Author Post: Beverley Eikli and giveaway

Today Beverley Eikli is on my blog with a post :)

Welcome!

I woke this morning to the silence of a world blanketed in snow, so familiar in this Norwegian home where I’ve spent such happy times, and so different from the summer noises I’ve grown used to in the children-filled street of our Australian country town.

Jetlagged, after jumping on a plane two days ago to cross the globe in the hopes of making it to my dear father-in-law’s side before he died, I lay in bed and thought how life is a series of circles, bringing one back to the same place at different phases of one’s life. I’m sad that my wonderful father-in-law has passed on, and that we were too late to say our good-byes, but at 96 he’d lived a rich and wonderful life.

He produced a daughter and four sons, the youngest of whom I married at Akershus Festning, the Oslo Castle chapel, twenty years ago. The connection forged a new dimension in my life, not only with a warm and wonderful family, but another country and culture. I’d spent my early years in southern Africa before emigrating to Australia. Then in my late twenties I discovered an album that would catapult me into a world of adventure. Catapult me right back where my family history picked up in the early years of last century. Catapult me into the arms of the handsome Norwegian bush pilot who changed the course of my life.

The album was my grandfather’s photographic diary detailing the extraordinary nature of his work as a young district commission in the British Colonial service in Botswana’s Okavango, between 1916 and 1922.

Intrigued, I persuaded my father to join me on holiday to the Okavango then, to my delight, was invited back to spend two months as relief manager for two of Okavango Wilderness Safaris’ luxury safari camps: Mombo and Jedibe Camps.

I took leave from my job as a journalist and for two months had the time of my life in a pristine environment, catering to guests in a 16-bedded camp, surrounded by predators who filled the nights with a music that thrilled me and which I knew I’d miss dreadfully as I prepared to return home to Australia.

That final night, a new group of tourists was due in camp. As was usual, one of the Motswana guides fetched them from the grassy airstrip and ferried them to the lodge in the small motorboat. As I stood on the rickety jetty beneath the waterberry trees, holding aloft a paraffin lantern to the light their way, I had no idea I was greeting my future husband.

Yes, the handsome bush pilot who’d flown the guests to Jedibe swept me off my feet as we spent the next few hours chatting around the campfire. Although I believed I would never see him again, our budding romance was sustained through eight months of hand-written letters. There was no internet in Botswana back then.

When Eivind took leave from his job as Chief Pilot of Ngami Air to fly to Australia with - I soon learned - the express purpose of proposing on the basis of four hours of conversation and eight months of letter-writing, I had absolutely no hesitation in saying yes. To my amusement, he took out a large advertisement in the Okavango Observer with the words: ‘She said YES!’ as so many people had been hanging out to know if he’d had any success across the globe.

So I gave up my newspaper job in Adelaide, South Australia, and joined Eivind in his little thatched cottage in the middle of a mopane forest by a flood plain 12 km out of Maun, in Botswana. Thus began my life as a ‘trailing spouse’, living in 12 cities and countries as we navigated the ups and downs of the world of aviation.

It’s been an exciting life. I’ve worked with my husband for several airborne geophysical survey companies, based in Canada and Australia, Eivind as the pilot and me working the computer equipment as we contoured the terrain at 250ft. It was a great way to see French Guiana, Greenland and Sweden for three-month contracts, and Namibia for a year. We went to the Solomon Islands for two years, and we lived in Japan for one.

And all the time I wrote exciting tales of romance, peppered with action or mystery, about women who lived in an era where they had no legal rights, their personalities dictating the means by which they gained the power needed to direct their lives and to find fulfilment and happiness – against the odds.

Despite my leap of faith and my determination to forge an exciting life, a pilot’s wife is as much at the mercy of the vagaries of world economics, facing uncertainties in the same way that a woman in historical times was dependant on external factors beyond her control for survival.

Two hundred years might separate me from my characters but I can empathise when the tides of fate pick them up and toss them into new and unfamiliar situations. I’ve been in foreign countries with young children, the rug pulled from under our feet as airline companies have folded – twice, actually. And I wondered what country might provide a haven when politics thrust us out of the Pacific. I’ve given birth, while my husband was still in rehabilitation after breaking his back three weeks earlier.

