COUNTESS OF SCANDAL Winner!

We have a winner for Laurel McKee's COUNTESS OF SCANDAL guest blog. A free copy goes to:

PENNEY!

Contact Carrie to provide your mailing address. The book must be claimed by next Sunday or another winner will be drawn. Please stop back later to let us know what you thought! Congratulations!

Guest Author: Laurel McKee

After a slight technical glitch, I'm posting the correct interview. Yay!

This week we're welcoming the return of Amanda McCabe, writing as Laurel McKee, as she celebrates the release of COUNTESS OF SCANDAL, out now from Grand Central.

Eliza Blacknall and Will Denton were childhood sweethearts, growing up on neighboring estates in beautiful County Kildare. But adulthood finds them on opposite sides of the monumental and violent struggle of 1798, as Eliza supports the United Irish in their quest for independence, and Will is a major in the British Army, sworn to uphold the Crown. The passion for each other burns hotter than ever—but can it survive as their world crumbles around them?

***

"McKee sets the stage for a romantic adventure that captures the spirit of Ireland and a pair of star-crossed lovers to perfection" -- RT Book Reviews

"COUNTESS OF SCANDAL combines a passionate romance with a nail-biting plot. The author's research shines through to make the era come alive, as well as her characters. An exciting tale out of the common mold" -- Romance Reviews Today

"This book has rarely used and well-drawn setting, good characters, and so much more working in its favor. I absolutely loved reading this one!" -- All About Romance

"McKee's intriguingly nuanced characters and deliciously subtle sense of humor provide the ideal counterpoint to the perfectly executed historical setting that gives COUNTESS OF SCANDAL its refreshingly different literary flavor" -- Booklist

***

Tell us about COUNTESS OF SCANDAL!

First, I have to say thank you so much for having me back at Unusual Historicals! I'm obviously a huge fan of the "unusual" in historical romances, and this is such a fabulous source for finding out where to find them.

As for COUNTESS OF SCANDAL, it's my 'debut' as Laurel McKee (two different publishers equals two different names, though hopefully no identity crisis!) and I'm so excited about it. 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!)

Where did you get the idea for these stories?

My own family background is Irish, and I've wanted to do a book set there for a long time! It just took me a while to find the right characters and story. Ireland is such a gorgeous country, full of dramatic history people with passionate characters, and it seems ripe for romantic stories. I remembered a visit I made years ago to the beautiful Georgian estate Castletown, which was owned by Lady Louisa Conolly, one of the famous Lennox sisters, who made the house her life's work.


The guides had a trove of fascinating stories about Irish life in the late eighteenth century! I also read Stella Tillyard's fascinating book about the Lennox sisters, Aristocrats (and saw the lavish Masterpiece Theater adaptation), and that was the original inspiration--strong women in Georgian Ireland!

What kind of research did you do for the book?

I love doing research! That is one of the most fun parts of writing. I would have happily spent my whole life living in a library as the world's oldest permanent graduate student. Sometimes it's hard to stop researching and start writing. I started with some books I already had on the shelf, like Aristocrats and Tillyard's Rebel Lord, a biography of Edward Fitzgerald (son of another Lennox sister, the Duchess of Leinster, and a leader of the United Irishmen); Thomas Pakenham's The Year of Liberty; Thomas Bartlett's The 1798 Rebellion: An Illustrated History; and an old book I once found in an antique store, Mrs. Thomas Concannon's Women of '98. Then I expanded to the Internet and local university libraries and looked up maps, info on military uniforms and regiments, detailed sites in Ireland (since I sadly couldn't take a trip there right now!). It was lots of fun.

What's "unusual" about the book?

I think the setting is pretty unusual! I'm not sure I've ever read a Georgian Ireland romance (which is one reason I set out to write one), though my friend Michelle Willingham writes some fabulous Medieval Irish books. I also really enjoyed using the setting and events to create the conflict for the characters. That made my job a lot easier!

What's next for you?

