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Category: Interviews

Interviews with authors and industry professionals

The Taming of the Rogue

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 This week Risky Amanda is launching her latest Harlequin Historical title, The Taming of the Rogue!!  Risky Megan steps in as interviewer and talks to Amanda about all things Elizabethan….
 
There is only one woman who can tame London’s most notorious heartbreaker!
Anna Barrett is more comfortable filling tankards at the White Heron theater than shopping for corsets.  Her “take no prisoners” attitude has earned her a tough reputation.  Where she was once innocent and naive, now she’s vowed never to be ensnared by a man again.  Except Robert Alden is not just any man…
Gorgeous, dashing, and decidedly reckless, this playwright has left a trail of broken hearts across London.  He’s also a spy on a dangerous assignment.  Anna cannot help getting embroiled in his mission–even if this seemingly untameable rogue is the last person  with whom she should become involved…
“McCabe sweeps readers into the world of the Elizabethan theater, delighting us with a lively tale and artfully drawing on the era’s backdrop of bawdy plays, wild actors, and thrilling adventure” –RT Book Reviews
Megan:  Your books are so rich with history—but never overdone—that your characters seem as if they could only have existed at that time. You reveal bits of history and setting so well that it’s possible to know more than you did when you started the book, and yet the romance is primary.
What intrigues you most about the Elizabethan period?
Amanda:  Thanks so much!!!  That is the greatest compliment someone could give me about my writing (jn my mind anyway…)  Since I write in a variety of time periods, I love the challenge of finding the “tone” and atmosphere of each setting and figuring out what makes the characters people of their times (even if they rebel against some aspects of their surroundings, which they usually do!).  Anna and Rob couldn’t really be a Regency couple (unless they ran a Covent Garden brothel or something darker like that!), they are very 16th century in their thinking and their actions.
I think what draws me to this period so often is the incredible raw energy that surrounded the later 16th century, surrounding the charismatic queen.  The arts were flourishing in a whole new way, particularly with music, literature, and the theater, “new” people were rising up the social ranks, exploration was opening up the world in ways unimaginable a century before, and sex and romance was at a very honest and bawdy place (as well as a beautiful, poetic place)–it’s a very exciting moment in history.  And there’s lots of juicy conflict inherent in the times to throw at my characters!!
Megan: What is your most favorite obscure bit of history?
Amanda:  Wow, where do I start??  I’m such a history nerd–one of the most exciting things in my life is to read non-fiction books, especially old diaries and letters, and find weird events and people I could somehow make into stories.  One of my favorite real-life characters of this period is Penelope Rich, a cousin of the queen who was one of the most beautiful, intelligent, cultured, and rebellious women of her day, who lived a wild and eventful life.  I’m always surprised more people haven’t heard of her!  I’m hoping to write a historical novel about her one day…
But this particular story came about after I got to see play at the reconstructed Globe Theater in London!  I toured the great museum behind the scenes then watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  It was amazing–as I sat there on the narrow little bench, laughing at the antics of the characters on stage and eating honey-roasted almonds (while the people behind me ate extremely stinky beef and onions–also authentic, I guess, since it would not have smelled pretty at Shakespeare’s real Globe!), I felt like I had almost stepped back in time and was seeing this play for the very first time.  I could really picture Anna and Rob there.  (Also I’ve always been intrigued by stories from the theater of the time, like that of Christopher Marlowe, the young, handsome playwright/spy who came to such a violent and weird end…)
Megan: Who’s your favorite actor? Which actor did you see as Robert?
Amanda: As you have probably figured out, my actorly obsessions change depending on what I’ve been watching or reading!  I have really been loving Michael Fassbender lately, and I decided after seeing The Artist that Jean Dusjardin is now my French husband.  But for this book I had to turn to one of my favorite movies, Shakespeare in Love, and Joseph Fiennes.  (though Anna is more Emily Blunt than Gwyneth Paltrow).  They even managed to make the cover hero look like him!
Megan: If Anna and Robert were contemporary characters, what would they be doing? Where would they live?
Amanda: Interesting question!! I imagine Anna would be one of those very efficient, sharply dressed  young women running a chic modern-art gallery or auction house in London, living in a sleek apartment on the Thames and thinking she will never marry.  She doesn’t have time to date.  Rob would be–hmm, something mysterious.  Spy?  Oil company exec?  He comes into town, driving around too fast in some ridiculously expensive car, showing up at her art openings to sweep her off her feet before vanishing again on that mysterious job–until he realizes he can’t live without her and pursues her relentlessly…
Megan: What role do secrets play in the Taming of the Rogue?
Amanda: I always love characters with lots of secrets!  Things that torment them so they think they will die if anyone finds out.  Rob has secret reasons why he does what he does (working as a spy for Walsingham, which usually meant a very short life expectancy), why he thinks he has to make amends, and Anna has secret reasons why she can never marry again.
 Megan: What do you think is the biggest secret one person can keep from another?
Amanda:  LOL!  I guess that could depend on the context.  I often do stuff like sneak in new purchases and then claim they are not new at all (that’s how I know I’m a shopping addict…).  I would imagine marrying someone (spouse number two) while still being married to spouse number one would be pretty bad–but that wouldn’t be the romance novel hero!  Maybe the villain…
Megan: And what’s next for you??
Amanda: My other half, Laurel McKee, is launching a new series next month!  One Naughty Night is the first book in the Victorian-set “Scandalous St. Claires” series, which also features the theater (in a whole different time period), as well as an ancient family feud, Dickensian backstreet villains, and a heroine who has pulled herself up from the streets and is trying to be respectable at last–if the hero would just let her.  I loved exploring this whole new setting!  Amanda’s next book will be out in October–The Tarnished Rose of the Court, set at the court of Mary Queen of Scots in the 1560s…
What I’m most excited about at the moment is the fact that I will soon have a third alter ego!!  Amanda Carmack will be writing an Elizabethan-set mystery series for NAL starting next year. Stay tuned…
Comment for a chance to win a signed copy of The Taming of the Rogue!!  Winner will be announced on Tuesday. You can read an excerpt at Amanda’s website…
Posted in Former Riskies, Giveaways, Interviews, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , , | 9 Replies

