Guest Blog: Mia Marlowe

This week, we're welcoming historical romance author Mia Marlowe. Her novel MAIDENSONG  has been re-issued in ebook format. The novel is the first in the Songs of the North series, taking readers on a vivid journey in the Viking age to the fabled grandeur of Miklagard (Constantinople). Mia is here to talk about the novel and give away a copy. Here's the blurb: 

When Rika sings the Norse legends, every other voice falls silent. She lives for the joy of her art, until the terrible day when she’s taken captive and made a slave to Bjorn the Black. She vows to hate him forever, but love doesn’t always recognize the enemy.

No one is more surprised than Bjorn when his slave takes his heart captive. But now that he’s oath-bound to deliver her to another man’s arms, is it a love too late? Sailing down wild rivers to a perilous foreign land, they discover the most dangerous journey is the distance from one heart to another.

**Q&A with Mia Marlowe**

Most of the historical romance world is fixated on Regency England. Why did you decide to write about Vikings?

I have nothing against the Regency. In fact, right now I’m collaborating with New York bestseller Connie Mason for a trio of Regency stories due out in 2013. (Check out my Coming Next page http://miamarlowe.com/next.php  for more about the Royal Rakes!) But I’ve always been fascinated by Norse culture.  Could be because I’m married to a guy of Norwegian descent. Like my hero, Bjorn, my DH is a “black viking,” which means he has dark hair and eyes instead of the usual fair Scandinavian coloring. My DH says it’s because the vikings used to capture the dark-haired women on their raids of the coastal European towns.  He assures me the women were all happy to go.

What makes MAIDENSONG unique?

I think the fact that it’s a “traveling story” marks it as different from many romances. My hero is oath-bound to deliver the heroine to become the 4^th wife of his brother’s trading partner in faraway Miklagard (9^th century Constantinople). They fight the dangers of the journey, the intrigues of that Byzantine city, and their own hopeless love for each other.

How did you come up with the title MAIDENSONG?

It comes from Norse skalds (their word for bards or storytellers).  The Norse system of runic writing was pretty complicated so most of the vikings were illiterate, but there was a lively tradition of oral history and storytelling. But there was one type of story that was forbidden in some realms. They were called “maidensongs”—love stories. Skalds brave enough to compose one risked death because love is the most powerful, most risky thing in the world.

What’s next?

I’m delighted to share that the second Song of the North story was just released. ERINSONG is set in Viking Ireland.  The hero and heroine from MAIDENSONG, Rika and Bjorn, reappear to help Bjorn's friend, Jorand in ERINSONG.

A few years ago, my DH and I visited Ireland. When I saw the fabulous artistry in the Book of Kells at Trinity University, I decided I wanted to write about an Irish heroine who’d mastered the art of illuminating manuscripts. Once I learned that Dublin started as a Viking over-winter settlement, I knew where Jorand ended up after his adventures with Bjorn and Rika in the first book.

Thank you, Mia and best of luck with sales of MAIDENSONG & ERINSONG.

Get your copy of MAIDENSONG at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Also, ERINSONG, the sequel available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Mia would like to offer an ebook of MAIDENSONG OR ERINSONG to a lucky commenter. Leave your comment or question in order to be entered in her drawing. Be sure to pop over to http://www.miamarlowe.com to enter her contest where the Grand Prize is the entire set of her print backlist! 


Mia want to know: Do you have a favorite unusual setting or time period for historical romance?

You can also find Mia on Facebook http://facebook.com/MiaMarloweFanPage and Twitter http://twitter.com/Mia_Marlowe !

