Crashing into Love, Today we feature Falling Hard by D'Ann Lindun

Today, we feature Falling Hard 

by D'Ann Lindun

He craves solitude to forget what a woman did to him. She needs one last chance before her career ends. Can a plane crash in the Canadian Rockies show them what really matters?

Gah! How could he sleep when the aircraft jumped up and down like it was playing hopscotch? She wanted to scream, but muffled it with her hands. No one else seemed terribly concerned, so she tried to calm herself by taking deep breaths and willing her nerves to settle down.

Just when she’d begun to relax, the plane took a sudden, wild plunge downward.

“Shit!” Teagan grabbed for the nearest thing to hold onto and found the upper arm of her seatmate. She wrapped her fingers around his bicep and held on for dear life.

He woke, scrubbed his face with both hands and glanced at her. “What’s going on?”

“I think we’re going down,” she managed through tight lips.

He raised an eyebrow. “Here?”

“We’re crashing, you idiot!”

The plane plunged and dipped again. Brooklyn screamed. Teagan might have, too. She was too scared to know for sure.

The plane seemed quieter all of a sudden.

Teagan risked a glance out her window and gasped. The propeller on her side no longer worked. The plane faltered. Tipped to its side.

“Dear God, we’re about to crash.” She moaned. “We’re all going to die.”

“Just hold onto me, honey. You’ll be all right.” Her seatmate’s calm tone soothed her a little.

When he held out his big hand, she grabbed on. How could he be so composed when she was terrified out of her mind?

 

Seven planes lift off…seven planes crash…seven stories of struggle, passion and love in the barren Canadian Wilderness, the coast of England, or the steamy heat of a tropical island. Romance hangs in the balance between survival and death.

Brace for Impact by Daryl Devoré. What could be simpler than a routine plane trip from Toronto, Canada to Caracas, Venezuela for rookie flight attendant, Lori, and sexy R.C.M.P. officer, Guy Lapierre? But Fate had other intentions.

Crashing into You by Lisa Kumar When Ashlee Trent meets handsome businessman Kaiden West on a plane to Australia, he eases her fears even as he sets her heart ablaze. But after their plane crashes into the ocean and they wash ashore, will the secrets surrounding him send their budding relationship into a nosedive?

Crash and Burn by Melissa Keir Can Rob and Keira's second honeymoon lead to romance, or will it crash and burn? On the verge of a divorce, Rob and Keira Matthews book a second honeymoon at the urging of their counselor. Unable to conceive, they've pushed each other away in an effort to protect their hearts. Will a romantic holiday be the ticket to love or a plane crash in disaster??

Crashing Through Time by Jenna Jaxon The most dangerous thing about time travel is knowledge of the past: does she save him and change history, or let the tragic events play out and lose the love of her life?
More than hearts can be broken when you crash through time. 

Love Comes Crashing In by Brenda Dyer Best friends find love in each other's arms, but can that love survive reality?

Falling Hard by D'Ann Lindun He craves solitude to forget what a woman did to him. She needs one last chance before her career ends. Can a plane crash in the Canadian Rockies show them what really matters?

A Splash of Romance by Deb Julienne Who knew a plane crash would lead to romance? Hannah Parks is a trauma nurse on her way to a symposium at the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute. She just started her bucket list and a plane crash definitely isn't on it.  Oliver Lawson's divorce is final and he's looking to start over. A tropical island, a gorgeous woman. Romance is one thing, getting there as a result of a crash landing...who knew? 

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Crashing-into-Love-Daryl-Devore-ebook/dp/B00ZSXMZ02/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434581355&sr=1-2&keywords=crashing+into+Love+Keir

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZSXMZ02?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/5561133

Falling in love with romance novels the summer before sixth grade, D’Ann Lindun never thought about writing one until many years later when she took a how-to class at her local college. She was hooked! She began writing and never looked back. Romance appeals to her because there's just something so satisfying about writing a book guaranteed to have a happy ending. D’Ann’s particular favorites usually feature cowboys and the women who love them. This is probably because she draws inspiration from the area where she lives, Western Colorado, her husband of twenty-nine years and their daughter. Composites of their small farm, herd of horses, five Australian shepherds, a Queensland heeler, two ducks and cats of every shape and color often show up in her stories!

