VBT Stop~ Against the Wind/Contest

Welcome to my Reading Nook, Regan. Please make yourself at home and let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink.

Ah, thank you, Dawn. I’ll have a rum swizzle (been researching that drink for my latest work).

Comfortable? Wonderful. Now let’s get started.

To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out?

Well, I’ve just released book 2 in my Agents of the Crown trilogy, Against the Wind, and I’m writing book 3, Wind Raven (hence the rum swizzle request).

The idea for the Regency trilogy came from my early love of mysteries and spy stories and my knowledge that all branches of government have their own agents. It wasn’t much of a stretch to conceive of the Prince Regent asking a few of his subjects to take on “special assignments.” Kings have been doing it for centuries. My trilogy features heroes who have been asked by the Prince Regent to take on a unique task.

First there was Racing With The Wind, released in 2012, which features a British Lord who masqueraded at the Nighthawk during the war with France as a thief of Napoleon’s secrets. Next is Against the Wind, the story of Sir Martin Powell, the agent for the Crown in France who has come home to England for one last assignment. He gets embroiled in the Pentrich Rebellion of 1817 and along the way meets a beautiful redhead he calls Kitten. The 3^rd in the trilogy—Wind Raven--takes place on a schooner and in the Caribbean in 1817 and features a rakish sea captain and a pirate who plied the seas around Puerto Rico at the time. Oh yes, they drink rum swizzles on Bermuda!

 If we asked your muse to describe you using five words, what do you think they would say?

Independent, adventurous, compassionate, passionate thinker.

Name one thing readers would be surprised to know about you.

I am a hopeless romantic, a rank sentimentalist, who used to be a serious lawyer.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Ah, now that is a challenge for there are many places that draw me. I would like to live abroad for a while, though perhaps not permanently. I’d like to try living in Scotland for a year, maybe in the Highlands. I can see doing research there for a new novel. The south of France has always appealed, too, ever since I spent a week there and walked the streets of the medieval town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. However, I only speak a bit of the language (enough to shop and order dinner in French). Still, one cannot argue with the weather. If I had to pick another city in America it would be Seattle. But my home of San Diego is really like paradise.

If someone hasn't read any of your work, what book would you recommend that they start with and why?

Oh, I would start with Racing With The Wind just because it introduces characters that appear in the second book and the two Lunchbox Romances, The Holly and the Thistle and The Shamrock and the Rose, that flow from the Agents of the Crown trilogy. You can read each of my books as “stand alone,” too.

Where do you find the inspirations for your stories?

It varies. There must always be adventure. I want the reader to feel like they have been somewhere and experienced some excitement as well as love. For my first novel it was the period in France at the time of the Bourbon restoration in 1816 that intrigued me. I wanted my heroine, an independent, adventure-loving young noblewoman to get in trouble searching out some treachery—and she does! For Against the Wind, it was the Ricky Martin song, “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely.” When I heard it, the scene of Kit in the bordello came to me, a young woman whose life has been shattered standing before a window, bathed in moonlight, staring out into the night, a “broken arrow.” She hears a voice behind her, a man in the shadows, saying, “Come to me.” That would be Sir Martin, of course. And for Wind Raven, it was the lure of a schooner sailing tropical waters while looking out for a pirate.

All of my stories are based on real history and feature real historical figures. As one of my readers said, she always feels like she’s learned something after reading one of my novels.

Are your characters able to love or do they need to be taught?

It depends on the character. For Lady Mary in Racing With The Wind, her heart gave itself to Lord Ormond before she’d even realized that fact. For Sir Martin in Against the Wind, he can love and has loved, but having lost one woman is now afraid to lose another. Others, like Nick (Martin’s brother) in Wind Raven are having too much fun to commit their heart. The Scottish hero, William Stephens in my short story The Holly & The Thistle is able and ready to love; it’s the heroine who is not willing.

Do you have a book that was easiest to write or one that was the hardest?

