Free Comic Book Day - May the 4th Be With You

To celebrate Free Comic Book Day, I'm hosting a giveaway that starts today and runs till the end of the month.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

SAINT SANGUINUS features my Dark Ages vampire superhero, Peredur.

Last year, Free Comic Book Day was one of my favorite author events for 2012. This year, I have a special treat to go along with free copies of my book.

Toronto sculptor and illustrator Ted Heeley has created an illustrated version of Peredur for my Free Comic Book Day giveaway.

Six limited prints are up for grabs, along with six e-copies and six paperback copies of SAINT SANGUINUS.

Why six?

This blog turned six years old in February, and I'm celebrating six truly wonderful years by giving away six versions of each prize.

Enter through the Rafflecopter link, and good luck! 

I'm Celebrating Amore @ Cate Masters' blog

Join me for an interview over at Cate Masters' blog, all about amore!

Leave a comment over there for a chance to win a copy of BOUND BY DRAGONSFYRE. Good luck!

Thursday Thirteen - 236 - 13 Courtesans by Guest Blogger Deborah Hale

WELCOME to the 99-cent December Book Blowout Event

My debut Dark Ages vampire novel SAINT SANGUINUS is proudly taking part in this exciting month-long e-book sale.

Browse through 11 genres by 100 independent authors

For more information,
CLICK HERE to visit the BOOK LOVERS BUFFET

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Also taking part in the Book Lovers Buffet is this week's guest blogger, Deborah Hale, writing as Elizabeth Charles.

For those of you who remember Deb from her previous visit here, she's a fellow author from my local writers' group, Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada.

Welcome, Deb!

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It is fitting that I should blog about 18th century courtesans here at A Piece of My Mind, since the arts represent a common thread among these thirteen women.


Most acted or danced professionally at some point in their careers or modelled for portraits by famous artists of the day. Others wrote books about their lives or inspired others to write of them.

Courtesans were the Madonnas, JLos and Angelinas of their time, superstars whose glamorous lives were chronicled in the scandal magazines for the titillation of squire’s wives like Mrs. Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer.

Though they may have secretly envied the courtesans’ wealth, amazing clothes and sexual freedom, they could feel fortunate and virtuous when those women succumbed to debt, drugs, STDs or the toxic affects of lead based cosmetics. See what you think of these thirteen Baroque superstars…


1 - Gertrude Mahon was the half-sister of the Earl of Kerry. She eloped with a gamester who deserted her shortly after she gave birth. When her mother died and her half-brother refused to help her, the beautiful Gertrude went “on the town” to make a living. Her tiny size and love of bright-colored gowns earned her the sobriquet “The Bird of Paradise.” In later years she became an actress in Dublin then faded into obscurity.




2 -Harriet Powell worked in Charlotte Hayes’s famous brothel in King’s Place. That may be where she met the widowed Kenneth McKenzie Lord Seaforth. Harriet became his mistress and later his wife. He commissioned her portrait by Joshua Reynolds, in which she holds a little bird.




3 -Nelly O’Brien also modeled for Joshua Reynolds. After a brief career as an actress, she became the mistress of several prominent men including the Earl of Thanet and Viscount Bolingbroke, to whom she was rumoured to have borne sons.




4 -Nancy Parsons eloped to the West Indies with a Captain Horton. When he died or deserted her, she returned to England and became mistress to the Duke of Grafton. The duke flaunted her openly while he was prime minister, much to the shock of King George III. Nancy later became the mistress of the Dukes of Portland and Dorset and finally married a viscount fifteen years her junior. 18th century gossip Horace Walpole referred to her as 'the Duke of Grafton's Mrs. Horton, the Duke of Dorset's Mrs. Horton, everybody's Mrs. Horton'.




5 -George Anne Bellamy began life as the illegitimate daughter of Lord Tyrawley, British ambassador to Portugal, who had her educated in a French convent. She grew up to become an actress, playing Juliet to David Garrick’s Romeo. After many liaisons and years of extravagant living, she fell into debt and ill-health and wrote a book, An Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy, perhaps to raise some money.