D’Ann loves to hear from readers! Please contact her at

dldauthor@frontier.net

http://dlindunauthor.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/DLindunAuthor

https://twitter.com/DLindun

http://www.amazon.com/DAnn-Lindun/e/B008DKL9TU

Street team: https://www.facebook.com/groups/838870409506195/

Ella Quinn shares a Kiss for Lady Mary

Today, I have the incomparable Ella Quinn.

 She'll be giving away a book to one lucky commenter. So practice on your commenting skills because she is a fabulous author, and you will want the book.

Ella Quinn’s bachelors do as they like and take what they want. But when the objects of their desire are bold, beautiful women, the rules of the game always seem to change…

Handsome, charming, and heir to a powerful Viscount, Christopher “Kit” Featherton is everything a woman could want—except interested in marriage. So when he hears that someone on his estate near the Scottish border is claiming to be his wife, Kit sets off to investigate.

Since her parents’ death, Lady Mary Tolliver has been hounded by her cousin, a fortune-hunting fool after her inheritance. Refusing to settle for anything less than love, Mary escapes to the isolated estate of rakish bachelor, Kit Featherton. Knowing he prefers Court to the country, she believes she will be safe. But when Kit unexpectedly returns, her pretend marriage begins to feel seductively real…

A Kiss for Lady Mary excerpt – Reader’s Entertainment

Kit looked out the window as Mary and the rest of the ladies returned. Her chin had a mulish cast, and he wished he knew what the others had said to her.

“Have you told her how lovely you think she is?” Marcus asked as he glanced out the window.

Kit dragged his gaze from her. “That would be forward.”

“Good God, man.” Huntley dropped his head into his hands. “Every woman likes to be complimented.”

That wasn’t fair. Kit did flatter her. He sniffed. “I do. I tell her what an excellent job she’s done with Rose Hill.”

“We could just take him out and shoot him now,” Rutherford said to no one in particular. “It would put him out of his misery and ours.”

“It’s a good thing”—Marcus gave a rueful smile—“you have us here to help you.”

Huntley refilled Kit’s glass. “When being courted, a lady wants to be told she is beautiful and desirable, not that she is a good land steward.”

“They also need to be kissed.” Rutherford shook his head in disgust when Kit scowled. “I think you’re making a mistake. The normal rules of polite behavior do not apply to courting, but if you’re not going to kiss her, then you must figure out some way to be more attentive. She probably doesn’t realize you’re even interested in her.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to kiss Mary. Her lips drew him like a siren’s call, but he’d made a habit of correct behavior, and his friends’ advice went against everything he considered honorable. On the other hand, he was becoming desperate, and they could be right. What if he had given her the wrong idea?

“Very well.” Kit took a swallow of the sherry. “I will do as you suggest. If she slaps me, I’ll blame it on you.”

“Here they come.” Huntley grabbed the tumbler from Kit’s hand. “Now tell her how much the fresh air agrees with her. That she has roses in her cheeks or something like that.”

The door opened and the ladies strolled in, all of them but Mary with broad smiles for their men. Kit moved toward her, took her hand, and gave her his most charming smile. “How lovely you look. The fresh air agrees with you.”

God, he sounded like an idiot.

Her eyes widened, and her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink. “Thank you.”

Well, perhaps not so much of an idiot. She seemed to enjoy the accolade, and she hadn’t even looked as if she wanted to hit him. This wasn’t so bad after all

Amazon http://amzn.to/1wPjUAo

B&N http://bit.ly/15XUwNE

iTunes http://bit.ly/16vI3B2

Bestselling author Ella Quinn’s studies and other jobs have always been on the serious side. Reading historical romances, especially Regencies, were her escape. Eventually her love of historical novels led her to start writing them. She has just finished her first series, The Marriage Game, and her new series will start in April 2016.

 She is married to her wonderful husband of over thirty years. They have a son and granddaughter, one cat and a dog. After living in the South Pacific, Central America, North Africa, England and Europe, she and her husband decided to make their dreams come true and are now living on a sailboat cruising the Caribbean and North America.

She loves having readers connect with her.

Website: www.ellaquinnauthor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/EllaQuinnAuthor

Twitter www.twitter.com/ellaquinnauthor

Blog http://ellaquinnauthor.wordpresscom

How to write mob comedies and NOT get taken out by Melodie Campbell

Today, we'll learn How to Write Mob Comedies in your own Home Town, and not get Taken Out by the Family

This informative blog is brought to you by Melodie Campbell. Any implied threat in the blog title I wrote is unintentional. I only wished to state who was going to share how to survive a mob comedy. 

