Meet My Main Character - Sebastian Alder from LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR

Thank you to my dear friends, ANITA DAVISON and FRANCINE HOWARTH for inviting me to join in this blog hop. The timing is excellent as my first foray into Regency Romantic Suspense, LORD SOMERTON’S HEIR has just been released.

What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or an historic person?

Meet Captain Sebastian Alder, a career army officer in Wellington’s army. Badly wounded at Waterloo, he is facing a dire future as a soldier on half pay until the day a strange woman, calling herself the dowager Lady Somerton appears at his bedside.

Of course he is totally fictional… but very real to me :-)

When and where is the story set?

You may have guessed from the mention of Waterloo… It is set in England in 1815 (Regency)

What should we know about your character?

Sebastian is, of course, the heir to the Somerton estate, something of which he had no knowledge. He had been brought up in a country parsonage and joined the army at the age of sixteen. That has been his life. 

He has a strong protective trait and takes his responsibilities toward his two younger siblings very seriously. However even they don’t know the dark memories he is masking.

What is the main conflict he must face?

As the new Lord Somerton, Sebastian finds that his inheritance is tainted by debt and the profligate living of his late cousin. Not only must he cope with the practical difficulties of his sudden elevation, he must rise to accepting his onerous responsibilities which include dealing not only with restoring the fortunes of the estate but also his late cousin’s widow, Isabel, who has been left destitute and two rather odd “cuckoos in the nest”. 

Questions arise about the manner of his cousin’s death and it begins to look like he also has a murder to solve.

What is the personal goal of this character?

To keep everyone he loves, and has a responsibility for, safe.

Where is LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR available?

Everywhere good ebooks are sold!

Kindle (where it has been on pre order sale for .90c! Hurry you may still catch it) 

Itunes  (where it has also been on pre-order sale for .99c)

Barnes & Noble

For the other retailers, visit the Escape Publishing site. Click HERE

I have passed this on to three excellent authors who write wonderful historical novels...

Tea Cooper (Australian)
Regan Walker (Regency/nautical)
Beverley Eikli (English Civil War, Georgian, Regency, Colonial Africa)

ABOUT LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR

Can the love of an honourable man save her from the memory of a desolate marriage?

From the battlefield of Waterloo to the drawing rooms of Brantstone Hall, Sebastian Alder’s elevation from penniless army captain to Viscount Somerton is the stuff of dreams. But the cold reality of an inherited estate in wretched condition, and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his cousin’s death, provide Sebastian with no time for dreams, only a mystery to solve and a murderer to bring to justice.

Isabel, widow of the late Lord Somerton, is desperate to bury the memory of her unhappy marriage by founding the charity school she has always dreamed of. But, her dreams are shattered, as she is taunted from the grave, discovering not only has she been left penniless, but she is once more bound to the whims of a Somerton.

But this Somerton is unlike any man she has met. Can the love of an honourable man heal her broken heart or will suspicion tear them apart?

TO CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF LORD SOMERTON'S HEIR, I WILL BE RUNNING A RAFFLECOPTER CONTEST FOR THE MONTH OF MAY.

Prize:  An Alison Stuart "goody bag" worth over $50 - details on my website

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Halloween with Ms Stuart and giveaway

CONGRATULATIONS TO HELEN HOLLICK who is the winner of a copy of SECRETS IN TIME. Thank you to all blog hoppers who came trick or treating at my door!


TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH PRAYER (for All Hallows E’en)

From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-leggedy beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!

In Australia, Halloween does not have the deep seated tradition that it has in the USA or in the UK.   It is really only over the last ten years that I have noticed Halloween displays creeping into supermarkets and the occasional smart alec kids who don’t really get it, knocking on the door.  As 99% of householders would not be entering into the spirit at all, the pickings are slim!

The origins of Halloween are lost in the commercial world of pumpkins and spectres but it was originally the festival of “All Hallows Even” - the night before All Hallows Day.   Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls' Day.

  

The carving of jack-o'-lanterns springs from the souling custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory.  The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips!

Through the magic of the “Interwebs” we are now global citizens and when my friend, English writer Francine Howarth, proposed a Halloween blog hop, I put up my hand to join her.

Francine’s idea is to encourage readers and writers to try reading something outside their comfort zone. 

So as my “treat” I am offering a Kindle copy of ‘SECRETS IN TIME' - dashing cavaliers, time travel and, most importantly, a witch…Is there anything more appropriate for Halloween?

 

Can love overcome time itself?

When Nathaniel Preston stumbles into Dr Jessica Shepherd’s garden, she is reluctant to believe he has crossed more than three hundred years to seek her help. He must help her understand why he has travelled from the midst of civil war to the quiet English countryside of the twentieth century.

But is falling in love with him destined to end in heartbreak? Jessica knows he must return to his own time and face certain death in battle.

Why has Nathaniel been sent to find Jessica? Can their love survive a bloody battle…and overcome time?

SECRETS IN TIME is currently hovering around the best selling lists on Kindle.

Meet my witch, Dame Alice…

Dame Alice stood back to allow me to enter first. Bunches of drying herbs hung from hooks and little round clay pots crammed the shelves between stoppered flagons. My nose twitched. The room smelled of sage and rosemary with the tinge of something sweet, such as honey. We had touched on the history of medicine in my studies and here was an opportunity to study it at first hand. My professional curiosity overcame any reservations I may have had about Dame Alice.

“This is extraordinary,” I said.

She shut the door behind her and indicated a heavy, leather bound volume on the table. “That is my book of receipts. The sum total of my knowledge.” She looked up at me with her grandson’s clear eyes. “It would be wonderful to be born in your time, to have your knowledge.”

“What do you know of my time?” I challenged.

“What I have seen, Doctor Shepherd. Extraordinary machines that do the work of men and horses. Magic lights and water that comes from the walls, but I have also seen unhappiness and poverty. Those things are universal to any age.”

“How do you see?” I looked around the room, wondering if she kept a crystal ball or some sort of bowl with magical divining liquid in it.

TO EARN YOUR TREAT…  Tell me what halloween costume you are wearing/ would like to wear for Trick or Treat this year (even if you are Australian and don't believe in the Halloween stuff...dream a little!)

And don’t forget to hop over to Francine’s blog, ROMANCING THE BLOG, to find other opportunities for a trick or treat.

Ms. S. in Halloween costume...the city had to be scoured to find something suitable!

Visit the other Blog participants...you will be in for a treat!

Hallowe'en Blog Hop

1.	Francine	9.	Denise Covey	17.	Susan Hanniford Crowley
2.	Marie Laval	10.	Grace Elliot	18.	Stephen Tremp
3.	NancyJ	11.	Gilli Allan	19.	Hywela Lyn
4.	N. R. Williams	12.	Alison Stuart	20.	Iyana Jenna
5.	Alison Morton	13.	Mary Pax	21.	Vala Kaye
6.	Karen Aminadra	14.	Natalie-Nicole Bates	22.	Yolanda Renee
7.	Lori Crane	15.	Douglas Boren
8.	Derek Birks	16.	Anna Belfrage