My 2024 Reading Goal: 25 Books and Beyond

November 12, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

My reading goal this year is down to twenty-five books, which is down from forty, which is down from fifty-two, which is down from, well, you get the picture. These things happen. The thing is that I would prefer they not happen again. That is where I want to take the reins early, and that means now, before 2025 is upon us and I have new releases and two blogs to manage and all of that good stuff.

Enter the current iteration of reading journal. The cover is by Dyan Reavely, and made of canvas. It fits very nicely into a small canvas bag, along with whatever paperback I am reading at the moment and has two inserts at present.

Insert one (needs cover embellishment, but the faux leather cover is textured) is from Pen + Gear, and is for my daily logging. Right now, that is date, title, and what page I started reading. If needed, that’s also where I can put notes. The faux leather cover is refillable, so when I fill this insert, I can slip another right in there. I haven’t decorated these pages yet, but I know me, so I probably will at some point.

Second insert is a hardcover notebook by Archer and Olive (similar) and is for long-term planning. I find I work best visually for this aspect, so here is how I am keeping track of my long term TBR:

My goal here is to group books that I want to read together: series, the works of particular authors, specific settings, etc. I am still working out the exact information I want to record for each book, but this is not a place for in depth reviews; more like the essentials I want when I need to jog my memories. So far, this is working pretty well. I want to say the book tape is from Paper Studio, but it might be Archer and Olive. Having a visual representation of future reading probably does scratch some of the browsing a bookstore shelf itch.

These days, I get most of my books electronically or from a similarly inclined bookish friend. I still want to dig my books out of storage, because yes, I can get most of the books I want elsewhere, but there is something about having one’s own books on hand in physical form. I am working toward that. I will also be leaving space for group reads chosen by some of the historical romance reading groups I follow on FB. Discussion is a good motivator.

In the meantime, the next float in this parade is to make a regular, consistent reading routine. I am looking forward to that. My reading nook is almost ready for its closeup, and it’s pretty darned comfortable. I don’t know yet what my reading goal for 2025 will be, but I do want to set one. I am fairly confident I won’t need to move the goal posts any more before the end of this year, especially as I am trying out audiobooks to multitask with when doing other things. I’ll decide closer to the start of next year.

How does your 2025 reading look?

Indie Publishing Journey and Current State of the Desk

October 29, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Right now, there is a possible cover for A Heart Most Errant sitting in my in-box. Am I writing this blog to postpone actually looking at it because it is exciting but scary? Yes. Absolutely. Wil it be okay? Also yes. It is an intermittently blustery day here in NY’s capitol region. There is a cat (Storm) on my desk, formatting and uploading forms sitting in my hard drive, and have hauled our grocery delivery upstairs and put it away. The only thing left on my schedule today is publishing prep and this blog.

My birthday was last week, and it went really well. Many expressions of love both in person and online. I had lunch out with Housemate, received some lovely stationery gifts, and Real Life Romance Hero got me both a glass dip pen (yes, with ink) and a gorgeous hourglass with black sand, perfect for timing breaks when using a Pomodoro inspired schedule.

Keeping nothing but the necessities on my desk is working well. Cup is for tea. Today it’s vanilla chai. The new addition is an unfinished wooden crate turned desktop bookshelf for my most used planners and notebooks. Though I love the A5 rings format, I am mostly in disc bound right now, because folding them in half makes it a lot easier to prop open the particular page and refer to it as needed. Right now, this is the lineup for planners and notebooks:

daily planner
household planner (month/week)
writing planner (month/week)
Poison box contains 20 count Crayola Supertips, pastel edition
Current historical projects notebook
??? Love the cover but still need to decide on fillings and purpose.

I am planning some Anna Log videos to go through the above and my favorite pen pouches and the like. I find what works best for me is when I can pick up everything I need for whatever project, so if I need to pick up and take my show on the road, it’s one thing, and I don’t have to reach or search for anything.

Now that I am effectively my own (and my and Melva’s) publisher, there is a learning curve and a lot more work, which means it’s an excellent thing I am good at organization. It’s fun. Taking something from chaos to order, it’s not that different from taking a bunch of wild squirrels of ideas and snippets of scenes and turning it into a kickline of chorus dancers. Maybe that’s not the best analogy, but I am sticking with it.

