Today I’m excited to have friend and author Shehanne Moore here. Shehanne is a Scottish author who writes sizzling historical romance fiction books, no doubt her blog is tagged: Smexy Historical Fiction.
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Shey’s blog, her humor is injected into every post and her blog is co-hosted by the ‘dudes’ as we all fondly call her ‘hamster buddies’ that love to comment and sometimes behave badly to Shey’s guests with their saucy remarks because of their jealousy of her writing and their own desire to become writers.
Shehanne’s latest book, Lady Lazuli is getting a lot of buzz for its strong storyline and has been reviewed as having such great elements as: smouldering hot passion, revenge, lies, betrayal, sex, humor and suspense. What more could we want from a book?
About Shehanne:
Shehanne Moore is a Scottish born author who writes gritty, witty, more risky than risqué, historical romance, set wherever takes her fancy–stories that detail the best and worst of human behaviour, as opposed to pouts and flounces.
For years she did various jobs while pursuing her dream of becoming a published writer, so she was thrilled to be offered a contract by Etopia Press for The Unraveling of Lady Fury, six days after subbing it.
Shehanne still lives in Scotland with her husband Mr Shey. She has two daughters. When not writing intriguing, and of course, sizzling, historical romance, where goals and desires of sassy, unconventional heroines and ruthless men, mean worlds do collide, she fantasizes about cleaning the house, plays the odd musical instrument and loves what in any other country, would not be defined, as hill-walking.
Blurb:
Only one man in England can identify her. Unfortunately he’s living next door.
Ten years ago sixteen-year-old Sapphire, the greatest jewel thief England has ever known, ruined Lord Devorlane Hawley’s life. Now that Sapphire’s dead and buried, all that respectable widow Cassidy Armstrong wants is the opportunity to keep her good name, and prove she is not that disreputable girl. Especially when it means so much to her handsome new neighbor, Devorlane Hawley.
Hawley believes he knows precisely who his new neighbor is, and he’s been waiting ten years to exact his revenge. All he needs is a bit of evidence, which has proved quite impossible to procure. But the lovely widow might just have something else he desires, some other way to sate his vengeance. Deciding a direct approach might be in order, he asks Sapphire to choose her fate—take him as her lover, or take her chances at the end of a rope…
Now that’s hot! So let’s get know a little bit about Shey, and discover how she comes up with these characters. And I’m grateful she has brought lead hamster, ‘Bobby Bub’ with her to meddle a bit in our interview.
I have to ask you how you came to incorporate ‘the dudes’ into your blog and where did the inspiration come from to create them? They are so entertaining, sarcastic and saucy, but we can’t help but love them. Can you invite one over here, maybe Bobby Bub? (Please tell him to try to be on his best behavior.)
Shey: Okay okay Dudes, can I speak? Thank you.
Firstly, thank you my special friend for asking me here today. I’m really sorry I didn’t manage to lose the dudes. But hopefully they will go play with their whiskers or something. Anyway, I was writing a post on writing. It was to do with these great story drivers, with goal/motivation/conflict. That putting in everything from the kitchen sink to the druids of Stonehenge and the emancipation of women, was not what drove a story. At the last for some very odd reason I changed women to hamsters….. And I put a little piccie of one with a placard saying ‘free us hamsters from the cages,’ as you do. Antonia then left a comment asking would I do this. I not only did it, I let them on the blog. It just all went from there.
What is your inspiration for the ‘Smexy’ heroines and villains you create?
Shey: Can we get real here Bobby Bub? Thank you. Now that’s a hard one. Oh, all right Bobby Bub you found me out. What can I say but that I have defo been rumbled. Of course it is you. I mean, who else would it be?
When did you realize you wanted to become a writer? And what was the push that made you want to become a published author?
Shey: You know I caused a sensation at the age of seven when I wrote my first story. It was called The Hore House Mystery. Yep. Of course it was not what people thought, my parents in particular. Anyway I spent a lot of time lying about with chest problems as a kid and I read nonstop. I think that was when I decided it was what I wanted to be. I always wrote. I’ve worked in various aspects of the industry. I’ve even written comic scripts. I knocked on a lot of doors. I will confess I was driven that way. But it is such a brutal business. I hit brick wall after brick wall over writing sweeping, historical sagas with a cast of characters, being told to make it about one character etc etc. I decided eventually, although I had never written a romance, even really liked , or read, the genre—big confessions here—that it might be the way in.
Are all your books traditionally published? And if so, would you consider self-publishing?
Shey: All my books are traditionally published. But I am absolutely heading down the avenue of self publishing. It’s not just that publishing has changed out of all recognition in the last few years, and that lately I’ve had contracted two books sitting waiting for a release date, it’s the need to move with that change and to take control of my work. So while it was nice to have that seal of approval it’s not nice enough.
I know you have a passion for ‘hill walking’, can you tell us a bit about those little jaunts you often take? Are they part of your inspiration for your stories?
Shey: When it came to His Judas Bride, yep. I was totally inspired by Glencoe which is our favorite walking haunt, to write that book and use the area as the backdrop to the story. I renamed it Lochalpin but I used the whole idea of the small clan, the impregnable glen, to make that story.
I like how you have put hill-walking in italics, cos in no other country would it be called that. I do have a passion for it. It’s about being away from it all in scenery that’s good for the soul, putting yourself in some difficult situations, getting out of them again. Where we stay in Glencoe, is in the heart of the mountains. It’s a hotel for walker,s climbers, kayackers, bikers. There’s great food and drink there, usually live entertainment . So our jaunts are always fun filled.
Do you find that your books attract male readers as well as female?
