More New Stuff! This time, a Brand New Holiday Novella

I try to write holiday stories whenever I can. This year I went through the timelines of all my series to decide which was in a good place to have a Christmas (New Year’s / Solstice / Etc) tale.

The answer was: Leonidas the Gladiator!

So here is his holiday tale: Saturnalian Gifts (written as Ashley Gardner)

The story:

Leonidas is celebrating one year of freedom in December of AD 63 when his old trainer asks him to open the Saturnalian games. Leonidas has no interest, but the fee Aemil offers will let him purchase the gift he wishes to buy for Cassia. Of course, nothing is as it seems, and Leonidas and Cassia find themselves pitched into another mystery and at the mercy of the temperamental Nero. 

Click to read an excerpt.

Find the ebook here:

My Web Store: https://geni.us/gG5QBP

Amazon: https://geni.us/dRcR7

BN/Nook: https://geni.us/nrUk9BJ

Kobo: https://geni.us/POce

Google: https://geni.us/2rxbAU

Apple: https://geni.us/e14LH5

If you prefer to read in print, I gathered this story and two others into a new anthology called Crimes of Christmas Past.

Amazon: https://geni.us/YaOn2SW

Barnes and Noble: https://geni.us/O3S7 (keep checking for the paperback, should be there soon!)

My Store: https://geni.us/qgzBjVT

Also in ebook from

Kobo: https://geni.us/lWvz

Google: https://geni.us/ZeSU

Apple: https://geni.us/HRqzA

It was such a pleasure to return to Leonidas and Cassia. I haven’t written in this series in a while (not by choice, just time constraints), and I have enjoyed getting reacquainted with the world and everyone in it.

Also fun was to research Saturnalia traditions. Originally a solstice festival, it grew into a national holiday week by Leonidas’s time, with the Saturnalian games being only one part of the festivities. Later Christmas celebrations borrowed a number of traditions from Saturnalia that we still follow: Gift giving, card exchanges (they used scrolls), days off work, feasting, and communal activities.

I write my books mostly in the mornings, and some days, I groan and moan about having to drag myself up and start writing. But with this story, it was “Yay, I get to hang out with Leonidas and Cassia!” I love it when writing is like that.

Anyway: Thank you so much for all your support this year, Happy Holidays, and enjoy Saturnalia!

New Stuff from me (Part 4)

I’ve been working on this project for a while, and I’m finally thrilled to announce that Eloise and the Queen is ready to pre-order!

Pre-order the e-book (scroll down for paperback info):

My Web store (releases Nov 17, a week before the vendors): https://geni.us/Xu9K

Amazon: https://geni.us/FVme

BN: https://geni.us/xWF839

Kobo: https://geni.us/G2Wmdr

Google: https://geni.us/IZvsTBn

Apple (To come):

I am going to bring this out in both paperback and hardback as well, which will be available on release day (Nov 24) from the retailers.

You can pre-order the paperback or hardback from me, but in all honesty, it won’t be any faster. I have to drop ship from the printers, and they can be slooowww. Also I can only ship within the US, because shipping costs outside the US are way too high. You’ll save by ordering from a vendor in your country.

If you do wish to pre-order the paperback or hardback directly from me:

Paperback: https://geni.us/csGMri9

Hardback: https://geni.us/7rY50r

What Is It About?

Eloise and the Queen follows Elizabeth I from girlhood (story starts when she and the heroine, Eloise, are both fourteen), through the hardships and setbacks she endured as princess (house arrests, accusations of fomenting rebellions, a stint in the Tower, more house arrests) before finally becoming queen.

Eloise (niece of Elizabeth’s governess Kat Ashley) is Elizabeth’s personal seamstress, creating the beautiful gowns the princess wears throughout the years. Eloise is also Elizabeth’s confidant and later spy, keeping Elizabeth informed of what is happening while she is confined.

The books takes us through the accession of Edward VI, the machinations of the Seymour brothers, Mary’s rise, Jane Grey’s fall, Elizabeth as prisoner in the Tower, and her growing friendship with Robert Dudley.

I also introduce a romance between Eloise and one of Elizabeth’s gentlemen (James Colby, a fictional character, who is a close friend of Robert Dudley), but that romance has a twist (I can’t stop writing mysteries).

