Wednesday Promo- Margaret Tanner

Thank you Paty for inviting me to your blog. I am very pleased to be here.

Firstly let me say I am an author who loves delving into the pages of history as I carry out research for my historical romance novels. I take pride in being historically correct. No history book is too old or tattered for me to trawl through. I have tramped through cemeteries, badgered elderly relatives for interviews, snooped through their diaries and spent hours in museums.

My latest release from The Wild Rose Press is titled Wild Oats. It is set against a background of the 1st World War and is the prequel to The Trouble With Playboys.

For those who waited at home for their men folk to return from battle, letters were their only means of communication. They were treasured – more precious than gold or diamonds. Many letters arrived home to the grieving relatives after they had already received the official government telegram, or a visit from the local clergyman, informing them that their loved one had been killed.

Months later, their loved ones possessions would be sent home. Perhaps a wallet, wedding ring, watch, rosary beads, bible, photographs, diary, pay book, pipe or maybe even a razor. Sometimes the next of kin received nothing at all

WILD OATS - BLURB:
Captain Phillip Ashfield toasted his elevation to fatherhood, as a barrage of artillery pounded the battle scarred fields around him.
The effects of World War I on the life of beautiful, beguiling Allison Waverley
are catastrophic. Seduced and left pregnant by Phillip, she is on the verge of suicide when her childhood sweetheart, Tommy Calvert, intervenes and marries her. But Tommy is destined to die in the trenches of France.
When Phillip returns to Australia after the war and kidnaps his son, because his society wife cannot give him an heir, Allison finds support and a lasting love from an unexpected source.

EXCERPT:
They said no prayers over this fallen warrior but buried him and marked the spot with a plank of wood before driving away.
Later, back in his own quarters at H.Q., Phillip gathered the earthly possessions of Tommy Calvert together and started putting them in an envelope. The letter from Allison fluttered to the ground and he bent over to pick it up.
He hesitated before opening it. It was crumpled and fingered from being read many times over.
Darling Tommy, You will have returned from England to France by now. I hope you liked it. I suppose you must have written only the letters haven’t arrived yet. They sent Jim’s things home the other day, and I’m to get his deferred pay because I’m down as his Next of Kin. I’m going to bank it for little Paul, I want him to have a good education. You don’t mind about that do you, Tommy.
Phillip clenched his hand into a fist, but kept on reading. She had married young Calvert, and they had what he craved above all else. A son.
Paul is toddling around everywhere now, I’ll have to do as you suggested and invent a long lost Calvert relation who was dark. Both his eyes and hair are so like his father’s.
Something started to churn inside Phillip, and he quickly scanned the neatly written lines. There it was. He felt as if he had been kicked in the guts.
It’s uncanny, Tommy. He’s a little miniature Phillip Ashfield.
He’s mine. Sweet little Allison had borne him a son. Dear God, he had to get back to England now and make arrangements. He would move heaven and earth to claim this child who was the fruit of his loins, even if it meant bribing every official in Australia.

ANZAC biscuits
These biscuits were first baked in 1915, by mothers and sisters and sent in food parcels to troops serving on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. The soldiers were members of an expeditionary force, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS). As Wild Oats is against a background of World War 1, I thought it was an appropriate recipe.
Ingredients:
125g (4 oz) butter, 1 tablespoon golden syrup, 2 tablespoons boiling water, 1 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking powder), 1 cup rolled oats, ¾ cup desiccated coconut, 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar.
Method:
Melt butter and golden syrup over low heat. Add boiling water mixed with bicarbonate of soda. Pour into mixed dried ingredients and mix well.
Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture on to greased baking trays, leaving room for spreading.
Bake in pre-heated slow oven (150C/300F) for 20 minutes. Cool on trays for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool.
Store in an airtight container. Makes about 45 - They are yummy.

Margaret’s website: http://www.margarettanner.com/