Thursday, September 29, 2011

Fall In Love With Maggie Robinson!!

Did you catch a glimpse of that stunning cover over yonder?? Good night, nurse! What a way to welcome in Friday!

I am thrilled to welcome the lovely MAGGIE ROBINSON back to the Lovestruck Novice. We interviewed Maggie last year for her debut novel, Mistress By Mistake and now, she's here to tell us all about her latest release, MISTRESS BY MARRIAGE!!

No romance lover should be without a Maggie Robinson novel on their keeper shelf! Top off your cup, snag a snack, and take a break--you're worth it and so is Maggie's Mistress Series!! Get ready to fall in love!

It’s lovely to be back here again talking about the last Mistress book in the Courtesan Court series, Mistress by Marriage. (There’s a Master book, too—Master of Sin—which wraps up the series in April 2012) Of my three Mistresses, I like Caroline the best. She’s got a temper, a warm heart, a sharp tongue…and she writes romance novels! Kinda like me, LOL. I like to think my writing is better, although we both have a near-fatal addiction to alliteration. Caroline writes lurid gothic romances, where she’s forever killing off her estranged husband is various creative scenarios. I haven’t done that yet with my husband John, but there’s still time.

Writing a writer was not as easy as you might think. I decided to include snippets of Caroline’s books. She churns out one every month, and let’s just say she may have quantity down but not quality. So I had to intentionally write badly, and hope the reader would catch on that I was spoofing my poor heroine. Of course, some people might think I write badly anyway. ;)

Each chapter begins with a crazy quote from one of Caroline’s books. Here’s one: “Henrietta hung shackled to the walls of the dungeon, each hopeless cry echoing on the damp walls like the laugh of The Devil.” Ha ha ha. Publishers Weekly said, “the most fun derives from the way Caroline skewers society in her novels, with quotes from the books presented at the top of each chapter like bonbons.”

I got to make up her titles, too: The Captain’s Concubine, The Dark Duke’s Dilemma, The Viscount’s Willing Victim, etcetera. Twenty-four of them for the twenty-four chapters! A book title is pretty important. I’ve been fortunate to keep my working titles for all my Brava books. My editor just approved my titles for the most recently turned-in books, Lord Craig’s List (December 2012) and Lady Anne’s Lover (Spring 2013). You can see what I mean about alliteration.

Is there one special romance word in a title that makes you pick up a book? What words are you sick of? How do you feel about the recent spate of books with a million words in their title? One commenter will win a copy of Mistress by Marriage!

Wowza!! Now, there's a sweet treat to savor! I'd like to thank Maggie for being here today. Best wishes to her for a long and very fulfilling career! If you'd like to know more about Maggie Robinson and her blog tour, please click on over to her website:
http://www.maggierobinson.net/books/
THANK YOU, TLN'ers!! Here's hoping the weekend treats us right! Witty words and ravenous readings to all!! See you next week!!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Sarah, thanks so much for having me here!I'm wrestling with the title of my new book right now. What fo we think: Mr. Durant's Desire or Mr. Durant's Mistress???

Unknown said...

That would be do...lightbulb is out, LOL.

Ora said...

I have never really thought about what catches my attention for a title. I do like titles that play on words of other classic and/or beloved novels.
I am curious about Lord Craig's List. The first thing I think about is does his list contain the regency version of craig's list. I would read your book regardless of the title because I just enjoy your writing, I do admit I am curious about that one.

Kaetrin said...

I struggle a little with similar titles in a series. Thankfully now I have all my books listed on GoodReads or otherwise I'd be buying doubles much more often!

Overall I prefer shorter titles to longer ones - they get shortened anyway after all and it's easier to use a shorter title in a review. :)

hankts AT internode DOT on DOT net

Unknown said...

Ora, Lord Craig's List refers to The London List, a Regency newspaper that is indeed like Craigslist & the National Enquirer behind. I hope you like it!

Kaetrin, I'm like you--I even get the titles of my own books mixed up, LOL. They all are Mistress by Something Starting with an M, and I can't tell you how over I've exchanged one title for the other!

Eli Yanti said...

long title just make confuse and will difficult to remember it when we are going to buy the book at bookstore so prefer the short title ^^

i should admit one special romance word in a title that makes me pick up a book is "midnight dance" by lila dipasqua and i love the cover too and the story too =D.

but the most important of a title, i think, is not to deviate from the plot :)

ClaudiaGC said...

I'm bad with titles! I can barely remember the title of the book I'm reading right now. So, obviously, I don't like very long (even harder to remember) or similar titles (in a series). But in the end if the book is good I don't care about the title. :)

claudigc at msn dot com

Chelsea B. said...

'Highland' and 'Scottish' and anything of the sort are like magical words for me! The accents, you know. They just get me.... :-)

justforswag(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

Diane D - Florida said...

Hi Maggie,

There are quite a few words that make me pick up a book, some of them are:-
Dangerous
Seduction
Seduce
Scandal
Sex
Surrender
Sins
Tempting/Tempted
Desire
Duke, Lord, Earl, Viscount, Marquess
Mistress
Courtesan's
Passion
Rapture
Wow, I could go on and on. Also, with me, the cover art plays a big part with whether or not I will pick up the book and read the back blurb.

I don't really like long titles, and some of the words that I'm sick of seeing are:-

Vampire
Bite
Claimed

Well, that's about it for now Maggie. Congratulations on your new release.

dpd333 (at) aol dot com

Sarah Simas said...

A hearty thanks to Maggie for sharing her Friday with us!!

Usually anything with a mention of Lords and Scandal catch my eye. Bascially anything Regency. I agree with Diane's list of overused title words.

I miss the titles of the 80's. Like: Love Lost Found, Hearts Aflame, and Prisoner of My Desire. (Ok, they are mopst Johanna Lindsey novels, but why not go retro?! lol)

Sarah Simas said...

The winner of the Maggie Robinson contest is......
DIANE D FLORIDA!!

Thanks to all who swung by and joined in the fun!

Diane be on the look out for an email! :)

Diane D - Florida said...

Many thanks for choosing me. I'm so happy about this and can't wait to read it. Thank you again.

P.S. I've emailed my address details as requested by Madeline.

Diane