Good Morning. I just wanted to let you know I've lowered the prices on all my novels for the summer. If the new prices don't show up on your preferred retailer, please wait a week until all channels have been distributed. Thank you.
Happy Reading!
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Quarter Days
Good Morning. I know it isn't Sunday, however, due to my all-of-a-sudden-exceedingly-busy-schedule, my
hiatus, and a lot of other factors, this blog will now post on Quarter Days. (and Cross Quarter Days)
Quarter Days in British and Irish tradition, were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, and rents were due.
Lady Day 25 March
Midsummer Day 24 June
Michaelmas 29 September
Christmas 25 December
Cross Quarter Days were marked by pagan festivals
Candlemas 2 Feb
May Day 1 May
Lammas 1 Aug
Hallowmas 1 Nov
And so, as it is 1 May, I am posting.
May Day (also called Beltane) was the pagan festival for the coming of spring.
Traditional British May Day rites include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and a maypole. It was all to celebrate springtime fertility (of the soil, livestock, and people) It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. Doors, windows, byres and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire.
(source Wikipedia)
Today I will not be lighting any bonfires, or dancing through the streets with flowers in my hair. Today, as all days, I will be sitting down to writing at some point. I have wrestled through some pertinent issues with LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING, and I feel it is almost ready to finish. So yay for me.
 |
| wikimedia commons |
Quarter Days in British and Irish tradition, were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, and rents were due.
Lady Day 25 March
Midsummer Day 24 June
Michaelmas 29 September
Christmas 25 December
Cross Quarter Days were marked by pagan festivals
Candlemas 2 Feb
May Day 1 May
Lammas 1 Aug
Hallowmas 1 Nov
And so, as it is 1 May, I am posting.
May Day (also called Beltane) was the pagan festival for the coming of spring.
Traditional British May Day rites include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and a maypole. It was all to celebrate springtime fertility (of the soil, livestock, and people) It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. Doors, windows, byres and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire.
(source Wikipedia)
 |
| wikimedia commons |
Today I will not be lighting any bonfires, or dancing through the streets with flowers in my hair. Today, as all days, I will be sitting down to writing at some point. I have wrestled through some pertinent issues with LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING, and I feel it is almost ready to finish. So yay for me.
In other news, I have already begun THE LADY'S SECRET, and have slowly started to piece together the outline for THE SEDUCTION OF MR. SUMMERVILLE, the last book in The Reluctant Grooms series.
A few months ago, I posted on the topic of having a newsletter, a website, or a blog. I've been blogging for almost 5 years, and now, as a published author, my time is very limited to what I can and cannot achieve in the course of a mere 24 hours. This blog will now take the place of all three. (If you'd like to sign up for the email version of this blog, the widget is on my sidebar.) That way you will be sure to know when my next books will be out, what I'm up to, etc., and so forth.
Happy May Day! I'll see you next on 24 June -- Midsummer Day.
Anne Gallagher (c) 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
This Blog is on Hiatus
Good Morning. After much consternation, I have decided to take a break from blogging here. Part of this decision stems from taking a volunteer position at my daughter's school, which is now eating away at my free time. I would much rather write the next book than whittle away hours searching for blog topics.
I hope you all have an enjoyable spring. Hopefully, I'll be back before summer starts.
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Anne Gallagher (c) 2014
I hope you all have an enjoyable spring. Hopefully, I'll be back before summer starts.
Anne Gallagher (c) 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Working on the Next Book -- Lady Olivia's Undoing
Good Morning. Once I publish a book, I let it go into the universe with my very best wishes and never want to see it again. I look forward to future writing. And so, one week after publishing THE CAPTAIN'S COINCIDENCE, I started working on LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING. (I took a week off to clean my house and get my yard prepped for spring.)
I've been writing like a maniac, mostly because this story has been brewing in my head for the last year or so. LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING is one of the prequels to the last book in the series THE SEDUCTION OF MR. SUMMERVILLE. Lady Olivia has been a stalwart character in all of my books and I've wanted to give her her own story for quite a while.
Unfortunately for Lady Olivia, things do not go as she plans and she finds her world turned completely upside down. I'm so excited about this book, I don't even know where to begin to tell you about it.
Let me try. Remember a couple of months ago, I told you I had been searching for a new Lady Olivia, and that I found Phyllidia Law to portray her. Well, I changed my mind again. Even Phyllidia did not have what I wanted in my latest version of Olivia so I found a new one. Isn't she great. I think she can fall in love with Quiggins all over again.
However there's also another reason why I needed a new Lady O. I've been going on about this "secret" she has for the last several months, but when I started writing her new story, I found another one... About this man. Henry Wade, the Marquess of Dunbury. Isn't he just delicious? Don't you think they'd make a great pair. Yeah, me too.
