Anniversary Bash: Day Four!

First things first and that would be yesterday's winners! RomanceLover88, you win the pack from Michelle Styles. Zai Abd Rahman, you get the ebooks. You each have 24 hours to contact myself (lorelielong at gmail dot com) or Carrie Lofty (contact at carrielofty dot com) to collect your prizes.

It's Thursday and the work week is almost over. What better way to celebrate than winning a hefty stack of books from Unusual Historicals authors? Personally, I don't think you can beat that with a stick. Today's prize is a big ole stack of eight books, and all but one are signed! Isn't that cool?

Beverly Jenkins:

Wild Sweet Love

Elizabeth Lane:

The Horseman's Bride

Maureen Lang:

Whisper on the Wind

Jade Lee:

Wicked Surrender

Jeannie Lin:

Butterfly Swords

Blythe Gifford:

Innocence Unveiled

Alex Beecroft:

False Colors (I don't know if y'all care, but this was one of my favorite books of last year.); Captain's Surrender

Personally, being able to give away all these great books is definitely putting me in the holiday spirit. It's practically Christmas, right? So to be entered in today's drawing, tell me what you want for Christmas.

Pseudo-lawyer disclosures: These books can only be shipped within the US. All entries must be accompanied by a valid email address. Void where prohibited. Don't take candy from strangers.

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Lorelie Brown's first book, JAZZ BABY, is currently available from Samhain Publishing and will be released 4 January in paperback. Her second romance, an 1880s-set western, will be published by Carina Press in Summer 2011.

LOOK TO THE EAST Winner!

We have a winner for Maureen Lang's LOOK TO THE EAST guest blog. A free copy goes to:

JESSICA NELSON!

Contact Maureen to give her your 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 - 12 Sept 09

Carrie Lofty is holding a new contest, which comes to an end on Friday, Sept. 18. You can read here how to enter to win a $25 gift card to the book retailer of your choice, PLUS an official ARC of SCOUNDREL'S KISS, her January 2010 release.

Carrie will also be presenting her online workshop "Snakebite Scenes and Hollywood Plots: Writing Action with Heart" between Oct 5-30. Read more about it here, and sign up through CORW RWA.

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Michelle Styles was featured in the British newspaper The Guardian this past week in an article about Mills & Boon--and how difficult M&B novels are to write!

Michelle also received the cover for her December release THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE PRINCESS, which is now available for pre-order. Congratulations! It's beautiful!

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Blythe Gifford is still going strong on her "Blog Till You Drop" tour to celebrate the release of IN THE MASTER'S BED. Her next two stops are Ingela Hyatt's blog on Sept 14 and Seduced by History on Sept 15. Who knows...there might be giveaway!

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Margaret Mallory's KNIGHT OF DESIRE was voted Best Book of the Week at Long and Short Reviews. It also received a "You Gotta Read" rating from You Gotta Read Reviews. Congratulations, Margaret!

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Join us tomorrow when author Jean Adams will be here to talk about ETERNAL HEARTS, a time travel set in ancient Egypt!

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We'll also draw the winner of Maureen Lang's beautiful World War I romance, LOOK TO THE EAST. You still have time to throw your name in the hat, if you haven't done so.

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And stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Leanna Renee Hieber, Michelle Beattie, Michelle Willingham, and Kimberley Killion will be our guests. We hope you'll join us!

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Have a good weekend! If you have an announcement to make for next week, email Carrie. See you next week...

Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved ®and T are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and/or its affiliated companies, used under license.

Guest Author: Maureen Lang

Today we're welcoming Maureen Lang! She is the author of nine novels, the first of which won a Golden Heart before its publication. Since 2006, Maureen has been writing for the Inspirational market. Her newest historical romance, LOOK TO THE EAST, released by Tyndale House, is the first of a three-book series.

Once, in a little village forgotten by time, there lived two feuding families: the Toussaints and the de Colvilles.

As with most enduring feuds, no one knows exactly why it began. Some say it was over une aventure--an in indiscreet love between one man and a woman not his wife. Others insist money was the cause--a squabble between the miller and the baker over the price of flour. Still others recall it beginning with a simple difference of opinion on the faults and merits of Napoleon between two old men sharing a cup of chocolat...