Here's Melodie before she does take me out....

It all closed in on me at the launch of

 THE GODDAUGHTER mob caper in Hamilton.

Eighty-five people stood waiting.

The local television station had cameras in my face.  So far, it had been an easy interview focused on my awards and comedy career. The fellow was charming.  I liked him a lot.  Then he dropped the bomb.

“So…have you ever met a member of the mob?”

I didn’t like him so much anymore.

Yikes!  Hesitation.   A lot of feet shuffling.
“Yes.” I said, very precisely. So precisely, that everyone in the room laughed nervously. “In fact, I had to wait until certain members of my family died before getting this book published. ‘Nuf said.”

The ‘nuf said’ was the closure.  He got it.  Being a smart lad, he even let it drop.

Because frankly, I was speaking the truth.  I did wait until certain people died.  Some of them were in Sicily, but more were in Canada.  Some even died from natural causes.  (“He died cleaning his rifle” was an unfortunate family expression, meaning something entirely different, if you get my drift.)

This made me think about how close you want to get in a book to real life.

As writers, we research a hell of a lot.  Of course, I did research for The Goddaughter series.  Some of the study was pretty close to home, as I riffed on memories from my childhood.

My first memory is of a family reunion at a remote farmhouse in Southern Ontario. I was about three, and tears were streaming down my face.  Big scary uncles picked me up. They tried to console me by speaking softly. But I couldn’t understand them because they were speaking in Italian, or more precisely, Sicilian.

Those were the days of Brio and cannoli after mass on Sunday mornings.   And gossip about other relatives, one of whom was a famous boxer.  My aunt’s friend, the singer (one of a trio of sisters) who could not escape the clutches of a mob underboss in the States; he wouldn’t let her go.  I remember the aunts clamming up about this, when I ventured into the room looking for Mom. 
I was a darling of the family, with dark curly hair and big evergreen eyes. Later, when I grew up curvy and was tall enough to model, they doted on me. So my memories of growing up in such a family are decidedly warped.

They were warm and loving.  Very witty.  Loads of fun.  And massively protective.

In the screwball comedy THE GODDAUGHTER REVENGE, you will find a mob family that is funny and rather delightful.  Gina loves them, but hates the business.  She is always trying to put it behind her, and somehow gets sucked back in to bail them out.  I wanted to show that ambivalence.  You are supposed to love your family and support them.  But what if your family is this one?

How close is too close to home? I do cut pretty close in describing Hamilton.  The streets are real. The names of the neighbourhoods are real. I even describe the location of the restaurant where the mob (in my books) hangs out. I changed the name, of course, because the last thing I want is readers thinking this hot resto is really a mob hangout.
 And besides, it’s fun when fans email me to say, “When they all meet at La Paloma, did you really mean XXX?” Readers feel they’ve been part of an in-joke.

THE GODDAUGHTER series is meant to be laugh-out-loud funny.  But there is an adage that states: Comedy is tragedy barely averted.

No kidding.  I’ve been writing comedy all my adult life.

These are action packed, full laugh-loaded books. What makes that so amazing is that they are novellas. I've no clue how Melodie Campbell manage to stuff so much in so few pages. It's like magic. You get the full enjoyment of a novel in an hour's time. I have to think she's got something to hold over Time so it caters to her needs. 

Seriously, these novellas have so much fun stuffed in them, you will swear they are full length novels, and time is just screwing with your head. 

Living in New Jersey, I have come upon real mafia myself, but there is nothing like growing up in the family to truly grasp the complexity of their relationships. You'll get a great sense of what I'm talking about in these two books. 

Once a young mafia stud threatened to blow my head off, right there in the middle of a traffic jam while a hundred people looked on. 

So when Melodie has her characters do brainless things, I not only believe them, I'm pretty sure someone she knew did something similar to all the stupid-ass things that occur in the books. 

Both books are superbly written. However, since I loved the story plot of book two more than book one, I'll give it 5 stares, and the first book 4.5 stars, rounding it up to 5, and hope it won't cause conflict in the book family. Given book two has won several awards, book one may be resentful, and since it cannot kill it's family, it might come after me.... Well, let me say the same thing I did to the mafia tough who once threatened me: "Oh, for God's sakes, just do it! You're giving me a headache."

Hopefully, book one will stare at me in baffled silence for a moment, then slam his book cover on my pc and storm off rather awkwardly. (Books are clumsy when storming off.)