6 -Kitty Fisher was another favourite of Sir Joshua Reynolds and was rumored to have spent £12,000 a year (over a million dollars in today’s money!) Beautiful, witty and well-educated, she became the subject of a nursery rhyme “Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it…” She married the son of a Member of Parliament, and died of the effects of lead-based cosmetics.




7 -Nancy Dawson became so celebrated that she had a well-known melody named after her. It later became the tune for “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush.” A dancer at Sadler’s Wells, she later danced a lascivious hornpipe (?!) in the Beggar’s Opera, which was acclaimed in a ballad.




8 -Polly Kennedy Jones inherited the house of her friend Nancy Dawson after Nancy died. Polly’s powerful patrons included Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord March, Lord Palmerston and George Selwyn. When her brothers were charged with murder, Polly used her influence to get their death sentences commuted, much to the outrage of the popular press.



9 -Anne Catley was the daughter of a coachman and a washer woman whose beauty and fine voice made her much sought after. Her fee for singing was 40 guineas a night (about $4000 today). She took a succession of lovers by whom she had ten children. She eventually settled in Ealing with a major-general and gave lots of money to charity. She died of consumption at the age of forty-five and had a book written about her.







10 -Grace Dalrymple Eliott began life as the convent-educated daughter of a Scottish lawyer. After her husband divorced her, “Dally the Tall” flitted between London and Paris, mistress to several wealthy, titled men including The Duc d’Orleans and the Prince of Wales. Imprisoned during the French Revolution, she managed to escape the guillotine and wrote a book about her adventures.




11 -Sophia Baddeley came from a family of musicians. At the age of 18 she eloped with an actor and went on the stage herself. Though she was not a very good actress, her looks and fine singing voice made her a celebrity. Estranged from her husband and running up debts, she began to take wealthy patrons including Lord Melbourne and the Duke of Northumberland. Extravagant spending and an addiction to laudanum brought about her downfall. She was the subject of a book written by her friend Eliza Steele.



12 -Emily Warren was recruited and trained by one of London’s most notorious madams after she was discovered begging on the streets. Reynolds painted her as Thais and lauded her “faultless and finely formed” figure. William Hickey wrote of Emily in his Memoires of a Georgian Rake. She was the mistress of his friend Bob Potts when she died suddenly of a fever in India.




13 -Elizabeth Armistead rose from obscurity to become the leading courtesan of her time. Unlike many who rose and fell from favor in a twinkling, Mrs. Armistead reigned for more than a decade. Her patrons included the Earl of Derby, the Duke of Dorset and the Prince of Wales, but her heart belonged to the young politicians of the Whig party. Her later life took an even more fascinating turn when she became the mistress and wife of the most celebrated man of her era. I was so enthralled with Elizabeth Armistead’s life and times that I used them as the basis for my novel Confessions of a Courtesan!



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Thank you, Deb - I've been hanging on every word! It's the research obsessed in me.

Deb is offering a copy of her book to one lucky commenter. Good luck and Happy Thursday Thirteen!

Thursday Thirteen - 196 - Giveaway! and 13 Questions For Julianne MacLean writing as E.V. Mitchell, Author of The Color of Heaven

E.V. Mitchell is the pseudonym for award-winning historical romance author Julianne MacLean - and today marks the launch of her new contemporary mainstream e-book The Color of Heaven.

1 - Julianne, you published a previous contemporary romance under your own name in 2003. What prompted your pseudonym for The Color of Heaven?

I’ve been writing romances under my own name since 2000, and this is my first time venturing outside the genre into a more mainstream type of story. I wanted to make sure it was very clear to my long-time readers that this book is not a romance. Don’t get me wrong - there is plenty of romance in it, but it breaks many romance genre conventions.

2 - You've worked with three publishers since 2000, including multiple book deals - Harlequin Historicals, Avon Books and now St. Martin's Press. What led to your self-published e-book release?

