Winners of MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION

Hey, guys, thank you for a FABULOUS launch party in the lair yesterday. The cabana boys are still cleaning up! And finding chocolate in unexpected places! Hard to pick winners - but I had to. So the people who get a signed copy of MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION are:

Kaelee BJ LilMissMolly

Congratulations, girls. Can you please email me on anna @ annacampbell.info (no spaces) with your snail mail details and I'll get your book off to you. Happy reading!

Midnight's Wild Passion is...WILD!!!!

by Anna Campbell

Good evening, Regency gossip mavens! It's your eagle-eyed editor here from Regency Routs, Rumpus and Rumpy-Pumpy.

Are you ready for your big dose of SCANDAL???!!!!

Yep, we're all getting to play papparazzi for the day. Nikons at twenty paces! Hoist your Olympus!

Because today is the launch party for the honorable Miss Campbell's latest release MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION and there's going to be blood on the Polaroids before we're done, dear readers!

But first a word from our sponsors at MIDNIGHT CENTRAL...

MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION is a classic Regency romance spiced with passion and danger and...SCANDAL (well, you kinda knew that, you're papparazzi, right?).

Here's some secret video from one of our undercover London reporters:



And here's the background to the breaking story that's taken the gossip sheets by storm:

London's most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner lives solely for revenge…

The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister - now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas's vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe's unsuspecting daughter.

Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue-banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie-Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is, and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.

Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes…

Here's a link to an excerpt: http://www.annacampbell.info/wildpassion.html

We even have specific footage for our Aussie scandalmongerers, uh, READERS of Downunder Disgraceful Doings!

You'll notice that Nicholas and Antonia have been caught in a VERY compromising position in this candid photo.

Just goes to show you shouldn't do anything naughty in the summer house at Pelham Place. All those bushes give dedicated papparazzi lots of places to hide out - and let's face it, neither Nicholas nor Antonia was paying much attention to what was going on OUTSIDE the lovely little Greek temple at the time!

Our intrepid reporter told us events reached such a pitch that his camera fell from his sweaty hands and crashed upon the muddy ground, so this is our only photgraphic record of illicit cavortings.

To speak frankly, dear readers - and do we ever do anything else here at Regency Routs, Rumpus and Rumpy-Pumpy? - we're not at all surprised that the Marquess of Ranelaw is currently giving us plenty of material to titilate you. After all, he has always had a terrible reputation as a rake and a libertine.

He looks like a fallen angel and acts like the De-il himself! Many a time, we've had to fan our heaving bosoms and reach for the smelling salts preparing the sealed sections of RRRARP where we've related his numerous and notorious escapades with wanton women both within and without society.

But this Season, the on dit is that Nicholas Challoner is out to catch himself a bride. And he seems to have settled on innocent debutante Cassandra Demarest.

The marquess's attentions to the lovely young woman have been notable. At the Bradham musicale, he sat next to her for the entire evening - apart from a mysterious disappearance onto the terrace. During the house party at Pelham Place which had such a lamentable end, he was rarely away from Miss Demarest's side.

But we at Regency Routs, Rumpus and Rumpy-Pumpy have inside information, dear readers! It's not Cassandra he's pursuing but her dowdy chaperone Miss Antonia Smith who until now has been a model of rectitude.

Previously, Miss Smith was on our radar purely as a dragon of a companion with no dress sense. But rumor now has it that Miss Smith conceals hidden depths.

We wonder what else this lady is concealing!

We have it on good authority that Miss Smith can ride and shoot better than most men - something Ranelaw needs to take into consideration if he's plotting the lady's ruin. Just take a look at this candid shot of Miss Smith toting heat instead of a reticule.

If I were the marquess, I would be VERRRRRRRRRRRY careful! Of his dealings with both Miss Smith and Miss Demarest.

And then, fetch your editor a burnt feather, there was that scandalous evening at the Merriweathers where not only Miss Smith and the marquess danced a waltz together, but the poet and traveler John Benton, once accounting the handsomest man in England, returned to set female hearts a-flutter.

The fellow has been in Italy for years and there is some secret scandal about his absence that we promise to get to the bottom of before we're done. We will leave no stone - or poet - unturned in our search for the truth! Our reporters will scale any cherry trees (oops, gave away a clue to a future edition there!), hide in any retiring room at a ball, eavesdrop on any conversation to keep our readers informed!

There is MUCH more we could say - once our lawyers have cleared us to speak... Ahem, once we have completed our researches.

