Between A Rake and A Hard Place Interview and #Giveaway from Mia Marlowe!

Don't you love books with clever titles? The ones that make you laugh out loud? If so, you know exactly whose books come to mind. Our guest today: Mia Marlowe! Welcome Mia!

Mia: Thanks, Lexi. I’m glad to be here!

Lexi: It is true, I enjoy your book titles nearly as much as the appealing covers. Plaid to The Bone is one example, and now you give us Between a Rake and a Hard Place! Love it! What is your process for coming up with these titles?

Mia:  Even though authors ultimately don’t have the final say in our titles, I try to come up with a good one anyway. The title is my foot in the door. It’s my first chance to show my reader what kind of story she’s going to get.  I like double entendres and plays on words. If I can start with something familiar, like a saying or a song title, and give it a fun twist, my work is half done. People respond to patterns so when I do a series, I try to have a repetitive word in each title—Waking up with a Rake, One Night with a Rake, Between Rake and a Hard Place or Plaid to the Bone and Plaid Tidings. Alliteration sticks in our heads too, which is why How to Please a Pirate or How to Vex a Viscount works.

Lexi: Oh what creative minds can come up with. Like in your newest release, you put your hero in quite the predicament. To avoid his family name being dragged through the mud he must seduce a young innocent in the running for being a royal bride. And this truly happened! Did you discover this interesting historical tidbit and build a story around it, or had the premise and added in the real history?

Mia: Actually, the real event was the “Hymen Race Terrific.” No kidding, that’s what the London tabloids called it at the time. Here’s what happened. In November 1817, Princess Charlotte died after delivering a stillborn son. She was the only legitimate grandchild of King George III. “Prinny,” the Prince Regent, was estranged from his wife and would not sire any more children. His younger unmarried brothers, the Dukes of Clarence, Cambridge and Kent, realized they had an opportunity to put their own progeny on the throne if they could only marry and quickly beget a royal heir. So the three royal dukes went a-courting and only the young, chaste and fertile need apply. Ultimately, the Duke of Kent did wed a German-speaking princess and sired the girl-child who would later become Queen Victoria! 

After I learned about this odd bit of real history, I started imagining how someone might make use of this development. All the bit about blackmail and someone trying to sabotage the dukes in their lovemaking is my own invention.    

Lexi: Not that romances need real events, but it does add a certain curiosity to the time frame being used. History was real lives and emotions from people who were much like us, people who love to hear about what the wealthier to do's are up to and having fun. Do you think you would have gotten along with Nathaniel, Rhys, and Jonah?

Mia: Of course. They’re my boys and I love them, wicked souls and all.   

Lexi: Quite the trio, I imagine any woman could have been perfectly happy surrounded by them. Speaking of being surrounded by handsome men...you are certainly building a nice list of book boyfriends for us with each release. Seriously dear readers, if you haven't checked out Mia's books you should. Since I love your books, and this is the end of the trilogy, what new book boyfriend can I look forward to?

Mia: Thanks so much for those kind words, Lexi. In October 2014, I have a very special story coming out from Kensington called Once Upon a Plaid. My hero is William Douglas, Lord of Badenoch. He’s married to Katherine, who is barren. I know what you’re thinking. A romance between two people who are already married? Yes, when they start out as estranged as these two. This book is a different tone for me. There are still slices of humor here and there. I can’t write without giving my readers a few smiles, but I’m dealing with the very real issue of childlessness during a time when there was no in vitro technology, no legal adoption and no way to fill an empty cradle if the usual methods fail. Will and Katherine go through an excruciating struggle to try to save their marriage.  It was the hardest story I’ve ever written. I wept like Joan Wilder while I was working on it, but I love Once Upon a Plaid. I hope you will too.

Then in November 2014, I look on the bright side of things again with A Rake by Any Other Name, Book 1 in my new Somerfield Park series from Sourcebooks. Richard Barrett, Lord Hartley is our hero for this frothy comedy of manners. Think of it as Downton Abbey meets Jane Austen with a tip of the hat to Oscar Wilde!    

If you’d like to be notified when my books come out, please sign up for my newsletter at http://miamarlowe.com/contact.php

Lexi: You write them up and dish them out shirtless (have you seen her covers?!?), peppering your stories with humor and romance. Just the way we like them. So thanks for stopping by today, Mia! Congrats on Between a Rake and a Hard Place!

Mia: Thanks so much, Lexi.  And thank you to everyone who drops by today! 

BETWEEN A RAKE AND A HARD PLACE BY CONNIE MASON AND MIA MARLOWE – IN STORES JANUARY 2014 

Lady Serena's List of Forbidden Pleasures

Attend an exclusively male club.

Smoke a cigar.

Have a fortune told by gypsies.

Dance the scandalous waltz.

Sir Jonah Sharp thinks Lady Serena Osbourne will be just like any other debutante, and seducing her will be one of the easiest services he's ever done for the Crown. Then he catches her wearing trousers and a mustache in his gentleman's club and she demands he teach her to smoke a cigar. But what will truly be Jonah's undoing is finding out he's an item on her list too, which makes him determined to bring her all the forbidden pleasures she can handle.

To Purchase Between a Rake and a Hard Place: 

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Books-a-Million 

Chapters/Indigo

iBookstore

IndieBound

Discover a New Love

Sourcebooks 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

Mia Marlowe is the award winning historical romance author of the Touch of Seduction Series and various Rock*It Reads. She lives in Boston. 
Connie Mason is a New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 novels. She was named Storyteller of the Year in 1990 and received a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews in 1994. She currently lives in Florida. Together, Mia and Connie have written Sins of the Highlander, Lord of Fire and Ice, Lord of Devil Isle and the other books in the Royal Rakes Series: Waking Up with a Rake and One Night with a Rake. For more information, please visit http://www.miamarlowe.com. 

THE PRIZES!

Sourcebooks is offering a print copy of Between a Rake & a Hard Place (US/CANADA only) and Mia would like to add another from her to sweeten the pot. Two winners will be chosen—one for the Sourcebooks print novel and one for a Kindle or Nook version of her newest Rock*It Read, Dragonsong. This sensual, adventurous story is perfect for readers who love the History Channel’s Vikings, but want a hero who knows how to love with faithfulness!    

All you have to do to enter is answer this question:  Based on title alone, which of my books would you most want to read? (Check out all 24 of them on my Books page! And oh, yes, it’s worth it to click over there for the splendid collection of male chests alone!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway