Fool for Love by Merry Farmer @MerryFarmer20

Chapter Four

The Majestic rose up out of the water in its Liverpool dock with all the glory of its name.  Amelia held one hand to her hat and stared at its iron sides, its two dun-colored funnels and three tall masts.  The ship was a strange thing to her, a mixture of old and new, progress with hints of the past.  It had sails that could be unfurled in a pinch, but with its powerful new engines, the ship could cross the ocean in a week.

Seven days to a new world.  It was an exact description of everything her life had become.  It was every bit as daunting.

“What am I doing?” Amelia whispered, staring at the hopeful monstrosity in front of her.  It was one thing to accept an offer for a new life.  It was another thing entirely to go through with it.

She turned away from the ship, swallowing the nausea that had plagued her since she’d left her mother’s house.  This time it wasn’t morning sickness.  That was long past.  At the moment, the baby was the least of her worries.  Her stomach rolled over the idea that she was about to board a ship heading for a new life at the mercy of a stranger, a man, no less.  The last time she had trusted her life and her future to a man had been a disaster.

She paced, purse clutched to her chest, scanning the busy dock in search of her American savior.  Men, women, and children crowded the gangplanks, eager to start their journeys, excited and hopeful.  Many of the third-class passengers carried bundles that indicated theirs was a one-way trip as much as hers was.  Eric had left her there to go buy her ticket, but there was nothing stopping him from running off and leaving her stranded.  Like her father.  Like Nick.  She was a fool to agree to this.  She pivoted and marched away from the ship.

No, she stopped herself after a handful of steps, this was the best decision she could have made.  She may have felt small and lonely standing by herself, waiting, heart and stomach fluttering, but she was as much a part of the intrepid adventurers seeking a new life in America as any of her fellow passengers.  This was right.

Maybe.

“Well, we got a minor problem on our hands.”

The twang of Eric’s accent shocked Amelia from her worries.  She spun to face him as he approached her with wide strides, scratching his head and looking as guilty as a schoolboy.

“A problem?” she asked, voice fluttering.

“Yeah.  I went to buy you a ticket, but they’re plumb sold out.”

Amelia’s chest tightened and her tender stomach lurched.  “Oh.  Oh dear.  Well I suppose….”

She lowered her eyes, heart aquiver.  As quickly as it started, her chance for a new life was over.  All that worrying for nothing.

She squared her shoulders to face her fate.  “I … I thank you for your efforts on my behalf regardless, Mr. Quinlan.”

Eric’s brow crinkled into a curious frown.  “Regardless?”

“I suppose I could find work here in Liverpool,” she explained.  “Surely there must be a shop somewhere that would look the other way from….”  She lowered her hand to the mound of her stomach.

Eric’s lips twitched.  The morning sunlight caught in his eyes.  “I didn’t want to have to put you in third-class, so I told them you were my wife.”

Amelia blinked.  “You what?”

“I told them we’re newlyweds.  I reserved my stateroom in first class last year when I came over.  Good thing I paid for it then too, ‘cuz after this fiasco of a trip I’ll never ride first-class again.  Anyhow, when they said they didn’t have any more rooms, I told them you were my wife and that we would be staying in the same stateroom.  They sold me a ticket for that.”  He handed her a fresh, clean ticket with her name written as ‘Mrs. Amelia Quinlan’.  “Sorry.”

Amelia held perfectly still on the outside, but on the inside her heart pounded and her stomach rolled with guilt for questioning him.  He wasn’t abandoning her.  He had gone out of his way to help her.  Her heart squeezed as it never had before.  She took the ticket from him with a trembling hand, hardly noticing when her fingers brushed his.  She was rescued after all.

“Thank you, Mr. Quinlan.  You have no idea how much this kindness means to me.”  She had to concentrate on breathing, standing straight, and looking up into his handsome eyes with a smile to keep her tears at bay.

“You don’t mind sharing then?” he asked her.

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Genre – Western Historical Romance

Rating – R

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Website http://merryfarmer.net

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Merry Farmer Opens Up About Her #Publishing Horror Story @MerryFarmer20 #writetip #romance

My Publishing Horror Story, or Why I Chose Self-Publishing

I would be willing to bet that most writers start publishing because they love writing.  We love creating characters and their stories and the worlds they inhabit.  It’s the ultimate in daydreaming and letting our imaginations run wild!  Who wouldn’t have fun with it?

Well, I almost gave up on publishing all together several years ago when I ran into the brick wall of an editor who had other ideas about my wonderful, imaginative, daydreamy babies.

Don’t get me wrong.  Editors are a good thing.  In fact, they are essential if you plan to make any sort of a go at writing as a career.  We can imagine and write and love our writing all we want, but at the end of the day we need an honest, professional set of eyes to take a look at our “stuff” and to correct us where we went wrong.  My first editor, Alison, was a master of this art.  She knew just how to read and critique my work from the bottom of her heart.  I had fallen into a lot of bad habits, and there were a lot of other things that I just didn’t know about the craft of writing.  Alison would spend page after page pointing out all of my mistakes, offering suggestions, and generally being a compass to point the way for me to be the best writer I could be.  I would read 20+ pages of critique from her and be bounding with energy to get started.

That’s the way it should be.

That was not the way my first attempt at publishing went.

I wrote a children’s book several years ago (like,20!) that was accepted for publication by a small publisher.  I was super excited, of course.  Well, that excitement lasted right up until the time that I was sent the final proof before the book was published.  Imagine my surprise when I read through the proof only to find that the publisher’s editor had more or less changed every sentence I wrote and renamed one of the characters!  Not only that, they had thrown out the illustrations entirely, illustrations I had an artist friend paint for me.  The new illustrator had never spoken to me to get a sense of how I envisioned the characters, so of course nothing looked as it should.

Now, I understand that sometimes grammar needs to be fixed, but not at the expense of losing an author’s voice.  I can appreciate that the illustrations my friend painted, which were watercolors, didn’t scan well, but redoing them without consulting me first was just an insult.  I knew then and know now that sometimes a publisher needs to make changes to a book, but doing it without explanation or permission is not only unethical, it’s illegal.  And because no formal contract had been signed, I calmly informed this publisher that if they proceeded with the project the way it was, well, it wouldn’t be pretty.

The good news is that I have since learned that is absolutely not the way that any professional publisher worth their salt operates.  Real publishers offer clear contracts spelling out their terms well in advance of the project.  That one experience was more than enough for me, though.  I chose to self-publish.  I continue to self-publish because I truly enjoy the process, the challenges and the independence.  It works for me.  But if you prefer traditional publishing, make sure you’re working with someone who knows what they’re doing!

Eric Quinlan was born a cowboy and a rancher and intends to die a cowboy and a rancher. But when his ranch is in danger of failing, he travels to the wilds of London looking for a business deal to save it. What he finds there are stuffed shirts, odd manners, and a damsel in distress.

Amelia Elphick’s life is over. She may have been born a lady, but when she finds herself jilted by a lover who leaves her pregnant and refuses to marry her, she seems destined for a life on the streets. When her employer’s rough but handsome houseguest, Eric, offers to rescue her from ruin, she has no choice but to say yes, even if it means moving halfway around the world.

But Amelia finds herself saying yes to more than a ticket west. What starts with a harmless lie tangles Amelia and Eric in a web of desire and deceit that exposes passions and turns their worlds upside-down. Eric believes Amelia holds the key to saving his beloved ranch and giving him the family he always wanted, but can he save her from the demons of her past without losing himself in the process?

People do foolish things when they’re in love….

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Western Historical Romance

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Merry Farmer on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://merryfarmer.net

Read More