Meow, Woof, Purr: Animals in Romance Novels – Yes Or No?

scilla
Scilla

I admit it. I’m a total Crazy Cat Lady in the making. We have two, a darling, über-friendly tuxedo named Scilla, and a gorgeous but true scaredy-cat Maine Coon mix, Presley. I’d have more, but it’s either get more cats or keep the husband, and I’m rather fond of the husband. So, our tally remains at two.

Presley, Elvis's inspiration.
Presley, Elvis’s inspiration.

However, I decided one way early on to indulge in my love for animals would be to include them in each of my novels, just for fun. They don’t and won’t necessarily play a main part or be central to any plot, but I feel most humans benefit from having a furry creature around, and how people interact with animals sheds a lot of light on a person’s character, don’t you think?

einstein
Einstein. I still miss him.

In A Man of CharacterI mention two cats. One, Elvis, is the Maine Coon-esque cat that Cat and Eliza own. He is unashamedly patterned (and named) after my own Presley. And I figured since I had one of my cats thrown in there, might as well throw in another: Einstein, my first cat from when I was younger, also a Maine Coon mix. If you’ve read A Man of Character, you’ll notice I didn’t even change the name! William Dawes mentions his childhood cat, Einstein, and yes, they are one in the same.

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English Foxhound Puppy, from Aboutdogenglishfoxhound.com

When it came to A Matter of Time, it seemed only natural to move from cats to dogs, not only because household cats were somewhat rarer in that time (though I’ve seen portraits of cats, so clearly people did keep them as house pets), but because a Duke’s estate was bound to have hunting dogs, and likely lots of them. So what better to include in a story than English foxhound puppies, especially an adorable one-eyed pup named Pirate?

In my current work-in-progress, A Scandalous Matter, I’ve given our hero a cat named Ada, after Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron and one of the pioneers of computer science. Because there’s something about a man who loves a cat…

The then-boyfriend, now husband with Chazzy.
The then-boyfriend, now husband with Chazzy.

Speaking of which, for all my husband claims not to be a cat person, when we were dating and he first visited my apartment, my cat at the time, a little muted calico, Chazzy, promptly came out and sat right next to him and purred. This was a cat who didn’t come out for anybody. I decided then and there that was a vote of confidence in my boyfriend’s favor, so I married him. Okay, yeah, there were a few other elements involved, but I do love to tell that (true) story.

How about you? Do you like seeing pets or other animals included in romances? Or could you do without?

2015: A Year of Giving Thanks, Meeting Romance Idols, & Making New Friends

2015 has been a very good year for me. I am so thankful. 

This year, I:

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Eloisa James with Margaret Locke
The ever-charming Eloisa James and I.
The fabulous Sabrina Jeffries!
The fabulous Sabrina Jeffries!
With Pamela Morsi!
With Pamela Morsi!
With the gracious and knowledge-generous Valerie Bowman
With gracious & knowledge-generous Valerie Bowman.
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With the exuberantly charming Cathy Maxwell.
Sue London getting silly at the West Virginia Book Festival
Sue London getting silly at the West Virginia Book Festival.

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  • met a ton of new people, and, even more amazingly, new fans! I, little ol’ Margaret, now have fans. What, what? But, yes, I do, like the oh-so-fabulous Annie, who even had lunch with me when she was in town.
Annie is a riot, y'all, and we had so much fun at our far-too-brief lunch in October!
Annie is a riot, y’all, and we had so much fun at our far-too-brief lunch in October!
Long-time friends supported me, too, including my grade-school friend Heather, whose animals apparently also want to read A Matter of Time!
Long-time friends supported me, too, including my grade-school friend Heather, whose animals apparently also want to read A Matter of Time!
Some fans read my books out loud to their babies!
Some fans read my books out loud to their babies!
... While others forced their kids to do things like this!
… While others forced their kids to do things like this!
  • solidified relationships and friendships within my Shenandoah Valley Writers critique group and more, and basically surrounded myself with writer friends the whole year through.
Maggie and Rebekah helped me celebrate debut day!
Maggie and Rebekah helped me celebrate debut day!
And these fine characters cheered me on, critiqued my work, picked me up when I felt down, and celebrated my successes!
And these fine characters cheered me on, critiqued my work, picked me up when I felt down, and celebrated my successes!
  • had the loving support of my family, including my very own computer-science-professor-in-shining-armor husband, who read BOTH of my books, just to support me (and help me find typos). He’s that awesome of a guy.
My real-life romance hero.
My real-life romance hero.