Excerpt Thursday: Maidensong by Mia Marlowe

This week on Excerpt Thursday, we're welcoming historical romance author Mia Marlowe. Her novel MAIDENSONG  has been re-issued in ebook format. The novel is the first in the Songs of the North series, taking readers on a vivid journey in the Viking age to the fabled grandeur of Miklagard (Constantinople). Join us Sunday, when Mia will be here to talk about the novel and give away a copy. Here's the blurb:

When Rika sings the Norse legends, every other voice falls silent. She lives for the joy of her art, until the terrible day when she’s taken captive and made a slave to Bjorn the Black. She vows to hate him forever, but love doesn’t always recognize the enemy.

No one is more surprised than Bjorn when his slave takes his heart captive. But now that he’s oath-bound to deliver her to another man’s arms, is it a love too late? Sailing down wild rivers to a perilous foreign land, they discover the most dangerous journey is the distance from one heart to another.

Mia tells us more about the novel here: First of all, thanks for having me here on Unusual Historicals. While I love a good Regency as much as the next girl, I have to confess that unique time periods and settings call to me. Perhaps that's why I started out writing my "Dark Ages" romances. The more I studied the lore and legend of the Norse peoples, the more I was pulled into the world of the vikings.

History is always written by the winners but in this case, much of what we know about the raiders of the North was recorded by the people they victimized. Little wonder they were painted as rabid savages. However, if you look closer you'll find a civilization based on an oral tradition of laws, a mythology that rivals the Greco-Roman system, and a handsome race of people who bathed at least once a week when the rest of Europe went generally unwashed.

In MAIDENSONG, my first Songs of the North novel, my heroine Rika is a skald, a Nordic bard. My hero Bjorn is the brother of a jarl (a landed nobleman) who is oath-bound to deliver her to his brother's trading partner in distant Miklagard, the Viking name for Constantinople. (Yes, the Vikings were active in the Mediterranean. There are even accounts that a few of them rode camels over the desert and visited Baghdad.)

World building is something usually associated with paranormal authors, but historical writers have to do it too. The world of our stories is a world gone by, so we have to imagine it richly in order to whisk our readers back to it. Since my characters in MAIDENSONG travel from Scandinavia, down the wild rivers of Europe to the Black Sea and the Golden Horn of Miklagard, I decided it would help me if I drew a map of the route. Here it is in all it's crude glory.

What it lacks in artistic merit, it made up for in being a spur to my imagination. I could see the arduous portage from the mouth of one river to another. I could hear the roar of the cataracts and feel the mist on my face.

Hope you enjoy the journey!

**An Excerpt of MAIDENSONG**

Bjorn’s hair was bound back out of his eyes. A look of dogged concentration was etched on his rugged face as he swung the heavy double-bladed ax. Rika knew in that moment that she loved him. Loved him with every fiber of her being, with every breath, with every drop of blood.And she knew just as certainly if she died without letting this man love her, she might as well die right now.

Maybe it didn’t matter that tomorrow or next week or next month they’d reach the end of this journey and be parted. A Pecheneg arrow could find either of them at any moment. No one was promised tomorrow. But they did have now.

As if he felt her gaze, Bjorn turned her way.

“Rika?” he said uncertainly, unable to hear her words over the roar of the great waterfall behind her.

She took a step toward him, but made it no farther. The soft bank beneath her feet had been eroded by the constant hammering, and all it took to send it plummeting downstream was the slight addition of her weight.

Her eyes and mouth flew open wide in shock, and she disappeared into the mists of the falls without a sound.

Get your copy of MAIDENSONG at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Mia would like to offer an ebook of MAIDENSONG to a lucky commenter. Leave your comment or question in order to be entered in her drawing. Be sure to pop over to http://www.miamarlowe.com to enter her contest where the Grand Prize is the entire set of her print backlist! 

You can also find Mia on Facebook http://facebook.com/MiaMarloweFanPage and Twitter http://twitter.com/Mia_Marlowe !

We have a winner for MIA MARLOWE'S guest post. A free copy of Distracting the Duchess goes to:

Soft Fuzzy Sweater!

Please contact Mia Marlowe to provide your mailing address. The book must be claimed by next Sunday or another winner will be drawn. Please stop back later to let us know what you thought! Congratulations!

Guest Author: Mia Marlowe

This week on Unusual Historicals we're welcoming author Mia Marlowe, as she celebrates the release of her latest Kensington romance, Touch of a Thief, set in Victorian London, Paris and Hanover, available April 26. Here's the blurb:

Lady Viola Preston fully intends to give up her secret life of larceny, but when Lieutenant Greydon Quinn catches her red-handed, she has no choice but to help him with one more theft. Quinn needs the “Mayfair Jewel Thief” to steal back a fabulous red diamond. He never expected the thief to be a woman who'll steal his heart as well!

“Marlowe weaves a gentle paranormal element into this delightful 19th-century romance. Historical and paranormal readers will love this crossover tale.” ~ Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review!


Here at Unusual Historicals, we’re all about different times and places. When is Touch of a Thief set?
While I love the Regency period, it’s been done well by so many fantastic authors, I felt the need to branch out a bit. In the world of Touch of a Thief, Victoria has been on the English throne for 22 years but has not yet become a widow in perpetual mourning. As her Empire expands, the world shrinks. Telegraph makes it possible for people to communicate over long distances and while the great railways have yet to be finished, steam powers travel and industry. Hoop skirts have almost reached their widest point and the British congratulate themselves on bringing the blessing of civilization to “backward” nations. The tension and eventual exploding powder keg between England and its distant possession, India, is the backdrop for my story.

How about the geographical setting?
Touch of a Thief is a traveling story. My hero and heroine, Quinn and Viola, are on the hunt for a fabulous red diamond that’s been stolen from an Indian temple. It’s on its way to the Queen’s collection, but they hope to intercept The Blood of the Tiger and return it to its rightful place as a way to sooth rising tensions between the British Raj and the Indian peoples.

The quest begins in London. I’ve been blessed to visit that jolly old city several times and never tire of its cobbled streets, gorgeous cathedrals and fantastic museums. I only have to half-close my eyes to envision it as it would have been when Quinn and Viola strike up their uneasy partnership. Soot sometimes chokes the sky. Dray wagons crowd the narrow streets and the clomp of hooves is so constant, the inhabitants cease to hear it. The Thames is ripe on warm days, a floating miasma of industrial wastes and animal carcasses. Don’t worry. Quinn and Viola leave for Paris almost immediately, posing as newlyweds.

While I can claim to have been to Paris, I have really only seen the Charles de Gaulle Airport. We were on our way to Brussels once and, in a rolling tragic-comedy of airline errors, we were re-routed through France. Unfortunately, we didn’t know when our connecting flight would be leaving, so there I was, the Louvre so close I was salivating, but unable to leave the airport property. I do remember looking out a window at the eternal plains stretching away from the airport and thinking, “My goodness! I might as well be in Des Moines.” The view was strikingly similar.

But that didn’t stop me from imagining a Victorian Paris. Or researching it thoroughly enough to ensconce my hero and heroine in the Hotel de Crillon. It’s a grand old establishment that used to play host to Marie Antoinette and her intimate friends before she decided to let the French “eat cake.”

The next extended stop on my characters’ travels is Scloss Celle, near Hanover, Germany. Of course, it wasn’t Germany in 1859. It was the Duchy of Hanover, ruled by Queen Victoria’s relatives. When I visited the castle, I discovered a miniature of Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline Matilda, a rather scandalous royal who had the audacity to have an affair with her mad husband’s physician. She was kept a virtual prisoner till she died at the young age of 29, but in the miniature, she’s full of life, smiling vivaciously and—I kid you not—displaying her rouged nipples proudly above her extremely low-cut neckline.

What else makes Touch of a Thief unusual?
A dash of magic. My heroine has a psychometric gift. When she touches gemstones, they “speak” to her, sending her visions of their past owners. Since Viola is a jewel thief, this is something of an occupational hazard.