One of the things on the forms is the name of the series. While Melva and I plotted out the ongoing Love by the Book contemporary series together, this is the first time I have intentionally set out to write connected historical romances. I had decided that all stories in this series will follow the pattern of A Heart Most _______. Picking “errant” for the first blank-filler was easy, as the hero is a knight errant. After that, though? :blink blink blink: Ummm….

Now, I have settled on “Ardent” and “Wicked” for the next two , which do capture the spirit of the respective stories. The plan is to put all three together in an omnibus, with a bonus short story, probably holiday themed, when they are all out, which will be another project altogether. All together, they are the Ravenwood series. Trust me, it’s better than “Heart Most” series or “Medieval Hearts” because I am new at this series naming thing. Right now, I am looking at what is on my plate at this moment, which is The Forms. Organization is essential for me to keep track of this sort of thing. I know what I need to do and when I need to do it. One thing at a time, not DO ALL OF THE THINGS RIGHT THE HECK NOW.

Yeah. Long story short (hah, pun unintended) I am entering new territory here. Do I know what I am doing? Ehh, sometimes. That’s okay. Everything anybody is good at, they did for the first time once. This, for publishing, is mine.

Indie pubbed writers, share your wisdom. Readers of indie pubbed romance, what are your favorite aspects/pet peeves? Drop them in the comments for possible discussion in future posts.

Big Desk Energy

October 16, 2024October 16, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Today is the first full day with the new desk. I am talking real, adult, this is a working writer’s desk, with drawers and everything.

Putting the desk together was an all-day thing yesterday, and the rest of the office/primary bedroom looks like we should expect our disaster relief check any minute, but as anyone who has ever un-f*cked a depression dungeon knows, progress is progress. Huge reminder how many times I had to drop something and tend to an emergency. Things are quieter now, so that’s no longer the case.

Storm will have her say about how the whole desk day went for her, and how today has been Partial Reading Nook Day. I have done enough for one day (actually two.) By this time tomorrow, reading nook should be good to go, especially since the pink velvety weighted blanket cover is due to arrive then. Having a place where I do One Thing is glorious. Having those places be for writing and for reading is even better.

No, a desk is not a magic ticket to Real Writerhood, any more than a reading nook is one to Real Readerhood, but I like having a place to do a thing, This past week has been a lot of getting things in place. New stuff is coming on MelvaAndAnna, and the journey to indie publishing progresses. Very interesting learning curve. I think I actually like it. Planning and organization are always fun and they do get my brain into the right place to do the things.

The new desk is big enough for not only my laptop and its stand, but my wrist rest mousepad, beverage of the moment, and a lovely black wicker tray holding my at-home Delfonics pouch for journal essentials. Storm has a flannel tent next to my laptop so she can be close and comfy. She loves it. Right now, I am next to a window, my feet at the heated baseboard, nice and toasty, with ample light. I also have my English Ruler ruler, which I need to update, as the one I have doesn’t include Charles III.

The most interesting thing I found in all of this moving around and repurposing and reimagining is that the person (me) putting things in order is not the same person (also me) who dumped and tossed and shoved things into chaos during times of ugh. Some stuff is going to find new homes. I’d rather have a few things I love than a lot of things that are…. there. It’s a process.

Anyway, that’s today. I’m sitting comfortably in an office chair that is the right height for a desk that is big enough to do what I want to do (and it’s not foldable.) I do miss having vertical storage, but it’s also fewer distractions. I am planning video tours of desk and nook when nests are fully feathered, so to speak. What are your writing or reading spaces like these days?

The Actual Worst Reading Year of My Adult Life?

September 26, 2024annabowling 2 Comments

We are now in the “ber” months -September, October, November, December, aka the last quarter of the year. My Goodreads goal for the year is forty books. I have read eighteen. Goodreads kindly reminded me that such a number means I am eleven books behind schedule. That’s disheartening. Not impossible, but disheartening.

Trigger warning: discussion of homelessness (past) beneath the image.

