Wild Women Authors features Toni V. Sweeny’s Love is Silent, an historical romance and current release out of the Wild Rose Press. With Toni is teacher Anna Leighton who will go first.

Good morning, Anna. Thank you for spending time with us. Let’s begin with where you are from. My home is Little Riversreach in England. It’s a small village where my father is the resident physician. The name means “view of the river.” Going to Mayfield Village where David…that is, Lord Mayfield, lives, was my first time away from home, other than living at the McAdam Academy for the Deaf as the other teachers did.

Tell us a bit about Love is Silent. It is the story of my very first adult pupil. I’m a teacher of the deaf but until the moment I was hired to teach David Wood, Lord Mayfield, I had only had children as pupils. Needless to say, I was nervous about teaching an adult, and after I met His Lordship and realized what was expected of me and the challenge it represented, I was even more than anxious. You see, David’s cousin had petitioned the courts to have him declared incompetent so he could receive the title and family fortune and David’s sister, Lady Eleanor, hired me to teach him to Sign, to communicate, so they could prove the accusation a lie. That was bad enough but then the courts changed the time of the hearing, and instead of six months, I only had six weeks to perform what some would consider a miracle. Plus—and I blush as I admit this—in the meantime, David and I fell in love, so you see the entire story is fraught with very much emotion and anxiety.

What did you think the first time you saw David, Lord Mayfield. Actually, the first time I met David, I thought he was a groom. There I was, banging on the front door with my fist, when he came riding up on his horse. I must admit, he was definitely a disturbing sight, for he was…well, actually, he was only half-clothed, wearing only riding breeches and boots. It was rather embarrassing. To me, anyway. I mean, I’d seen young men without their shirts before…the farmers often worked in the field without their shirts, but I’d never been so close to anyone like that, and well…I admit, it was rather breath-taking. When I discovered he couldn’t answer my questions because he was deaf, I thought perhaps Her Ladyship would want me to teach her groom as well as her brother to Sign and it wasn’t exactly an unpleasant thought. Oh, that sounds so awful of me, doesn’t it?

What was your second thought? My second thought was to wonder if someone who worked with animals would really need to communicate with people, if perhaps he was happier not being able to have the real world intrude into his own.

Do you feel it was love at first sight? It was more like misunderstanding at first sight! He thought I was the new housemaid and as I said, I thought he was a groom. When he found out I was to teach him, he equated me with the many doctors he’d seen, and how they’d poked and prodded and declared he’d never hear again, and he had a bit of a tantrum. One of Lady Eleanor’s flower vases had a terrible demise in the front entryway, his usual way of expressing his anger.

What do you like most about him? His determination. Once David realized what was needed of him. That he had to learn to communicate because so many people on the estate depended on his continuing to be Lord Mayfield, he buckled down and did his best to learn everything I could teach. He also used that determination to break down my rather stiff defenses. Once David declared he loved me, there was no arguing with him about it. Not being aware of the various stations in Society, he saw absolutely nothing wrong with his wanting to marry a school teacher, and he said…well, he didn’t know how to curse, but he got his point over very well of what he thought world could do if it objected. The one problem with David is that once he gets an idea into his head, he runs away with it…even now. It certainly keeps life interesting, to say the least.

How would you describe him? Handsome, spoiled, determined, loyal, curious, lovable. There were so many unanswered questions buzzing around in that handsome head—some of them childish, some of them very serious—and he expected me to give him answers to all of them. Being five at the time of his accident, he could read and write and do a bit of cyphering, but he was unable to actually ask about the things that intrigued him. When we were able to communicate, I became his source for all those questions.

How would he describe you? I’m not certain. I’d hope he would say I was competent and did my job well, but I fear he’d become a little more poetic and fanciful. Though it makes me blush, I’ll quote this compliment he once gave me: “I love Anna’s blue eyes…like sky…Love her lips…sweet as strawberries…cheeks so pretty…angel’s hair… You’re an angel…taking me to heaven…” See? I said, he got fanciful.

What made you choose being a teacher of the deaf for a career? At age fourteen, my younger sister, Maisie, was stricken with a bout of red measles rendering her deaf. Papa had heard of the McAdam Academy for the Deaf, but being a small-town doctor, he was unable to afford the tuition and fees the school required, having earlier just that year finished paying the tuition enabling me to graduate from the Dinsmoore Normal School in preparation for being a secondary studies teacher. As luck would have it, there was an opening at the Academy for an assistant instructor. I applied for the position and was accepted. Within two years, I was certified as a teacher, and the first thing I did upon returning home for holidays was to begin teaching Maisie to Sign.I guess I did a fairly good job. Later, Maisie had a suitor, a local lad, and they’re now married and very happy.

What is your biggest fear? I’m afraid I don’t have any actual fears. Does that make me odd? As long as I have David’s love, and the love of the people around me and my family, I’m very secure…and happy.

How do you relax? I love to play the piano. In fact, music helped bring David and me together, because I discovered that, although he couldn’t hear the music, he remembered how to play the piano from lessons he’d had before his accident. The first time he sat beside me at the piano and began to pick out a tune without hearing it, I was actually dumbfounded.

Who is your favorite fictional character? I daresay it would have to be one of Miss Jane Austen’s heroines. They’re so very plucky and determined.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? “Do what you think is right.” I really questioned that when David and I fell in love but I determined to keep going, hoping, no, praying, that in the end, everything would turn out exactly as it did.

Thank you, Anna, for spending time with us. Now we’d like to chat with Toni.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? I generally gravitated toward mysteries or paranormal movies/novels, so Love is Silent is an extreme departure from those. I guess I have a deep-set romantic streak, however, because once I got the idea for this story, I knew I had to write it.

Is there an event in your private life that you were able to bring to this story and how do you feel it impacted the novel? Not for this novel, I’ve used some life episodes in other novels, but this one is pure fiction.

Tell us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced your decision to submit to them? In 2008, The Wild Rose Press was one of the first publishers to release one of my novels. They eventually published several of my books, and now, after a long interval, are publishing those listed below.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? I currently have two: Gregory Ashe’s The Girl in the Wind and Lyndsey Sands’ The Bad Luck Vampire, which is another in the Argeneau family vampire series.

Last, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? The Wild Rose Press has also contracted for two other novels of mine, Mask of the Beast and Evil Lives After, as well as the series The McCoys.

Mask of the Beast is a romance set in Biblical times incorporating the Beauty and the Beast story with the story of the Moses and the Golden Calf. It’s set for release on December 27^th of this year, which is also my birthday, so… celebrate my birthday by buying my novel!

Evil Lives After is a romance with paranormal overtones concerning an abandoned farmhouse and the tragedy that happened there. It’s set in my home state of Georgia, in a small south Georgia town called Hahira which is a real place, though I doubt anything such as this story ever happened there. Release date on that hasn’t been set yet.

The McCoys is a historical family saga about a family during the 19^th century, of an Irishman named Quinton McCoy and his three sons and daughter and their lives and loves.

For more information on Toni V. Sweeney and the stories she creates, go to:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Welcome-to-the-ToniVerse-1900908046884512/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLQBB8

Twitter: @ToniVSweeney

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/epicfantasywriter

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/579429.Toni_V_Sweeney