This week I’m hosting Naomi Rawlings with Sanctuary for a Lady, Susan Page Davis with Lady Anne’s Quest (either print or ebook), Rebecca Ondov with Heavenly Horse Sense, and Cynthia Simmons with Struggles and Triumphs: Women in History Who Overcame (no giveaway). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (April 8th) evening.
Interview with the hero from Sanctuary for a Lady by Naomi Rawlings:
1. Michel Belanger, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I found Sleeping Beauty on the forest floor one morning. At least I thought she was Sleeping Beauty, until I discovered she was an aristocrat trying to flee France. I took her home and nursed her back to health, though I could be guillotined for doing so.
Other than finding Isabelle, I have a rather boring life. I tried to be interesting once, decided to follow my dreams and head to Paris to become a renowned furniture-maker. It didn’t work. Since then, I’ve stayed home and taken over the family farm.
2. What do you do for fun?
There’s nothing fun about farming. But when I’m done with the field work, I sneak into my workshop and sand down a table or carve an intricate design on a bed frame. The woodwork calms me, makes me forget the never ending list of farm chores.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Nothing. I’ve learned if I put things off, it will only cause more trouble. So I do what needs to be done and don’t think twice about it. Like taking that aristocrat home from the woods—well, she turned out to be such a hoyden, I think I do regret that one. But fool that I am, I’m falling in love with her despite her shrew-like ways.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Of being trapped on my farm forever. Of never being able to make furniture as I wish. Of have Isabelle walk away from me. Of being guillotined for helping her.
5. What do you want out of life?
To leave my farm. But I can’t, not without breaking my promise to my father.
To marry Isabelle. But I can’t do that either, not without putting her life in danger by asking her to stay in France.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
To fulfill the responsibilities God has given me, namely the farm. I walked away from my responsibilities once before to pursue my own desires, and my father ended up dead. I’ll not do that again.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I don’t own books, save the Good Book. But in school I loved the fairy tales by Charles Perrault. Especially Sleeping Beauty. But I never thought I’d find my own sleeping beauty, and as soon as I saw Isabelle on the ground, and her long dark hair tangled beneath her, I think I fell in love.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
That I could marry Isabelle and go to England with her, but that will never happen, not while I have a farm to care for. And it’s simply too dangerous for Isabelle to stay here.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
A pet? No. But I’ve barnyard animals aplenty. A stubborn sow, and an aging horse. A coop full of chickens, and a new ox for ploughing.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
Back? Why would I go back in time? I’d go forward, to after the French Revolution ends. Maybe I won’t be chained to the farm by then. Maybe I’ll be able to make furniture on my own. Maybe I’ll be able to marry Isabelle.
