#8Sunday #SundaySnippets: Dueling

I've begun writing the third novella of the Anton and Lenora series. It's still early days, but it seems to be coming along and I thought I might share a little bit of what I'm writing. The working title for this novella is "All Things Returned" and it's the next installment of an ongoing story set in 1852. In this snip, Anton( a ship captain) has sailed away on short journey and another captain named Jacob Lowell has tried to blackmail Lenora in Anton's absence. She's trying to decide whether or not to tell Anton about it:

Would he challenge Jacob to a duel?  Dueling was illegal, but there were plenty of gentlemen who were willing to meet in a deserted field at dawn. Here in California, our own ex-governor had dueled with the editor of Picayune. No one was harmed beyond a slight wound to the hand and the incident was put aside as a trifling matter. If Anton challenged Jacob, the outcome would not be so benign. One of them would end up dead and, either way, I would lose Anton.  I was stricken by the very thought of it. 

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The first part of this series, Sweet Lenora, is currently available as an e-book.

Lenora Brewer’s family owns the largest shipyard in Salem Massachusetts and Lenora, as her father’s only living child, is given free rein to learn the business. When Lenora’s father is killed in a carriage accident, her relatives arrange a marriage to a wealthy investor who is rumored to have beaten his first wife to death. Lenora devises a scheme to stowaway on The Sweet Lenora, a ship named for her.
The last thing Anton Boudreaux needs is a naïve young woman stowing away on his ship. The dark and daring captain has secrets of his own to protect.
When Sweet Lenora encounters a dangerous storm off the coast of Brazil, Lenora and Anton find in each other the courage and tenacity to brave the elements. As their love for one another grows it becomes a force to be reckoned with—and it will be sorely tested

Look for To The Wind, part two of the Anton and Lenora series, coming in October.


 

 

#8Sunday Still writing To the Wind

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Hi Sunday snippeteers! I'm still working on the draft of To the Wind. It's a historical novella set in 1852 on and around a clipper ship. I think I'm finally getting to the end of my voyage. The book is a sequel to Sweet Lenora, which will be released in July. I think this may end up being a series, as I won't resolve everything in book two and more conflict keeps arising. So it goes when you let characters run amok. The story is told in the voice of Anton, a sea captain in his late twenties.


Here's my eight:

She put her hands to her hips and a fire lit in her green eyes. “You forget, Sir, that I helped to build Sweet Lenora. I knew her every inch before you even set foot on her and I will not tend roses while a group of poxy old men decide her future.”

“I’ll defend the Lenora,  isn’t that what I have promised to do?”

“And I promised to be your helpmeet, not your flower tender.”

I doubted the poxy old men gathered in the courthouse would agree that my wife had an admirable disposition. But then, they did not know her and love her as I did.“Get dressed and hurry. Wear the gray dress, it is far more serious.”

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#8sunday To the Wind is in port.

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Hi WeWriWa hoppers. Welcome back. I've still been work on To the Wind, a historical novella set in 1852. To the Wind is the sequel to Sweet Lenora, which is coming out in July. I've gotten my characters to port in San Francisco. Of course, this doesn't mean trouble is behind them.

Sweet Lenora is written in the hero, Anton's voice. Lenora is the heroine.  Here's my eight:

She squeezed my hand so fiercely that I thought she might break the bones. “ Something else troubles you, Anton.”

            “They plan to fire the ship.”

            Lenora let go her grasp. “Destroy Sweet Lenora?”  

            I nodded my consent. “It is common practice here, for a ship so ravaged by fever. They do not want an epidemic in port.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors: More Anton #Sunday

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I'm still sailing onward with the sequel to my historical romance novella, Sweet Lenora. The story is set in 1852 on a clipper ship. The working title is "To the Wind".

Here's eight sentences from this week's writing:

            I seized  him by the collar. “I should have let them kill you.”

            “You think that rabble lot would not have mutinied in any case? You have been too busy with your harlot to run a crew. I’ve heard the rumors from Rio and they do not paint her pretty.  If anyone is to blame for the ship’s misfortune, it is you, Sir.”

            I took my dagger and put it to his throat. “One more word about my wife and you will find yourself without a tongue.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors: To the Wind

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Well, another week has passed and I'm still busy working on the Sweet Lenora Sequel, To the Wind. It's been fun researching the nineteenth century.

This week's sample comes from the end of chapter three of the novella:

  I stared at her with mouth agape. I could not have caught her meaning clear.

  She turned her eyes from me, her hand continued to offer out the coat. “I have given you

my heart, Anton. I own that I do not want it back. But it is difficult for me to fathom why the man that I love would rather keep a deal with the devil than lay hope in the woman he professes to love.” Tears ran down her cheeks and I would have taken her in my arms had she not so completely set me asunder that my own heart bled. I could not allow a woman to run my life, even if I loved her more than I did that life. I took my coat and my leave.

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Sweet Lenora is coming out in July. For more on this historical romance novella, click on the cover image.