I'm back!

It has been a while since my last post here. I do hope to come back more often and keep you all updated on my progress. I have not been sitting on my hands, however.



The townhouses in Bath.

I've been busy. I've travelled to England which I just, loved, loved, loved. I saw so much and learnt a whole lot about myself, my relationship with my husband (who I love more than ever) and about the world around me.

I came back invigorated and ready to take the next step. I belong to a critique group that I have been working with for a year or so now who are just fantastic. They have really made me a better writer. I will be forever grateful to them.

For a while there I was wondering if I could do this, being a writer, but then I got some feedback from an author friend who said they loved my snippet I had posted on an online group I belong to. I started to think it was time to revisit this manuscript (ms) and see if it could be salvaged. It needed a lot of work but I could see the potential now I had had some time away from it. I began to re-write.

I entered some competitions and it did well. Then I came second in the Valerie Parv last year, then first in the Maryland Writers' Association's Great beginnings contest and then 2nd in the Selling Synopsis comp and suddenly I realised I was perhaps on to something.

Now I am preparing to polish up my ms and send it off into the big wide world and hope that someone will love it as much as I do and will want to give it a real life as a book.

The Wager is a Regency Historical.  Think Moonlighting the tv show but in a corset

It is an opposites attract story set in 1816 (the year without a summer) at the height of the London season. The hero, Oliver, the Earl of Bellamy has cashed in his commission and returned to London after the death of his brother to find the family fortunes in ruins. Grieving, drunk and desperate for funds he takes on the Black Raven Wager.

Insanely rich, social pariah. Lisbeth, the Countess of Blackhurst is the Black Raven. She needs to re-enter society, hunt down her husband's killer and prove her innocence. She proposes a business agreement with Bellamy. If he agrees to be her gentlemanly escort back into society, in return she will aid him to collect on any outstanding open wagers concerning her reputation as The Black Raven.

He agrees. Passion and desire cross swords with duty and justice. As they draw closer to each other, so too does the danger that surrounds them until they are forced to place their bets on each other.

For if love is a gamble, it's a wager their hearts cannot afford to lose.

If you would like to follow me on Facebook here is the link Cassandra-Samuels-author