Maggie Robinson's Winner!

Thanks, everyone, for a great day in the lair yesterday. It's with great pleasure that I announce the winner of the signed copy of MISTRESS BY MISTAKE and the signed copy of MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT by Maggie Robinson.

It's...

CATH'S CHATTER!!!!

Cath, congratulations! Please email Maggie on maggie @ maggierobinson.net (no spaces)with your snail mail details and she'll get your prizes off to you. Happy reading!

Meet the Mistresses by Midnight

by Anna Campbell

It's my great pleasure to bring back to the lair a writer who really gave the cabana boys a run for their money on her last visit.

Maggie Robinson is the author of the saucy and sexy and super Courtesan Court historical romances for Kensington. The stories are all set in Jane Street where the rich men of London house their mistresses - so you can imagine why I call these stories 'saucy'!

When I read Maggie's debut, MISTRESS BY MISTAKE, I said it "sizzles off the page. A marvelously sexy romp." By the sound of it, MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT is equally crammed with wit, mayhem and high society hijinks!

You can find out more about Maggie and her alter-ego Margaret Rowe on her website: http://www.maggierobinson.net/


So here's Maggie!


Thanks so much to the Banditas (especially Anna)…and the cabana boys…for having me back at the Lair.

I’ve brought two new mistresses with me from my latest Courtesan Court books, Laurette Vincent from this month’s MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT and Prudence Thorne from the novella “Not Quite a Courtesan” in last month’s anthology LORDS OF PASSION to keep the boys busy.

Both ladies—and they are, honest—are temporary residents of Jane Street, my fictional mistress row. Good girls gone bad.

And loving it!


Laurette starts off as a freckle-faced tomboy who has her sights set on the boy next door, who happens to be the Marquess of Conover. But fate intervenes, as they say in Romancelandia. A dozen years after they’re parted, Con’s determined to get her back any way he can. He’s not exactly obsessed—let’s just call him determined and prevaricate. Laurette can’t resist him forever, but she makes a valiant effort. It was such fun to flip back in forth from their teenage angst and lust to their…adult angst and lust.

MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT is a little more serious than the other books in the series, slightly Cathy and Heathcliffish without the cruelty, insanity or so many dead bodies. Have you ever noticed how Emily Bronte kills off everybody? Even poor puppies.

For lighter fare and absolutely no dead dogs, Prudence Thorne delivers in “Not Quite a Courtesan.” She begins her story as a buttoned-up veiled widow and ends it as a belly-button-baring veiled harem girl. Darius Shaw, a dealer in erotic art and antiquities, is the bad influence who makes Pru feel so good.

I’m so lucky to share LORDS OF PASSION with romance legend Virginia Henley and wonderful Kate Pearce. Writing a novella on purpose was a delicious experience. I say this as someone whose first “book” seven years ago turned out to be about 25,000 words and included an amnesiac heroine in a whorehouse. I’m so ashamed.

I revisit Jane Street twice more this year with “To Match a Thief” in August’s IMPROPER GENTLEMEN, and the last official Courtesan Court book, MISTRESS BY MARRIAGE in September. I’ve become so fond of the ladies who live there that I’m pretty sure some will turn up in 2012 one way or another.

To find out more about the books, please visit my website (and check out my naughtier alter ego, Margaret Rowe).

I’m giving away a copy of LORDS OF PASSION and MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT today to one random commenter who completes this sentence:

A hero should always ___________and never_________.

Those stories sound absolutely delicious, Maggie! Bandita Buddies, get commenting!

Surrender to Tiffany's Winners!

Wow, we had a blast of a day in the lair yesterday! Thank you to everyone who came by and a special welcome to all the new faces!

As you know, Tiffany went wild with prizes, offering five books in total to readers from North America. I threw in a signed copy of CAPTIVE OF SIN to someone outside NA. So without further ado, here is the (long!) list of lucky winners:

The winners of Tiffany's fabulous debut historical romance, THE SURRENDER OF A LADY, are:

LAURIE
DANIELLE GORMAN
MISSKALLIE2000

The winner of Courtney Milan's latest TRIAL BY DESIRE is:

SUZANNE FERRELL

The winner of Maggie Robinson's MISTRESS BY MISTAKE is:

BARB

The winner of CAPTIVE OF SIN is:

KAETRIN

Congratulations, ladies! We just need your snail mail details and we're cooking with gas. For Tiffany's prizes, please email her on: tiffany @ tiffanyclare.com (no spaces). For Anna's prize, please email her on anna @ annacampbell.info (no spaces). Happy reading!