But what about Quiggins, you may ask? Isn't Olivia in love with Quiggins? I thought they were having a glorious affair, so taboo, considering he's a butler. Ah, yes, my ever indefatigable John Quiggins.
Well, the problem with Olivia is that she's loved Henry Wade since she was 20. Unfortunately, she was betrothed to the Duke of Caymore and had to abide by her parents wishes. Henry, broken-hearted, left for the war. Well, 37 years later, their paths cross again** and Henry and Olivia meet and fall in love. They spend a wonderful year together. However, Olivia leaves Henry in a fit of pique because he won't marry her. And then all that trouble with Penny happened (THE LADY'S MASQUERADE) and Olivia never resolved her issues with Henry. Then she met John and fell in love with him. Yes, even duchesses fall in and out of love.
In LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING, we finally get the whole story about Lady Olivia, who she truly is and how she came to be one of the most powerful influential in London during the Regency. I bounce back and forth through her memories to the present day. It's all very fascinating to me. I've never quite written a love story like this. And yes, it is a love story.
I've also done something I do not normally do in my books...I only have one Point of View (POV). Olivia's. I didn't want Quiggins mucking up the business of being in my head and changing my story. So I left him out. Therefore, the entire book is all Olivia.
We get to meet her family, her friends, find out what secrets she holds, and how her influence has shaped and destroyed lives. Oh yes, everything Olivia has done up until this point in her life has been for purely selfish reasons. And in SEDUCTION she gets her comeuppance. But that's another story.
So there we have it.
On another note, I do not think I will be posting regularly through the month of April. I would like to really concentrate on this book and just write it so I will be able to publish it before the summer. If I have enough time, perhaps I'll even be able to work on THE LADY'S SECRET. Another prequel to SEDUCTION. Another fascinating look at a different side of Lady Olivia's family.
** Olivia's affair with Henry begins with the new series THE LADIES OF DUNBURY. Coming from Shore Road Publishing in 2015. (Or late 2014 if I can keep my head above water.)
Tell me -- How impatient are you for a new book in a series to come out? Or do you just read them when you find them?
Anne Gallagher (c) 2014
 |
| Lady Olivia |
Unfortunately for Lady Olivia, things do not go as she plans and she finds her world turned completely upside down. I'm so excited about this book, I don't even know where to begin to tell you about it.
 |
| Henry Wade, Marquess of Dunbury |
However there's also another reason why I needed a new Lady O. I've been going on about this "secret" she has for the last several months, but when I started writing her new story, I found another one... About this man. Henry Wade, the Marquess of Dunbury. Isn't he just delicious? Don't you think they'd make a great pair. Yeah, me too.
 |
| John Quiggins |
Well, the problem with Olivia is that she's loved Henry Wade since she was 20. Unfortunately, she was betrothed to the Duke of Caymore and had to abide by her parents wishes. Henry, broken-hearted, left for the war. Well, 37 years later, their paths cross again** and Henry and Olivia meet and fall in love. They spend a wonderful year together. However, Olivia leaves Henry in a fit of pique because he won't marry her. And then all that trouble with Penny happened (THE LADY'S MASQUERADE) and Olivia never resolved her issues with Henry. Then she met John and fell in love with him. Yes, even duchesses fall in and out of love.
In LADY OLIVIA'S UNDOING, we finally get the whole story about Lady Olivia, who she truly is and how she came to be one of the most powerful influential in London during the Regency. I bounce back and forth through her memories to the present day. It's all very fascinating to me. I've never quite written a love story like this. And yes, it is a love story.
I've also done something I do not normally do in my books...I only have one Point of View (POV). Olivia's. I didn't want Quiggins mucking up the business of being in my head and changing my story. So I left him out. Therefore, the entire book is all Olivia.
We get to meet her family, her friends, find out what secrets she holds, and how her influence has shaped and destroyed lives. Oh yes, everything Olivia has done up until this point in her life has been for purely selfish reasons. And in SEDUCTION she gets her comeuppance. But that's another story.
So there we have it.
On another note, I do not think I will be posting regularly through the month of April. I would like to really concentrate on this book and just write it so I will be able to publish it before the summer. If I have enough time, perhaps I'll even be able to work on THE LADY'S SECRET. Another prequel to SEDUCTION. Another fascinating look at a different side of Lady Olivia's family.
** Olivia's affair with Henry begins with the new series THE LADIES OF DUNBURY. Coming from Shore Road Publishing in 2015. (Or late 2014 if I can keep my head above water.)
Tell me -- How impatient are you for a new book in a series to come out? Or do you just read them when you find them?
Anne Gallagher (c) 2014
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