Hi Diana, I am so happy to welcome you back to my blog to talk about your new release SHARING HAMILTON – I wish you all the sales and success in the world with it! We’ll kick things off with my questions and then the floor is yours…
1.)
What was your first job? Did you like or
dislike it? Why?
From age 4 to about 10 I was a child model. I modelled
clothes for the Sears catalog and several more. I didn’t like it because I was
pulled out of school to go on interviews and jobs but I did enjoy seeing my
pictures in ads in magazines and catalogs. I was also on a televised fashion
show in New York City.
2.)
Do you have a pet peeve? If so what is it?
TV shows that have too many commercials. I mute them
because some of them are intolerable—selling drugs for horrible diseases.
3.)
Do you spend more time researching or writing?
Probably researching—it usually takes the better part
of a year to get the entire book written, and most of that time is doing
research. But being such a history buff, that’s the best part.
4.)
Tell me about your book SHARING HAMILTON and
where you got your inspiration for it?
I was trying to figure out who to write about next,
and Hamilton popped into my head. This was before the musical, and I can’t even
remember what made me think of him.
5.)
How much of your book is realistic?
Except for the subplot about the serial killer that my
author Brian Porter wrote, it’s all based on fact.
6.)
What are your ambitions for your writing
career?
I’ve been very happy with my Amazon best sellers, but
I’d be even more happy with a New York Times best seller.
7.)
Who is your role model? Why?
I don’t have only one, I have several—all my favorite
women authors from the past and present, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary
Shelley, the Bronte sisters, Louisa May Alcott, Agatha Christie, and Philippa
Gregory.
8.)
Share one fact about yourself that would
surprise people.
I have a real estate license in the state of New
Hampshire.
Five books ago, I sat
on the couch trying to figure out who to write about next, and decided on
Hamilton (this was pre-Hamilton, the musical). The story centers on Alexander Hamilton,
his wife and mistress—the love triangle that became the nation’s first sex
scandal, The Reynolds Affair, in 1791.
My agent said the
story needed a bit more ‘oomph’ and I thought: how about a Jack the Ripper-type
serial killer stalking the dark streets? That genre isn’t my forte, so I asked
my friend, best selling British mystery writer Brian Porter, to help out. I’ve
known Brian for many years and I knew about his success with his Jack the Ripper
novels and Mersey Mystery series. Therefore, he was my first choice as a
collaborator. He graciously obliged and wrote a chilling subplot about a serial
killer on the dark Philadelphia streets, Severus Black. Severus sure gathered a
following!
SHARING HAMILTON
is based on the historical record. I read many Hamilton biographies and his
brilliant essays titled “The Federalist Papers” to better understand his
philosophy on the new government and the direction he wanted to bring the
nation.
As the United
States struggled in 1791, James and Maria Reynolds also struggled, flat broke.
James, well aware of the strong attraction between his wife and Treasury
Secretary Alexander Hamilton, hatched a plan to blackmail
to seduce Hamilton and extort hush money from him. The Reynolds Affair lasted
almost two years. James got plenty of hush money. But he never counted on the
two of them falling in love.
SHARING
HAMILTON is a novel, but some facts can’t be ignored.
In 1791,
Alexander Hamilton, married with five children, began an affair with the
beautiful 23-year-old Maria Reynolds of
“The Reynolds Affair,” the country’s first sex scandal, lasted two years. They
indulged their passion either in Maria’s boarding house or in Hamilton’s home
when his wife and children were away. Not only did the forbidden trysts
titillate the tabloid readers of the time, but news later broke that
Maria’s husband James hush money. James, a con artist, lived by his wits and
scams. When he began extorting hundreds of dollars from
under threat of ruining his reputation as Treasury Secretary,
James while carrying on with Maria. Hamilton and Maria eventually fell in love,
but being married to others, knew they had no future together.
