Thursday, 29 October 2026

Au Author's Inspiration with J.L. Michael

Inspiration to take on the daunting, daresay maddening, task of completing a novel can strike in the oddest of places. For me, that place was an Amazonian lodge tucked in the jungles of Ecuador. Writing has always been a hobby, not a profession. While I dabbled here and there, I’d never found the time to put 100,000 words down on paper, edit it, edit it again, and again, and give it my wholehearted stamp of approval... until recently.

Looking back, my author’s journey actually started during my senior year in high school. A life or death bout with cancer quashed my athletic ambitions, my plans to earn a journalism degree to travel the world chasing history, and idled me during a long road to recovery, with all my friends off pursuing their university dreams. To pass the isolated months and to veil a growing sense of depression, I took up the solitary challenge of penning a novel. A student of history, I settled on writing a historical romance set in the Balkans during WWII. It proved good practice for what was to come.

It wasn’t until several years ago that a plotline worth championing took hold. I’ve made it a sound practice to travel a couple times a year to somewhere interesting. One such escape landed me in Quito, Ecuador. Renting a car, I descended through the clouds drifting the eastern slopes of the Andes, and settled at a lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon along the Napo River. While lounging in its pool with my three-year-old daughter, Alexandra, I quipped to my spouse, “At least Alee will be able to honestly say she learned to swim in the Amazon jungle.” I thought it would be a good opening line for an adventure novel, and while it didn’t immediately spark anything, it had unknowingly relit this author’s dormant pilot-light.

Six months later, frolicking the ocean in Samara, Costa Rica—howler monkeys swinging the nearby trees—it struck: my protagonist is a photographer, in the 1920s, the book will start in Papua (I still have no clue where the Papua angle came from). I had always thought a female Indiana Jones-like book would be interesting to pen, but had never put it all together. Initially intended to lean toward young adult readers, I realized I have a far too mischievous sense of humor, so that plan was scrubbed. Upon return to America, I immediately got to work, crafting a highly unique historical fiction titled Missteps Perfecting the Shutterbug Strut, featuring my heroine, Alexandra Bathenbrook. I had abandoned a supernatural crime project years earlier. Set in Bozeman, Montana, during the Roaring Twenties, it proved too constrictive a setting for my wanderlust nature, but provided a foundation to build my new story upon. Alexandra—winsome, witty, deeply troubled, and cowgirl able—would now travel the world as a freelance photographer, growing more cosmopolitan and headline-worthy along the way. Seminal events of the late 1920s were chosen to anchor the plotline: the Winter Olympics in ritzy St. Moritz, Switzerland, George Dyott’s Fawcett Relief Expedition into uncharted Amazonia, and the inauguration of King Zog of Albania in September 1928 among them. As history is marked by not only events, but the people who lived them, I incorporated happenstance encounters with the famous and soon to be famous. It blossomed into a big, cross-genre story: highly researched to bring the era alive, and I needed to push off many chapters for a hopeful sequel. Weathering the fray of the tedious query wars, a pandemic, and an overwhelming personal agenda, it was resigned to being self-published, with little marketing thereafter.

Over the last few years, I sought time to polish up the follow-up, Missteps Mending Devilish Ways, which I wrote as a stand-alone, allowing for Alexandra’s madcap and mystifying jaunt through life to be fully fleshed-out—a tale filled with wonderful nonsense, supernatural mystery, moments of terror, and a snapshot of historically relevant people, places, and events, both unsung and renowned. I refer to both editions as “Not your everyday historical fiction,” but the overall goal was to simply pen a thoroughly entertaining, transportive story for all adults… something unlike anything else out there.

I have learned over this multi-year writing journey that while sparked in Ecuador, these two novels were truly birthed years earlier at Sloane-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan while watching IV Methotrexate and Cytoxan drip into my veins—poisoning my life and shattering my career dreams. Anger can be a great motivator. For me, writing has proven cathartic. Through Alexandra Bathenbrook’s adventurous missteps and travels, I have vicariously chased history across the globe in an era to which I’ve always felt a kinship. It has been my way of reclaiming my broken destiny. I would have never had the patience to become a serious writer otherwise.