A lack of interest in reading was the red flag needed to talk to my doctor about this particular flavor of depression and got me into the hands of Wonderful Therapist. WT had some excellent insights about the lack-of-reading thing. Did I use reading as a distraction during our vagabond year? My brain immediately flashed back to finishing Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley in the parking lot where we were then camped, Storm in her carrier next to me, as the other adults were at their jobs and my job was to guard the car and our stuff. Fabulous young adult novel, which I highly recommend, and it’s a landmark in this whole reading thing.

I also think about reading fast during the daytime when we were camped, because night would be long and light would not be in great supply. When we were in a room or Housemate’s Mom’s house, of course, I could read any time I wanted, and I did. I couldn’t have my books with me, and while I will always appreciate the library system and my Kindle, the relationship between a reader and their keepers is a special one. Mine are still in storage, safe, but at the back of the unit, so I kind of wave at them when we make a drive-by visit. Soon, hopefully, soon. Even with the Kindle, reading at night, I had to gauge the battery because if we were camped, there was only one time to charge it during the day and that charge had to last.

So, there’s stuff. Wonderful Therapist is helping me unpack it, which is good, and it is happening. It’s coming along. Slowly. I didn’t expect to be this far behind. I don’t want to move the goalposts yet, but if I’m not closer to on track by the end of October, then I will. i don’t want a smaller “body count” for my books this year, but A) nobody cares, and B ) healing happens on its own time.

I know there are things that work. Vintage historical romance. Blindly stumbling around in the figurative dark to cobble together the kind of reading journal that works for me. Right now, that is a traveler’s notebook insert where I can make notes as I read, and a different book where I print out covers of books I plan to read, all top-tier favorites. The extrovert trait of “it’s not real unless I can talk about it” is true for me in this case. It’s annoying, and the only way out is through.

Vintage paperbacks are where I gravitate most these days. I have been poking eBooks with a stick, but they are not sticking (that will change) and audiobooks, which my brain says, “no thank you” at this moment. That also will change, especially as I have a twelve-book series (two six book series that go together) in my sights to start maybe soon, my umpteenth read of these books. I do not know why my brain has these format preferences, but she’s a tricky one, so I am not going to ask. One thing at a time.

All in all, I am not upset by the current situation, reading-wise. More like “yes, that checks out. That’s to be expected. It will come back.” It will. I find my current relationship with reading to be at an interesting point. Accepting it for what it is takes a lot of the reading-related anxiety and pressure away. Since talking about it is a good thing, that will happen here more often. I am looking forward to that.

How is you relationship with reading at present?

Blabbity Blab Blab

February 26, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

We are currently calling the lobster, “Thermidor,” though we are fairly certain that is only his surname and his first and middle names will be taken from an appropriate eighteenth-century military source. I needed a starting point for this very blabbery blog, and the lobster pillow was as good a place as any. For those who are interested in acquiring any of his siblings, they come from the Mart of Walls, in the seasonal section when we found each other, so they have likely skittered over to clearance if they are still in the stores.

Apologies for the radio silence, though I would be the first to tell someone else not to apologize, but eh. It is what it is. Storm and I both plan to be more active on here (unless there is a sunbeam, in which case, she will nap in it.) She does have her birthday (observed) to recount, among other things, and there has been no history in the entire interwebs, as far as I know, where cat pictures were a deterrent.

Regular readers know by now how this sort of entry goes: Anna blabbers for a random amount of time and checks “blog” off her list, then feels better. Fair enough. Things have been relatively snow-free here in NYS, which was not what I had requested, but apparently, I am not in charge of weather. Go figure. Still putting in a request for cool and rainy summer in advance, just in case. I watched the series premiere of The Ones Who Live, the newest entry in The Walking Dead franchise, and I am already wanting to classify it as a romance first. That’s an interesting lens, and one I am wholeheartedly behind, because, well, Rick and Michonne. ‘Nuff said. Also, I am here for the cities and the lore and the whole darned franchise. I love how the whole thing is framed around Rick and Michonne’s bond and determination to get back to each other. I will be watching this one for sure. Also the dream sequences are lovely, a quiet reflection of the chaos of their everyday world. I will have stuff to say about this show.

