Guest Author: Laurel McKee

After a slight technical glitch, I'm posting the correct interview. Yay!

This week we're welcoming the return of Amanda McCabe, writing as Laurel McKee, as she celebrates the release of COUNTESS OF SCANDAL, out now from Grand Central.

Eliza Blacknall and Will Denton were childhood sweethearts, growing up on neighboring estates in beautiful County Kildare. But adulthood finds them on opposite sides of the monumental and violent struggle of 1798, as Eliza supports the United Irish in their quest for independence, and Will is a major in the British Army, sworn to uphold the Crown. The passion for each other burns hotter than ever—but can it survive as their world crumbles around them?

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"McKee sets the stage for a romantic adventure that captures the spirit of Ireland and a pair of star-crossed lovers to perfection" -- RT Book Reviews

"COUNTESS OF SCANDAL combines a passionate romance with a nail-biting plot. The author's research shines through to make the era come alive, as well as her characters. An exciting tale out of the common mold" -- Romance Reviews Today

"This book has rarely used and well-drawn setting, good characters, and so much more working in its favor. I absolutely loved reading this one!" -- All About Romance

"McKee's intriguingly nuanced characters and deliciously subtle sense of humor provide the ideal counterpoint to the perfectly executed historical setting that gives COUNTESS OF SCANDAL its refreshingly different literary flavor" -- Booklist

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Tell us about COUNTESS OF SCANDAL!

First, I have to say thank you so much for having me back at Unusual Historicals! I'm obviously a huge fan of the "unusual" in historical romances, and this is such a fabulous source for finding out where to find them.

As for COUNTESS OF SCANDAL, it's my 'debut' as Laurel McKee (two different publishers equals two different names, though hopefully no identity crisis!) and I'm so excited about it. It's the first of the "Daughters of Erin" trilogy about the three Blacknall sisters, set in late Georgian/early Regency Ireland. Eliza Blacknall and Will Denton were childhood sweethearts, separated when Will joined the Army and Eliza married her family's choice for her. Now it's a few years later--1798, a fateful year in Ireland, and they're reunited on the eve of the Uprising. He's still a British officer, and she's an ardent supporter of the United Irishmen, but their old feelings for each other are still there, stronger than ever.

(The chaos of a rebellion might not be the number one setting people think of for a romance! But I found it had a lot of potential for danger and passion, and a chance for Eliza and Will to discover truths about themselves, their love, and the world around them. It was fun to work with a happier-ending Romeo and Juliet-ish story! Plus at the beginning I got to put in the great clothes and glamorous settings I love. Georgian Dublin was a very glamorous and party-loving place!)

Where did you get the idea for these stories?

My own family background is Irish, and I've wanted to do a book set there for a long time! It just took me a while to find the right characters and story. Ireland is such a gorgeous country, full of dramatic history people with passionate characters, and it seems ripe for romantic stories. I remembered a visit I made years ago to the beautiful Georgian estate Castletown, which was owned by Lady Louisa Conolly, one of the famous Lennox sisters, who made the house her life's work.


The guides had a trove of fascinating stories about Irish life in the late eighteenth century! I also read Stella Tillyard's fascinating book about the Lennox sisters, Aristocrats (and saw the lavish Masterpiece Theater adaptation), and that was the original inspiration--strong women in Georgian Ireland!

What kind of research did you do for the book?

I love doing research! That is one of the most fun parts of writing. I would have happily spent my whole life living in a library as the world's oldest permanent graduate student. Sometimes it's hard to stop researching and start writing. I started with some books I already had on the shelf, like Aristocrats and Tillyard's Rebel Lord, a biography of Edward Fitzgerald (son of another Lennox sister, the Duchess of Leinster, and a leader of the United Irishmen); Thomas Pakenham's The Year of Liberty; Thomas Bartlett's The 1798 Rebellion: An Illustrated History; and an old book I once found in an antique store, Mrs. Thomas Concannon's Women of '98. Then I expanded to the Internet and local university libraries and looked up maps, info on military uniforms and regiments, detailed sites in Ireland (since I sadly couldn't take a trip there right now!). It was lots of fun.

