While I continue to pen lighthearted contemporary urban women’s fiction under my own name, I am also a published historical fiction author, writing under the pseudonym “Amanda Elyot.”

Amanda Elyot’s newest historical fiction release goes on sale February 5, 2008!

ALL FOR LOVE:
The Scandalous Life and Times of Royal Mistress Mary Robinson

$14 NAL Trade
ISBN 13: 978-0-45-122297-8

Overnight she became a star.  Over many nights she became a legend.

At the age of fifteen, Mary Robinson was married off to an unfaithful wastrel. During the next seven years, her spellbinding talent, beauty, and drive would lead her from the denigration of debtors’ prison to the London stages, where a star was born. With the heart of a poet and face of an angel she was sold as society’s darling. Though dubbed “the priestess of taste” for her dashing style, her unabashed exploits made her the queen of scandal, envied by women worldwide, and desired by every man within reach.

From Mary Robinson’s shocking affair with the Prince of Wales and the fortuitous liaisons that titillated the country, to heartbreaking betrayals and a restless pursuit of true romance, this breathtaking novel paints a vivid portrait of a woman who changed history by doing as she pleased—for money, for fame, for pleasure, and above all—for love.

Want a sneak peak at this new novel? Click here to read an excerpt from ALL FOR LOVE.

On February 6, 2007, NAL released TOO GREAT A LADY: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton.

Emma Hamilton is renowned as the real-life heroine of the greatest love story in British history: yet her passionate and enduring romance with Lord Horatio Nelson remains the stuff of legend.

She had the accent—and mouth—of a bawdy Welsh maid, but Emma’s breathtaking beauty captivated some of the most influential and powerful men in Europe. At the end of the 18 th c., she was the most talked about woman in the world: an artful performer, an ambassador without portfolio, and the confidante of a queen. Once she met Nelson, Emma’s fascinating life grew even more tumultuous, as she and the sea hero braved the censure of king and peers, and the sneers of society, all in the name of true love.

On sale: 2/6/07
ISBN: 045122054; $14

Click here to read the opening chapters of TOO GREAT A LADY.

My first historical fiction title, available in both hardcover and softcover, is THE MEMOIRS OF HELEN OF TROY, the extraordinary life story of antiquity’s most legendary beauty, narrated in the first person by the woman forever known as “the face that launched a thousand ships.” But does Helen really deserve the blame for the Trojan War, the most devastating conflict of her era? As I read and re-read voluminous source material in the researching of the novel, it was clear to me that without changing any of the “facts,” the actions of some of the most famous players in Greek and Troyan history could be viewed in a completely new light! Feisty, wise, compassionate, sometimes willful, occasionally vain, but always alluring, Helen excited the ardor of all who beheld her. I hope that you’ll enjoy this sexy and passionate novel and fall in love with Helen, too! Bestselling author Linda Lael Miller has called THE MEMOIRS OF HELEN OF TROY, “Luminously intelligent, beautifully written, a delightful blend of magic and mythos.”

Also available is By a Lady. This rollicking adventure, subtitled “Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen’s England” owes as much of a literary debt of homage to the work of Henry Fielding and Daniel Defoe as it does to Jane Austen—who is a character in the novel, and whose dialogue is nearly 100% verbatim Jane—gems of wisdom and wry and witty observation culled from her novels, juvenilia and correspondence! BY A LADY was inspired by an autobiographical incident where I played Jane Austen in a two-character romantic drama called The novelist, penned by that most prolific of 20 th century novelists himself, Howard Fast. I invite you to visit the “Acting Career” link to see a photo of me as Jane.

In September, 2006, my fiancé and I journeyed to Bath, England, for the annual Jane Austen Festival, where I performed a reading in Regency costume, signing books afterwards for fans. The festival was a remarkable experience I will treasure forever. Here I am in Bath, enjoying a glass of the famous restorative waters in the legendary Pump Room.