Reading is still a sludge at times, but that’s a me thing, not a book thing. One step (page) at a time, like anything else. I did start a tentative Goodreads goal of forty books for this year. So far, I am four books in, and will be updating my progress here. Besides a reread of Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell, I am also re-reading Rapture, by Rosamund Royal, who is also Valerie Sherwood, who is also Jeanne Hines, who, besides epic historical romances, wrote gothics in the 60s and 70s. I’m not sure if the reviews are going to post here as well as on Goodreads, but I do intend to talk more about the books I’m reading because that’s an extrovert thing, and a me thing. Talking about X is vital to my thinking process.

Which comes to writing. Melva and I are going full steam ahead on finding the best path to bring Drama King and Queen of Hearts to readers in the coming year. The special talking people vet thinks Camp NaNo is a great idea, so I will be doing that. The question now is, shoot for a new novella and punt that out into the world before the Hypercritical Gremlins get a peek at it, or focus on something already in the works? The one thing I know for sure is that it will be historical romance. I have time before I need to know if I am prepping or pantsing the whole thing. Doesn’t have to be perfect; just has to be written. I may need to make a sign for that.

What’s going on in your world?

Random Valentine Blather

February 14, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Hello, all. Happy Valentine’s Day, or it’s Wednesday, depending on any number of things. Feeling very rusty about blogging at the moment, but there is no time like the present to jump back into the swing of things, so hi.

Above, we have my current everyday carry of planning whatnot. I like being able to pick up one thing (or two) and go, especially since I am still using a backpack and knee brace. Technically, I could fit the contents of the leather cover inside the Delfonics pouch, but I like it this way, with my cover, and a small box of ephemera inside the pouch. There’s something special about pen and paper that have a quicker route to the place where my brain keeps fiction, specifically the kind I create myself.

Valentine’s Day is an interesting one for romance writers. It’s the big romantic love day. People who do not normally engage with the romance genre might be tempted to try one in honor of the holiday (yay, welcome, grab a book and stay a while) and hopefully find something they like. It’s also when other people sometimes detract from the romance genre without engaging with it. Okay I don’t have time for that right now. I love the romance genre and have ever since I stole The Kadin by Bertrice Small from my mother’s nightstand when I was eleven. Right then, I knew I had found what I wanted to read and write for the rest of my life. So far, so good.

Sometimes, there are pauses. This latest one seems big and it seems long and it seems oddly misplaced, as things are pretty stable. That’s…curious. Once again, okay. It is what it is. One foot in front of the other from where I actually am, and at some point, I’ll be back on track. Right now, I am fewer than one hundred pages away from the end of a vintage historical romance I have wanted to read for literally decades. Yes, it is worth the wait. Also, Roger de Mortimer was not a nice man. (Stuff like this is one reason I love medievals.) I am eyeing Camp NaNo in April (it is April, right? Anybody want to make a cabin?)

This is feeling babbly, so I will wrap, after a mention of how Valentine’s Day is always interesting around here, as Real Life Romance Hero is in the restaurant business, which means the big date holiday means he is working. We will celebrate later. I kind of like it that way. Storm, of course, will get her due amount of attention, a wee sniff of the nip, and, fingers (and paws) crossed, her own entry by the end of the week.

How are you doing?

Typing With Wet Paws: Second Week of January Edition

January 13, 2024annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. You would not believe the stuff that is going on around here. Mama Anna is serious about this getting back to business stuff. The good part about that is that I get to snooze in my favorite bed; Mama Anna’s sock drawer. It is right next to her desk when she is working on the computer. I find he clickety clack of keys relaxing. Sometimes, she does the writing by hand stuff at the desk, but usually that is for the people bed. There are seriously a lot of pillows on the people bed. In any event, I am Not Allowed to have anything to do with the leather notebooks. I don’t see the need for a rule like that. I only scratched one cover. With the leather treatment, you can hardly tell. Anyway, let’s get on with the week that was.

