Guest Author: Hope Tarr

This week on Excerpt Thursday we're welcoming Hope Tarr as she celebrates the release of MY LORD JACK from Carina Press. Hope is an award-winning author of thirteen historical and contemporary romances, including THE TUTOR, her latest from Harlequin Historical Blaze. Here's the description of MY LORD JACK:

Once a pampered courtesan in France, Claudia Valemont has lost her mother, her protector, and her lifestyle to the French Revolution. To avoid the guillotine herself, Claudia flees to Scotland to search for her only remaining relative: the father she has never met.

Instead she finds hardship and heartbreak. Penniless, she is forced to steal to survive. Her crime nearly lands her in the hangman's noose—until the hangman himself comes to the rescue. Pleading on her behalf, he gets her sentence commuted to a period of indenture in the village commons under his watchful eye.

Undeniably indebted to her unlikely savior, still Claudia feels more than gratitude--much more. As a harsh Scottish winter descends, her Lord Jack just might heal her wounded heart...

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"A book to feast upon...Jack will most certainly steal your heart." ~ Patricia Potter, USA Today bestselling author

"Stunning in its emotional impact and historical detail...an enchanting tale...impossible to put down." ~ May McGoldrick, bestselling author

MY LORD JACK is a previous nominee for a Dorothy Parker Award of Excellence

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Congratulations on MY LORD JACK, which released earlier this month with Carina Press. Tell us a bit about the book, which I understand was previously published with Berkley.

MY LORD JACK was first released in 2002 as one of the launch titles for Berkley's "Highland Fling" line of Scottish romances. Unfortunately for Jack and for me, by the time the book released, the publisher had decided to close down the line. Despite across the board good reviews and several award nominations, the book had a tiny print run and was quickly forgotten. I was always sad about that because among the thirteen novels I've so far written, Jack is my hands-down favorite hero.

MY LORD JACK is, among other things a story of opposites attracting in a powerful, profound way. Former courtesan, Claudia Valemont flees Revolutionary France for Scotland in search of the father she's never met. Instead she meets with misadventure, is nearly sentenced to hang for horse thievery, and is saved by Jack Campbell, who just happens to be the village hangman. The internal conflict caused by falling for an executioner, a borreau, the very thing she's fled, was well, a lot of fun for me to play with. Beyond that, Jack is a virgin and something of an animal whisperer and perhaps most shocking of all (to Claudia), a vegetarian, so there's quite a number of "hot button" issues accompanying the heroine's quest for father.

When did you first start writing, and what inspired you to pick up a pen in the first place?

It was a manual typewriter, actually! I wrote my first book, BEYOND LOVE'S REACH, between the ages of 12 and 14. It was a Tudor-set romance and endearingly tender and of course, terrible but the seed was planted. As for inspiration, I was and am a big BBC junkie and my tween years were the heyday of "Upstairs Downstairs," "The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth" with Keith Michell, "Elizabeth R" with Glenda Jackson and a lot of other great British historical programming.

What's next for you book-wise?

A ROGUE'S PLEASURE, another former Berkley book and my first published novel, will release with Carina Press on August 16th. It's a Regency romp that I hope a new generation of romance readers will enjoy. And I'm thrilled to report that "TOMORROW'S DESTINY," my first ever novella, will release November 10th in a single-title Christmas anthology, A HARLEQUIN CHRISTMAS CAROL, with authors Betina Krahn and Jacquie D'Alessandro.

What do you do with all your copious free time, Hope? ((wink, wink))

I'm a co-founder of Lady Jane's Salon, New York City's first and so far only monthly reading series for romance fiction. We launched in February 2009 and quickly garnered media attention, notably features in THE NEW YORK POST and TIME OUT NEW YORK. Currently we're booking guest authors into 2011. Our fellow Carina Press author, Rebecca Rogers Maher, will be a guest reader at the September 6th Salon.

Salons are the first Monday of the month, 7-9 PM, at Madame X, a sexy boudoir-styled bar in Soho. Admission is $5 or one gently-used romance novel, with proceeds supporting New York City women's charities, so anyone in the New York area or passing through, please check us out.

Carrie, thanks so much for having me, and good luck with SONG OF SEDUCTION and your other upcoming books.

Hope Tarr is the award-winning author of thirteen historical and contemporary romance novels, including THE TUTOR. You can find her online at www.HopeTarr.com where she has a weekly blog and a regular contest.

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Would you like to read about Jack for yourself? Leave a comment or question for Hope for your chance to win a copy. I'll draw a winner at random in one week. Void where prohibited. Best of luck!

Author photo by BizUrban.com

Weekly Announcements - 30 July 2010

Many of our Unusual Historicals contributors are still at the RWA National Conference in Orlando this week. Best wishes and safe travels to all who attend! We'll be back next week with more updates.

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Congratulations to Margaret Mallory, whose KNIGHT OF PLEASURE is a "Fresh Pick!" at Fresh Fiction.

