Sarah Joins Summer Reading Series

Save the date!  June 21, 2018 Arbor Teas Sumer Reading Series presents the first chapter of Sarah’s original, serial novella: “An Exchange of Two Flowers.”

Sarah says:  I’m an unrepentant  history nerd.  This is not a secret. Anybody whose read the Palace of Spies or American Fairy Trilogy will have noticed.  So, I was delighted when the Arbor Teas Summer Reading Series is giving me a chance to leap from Young Adult fiction and dive straight into one of the most controversial and most overlooked (here in the west, anyway) aspects of English history: how the history of the world’s most popular beverage is tied to the spread of the world’s known oldest narcotic.

Did it Really…?

George IIDid somebody really try to kill George II when he was still Prince of Wales?

George II gets overlooked a lot as a do-nothing king, but when he was a prince, he and Princess Caroline were both very popular.  With most people.  Most of the time.  There was this once though…

HISTORICAL SPOILER ALERT!!!!

“Towards the end of September 1716 he made a progress from Hampton Court to Portsmouth, distributing largess copiously all the way, held a review of the troops and inspected the ships at Portsmouth, and was everywhere received with the utmost enthusiasm. He increased his popularity by his energy in superintending the suppression of a fire at Spring Gardens on 3 December, to which he walked from St. James’s Palace in the early morning. He displayed great coolness a few days later at Drury Lane Theatre, when an assassin attempted to enter his box with a loaded pistol, and was only secured after taking the life of the guard in attendance.”

— Dr. Marjorie Bloy, “A Web of English History” quoting James McMullen Rugg, 1889 —

 

Cover Preview!

We are delighted to announce we have an exclusive preview of the cover for Assassin’s Masque, being the latest volume in the wholly true and entirely remarkable adventures of Margaret Preston Fitzroy, maid of honor, card-sharp, house-breaker, forger, thief of private correspondence, sometime conspiariator and confidential agent in the Court of His Majesty George I of England!

Assassin's Masque Cover

IN STORES AND ONLINE JANUARY 2016

Who’s Real?

Mary BellendenYes, “Careless” Mary Bellenden’s is real too.  As annoying as it is to have a Molly and a Mary to keep straight, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.  Mary apparently regularly stole the show with her appearance, and her behavior.  She certainly had the eye of the gentlemen poets of the day

THE HON. MARY BELLENDEN

Now to my heart the glance of Howard flies ;

Now Harvey, fair of face, I mark full well.

With thee, youth’s youngest daughter, Sweet Lepell,

I see two lovely sisters hand in hand,

The fair-haired Martha, and Teresa brown Madge Bellenden, the tallest of the land ;

And smiling Mary, soft and fair as down.

Epistle to- Mr. Pope by Gay.

Who’s Real?

Ever wonder which of the characters in Palace of Spies was a real person?  Quite a lot of them were.  Starting with Peggy’s BFF at court:  Molly Lepell.

WARNING!  There’s actually a spoiler in this…

 

Molly LepellMolly was Maid of Honour to Caroline. She was nicknamed ‘the Schatz’, German for ‘treasure’.
She was renowned for her beauty, her elegant figure, her big grey ‘soft and sprightly’ eyes and her lustrous skin. Sprightly and fun-loving as well as being well educated and intelligent, Molly learnedto carefully disguised her learnedness at court.

She secretly married Lord Hervey in 1720. Married maids were forced to relinquish their positions, something Molly could not afford to do. After marriage, and perhaps as a result of her husband’s infidelities, Molly missed the chase and scandal of being pursued by men.

‘Bright Venus yet never sat bedded,
So perfect a beau and a belle,
As when Hervey the handsome was wedded,
to the beautiful Molly Lepell,
– Chesterfield and Pulteney

For more on the historical Molly Lepell, check out this great site.

It’s Book Day!

Happy Book Day to all who celebrate!  In honor of the release of DANGEROUS DECEPTIONS, not to mention the paperback of PALACE OF SPIES, I thought I’d post the lovely trailer the folks at HMH created to help introduce the world to Peggy Fitzroy, spy, card sharp, housebreaker, impersonator of persons of quality and maid of honor to Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales…

Full Screen Trailer Graphic