The uncertainties I’ve experienced are laid bare in My latest Choc Lit romance, The Maid of Milan, which has been described as a Regency-set ‘Dynasty’ with its drug addiction, love triangle and manipulation themes, its style - to my delight -compared with Anthony Trollope’s 'The Pallisers' ‘where beneath the waving fans it’s gritty intrigue’.

My wonderful husband was the inspiration for my hero, Tristan, whose worst moment comes near the end of the book when he discovers he’s unwittingly been a party to the three-year-long subtle manipulation of his once-vibrant wife. By this stage he’s already lost her, for though my heroine, Adelaide, had been ground down through years of being shackled to a lie, she still had her pride. And she could not live with a man whose respect she believed she’d lost.

Adversity and pain are like mirrors. They define a person’s true personality.

Right now, I feel I’m back where I was twenty years ago when, dressed in the traditional Norwegian bunad as a new bride, I looked to the future with such hope.

I’ve farewelled a wonderful man who distinguished himself as a resistance fighter during WWII, and my bonds to his son remain as strong as ever.

I believe there’s still a lot of love and adventure to look forward to in my life.

I've had so much of it already, and as long as I can recreate it in so many different forms in my historical romances and dramas, I’ll be happy.

 website: http://www.beverleyeikli.com

And you can buy The Maid of Milan in paperback, ebook and soon audiobook at Amazon US | Amazon UK | iTunes |  Barnes & Noble

Giveaway

1 copy of The Maid of Milan

1. Open to everyone

2. Ends March 15

3. To enter, comment on the post or ask a question :)

Have fun!

The Maid of Milan - Beverley Eikli

Adelaide Leeson wants to prove herself worthy of her husband, a man of noble aspirations who married hernwhen she was at her lowest ebb.

Lord Tristan Leeson is a model of diplomacy and self-control, even curbing the fiery impulses of his youth to preserve the calm relations deemed essential by his mother-in-law to preserve his wife s health.

A visit from his boyhood friend, feted poet Lord James Dewhurst, author of the sensational Maid of Milan, persuades Tristan that leaving the countryside behind for a London season will be in everyone's interests. 

But as Tristan's political career rises, and Adelaide revels in society's adulation, the secrets of the past are uncovered. And there's a high price to pay for a life of deception.

My thoughts:

This is not some fluffy romance book, but then I knew it would not be. No, it's between historical fiction and romance. It brings more drama and doubt.

Adelaide, oh poor Addy. Her mother has her firmly in her grasp. Sure she is married to a sweet and kind man, and yes she is happy and loves him. But her mother keeps her down, tells her not to be passionate and just makes life dull and miserable. She used to be passionate, but that brought tragedy and a broken heart. And now her former lover comes back into her life.

Tristan was such a nice guy, I mean he was really really really nice, and on top of that he had a mother in law who told him his wife needed rest all the time. He kept up with her cos he loved Addy. Oh yes I loved Tristan.

We have a book with a heroine that wants to spread her wings but is held back, by a mother and by a husband who loves her (but listens to her mother). A husband who adores his wife and would love for her to show more passion but is afraid to hurt her. And then of course a meddling mother in law, who is not kind.

Conclusion:

Doubts, life and the will to truly live or not. A romantic tale about finding what you really want.

Cover

ok

Paperback, 356 pages
Expected US publication: March 15th 2014 by Choc Lit , but out already in ebook form
UK pub: March 7th
Romantic historical fiction
for review

Author Interviews: Liz Harris and Beverley Eikli and giveaway

Today I am interviewing both Liz Harris and Berverley Eikli. And the winner gets to choose which book to receive :)

Welcome!

1. Who is Beverley Eikli?

I'm one of those incredibly fortunate people who was born with a disability - being unable to walk properly - and then was 'fixed'. At seven, I was the first child in the world to undergo a new ground-breaking operation which redesigned my left hip, enabling me to walk and run like the other kids in my class.

I'm sure that had a big influence on my personality and made me more accepting of whatever curve-balls are thrown my way, though I can't think how much luckier I could have been in my life.

I grew up in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, with loving parents and a wonderful Masuto nanny called Francina and her three little children, so even though where we lived was so remote my younger sister and I had lots of attention and playmates. We moved to Australia when I was five but on a return visit 20 years ago to Botswana, where my father was born, I met and married a handsome Norwegian pilot.

