May is National Military Appreciation Month - Aloha to Ella Quinn

Ella Quinn cohosted the international table at the SOS America Military Tribute.  From her bio,

Ella Quinn lived all over the United States, the Pacific, Canada, England and Europe before finally discovering the Caribbean. She lives in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands with her wonderful husband, three bossy cats and a loveable great dane.

Ella loves when friends connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Ella is standing in the front row, second from right.

Ella is celebrating the release A KISS FOR LADY MARY, Book 6 in the Marriage Game:  

Handsome, charming, and heir to a powerful Viscount, Christopher “Kit” Featherton is everything a woman could want—except interested in marriage. So when he hears that someone on his estate near the Scottish border is claiming to be his wife, Kit sets off to investigate.

Since her parents’ death, Lady Mary Tolliver has been hounded by her cousin, a fortune-hunting fool after her inheritance. Refusing to settle for anything less than love, Mary escapes to the isolated estate of rakish bachelor, Kit Featherton. Knowing he prefers Court to the country, she believes she will be safe. But when Kit unexpectedly returns, her pretend marriage begins to feel seductively real… 

Edinburgh Castle circa 1753
Public Domain (link)

Ella offers a guest post ....

As an historical author I love taking my readers to different places. In A Kiss for Lady Mary, even though my heroine desperately wanted to go to London for a Season, Circumstances forced her to settle for the capital to the north, in other words, Edinburgh. The reasons for that will become clear if you read the book. Unfortunately, other than one scene in an earlier book, I had never placed a book in Scotland before. And although I knew they had a Season, I knew nothing about it. Suffice it to say that the research ended up being intensive and rather illuminating.

Since I had a number of gentlemen, I found it necessary to research gentlemen’s clubs. Unlike the English clubs such as White’s and Brook’s the Scottish clubs didn’t affiliate themselves with particular political parties. There was a betting book, but the Scots considered it ill-mannered to bet on anything a lady may do (I can’t say I disagree) and downright stupid to bet on raindrops racing down a pane of glass. Scotch not brandy was the drink of choice. Who didn’t see that coming? Still, they were the place gentlemen went to commune, dine, catch up on the latest news, and get away from the ladies.

Ladies, on the other hand, had endless morning calls. They not only began earlier in the day, but, as there was no Promenade à la Hyde Park, they lasted much of the day.

In the evenings, the Scots engaged in the same round of balls, dinners, theater, and other forms of entertainments, but not on the grand scale as their London counterparts. A surprise to me was that public assemblies were quite popular. Assemblies in England were restricted for the most part to Bath, and county towns.

One piece of information I found interesting was that the grounds of Holyrood Palace were used by debtors to escape debtors prison. If the debtor was on the grounds of the old church, they were immune to arrest.

All in all, it sounded like a good time to me without the grand drama of the ton. London or Edinburgh? What do you think?

Holyrood Palace circa 1649

Public Domain (link)

Ella is giving away an ecopy of A KISS FOR LADY MARY to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Answer Ella's question - London or Edinburgh?

2.  Comments are open through Sunday, May 31, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Monday, June 1.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City