I’m happy to welcome multi-published author Jeanette Watts. Today, Jeanette shares her creative journey and her new release, Jane Austen Lied to Me.

Here’s Jeanette!

What was your inspiration for this book?

I was driving home from the Jane Austen Festival they used to have at Locust Grove in Louisville, KY. I had spent the weekend doing one of my favorite things, romping through the past. (There’s a reason my YouTube and TikTok channels are called “History is My Playground!”) At that point, I had only written historic fiction.

The thing about a weekend like the Jane Austen Festival, you get to talk to a LOT of people. I had so many conversations with, of course, Jane Austen fans! There are fans who can quote Sense and Sensibility from beginning to end and get in arguments over her juvenilia or The Watsons. There are also fans who are completely in love with the actor Colin Firth from the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but have never even heard of Northanger Abbey.

Talking with such a broad range of fans was so stimulating! Listening to them, though, made me think, and the whole drive home I had questions I wished I’d asked. “Are you really in love with Mr Darcy, or just the actor? Would he still be romantic if he wasn’t rich – or good-looking?” “Why is it icky that there’s an age gap between Mr. Knightley and Emma, but you find Colonel Brandon and Mariann Dashwood okay?” The questions just wouldn’t stop coming. That is, of course, how books get started.

What is the best part of being an author? The worst?

Best: The book festivals! I love talking to readers. There is nothing so satisfying than to see someone hurry across the street, exclaiming, “I’d know your book covers anywhere! What new book do you have out?” And I always wear a costume at book festivals, so I’m a walking billboard for my books. It’s fun playing dressup, and it’s fun having people who want their picture with me, even if they don’t want to buy my book…

Worst: The publishing “biz.” Figuring out how to let people know you have a really good book they should read is daunting. With so, so many new books being published every year, the marketing is a slog that sucks up all your time, so you have no time to write anything new! And it’s never enough. A breakout author with a smash hit isn’t discovered because the writing was so good, it’s because they spent a LOT with a publicist. I’m so grateful for blogs like yours, since I love connecting with readers, but I also needed a new car…

Describe your writing space.

I prefer to write in pretty places. When I write at home, I have a wonderful patio in my backyard overlooking yards and trees and people walking their dogs on the walking path. Which is lovely. But of course, home is full of distractions like laundry and neighbors. My local coffeeshop has a charming porch on one side, shaded by a vine-covered trellis. It’s where I’m writing this right now.

I love to travel, and I do it a lot (sometimes to book festivals). I always try to book a few extra days someplace fun, where I can hole up and write. I’ve rented a cabin for $50 a night in Allegheny National Forest and written between a babbling brook and a tree-covered mountain. I’ve had an Airbnb next to the ocean, borrowed a friend’s cabin in Canada overlooking Lake Erie, and written in some really neat hotel lobbies. One had this giant atrium filled with palm trees, another lobby felt like being in an Irish pub, with all the beautiful stained woodwork.

Which authors have inspired you?

grew up on Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott, adored Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind as a teenager, but most everything else I’ve read has always been biographies. I love David McCullough (and got to meet him before he passed away!) and I’m also a fan of Ron Chernow and Shelby Foote.

What is your favorite quote?

I have two favorites. “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.” Martha Graham.

“I’d rather be lucky than good.” Lefty Gomez

The first is my favorite because I teach social dancing, and I find it tragic people don’t dance in our society because they think it’s about being good at it. That’s not what dancing is all about! Dancing is about spending quality time with other people.

As for the “lucky” quote: it’s just so true. So much of life is about getting lucky, being in the right place at the right time. Margaret Mitchell HAPPENED to have the complete manuscript for Gone with the Wind hidden in bundles around her apartment when a friend mentioned this particular publisher was actively seeking novels by southern writers. Timing is everything. Mine is almost always bad…

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Probably teleportation. I love traveling, but sometimes I’d rather just save the four hours of driving across Illinois and Indiana, and just get to my destination, already! I know what cornfields look like.

Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?

Dancing and costumes! I do historical dancing in all kinds of eras. The Renaissance (and earlier) to the 1960s. My life is a costume party, most often with dancing involved. It’s what most of the aforementioned YouTube channel is about. Making costumes, wearing costumes, dancing in costumes, teaching dances that people will be doing while in costume…

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Know why you’re writing, and whom you are writing for. Grow a thick skin and get others to edit your work. Every mistake you make (and you will make them), you want your editors and beta readers to find BEFORE you go to print. It’s your name on the cover. You are the one embarrassing yourself if you don’t get other eyes on your work.

