Spunky Senior Author, Rosemary Morris, Not Only Visits Gardens, But Also Grows Organic

Rosemary Morris says all of us know that we should eat healthily. She can’t claim to be a saint where this is concerned. However, as well as ornamentals this senior citizen grows as much of her own stone fruit, soft fruit, herbs and vegetables as possible.

She firmly believes eating freshly picked or organic food is an important factor in good health and tries to eat her five a day or more.

Her home grown produce is particularly important because she is a strict vegetarian. Meat, fish and eggs are not part of her diet. When asked if such a diet is healthy Rosemary points out that there a millions of healthy vegetarians in the world. She also says a vegetarian menu can include a wide variety of cuisines and need never be boring.

Rosemary enjoys visiting gardens large and small including those in the grounds of the Stately Homes of England. Those in which areas are set aside to grow fruit, herbs and vegetables inspire Rosemary to borrow ideas for her garden, albeit on a very small scale.

Stately Homes and other places of historical interest – in towns, villages, museums etc., - fuel Rosemary’s imagination.

Since her teens Rosemary has been interested in history, particularly that of the British Isles and the British Empire. She has also relished reading King James Bible with its rich language, Shakespeare’s inspiring works, the classics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayan which are as rich as the Greek Classics and so much more, Jane Austen, Margaret Mitchell, Sir Walter Scott, the Bronte Sisters, Georgette Heyer, Elizabeth Chadwick, Agatha Christie, to name only a few.

At school Rosemary was a star pupil in literature, history and geography but had little interest in mathematics which led to the accusation of comments such as Rosemary could do better, Rosemary is lazy. Maybe she was lazy when bored by a subject but she was not without ambition, which was to become a published author.

In her mid twenties, while living in Kenya, Rosemary wrote a Regency Romance which was accepted by a publisher in the U.K. Unfortunately she did not know that a date for publication of a book should be included in the contract. The publisher was taken over by another one; the editor in the new publishing house did not like the novel so it was never published.

ROSEMARY SPEAKS

While living in Kenya I met a Brahmin from India. He read my palm free of charge and said: “You have an exceptional interest in literature.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“I mean exceptional,” he reiterated. “|An interest in reading and writing.”

He knew nothing about me, so my love of writing must have been written on my hand.

My children and I moved from Kenya, to an ashram in France, and then back to England where I was born. My late husband, who had stayed in Kenya until my return to England, encouraged me to write. Actually, I had never stopped writing but was too demoralised by my earlier misfortune to submit my work. Nevertheless, I wrote historical novels. Historical because I want to share my love of history with others.

Nothing can describe my joy when my novel Tangled Lives was published and nothing could describe my misery when the publisher went out of business. This time I did not accept defeat. I read books on How to Write, joined Writing Groups, Completed all three parts of a Writing Course which gave me credits towards a degree, and kept on writing.

At long last, Tangled Lives was republished by MuseItUppublishing as Tangled Love, since then two more of my novels have been published and fourth will be published this month.

My novels are available as e-books from:

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/  amazon kindle, kobo and elsewhere.

TANGLED LOVE

 Shortlisted for Romance Festival’s e-book award.

Tangled Love is the story of two great estates. The throne has been usurped by James II’s daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. In 1693, loyal to his oath of allegiance, ten year old Richelda’s father must follow James to France.

Before her father leaves, he gives her a ruby ring she will treasure and wear on a chain round her neck. In return Richelda swears an oath to try o regain their ancestral home, Field House.

By the age of eighteen, Richelda’s beloved parents are dead. She believes her privileged life is over. At home in dilapidated Belmont House, her only companions are her mother’s old nurse and her devoted dog, puck. Clad in old clothes she dreams of elegant gowns and trusts her childhood friend, a poor parson’s son, who promised to marry her.

Richelda’s wealthy aunt takes her to London and arranges her marriage to Viscount Chesney, the new owner of Field House, where it is rumoured there is treasure. If she finds it Richelda hopes to ease their lives. However, while trying to find it her life is in danger.

SUNDAY’S CHILD

Georgianne Whitley’s beloved father and brothers died in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. While she is grieving for them, she must deal with her unpredictable mother’s sorrow, and her younger sisters’ situation caused by it.