There is a rumor, and I can neither confirm nor deny that a decision has been made, that Mama Anna may be switching out the fairy lights around her desk. The ones that are there right now have green wires, and the ones on the tree that they are really seriously putting away this week, they mean it, are white. That goes better with whatever it is that Mama Anna has planned for sprucing up (see what I did there?) her desk area. As long as I still get the sock drawer, I have no strong opinions on the matter. Whether or not she can actually put or get at any socks in that drawer does not matter. Also, I know nothing about how certain items from her traveler’s notebook charm-making stash ended up on the floor up to and including next to my bowls.

One way I can tell for sure that Mama Anna is into the whole writing thing is that today, while she was researching the inheritance rights of Russian women in the eighteenth century (answer: it matters which part) she actually ate part of a handful of my crunchies. She’d managed to function well enough to follow me from her desk to where the crunchies are (only hoomans can open it) but totally spaced on actually putting them in my dish. She assumed the stuff in her hand was dry roasted peanuts (a favorite writing snack) and stuffed some in her mouth. Then right back out of her mouth because dry cat food does not taste like dry roasted peanuts, and they have a very different texture. I won’t say how many bites it took for her to figure this out, but please understand this is the extent to which her brain is back in story land.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. What’s going on over on your end?

Typing With Wet Paws: End of 2023 Edition

December 30, 2023annabowling Leave a comment

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Mama Anna says she is taking the rest of the year off (it’s a day and a half, but still….) and plans to crawl out from under her rock in the new year. We had a good Christmas here, except for the part where she and Aunt Linda abandoned me for the 27th and 28th. Mama Anna says “visiting Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian,” and I had Papa all to myself, but she came back smelling like dog. Also with lots of books, which I love to sniff and sit on, so okay, maybe not entirely a loss. Still, she’s not allowed to Go Away like that for quite a long time.

When the hoomans opened Christmas presents, they put all of the crinkly paper and bags in a bo so that it would become a present for me. I call that a win. Super satisfying. Of course, I had to scent everything that they unwrapped, because things aren’t really here unless they smell like kitty. Specifically, me. This is Storm’s world. They’re just living in it.

Mama Anna always comes back from Aunt Mary’s with lots of books. Apparently there is a place with books in lots of tiny buildings and then another place that has books but is in a different house. Mama Anna got a bunch of historical romances to read and a bunch of history books to read to help her write more historical romances. She is planning her writing year for 2024. It seems to be going pretty well.

the portrait is AI generated. Maybe a character?

This is the cover page for the 2024 section of Mama Anna’s media journal. She has found that she super-duper likes making AI images to use in her journals. she has been going kind of medieval with that. I mean that literally and figuratively, because some of the images she makes are reated to A Heart Most Errant and possible sequels. I told yo, she has plans.

Right now, those plans are to finish listening to an audio book so she can meet this year’s (amended) Goodreads reading goal. She is disappointed that her original goal of 52 books didn’t happen, but 40 is still pretty good. She is trying a new thing this year with her reading journal, with a bunch of mini goals that kind of feel like a game that could be fun. Some of those are:

Reread one book by twelve favorite authors
Four trilogies + twelve months = one book per month
Try one new author per month
“about dang time” TBR of books she’s been meaning to read

Plus other stuff. That could mean history books, art books, YA, maybe books about cats, that kind of thing. She’s not sure yet how she is going to track the whole media consumption thing in general, but I can promise the pages of the media tracker are going to be fun. Also crinkly. Trust me, I have sat on it. Very crinkly.

That’s about it for now. Mama Anna needs my help to change the sheets on the bed. Feline assistance is essential to that process, and a gal does have to supervise. After that, I will do my best to convince her to test out those sheets with a long winter’s nap. She owes me for leaving me with only Papa for about thirty-six hours. Stay safe for the rest of the year, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. (There’s really not much of that, actually.)

Headbonks!

Book Juggling and Other Stories

March 8, 2021annabowling 2 Comments

Back in the before-before-before times, I had a reading system. I read one historical romance and one Star Trek tie-in novel at a time. Well, that was the plan. I have been known to juggle historicals, especially when they were in different eras (ie one Tudor, one Edwardian, etc) and my Trek involvement centered on The Next Generation, as I was active in that fandom then. That was also the time when my book shopping happened much more in person, with an array of options. Waldenbooks was my favorite, with Borders, Chapters, and some other :gestures vaguely: and then the Aladdin’s cave of used bookstores (I miss those with a pain in my heart) and the thrill of combing through the ever changing shelves (crawling around on the floor to check out the stuff under the bottom shelf was the best part.)

