Lissa Morgan

It's an unusual December for me this year, as I'm taking a little break from writing until January. My latest novel - The Warrior's Forbidden Maiden (sneak preview of the cover at the end of this post!) - was accepted by my editor at Harlequin Mills and Boon at the beginning of November, and since then I've been sitting back and mulling over the next project.  It's been a few years since I took such a long break from writing, and for someone who writes every day, it's been very strange. However, it has had exciting results. Before I started writing, I was always a voracious reader of historical fiction, and particularly the medieval period. Among my favourite books are those by Rosemary Hawley Jarman, set against the  Wars of the Roses - We Speak No Treason, The King's Grey Mare and The Courts of Illusion , the latter, to my mind, her best work.  I've had a desire to write about the Wars of the Roses for a while now, and after re-reading these wonderfu...

Readers and reviewers often comment that, while they enjoy the Welshness of my books, they sometimes struggle to get their tongues around some of the characters' names and other words I use to add flavour to my stories.  Some have said they wish they could speak Welsh in order to 'hear' the words on the page, and others have suggested a glossary might be useful.  Due to word count restrictions, it's not really possible to include a glossary in the books themselves, but here is a quick guide to some of the names and frequently-used Welsh words in my books, and also a useful link to a fuller pronunciation guide to be found online, courtesy of Aberystwyth University. Basically, all letters in Welsh are sounded purely, none are silent, and consonants are the same as in English but are usually hard, not soft. Vowels are often very different to the English and we have two extra ones - w and y - and also diphthongs, which are two vowels run together that have their own unique ...

One of the nicest and most exciting things about being a writer who is published with a traditional publisher - in my case Harlequin Mills & Boon - is the thrill of seeing what sort of cover the design team create for each book.   I have loved all my covers to date, from my debut The Welsh Lord's Convenient Bride in May 2022, to my latest book, The Warrior's Reluctant Wife , out this month - today, 16th August, in Australia, 22nd in USA and 31st in the UK.  There are very subtle differences between the covers for each of these regions, and I've made a little montage below to show what they are.  Which do you like best?     I think I just lean towards the UK cover but I'm delighted with them all.  These are home market covers, ie published in the English language, but as my books reach markets further afield and go into translation, sometimes a totally different cover appears, like the one below for the Italian edition of The Welsh Lord's Convenien...

This week a year ago, my debut novel for Harlequin Mills & Boon was published! The year has flown by so quickly between writing and my various day jobs but on another level it's been such a rapid learning curve.  While I'm still a newbie compared to some authors, I know a lot more now than I did a year ago. I'd been writing for fifteen years by the time I was published in May 2022, and while I submitted to M&B every year, my deadlines and my writing schedule were at my own pace.  Since then, with two consecutive two-book contracts, I've had to adjust the way I write slightly. Gone are the luxurious days of writing as much - or as little - as I want; now I'm much more focused on a daily word count of 1000 plus, whereas before I rarely did that in a morning's writing session, although I used to hit 500-800 words on a good day. It's still important to not sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity, and this is especially true for an historical author, ...

Usually I can just choose between my UK and US book covers, with one version I like just that little bit more than the other. This time, no chance!  This is the cover of my new book, The Warrior's Reluctant Wife , due out in mid-August, and I think it is utterly beautiful  It depicts the wedding night of my two characters, Peredur and Rhianon, and the Harlequin Design Team have got it to a tee!   My hero is Welsh-Flemish so I didn't want him too blond but just enough to stand out among his fellows.  Isn't he commandingly handsome?  And my heroine, strong willed and quick witted, as well as vulnerable, is perfectly represented here.  And that dress! And that vaulted ceiling and gothic window, and the atmospheric candlelight... As you can tell, I was totally swept off my feet when I saw this.  I hope you like it too!   An arranged marriage An unexpected love…? Recently widowed, Rhianon hopes never to find herself bound to a man again, after b...

I'm currently writing my fourth historical novel for Harlequin-Mills & Boon historical romance, which is the second in a duet of linked books. The first of these - The Warrior's Reluctant Wife - will be out in e-book and paperback in August 2023.  When I began that first book, I didn't intend to have a linked book at all, but as sometimes happens, there were two characters who refused to go away, even though I 'sent' them away early on in the book. I even had a book four waiting in the wings, but these characters kept poking their heads up, so eventually, of course, I had to give in and put the planned story aside and give book four to Llywelyn and Cristin.  After all, not only their characters were there waiting to be fleshed out, their home was too, hence a little trip this last weekend down south to the castle of Ystrad Meurig and the Cistercian Abbey of Ystrad Fflur. Shameful to say, this was my first visit to either!   Head of St Bernard, part of a white ma...