HISTORICAL ROMANCE - MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH IT

WHY DOES MARGARET TANNER WRITE  AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL ROMANCE?

There is nothing more gratifying than a well researched historical romance novel. Nothing worse than a historical novel filled with historical errors, either. To write historical romance novels I feel that you must have a love of history, as well as a love of romance. You must be passionate about your subject.

 

Like the heroines in my novels, my forebears left their native shores in sailing ships to forge a new life in the untamed frontiers of colonial Australia. They battled bushfires, hardship and the tyranny of distance in an inhospitable and savage land, where only the tough and resilient would survive. They not only survived but prospered in ways that would not have been possible for them had they stayed in Europe.

 I would like to think I display the same tenacity. My goals are a little different from those of my forbears. I want to succeed in the publishing world.

I received my baptism of fire on the literary field of battle at an early age. I have known the highs (winning awards and having my books published), but also known the lows of the volatile publishing world. Publishing company closures, an opportunity for one of my novels to be turned into a film, only to be thwarted at the last minute by government funding cuts, and writing friends dropping off because they couldn’t get published and gave up the struggle.

 I am a fourth generation Australian. We are a tough, resilient people, and we have fought hard to find our place in the world.   We have beautiful scenery, unique wild life, and a bloodied convict history.

 

I admire heroines who are resourceful, not afraid to fight for her family and the man she loves. I want my readers to be cheering for her, willing her to obtain her goals, to overcome the obstacles put in her way by rugged frontier men who think they only want a wife to beget sons.  A chance for revenge.  To consolidate their fortunes. That love is for fools.  Oh, the victory for the reader when these tough, ruthless men succumb to the heroine’s bravery and beauty, and are prepared to risk all, even their lives to claim her.

 

Then there are the brave young men who sailed thousands of miles across the sea in World War 1 to fight for mother England, the birth country of their parents and grandparents. I also wanted to write about the wives and sweethearts who often waited in vain for their loved ones to return. Who were there to nurture the returning heroes, heal their broken bodies and tormented souls.

 This is why I write historical romance, even if it means trawling through dusty books in the library, haunting every historical site on the internet, badgering elderly relatives, and risking snake-bite by clambering around overgrown cemeteries.

 

Falsely Accused, the winner of the historical section of the Easy Chair Best Book Award, is one such book.

 

1820’s England. Visiting from America, Jake Smith is betrayed by a member of the aristocracy. Convicted for a crime he did not commit, he is exiled to the penal colony of Australia. Jake carries a dark secret that will send him to the gallows if it ever comes out.

On board the convict ship he meets and falls in love with Maryanne Watson.   

Escaping their captors in Australia, the lovers set up home in a hidden valley and Maryanne becomes pregnant.  With a price on his head, will Jake come out of hiding to protect his fledgling family? And how can love triumph over such crushing odds?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falsely-Accused-Margaret-Tanner-ebook/dp/B00LEXEVES/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1432889303&sr=8-1&keywords=falsely+accused+-+kindle

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES#reader_B00LEXEVES

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-falselyaccused-1869092-153.html

 

 

 

MY GOAL FOR 2015 - INSPIRATION - MARGARET TANNER

WRITE, WRITE WRITE.,  MARGARENT TANNER'S GOAL FOR 2015

My resolution for 2015 is to write more. I know I have said this before, but I feel that I need to up the ante so to speak and write, write, write.

We had a quiet Christmas, my 2 granddaughters were overseas visiting their other grandmother, so the number around our Christmas lunch table was only four.

I didn’t even bother to farewell 2014 or herald the birth of 2015, although illegal fireworks going off in the neighborhood from dusk until dawn was very annoying. The barking of terrified dogs did not help either. As I lay in bed, wondering why I bothered to even try to sleep with so much noise going on, I made my New Year resolution. I was going to be inspired. To finish my WIP and start on something new. It must have worked as I have just sent off my latest novel to my editor, the first of several I hope.

So how can I get this elusive inspiration for my work in progress, or for that matter, all my novels? Fortunately for me, I write historical romance, so delving into my family tree is a great resource for me.

Like the heroines in my novels, my forebears left their native shores in sailing ships to forge a new life in the untamed frontiers of colonial Australia. They battled bushfires, hardship and the tyranny of distance in an inhospitable and savage land, where only the tough and resilient would survive. They not only survived but prospered in ways that would not have been possible for them had they stayed in England, Ireland and Scotland.

I admire heroines who are resourceful, not afraid to fight for her family and the man she loves. I want my readers to be cheering for her, willing her to obtain her goals, to overcome the obstacles put in her way by rugged frontier men who think they only want a wife to beget sons.  A chance for revenge.  To consolidate their fortunes. That love is for fools.  Oh, the victory for the reader when these tough, ruthless men succumb to the heroine’s bravery and beauty and are prepared to risk all, even their lives, to save her.

This is why I write historical romance, and will continue to do so in 2015. I hope you will follow me on this journey. My goal is four novels/novellas, but if I get sufficiently inspired, maybe five.