Yes, it’s been a very good year. 

And I owe so much of that to you all.

  • Thank You Word CloudThank you to everyone who took a chance on A Man of Character (and now again on A Matter of Time!).
  • Thank you to the friends and family who’ve supported me, and the new readers who’ve picked up one of my books this year.
  • Thank you to the book bloggers and reviewers who graciously gave their time to review my books.
  • Thank you to Tessa Shapcott, my editor, for her invaluable guidance, and to Joy Lankshear, my cover designer and formatter, for making my books look better than I ever imagined they could.
  • Thank you to the fellow writers I’ve met on Facebook and Twitter, whose companionship brightens my day every day, and whose wisdom is lighting this crazy, twisting and turning path I’m on.
  • Thank you to the people who’ve liked my books enough to join my street team, Locke’s Flock, or to review them on Amazon or GoodReads, or even just to tell someone else about my books and/or me. All of those seemingly little things make a HUGE difference.

Simply put, I wouldn’t be here without you, and I wanted to express my gratitude as 2015 closes out and 2016 gets ready to begin.

What does the next year hold?

Wait – #Merlin in #Regency England? It was just A Matter of Time…

From BBC's Merlin
Colin Morgan as Merlin in the BBC’s The Adventures of Merlin.

In November of 2013, I was madly scribbling my way through a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) draft of my second novel, A Matter of Time, anxious to hit that 50,000 word goal in the 30 days allotted. I was also high off my recent trip to London, in which I’d not only gotten to visit many famous Regency places I’d read about, but in which I also met and received a high-five from Colin Morgan, the British actor who played Merlin (brilliantly, I might add) on the BBC show of the same name.

I’d had, uh, more than a passing infatuation with the show and its two lead characters, Merlin and Prince Arthur, for nearly a year. I was neck-deep in a fandom, and loving every minute of it. I still do, and still hold great admiration for the acting talents, and yes, the visual appearance of Colin Morgan and Bradley James. So it only seemed fitting, as I typity-type-type-typed my way through chapter after chapter, that I add in characters that might bear more than a passing resemblance to those two fine men. I put them in as a lark, figuring it would amuse my best friend, who was reading what I wrote as fast as I sent it to her. I’d take them out later, surely.

Bradley James as Prince/King Arthur in the BBC's The Adventures of Merlin.
Bradley James as Prince/King Arthur in the BBC’s The Adventures of Merlin.

But…but…instead of whittling the characters down, I expanded them. Made them the perfect foil for the occasionally-a-little-too-broody Deveric Mattersley. I gave them names: James Bradley, the Duke of Arthington, and Morgan Collinswood, the Marquess of Emerlin. I added in a few Merlin Easter eggs for anyone who’s seen the show. And I fell in love with them all over again.

They are minor characters, to be true, showing up only occasionally in A Matter of Time. But never fear – each will, at some point in the future, star as the hero in their own book. Because I love them too much to let them go. Here, just for the fun of it, is a small excerpt in which Eliza James meets the Duke and Marquess for the first time:

After a few moments, two gentlemen—one a tall, lanky fellow with a mop of black hair, the other a bit shorter and more muscular, with sandy blonde hair and a square jawline—approached.