Oddly, I have no prohibitions about telling you, a stranger, of my writer’s journey, though most of my friends and acquaintances have no idea that I moonlight as a fiction novelist or my difficult path in finding a sense of redemption. I hold no grand goals of author fame or fortune, but I treasure a hope that my novels will rest upon library and personal bookshelves as part of my legacy. I’ve often entertained a daydream of my lovely daughter, all grown up, showing my book to her husband, children, or just a friend long after I’ve been called Home, and saying, “This book’s heroine was named after me.” It always brings a smile

I am satisfied, even proud of these two books. Such self-affirmation does not come easily for me. I hope you’ll consider reading them.

My best to you—J.L. Michael

Publication Date: 27th October 2026

Publisher: Swanky Owl Press

Print Length: 305 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction / Fantasy

Faithful missteps and ungodly falls—life can be like that.

In the fading roar of the 1920s, photographer Alexandra Bathenbrook's life is a whirlwind of adventure, glamour, and chaos. Tabloid journalists trumpet her mishaps, occultists believe she is a diabolic adaptation of Eve, and an otherworldly stalker is keen on dissuading her love interests.

Such hiccups might sway her insouciant nature if not for the pettier dramas sullying her trailblazing career. Operating out of her London office, her bold camera play will capture the violent birth of Saudi Arabia, the rise of European fascism, and the inaugural World Cup soccer tournament set in Uruguay.

Yet, as a wayward daughter of prominent Satanists, her disquieting upbringing proves tricky to escape. Courting the aid of the era’s most interesting somebodies, Alexandra will confront ancient conspiracies, her own dark heritage, and endeavor to evade an inevitable choice: embrace her hellish destiny or risk an end to life’s wonderful nonsense—for everyone else.

Pick up your copy HERE

J.L. Michael

J.L. Michael is a Maine author partial to old-school jazz, vintage travel posters, and historical literature that champions daring quests into realms unknown. The majority of the author’s time is spent pursuing the honor code of an impossible dreamer, which includes acting as an able Healthcare Director, committed spouse, and steadfast (though imperfect) role-model to a twelve-year-old best-thing-ever. When not thrashing away on a keyboard, J.L. can be found lounging beachside atop the hood of a Jeep Wrangler, contemplating a next escape to distant exotic lands and the many mysteries of the universe.

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Author Interview with Amanda Roberts

Today, I am delighted to welcome Amanda Roberts to Yarde Book Promotions to talk about her historical timeslip novel, Secrets of the Penny University, the sequel to The Woman in the Painting.

Set in Oxford across two very different centuries, the novel follows the lives of two women connected by an old building on the High Street. In 1656, Tilly arrives in the city pregnant and abandoned by her lover, with little choice but to rely upon the kindness of her relatives. Finding work in their coffeehouse, she discovers a world of conversation, learning and political debate, although the strict expectations of Cromwell's England leave her with very little freedom to determine her own future.

Almost four centuries later, in 2025, Amy and her husband are preparing to transform the same building into a modern coffee shop. However, the discovery of an old mural reveals a connection to the building's past, and Amy soon begins experiencing strange echoes of the young woman who once lived there.

Amanda joins me today to talk about the fascinating history of Oxford's early coffeehouses, the challenges facing women in seventeenth-century England, and how she brought two seemingly separate lives together through art, memory and the secrets hidden within an old building.

But first, let's check out Secrets of the Penny University

Publication Date: April 22nd, 2025

Publisher: Hickory Press

Pages: 282

Genre: Historical Fiction / Dual-Timeline / Timeslip

Tilly risks everything on a promise. Amy wants the truth.

“I think something terrible happened here”

2025: When Amy and her husband buy an old property on Oxford’s High Street with plans to open a new coffee shop, the discovery of a mural painted on a wall hints at a story that has lain dormant for centuries. Before long, Amy is seeing and hearing echoes of the past, and a young woman who once lived there. As the penny university reveals its secrets, will Amy’s growing obsession with the past lose her everything she has in the present?

