Guest Post with Author Lecia Cornwall and Giveaway

Meet Lecia Cornwall, author of What a Lady Most Desires.

Lecia Cornwall is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America’s Seattle and Calgary Chapters. Her background includes all facets of writing, including running a successful freelance writing business specializing in direct marketing and advertising. Both history and writing have been lifelong passions. Lecia currently lives and writes in Calgary, Alberta, the heart of the Canadian West.

Places to find Lecia:

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LOVE TOKENS

Do you keep love tokens? I don’t mean the grand anniversary jewels, or heirlooms—I mean the simple little things, like the cork from a champagne bottle, or the pressed flowers from the corsage you wore on your first date with your husband, or a lock of hair from your child’s very first haircut. I do. I pick up smooth rocks on my travels, and put them in my garden as a way of keeping a part of a special experience. No, I couldn’t tell you where each rock came from—they just collectively represent a lifetime of special days, happiness, and pleasure. I love stories with hidden diaries, lost letters, and boxes filled with tiny treasures.

In WHAT A LADY MOST DESIRES, Lady Delphine is wearing daisies in her hair at the ball on the night before Waterloo where she meets the hero. She presses one into his hand for luck, in hopes he’ll come back safely. It’s a little thing, easily forgotten about, but he keeps it, just in case, and carries it into battle in his pocket. Much later in the story, Delphine’s token turns out to be lucky indeed in an unexpected way.

There are English daisies in my garden, too, amid the rocks, planted this spring once the manuscript for WHAT A LADY MOST DESIRES was finished. I found them at the local garden center quite by chance, and brought them home to remind me of the book.

Here’s the story of one of my other treasures, an inexpensive, but very precious cameo ring. The story begins during World War II in Glasgow, Scotland on a very foggy night. A group of American soldiers were hopeless lost in the mist, and they stopped at a house to ask directions. They were kindly invited inside, and the lady of the house made pancakes and coffee for them, and let them sit by the fire until the fog lifted enough so the gentleman of the house could accompany them a short way along the road to show them the way.

Now skip to New York City some twenty years later. An elderly couple is visiting the city for the first time. As a memento of their holiday, the husband buys his wife a cameo ring, something she’s always wanted. As she’s crossing the street, she trips as she’s admiring her new treasure, and falls, breaking her leg.

At the hospital, they realize the expense of the medical treatment will mean they’ll have to cut their trip short, and return home at once. The doctor arrives and smiles. “I remember you—Glasgow, during the war, right?” You can guess the rest—in return for the couple’s kindness to him while he was a lost soldier far from home, the doctor waived the bill.

When my mother-in-law gave me her mother’s cameo ring, she told me the story that went with it. The jeweler who made some small repairs told us it wasn’t worth much, hardly worth the cost of cleaning and resetting the cameo. But it’s priceless to me because of the story behind it, and the kindness of the woman who wore it, and the wonderful mother-in-law who gave it to me. I wear that ring to every book signing I attend. It represents the magic of story for me, and love.

So that’s why I included a love token when I wrote WHAT A LADY MOST DESIRES, a small, intimate memento, given with a wish for good luck, that would someday—like my cameo ring, or a long ago kindness—come back to play a far more important role in the hero’s story.

I love hearing for readers! Please leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of HOW TO DECIVE A DUKE, the first book in the Temberlay series. Or, you can send me an e-mail at leciacornwall@shaw.ca, or visit me on Facebook.

To read an excerpt from WHAT A LADY MOST DESIRES, drop by my website at www.leciacornwall.com.

On the night before the final battle against Napoleon, Lady Delphine St. James finds herself dancing with the one man she has always wanted, Major Lord Stephen Ives. He makes it clear he has no time for a lady he sees as flirtatious and silly, but as the call to arms sounds, she bids him farewell with a kiss that stirs them both. When he returns gravely injured, she is intent on caring for him, even if his surly behavior tests her patience.

After the battle, Stephen is not only wounded and blind, but falsely accused of cowardice and theft. The only light in his dark world is Delphine, the one woman he never imagined he could desire. But she deserves more than he can give her.

As their feelings deepen and hidden enemies conspire to force them to part forever, can their love survive the cruelest test of all?

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Check out the Temberlay series:

 

Check out what's up for grabs.

Up For Grabs:

• 1 copy of The Secret Life of Lady Julia
• 1 copy of How to Deceive a Duke
• 1 Victorian Bracelet

To Enter: 

• Please leave a comment or question for Lecia along with your email address.
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form.

Good Luck! 

Special thanks to Lecia Cornwall & Tasty Book Tours for sponsoring this tour-wide giveaway.

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