Homestead NEWS FLASH!!!

Ok, SUPER BAD MOMMA moment here. I totally did not post our exciting news on the blog here, though it's been shared all over Facebook.

We have an AUTHOR IN THE FAMILY!!!

Oldest daughter Jen has published her first novel with insight and guidance and some great collaboration by another author, Clive West.
Technically it isn't a novel, but a novella I believe, but I'm not splitting hairs over labels! The label doesn't matter a whit when OUR DAUGHTER HAS PUBLISHED HER FIRST BOOK!! The excitement is HUGE for all of us because we had no clue whatsoever that she was writing anything the past couple of years! Little stinker always could keep a secret!

Blakefields Mansion begins in the year 1856 (although the prequel begins in 1854). How many of the following major events which happened in 1856 do you know about ?
Queen Victoria introduces the Victoria Cross for the first time
The Crimean War comes to an end with the treaty of Paris
Afghanistan is invaded by the Persian Empire and Britain is at war again
Stanley Gibbons begins selling postage stamps
Birth of George Bernard Shaw
The Second Opium War in China begins
There is an explosion at Cymmer Colliery in the Rhondda which kills 114 people
The first boat race between Oxford and Cambridge universities takes place on the Thames in London
It was an eventful period in British history but to say more would be to introduce spoilers. You'll need to read the books.

 Another teaser...

What has possessed the normally level-headed Isabelle to abandon her childhood friend among strangers and make a madcap dash across windswept moors in a frantic search for help?

Two months earlier - the summer of 1856 - and the two girls are eagerly anticipating a stay at the imposing Blakefields Mansion in the West Riding of Yorkshire. They dream of grand balls, dashing young men, and mysterious, elegant ladies. But the reality will prove very different.

Intrigue upon intrigue builds to an unexpected and dramatic climax.

As they come to know the various gentlemen – the Lord of Blakefields; his cheerful friend and confidant; the ambitious but seemingly honest guest; the enigmatic neighbour with a dark past - it becomes less and less clear who will turn out to be the champion of decency and integrity.

Blakefields Mansion and its soon-to-be-released sequel, Stonecrest, are both realistic historical romances set in a tempestuous period of England's history. Queen Victoria is on the throne; social values are beginning to change - something that Isabelle will discover as she learns that true friends and true love are to be valued above either fame or fortune.

If you enjoy the likes of Austen, Thackeray or Dickens, then Blakefields Mansion is for you.

Here's the link to the Blakefields Mansion Facebook page to keep up to date on all the happenings 

And the Amazon page so you can grab your own Kindle copy, complete with a sneak peek inside the book

And another quick teaser to get you sucked in so you go buy a copy, LOL

And there is even a real Bell Busk Railway Station and Bed and Breakfast you can visit if you are one of those readers (as I am) who likes to see the bits of history mentioned within the pages of a good story

Bell Busk Railway Station and Tudor House 
Bell Busk wikipedia