It is overall a historical novel, with elements of romance and mystery.

The Story Behind the Story

Long ago, I wrote a book called The Queen’s Handmaiden, at my publisher’s request when Tudor was all the rage. This followed another book I wrote for them: A Lady Raised High (a novel of Anne Boleyn).

By the time I finished and turned in the book, I think the publisher lost interest in all things Tudor. They cancelled the wives of Henry VIII series they’d been doing (he only got to have three wives), barely edited my book, and brought it out with no marketing whatsoever.

It went out of print very fast, which was good news (I didn’t think so at the time), and I was able to get the rights reverted to me.

Then it sat in my drawer for a very long time. I had so many other books to write, new series (like Shifters, Mackenzies, re-releasing the Captain Lacey series). Lots of exciting things happen in my career.

Every once in a while, I’d take out Eloise’s book, read it, and think—I need to revise this and republish!

A couple of years ago, I pulled it out *again*, and started the revision process, then sent it to my editor for close scrutiny. 

Then it went back into the drawer, because still I had so many other books to work on (mainly the Kat Holloway series, but many others too!).

At long last, this year, I said, “I’m doing it!” I took out the book I’d already rewritten and had a deep dive edit on, and revised it yet again.

In the years since I wrote the first version and this one, my writing skills have vastly improved, plus there has been much more research done on Elizabeth I and the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, uncovering new facts and busting myths.

I’ve done more research this time around than I ever did for the first book!

Therefore, retitled it and am bringing it out as new (or new-ish). Also I grew so interested in the history that I will likely write another, continuing Elizabeth’s and Eloise’s journey through Elizabeth’s reign.

I hope you enjoy this book. I absolutely love it, and it has been a pleasure re-writing and revising it so it can have a new life.

More about Eloise and the Queen and also A Lady Raised High, can be found here:

https://jenniferashley.com/jennifer-ashley-books/ladies-of-tudor-england/

I’ll have an excerpt of Eloise once it’s been proofread.

If you have read all the way to the end, thank you! LOL I hope you enjoy the book.

I’m working on more in all my series (in the middle of writing Captain Lacey right now).

Take care and have a good rest of your week!

New Stuff from Me (Part 3)

I continue to finish projects I’ve been trying to get to since forever.

This time it’s The Mackenzie Chronicles (Volume 1), which has been updated.

The Mackenzie Chronicles is a non-fiction guide to the Mackenzies / McBride Series with character sketches, my thoughts on each book, a reading list, etc. It is now up to date through Jamie’s book (which will end Volume 1).

From My Web Store (ebook and print): https://geni.us/aJkQrX

Amazon (ebook and print) https://geni.us/wdLq

BN (ebook and print) https://geni.us/645cDw

Kobo https://geni.us/IAnqoZa

Google https://geni.us/xQWNs

Apple https://geni.us/lMNu

If you already have the first version of this ebook: Go to the vendor from where you purchased it (except Amazon, see note) and redownload it. The update should automagically go to your device.

Note on Amazon: You have to email them to get the updated version. They have to be special.

All Mackenzie books I write henceforth will be discussed in Volume 2 (when I start writing more books, that is).

I’d love to do something like this for the Shifters, but oh my, what a daunting task. There are 28 entries in that series if you count the novellas. Same with the Captain Lacey series, which is up to 18. Yikes! I’ll have to think about it.

Regardless, I’m working on many more new (and new-ish) things! This is so much fun.

New Stuff From Me (Part 2)

The mystery The Bishop’s Lady I’ve penned as Ashley Gardner is out tomorrow (yay)!

Next new thing (truly brand new) is a historical romance novella for Halloween out at the end of October (Oct 26), in the Ghosts, Graveyards, and Grey Ladies anthology which you can pre-order here:

https://geni.us/IGXTP

My novella is called “Lady Clara’s Ghost,” and features a young woman who lives with her warm and close family on Hampstead Heath and a reclusive gentleman who lives three doors down from her.

Lady Clara and Lord Alden encounter each other in Highgate one afternoon, where a mournful cry sends them on a hunt that ends in a way they least expect.

