I seem to have launched another book: or another unfortunate side effect of telling Dave he couldn’t do something. Some years back, some woman was whining about the fact that sf writers were all men. I pointed out that it wasn’t true (with some examples going back to the 50’s) and besides some genres were dominated by women, and no-one complained. She said: ‘What genres?’ I said: Fantasy leans hard that way, and Romance. I was informed that that was because men can’t possibly write romance.
I’ve been Georgette Heyer fan most of my life, and I’m not a patch on her, and never will be, but I set out to write that style of Historical Romance in GEORGINA. I used my mother’s name, and a family name (one of the families who only had daughters that married into our lot, whose names were retained for generations, handed down.) as a pseudonym, because there really is an assumption that no man can write romance. I enjoyed a genre break, learned a lot… and decided I would write another, because things were really rough and I was struggling to write anything at all. CECILY was based on what I had read about Royal Navy widows, and what their lot was (not good). My family were at one time landholders relatively close to Harrogate, and it is a charming spa town, in magnificent Northern English countryside, if less famous than Bath. I thought it would be fun to set it there, and it allowed me to trickle a little of my own background into it, and gave me an excuse to visit.
So: repartee, a little history, some comedy of manners, some drama (this is Dave writing after all). A comfort read, written in a time when I was anything but comfortable. I am BTW, still being kept in suspense. Glaciers are lightning-fast compared to bureaucrats.
Cecily is now up on Amazon, the paperback should be available in a day or two.
Enjoy
Mad Genius Club 
25 responses to “CECILY by ALIDA LEACROFT”
Huzzah!
Since Dave humbly did not provide a link to the ebook, here it is: https://www.amazon.com/CECILY-Alida-Leacroft-ebook/dp/B0D6L9BKDW
Thank you. Actually it was more a problem with looking it up from Australia, where if on .com the link will tell you it is not available!
Huh! That would be a problem. I’m looking forward to reading it soon – Wednesday we will be at the hospital for testing all day, and it will be a lovely respite while sitting in waiting rooms.
Perfect escapist reading I think – it was escapist writing 🙂
Wonderful, I’m looking forward to reading it!
I bought a copy. Didn’t need to, but I wanted to see the final version. I don’t need to save the price, and figure you can appreciate the royalties.
Well, I hope you write an amazon review for it :-).
I have to finish it first.
Congratulations!
Thank you. Getting back on the horse…
Thomas Elmer Huff (aka Jennifer Wilde and a long list of other pennames; remember “Love Me, Marietta”?) and Leigh Greenwood would beg to differ that men can’t write romance!
They are not the only ones, either.
“I was informed that that was because men can’t possibly write romance.”
Looking back over the last few years in culture, I’m increasingly irritated that I ever even argued with those people. To reply to such an idiotic person in 2024 is more than I’m about to do.
On the other hand, the irritation stirred you to create a book. Making lemonade is the best response to lemons, Dave. The crushing and mertilizing of the lemon to get the juice out, so satisfying. ~:D
Congrats, Dave!
Woo-hoo — in my basket!
The paperback is available right this instant. Ask me how I know this.
(grin) How do you know this?
A little bird told me. The same bird that’s sending me a copy to arrive on Sunday.
Why is the title in ALL CAPS?
Where? It is quite common to capitalize all letters of titles referred to in text.
On Amazon
I never knew that; the rule I learned was italics for book titles. I guess the all-caps rule dates to the age of typewriters, where italics were difficult. Possible if you wanted to spend the money (as I understand it, they were possible but you’d need to purchase a special typewriter with italic type bars, and switch the paper between them if you needed to mix italics and regular font), but difficult, so people would use underlines where nowadays one would use italics. And, I am now learning, all-caps as well.
Oh Arabella! LMAO!
Another GOOD one, Dave!
But is there a UK e-book? I can’t find anything on amazon.co.uk though “Georgina” is there of course.
Let me look. It’s still not there. That’s weird. It’s on the Australian one. It’s priced for the UK.