What's "unusual" about the book?

I think the setting is pretty unusual! I'm not sure I've ever read a Georgian Ireland romance (which is one reason I set out to write one), though my friend Michelle Willingham writes some fabulous Medieval Irish books. I also really enjoyed using the setting and events to create the conflict for the characters. That made my job a lot easier!

What's next for you?

DUCHESS OF SIN will be out from Grand Central Publishing in December 2010! It's Anna Blacknall's story, where she meets again with the Irish Duke of Adair amid the chaos of the Act of Union in 1800. It's also set against a Christmas background, and I had fun researching the holiday--the Irish really knew how to party at Christmas, LOL! (LADY OF SEDUCTION , Caroline Blacknall's book, will be out in 2011)

As Amanda McCabe, I have a Regency-set trilogy coming out in April, May, and June, "The Muses of Mayfair" (Book one is TO CATCH A ROGUE). I love this series, which is set around another passion of mine--archaeology and antiquities collecting! There will also be a Harlequin Undone short story to kick off the series in March, TO BED A LIBERTINE, where a real Greek Muse comes to Regency London and wreaks some havoc.

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Thanks, Amanda, for stopping by!

We're giving away COUNTESS OF SCANDAL to a lucky commenter. Maybe you'd like to let us know whether you find Ireland an unusual setting for romance? What is it about Ireland that fascinates you? I'll draw one random name next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Best of luck!

THE WINTER QUEEN Winner!

We have a winner for Amanda McCabe's THE WINTER QUEEN guest blog. A free copy goes to:

ALISON!

Contact Carrie 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!

Weekly Announcements - 13 Nov 09

Publishing under the pseudonym Ellen Connor, Carrie Lofty and her friend Ann Aguirre have sold three books to Penguin. They're not historical but they certainly qualify as unusual. Full details here, if you're curious.

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Lisa Marie Wilkinson's debut FIRE AT MIDNIGHT was recently named winner of the Fiction and Literature/Romance category of USA Book News Best Books of 2009. Congratulations!

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Jennifer Linforth's debut, MADRIGAL, is now available from Highland Press as an ebook.

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Join us Sunday when Unusual Historicals welcomes the return of Harlequin Historicals author Kate Bridges. She'll be discussing comedy, romantic screenplays, and of course, her newest release: ALASKAN RENEGADE, set in frontier Alaska! She'll also be giving away a copy. Don't miss it!

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We'll also draw the winner of Amanda McCabe's THE WINTER QUEEN. You still have time to leave a comment or question for your chance to win.

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And stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Carol Ann Didier, Margaret Mallory, Michelle Styles and Carla Capshaw will be our guests. We hope you'll join us!

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Have a good weekend! Remember, you don't have to be an Unusual Historicals contributor to submit good news to the weekend announcements. If it has to do with unusual historicals, we'd love to shout it out to the world! Send announcements to Carrie. See you next week...

Guest Author: Amanda McCabe

We're happy to welcome back Harlequin Historicals author Amanda McCabe as she celebrates the release of her Elizabeth-set Christmas romance, THE WINTER QUEEN What a gorgeous cover for such an evocative title!

Sent to Serve...
As Queen Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting, innocent Lady Rosamund is unprepared for the temptations of Court. She is swept up in the festivities of the Yuletide season and, as seduction perfumes the air, Rosamund is drawn to darkly enticing Anton Gustavson...

Seduced By A Master!
With the coming of the glittering Frost Fair, they are tangled in a web of forbidden desire and dangerous secrets. For in this time of desperate plots and intrigues, Anton is more than just a handsome suitor--he may have endangered the life of the woman he is learning to love...