“Lady Amara,” the blonde one said. He nodded toward Deveric’s sister, but his sky-blue eyes fixed on Eliza.

Wow, they really knew how to grow them in the Regency.

His exquisitely carved lips parted into a snaggle-toothed smile that somehow rendered him even more appealing; men with perfectly straight, obsessively white teeth always seemed unnatural to her.

She peeked at the taller one. He was perhaps not quite as classically handsome as the blonde, but his wide-set blue eyes crinkled as he greeted Amara, his lips cracking into a grin that revealed dimples to die for.

amatteroftimesmallSo – what do you think? Did I do them justice? And if you read A Matter of Time, I’d love to hear what you think – and what kind of women you feel the two men ought to end up with (sorry, Merthur fans – in my future novels, they’re getting the girl!).

Here’s a very brief blurb:

A modern-day Austenite’s dream comes true when she lands in the arms of a Regency duke, only to discover some fantasies aren’t all they’re cracked up to be when he proves less than a Prince Charming. 

I hope you love it!

Two Books, One Year? A Big, Heart-felt Thank You From Margaret Locke

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I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s taken a chance on me this year.

The response to A Man of Character and now A Matter of Time (#25 in time-travel romance today? REALLY?!?) has been greater than I expected, and I am so, so grateful.

To friends and family who bought my books just because I wrote them, thank you.

To the fellow authors who gave me a shot, thank you.

To the book bloggers who agreed to give time and energy to reading and reviewing my book, thank you.

To all of you who’ve left reviews on Amazon and GoodReads, THANK YOU!

I couldn’t do it without you – and you make it all worth it!

Thank you from the bottom of this little indie romance author’s heart.
I truly mean it. 

RELEASE DAY! A Matter of Time is HERE! + plus short excerpt

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Yes! A Matter of Time is finally here, available today in Kindle and paperback format! Wahoo!!!

Thank you to ALL of you for your marvelous support – you stunned me by pre-ordering 107 copies! I can’t wait to read your reviews on Amazon and GoodReads, to find out what you think of Eliza and Deveric’s story – and of course you may always drop me a personal email to let me know what you think.

Just for fun, here’s a small excerpt, one of my favorite passages, perhaps because of how often my daughter and I watched each Disney Princess movie – especially my beloved favorite, Beauty and the Beast:

If only it were as easy as waltzing one time at a ball, and falling instantly in love. Cinderella didn’t know how good she had it. She’d won over her Prince with one look. The tale said nothing about the Prince having a suspicious mother or a handful of sisters. Much less a recalcitrant son.

Cinderella may have occupied the bottom rung in the world in which she lived, but at least she’d been familiar with all the rules, had known the ins and outs way better than Eliza did, no matter how much she’d thought she’d known before coming here.

Eliza sighed. She’d always liked Belle better, anyway. Belle hadn’t given a fig for what society thought, and ended up with that amazing library of books. After taming the Beast, of course. Ah, the Beast. He hadn’t really been a beast at all, just a wounded man looking for love . . . and acceptance. Okay, maybe he had been beastly, at first, in human form; but it was Belle’s love that had transformed him, had healed him, had accepted him, and allowed him to open his heart again.

Cat had known Beauty and the Beast was Eliza’s favorite story; had she been thinking of that when she drafted Deveric’s tale? Was Eliza Belle, Deveric her wounded beast? And Regency society the mob of angry townspeople she needed to appease?

Only $2.99 on Kindle, or $13.79 on paperback (though Amazon has it marked down to $12.14 – not sure how long that will last!), and FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/AMatterOfTime

*** Please feel free to share – word of mouth is still the best way to make others aware of books you like, and we indie authors need all the word of mouth we can get. ***

I am so very, very grateful to everyone who’s come into my life this year via my books – I’ve met such terrific authors and readers who are now friends, and I can’t tell you how moving that is, to know my book, my writing, touched someone enough to reach out and connect with me. Much love to all of you!