Dangerous Birthright will be my first novel for 2015. It is the sequel to Falsely Accused. Both books are published by Books We Love.

FALSELY ACCUSED: 1820's England. Robbed of his birthright and falsely accused of murder, American Jake Smith, is exiled to the penal colony of Australia.

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES

 

 

DANGEROUS BIRTHRIGHT: The sequel to Falsely Accused - Due out February/March 2015. 

Can an English aristocrat go against society and marry the daughter of convicts?

 

GRATITUDE - THE VEGIE PATCH - MARGARET TANNER

 MARGARET TANNNER - FOND MEMORIES OF THE HUMBLE VEGIE PATCH.

I am grateful for many things. Good health, happy family and fond childhood memories. The thing that really sticks in my mind when it comes to gratitude is the garden of my childhood home, and the produce grown there. To say it was life-saving would be an understatement.

My parents didn’t have much money when I was young. I didn’t really think that much about it at the time, but as I grew older I suddenly realized that my mother was a genius when it came to running the household on meagre amounts of money. She was also a great cook.

My father returned from the 2^nd World War carrying injuries, the physical ones we knew of but not the psychological ones. He had a heart attack in the early 1950’s when I was very young, and he could no longer work. Things were tough as we had to survive on a small military pension. He should have received a much larger pension but somehow never did.

No matter how bad things got, we were never hungry or dressed in ragged clothes, and we had a roof over our heads. Luckily my parents had paid off our house before Dad got sick.

Dad had a wonderful garden and we were very thankful for the produce he grew there. Tomatoes were his speciality. He loved them and grew heaps of them. I can still remember the tomatoes, we ate them raw, in salads, cooked, fried, steamed. Green tomato pickle, tomato sauce, chutney, tomato relish. You name it, mum cooked it. She used to preserve tomatoes so we could have them all year long.  

Looking back on things now I realize I should be grateful for the humble tomato, it certainly kept our bellies full.  I can’t even recall how many different dishes mum used to make with tomatoes as a base.

Apples were another thing Dad grew well. We had about six different varieties of apple trees growing in the garden. Once again, Mum baked them, stewed them and preserved them. We used to pick them green sometimes and store them in the roof cavity of the house and they would ripen up there. They lasted for months. Potatoes were another one of his specialties. I firmly believe to this day that it was the garden that kept Dad sane. He used to spend hours there.

So, I am grateful for my mother’s cooking expertise and other housekeeping skills and my father’s gardening skills, otherwise life would have been grim.

My early upbringing has stayed with me and I think that is why I mainly write about heroines who are poor and doing it hard. I can’t remember ever having written a rich heroine in any of my stories. As for my heroes, well they are always rich, arrogant and tough men who are redeemed by a gentle heroine who is strong because she has overcome hardship.

In my novel, Falsely Accused, the heroine is exiled to the penal colony of Australia for a crime she did not commit. She has to survive the degradation and desperation of the convict ship, and once she disembarks, her problems increase a hundredfold.

FALSELY ACCUSED BLURB:

On board the convict ship taking them to the penal colony of Australia, Maryanne Watson meets the mysterious American, Jake Smith. They fall in love, but Jake hides a terrible secret that will take him to the gallows if it ever comes out.

On arrival in Sydney the lovers are separated. Maryanne is sent to work for the lecherous Captain Fitzhugh. After he attacks her she flees into the wilderness and eventually meets up with Jake who has escaped from a chain gang.  They set up home in a hidden valley and Maryanne falls pregnant.  Will Jake come out of hiding to protect his fledgling family? And how can love triumph over such crushing odds?

Available in print and e-book format.

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES

FALSELY ACCUSED - NEW RELEASE - MARGARET TANNER

FALSELY ACCUSED - PROMO - MARGARET TANNER
My latest release from Books We Love, is Falsely Accused. Several years ago it was published with a title of Savage Utopia, but it has now been revised and has a lovely new cover from the talented Michelle Lee.
This book is set in the 1820's, against a background of the transportation of convicted felons from England to the penal colony of Australia.
It is available on Amazon

BLURB:

On board the convict ship taking them to the penal colony of Australia, Maryanne Watson and Jake Smith meet and fall in love, but Jake hides a terrible secret that will take him to the gallows if it ever comes out.

On arrival in Sydney the lovers are separated. Maryanne is sent to work for the lecherous Captain Fitzhugh. After he attacks her she flees into the wilderness and eventually meets up with Jake who has escaped from a chain gang.  They set up home in a hidden valley and Maryanne falls pregnant.  Will Jake come out of hiding to protect his fledgling family? And how can love triumph over such crushing odds?