Georgianne’s problems increase when the arrogant, wealthy but elderly Earl of Pennington, proposes marriage to her for the sole purpose of being provided with an heir. At first she is tempted by his proposal, but something is not quite right about him. She rejects him not suspecting it will lead to unwelcome repercussions.

Once, Georgianne had wanted to marry an army officer. Now, she decides never to marry ‘a military man’ for fear he will be killed on the battlefield. However, Georgianne still dreams of a happy marriage before unexpected violence forces her to relinquish the chance to participate in a London Season sponsored by her aunt.

Shocked and in pain, Georgianne goes to the inn where her cousin Sarah’s step-brother, Major Tarrant, is staying, while waiting for the blacksmith to return to the village and shoe his horse. Recently, she has been reacquainted with Tarrant—whom she knew when in the nursery—at the vicarage where Sarah lives with her husband Reverend Stanton.

The war in the Iberian Peninsula is nearly at an end so, after his older brother’s death, Tarrant, who was wounded, returns to England where his father asks him to marry and produce an heir.

To please his father, Tarrant agrees to marry, but due to a personal tragedy he has decided never to father a child.

When Georgianne, arrives at the inn, quixotic Tarrant sympathises with her unhappy situation. Moreover, he is shocked by the unforgivably brutal treatment she has suffered.

Full of admiration for her beauty and courage Tarrant decides to help Georgianne.

FALSE PRETENCES

Five-year-old Annabelle arrived at boarding school fluent in French and English. Separated from her nurse, a dismal shadow blights Annabelle’s life because she does not know who her parents are.

High-spirited Annabelle is financially dependent on her unknown guardian. She

refuses to marry a French baron more than twice her age.

Her life in danger, Annabelle is saved by a gentleman, who says he will help her to discover her identity. Yet, from then on nothing is as it seems, and she is forced to run away for the second time to protect her rescuer.

Even more determined to discover her parents’ identity, in spite of many false pretences, Annabelle must learn who to trust. Her attempts to unravel the mystery of her birth, lead to further danger, despair, unbearable heartache and even more false pretences until the only person who has ever wanted to cherish her, reveals the startling truth, and all’s well that ends well.

FAR BEYOND RUBIES

(To be released March 2013)

Set in 1706 during Queen Anne Stuart’s reign Far Beyond Rubies erupts when William, Baron Kemp, Juliana’s half-brother claims she and her sister are bastards. Juliana is determined to prove the allegation is false and that she is the rightful heiress to Riverside, a great estate.

On his way to deliver a letter to William, Gervaise sees Juliana for the first time in the grounds of her family home…The sight of her drew him back to India. Her form changed to one he knew intimately – but not in this birth.

An unexpected event brings Juliana and quixotic Gervaise together and circumstances force Juliana to accept his kind help. However, when Juliana’s life irrevocably tangled with Gervaise’s she discovers he is not all that he seems.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

http://rosemarymorris.blogspot.com

Member of: Romantic Novelist’s Association, Historical Novel Society, Watford Writers

Please welcome Rosemary Morris to Spunky Senior Authors and Talents by Leaving a Comment.

Spunky Senior Author, Rosemary Morris, Loved Books Even as a Child in a Pushchair

My love of stories developed at a very early age. When I was a tiny child in my pushchair a passer by noticed I was holding an open book. “It’s amazing to see your little girl reading aloud,” she said to my mother, who promptly explained I had memorised the story.

My love of books grew. An early memory is of having my photo taken at the age of about three, when the photographer handed me a book to hold. Even now, I remember my indignation when he took it away at the end of the session.

Another clear memory is of sitting on my maternal grandfather’s knee while he read to me from Enid Blyton’s children’s magazine Sunny Stories.

When did I first begin to make up proper stories with a beginning, middle and an end? I am not sure. However, there was a point at which I found it difficult to distinguish between imagination and truth. Certainly I embroidered incidents or made up events when I attended nursery school.

I don’t know whether my imagination was a blessing or a curse. At primary school I soaked up English language and literature, history, geography and religious instruction. During mathematics, I retreated into my own world peopled by characters real and legendary from the past, and imaginary characters of my own creation. By the time I went to a girls’ grammar school I made no effort to come to grips with mathematics, physics, chemistry or biology, and I loathed gymnastics and hockey.

