Light of Love Anthology Giveaway
It’s time to be thinking about holiday romances, and there is a great new historical romance anthology releasing tomorrow September 19th, The Light of Love: A Hearts Through History Anthology. The theme of the anthology is the celebrations surrounding the solstice. We are fortunate today to have the authors sharing why they chose the historical period they did. (And we have a giveaway for you too. See below.)
Authors in this anthology include:
- Elf Ahearn – “Written in the Water: A Nantucket Love Story” Outcast and alone, can the beauty of Nantucket bring them love?
- Jaylee Austin– “The Snow Stag” – Unlock the Mystery of Rowmore Woods: Join Sherlyn Winters on a Journey of Love, Adventure, and Fate.
- Ruth A. Casie – “The Lady & The Flame” – Will their passion overcome the secrets and lies that threaten to keep them apart? Or will the flame of love be snuffed out by the cold heart of betrayal?
- Jo Donahue – “Jessica’s Christmas Locket” Love isn’t always measured by Gold.
- Heather Hallman – “Forbidden” For their love to prevail, Emmy and Sachio will have to be the last ones standing.
- Opal Iden – “Light of Peace” Christmas looks bleak for Irma and her family. Her husband is dead, her cupboards are bare and she’s not sure what to do with the wounded man on her stoop.
- Doreen Jensen – “What the Cat Knew” – Even pressure from each of their clans doesn’t keep two old friends from trying to break their marriage contract.
- Joan Koster – “A Solstice Promise” – To love is to risk everything.
- Julia Masters – “Promises by Starlight” – An unmarried female mathematician at the Harvard College Observatory must convince an opinionated up-and-coming astronomer that she is the right assistant for the position on his stargazing research team.
- Niki J. Mitchell – “Snowbound Hearts” – A Wisconsin blizzard strands a handsome widower with a vivacious banker’s daughter. Their relationship blossoms—until he breaks her heart.
Here’s your chance to meet some of them as they share what inspired their stories:
Why Nantucket?
Elf Ahearn
In 1945 my grandparents bought a beat up, prefab cottage on Nantucket Island, which has been in the family ever since. All I knew of the island’s history, however, is that folks got rich hunting whales. Then I dove down the rabbit hole. OMG, for a darling little vacation spot, that patch of grass was brutal.
“Written in the Water,” my story in The Light of Love, takes place in 1843. By that time, so many whales had been slaughtered they were nearing extinction, and the Wampanoag natives of Nantucket were routinely forced to work as indentured slaves. “Written in the Water” is about two outcasts, a Wampanoag man and a woman too wild for the island’s respectable Quaker society.
Why Early Ireland?
Jaylee Austin
Ireland is filled with mythology and fantasy. My ancestors were from County Cork and this created an desire to learn more of the stories of the area. The joy of a fantastical world alongside our own offers a sense of hope that is different from our own.
Why Regency Britain?
Ruth A. Casie
The Regency era, with all its fancy elegance and artistic flair, had its fair share of issues in the realms of society, politics, and the economy. In a nutshell, these very challenges make for some darn good story material.
Why the Scots?
Doreen Jensen
Doreen Jensen
While I was born in Ontario, my family was from Nova Scotia. With ties to both Clan MacAskill on one side and Clan MacDonald on the other, I grew up with a keen interest in Scottish history. The Middle Ages have always fascinated me. Although in this time period most highlanders people spoke Gaelic, I grew up with books depicting the Broad Scots brogue which made me sigh happily, and I wanted others to feel that too.
Why the Vikings and the Picts?
Joan Koster
“Solstice Promise” grew out of a novel I am currently working set during the Viking era in Orkney, Scotland. The Vikings overcame the Picts living on these islands in the ninth century. But nobody knows how. Here was a perfect place to set an enemies-to-lovers romance. When I discovered that there was also a standing stone with a hole in it that was once used during Solstice ceremonies, I knew I was on the right track.
Why American Women Astronomers?
Julia Masters
Before there was Hidden Figures…
I was inspired by the American astronomer, Maria Mitchell, and her story of discovering a comet in 1847, which thrust her into the international spotlight. She became America’s first professional female astronomer and first female professor of astronomy. She was an early advocate for math and science education for girls.
While researching more about nineteenth century astronomy, I found a fascinating book called The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel and I just knew I had to write a story that incorporated these fascinating women and their pioneering contributions to astronomy. I hope you enjoy the story of starry-eyed lovers Celeste Barnes and Owen Campbell.
Why Meiji Period Japan?
Heather Hallman
A cultural anthropologist by training, I’m forever fascinated by shifts in sociocultural values and practices. I write in the Meiji Period (1868-1912) when Japan opened its borders to foreigners after 250 years of geopolitical isolation. The changes that occurred during this period are, no exaggeration, mind-blowing. How the Japanese people managed all this change from the clothes they wore, to the foods they ate, to the ways they did business, sport, leisure, and religion, and the specific interactions with Westerners that precipitated these changes are the focus of my romances.
Why Nineteenth Century Britain?
Opal Iden
When I signed up for this anthology, I had been a paranormal or contemporary writer, this is my first historical, and my first single flame heat level.
Then I discovered a Wiki on the practice of “wife selling,” and I fell into the dark hole of research. One article claimed that the last recorded wife sale in Great Britain happened in 1909. And another stated that in India, there were wife sales into the 2000’s.
So, I jumped in – researching clothing, social structure, and holiday customs in Britain. That is where the spark started, and how Irma and James ‘s romance blossomed. Though wife selling is mentioned, it is not the basis of my story.
I hope you enjoy reading about Irma, James and the rest of the families as much as I enjoyed writing their story.
Why 19th Century Wisconsin?
Niki J. Mitchell
During my childhood, I heard tales of my Grand-Aunt Ethel’s farm, located about an hour away from Madison. I wanted to know more about the state and my heritage and started digging. When I unearthed Wisconsin’s fascinating logging legacy in the 1800’s, the idea of an unlikely pair stranded in a cabin came to mind. And I wrote Snowbound Hearts.
The Light of Love
A Hearts Through History Winter Anthology
Love lights the way out of the darkest nights.
Join us for Hearts Through History’s second anthology, The Light of Love. Experience a thousand years of romance during the winter solstice, including pagan and Christmas celebrations.
Journey with us from the Viking Age in the Orkney Islands, through the Medieval Scottish Highlands, then to England and Ireland before we travel to Nantucket’s Whaling Era, Wisconsin, and the California Gold Rush. Finally, our romances conclude in Meiji era Tokyo and with stargazing in Cambridge, MA.
New debuts join best-selling authors in these ten heart-warming, never before published short stories.
Look for our annual anthology and keep up with your favorite authors by visiting:
Hearts Through History Romance Writers
www.heartsthroughhistory.com
