I'm being interviewed at the Romance Bandits - Scroll down for 5 on Friday - Set 101

Please join me for a rollicking good time over at the Romance Bandits, where I'm being interviewed by Anna Campbell, regency noir romance author extraordinaire.









Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

For my first set of the new year, I'd like to dedicate these tunes to my kick-ass main character, Tanwen, the Dark Ages Welsh chieftain's daughter who not only discovers her betrothed perished on the battlefield, but that her father expects her to marry another.

Let's just say Tanwen isn't the kind of daughter to take this news well...

1 - These Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Nancy Sinatra



2 - One Way or Another - Blondie



3 - Weapons - Carole Pope and Rough Trade



4 - Supervixen - Garbage



5 - God is a DJ - Pink



You can read about Tanwen in my debut novel, SAINT SANGUINUS.

Thursday Thirteen - 221 - 13 Blog Posts by Fellow Bloggers

Today I'd like to shine a spotlight on some great posts I've enjoyed in the last little while:

1 - So Many Books...So Little Time... by Kelly Boyce

2 - More on RWA11-part2: Lit Signing & Evil Elevators by Leah Braemel

3 - Everything You Wanted to Know About Digital Publishing But Were Afraid to Ask - A Q & A With Maya Banks by Jane Litte

4 - On Cowboy Sex Appeal - Give Me a Real Good Man by Julianne Maclean

5 - A Peek Behind the Cover by Deborah Hale

6 - On the Shelf (secret librarian tips for historical research) by Michelle Helliwell

7 - Trekking to Toronto by Linda @ Are We There Yet?

8 - Carrie Preston From True Blood Interview by Melissa Bradley

9 - Playing Tourist at Home! by Anna Campbell

10 - To Float or Not To Float... by Jeanne Adams and Cassondra Murray

11 - Life Through the Eyes of a Child by Stella MacLean

12 - Something Borrowed by Ginger Merante

13 - Belleau Wood, 1 June to 26 June 1918 by Travis Cody

Thursday Thirteen - 161 - 13 Questions for Anna Campbell, Author of My Reckless Surrender

A big Maritime welcome to Australian historical romance writer Anna Campbell! Through the magic of the world wide web, oceans and continents fall away and here I am chatting away with one of my favorite writers.

Hi Julia! Thanks for inviting me to be your guest today!

1 - Living in Australia, which has its own vibrant romance writers' community, have you found the new global age has made physical distance an afterthought? Or does it hold challenges for you as a writer?


What an interesting question. You know, like most things, there’s pluses and minuses to being so far away. And of course, the Internet has removed a lot of the tyranny of distance.

I think it would be lovely to be able to meet my U.S. readers at signings on a more regular basis, but I do try to make the Romance Writers of America conference every year and this year, I’m also doing RomCon in Colorado in July.

2 - Is this the first time you've had a North American release and an Australian release coincide? What sparked the decision to bring them out together?


This is my first simultaneous release. I think the Aussies are trying to catch the locals who are so keen to read the book that they order the American edition before the local one is out.

I love having a simultaneous release and the Aussie trade paperback edition is just gorgeous!

3 - Have you had any stories come to you that are set in your native Australia? Or have you only scratched the surface of your London-based Regency Noir settings?

Oh, Regency Noir could continue forever – so many stories in Regency London. I risk being pilloried in my home country but I just don’t find Australian history romantic.

A lot of it is fairly grim (hello, convicts, anyone?) and I love working with the strict social boundaries of an aristocratic society which Australia never really was.

None of which means I don’t love my homeland, I do!

4 - Your debut novel, Claiming The Courtesan, was a publishing world sensation. You burst out of the starting gates and haven't looked back. How long did it take you to write the book that launched your career?

I started Claiming The Courtesan in 2001 and finished polishing it to publication standard in 2006 when it sold. At the same time, I was writing Untouched so I figure about four years on each book, piggybacking on one another if that makes sense.

Of course, I wasn’t working on the books every hour of every day in that time!