There are whispers of missing heiresses, elopements, parental disapproval, seductions, abductions, duels. Oh, my, we can hardly contain our censure at the wicked goings on this Season. And we dread to assault our gentle readers' ears with what we know.

Well, all right...

If you insist...

What's that? The lawyers say no?

It seems if you want the full dramatic story, you have to read MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION?

NOOOOOO! Regency Routs, Rumpus and Rumpy-Pumpy resents the implication that we don't have the whole story - even though we don't. One thing we do know, there is much scandal and mayhem before there's a wedding!

OK, you papparazzi in training, let's celebrate the launch of this scandalous memoir with some wild reportings! Tell me the latest scandal in that notorious den of iniquity, the Romance Bandits Lair.

What did Sven do with Madame Christine at the last party? Where did Cindy and the cabana boys disappear to on Thursday? Is the deadline cave only for deadlines?

If you know no scandal of the lair - which this editor finds extremely hard to believe! - tell us some scandal from this momentous Season where the Marquess of Ranelaw seems to have lost his taste for wild women and started to pursue dowdy companions.

Heavens to Betsy, what is the world coming to?

Plenty of champagne and orgeat and warm lemonade to keep you refreshed. We have the second best orchestra in London to keep your toes tapping - that social-climbing Mrs. Jones-Llewellyn-Jones had already booked the best orchestra, bl-st her hide.

And the party favors include THREE signed copies of the document in question. Yes, MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION (oh, my, the summer house!) will go to three intrepid reporters today.

GOOD LUCK, PAPPARAZZI! May you do Regency Routs, Rumpus and Rumpy-Pumpy proud!

Passionate about that Wild Midnight!

by Anna Campbell

Hey, guys, February is a HUGE month in Campbellandia because I'm launching my new website. It's taken hours of work, not just by me but by my terrifically talented web mistress Paula Roe, to create this upated version. I wanted a look that reflected the danger and the sexy elegance of the Regency world.

I hope you'll check it out. More than that, I hope you'll love it!

www.annacampbell.info

Even better, in line with the month-long GO RED FOR WOMEN theme in the lair, you'll notice red features very strongly in the design. Look at that beautiful ribbon!

While I loved the old design to pieces, I thought it was getting a little tired. I also felt it reflected the gothic flavor of my first few books more closely than the darkly sensual flavor of my more recent works.

Not everything has changed. You'll notice there are a lot of old friends that are still there like the My Favorite Things column that has always been really popular. But there are also new pages, including one for press and one that gathers all my book trailers and video interviews in one place for ease of location.

I've been saving the page for MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION, my May 2011 release, for the website's debut.

So it's with great pleasure that I introduce to the Banditas and Bandita Buddies my next Regency romance MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION!

Here's the blurb:

London’s most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner lives solely for revenge…

The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister—now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas’s vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe’s unsuspecting daughter.

Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is, and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.

Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes...

There's an excerpt here for your reading pleasure.

I had enormous fun writing MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION. By the way, if you click on the top cover, which is the one for the American edition, it will take you straight to Amazon where you can pre-order the book. The blue cover is for the Australian edition which is also out in May.

MWP is the closest thing I've ever done to a classic Regency romance so you'll find a host of favorite themes like ballrooms and false identities and elopements and duels. And a really delicious (even if I do say so myself) rakish hero in the Marquess of Ranelaw.

So clearly that's your May reading taken care of, LOL! What other books are you looking forward to reading in the next few months?

Oh, and because of the GO RED FOR WOMEN campaign, there's a giveaway for a random commenter. A signed copy of my book with a RED spine TEMPT THE DEVIL. We've also got some American Heart Association goodies going out. So comment, people, comment! Oh, and check out the new website!

We have an AHA Go Red pin for one commenter today.

The healthy heart tip for February 10th is: Still craving something sweet? Send a fruit basket to your loved one instead of the usual sugary sweets.

Romance Writers of America and the American Heart Association have partnered to raise awareness of heart disease in women and encourage you to join us in wearing red on February 4, National Wear Red Day. Visit Go Red for Women to learn how to fight heart disease.

And just in case you missed it...

Sign up for the Go Red Better U Program and receive two free romance e-books.

From Feb 1 through May 31, 2011, receive one free romance e-book when you sign up for the American Heart Association's Better U Program and one after you complete week six of the program. And look for the Eat Smart for Your Heart limited edition magazine (that features this offer) on newstands and in a grocery store near you.

Go Red for Women is trademarked by the American Heart Association, Inc. Romance novel downloads provided by Belle Books.