1656: Abandoned by her lover and pregnant, Tilly is sent from the small village of Islip to live with cousins in Oxford where she will work in their coffeehouse. She is soon drawn into the excitement of her new life in the city, until the return of a nightmare from her past changes the course of her future. As the time for her child to arrive draws closer, Tilly is faced with a difficult decision; does she turn her back on everything she has hoped for and settle for a different life? She follows her instincts and gambles.

Secrets of the Penny University brings together Oxford in 1656 and 2025 through one building on the High Street. What first gave you the idea of using an old coffeehouse to connect two women separated by almost four centuries?

Once I had decided to write a sequel to The Woman in the Painting, the historical period sort of chose itself because I knew it would be Tilly’s story. In April 1645, at the end of The Woman in the Painting, she’s six years old, but I had no interest in writing about her childhood, so I wound the clock forward by ten years so we meet her again as a young woman. For many years I edited magazines within the coffee industry, and my husband had a coffee business, so when I started to research what was happening in England in the 1650s and discovered that was the decade when the early coffeehouses opened, and even better, they were right here in Oxford, it was the obvious thing to do.

Tilly arrives in Oxford pregnant, abandoned by her lover and dependent upon relatives for a new beginning. What interested you most about exploring the choices available to an unmarried pregnant woman in the seventeenth century?

I didn’t set out to explore those choices particularly, but rather they became necessary as part of the plot. My plots tend to evolve as I write the story, but in this one I knew what the big ‘Act 5 showdown’ was going to be, the question was how to get there. Tilly would have had very limited choices during this most puritan period of English history – the years of Cromwell’s Protectorate when tough new laws had made the crime of fornication punishable by being sent to gaol or to a house of correction – but she would have had even less power to choose for herself. Either her family tries to support her or they don’t and they throw her out. If they do support her, then how? Tilly’s relations decide on a course of action that is not new to novels, or I suspect, real life, but then I put a twist on it; a twist with consequences. Following those consequences was the really interesting part.

Tilly goes to work in her cousins’ coffeehouse at a time when these establishments were becoming exciting centres for news, debate and new ideas. What did your research reveal about Oxford’s early coffeehouses and the people who gathered in them?

In Oxford at least they were gathering places for scholarly and political debate. The people who frequented them would all have been men; women were allowed to work in the coffeehouse but were not welcomed as customers. Students from the university, many of whom would have been from wealthy and noble families, would have been significant amongst their clientele, some of whom would see themselves as leaders of the future and would no doubt have their own opinions on the affairs of the day. Charging a penny entrance fee to the coffeehouse – hence the evocative nickname of the ‘penny university’ – was reportedly to perpetuate a sense of elitism and place the establishment out of reach of the poorer classes, which would include many of the ordinary men of the city. For as long as the university has been in existence there has been a ‘town v gown’ conflict in Oxford, which exists still to this day – students and towns people don’t always get along. I think the atmosphere would at times have been tense. It’s also worth remembering that during the English Civil War, King Charles 1 made Oxford his base and enjoyed the support of the Oxford colleges. This is something that Cromwell would not have forgotten, and the colleges would have been very sensitive about, so expressing political views that did not support the Protectorate in a building owned by one of the colleges would have added to tensions.

In 2025, Amy and her husband plan to turn the same property into a modern coffee shop, only for the discovery of a mural to open a door into its past. Why did you choose a painting as the first tangible connection between Amy and the building’s history?

Tilly’s mother, Catherine, used to sketch with charcoals, and as a child Tilly loved to draw as well, so there was an artistic streak running through both of them. Like her mother, Tilly is not educated and cannot read or write, so when I placed her in the coffeehouse in this strange but exciting city, she wants to record her experiences and the only way she can do that is through painting or drawing. So then I thought, what if she paints straight onto the walls of her bedroom, and somehow it survives. I subsequently learned about buildings in Oxford where wall paintings from even earlier than the 1650s have survived – although these were designed as part of the décor of the room and painted by skilled artists.

