Dark Prelude, a novella-length prequel to my sexy Gothic romance novel Dark Splendor, is now available free from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Dark Prelude is an expression of thanks to my readers. It is yours to download and enjoy.
If you have read Dark Splendor, (and I thank you if you have), you know the protagonists first meet aboard the Eastwind. What you don’t know is that the story almost began a different way.
Handsome sea captain Roman Toller and his irascible brother Morgan made their appearance in London some days before boarding the Eastwind for a journey to their Uncle’s private island off the Georgia colony of 1751. Their days were spent indulging in food and drink, their nights in debauchery with the damsel of the day.
Across London, lovely and resourceful Silvia Bradstreet was scrapping to keep her life together until she could escape on the same ship. Her days were occupied with work and worry, her nights with fear and dread of her Uncle Hollister who had made her a servant in his home.
That the three of them should meet was inevitable but how and when became a study in fate, a glimpse of how a single event can change everything. But that is more my story than theirs. I wrote the first few chapters of my first novel Dark Splendor and sent it off to an editor at Signet Books. Those chapters earned a multiple book contract for me and swelled my heart with joy that I was about to become a published author.
With the papers signed and the deadlines established, my editor said, “Start the book where those chapters end.” A novice at this game, I dared not question but agonized over the loss of my golden words in those first chapters. She was right, of course. I realized that later as I dealt with length restrictions. With a new beginning, the story veered in a new direction, thus Dark Prelude is more character study than missing chapters. Nevertheless, I tucked those early pages in a file and kept them.
Today they have become Dark Prelude, a novella that explores the lives of Roman and Morgan and Silvia and how things might have been had they first met a few hours earlier. If you have read Dark Splendor, or when you read it, you will see that, indeed, a single event that does or does not take place changes the course of many lives, and, sometimes, a book.
Dark Prelude is a gift to my romantic readers, both new and old. It is a chance to chuckle at the antics of Roman and Morgan and to appreciate Silvia’s tenuous relationship with the two of them. Hopefully, you will decide to follow up with Dark Splendor or another of my books. If not, enjoy the read and meeting these three characters who are dear to my heart.