Amanda/Laurel Talks About “One Naughty Night”!

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(Amanda is putting on her Laurel McKee hat—which is probably a black fascinator with a red rose and some feathers—to launch her new book One Naughty Night, book one in the Scandalous St. Claires series! Comment for a chance to win a signed copy…but if you don’t win, it’s available in ebook for the promo price of 2.99 from June 4 to July 2!!)
Under the cover of night…nothing is forbidden…
Lily St. Claire will do anything for the family that saved her from the streets.  With their support, the young widow has become the hostess of The Devil’s Fancy, London’s most exclusive gaming den.  She’s determined to restore the St. Claire family fortune, lost a century before to the despised Huntington clan.  But a ghost from her past may be her ultimate undoing…
The son a a duke, Lord Aidan Huntington is handsome and wealthy, with a taste for adventure and a reputation for wickedness.  A gambler and a rake, Aidan can’t resist a seductive woman with secrets–but one naughty night with Lily leaves him wanting more.  As Lily is drawn into London’s dark underworld by an old enemy, Aidan will risk everything to save the woman who has awakened his deepest desires…
After I finished writing about Georgian Ireland in my “Daughters of Erin” trilogy, I wanted to do something very different for my next project. So I turned to my very earliest historical love—Victorian England!
In this intriguing first St. Claire romance, McKee introduces a delightfully down-to-earth heroine…readers will cheer Lily in her quest for happiness and look forward to the sequels –Publishers Weekly
It all started when I was about ten years old and I came across a battered copy of Jane Eyre on my parents’ bookshelf. I think they used it for a college class or something, but after reading the first page I was totally hooked into Jane’s world. (Though I was deeply shocked—spoiler alert!–Bertha in the attic. I had to go back and read the whole book again just to be sure). After reading it three times, I ran out and and found a pile of other Victorian novels, like Dickens and Gaskell (though I admit I was too young at the time for Wuthering Heights. I hated it then, but I have a deep appreciation for its uniqueness now), I also read non-fiction about Queen Victoria and her world. But then I moved on to other historical loves, like the Regency and Tudor England, and never tried a Victorian-set novel of my own.
Until a couple of years ago, when I watched the movie Young Victoria and fell in love with the costumes. I confess—it was clothes, and the fact that I’ve always loved a “family feud” story, that led me to this story, and to Lily and Aidan and their families, the ducal Huntingtons and the underworld St. Claires.
I am completely in love with the St. Claire and Huntington families. Not only did this first book in a new series by Laurel McKee have me thoroughly enjoying the story between Lily and Aidan, I was just as drawn into both their families and the supporting characters who were involved just enough to add interest to their own stories that will be coming up in the series. But, this was Lily and Aidan’s story and I enjoyed everything about it, from the suspense coming from a man from Lily’s past to her and Aidan’s naughtiness in the bedroom.  –Happily Ever After Reviews
When I was younger I had a fantasy vision of what Victorian life was like, but for this book I wanted to delve deeper and give a more realistic picture (especially of Lily’s Dickensian childhood before she was adopted by the St. Claires). The sixty years of Victoria’s reign marked an enormous shift in society and the way the world worked. The way people traveled, shopped, dealt with illness, childbirth, and death, even the way they dressed and read, were very different from what came before. There was gaslight and then electricity, railroads, factories, the world of the arts (the theater was booming, as were the visual and decorative arts, and novels by authors like the Brontes and Dickens were sensations), the rise of the middle classes, and the expansion of the British Empire into every corner of the globe. All led by a woman who was the very image of domestic responsibility, unlike her uncles.
But it was also a time of vast social differences, a new emphasis on the appearance of respectability, and a whole hidden underworld of dark activities like drug use, prostitution, and pornography. The contrast between what really was and what things appeared to be was wider than ever before. I loved incorporating all these aspects of Victorian life into Lily and Aidan’s story!
For and excerpt and more info, visit my website! And if you would like to read more about the period yourself, here are just a few sources I found helpful…
Donald Thomas, The Victorian Underworld(1998)
Jennifer Hall-Witt, Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780-1880 (2007) (It was Elena who recommended this book, which is fascinating!)
Michael Mason, The Making of Victorian Sexuality(1994)
Suzanne Fagence Cooper, The Victorian Woman(2001)
JJ Tobias, Crime and Police in England, 1700-1900(1979)
Sally Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England(2009)
FML Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society, 1800-1900(1988)
What do you love about Victorian England?? Comment for a chance to win a copy!
Posted in Former Riskies, Giveaways, Interviews, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , | 14 Replies