Shey: My mister always reads my books. But yes, I’ve had a few male readers. I say I write romance. I should add it’s romance Shey style.
You’re such a dynamic creative woman with a great personality. How much of yourself do you think you put into your lead characters?
Shey: And you are way too kind. Of course I like to say I put none. That I am this really nice, quiet woman who is a completely economical with the truth. Okay, I don’t base them on me. I mean me, a shoe-aholic? A can’t stop spending? A bossy boots? A hardened night-clubber? I will put their determination not to bow down, in any shape or form to life, in any shape or form either. I put it into both leads, so that makes for the odd clash.
What are you working on now? Are there more books to the London Jewel Thief series to come?
Shey: Indeed. I did mention a book that has sat. That is the second book in the series. I took a sideway step there and wrote about the ladies’ skivvy. Right now I am working on a story called O’Roarke’s Destiny, it’s a bit of a battle over a house, shall we say. I am also reworking one of my ‘sweeping’ epics. And yes, I do plan to write more on the Jewel Thieves. There’s quite a number of these ladies and I want to tell some of their stories.
Please tell us a bit about how Lady Lazuli was created. And please do share an excerpt with us!
Lady Lazuli was the first romance I started to write. You will notice the word ‘start.’ I only ever start with a scene that flashes through my head and what flashed was a woman kissing this man and sticking a stolen necklace on him. It was in a coach and the coach grinds to a halt. While he gets out to deal with this, she vamooses and he’s left with this stolen necklace. That was it.
Anyway I ‘started’ to write this using this scene as the backstory. If it was one of my ‘sweeping’ historicals, I’d have started there and then moved on to the kind of things that would have happened to thieves in those days. But this was a romance. I gave a bit to a certain well known romance publisher who were quite interested. But at that point I thought, I can’t write this. My greatest fear was not staying unpublished, it was being published as someone that just wasn’t me.
Me is damaged leads, it’s flawed people, people who have been round the block, it’s human foibles, it’s fighting an attraction every step of the way. So I shelved it. I’d two books out with a publisher who had let me write my books my way and an editor who was totally supportive about how I saw my characters and how I wanted to write, before I took it back off the shelf and sat down to write it my way.
Okay here’s an extract….
If she could get this information it might focus her search. Perhaps for that matter she was a niece? It might mean getting into bed with Devorlane Hawley one last time, but if it was anything like last night, it should not be a problem. Then she could leave secure with the knowledge of who she was. And what—finally—she was going to do about it.
“This man was a—a cousin, a brother perhaps?”
He shifted on the rug to avoid a shower of sparks. “Actually she said it was a tinker.”
“A what?”
Of course it wouldn’t be anything good if it was meant to be associated with her, although she had not the slightest idea what that was, only that whatever it was, Devorlane Hawley bent his head forward so she could not see his face for his hair.
“A traveler.” He took up the poker and beat the burning log into submission. “Tilly said he hung about Barwych for a time because—how should I phrase this…”
Why would he be troubled to wonder, when he hadn’t shrunk from divulging what he just had phrased?
“He had a certain predilection for the ladies.”
What was that supposed to mean exactly? He couldn’t leave them alone? Keep his hands to himself? Or had he, like Devorlane Hawley, made outrageous demands? Demands, it shamed her to think she’d actually not just met—had enjoyed—to now be told… traveler? She could not be descended from a traveler. Certainly the breath rushing down her nose in that second said not. Was this some equally vile decision on the part of this impertinent bastard to humiliate her? Tilly too? She raised her chin. At all costs, she would not let him see it.
“Maybe he did, Lord Hawley, but that does not mean he had anything to do with me.”
“I never said that he did. I just wondered—”
“Well, don’t.” The cheek of the damn man. “You would know about such things yourself?”
He rose to his feet, brushing bark flakes from his otherwise immaculate trousers, as if it was all the most natural thing in the world, this. “Don’t you see, a predilection would suggest there being children—”
Oh, and now she was the living proof of that? Some tinker’s daughter? A man who liked women. Lots of them by the sounds of it. She supposed it could have been worse. She supposed he could have liked men, then she would not be here at all.
A woman not even the ghost of Sapphire could haunt.
Ten years ago sixteen year old Sapphire, the greatest jewel thief England has ever known, ruined Lord Devorlane Hawley’s life. Now she’s dead and buried, all the respectable widow, Cassidy Armstrong, wants is the chance to prove who she really is.
A man who knows exactly who she is.
But not only does her new neighbor believe he knows that exactly, he’s hell-bent on revenge. All he needs is the actual proof. So when he asks her to choose between being his mistress, or dangling on the end of a rope, only Sapphire can decide…
What’s left for a woman with nowhere left to go, but to stay exactly where she is?
And hope, that when it comes to neighbors, Devorlane Hawley won’t prove to be the one from hell.
Thanks so much for visiting here today Shey, and sharing your wonderful stories and some of your eclectic self. I believe we connected a few years ago when I fell in love with ‘the dudes’ and later found out we both had an obsession with shoes, LOL. Wishing you lots of luck with the series and the new books when they are gratefully released from publisher’s prison.
Visit Shey on all her social platforms:
www.pinterest.com/shehanne/
https://twitter.com/ShehanneMoore
http://shehannemooreweeblycom.weebly.com/com.weebly.com/
http://shehannemoore.wordpress.com/.wordpress.com/
http://furiousunravelings.wordpress.com/.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ShehanneMoore
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shehanne-Moore/163736780417433?ref=br_rs
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kilting-the-Book/1400031303553598?ref=ts&fref=ts
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