As my darling husband's 'trailing spouse' I've had the most exciting and adventurous life, living and working in 12 countries and cities, including Namibia, Botswana, Norway, Greenland, French Guiana, Solomon Islands and Japan. We've been settled for the past five years in a pretty town north of Melbourne, Victoria, and have two beautiful daughters aged eight and twelve. 

2. Tell me why The Relucant Bride is the book to read in September...

As one reviewer puts it, The Reluctant Bride "has a slow boil. It starts as a romance story and ends in a fantastic mystery/action storyline." 

So if you enjoy the darker side of Regency life and are looking for a gripping, suspenseful page-turner with a tortured, conscience-stricken but self controlled hero determined to protect his 'reluctant bride' from a truth he fears will destroy her, then this is the book for you.

3.  You mix together spies, romance and suspense. What was the inspiration behind this book?

The Reluctant Bride first won Romance Writers of New Zealand's Single Title Competition six years ago but I put it on the back burner while I wrote five other novels and novellas, published by Robert Hale and Total-e-Bound.

At that stage The Reluctant Bride encompassed a six month period in 1812, several years after the 1809 Retreat to Corunna which is where my hero, Angus, faces his life's nightmare. He's still burdened by guilt when he meets Emily and as she's in need of rescuing, he sees an opportunity to atone for his past.

When I returned to writing the book after some years I realised I needed to know a great deal more about my heroine, Emily's backstory, which meant immersing myself in the violent and bloody events of the French Revolution, particularly the September Massacres of 1792. I did enormous amounts of research on Robespierre and a variety of revolutionaries to decide which personalities my heroine's family would have associated with so I'd know how these influences would have played out 20 years hence, when my book starts.

When The Reluctant Bride won Choc Lit's Search for an Australian Star competition I was over the moon. Choc Lit focusses on the hero's Point of View and I loved the fact that their 'tasting panel' thought Angus as honourable and compelling a hero as I did.

4. What's coming next?

Within the next few days I'll be starting on edits for my March 2014 release The Maid of Milan. I took a bit of a risk with this one - some readers will hate it when they get to that point, but to say why would be a spoiler - however I believe that the only unbreakable rule in a romance is that it has a Happy Ever After and that what happens along the way is just that - 'it happens'. As long as the characters can come to terms with it and find their HEA, then I've done my job.

Here's the blurb:

After five years of marriage, Adelaide has fallen in love with the handsome, honourable husband who nurtured her through her darkest hours.

Now Adelaide’s former lover, the passionate poet from whose arms she was torn by her family during their illicit liaison in Milan six years previously has returned, a celebrity due to the success of his book The Maid of Milan.

High society is as desperate to discover the identity of his ‘muse’ as Adelaide is to protect her newfound love and her husband’s political career.

If only the men had not been childhood friends.

Thank you so much for having me here today. I've really enjoyed it.

1. About me,  Liz Harris  

I was born in London. After graduating from university with a Law degree, I decided to see the world and I moved to California. It seemed a pretty good place to start, I thought. I went there for one year, but stayed for six! As you’ll realise, I had a brilliant time there, leading a very varied life, from waitressing on Sunset Strip to a stint as 'resident starlet' at MGM to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading company.

Eventually, though, real life intervened, and I returned to Britain, did a London University degree in English and taught for a number of years, during which I contributed weekly articles on education to a local newspaper.

By way of hobbies, I love reading - naturally - and I'm nuts about the Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords. I also like language and travel.

In addition to my novels, I've written several short stories, and in my non-writing hours, of which there are few, I'm the organiser of the RNA’s Oxford Chapter, a member of the Oxford Writers' Group, and I was on the committee organising the HNS Conference, 2012. 

My two sons live in London, while my husband and I now live in South Oxfordshire. 

2.  Three great things about A Bargain Struck.

I'm trying to suppress my typically British nature, which makes me instinctively recoil from promoting myself - ahem - and I'm going to force myself to be truly honest when telling you about three of the many great things about my novel, an historical novel set in Wyoming 1887.

When I read a book, the first thing I thing I want to find is a story. So when I write a book for others to read, the first thing I make sure about is that I have a really good story. There’s a strong story in A Bargain Struck, which is true to the period and the characters to whom I gave birth, which will engage your emotions and make you want to turn the page.