I came up with the idea for this book six years ago, and wrote half of it while I was between contracts for my historicals. My agent shopped that around in 2008 to all the major New York publishers, but we had no offers. We were told things like:

“I wouldn’t know how to position this book.”
“It’s too commercial for our line.”
“I wasn’t fully convinced of the book’s commercial appeal.”
“I did not feel connected to the character of Sophie.”
“I was connected to the character of Sophie, but didn’t connect with Cora.”

One editor loved it and said it brought tears to her eyes, but when she showed it to her senior editor… Well, that was the editor who said she wouldn’t know how to position it.

In truth, I think she said she “hated it.”

I had just signed a new deal for two more historical romances, so I had to shelve this half-finished, totally rejected manuscript, and get back to work on my books that were actually selling.

Skip ahead two years to 2010. I still believed in the story and was never able to let go of the characters, so I sent it to a former editor-friend of mine who always seemed to “get” my work. She suggested I rewrite the beginning, because she could see why people weren’t connecting to Sophie. I hadn’t written enough about her life before her near-death experience. (It’s a complicated explanation, but the version I shopped around began around pg. 100, with approximately 8 pages devoted to Sophie’s daughter’s illness and her marriage problems. I basically just glossed over all of that.)

So I wrote all new material from scratch over the summer, just after I came off a three-book contract for my Highlander series. I also wrote the ending – another 150 pages. I now finally had a complete manuscript.

I showed about 60 pages of the new opening to my agent, but she wasn’t convinced it would do any better this time around. However, she was supportive of my desire to self-publish it as an alternative.

So here we are.

3 - You were in the middle of writing an historical series when The Color of Heaven came to you. Were you prepared to deal with this story?

I remember sitting in a white plastic lawn chair by an outdoor pool at a small-town motel, where my husband was competing in a triathlon. My seven-year-old daughter was swimming, and I grabbed a notepad and pencil out of my bag, and started madly scribbling down the plot. The hard part was finding the time to write it, because I was contracted for a bunch of historicals. I worked on it every time I was between contracts.

Did you try to resist it, or did you embrace it?

I totally embraced it!

4 - For this novel, your character speaks to readers in first person. How did you find writing in this new-to-you style?

It was very different and awkward at first. Early on, my agent told me to “keep working on the voice; get the kinks out.” Also, the secondary love story about Cora was originally told in third person, so there was a switch for the reader when he/she came to that section. I have since changed the whole book to first person, which I think is less jarring for the reader and works much better. But honestly, it wasn’t until this second go-around, five years later, that I felt like I was comfortable writing in the first person voice.

5 - Tell us about Sophie Duncan.

Sophie gets knocked about pretty hard in the first hundred pages of the novel, and many of those events are based on events in my own life. I had a car accident very similar to Sophie’s when I was 25, and I am still amazed that I survived it. And I almost lost my daughter to a serious kidney disease when she was two-years-old. Both those events have been impossible to forget, so I guess I needed to write about them.

6 - What about Kirk Duncan?

He’s the quintessential first love - the one that got away. He also reflects Sophie’s true and natural, artistic self. When she finds herself, and finally knows who she really is, she finds him, too.

7 - And Michael Whitman?

He represents the path we believe we should take in order to be successful, but that path does not always mesh with our true and honest self. I think most young people experience this on some level before they figure out who they really are deep down, and what they want. In my case, I equate him to my brief accounting career, when I thought I would be happy if I wore a suit and heels and carried a briefcase to work.

8 - Can you describe a few highlights of preparing this book for publication?


Working on the cover art was pure bliss!

For the first time, because I was self-publishing this book, I was involved in the creative process, and I chose the image myself. You’ll appreciate this Julia - the photographer is a gifted Russian named Vladimir Piskunov.

Awesome!

He took the photo in New Zealand, where I lived for half-a-year, and I still feel a great connection to the place. When I found this photo, I knew instantly that it was the one.


