Q) How did you dream up the dynamics of your characters?
Charity was not a hard character to create as I needed her
to represent the true meaning of her name.
Avarice on the other hand was difficult as there is a fine line between
gluttony – which the second book in the series – and greed. Originally I thought I needed to make him be
a greed driven man, changed by the love of a charitable woman but no matter
what I did, he just wasn’t an appealing hero.
Eventually Avarice became a man who despised the greed driven man he was
raised by instead, a character I felt was much easier to fall in love with.
Q) Is this book part of a series? If so, can you tell us about it?
Yes, Avarice & Charity is book number 3 in the Sins of
the Virtuous series. The series itself explores the sins we are all tempted by
and the virtues we aspire to portray.
Book 3 shows the sin of greed and how the person possessed by it will go
to whatever lengths to satisfy it, including destroy the innocence of a
charitable heart.
Q) Can you give a
fun or interesting fact about your book?
Avarice, the
hero, his father comes from Veneto, Italy which is where my husband’s father’s
family is from. My heroine, Charity, her
family is from Ballymena in Ireland, which is where my mother’s family is from.
Q) Do you plan all your characters out before you start a
story or do they develop as you write?
I don’t usually plan them too much, but for this book series
I have had to so I could be sure they all represented either a sin or a
virtue. That sai, they do tend to change
from my original plan as the story grows.
I’ve just been offered a contract for book 4 in the series,
so I’ll be working on edits for that soon.
In the meantime I’m hoping to get back to finishing the rest of the
series.
EXCERPT
A small smile spread
across her lips. “Yet you agreed to meet me here, and I assure you I don’t owe
your father money. Nor did I have business on my mind when I made my invitation
to you.”
Again silence fell
between them, their hands still joined. Charity hadn’t lied. She hadn’t come
here to meet Avarice for any form of business. She genuinely wanted to see him
again. For a reason that was unclear to her, she found him intriguing, and she
craved to know more about him.
“Where did you get
your necklace?” he asked her, suddenly breaking their mutual silence.
Pulling her hand
away from his, her fingers went to the metal pendant hanging from the chain
around her neck.
“My father told me
it once belonged to my mother. She died when I was still a young child. I’ve
worn it ever since.”
Avarice sipped his
brandy. “I feel your loss,” he commented quietly. “I was also a child when I
lost my mother.”
Watching the pain
filling his face, Charity wondered what could have taken his mother away that
still caused him so much pain to this day.
“Did your father
tell you anything about the meaning of the pendant?” he asked, changing the
topic of conversation back away from their family members.
She shook her head.
“I assumed it was Irish, but I know nothing else about it.”
His finger traced
the rim of his cup momentarily before he lifted his sight back up to her. “It
was called a triskele by the ancient Celts. It was very important to them and
seen in many of their carvings. Of the things it can represent, the most significant
is that the three spirals joined symbolizes the joining of life, death, and
rebirth.”
Sipping her sherry,
she placed the glass back on the table. “How does the son of an Italian
immigrant know so much about Irish legends?”
He smiled at her. “I
guess it does seem a little bizarre.” Suddenly, the smile disappeared from his
face. “My mother was Irish. My father never speaks about her, and I have few
memories of her. All I really know is what the townspeople have told me. When I
was still at school, I figured out that if I couldn’t know who my mother was,
at least I could study her people.”
She reached across
the table and laid her hand on top of his. She could relate to Avarice’s pain,
for she too never learned much about her mother, nor would her father speak of
her.
Catching sight of
her driver trying to get her attention through the crowd, she quickly retracted
her hand and pushed her chair out to stand. “I do apologize, but it appears I
must return home now.”
Avarice stood too,
reaching out and taking her hand in his. “Do you no longer want to be seen with
me?” he asked, clearly confused by her actions. “Have you perhaps again caught
sight of your intended?”
She giggled. “I’ve
caught sight of my driver, and nothing more. He’s telling me it’s time I return
home before my father notices I’m gone.”
Seeing his
embarrassment, she laced her fingers with his.
“You’re the only man
I’ve wanted to see,” she tried to reassure him. “And if I had a choice, I would
much rather spend the rest of this night with you.”
He walked with her
toward her waiting driver and carriage, no sign of wanting to break their
joined hands.
“I’ve never spent an
entire night with a woman,” he confessed as they walked. “Nor have I ached to
as I do now.”
She squeezed his
hand, not knowing what to say to his confession. Having heard the slight
uncertainty in his voice, she doubted he gave this same admission to many
others. That he’d given it to her, filled her with elation.
Stopping by the
carriage, she turned to face him. He looked so handsome in the moonlight. She
didn’t want to leave him, but she knew she had to. Pulling her hand away from
his, she stepped back.
“Thank you for the
drink, Avarice,” she said politely.
She lingered for a
moment, her gaze joined to his, her emotions yearning for something more than a
simple goodbye from him. Closing the distance between them again, her hands
went to his shoulders as she leaned into him, her lips touching his. Feeling
his hands on her back, pushing her against him, she knew she had to leave now
before she accepted any advances he made.
Breaking their embrace, she stepped back and walked over to
the open door of the carriage. “Goodnight,” she said softly as she stepped
inside her transport.
Would you protect
the one you love from relentless greed?
Avarice Licciardi worked for his father,
Antonio - a greedy, loveless man who destroyed everyone in his way. When Avarice met Charity, a woman with fiery
red hair and the touch of an angel, he discovered there was something he craved
so much more than his father’s money.
What he wanted was this woman.
When Antonio ordered his son to get the
hidden papers in Charity’s estate, Avarice refused. That was until Antonio threatened to go get
the papers himself. Knowing the
brutality of his father, Avarice went to Charity’s estate, ready to protect her
at all cost. When she invited him to
stay with her, he hoped to find nights of endless passion. What he found was a hidden tunnel with
incriminating mysteries far greater than hidden papers.
Charity Bohdan lived up to her name,
giving her herbal medicinal treatments freely.
What started off as patching up wounds soon took a very different
direction when she was being called to treat young women who’d been brutally raped
and left pregnant. She knew the risks involved
with treating and re-homing these women, but until she could find the monster
attacking them, she could see no other choice.
When Charity was called to treat a drunk’s
wounded hand, she expected to find some elderly station hand. Who she met was Avarice. As she treated his wound, she couldn’t ignore
just how handsome he was, or the feelings he stirred in her when their skin
touched. The more time they spent
together, talking of Irish legends and going on picnics, Charity could feel
herself losing her heart to him.
Together Avarice and Charity are forced to
uncover secrets from the past that sicken their souls as an evil, greedy man
threatens to tear them apart in his search for the evidence hidden in the
Bohdan estate.
Author Bio
There is corruption, deceit and murder, as well as cattle rustlers, slave traders and hell fire clubs. Explore townships of Jarvisfield and Inkerman, as well as Ravenswood and Bowen. One book even incorporates my great grandmothers cattle station 'Inkerman Downs Station'.
As well as an author, I am also the most spoilt wife in the world, and a very contented mother.
Come and discover all the passion and drama of North Queensland history with me.
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