Guest Post with Wendy Watson (Author of Once Upon A Wallflower)

Once Upon A Wallflower by Wendy Lyn Watson

Published: August 12, 2013

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Pages: 250

Received: for review via Bewitching Book Tours

Buy Now: Amazon

A Perennial Wallflower…

When Mira Fitzhenry’s guardian arranges her engagement to one of the most scandalous, yet devastatingly handsome lords to ever grace the peerage, all of society is abuzz. After all, the man has left a trio of dead young women in his wake, including his first fiancée.

A Gothic Villain…

Expecting to scare the chit away within five minutes of meeting him, scarred and brooding Nicholas, the Viscount Ashfield, is intrigued by the unfashionably lovely Mira, but his family’s dark secret means he must fight his attractions. No matter what his heart wants.

As the wedding approaches, Nicholas and Mira grow ever closer, yet so does the very real danger. Will the truth bring Nicholas and Mira together or tear their love apart?

Once Upon a Dream

My recent release, Once Upon a Wallflower, literally started as a dream. Years ago (more than I care to admit), I had a dream about a woman walking down a staircase toward a dark, imposing man. In my dream, the woman was whispering to another woman that the man would see right through her, know that she was an imposter.

That dream stuck with me for nearly a decade before I sat down to write the manuscript that would eventually become Once Upon a Wallflower. I couldn’t begin to explain why that brief moment of subconscious expression stayed with me for so long, vivid and demanding my attention, but it did. What’s more, it formed the basis for the first chapter of that manuscript: Mira Fitzhenry and her cousin Bella getting ready for a ball and arguing over whether Nicholas Ellerby, Viscount Ashfield, will or will not accept Mira as his bride.

Of course, one scene does not a novel make. I fleshed out the moment from the dream in that first scene, but I knew I would need more. More conflict, more tension, more story, more character, more, more, more. Where would I find the more?

As it turns out, the “more” found me. I read an article about the Whitechapel murders. I saw “Indecent Proposal.” I read a romance and thought “wouldn’t this be better if that hero was an artist?” I watched the television series “Popular” and fell in love with Sara Rue (who was the inspiration for Mira). I saw a picture of Cornish coast.

One by one, these snippets of stories wove themselves together to create Once Upon a Wallflower, the story of a smart but unfashionable young woman who finds herself engaged to a man who may be a serial murderer. With Cornish coast providing the perfect gothic backdrop, the manuscript unfolding naturally on the page. Pulling together threads from a huge array of sources, that long-ago dream became a fully realized novel. 

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About the Author:

Wendy Lyn Watson writes mysteries of all types: contemporary, historical, and cozy. Whatever the time or the tone, her mysteries always feature a dose of humor and a dollop of romance. Her first cozy series, the Mysteries a la Mode, feature the owner of an ice cream parlor in a small Texas town.

Once Upon a Wallflower, due to be released in August of 2013, is a Regency-set romantic mystery. While Wendy does not commit (or solve) mysteries in real life, she can kill a pint of ice cream in nothing flat. She also enjoys 80s music, Asian horror films, quilting, and vegetarian cooking.

While she was born in Ohio and has called half a dozen states home, she currently lives in a college town in North Texas along with her husband and their three cats (Iphy, Squeak-a-Doodle, and Todd Baryshnikov).

She loves to hear from readers, so find her on Facebook page.

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