A Guest Post by Christina Lorenzen about her new book "Healing Seas"

From Pirates to The Titanic 

A guest post by Christina Lorenzen

I was the kid in high school who had absolutely no interest in history. I loved English, creative writing and literature classes. I didn’t figure out how they could connect until years later.

It started when I picked up my first historical novel by author Julia Quinn. I had just finished that book when I saw a friend on Facebook talking about a Mary Balogh novel. So I picked it up. I was in the bookstore when the cover of a Sarah MacLean stopped me as I was making my way to the magazine aisle. No magazines went home with me that day, but that Sarah MacLean book did. I was pretty surprised at how much I liked reading historical romance. That’s when it dawned on me that history could be fascinating to write about. I regretted not putting more effort and interest in my history class in high school, but I was ready to write my first historical romance. But life gets in the way, and I was busy at the time as a freelance writer and working on another novel.

I’ve long since stopped freelance writing but writing three novellas and a novel has kept me busy. The push I needed to write my first historical novel came when my publisher, Forget Me Not Romances, announced they were putting together collections of novellas for each of the fifty states. I knew I wanted to write a story about my state, New York. When I queried about a novella, I asked to write a historical one. In my mind, I dreamed of finally writing a story about pirates that had been rattling around in my head for ages. And since I live on Long Island, just an hour from New York City, I knew I had the perfect setting. Long Island has a rich history that includes Captain Kidd himself staying here back in the late 1600s. I was buzzing with excitement, eager to get started.

Excitement was quickly replaced by anxiety and discouragement. While there was plenty of research and facts about Kidd’s visit to Long Island, too many doubts nagged at me. Would I be able to portray a time period so accurately? Would I be able to make the dialogue believable? I started reading advice from historical novelists. Don’t use period slang. Do use period slang. Within a few weeks, I scrapped my pirate story and decided to write about the rum runners on the island during 1923. As I thought about it in bed one night I realized I didn’t feel anything. No excitement. No anticipation. No real rush to get writing. The next night my daughter, having her own stressors over her college senior thesis, asked if I wanted to watch a movie with her. We’d watched The Titanic at least a dozen times together. It felt like the perfect escape.

Enjoying a late night snack, my daughter brought up the memory of her great-grandmother’s love of that movie. Grandma Dorothea was born March 3, 1912, just weeks before the greatest tragedy of that time took place. She used to love to talk about the stories she’d heard about the Titanic as a child. When the movie came out in 1997, my mother-in-law had no choice but to take grandma to see it. Up until she died she talked about that movie. Remembering the excitement in her eyes was a light bulb moment for me.

Forget pirates and rum runners. I was going to write a story about a woman who had survived the Titanic. The excitement was there. The eagerness to get started. The research was enthralling. And all along I felt as if Grandma Dorothea was right there as I wrote Healing Seas, looking on with that look of excitement she had all those years ago.

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Author Bio:

Christina started writing as a young teen, jotting stories in wire ring composition notebooks. Her first typewriter made it faster to get all those stories out of her head and down on paper. Her love of writing has sustained her through a myriad of jobs that included hairdresser, legal secretary, waitress and door-­to‑door saleswoman.

Luckily for her, writing proved to be successful and a lot less walking than going door to door. Healing Seas, her first historical romance, is Christina's fifth book. She is also the author of A Husband for Danna, its sequel, A Wife for Humphrey, Snow Globe Reunion and Harvest Blessings. She is busy working on a modern retelling of the classic tale, Rapunzel. 

When she isn't writing or reading, she can be found walking her dog, talking to her herd of cats and spending time with her family.

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Book blurb for Healing Seas: In just a matter of days, Addie Mayfield’s life is upended. Through an arrangement her father makes, she sets sail on the RMS Titanic as governess to the two young Fairchild children. 

When tragedy strikes, she finds herself rescued alongside strangers on the RMS Carpathia, headed for New York City. Far from home, she is taken in by the O’Reilly family to wait for her family to send for her. With no money for her passage home, she’s brought to the small hamlet of Montauk to become a caretaker for a great aunt she has never met. 

Captain Frank Shea is a man without a ship. Removed from duty as captain of the RMS Morrow, he’s come to Montauk to recover from a leg injury. More painful than the injury is his fall from grace after spending his entire life at sea. The ocean was his home and he has never needed anyone. Now faced with an uncertain future, he’s desperate for a way back to the sea. Until he meets Addie Mayfield, a woman who is just as lost as he is.

Can these two people find hope for the future after all they’ve lost? Can an unexpected love heal two broken souls?

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Buy Christina's book, available exclusively on Amazon

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Connect with Christina:
Facebook Author Page ~  Twitter ~ Website ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon Author Page