Happy Birthday Delilah Marvelle!

Hello my dears! We have another ALBTALBS birthday post, and on a holiday too! As you see I convinced the fabulous Delilah Marvelle to come guest with us on her birthday!

Mr. & Mrs. Marvelle

Mr. & Mrs. Marvelle

Every year when my birthday rolls around, I’m always at a loss as to how the year passed so quickly and how I let another year go by without doing all the things I wanted to do. Well…this year, I wasn’t going to let myself get away with it. I had one thing on my bucket list that I wanted to do before I turned 39. I was determined to go to Paris. I’ve had a series of books about the French Revolution rattling around in my brain for some time and knew the only way to really do historical research properly, was to actually go to Paris and experience my research first hand.

Locks Used During the French Revolution

Locks Used During the French Revolution

As it turned out, my husband was not only up for the trip of my dreams but had set aside some money for the trip I’ve been talking about for years. We did it in style. We rented an apartment and stayed for almost three weeks.  We ended up celebrating our 19th year anniversary, too. It was the most amazing trips I’ve ever taken in my life.

Painting from the Louvre

Painting from the Louvre

I approached Paris a little differently than I would have as a tourist. I approached it like a historical romance writer out to get her hands on a butt load of history. In particular, naughty history, as that’s a specialty of mine. My mission? To find anything and everything having to do with not only the French Revolution but my own era of 1830. One of the things I love to do is study paintings of my era. It’s the best way to capture historical detail in the era. My first stop was, of course, the Louvre. After all, it had the largest collection of historical paintings in all of Paris. Over two days, I ended up collecting and chronicling well over 350 paintings in my era and was blown away by historical details I was finding. While everyone was running to see the Mona Lisa, I ran toward paintings everyone was walking past. I did see the Mona Lisa, of course, I just made it my last stop, lol.

Versailles

Mr. Marvelle and I spent every single day wandering through every nook and cranny of historical Paris. It ranged from cemeteries to the sex museum that had historical documents of brothels from my era and of course, any other Parisian sites we passed along the way that included the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Versailles itself, which was on the outskirts of Paris. My husband, bless his soul, let me drag him around from one area of Paris to the next on my mission of collecting history. His only mission was good food, lol. And we sure as heck found it no matter where we went.  Even the street vendor food was oooo lala and amazing.

Moulin RogueParisian Salad

Needless to say, I got spoiled. And by my next birthday, I have plans to outdo Paris. So what about you?? What’s on your bucket list? And will you be celebrating that bucket list by your birthday? I hope so. For me, it’s a new tradition and I plan on seeing it through every year.

Top of Notre Dame

Top of Notre Dame

I know it’s tough to wish Delilah a happy birthday after she went on such a fantastic trip and we didn’t… but you know, she’s still the birthday girl. 😀 And guess what? She’s also offering one of you a present! Well, two, actually! Two lucky commenters will get a digital copy of her latest release, Romancing Lady Stone.

I know you want to know what’s up for grab, so here’s the cover and info.

Romancing Lady Stone He believes in destiny. She just wants to survive it…

At forty, Lady Cecilia Evangeline Stone thinks she has everything a woman could ever want. A title, a fortune, and four children who make her proud. After a marriage of convenience that was anything but convenient, she has no desire to complicate her life by including a man in it again. When her eldest son announces his engagement to a Russian actress in Saint Petersburg, Cecilia sets out to do what any good mother would do: stop the wedding. Unfortunately, destiny has other plans.

Konstantin Alexie Levin never considered himself to be a villain. In fact, he considers himself to be a Russian gentleman. Having grown up in a refined and well-educated family that embraced criminal life to avoid debtor’s prison, the only thing preventing him from knowing happiness is the rest of the world. Everything changes, however, when Konstantin is given a chance to start life anew and travel to London to collect an unexpected reward for saving a man’s life. To his surprise, he is about to become a hero at midnight to a beautiful aristocrat who desperately needs his help. The problem is…he wants to do more than save Lady Stone. He wants to make the woman his, all his.

WARNING: This book is Rated Double S (Sweaty & Sinful) and contains strong language and sexual content which may cause respectable people to swoon.

Happy birthday Ms. Marvelle! I hope you had a perfectly lovely day, and extra pie and cake for your birthday! Along with excellent food, and no family drama. 😉

9 thoughts on “Happy Birthday Delilah Marvelle!

  1. Pamela

    What a wonderful trip–I love Paris and have done most, if not all, the things you did on your trip (though I seemed to have missed the sex museum)! My dream trip is coming up in May–my sister and I are going to the Eloisa James Writer’s Seminar in Tuscany. Anticipation is a wonderful thing!

    Reply
  2. carolcork

    Happy Birthday, Delilah! I’ve not been to Paris for many years but I have memories of going to the top of the Eiffel Tower…such a fantastic view. Also seeing Napoleon’s tomb in Les Invalides. Tweeted and shared. 🙂

    Reply
  3. ki pha

    What a fantastic birthday trip!! What I have on my list is to go to England. I’ve always wanted to go and well, reading Historical romances just isn’t enough to satisfy my hunger for more. Lol.

    Reply
  4. Kella Campbell

    How lovely. I went to Paris as a teenager and still remember the amazing art galleries and food (mmm, hot chocolate and fresh-baked baguette for breakfast, they must still do that, right?). I would go back and see it as an adult in a heartbeat if the opportunity came up, but my long-wished-for trip is Ireland… someday… And happy birthday,

    Reply
  5. flchen1

    Aw… glad you had a fabulous birthday and trip to Paris, Delilah! Can’t wait to hear what you choose to outdo that! As for my bucket list… there’s some traveling on there, including Australia, even though there are big scary poisonous things there 😉 and of course, some goodly portion of my TBR–that will just take some time 😀

    Reply

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