5 - I know from observation that you make your presence felt on the net.

I hope so! LOL!

And you definitely travel to conferences to make in person connections. How has your own promo efforts affected your career?

Promo is one of those weird things – nobody knows what works although people know at least some of it does work. Who knows whether my internet presence has affected my career? It’s certainly enriched my life!

I didn’t grow up surrounded by romance readers, although my mum and grandmother both loved a good romance novel. So it’s always a joy talking to other enthusiastic romance readers both in person and online!

6 - What would you say is the percentage of people getting in touch with you to make appearances, as opposed to you approaching them? Do you find that part easy, approaching people?

Luckily, people mostly approach me – probably as a result of the internet presence you mentioned. And even more luckily, people seem to be happy to have me back again once I’ve blogged. It’s always nice to have a return invitation!

7 - Were you ever tempted to surrender your dream of being published? What were your own Dark Moments as a writer?

I finished my first romance – a very Kathleen Woodiwissy medieval – when I left high school and before I started university. It was twenty-seven years then before I sold a book!

In all that time, dark moments abounded, as you can imagine! At one stage, about seventeen years in, I decided being a published author was a childish dream and I should stop pursuing this whim and get a proper job.

I had a really rotten 18 months where life was dull and without flavour. That convinced me as nothing else could that I really WANTED to write but I needed to approach my career differently if I hoped to succeed.

That’s when I joined a few romance writing organizations, joined a crit group, started watching the market, etc. Things started happening in leaps and bounds then.

What would you have told that beginner Anna if you could have Dr. Who's Tardis for a few moments?

I’d tell that Anna to stop being such a wimp and start interacting in the romance community and submitting her work. Books under the bed are never going to sell!

8 - Publisher's Weekly named your previous book Captive of Sin one of the Top 100 Books of 2009 - one of only a handful of massmarket paperbacks so honored. How did it feel to get that news?

Oh, that was fantastic! It took a while to sink in that it wasn’t just Top 100 ROMANCES of 2009, but Top 100 Books!

I’ve been really bowled over at the reception Captive of Sin has received. It recently won most popular historical romance in the Australian Romance Readers Awards and it won the Golden Quill Award. It’s also finaled in a stack of other contests.

I’ve had a lot of fanmail about that book – people just love their tortured heroes.


9 - Your fifth and latest book is called My Reckless Surrender - do you have that aspect in yourself? Do you throw yourself into things?

What an interesting question. First of all, I was going to say I was Miss Caution. But you know, I’m not sure if that’s true!

I think there IS a reckless side to me so it was fun to draw on that when I wrote My Reckless Surrender

10 - You've mentioned that Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft is the first non-tortured hero you've written. I'm exceedingly fond of tortured heroes - can't get enough of them. Why do you suppose these characters come to you?

You’re another tortured hero fan! How cool!

And Tarquin is well and truly tortured by the end of the book – he just doesn’t start out that way.

I find complex, flawed characters intensely interesting, as I think is clear from my books! And if I torture the hero, it usually puts the readers on his side and gives me high stakes emotion to work with. Not only that, I love the idea of a man purified by fire which I think is true of all my tortured heroes.

11 - Was it easier to write a hero without such dark emotional baggage?

Writing Tarquin was different, I’m not sure it was easier. And as I said, he’s definitely been through the wringer by the time he gets his happy ending!

12 - Your heroine, Diana Carrick, is shockingly forthright about what she does and doesn't want. Is she also a departure from your previous characters?

I tend to write strong women – one of the things I find interesting about Regency England is that women were legally so powerless and yet clearly strong women could exercise power in their own spheres and find happiness.

Diana was interesting to write because I wanted to look at someone who did the wrong thing and learned the error of her ways. She convinces herself that by committing a victimless crime, she’ll get everything she ever wanted but of course she’s deceiving herself!

13 - Do you think all lovers ultimately surrender at some point? Or does the act of surrender imply conflict that no longer exists, once the lovers accept their new status?

