Jul 5, 2009
In the last book of the Courtesan Court trilogy, Mistress by Marriage, a character from Caroline’s past became so strong I had to send him away to Italy before he completely took over the book. Andrew Rossiter is the Master of Sin in the fourth Kensington book that, if approved, will follow the trilogy. I guess I could almost call the series the Courtesan Court Quartet, which would thrill my alliterative heart. I have 1/3 of this book finished, but need to write “The End” on something else first. I can tell Andrew’s getting impatient, but he and Gemma will have to wait until Sebastian and Freddie battle it out on the battlements of Goddard Castle. *g*
The main action in MOS takes place on a remote Scottish island, which has become a kind of character itself in the WIP. I’ve been to Scotland several times, but never to the Outer Hebrides. Bless you, YouTube. I’ve watched a clip of St. Kilda (which for some reason I cannot embed, but you can click on the link below), which is really Outer (with fabulous music that never fails to put me in the mood, so turn the sound up).
After spending quite a bit of time doing research, I’ve decided to create my own little universe, mostly based on Barra Head, which is now uninhabited except for “air so thickly crowded with birds as to produce the appearance of a heavy snowstorm.”~H.J. Elwes, 1868. What an image.
I have a little experience living on islands myself. First, there was Long Island in New York. Yeah, I know, not isolated, but pretty wild if you know the right hangouts. 😉 Early in my marriage, we lived at a boarding school on an island in Boston Harbor, accessible only by the school’s launch. Later on, we lived on Isleboro in Penobscot Bay, served by the Maine State Ferry System. But after 4:30, you were stuck on the island for the night. If you had that craving for a midnight chili cheeseburger, you had to make it yourself. It was really the prettiest place we’ve ever lived, and I hope to channel some of my island memories as I write MOS.
Are you an Island Girl? Do you have secondary characters who jump up and down at you? Are your settings characters in themselves?
Jun 30, 2009
For fun, I went back to my old blog posts to discover when I realized I had a series on my hands. It was
June 8, 2008. Go ahead. Click on the link and refresh your memory. I’ll wait.
Hi again! When I wrote that paragraph in Mistress by Midnight, it was like everything else I write—it just happened. I like the term organic, which implies some sort of natural, healthy growth. We all know it means disorganized and half-crazy. As you know, I’m a pantser of mega-organic proportions,and I find my mind to be a mysteriously strange and fertile thing. So often, I’ve dropped a psychic hint or planted a useful seed or whatever you want to call it that suddenly makes sense later and takes the story in a new direction. So while Midnight will be Book Two in the Courtesan Court series in December 2010, I wrote it first and owe it everything. And how good is it to go from June 2008 to June 2009 and have the books wrapped up in a pretty Kensington Brava package? It’s sinfully good!
I submitted my proposal for the second Berkley Heat Margaret Rowe book. This is where my organic pantser-ness has a downside. Write a synopsis before I’ve written the book? How the heck do I know what’s going to happen, LOL. That means trying to tame those squirrels in my brain, and they have resisted. The delivery date on the manuscript (Any Wicked Thing for now) is next February. Let’s hope my editor likes it so I can plot and plod along—and the squirrels cooperate and don’t eat up all the seeds.
Here’s an introduction to my very naughty hero, Sebastian Goddard, Duke of Roxbury:
The answer to all of Sebastian Goddard’s problems is right in front of him. He needs money and someone to bend to his dark fantasies, and there is Frederica Ward, all grown up, mostly willing and rich as sin.
Sebastian would recognize sin—he’s spent over a decade indulging in all manner of it, sometimes so thoroughly it’s impaired his memory. Ten years ago, he ruined his father the Duke of Roxbury’s ward, although he has no absolutely recollection of the event. Sebastian may be the duke now, but he’s dead broke thanks to his father’s obsession with medieval miscellany. He hasn’t thought of his childhood friend in years, but since her fate is in his hands, he begins to see a way out of his financial predicament and into her bed.
Plotter or pantser? Plantser? Do you dread deadlines? Do you work on more than one WIP at a time? What sinfully good stuff is happening in your life?
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Jun 25, 2009
What a week! A new me (Margaret Rowe) and a new title (Tempting Eden) for Berkley. And now from Publishers Marketplace—
Maggie Robinson’s MISTRESS BY MISTAKE, a Regency-set historical romance and the first of the Courtesan Court series about the women who inhabit London’s infamous mistress row, to Megan Records at Kensington Brava, in a four-book deal plus two novellas, for publication in Summer 2010, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.