On a good day, I could spend hours combing through the historical romance section alone. I’d have my list of books from authors I loved, plus looking for covers by my favorite artist, Elaine Duillo, and keeping an eye out for the historical eras I loved the most. Tudor was at the top of the list, and by Tudor, I mean historical romances about original characters, set in the Tudor era, not fictionalized biographies. The seventeenth century is right up there, too, with the English Civil War, the Lord Protectorate, and the glorious, bawdy, turbulent Restoration era, with women on the stage and gorgeous aesthetics (plus the origin of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels) and then we go into the whole Georgian era, but nipping out before the Regency, and then back in for the turn of the 20th century, on either side of the pond.

I loved the variety, the pirates, the revolutionaries, one particularly memorable Basque shepherd, Vikings, Highlanders, knights, highwaymen, and ticket of leave men, – and any of the above could be the heroines, too. I loved the variety, the scope, and the fact that I could easily read one book, get a definitive HEA, and move right along. Not that there weren’t series as well, because there certainly was, and of those, my favorite was the generational saga, where Heroine One might be the mother of Heroine Two, grandmother of Heroine Three, and so on.

I loved seeing heroes and heroines I already loved at different stages of their lives together, as parents, as grandparents, and my particular favorite tropes for the younger generations were when the young ones either think that their parents or grandparents couldn’t possibly understand what it meant to be young and in love with a mad, burning passion, or on the other side of the coin, when the kids grew up seeing the grand passion between their parents, and wondering if there could ever be something like that for them…and then there was. :happy sigh:

:hugs physical book:

Back the, I could always count on Romantic Times magazine to clue me in on the newest upcoming historicals, and give me insights into books in other subgenres that might tickle my interests. Time was, traditional Regencies were their own category (really, they were) and romance writers of a certain age may well remember the big kerfluffle if there were a place under the umbrella for mainstream fiction with strong romantic elements (including but not limited to love stories that do not have a HEA.)

Times have changed. There is no physical romance fiction magazine anymore as far as I know, at least not one available in Barnes and Noble, which is now the only chain bookstore I can get to with any regularity. I also can’t remember the last paperback I bought in a bookstore. Best I can say is it was in the before times. My Trek involvement now is confined to the video essays by a few favorite YouTubers. Contemporary YA has taken the place in my reading habits that Trek tie ins used to have, and I am finding that there are the settings I love out there, but it may take some digging to find them.

It’s not an entirely bad change. I love that I can carry around thousands of books at once, in my Kindle, and the Kindle app on my tablet. I love that I can have a robo-voice turn any e-book into an audiobook. I love that there are new authors on the scene, and that the advent of indie publishing means that everybody has a chance to get the kind of story they love out there for readers who are combing the interwebs for it, if not bottom shelves of used bookstores. Heck, I’m even moving in that direction myself with A Heart Most Errant.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, only that this is what came out of my fingers as I started this entry. Last night, I read a book my library app filed under YA thriller. The story was mm, not for me, though I loved the idea and the visuals, and the stuff that worked for me is probably simmering in idea soup somewhere on the back burner. What I remembered most was that, after the that’s the ending? ending, my first thought was “yep, need a historical romance novel now,”

Which I do. I have one historical I missed the first time around, back in the before-before-before times, plus a new release that I can’t wait to get to., I’m also keeping my eyes peeled for YAs with creepy old houses in remote locations. Getting some definite gothic vibes from those selections. Mmmm, gothics.

