MM Historical Fiction–14 authors, 13 great deals

Get swept away to times long past.
Fourteen authors share their love of history through fiction.
Follow the website links after my post to read the authors’ articles
about their books and then go pick up a great read
for half-price or less from December 12 – 24!

Welcome to the M/M historical romance tour!

WRECKED is on sale December 19th for 89 cents

the Dreamspinner website.

It is more than half off for the entirety of the tour at ony $2.99

Deanna Wadsworth
Wrecked
Era: pre-Civil War Key West, Florida
Dreamspinner .89c Dec.19 only

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“Key West is a little village of hardy seamen undisturbedly reaping a rich harvest

from the enormous losses of commerce on the Reefs.”

—Gov. William P. Duval; 1st civilian governor of Florida, 1832

“WRECK ASHORE!”

Such a fabled warning was not issued from atop one of the four merchant lateen towers in Key West, nor did it echo across the islands, as romanticized stories have often told. Neither did a magnificent rush of fishing smacks and spongers begin sailing out from the harbor when a vessel wrecked along the two hundred miles of coral reef on the eastern coastline of the new American state, Florida.

When word that a ship had met trouble eventually reached the mainland, it was kept quiet, whispered among merchants and ship captains wanting to stake their claim before their competitors.

For in the Florida Keys, one man’s loss was the gain of another.

With nearly one wreck a week, despite all the efforts to build lighthouses and update charts, the wreckers patrolled the Straits by sailing back and forth between wrecking stations. They were on the lookout for vessels caught on the coral or beached in the shallows so they could hire out their services. While some of the old Bahamians had earned their reputation as pirates, the American wreckers were licensed by the US Federal Courts, offering a much-needed service to misguided seafarers.

Although these brave seamen knew the dangers that lay beneath these waters all too well, wrecking was in their blood. Months could pass idly at sea while waiting to find work during a wrecking sloop’s watch. And when it did come, the seamen worked blue blazes, because if a wrecker didn’t salvage, he didn’t get paid. Yet more than merely salvaging valuable cargo, the heroic Florida wreckers had another, nobler reason to patrol the Straits. They saved lives….

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WRECKED was a long time in the making. In 2009 I went to Key West, Florida where my hubby and I visited the Key West Shipwreck Museum. I knew there would be relics from under the sea, but I never expected to be inspired to write this book. In the 1850s Key West was the wealthiest city per capita in America. That money was brought in by salvaging–a dangerous occupation which left many wreckers with a reputation as pirates. Rumors abounded that they tricked mariners into hiring them, or even had a hand in wrecking the ships to begin with. My hero, Mathew Weston, is forced to hire the wreckers after his ship wrecks, and now he must sell all his rescued goods in Key West where it seems the merchants have deals with the auction houses. His goods sell at half price! Yet despite the financial loss, Mathew cannot stop obsessing about how attractive he finds one particular wrecker, Rief Lawson.

I had a lot of fun serching for historical quotes to open each chapter. Chapter One, when Mathew has been thrown overboard, begins thus:

“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life

when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke.”

—Herman Melville; an American novelist, 1819-1891

I was also quite lucky to discover a little book called The Young Wrecker, where the author recounts his personal experience as a boy working on a wrecking sloop in the 1850’s. True to books of the era, The Young Wrecker literally pauses in the middle of the story to describe in detail what the streets of Key West looked like. Talk about a hidden treasure! I poured over books about the history of the Florida Keys, and even endevored to mix real historical figures in with my cast, such as the lighthouse keeper Mrs. Mabrity. Rief and Mathew climb the Key West lighthouse, which you can still visit and was only a few years old when WRECKED takes place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blurb from WRECKED:

Off the Key West coast, Rief Lawson works as a wrecker, salvaging ships and their cargo. Exiled to the outskirts of society because of his mysterious gift of sight, Rief’s only respite from his loneliness is painting an unknown blond man. When a merchant ship wrecks during a violent storm, Rief rescues a drowning victim and comes face-to-face with his destiny.

It is the man from his art!

Heir to an English barony, Mathew Weston entered the merchant trade with his greedy father and soon-to-be father-in-law. Dominated by his father and smothered by the people around him—including his sweet but tiresome fianceé—Mathew is terrified to follow his true desires. Marriage and obedience seem safer than a life of secrecy and possible prison.

After the daring rescue, a fire ignites between the two men. Powerless to resist his desire, Mathew learns what it means to be a man in Rief’s arms. With this newfound confidence, Mathew teaches Rief through gentle touch that he deserves the affection he’s long been denied. Yet their affair is doomed from the start. Two desperate men, wrecked in heart and mind, must find a way to salvage the chance at love fate has given them.

Get your copy of WRECKED December 19^th for only 89 cents in the Dreamspinner store!

If you miss out, don’t worry, WRECKED is more than Half-Off for the entire tour!

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Visit all the authors participating in this
MM Historical Fiction Blowout.

(NOTE: Sales prices & website links
may not be active until Dec. 12)

Discover a new author.

Find a new book to read.

Click on the “website” links to read the authors’ posts

Alex Beecroft
The Reluctant Berserker
Era: Early Medieval/Dark Ages Saxon
Amazon All Other Formats $0.99
Website | Amazon author page | Facebook | Twitter

JP Kenwood
February and December (Dominus Calendar Series 1)
Era: Imperial Rome
Amazon Worldwide $0.99/.99p
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Archive of our Own

Brita Addams
Beloved Unmasked
Era: Early 20th Century New Orleans
Dreamspinner | Amazon $3.00
Website | Newsletter | Facebook | Twitter

Anne Barwell
On Wings of Song
Era: WWI – 1920
Dreamspinner $2.50
Website | Twitter | Queeromance Ink | Newsletter |Facebook

Joanna Chambers
Unnatural
Era: Regency
Amazon Amazon (UK) Nook iBooks Kobo GPlay $1.99
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Wendy Rathbone
Ganymede: Abducted by the Gods
Era: Bronze Age, fantasy, alternate myth Amazon $1.99
Website | Facebook | Newsletter (get a free copy of “Letters to an Android”)

Michael Jensen
Man & Monster
Era: 1799, America
Amazon $1.99
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Charlene Newcomb
Men of the Cross (Battle Scars I)
Era: Medieval – 12th century
Amazon $0.99/99p
Website | Twitter | Facebook

Ruby Moone
Memories

Era: Regency Only $2.99
Amazon | JMS Books
Website | Twitter | Facebook

Charlene Newcomb is currently working on Book III of Battle Scars, 12th century historical fiction filled with war, political intrigue, and a knightly romance of forbidden love set during the reign of Richard the Lionheart. There will be more to come, so sign up for Char’s Newsletter. It will be used – sparingly – to offer exclusive content and and to let you be the first to know about special offers.