EXCERPT:

Maryanne woke up with a throbbing headache. Her vision was blurred and her throat felt so dry and scratchy, no sound would come out. Vaguely she remembered liquid being forced past her lips, noise, the movement of a carriage and the words “seven years”.
Where did that vile smell come from? She tried to focus her eyes but couldn’t. Her bed felt cold and hard. Suddenly memories came flooding back, Fiona’s death and Sarah attacking her with a knife. Her body twitched with the shock of remembrance. She had been found guilty of assaulting her stepmother, and was sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of Australia. To be incarcerated there for seven years.
Maryanne still felt hazy about the happenings of the last few weeks, except the final verdict. Seven years incarceration might as well be life, because few people ever returned from exile. The authorities called her a vicious mad woman, and would not listen to her version of what Silas and Sarah had done to Fiona.
“You awake now?”
“What?” She blinked several times in quick succession trying to clear the haze from her eyes. “Where am I?” The question sounded like hers, but the low guttural voice didn’t.
“Newgate prison. I’m Libby.”
A young woman’s face came into focus, a woman with flaming red hair that even the dirt and dinginess around them could not hide.
“They brought you here from the insane asylum, said you tried to murder your stepmother.”
“She deserved to die, both of them did. It was an accident; we were fighting over the knife and…”
“You won’t last long on the convict hulks, my pretty.” A toothless old crone leered at her.
“Shut your mouth, you dirty old hag.” Libby shoved the woman away, and the old thing cackled loudly.
“What does she mean?”
Shivering uncontrollably, Maryanne glanced around. She lay slumped against a slimy wall, and her clothes looked as filthy as those of twenty or so other women in this dungeon cell. Her hair, like scattered rats tails, straggled about her shoulders, and she gave a shudder of revulsion because she must smell as dreadful as everyone else.
“What’s your name?” Libby asked, with a slight Irish brogue.
“Maryanne Watson. I want to get out of here, I’m innocent.”
“Stay where you are,” Libby hissed fiercely. “Don’t attract attention to yourself. Everyone in Newgate says they’re innocent.”
“But I am, I am,” she babbled, trying to get control of herself. Why wouldn’t anyone believe her? The slap on her cheek, little more than a tap, instantly stopped her anguished flow of words.
“Do you want to stay alive, Maryanne Watson?”
“Yes, doesn’t everyone?”
“Well, say nothing to attract attention to yourself. Some of these women would kill you, just like that.” Libby snapped her fingers next to Maryanne’s ear. “The turnkeys won’t save you either, here or on the hulks. They only have one use for women.”
Bile surging into Maryanne’s mouth tasted foul and bitter. Her flesh crawled with terror and she clenched her teeth to stop herself from becoming hysterical.

http://www.bookswelove.net/tanner.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MANY SHADES OF COLLABORATION - MARGARET TANNER

MARGARET TANNER'S TAKE ON COLLABORATION

 

Collaboration. – The dictionary defines this as:

Working together or working with another.

To co-operate with an enemy of one’s country.

I have collaborated.

I have worked with other authors on a Western anthology (Rawhide ‘N Roses), where there were fourteen of us who each supplied a short story.

I have also worked with good friend and fellow author, Susan Horsnell in a short story collection, Colonial and Cowboys.

Donning my erotic romance persona, as KC Vixen, I collaborated with two other erotic romance writers, Lacey Roberts and Victoria Hanson. We each supplied a novella for this boxed collection, A Feast of Erotica, so it can be seen that I have collaborated a few times.

 Thankfully, I have never been put in the position of having to co-operate with an enemy of my country.

 Now, forgetting the strict dictionary version, there are variations on collaboration in my opinion.

I have found that many of the characters in my novels collaborate with others, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil.

Two female workers may collaborate to try and have something done about a fellow worker who may have sexually harassed them. We all know the type, the guy who accidentally brushes our breast, stands too close to us in the elevator and is always making smutty jokes when no-one else is around.

Then there are the criminals who plan a bank robbery together, working for weeks on the layout of the bank, the personnel required, which bank to hit, getaway cars, somewhere to stash the cash until the heat is off etc. This planning might take weeks before the deed is done. Surely that is collaboration.

In my latest novel, Falsely Accused, the hero, Jake Smith, is convicted of a crime he did not commit. His aristocratic father wants to get rid of him, so with the help of paid criminals, the father has Jake framed for a murder he did not commit. In my mind, the father collaborated with these men by planning his son’s demise with their help.

So, in my humble opinion, there are many shades of Collaboration.

 FALSELY ACCUSED

On board the convict ship taking them to the penal colony of Australia, Maryanne Watson and Jake Smith meet and fall in love, but Jake hides a terrible secret that will take him to the gallows if it ever comes out.
On arrival in Sydney the lovers are separated. Maryanne is sent to work for the lecherous Captain Fitzhugh. After he attacks her she flees into the wilderness and eventually meets up with Jake who has escaped from a chain gang.  They set up home in a hidden valley and Maryanne falls pregnant.  Will Jake come out of hiding to protect his fledgling family? And how can love triumph over such crushing odds?

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LEXEVES

 Margaret Tanner writes historical romance.

Under the name of KC Vixen she writes erotic romance novellas.

http://carnal-candies.wix.com/kcvixen-1