JoAnn Spears
Publication Date:
November 9th 2015
Genre: Historical Fiction, Satire, Women's Fiction, Chick
Lit, Alternative History, Historical Fantasy
If you thought Six of One: A Tudor
Riff was the most fun you could have with your nightdress on, wait until you
see what Seven Will Out: A Renaissance
Revel has in store. Get ready for one
'ruff' night!
BLURB
Tudorphile Dolly thought that the night she
spent on an astral plane with Henry VIII's six wives, learning their heretofore
unknown secrets, was a one-time thing.
Not so! In Seven Will Out, Dolly
finds herself back in the ether with the women of later Tudor times: Elizabeth I, ‘Bloody’ Mary, Bess of Hardwick,
Mary, Queen of Scots, and Anne Hathaway Shakespeare, to name a few. They too have secrets that will turn history
on its head, and comic sass that will keep you laughing.
You've read all of the traditional, serious
and romantic takes on the legendary Tudors.
Why not try your Tudors with a new and different twist?
Buy Link: Amazon
Excerpt Chapter Fourteen, Menagerie
and Query
My two welcoming companions were not,
as on my last visit, those two medieval beauties, Margaret Beaufort and
Elizabeth of York, grandmother and mother of Henry VIII.
On my last stay here, I had learned
that this was a strictly ladies-only domicile. That is why I rapidly concluded
that my companions, who were a couple of dogs, were likely also a couple of
bitches. This is not as rancorous a statement as you may think.
You see, my stirring about had
agitated two toy-size dogs that had been lying at the foot of the bed, setting
them to romping and frolicking around. I settled them down a bit and then
zeroed in for a closer look at my strange bedfellows.
One of them I had met before. I had
not gotten its name, but I knew it to be the terrier that had belonged to Mary,
Queen of Scots, at the time of her death. Said pup had attended Mary’s
execution, hidden under her skirts; it barked piteously as it emerged,
bloodstained, unable to decide whether to stay with the decapitated queen’s
body or with her head. Eventually it mourned itself to death. My understanding
had been that, after my last visit here, the Tudor denizens of this celestial
way station would have vacated the premises for good. But if this dog—and
another to boot— were present here, then likely the queen of Scots was again,
or perhaps still, in residence. And heaven knew who else.
I looked a little closer at the other
dog to try to figure out what, or at least, whose, it was. It appeared to be a
sweet little bichon frise, and it looked back at me with head atilt and tail
wagging.
“Por quoi!” a female voice called from
without the room, and the little bichon perked up its ears.
“Por quoi to you too!” I sang out,
playing for time as I tried to recall some of my high school French. As I did,
I realized that I had just unintentionally given someone “what for.” I hoped
this wouldn’t mean that my stay here this time was going to start off with me
giving a bad impression. Wanting to take no chances, I got out of bed and began
to smooth, as best I could, the wrinkles from my nightdress. As I did so, the
person outside my room, getting closer by the sound of her voice, riposted my
comment.
“Your French accent is execrable,
Dolly!”
I wondered fleetingly if Marie
Antoinette was in residence, but this was not the case. The lady who eventually
rounded the doorway and entered my room was someone I had met before. She
sported the Renaissance equivalent of a hippie-chick outfit that had seen
better days. A parrot was circling above her in a holding pattern, and she was
trailed by several feline friends whose orange calico markings resembled her
own ginger coloring.
I knew whose tragic and fascinating
presence I was in.
Buy Link: Amazon
Author Info
JoAnn Spears couldn’t decide whether to major
in English or History in college. Life stepped in, and she wound up with a
Master’s Degree in Nursing instead. A twenty-five year nursing career didn’t
extinguish that early interest in books and history-especially Tudor history.
It did, however, stoke a decidedly gallows sense of humor.
Eventually, JoAnn read just about every spin
there was on the stories of Henry VIII and the extended Tudor family. Every
spin, that is, except the one with the gallows humor. The Tudors certainly
qualified for it, but it just wasn’t out there. JoAnn decided that with gallows
humor to spare, she would do her best to remedy the Tudor comedy gap. A little
inspiration from the classic “Wizard of Oz” showed her the way to go, and “Six
of One”, a new kind of Tudor novel, was born.
JoAnn thought “Six of One”, her story about
Henry VIII’s six wives, would be an only literary child. Then, two years after
its birth, she was caught by surprise with the idea for a sequel. In October,
2015, “Seven Will Out” made its debut and bought the latter-day Tudors into the
comedy mix.
JoAnn enjoys writing but maintains her
nursing license because a) you never stop being a nurse and b) her son thinks
she should be sensible and not quit her day job. She also enjoys life in the
beautiful mountains of northeast Tennessee, where she gardens, embroiders
antique reproduction samplers, and teaches yoga in her Methodist church
basement. JoAnn shares her home with three cats and the works of Jane Austen,
Barbara Pym, Louisa May Alcott, and of course, Alison Weir.
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