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+ publishing

HUGE NEWS: new contract!

by Unknown's avatar

Well, I’ve mentioned for a while that I’ve had a new project in the works I haven’t been able to talk about…and now I finally can!

So here it is…

I have just signed a contract to write a historical non-fiction book!

🥹🤓😍🎉✨

I can’t explain to you how excited I am about this. I have always adored history (as you can probably guess!) and the idea that I’m just over a year I will be able to hold a copy of my own contribution to that world is quite astonishing.

The book will be about the eldest daughters of English monarchs, and what they might have been like as monarchs if it were the eldest daughter who inherited, not the eldest son.

It’s part history, part informed speculation, and I am so delighted to be able to write it.

Thank you so much for being a part of my journey to this point. I honestly could not have done it without you!

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+ publishing

Writing long series

by Unknown's avatar

One of the things I’m known for within historical romance (at least, what I’ve been told I’m known for!) is that I write long series.

And in a way, they are correct!

I have a thirteen book series, two twelve book series already published and one currently underway, and even my ‘shorter’ series are at least four books long.

But unlike in genres like space opera, fantasy, or some crime drama, my series don’t have to be read in order. They are what authors call ‘interconnected standalones’. That means that the books in a series all take place in the same ‘world’ and sometimes occur at the same time as each other. Characters may pop in and out of each others’ books: the hero of one could be the best friend of another book’s hero.

The important thing is that each book in the series is its own self-contained story. You don’t need to have read the earlier numbered books to understand what’s going on.

Now, might you get more enjoyment if you read them in order? Sure! I like to seed jokes into my books, and you might not get them if you haven’t read in order – but importantly, that won’t lessen your enjoyment. You just won’t notice it.

I also really love interconnected standalones as an approach because with romance, it can be heartwrenching to leave your couple on a cliffhanger! I know some romance authors and readers love that, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I would find it very stressful to leave my characters not knowing if they are going to end up together!

So when you pick up an Emily E K Murdoch book, it doesn’t really matter what number it is in the series. You can enjoy meeting new characters, falling in love with them, and enjoy them falling in love with each other. Just be aware that you might spot them at a ball or at a dinner party in another one of the books in that series…

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+ new book, regency

PRE-ORDER: Put Your Best Duke Forward…

by Unknown's avatar

This was actually a real challenge to write. It’s super important to me to be as representative as I can with my characters, and so my hero in this novel has a leg amputation due to service to his country. It was difficult, but I’m really proud of what I’ve written.

You can pre-order for just 0.99, and I highly recommend you do ASAP!

Joseph Chisholm, Duke of Wincham doesn’t need a damn horse trainer to tell him what he already knows: the loss of his leg makes riding impossible.

His doctor, on the other hand disagrees. Doctor Walsingham recommends a trainer who has never failed, and so Joseph begrudgingly agrees to meet the man. He’ll soon see the situation is impossible.

So when a dazzling beautiful woman—in breeches!—arrives at his door, even Joseph’s self-imposed isolation isn’t enough to make him forget the improprietry of the situation.

But Harriet Godwin, or Hattie to her friends, doesn’t care. This irritating Duke who’s never cared much for his neighbors or his tenants can go to hell as far as she’s concerned…

Except that the debts her father left on her horse stud farm have to be paid, one way or another. 

An agreement is made and Hattie begins Joseph’s horse training. But as the grumpy Duke re-learns how to ride a horse, could his heart be re-learning how to rejoin life? After such a tragedy, is there any point in returning to Society?

And when danger strikes, just how far will Joseph go to protect this woman he’s determined not to like?

This full length novel is a steamy Regency romance with a happily ever after, no cliffhangers, and is part of a series that can be read in any order.

Free in Kindle Unlimited!

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+ publishing

Have you read me ‘wide’?

by Unknown's avatar

Although I love how easy it is for so many of my readers to get access to my books through Amazon, I am also aware that there are many readers who can’t, or won’t, buy from Amazon. This is often called ‘reading wide’ in reader circles.

So how can you get access to my books?

Firstly, there are some of my ebooks that are only available through Amazon. These are for business reasons that aren’t going to change any time soon (as far as I am aware!), but they are all available in paperback from other retailers. That means if you don’t want to buy from Amazon, you can still read the paperbacks!