Maggie May...

by Anna Campbell

..I'll leave you all to finish that title once you've read the post!

We're talking about some hot potato books today! I read MISTRESS BY MISTAKE in manuscript and had to have a cold shower halfway through, it's that tsssss hot!

I've known Maggie what feels like forever. Maggie, I think we first touched base way back with Avon FanLit in 2006. This was a great writing contest that Avon ran and so many published authors are graduates (and wonderful Bandita Buddies like our very own contest queen, Louisa). Maggie is a hoot - funny, smart and witty. And all of those qualities translate to her writing.

You can find out more about Maggie and her alter ego Margaret Rowe at her website: http://www.maggierobinson.net/

Welcome to the lair, Maggie, and congratulations on the release of your debut historical romance MISTRESS BY MISTAKE. Can you tell us about the story?

Thanks so much for inviting me! And special thanks to Anna, who gave me a lovely cover quote for MISTRESS BY MISTAKE. I even have it framed.

MBM begins with a state of very mistaken identity. Sir Michael Bayard expects to find his brand-new mistress in his bed. Instead, it’s Charlotte Fallon, a straight-laced, lace-making spinster who is supposed to making excuses for her infamous sister’s absence. She goes a little beyond that.


I notice it’s part of a series called the COURTESAN COURT TRILOGY. That warms my heart, being an old courtesan fancier myself!

I’ve set the series on Jane Street, a fictional enclave of London’s most exclusive courtesans. My heroines find themselves there against their will, but they soon master their masters. MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT (Dec 28, 2010) is Heathcliff and Cathy without the crazy and with a secret baby. MISTRESS BY MARRIAGE (out Spring 2011) features an icy hero and a firecracker heroine—a classic opposites attract story. You know who melts. Two novellas I’ve written also use the Jane Street setting. NOT QUITE A COURTESAN will appear in the anthology LORDS OF PASSION on November 30, 2010.

Ooh, sound delicious! Why do you think there’s been an upsurge in popularity in stories featuring courtesans?

If I’m going to be honest—and I do try to be—my courtesans are more or less accidental. But I think most of us would like to be experts at something, and there is a certain mystique about women who possess the charm to drive men mad. Well, except for Tiger Wood’s skanky mistresses.

Snork! In the lair, we LOVE call stories. Can you tell us yours?

It was for Margaret Rowe’s TEMPTING EDEN (more of her below). I worked in a high school library where I ran the after-school library program, and I knew from my agent something was happening after seven long months on submission. I had my cell phone with me all day as I shelved books. When it rang, it was late afternoon and just a few girls were still at school using the computers. I wanted to scream, but I was in the library and the signs I had printed myself told me not to. So I whispered and shook. And cried a little when I hung up. One of the girls was worried.

Great story, Maggie. You also write erotic historical romance as Margaret Rowe (which makes me giggle – MISTRESS BY MISTAKE is one of the hottest historicals I’ve ever read!). TEMPTING EDEN comes out this month from Berkley Heat. Can you tell us about this story?


TEMPTING EDEN is much darker—I’ve tortured my poor heroine quite thoroughly. Eden has to overcome Hell to find Heaven in her hero’s arms. This book is edgier and riskier than THE COURTESAN COURT books, and I fully expect people will have a visceral reaction to it. I’m polishing my body armor even as we speak. I may call on the Banditas for back-up.

Girding on gladiator sword as we speak! Do you find any major differences when you’re writing as Margaret Rowe and as Maggie Robinson?

Margaret writes about things that Maggie has never done, or at least won’t admit to. Margaret can be as bad and hot as Maggie will let her. Maggie is funnier and lighter, but still hot, of course. I feel fortunate I have two avenues to express my demented duality. It’s better than therapy and I get paid too!

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers out there?

Don’t give up. Try to write every day, even if you’re only tweaking what you wrote yesterday. It took five years for me to get an agent, six to sell, seven to publish. I have a totally supportive family, which is a huge help. Most of all, I was lucky to come across wonderful writing friends online who share my dream and keep me motivated and laughing.

Thanks, Maggie! Is there anything you'd like to ask the Bandits and Bandita Buddies?

Twirling black Bandita mustache* Who do you like to see tortured by the evil romance writer—the hero or the heroine? Who’s your favourite tortured h/h?

Hey, who left the mustache cupboard unlocked? I'll see you when I get home, Mr. Sven!

Maggie has very kindly offered one commenter today a signed copy of MISTRESS BY MISTAKE along with some promo goodies. Good luck, everyone!