Deborah Stavely of No Job For a Woman – Author Sherry Gloag

by Sarah | Feb 25, 2013 | Character Interview, Guest Authors, Writing

Today I’m happy to have Sherry Gloag here with her heroine, Deborah Stavely from her regency romantic suspense, No Job For a Woman.  I hope you enjoy getting to know Deborah as much as I did.

1.  Tell us a little about yourself. How did you come to your author’s attention? Occupation?

Hello, Sarah. Thank you for inviting me to share a little bit about myself with you and your readers. My name is Deborah Stavely and my author, Sherry Gloag starts my story, a Regency romantic suspense, No Job For a Woman, when the life I have mapped out for myself after losing my husband, Harold, is threatened. I have been widowed for two years and since then have been running Stavely Manor and its lands and tenants in the way my late husband taught me.

Oh did I mention my eldest brother is Lord Worth and while a wonderful brother, is at times, meddlesome and stuck in the mores of what he perceives is the rightful place for a woman.  My insistence to take over Harold’s role after his death offends Freddy’s sense of ‘rightness.’

You can imagine that I did not relish his interference when he heard about the little difficulty I was facing.  Nor did I appreciate when he called upon his best friend, Julian Farnsworth, to back up his actions. I mean, I could deal with it myself. Couldn’t I…?

2.  What or who is the greatest love of your life? Why? What drew you to them?

While this may appear to be a straightforward question, when I came to answer it, I found it complicated. Not—I hasten to add because I am capricious, but because as my life changed so did my allegiances. My family is the constant thread of love that weaves in and out of my life.  No I don’t fall out of love with them, just that they fade into the background, as they should, when I met and married Harold Stavely.  He was the love of my life.  He was the man I hoped to create a family, and grow old with. Believe me stepping into his shoes and taking the reins of Stavely Manor was not only what Harold would have wanted, but it saved my sanity. So for a while, Stavely manor, after my family and my husband, became the love of my life. And then Julian Farnsworth re-entered my life and turned it upside down, well no, my neighbours did that before Julian arrived. It was Julian’s arrival that reveals the dark intent behind my neighbours increased interest in my affairs…

3.  What’s your greatest fear?

Losing control and losing my independence. If I have been more amenable things would not have come to such a dangerous path and Julian would not have found himself fighting for his life.

4.  What’s your motto in life?

I don’t know that I have one, but now you make me think of it I’d say ‘Seize the day.’

5.  How do the other characters in your book view you?

*laughs, a throaty laugh of self acceptance” With exasperation most of the time, but make no mistake they love me with the same familial love I have for them. As for Julian… well, you’d have to ask him.

6. What do you prefer? To spread & hear gossip, or be the creator of gossip fodder?

I hate gossip, but if I hadn’t attended to it I may not be alive today to share my story.

7.  What is it about you that is going to draw us readers in?

I am a real person, with the same kind of flaws everyone in your modern twenty-first century.  The only difference is the time. I lived in what you now call the regency period, while you live in the twenty-first century.

8.  What was your happiest moment?

There are too many to recount. That said, I nearly split my sides laughing when  watching my brother and Julian sail across the lake after I’d removed the bung in the boat. They deserved it, they thought they’d stranded me up a tree. I won’t say more here as the tale is included in my story.

9.  What trait do others  find most deplorable about you?

Oh, that is easy. My need for independence.

10. The random question: If you were a color, what color would you be and why?

I can’t choose just one because I’m like a chameleon my colour matches my moods, but red because Harold always told me he loved my vibrancy. Yellow because it always makes me feel spacious and happy, and deep purple because I hate black, and purple is an intense colour that also grounds me.

*~*~*~*

No Job For a Woman

Blurb:

Julian Fanshaw answers a call for help from his life-long friend Lord Worth to help keep his friend’s widowed sister, Deborah, safe from her increasingly vindictive neighbours. It doesn’t take long to realise him or Freddie long to realise the Grangers aren’t using her as a long-promised act of revenge against them; but are playing a deeper and far more sinister game of their own.

Deborah Stavely is determined to overcome the increasing harassment from her neighbour without calling on her brother for help. So she is not pleased when Freddie intervenes and involves his friend, Julian Fanshaw.

Circumstances demand Julian and Deborah learn to work together and Julian dares to dream that he might gain the love of the only person he’s ever given his heart to.

But will Deborah live long enough to discover that by releasing everything she values, she will gain everything her heart desires?

Excerpt:

Julian Fanshaw ignored the other letters in front of him when he recognized one from his long-time friend Freddie Dalrymple, now Lord Worth. He broke the seal and scanned the single sheet with growing concern.

Julian, my friend, I am writing to implore you to put aside whatever plans you have in hand and to set out immediately to stay with us for an indeterminate period of time.

Thoroughly alarmed, Julian flipped the page in his hand to discover it had been dispatched more than a week ago.

If I bring to mind a certain student up at Oxford with us, and reveal that he and his wife are, and have been, my sister’s neighbors for several years, it will give you but an inkling of the root of my concern.

It has come to my attention, due to the arrival of his brother upon the scene, and recent events concerning my sister, Deborah, I am persuaded you need not only to know what is happening here, but be on hand to assist in circumventing any consequences of actions taken against her.

I have taken the liberty of gathering some friends together for a couple of shooting parties, thereby creating a reason for your presence.

Since his return from the Peninsular, Julian kept promising himself a trip to Worth’s Norfolk estate. Unfortunately in the last eighteen months, time and circumstances had worked against him.

Casting the letter aside, Julian strode to the door and called for his butler.

“I am leaving immediately for Norfolk. Please see that my bags are packed and have my horse ready within the hour.”

“You do not intend to use your chaise, sir?”

“No. I’ll ride, with a stop to visit Mr. Sewel. Arrange for Becket and French to follow me in the chaise with everything I’ll need for a month.”

Not by so much as a flick of an eyelid did Thomas reveal he recognized the name of his master’s man of business.

“Very good, sir.”

Author Bio:

Multi-published author, Sherry Gloag is a transplanted Scot now living in the beautiful coastal countryside of Norfolk, England.  She considers the surrounding countryside as extension of her own garden, to which she escapes when she needs “thinking time” and solitude to work out the plots for her next novel.  While out walking she enjoys talking to her characters, as long as there are no other walkers close by.

Apart from writing, Sherry enjoys gardening, walking, reading, and cheerfully admits her books tend to take over most of the shelf and floor space in her workroom-cum-office.  She also finds crystal craft work therapeutic.

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Sweet Cravings Publishing
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