But that means of course that the rest of my ebooks are available on other retailers! In fact, here is a list of just some of the retailers/platforms that you can read me on:

  • Apple Books
  • Barnes and Noble
  • kobo
  • Google Play
  • Scribd
  • Target
  • Thalia
  • Smashwords
  • Angus & Robertson
  • Mondadori
  • Vivlio
  • Waterstones
  • Walmart

Not bad, eh?

And don’t forget that as well as all those places, you can always go to your local library and request my books!

I hope that, no matter where you want to read, you can always access my books. If you’re struggling to get hold of them, please let me know! I’d be more than happy to point you in the right direction if I can.

Happy reading!

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+ Writing

Writing while on holiday

by Unknown's avatar

So, I’ll put my hands up here: I know, I know, you’re not supposed to work on holiday!

But I would challenge anyone who works in a creative or artistic industry not to work while on holiday. The trouble is, when your job is also a huge passion, it’s a real challenge! You don’t really want to stop what you’re doing.

Now, burnout is a very real thing, and I’m not diminishing that. I’ve experienced burnout myself when I was working a full time, strenuous day job, and pushing with my author career. It was a lot! I really needed to take a break, and it took a lot to get me there, much to my regret in hindsight.

Though fully aware that I never want to slip back into burnout, however, my life looks very different now.

I’m not getting up at ridiculous o’clock to get a chapter in before work. I’m not writing on my lunchbreaks. I’m not doing my admin in the evenings before the TV. I’m not spending every Saturday editing.

(My poor husband! He was so gracious in supporting me through that time!)

That being said, I now have a huge amount of free time compared to when I was trying to do everything, so sometimes, honestly…it doesn’t feel like I need a holiday.

I mean, I get to do what I love, day in and day out, and I get paid for it, and I have my evenings and weekends back?!

I could never have dreamt of that a few years ago.

So that’s why, sometimes when I’m on holiday…yes. I take out my laptop and write a little bit.

But the only reason I am able to do that is precisely because I don’t have to.

What a gift that is.

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+ new book, regency

New book! A Duke in Time Saves Nine

by Unknown's avatar

It’s time for you to enjoy the newest book in my Dukes in Danger series!

This is a gorgeous story that I adored writing, but it was a real challenge, I’ll be honest. Check out the blurb, and you’ll see why…

Byron Renwick, Duke of Sedley, is a man on a mission. Vengeance fills his soul, and he will stop at nothing to gain justice.

Which is why he finds himself chasing after a mail coach in the dead of night with a mysterious and rather beautiful passenger.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After discovering the Glasshand Gang’s plans to rob a mail coach, Byron was determined to catch them in the act and bring them to justice.

Missing the mail coach, and accidently letting slip to a woman that everyone in the mail coach was in danger? Also not the plan.

Anne Mead has just put her darling younger sister on that mail coach, and won’t take no for an answer from the strange gentleman who seems to know the nine people on that coach are now risking their lives.

She tells him in no uncertain terms: Anne is going with him. Together, they’ll save her sister.

But secrets on both sides threaten to surface in their race against time, as Byron keeps his title and more to himself, and Anne resists spilling the truth about her family.

And a sequence of inns with only one bed available doesn’t help…

With nine lives hanging in the balance, will Byron and Anne be able to put their bickering aside to rescue them—or will their growing attraction prove more of a distraction?

This full length novel is a steamy Regency romance with a happily ever after, no cliffhangers, and is part of a series that can be read in any order.

Free in Kindle Unlimited!

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+ History

Swords, daggers, and other stuff I have

by Unknown's avatar

Okay, so I can already hear the questions: Emily, why do you have a sword?

Why not?

Yeah, that’s a flippant reply, and there’s actually a huge amount more to it. So here’s the story about why I have a sword, a dagger, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff in my house!

First off, you have to understand that I’m a medievalist by training. I adore the medieval period, and I have also have a fascination with material culture. That’s the stuff that a society uses that gets left behind after a person, a family, a community, a culture is left behind.

So a cathedral is material culture, but so are the sheep shears from a farm house. Embroidery is material culture, clothing is material culture, the pen someone used to write their last will and testament? Also material culture.