I used a fellow author who is also a graphic designer to do the artwork:

Pat Ryan Graphics

She was great to work with because she understood the psyche of the author as publisher. I was able to look at a first draft and request changes, and she tweaked it until I was happy. She gave me exactly what I wanted.

9 - What about the dark times?

The dark times came when it got rejected over and over and I wasn’t sure it would ever see the light of day.

Yes, published authors get rejected, too.

That was before this option became available to self-publish digitally. Now there can be a Plan B for authors who can’t find a spot the old-fashioned way.

10 - Do you think the theme of the book itself helped when you thought you couldn't tackle yet another roadblock?

Yes, I most definitely think the story and its theme kept me from giving up. Or maybe it’s the other way around – that eternal optimism in me is what made the story come out the way it did.

I believe in second chances, and this story is about hitting rock bottom, rising from the ashes, and starting all over again. I’ve been over some rough roads in my life with my own daughter’s illness, but she’s still here with us, dancing and making us proud. I’ve been rejected as a writer many, many times in various ways, but I always pick myself up and try again.

11 - If readers don't yet own an e-reader, how can they read your book?

I'm working on making a print version available on Amazon, which I hope to release by April 1. But in the meantime, if you have a computer - which you probably do if you’re reading this blog - it’s very easy to download a Kindle App and buy books instantaneously. Here’s the link:

Download Kindle app HERE

It may surprise you to know that I don’t own an e-reader yet either, but I downloaded the Kindle App to my computer last week so I could buy my own book!

It was so astonishingly easy that I couldn’t resist buying a few other books as well. That’s what I love about this new e-book market. You can have the book you want within seconds. Just click a button, and there it is.

12 - You're in the middle of promoting your three-book Highlander series this year, starting March 1st. Did you ever envision a four-release year when you were still chasing that first publication?

Never in a gazillion years. But at the same time, I’ve been off the shelves for a while - my last book with Avon came out two years ago. But I’ve been writing more than ever - so everything seemed to stockpile. I have four novels coming out this year:

The full Highlander Trilogy with St. Martin’s Press

The Color of Heaven

plus two short stories in anthologies:

The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance

Fall in Love Like a Romance Writer

The second one includes a true romance tale of how I met my husband in 1984. It’ll be a busy year, and I also have two Regency historicals to write!

13 - Are there more contemporary stories in the future for Julianne MacLean / E.V. Mitchell fans?

I would love to write another contemporary, and I suspect I will as soon as I fulfill my current contract for historicals. But before that, I also want to write the last book in my Pembroke Palace Series, which I can now self-publish as an Ebook if it doesn’t soon find a home with a NY publisher. (My agent has been working on that.) I may write it as a novella, I’m not sure, but I’ve left the character of Garrett hanging for too long, and I get a lot of reader mail about his book. He’ll be the next thing I write, when I’m finished this contract.

Julianne, it's been an honor to have your E.V. Mitchell launch here at A Piece of My Mind.

Thanks for having me here, Julia!


And I would love to give away a copy of the anthology Fall In Love Like a Romance Writer to one of the commenters today.

Good luck, everyone!

UPDATE

The contest is now closed - from midnight AST (Atlantic Standard Time) Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011.

The winner will be announced soon - stay tuned.


Here's an exclusive excerpt from The Color of Heaven.

Enjoy!

Not long after I crossed the border into New Hampshire, the temperature plummeted. If I had been out walking, I would have felt it on my cheeks. The chill would have entered my throat and lungs, but I was strapped tightly into the cozy confines of my vehicle with the heat blasting out of the dashboard vents, and was therefore shielded from the conditions outside.

I will always wonder what brought that deer out onto the road just as the puddles from the melting snow turned to ice. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, galloping onto the pavement, and my whole body went rigid.

Wrenching the steering wheel left to avoid her, I hit the brakes at the same time, which was, of course, the worst thing I could have done.

