Marilyn Kelly
Historical Romance Author
Historical Romance Author
A few bits and pieces of my life, the romance industry and my writings.
Yours truly and a very nice man I met briefly at RT 2008. Fabio attends RT for charity (S.O.S.) just about every other year and everyone agreed he was very gallant throughout the convention.
I've made it to the last three RT conventions and had a blast. Shout out to Jennifer St Giles who performed a superhuman maneuver at RT 2009 to save a late night straggler from drowning.
I presented my Eleven Senses - Who Knew? workshop at RT 2010 in Columbus and at RWA national in Orlando. Thanks to all those who attended and gave me such great feedback.
Other odd bits about me:
Thanks to my father, an expert in international finance, I've lived in Argentina and Switzerland and been to over forty countries. I speak passable Spanish and French.
During a productive career with a Fortune 500 company, I obtained a patent on a waterproof cast liner, which is used under fiberglass casts so people can swim and shower while immobilized.
As an entrepreneur, I used my Masters degree in Microbiology and trained over 5,000 emergency response workers on infectious disease control.
On weekends, I was a wedding DJ and worked over 200 wedding receptions.
I married my college sweetheart and we are still happy after many years. (And, yes, he does help with my research.)
I have five brothers and two sons, plus I've been a teacher and volunteer teen advisor for fifteen years, so I have worked hard to understand guys. I hope it shows in my male characters. Let me know if you like them, please. If you don't, try my next book. I'm working on a diversity of characters, although I've stayed with 1830's England as my backdrop to facilitate the deep research that spans all my books.
If you've never been to England, here are a few photos to motivate you to visit:
At Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born and Princess Diana lived. It is located on the edge of Hyde Park in west London.
In front of a draper shop in Blist Hills, a recreated Victorian town near Birmingham.
On the road to the Bronte parsonage in Haworth.
In the parlor of the Bronte parsonage, where the three sisters wrote their famous novels.
My male characters:
Marcus is an Ashanti prince and an English earl, but he was raised in a rural village in the rich forests of Africa. Lana is his bridge to civilization, and his first fulfilling encounter with a woman. Can he keep her trust when she discovers his dark secret?
Galen is a man among men from the lake country of England. His superior intellect and a kind earl allow him a rare opportunity and he makes the most of it, earning wealth and fame. Serena is the noblewoman he lost once. She's back in his life and promises to bring ruin on him if he succumbs to her charms a second time.
Julian is an intellectual earl who arrives at the end of his pleasant bachelorhood unexpectedly when he meets his perfect mate, Cathryn. She falls equally in love with him, but is bound by a previous marriage contract to a distant baron. Can they outwit the dangerous man and forge a life together?
