Written for Romantic Times but unfortunately lost in a personnel change so you’re the first to read it.

Finding Forever Amber…Again

by Jeane Westin 

My tattered, but cherished copy of Forever Amber was confiscated by a teacher, but I never forgot that sassy passionate story. A beloved first book like a first love is an experience you long to repeat, isn’t it? Although I took some interesting detours, wrote other books and worked at other jobs, when I finally answered the call of historical romance, there was only one place in history I couldn’t wait to visit—England in the 1660s, the time of Forever Amber, the book that hooked me on historical romance and set me on a course of lifelong passion for that time and the people who lived it. 

Who wouldn’t be intrigued by a sexy, romp of a decade (very much like our 1960s) freed from Puritan rules, a decade I’ve heard called The Golden Age of Ogling? 

I stepped into this world once again while writing Lady Anne’s Dangerous Man, (January 06, NAL Eclipse) as easily as I walk my own street, the people and places vivid and real from my several trips to England, only this time I walked London streets and hiked public paths, forests and downs with my hero and heroine John Gilbert, called Gentlemen Johnny by the commoners who loved him, and Lady Anne Gascoigne.

London is my favorite city in the world. Strolling along the Strand, the streets around Covent Garden and the ancient alleys near Saint Paul’s, I am not in the present, I’m in 1660, although I wouldn’t tell my doctor since only another historical reader would understand. Once my husband and I, looking for a special pub, stopped a man in elegant evening dress to ask directions. He bowed, and with real regret showing on his quite handsome face, said, “I beg pardon, dear madam, but I have fallen amongst low company and am quite the worse for drink.” With that and another deep bow, he weaved on down the street. Perfect savoir faire! I had my Gentleman Johnny.

John Gilbert, a man of notorious dash, swash and humor rides the high road, outwits the rich and corrupt, then retreats deep into a secret forest hideaway with his loyal men…and women. On one of these retreats, he is forced to take Lady Anne with him or face hanging. Anne is the breathtakingly beautiful betrothed of a devious Earl, who has conspired to let the King steal her virtue in exchange for a large Virginia plantation…and she is on the run from both King and husband-to-be. 

Once in the forest hideout, Anne, though betrayed and suspicious, learns to hold her own with a sword, to churn the best butter in the camp and to fall hopelessly in love, though she fights it and her Gentleman Johnny in every way possible through the forest, across England to plague-ridden London and over the English Channel to a Dutch warship.

Although Anne swears to heaven she’ll trust no man again, John is absolutely irresistible, truly a “dangerous man.” 

You’ve met the type. 

If you have—and especially if you haven’t—I’d like to introduce you to one of the best in my first romance, the hero who called to me all my life. 

I’m not exactly new to writing. I spent several years free-lancing for national magazines and newspapers, then switched to non-fiction books and finally came to novels. My first novel sold to CBS for a mini-series and my second to a Broadway producer for a musical. Neither was produced but it was a thrill of a ride…the Today Show, Good Morning America…movie studios wooing me with limos and flights to Los Angeles for lunch. I didn’t think anything could top this high. 

Yet, all these wonderful experiences were just appetizers for Lady Anne’s Dangerous Man. I’ve never had more fun writing—riding with a bold highwayman, dancing at the lascivious court with King Charles II, wearing lush silk gowns, meeting a colorful quack doctor, and eating the food these people ate. I can skip the calves-head pie, but I made a delicious spice cake last Christmas from The Accomplisht Cook, a book of the times . . . though I did have trouble finding rosewater for the glaze.

When people ask me where I got the idea for this book, I tell them: “It was there all the time. I just had to listen for the call.”

Copyright © 2005 Jeane Westin. Website design by Web Crafters.