Welcome!
Where it all began...
The photograph on this page of a spool of thread is an apt prop to represent the fact that books, words, and writing have been a common thread throughout my life. For me, writing is like home...it's comfortable, warm and cozy. As a child, I wrote books, I read books, and books were read to me...I've always loved stories and words!
My fondness for history makes writing historical romance novels a natural segue. Writing about life in times past not only transports me to an era that is no longer, but it keeps words alive that have disappeared from our language such as parlor, milady, and "manse" for house.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love candlelight...I should purchase stock in tealights I use so many! So, although electricity was introduced by 1897, for the purposes of ambience and romance, I have chosen to have candles and gaslight as the main source of illumination in my novels.
It took me over a decade to complete The Rose Beyond. One interviewer said, "No one is going to accuse Sharon Allen Gilder of being in a rush to get something done!" For twenty years, I carried a scrap of paper in my wallet on which I'd written the beginning of a novel. With a few alterations, the words on that cherished piece of parchment became the first page of my debut novel.
As you peruse my website and explore my novels, I'd like to share an inspiring quote by the late writer and lecturer Joseph Campbell. In a conversation with journalist Bill Moyers, Campbell said, "Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
Step into the elegance of the Victorian era
Historical Romance Reigns!
"Gilder has matched her Whartonesque setting with a Whartonesque narrative tone that she manages to carry off almost to perfection."
Historical Novel Society
The Rose Beyond
Book one in The Rose Series...is a fragrant reminder of the tenacity of the human spirit and the power of love.
Beyond The Rose
Book two in The Rose Series...tests the strength of family and relationships and reminds us that secrets, unless taken to the grave, always return home.
Inspiration & Whimsy
The wooden coffer with rose motif
Little did my dear friend, the late Vickie Ransom, know when she bestowed this wooden coffer upon me that it would play a role in my first novel. The rose motif on its lid provided the perfect hiding place for a needed object...AND...a sterling berry spoon gifted to me by cousins years ago became an important prop in The Rose Beyond as inevitability called at the home of Sir Ian Hargrove.
Peepers the Parakeet
Peepers the parakeet adds a touch of whimsy to the storylines in both The Rose Beyond and its sequel Beyond The Rose. His "bird's eye view" and "fine-feathered" intuition often portends a likely happening. Peepers holds nothing back when his instinct for judging character prompts him to exclaim his opinions and warnings to his constant companions Agnes Fielding and Morgan Pennybacker as the two work to solve their latest mystery.
Discover Forever the Rose
Forever the Rose, book three in The Rose Series
A passage from Forever the Rose: What am I to do? What am I to do? Fannie silently questioned, as thoughts of impending doom swirled about her head. She felt as though the unrelenting eye of a hurricane was speeding toward her with no sign of it turning back. As evil as I feel it was of Charles to leave that letter for Rebecca, maybe his letter has given me the opportunity to make peace with my past. Maybe, just maybe, it is time. ©2024 Sharon Allen Gilder
The Widow of Woodholme
Historic and enticing!
The Widow of Woodholme yearns to be invited into your home!
Transport yourself over 200 years ago to the bustling City of Washington in 1821 and the federal city's neighboring environs of Georgetown where the alluring widow of Woodholme makes her home.
Politics, vivid social lives, dueling, the pursuit of social justice for society’s enslaved, and desires that will not be denied, surface in an era abounding with change.
"He placed his hand under her chin and lifted it so their lips would meet. Imogen offered no resistance as their lips engaged. They held their kiss for only seconds before Imogen drew back, her conscience threatening to disrupt her desires." ©The Widow of Woodholme
