Compromising Miss Tisdale

If you came for Fashionista Friday, scroll on down, but why not enjoy this post first?

 

COMPROMISING MISS TISDALE

By

Jessica Jefferson

BLURB:  

Ambrosia Tisdale is the very picture of propriety and the epitome of what a respectable young lady should be. Haunted by a memory and compelled by her family, she pursues perfection to a fault.

The Earl of Bristol, Duncan Maddox, has returned to London after years of familial imposed exile. As the second son, he has led a life filled with frivolity, leisure, and a healthy dose of debauchery. Now his older brother has died, leaving the family’s flailing legacy in Duncan’s unwilling arms.

At the behest of his uncle, Duncan is advised to do the one thing that could provide instant fortune and respectability – he must marry. But there is only one prospect who meets the unique requirements to solve all the Earl’s problems – the lovely Miss Ambrosia Tisdale. But securing the prudent daughter of a Viscount’s hand proves to be more challenging than this scandal ridden second son of an Earl has bargained for.

With scandal, extortion, treachery, and even love itself threatening to keep him from his goal, will Duncan succeed in compromising Miss Tisdale?

Excerpt One:

She had stumbled upon the library.  A fire in the hearth threw a faint glow over leather lined volumes that filled floor to ceiling book shelves.   Lavishly upholstered plush arm chairs sat upon Aubusson rugs scattered throughout the room.  A settee was positioned across from a giant stone faced fireplace where a shirtless man sat warming his hands.

Shirtless man?

Ambrosia blinked.

 Certainly, her eyes were playing tricks on her. 

Then the shirtless man turned his head, his eyes meeting hers.  

It wasn’t a hallucination-he was real.   She hadn’t been expecting to find a partially dressed man, and he obviously wasn’t expecting to be found.   It was but a moment before the man’s expression began to soften and a wicked smile slowly crept across his lips. 

 A smile that stole the breath right from out of her. 

 Every gently bred fiber in her body screamed to turn around and run straight out the door.  Hundreds of years of proper English rearing had produced a base instinct to flee when in the presence of an unknown male (especially one with so little clothing).  But then he stood up, cautiously, the way one does as if not to startle a deer.  Standing, he was clad in nothing but buckskin breeches, the dim light from the flames playing over the sculpted muscles and sinew of his shoulders and chest. 

Breeding be damned, her feet simply refused to budge.  

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Jessica Jefferson makes her home in northern Indiana, or as she likes to think of it – almost Chicago.  Jessica originally attended college in hopes of achieving an English degree and writing the next great American novel.  Ten years later she was working as a registered nurse and reading historical romance when she decided to give writing another go-round.   

Jessica writes likes she speaks, which has a tendency to be fast paced and humorous.  Jessica is heavily inspired by sweeping, historical romance novels, but aims to take those key emotional elements and inject a fresh blend of quick dialogue and comedy to transport the reader into a story they miss long after the last page is read.  She invites you to visit her at jessicajefferson.com and read her random romance musings.

http://www.jessicajefferson.com/

Like me at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Jefferson/

Follow me at https//twitter.com/authorJessicaJ

 
Jessica is giving away a $25 Amazon or BN.com Gift Certificate so follow her tour and enter often. Use the following link to enter. 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e43477http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e43477

 You can find her tour schedule athttp://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/01/name-before-masses-compromising-miss.html

And now for some super good advice for writers.

 

JESSICA JEFFERSON’s WRITING TIPS 

            The Twitter feed is abundant with Twisdom regarding the secret to writing.  

            Of course, most of it is crap.  

            And what is not crap is simply rehashing what everyone already knows.  So, in the consulting spirit of rehashing what is already common knowledge but twisting it slightly to make it my own, here is my first in a series of writing tips for Romance novelists. 

            Tip #1 – Don’t write about your husband. 

            What you intend to be an everlasting tribute to the love you share, will no doubt be misinterpreted for a myriad of reasons. 

            First, unless you are Angelina Jolie, the physical description of your husband in your book will certainly differ somewhat from the man you’ve been married to for the last decade.  You may use his hair color, or eyes, but the moment you start describing rock hard pecks or chiseled abs, he’s bound to get somewhat offended.  It’s been my knowledge that readers just don’t respond well to “sagging pectorals with sparse hair about the nipples and a gentle rounding abdomen”.  And don’t even get me started on back hair. 

            There’s also the sensitive subject of sexual prowess.  No man wants a detailed account of his intimate actions written for the world to see, or at least the few thousand readers who pick up a copy of your latest release.  Most writers describe love-making between their lead characters to be earth-shattering, and the heroes are always ready to please again no matter how many times they’ve already engaged in the act.  Generally, real life does not mirror fiction in this regard.  Men are not robots and need more than thirty seconds to refuel – especially after the third or fourth time.  I rarely read about Dukes and Duchesses to be engaging in a romp in the playroom for a couple minutes whilst the children take their nap, nor would I want to.

             And finally, though your books may be grounded in some sort of reality, half the fun of writing romance is creating characters that you know your readers would love to meet, but probably won’t encounter in their lifetime.  The men are always strong, yet sensitive.  Brave, yet vulnerable.  And unbelievably sexy.  Though the man you married may encompass many of these qualities, the hero in a romance novel possesses these qualities in abundance.  This exaggeration is what makes the characters so fanciful that works to transport the readers to a different time and place. 

            Think of your hero as your own personal pool boy.  Your hero should be the fantasy you love to think about during boring moments in the office, but in reality you would never trade in your hubby for.