Ooh, what a profound question! Actually I think strong personalities will always need a certain amount of give and take in a loving relationship. I hope by the end of my books, the reader feels that the love between the characters is enduring enough to help them weather any storm, as it’s helped them weather whatever storms feature in the story.

In terms of surrender, I think both the hero and heroine surrender to each other so there’s no triumph of one over the other. Of course, the mutual surrender is terrifying and my characters tend to resist that moment as long as they can, LOL!

Anna, thank you so much for dropping by A Piece of My Mind today. I know you're blogging over at Vauxhall Vixens as well. Places to go, places to be...

Wonder if Sven will show up...? Sven is a rather distracting fellow who makes appearances at Anna's group blog, Romance Bandits. ...hmm...maybe that's him, now...



Scotialassie says In reading the responses I felt like she could have been sitting across from me...she was that personable. Glad to hear of Anna's dark periods and that she got out of them. Thanks for the encouragement.

Melanie says Anna you have just been all over the place and I just want to say thanks. Not only do I get to learn more about you and the books that you write, but I have found so many new blogs to follow and in turn am finding a whole bunch of new authors to start reading.

Laurie says Anna, I've started MY RECKLESS SURRENDER tonight and had to force myself to put it down to take care of business. It's fabulous, that carriage ride is hot! I'm forcing myself to leave the book downstairs so I'll get a little sleep - I have to work tomorrow.

UPDATE: The winner of a copy of My Reckless Surrender is...drumroll please...

Janet!

Come on down!

Actually, please drop Anna a line at anna@annacampbell.info and give her your snail mail address. Congratulations!

Thursday Thirteen - 145 - 13 Reasons to Read Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell

I met Anna Campbell online through Christine Wells, when Christine used to be a co-contributor to my group blog, Popculturedivas.

Anna and Christine contribute to their group blog, Romance Bandits.

I quickly noticed that whenever Anna posted, the comments section immediately turned into a party and the comment numbers shot up into the 100-200 mark. No exaggeration.

This didn't happen only at the Romance Bandits - no. Whenever Anna posted at her other group blogs or did a guest post, the comment numbers shot up there, too. It's not like I was stalking her or anything. But I did follow her around slavishly to all her blog posts in the hopes of winning a copy of Captive of Sin - which I finally did! Woo hoo! Yeah, baby.

Check out a few of her bloggy gems:

The Sex is Never Just About the Sex guesting @ Vauxhall Vixens
Dust Never Sleeps @ the Romance Bandits
Christmas Reading Bonanza @ Tote Bags 'n' Blogs

1 - Captive of Sin is an Avon Historical Romance imprint from HarperCollins. It released last November in North America and more recently in Australia, Anna's home and native land.

2 - Captive of Sin is Anna's fourth book. She has also published:

Claiming the Courtesan
Untouched
Tempt the Devil

Upcoming in June:

My Reckless Surrender

3 - Anna takes us into the world of Regency Noir. A phrase coined by Stephanie Laurens in a quote for Claiming the Courtesan, Regency Noir has since become a subgenre that gives the normally light Regency period a Gothic undertone, for those of us who love our heroes to be tortured.

Literally.

4 - We meet Lady Charis Weston, who gives a false name to the man who discovers her cowering in the inn stables after she escapes a brutal beating at the hands of her fortune-hunting step-brothers. Being a wealthy heiress has its advantages. But Charis has yet to experience any of them, and now doubts she will live the few weeks till she reaches her majority, when her funds will finally be at her disposal.

5 - Sir Gideon Trevithick returns from India a national hero, having survived capture as a spy and imprisonment under intolerable conditions. Named 'the bravest fellow in the empire' by Wellington and knighted by the king, all Gideon wants to do is return to his family's seat in Cornwall - and forget.

But the battered young woman he coaxes from her hiding place in the stables brings his own torment rushing to the surface.

