Apr 2, 2010
Charlotte lay in the cupid-infested room, nervously bunching the scarlet satin coverlet between her fingers. She would not unpack her own trunk but to pull out her tattered nightrail and robe later. She could not move in and assume her sister’s life. She didn’t even want to consume her dinner. But an hour later, the fresh-faced maid Irene was at the door informing her that supper was on the table.
Charlotte imagined it tasted delicious, but was too distracted to tell. Despite her earlier pledge, she gulped a great deal of wine in order that she might actually fall asleep in her sister’s bed. Woozy and warm, she allowed Irene to help her undress and bathe, then crawled under the covers, closing her eyes to the grinning statues. How her sister Deborah had born them all alone for six weeks was a wonder.
She slept as if dead, having the most delightful tipsy dream somewhere past midnight. But when morning came and she found her nightgown hanging from a fat angel’s head and a naked man in the bed, she knew her dream was now a nightmare.
Come play with me! April’s contest is supposed to be fun, as is fitting for National Humor Month. How could one find oneself in the position of mistress by mistake? Details and entry form are on the contest page, and you may enter as many times as you like.Tell me your scenario—silly, serious or scandalous! Three winners will receive copies of Mistress by Mistake. And every Monday is #MistressMonday on Twitter. Two books will be given away each week until relase day, April 27.
My alter ego Margaret Rowe has news too. Thai subrights have been sold for Tempting Eden (Berkley Heat, June 2010). It’s really exciting (and a little strange) to think of people reading my books in translation. 🙂
Have a wonderful week. Stay tuned for more information about the Reader at Home Conference.
P.S. 4/6/10 I’ve already gotten some entries for April’s contest. Keep ’em coming! Congrats to Twitter winners @sarahsreviews and @armiefox for winning this week’s copies of MbMistake. And I just discovered that Mistress by Midnight will be out December 28! It’s available for pre-order on Amazon. Holy cow. I think that means from April 27 to next January, the two of me will have released five books (Margaret Rowe’s Any Wicked Thing is also out in January). And I thought I was crazy now…
Mar 27, 2010
Nope, this is not about nuclear disarmament. 🙂 The latest: Russian rights have been sold to Mistress by Mistake! That’s Хозяйка по Oшибке according to a translating site I found. I think it’s so cool that eventually I’ll have books printed in two alphabets (Thai, too) that I am completely unfamiliar with.
Don’t forget the #MistressMonday Twitter contest. Just add the hashtag to your tweets for a chance to win MBM. Last week’s winners were @Pearl-ROOB and @shellistevens. Details of a contest right here will be posted shortly.
Brava is sponsoring a great new contest for aspiring writers. Check it out. The Brava Authors blog is being redesigned too, and eventually I’ll be posting once a month there.
Hope Spring is finding a way to you. Here in Maine we’ve dipped down into the teens and I’m freezing again. When I was a little girl, my parents always took pictures of me in my Easter bonnet in front of the brilliant yellow forsythia bush we had in the back yard. I’ve got nothing here but mud. And no new hat. Do you wear hats? The heroine of my latest novella is a hatmaker, and it’s all she can do not to stab the hero with a hatpin. 😉
Mar 21, 2010
It’s the six-week countdown to the April 27 release of Mistress by Mistake, so it’s got to be #MistressMonday on Twitter! Now, I’m not really a big Tweeter, but I do know Twitter is replacing blogging as the way to get the word out. So every Monday between now and release day, I’ll be giving away 2 copies of Mistress by Mistake to 2 random people who tweet whatever they’d like, as long as they include the hashtag #MistressMonday. That means 12 books are up for grabs (yes, I know you can multiply). You remember that picture of the lovely promo books below. 🙂 One of them might be yours.
Not on Twitter? No problem. Next month there will be a fun contest right here dreamed up by my promo princess Elyssa Papa for more chances to win free books.
