I love celebrating new releases - particularly from my historically romantic friends.
Today my guest is Samanthya Wyatt. Samanthya lives with her husband in the Shenandoah Valley. She left her accounting career and married a military man traveling and raising her children in the United States and abroad. She loves a good book, a good joke, and her playful, witty husband. She enjoys long walks on the beach, and adores her grandchildren.
She is with me to today to talk about her writing journey and THE TRUE ONE, the second in her One and Only Series (the RIGHT ONE being the first book). The books are set in the 1820s... what we in historical romance might call "later Regency". (I love the excerpt she is sharing with us...but then I am sucker for a wounded hero!)
Thank you Alison, for having me here today. I appreciate your helping me celebrate the release of book 2 in the ‘One and Only Series’.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved curling up with a book. When I was young I wrote poems and short stories. When I graduated, my life changed. I married a military man, traveled across the US and abroad, settled in the Shenandoah Valley and had a family. Then I found romance novels. I fell in love with the characters and needed to know their happy ending.
When I couldn’t afford to buy them, I wrote my own stories. I’ve taken every workshop I could to improve my writing. I’ve entered many contests. I joined RWA and joined several chapters. Savvy Authors offered a pitch contest with several editors, agents and publishers. Coming up with a pitch—25 words or less—is extremely difficult when you’re in a group with thousands of other authors. But I got the attention of 3 editors and two different publishing companies. My dream paid off. I signed my first contract with Soul Mate Publishing.
My characters are fictitious. I have taken real life experiences to achieve the emotion on paper for my characters. I do a lot of research for the time period, studying the lingo / slang and culture. With appropriate details, hopefully I put the reader in the setting.
I find that I get a lot more accomplished if I just sit at the computer and write. As long as I write something, I just keep going. Later I can delete or gather tidbits together. And I have deleted whole chapters. But if I want my story to go somewhere and be a good manuscript, there has to be goal, motivation and conflict (GMC). I learned this from many workshops. I learned how to do character sketches, GMC charts, plots—everything one needs to bring a story together.
My first submission to an editor resulted in a rejection. Being a beginner, I was not surprised. And I didn’t let it get me down. The thing that impressed me the most was a comment—what happened to the brother? She told me the story had holes. All questions needed to be answered.
So I worked on my story, but decided Kat’s brother was a story all by itself.
So the sequel, book 2, is about Kat’s brother. Why he was gone for two years, what happened to him, and a love story all his own.
Is there a book 3? Of course. The third book in the series is about Giles. He was introduced in the first book as Morgan’s best friend—the duke. In the second book, he is asked to rescue Stephen.
My characters in all of my books are fictitious. However, I have taken real life experiences to achieve the emotion for their situations.
Find out what happened to Kat’s brother in the thrilling sequel of the One and Only series
ABOUT THE TRUE ONE
Captain Stephen Radbourn accepts an intriguing proposition which results in horror. His ship in splinters and his men captured, he is a broken man. A band of rebels rescue their leader from a dungeon, taking the near dead captain with them. Fearing capture and thinking the tortured man will die, they leave Stephen in the care of a woman, who he believes is an angel of mercy. A man of passion, with a trail of satisfied maidens to prove it, he finds his heart captured by the lovely widow. But she forces him to choose—her or revenge.
Jennifer Faircloth departed England full of a young girl’s fantasies of romance and adventure. Her young husband dies leaving her a widow to survive alone in a foreign land. When a near death English captain is dropped at her door, memories emerge of the family she foolishly left behind. While caring for him, her curious imagination turns to an overwhelming awareness she cannot deny. He must flee for his life and he takes her with him—back to England—back to the family she’d deserted. She wants her family to forgive her, but she wants Stephen’s love even more.
READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE TRUE ONE
He was dead.
He had to be. For serenity enclosed him. Fresh air cloaked
him. A cloud of softness wrapped him. Comfort would mean he’d gone to heaven,
when he had been destined for hell. Slowly,
Stephen became aware of soreness, then stinging, then blinding pain. Sure signs
of hell.
The lilting voice of an angel drew him to an unbelievable
place of calm. The honeyed sound soothed his mind to a state of ease.
Alleviating his anxiety. Diminishing his pain. The most enchanting dream he’d
ever held.
He opened his eyes
with excruciating sluggishness. The first glimpse of light splintered his skull
with a sharp stabbing. He slammed his eyes closed with a long groan. He’d been
denied sunlight for so long, he thought never to see the light of day again.
His insides still stuck to his backbone. He breathed as
deeply as his broken ribs allowed, then grounded his teeth over the agonizing
ache. Slashing pain shot through his jaw stirring more memories. Oh yes. That had
been broken too.
A bed? He took a moment to grasp his surroundings.
Unfamiliar hands. Gentle hands. He thought he’d felt movement at one time,
dreamed he was in a wagon.
Flashes of torture
penetrated his skull—men with curved knives and jeweled handles, shackles, a
pit for a prison cell. He struggled with the bonds squeezing him when the
sweetest sound of an angel pulled him from the dark fog. Reassuring hands
swabbed a wet cloth over his feverish skin and coaxed him to swallow. Blessed
relief to his parched lips. Now he lolled in a bed.
With a sense of unease he pondered his situation, wondering
what state of play brought him to this consequence. He inhaled, taking in
pleasant air. No stench. No slimy creatures. Where was he? At this point he
didn’t care. As long as he no longer suffered the Raj’s torture.
Slowly, and more cautious this time, he lifted one lid to a
narrow slit. The swelling around his eye had gone down considerably. He glanced
down to find a hand-sewn quilt, like the ones his mother made. Definitely a
bed. Which also resembled his English heritage. Had he somehow been transported
back to England?
He rolled his head against the pillow’s softness. His mind
wandered restlessly through a mirage of shadows. His ribs were on fire. He
searched the room. A window stood open and the thin covering wavered as if the
wind blew gently to make it dance. A crude piece of furniture beyond the bed
with items scattered about. To the right a door. He wondered who was on the
other side. Friend or adversary? He closed his eyes for a moment, seeking
relief. Ignoring the pain in his skull, he turned his head to the right and saw
the delicate creature in his dream. An angel of mercy, with dark hair falling
about her shoulders. Long sweeping lashes brushed velvety cheeks. Instant
awareness surged through his body. At least the devils hadn’t killed that part
of him.
On the heels of that thought, he wondered if she were a maid
or the wife of some possessive husband. If she were his wife—perish the
thought—he would never leave her alone in any room with a strange man,
incapacitated or no. Especially not in close proximity of a bed.
And he was naked. Bare as a new baby’s bottom.
Connect with Samanthya on her website here: www.samanthyawyatt.com
THE TRUE one is available from Amazon and all reputable ebook stores.