It’s a sweet romance with paranormal elements, and I enjoyed the heck out of writing it. I fell in love with Clara and Alden, as well as her charming family and his eccentric friend.

Writing this novella let me take a good step back and write for the creative joy of it.

If you’d like a brief excerpt of my tale go here:

https://geni.us/bLJFF

This anthology is being published by Dragonblade, and they are exclusive to Amazon (though I believe they will have a paperback edition). Whenever I have rights back to my story, I’ll release it wide, but currently it’s Amazon only.

I have other new things coming up, which I will post about here when they’re ready. I’m so close to being done with the next Below Stairs mystery (Murder in Blackfriars) and I will breathe a great sigh of relief when I turn it in. Once I do, I’m taking a short break to deal with real life things (like plumbing woes and also just resting) and then dive into the Captain Lacey novel.

My best wishes as we move into the busy autumn season.

New Stuff from Me! (Part 1)

(Well, new and new-ish.)

First: For Mystery fans: Next week I’m releasing The Bishop’s Lady (writing as Ashley Gardner), a novella in a mystery series I’ve been noodling with for years (but have not yet published).

The Émilie D’Armand Historical Mysteries are set in the time of Louis XIV, where Émilie is a lady-in-waiting to the queen of France. Left destitute when her husband is killed (he owed many debts), Émilie has to live by her wits, finagling a post with the queen via Madame de Monstepan, the king’s mistress.

In this brief introduction to Émilie’s character, she is visiting a friend in Paris where a cold case crime involving her friend’s family awaits her.

You learn a little bit about Émilie here and will more when I get the first novel finished and out!

The Bishop’s Lady is available immediately on my shop or you can pre-order from the other vendors for a release next week:

Ashley Gardner’s Web Store: https://geni.us/YNh3LPa

Kobo: https://geni.us/tvNqB

Amazon: https://geni.us/hZF7Uyk

Apple: https://geni.us/YcuVt

Nook: https://geni.us/IVbHQSm

Google: https://geni.us/GPVEEtl

Read Chapter One:  https://geni.us/4fyuPuL

Full disclosure: This story was previously published in the Murder Most Historical anthology (where it still is in print), so if you have that, you have the story. However, this version has a pretty, new cover!  (And if you want it in print, please see the Murder Most Historical anthology).

I hope you enjoy it!

More new stuff forthwith!

New Kat Holloway novel, new audio novellas, and some news

This has been a busy couple of months! We returned from our long vacation and moved into our mountain house, and since then I’ve been buried in deadlines (that is, after my husband went to the hospital for a day. He’s ok–it’s just life with MS). I’m happy to be in the cool pines now, but I haven’t been out of the house! Well, for errands and to eat a few times, and to drive my husband home from the ER.

Anne-Marie Piazza spent much of her spring and summer recording Kat Holloway audio books: Three novellas (Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding, The Price of Lemon Cake, and A Measure of Menace) are out now, and A Silence in Belgrave Square will be out in audio in a few weeks.

I have bundled the three audio novellas at my Web Store here: https://geni.us/qhUGp

They download to the Bookfunnel app, where you can listen to them.

Or, find each audiobook here:

Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding
Audible: https://geni.us/So9ZrXt
Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/sPJzL
Chirp: https://geni.us/BWHg9hq
My web store: https://geni.us/XZDmdv

A Measure of Menace
Audible: https://geni.us/H8dO
Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/JcawU8J
Chirp: https://geni.us/m9Y5x
My web store: https://geni.us/YANPZE4

The Price of Lemon Cake
Audible: https://geni.us/ok6V12
Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/cEu1
(Chirp to come)
My web store: https://geni.us/rtSGR

And of course, A Silence in Belgrave Square is now out in paperback and e-book! In bookstores everywhere or online:

Kobo: https://geni.us/ulZg8J7 
Google: https://geni.us/9ltb0
Amazon (print and ebook): https://geni.us/279dW
Barnes and Noble (print and ebook): https://geni.us/Dk4J
Apple: https://geni.us/1pokWvQ

The audio book is pre-orderable at Audible, Chirp, Kobo, Audiobooks.com and wherever you like to buy audio books.