Liza, going for her strangest review yet...because Melodie provoked her sense of humor with her crazy stories.

These are both Novellas

THE GODDAUGHTER

THE GODDAUGHTER'S REVENGE

The Toronto Sun called her Canada's "Queen of Comedy."  Library Journal compared her to Janet Evanovich.  Melodie Campbell got her start writing standup.  She has won nine awards for fiction, including the 2014 Derringer and the 2014 Arthur Ellis (Canada) for The Goddaughter’s Revenge.  www.melodiecampbell.com
 

Rodeo King by Cheryl Yeko & Char Chaffin

Char Chaffin and Cheryl Yeko are BFFs, fellow authors and Acquiring Editors, and two-thirds of The Power Of Three. Both are lovers of romance, Alpha Men and the women they’d lay down their lives for.

Char and Cheryl not only write seamlessly together but they share the same vision of what makes a great romance read: a strong story, a passionate romance, fascinating characters, a happy-ever-after ending, and the know-how to accomplish it within the pages of the books they create.

Rodeo King is the first in what they hope will be a long, successful writing partnership. In addition to the Dustin Lovers Trilogy, they are also planning a Western Historical series.

THE PROCESS OF CREATING DUSTIN, WYOMING:

It started in 2014, a few months before RWA’s National Conference in San Antonio. Cheryl, Char, and fellow BFF Callie Hutton had been talking about starting up a writing collective. Understanding there is power in numbers, they got the ball rolling by selecting a title—The Power Of Three—and launching a newsletter, website, and other social network-type goodies. Then, one evening during the conference, the idea of writing a romance under The Power Of Three gelled when they chose a genre—Western Contemporary.

The actual outline for RODEO KING came together very quickly. Before that brainstorming evening was over, they had Caleb and Rosemary fleshed out, five solid chapters outlined, and had set up a basic writing schedule that would carry them through fourteen chapters and an epilogue.

Callie’s career as a talented historical romance author took off like gangbusters right after National, and it became impossible for her to participate in the writing of RODEO KING. Instead, she became Char and Cheryl’s sounding board, beta reader, and cheerleader. And they remain The Power of Three. You can catch up with them each month by signing up for their Newsletter at: http://tinyurl.com/TPO3SignUp

Cheryl and Char continued on, sharing a single chapter each month on The Power Of Three Newsletter and on their official website. In 2015, during a marathon writing session in Dallas while attending RT’s annual Convention, Cheryl and Char finished RODEO KING and finalized the cover art. Both have a ‘contemporary voice’ and very few artist disagreements arose as they finalized the story, easily coming to mutually satisfying resolutions.

The experience was so much fun that they simply had to keep going. Another evening of brainstorming netted them an outline for Book Two—ROPING HER IN—and the rudiments of Book Three, as-yet to be named.

They’ve also decided to get together at least once a year, (not during a convention) for a writing retreat, along with their BFF, Callie Hutton. Never underestimate The Power Of Three!

Dustin Lovers Book One

Rodeo King

by Char Chaffin & Cheryl Yeko 

Caleb Johnson, 'King of the Rodeo,' is on his way to becoming Wyoming's National Champion. Until an ornery bull sidelines him with a potentially career-ending injury. Returning home to Dustin to recuperate puts him in the path of Rosemary Carmichael, the girl he deserted to become a rodeo star.

Now he's got to figure out what he really wants: returning to the rodeo circuit and going for that big, National prize, or convincing the woman he loves that he wants a life with her . . . and the son he never knew he had.

AMAZON

BOOK TRAILER  

BIO FOR CHERYL YEKO:    Cheryl Yeko is a multi-published, award-winning author, and lives in Wisconsin with her husband Patrick. She loves to read, play piano, and spend time with family and friends. She enjoys novels with fast-paced action and steamy romance, protective alpha men and strong heroines. She belongs to several writing groups, and is a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), as well as the Wisconsin Chapter of RWA.

Her debut novel, PROTECTING ROSE, won the 2012 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence in the Romantic Suspense category.

Website: http://www.cherylyeko.com/ ‘Where Love Always Wins’

Website: The Power of Three: http://www.thepowerof3cs.com/

Soul Mate Publishing: http://tinyurl.com/lav53p3

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/qzsks8q

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectingRose

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threeBFFs

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cherylyeko

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/cyeko/boards/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5406425.Cheryl_Yeko

BIO FOR CHAR CHAFFIN:   Char Chaffin writes multi-genre romance filled with family, rich characters and engaging plots. For her, it all comes back to the love.