Amy gradually begins seeing and hearing echoes of the young woman who once lived there. How did you decide how far to take this more mysterious element while still keeping the historical story at the heart of the novel?

I am fascinated by the way that the past influences the present. When I visit a very old building or historic site, I can’t stop my imagination roaming, thinking of the people who might have lived there, and absorbing myself in the past. I think that mysterious element is part of what keeps the historical story at the heart of the novel – it’s replaying through the mural in the present-day narrative whilst it’s happening for the first time in the historical narrative.

Both Amy and Tilly reach points where what they desperately want threatens other parts of their lives. Was that parallel between the two women something you planned from the beginning, or did their stories begin to mirror one another as you wrote?

I think it’s a bit of both. There are obvious parallels between the two women – not just the coffee shop itself which is home to both of them, but they are both pregnant, they are both creative, they each have imperfect and at times complex relationships with the men in their lives who have influence over them. When writing a dual narrative/time slip novel I do set out to exploit those parallels – as someone who enjoys reading novels in this sub genre I don’t find it very satisfying if there is no emotional connection between the two timelines and no reason for the two to co-exist in one novel. As the stories mirror each other they also provide a contrast in how each protagonist feels their way to a resolution, within the constraints of their time and the options available to them.

Secrets of the Penny University is a sequel to The Woman in the Painting. When returning to this world, what did you want to develop or reveal that you had not been able to explore in the first novel?

It was a chance to tie up a loose end that I had left to the reader’s interpretation. Although I was happy with how The Woman in the Painting ended and I hadn’t intended to write a sequel, some readers expressed a view about one character in particular and how they hoped he would come to a sticky end, so this was a chance to either give them their wish … or not.

At the heart of Secrets of the Penny University are two women searching for something more from their lives, despite living centuries apart. What do you hope readers will take away from Amy and Tilly’s stories when the secrets of the old coffeehouse have finally been revealed?

Be patient. Learn to value what you’ve got and how to make the most of it. Don’t try to make someone else into something they aren’t, or expect more from someone than they are able to give.

A huge thank you to Amanda Roberts for joining me today and sharing the fascinating background to Secrets of the Penny University.

Pick up your copy of Secrets of the Penny University HERE

Read with #KindleUnlimited.

Amanda Roberts

Author, bookworm and history lover, Amanda grew up in Derbyshire but has lived in Oxfordshire since 1997. A magazine editor by profession, she has published four novels and a short story. Her first novel, The Roots of the Tree, was based on a true family story and is close to her heart, but her real love is historical fiction. She has published two dual timeline books set in Oxfordshire (The Woman in the Painting and its sequel Secrets of the Penny University) and Lady of the Quay, the first in a series of historical crime/suspense novels set in 1560 in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Second book in this, the Isabella Gillhespy series, will follow in 2027.

When not writing or attending bookish events, she can be found exploring crumbling ruins – wherever in the world she happens to be – or relaxing with her two ginger cats.

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The Paris Portrait (A Fabiola Bennett Mystery, Book 3) by Heidi Eljarbo

The Paris Portrait

(A Fabiola Bennett Mystery, Book 3)

By Heidi Eljarbo

Publication Date: 12th November 2024

Publisher: Independently Published

Page Length: 248

Genre: Historical Fiction / Thriller

Fabiola stumbles upon a clue that indicates a royal portrait went missing almost two hundred years ago. Is this true, or is there substance to the rumor?

Paris, France, 1973.

After an enjoyable but dusty road trip, Fabiola and her friends, Pippa and Cary, arrive in a small village on the outskirts of Paris to spend a few days with Fabiola’s brother Eivind and his family.