Where can we find Touch of a Thief?
You can pre-order a copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller. Touch of a Thief will be available everywhere on April 26th.

Thanks for having me here today. I’d love to answer reader’s questions. Leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of my re-issue Distracting the Duchess in beautiful tradepaper format.

Thank you, Mia for visiting today! Remember to leave a comment to be put in the drawing for a copy of Mia Marlowe's Distracting the Duchess. The winner will be drawn at random next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Best of luck!

Excerpt Thursday: Mia Marlowe

This week on Excerpt Thursday, we're welcoming Mia Marlowe, as she celebrates the release of her latest Kensington romance, Touch of a Thief, set in Victorian London, Paris and Hanover. It's available April 26. Join us Sunday, when Mia will be here to talk about her novels and give away a copy! Here's the blurb:

        Lady Viola Preston fully intends to give up her secret life of larceny, but when Lieutenant Greydon Quinn catches her red-handed, she has no choice but to help him with one more theft. Quinn needs the “Mayfair Jewel Thief” to steal back a fabulous red diamond. He never expected the thief to be a woman who'll steal his heart as well!

        “Marlowe weaves a gentle paranormal element into this delightful 19th-century romance. Historical and paranormal readers will love this crossover tale.” ~ Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review!

Excerpt from Chapter 4 of Touch of a Thief

Quinn never managed to visualize Viola and himself as lovers. The word was too tame, too gentle. When they came together in his mind’s eye, it was intense. Fierce.

Like tigers mating.

They’d die of bliss if they didn’t kill each other first. He’d never wanted a woman with as much frustration as he wanted the one waiting for him in his cabin.

It made no sense to his mind, but his body could care less for logic. A physical entanglement might jeopardize their working relationship. And once they retrieved the red diamond, what then?

Even though she was well-born, her larceny meant she wasn’t the fine English Rose men of his station expected to wed. There was a raw sensuality in her kisses, yet she was not a woman to take lightly and forgotten.

A man would be marked forever by her.

The mere thought of Viola was enough to make Quinn feel achingly male. He’d already visualized her silken limbs, her shuddering sighs. He throbbed to rut her senseless, beating against her like a moth against the glass of a lantern flue.

It’d been months since he’d had a woman, but he had to get a grip on his reaction to her. He turned away and headed for the captain’s, like a man destined for the rack.

When he reached the cabin, he raised his hand to knock, but caught himself. He was supposed to be her husband. This was his cabin too. He turned the knob and slipped in.

Viola had pulled back the bedclothes, stripped a sheet from the narrow bunk and hung it from one of the low beams. A lantern flickered on the far side of the sheet, treating Quinn to her shadowy silhouette backlit on the fabric.

Her naked shadowy silhouette. Every curve and line of her danced on the thin sheet.

“Is that you, Quinn?”

“Have you another faux husband on board, madam?”

“No, thank God. One of you is quite enough.” She peeped around the sheet, showing one smooth bare shoulder. “I’m taking my bath, such as it is. Kindly remain on that side of the cabin.”

“You have you my solemn oath that I will not move from this spot.” The mingled scents of warm woman and light floral wafted around the sheet. His body clenched. Wild elephants couldn’t drive him away.

“The captain had two chairs brought in for us. I left one on your side in case you returned before I was done.”

He was nearly done himself. He plopped into the chair because he wasn’t sure his knees would continue to support him. She disappeared behind the sheet again, apparently oblivious to the fact that he could make out the dip of her waist. The curve of her calf when she propped a foot on the chair. When she spread her legs to shoulder width and her hand disappeared between her thighs, he nearly groaned aloud.

“How long will it take us to reach Paris?” she asked.

Quinn cleared his throat to make sure his voice would work. “Three days, if we have fair weather.”

Three days of pleasurable agony trapped in the cabin with this siren who’d already turned him down twice. Like Odysseus, he ought to have Sanjay strap him to the mast.