I’m very fond of A Silence in Belgrave Square, and I hope you like it. I introduce the character of Hannah, whom Kat knew in her cooking past. I loved writing her! Also there are more developments in the Kat / Daniel relationship, but I won’t spoil it …

I am now writing Book 9 of this series: Murder in Blackfriars, which will be out next year. If I get it done! This is one of the deadlines that is making me insane. I will need to do nothing but type for the next couple of weeks to get it written.

After that, I’m taking a break. (For me, this means days to a week.)

Now for the news part:

Book 9 will be my last contracted book for the Below Stairs Mysteries series. I don’t know if I’ll go back to contract for another one. Publisher almost said no to Book 9, which shows me the writing on the wall. The books, in my opinion, are doing well, but publishers are saying historical mysteries aren’t the “thing” anymore. I totally disagree (Captain Lacey, for instance, is my bestselling series), but they like to chase the new shiny.

That does not mean I will end the series–I will continue it indie, but I’m ready to be finished with deadlines, contract clauses that try to stop me writing other things, and not being able to publish what I want when I want to. I have other series I need to catch up on, and one reason they are behind is contracts that restrict me from publishing other books within certain time parameters.

The thought of setting my own schedule and not having to change it (barring personal emergencies) is so freeing! So, I’ll let you know. After my week off once I turn this book in, I will be writing hard on my other mystery series, then the romance series (all of them), and also starting brand new series!

I get excited when I think about it, which tells me this is the right direction to go.

But first … I have a book to finish! Sunday is my day off, then Monday it’s back to work. I love writing Kat Holloway, so it’s only so daunting.

Have a good rest of your weekend! Hope you find a good book to read, no matter what.

A Moveable Feast Release Day!

A Moveable Feast (Below Stairs Mysteries) is officially out today! (at long last).

Find it here:

My Web store: https://geni.us/5Vh4N
Amazon: https://geni.us/JCKmoR
BN: https://geni.us/ZRcnekZ
Kobo: https://geni.us/1FOs3
Google: https://geni.us/HJDY
Apple: https://geni.us/WcQID

Excerpt: https://geni.us/wjHtYMB 
I’ve bundled A Moveable Feast with A Measure of Menace into an ebook and paperback as well: https://geni.us/QvRGb 

What it’s about: Kat Holloway is dismayed when her employer orders her to cook Easter dinner in a house in Portman Square at the very last minute. Things are chaos when she arrives, and only go from bad to worse when murder enters the house.

You’ll also find a sneak preview of A Silence in Belgrave Square (Below Stairs Mysteries, Book 8) at the end!

I recently took a trip to London and ended up in Iceland (highly recommend Iceland as a vacation destination, which is much easier to reach than it seems). This was partly a working vacation / writer’s retreat, which gave me time to finish A Moveable Feast and start on Book 9 of Below Stairs Mysteries.

The time also let me make some decisions, some of them painful, about my writing business, and what I will do next. These decisions will be good for readers and in the long run, for me, because it will free me to schedule my books when I want them to be scheduled, instead of having to change things up and work around publishers’ sometimes onerous contract restrictions. It was difficult to face these decisions, but the relief after I made them told me I was doing the right thing.

All this means more books are coming. I’m taking this summer to firm up a release schedule (while writing the books, of course), which will be posted on my website when I have more definite dates.

I do have more books coming up this year, which you can see on my “Upcoming” page on my website: https://jenniferashley.com/coming-soon/ Right now, it’s a lot of mysteries, but romances will return after that.

More about my wonderful trip to London and Iceland in another post! I also began the trip in Brooklyn, which was awesome, and ended it in Boston, another great city.

Until next time, take care!

Stray Cat available, and What’s Next for the Shifters

Stray Cat (Shifters Unbound, Book 16) is out today on my web store:

Stray Cat on Jennifer’s Web Store

It will be out next week in paperback and e-book at the usual vendors:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Google

Apple

Please note that the paperback is not pre-orderable at Amazon but will be available there on May 14. For some reason, they are allergic to pre-orders for print. The paperback is available for pre-order from Barnes and Noble (who are more sensible, so far). You can also order the paperback from my web store (now), but in all honesty, it will not get to you any faster, because I have to order it myself from the printer, and shipping will not be any cheaper.