A displaced Alaskan, Char travels extensively, and lives full-time in a motorhome with hubby Don, a retired Air Force man with a love of Fifties rock n' roll and a passion for hot, classic cars. Between them they have three children and four grandchildren, all scattered to the far corners of the country.

Her love of romance and erotica interspersed with paranormal, horror, science fiction and fantasy has inflated her reading collection into several groaning bookcases and an overburdened Kindle. Char voraciously reads in between writing novels, novellas, and short stories. She is multi-published, and always working on that next manuscript.

Char is a member of several writing groups, and RWA National as well as local RWA chapters in Alaska and Upstate New York.

Website:  http://char.chaffin.com ‘Falling In Love is Only the Beginning’

Facebook: http://facebook.com/char.chaffin

Website: The Power of Three: http://www.thepowerof3cs.com/

The Power Of Three on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threeBFFs

Twitter: http://twitter.com/char_chaffin

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5337737.Char_Chaffin

Why Claire tried to kill Vic

Sibling Trouble

Claire becomes the Troublesome sister in book 5.

Claire is unhappy with her life.

When she compares it to Vic’s life

she feels robbed and cheated.

First, she has no legal claim to her grand house, for Aunt Maddy left it to ‘her guardian’ Vic. Maddy did this because of a dispicable and greedy brother who might have claimed the house and guardianship over Claire if Vic hadn't take legal responsibility of Claire. 

While Vic was without doubt the most laissez faire guardian, Claire still found it offensive. 

Now that she is a married woman, she feels adamantly that the house should belong to her. Vic spends all his time at work.

Her second problem was as a young woman, she decided to live a life much like her Aunt’s. 

(Since their aunt dies before book 1 begins, I only have a picture after she was murdered. So I tilted it upright. Imagine they sat her up in the parlor. Victorian people were constantly having their dead babies posed for pictures, why not a favorite aunt?)

When alive: Aunt Maddy never married. Instead, she hired an extraordinary butler and overtime, realized he was the finest man she had ever known, and seduced him to her bed. They never married of course, because that would not do. She was a woman of society and he was her butler. 

So at sixteen, Claire asked for her own companion, who would someday be her butler. Gregory selected the best of his nephews to train in his new occupation. The two fell in love on first sight. 

Only it didn’t last. At first, Claire enjoyed being worshipped like a goddess, but as time progressed, she wished to have erudite conversations. So she suggested to Xavier that they get married. Xavier was floating on opiates at the time, but he still had the good sense to tell her no, in a blistering response that she recalls with outrage to this day.

Vic sacrificed her best school chum to her sister’s new whim to have an ‘equal’ partner.  David fell in love with Claire upon sight and soon they married. Finally, she had met a man who admired her for her brilliance and her beauty. While David had been born into society, his father had gambled away their fortune. Thus, David took on the profession of a dentist, which was not one of the few honorable trades a man of society could enter. But Claire had never cared about society, so they married despite society's objection. 

And for a while Claire was happy. But as the months passed and no child seeded in her womb, discontent returned triplefold. 

She had taken in L’il Pete and intended to adopt him, once he improved his speech and manners, but Jacko arrived at her door the moment Vic and Xavier had left the country. 

He possessed papers proving he had already adopted the boy and wished to retrieve him from her house. She would have refused him entrance and denied the boy was home, only he had arrived with police escort. 

When she refused them admission, the officer, a Captain Meyers, advised her she would be arrested if she did not hand over the boy. Having no desire to be toss in a jail cell, and the ugly officer appeared willing to do it, she ran to her room and burst into tears, leaving Jacko to find and retrieve his son.

However, she was not done with the matter. She hired lawyers and made untrue claims against Jacko, trying to get ‘Peter’ back, but it turned out the pirate had more friends in high places than she or David did. 

Having lost L’il Peter, she focused on a new possibility. Vic might be pregnant. She had looked most portly when she left on the ship. Nor had she been with Xavier when Claire had seen him on a London street yesterday. Was it possible, she remained at their office caring for the baby?

She hired another investigative firm to find out the truth. They had returned yesterday with news that Xavier Thorn had indeed acquired a child while in Spain.