The Tarnished Rose of the Court

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Today Risky Amanda is launching her newest Harlequin Historical title, The Tarnished Rose of the Court….with a little help from her writing friend Kathy Wheeler, aka Kae Elle Wheeler!  Comment for a chance to win a signed copy…

A dangerous mission at Queen Elizabeth’s bidding is Celia Sutton’s chance to erase the taint of her brother’s treason. Her life is at risk if she’s discovered—and so is her heart when she learns her co-conspirator is also her onetime seducer: brooding and mysterious John Brandon!
John can’t believe the change in Celia—what’s happened to the carefree English rose she once was? Leaving Celia was the only thing to do, but now guilt tears at his soul.He has to heal the sadness in her past, and he’s not above using anything—from expert seduction to royal favors—to achieve his goal.

Amazon
e-Harlequin

Today I’m guest hosting once more for my good friend Amanda McCabe, in a slightly different format though. She has a new release October 1st, Tarnished Rose of the Court. I had just a few questions for her that she so sweetly indulged.   (KLW)
 
Q: It’s obvious you love the Elizabethan period. What is it that draws your interest?
A: I do adore this period! I’ve talked about it here before, but I know that part of it is the sheer energy of the time period. It was such a time of change and movement, bawdy and raw but also elegant in its clothes and architecture, and a moment of artistic creativity almost unmatched in history. There were so many brilliant personalities in the arts, politics, exploration, the military, and it made for an exciting era. It was also really a moment for women. Besides Elizabeth and the intelligent and headstrong women of her court (like Bess of Hardwick, for one example), there was Mary of Scotland, and Catherine de Medici in France. There were a multitude of crazy, runaway romances, thanks to Elizabeth’s aversion to letting any of her courtiers marry. It’s a great setting for exciting stories…
Q: If you could live in that time, would you?
A: Definitely not!! As wonderful as it would be to actually see Elizabeth I, or watch a brand new Shakespeare play at the Globe, I don’t think I could handle the smells. Or the lack of medical care. Or dressing in farthingales and ruffs every day. Much as I love to dress up, sometimes a girl just needs her jeans! But if I could go back in time for a few days to do some in-depth research then come back home…
Q: Who would your heroine be?
A: In this time period, I really love Anne Boleyn. She was such a strong, intelligent, outspoken woman of deep convictions and great ambition, who was way ahead of her time. Her ending was certainly tragic (I cried when I visited the Tower, just thinking about it!), but she passed down those traits (along with a quick temper and mercurial charm) to her daughter.