For Audio: The lovely Cris Dukehart is working on it now, and I’ll announce when that book is ready.

What’s Next for the Shifters?

I still have so many Shifters whose stories I want to tell: Neal and Kiera (you meet Kiera in Bear Facts). Brody and … (you’ll meet her in Stray Cat 🙂 ). I’d also like to go back to the North Carolina Shiftertown and revisit a few Shifters there, like Kenzie’s fierce uncle, Jamie the cheetah, and Cade the grizzly (“Bears just wanna have fun”). All these characters were introduced in Mate Bond. Plus there are a few hanging around the Austin Shiftertown. I also have many requests for stories about the cubs when they get older.

However, I am thinking I’m next going to do the book I’ve long been pondering about Dylan (simply called Dylan). While it will be a romance with a HEA, it will also be a saga and Dylan’s history, how he came to be who he is, and where he’s going. More about Fae / Shifter history and settling those issues. Basically, all about Dylan! Plus his family, his loves, his losses, etc. It’s Time for this book.

I can’t guess how long it will take me to write it, but Dylan will be the next Shifter book I work on.

Before then:

I am now writing (about halfway done) A Moveable Feast (Kat Holloway novella), which I’d hoped to have out at Easter, but that wasn’t going to happen. It is still set at Easter, but it won’t be out until June. When I’m finished with the draft (next couple of weeks if all goes well), I’ll put it up for pre-order.

Then I’m contracted to write a new Kat Holloway novel (probably titled Murder in Blackfrairs) which will be out next year. (A Silence in Belgrave Square is this year’s Kat Holloway novel, out this August.)

Continuing with mysteries, I will then write Murder on the Rhône (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Book 18), and at long last another Leonidas the Gladiator mystery!

Then back to romances. I have a lot on my plate as usual, but I’m getting to all the series as I can.

I have some new things on the horizon as well, as my creative brain never ceases to bother me.

I hope you enjoy Stray Cat (if you’re a Shifters Unbound reader). Happy spring!

Dreams and Inspiration (aka, Where do you get your ideas?)

The other night, I had what I call a “story” dream. In these I’m either a character or an onlooker in some scenario. My husband and I were doing the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage … in the middle ages. We must have been a noble couple, because we had nice clothes and rode horses. We spent the night at a castle (as you do), and there, my husband and I ended up having to solve a murder mystery.

When I woke up, I wondered if I was replaying something I’d read or watched, then I realized–no, I made it up! (Not that there has never been this storyline in any mystery novel, ever, but not in any I’ve read at least.) Cool! I thought. Another story idea for the files.

Will I ever write this book? I don’t know, but I’d like to. I have numerous ideas in the folder marked “worth pursuing,” which I go through every once in a while. Sometimes those ideas are incorporated into ongoing series, and sometimes they begin a new series (e.g., Kat Holloway).

Likewise, the Nvengaria series, which combines fantasy and historical romance, started as a dream. In this dream, I was a young woman visiting a palace with my parents (who were not my real parents but ones a young woman in a Regency novel might have). We were in a fairy-tale like kingdom in eastern Europe, and the man who lived in this palace was a dashing, lonely, charming prince in search of a wife. Even in my dream, I knew the wife-to-be was not me, but I was interested in his plight.

I turned that snippet of a dream into Penelope and Prince Charming, which developed an entire a fantasy kingdom (juxtaposed with Regency-era England), with magic, shape-shifters, prophecies, love potions, quests, and the like. Penelope began a four-book series, which I recently have released as a complete boxed set. I’d love to do more in that world, but I’m already writing a ton of series, and getting back to it is difficult.

Another series came not so much from a dream but a daydream on a road trip. I travel often in northern Arizona (and live there part time now). We were driving back roads in that area, where the land is vast and wide open (if you have watched the TV series Dark Winds, you’ll see it. It’s real.) I pictured a young woman zooming down these roads on a motorcycle, free and wild. Who was she? And why was she being pursued by a pissed-off sheriff? And her bad-ass biker boyfriend, who was a magical creature in disguise … ?