And there’s more! Stop over this week at Juliana Stone’s 10 Days of Hunger to celebrate her Avon debut release His Darkest Hunger. MBM is one of the prizes. I’m also particpating in author Lucy Monroe’s Reader At Home Conference. She’s thought up a cool way for people not attending the Romantic Times conference in Columbus to experience connecting with authors anyway. There will be a ton of really fabulous prizes (including MBM) and people, and you can read all about it if you click on the above link. I’ll remind you again as it gets closer to the date. 🙂 Have a great week!
Have you ever been to a romance conference? RWA Nashville will be my first and I’m shaking in my boots!
Mar 17, 2010
Mar 8, 2010
March 16th additions to this post: you can “look inside” Mistress by Mistake on Amazon now! Woohoo! I love the “surprise me” feature where I can try to figure out the plot so far, LOL.
I got my first review on Goodreads from a “perfect stranger” who won my book at Tiff’s Toronto RWA chapter, and she is perfect indeed. Here’s what she said:I really enjoyed this. The characters are charming, the plot sexy and fun. The sex scenes (and there are a good number!) are frank and earthy, not purple and overblown. These two have a strong sexual chemistry that they don’t bother to deny after the first few pages – it’s the rest of the relationship they need to work out 🙂
The writing is terrific and it doesn’t read much like a debut novel at all. I’d definitely read the next in the series, about one of Charlie’s neighbors in her sinful street of mistresses… Yay!
Ann Aguirre is running a contest on her blog to celebrate the upcoming release of Hell Fire and has a huge giveaway! Mistress by Mistake is one of the prizes. You can still win one right here if you register for my newsletter or sign up to follow me on Twitter, too.
I think I finished revising Mistress by Midnight, which will be out sometime in the first part of 2011. This involved rearranging 100 pages of the history between Con and Laurette, and rewriting/adding some scenes. I have come to the conclusion I could fiddle with a book forever—every time I open up an old file, I see something I could have/should have done. I love this book, though—it’s Cathy and Heathcliff with a couple of kids and without the crazy.
Here’s hoping my editor likes the changes—she already told me last week my novella Not Quite a Courtesan (in Lords of Passion, Kensington Brava, Novemver 30, 2010) is good to go with no revisions. Yay again! It was such fun to write. There’s a line in it she loves: “I will do it and you will like it.” I’m practicing saying that to my husband. 🙂
And I’ve started something new—the last novella of my Kensington contract. When I finish it, I will have completed everything I signed up to do last year. Of course, more revisions, copy edits and page proofs will be coming my way, so I’m not about to loll around in the lap of luxury (see below, although my bottom is much bigger). What’s new with you?
Mar 1, 2010
No, that’s not a typo. My dooryard is awash in mud, grit, ice, melted snow, unmelted snow and general yuck. We’ve had wacky weather lately and have lost power for long and short periods, resulting in two unpaid days off from school for me. I can’t decide what is worse—no hot bath or no computer access. Last week I reluctantly crawled out from under three blankets and drove around town to get warm, grab some tea at a take-out window (my hair was too hideous to go inside) and charge up my cellphone. There is no question if I traveled back in time to the Regency era, I would go insane.
Despite the iffy electricity lately, I’m close to getting finished with the revisions for Mistress by Midnight. And I’m giving away another ARC of Mistress by Mistake this month to someone who follows me on Twitter/has signed up for my newsletter! All you have to do is fill out the short form on the contest page and/or click on the Twitter button. If you’re already a subscriber/follower, you’re all set.
So, is Spring happening where you are? Tell me and make me jealous. What would you miss most if you traveled back in time?
Charlotte lay in the cupid-infested room, nervously bunching the scarlet satin coverlet between her fingers. She would not unpack her own trunk but to pull out her tattered nightrail and robe later. She could not move in and assume her sister’s life. She didn’t even want to consume her dinner. But an hour later, the fresh-faced maid Irene was at the door informing her that supper was on the table. 