DUCHESS OF SIN will be out from Grand Central Publishing in December 2010! It's Anna Blacknall's story, where she meets again with the Irish Duke of Adair amid the chaos of the Act of Union in 1800. It's also set against a Christmas background, and I had fun researching the holiday--the Irish really knew how to party at Christmas, LOL! (LADY OF SEDUCTION , Caroline Blacknall's book, will be out in 2011)

As Amanda McCabe, I have a Regency-set trilogy coming out in April, May, and June, "The Muses of Mayfair" (Book one is TO CATCH A ROGUE). I love this series, which is set around another passion of mine--archaeology and antiquities collecting! There will also be a Harlequin Undone short story to kick off the series in March, TO BED A LIBERTINE, where a real Greek Muse comes to Regency London and wreaks some havoc.

***

Thanks, Amanda, for stopping by!

We're giving away COUNTESS OF SCANDAL to a lucky commenter. Maybe you'd like to let us know whether you find Ireland an unusual setting for romance? What is it about Ireland that fascinates you? I'll draw one random name next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Best of luck!

Excerpt Thursday: Laurel McKee

This week on Excerpt Thursday we're welcoming author Laurel McKee, who also writes as Amanda McCabe, as she celebrates the release of COUNTESS OF SCANDAL, the first of her "Daughters of Erin" trilogy. Stop by on Sunday when we'll be talking with Laurel about this exciting new Irish trilogy and giving away a copy.

Eliza Blacknall and Will Denton were childhood sweethearts, growing up on neighboring estates in beautiful County Kildare. But adulthood finds them on opposite sides of the monumental and violent struggle of 1798, as Eliza supports the United Irish in their quest for independence, and Will is a major in the British Army, sworn to uphold the Crown. The passion for each other burns hotter than ever—but can it survive as their world crumbles around them?

***

Dublin, early 1798

At that moment, the assembly room doors opened to admit a group of latecomers. As was becoming more frequent in Dublin, as regiments newly arrived from London and points beyond sought amusement, they were officers. Young ones, too, not old and portly colonels in too-tight red tunics. These men seemed tall and strong, their bright gazes keen as they swept over the noisy party.

"Well, now," Eliza's sister Anna Maria said. "This is more like it."

"Anna Maria, I am hardly likely to take up with some newly-arrived officer," said Eliza.

"No one said you have to 'take up' with one! A dance would make a fine start." Anna Maria tapped her fan against her chin as she examined the arrivals. "What about that one there? He is quite a beauty, I must say, and even taller than you."

Eliza couldn't help laughing. It felt as if they were at a horse fair, and Anna Maria a shrewd Arab trader evaluating fillies. "Which one?"

"That one, of course. He doesn't appear a drunkard at all, does he?"

Eliza followed the pointing line of Anna Maria's fan to a man who was half-turned away from them as Mr. Neilsen, the Master of Ceremonies, greeted him. From that angle, he did seem a beauty, she had to admit. Very tall, with broad shoulders and a tight backside, his long, dark golden hair tied back with a black ribbon. If only those fine shoulders were not encased in a red British coat!

Green would suit them so much better.

Then he turned toward her, the flickering light of dozens of candles falling over the chiseled angles of his lean face.

Eliza gasped. It couldn't be! She was imagining things. Anna Maria's romantic nonsense was infecting her senses.

She closed her eyes, gulping down the last of the champagne. When she looked again, though, nothing had changed. He was still there, bigger than life. Bigger even than the dreams that had come to her, unbidden, over the years.

Will Denton was back in Ireland, then. Major Denton, to judge by the decorations of his uniform. Time had carved his face into a hard, elegant sculpture, like a statue of a Roman god colored bronze by a harsh West Indies sun.

From across the room, his eyes, those intense blue-green eyes she had imagined so often over the years, seemed to touch her very heart. The noise and movement of the room all faded away, and she saw only him.

For an instant, she was fifteen again, so full of yearning and hope.

Her hand tightened on the glass, until it bit into her rings and dragged her back down to earth. To cold reality