The Widow Wore Plaid by Jenna Jaxon - Book Tour + Giveaway

The Widow Wore Plaid

by Jenna Jaxon

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GENRE: Historical Romance

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BLURB:

The Battle of Waterloo made them widows, but each has found new happiness. And Jane, Lady John Tarkington, intends to keep her freedom, even if love—and one particular gentleman—are determined to claim her heart  . . .

It is a truth rarely acknowledged—at least in public—that a wealthy widow is free to pursue a great many adventures. For two years, Jane has privately enjoyed her independence. Why should she remarry, even when the gentleman proposing is as wonderful as Gareth, Lord Kinellan? She entreats him never to ask her again. But as her Widows’ Club friends—now all joyfully remarried—gather at Castle Kinellan, Jane begins to wonder if stubbornness has led her to make a terrible mistake . . .

Kinellan needs a wife to give him an heir, and he wants that wife to be Jane. They are perfect together in every way, yet she continually refuses him. Just as he is on the point of convincing her, a series of accidents befall Gareth and point to an enemy in their midst. He has promised Jane a passionate future filled with devotion, but can he keep them both alive long enough to secure it?   

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EXCERPT

Parched, Gareth headed for the refreshment table that had been set up sufficiently far from the dancing to be out of danger. Footmen were stationed at each end to help keep those who might have imbibed too much from crashing into the table. He grabbed a cup of ale and drank thirstily until the tankard was empty. Setting it back on the table, he then took a glass of rich, red wine and sipped more moderately before heading back to the dancing.

He skirted the dancing couples, where Lathbury was heying with Jane, who was now flagging a bit. Two sets of fast-paced Scottish dancing was hardly comparable to the more staid English country dances. One actually had time—and breath—to converse during those. The faster paced Scottish tempos demanded stamina and good wind.

A young couple ran laughing in front of him. Smiling at the gaiety of the pair, Gareth backed out of their way, toward the blazing bonfire, his gaze still on Jane’s entrancing form. She did cut a delightful figure when dancing.

A passerby jostled his elbow, but he managed to save most of his wine. He spun toward the ungraceful lout when someone else shoved him harder.

The jolt propelled Gareth, already off balance, backward, directly into the flames of the roaring bonfire.

Desperately windmilling his arms to regain his balance, Gareth fought the sickening, helpless feeling of falling backward. Searing heat on the back of his head and jacket grew greater with each passing second, telling him his efforts to right himself would be in vain. God help him, but this would be a fiery end.

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Author Interview 1. How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?
Well, that’s kind of hard to say. If we’re talking a full-length novel (90-100k), and I’m really in the zone, then I can write a 3,000 word chapter a day, so 30 days. That’s the ideal. More realistically – life always interrupts the creative flow—two months for a good first draft. If I can write the first draft by hand, then I have a really good second draft to send to my editor, but that will take a little longer, more like 2 ½-3 months. I’ve written a novel in less than two months and I’ve taken as long as six months, but that one ended up being 187,000 words in the first draft.

2. How do you select the names of your characters?
Creatively. LOL Which means I don’t have any set way of doing it. Sometimes it’s just a name I like so I use it (Sir Geoffrey Longford comes to mind as a name I just liked). Sometimes the characters tell me what their name is. This happened most vividly when I needed a name for a former suitor who wasn’t ever even seen in the book. Just needed a name. And the name that appeared in my mind for him was Amiable. Not that I’d ever heard of anyone named that. But that’s what he said his name was Amiable Dawson. (He eventually got his own romance and we find out his mother was a Quaker.) A lot of times, in the Regency, you find traditional names repeated over and over in census and birth records, so with my widows, I tried to have them all have very traditional names. But a fun fact is that parents in the Georgian and Regency era would also give their children classical names, or names from history, so in one book I have the children named for characters from Shakespeare.

 
3. What are your top 5 favorite movies?
It’s always so hard to choose.

Notting Hill is my very favorite romantic comedy.

It Happened One Night is my favorite classic comedy.

Argo is a stunning historical thriller that I watch over and over.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle—Jack Black as a girl and Kevin Hart. Need I say more?

Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day Lewis version)—Daniel Day Lewis, Madeline Stowe and that kiss!

4. If you were the last person on Earth, what would you do?
I’ll assume there are no people, but there are still animals. In which case I’d surround myself with cats and bunnies for company. If it’s just me and nothing else living on Earth, I’d make a companion, as Tom Hanks made Wilson in Castaway, and simply try to survive as long as I could. I’d read a lot of books. I’d garden so I could eat (probably become a vegan because there are no animals, or vegetarian because if there were animals I couldn’t kill them), and try to live my best life alone. Of course, I might go crazy pretty quickly, but let’s hope not.

5. What fictional character would you want to be friends with in real life?
After thinking long and hard, it would have to be Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. I think we have similar temperaments and I would love to match wits with her. She just seems like an intelligent, fun person to be around.

6. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
The advice I always give to aspiring writers is the advice my mentor, Judi McCoy have me when I was just starting to write: You can fix crap, you can’t fix nothing. In other words, finish the damn book. Give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft, because you can go back and fix it! But it’s impossible to fix a blank page because there’s nothing there to fix.

7. What book do you wish you had written?
Outlander. Jamie Fraser is the quintessential hero as far as I’m concerned. I wish I could write a hero who was that honorable, that savvy, that skilled, that intelligent, that gorgeous!

8. If you could live in any time period, what would it be and why?
I think I would like to live in Georgian England because it was so wild and interesting. Men dressed very colorfully, but were some of the most virile, well-skilled, intelligent men of all time. Women were also intelligent, able to hold their own in their circles, and while society still had rules, there was a bit more freedom than the Regency or Victorian periods. I’d also really love the lavish lifestyle. Granted, this would be if I could be of the aristocratic class. If I were middle-class, then I wouldn’t go back any further than 1950!

9. What is your favorite genre to read?

Historical romance, of course. 😊 But after that, my favorite is horror, especially Stephen King. He’s been my favorite author for decades. It is my favorite of his books, but I also love his Dark Tower series. And most recently, 11/22/63 is a favorite as well. Of his short stories I love The Mist but HATED the movie because of the way they skewed the ending. I also like Dean Koontz a lot.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jenna Jaxon is a best-selling author of historical romance, writing in a variety of time periods because she believes that passion is timeless. She has been reading and writing historical romance since she was a teenager. A romantic herself, Jenna has always loved a dark side to the genre, a twist, suspense, a surprise. She tries to incorporate all of these elements into her own stories.

She lives in Virginia with her family and a small menagerie of pets--including two vocal cats, one almost silent cat, two curious bunnies, and a Shar-pei beagle mix named Frenchie.

Blog:  www.jennajaxon.wordpress.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jenna.jaxon

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Jenna_Jaxon

Instagram: passionistimeless

LINKS:

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091MJ1C8M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6

BARNES & NOBLE:   https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-widow-wore-plaid-jenna-jaxon/1139126668

KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-widow-wore-plaid

APPLE: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-widow-wore-plaid/id1561405266

GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=9781420149784

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION Jenna Jaxon will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner

via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway