Sapere Books to Republish Eight Titles by Elizabeth Bailey

Following the success of her many historical and mystery romances, including the Lady Fan Mystery Series and The Governess Trilogy, we are delighted to announce that we will be republishing eight backlist tiles by Elizabeth Bailey.

In Elizabeth’s words:

“As a child, I found and read with relish Georgette Heyer’s historical romances. For several years, my parents gave me the latest Heyer as one of my presents at Christmas, thereby ensuring I would bury myself in the book until I finished it. It was inevitable, perhaps, that when I came to write myself, I chose to try my luck with historical romance. It took time, but I was successful at last.

“Of the eight books that Sapere is taking on, almost all feature a hero or heroine disadvantaged in some way. It is an ever-fascinating thing to me how the human spirit manages to overcome all manner of life’s apparent cruelties. Yet these are not necessarily dark tales, although they have their moments. It is the pleasure of writing romance that one’s task is to lead the protagonists through the scary woods and out into the light of happiness.

“I could not have hoped for a better home for these stories than Sapere Books. I’ve worked with them since the publishing house was formed and the editors are both meticulous and sympathetic to the author’s intentions. They are friendly, helpful and supportive. Moreover, Sapere covers are superb! I’m delighted to entrust my books to Sapere’s hands.”

The forthcoming titles are:

A Trace of Memory
A Lady In Name
Friday Dreaming
The Count’s Charade
An Angel’s Touch
The Veiled Bride
The Conqueror’s Dilemma
A Fragile Mask

Find out more about Elizabeth here.

Winners of the Sapere Books Writing Competition Announced!

We are thrilled to announce that we have awarded winners in all six of the writing competition briefs that we set last year.

Top row: Richard Kurti, Laura Martin, Neil Denby. Bottom row: Patrick Larsimont, Bob Robertson, Rachel McDonough.
Top row: Richard Kurti, Laura Martin, Neil Denby. Bottom row: Patrick Larsimont, Bob Robertson, Rachel McDonough.

Each chosen author has won a five-book contract to work on the series they submitted for.

Screenwriter Richard Kurti has won The Medici Murder Mystery series brief.

The Second World War Aviation Thriller series brief was won by debut author Patrick Larsimont.

Established romance author Laura Martin scooped the Jane Austen Detective series brief.

Ghost-writer Bob Robertson snapped up the Age of Sail brief.

Academic author Neil Denby scooped the Ancient Rome Historical thriller brief.

And American author Rachel McDonough won the Tudor Maid Diaries series brief.

The quality of the entries were so strong that we have also awarded honourable mentions in nearly all of the categories and we are speaking to the shortlisted authors about writing other historical series for us based in the time period of their submission.

The shortlisted authors are:

Donna Gowland and Leann McKinley for the Jane Austen brief.

Daniel Colter and Ava McKevitt for the Ancient Rome brief.

David Bailey, David Mackenzie, Tony Rea and Suzanne Parsons for the WWII brief.

Kate MacCarthy for the Medici brief.

Alice Campbell, Angela Ranson, Katharine Edgar, Valerie Boyd and Maria Hoey for the Tudor brief.

Following the success of the first competition we are hoping to run the competition again later this year with a fresh set of writing prompts.