The car whipped around 180 degrees, so I was now facing the oncoming headlights from the vehicles traveling behind me. My tires skimmed sideways across the pavement toward the shoulder of the road.

I remember everything in excruciating detail, the noise especially, as my car rolled five times down the steep embankment. Glass shattered and smashed. Steel collapsed. The world spun in dizzying circles in front of my eyes, so I shut them and gripped the steering wheel hard, bracing my body against the jarring impact as the roof collapsed over the passenger side and the windows blew out.

Down I went, tumbling and bouncing over the rocks like a stone skipping across water.

Then all at once, it was over.

There was only white noise in my ears, and the thunderous sound of my heartbeat.

I opened my eyes to find myself hanging upside down in my seatbelt, with the side of my head wedged up against the roof.

The engine was still running. Other sounds emerged. Music blasted from the radio – an old favorite song of mine from the 80’s, The Killing Time, which was ironic, but in that heart-stopping moment, I was not that reflective. All I could think of was getting out of there.

Panic hit me. Hard. I felt trapped, frantic to escape, and began to thrash about.

I groped for the red button on the seatbelt buckle, but my hands were shaking so badly, I couldn’t push it.

My breaths came faster and faster.

I cried out, but no one heard.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a whip cracked. The vehicle shuddered.

I froze and tried to see past the smashed windshield in front of me. Everything outside the car was pure white, covered in snow.

If only I knew where I was. If only I could see something beyond the broken glass.

But it didn’t matter what I could, or could not, see. I knew what was happening...

My car was sitting on its roof, resting on a frozen lake. The crack of the whip was the sound of the ice breaking.

Creak… Groan…

My SUV shifted and began to slowly tip sideways...

© E.V. Mitchell, 2011

Thursday Thirteen - 158 - 13 Questions For Christine Wells, Author of Sweetest Little Sin - And a Book Giveaway!

Hi Julia! Thanks so much for having me on your blog today.






1 - If the Twilight series could be described as The Notebook meets Dracula, how would you describe Sweetest Little Sin?

I'd describe it as James meets Jane (James Bond and Jane Austen, that is!)

2 - Christine - that is brilliant.

We first meet Jardine and Louisa as secondary characters in The Dangerous Duke. Were you expecting the reader reaction to this couple?

I expected a few people to complain that Jardine and Louisa's romance wasn't resolved in The Dangerous Duke and I was prepared to do a novella or a free short story to give Louisa and Jardine their happily ever after.

Funnily enough, I didn't get complaints at all, but I did receive an amazing number of requests for their story. I was thrilled when my editor agreed to let me do a novel-length sequel.

I specifically singled them out in my review of The Dangerous Duke!

3 - Louisa is self-described as being not much of a beauty. But of course to Jardine she is one - and more. Is it difficult to write a non-glamorous heroine in the romance genre?

Louisa finds it rather bemusing that despite her ordinary looks, Jardine still thinks she's stunning and he's convinced that every man who looks at her twice wants her.

I loved writing Louisa because she was such a strong character. Her lack of glamour in the looks department didn't bother me at all.

4 - Jardine verges on being cruel at times. How did you manage to bring out the hero lurking inside him?

Well, he's never cruel to Louisa, except when he's trying to save her by pushing her away. I think that's the key, that he puts her interests first, no matter what.

He's ruthless, but I love it when men are ruthless in pursuit of a worthy goal. I always think that is the kind of man it takes to fight true evil.

5 - Is there a fictional character you've written who carries a lot of Christine Wells inside?

Short answer - No! I find writing characters is a bit like acting. You don the skin of whoever you're playing - writing - at that particular time.

Of course, some of my values and opinions must creep through but I don't think any of my characters are like me. How boring for the reader that would be!

6 - Which character was the hardest for you to get a solid handle upon?

The villain in Sweetest Little Sin, Radleigh, wasn't easy. It's difficult to make secondary characters three-dimensional as you have less air-time to give them. Plus, he was one sick puppy, so he wasn't easy for me to write.