Q: Your story is set when Mary Queen of Scots is two and twenty, which is much older than I initially believed. I suppose my question is in how you perceived Mary vs. Elizabeth. Did you consider Mary as naïve? And what of Elizabeth?
A: Mary Queen of Scots is one of the most fascinating characters in history (who still has a hold on the popular imagination!), but in truth she was something of a ding-dong when it came to being a queen. She messed up everything in her life in major, major ways, often because she simply didn’t seem to stop and think (or show any self-control!), unlike Elizabeth, who rarely took a step wrong. I wonder if it’s because of the difference in their upbringings. Mary became queen when she was a few hours old, and from the age of 4 onwards grew up at the supremely elegant and sophisticated French court, betrothed to the dauphin, queen to two countries. She was beautiful, spoiled, and always sure of her place in the world, though not very intellectual. Whereas Elizabeth’s mother was executed as a traitor when she was 3, she grew up a bastard, and was often physically in danger and always unsure of her place. It was a miracle she became queen. But she was very well-educated and extremely shrewd. She knew how to get herself out of trouble, and how to stay popular and in control at all times. She was willing to make sacrifices to keep her place on the throne (including not marrying her true love Robert Dudley), where Mary never sacrificed anything at all and had a rare talent for making very bad choices. I loved getting to show something of the contrast between them in this story!
For more info, I highly recommend Jane Dunn’s book Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens…
Q: It is a fascinating time period. Can you tell us a little about your degree in English Literature?
A: I’m afraid I loved going to school so much I ended up changing majors three times! Until my parents told me to pick one and finish the degree asap or they wouldn’t pay for tuition anymore, LOL. It ended up I had taken so many English lit classes that I had almost enough credits to finish it up, so English it was, then I went on to get an MA in Elizabethan poetry. It was great to combine my love of books and history, and even though my dad was sure it made me totally unfit for any “real world” job, it’s been great for being a historical writer!!
Q: What are some of the challenges you face as a published writer?
A: Deadlines. I always seem to be struggling with them. (But if I didn’t have them I doubt I would get anything done—I am a master procrastinator!). And finding time to get online promo and networking done every day can be a challenge (especially when there are so many fashion blogs to visit!). But the people I’ve met, other readers and writers, have been such a huge reward.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about Tarnished Rose of the Court?
A: It all started with the character of Celia! She appeared in my book The Winter Queen, and I wondered what made her so unhappy. At the end of that book, Queen Elizabeth sends Celia on some mysterious errand to visit Scotland (where Queen Mary has just returned after years in France), and I wondered what happened to her there, too. Once I sat down and started thinking about Celia, I realized it was a lost love, and a family tragedy, that made her what she was. But inside she was still vulnerable, especially when her lost love, John, returns.
It didn’t hurt that John happened to look like Henry Cavill in The Tudorstoo! I loved finding out what happened to them in Scotland. It’s always fun writing about court intrigue and mystery, and I wanted Celia and John to be together so, so much.

 

Q: When you’re working on a manuscript, what motivates you? What frustrates you?
A: Deadlines!! As well as being a challenge they’re a motivator. But I love it when I’m eager to spend time with characters every day and see what they want to do next. I get frustrated when what they want to do doesn’t correspond at all to what I planned for them…
Q: What do you like to read?
A: Everything!! Really, I will read anything I find at the bookstore or library that looks interesting, or that friends recommend. I love romance, mystery, a little fantasy sometimes, literary fiction, anything. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction, research-y type stuff (am in the middle of book one of my new Elizabethan mystery series!), but I’ve also finished two novels I am raving about to anyone who will listen—Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette(I never wanted this one to end, I loved it so much) and Meljean Brooks’s Riveted. I am obsessed with steampunk. If anyone here has any more recs, let me know!

Q: One last question that has nothing to do with your book—tell me about this dedication…quite flattered we were! In tears (happy tears!). I wish you much success with Tarnished Rose of the Court.
A: LOL! I guess everyone here should know about the Martini Club. Every Friday (and sometimes other nights) I meet Kathy and our friends Alicia Dean and Christy Gronlund at the Martini Lounge. It’s saved my sanity more than once…and so I just wanted to say a little “thank you” for the friendship (and the great lemontinis)…This is us (without Christy!) at the Martini Lounge…

And at the Museum Rooftop…

 
 

Now for a teeny short review of Tarnished Rose of the Court.

