CLEAR YOUR SHELF GIVEAWAY HOP - WINNERS

First of all I want to thank Kathy at I'm A Reader Not a Writer for organizing the Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop  and all the readers from all over the world (impressive!) that entered the giveaway contest at FLY HIGH! The result is that some of my books are going to fly away, they'll leave their shelf directed toward new enthusiastic readers who, I'm sure, will treasure them. I'm really happy for that.

First, let's discover who is the winner of the international winner ...

Congratulations to Corey!

She'll receive the book she has chosen: Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy by Barbara Tiller Cole

The second draw is for the readers leaving in Italy, like me. They could choose three books from my list.

And the winner is Reading Mind/The Loyal Book 

who chose 

The Jane Austen guide to happily ever after, Mr Darcy Bites and Definitely nor Mr Darcy

Enjoy your new reads and have a good time! MG

BBC THE PARADISE : WHY SHOULDN'T I LIKE FAIRY-TALES?

Because I'm grown-up and getting older? Because life is totally different? Please, let me get my glimpse of paradise! If romance is  the form of escapism which makes me happy, let me smile in bliss or bite my nails (yes! I still do that when nervously watching/reading something which gets me excited or anxious), let me foolishly talk with the screen/page and encourage my heroes or menace their antagonists, let me giggle in joy or grunt in disappointment. It was some time I didn't get so enthusiastic for something. So, thanks a lot BBC1! 

What am I blabbing about? The new series, THE PARADISE, just ended about an hour ago which was a lovely gift for my poor, bored heart. Its story and its characters won me over, my interest grew little by little, till exploding during episode 6 (if you saw it, YKWIM!)

I know many of you haven't been able to see this series yet, so I'm not telling you much, I don't want to spoil your journey through this great story. But, since it has just finished, and I am still trying to calm down,  could I at least say a little? No spoilers, I promise. Just this ...

CLEAR YOUR SHELF GIVEAWAY HOP - PICK UP YOUR FAVOURITE TITLES AND ... GOOD LUCK!

Welcome to another great event! I must have already told you about this and I hope you don't mind if I repeat myself. I just want to explain the reason of my taking part in this giveaway hop.

I'm sure you know how much I love reading and collecting books. I know many people who are jealous of their books and, actually, I am quite jealous of  mine, too. However, what I love much more than to keep them on my shelves and dust them - I've got several hundreds of them kept in every room of my house and go on receiving new ones every day-   is to spread the love for books and reading. So,  to that purpose, I'm always glad to lend them to family and friends or give them away. Hence, more than"operation clean your shelf", which sounds something like "let's get rid of bad stuff", my contribution to this giveaway hop is more "let's spread the love"!

Many thanks to Inspired Kathy at  I Am A Reader, not A Writer for hosting this Giveaway Hop

Here's the list of books you can pick up your favourite one/ones from in no particular order:

1. Rosy Thornton, More than Love Letters

2. Georgette Heyer, The Masqueraders

3. Elizabeth Kantor, The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After

4. Barbara Tiller Cole, Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy

5. Victoria Connelly, The Runaway Actress

6. Mary Lydon Simonsen, Mr Darcy's Bite

7.Karen Doornebos, Definitely Not Mr Darcy

8. Carrie Bebris, The Deception in Lyme

Here are the rules to enter this giveaway contest:

"The Brontës and the Shelleys - Crafting Stories from Lives" : A talk by Juliet Gael at Keats-Shelley House in Rome

Juliet Gael at Keats and Shelley House - Rome

It's been a very pleasant afternoon spent in one of the most spectacular landmarks in Rome, Piazza di Spagna, and more precisely at the Keats and Shelley House. Janice Graham, writing as Juliet Gael, is the author of the critically acclaimed historical novel Romancing Miss Brontë, and is currently working on a follow-up novel that deals with the fascinating lives of the Shelleys. She was the guest author at today's meeting and she gave a  talk  about crafting stories from the lives of iconic literary figures like Charlotte Brontë and Mary Shelley.

Part literary reading, part discussion, and part work-in-progress seminar, Juliet Gael addressed the creative problems involved in romanticising the lives of authors and gave us some tantalising sneak previews into the process of writing her book about the Shelleys.

Starting with E. M Forster's definition of events and story, Juliet conveyed the sense of great respect with which she approached her research and then her creation of a  story - line for Romancing Miss Brontë  .

BARBARA KYLE PRESENTS HER "THE QUEEN'S GAMBLE" - GIVEAWAY!

Maria, thanks for inviting me to reach out to your readers on Fly High. Flying high is what writing historical fiction is all about!

I'm happy to tell a little about my most recent release, The Queen's Gamble. It's Book #4 in my "Thornleigh" series which follows a rising middle-class family through three tumultuous Tudor reigns.

And there's a giveaway! It's open to the US and Canada, and the winner will receive a signed copy of The Queen's Gamble.

Take your chances in the rafflecopter form below and good luck! The contest will be closed on November 16th.

Synopsis

Young Queen Elizabeth I’s path to the throne has been a perilous one, and already she faces a dangerous crisis. French troops have landed in Scotland to quell a rebel Protestant army, and Elizabeth fears once they are entrenched on the border, they will invade England.

Isabel Thornleigh has returned to London from the New World with her Spanish husband, Carlos Valverde, and their young son. Ever the queen’s loyal servant, Isabel is recruited to smuggle money to the Scottish rebels. Yet Elizabeth’s trust only goes so far—Isabel’s son will be the queen’s pampered hostage until she completes her mission.

Matters grow worse when Isabel’s husband is engaged as military advisor to the French, putting the couple on opposite sides in a deadly cold war.

LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR. HENRY MAYHEW'S LONDON AND ITS FIRST ITALIAN TRANSLATION

London Labour and the London Poor is a remarkable work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew, Dickens's contemporary and like Dickens celebrating his bicentenary this year (both were born in 1812). 

Mayhew observed, documented, interviewed, described hundreds of poor people living in the abyss which was London in the 1840s-50s for a series of articles published in the Morning Chronicle. Those articles were later on compiled  into book form (1851 in 3 volumes, 1861 a fourth Extra Volume was added). 

As a fond reader of Victorian literature, yesterday I was in Rome, at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, for the presentation of the first Italian translation of Mayhew's work by Mauro Cotone: Il lavoro e i poveri nella Londra Vittoriana.

The Italian version of the work is a selection of 138 articles out of the many hundreds Mayhew wrote. Mauro Cotone selected them obtaining a significant wide range of typical figures from the crowd inhabiting London slums: beggars, street entertainers, mudlarks, prostitutes, labourers and thieves. A great portion of those destitute beings had no fixed place of work nor a fixed abode, they lived in the slum alleys and streets where Mayhew meet them. The caricatures full of pathos we find in Charles Dickens's pages become sketches of real people in these articles, people telling about themselves in authentic first-person accounts and objectively described by a professional reporter. 

BRYONY ALLEN, THE ASSEMBLY ROOM - GIVEAWAY WINNER

The book

The ghosts of The Assembly Room have been waiting for someone to unlock their secrets, and Merryn Stearne has arrived. For 14 year old Merryn, the future should have been perfect - a new home in the idyllic Suffolk countryside and romance with the gorgeous boy next door, Jamie. If only the past would stop interfering with the present. Dreams of medieval witchcraft trials become terrifyingly real and Merryn realises there is a mystery to be solved. With Jamie's help, she uncovers the truth about her ancestor's role in the Suffolk witch hunts of 1645. But can they stop the curse that threatens to ruin the Stearne family once again, or are the forces of the past too strong?

The e-book version of this book has been won by Alicia. Congratulations!

Many thanks to Bryony Allen for taking the time to write for FLY HIGH,  being my guest and providing the copy of THE ASSEMBLY ROOM to give away.

MEET TANYA ANNE CROSBY AND WIN HER "LYON'S GIFT"

Read the interview and try to win Tanya Anne Crosby's Lyon's Gift,  great historical fiction novel set in Scotland in the Middle Ages. Fill in the rafflecopter form below this post and ... good luck!

Welcome to FLY HIGH, Tanya.  I’m really glad you accepted to answer some questions about you, your writing and your latest releases.-  First of all, you write romances. Does that mean you are a very romantic  person in real life?

I don’t know … let me ask my husband! He says, “Yes!” But I’m pretty sure that was a loaded question. I would have to say I am an eternal romantic. I believe everything in this universe comes down to love – nothing is bigger. I also think it’s important to appreciate life’s beauty—the way a leaf flows from a tree in fall and the way my dog looks at me at 7 a.m. – waiting eagerly for me to open my eyes. Romance, to me, is about sensing every little moment in life and soaking it in. As a writer, I want to be able to share what I see with you.

- What is your secret “ingredient” to make a scene very romantic?

I rarely focus on the physical aspect of intimacy. For me, it’s all about what’s going on inside the character’s head and heart and how the moment relates to their surroundings. I also think personal growth is very sexy, and it’s important to me as a storyteller to show you those moments, big and small, that become a characters catharsis.

THE BATTLE OF COSTUME DRAMAS? THE BLISS OF A COSTUME DRAMA FAN!

I've been in heaven these last few weeks with two weekly dates with my beloved period dramas: The Paradise on Tuesday and Downtown Abbey on Sunday. Double pure delight! 

ITV hugely successful drama, at its third season, will be over tonight at 9 p.m. What do we have to expect? Will we see a series 4? Will the prequel we heard about take its place instead? Let's wait and see: ITV has found a gold mine in this successful   show, I'm sure they won't let it down so soon.

BBC1 The Paradise, on the other hand, is totally new and will go on for two weeks more. It has been recently announced that a second season has been commissioned after the rewarding viewing figures (average audience of 5.9 million viewers) for the first one. And I'm terribly happy to hear that. 

What has happened to me is that I've been won by the new BBC1 series loosely based on Zola 's "Au Bonheur des Dames" , by its different setting (a 19th century department store in an unnamed town in the North of England) and by its new characters. So,  I  started waiting for Tuesdays more eagerly  than for Sundays. Mr Moray and his little champion Denise , Miss Audrey and Edmund Lovett, Pauline and Sam, Clara and Mr Dudley, Young Arthur and Mr Jonas have definitely conquered my heart. Did I forget anyone? Oh, yes, Miss Glendenning and her father. Maybe, it is not casual, since they are not exactly my best favourite characters, as you may have guessed. 

OCTOBER GIVEAWAYS - WINNERS ANNOUNCED

GIVEAWAY 1. THE MANY LIVES & SECRET SORROWS OF JOSEPHINE B. BY SANDRA GULLAND 
(Amazon.com Review) Since completing high school history, few of us have managed to keep straight the details of the French Revolution. Beyond suggestions of eating cake and the effectiveness of the guillotine, this sordid time period has remained--for many--somewhat obscure. Now, through the novel The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., not only do we learn of the many differences between Robespierre and Rousseau, but we gain insight into the marriage of one of history's greatest political couples: Napoleon and Josephine.

Standing beside the charismatic Napoleon, Josephine's own importance and fascinating history have often been overshadowed. In a fictionalized account of Josephine's diaries and her correspondence, author Sandra Gulland has shed light on Josephine's pre-Napoleon life. This, the first of three books about Josephine, covers her childhood in Martinique, her first marriage, the birth of her children, her life during the revolution, and her marriage to Napoleon.