Thursday, January 3, 2013

Giveaway & A Glimpse into the Life of Historical Romance Author Louise Gouge

Please join me in welcoming Louise Gouge to our blog. Louise's new release A Suitable Wife is the second book in her Ladies in Waiting series, with Love Inspired Historicals.

The series tells the stories of three young ladies who work as companions for wealthy women in Regency England (the era of Jane Austen’s novels). In real life, such companions were impoverished ladies from aristocratic families who were forced to work for their living, a shame for any aristocrat in those days.

Although Louise believes in hard work and works hard herself, she sympathizes with these women who were so limited in what they could do in order to survive. In those days, ladies simply did not work! Makes her glad to live in this day and age!

Here's the back cover blurb:

It’s an impossible attraction. Lady Beatrice Gregory has beauty, brains—and a wastrel brother. With her family fortune squandered, her only chance of a Season is as a lowly companion. London’s glittering balls and parties are bittersweet when Beatrice has no hope of a match. Still, helping Lord Greystone with his charitable work brings her genuine pleasure…perhaps more that she dares to admit. Even when every marriageable miss in London is paraded before him, the only woman to capture Lord Greystone’s attention is the one he shouldn’t pursue. Attaching himself to a ruined family would jeopardize his ambitions. Yet Lady Beatrice may be the only wife to suit his lord’s heart.

I've asked Louise to share a little bit about her life and writing. Take it away Louise...

Thank you so much for inviting me to appear on your blog. I love to connect with readers and let them know that we writers are just ordinary people. In my case, I was the youngest of four children, and because our father was in the newspaper business, we moved quite a bit. That gave me many places to call “home.”

Whenever we moved, the first thing I wanted to do was find the nearest church of my family’s denomination. I can’t really give you the date of my salvation because I always believed that Jesus Christ is my Savior. That doesn’t mean that I walked close to Him all the time, but I did know that in spite of my sin and weakness, God loved me and had a plan for my life

Part of that plan was for me to marry a wonderful man and for us to have four children, just like my parents. I consider the years we spent rearing those children to be the greatest time of my life, not to mention the greatest work of my life.

But when our nest became empty, God wasn’t finished with me. He opened up two new careers for me: teaching English and humanities at a local college and writing Christian novels. When I was growing up, I loved two kinds of stories: horse stories and biblical fiction. When I began my own writing career, I decided that romance was my favorite genre not only to write, but to read. I have three favorite authors: Laurie Alice Eakes, MaryLu Tyndall, and Ramona Cecil. If you have a chance to read anything by these authors, grab it!

So why do I write? What makes me think I can put together a story that will interest people? Well, I’ve always had an active imagination, so I just started writing down the stories that came to mind. After returning to college to hone my writing skills, I submitted my work to an editor and to my delight, she bought it. Since that time, the Lord has blessed me with more contracts.

In my books, I always strive to show how God works in the lives of ordinary people, but I try not to do it in a preachy way. That turns me off, so I don’t want to inflict it upon someone who’s bought my book. On the other hand, I doubt I could write a plausible story that did NOT include my faith in Jesus Christ because He is the most important thing in my life. I am so grateful to Him for my writing career. I have felt His hand in each of the thirteen books I have in print.

I recently finished the third book in this series. It will be released in July. I wish I could give you a sneak peek, but I’d better not. Let’s just say my hero and heroine in Book Three are minor characters in Book Two, and they are a very unlikely pair.

I would love for readers to visit me at my Web site, http://blog.Louisemgouge.com. Right now I am offering another chance to win a copy of A Suitable Wife to those who leave a comment. And for those who want the book right away, it’s available in both print and for Kindle at amazon.com.