With that information, she stormed to the most expensive barrister she could find, and filed suit against Vic for the guardianship of her son. She told the barrister that Vic was not a young man, but a young unmarried woman with mental disabilities.  

Having no idea that Vic had married Xavier onboard the ship to Spain, she logically believed her claim to the child would supersede Xavier’s claim since illegitimate children were considered solely the property of the mother. And it would only be right that as the sister of mentally impaired Vic, she should care for the child.

Yes, her suit would destroy Vic's life, but why should Vic get everything. She could have stayed in England and had the baby in Claire's home, and then given the child to her and David. But no, Vic remained as selfish as ever.

Which had left her with no choice. She felt bad she had to claim Vic mentally impaired, for that might get her thrown into Bedlam, but again, if Vic had only done the right thing, he could have gone on being a young man, and she could have become a mother and no one would have known otherwise. No, it was Vic's own fault his life had come to an end.

The barrister had barely filed the papers when he received a call from the Minister of Internal Affairs ordering him to destroy all documentation alluding to this case by the joint request of the Queen, Internal and External affairs. The facts stated in his filing were wrong. It was his client who had mental disabilities. He was further warned that to damage the name of a remarkable young man who had performed a great many services for the crown could very well get him disbarred.

The barrister was so angry with Claire that he acquired her husband’s number and vented his rage. Upon finding out what Claire had done, David stormed home, packed his bags, and left her.

The woman he loved could not do such a thing to his best friend and her closest blood.

This left Claire with no baby or husband, and Vic still owning the house. Claire had never more miserable in her entire life.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the crux of Claire's torment: Why Claire can’t have a baby?

AMAZON

The Deadly Mrs. Edwards, Baby Farmer

Today, on the Pack of Trouble Tour, 
I want you to meet the Deadly Mrs. Edwards.

When Vic arrives to rescue Julia/Justine, she discovers the endearing sweet child of Mrs. Abigail's memory is no more. 
That sweet young girl had disappeared years ago after being forced into playing the role of Justine with her uncle.

All that remains is  a hard core young woman who has no interest in being rescued and no empathy or caring for others. 

The reason she stole her uncle’s books was to force him to send her twenty pounds a month to survive. She had to quit her acting career when she became pregnant.  She had the baby, a tiny little red hair daughter last week.

Julia has tried starving her child, but it makes her uncomfortable watching the child slowly die, so she has decided to put it in the care of Mrs. Edwards, the local baby farmer, for 15 shillings a month and a list of new baby clothings she must provide for the infant. To make the most money she can, the woman will kill the child as quickly as possible and sell its clothes at the pawn shop.

Vic offers Julia another option. Vic will find parents to raise the girl. Julia/Justine will save herself 15 shillings and can return to acting this very night.

After failing to squeeze a better offer from Vic, Julia/Justine signs over her baby to Vic, and one small, innocent child is saved from the soulless Mrs. Edwards.
 

Mrs. Edwards is a middle-class woman who's husband up and left one day. (Can't really blame him.) Needing money to keep herself alive, she offers to adopt and care for babies other women cannot afford to tend. 

Many of these women are tossed from their family and towns when they are with child but have no husband. The law holds them entirely responsible for the care of the child.

Why would Parliament place the burden on the woman who cannot possibly earn a living wage? Because, inevitably, the accused father would deny it was his. Thus, the cost would become a burden on the public debt.

To stop the 'impoverishment' of England, in 1834 the Poor Laws became quite harsh. Since only the female bearing the child could be determined, she and she alone would be responsible for the welfare and raising of the child. 

Parliament saw this as a tough stance against the excessive cost to care for the poor and stopping pregnancies of unwed mothers by making it impossible for them to survive after their moment of bad judgement or rape. It didn’t matter which, the female was held responsible. And unlike earlier years when families would care for daughters who became pregnant without a husband, either from imprudence or rape and find someone in a local town who wanted a child,  now the entire family will be shunned from their community if they don't send their pregnant daughter away to survive or die on her own. 

So off the girl or young woman would go. While it was possible to get a low paying job in the manufacturing towns, they would fire an unwed woman the moment she began to show her pregnancy. If she survived having the baby, then she might be able to return to a different low paying manufacturing job…no wait. She has a baby and hardly any of the adoption charities would accept the spawns of the devil, so giving it up for adoption to a caring charity was not an option. 

The new laws also excluded unwed pregnant women from entering the poorhouses. So if they could not support themselves or find some one to help them, then they and their child would die. 

