A warm welcome to author Morticia Knight joining us today to talk about her participation in Pride Publishing – Racing Hearts Anthology.
Welcome Morticia 🙂

Betting on Love

Morticia Knight

Getting the opportunity to be a part of the Racing Hearts anthology is something I’ve really enjoyed. Sometimes writing a story that stays within a specific theme can be a difficult task. I typically come up with several ideas I hate, a few I think are boring, and a couple that would be great if I had the space to turn them into mega novels. With Racing For Home, I had the opposite experience.

It was important to stay within the parameters of not only including horses as the theme, but they had to be racehorses. I’d barely just heard about the anthology and already I pictured a horse groom and an heir to a racehorse farm. It had to be set in America, in the early part of the twentieth century, preferably back east, where the differences in station and old money was more prevalent.

After I had the setting, I was chomping at the bit to get started (Ha! See what I did there?). I’ve been around horses in my younger years and one of my daughters showed horses for a time when she was in high school, so I didn’t really need to research much in the way of caring for them, knowing their horsey personalities, and so on. But other than drinking too much and losing a lot of money at the racetrack, I wasn’t that familiar with the world of racing.

Since my horse story is set in 1912, I sought out information on tracks and races from that era. In addition, I researched Seabiscuit’s history. It’s not quite the same time period, but it has a similar feel. I’d read the book a long time ago, but did a refresher on it to get me in that mindset. I actually do watch the Triple Crown every year, so I did have that going for me.

In the end, Racing For Home is one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever written. Not only do I love writing historicals, but I’m a sucker for ‘overcoming great obstacles’ tales. I adore Charlie and Edward together – they really hit me in the feels as I told their story. But the best part of all was Shadow – the horse that Charlie loves and believes in. The horse plays an integral part in the plot, more than I thought he would.

I doubt I ever would’ve come up with the idea for this story on my own. Having to write to a specific theme in this case turned out to be a wonderful experience for me. Who knows – after all that research – I might need to write more horsey stories!

 

About Racing Hearts:

Totally Entwined Group editor, Sue Laybourn, sadly lost her husband Peter earlier this year, after a brave battle against cancer. In tribute to Peter and to show their support for Sue, these six Pride Publishing authors got together to write this anthology of short stories called Racing Hearts. These stories surround the world of horseracing, a sport which Peter and Sue passionately followed together.

Pride Publishing will be donating its royalties to charity. Proceeds will be going to Cancer Research UK and Prospect Hospice, where Peter was a patient.

Find out more about these charities here:

Cancer Research UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

Prospect Hospice: http://www.prospect-hospice.net/

 

About Morticia Knight:

Morticia Knight spends most of her nights writing about men loving men forever after.

If there happens to be some friendly bondage or floggings involved, she doesn’t begrudge her characters whatever their filthy little heart’s desire. Even though she’s been crafting her naughty tales for more years than she’d like to share – her adventures as a published author began in 2011.

Once upon a time she was the lead singer in an indie rock band that toured the West Coast and charted on U.S. college radio. She currently resides on the northern Oregon coast and when she’s not fantasizing about hot men she takes walks along the ocean and annoys the local Karaoke bar patrons.

 

Racing Hearts blurbs:

‘The Lonely Ones’ by Bailey Bradford

Marshall’s all city, and Rex is all cowboy, so it’s no wonder sparks fly when they meet.

Marshall Evans never wanted to inherit his grandfather’s Thoroughbred horse ranch. He doesn’t know much about raising and training racehorses, and he knows even less about the man who left him what he sees as a burden. His grandfather wasn’t a nice man at all, and he left the ranch to Marshall more as a fuck you to the one person who did want the ranch, who had tried to buy it, and had put up with years of verbal and at times, physical abuse, only to have his home yanked out from under his feet. Rex Martinez had only ever had one home, and that was the ranch. Now he was about to lose it.

Marshall arrives in the small town of Erring, NM, only to be confronted by this silently furious man, and together, they’re going to have to work out what to do. The will stipulates that Marshall can’t sell the ranch to Rex, because Allen found out Rex was gay. Rex didn’t know he knew, but the old man had no idea about Marshall since Marshall hadn’t been raised anywhere near him.

It’s not as simple as selling the ranch, either. Marshall thinks it will be, but no. He can’t put Rex out of a home so easily.

‘Racing for Home’ by Morticia Knight

Groom Charlie loves the Piedmont Farms horses—but not nearly as much as the man he can never have, Edward Piedmont.

At the age of twenty-two, Charlie has lived at Piedmont Farms—the largest race horse breeding facility on the east coast—for eight years. For five of those years, he’s been desperately in love with Albert Piedmont’s oldest son, Edward. At one time, he believed Edward’s declarations that they’d be together forever. It was a brutal slap in the face when Edward married a local heiress and moved away to live with her on her family estate. Only his love of the horses, including one in particular, has kept him from complete despair.

Edward knows that horse groom Charlie must hate him after being abandoned when Edward married Alice, but he’d thought he was doing the right thing at the time. After three years of a sham of a marriage, Alice has found someone who she really wants to marry, and Edward is free to divorce her. Edward moves back to Piedmont, desperate to get Charlie back, even if they would still have to hide their love.

