Welcome multi-published author, Janet Mullany...

                

           Welcome, welcome, welcome, Janet!! I am thrilled to have such a talented author visit my site - I truly can't wait to read your latest release. I have read all your Little Black Dress books and loved them - wishing you lots of sales with your latest from HQN, "Hidden Paradise".

        Okay, on with the questions!

            1) When and why did you decide you wanted to be a published author?

I wanted to write and be published from the get-go. I had this grand idea I’d put my daughter through college with my massive royalty checks, which didn’t happen. See below.

2)   What is the best and worse thing you have learned from an editor/agent?

By the time I was being considered seriously by agents—in other words, after I’d published—I realized I was a niche author and the gigantic earth-shattering royalty checks just weren’t happening. But when I told this to the agent who now represents me, she said that being a niche author didn’t mean you had to be in a small niche. Very cool and perceptive and we’ve been working to hack out a bigger niche for me/

3)   Favourite author/s?

Jane Austen first of all whose books I love and who’s taught me a lot about writing. Oh, but wait—I’m supposed to be talking about erotic romance. OK, sighs and pulls on feather boa and six inch high heels. Portia da Costa and Molly Weatherfield, both terrific writers with great style and voice, which is the sort of writing I enjoy.

4) What is your typical day?

Get up as late as possible, take metro into work to the Bach factory (yes I have a day job and it’s for a baroque music ensemble). I read on the metro, and if I gave up the day job I’d really miss the reading time. Same coming home, where I fiddle about on the computer and try to churn out at least 1,000 words, plus doing promo and all that good stuff.

5)   Who would you cast to play your hero & heroine in a movie?

I have a confession to make. I have a vague sort of idea what Mac, Lou and the rest look like, and although I’m a very visual person, I’m not that interested. In this book I was far more interested in what they were wearing, since they’re in Regency clothes. Tight pants, neckcloths, lovely floaty gowns, all great stuff.

6) Did you plan this book? Or write it as it came?

I sold it on proposal, the second of two books for HQN and I had a typically vague 3-page synopsis. It mostly settled into place with my usual big dose of luck. I’m not a good plotter and I have to be well into a book before I can work out what’s really going on. Usually I start off with a vague idea, which for this book was wouldn’t it be fun to write a book where people are recreating a Regency lifestyle and having lots of sex. Or something like that. It’s quite a terrifying process.

7)   What surprised you the most when you became a published author?

      What a nice community romance authors are.

       8)   Do you have a dedicated writing space? What does it look like?

I have an office that the cat seems to think belongs to her. It’s a real mess at the moment with a lot of things stored in here that shouldn’t be. I’m a terrible slob but I really prefer the office to be clean and uncluttered. It has a lot of light, facing south and east, and a huge oak tree outside. I think it’s the nicest room in my house.

9)    What’s next for you?

I’m returning to my first love, historical romance, and I have one finished ms. about a love affair between a lady and her servant, and I’m working on another one inspired by Scheherezade (The Arabian Nights), something that’s a great influence on me. And also a couple of ideas for novellas, so I’m fairly busy! Thanks so much for having me visit and I hope we crank up the water buffalo fund.

Hidden Paradise

by Janet Mullany

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

CALL IT SENSE AND 

Sensuality... 

Louisa Connelly, a recently widowed Jane Austen scholar, needs some relief from her stifling world. When a friend calls to offer her a temporary escape from her Montana ranch, she is whisked into a dizzying world of sumptuous food, flowing wine...and endless temptation. 

 She's an honored guest at Paradise Hall, an English resort boasting the full experience of an authentic Georgian country-house weekend. Liveried servants tend to the every need of houseguests clad in meticulous period costume: snug breeches, low-cut silken gowns and negligible undergarments. 

It's Mac Salazar, a journalist immersing himself fully, deeply, lustily in the naughty pleasures of upstairs-downstairs dalliances, who piques Louisa's curiosity-and libido-most. He's a dilettante straight out of a novel: uninhibited, unapologetic and nearly insatiable. But Lou's not romantic about this much, at least: Paradise Hall is a gorgeous fantasy, nothing more. A lover like Mac is pure fiction. And the real world beckons....

EXCERPT

[Rob the footman after dinner in the drawing room]

The pianist played a final chord and during the applause Rob opened the door and ushered in Dejan and Ivan and their trays. Neither Peter nor Chris was present, which was unusual, and the guests looked a little drunk, which was not unusual at all. At least Lou was pretty much sober tonight. She was sitting next to one of the guys who messed around with the plaster and paint, talking to him with great animation. Mac, meanwhile, across the room, gazed at her, and Rob wondered why he didn’t just go and talk to her. Like poor old Peter had done, clumsily touching him and gazing at him like some sort of pathetic spaniel. It wasn’t the first time a gay guy had propositioned him—it happened, no big deal—but it was a big deal when it was your boss and he looked so sad and scared. Hell, he was even older than Rob’s dad, and he felt more pity for Peter than he could for his own father.

“Tea, ma’am?” he said to Lou.

She took a cup from the tray without even noticing him. “Sixteen layers!” she said to the decorating guy. Jon Nesbitt, that was his name.

“You’ll have to come and look at my samples,” Jon said in his plummy posh voice. Would Rob talk like that, too, after Cambridge?

“Oh, I’d love to.”

Christ, she was practically having an orgasm about looking at paint layers or whatever she was planning to do. He moved the tray away before Jon could take a cup and went to the next guest, the one Downstairs voted most likely to put out. Unfortunately, she also tied for the honor of most annoying and demanding.

“Hi, Rob.” Sarah took a cup of coffee. “Is this organic?”

“Absolutely. And fair trade. Tastes nice, too,” he said vaguely, staring straight into her cleavage. He couldn’t help it. It was just there, all ripe and pillowy and gorgeous with its mysterious deep shadow, and she was sitting and he was standing, and if he wasn’t careful he’d tip half a dozen cups of tea and coffee into its depths.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Janet Mullany, granddaughter of an Edwardian housemaid, was born in England but now lives near Washington, DC. Her debut book was Dedication, the only Signet Regency to have two bondage scenes (and which was reissued with even more sex in April 2012 from Loose-Id). Her next book, The Rules of Gentility (HarperCollins 2007) was acquired by Little Black Dress (UK) for whom she wrote three more Regency chicklits, A Most Lamentable Comedy, Improper Relations, and Mr. Bishop and the Actress. Her career as a writer who does terrible things to Jane Austen began in 2010 with the publication of Jane and the Damned (HarperCollins), and Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion (2011) about Jane as a vampire, and a modern retelling of Emma, Little to Hex Her, in the anthology Bespelling Jane Austen headlined by Mary Balogh. She also writes contemporary erotic fiction for Harlequin, Tell Me More (2011) and Hidden Paradise (September, 2012).

Website: www.janetmullany.com

Twitter @Janet_Mullany

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Janet-Mullany-Author/144530775580812

Book Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bixcPDj8JKA

Janet will pledge $1 for every comment made on the blog tour to Heifer International (which has absolutely nothing to do with the book but is one of her favorite nonprofits), up to $250.  Additionally, she'll award the choice of the following eBooks from her backlist to one randomly drawn commenter at every stop:  Forbidden Shores (erotic historical romance w/a Jane Lockwood), or Tell Me More (contemporary erotica) or The Rules of Gentility (funny sexy Regency).  To one randomly drawn host, she'll award their choice of either a 1 lb. box of Leonidas chocolates (US only) or a flock of chicks in their name from Heifer International.

 Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/05/virtual-book-tour-hidden-paradise-by.html

Over to you! Janet is waiting to chat...

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