New Title Tuesday! Jude Knight – A Baron for Becky

On New Title Tuesday, you will find books that have been out for less than three months or will be released within two weeks in all different genres, with all sorts of authors. If you would like to be featured on NTT, use the contact form to let me know.

A Baron for Becky, Jude Knight
Genre: Regency romance
Release Date: August 5, 2015 (pre-order available)

Becky is the envy of the courtesans of the demi-monde – the indulged mistress of the wealthy and charismatic Marquis of Aldridge. But she dreams of a normal life; one in which her daughter can have a future that does not depend on beauty, sex, and the whims of a man.

Finding herself with child, she hesitates to tell Aldridge. Will he cast her off, send her away, or keep her and condemn another child to this uncertain shadow world?

The devil-may-care face Hugh shows to the world hides a desperate sorrow; a sorrow he tries to drown with drink and riotous living. His years at war haunt him, but even more, he doesn’t want to think about the illness that robbed him of the ability to father a son. When he dies, his barony will die with him. His title will fall into abeyance, and his estate will be scooped up by the Crown.

When Aldridge surprises them both with a daring proposition, they do not expect love to be part of the bargain.

Heat: R for implied sexual content, 2 out of 5 flames

What was the first thing you thought when you saw your published book the first time?
My first book was a novella: Candle’s Christmas Chair. I put it out as an ebook in mid-December 2014, and what a thrill it was to see it on Amazon. I always intended to also publish it as a print book, using the CreateSpace print on demand service, but what with Christmas, finishing the novel I was writing, and the time post takes between the United States and New Zealand, the first print copies didn’t arrive on my doorstep until early February. I was torn between absolute elation (look, a real book!) and horror. The colour wasn’t at all as I’d envisaged it. Despite a career in publishing, I’d forgotten to change the colour settings to CMYK, and the maroon of the chair was dull and lifeless. Oops.

When did you first decide to call yourself a writer? What prompted the decision?
People who don’t know what to say to children often ask ‘and what do you want to be when you grown up?’ The best answer I’ve ever heard came from my son, who at four was clearly delighted to hear he had options. ‘A horse,’ he told his startled interlocutor.

If family legend is to be believed, my answer was far less imaginative. By the time I was seven, I had already made up my mind to be ‘a writer and a mother’. I’ve written ever since, and I have six children and twelve grandchildren. The two roles haven’t always been compatible; I found fiction writing absorbed me to the point I neglected my family, and I abandoned it to write advertising copy, investment statements, government reports, computer manuals and the like.

I always knew I’d come back to fiction. And now that I’ve started, I’m keep doing it while there’s a breath in my body.

What is your best advice for someone just starting their first manuscript? Halfway through? Just finished?
Write every day. Write whenever you have a few minutes. Keep writing. Don’t give up, and don’t despair. You can’t edit what you haven’t written.

Don’t expect your first draft to be the end. It’s just the beginning, and that’s okay. The theatre adage is that plays aren’t written, they’re rewritten, and it applies just as much to books.

Good critique partners, good beta readers, a good developmental editor; all of these will help you examine your draft with fresh eyes and tighten and improve it.

Take advice, but believe in yourself. It’s your book.

About the Author
Jude Knight writes strong determined heroines, heroes who can appreciate a clever capable woman, villains you’ll love to loathe, and all with a leavening of humour.