Charlie wants to believe that Edward still loves him and that he can believe in him once again. But love between two men in 1912 America is even worse than love between someone of a higher and lower station. Charlie fears that it would never be possible for them to truly have a life together.

Edward’s father, Albert Piedmont, is also hiding. However, his secrets pertain to the possible loss of his once wildly successful horse breeding farm. When everything begins to rapidly crumble, Edward has to make a desperate move to secure a future for him and Charlie before it’s too late.

‘The Secret of Delville Wood’ by Helena Maeve

A handsome, naked man in his bed is the kind of surprise Silas lives for. The dead body hanging outside his window, not so much.

In the shadow of the Great War, three soldiers made a fortune on racetracks either side of the North Sea. Their families thrived with the clandestine passions of youth, wanting for nothing while whole nations suffered the scarcities of peace. By their grace and generosity, Axel, a young man once forced to sell his body, became a champion.

Yet the lure of fast money hides many dark deeds and Pia Eckdahl’s manor on Lake Sågträsk is no exception. Hired to cleanse the Swedish socialite’s house of evil spirits, Nigerian-born Silas doesn’t care much for horses, racing or the affectations of the nouveau-riche. But he does care for Axel. Caught between peddling his heritage for an extortionate sum and investigating a suspicious suicide, Silas soon finds himself delving into a decade-old family secret that could well destroy his lover’s racing future.

‘Keeping the Luck In’ by L.M. Somerton

Since when was a squirrel crossing your path bad luck?

Like his father before him, Rory Ironstone was born and bred to be a blacksmith. Standing six feet five in his socked feet, he’s built like a barn door. He loves his job at Camworth Racecourse forge, tending to the beautiful racehorses and creating ironwork art in his spare time.

Pip Ryder is a summer stable hand and newly qualified vet who longs for someone to love him as much as they do his four-legged charges. He admires Rory from afar, but is too shy to admit his interest goes beyond the anvil.

When the horseshoe above the forge door is knocked off, Rory believes his luck has fallen out. Pip comes to the rescue but when Rory shows more than a platonic interest, he bolts.

Rory is convinced that the only way to re-fill his horseshoe with luck is to get Pip back and keep him.

‘Just my Luck’ by Ethan Stone

Appearances can be deceiving.

Kieran Jones is as used to short jokes as Sam Shaw is to being teased for his height. When they meet at a nightclub there’s an instant attraction, and not just because of the stark difference in their bodies.

After a passionate night, Sam sneaks out, positive he won’t see the hot guy again. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he’s in town to do a job and he doesn’t need a distraction. He never imagined that growing up on a farm and knowing all about horses would help with his career, but it has and he can’t let anything get in the way.

However, jockey Kieran is connected to Sam’s mission and Sam has a tough choice to make—use Kieran to get it done or walk away. It could spell the end of the relationship before it’s even begun, but a life or death situation makes Sam realize just exactly how much he cares for Kieran and how much he wants a future with him.

‘Horses and Harleys’ by Molly Ann Wishlade

Life’s not just about horses and Harleys, but sometimes you have to get back in the saddle if you want to go along for the ride.

Henry Lockhart is a rich, successful businessman but life at the top can be lonely, especially as he vowed never to fall in love again after a painful bereavement.

Alex Castillo grew up in a small town where small minds made his life a misery. A disastrous love affair with a married man and the recent death of his mother led him to flee his hometown in search of a better life.

When their worlds collide after Alex takes a job as a groom at Henry’s stables, they both know that life will never be the same again.

But they’ve both been hurt, they’ve both suffered loss, shame and regret.

Can they find a way to be together, or will they both ride off into the sunset alone?

 

Buy Link:

Pride Publishing

 

Excerpt from Racing for Home:

“The rest of my belongings have been crated, Alice. My valet will arrange their delivery.

I’ll be out of your hair entirely, my dear, within the week.”

Edward pulled on his gloves, anxious to leave the Normandy estate with the intent of never setting foot in it again. His soon-to-be ex-wife rose from the settee of her bed chamber then slowly approached him. He couldn’t discern the emotion behind her expression, but then, that had always been the case. His own emotions were jumbled, irritation mixed with a deep sadness that gnawed at him. The source of his sorrow wasn’t what those around him would assume it was.

She stood before him, close enough to touch. They both knew that there would be no reason to do such a thing—they’d barely had any physical contact at all during their three-year marriage. Although, in Alice’s case, she’d not suffered from any loss of affection. There had been plenty of handsome young men willing to keep her pleased. She’d invited him to seek companionship of his own, but she was unaware of his preferences. He hadn’t dared take the chance.

Wasn’t interested, regardless.

The true source of his despair would be taunting him soon enough by his proximity. Once he returned home to Piedmont Farms, Charlie would be tantalizingly within reach and an agonizing reminder of what he’d lost. He’d broken the sweet boy’s heart and he knew Charlie would never forgive him—likely detested him, even.

Perhaps I should go abroad.

The silence between him and Alice had grown more uncomfortable, and as had been typical throughout their sham of a marriage, she stared at him, daring him to say something untoward so she could throw a fit of rage. It was one of her favorite games. Their union had been nothing more than a power play between two very wealthy families who came from a long line of other incredibly rich families. Once they’d been wed and he’d discovered that she was even more unhappy than he was about their forced matrimony, things had only deteriorated from there

 

 

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