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"A delightful holiday gift of romance and intrigue! McCabe mixes in historical fact with fiction to create a fascinating page-turner of a novel" -- Fresh Fiction Reviews

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When Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558, she inherited from her half-sister Queen Mary a war and religion-torn country on the verge of bankruptcy. It was an unpromising beginning, but Elizabeth was a brilliant politician, and she understood that what England needed was sparkle and pageantry. A majestic Court, with herself as its shining star and her ladies as her foils, would be her backdrop for a renewed and empowered England. Not all of her ladies were content to be mere background, though--and most of them didn't care to emulate Elizabeth in her famous virginity.

By 1564, the year when my story THE WINTER QUEEN takes place, the structure of the Royal Household had become very elaborate, with a definite hierarchy of service. There were the heights--the Ladies of the Bedchamber; the middle--the Ladies of the Privy Chamber; and the lowest (but still pretty good)--the Ladies of the Presence Chamber. The latter seem to have had no set duties except to attend on the Queen when she wanted to impress someone, such as a foreign ambassador.

The six unmarried Maids of Honor (the position of my heroine, Rosamund) went with the Queen on her morning walks and to church services, clad in the regulation white and silver. When the Queen took the throne, her old nursery maid Blanche Parry was named Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, while a Mistress Eglionby had the unenviable task of shepherding the Maids of Honor.

Obtaining a place at Court was very difficult, with fierce competition whenever a position came open. It was especially tough in Elizabeth's time, as hers was the only household. (When there was a king and a queen, and presumably royal children, there were many more households with more attendants required). In return for their services, the ladies received modest stipends. Privy Chamber ladies got 34 pounds a year, while the Maids of Honor received 40 (as they were usually of very high families). In addition, the Court was responsible for their room and board while they were on duty, and they had a lively social life and a measure of influence they wouldn't have otherwise.

Not that life was all banquets and strolls in the garden! Elizabeth was a very strict employer. Ladies couldn't be absent from Court without the Queen's permission, which was hard to obtain (she was very possessive). She also liked to berate her ladies, "her sarcastic tongue and withering wit...combined to render her an object of terror to her apprehensive attendants" (Somerset). She also sometimes threw things at them in a fit of Tudor temper, which couldn't have been much fun!

The housing was also not the most luxurious. The Maids of Honor lived in one dorm-style room, and a palace could only be lived in for a short time before the stench of so many inhabitants became overwhelming. Several of the Queen's ladies defied her by indulging in love affairs with her courtiers, and some (like her cousins Katherine Gray and Arbella Stuart) paid for it with stints in the Tower.

Despite those drawbacks, the life of lady-in-waiting gave upper-class women an opportunity they could find nowhere else. They were at the very center of power in Renaissance England at a pivotal moment in history. All the intrigue and glamour also makes it a terrific backdrop for novels!

Here are a few fun sources I used to research THE WINTER QUEEN:

Ladies in Waiting by Dulcie M. Ashdown (Arthur Barker, 1976)
The Palaces and Progresses of Elizabeth I by I. Dunlop (Jonathan Cape, 1962)
Elizabeth and Leicester by Sarah Gristwood (Viking, 2007)
Tudor Women by Alison Plowden (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979)
Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of a Society by A.L. Rowse (Macmillan, 1971)
Elizabeth I by Anne Somerset (Knopf, 1991)
Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day (Orion, 1984)
The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir (Ballantine, 1998)
Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honor by Violet A. Wilson (Bodley Head, 1922)

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*sigh* I just love history. Thanks so much for sharing with us, Amanda. Now readers: If you leave a question or comment for Amanda, you'll be entered to win a copy of THE WINTER QUEEN of your own--just in time for holiday reading! Void where prohibited. I'll draw a winner next Sunday. Best of luck, and thank you again to Amanda for sharing with us today!

Excerpt Thursday: Amanda McCabe

This week on Excerpt Thursday, we're welcoming back Amanda McCabe as she celebrates the release of her newest unusual historical from Harlequin: THE WINTER QUEEN, set in Elizabethan England. Join us Sunday when Amanda will be here to talk about THE WINTER QUEEN and give away a copy!