During my years at primary and secondary school, my appetite for fiction and poetry grew. I spent every spare minute reading. And, for example, Anne of Green Gables and later the heroines in Georgette Heyer’s novels seemed more real to me than my own humdrum life. Why wasn’t I born on beautiful Prince Edward’s island or in the privileged world of Regency ladies?

I can’t remember when I first wrote down my own stories, but have never forgotten a painful incident. I wanted to write something so I asked my mother for some paper. She said she didn’t have any. I begged for her Basildon Bond paper reserved for her letters. Mother refused to give me even a sheet or two. I can still recall my anger and frustration at being denied paper. Now, a new notebook represents a tale about to unfold. There is nothing comparable to penning the first few lines on pristine paper. In March I went on holiday to Devonshire. Inspired by the primroses in the hedgerows, the daffodils and golden gorse flowers, as well as the rolling countryside, the glorious beaches and seascapes, I bought a notebook and wrote the plot, theme and first lines of a new novel.

I married and had my first child not long after I left secondary school.  By the age of twenty-one, while living in Kenya, I had written my first historical novel, which was accepted by a famous publishing house. I received a contract and a generous advance. Unfortunately, I did not know that a firm date of publication should always be included in the contract. The publishing house was sold; the new commissioning editor did not like my novel, which was not published. Undeterred, I finished my second novel, which was accepted, but due to peculiar circumstances never published.

For years I did no more than jot down ideas until, after twenty-one years in Kenya and five years in France, I returned to England. Eventually, after each of our five children had left home, my late husband encouraged me to write. I immersed myself in books on How to Write, attended some courses on writing and bought a computer. After I wrote eight novels and countless short stories I was accepted by two literary agents, one for novels, the other for short stories, but neither of them placed my work.

I submitted each of my novels to other agents and publishers, some of whom were kind enough to praise them, although they rejected them. I joined online critique groups, and received constructive feedback about my work in return for critiquing other members’ submissions. Through one of these groups, I came into contact with Enspiren Press, an electronic and print on demand publisher. Enspiren Press accepted my novel Tangled Hearts. Delighted, I wrote a new novel. Fate was against me. Enspiren Press closed and I did not receive a penny of the royalties due to me.

Several years later, after innumerable rejections from more publishers and agents, undeterred, but with many misgivings, I submitted to MuseItUp Publishing an electronic publisher. Tangled Hearts, set in England in Queen Anne’s reign, 1702 – 1714, was accepted and republished as Tangled Love. Since then, MuseItUp has also accepted my novels, Sunday’s Child, to be published in June, and False Pretences, to be published in October, both of which are set in the Regency era.

I set my novels in a period of change. When Queen Anne came to the throne, her father James II was alive and living in France. Some of the peers refused to swear an oath of allegiance to her while her father lived, because they were bound to him, even if they did not like the man, his politics or his religion. What, I asked myself, would be the effect on Richelda, the daughter of a nobleman who refused to take the oath and followed James to France. In Tangled Love Richelda, suffers loss, hardship and danger before she can keep her promise to her father to regain their family’s estate.

In Sunday’s Child, prior to the Battle of Waterloo, Georgianne and Major Tarrant have suffered as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, and have to come to terms with their nightmares.

And in False Pretences, Annabelle yearns to discover who her parents are, yet nothing in her life is as it seems and the truth, when it is finally revealed, is extraordinary.

As for my new novel, Tangled Lives, also set in Queen Anne’s reign, Juliana refuses to believe her half-brother’s accusation that she and her sister, Henrietta, are bastards. On the way to London to consult her late father’s lawyer, she encounters Mister Seymour, who has recently returned from India.

Many people are unable to fulfil their lifelong dreams, so I am grateful to God for allowing me to fulfil my dream of becoming a published novelist.

If you visit my website you can read the prologue of Tangled Love, see the beautiful book cover and watch the book trailer. You can also read the first chapter of Sunday’s Child and see the gorgeous book cover.

Tangled Love set in England in 1706. The tale of two great estates and their owners.

Available from.MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon Kindle, Bookstrand - Mainstream, Sony-e-Reader, Kobo, Smashwords.

Sunday's Child June 2012

False Pretences October 2012

http://www.rosemarymorris.co.uk/
http://rosemarymorris.blogspot.com/

Please welcome Rosemary Morris to Spunky Senior Authors and Talents by Leaving a Comment.