Author Interview: Katharine Ashe + giveaway

Today we are excited to have Katharine Ashe back on to talk about her upcoming book How a Lady Weds a Rogue and also about her big reveal over the summer. In case you missed her big reveal, Katharine came out the education community that she was a professor at Duke University and a romance author. We are also giving away a copy of How a Lady Weds a Rogue. Just leave a message for Katharine.  TBRG: Katharine thanks for coming back on the TBRG. KA: Thanks for having me back! TBRG: What made you decide to come out on who you are in real life? KA: I’m almost ashamed to admit that I didn’t plan it. I’d given a talk on romance at a local library and folks at Duke learned of it. Most of my colleagues already knew I write popular fiction, so when Duke was excited to do a piece on my secret identity I said, “Why not?” Duke is a remarkable university—a powerhouse of world-renowned scholars working on the cutting edge of science, economics, law, politics, arts and the humanities, but it’s the least snobbish institution imaginable. The administration, faculty and student body are all about stretching boundaries in order to understand the world better and to improve it. They’re the least likely to turn up their noses at something that’s wildly popular. A top-tier research university whose library website will feature a professor’s sexy romance book covers for a full month isn’t exactly common, and I’m thrilled about it. TBRG: Has it made a difference among those at the University you teach at? KA: It hasn’t made a difference among my colleagues. But I’m happy to say that I’ve won over converts to romance. After the article came out I heard from a number of Duke community members who said that they’d never considered reading romance before but decided to give it a try because of me and now they’re hooked. It’s lovely to be the destroyer of inaccurate preconceived notions. TBRG: Do you have more students enrolled in your classes than before this semester? KA: I’m not teaching this semester, just writing! TBRG: Has coming out impacted your writing at all? KA: Perhaps. I’ve been coming out for years already, first to my friends, then to my acquaintances in academia. This just finally broke the door entirely off the closet. Living a double life was a challenge, though, and not one for which I was well suited; I’m far too fond of the truth. For years I’ve been writing heroes and heroines with secret identities, and I really enjoy that. But the characters I’ve written recently are a lot less tolerant of their secret identities, and much less comfortable with them, than my earlier heroes were. TBRG: Ok now that the rough questions are over J Let’s talk about The Falcon Club and your upcoming book How a Lady Weds a Rogue. What is the book about? KA: An incorrigible lady, an intoxicating quest, and a scandalously intimate marriage bargain. Diantha Lucas wants to find the mother that abandoned her as a girl, and dashing, dangerously handsome Wyn Yale seems the perfect Knight In Shining Armor to help her. But Wyn knows he’s no hero, and he’s determined to return Diantha to her family and get on with his own mission: murdering an evil duke. The trouble is, he can’t seem to keep his hands off of Diantha. And where his hands go, his heart seems to want to follow . . . TBRG: Tell us about Wyn. KA: To the world he is the consummate gentleman: darkly elegant and a favorite with society ladies for his gorgeous manners and gallant chivalry. To his closest friends in the Falcon Club he is a dry wit and an expert at convincing young women to do as he wishes. In Diantha’s eyes he is the ideal hero: kind, solicitous, strong and breathtakingly handsome. But to Wyn, he is the man that let a helpless young girl die because of his own weakness, and for that he cannot forgive himself. TBRG: Tell us about Diantha. KA: Diantha is a lover of life and astoundingly brave, though she hasn’t any idea of that. Warm-hearted and well intentioned, she rescues strays of every species as often as she gets herself into scrapes. But she’s no empty-headed widgeon. She knows that setting out on the road with a gentleman — unmarried — will ruin her reputation, and she’s willing to risk that if it means achieving her goal. She doesn’t know a thing about passion, though, and that in the right man’s hands it can turn a lady’s best laid plans into a delectable adventure. TBRG: How did you come up with this series? KA: Jin Seton and Kitty Savege told me to write it! Both Jin and Kitty made their debut in my Captured by a Rogue Lord, and almost the moment I first put them on the pages of that book I knew they would have their own stories too. Thus the Falcon Club was born, a band of five friends—a lord, a warrior, a spy, a temptress, and a strategist—secretly dedicated to finding lost souls and returning them home. TBRG: Are we ever going to discover who Lady Justice and Peregrine are? KA: Yes, indeed! I can’t wait. TBRG: What are you working on now? KA: My new series, The Prince Catchers. Three beloved yet very different sisters learn from a Gypsy soothsayer that their futures will be bright only if one of them marries a prince. But where are young ladies of no status and even less fortune to meet a bona fide prince? And once they meet him how on earth will they convince him to marry one of them? The first book, To Bedevil a Duke, is coming in 2013 and I’m having so much fun writing it that I’m downright giddy (and frankly pretty swoony over the hero too). But fans of my Falcon Club series mustn’t fret. Sparrow and Peregrine’s books are also in the works! TBRG: Thank you so much for coming back on and talking to us. KA: It’s been such a pleasure. Thank you, ladies. Gentleman’s Rule #1: If a lady is virtuous, he should deny her nothing. Beautiful Diantha Lucas understands society’s rules: a young lady must find a man to marry. But Diantha has a bigger goal, and she’s not afraid of plunging into adventure to achieve it. When daring, dashing Wyn Yale rescues her, she’s certain he’s just the man she needs. As an agent for the secret Falcon Club, Wyn knows his duty, but he’s not about to admit he’s a hero of any sort. He has a plan, too: steal a prized horse, murder an evil duke, avenge an innocent girl, and probably get hanged for it—in that order. Wyn can’t afford to be distracted by a pretty face, even one with delectable dimples and kissable lips. But how can a country miss and a hardened spy solve their problems when they can’t keep their hands off each other?