Aloha to Anne Gracie and THE AUTUMN BRIDE

The Hawaiian word of the day is 

ho'a'o

It is take a chance.

I'm humming Abba's TAKE A CHANCE ON ME as I write this blog.   Anne Gracie incorporates ho'a'o into her new series, the Chance Sisters, with Book 1, THE AUTUMN BRIDE.   Anne joins me for a cozy chat ...

Here's an Autumn Bride in Ko Olina.

Anne:  Hi Kim, thanks so much for having me visit at SOS Aloha. 

Kim:  I love your bio (at this link).  You wrote, "We spent a lot of time driving from one part of Australia to another, visiting relatives or friends or simply to see what was there." Do you characters share the same sense of adventure? 

Anne:  Thanks. We moved a lot as well, and the year we lived in Scotland when I was eight, we hitched up the caravan every second weekend and explored the British Isles. And on school holidays, we explored Europe and Ireland. I'd swum across the main rivers of Europe by the time I was nine. 

My characters do have a sense of adventure — some Regency people traveled a lot. We assume they didn't because of the difficulties, but I've read diaries and letters from people doing the Grand Tour and it wasn't easy, but they did it — even while pregnant. (When the baby was born, it was sent back home with a nursemaid and the tour continued.) And then there was travel because of the army and navy and also the expansion of the British Empire through trade.

So I like to incorporate this world view into some books. I've set a book on the Grand Tour (Tallie's Knight) in France and Spain (The Perfect Stranger) in Egypt (To Catch a Bride) and in Spain (Bride By Mistake).  But a lot of readers aren't keen on foreign settings, so my editor prefers me to stick to Britain for my regency-era historicals, and I do try. It's just that every now and then my muse and I get itchy feet. . . 

Kim:  What is your favorite sight, sound, and smell from Australia? 

Anne:  Hmm, probably the smell of a gum tree (eucalyptus) after rain, especially in summer, when it's been hot. The air beneath the tree is so fresh and clean and fragrant and the hot earth smells so grateful. 

Another favorite smell is the scent of a native bush called boronia. For me, it ranks up there with gardenia and daphne and jasmine, IMO.

Sound? I'm pretty fond of birds, and I love their different calls. Bell birds are elusive little critters, but to hear them calling in the bush is magical. When I was a kid I used to think they were fairy bells. This is what they sound like on Youtube (at this link).

I also love the sound of magpies caroling in the morning. You can listen to them at this link.

Favorite sight? So many to choose from. Maybe when you're driving to the beach and you see that first narrow glitter of blue shining on the horizon between the hills.

I also love standing on the edge of the rainforest looking out across the mountains. Where I live is cool, temperate rainforest, not tropical. Think tall trees and masses of tree ferns. 

Boronia in Australia

Kim:  Tell us about THE AUTUMN BRIDE! 

Anne:  It's the first book in a series, about four orphan girls — two sisters and two friends, who band together to form a kind of a family. Their situation goes from bad to worse until Abby, my heroine, climbs through the window of a nearby mansion desperately hoping to find something to steal. Instead she finds a bedridden aristocratic old lady at the mercy of her neglectful, rapacious servants. The girls pretend to be Lady Beatrice's nieces and move in with her, sacking the horrible servants. Everyone's happy — until Lady Beatrice's nephew Max returns after nine years in the Far East and is furious to find his aunt under the sway of four pretty impostors.

It's a rags-to-riches, feel-good, fun story with a dark undertow. But mostly it's about the joy of friendship, second chances, sisterhood — and love.

You can read some reviews on my website, annegracie.com, if you want.

Kim:  What's next for Anne Gracie? 

Anne:  I'm working on the next book in the series — The Winter Bride. I'm also doing a little bit of traveling — I'm off to Brisbane soon and speaking at the Australian Romance Readers Convention, and in August I'm flying over to Western Australia for the RWA conference. And in October I'm speaking at GenreCon, also in Brisbane, and there's some teaching in between that, as well as writing, of course, so I'm going to be pretty busy.

Thanks Kim for having me. 

Mahalo, Anne, for joining me across the Pacific!  I posted my review of THE AUTUMN BRIDE on Amazon (at this link) and Goodreads (at this link).  Anne is giving away a copy of THE AUTUMN BRIDE to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Anne has a question for you - if you could have a Valentine's date anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Since my hubby is working in Korea, I'd go with Seoul!

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, February 16, 10 pm in Hawaii.  

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, February 17.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

Another Autumn Bride ... in Waikiki Beach.