from Mia Marlowe…

I’m the first to admit it. The porcupine and I have not exactly bonded.

I know, I know. Jaunty is our mascot and he’s been with the JQs much longer than me. I should show some respect.

But from the very beginning, I just wasn’t feeling the love. For one thing, I wasn’t expecting the high-handed (Excuse me, ought I to say “high-pawed?”) interview with the porcupine to which I had to submit when I first joined the group. Also, I’m not used to egotistical rodents who demand offerings of pine nuts. Or whine (Sorry, Jaunty, but you do sometimes get a “tone” going, you know!) that we ought to put him in our stories.

But the DH and I were in Rouen, France recently and I saw something there that made me think Jaunty just might have reason to have such a high opinion of himself.

Yep, that’s a porcupine with a golden crown on its pointed little head. (Hey! Don’t take offense, Jaunty. A porcupine is arguably covered with nothing but points!) Anyway, the crowned porcupine is the emblem associated with Louis XII of France who ruled from 1498-1515. He reformed the French legal system, lowered taxes and was adept at handling his nobles. Popular with his subjects, Louis was known as “The Father of his People.” He didn’t even run up the deficit, unlike previous and subsequent monarchs.

But lest our Jaunty get too puffed up, King Louis XII’s dealings with the ladies was nothing to write home about. He was forced to marry a distant relative when he was quite young. How young no one could be certain since there were no accurate records of his birth, but he argued that he had been under the age of consent, which was 14 at the time. Once he unexpectedly became king, he had the marriage annulled, but he didn’t claim he and Queen Joan were too closely related or that he’d been too young to have consented to the marriage. Louis testified that his wife was deformed and he couldn’t consummate the marriage because of it.

Needless to say, the lady was horrified and fought the charges with vehemence. However, the Pope had political reasons for supporting Louis, so the annulment was granted. (Joan entered a convent and was later canonized as a saint in 1950. After a husband like Louis, she deserved it!)

He then married Anne of Brittany and sired 4 stillborn sons and two live daughters. Louis was desperate to beget a male heir for France, so when Anne died in 1514, he lost no time in marrying Mary Tudor, sister of England’s Henry VIII. Three months later he died, reputedly from exhaustion from his exertions in the royal bedchamber, still without a male heir.

Who’s deformed now, Louis?

Anyway, I thought Jaunty might enjoy seeing his royal roots and how his illustrious many-times great-grandfather was commemorated in France. Does this make up for the lack of pine nuts?

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Mia’s newest release One Night with a Rake is based on the very real historical race for the English crown. When Princess Charlotte died in 1817, the unmarried sons of King George III realized that if they could present their royal father with a legitimate grandchild, that child might one day sit on the throne. But not everyone wants to see the House of Hanover continue, so Lord Nathaniel plans to seduce Lady Georgette out of royal consideration, one delicious sin at a time…

To Purchase One Night with a Rake
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books-a-Million
IndieBound
Chapters/Indigo
Discover a New Love
Sourcebooks

Sourcebooks is offering a print copy of Waking Up with a Rake (Book 1 in the Royal Rake series) to one random commenter. US/Canada only. Here’s a question to get the discussion started:

History is often stranger than fiction. Honestly, I could not make some of this stuff up! How much actual history do you like in your historical romance?

Congratulations to Sheryl! Because of her comment on Mia’s One Night with a Rake tour stop here on June 5th, Sheryl was chosen to receive a print copy of Mia’s Waking Up with a Rake. Please email Mia (mia @ miamarlowe.com–remove spaces, of course!) with your mailing info.

If you didn’t win, don’t give up! Mia’s One Night with a Rake tour marches on. Leave a comment at each stop for a chance to win the first book in the Royal Rakes series. And be sure to order your own One Night with a Rake.

Every girl deserves one!

For a signed copy of One Night with a Rake, make plans now to see Mia Marlowe at:
Barnes & Noble
125 S. Broadway
Salem, NH 03079
June 22nd, 3-5 PM

from Mia Marlowe…

Well, maybe she doesn’t need a rake, but that sort of fellow does make life more interesting.

