Thanks so much for stopping by UTC to talk to our maidens and being a part of A Scandalous Affair. We are very excited to have you here today!!   Please give a warm welcome to Courtney Milan!


Your next release, A Governess Affair will release in April 2012. Can you tell us a bit about it?

It’s about a man of business whose employer asks him to take care of a governess who is making a pest of herself, only to discover that she’s rather too intriguing for his peace of mind.

What’s behind the saying “Wolf meets Bear” as it pertains to this book?

I give everyone of my books code names as I’m writing them. In this series, the hero, Hugo Marshall, is also named as the Wolf of Clermont–because he’s relatively ruthless. But I wanted to write a heroine who was more than his match. And what’s the only creature that I can imagine taking on a savage wolf? A bear–generally happy creatures when well-fed, and perfectly content to subsist on blueberries. But threaten them or the ones they love, and they’re unstoppable.

That’s my heroine.

Your Turners series is a hit! Congrats! For those readers who haven’t had the chance to read or discover these books yet, can you tell us a bit about them?

The Turner series is about three brothers whose lives have been shaped–in very, very different ways–by a mother who was insane. I wanted it to be a chance to explore what happens when good people have a lot of baggage.

If you could create your own panel and choose which authors you’d like to have a conference with, which authors would you pick and why? What would you talk about?

Oh, gosh. That’s a hard one. There are a lot of authors that I would like to put on that list. But here’s a panel that would be just plain fun: Ann Aguirre, Tessa Dare, Victoria Dahl, and Zoe Archer. What would we talk about? I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it would not be safe for work. 🙂

What does a typical day for you look like?

I don’t have typical days. I work a day job (for now), and it takes up a lot of time and in irregular amounts. I write when I can. I try to get an hour of writing in in the mornings; if I take a lunch break, I write over lunch, and then I spend a good amount of time in the evenings writing, editing, and taking care of the business aspects of things.

I wish I had typical days.

What does your writing workspace look like? Clean and orderly? Scattered with notes? Any visual would be nice.

It’s a complete mess. I cannot express how utterly messy my workspace is. To give you some idea: right now, my laptop is placed on top of a big stack of paper. There is no non-papered part of my desk, and so I do not find this distressing. This particular stack is about an inch deep–20 pages of stuff for the day job, two pages of notes that I scribbled to myself when I was stuck on a scene, a napkin from a restaurant on which I have written “more mutual weaseling!” (that was a reminder about something to do in a book), some notes from a telephone conference, some notes from a meeting, a to-do list from (this shows you how old the geological strata are on my desk) January, 2011–and by the way, there are three items on that list that I have not yet done–all over a stack of notecards. The top notecard, by the way, contains the word “peanut butter.”

Kind of a mess.

What draws you to do historical romances, have any particular authors inspired you?

I like writing historical romances because it allows me to look at historical patterns of change. I write in a time of great social and economic upheaval, a time when everything that people knew was changing, and when steamships and railways made the world small. I think that many of the changes that happened then are like what is happening to us now, and in some ways, writing in a historical period allows me to explore what change means to us today, but in a safe space.

There are a lot of authors who inspire me and who I admire–more than I can possibly list, but here are a handful:

* Lois McMaster Bujold
* Sherry Thomas
* Julia Quinn
* Eloisa James
* Lisa Kleypas

I could go on and on–I just finished reading everything that Ilona Andrews was ever written, for instance–but suffice it to say it’s a long list. 🙂

What kind of hero do you like to read the most, a virgin/inexperience hero, or a rake? Which is the best to write, since you’ve written both?

I think variety is the spice of life. I like everything.

If there’s anything I like to write, it’s people who are slightly off kilter–maybe just a little different than the norm. Just about every hero I’ve written has been a little…odd, all in different ways. I often don’t set out to write people that way, but as I write, my characters acquire quirks that I never intended them to have.

Coffee or tea?
Tea.

Hardcover or paperback?
No.

What kind of ereader do you own?
Two kindles, two Sony readers, a nook, and an old iRex tablet. Not counting multipurpose devices here.

Sunrise or sunset?
Sunrise.

Sun or snow?
Yes.

Heels or flipflops?
Flipflops.

Tattoos or piercings?
For me? Piercings.
On a guy? Tattoos.

As a special treat, Ms. Milan has a very generous giveaway to one lucky follower.  You will get the three full-length books in her Turners series.

Read our reviews of Unveiled, Unclaimed and Unraveled.

To enter:

1. Be a follower
2. Fill out the form below

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Books have the power to unite people and that is exactly what happened with us! Our love for books have brought us together and we’ve become good friends in a short amount of time. We “met” online through Goodreads and decided to share our passion of books with fellow book lovers. And that is how Under the Covers came to be.

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31 Comments

  1. Oh, I think we all wish for a typical day, right? 🙂 And don’t worry about your desk–mine is atrocious too, and that’s just from daily use of the computer and what not, not actually working at it! 🙂

    I look forward to reading your books!

    Enjoy,
    TBQ

    Reply

  8. Those covers are lovely! And wowza you have a lot of e-readers!!! I do love my nook, the only thing I miss about not having the Kindles is the deals that they have exclusively… 🙂

    Reply

  9. Thanks for the fantastic interview and giveaway! I’ve only had to chance to read book one and I *luvd* it 🙂 I’m the complete opposite of you desk wise… I can’t stand clutter, my OCD kicks in and I have to file and tidy. If I knew you better, I’d offer to do it for you. Just ask my family and friends 🙂

    Reply

  10. I have been wanting to read Ms. Milan’s books for quite some time. I have them on my TBR list. Now I REALLY want to read them. I love Lisa Kleypas, just got one of Ms. Quinn and Ms. James books, so will be experiencing their writing shortly. Thomas and Bujold are new-to-me names. I will have to check them out.

    Thanks much for the fabulous giveaway and the chance to win.
    Kendra @ Reader’s Edyn

    Reply

  13. I am so excited about this giveaway because I haven’t read any of these books yet and I really, really want to read all of them!! Thanks for the great interview, too 🙂

    Reply

  15. I enjoyed the interview. I thought the Wolf meets Bear explanation was pretty cool, describing the heroine as an unstoppable bear makes a lot of sense. I’ve enjoyed Courtney Milan’s books in the past, but haven’t had a chance to read the Turner series yet.

    Reply

  16. Ok , I finally found the entry form for the contest. I would so want to win the prize. I have read Unravelled but I would love to read the books on the other Turner Brothers.
    mcv111 at hotmail(dot)com

    Reply

  17. Thanks for the contest, I love meeting new-to-me authors. I laughed at seeing how many readers Courtney has, I have 2 kindles (my gen2 and the fire), so I understand the love, but that’s still a lot of readers, nice!

    Reply

  25. Oh, I can definitely relate to the desk issue. I tend to have post-it notes scattered everywhere, sticking to everything. The weird thing is that I am very organized in work-related things, but not so much in personal documents.
    I am really looking forward to reading your books. You have some lovely covers and more importantly, the stories themselves are always highly reviewed.

    Reply

  29. I can tell when I’ll probably like an authors work by how she answers interview questions – so I know I’ll have to read Courtney’s books.

    sallans d at yahoo dot com

    Reply

  31. I’ve read Unlocked, and really liked that story. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series! Looking forward to learning the Turner brothers’ stories. Plus, the covers are pretty. :]

    Reply