Guest Post and Giveaway with Donna Fletcher Crow, author of A Darkly Hidden Truth

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in Donna Fletcher Crow's A Darkly Hidden Truth Virtual Book Publicity Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book.

About Donna:

Donna Fletcher Crow is the author of 38 books, mostly novels dealing with British history.  The award-winning Glastonbury, an Arthurian grail search epic covering 15 centuries of English history, is her best-known work. Donna and her husband live in Boise, Idaho.  They have 4 adult children and 11 grandchildren. She is an enthusiastic gardener.

Her newest release is A Darkly Hidden Truth, book 2 in her clerical mystery series The Monastery Murders. She also writes the Lord Danvers series of Victorian true-crime novels and the romantic suspense series The Elizabeth & Richard Mysteries. To read more about these books and to see book videos for A Darkly Hidden Truth and for A Very Private Grave, Monastery Murders 1,  as well as pictures from Donna’s garden and research trips go to Donna's website.

CONNECT WITH DONNA ONLINE:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Donna! 

Donna has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

Learning the Hard Way

Darlene, I’m delighted to be here on the Book Nook with you— especially because the lovely young woman on your header looks just like my Felicity. And Felicity could definitely use a spell sitting on a nice, warm beach.

Let me explain: Felicity Howard, the heroine of my Monastery Murders series, is a thoroughly modern American woman who studied classics at Oxford after she grew too tall to become a professional ballerina, then, when she discovered teaching Latin in London was boring took herself off to a monastery in Yorkshire to study in a theological college run by monks. That isn’t quite as random as it sounds because her Latin teacher had told her that the church was one place Latin was still being used.

She is just settling in nicely: “She had been here for six months— long enough for the uniqueness of  it all to have palled to boredom— but somehow it hadn’t.

“What was the right term to describe how she was living? Counter-cultural existence?  Alternate lifestyle? She pondered for a moment, then smiled.  Parallel universe.  That was it.  She was definitely living in a parallel universe.  The rest of the world was out there, going about its everyday life, with no idea that this world existed alongside of it. 

           

“It was a wonderful, cozy, secretive feeling as she thought of bankers and shopkeepers rushing home after a busy day, mothers preparing dinner for hungry school children, farmers milking their cows— all over this little green island the workaday world hummed along to the pace of modern life.  And here she was on a verdant hillside in Yorkshire living a life hardly anyone knew even existed.  Harry Potter.  It was a very Harry Potter experience.”

But that was before she found Father Dominic brutally murdered and Antony, her church history lecturer, standing over him with blood all over his hands.

A Very Private Grave tells the whole harrowing story of Felicity and Antony chasing and being chased by murderers over half of England.

Well, that was a few months ago and quite understandably, Felicity has had her fill. So much so, as a matter of fact, that she’s thinking of becoming a nun. She doesn’t want any part of helping Antony find the valuable Russian icon that has gone missing from the monastery church. And she certainly doesn’t want to wait around to spend Mother’s Day with her impossible mother.

But then a good friend turns up in a shallow grave almost literally under her feet. And then Antony is abducted. Once again, Felicity— brilliant, impulsive, loyal, headstrong— has a lot to learn, and, even though it seems she must learn everything the hard way, she is making progress. Especially when it comes to choosing the course for the rest of her life. Will it be the veil or Antony? But what choice will she have if she can’t save Antony’s life?

Please visit www.DonnaFletcherCrow.com  to see the videos for A Very Private Grave and A Darkly Hidden Truth, photos from my research trips, and a visit to my rose garden.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Donna!

One lucky winner will win a paperback copy of A Darkly Hidden Truth.

Felicity can’t possibly help Father Antony find the valuable missing icon. She’s off to become a nun. Then her impossible mother turns up unexpectedly. And a good friend turns up murdered…

Breathtaking chase scenes, mystical worship services, dashes through remote waterlogged landscapes keep the pages turning. Felicity learns the wisdom of holy women from today and ages past and Antony explores the arcane rites of the Knights Hospitaller. But what good will any of that do them if Felicity can’t save Antony’s life?

Buy Links:  Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below. 

This giveaway is open worldwide until 12:01 AM EST on May 25, 2012.
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Tour Participants

Tuesday, May 1

Interview at Literarily Speaking

Wednesday, May 2

Guest Blogging at The Story Behind the Book

Thursday, May 3

Interview at Examiner

Monday, May 7

Watch Donna’s AuthorVid at Literarily Speaking!

Tuesday, May 8

Interview at The Writer’s Life

Wednesday, May 9

Book Review at Ashley’s Bookshelf

Thursday, May 10

Interview at Between the Covers

Friday, May 11

Book Review at A Year of Jubilee Reviews

Monday, May 14

Book Review at My Book Addiction and More

Tuesday, May 15

Interviewed LIVE on Barry Eva’s A Book and a Chat Blog Talk Radio Show at 6:30 p.m. (eastern)

Wednesday, May 16

Guest Blogging at Book Reviews by Elizabeth White

Interview at Blogcritics

Thursday, May 17

Book Review at Purple Sage and Scorpions

Friday, May 18

Guest Blogging & Book Giveaway at Darlene’s Book Nook

Monday, May 21

Book Review at Day By Day in Our World

Book Review at Bags, Books & Bon Jovi

Tuesday, May 22

Book Review at Wakela’s World

Wednesday, May 23

Book Review at A Bookish Libraria

Thursday, May 24

Book Review at Splashes of Joy

Friday, May 25

Book Review at Broken Teepee

* * * Book Review at A Novel Affair (rescheduling)