RosemaryMorris.HistoricalNovelist

  Yesterday I came home happy and relaxed after spending most of the day with my daughter and her family. We spent some of the time watching episodesThe Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes. Really enjoyed them. I intend to watch more.

  I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindess I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not not neglect it nor, for I shall not pass this way again. Stephen Grellet, a prominent French-American Quaker. 28 .10. 1772 - 16.11.1855.

  It's a cold, wet, windy day. Ths morning I finished revising and editing a chapter of my multi-racial young adult/adult novel, checked online mail and e-mails. After lunch I watched Love Is A Many Splendid Thing. I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I saw it and the end brought tears to my eyes.

  I'm busy revising my multi-cultural young adult/adult to be published this year. I'm also working on the theme, plot, setting and characters for another novel. I don't plan every chapter in advance because I lwant my characters to surprise me.

  I am one of Ms Chatham’s many fans. One of the Christmas presents I treated myself to her regency romance, Charlotte Grey. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. It is an absorbing blend of romance, mystery, smugglers, excise men spies, an admirable hero, and two delightful children. Isaac and his wife, Sara had adopted Charlotte, a lost, unhappy five-year old. They had provided for her, educated her and been her parents for nineteen years.” When the novel begins, Charlotte had lived a quiet, uneventful life, helping her late mother, Sara, with her millinery business and learning the art of map-making from Isaac,” until the day she returned to her ransacked home. A stranger, Benjamin Abernathy, waited there to take her to a safe place. She doesn’t know whether Isaac has been murdered or kidnapped. It is obvious that whoever were responsible for the chaos didn’t find what they wanted. To avoid becoming the next target, Charlotte must trust Benjamin, who assures her he is

        I admire Ms. Bell for taking me on Chance’s journey to find his way in in life.  No matter how hard he tried Chance could never please his abusive father, whose criminal activity resulted in a jail sentence and destroyed Chance’s friendship with Laurel. Although her parents forgave him, and want to help Chance, couldn’t forgive himself to putting Laurel in danger, which gave his father an opportunity to kidnap her. At eighteen Chance must manage the ranch, which has been in his family for generations, that his father has bankrupted, and graduate from high school. Unable to cope with his emotions he can’t cope without alcohol. To make matters worse his mother moves into town with his sister instead of helping him. Desperate to hang onto the ranch, Chance competes in rodeos to win money which will go into the bank and be swallowed up by expenses. He knows he must stop overcome posttraumatic- stress and stop drinking, but how? The young man is reluctant to accept help because he