Woot! It's the Twenties Again! by Nancy Fraser

I absolutely LOVE everything about the Roaring Twenties! The music, the clothes, the unabashed decadence, the new-found freedom of being whatever you wanted to be! It was a time of discovery for a lot of people. It was also a time of pushing the boundaries, whether it be defying Prohibition, or admitting to a once taboo sexuality. Everything was open to exploration.

Jazz ruled the fancy supperclubs and secret speakeasies! The clothes dared to expose body parts previously hidden away beneath yards and yards of material. It was magical!

Now we get to do it again and...this time...I'll be here to watch it all unfold. I couldn't be happier. I'm not sure our music could get much more daring and today's clothing sometimes leaves nothing to the imagination. But still, with a new year and a new decade, there's promise. Hope.

I don't do "resolutions" as such, but I do set out some goals for myself. I start with easily attainable goals...like completing galley edits on my March release. I build on that with short range goals of de-cluttering my condo and ridding myself of unused items. Then, there's the big one! For me, this year, it's my health. I have a few issues to get under control and I look forward to some steady progress.

In the meantime though, I'm content to not only finish my galleys but begin a new project. No matter what other committments or goals I set for myself, writing will always be up there on my must-do list.

To celebrate the "new" twenties, I thought I'd giveaway a couple of erotic novellas set in the 1920's. As befitting the era, both are decadent, romantic, and...just like the twenties...fun!

Decadence, freedom and illegal activities…

Everything a sheltered debutante in the mid-1920s could want. When Hyde Park socialite Susan Leland meets up with Evan Forrester for the second time, she makes no excuses for their first meeting—an auto accident in which she broke the young artist’s wrist. She finds the handsome Evan both infuriating and intriguing, yet not quite as intriguing as sultry torch singer Holly Winters, a performer at Susan’s favorite supper club.

A chance to make amends…

By posing nude for Evan to paint. When Susan balks, Evan, not wanting to deal with an innocent, sends her away but not before the arrival of his next model, Holly Winters. As Susan’s preparing to leave, the beautiful and talented singer convinces her to come back the next day—so they can pose together.

Will Susan find happiness in the arms of Evan Forrester—or another?

And ...

In the Roaring Twenties…

A former Hello Girl during WWI, widowed Ariel Pennybaker served her country proudly. She now carries on her late husband’s legacy…a home for the many returning, injured soldiers.

With her year of mourning nearly at an end, she’s had enough of her self-imposed celibacy. It’s time to get back in the game.

A chance meeting with a handsome WWI aviator has her imagining thoroughly naughty thoughts. When a second man walks into her life, her naughty thoughts turn downright decadent. What better way to fulfil her fantasies than by sharing both men’s beds.

As tempting as the idea is, Ariel has a huge secret, one she must protect at all costs. And, it’s possible one or both of her lovers is not what he seems.

All you have to do to win, is leave a comment about what you're looking forward to in 2020. Also, please leave your email address (written out) so that I can notify you if you're name is chosen. I will be drawing the winners on Wednesday, January 8th.

Dont forget to enter our monthly giveaway. Full information on the Rafflecopter drawing can be found on our Monthly Giveaway page. You can also find the the entry form HERE.

While your checking out the Giveaway page, don't forget to take a peek at our Movie Theater and Bookstore pages. Not to mention our Free Book giveaways!

Until next month, may the new year bring you and your loved ones peace, prosperity, and love.

Nancy

The Key to Your Heroine—Is Hidden Your Closet? by Connie Vines @connievines #RomanceGems

Research is my middle name.

I plan family vacations to include possible ‘future book settings’, ‘historical events’, ‘regional foods’—well, you know where I’m going with this.

Research often required hours spent at the public library using the card catalog.  Oh, how the Internet has simplified my life.

However, breathing life into your heroine, and bringing your story to life, are all elements that writers spend hours and hours perfecting.

Sensory details, setting, motivation, and that ‘something’ which is the spark of each and every story is often elusive.  Sometimes, just sometimes, the pieces of your fictional universe fall neatly, and unexpectedly, into place.

Today this is what happened to me.

While sorting through my closet, I discovered a treasure of carefully-packed-away-items.  Being the eldest daughter, I’ve acquired the family photos, was blessed with the oral histories of grandparents and great-grandmother, and other relatives.  I carefully placed the items on my bed.  I was fingering a silk scarf of my maternal grandmother’s, noticing blending of colors, threads of silver catching the light when I realized I was holding a moment of her life.  A snap-shot of who she was, who she wanted to be—a time before she was my grandmother.

Had she gone shopping with her sister or her mother to purchase this scarf?  Or had she ridden the EL, after work to a department store in Chicago?  Was she going to a dance? To the theater?
Her parents immigrated from the region of Bohemia in Czechoslovakia (before it became the Czech Republic) and she was the youngest of six children. 

I located pieces of her jewelry, the scarf still smelled faintly of her perfume (or was it simply my memory of her fragrance?).  I found her beaded evening bag.  I recalled a photo taken when she and her sister worked as extras in the motion pictures of the 1920 and 1930s.  They stayed with their older brother (musician, Tony Lada of the Louisiana Five) in San Monica, California.  I was certain I had it in a box, perhaps already scanned to my computer.

  YouTube Louisiana Five

This is how I discover my heroine and my hero.  My characters become living, breathing people—step by step; their stories are revealed to me piece by piece.

I may have the start of a synopsis for my next novel in the works.  What do you think?

Rudolph Valentino? (Catch his silent movies on YouTube—he was a hottie!)

I also have my great-great-grandmother’s butter churn from the 1800s—but that’s another story.

So, what treasure do you have hiding in your closet?

I'd love to hear your family history story :-).  What treasure did you find?

Happy Reading,

Connie Vines

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