Guest Blog Today. The next in the Blog Hop!

Today, Sandra Masters is blogging about her Regency novel. 

Sandra Masters

Hello Writers:  I do not have a functioning blog but am working on it. My story ONCE UPON A DUKE, has been ruminating since 2007. It was formerly My Divinely Decadent Duke.

I am in love with the Regency period. To me it was a Classic Romantic Elegant era. Dashing Alpha heroes and strong, fiery, smart women and clothing to die for.

This book has been polished and is ready to go for re submissions to three publishing houses who expressed an interest.  At the Yosemite Romance Writers October meeting, I won the raffle that our presenting author, Sarah Richman, offered. It was her agreement to be my Beta Reader. I got the results back and her encouragement and suggestions were worth their weight in gold.  Thank you, Sarah.

Setting:  Regency England 1817, Lord Geoffrey Austen, Duke of Sutton—a handsome gifted rake with raven black hair and piercing grotto blue eyes is a fictional character, Alpha male, age thirty-four,  He's tall, scarred face and a tortured soul.

He meets the widow Lady Serena, an artist, who holds a dark secret, believes she is unlovable and that she was responsible for her parent’s death in a carriage accident.

Note from Author, Sandra Masters:  Your Grace, I have created you out of the figment of my imagination. Did I do you justice?

Lord Geoffrey, after being betrayed by an unfaithful fiancé, resolves never to marry for any reason and is suspect of all women. His arctic mother made it clear she married his father for security reasons only and never wanted any children.  When I met Serena, sparks blazed and our  two worlds collided.

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I thought to have Lord Geoffrey answer the questions from his viewpoint.

Interviewer: What is your main fear, Lord Geoffrey?

Answer: Getting leg shackled by a woman. I fear commitment and what love can do to a man. My interaction with Lady Serena, started out as just another notch on my bedpost, but somehow it grew into something profound when I saw the scars inflicted on Serena’s back by her sadistic husband. My heart melted at the sight and I found a need to show her tenderness.. I demonstrated to her the gentleness of a man and woman who share a real relationship. In a caring gesture, I gifted her with a puppy, who she named Adonis, after me and the mythical God of Love.

Interviewer: What is the main conflict?

Answer: She wants a commitment of marriage. I have offered the position of mistress. She refuses. I left without saying Goodbye. It was not a manly thing to do.

 Interviewer: What has messed up your life?

Answer: When I arrived in sooty air defiled London, I found everything a bore. My thoughts were consumed with Serena whom I left behind. I did return and visited her surreptitiously one night at the lakeside manor and it was comfortable.  Her maid prepared a warm meal for me. Adonis, the pup I gave her, wagged his tail merrily and tried to bite my shoe as usual.  Serena said, “WE missed you.”  I wondered how along the way I had acquired a family: woman, a maid and a puppy.  Our lovemaking was unbelievable and this time I woke her up before I left.

I returned to London and all I could do with think of her. The concept of a future relationship started to intrigue me. I returned to visit her the next week, but she was gone. I met with her brother and he told me she was engaged to another man and that she only toyed with me to make him jealous enough to propose marriage. He did. She accepted. Her brother approved. They are to be married in three weeks. Her brother informed me she ordered the puppy drowned and my portrait burned because it only reminded her of how foolish she had been.

You can imagine how outraged I was. I did not care about the portrait she burned, but to order Adonis killed—how could I have misjudged her? I drank myself into a stupor with a good friend and while I tried to find any woman who might ease the pain of her loss, they all were found lacking.  And just when, I thought there was no other choice than to forget her, all she said, all she did and all she represented to me, visitors came to my London townhouse. It was Serena’s maid and the groomsmen who had returned the puppy to me, unharmed, the week before. Her maid handed me a personal letter written hastily by her mistress. Serena advised she was being held prisoner in an armed fortress and that the marriage was forced upon her, without her knowledge or consent. She reaffirmed her love for me and indicated she would throw herself from a parapet into the ocean rather than marry the monster of a man that her betrothed was.

It was then I realized, when I was shown a picture she had drawn of the three of us, as a family, Serena, myself and the pup, that her brother lied to me—about everything. To add to this, the maid brought the portrait she had painted of me, the one that was purportedly burned, and I knew that her brother was guilty of lies for his own selfish purposes.

Serena’s letter ended with the words that she would love me forever, in this world or the next. What else could a rake do but reply that the maid, should return to her mistress and tell her that she would either attend our wedding—or my funeral.

I leave to come to your own conclusion on how the ending of the novel came about.

Interviewer: Is there a working title to this novel?

Answer: Yes, it is the ONCE UPON A DUKE, (That’s me.) by Sandra Masters. She's the author. You can visit the author’s website where there is an excerpt at sandramastersauthor.com and you are invited to leave a comment on the Guest Page.

Interviewer: When do you think the book will be published, Ms. Masters?

Answer: It has been re-submitted to a publisher who has assigned a review editor to read the manuscript and either recommend or reject the novel. It is hard for me to wait to have readers connect with me.

I've been on this pages for a long time. I hope you like our fairy tale romance.  I nominate Bonnie Phelps who blogged about her novel at this link:

http://bonniephelpsauthor.blogspot.com/2014/11/can-i-really-love-you.html