SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
Clearly I live a very routine life. Work--vacation in California--back to work. Having recently finished a proposal for a three book series loosely classified as romantic suspense--Craig and I spent a couple weeks doing nothing much in California and now I'm back home in Minnesota being a responsible, working member of society. My web page is being updated--slowly I might add, but with a very nice plan in mind--and now I'm adding some info on my new books and writing projects.
In December, SEDUCTIVE AS FLAME, will be published. Alec Munro, Earl of Dalgliesh, is starkly handsome, immensely rich, a great favorite with the ladies and like so many men of his class, married in a casual way. Although rumor has it, he and his wife aren't just unsuited, but estranged.
The state of Dalgliesh's marriage aside, when the earl and Zelda MacKenzie, a flame-haired Scottish beauty, first meet at a country house party in Yorkshire, she makes it clear that she dislikes men of his ilk. She finds libertine men tedious. And she tells him so.
He's intrigued. A woman who doesn't instantly succumb to his charm.
What a lovely challenge.
I also have another book coming out in December. WHEN YOU LOVE SOMEONE is being re-issued.
Duff D'Abernon, Marquis of Darley, has returned from Waterloo a changed man. Broken in body and spirit, he's become a recluse more interested in tending his horses than going out in society. Until one day at a horse fair, he outbids the lovely Annabelle Foster for some prime bloodstock and for the first time in months Duff is fascinated by more than a thoroughbred.
Annabelle, an actress and playwright of note, has retired to the country for personal reasons. If not for the opportunity to own a championship racer, she wouldn't have left her cottage.
When Duff sends the pricey horse to Annabelle the next day, she immediately returns it. The meaning behind such an expensive gift is clear and the last thing she wants is another amorous liaison with a nobleman. She has, in fact, fled London to avoid her former life.
But a man who's managed to defy death isn't easily deterred.
Duff's set his mind on cajoling the beautiful Miss Foster from her solitude.
Any bets on who wins this one?
I'm currently working on a series set in Northern California. The stories showcase three brothers, all of whom have returned home for various reasons
Jack Morgan, an ex-narco cop, has left L.A. after a nasty divorce. Wade Morgan has jettisoned his job at a prestigious San Francisco law firm after seeing one too many white collar criminals walk rather than serve time. Ray Morgan, recently released from a Bangkok jail thanks to his brothers' bribe money, is recuperating from the less than stellar accommodations in the Thai penal system.
Each brother has his own story. Each brother finds the love of his life. Each brother contends with violent outside forces that impinge on his life and require a certain skill set to subdue.
I'm having fun with them all. I'll let you know how it goes.
Happy reading!
March 1, 2011
Here I am–derelict as usual with my correspondence. But I’ve finally finished a book that took me longer than I thought to write and as of February first, I was no longer chained to my computer. Craig and I took a quick holiday in California–a nice change from the snow back home and now I’m back and ready to catch up on all that was postponed the last many months.
So, darlings, let me give you a heads up on my books coming out in 2011.
Today the third book in the Bruton Street Bookstore Series will be published. The hero, James, Lord Blackwood, Scottish guard to Prince Ernst of Dalmia has been ordered to protect the prince’s newly discovered daughter. Against his wishes and better judgment I might add. Jamie had previously met Miss Sofia Eastleigh during a portrait sitting at his lover’s home. He knew how difficult it would be to maintain his distance from a lush woman like Miss Eastleigh. More to the point, he had a rule about mixing business with pleasure.
If only Sofia had been equally circumspect. But raised in London’s art world, she was a modern woman, independent and spirited. And surely if she was obliged to be where she didn’t want to be in the first place–in flight to the Highlands for her safety–she might as well as enjoy herself. Protection with benefits as it were. A pleasant sexual interlude with the gorgeous Jamie Blackwood would pass the time nicely, she decided.
But Jamie rather definitely said, “No.”.
Really, Sofia thought. Now how might she change his mind?
In July, a reprint of a Brava book titled, PURE SILK, will be available. The story is set in 1868 Japan. The heroine’s family has recently lost a decisive battle with the imperial army. With her father, the Lord of Otari, dead, his forces vanquished, their cause defeated, the clans of the northern alliance would be hunted down and exterminated to the last living child. Princess Tama, now head of the Otari clan, must elude capture, escape the country, and bring her brother back from Paris to reclaim their birthright. Disguised as a peasant boy, she makes her way to the pleasure center in the capitol city of Edo where anything and anyone is for sale. She knows that a foreign sea captain is her best means of escape from the country and where better to find a foreigner than in the pleasure haunts of the Yoshiwara.
