Showing posts with label proper romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proper romance. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Blog Tour Tuesday: MAIL ORDER BRIDE- A TIMELESS ROMANCE ANTHOLOGY




I'm pleased to present Mail Order Bride: A Timeless Romance Anthology. Six short novellas by six award-winning and bestselling authors. Six Mail Order Brides. Six proper (clean) Romances. Six happily-ever-afters.

TODAY, February 9th, is release day for this title, book #16 in the Amazon #1 Bestselling Series in the Clean Romance Book Category. Each "clean"/wholesome/"sweet"/proper romance runs 15K words or less (about 50 pages)--a short novella set in the Old West, each involving a mail order bride.


INVITATION: Please join our Facebook Party, meet all six authors, mingle, have fun, take home books and other prizes. To RSVP and 'attend' this virtual gathering, see the event page here.


In celebration of this anthology's release day, I'm giving away one free Kindle Edition of this title to one lucky winner! In order to qualify (and so your name can be in the drawing), all you need do is comment, below this blog post. In your comment, I'd love to hear one reason why you like Mail Order Bride romances (because if you don't like them, why enter the drawing?).

The drawing closes tonight (2-9-16) at midnight PST. The winner will be announced, in the comments following THIS blog post, on Wednesday, February 10th, by 9 AM PST. So make sure you keep reading and leave a comment at the end. This is a delightful set sure to touch readers' hearts.

Note: the winner must be willing to privately communicate his/her email address to Kristin Holt via email so the prize may be gifted through Amazon.com.

(If YOU win and already own this title, the $4.99 e-gift will be easily substituted on Amazon for anything else...so don't hesitate. Pick up this title! It's sure to please selective readers who enjoy sweet/wholesome western historical romance.)


A bit about each of the six novellas:

Six Award-Winning Authors have contributed new stories to A Timeless Romance Anthology: Mail Order Bride Collection. Six historical romance novellas set in the Old West.

WRITTEN IN HER HEART, a charming novella by Stacy Henrie, Georgeanna is getting desperate. She can’t fund her favorite orphanage unless she marries and secures the rest of her inheritance left by her father. But her father’s financial planner, Clay, can't understand why she's not content with her current situation. Georgie determines to send out a notice as a mail order bride to attract suitors who won’t know her financial situation. Little does she know, Clay takes up the pen and sends her letters of his own under an assumed name. After years of working for Georgie’s father, Clay realizes he isn’t ready to watch her marry another, not when his heart is already claimed by her.

In Kristin Holt’s delightful novella WANTED: MIDWIFE BRIDE Dr. Naomi Thornton thinks she has it all: a beautiful house, a loving husband, and a fulfilling career. But when everything she holds dear is ripped away, Naomi has no choice but to start over. What will she find in the wild and untamed Wyoming Territory? Dr. Joe Chandler has waited years for a wife with the knowledge, skills, and tender heart he yearns for in a medical colleague and lifetime companion. When a midwife arrives with more expertise and secrets than he counted on, Joe quickly discovers there’s more to love and marriage than a simple mail order contract.

In THE SOUND OF HOME, a captivating novella by Annette Lyon, Marilyn is given the choice of either marrying the despicable Victor or being charged with a murder she didn’t commit. Refusing to believe that either is her fate, she finds a third option: she answers a mail order bride advertisement and boards a train to Wyoming to wed a man named Harry. Moments after her arrival, she learns that Harry isn’t who he seemed to be, and the advertisement turns out to be a giant mistake. Harry’s brother Thomas agrees to let her stay until she can figure out what to do next—after all, she simply cannot return to New York—but Marilyn quickly finds herself developing feelings for Thomas.

In Sarah M. Eden’s endearing novella FOR BETTER OR WORSE Gerald Smith, on the advice of his well-meaning neighbors, has decided it’s time to change his lonely existence. Mary Hill, on the advice of her empty pocketbook and non-existent roof over her head, has decided it’s time to secure herself a future. A mail-order marriage, they both realize, is no guarantee of happiness, but it is a risk they are willing to take. However, coming face to face on the train platform, the hapless couple discovers an unexpected truth: marriage to a perfect stranger is sometimes far preferable to the prospect of a lifetime with someone you used to know.