On their first evening there, Eivind shows Fabiola an ancient recipe book he bought at an auction. The book is filled with old writing, and he asks Fabiola to decipher the pages. After the others have gone to bed, she spends hours reading and is gripped by the last pages that have nothing to do with recipes for baked goods and stews. Certain the author was a famous portrait artist at the time of the French Revolution, Fabiola and her friends set out on a treacherous investigation, dodging murderers and thieves to learn the truth.

Versailles, France, 1789.

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun— portraitist and close friend of the extravagant queen of France, Marie Antoinette—has already painted thirty portraits of the queen. Her contemporaries compare her to the old Dutch masters, calling her one of the greatest portrait painters of her time.

But outside on the streets, Paris is becoming more perilous with every day that passes. Madame Le Brun would be a fool to think the rumors of a revolution will pass, and aristocratic life will continue as before.

Amid the turmoil, she paints one final portrait of Marie Antoinette, knowing well her association with the queen could cause her to be arrested or executed. As chaos and riots in Paris turn to violence, Madame Le Brun flees with her young daughter, hoping her royal friend and the portrait will be safe.

This is Heidi Eljarbo’s third dual timeline novel about Norwegian art historian Fabiola Bennett—a captivating spin-off from her much-loved Soli Hansen Mysteries.

Pick up your copy of The Paris Portrait HERE!

Read with #KindleUnlimited

Heidi Eljarbo

Heidi Eljarbo is the bestselling author of historical fiction and mysteries filled with courageous and good characters that are easy to love and others you don't want to go near.

Heidi grew up in a home filled with books and artwork and she never truly imagined she would do anything other than write and paint. She studied art, languages, and history, all of which have come in handy when working as an author, magazine journalist, and painter.

After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She and her husband have fifteen grandchildren—so far—in addition to a bouncy Wheaten Terrier.

Their favorite retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summertime and ski the vast, white terrain during winter.

Heidi’s favorites are family, God's beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.

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After Whorl Bran Reborn: A Tale of Resistance and Retaliation in Roman Britain (Celtic Fervour Series Book 2) by Nancy Jardine

After Whorl Bran Reborn:

A Tale of Resistance and Retaliation in Roman Britain

(Celtic Fervour Series Book 2)

By Nancy Jardine

Publication Date: 19th April 2018

Publisher: Nancy Jardine

Page Length: 261 Pages

Genre: Ancient World Historical Romance

An altered survivor. An enterprising young woman. A ruthless abduction.

AD 73 Hope and loss

Seriously injured at Whorl, Brennus goes from surviving to thriving the trauma of battle. Taking on the new identity of Bran, he vows to disrupt the Roman conquest of his Brigante territory. Though how can he do this when he is forced to labour for the Roman Ninth Legion?

Ineda helps Bran adjust to his new role. The pair trade with the detested Romans, a fantastic cover for their spying activities. She’s a determined young woman, but making Bran accept her as a lover is the hardest thing she has ever attempted. All seems well till they are attacked by a Roman patrol. Afterwards Ineda cannot be found, the chains of Roman slavery binding her to the Roman tribune named Valerius.

Distraught with Ineda’s loss, can Bran find a new occupation?

The adventures of Bran, Ineda and the Garrigill Clan continue.

Pick up your copy of After Whorl Bran Reborn HERE!

Read with #KindleUnlimited

Nancy Jardine

Nancy Jardine lives in the spectacular ‘Castle Country’ of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Her main writing focus has, to date, been historical and time travel fiction set in Roman Britain, though she’s also published contemporary mystery novels with genealogy plots. If not writing, researching (an unending obsession), reading or gardening, her young grandchildren will probably be entertaining her, or she’ll be binge-watching historical films and series made for TV.

She loves signing/ selling her novels at local events and gives author presentations locally across Aberdeenshire. These are generally about her novels or with a focus on Ancient Roman Scotland, presented to groups large and small. Zoom sessions have been an entertaining alternative to presenting face-to-face events during, and since, the Covid 19 pandemic restrictions.

Current memberships are with the Historical Novel Society; Scottish Association of Writers; Federation of Writers Scotland, Romantic Novelists Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She’s self-published with the author co-operative Ocelot Press.

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