What are you working on next?

I have far too many books that are out of the starting gate, but not very far along! The two books I have that are set in Pittsburgh need to be a trilogy, then because I live in Illinois I have a trilogy about Abraham Lincoln that I need to write. But then I just started scribbling down some ideas on a different book that are very linked to my life right now because I just filed for divorce, and I just submitted the first page of that in a writing contest. The divorce is going to occupy a lot of my attention right now (talk about distractions!), but I miss writing when I’m not doing it. So here’s hoping I win the contest and have to make finishing that book a priority!

Blurb

What college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzy was certainly no exception. But when Darcy Fitzwilliam comes into her life, he turns out to be every bit as aggravating as Elizabeth Bennett’s Fitzwilliam Darcy. So what’s a modern girl to think, except….
How could my hero be so wrong?

Excerpt

Feb 28

I’ve been thinking about my conversation with Professor Jacobson over and over. The thing about formulas and people. It makes a certain kind of sense, but does it lack a romantic sensibility?

Ha! Sense and Sensibility!

This is the second time that Professor Jacobson has me thinking about S&S. Well, if I’m no Lizzie Bennett, there are worse things in life than being a Marianne Dashwood. She had youth and beauty and high spirits. She wasn’t good at the dating thing, either, and overlooked the better man at first. Why was that? Did Colonel Brandon seem unromantic at first impression?

Even though I’ve got an assignment due in Spanish, as well as the inevitable calc and chem homework, I grabbed Sense and Sensibility to take with me to read while I went to dinner. I wanted to read everything in the book about Colonel Brandon.

Anne spotted me in the dining hall while I was halfway through a tuna sandwich and a really big pile of potato chips. “Hey, Roomie.” She slid her cafeteria tray onto the table across from me and plopped her book bag down beside it. “You having a really bad day?”

“Um, no I don’t think so, why?” I asked.

“Usually, if you’re having a bad day, you pick up Jane Austen and read a little something before you start to study. Since instead of sitting here doing your homework, you’re sitting here reading Jane Austen, I take it you had an exceptionally bad day today.”

Author Bio and Links

Jeanette Watts has written three Jane Austen-inspired novels and two short stories for Jane Austen Fan Fiction anthologies, two other works of historical fiction, stage melodramas, television commercials, and historical dance manuals. She is a regular contributor to MOMCC Magazine.

When she is not writing, she is either dancing, sewing, or making videos for her YouTube channel and TikTok accounts, “History is My Playground.”

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube

Giveaway

Jeanette Watts will be awarding a Jane Austen Coloring Book (US only) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Find out more here.

Follow Jeanette on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

I’m happy to welcome award-winning author Tricia McGill. Today, Tricia shares her new release, A Troubled Heart.

Blurb

Unsure of his real past or name, Finn O’Connor thinks he was born in Ireland and taken from his mother as a baby by a gypsy woman. As a toddler, an English woman then took him to London. About ten he fled to join a gang of boys who survived by their wits on the streets. Five years later, he was arrested for a minor crime and transported to The Colony of New South Wales for a 10-year term. In 1846 as transporting of criminals neared an end in NSW, he was moved to the infamous penitentiary at Port Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land.

On the day Finn received his papers of freedom an accidental meeting brought him into contact with 20-year-old Esther Blythe. Born in Surrey, England, genteel Esther is kind and caring. As a 4-year-old her parents brought her to Van Diemen’s Land where her Papa, a doctor, took on the task of providing medical aid to the prisoners at the Port Arthur penitentiary and its surrounding area. Sadly, both parents were killed in an accident, leaving Esther with no option but to work as a governess/nursemaid.

For reasons that even she did not comprehend, Esther took ex-convict Finn under her wing when they met outside the penitentiary hospital. Could be she saw a fellow lonely soul who simply wanted someone to have faith in him. Life seems to take a turn for perhaps the better from then on, but will these two lonely people overcome many obstacles to find the happiness they seek together as they face an uncertain future.

Excerpt

Through a haze he could hear a voice somewhere above him, and although vaguely aware that someone had called his name all else was lost in pain. The sweat on his face began to sizzle with the heat—or so it seemed. As he opened his eyes a fraction of this sweat ran into their corners and began to sting as if boiling his eyeballs to add to the sawdust already there, or perhaps it was blood.