I am so thrilled my mistresses have found a home of their own. They won’t have to live in anonymity on Jane Street forever. (known as ‘Courtesan Court’ to the fictional Regency ton, and hopefully to a much wider real audience next July!) And I won’t be pseudonymous this time around—the books will have Maggie Robinson on the cover. To say I’m happy is a vast understatement. While I haven’t wrapped a big gold bow on myself and started leaping around, I’m coming pretty close. So Mistress by Mistake, Mistress by Midnight, Mistress by Marriage and Andrew’s book (working title: Master of Sin) will be out in the next couple of years. Counting the two Berkley titles, I have quite a bit of work ahead of me, and I hope everyone who is reading this will keep me company on my adventure and slap me around if you think I’m slacking.
Thanks again to my husband and kids for believing in me and being so supportive, and my genius agent Laura Bradford who is helpful, humorous, and handy with the red font writing MORE on my sex scenes. Because of her, I’ve gone from two sentences to two paragraphs to at least two pages, LOL. Her advice has been absolutely invaluable since she signed me in August 2008. My critique partners Ely, Tiff and Kris are so dear to my heart just thinking about them makes me weepy. They’re like extra Robinson girls, and you know how much I love my girls. Every single person I’ve ‘met’ online over the past three years has contributed in some way, and you’ve got my eternal gratitude. The romance community really is filled with a lot of love, and not just inside the book covers.
So Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe will keep you posted. But right now we’ve got to write some books….
Jun 23, 2009
Paradise, like Maggie, has been rechristened. No holy water was involved, however. *g* With the help of my
crit partners and agent, we submitted a list to Berkley. My very favorite of the choices,
Tempting Eden was approved. Eden is my heroine’s name, but it works on other levels, too. My tortured heroine will make the transition from hell to her own kind of heaven, thanks to Hart, a man of unusual honor who risks everything when he’s tempted himself.
The contract has been signed and mailed, so each day everything becomes more crystalline. Here’s an interesting paradise quote which works so beautifully for my story courtesy of
Laura Bradford:
Ah, to think how thin the veil that lies Between the pain of hell and Paradise.
George William Russell
So, what’s your idea of heaven on earth? Sleeping in? Unlimited chocolate? Cute shoes? World peace? Somebody take over now.
Jun 21, 2009
There’s been a flutter of activity. My Berkley editor’s assistant has asked for a bio and a book summary, they’re meeting Tuesday with the art department to discuss the cover, and everyone has agreed on the new pen name for my more erotic offerings. You’ve probably noticed already….ta dah! I’m
Margaret Rowe! Margaret Rowe sounds like a buttoned-up librarian who goes a little crazy after a Margarita, which would be entirely accurate. Rowe is a family name (my son’s name is Christopher Rowe Robinson). My husband calls me Margaret when we’re fighting (see bio below), which really was the start of it all. So that’s the new me. I’ve registered
www.margaretrowe.net which will someday be up and running thanks to the genius that is
Frauke. Here is the
mock-up (not quite finished) for the naughtier me. I’m saving Maggie Robinson for less edgy pursuits (and so I can keep the day job, LOL).
Here’s what I sent Berkley:
Several years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, really annoyed with my husband. Instead of smothering him with a pillow, I decided to get up and write— to create the perfect man. I’m still married (and reluctantly admit I’m not perfect myself), but have created several pretty perfect heroes since that fateful night. It was time I finally put my English degree from Adelphi University to work.
Until my midnight keyboarding, I’d been a teacher, librarian, newspaper reporter, administrative assistant to two non-profits, community volunteer and mother of four. Now I can call myself a romance writer in Maine. There’s nothing I like better than writing about people who make mistakes, but don’t let the mistakes make them. I’m all about the redemptive power of love—and a good night’s sleep.
I left out Realtor in that long list, but I was one for eight years. I was an Antique and Vintage Properties Manager for a large real estate company in Connecticut. As soon as I got my Realtor’s license, the market tanked. We lost $25,000 ourselves selling our house when we moved. I had deals fall apart at the closing and septic fields rise, waited months for commissions, showed one couple about 100 houses and they didn’t buy anything. So while I do have some happy memories getting a young Coast Guard couple into their first home and selling a charming little red schoolhouse, I tend to block out The Real Estate Years.
What job would you leave out of your bio? What’s your favorite drink? I’m very fond of sangria with tons of fruit. All that Vitamin C, you know. 😉