The affair
ended two years later when Hamilton, after a Congressional investigation,
published The Reynolds Pamphlet, admitting that his dishonesty was “an amorous
entanglement”, not embezzlement from the United States treasury. His wife
Eliza, pregnant with their sixth child, forgave him, and his sterling
reputation emerged untarnished. But it forever ruined his chances of the
presidency.
Meanwhile,
behind the romantic and political machinations, a vicious serial killer stalked
the city by night. Having arrived in the New World from London, Dr. Severus
Black, specialist in ‘women’s medicine’ and friend of the Hamiltons, had a
penchant for the darker side of life. He managed to combine tending to Mrs.
Hamilton during her pregnancies with a series of vicious murders of young
women. One hundred years later these scenes were echoed on the streets of
London by another killer who was never caught—Jack the Ripper. Mrs. Hamilton
grew very fond of the handsome debonair young doctor, who in turn, returned an
affinity for his patient. Blissfully unaware of his nocturnal activities, she
continued her friendship with Dr. Black, but she sensed a secret grief, a
bitter repentance, under his outward displays of charm and cordiality.
After a few run-ins with
the law, Dr. Black made good his escape from Philadelphia when the police
investigation drew too close for comfort. He settled in South Africa under a
new name, where he found more than one use for his medical skills.
Apart from Dr.
Black’s scenes, the story is told from the alternating viewpoints of the
aristocratic Eliza Schuyler Hamilton and the lower-born but wily Maria
Reynolds. It will tell the reader, in these women’s own words and intimate
detail, about being in love with the same man during a critical period for the
young nation.
While researching this
book, I became fascinated with Aaron Burr, who makes a cameo appearance in the
story as Maria Reynolds’s divorce lawyer. I found the Aaron Burr Association on
the internet, and have been a member ever since.
Visit their website at http://www.aaronburrassociation.org/
And on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AaronBurrAssociation/
An excerpt from SHARING HAMILTON
“You love me, Alex? You truly love me? Are you sure?” My breath caught
in my throat. My heart danced. His admission rendered me breathless. I melted
into a puddle in his lap.
“Maria, I’ve been awaiting you all my life.” He stroked my cheek.
“You’re everything I’ve wanted in a woman—allure, intelligence, talent,
fun—I’ve never met a woman who was all those things wrapped in one beautiful
package.”
I gazed into his eyes, knowing our souls had entwined before this, ages
before.
“I wanted you so badly from the moment we first met, at Aaron’s
soirée,” I divulged the risky admission. “Though I knew you were already taken,
and your course already laid out for you, I craved your attention, not to
simply revere you from afar. I wanted to know you personally, even if only to
spend one visit together. Just to be close to you. But I knew it was a fantasy.
I was distraught when you left New York to live here. Then, when James made us
move here, I knew our paths were destined to meet. It could not have happened
any other way.”
“Then your initial letter to me had subtext I missed?” His lips curved
with mirth.
“Oh, no, not at all,” I murmured between kisses on his face, his ears,
his lips. “We—I was destitute. James had—” About to blurt it out, I stopped
myself. I couldn’t bring myself to admit I’d lied to him; I’d been a pawn in
James’s plot. “All I wanted was to meet you, to be alone with you, for a few
stolen moments. That was all I deserved. After all, you are—who you are! I’m—no
one.”
“Ah, you’re far from no one. A pity James doesn’t realize that. But I
do. I will come clean with you, Maria. I love my wife, but I am not in love
with her. As I am with you.”
He ran a fingertip over my lips and I tingled all over. I wanted to
climb to the roof and sing to the entire world, “The great Alexander Hamilton,
my new love, is in love with me!” How could I ever keep this a secret? The best
part of being in love was sharing it with others. Oh, how I wanted to tell
someone! But who could I trust?
“I am all talked out. Come upstairs.” His voice caressed my ears. “Take
this candle, for my hands will be busy.”
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SHARING HAMILTON
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