Secondly, what’s the point of reading an historical novel if the details are so inauthentic that they jar and the characters are modern characters in all but name and garments, I always wonder.  I loved researching the background to my novel to ensure authenticity, so much so that I forced myself to go to Wyoming and stay in a working ranch at the foot of The Rockies, surrounded by hunky wranglers. The sacrifices we authors make!

The third great thing is the strong romantic element in A Bargain Struck. I think the idea of mail order brides in the American west is so romantic, and when the widower ordering the bride is as gorgeous as Conn Maguire, a second generation homesteader in South Wyoming, well, I’m quite lost for words. Or almost.

3.  There is sure a difference, between your last book and your new one. Did you always want to write a Western romance?

Yes, The Road Back, a split era novel, set in the 1950s and 1995, and located in both London and Ladakh, is a very different sort of story on the face of it. It’s historically authentic, though, just as is A Bargain Struck, and the characters in both novels are complex in the way that real people are. In neither book are the characters cardboard cut-outs, and the emotions both books elicit in the reader are very real emotions.

But the American West is much more laid back and casual than London, certainly, for all there’s a strict divide between the work of the sexes, and the tone of A Bargain Struck is of one romance and the wide open plains of Wyoming, where men are men and women are … that does sound like a cliché so I’ll stop here.

As you’ll see from the bit about me, I used to live in the US. I love the place, and when I heard a radio article about mail order brides in Russia, which gave me the idea for the novel, locating it in Russia didn’t grab me, but the idea of Wyoming did -  mail order brides were prevalent in Wyoming in the mid1800s - and that was that.

In a month’s time, I’m going to start on another western novel. This will tell you how much I enjoyed writing A Bargain Struck, and how reluctant I would be to leave the world of Conn, Ellen and Bridget.

4. What's next?

I shall shortly be submitting A Far Place to Choc Lit. I’m in the final stages of editing it myself – I don’t like handing in rough drafts.

The idea for the story came from a number of those who read The Road Back. I’ve had a great many letters from readers, several of whom have asked what happened to the missionaries’ son, Peter. In A Far Place, I tell them.

Many thanks for inviting me to talk to you today.

Liz

Thank you both!

GIVEAWAY

The winner gets to chose either a copy of A bargain struck or The Reluctant Bride

1. Open to ALL

2. Ends Sep 22nd

3. Just enter :D

Review: The Reluctant Bride - Beverley Eikli

Can honour and action banish the shadows of old sins?

Emily Micklen has no option after the death of her loving fiancé, Jack, but to marry the scarred, taciturn, soldier who represents her only escape from destitution.

Major Angus McCartney is tormented by the reproachful slate-grey eyes of two strikingly similar women: Jessamine, his dead mistress, and Emily, the unobtainable beauty who is now his reluctant bride.

Emily’s loyalty to Jack’s memory is matched only by Angus’s determination to atone for the past and win his wife with honour and action. As Napoleon cuts a swathe across Europe, Angus is sent to France on a mission of national security, forcing Emily to confront both her allegiance to Jack and her traitorous half-French family. 

Angus and Emily may find love, but will the secrets they uncover divide them forever?

Conclusion:

How to describe this one? It was not one of those typical historical romances and therefore I would not want to call it that. It was the book in between H and HR. Also with a dose of mystery, spies and suspense.

The heroine, oh Emily, you were hard to like you ungrateful idiot. I get why she was like that, but she lived in a time where she had no rights, so at least be civil to your husband and not a shrew. Yes I confess that at one time I wish Angus had throw that ungrateful strumpet out on the street to fend for herself. But I am not gonna be totally evil because she changes, there is romance there after all.

Angus, awww Angus, he was so kind, he waited, he hoped, aww my heart. A perfect man. Sure he too had made mistakes before, but how he adored her.

As you can see they really really have to work for the love to grow. It's not easy, it's hard, almost impossible. But slowly things fall into place and they find what they want.

As for the suspense. There are spies, secrets, and the ongoing conflict between France and England. The book gave me a few surprises.

Conclusion:

A different sort of love story.

Paperback, 400 pages
Expected publication: September 15th 2013 by Choc Lit (came out on Kindle in July)
Romantic historical fiction
From the publisher