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Michelle Styles let us know that Mills & Boon is running a contest for unpublished authors, with the main prize being publication of the winning book in one of the London-edited series. The details are at this website. Michelle is also doing one of the Masterclasses, held on September 1, 2010 at Knaresborough library in North Yorkshire. This Masterclass, presented by Mills & Boon, is designed to help showcase the contest opportunities. Best of luck to all who enter!

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Join us Sunday when award-winning Carina Press and Harlequin Blaze Historicals author Hope Tarr will be here to chat about MY LORD JACK and THE TUTOR. She'll be giving away a digital copy of MY LORD JACK to one lucky commenter! Hope you join us then.

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We'll also draw the winner of Carla Capshaw's THE PROTECTOR, an inspirational historical romance set in ancient Rome. You still have time to leave a comment or question for your chance to win.

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Stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Frances Hunter, Donna Russo Morin, Liz Fichera, and Susanna Fraser will be our guests. Join us!

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Remember, you don't have to be an Unusual Historicals contributor to submit good news to the weekend announcements. If it has to do with unusual historicals, we'd love to shout it out to the world! Send announcements to Carrie. See you next week...

Excerpt Thursday: Hope Tarr

This week on Excerpt Thursday we're welcoming Hope Tarr as she celebrates the release of MY LORD JACK from Carina Press. Hope is an award-winning author of thirteen historical and contemporary romances, including THE TUTOR, her latest from Harlequin Historical Blaze. She'll be joining us Sunday to talk about both!

Here's the description of MY LORD JACK:

Once a pampered courtesan in France, Claudia Valemont has lost her mother, her protector, and her lifestyle to the French Revolution. To avoid the guillotine herself, Claudia flees to Scotland to search for her only remaining relative: the father she has never met.

Instead she finds hardship and heartbreak. Penniless, she is forced to steal to survive. Her crime nearly lands her in the hangman's noose—until the hangman himself comes to the rescue. Pleading on her behalf, he gets her sentence commuted to a period of indenture in the village commons under his watchful eye.

Undeniably indebted to her unlikely savior, still Claudia feels more than gratitude--much more. As a harsh Scottish winter descends, her Lord Jack just might heal her wounded heart...

***

Former French courtesan Claudia Valemont can't believe her life has come to this: standing in front of a Scottish judge, sentenced to death for stealing a horse. She fled France to find her father and escape the guillotine. Now here she is, facing the same fate--alone, desperate and penniless.

"Hold! I will speak for her."

Burly Scottish hangman Jack Campbell takes pride in his work: serving justice and giving the condemned a quick end to their sorry lives. Why he spoke for that pale, hollow-eyed Frenchwoman he'll never know. But now he's stuck with her, assigned to be her keeper for six months' indenture.

Bound together by the rules of her sentence, Jack and Claudia learn to appreciate their differences. But as their wary affection turns to tender desire, secrets from the past threaten to destroy their future...

A bang of the gavel drove the point home and brought the room to order. "Let the rolls show that the prisoner, one Claudia Valemont, late o' Paris, France, is heretofore remanded to the custody of Master Jack Campbell, occupant of the office of Lord High Executioner to His Majesty, King George the Third, for a term of six months to begin this day and end the first Friday of April in the year of Our Lord 1794, when she shall be released once more into her own keeping." He looked up from the tome and addressed himself to Claudia. "Mark me well, mistress, for I'll say this but the once. Should ye run off at any time o'er the next six months and should ye be so unlucky as to be captured and brought back before me, the original punishment shall stand--ye shall be hangit from the neck until dead. D'ye ken me?"

The prisoner, Mistress Valemont, seemed to sway on her wee feet. "Y-yes, my lord."

For the first time during the proceedings, the judge's angular face relaxed into a smile. "Good, because ye've a verra pretty neck and twould be a rare pity to make me call upon Jack to stretch it."

The room exploded into raucous laughter punctuated with a hand or two of applause. Only three people stood without cracking a smile: the prisoner, her reluctant gaoler--and her accuser, Callum McBride.

Clenching his jaw, Jack turned his back on his brother and made his way to the prisoner's dock. Standing just outside it, Mistress Valemont held out her manacled wrists, staring down at them in a fixed, frozen sort of way while Pol, palsied and more than half blind, struggled to fit the key into the lock.

She looked up as Jack approached, and her blank stare slipped into a scowl. "I suppose I should thank you for saving my life, monsieur."

"Aye, I suppose you should." He turned to Pol and held out his hand for the ring of keys. "I'll have at it if ye dinna mind."

The old man turned the ring of keys over with a grudging air. "'Tis the wee silver one, third on the left," he said, then stumped away to greet his mate, Peadair, who'd risen from the benches.

Key in hand, Jack stepped forward. "If ye'll allow me, mistress..."

She hesitated, then raised her manacled wrists, a wry smile playing about her lips. "It seems, Monsieur le Borreau, that I have no choice."

Author photo by BizUrban.com