Celia Sutton is caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place. She is a tragic figure who has lived through her one true love’s desertion, her brother’s execution for treason, and an abusive husband. And now, in order to secure a future for herself, she has to perform one last service for Queen Elizabeth—travel to Scotland and report Mary Queen of Scots marriage inclinations. If she is fortunate, the husband Elizabeth will bestow upon Celia will not be cruel.
In the meantime, John Brandon’s desertion of Celia years prior was inevitable; he was an agent of the Court. The problem was he hadn’t planned on falling in love with her. And now he is to accompany the party, Celia included, to Edinburgh. And he finds his passion has only deepened, despite the shadows that haunt her eyes. Now he just has to find a way to keep her from Lord Knowlton’s grimy paws.
This is a touching story of rekindled passion that is swept up in a tide of love, with danger lurking around every corner. A heart wrenching story to warm your heart. – Kathy L Wheeler
Posted in Former Riskies, Giveaways, Interviews, Research, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , , , | 8 Replies

Brenda Novak at the Riskies! (Giveaway!)

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Please Welcome Brenda Novak to the Riskies!

Carolyn: I want to start out this post by telling all of you what an amazing, nice and wonderful person Brenda is. I’ve been reading her for years and have always enjoyed her books, as I’m sure is true for many of you. But it wasn’t until Brenda and I were roomies at Bouchercon a couple of years ago that I learned she’d started out writing historicals. Even two years ago, when we were at the San Francisco Bouchercon, self-publishing had only just begun to take off. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to track down her historical.
But now? Things are different, and readers and authors are the winners. Not only has she self-published that first historical, she’s released one that had never been published. Until now.
I’ll be giving away a boxed set of Brenda’s historicals to one commenter, so be sure to check the rules and comment!

Read on to find out more about Brenda’s writing, her current and upcoming projects and learn about how you can support her Diabetes Auction.

When I first started out, I wanted to write historicals. They were what I most enjoyed reading. I loved all of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s books (especially Come Love a Stranger), Gone With the Wind, Jane Eyre, Pride And Prejudice, Zemindar, Dear Amber, Rebecca and many others. But I soon learned that I’d set myself a difficult task. No only did I need to learn the craft of writing, I had to become familiar with the time period I’d chosen as a backdrop for my story (Victorian England). Today, the Internet would make such a goal far easier to obtain, but this was nearly twenty years ago. The Internet didn’t have the research materials it offers today. I remember waiting impatiently for my husband to come home from work so he could watch our four children (I now have five) while I hurried to the Sac State Library. There, I’d race the clock to find the information I needed before closing time—and spend a fortune trying to get those pages photocopied before the librarian turned out the lights.

I wrote my very first book, OF NOBLE BIRTH, under such circumstances. When I finished, it was 800 pages long, but I was so proud of reaching The End. Then I found Romance Writers of America, which I needed to be able to figure out how to market my manuscript, and learned that my beloved story wasn’t a romance so much as it was a historical with romantic elements (and as such would be much more difficult to sell). I also learned that it was far too long. So I spent several months crafting it into a true romance while trimming it to a svelte 430 pages and managed to sell it to HarperCollins. I was so over the moon when I receive The Call on August 26, 1998. I thought I had launched my career and was off and running. I had another historical finished and ready to go, and a third halfway complete.

But then Harper merged with Avon and let its romance editors and most of its romance authors go. My first book wasn’t even out yet (it debuted 11/99), and here I was, orphaned. Fortunately, I had also started writing some contemporary novels, which I was able to sell to Harlequin, who has purchased everything I’ve produced since (go Harlequin!). But in the back of my mind, I always wondered if the time I’d spent on the historicals (the second historical, in particular) would be wasted. My career had taken a different path—but would I ever get back to my first love?

The opportunity, when it came, was quite unexpected. With the advent of e-readers, I started hearing about authors who were acquiring the rights to their backlist and self-publishing those titles on Amazon. The rights to OF NOBLE BIRTH had just reverted to me, so I figured I’d do the same. Then I thought of that other manuscript that I had loved so much—HONOR BOUND—and realized that if I revised it and had it professionally edited, I could publish that, too.

New Contemporary Romance series!