It is not, however, the origin but rather the result that matters. One hundred years later, even the purest flour made into the flakiest pastry would leave a bitter taste if made by one clan and sampled by the other.

Except for one brief moment in history, the feud rages to this day...

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What inspired you to write a novel set during the First World War?

I've always been fascinated by this era. In my family, I'm one of the youngest children of a large family--which I mention only because people are surprised that my grandmother (not a great-grandmother or some other distant ancestor) used to tell me about living in the era where "motorcars" shared the roads with carriages. Where airplanes were something people stared at when they had the chance to view one overhead. Where telephones were common in the city but certainly not in rural areas and not in every home, even homes in the city. She seemed to me to be a link between history and nostalgia to this modern world we shared.

And war...well, with a grandfather who fought in the First World War and a father who fought in the Second, I grew up hearing about war and I guess it made an impact!

Was marketing a novel set during the First World War a tough sell?

Initially it was. LOOK TO THE EAST is actually my third novel set during this time period, although those first two are not related to this novel. When I started circulating my first WWI idea, I received several rejections stating it wasn't "historical enough to be historical, or contemporary enough to be contemporary." But I'm happy to say the books sold despite those initial rejections.

However, when I mentioned to my agent that I had not one but THREE more novels set during this era, he was...shall I say, less than enthusiastic. At first.

I think the thing that convinced him was my own enthusiasm. I'd already done an American setting with this war, but this time I wanted to do a European setting--close to the war itself, but not a book of battles and war scenes. I wanted the drama of the war as played out in a relational story as seen through civilians, not soldiers. Book One, LOOK TO THE EAST, is set in a fictional little town in Northern France; Book Two, out early next summer, is set in Brussels, Belgium, and Book Three will be set in Germany.

None of these settings are your typical women's fiction or romance genre settings, but I've always been of the opinion that any story, in any setting, can work just so long as the characters and their goals are sympathetic or exciting enough to grab a reader. And that starts with the author's enthusiasm to write the story to begin with.

How did you choose the exact location for the setting?

The location for LOOK TO THE EAST had to be quite specific, since this story was inspired by real life events that took place in a town in France, near the front lines established during World War One. I've always been an avid reader of this era, and I came across a book titled The Englishman's Daughter, about a soldier who was caught behind enemy lines and had to take refuge in a little village in France.

So the backdrop needed to be in the same general area as the town that inspired this idea. I was fortunate enough to take a trip to France during the time I wrote this book, and was able to visit the towns in that area. I took pictures of buildings and churches, walked the streets and just generally soaked up the experience. Much of this particular area remains rural even today, so some of the landscape I saw was probably similar to what my characters would have seen.

How much research was involved in writing LOOK TO THE EAST?

Since research is one of my favorite parts of writing, I probably recall it taking less time than it actually did. I read many books on the subject of the war and what people in the occupied territories experienced, starting with The Englishman's Daughter, which I read more than once! Going to Northern France (and Belgium, where the second book the series takes place) was incredibly valuable, not only for orienting my characters to the area, but getting into context what went on at the time as it's commemorated over there.

As I write any novel, I usually start out with at least a couple of months of research and then search out more details as I need them--those unexpected little turns plots like to take, which lead to the demand for more knowledge.

One of my favorite parts to research was finding a church to have in mind as I wrote the scenes where my hero, Charles, is hiding. I needed to know if they were similar to churches here, if they had a basement, if they had pews the way churches here do, how ornate they might have been, etc. I'm convinced the authority an author conveys for writing a novel is found in the details.

So as my husband and I drove through Northern France, we often stopped to get a closer look at different churches. It was fun!

How can readers find you on the web?

My website is www.maureenlang.com, but if readers would like a peek at the journey this novel took--from the sale through the European research trip and on through the editing process--they should visit my blog archive starting from August of 2008. It was great fun to catalogue the process!

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Thanks so much for stopping by, Maureen. She's giving away a copy of LOOK TO THE EAST to one lucky person, so leave a question or comment for your chance to win. I'll draw the winner next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Good luck!

