Award-winning author Lee Rowan was born in a small Midwestern town and brought up with the expectation that she would become a nun—her mother's plan, which obviously didn't pan out. Lee has worked as a secretary, expediter, accounting clerk and other office jobs until she became a licensed massage therapist some 20 years ago, a profession that provided enough free time between appointments to get serious about writing. Her first book, Ransom, won the first-ever EPIC Award for GLBT fiction in 2007. Ransom has been in Amazon's #1 spot in Gay Romance; at one point Ransom, its sequel Winds of Change, and the contemporary Walking Wounded were all in Amazon's Top 10 at the same time. Lee married her longtime partner in a Canadian ceremony in 2004, and in 2007 the couple moved to Ontario. The complications and red tape of an international move caused a writing hiatus of several months, but the dry spell is finally over.
Congratulations to Lee Rowan and fellow authors Charlie Cochrane and Erastes on their new release!
Trilogy No. 111: Speak Its Name
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Expectations riding on a generation of young Englishmen are immense; for those who've something to hide, those expectations could prove overwhelming.
Aftermath
When shy Edward Easterby first sees the popular Hugo Lamont, he's both envious of the man's social skills and ashamed of finding him so attractive. But two awful secrets weigh Lamont down. One is that he fancies Easterby, at a time when the expression of such desires is strictly illegal. The second is that an earlier, disastrous encounter with a young gigolo has left him unwilling to enter into a relationship with anyone. Hugo feels torn apart by the conflict between what he wants and what he feels is "right". Will Edward find that time and patience are enough to change Hugo's mind?
Gentleman's Gentleman
Lord Robert Scoville has lived in a reasonably comfortable Victorian closet, without hope of real love, or any notion that it's right there in front of him if he would only open his eyes and take notice of his right-hand man, Jack Darling. Jack has done his best to be satisfied with the lesser intimacy of caring for the man he loves, but his feigned role as a below-stairs ladies' man leaves his heart empty. When a simple diplomatic errand turns dangerous and a man from their past raises unanswerable questions, both men find themselves endangered by the secrets between them. Can they untangle the web of misunderstanding before an unknown attacker parts them forever?
Hard and Fast
Major Geoffrey Chaloner has returned, relatively unscathed, from the Napoleonic War, and England is at peace for the first time in years. Unable to set up his own establishment, he is forced to live with his irascible father who has very clear views on just about everything—including exactly whom Geoffrey will marry and why. The trouble is that Geoffrey isn't particularly keen on the idea, and even less so when he meets Adam Heyward, the enigmatic cousin of the lady his father has picked out for him... As Geoffrey says himself: "I have never been taught what I should do if I fell in love with someone of a sex that was not, as I expected it would be, opposite to my own."
Behind the Scenes of Lee's Latest Release – Gentleman's Gentleman
We asked Lee what inspired her to write Gents…
"To me, HEA means being able to live with the one you love, and I wanted to write about a couple who could find a way to do that even in a repressive era. Until Oscar Wilde's trial, the "aesthetic" crowd might have cohabited, but more circumspect gay men weren't a part of that circle. Now, many a British gentleman's most intimate relationship, in a purely functional sense, was with his "personal gentleman"—a very trusted servant—so wouldn't that be the idea arrangement? The difference in class would be a huge obstacle, so there had to be a lot of trust between them—the kind of trust that would be forged in the heat of battle."
Lee Rowan Trivia!
1. I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian and haven't eaten meat in nearly 30 years…but all my pets are carnivores. Life's full of contradictions!
2. I decided to study massage because I'd had whiplash twice and the only thing that really helped was acupressure I learned from a book.
3. I love music and usually play one CD or set of music over and over, for however long it takes to write the book that the music inspires.
4. One of my book titles turned out to be the first name of my wife's great-grandfather.
5. I always try to grow my own tomatoes in summer—no store can match fresh off the vine.
6. Alton Brown is my culinary idol. He never talks down to his audience and his recipes work.
7. I want to be like Cesar Milan in my next lifetime. From illegal immigrant to dog savior—what a journey!
8. I own several musical instruments but still haven't taken enough time to learn to play any of them, except a hoop drum. (Of course, any two-year-old can play a hoop drum, but it's a start!)
9. If I could do one thing to 'entertainment' programming on TV, it would be to eliminate any "reality" show that makes people treat each other badly. I hate such junk—it teaches meanness, and who needs that?
10. I swore off TV as a waste of time and then my friend Ann wrote a fanfic about Jack Harkness… now I'm hooked on Torchwood. It's great inspiration for m/m romance.
What's Next?
First there was Ransom
Then there was Winds of Change
The adventures of Will Marshall and David Archer continues with...Winds of Intrigue!
Winter, 1802. The long war between England and France has entered a fragile and temporary truce but the lives of Will Marshall and David Archer, sailing in His Majesty's secret service, have become more complicated than ever. Will almost lost his lover once, and the responsibility of command makes him question whether he can give orders that will surely put Davy in harms way once more.