7 - Which has been your most challenging book to write, so far?

They are all challenging! I think the only one I can say really flew along was Wicked Little Game. But each story presents its own challenges.

I don't think you ever stop learning and feeling like you're reinventing the wheel. It's what makes writing novels so interesting... and painful!

8 - Do you have a critique partner? If so, do you meet face to face? Or do you work online with one another?

I used to critique a lot but my critique partners and I got published at around the same time and it became difficult to co-ordinate around deadlines.

Denise Rossetti, who writes wonderful fantasy romance for Berkley and erotica for Ellora's Cave, is a CP who mainly helps me with plotting these days. We get together every now and then, face to face, as she lives in my town and she grills me about my characters and story. I'm an auditory learner so I find it helps to talk out problems with Denise.

Then Anna Campbell, who writes utterly compelling dark and sexy historicals for Avon, usually does a complete read-through critique of the full manuscript before I send it to my editor and vice versa. This seems to work well.

9 - How would you say juggling writing and motherhood differs from juggling another sort of career with parenthood?

I'm lucky that writing is more flexible than many other kinds of job. You do have to be more disciplined, though, because it's so easy to let all the domestic responsibilities eat into your writing time.

Those who have jobs outside the home at least get to leave their children in someone else's care while they do their work. If you write and stay at home, you don't have that luxury. You have to do double time and it can be very hard to focus, especially with babies and small children who don't understand the blood or fire rule!

This year is the first time I've had my younger child at kindergarten two days a week, so I now have some uninterrupted writing time. Yippee!

10 - Do you have any tips on keeping social life temptations from wreaking havoc with your contract deadlines?

Become a hermit. It works for me!

Seriously, I have the 'no vacancy' sign up when it comes to friends. I say no to anything that doesn't involve close, dear friends.

Unfortunately, that means I don't hang with the school mothers for coffee after school drop-off or go to my husband's work functions unless he really wants me to be there. A lot of acquaintances have fallen by the wayside but that's the price you pay. When my boys are both in school, I'll have more time for a social life.

11 - Do you have any other creative outlets besides writing fiction?

I love cooking, especially baking. I'm not sure if that's terribly creative as I do tend to follow recipes, but it's the closest I get.

I'd love to take painting lessons one day. I have very little natural aptitude but I'd like to learn.

12 - If you could have a fantasy dinner with any three writers, living or dead, and ask them about their creative processes, who would they be?

Dorothy Parker
Georgette Heyer
Jane Austen

I think somehow these ladies would disdain to discuss their processes, but it's my fantasy, isn't it?

13 - When did you realize that it was not only possible to be a published author, but that it was in your grasp?

That's a good question and I'm not sure I know the answer. I think perhaps it was when I had a request for the full of the first manuscript I wrote (which is now under the bed). Until then, I wasn't sure if what I was writing was like a 'real book'.

LOL! That's great to hear for those of us still polishing things off to send away.

Joining the Romance Writers of Australia was a huge boost. Reading about everyone's 'call stories' there was tremendously inspiring. I thought if they could do it, so could I!

I'm a member of Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada, and the support there is indescribable.

Julia, there's one more special treat - I've got a signed copy of Sweetest Little Sin to give away to someone who answers the question:

What is your creative talent or hobby? If you don't have one, what creative talent would you like to have?

Can't wait to read everyone's answers. Thank you so much for stopping by, Christine!

Cheers - thanks for having me!


Remember to join me next week when I review Sweetest Little Sin and announce the winner of the giveaway.





Denise Rosetti says As for creative hobbies - apart from driving a certain critique partner insane by being difficult about her plots - I'm a first class knitter.

Bev Petterson says Enjoyed the interview, Christine and congratulations on Sweetest Little Sin!

Julianne MacLean says The book looks wonderful! Today - drum roll please - I am going outside to plant some shrubs. I see Julia falling out of her chair, cuz she knows how much I hate gardening.)