“Hang on Finn, yer silly bugger, they’ve gone to fetch ‘elp.” The speaker then disappeared and Finn tried to move, but he had to grit his teeth as a searing pain shot through his shoulder and down his arm.

Heaven knew, he’d had his share of agony and discomfort since coming to this godawful place, but this topped it for certain. To take his mind off it he tried to think of better moments in his life, but they were sparce, far back and almost all lost in time.

A sudden movement beside him in the sawpit alerted him that someone had jumped into the pit and was now leaning over him in the narrow space. “Well, here’s a fine mess you’ve got yourself into young fellow,” a kindly voice said. “How in heaven did you manage to do this to yourself? They said you was the top man, so how come you ended up down here amid the sawdust and dirt?” Patting Finn on the unhurt shoulder, he added, “I’m what’s the nearest to what can be called a doctor here today, they call me Johnson.”

Finn squinted up to see that this Johnson was not a lot older than himself, and was likely nearing his thirtieth year. His mop of unruly hair drooped over his forehead as he began to use a knife to hack his way through Finn’s shirt sleeve, and Finn gritted his teeth as the pain seemed to worsen. To add to his injury was the knowledge that he’d done this damage by his own foolishness. If he hadn’t been larking about as usual to show how handy he was with his fists, none of this would have come about. Never one to shirk from a fight, when the big oaf they called Bear started to taunt him, of course he could not back down from the inevitable.

“You’ve lost a small amount of blood from your forehead, but as far as I can see it’s just where you caught the log on your way down.” Turning to rummage about in a small bag he had at his side this Johnson fellow produced a piece of rag and then began to wipe away at the blood. “I fear the problem with your arm could be a lot worse—probably broken.” The searing pain when he moved that arm made Finn flinch and Johnson apologised. “It’s as I expected, we’ll have to get you off to the infirmary.” Patting Finn’s shoulder he said with a small laugh, “This’ll stop you fighting for a while,” then apologised again, adding, “Sorry, my attempt at humour.”

As another shape appeared above him Finn recognised it as his Scottish working mate Spence who then dropped down to stand at his side opposite the man tending him. “We’ll have to haul you up, matey, so grit yer teeth, eh?” Finn’s teeth ached already with the gritting. “How the bloody hell you managed to get yourself in this mess, I can’t work out. It’s not as if you don’t know how to look after yourself. Mucking about never did you any good, and if I told you once I told you a million times, stick to the rules.”

“’Twas that big oaf Bear, if he hadn’t delivered that mighty punch that knocked me sideways and down here, I would have beaten him to next week. Doc here says it’s not that bad—that’s right isn’t it, doc?” Finn grimaced as he tried to push himself up onto his good elbow.

“Well, honestly, I’ve seen many worse. You were unfortunate that you didn’t pick a more suitable spot for your match.”

Someone up above then tossed a rope down, ordering, “Tie it round his shoulders, Spence, and we’ll haul him up.”

Finn had a feeling he might have passed out as he was dragged up out of the pit, only just being squeezed past the huge log that they had been in the process of sawing through when the accident happened. “Guess it could have been worse, matey—if the log had fallen in on top of yer,” one of the haulers said as they lay him down beside the pit.

This cheerful observation accompanied by a chuckle did nothing to ease the guilt Finn felt. If they had been working on this one for longer and had cut further through it, the log would have fallen onto Spence, and his mate would not now be alive and kicking. He could only offer thanks that they had only started sawing a short time before his silly argument with Bear. Cursing his idiocy for allowing the big idiot to stir him so, he vowed never to be so daft next time.

As Johnson gave orders for Finn to be assisted to the small cart that stood a short distance away, Finn saw Bear standing some distance back laughing his stupid head off and Finn knew his vow would never be kept.

Author Bio and Links

Award winning author Tricia McGill was born in London, England, and moved to Australia many years ago, settling near Melbourne. Horses and dogs feature largely in her books. She’s had a succession of dogs in her lifetime and a few horses along the way.

The youngest in a large, loving family she was never lonely or alone. Surrounded by avid readers, who encouraged her to read from an early age, is it any wonder she became a writer? The local library was a treasure trove and magical world of discovery through her childhood and growing years. Tricia is a dreamer who still dreams every night; snippets from those dreams have translated into ideas for her books.

Although her published works cross sub-genres, romance is always at their heart. Tricia finds the research entailed in writing historicals and her other great passion, time-travels, fascinating.

Website | Amazon Buy Link

Giveaway

Tricia McGill will award a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.

Follow Tricia on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.