Yesterday Kathy posted about things that make her happy. Our Jaunty Quills community is very, very high on my happy list. I particularly love the way we all interact. Sometimes the blog is more like a chat room with back and forth banter and sharing.  It’s so much fun to talk to you, to hear your thoughts on our posts and the stories you share.

Recently, my sister Jaunties and I have been wondering what makes YOU happy?  What do you like to read about here on the blog? Do you like glimpses into our writing processes? How we come up with ideas; how those ideas eventually make it to the page? Kristan’s post about making out with her hand springs to mind.  (Haha! Waving at Kristan) Do you like glimpses into our personal lives and hobbies… a la Kathy’s ode to her son or the time Robyn gave you a tour of her crafting/scrapbooking room? Do you like us to post recipes or previews of coming releases? How about character interviews? Or guest bloggers? What would you think about us doing occasional JQ blog reader spotlights where we interview you? Maybe we could do a ‘Reader of the Month’ feature?

Today, it’s all about you, dear readers. What would YOU like to see here on the JQ blog? And the possibilities are not limited to what I stated above.  Those were simply suggestions to get you thinking.  So tell us…what would you like to read about?

I just received several advance copies of my new book CELEBRATION’S BRIDE, which will be released in July. I will give away copies to several of you who comment. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

 

This month we’re posting our best blogs from years past. Here’s one I found with a research emphasis from the 2007 publication of Blackthorne’s Bride. I don’t write nearly enough of these!

If you’ve read a few historical novels, you’re probably familiar with Gretna Green. I’ve married two of my fictional couples there, and I had so much fun researching this romantic spot.

In 1752 the English Parliament passed the Hardwicke Marriage Act, which prevented the rampant practice of clandestine marriages. These marriages were being used by unscrupulous men looking to marry an heiress and secure their fortunes. As you can imagine, the parents of these heiresses were more than slightly displeased, even more so when incidents of men being clandestinely married to three or four women came to light. Lord Chancellor Hardwicke proposed a bill to end the worst abuses of the clandestine marriages. The Hardwicke Marriage Act, as it came to be called, made elopement all but impossible in England.

So what’s a couple who lacks parental support to do?

Elope, of course! And the nearest spot was Gretna Green.

Of course a couple didn’t have to elope to Gretna Green. Boats waited at Southampton to take runaway couples to the island of Guernsey, where the clandestine marriages were legal. But Scotland was easier to access, and therefore more popular.

There are many romantic stories of prospective brides and grooms running away to Gretna Green, the bride’s father in hot pursuit. In fact, Gretna Green has built quite a reputation as a destination wedding spot off these legends.

The primary legend was that the first stop eloping couples made was the local blacksmith’s shop to be wed over the anvil by the local blacksmith—men called anvil priests. There’s probably not much truth to the legends about blacksmiths and anvils, but there were several men who made their fame and fortune marrying England’s desperate lovers. Robert Elliott was one. Some scholars speculate that Elliott married over 3000 couples.

Joseph Paisley was another anvil priest, and he was not your typical “priest.” He’d been a smuggler before he got into the marriage business, and he had a bit of a drinking problem.

Blackthorne’s Bride, my latest novel, incorporates a story about Joseph Paisley and mixed up marriages. Take one drunk anvil priest, a father with a pistol banging on the door to the blacksmith’s shop, and two couples in a hurry, and you get…well, let’s just say that I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed taking this real-life tale and weaving it into fiction.

Read more about Blackthorne’s Bride or any of my more recent releases on my website.