Heather B. Moore’s sweet novella AN INCONVENIENT BRIDE sees Carmela traveling from Boston to Colorado, eager to meet the man she’s been corresponding with and will soon marry. Her brother’s new marriage leaves little room for Carmela in her old life. Upon arrival in Leadville, she faces a rude awakening, and the only one who can understand her predicament is her fiance’s brother, Samuel. But Samuel can’t possibly help her out of an awkward situation, can he? It would be better for all if she returns immediately to Boston and pretends she never traveled to Colorado in the first place.

THE PRICE OF SILVER, an engaging novella by Siân Ann Bessey, Katie leaves New York for Idaho to marry Jake, a man she’s written to a couple of times. But when she steps off the train, his brother Caleb is there to greet her. Jake has gone to take a mining job he couldn’t pass up. Caleb takes Katie back to the family ranch to wait for Jake’s return. The more Caleb gets to know Katie, the more he envies his brother, but he can’t let his heart overrule his head unless Jake changes his mind about his intended bride.


This Mail Order Bride Collection is the 16th book within the A Timeless Romance Anthology series, published by Mirror Press. This title will be available at $4.99 across all major eBook retailers. Because ARC (advance review copies) were distributed by the authors to various reviewers in trade for honest reviews, Goodreads has 19 ratings and 17 reviews at the time of this blog post's writing. The average rating is currently 4.74 [where 4 stars means "I really liked it" and 5 stars translates to "It was amazing"].

My sincere thanks to all readers who post reviews and share their thoughts and insights with others. Book reviews are so valuable!

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Oyster
(links will be updated as they become live and purchases may be made at that eBook retailer)
At present, this title is available in eBook only.




Please stop in at www.KristinHolt.com for frequent fresh articles (blog posts) about all things nineteenth century with special focus on the Victorian American West.

My current series of articles are about the TRUTH (& historical accuracy/inaccuracy) behind the popular Mail Order Bride-Trope in Romance Fiction:


 *** BEFORE YOU GO ***
Please remember to enter the drawing for a FREE (my gift to the winner) eBook
(kindle edition) of Mail Order Bride: A Timeless Romance Collection. All you need do is COMMENT, below, with a few words about what you enjoy most about Mail Order Bride stories. The drawing will CLOSE at midnight (2-9-16, PST) occur tomorrow morning (2-10-16) and posted prior to 9 AM PST. The winner will be notified in the same comments, so check back! You'll want to know if you won. (You might benefit from checking the "notify me" box to facilitate learning if you've won.) The winner must be willing to provide his/her email address by email to Kristin Holt in order to receive the kindle edition prize via email.

Copyright © 2016 Kristin Holt, LC

Friday, February 5, 2016

WANTED: Midwife Bride



Can you imagine living in a time when doctors and accredited midwives were a rare commodity in the Old West? Picture an era when a few doctors hung their shingles and practiced medicine in dusty western settlements but virtually all hospitals were still on the east coast or in metropolises such as Chicago. Many such towns didn't have a doctor and any "doctoring" happened by the most experienced; cowboys generally knew how to manage treatable injuries (do a fair job of setting broken bones and stitching shut slashes caused by barbed wire). Women banded together to assist one another through childbirth. People toughed it out. A lot of folks died.

I'm so excited about this new book...
I'm giving away a copy!
Read on!

I'm an amateur historian, and a Registered Nurse. I have the utmost respect for physicians practicing medicine in the nineteenth century. Significant breakthroughs had occurred that made a lot of difference, but these brave pioneers still were forced to rely on their own knowledge, their eyes and ears and rudimentary tools to diagnose and to treat. Today's physicians have it comparatively easy with blood tests and CT-scans and state-of-the-art surgical suites. I wonder what would happen if a doctor from the late 19th century was transported forward to today's medical world--what would he think? But I digress... that's a story for another book.


