Month: June 2017

Interview with Historical & Contemporary Romance Author Maggi Andersen

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Introduction message on Paper torn ripped opening

 

 

 

Please welcome Maggi Andersen, historical and contemporary romance author from New South Wales, Australia. She has a BA and Master of Arts in Creative Writing, loves local wildlife, and pens the Regency, Baxendale Sisters, and Spies of Mayfair series.  And she has an AWESOME WEBSITE. Please check it out, Maggiandersenauthor.com

 

 

 

Maggi Anderson

 

 

Now, let’s learn a little more about our friend, Maggi…

 

 

*What’s it like living in Australia?

It’s great! Australians are known for their easy-going attitude to life. I grew up close to the beach and my childhood was all sun, sand, and sea. My brother and I roamed free in those days. Now I live in a bustling village in the Southern Highlands near Sydney, where the spring and autumn are glorious and it sometimes snows, but lightly and rarely! It’s wine country, with rolling green hills, some covered in vines, horse studs and farms. The highlands has many endangered bird species and a large koala population. Old inns, and their ghosts, still operate in the historic villages nearby where the stage coaches once passed through during the 1800s. When I feel I need to break out of my self-imposed writer’s cocoon, I head to Sydney for a writer’s conference or Melbourne to visit family.

 

This is great. Would love to visit there one day. My wife has a cousin, uh, somewhere over there. Sorry memory fails me at the moment. 

 

 

 

 

Location Australia. Green pin on the map.

 

 

 

Here’s some additional pics…

 

 

Australia 2

 

 

Australia 3

 

 

Australia

 

 

 

 

*What led you to read the books of Georgette Heyer and Victoria Holt?

My mother loved them, and she handed them on to me. We reread them many times over and had lengthy discussion on each one. It was a special thing to share with her, with lovely memories now that she is no longer with us.

It’s lovely to share the joy of books with others, especially another family member. 

 

 

A book is a gift you can open again and again. -Garrison Keillor

 

 

*What do you love most about the Georgian and Regency worlds?

There is so much to write about. The history, manners, culture, fashions, gardens, mansions, and food aside, there was also the extravagant and extraordinarily self-indulgent Prince Regent, plus the lengthy Napoleonic wars. There was also the pulsating underworld where crime and vice of every kind flourished. The colorful Georgian era was less mannered, but equally as fascinating. Some of the people who existed in these eras seem larger than life, like Beau Brummel, who was a profound influence on men’s fashion and their bathing habits in the early 1800s. He was befriended by the Prince of Wales, but was always on the verge of poverty, which was then labeled ‘dun territory’. He lost the Prince’s friendship and left England a broken man. Young gentlemen were dangerously idle. Great gamblers, there are many instances where huge estates and wealth were lost at the gaming tables and the races.

I love what you’ve done with your historical series. It not only brings history alive, but it also transports you there in many ways. 

 

 

 

Vintage compass lies on an ancient world map.

 

 

*If you could send yourself back to those time periods what would you do?

Marry a duke of course. 🙂  Seriously, I would hope to be a member of the ton, the Upper Ten Thousand in society. Life could be very hard for the lower classes. If I was born without money or family, I’d be an actress, I always wanted to tread the boards.

Splendid! I always enjoy the answers to this question. 

 

*What are your top three experiences writing about these times?

Creating the three books in The Spies of Mayfair Series. A Dangerous Deception, A Spy to Love, and A Secret Affair. They were enjoyable to write, I loved the heroes and heroines, and researching interesting historical facts which included Napoleon’s escape from Elba, The Peterloo Massacre, and the famous Hope diamond, the blue diamond of the French Crown, stolen from King Louis XIV in 1791.

Awesome! Can’t wait to read all of them. 

 

 

A Dangerous Deception

 

 

A Spy to Love

 

 

A Secret Affair

 

 

 

*Tell us about your new release, The Baron’s Wife.

My new release The Baron’s Wife has just hit an historical mystery bestseller list on Amazon! Another of my favorite stories to write, it’s set during the late Victorian era, teetering on the brink of the 20 th Century, when so much was changing. Women were fighting for their right to vote, to gain access to university degrees and have other freedoms allowed to men. It would take many years for these things to be realized. My heroine, Laura Parr was involved in the Suffrage movement when she met her hero, Baron, Nathaniel Lanyon. She puts these dreams on hold after he sweeps her off her feet, marries her and takes her to his home, an ancient abbey in Cornwall. Laura soon discovers all is not as it seems in her new home. There’s a mystery surrounding Nathaniel’s first wife’s death. Nathaniel had been confident he could offer Laura a happy life, but the past comes back to claim him.

This sounds like an intriguing story!

 

 

The Barron's Wife

 

 

*What was a courtship like at the time of Laura Parr and Baron, Lord Nathaniel Lanyon?

For a strictly raised young lady such as Laura, her future marriage partner, and her courtship was often chosen and managed by the parents. Her father must first approve of the suitor and her mother would make sure she was chaperoned until the wedding. Many couples were virtual strangers when they married.

Wow. That’s amazing. The thought of my parents choosing my spouse makes me cringe.

 

 

*Is this a standalone or part of a series?

The Baron’s Wife is a standalone novel. It’s my third Victorian mystery romance. The first two are The Folly at Falconbridge Hall and The Diary of a Painted Lady.

I already downloaded this one!

 

 

*What else are you working on?

At present, I’m working on a new Regency series, The Kinsey Family, Unmasking Lady Helen, Book One. The story is filled with mystery, suspense and romance, Ancient Egyptian tombs, and art forgery. I hope to have it published by August. Also, my contemporary romantic suspense novella Finding Daniel is part of a boxed set coming in February 2018.

