Title: Love Finds You in Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Summerside Press
Cover blurb: Prince Edward Island pulls out all the stops to prepare for the visit of Prince Albert Edward (Queen Victoria’s son, later King Edward VII) in 1860. Molly Orland, a farmer’s daughter, is hired as a housemaid at the governor’s mansion, where the prince and his entourage will stay. Peter Stark is sent ahead of the royal party to ensure the arrangements are in order. Though Peter and Molly are attracted to each other, there seems to be no future for them, since Peter must soon leave with his master, the Earl of Washburn, and Molly will lose her job if discovered to be engaging in a flirtation with one of the visitors. However, Molly’s family harbors a secret that connects her family to Washburn’s. Can she and Peter overcome the past and set right a 60-year-old wrong?
1) How did this story come to you?
I thought of it after reading some historical material on Prince Edward Island and learning about the Prince of Wales’s 1860 goodwill tour of British North America and the United States.
2) Tell us about the journey to getting this book published.
This one was not typical. The editor and I had talked several times about working together, but up to that point a story line hadn’t clicked for both of us. When Summerside Press decided to cross the border into Canada with the Love Finds You line, Rachel Meisel asked if I’d like to write a story set in PEI. I lived in Maine then, and was within five or six hours’ drive of the island. I jumped at the chance, we worked out the story line, and I went to PEI to do research.
3) Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
I am a stroke survivor (it happened 13 years ago, and no cause was found); I’m descended from John Alden of Mayflower fame; and I collect old tea tins.
4) What are you working on now and what's next for you?
I just finished a Texas historical called Captive Trail. It’s about a young woman who spent 12 years with the Comanche and is found lying unconscious in the road by a stagecoach driver. Moody Publishers will release this title September 1 as part of the new Texas Trails series, which I’m writing with two other authors, Darlene Franklin and Vickie McDonough. We’re each writing two books.
And I’m working on Lady Anne’s Quest, in which an English lady searches for her uncle in 1855 Oregon. She needs to tell him that he’s now the Earl of Stoneford—but he disappeared into the American West twenty years ago, and he’s a hard man to find. Especially when two bumbling crooks are out to stop her and an assassin has her uncle in his sights. This is Book 2 of my Prairie Dreams series for Barbour Publishing. Book 1 (The Lady’s Maid) will release October 1.
5) Parting comments?
Thanks for having me over today, Dawn! I love visiting with you and your friends. I’m delighted that we’re giving away a copy of Love Finds You in Prince Edward Island.
6) Where can fans find you on the internet?
My Website is: www.susanpagedavis.com and I give away free books there every month. Come see me there or on Facebook.