Whenever I have the chance to get my hands on material culture that is old, I absolutely jump at it. Seriously. I’m a hoarder.

When I was a student at the University of York, I of course joined the Medieval Society, or MedSoc. One of the perks of joining was that you could order historically accurate replicas of medieval weapons at a serious discount.

Who was I to turn down that opportunity?

So the sword I have is a medieval one and a half hander. That means that it’s a big sword: big enough to be wielded by either one hand, or both hands to get that extra swing. It’s so pretty!

But even before that, my attraction to old weaponry had begun. When I was only about fifteen, I came across an antique looking dagger with a seriously rusted blade in a charity shop in the UK. Honestly, US readers: history truly is everywhere in this country!

I bought it for what was, at the time, the princely sum of £25. And it’s one of my prized possessions.

There are a few other beautiful and old objects in my home. I have a bookcase made from floorboards, constructed during WWII by my great-grandfather. I have a set of pewter tankards.

It really brings me joy to be surrounded by such beautiful objects – and they’re worth almost nothing!

But that’s not the point of them. They remind me that history is tangible, if we want it to me. We can reach out and touch something that has been touched by people in the past.

So if you ever feel the urge to buy a sword…I say, go for it.

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+ Writing

What’s on my desk?

by Unknown's avatar

Becoming a full time author was always a dream of mine, and now I’ve been one for over eighteen months. Time flies!

During those months, I’ve constantly been wrestling with what it means to be an author, what it looks like to be full time. And a huge amount of that war has taken place on my desk.

First off: yes, I am fully aware of how fortunate I am to have my own desk in the first place! In fact, I’ve set up my study in the box bedroom of our home, so I have a whole room set aside for writing, as well as my countless bookcases (four so far…)

And my desk is huge. It’s a proper desk, absolutely massive, so there’s a lot of room to be playing with.

So what’s on it?

Obviously, my computer. It’s a Mac laptop, set up on a angle so that it’s the right level for my wrists. Can’t do much without that!

I also have a bunch of other tech: my fancy printer, a microphone and light set up, and a normal table lamp.

Then there are the things that I’m pretty sure no author is without. A red pen, a few black ballpoints, a notebook or three, water, tissues, and usually a book that I’m researching from at the time. And a photo of my husband and I, just when we got engaged 😍

And that…that is it.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not that tidy! It takes a great deal of effort to maintain my desk at this level of tidiness, and honestly, it doesn’t always stay this way. At least once a month I have to do a big concerted effort to get all the scraps of writing and remnants of living off it. Okay, and the biscuit crumbs.

But I’ve found that having a pretty minimalist desk allows me to focus on what is really important: the writing.

What’s on your desk? Let me know in the comments!

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+ new book, regency

PRE-ORDER: Every Duke Has His Price…

by Unknown's avatar

It’s such a joy to receive positive reviews from my current series, Dukes in Danger, and I am sure that you are going to adore book 5, Every Duke Has His Price. I mean, just look at that cover!

You can pre-order for just 0.99, and I highly recommend you do ASAP!

Hugh Shardlow, Duke of Martock, is a Duke down on his luck, and determined not to get tangled into any other danger. That’s why he’s accosting this young woman in the middle of nowhere, France, in the middle of the night.

He’d only come to France to drink, gamble, and escape the terrors of England. Even with his father dead and buried, the place held nothing but darkness for him…until his money ran out.

Which is why the brightness of this mad Englishwoman, searching the French armies for her supposedly prisoner-of-war brother, is an absolute nonsense.

Nice young ladies don’t march into French encampments. They don’t meander into French inns and accost the locals asking after her brother. And they certainly don’t make bargains with strange penniless desperate Englishmen.

But Beth Mead has never been one for Society’s expectations, nor keeping them.

And so a deal is struck: Hugh will help Beth find her missing soldier brother, and she’ll pay his passage back to England.

Both think they’ve got the better bargain, but you can’t put a price on trust—and as secrets and lies intermingle with hopes and expectations, Beth and Hugh swiftly discover that to protect themselves, they may have to betray the other…

This full length novel is a steamy Regency romance with a happily ever after, no cliffhangers, and is part of a series that can be read in any order.

Free in Kindle Unlimited!

