I have a weakness for writing bold, independent heroines with unusual hobbies.
My ladies are often drawn to the extraordinary and the forbiddenโat least for
their time. From an educated number-crunching business partner in my first book,
THE DUKE'S
OBSESSION, to an independent dog-breeder in my latest release,
MISS WINTERS
PROPOSES, my heroines broach the unexpected and the near impossible with
their interests.
So, what constitutes a deviation from the norm, especially in the late Georgian
through the Regency era?
Pretty much everything.
A typical lady was meant to be educatedโbut only just enough to secure a husband
and claim the role of his wife. Anything beyond the expected basic arithmetic
needed to balance household budgets was considered superfluous. A womanโs job,
her sole purpose in life, was to perpetuate her husbandโs line through the
delivery of an heir.
Anything else, was, wellโฆ
scandalous.
To have an opinion was frowned upon, especially when it was in contradiction to
your spouse. To possess wit, discouraged. To breed dogs, and therefore
comprehend anatomy, vulgar.
But despite the numerous social mores, a few bold, brave, women went against the
grain, and gave the phrase
faux pas, a run for its money.
Mary Wollstonecraft did not only write novels and treatise, two indications she
possessed an over-imaginative and undesirable mind, she philosophized and
advocated womenโs rights. One of the first feminists, she believed men and women
were equal, and imagined a social order founded on reason. Ideas, one can
presume, that were not entirely popular during a time of prevalent male superiority.
Augusta Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace, otherwise known simply as Ada
Lovelace, the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron and his wife, Anne, was
known for her fondness for numbers and logic. Along with Charles Babbage, a
brilliant British mathematician, Ada developed an elaborate set of notes, now
known to be the very first algorithm and is considered the worldโs first female
computer programmer. Rather scandalous, wouldnโt you say?
Caroline Herschel was not only a brilliant astronomer and discoverer of the
35P/Herschel-Rigollet comet (which incidentally bears her name) she was the
first woman to be
paid for her contributions to science, and earn both a
gold medal and membership into the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society. She
reached for the starsโand broke outside the rigid expectations of a male-centric
society.
A woman in possession of intelligence was a dangerous thing. A woman
participating in physical activity, specifically a vulgar sport like boxing, was
a sight to behold. Womenโs ankles were not allowed to be seen, and yet The
Boxing Baroness, Lady Barrymore, stripped down to her shift and boxed against
her sport-crazed husbandโbare-fisted.
There are others, women who dared to step outside of the box and go against the
grain with their sculptures, paintings, and interests deemed suitable only for
men. These women, while rare, exist and serve as inspiration for brilliant,
strong, and independent heroines worthy of a story.
About MISS WINTERS PROPOSES
An unseemly proposal...
Juliet Winters has come up with a wonderfully devious plan to avoid marrying her
vile cur of a cousin. First, she'll propose marriage to her handsome, reclusive
neighbor, Lord Colwyn. Then, once she has both name and financial support,
she'll be able to pursue her true (if rather unladylike) passion -- breeding
dogs. But when Lord Colwyn rejects her proposal...
Juliet must take matters into her own hands. The last thing Benjamin Colwyn
expected was for the spirited Juliet to blackmail him into marriage --
especially not by kidnapping his beloved canine companion. Yet despite his
yearning for peace and isolation, he finds himself wanting to help her, if only
to protect her from a marriage to a disreputable scoundrel. He certainly doesn't
expect the woman who pilfered his dog to steal his heart, as well...
About Frances Fowlkes
After viewing her all-time favorite love story,
Anne of Green Gables,
at the impressionable age of ten, Frances Fowlkes has been obsessed with affable
boy-next door heroes, red-heads, and romance stories with lots of "highfaluting
mumbo jumbo" written within their pages. It only seems natural then that she
married the boy who used to pull on her curls in her high school English class,
had not one, but THREE red-headed boys, and penned multiple love stories with
bits of flowery prose.
When not writing, Frances loves spending time with her family, playing with
makeup, and planning her next vacation.
Frances Fowlkes, originally a northern mid-westerner, now lives in the southeast
with her ardent hero of a husband, three playful and rambunctious boys, and one
spoiled standard poodle.
A self-professed Anglophile and summa cum laude graduate of LeTourneau
University, Frances Fowlkes combines her passion for happily-ever-afters with
her interests in both American and English histories.
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