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Welcome to the third stop on my One Night with a Rake Tour! If you’re a contemporary reader, I hear you asking, “What the heck is a rake, other than a garden tool?” In Regency parlance, “rake” is short for “rakehell.” It refers to a man who makes a habit of immoral behavior, is a serial womanizer and often incurs lavish amounts of debt.

In other words, this sort of rake is a tool!

But what if the rake had reason to turn his back on Polite Society and seek oblivion in less wholesome pursuits? That’s what I try to find out in One Night with a Rake. Lord Nathaniel Colton lost everything he valued about when his fiancee died of scarlet fever. He thinks his heart is dead and buried with Anne and he doesn’t dare care about anyone else. He can’t bear to lose anyone ever again. Since that time, his polished Hessians have rested beneath the beds of countless widows and wayward wives. But however far he sank into libertine ways, Nate made it a point not to debauch any virgins.

Until he’s blackmailed into it in order to protect his father and unmarried sister.

To make matters worse, the young lady Nathaniel is supposed to ruin is Anne’s sister.

Needless to say, our hero is conflicted about what he has to do. And seducing Lady Georgette won’t be an easy task. She’s a fire-breathing crusader bent on helping “soiled doves” out of their lives of prostitution. To touch her heart (or any of the rest of her!), Nate will have to convince her that he cares about someone other than himself.

No one is more surprised than Nate when he actually does.

Throughout the book, Nate wrestles with the idea that the end justifies the means. What do you think? Have you ever been tempted to bend your own moral code for the sake of a greater good? What did you do?

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Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for Book 1 in the Royal Rakes series, Waking up with a Rake!
US/Canada only.

The Fate of England’s Monarchy Is In The Hands of Three Notorious Rakes.

To prevent three royal dukes from marrying their way onto the throne, heroic, selfless agents for the crown will be dispatched…to seduce the dukes’ intended brides.

After he’s falsely blamed for a botched assignment during war, former cavalry officer Rhys Warrington turns his back on “honor.” He spends his nights in brothels doing his best to live down to the expectations of his disapproving family. But one last mission could restore the reputation he’s so thoroughly sullied. All he has to do is seduce and ruin Miss Olivia Symon and his military record will be cleared. For a man with Rhys’s reputation, ravishing the delectably innocent miss should be easy. But Olivia’s honesty and bold curiosity stir more than Rhys’s desire. Suddenly the heart he thought he left on the battlefield is about to surrender…

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Find Mia at MiaMarlowe.com, Twitter & Facebook!

from Mia Marlowe…

I’m a firm believer in writing down goals, mostly because I’ve seen the things I commit to paper come to fruition in my life. When our kids were small, I wrote that I wanted to live in a log home in the mountains close to my parents (who were halfway across the country from us at the time.) Within a few years, I found myself living in a log home at the base of the Big Horns, a mere 10 miles from the girls’ grandparents.

But that wasn’t the first time I wrote down my goals. In high school, my English teacher invited us to dream on paper. After deciding finding The One was my first priority, having a family was number two. As a kid, I’d camped all over the western US with my family, and loved experiencing new places, so in a flight of fancy, I wrote “Travel the world” for my number three.

I met and married my DH before we graduated from college. #1 & #2 Daughters arrived thereafter. Then, lo! and behold, out of the blue, my math major/computer guru DH had the opportunity to become a travel IT professional. While he worked for several different airlines, we made great use of the flight benefits. We flitted about at every opportunity. Our kids had passports before they had double digit birthdays. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been to Europe, something we couldn’t have afforded without the DH’s job. I routinely tag along when he travels to interesting places for work and our latest adventure took us to Japan.

Of course, if the work travel isn’t enough to ease my travel bug, we launch out on our own. Even though I suffer from mal de mer, I love cruising. I almost don’t feel as if I’m on vacation unless the deck of a ship is swaying beneath my feet. So, it should come as no surprise when I tell you that I am not in my Boston condo today. I’m actually in Portsmouth, England, getting ready to board a ship for a 12 day cruise around the British Isles!

Click to pre-order!

