected by these great events is Maggie Joyce, who wanted to get beyond the Pocono Mountains into the wider world, and went to live in England, a country still reeling from the devastation caused by German bombs. While living in London, she meets two men: Rob, an American and former bomber pilot, who saw too much combat, and Michael, a possible descendant of the Lacey/Darcy line. Maggie must choose between the two and, hopefully, will find her own Mr. Darcy.

SEARCHING FOR PEMBERLEY—IN STORES DECEMBER 2009

Set against Regency England, World Wars I and II, and postwar England, three love stories intertwine in surprising and fateful ways

American Maggie Joyce, touring Derbyshire in 1947, visits, Montclair, an 18th century Georgian country house, that she is told was the model for Jane Austen's Pemberley. More amazingly, the former residents of the mansion, William Lacey and Elizabeth Garrison, were the inspiration for the characters of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

Through letters, diary entries, and oral history, Beth and Jack Crowell, a couple who lives in the nearby village of Crofton, share stories of the people they say inspired Jane Austen. They also tell their own love story, made difficult by their vastly different backgrounds—she was one of the social elite while he was the son of a servant. When their son, Michael, travels home from his RAF station in Malta, Maggie may have just found her very own Mr. Darcy.

About the Author

Mary Simonsen grew up in North Jersey with the exciting venues of New York City easily accessible. She is largely self-educated and is especially interested in American and European history and 19th Century novels. In Searching for Pemberley she was able to combine her love of history (World War II and postwar England) with Austen's characters, Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, and being a romantic, the novel includes three love stories from three different time periods, all thanks to Jane Austen. She lives in Peoria, Arizona. For more information, please visit http://searchingforpemberley.weebly.com/

GIVEAWAY TIME!!! 

Sourcebooks is graciously giving away 2 copies of this wondeful book.  Thank you Danielle! 

Open to Canada and US.

RULES:

1 chance:  Leave a comment telling me what you found most interesting in this guestpost.

5 chances: Become a follower (if you're already a follower, you automatically get this)

5 extra chances for:  every time you Tweet or blog about this

10 bonus for putting this on your sidebar

***Make sure you leave me all links in your comment;)

Good Luck to All!!

Winner announced on December 23rd.

 

ABC Historical Fiction Challenge: Letter B

Today is the 15th- the fortnight of my post for the letter B for Historical Tapestry’s ABC Challenge. For this one I’ve chosen to blog about:


The Raucous Royals, by Carlyn Beccia

I loved reading about the gossip and truths in this wonderfully illustrated history book. I read it together with my youngest daughter, Sophia. She also helped write the review for it. You can read that here. 

Beccia kept us entertained throughout by doing a fantastic job at retelling history in a unique and creative way. She also helped set a lot of the facts straight. This was the most enjoyable history –geared-to-children book I’ve ever read. The reason behind this is that The Raucous Royals is an interactive book that motivates the reader to keep on reading just to satisfy the curiosity. The gossip is simply irresistible- the images captivating and the history completely accurate. It’s become a family favourite.

ANNOUNCING A New Historical Fiction Site!!!!

Do you remember back in September when a few blogger friends and I  got together for The Historical Fiction Blogger Round Table Event?  It was an idea that originated from Marie of The Burton Review.  She let the bug out and it soon spread into this  phenomenal creative energy that had us posting giveaways, reviews, creative posts, author guest posts and interviews..and so much more.

Well...Since that wonderful event was such a huge success, all eight of us historically-crazed- ladies decided to get together and make it an official site!

http://historicalfictionroundtable.com/

Charter Members:

Allie at Hist-Fic Chick

Amy at Passages to the Past
Arleigh at Historical-Fiction.com
Heather at The Maiden's Court
Lizzy at Historically Obsessed
Marie at The Burton Review

Susie at All Things Royal

Lucy at Enchanted by Josephine

The Historical Fiction Blogger Round Table site will be the hub place for new historical fiction releases involving author announcements, giveaways and all other release events scheduled on a monthly basis- and linked to our own individual blogs.  I could go on and on- but to get a picture of what I'm talking about, please visit our new site and feel free to leave a comment:)

We love our readers- so please come follow as well!  2010 will be an exciting year for readers of Historical Fiction with fantastic authors ready to delight us with stories of the past screaming to be told.