Sounds great, keep us posted. 

 

 

Thanks Maggi!

 

 

 

A Baron’s Wife: https://books2read.com/u/bzpXE9

Amazon Author page:http://lrd.to/9bwVEjmPBk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggiandersenauthor/

Twitter: @maggiandersen

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2786221.Maggi_Andersen

Website: http//www.maggiandersenauthor.com

 

 

 

Writing Lesson Section 5 by David Kummer

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Welcome to this lesson of David Kummer’s writing course. That’s me, by the way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, success stories, or just something fun to say, email me at davidkummer7@gmail.com. I’d love to talk about anything and everything, especially if that everything has to do with books, basketball, or Chinese food. I am a teenager, after all. So that’s that! Head on down and read what might be the best writing course of your life, but also might be the worst 😉 You won’t know until you try!

Continue reading “Writing Lesson Section 5 by David Kummer” →

Hannah Vogel Box Set by Rebecca Cantrell

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Hannah vogel

 

 

Tell us about this new creation of yours—Cigarette Boy. That’s such a unique name!

When I wrote my first novel, A Trace of Smoke, I researched the gay cabaret culture of Weimar Berlin. The main character was a crime reporter named Hannah Vogel, and her brother Ernst had been immersed in that culture before his murder. Originally, I had scenes in his voice from beyond the grave, but the scenes confused some initial readers, so I cut them out. But I always wanted to give Ernst Vogel a chance to tell his own stories. It took me a long time to get back to him (sorry, Ernst!), but with Cigarette Boy, I finally did.

Ernst is the club headliner—a talented singer who draws a crowd.  One night before the show he watches the new cigarette boy. In some clubs, from the 1920s through the 1960s, cigarette girls wore special costumes and carried around trays of cigarettes, matches, gum, and other small items. Since Ernst works at a gay cabaret club, the cigarette girl is actually a cigarette boy, so that became the title Unfortunately for the cigarette boy, he’s murdered. When the police aren’t interested in solving the crime, Ernst investigates the murder himself.

Tell us about the setting for this story.

In 1931 Berlin, the club scene was extraordinary. Ernst’s club is based on a real club, El Dorado, where some of the most talented performers of the day came to put on shows, including Marlene Dietrich. It’s full of men dressed like men. Men dressed like women. Women dressed like women. Women dressed like men. Fancy clothes, smoky jazz, backstage intrigues, and passionate Communists fighting and dancing with angry Nazis. The world would soon be on the brink of war, but nobody knew that yet. They just wanted good music, cigarettes, expensive liquor, dancing, and for the roaring twenties to never end!

What was your experience like writing this?

It was great fun! I recently reacquired the rights to the four books in the series, and was anxious to get back into the world of Berlin in the 1930s. I’d always wanted to tell one of Ernst’s stories, and I was so grateful to finally have the opportunity. Of course, as my luck would have it, I left Berlin before I started working on the story, so research was challenging. Yes, I wrote four Berlin books in Hawaii, moved to Berlin and did not write a single book set there while I lived there, then moved back to Hawaii and almost immediately wrote a story set in Berlin. I realize how crazy that is. I appear to be writing my books out of order with my life, as if I’m deliberately trying to make things as complicated as possible. So far, so good.

Say a little abut the Hannah Vogel Box Set Collector’s Edition?

The collector’s edition includes the first three Hannah Vogel novels:

  • A Trace of Smoke, set in Berlin in 1931 where Hannah discovers her brother’s photo in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead and vows to find his killer. Along the way she meets up with a boy who claims she is his mother and a handsome banker whom she struggles to trust.
  • A Night of Long Knives, set in Munich and Berlin in 1934 where Hannah is thrust back into Nazi Germany on the eve of the large purge where more than a thousand political opponents of Hitler were killer overnight. Hannah walks through this blood-stained landscape to try and find her missing son.
  • A Game of Lies, set during the Berlin Olympics of 1936, finds Hannah back in Berlin as a reporter covering the games, but also working as a spy for the British. Although Berlin seems bright and peaceful, she knows it’s a facade covering darkness as she investigates the death of her one time mentor and worries that even her most trusted allies will betray her.

The Collector’s Edition also includes the Ernst Vogel short story prequel, Cigarette Boy, and extra book covers sprinkled throughout like Easter eggs.

If you’re not interested in the extra content, there is a standard edition coming out soon with just the novels for sale as well for a lower price.

Where can we purchase the collector’s edition?

The collector’s edition is available as an ebook at the usual suspects:

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | iBooks | Kobo

 

 

Thanks Rebecca!

 

 

Rebecca Cantrell Headshot

 

 

Learn more about Rebecca Cantrell

 

 

Writing Lessons Section 4 by David Kummer

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Welcome to this lesson of David Kummer’s writing course. That’s me, by the way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, success stories, or just something fun to say, email me at davidkummer7@gmail.com. I’d love to talk about anything and everything, especially if that everything has to do with books, basketball, or Chinese food. I am a teenager, after all. So that’s that! Head on down and read what might be the best writing course of your life, but also might be the worst 😉 You won’t know until you try!

Continue reading “Writing Lessons Section 4 by David Kummer” →

Writing Lesson Section 3 Part 3 by David Kummer

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Welcome to this lesson of David Kummer’s writing course. That’s me, by the way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, success stories, or just something fun to say, email me at davidkummer7@gmail.com. I’d love to talk about anything and everything, especially if that everything has to do with books, basketball, or Chinese food. I am a teenager, after all. So that’s that! Head on down and read what might be the best writing course of your life, but also might be the worst 😉 You won’t know until you try!

Continue reading “Writing Lesson Section 3 Part 3 by David Kummer” →