We’ll be stopping at one of the Channel Islands, Cork, Dublin & Belfast in Ireland, Glasgow, one of the Orkneys, Inverness & Edinburgh in Scotland and finally, Le Havre, France. I’m so excited about this trip, but actually, there is a bit of work involved. I just accepted a new contract from Kensington for more Scottish stories, so I’ll be researching like crazy! I  know, I know. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

I have a couple of Scottish titles coming out later this year. First in late August, there’s Plaid to the Bone, #1 in the Spirit of the Highlands series.

Adam Cameron, laird of Bonniebroch, didn’t expect his bride to turn up at his castle so soon after their arranged marriage was settled. But the daughter of his former enemy is comely beyond the common, so he’s counting his blessings. Unfortunately, Adam doesn’t know the lovely Cait Grant has sworn to kill her new husband with a blood oath that will set a terrible curse in motion if she fails.

But Cait never counted on falling in love with the man her father had taught her to hate.

Click to pre-order!

Then on October 1st, my Scottish Christmas story Plaid Tidings hits the bookstore shelves.

Christmas in the Highlands…

Not any dashing English lord’s idea of a good time. But now that Lord Alexander Mallory has won a Scottish estate in a hand of cards, he is the unlikely laird of the wild, snowy Bonniebroch. Worse yet, the ancient pile of stones comes with a betrothal. To a fiery red-headed virgin. And a curse.

Alex will have his hands full honoring the first, seducing the second and breaking the third … all by Twelfth Night.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t share the special price Sourcebooks is offering on my first Scottish story, Sins of the Highlander. I wrote this one in collaboration with romance legend, Connie Mason~a New York Times Bestseller and a wonderful writing partner! It’s only $2.99 right now but the sale is only good till May 26th.

Obsession

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“Mad Rob” MacLaren thought stealing his enemy’s bride would be the perfect revenge. But Rob never reckoned that this beautiful, innocent lass would awaken the part of him he thought dead and buried with his wife. Against all reason, he longs to introduce the luscious Elspeth to the pleasures of the flesh, to make her his, and only his forever.

Sins of the Highlander is available for both Kindle and Nook at the special price of $2.99 till May 26th.

But back to goals…what about YOU? Do you write down your dreams? Is there one you’d like to share with us here? I may not have access to the internet in order to respond today, but your thoughts are important to me. I’ll check back here when I return!

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If you’d like to do a little armchair traveling with Mia, be sure to pop over to her blog for updates on her adventures in Scotland!

from Mia Marlowe...

Today, I’m turning the Jaunty Quills over to romance reader and blogger extraordinaire, Kim Lowe. I first met Kim online when she hosted me on one of my many blog tours. Then when I visited Hawaii with my family last year, our online friendship blossomed in real life! Kim met us the day before we boarded our cruise ship and took us on a wonderful, behind-the-scenes tour of Pearl Harbor and Hickham AFB. Then after our cruise, she met us at the dock with a rental van and drove us into the fragrant hills overlooking Honolulu for a tour of Queen Emma’s Summer Home. Kim was so knowledgeable and such fun, she was the highlight of our vacation!

And true to her giving spirit, Kim is here today to share a great read with us all. Ok, Kim. The Jaunty blog is now yours.

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Mahalo, Mia, for hosting me today at the Sisterhood of the Jaunty Quills.   I love the name of this blog – the sisterhood.  Blogs like Jaunty Quills offer me entrée into a cyber sisterhood of romance readers.  Perhaps this is why I enjoy continuing series – I grow comfortable with the extended cast of characters.   Yet all good things come to an end, including series.

Today I chat about the bittersweet anticipation of Cathy Maxwell’s THE DEVIL’S HEART, the finale of the Chattan Curse.    The series began with a 17^th century curse,

When a Chattan male falls in love, strike his heart with fire from above…

Charles Chattan abandoned his Scottish sweetheart, Rose MacNachtan, for an English heiress, prompting Rose’s mother to cast a devastating curse on the Chattan family.   Fast forward to the 19^th Century where the Chattan family is socially connected in Regency England.  Yet Neal Chattan, Lord Lyon, desires a family in Book 1, LYON’S BRIDE.   He hires society matchmaker, Thea Martin, to find him a bride he cannot love … only to fall in love with Thea.