Sandra again: Thanks so much for joining us, Louise. Does anyone have any questions for Louise? Louise is giving away a copy of her newest book to one randomly chosen commenter (US or Canada only, with apologies to our international readers)

Sandra Orchard is an award-winning author of Christian romantic suspense. She writes for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line, and debuts with Revell Publishing in June with the release of the mystery/suspense Deadly Devotion. She lives in Niagara, Canada with her real-life-hero husband of more than twenty-five years, and now writes full time…when not doting on their first grandchild.  You can learn more about Sandra’s books and bonus features at www.SandraOrchard.com or connect at www.Facebook.com/SandraOrchard

And for fun, stop by Sandra's newly redesigned website and try getting lost.

18 comments:

  1. Oh, I love Regencies! Thank you for sharing, Sandra and Louise! (Sandra, we attended the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-The-Lake in October, that must be very near you.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, yes, Donna, we love to stroll through the town and draw inspiration for my fictional Niagara town :)

      Delete
  2. Great post, Sandra and Louise! LIH books are my favorites, so I'm glad Louise told us about her latest. Love that cover too! ~ I have a quick question for Louise: Do you have a special place you write your stories? I'm always curious where authors write (home office, coffee shop, etc.). Thanks again for a great interview! Blessings from Georgia, Patti Jo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the post, both of you. I love your cover! I also enjoyed your website. Blessings from South Africa.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, Patti Jo. I write in my little home office in the corner of my bedroom. I like small, cozy places, so this is just perfect for me.

    Shirley, I'm so glad you like the cover. I do too! We authors don't have much say-so in the covers, but the Love Inspired Historical team always gives us great ones.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I enjoyed hearing about the next book in the Ladies in Waiting series. I have the first one - "A Proper Companion" and enjoyed it very much. I would love to read the second one. Thanks Sandra, for having Louise on your blog :)
    Hoping to see you, Sandra, when we visit Ontario in August, 2013!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, cool, Betti!!! Absolutely we'll plan on it. I'll have two grandbabies to show off by then. :)

      Delete
    2. Oh that is very cool!! Sarah is back in Duluth, and has not read Christine's letter yet :)

      Delete
  6. Hi, Betz. I'm so glad you enjoyed A Proper Companion. I just finished the third book in the series, A Lady of Quality, and I've love "visiting" the Regency era.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've heard these are really good! Is this your favorite time period to read about? shopgirl152nykiki(at)yahoo(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks, Veronica. I do love the Regency era, but I also like the era of the American Revolution and stories of the Old American West, i.e., pioneers and cowboys. I'm all about history!

    ReplyDelete
  9. A Suitable Wife if a very good read!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the Regency era too, even though I don't read as much historical fiction as I used to. Thanks for interviewing Louise, Sandra. I'd love to win a copy of "The Suitable Wife".
    A question for Louise - what is one of the most unusual or surprising things that you've uncovered in your research for the Regency period?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome, Elaine. It was a pleasure to get to know her. I've just started reading a lot of historical fiction again in the last year or so as friends are being published. I really enjoy slipping into other time periods for a few hours. :)

      Delete
  11. What a great question, Elaine. The most surprising thing I learned was the strictness of the social order among the aristocracy and nobility. Simply put, nobles are those with titles, and aristocrats are those nobles and all of their legitimate (extended) family members. Further, a nobleman could not simply bequeath his title and wealth to someone of his own choosing, say a daughter or an illegitimate son or a favorite servant. If you have seen Downton Abbey, you know that those laws were still in effect even in the early twentieth century. Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's great to learn more about you, Louise! Thanks for the interview, ladies. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Susan, I just saw your comment. Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed the book!

    Jessica, it's great to see you here.

    ReplyDelete
  14. ANNOUNCING THE WINNER!!! thank you to all who left comments.

    You wouldn't believe how many numbers I had to go through to pick a winner!!! I hopped over to random.org and had it randomly choose a number between 1 and 17. First number was 14--counting down from the top, that's me, so I tried again and got 15--Louise, so tried again, and got 4--Shirley, but I'm so sorry Shirley, because you're from South Africa I'm afraid I had to eliminate you, too. In the end, lucky 13 came up the winner--Elaine Clampitt! Elaine please email me your snail mail address at SandraOrchard (at) ymail (dot) com and we'll get the book out to you.

    ReplyDelete