Regency Romantics Summer Box Set Midsummer Marriages.

Delighted that second box set for 2017 is now live on Amazon. This time four new titles and this is the plan from now on. We are all going to write new books for the box sets if possible - Wendy Soliman, Elizabeth Bailey, Monica Fairview and myself certainly will. Amanda Grange and Melinda Hammond will write one new book a year as they have other commitments.

Elizabeth is now hosting the box sets - we have taken it in turns. I started this venture three years ago and hopefully Elizabeth will host for a couple for years before it's my turn again. 

Here are the blurbs:

Regency Romantics Summer Box Set

Five Bestselling Authors with five glittering Regencies
Including Four completely new stories!

DAMSEL TO THE RESCUE by Elizabeth Bailey
A fugitive stranger and a frantic forest escape.
Four years on the marriage mart have left Delia Burloyne resigned to life as a maiden aunt. Then fate takes a hand. Waylaid on the road to Weymouth, her life is turned inside out by dashing Giffard Gaunt. He’s on the run and desperate.
Plunged into a dangerous dash for freedom with a wounded man on her hands, Delia must dig deep for courage. Can she help Giff win back his estates and still keep her heart intact?

LUCASTA by Melinda Hammond
Lucasta Symonds did not enjoy her one, short London Season and she is happy to remain at home while her beautiful younger sister Camilla sets out to make an advantageous marriage. Viscount Kennington takes one look at the beautiful Camilla and is immediately smitten. He follows her to London, determined to make her his wife. However, when events take a turn for the worse and he is accused of a cold-blooded murder, it is not Camilla who comes to his rescue but the less beautiful, much more practical Lucasta.

THE RECLUSIVE DUKE by Fenella Miller
When Lydia Sinclair is left to care for the orphaned children of her sister she discovers they are distant relatives of The Duke of Hemingford. With the last few coins she possesses she buys seats on a common stage for all five of them, determined to persuade the duke to assume responsibility for his cousins. 
Tee duke has no wish to have these unwanted relatives foisted on him, since his accident he shuns society. However, Digby, his man of business, has other ideas and installs Lydia and the children in The Dower House.
Will the duke evict them when he discovers this deception or can Lydia get him to change his mind?

LADY MYSTERIOUS by Wendy Soliman
Kyra Latimer reluctantly returns to Latimer Lodge to help her grandmother organise a house party in the hope of attracting a rich husband for her beautiful younger sister. Lord Nathan Stanford, the guest of honour, is easily able to resist Melanie Latimer’s charms but is intrigued by Kyra’s secretive activities. Why did she leave her family home and why, at such a young age, has she withdrawn from the marriage mart?
Nate makes it his business to find out more about the mysterious lady who single-handedly holds her fragmented family together. Shocked to the core by what he discovers, Nate sets out to protect her from the gambling curse that has destroyed her family and the evil man who wants to possess her. But at what cost to himself? Will he be able to help her find out why her brother’s wife disappeared without trace? And will Nate find a way to convince Kyra that spinsterhood doesn’t suit her…

THE UNEXPECTED DUKE by Monica Fairview
A carriage accident, an inheritance, and broken promises.
Isabella Chalmers has no intention of becoming a model wife, especially when a marriage of convenience means having to deal with a crumbling mansion and a disagreeable duke…

$2.99 £1.99      CLICK HERE

The Tyranny of Writing.

April 2017

February 2017

These are the books I've written and published so far this year. Well, that isn't quite accurate – The Reclusive Duke is going into the next Regency Romantics box set which will be out this month. Search for a Duke was the last of my Robert Hale books that just needed re-editing so I didn't actually write that one this year.
An Unconventional Bride, the third in The Duke's Alliance series was written last year but published in 2017. The fourth book in this series, An Accommodating Husband, will be out in August. This was written this year. A Most Unexpected Christmas was in the Christmas Regency Romantics box last year. I have written this year's book – A Most Delightful Christmas, and this will be coming back from my editor on Wednesday.

August 2017

Currently I am writing the second in a YA paranormal romance, (the first is with a teenage beta reader and has never been published) and also about to start the second in the Ellen's War series. I've also got on my to-do list writing the fourth and final book in The Nightingale Chronicles, All's Well That Ends Well. I will also need a Regency for the spring box set ready by March next year.
As well as writing these books I also have two rounds of edits and two proof reads for each one, as well as having to organise covers, blurbs et cetera. On top of that there is the never-ending round of social media, marketing and promotion to fit in somewhere.

September 2017

Because sales and pageviews are no longer strong I've also started to take my World War II and Victorian books out of Kindle Select. D2D handle some of the platforms but I'm putting them on Nook and Kobo myself. So far I've got three books transferred and by the middle of August all eleven will be available on all platforms. It remains to be seen if this works – but I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by spreading myself wider.
I think you get the picture – the more you write the more you have to do. If I only wrote one book a year my life would be so much simpler.
For the past three years I've been obsessed with my writing – not content unless I had written a minimum of fifteen hundred words a day every day of the year. Now that I'm less successful sales wise it's given me a moment to step away and reconsider.

January 2017

July 2017

As most of you know I am my husband's carer, he has vascular dementia as well as the usual problems associated with being eighty-five. I cannot leave him on his own but have a wonderful carer who comes in when I go out once a week. I also have to get up most nights so I'm not getting the sleep I require to function at 100%. In the past six weeks his condition has deteriorated and he needs me more than he did before. I don't know how much longer I will have him with me so he is now my priority.
Therefore, I'm no longer writing as much or feel unhappy if I've not written a certain amount by the end of the day. I don't check my sales, indeed I'm no longer disappointed that I'm not in the top one hundred writers any more.
I love writing and will never stop; as long as my brain allows me to work I will be publishing books every year until I die. However, I'm not driven as I was and I'm happier for it. Writing is an all-consuming passion if you let it be. A very good friend of mine told me she intends to write nine books a year – I'm going to be satisfied with whatever I can produce. In future I'll not agonise over my writing or consider myself a failure if I don't stick to a punishing schedule.
I am a writer and always will be, but in future I'm going to be kinder to myself, not set impossible goals and not feel guilty when I fail to reach targets.
I've written over fifty books in thirteen years – that's something to be proud of and something not many writers will achieve in their lifetimes.
I'm going to have a second hot chocolate and make my husband a coffee then watch rubbish TV and read a book. If I don't write anything at all today it no longer matters. To quote a family saying, "life's too short to stuff a mangetout."
Fenella J Miller