OF NOBLE BIRTH hit Amazon in August. HONOR BOUND was published in November. It’s been so great to see these stories reach my fans at last. OF NOBLE BIRTH had been out of print for over a decade. And HONOR BOUND had never before been published. Together with the new series I’m writing for MIRA (a small town contemporary series sent in the fictional town of Whiskey Creek which will be out in the fall), these projects have kept me very busy. To make my life even more complicated, I’m writing a new suspense series, too. And I’m also working on another project. This one doesn’t include dreaming up stories but I’m definitely hoping it will have a happy ending.

Ten years ago, when my youngest son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I wanted to do some fundraising for research, to help him and everyone else in the same situation. I just didn’t how to go about it—or where I’d find the time. I had five kids at home and some very tight book deadlines (Ha! Sounds like now—except that some of the kids have moved out to go to college). Then I attended a silent auction at a local elementary school and realized that I could do a similar event on my Web site, where I could invite the people who visit me there to join with me.

So far, I’ve managed to raise $1.3 million, and the 2012 auction looks as if it might set a new annual record. This fundraiser is a shopper’s paradise with plenty of items to fit every budget, including trips & stays, one-of-a-kind jewelry, paintings, Native American jewelry donated by Mae Nunn, lunch with world famous author Diana Gabaldon (or Suzanne Brockmann!), and much, much more. And that’s not all. For those who are aspiring to become a novelist or to advance their writing career, there are AMAZING opportunities. Many of the most powerful agents and editors in the business have donated evaluations—some with the promise of a 24-hour response (which is unheard of in the publishing industry).

How does it all work? Just like eBay, except this auction is running at www.brendanovak.com. Visit that URL to register. The fun begins May 1st and runs throughout the month. When the bidding is over, you can pay with Paypal or credit card. In most instances the donor even picks up the shipping. And the person who places the highest number of bids over all, even if that person doesn’t win a single item, will receive a fabulous prize package including a brand new iMac, Your Name in My Next Book, and an autographed copy of WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES, Book 1 in my new Whiskey Creek series.

Check out the auction, and while you’re at my website, enter to win a romantic beach getaway to the Hilton in Destin, Florida!

What cool items have you won in past charity auctions? Do you prefer on-line shopping to brick & mortar shopping? Do you think this “wave of the future” will eventually overtake traditional fundraising?

Here’s to making a difference!

Brenda Novak

 

Carolyn again: I’ll start us off with my answers. I have won insanely cool stuff in previous diabetes auctions, and one of them actually, and I am NOT KIDDING, led to a making a friend and to a day or so of fame after a twitter typo that involved Barry Eisler.
I won lunch with author Barry Eisler. It happens he lives in Northern California, though I had to wait a bit since he was in Japan for a while, but when he came back to the States, he came the San Francisco Bay Area RWA chapter meeting and afterward, we had a wonderful and informative lunch. (I had chili. It was good.) We keep in touch to this day. In fact, we recently chatted on the phone about self-publishing and gender, and that was a really, really interesting conversation. If I hadn’t bid on that lunch, I would never have made his acquaintance and I’d be the poorer for it. I know Barry feels the same way, right Barry? (Yes, because he paid for lunch.)
Other items I’ve won include a hand carved wooden chess set, which I bid on as a gift for my son. It’s gorgeous! I’ve also bid on and won some beautiful crystal glasses and a whole series of hand-made Russian items, including an apron that is too lovely to wear.
Do NOT miss out on this auction. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s for a great cause.

Buy Brenda’s Books for Your Kindle

Honor Bound

Of Noble Birth

See a list of all of Brenda’s books on Amazon

Contest!!

I’ll be giving away a boxed set of Brenda’s historicals to a random commenter who answers one or all of Brenda’s questions.

Contest Rules

Must be 18 or older. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Leave your comment by midnight Pacific, April 27, 2012. You must either leave contact information in your comment or commit to checking back to see if you won. The winner will be notified by email (the format: blah AT blah DOT com is fine!). A new winner will be selected if there’s no reply from the winner after two weeks.

Posted in Former Riskies, Giveaways, Guest, Interviews | Tagged , , , | 12 Replies

Isobel Carr: Ripe For Seduction

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Today, author Isobel Carr visits the Riskies to talk about her new book, Ripe for Seduction, answer some questions, and give away some books. Check it out, because she’s being very generous. Details on how to enter at the end of this post.

