By Liz Everly
Exciting book-things are happening for me. I mentioned that my historical romance novel TEMPTING WILL McGLASHEN is getting published by Tirgearr Publishing. Well, I actually have a pub date: October 14! YES! It’s happening very quickly—and I am so down with that. Most of the traditional publishing world is a slow and steady crawl—and there are some good reasons for that. But what a nice relief to be clipped along at a nice brisk pace for a change.
The publisher and I have been working on finding cover images—because well, it’s just not easy to find good early American “romance” stock photos— at least not in the time period and the social economic status of my characters, who are farmers, blacksmiths, and innkeepers. No satin or silk for them. I’ve come to realize that probably the cover will not be completely historically accurate, but the publisher is definitely trying, and I guess I feel like as long as the reader gets the feel for the time period and the heat level and so on from the cover, I’m okay with it not being completely one-hundred percent historically accurate. (Fingers crossed!)
I may be a bit of an oddball here—but the lives of common people have always fascinated me more that the lives of Dukes and Duchesses. But if they were upper crust, how many lovely cover images would there be to choose from? Hundreds!
But in the mean time, I’ve checked out some covers of romances from the early-American time period. One of my favorite writers, Pamela Clare, wrote three at least three books in that time frame. Maybe more—but this is my favorite.
Another book in the exact same time period as mine is not quite a romance, but more of a novel with romantic elements. I loved it.
Here are a few books that I’ve now got on my TBR list.
Don’t they look interesting? There’s a great reading list on Goodreads of Early American romances, if you are interested. And I hope you are. For me, the founding of America is rich territory for all writers, but most especially romance writers. The men and women who forged the U.S were nothing if not a passionate lot.
And if you’re looking for passion, follow us here at Lady Smut. We’re a passionate lot, too. Wink.