Neal’s willing to risk his life for love prompts his brother, Harry, to wake up from his drunken stupor to find a witch to reverse the curse in Book 2, THE SCOTTISH WITCH.  He encounters a desperate Portia Maclean posing as a witch, only to fall under her spell.

With both brothers in peril, their sister Margaret, a London lady, ventures into the heart of the Highlands in Book 3, THE DEVIL’S HEART.   She confronts the witch’s descendent, Heath Macnachtan, a sensible laird who cannot understand Margaret’s fear of the curse – a fear that his clansmen also share.   Despite that fear, Margaret is welcomed into the sisterhood of his household, where she sees love abound despite their financial difficulties.   Margaret draws from her brothers’ courage and Heath’s compassion to track down the long dead witch.

As much as I wanted Margaret to find a resolution, that meant the story (and series) would be over.   As hard at it was for Margaret to let go of her brothers so they could find love, it is hard for me as a reader to let go of this series set in Scotland.  In the end, Margaret proved that she, too, deserves her own HEA along with Neal and Harry.  But how did she secure the HEA for all three siblings?  Let me just say that Cathy Maxwell surprised me and satisfied me with the climax.   THE DEVIL’S HEART should be labeled, “Read with a box of tissue”, as Margaret also learns that love is worth the risk.

I would like to offer a print copy of THE DEVIL’S HEART to one commenter here at the Sisterhood of the Jaunty Quills.  Three seems to be the magic number in a series – how many books do you think is “just right” for a series?

About Kim: Kim Lowe is a military spouse and romance enthusiast.  After four years in Hawaii, she is moving back to Baltimore this summer, ready for in person sisterhood with other romance readers.   Check out her travel blog, ALOHA ON MY MIND, at alohaonmymind.blogspot.com.

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Mia here again. Thanks, Kim! The Devil’s Heart sounds great.

Ok, now it’s your turn. What’s the right number of books for a series? (I’d also be interested to know your favorite series!)

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my most recent Jaunty post. My winner is (cue drumroll, please!) …Tanja Haack! She’ll win a copy of Stroke of Genius! Tanja, please contact me through my website so I can send your ebook to you! (For the rest of you, don’t despair. I have a little surprise coming next week. Be sure to check my blog on May 21st & 22nd for a free read!)

Update: My winner is (cue drumroll, please!) …Tanja Haack! She’ll win a copy of Stroke of Genius! Tanja, please contact me through my website so I can send your ebook to you! (For the rest of you, don’t despair. I have a little surprise coming next week. Be sure to check my blog on May 21st & 22nd for a free read!)

from Mia Marlowe…

I’m in Boston. My mom is in the Midwest. We keep in touch through frequent calls and on Facebook, but it’s so not the same as being in the same town and being part of each other’s lives every day. However, I did get a chance to see her for a few days before the RT convention last week and took her for a pedicure for Mother’s Day. It was a nice, relaxing girl time for us.

But that wasn’t the gift she was most excited about. I gave her my old Kindle. I hesitate to even call this a gift since it was used, but my DH gave me a Kindle Fire for my Bday and it seemed wasteful to have two of them. I worried that she’d be able to use it since she’s only recently jumped into spending time on the computer. Once I showed her how she could control the size of the font, she was thrilled and soon learned how to choose from the library of books. It’s loaded up with all my romances, my DH’s techno-thrillers and a few mysteries tossed in for good measure.

That Kindle is still attached to my account, which means when I buy a new book, Mom can read it, too. Since she put the first romance novel in my hands years ago, this seems fitting. I love this. When you share a book, you share a whole world. And even though we’re still miles apart, we’ll have plenty to talk about. The distance between us shrinks as we share the same books and live through the same love stories.

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Do you have someone with whom you share books? Are you part of a book club or a circle of reading friends? What are you planning for Mother’s Day?  Leave a comment for a chance to win my Stroke of Genius for your Kindle.