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+ Writing

Planning for summer!

by Unknown's avatar

Well, even though I live in the UK, I think I can officially declare it: we’re approaching summer!

And honestly, I am ready for it. After so many coughs, colds, sniffles, and a two week bout of flu, I am definitely ready for the warmer weather. Maybe not drier. This is England, after all.

So, what are my plans for summer?

Number 1 (and this will surprise many of you)…rest!

I’m not very good at resting. I adore writing so much that honestly, it doesn’t always feel like work. It’s so easy for me to pick up the laptop and start tapping away, and before I know it, I’ve written another chapter.

It’s a real problem!

So I really am going to dedicate more time this summer to properly resting. That means switching off the internet, turning off emails, and seriously not allowing myself to be tempted to edit ‘just one chapter’…

Number 2…see family and friends!

I’m still in the post-pandemic mode of being desperate to see the people I care about, and now that I can, I will be packing in seeing as many people as possible.

And number 3, of course…reading!

I’m trying to read every new release from my author friends this year (!) and I either need to lose some friends, or ask them to slow down 😂 seriously thought, I have a bit of a backlog, and so I’m looking forward to curling up in my sunny garden with a hat and a gin and tonic, and losing myself in some really good books.

So over to you! What do you have planned for the summer?

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+ History

The fun of naming characters

by Unknown's avatar

Have you ever noticed that if you read, I don’t know, ten Regency historical romances in a month, you start to see the same names over and over again?

William, James, Charles…Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia…

Why does this happen?

Well, as a historian and an author, let me give you some of my thoughts, which are 100% not scientific but based on my own experience, and a few comments from my author friends!

Firstly, there are some names that were super popular in the Regency era. Just like there was a time about a decade ago when every baby seemed to be named Oliver or Isla, there have been name fashions throughout history. So we see a huge number of Olivias in the historical record, for example. Many historical authors want to be accurate, so they choose these popular names.

Secondly, some of the names that were quite popular in the Regency era simply haven’t stuck it out to the 21st century, and so sound really odd to the modern ear. Be honest: would you read a book if the heroine was called Spencer, or Awellah, or Unity? Can you picture a duke called Americus, Coape, or Jahleel?

Don’t get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with these names! But they are unusual, and so often pull the reader out of the story.

And thirdly, we come to ‘the Tiffany effect’. The Tiffany effect is simple: it’s when something seems historically inaccurate, but it’s actually 100% true. For example, the name Tiffany was a popular name in medieval England, but it just seems…wrong? Doesn’t it?

In a similar way, there are names historically used in Regency England that sound far too modern, and so readers might complain that the author isn’t being historically accurate…even if they are! Examples include Miles, Sampson, Marina, and Angel.

So there you have it! Some of the complexities we authors face when it comes to naming characters 😅

Does anything in this blog surprise you?

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+ new book, regency

Out now! The Duke is Mightier than the Sword…

by Unknown's avatar

This was such a fun book to write, and I really hope that you enjoy it! Make sure you grab this book now, and lose yourself in the passions and witty banter of two people who are definitely not well suited…right?

Montague Lancaster, Duke of Caefall, is in hiding in Oxford after a wartime injury, trying to ignore his doctor’s advice.

Because he’ll definitely be going back to France to fight, right? He’s determined not to leave his honor on the battlefield—but Montague has financial concerns to keep him occupied. The Duchy is bankrupt. He’s got to keep it a secret and keep his presence in England quiet.

Fencing is his only refuge, his passion, and Montague agrees to teach students to pass the time. Easier said than done when a poetess storms into his bedchamber and demands he help her finish her poem…

Sarah Lockwood is tired of having her poetry diminished merely because she’s a woman. Society holds no interest, and she’s in search of a poetry professor in one of the prestigious Oxford colleges to help her finish it. She ends up discovering a hidden duke who fences like a soldier and kisses like the devil.

Words cross blades with actions as both Sarah and Montague fight their growing feelings for each other, and the expectations of the world.

She cannot be a poet. He must return to France to fight. So which is mightier: the duke or the sword?

This full length novel is a steamy Regency romance with a happily ever after, no cliffhangers, and is part of a series that can be read in any order.

Free in Kindle Unlimited!

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