When preparing to write my new release, WANTED: Midwife Bride (contained within Mail Order Bride: A Timeless Romance Anthology), I already knew exactly who my hero would be: Joseph Chandler, MD. In a familiar-to-me frontier town of Evanston, Wyoming Territory (1888). It didn't take long for me to realize why Doc Joe would send for a bride-- not only was he lonely and ready for the next stage in live ("conjugal felicity" which simply means marital happiness and a phrase most common in U.S. newspapers and publications of the day), but he needed help.

In 1888, Evanston (a very real place) was a bustling railroad town with all the expected medical challenges: nearby mines with typical miner's problems with their lungs and injuries and cave-ins, Chinese immigrants working for the railroad, railway injuries (everything from crushed fingers when coupling cars to derailments), births, deaths, and all of life in-between. Having driven past the long-closed Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston, I could easily picture the grand campus in relation to Front Street and the original rail depot.

The Wyoming State Hospital, originally called the Wyoming Insane Asylum, opened in 1889.
The first building at the Wyoming State Hospital, originally called the Wyoming Insane Asylum, opened in 1889 and burned down in 1917. Uinta County Museum. - See more at: http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/wyoming-state-hospital#sthash.2zoxNGoE.dpuf
I could easily believe Doc Joe (my fictional hero) would have a hard time finding a qualified business partner to help him with his practice, especially with the Wyoming Territorial Government hiring every willing doctor and nurse to work in the large state hospital to open the following year. At the time of my story, the hospital was under construction and the superintendent, Dr. William A. Hocker, MD, of Evanston was also in charge of construction that began the month my heroine (Dr. Naomi Fairchild Thornton, MD) stepped off the train more than two thousand miles from her point of origin in New York City.

Doc Joe needed someone--anyone--who could help him in saving lives. Using the best means available to him at the time, he placed an advertisement for a trained midwife in (my fictional periodical) Midwifery Circular, in hopes of finding a bride who wouldn't faint at the sight of blood. He wanted a bride to fill the vacancy in his life and in his heart, and banked a lot on his plan to install her as a productive helpmate within his medical practice. 


 WANTED: Midwife Bride



Frontier town bachelor doctor, age 30, seeks experienced midwife for business partner and marriage. Must be pleasant, cooperative, companionable, and prepared for long hours. Midwifery training and experience more important than age. Prefer age 35 or younger, as children are desired.
Reply to Doc Joe, Evanston, Wyoming Territory.


When he meets Naomi, she has solid reasons to withhold the entirety of her education, after all, she can safely deliver babies...and when Doc Joe learns his bride-to-be is a medical doctor, he's elated...but she doesn't know that (yet) and is certain he'll send her away. She knows he will. Not only has everything in her life and training to that point convinced her all men see female physicians as an abomination, but that was the consensus throughout the United States in that era.

I had a bit too much fun throwing Joe and Naomi together and watching the sparks fly. The entire anthology, including my novella, is "sweet" (wholesome, clean, "proper") romance.

 
BLURB:
Dr. Naomi Thornton thinks she has it all: a beautiful house, a loving husband, and a fulfilling career. But when everything she holds dear is ripped away, Naomi has no choice but to start over. What will she find in the wild and untamed Wyoming Territory? Dr. Joe Chandler has waited years for a wife with the knowledge, skills, and tender heart he yearns for in a medical colleague and lifetime companion. When a midwife arrives with more expertise and secrets than he counted on, Joe quickly discovers there’s more to love and marriage than a simple mail order contract.


My story, WANTED: Midwife Bride is just one of six short novellas (15K words or less) contained within the box set Mail Order Bride: A Timeless Romance Anthology. The whole set of six short novellas runs 322 pages according to Amazon. The set will be available on all major eBook retailers' websites on release day: 2-9-16. As of today, the book is available for preorder on Amazon and may be read on any kindle or virtually any device with the kindle app. This title is available in eBook format only (for at least six months), is published by Mirror Press, and this title is #16 in the Amazon #1-ranked series in Clean Romance.


I'm giving away one free KINDLE edition of this title, to be delivered via email (through Amazon) on the morning of 2-9-16--release day! (It's not possible to buy a copy as a gift until then). The drawing for one free (my gift to you) copy closes tonight (2-5-16) at midnight PST. All you need to do to enter this drawing is to COMMENT and state one thing you enjoy about Mail Order Bride Romances. (After all, given the prize, why enter if you don't like this kind of book?)