The Holly & The Thistle was the easiest story to write, because I wrote it for Christmas and loved learning about the holiday traditions of Regency England. Against the Wind was hard as the characters are complex and the history difficult; combining it all was a challenge. Wind Raven is proving a challenge, too. None of the novels have been “easy.” Really, after the research, it’s all hard work. And the middle of the book is usually the most trying. That is where I am now in Wind Raven.

 If you could collaborate with one author who would it be? 

Probably my model, Virginia Henley, a great historical romance author. When she gave me a quote for my novels, I was humbled.

Coffee, tea or other drink to get you moving in the morning? 

Jasmine Green tea accompanied by dark chocolate, preferably German or Swiss.

What is coming up from you in 2013? Anything you want to tease us with?

Wind Raven. Set in 1817, it tells the story of Sir Martin’s older brother, Jean Nicholas Powell, named after his French pirate grandfather. He’s a handsome, arrogant sea captain who objects to taking as a passenger the patriotic American, Tara McConnell, who thinks she can climb his rigging and crew with his men. Tara, raised with her four brothers on their father’s ships, will struggle with her attraction to the arrogant Englishman and with all it will mean to become a woman. And for adventure, I’m adding a dash of pirates. A sexy tall, blond pirate, who wears dangling diamond and silver earrings (yes, he really did!), and decides he must have Tara for his own.

Anything else you want to add? (Can be your links, etc)

Oh, yes. I am an avid reader and reviewer of historical romance and would love for readers to check out my Regan’s Romance Reviews blog. Here are all my links:

Amazon buy link for Against the Wind:

http://www.amazon.com/Against-Wind-Agents-Crown-ebook/dp/B00BXIJ6QM

Author website: http://www.reganwalkerauthor.com/

Author Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Regan-Walker/e/B008OUWC5Y

Regan’s Romance Reviews blog: http://reganromancereview.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @RegansReview (https://twitter.com/RegansReview)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/regan.walker.104

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6450403.Regan_Walker

Giveaway Information: Regan will be awarding either Racing with the Wind OR Lunchbox Romances that tie into the triology,The Holly and the Thistle and The Shamrock and the Rose (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Please leave a comment and your email address to be entered. Plus make sure to follow the tour and leave more comments as this ups your chances of winning.  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-against-wind-by-regan.html

Against the Wind by Regan Walker

A night in London’s most exclusive bordello. Agent of the Crown Sir Martin Powell would not normally indulge, but the end of his time spying against Napoleon deserves a victory celebration. Yet, such pleasure will not come cheap. The auburn-haired courtesan he calls “Kitten” is in truth Katherine, Lady Egerton, a dowager baroness and the daughter of an earl as elusive as she is alluring. She flees a fate worse than death. But Martin has known darkness, too, and he alone can touch her heart—as she has touched his. To the English Midlands they will steal, into the rising winds of revolution.

Teaser Excerpt:

“Is making love something you do not wish to do?” he said. “As I recall, you seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.” Then, more tenderly: “Besides, I have missed you, Kitten.”

“No…I cannot. I am not your…your…” She could not bring herself to say the word. Their one night together had been a wonderful, amazing, and yes, passionate experience, but it could never happen again. She had escaped for one dreadful night into a dream. Into his arms. As much as she wanted those around her again, wanted to lie with him, she could not allow it. This was not who she was. Not who she was raised to be.

Placing his hands on her waist, he pulled her against him. The heat from his broad chest overwhelmed her as she stared into indigo eyes now stormy with desire. “You opened a door, Kitten, I’m unwilling to close.”

About the Author

As a child Regan Walker loved to write stories, particularly about adventure-loving girls, but by the time she got to college more serious pursuits took priority. One of her professors thought her suited to the profession of law, and Regan realized it would be better to be a hammer than a nail. Years of serving clients in private practice and several stints in high levels of government gave her a love of international travel and a feel for the demands of the “Crown” on its subjects. Hence her romance novels often involve a demanding Prince Regent who thinks of his subjects as his private talent pool.

Regan lives in San Diego with her golden retriever, Link, whom she says inspires her every day to relax and smell the roses.

·  website: www.reganwalkerauthor.com/

·  blog: reganromancereview.blogspot.com/

·  twitter: @RegansReview