Hugh Drummond hasn’t drawn a sober breath for a month, his demons always more oppressive in November. Four years ago that month, he’d returned home after the South’s defeat in the Civil War to find his plantation had been seized by a carpetbagger, his wife had run off with a wealthy Yankee colonel and his ship had almost been sunk off Wilmington, North Carolina. Since then he hadn’t had a home and whether he was trading in Japan, the Pearl River or Singapore made no difference to him.
Princess Tama recognizes him and he her. He’d delivered a cargo of arms to her father last summer. When she asks for passage to Europe, tells him she can pay him in Mexican silver, he decides why not? But taking on a daimyo’s beautiful daughter turns into a dangerous flight from assassins, spies and powerful government forces. It also quickly sobers the American sea captain. But it’s too late for second thoughts when they’re on the run south to the port where Hugh’s ship waits. With their lives in peril, forced into an intimacy neither had foreseen, the line between royalty and commoner blurs. Hugh is overcome by his desire to protect the princess and ravage her in equal measure. While Tama finds herself willing to pay the captain handsomely in a currency he wants more than Mexican silver.
In December, the book I’ve just finished, SEDUCTIVE AS FLAME, the fourth book in the Bruton Street Bookshop Series, will be available. The hero, Alec Munro, Earl of Dalgliesh, is handsome, immensely rich, renowned for his sexual prowess and married in a fashion not uncommon to men of his class. Rumor has it there’s not a woman alive safe from his seductive skills. Nor, some say, a woman alive who doesn’t secretly covet a dalliance with the disreputable earl.
Zelda MacKenzie, a magnificent, flame-haired Scottish beauty, inspires rumors of her own. Some say she’s a witch–if only for the curious native jewels and unusual garb she’s brought home from her orchid hunting expedition to Brazil. Although there’s no doubt she’s bewitching.
A fact immediately apparent to Dalgliesh when they meet at a country house party in Yorkshire.
But Zelda makes it clear to the earl that she has no interest in libertines.
A challenge he thinks. A woman who doesn’t instantly succumb to his charm. How lovely. How satisfying. How different.
As always, I hope readers find pleasure in my characters and their stories. They’re enormous fun to write.
P.S. I'm on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/SusanJohnson
Clearly I live a very routine life. Work--vacation in California--back to work. Having recently finished a proposal for a three book series loosely classified as romantic suspense--Craig and I spent a couple weeks doing nothing much in California and now I'm back home in Minnesota being a responsible, working member of society. My web page is being updated--slowly I might add, but with a very nice plan in mind--and now I'm adding some info on my new books and writing projects.
In December, SEDUCTIVE AS FLAME, will be published. Alec Munro, Earl of Dalgliesh, is starkly handsome, immensely rich, a great favorite with the ladies and like so many men of his class, married in a casual way. Although rumor has it, he and his wife aren't just unsuited, but estranged.
The state of Dalgliesh's marriage aside, when the earl and Zelda MacKenzie, a flame-haired Scottish beauty, first meet at a country house party in Yorkshire, she makes it clear that she dislikes men of his ilk. She finds libertine men tedious. And she tells him so.
He's intrigued. A woman who doesn't instantly succumb to his charm.
What a lovely challenge.
I also have another book coming out in December. WHEN YOU LOVE SOMEONE is being re-issued.
Duff D'Abernon, Marquis of Darley, has returned from Waterloo a changed man. Broken in body and spirit, he's become a recluse more interested in tending his horses than going out in society. Until one day at a horse fair, he outbids the lovely Annabelle Foster for some prime bloodstock and for the first time in months Duff is fascinated by more than a thoroughbred.
Annabelle, an actress and playwright of note, has retired to the country for personal reasons. If not for the opportunity to own a championship racer, she wouldn't have left her cottage.
When Duff sends the pricey horse to Annabelle the next day, she immediately returns it. The meaning behind such an expensive gift is clear and the last thing she wants is another amorous liaison with a nobleman. She has, in fact, fled London to avoid her former life.
But a man who's managed to defy death isn't easily deterred.
Duff's set his mind on cajoling the beautiful Miss Foster from her solitude.
Any bets on who wins this one?
I'm currently working on a series set in Northern California. The stories showcase three brothers, all of whom have returned home for various reasons
Jack Morgan, an ex-narco cop, has left L.A. after a nasty divorce. Wade Morgan has jettisoned his job at a prestigious San Francisco law firm after seeing one too many white collar criminals walk rather than serve time. Ray Morgan, recently released from a Bangkok jail thanks to his brothers' bribe money, is recuperating from the less than stellar accommodations in the Thai penal system.