About Isobel Carr

A photo of author Isobel Carr. She has dark curly hair, a pretty smile and she is wearing black. Behind her, there are books.

Isobel Carr

Isobel grew up participating in a wide variety of historical reenactment clubs (California Renaissance Faires, the Society for Creative Anachronism, Heyercon, Dicken’s Faire, Gaskills, etc.). On top of these clubs, she and her friends recreate 18th century fashions just for fun. Isobel has spent large parts of her life studying the manners, customs, and clothing of multiple periods (most specifically Renaissance England and Germany, Georgian/Regency England and France, and Victorian England), and she has firsthand experience creating and wearing the clothes of these eras (including the correct underwear and corsets!). Because of her interest in living history, and that hobby’s strong focus on the details of daily life, she hopes she has an unusual and intimate perspective on history that gives extra life to her books.

Find Isobel at her website: www.isobelcarr.com
On Twitter: @isobelcarr
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/isobel.carr

Ripe for Seduction

A cover in which a hunky dark-haired man is embracing a lovely blonde woman. His shirt is falling off. omg

Cover of Ripe for Seduction

After the scandalous demise of her marriage, Lady Olivia Carlow knows the rakes of the ton will think her fair game. So when a letter arrives bearing an indecent offer from the incorrigible Roland Devere, she seizes the opportunity. Turning the tables on the notorious rogue, she blackmails him into playing her betrothed for the season. But no matter how broad his shoulders or chiseled his features, she will never fall prey to his suave charm.

When Roland boasted he’d be the first into Lady Olivia’s bed, he couldn’t have imagined that behind those brilliant blue eyes lurked a vixen with a scheme of her own. Still, Roland is not about to abandon his original wager. If anything, learning that the lovely Olivia is as bold as she is beautiful makes him more determined to seduce her into never saying “never” again.

Get your hands on Ripe For Seduction: Amazon

What they’re saying about Ripe For Seduction:

Starred review from Publisher’s Weekly!

Carr is sure to balance her characters’ roguish antics with genuine heart, making the double love story a delightful and erotic page-turner.

4-Stars (RT Book Reviews)

For her third in the League of the Second Sons, Carr delivers not one, but two love stories that will charm and titillate readers. It’s intriguing that, at times, the more mature romance overshadows the younger couples love story, but it is the underlying passion in both, as well as the marvelously crafted backdrop, that holds readers’ attention. You will be easily drawn into the naught and bawdy era through Carr’s deft prose.

Five Fun Facts

The indecent offer my hero, Roland, makes to my heroine was based on one a real one made to Lady Mary Coke. The real-life lord got off easier than my hero, LOL!

Giant dogs, this time Scottish Deerhounds, once again put in an appearance. Deerhounds were a very rare breed by this point in history. It’s doubtful that most people had ever even seen one, but luckily for us all, a few people kept the breed alive. I am lucky enough to know several Deerhounds, as they frequent my local dog park. Watching them run across the field is truly a sight to behold. The Wolfhounds and Great Danes can’t keep up with them, and the Greyhounds are simply dwarfed by them.

RIPE FOR SEDUCTION features a shallop race on the Thames. The Queen’s Jubilee, with its display of historical boats, couldn’t have been more timely.

I based the house they all end up at in Paris on one that I stayed at in the Marais. Just down the street is my favorite Parisian café, Le Bouledogue, where you can meet Didier and his adorable French Bulldogs. Order the duck. You won’t be sorry.

After you’ve finished RIPE FOR SEDUCTION, you can read the reconciliation scene for the secondary couple on Ripe for Seduction’s page on my website. I deleted it from the novel to keep Margo and Philip from taking over, but it’s a scene I really love, so I kept it as a bonus for readers.

Excerpt!

You can download the first three chapters here (Word doc).

Q. Tell us about the series:

The League of Second Sons was a writers’ lunch burst of inspiration. I knew I wanted to write about a group of younger sons, men who would be hungrier, less secure, and have entirely different issues to wrestle with than their elder brothers. After the passage of the Marriage Act in 1753, the easy path of heiress abduction was essentially cut off (marriage under duress now being voidable) and this created even greater scope for setting up interesting plots. Add into it their banding together in the fight to claim what they can in a world that gives everything to the eldest brother, and you have a solid, interesting subset of the ton that most would be essentially unaware of as a force.

Q. We are all about author pet pictures. I understand you have a dog. A very large dog. Can you tell us about him? Does he help you write? Do you have a picture of him?