See the source image — homer simpson drool gif – Bing images

Summer of Love Standout Standalones

June 17, 2020annabowling Leave a comment

Many thanks to all who responded to my last post on a blogging deep dive on some favorite romance series. I had so much fun with that post and the feedback, that my first thought was, “why stop there?” So, I won’t. My first and fiercest love in historical romance (or any fiction) is the standalone. One story, one book, that’s all she/he/they wrote. There’s something special about closing the cover on a book that doesn’t have companion volumes, and letting my own mind fill in the happily ever after, waving our lovers off into the sunset and on with the rest of their lives. Once upon a time, that was the norm. Right now, series drive the market. What will come next? Who knows? What doesn’t change, however, is the power of a great story, . If it’s full and complete in itself, well, for me, all the better, so I want to take you on a tour of some of my very favorites. Since standalone books are naturally shorter than entire series, I am sharing five examples instead of only three, for your consideration. Once again, in no particular order:

891795 — *The Wind and the Sea*, Marsha Canham

Nobody, but nobody swashes the buckle like Marsha Canham, and I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw this cover in person, and knew I had to have this book. I will always look at a pirate story, and if it’s a female pirate, that book Is on my shelf of its own free will. Add in a Barbary Coast (North Africa) setting, the US Navy (set in 1806) and the big, thick doorstopper size I prefer for books of this nature, this is an adventure for the ages. Canham has other seafaring stories (among others) both series and standalones, but for this particular project, this gets the nod.

1664618. sx318 — *A Woman of Passion*, Virginia Henley

Far and away my favorite Henley standalone (though there are a couple I still need to read, so favorite standalone presumptive?) Straddling the line between historical romance and historical fiction, the heroine, Bess, is based on the historical figure, Elizabeth Hardwick. No, she’s not the “Elizabeth” in the Elizabethan era, in which this is set (Elizabeth Tudor, AKA HRH Elizabeth I, is) but man oh man does she have a life. Or should that be men, oh men, because Bess doesn’t marry just once but four times. But is it still a romance? There have been discussions, but I’ll let you decide for yourselves…or read along with me and let’s talk it out.

622475 — *Wild Bells to the Wild Sky*, Laurie McBain

Can’t get enough of Tudor-era romance? I know I can’t (remember when that used to be a thing? Who wants to help bring that back?) Love shipwreck stories? How about love on a deserted island? No, not Gilligan’s. This is the tale of Lily Christian, who grew up on such an island after a shipwreck stranded her small family, and Valentine Whitelaw (one of my favorite romance hero names ever) the courtier tasked with bringing her home. Lily is smart, strong, resilient and resourceful, Valentine is a man of his time, and there is intrigue aplenty, unmaskign the true reason behind the accident that changed Lily’s life forever. This also has one of my top three romance endings ever.

Those with small children may want to occupy the kiddos in another room for this one because hecking fluff, doe James ever go there. Where exactly is “there?” Oh sweet summer child. Let me tell you about this book. Gabriel St. Croix is the last person who would consider himself a hero. He has lived and worked (yep, doing exactly what you think, his clients not restricted to one gender) most of his life in a brothel. He’s thisclose to finally being free of that living hell, when a young boy arrives to become his replacement, and, well, Gabriel can’t let that happen. If he stays on, will the boy remain untouched? Yes. Okay, then. That’s not all, though. His reason for staying is about to be ripped away from him, as Sarah Munroe, the boy’s sister, has finally found him, and will be taking him home. Not only that, but Gabriel can come, too. Culture shock? To say the least. Sarah is unconventional herself, and when these two wounded souls meet, the click together to form an incredible romance. Yes, there is an HEA.

Laura cannot imagine ever not loving Alex, not from since she was a little girl, and certainly not after he returns home from the war so scarred that he shuts himself away and wears a leather mask to shield himself and his scars, both physical and mental/emotional, from the rest of the world. But Laura isn’t the rest of the world. She is a take charge heroine who is not going to let a little thing like that stop her from rescuing Alex from himself. If that means putting aside her identity as a daughter of the nobility to sign on as the new housekeeper so she can get close to him, well that’s what she’s going to do. Her job isn’t easy, either, and this is an extremely emotional read…which is one of the reasons it’s on this list. I am sorry to say that the author, Karen Ranney, passed away recently, so a reread of this feels both timely and bittersweet.

So there you have it, five standout standalone historical romance novels that I would love to deep dive into with all of you. Which one catches your fancy? Drop suggestions in the comments, or message me at annacbowling@gmail.com or come join the Lion and Thistle group on Facebook, and tell me your favorites.

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