6 - Those who know me, know I love a tortured hero. It has been ever so. As a child I was wildly attracted to the animated sight of Sleeping Beauty's Prince Philip chained up by Maleficent.



He doesn't flinch from fighting off the dragon version of the evil fairy, even when her enormous size and strength dwarfs him as he takes refuge under his shield. But Prince Philip never loses his grip on his courage or his sword, and I know he's the archetype of all of my favorite romance heroes.

Including Gideon, who was awarded the 2009 KISS Award (Knight in Shining Silver) from Romantic Times

7 - Publisher's Weekly named Captive of Sin one of their top 100 books of 2009: "Gideon tries to fight their growing attraction, believing the beautiful and warm Charis deserves better than a man so damaged by trauma and survivor's guilt, but Charis's clever plan to heal his wounded soul reveals delightful insight and leads to luscious love scenes."

8 - Remember the noir in Regency Noir. I like my characters to truly suffer on their way to a happy ending. I love to feel my heart crush in my chest in sympathy with the hero and heroine. I love brushing tears away when my heart springs back to life, just when I thought there was no possible way it could ever work out for them.

As I read about Anna's book, and as I pursued my copy with the hope-hope-hope that it would come to me, I felt the wild dream burn in my heart that a truly gutsy story with the perfect hero was waiting for me between those pages.

Once I got to the reveal about Gideon's past, I was truly impressed by the nightmare of his imprisonment. Many stories promise tortured heroes, but few actually deliver. For a woman like me who can't resist Joe Harmon from A Town Like Alice, Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo or Anton Gorodetsky from Night Watch and Day Watch, Gideon lives up to every expectation and then takes me even deeper into Noirsville.

9 - Something that really shines about this book is the youth of the heroine. In fact, I'm certain this love story is only possible because the heroine is young enough to truly believe in the healing power of her love for Gideon. A more seasoned woman would be put off by the warnings of Gideon's post traumatic stress disorder. Despite that youth, Charis, having been put through the mill herself by her own relations, has that essential common ground to answer Gideon's litany of reasons as to why she should forget him.

10 - Anna really knows how to end each chapter with a hook. Like this, for example:

"Wheels clattered on cobblestones. A moving carriage forced people out of the way.

'Come on. Run. And keep your head down.'

She scuttled at his side, floundering to keep up with a man who made no allowance for her shorter legs or her injuries.

Akash flung open the carriage door and tossed her inside. She landed against the seat with a jolt that sent pain slicing through her. Ignoring her discomfort, she slid across the seat to press her face to the carriage window.

Through the joyful hordes, Akash pushed his way toward his friend. Gideon retained that frozen, remote expression, but he didn't break away from his devotees.

She couldn't hear what Akash said to Gideon over the hubbub. She saw Gideon turn and head with jerkily precise movements toward the carriage. With visible reluctance, the crowd parted before him. Voracious hands stretched out to pluck at his clothing, delay his departure, compel his attention. Doggedly he continued his automaton-like progress.

He climbed in and sat opposite. He didn't speak. He didn't look at her. He didn't appear to know she was there at all.

Akash slammed the door on them. There was a burst of patriotic cheering outside. Someone started to sing God Save the King.

The celebrity straightened and shot Akash an angry glare. 'For Christ's sake, let us go.'

'God keep you, my friend. I'll see you soon.' He stepped back and sent Charis an elegant bow. 'Miss Watson. Your servant.'

Before Charis could respond, Tulliver whipped the horses to a pace dangerous in town streets. She clutched at the strap and stared bewildered at her companion.

He looked ill. As though he suffered intolerable pain. With a shock, she realized the set expression was endurance, not distain.

Automatically, she stretched out to take his gloved hand. 'Sir Gideon...'

'Curse you, don't touch me!'

He wrenched out of reach. But not before she felt his desperate, uncontrollable shaking."