Clancy: Photo by Isobel Carr (All Rights Reserved)

Clancy: Photo by Isobel Carr (All Rights Reserved)

Oh, Clancy is perhaps the most well documented dog that doesn’t belong to William Wegman. He has his own gigantic Flickr page (along with his sisters, Slag and Tallulah, who belong to my sister and best friend respectively). http://www.flickr.com/photos/49097059@N00/3283805430/sizes/s/in/set-72157607307911869

He’s half Neapolitan Mastiff and half Bullmastiff and 175lbs of cuddly sweetness. Mostly, it’s like living with a lion. Mostly he’s napping (bed, couch, dog bed), but he’s defiantly aware of what’s going on around him. As for “helping” me write, not so much. He like likes to lay on the couch behind me and sigh gustily as I ignore him in favor of “petting” the evil glowing box. But he and his sisters were the inspiration for Pen, the dog in the first League book, so I guess he does help after all, LOL!

Q. Based solely on clothing alone (that is do not account for the status of women or minorities etc.) What time period would you most like to live in and why?

Mid to late 18th century. I love the clothing from about 1750-1790. Love, love, love it! The hoops and silks and hair (ok, not the 1770s hair). There’s a reason I set my books in the 1780s (my all time favorite decade for fashion).

Q. I have heard you say you like men with big noses. Like who?

Oh, I do. There’s nothing like a really nice, distinctive nose. Julian Sands, Joe Manganiello, Adrian Brody, Richard Armitage.

Q: Red-headed heroes. Go.

I love red-heads. Love ‘em. I can’t wait to write one (Leo, in Ripe for Pleasure is a red-head, but my editor made me change all the references to “auburn”). But I see Eric Stoltz, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wenham. Yum!

Q: Fill in the blank:

You walk into an antique store and you get short of breath because right there is a Limbert rocker. When you look in your wallet, you have enough money to purchase it. What is the item and why does it make you short of breath?

Well, mostly because we’re going to pretend I have that kind of money in my wallet. I own a 1916 Arts and Crafts bungalow, and one of the pieces of furniture I COVET for my living room is a genuine rocker from that period. The Stickley ones are nice, but there’s a Limbert one that I saw once in a local antique store that just called to me. The clean lines, the amazing quarter-sawn grain of the oak, the heft and solidness of it. That beautiful chair could hold up to being knocked about by my giant dog. Unfortunately, it was six grand.

Q: Corset vs. brassiere. Go.

Corset! I really do loathe the way a bra digs into my ribs. Corsets don’t do that, and if you lace them just snug, they’re really very comfortable. But I’m not yet ready to be the eccentric author who wears a corset every day…

Q: Your book is going to be a movie! Who do you cast?

Roland was based on Hal Ozsan. He played the witch in Supernatural “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester” and I just found him mesmerizing to watch. I love how dark he is, and how his hair curls. And yes, he has an amazing nose! Evidence that Isobel is right?

For Olivia, I pictured a young Rosamund Pike. I loved her as Lady Harriet in Wives and Daughters. There’s something really strong about her, but also a hint that she could shatter under the right circumstances. She’s an actress I just really enjoy watching.

Q: What’s next for you?

Next is Marcus Reeves’s book, Ripe for Revenge, which will be my first foray into self-publishing:

Running has always served Caro Frazier well. It worked when her parents disapproved of her chosen groom, when her husband took umbrage at his young wife’s social success, and when circumstances forced her to flee London altogether. But when her past comes back to haunt her—in the delicious form of Marcus Reeves—running is the last thing on Caro’s mind.

Marcus Reeves never expected to see—never wanted to see—Caroline Frazier again, not after he saved her when her husband cast her off and then she abandoned him too. He certainly never expected to discover her living in a quiet, rural hamlet with a child who is unmistakably his. Whatever her reasons for betraying him, she’s his now, and Marcus is ready for a little revenge . . .

Giveaway

Isobel is giving away 3 copies of her new book and one full set of the series for a new to her reader! Yes. That’s four winners. Woot!

Rules: No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. International is OK, provided The Book Depository ships there. The winner will be picked at random from among qualified comments. Leave a comment on this post by midnight Pacific Thursday December 20. To be eligible for the full set of the series, mention whether you are new to Isobel’s books. Feel free to tell us about your pet, or the antique store item that would have you palpitating.

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