As Queen Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting, innocent Lady Rosamund is unprepared for the temptations of Court. She is swept up in the festivities of the yuletide season and, as seduction perfumes the air, Rosamund is drawn to darkly enticing Anton Gustavson...

With the coming of the glittering Frost Fair, they are tangled in a web of forbidden desire and dangerous secrets. For in this time of desperate plots and intrigues, Anton is more than just a handsome suitor—he may have endangered the life of the woman he is learning to love...

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Lady Rosamund Ramsay is traveling from her home to the Court of Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, in the middle of the coldest winter in living memory. Almost there, she stops for a walk in the woods, and encounters a dangerously attractive young man...

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Rosamund emerged from the woods into a clearing, suddenly facing a scene from another world, another life. There was a frozen pond, a rough circle of shimmering, silver ice. On its banks crackled a bonfire, snapping red-gold flames that send plumes of fragrant smoke into the sky and reached enticing tendrils of heat toward Rosamund's chilled cheeks.

There were people, four of them, gathered around the fire--two men and two ladies, clad in rich velvets and furs. They laughed and chattered in the glow of the fire, sipping goblets of wine and roasting skewers of meat in the flames. And out in the very center of that frozen pond was another man, gliding in lazy, looping circles.

Rosamund stared in utter astonishment as he twirled in a graceful, powerful arc, his lean body, sheathed only in a black velvet doublet and leather breeches, spinning faster and faster. He was a dark blur on that shining ice, swifter than any human eye could follow. As she watched, mesmerized, his spin slowed until he stood perfectly still, a winter god on the ice.

The day too grew still; the cold, blowing wind and scudding clouds hung suspended around that one man.

"Anton!" one of the ladies called, clapping her gloved hands. "That was astounding."

The man on the ice gave an elaborate bow before launching himself into a backward spin, a lazy meander toward the shore.

"Aye, Anton is astounding," the other man, the one by the fire, said. His voice was heavy with some Slavic accent. "An astounding peacock who must show off his gaudy feathers for the ladies."

The skater--Anton?--laughed as he reached the snowy banks. He sat down on a fallen log to unstrap his skates, an inky-dark lock of hair falling over his brow.

"I believe I detect a note of envy, Johan," he said, his deep voice edged with the lilting music of that same strange, northern accent. He was not even out of breath after his great feats on the ice.

Johan snorted derisively. "Envy of your monkeyish antics on those skates? I should say not!"

"Oh, I am quite sure Anton is adroit at far more than skating," one of the ladies cooed. She filled a goblet with wine and took it over to Anton, her fine velvet skirts swaying. She was tall and strikingly lovely, with dark-red hair against the white of the snow. "Is that not so?"

"In Stockholm, a gentleman never contradicts a lady, Lady Essex," he said, rising from the log to take her proffered goblet, smiling at her over its gilded rim.

"What else do they do in Stockholm?" she asked, a flirtatious note in her voice.

Anton laughed, his head tipped back to drink deeply of the wine. As he turned toward her, Rosamund had a clear view of him and she had to admit he was handsome indeed. Not quite a peacock--he was too plainly dressed for that, and he wore no jewels but a single pearl drop in one ear. And not the same as Richard, who had a blond, ruddy, muscular Englishness. But undeniably, exotically handsome.

He was on the tall side, and whipcord lean, no doubt from all that spinning on the ice. His hair was black as a raven's wing, falling around his face and over the high collar of his doublet in unruly waves. He impatiently pushed it back, revealing high, sharply carved cheekbones and dark, sparkling eyes.

Eyes that widened as they spied her standing there, staring at him like some addled peasant girl. He handed the lady his empty goblet and moved toward Rosamund, graceful and intent as a cat. Rosamund longed to run, to spin around and flee back toward the woods, yet her feet seemed nailed into place. She could not dash off, could not even look away from him.

"Well, well," he said, a smile touching the corner of his sensual lips. "Who do we have here?"

Rosamund, feeling utterly flustered and foolish, was finally able to turn around and flee, Anton's startled laughter chasing her all the way back to the safety of her litter.