The winner will be announced, also in the comments section, tomorrow morning 2-6-16, by 8 AM PST. You may do well to check the box "notify me" so you're aware if YOU are the lucky winner when I post the name I draw. The winner must be willing to provide their email address to me, Kristin Holt, in order to receive their gift copy of this $4.99-value anthology.



For a SECOND CHANCE TO WIN, please revisit Sweet Americana Sweethearts Blog (right here!) next Tuesday, when this box set enjoys a turn on the Blog Tour Tuesday stage, with more of a focus on the entire anthology...and ONE MORE lucky winner will take home a FREE copy of this $4.99 set! (If YOU win and already own this title, the $4.99 e-gift will be easily substituted on Amazon for anything else...so don't hesitate. Pick up this title! It's sure to please selective readers who enjoy sweet/wholesome western historical romance.)





Please stop in at www.KristinHolt.com for frequent fresh articles (blog posts) about all things nineteenth century with special focus on the Victorian American West.

My current series of articles are about the TRUTH (and historical accuracy/inaccuracy) behind the popular Mail Order Bride-Trope in Romance Fiction:


Copyright © 2016 Kristin Holt, LC

Monday, June 29, 2015

New Blog to Feature Sweet/Clean Historical Authors


 During a recent online marketing discussion among the Prairie Rose Publications family of published writers, it was agreed that one of the most effective means of reaching our reading audience is through group blogs. These blogs differ from individual blogs in that several people take responsibility for writing and publishing a blog post on a regular basis. These posts are not strictly for the purpose of "hard selling" a book. The contributors offer short articles with information of interest to potential readers of the kind of books the author writes.

Preferably, these posts include
Mountain Men of the West
a generous number relevant images.


Several authors I know write not only for the Prairie Rose Publication family of blogs, but they write for other blogs geared to their interest groups. Many of these are considered either western romance or historical western romance. This blog is intended to include historical western romance, but is geared to a slightly different reading audience.

First, let me explain how I came up with the name:
  1.  Sweet covers writing described as sweet / clean / proper. 
  2.  Americana is defined by dictionary.com as: "...books, papers, maps, etc., relating to America, especially to its history, culture, and geography." (origin 1835-45, Americanism)
  3.  Sweethearts refers to the romance elements in the novels written by our featured writers.

    Union Soldiers - colorized photo
    Because I enjoy reading and writing about historical topics  (including American Civil War stories) outside the approximately fifty year period from 1850 through 1900 set in the "old west," I chose the time period of 1820 (mountain men and rendezvous era) through 1920 (post World War One/flu pandemic era). I also chose to include the entire North American continent. 

As for the sweet designation, I'm aware that readers who prefer novels free of graphic sex scenes and excessive profanity like to know that their reading material falls within that category. We don't like to get into a novel only to discover it has "too much information." This blog is designed to feature SWEET / CLEAN / PROPER romance only. The intended audience is those readers seeking books with that kind of romance.
World War One bond poster


On the other hand, other readers may consider sweet romance too tame. If authors prefer to write romance that is more spicy/steamy/sexually explicit, I encourage you to create and join a group blog designed to feature your work to the reading audience which prefer that heat level in their romance novels.

If you are an author of sweet/clean/proper romance set in the Americana time period of 1820 through 1920, and you are interested in participating in a group blog once a month, please read the Sweet Americana Sweethearts Guidelines. If your work falls within the guidelines and there are blog dates open, please contact the blog administrator. The details are toward the bottom of the Guidelines.

The portrait used on the blog banner was taken from an early family photo of George McKinley  and Laura Agnes Echols. These sweethearts were married when she was barely sixteen and he was still fifteen. They died within months of each other after  fifty-seven years of marriage. The background image was taken in the Genoa, NV museum and the flowers are from my garden.


 Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, A Christmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. The first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, are now available. 


Zina Abbott Author Links

Website   Blog                Pinterest         Facebook        Goodreads

Purchase Links for Big Meadows Valentine:

Kindle                 Nook               Smashwords

Purchase Links for A Resurrected Heart:

Kindle                 Nook               Smashwords