Weekly Announcements - 4 Sept 09

Carrie Lofty is one of many people participating in an auction to help benefit author and former RWA president Janis Reams Hudson, who is very ill and on a lung transplant list. Carrie is donating a signed copy of her book and the critique of a partial. Click here to learn more and see what other items are available for bidding. And if you'd like to donate an item or service, there's still plenty of time to volunteer.

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Join us Sunday when inspirational author Maureen Lang will be here to talk about LOOK TO THE EAST, set in 1914 France!

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We'll also draw the winner of Blythe Gifford's sexy medieval, IN THE MASTER'S BED. You still have time to throw your name in the hat, if you haven't done so.

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And stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Jean Adams, Leanna Renee Hieber, Michelle Beattie, and Michelle Willingham will be our guests. We hope you'll join us!

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Have a good weekend! If you have an announcement to make for next week, email Carrie. See you next week...

Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved ®and T are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and/or its affiliated companies, used under license.

Excerpt Thursday: Maureen Lang

This week on Unusual Historicals, we're featuring award-winning inspirational author Maureen Lang as she celebrates the release of her latest historical romance, LOOK TO THE EAST, set in 1914 France! Join us on Sunday when we'll be talking with Maureen and giving away a copy!

At the dawn of the First World War, the small village of Briecourt is isolated from the early battles while a century-old feud between the Toussaints and the de Colvilles still rages in the streets. But when the German army sweeps in to occupy the town, families on both sides of the feud are forced to work together to hide stragglers caught behind enemy lines.

Julitte Toussaint may have been adopted from a faraway island, but she feels the scorn of the de Colvilles as much as anyone born a Toussaint. So when she falls in love with one of the men in hiding--a wealthy and handsome Belgian entrepreneur--she knows she's flirting with danger.

Charles Lassone has been waiting in the church cellar, safe from the Germans for the moment. But if he's discovered, it will threaten the entire village--including Julitte--and could cost Charles his life.

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Briecourt, Northern France

Julitte Toussaint sucked in her breath and shut her eyes, as if by closing off her own vision she, too, might become invisible. Stuck high above the ground where someone so grown--just turned twenty and two--should never be caught, she shot a fervent prayer heavenward. Please let neither one look up! She clutched the book-size tin to her chest and went death-still in hopes of going unnoticed.

"...those days may be behind us, Anton. At least for a while."

She heard his voice for the first time, the man who had come to visit the only château within walking distance of her village. The man whose blond hair had reflected the sun and nearly blinded her to the rest of his beauty. The perfect nose, the proportionate lips, the blue eyes that, with one glance, had taken her breath away.

Now he was near again, and her lungs froze. She feared the slightest motion might betray her.

She knew the other man was Anton Mantoux without looking. He was the closest thing to aristocracy the town of Briecourt knew. Though Julitte had never spoken to him, she had heard him speak many times. Whenever the mayor called a village meeting, M. Mantoux always held the floor longest.

"You'll go back, Charles? join this insanity when you could follow me the other way?"

Charles...so that was his name. "Who would have thought I had a single noble bone in my body?"

M. Mantoux snorted. "You'll follow your foolhardy king, will you?"

"Much can be said about a man--a king, no less--who takes for himself the same risks he asks others to bear. I should never have left Belgium. I know my sister never will. How can I do less?"

"Ah, yes, your beautiful and brave little sister, Isabelle.... What is it you call her? Isa?"

"Careful with your thoughts, Anton," said the man--Charles--whose voice was every bit as lovely as his face. "She's little more than a child."

"A child, but not much longer. And then you may have me in the family!"

Feeling a cramp in her leg, Julitte wanted nothing more than to climb down the tree and scurry away. Let them move on! she silently pleaded to God. Send a wind to blow them on their way before--

As if in instant answer to her prayer, a gust tore through the thick leaf cover of the beech tree in which she hid. In horror she watched the tin, dampened by her perspiring hands, slip from her grasp and take the path designed by gravity. She heard a dull thud as it bounced off the perfect forehead of the taller of the two men below, grazing the blond hair that so intrigued her.

A moment later both men looked up, and she might have thought their surprised faces funny had she planned the episode and still been young enough to get away with such a prank.

"I thank You for the answered prayer of the wind, Lord," she whispered in annoyed submission, "but not for the result, as You well know."