Winter Blogfest: Marilyn Baron

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the audiobook for The Romanov Legacy. .

Fascinated by Snow

Round and round, like a dance of snow

In a dazzling drift, as its guardians, go

Floating the women faded for ages,

Sculpted in stone, on the poet’s pages.”

~Robert Browning, Women and Roses

Melody Segal discovered the dazzling antique diamond-and-emerald-encrusted necklace nestled in a weathered, powder-blue velvet jewelry box not long after her grandmother’s murder. The treasure flashed bolts of light within the confines of Nana’s eerie bank vault. Wafts of scents, sounds, and sights drifted into Melody’s consciousness, conjuring enchanting visions of winter white, the icy feel of snowflakes, the jinglejangle of sleigh bells, the woodsy smell of Siberian pines.

Why had she never seen this gleaming heirloom before? Or known about it? The attorney handling Nana’s estate had presented her with the key to the safe deposit box where the jewels had been stored for who knows how long. Not long enough to lose their luster.

The box yielded not only the necklace but an unfamiliar diary. She flipped through the book, written in Russian, and pulled out a translated copy in Nana’s hand. But Nana didn’t know Russian. In fact, she hated all things Russian. She once joked that the closest she ever got to Russia was St. Petersburg when she went to visit her best friend Bessie at her beach condo in

Florida.

What other secrets had her grandmother been hiding?

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Growing up in Miami, Florida, I didn’t see much snow. But I was always fascinated by the idea of it and winter was one of my favorite times of year. As an author, I know it is important to communicate the five senses in our stories. That presented a major problem for me, since I was born without a sense of smell (inherited from my grandmother). To compensate, I have a very well-developed sense of hearing and a sixth sense.  

So when I went to write the first few paragraphs of my historical fiction novel, The Romanov Legacy, I had to dig deep for the right words. I relied on places I’d visited where the novel was set, including Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Zurich, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Since I lived most of my early life in sunny Florida, I was happy to end up in Atlanta, Georgia, where we do have snow and the occasional ice storm. But even though my family celebrated Hanukkah, I do have fond memories of my parents taking my brother and sisters and I around the neighborhoods to see the Christmas lights during the holiday season.

I hope I communicated the sense of wonder of winter in my opening words.

Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy and safe holiday season.

Marilyn Baron

Melody, a young single mother, discovers she’s descended from the last Tsar, Nicholas II. She becomes the best hope of a secret global society, Guardians of the Romanov Legacy, dedicated to restoring a Romanov to the throne of a New Russia. A diary and an heirloom necklace inherited from her murdered grandmother hold the key to her identity and to the location of the Tsar’s lost shipment of gold.

She must accept the sacrifices her birth demands and trust the machinations of the estranged father of her child. To refuse means turning her back on her heritage, her daughter’s legacy, and the long line of her family’s women who were keepers of the secret. Will her longing for true love have world-changing consequences?

Marilyn Baron writes in a variety of genres from women’s fiction to historical romantic thrillers and romantic suspense to paranormal/fantasy. She’s received writing awards in Single Title, Suspense Romance, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements and Paranormal/Fantasy Romance. She was also The Finalist in the 2017 Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA) in the Romance Category for her novel, Stumble Stones, and
The Finalist for the 2018 GAYA Awards in the Romance category for her novel, The Alibi. Her latest novel, The Romanov Legacy, released June 14, 2021, is her 27th work of fiction. Her new novel, The Case of the Missing Botticelli, a cozy mystery, will be released January 24, 2022. A public relations consultant in Atlanta, Marilyn is past chair of Roswell Reads and serves on the Atlanta Authors Series Committee. To find out more about what Marilyn writes, visit her website at: www.marilynbaron.com/

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Comments

  1. Debra Guyette says

    I used to live in Connecticut. We had lots of snow. I do miss it.

  2. The snow up North (from a Miami perspective) is beautiful. That’s real snow. I love seeing snow and we don’t get much of it in Atlanta anymore. Thanks for your comment.

    Marilyn Baron

  3. What a captivating and wonderful post. Winter is a season which had a great influence on me. Where I was born and lived for many years winter was lengthy, harsh and memorable. Blizzards, ice storms, mountains of snow, ice skating and tobogganing was the norm. Thanks for your amazing writing and beautiful novels.

    • Anne,
      Thank you for your beautiful comment. I’m not used to harsh snow conditions, just seeing it while visiting other places so I didn’t have to live with blizzard conditions. We do have rare ice storms in Atlanta and it took me 19 hours to get home during one of them. Thanks for commenting.
      Marilyn

  4. I enjoyed your post. Thanks for sharing. Winter, sparkling like diamonds snow and the magic of the season is one of my favorite times of year!

  5. interesting post

  6. My favorite snow is snow that OTHER people experience, though it is pretty in pictures.

  7. Ha.very funny, Becky.

  8. Mary Tatarian says

    The mystery surrounding the necklace sounds intriguing as does the novel being set in Russia, Zurich , and close to home Pa.- all amazing places for snow.

  9. Mary Tatarian,
    You have won a copy of my audiobook of The Romanov Legacy. Please send me an email at marilynbaroncom@gmail.com or private message me on Facebook with an email address where I can send a copy. Thank you.
    Marilyn Baron

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