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 !

Guest Author: Emily Bryan

Our guest blogger today is Emily Bryan! Though she writes light-hearted romps for Leisure Books now, some of you may remember this award-winning author from her Diana Groe titles. Her newest release is VEXING THE VISCOUNT.

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Daisy Drake is leading a double life! By day, she's Lucian Beaumont's unwanted assistant and by night, she masquerades as the masked courtesan, Blanche La Tour, a Frenchwoman who agreed to give Lucian lessons in sensual love! There's only one problem. Daisy speaks fluent French and can read ancient Latin without moving her lips, but she doesn't know the first thing about the pleasures of the flesh!

Good thing she has the real Blanch La Tour's very explicit memoirs for guidance.

Lucian Beaumont, Viscount Rutland, longs to see his family's standing returned to its glory days, before his father lost their fortune. And he thinks he can manage it, if he can only discover the hiding place of an ancient Roman payroll. Daisy never forgot her girlhood fascination with Lucian, even though his father has a score to settle with her uncle. Now that they're all grown up, she's determined to help the viscount find his Roman treasure.

Whether he wants her help or not!

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Your Diana Groe books were set in the Dark Ages in Scandinavia, Ireland and Constantinople. What was it like to write your Emily Bryan tales in a more conventional setting?

First, thanks for inviting me here to Unusual Historicals! Actually, I haven't succumbed to the pressure to write a true Regency (1790-1829, if you take the extended Regency view of things). My DISTRACTING THE DUCHESS (which was just nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for BEST HISTORICAL K.I.S.S.) is set in 1851, early in the reign of Queen Victoria. PLEASURING THE PIRATE takes place in 1720, firmly in the Georgian era. And my newest release, VEXING THE VISCOUNT, is actually two intertwined stories--one in London of 1731 and the other Londinium of 405 AD, Roman Britain. I may eventually write in the Regency era, but there is something in me that rebels against the expected. I'm guessing that's a chord that rings true with you here at Unusual Historicals.

Still, there is a difference in tone between your Diana Groe and Emily Bryan books?

Absolutely. My Diana Groe books are dramatic epics. The Emily Bryan stories are funnier and, 'scuse me while I blush, sexier.

I loved writing about my big hairy Vikings and they are doing very well in the European market. My Diana Groe books have been translated into German, Dutch, Italian and Russian. For who knows what reason, they were less well received in the American market.

When my debut title MAIDENSONG came out in 2006, New York Times bestseller Bobbi Smith gave me this advice: "Stay published." If I need to shift my focus to a little more accessible time period to accomplish that, I'm happy to do it. VEXING THE VISCOUNT is my 6th title with Leisure Books.

But just because I'm setting my Emily Bryan books in a time that's familiar to more readers, that doesn't mean they are "usual" historicals. I work to make my characters out of the ordinary. VEXING THE VISCOUNT's heroine Daisy Drake was raised by a pirate and now as an adult, her mentor is a former courtesan (and Daisy's inspiration when she decides to masquerade as a "woman of pleasure"). My hero Lucian is not your typical Regency rake. In fact, he's a virgin (but an incredibly quick study!)

Now that you write in a time period more readers know something about, has that changed how you research your stories?

Not really. I had to be just as thorough for my Viking stories as for my Victorian and Georgian. The historical readership is very sophisticated. The main difference is that there is so much more information for me to wade through for the more recent time periods. Writers can't use every bit of research we uncover. We have to cherry-pick the most evocative tidbits to suggest our setting and let our readers bring something to the experience. Since they have so much to bring to my Emily Bryan settings that means my details have to be doubly fresh in order to have impact.

You mentioned that VEXING THE VISCOUNT is really two intertwined stories. Tell us more about that.

The two stories are tied by virtue of place.

Lucian discovers some Roman ruins on his father's failing estate along with clues to the location of a lost Roman payroll. Daisy has the funds necessary to help him, but because of his father's grudge against Daisy's uncle, Lucian refuses. So she masquerades as Blanche la Tour, a French courtesan who offers to give him "lessons in love" in exchange for a partnership in his venture--oh! and he must accept Blanche's agent, who is of course, Daisy! They search for the treasure together and along the way, thwart a Jacobite plot and discover love they never expected.

The secondary story, which takes place in 405 AD is the romance between Caius Meritus, the ancient thief, and a Celtic slave girl named Deirdre. It explains why the missing payroll went missing in the first place.

The two stories converge on a mist-shrouded Druid island.

In many ways, VEXING THE VISCOUNT is a melding of my two writing styles. Daisy and Lucian's story is all Emily Bryan--full of froth and fun. Caius and Deirdre's tale is much darker, as befits a darker time--pure Diana Groe.

VEXING THE VISCOUNT is in bookstores now, but what's next for you?

Coming September 29th, A CHRISTMAS BALL will hit the shelves. I'll be joined by USA Today bestseller Jennifer Ashley and exciting new author Alissa Johnson for a holiday anthology. All our characters are attending the same Christmas Ball on December 19, 1822 (I know, I know, it's Regency, but technically it's two years after the Prince of Wales became George IV, so if you're a purist, the Regency is over!)

At any rate, my heroine is not the typical Regency lady. She's "born-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-blanket" plain Jane Tate. Every party worthy of the name needs at least one party crasher!

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

There are excerpts of all my books on my websites and I've just started a joint webhunt with Night Owl Romance and several other authors. Please visit my website to learn how to enter to win a boatload of goodies. I love hearing from readers, so please pop by my blog. I still maintain a website for my Diana Groe books as well. All my books are still in print and most are available electronically for those who prefer ebooks.

Readers can buy VEXING THE VISCOUNT at their local bookstore or online at Amazon or B&N.com.

Is there anything you'd like ask Unusual Historical's readers?

Yes! I'm seeing a trend of adding paranormal elements in historicals--mythical beings, magic, alternate histories. What do you think? Do you like this cross-genre trend or would you prefer we "stick to the facts, ma'am"?

Please leave a comment or question because I'm pleased to be able to give away a VEXING THE VISCOUNT to one lucky commenter!

Thanks again for having me, Unusual Historicals!

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You heard the lady! Free book! Answer her question or leave another of your own. I'm curious about your take on the paranormal historical trend too! A winner will be drawn next Sunday, so good luck! Thanks for stopping by, Emily!