Be sure to join the fun- See you there!

Book Moments: A Few More Challenges...

My motto is:  Since I'm already reading... I may as well Challenge myself;)

So, I've added the ABC Challenge that is hosted by Historical Tapestry. It's a fun one because you get to post about books that you have both, read in the past, or are presently reading, according to the letter assigned. This works for first letter of titles, character names, author. It's do-able!

The next challenge I've joined begins January 2010 and will end in December 2010:  The Historical Reading Challenge, hosted by the ladies at Royal Reviews.

Of course I love this one because it requires I read what I read best- historical fiction!

 

'There are four levels:

-- Curious – Read 3 Historical Fiction novels.

-- Fascinated – Read 6 Historical Fiction novels.

-- Addicted – Read 12 Historical Fiction novels.

-- Obsessed – Read 20 Historical Fiction novels.'

For now, I'm aiming for the Obsessed level.  I think I can manage 20 HF novels in a year (especially since that's pretty much all I read)...hmmm, let's see!

And another:  The Art History Reading Challenge.

The 4 levels of Participation are:

• Curious - Read at least 3 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
• Fascinated  - Read at least 6 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
• Enamored- Read at least 9 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
• Utterly enchanted - Read at least 12 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.

I'll start with Curious...but bet I'll end up with Fascinated!


What are you joining?

Announcing GIVEAWAY Winner...

Happy Monday Everyone!

The Winner of Jane Austen's cumulative works (red background instead of blue)

Northanger Abbey- Lady Susan- The Watsons- Sandition is...



Laura Fabiani!!!

Congratulations Laura! Please email me your contact info.

Book Review : The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen + GIVEAWAY!!

  The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James


Brilliant! What happens when the lost memoirs of the adored author, Jane Austen, are found in a long-lost and forgotten trunk? Syrie James rewrites the author’s secret memoirs to reveal a poignant tale of dreams, love and the surrendering of hope. Bliss and sadness meshed into a story that could end in no other way…

In The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, her soul mate, Mr. Ashford, is the great, yet impossible love of her life. Taking us through her father’s death and relocation of her family (sister Cassandra and her mother)from one brother’s house to another, Jane retells how through various acquaintances she meets her Mr. Right. The story, resembling many of her own writings, does not take the smooth road to bliss. Mr. Ashford was betrothed to the young Isabella since birth- a commitment he cannot reverse…or can he? The turn of fate that is presented leads Jane and Frederick (Mr. Ashton) back into eachother’s arms..but for how long?

Brilliantly written, James blends historical facts with fiction to bring us a credible memoir that may ultimately lead to wishing it were so…

Like waking from a dream that you wish were reality, the disappointment quickly fades and you’ll be delighted to have been indulged in a purely splendid tale that would have made Jane Austen very proud.

I absolutely LOVED this Austen spin-off and highly recommend it. It’s an easy read that keeps you entertained from beginning to end. ..How I wish it were so!

I'm pleased to say that this completes my six reads for The Everything Austen Challenge! I thoroughly enjoyed reading these books- giving me good reason to finally get them off my TBR list:)

Please note that I am also entering this one for a new Challenge started by the wonderful blog, Historical Tapestry:

The ABC Historical Fiction Challenge for ther Letter A (Austen)


In the spirit of this excellent read and to further the enjoyment of Austen books, I’ve decided to do a GIVEAWAY in honour of this exceptional author…

I’m giving away one gently used copy of:  JANE AUSTEN NORTHANGER ABBEY-Lady Susan-The Watsons-Sandition.

This book contains 4 of the 6 books I read for this challenge.  I hope the lucky winner will enjoy this as much as I have. (Please note that the cover on the one I'm giving away is red- not blue as the one shown in image.)

Open to Canada and US

To Enter:
1 Chance: Leave a comment telling me what you love most about Jane Austen’s books
2 Chances: for every time youTwitter or Blog about this Giveaway(send me the thread)
3 Chances: Post this Giveaway on your sidebar
5 Chances: Become a Follower of my blog (If you’re already a follower, you get this automatically)

Winner announced on December 7th