Today is Publication Day for The Path to Somerset, the story of Edward Seymour’s rise during the tumult of Henry’s post-Jane reign. I am thrilled to present his narrative to you, a view of Henry that only Edward could give. I hope you come to share my love for this “tortured witness to history” before I have to kill him off in Book Three…
I must confess: a second book is a strange creature. There is magic in a debut novel that doesn’t exist in a sequel – Jane was the culmination of forty years of drafts and the first real outlet for my Tudor obsession (other than this blog of course!). Somerset was the product of two measly years, and it’s hard to imagine how I could have come this far, this quickly.
And yet I did! Thanks to the support of two wonderful critique groups who helped me whittle down to the essential story of Henry in all his mercurial paranoia, corrupted absolutely by his absolute power. It’s not the romance of Jane the Quene, not even close: it’s a compelling story of survival. I even found magic here, in the portrait I chanced upon at Sudeley Castle that captured the soul of the man I was writing about (and that now graces the cover).
I hope you love the book, and if you do I hope you will leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads to help others find it as well…. Thank you so much for all your support over the years – I love sharing my weekly posts, I love writing my books, I love engaging over these stories.
On to Book Three in 2020! 😉
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Have you ordered your copy yet? Click on the photo to be taken to Amazon.Com:
(What? You haven’t read Jane the Quene yet? Here are some easy links to Amazon.Com, Amazon.Co.UK and Amazon.Com.Au!)
I enjoyed the second book as much of the first,,looking forward to the next book, you have done a terrific job of creating the fear of people surrounding Henry,never knowing which way his temper would go each day,.I have left a review on Amazon,it should show under my husbands name as it’s his account.(NEIL).
Thank you so much – for your kind words and wonderful review! It is all much appreciated!