Georgette Heyer with ripped bodices!
“Crispin Hawke is awkward, dashing, self-assured, rude, everything you’d expect from Georgette Heyer, or even Jane Austen. Grace Makepeace is American. She’s tall, beautiful, and knows what she wants. But she falls for Hawke in a big way and decides that she wants him above everything else. Mia Marlowe is the mistress of saucy historical romance, and Stroke of Genius is pure delight!”
~ Booksmonthly

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Mia loves to connect with readers! Find her at MiaMarlowe.com, Twitter & Facebook!

from Mia Marlowe…

I’m in Kansas City now for the Romantic Times Convention. It’s a crazy week of workshops, mixers and parties. I was one of the hosts for Rosy Gulch’s Saloon this evening. As you can see I was wanted for “encouraging dangling participles!”

My fellow JQ, the lovely and talented Shana Galen, was also a host for the event. Not sure her wanted poster read, but this is a bit of a different look for her!

One of the perks of being here is the literal suitcase of free books you can bring home. However, not everyone can make it to KC, so I’m bringing a bit of RT love to you.

My latest release, Stroke of Genius, is now FREE for your Kindle. I’m so excited to share Crispin and Grace’s love story with you and hope it will give you as much joy to read it as I had writing it.

Click to order!

Crispin is not your typical Regency hero. He’s a self-made man. Brilliant, brash to the point of rudeness, he’s an artistic genius who knows his own worth when it comes to his work, but is still struggling with the scars of his rough childhood. Grace Makepeace is an American heiress, and while she’s never known want as Crispin has, she still longs for someone to see her instead of her father’s bottomless pockets.

Here’s the link: FREE Stroke of Genius!

If you don’t have a Kindle, please don’t despair! You can download a FREE Kindle app for your PC, phone, tablet, etc. I’ve done it with my phone and I love having my library in my pocket! Check it out here: Free Kindle Apps

This free offer is only good till May 5th, so please hurry. I don’t want you or any of your reading friends to miss out.

Happy Reading,
Mia

from Mia Marlowe…

We got to see our oldest daughter on Monday because she’s in New Hampshire for her work. She’s with a quilting machine company and is working the MQX Quilt Show in Manchester. When she was a kid, she was a total tomboy, more at home catching crawdads than playing with baby dolls, but now she’s a terror on a quilting machine. We’ll be heading back up on Saturday to view the display of “art quality” quilts and see her in action on the Statler machine.

I’m blessed to have a number of quilts from my grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Some are color coordinated and pieced in recognizable patterns–Lone Stars, Log Cabins, and Wedding Rings. But some are purely utilitarian quilts to be used for warmth, fashioned from old shirts and left over fabric scraps in  haphazard pieces, bound together with tiny even stitches done by hand.  Just looking at them calls back the women in my family tree who worked them and gave them to their loved ones.

I’ve long felt a quilt was a love letter in fabric and thread. Before I began writing full time, I worked at a bank and one time, I organized a quilt show to engage our customers and give them warm fuzzies about where they dealt with their money. They were invited to bring in their quilts to display. Customers voted for their favorites and we awarded prizes in several categories. I’ll never forget one day when a fellow did his banking and then spent about 45 minutes wandering from quilt to quilt. Finally, he came up to me and said, “I feel like curling up in the corner and sucking my thumb.” The display really sent him down memory lane.

How about you? Do you have any family quilts? Are you a quilter? I’m not, but I so admire those who are.  Perhaps there’s another craft that captures your fancy? I’d love to hear about it!

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Mia’s Touch of a Rogue was just named Best Book of 2012 in its category!

“TOUCH OF A ROGUE is a fabulous second installment in Mia Marlowe’s Touch of Seduction series. This novel has a delightful cast of characters that will make you smile and plenty of drama to encourage you to continue turning the pages. Characters from the first book are included here, but reading this book first will not cause any confusion. This can easily be read as a stand-alone and it will certainly make you eager to go back for more. Readers looking for the next spicy, yet dramatic historical romance should turn to Ms Marlowe’s TOUCH OF A ROGUE. This novel captures a love story that is addictive and absolutely fantastic.” ~ The Romance Review

Amazon | Kindle | B&N.com |BAM | Indiebound

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Mia loves to connect with readers. Find her at Twitter, Facebook and at MiaMarlowe.com.