Guest Author & Giveaway: Laurel McKee author of Countess of Scandal

Today I would like to Welcome Laurel McKee to Book Junkie. I was able to get my hands on Countess of Scandal with many thanks to Anna @ Hachette Books earlier this month. You can read my review HERE. But also I was sent an extra copy the other day, and although I have already had a giveaway sponsored by the publisher I would like to give this extra copy about to one lucky winner.

If someone were writing a story about Laurel McKee, what would your blurb say?This is a hard one! I always feel like my life is so dull compared to the books I love reading. Maybe “Laurel McKee—a girl with too many handbags and lipsticks, on the hunt for the perfect research books”? Or, if I was fantasizing, “Laurel McKee’s romantic adventures in Paris with her hunky soccer-player boyfriend”…

Can you tell us a little about your newest release Countess of Scandal?
I’m so excited about this book! It’s the first of the “Daughters of Erin” trilogy about the three Blacknall sisters, set in late Georgian/early Regency Ireland. Eliza Blacknall and Will Denton were childhood sweethearts, separated when Will joined the Army and Eliza married her family’s choice for her. Now it’s a few years later—1798, a fateful year in Ireland, and they’re reunited on the eve of the Uprising. He’s still a British officer, and she’s an ardent supporter of the United Irishmen, but their old feelings for each other are still there, stronger than ever.

(The chaos of a rebellion might not be the number one setting people think of for a romance! But I found it had a lot of potential for danger and passion, and a chance for Eliza and Will to discover truths about themselves, their love, and the world around them. It was fun to work with a happier-ending Romeo and Juliet-ish story! Plus at the beginning I got to put in the great clothes and glamorous settings I love. Georgian Dublin was a very glamorous and party-loving place!)


What do you do to combat writer’s block?Usually just writing through it helps. If I don’t feel like writing that day (which I often don’t) I just make myself sit down and get started, and tell myself I can fix it later if it’s terrible. The important thing is to stay in the story. If I’m having a really hard time, it often means I’m trying to make the characters do something they don’t want to, and I need to re-think the story’s direction. (A very tough situation calls for chocolate mousse cake and a bubble bath…)


What was the first romance you read and how did it effect you?
I got started very early reading romance, thanks to my grandmother! We would visit her for a spring break and a month in the summer, and when I was about nine I found a big box of romance novels in her closet (mostly Heyers and Cartlands and a few old traditional Regencies). I was hooked by the first one I tried, Marion Chesney’s At the Sign of the Golden Pineapple, a Regency where the heroine owned a pastry shop called the Golden Pineapple and was very independent. I still love heroines like that! I was entranced by the whole historical world these stories described, and by the developing relationship between the heroes and heroines (I was already hooked on romantic Disney movies by then, and this just seemed like an expansion of all that!). I quickly devoured every book in that box, then ran to the library for more.


Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?Not exactly, but I do have a story (historical fiction set at the court of Marie Antoinette before and during the Revolution) that I work on whenever I have a spare minute. I love it, and hope to find a home for it someday!


If you could be a heroine from one of your books, who would you be?Another tough question! I usually give my heroines both aspects of myself (like bookishness or petite-ness) and characteristics I’d like to have but don’t (like bravery or boldness!). I would like to be Anna from my December 2010 book, Duchess of Sin, who is very brave and bold indeed, and able to overcome so much. Plus she gets a handsome Irish hero!


What 3 qualities were a must when creating your hero Will?
Well, in my mind a hero doesn’t necessarily have to be movie-star handsome (though Will is!), but he does have to have a great chemistry and attraction with the heroine. They have to have that magical ‘pull’ to each other. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to have 2 characters who sort of take over and run with the story, whose attraction to each other is naturally strong, and that was Will and Eliza! He also had to be honorable and intelligent, which are a must in any hero.


What is the hardest part about creating/continuing on with a series?t can definitely be a challenge to have characters continue on from one book to another! Continuity and staying true to their personalities is so important, and this can be tough since sometimes months pass between writing two of the books and a lot can be forgotten. I keep an Excel chart for characters and events that’s a big help in keeping it all straight.


If you could ask readers any one question what would it be?
If you read historical romances, what’s your favorite time period and why? Is there any era or setting you’d love to see more of? (Ooops, that’s two questions!)

***GIVEAWAY***

Just leave a comment at the end of this post answering one of Laurel's questions and you will be entered!

Winner chosen 03/05, Open to all!