The lawmakers actually claimed their harsh stance would be a positive thing for England, that in a short time, there would be no more illegitimate births, and the poor would finally get off their lazy bums and work.

The only chance these women had to survive was to either get rid of the baby or find someone  to care for her baby so she could get a job.

Thus, a new business began. It served the starving unwed mothers who had no way to survive unless they could find someone to care for their child at a cost so low, they could afford it on the meager non-living wage they made. 

Unfortunately, many of those who took up baby farming did so only for the money.

The best profit could be made by intentionally starving to death the babies in their care or just bludgeoning them on the head and tossing them into the Thames. Nothing personal…they had to make a living just like everyone else. You did what you had to do to get by. 

A great many poor and middle-class took up the occupation of being baby farmers. For most of the Victorian era, nothing was done to stop them. A few outrageous cases of clear murder were brought to trial and the women condemned to death but 'child care' was greatly needed by women desperate to return to work and men who'd lost their wives and could not work and care for his children.

This is not to say every child who entered a baby farm died. Some were retrieved before they died, or lucked out and found a decent care giver. But genuine caregivers could barely compete with the bargain prices of the deadly baby farmers. 

A Little Side note about Regency baby farmers:
In the regency era, Jane Austen spent her early years in a foster home. In fact, all the Austen children were fostered out until they became toddlers. (Evidently their mother, or perhaps the father, didn't wish to deal with crying babies.) However, that was in the early century, so while it placed a distance between the eight siblings and their parents, the Austen children all lived to tell about it. After 1834, 'child care' was run by soulless creatures of hell.

In 1872, attempts were made to regulate the baby farmers. Oddly, the New Women (suffragettes) objected, as did many British folks. The New Women objected because if women could not place their babies in someone else's care, they would be unable to procure one of the various jobs which had finally opened to women. And the British folks objected in general because it was their say what to do with their children and not the government's business. 

Thus, baby farmers  remained, for all practical purposes, unregulated until the 20th century, which meant the quality of a caretaker remained 'iffy'. Not every woman dropped off their child so it could be killed. Even if you truly loved your child, and visited it as often as you could, it was still at risk because the optimal money could be made by killing the child right after you submitted your monthly fee. 

Women made far less than men, so they were often constrained in their choices by cost. The deadly baby farmers charged much less than what it would cost the mother to feed her child, even if she could stay home.  

That's because the 'caretaker' would feed the child watered down milk laced with chemicals and sometimes opiates, which would make them eat less, sleep more, and die faster. 

Because infant deaths were not considered unusual in the 19th century, their deaths were usually seen as a normal part of life. 

 If they gave the child to the 'angel maker' (another term used for baby farmers) and paid a princely sum of 12 pounds, the child would be killed as quickly as possible. 

If they actually wanted their child to live, or couldn't afford the princely sum of 12 pounds to kill it outright, then they'd pay 15 shillings a month. However, the best profit could be made by letting it live 1 month and a day, so angel maker made 30 shillings and had spent no more than 5 shillings on the child. And now they had a space open for a new victim.

However, if you were willing to pay a bit more, they might be willing to keep your child alive, but just barely.

If you want the gruesome details on what some real women and men did to these children look up the following monsters.
Margaret Waters   (sentenced to death in 1870 for the intentional death of five children) Believed to have actually killed 19 children. To get the disturbing details....

Amelia Dryer (sentenced to death in 1896) Believed to have killed over 400 children over 20 years.


Women found these services mostly though the papers.

A typical ad might look like this:
NURSE CHILD WANTED, OR TO ADOPT -- The Advertiser, a Widow with a little family of her own, and moderate allowance from her late husband's friends, would be glad to accept the charge of a young child. Age no object. If sickly would receive a parent's care. Terms, Fifteen Shillings a month; or would adopt entirely if under two months for the small sum of Twelve pounds


Now, some of you may be worried by the baby's pale grey skin in it's picture above, that it might have died while I wrote this blog. It is close to death, but Vic takes it straight to Dr. Connors. She names it Maddy, which was the name of her aunt who took Vic and Claire in when they became orphans. I would never name it such if I planned to let it die. 

However, to find out what happens next, you'll need to buy Book 5 of the Adventures of Xavier & Vic: Pack of Trouble.

And the baby on the cover is NOT Maddy. That's Vic's baby. She named it Cannonball, only Xavier insisted that name would result in great teasing, so she's shortened it to Cannon.