The Stormwalker series, which is one of my very favorites, was born. I have so many more ideas for that series and even for spinoffs. Janet has many cousins, and I populated two towns full of imaginary people, who all have histories, not to mention all those dragons flying around.

I have also put the Stormwalker series into boxed sets (Volume 1, Volume 2), with more sets to come as the series grows.

One day I’ll tell the story of how Captain Lacey came to be, following a visit to a local library. I was terribly discouraged during this visit, but it turned out, in the long run, to be a wonderful thing! Serendipity.

I also have the ambition to walk the Camino de Santiago, though while you can do segments of it instead of the entire traditional way from Lyon, I’m trying to picture myself walking 10-15 miles a day. Not sure about that! I suppose training is the key. Have you done the Camino or know anyone who has?

Take care, and happy spring!

Haunted Houses

In the Shifters Unbound series, one of the characters is a haunted house outside of New Orleans. I introduce this house in Wild Things, and use it extensively in Red Wolf, The Last Warrior, and especially in A Shifter Christmas Carol. It’s not really “haunted” in the conventional sense, but is sentient, with its own personality.

My inspiration for that house came from the one I’m living in now. When I moved in the year I wrote Wild Things, I wondered if the house would like me. It’s an older home (mid-20th century and older than me), and I hoped I’d connect with it.

Good news is, I did. The moment I walked into it on a rainy November day when there was an open house–we were the only ones who came to see it–I immediately knew this was the place for me. The house has a simple design inside, long and narrow like a railroad car. Sounds a little weird, but it works for me. A plus, was there were plenty of nooks in which to put my miniatures (always important).

We bought it and then spent a month fixing it up, because it needed new bathroom fixtures and painting plus it had layers of old vinyl floors and very strange curtains that dragged across the worn-out carpet in the living room. I think the only flooring we kept intact was the ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.

I’m very sensitive atmosphere in buildings, and I felt welcome here from day one. I wasn’t afraid or creeped out to stay alone, and it seemed the house appreciated the TLC. Through the years, the bond has deepened.

UNTIL …

A few years ago, we decided to spend our very hot summers in a cooler area of the state. My husband has MS and extreme heat can flare up the symptoms (I believe extreme cold can too.)

Therefore, we spend a few months each year away from our main house.

And it gets mad at us.

This past October we returned to find water trickling from the roof in front of the house, nonstop. Turns out our solar water heater had sprung a leak on the roof. We had someone fix the pipe. Next day, the water was gushing from the roof instead of trickling.

Everyone we spoke to said, sorry can’t fix it. You’ll have to replace the whole system.

I bypassed the solar heating part of the cycle, and the water ceased flowing. We’ll have to deal with the solar later, but for now, everything is dry.

At least in the front of the house. Water was still dribbling off the back. We have a pool, which also has a solar heater. Well, one of the panels decided to give up the ghost and as soon as the water hit it–spew. And I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to bypass that loop.

Again, we consulted several repair companies to come and take a look, none of which could fix it, but who still charged us the call out fee. It took nearly $1K to find a company who could actually repair it. They did, bless their hearts (and I have them bookmarked).

We also have ominous cracks in the ceiling of the garage, possibly water damage related, but I have no idea, because again, no one wants to investigate or fix it.

The faucet in the kitchen sink would not cease dripping, so we had to replace that too. There have been a few more minor mishaps and repairs that we’ve had to make as well, such as the latch to the screen door breaking off and falling inside the door frame. Irretrievable unless we take apart the entire door and frame. Though the screen door is relatively new, the company who custom made it is out of business, so I can’t call them to repair it. (We’re having it replaced.)

Now, the logical conclusion is that this is an old house and the plumbing is old, and the solar panels, exposed to blasting hot sun (110s F in the summer, which is why we seek cooler air) are wearing out and breaking. Other things age and break.

BUT. Nothing ever happens while we are here. Since October, we’ve been repairing all the things that broke in our absence, but otherwise, the house has been quiet and cozy, a happy place.

The minute we leave it for any length of time … It gets mad.

Hence, the growing personality of the haunted house in the Shifters books, with its many quirks and temper tantrums.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen when we depart again for the summer … (Shh. Don’t tell it.)