11 - The interwoven elements of impending doom turn the stakes up as high as they can go. Charis is pursued by her dangerous step-brothers as she fights to free Gideon from his personal demons. The genteel distresses of Regency stories turning on misheard phrases or undeserved reputations, and whether or not the heroine will be invited to the soiree, are laid aside in favor of cruel gender politics, psychological character study and personal redemption.

12 - Yet Gideon, for all of his haunted agony, is not called the Hero of Rangapindhi for nothing. His compassion for Charis and his assured offer of sanctuary when they come under physical attack sets Gideon squarely in the pantheon of great romantic heroes. Gideon has made many readers' Top Hero lists, and easily makes a place for himself on mine - right next to Jo Beverley's Rothgar.

13 - I leave you with an excerpt. Enjoy!

"Half an hour ago she'd left him in the parlor. He'd been drinking brandy, and the bleakness in his eyes had made her want to weep. The desolation had always been there, but now she knew his past, it cut her to the bone.

She looked up from her troubled thoughts to see Gideon standing in the doorway. She hadn't heard him arrive. He always moved like a cat, so that was hardly surprising. His hair was ruffled, and one gloved hand negligently encircled a glass. He'd removed his neckcloth, and his shirt was open, giving her shadowy glimpses of his hard chest.

He didn't advance into the room.

She licked lips dry with nerves. His gaze fastened feverishly on the movement. His gloved hand tautened on his brandy. The warm air swirled with sudden sensual turbulence.

He cleared his throat and shifted his gaze above her head. 'I'm sleeping in the parlor. I think...I think it's best.'

With unsteady hands, she grabbed a shawl and slid out of bed. Ignoring the resistance in his face, she stepped close enough to read ravaging torment in his dark eyes. 'Don't be ridiculous, Gideon. It's cold and uncomfortable.'

He looked at her. 'After Rangapindhi, it's the height of luxury.'

'Oh, my dear, Rangapindhi is over,' she said in a low voice. It seemed a sign of progress that he mentioned his captivity without prompting. She extended one hand toward him, then let it drop to her side. 'You're free.'

His smile held no amusement. 'I'll never be free.'

This acceptance of his fate angered her. 'If you don't fight, you won't.'

His tall, lean body vibrating resentment, he stalked across to the fireplace. He tossed back his brandy and set the glass down sharply on the mantel. He focused a furious glare on her. 'Don't talk about what you don't understand.'

Her mind filled with a sudden memory of the stark desire in his face as he'd looked at her last night. Had she nerve to use that weapon to break him?

'I understand you've decided to wallow in self-pity for the remainder of your days,' she said, knowing she wasn't fair. But this wasn't about fairness.

'You have no right to say that.' A muscle jerked erratically in his cheek. He was close to losing patience. He turned away and closed his eyes as if he couldn't bear to look at her. 'I won't forgive you if you make this more a nightmare than it already is.' He flung his head up and glared at her like he hated her. His furious black eyes threatened to incinerate her where she stood. 'Damn it, Charis, I hurt you.'

'It doesn't have to be like that,' she said in a ghost of her usual voice.

'For us, it does.' He sounded heartbreakingly sure.

'I'm not giving up, Gideon.'

His mouth thinned with anger, but when he spoke, his voice was frigid. 'You will. This is a war you can't win.'

She spread her hands in helpless bewilderment. He had so much strength. Why didn't he enlist it in his own cause? 'Don't you want a real life?'

His short laugh was so harsh, it flayed like flying shards of glass. 'Of course I do.'

She fought the impulse to retreat. She'd known when she chose this path that her greatest enemy would be Gideon himself. 'Your memories aren't always in control,' she said hoarsely. 'I saw you in Portsmouth. You knocked down any man within reach. You weren't afraid to touch people then.'

'Yes, I find relief in violence.' His voice roughened into sarcasm. 'Are you suggesting I beat you?' "

- Anna Campbell, 2009

Hootin' Anni says Those photos on your sidebar of all the great lovers of our times is a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day fast approaching!!!

Travis says This is not my genre, but I'll check with my Lady and see if she might be interested. Thanks for the tip!