Each brother has his own story. Each brother finds the love of his life. Each brother contends with violent outside forces that impinge on his life and require a certain skill set to subdue.
I'm having fun with them all. I'll let you know how it goes.
Happy reading!
March 1, 2011
Here I am–derelict as usual with my correspondence. But I’ve finally finished a book that took me longer than I thought to write and as of February first, I was no longer chained to my computer. Craig and I took a quick holiday in California–a nice change from the snow back home and now I’m back and ready to catch up on all that was postponed the last many months.
So, darlings, let me give you a heads up on my books coming out in 2011.
Today the third book in the Bruton Street Bookstore Series will be published. The hero, James, Lord Blackwood, Scottish guard to Prince Ernst of Dalmia has been ordered to protect the prince’s newly discovered daughter. Against his wishes and better judgment I might add. Jamie had previously met Miss Sofia Eastleigh during a portrait sitting at his lover’s home. He knew how difficult it would be to maintain his distance from a lush woman like Miss Eastleigh. More to the point, he had a rule about mixing business with pleasure.
If only Sofia had been equally circumspect. But raised in London’s art world, she was a modern woman, independent and spirited. And surely if she was obliged to be where she didn’t want to be in the first place–in flight to the Highlands for her safety–she might as well as enjoy herself. Protection with benefits as it were. A pleasant sexual interlude with the gorgeous Jamie Blackwood would pass the time nicely, she decided.
But Jamie rather definitely said, “No.”.
Really, Sofia thought. Now how might she change his mind?
In July, a reprint of a Brava book titled, PURE SILK, will be available. The story is set in 1868 Japan. The heroine’s family has recently lost a decisive battle with the imperial army. With her father, the Lord of Otari, dead, his forces vanquished, their cause defeated, the clans of the northern alliance would be hunted down and exterminated to the last living child. Princess Tama, now head of the Otari clan, must elude capture, escape the country, and bring her brother back from Paris to reclaim their birthright. Disguised as a peasant boy, she makes her way to the pleasure center in the capitol city of Edo where anything and anyone is for sale. She knows that a foreign sea captain is her best means of escape from the country and where better to find a foreigner than in the pleasure haunts of the Yoshiwara.
Hugh Drummond hasn’t drawn a sober breath for a month, his demons always more oppressive in November. Four years ago that month, he’d returned home after the South’s defeat in the Civil War to find his plantation had been seized by a carpetbagger, his wife had run off with a wealthy Yankee colonel and his ship had almost been sunk off Wilmington, North Carolina. Since then he hadn’t had a home and whether he was trading in Japan, the Pearl River or Singapore made no difference to him.
Princess Tama recognizes him and he her. He’d delivered a cargo of arms to her father last summer. When she asks for passage to Europe, tells him she can pay him in Mexican silver, he decides why not? But taking on a daimyo’s beautiful daughter turns into a dangerous flight from assassins, spies and powerful government forces. It also quickly sobers the American sea captain. But it’s too late for second thoughts when they’re on the run south to the port where Hugh’s ship waits. With their lives in peril, forced into an intimacy neither had foreseen, the line between royalty and commoner blurs. Hugh is overcome by his desire to protect the princess and ravage her in equal measure. While Tama finds herself willing to pay the captain handsomely in a currency he wants more than Mexican silver.
In December, the book I’ve just finished, SEDUCTIVE AS FLAME, the fourth book in the Bruton Street Bookshop Series, will be available. The hero, Alec Munro, Earl of Dalgliesh, is handsome, immensely rich, renowned for his sexual prowess and married in a fashion not uncommon to men of his class. Rumor has it there’s not a woman alive safe from his seductive skills. Nor, some say, a woman alive who doesn’t secretly covet a dalliance with the disreputable earl.
Zelda MacKenzie, a magnificent, flame-haired Scottish beauty, inspires rumors of her own. Some say she’s a witch–if only for the curious native jewels and unusual garb she’s brought home from her orchid hunting expedition to Brazil. Although there’s no doubt she’s bewitching.
A fact immediately apparent to Dalgliesh when they meet at a country house party in Yorkshire.
But Zelda makes it clear to the earl that she has no interest in libertines.
A challenge he thinks. A woman who doesn’t instantly succumb to his charm. How lovely. How satisfying. How different.
As always, I hope readers find pleasure in my characters and their stories. They’re enormous fun to write.
P.S. I'm on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/SusanJohnson