Pam Writes Romance

Ooh, I’m glowing, I’m simply glowing! Other fabulous people are discovering Anna and it warms my cockles, it does. Of course, given the cold snap everybody seems to be having (except Anna, where it’s summer in Australia!), warm cockles are probably a good thing.

Now, before I jump into my interview with Anna, I want to turn all of you onto a few of her pages or sites about her/her books. And no, this isn’t me making you eat your vegetables before dessert—would I do that to you? No! This is like having the shrimp cocktail and chicken quesidilla before the white chocolate macademia nut cookies and Dove bars—it’s all good!

First, if you want to wet your whistle with Tempt the Devil, click here. And not only do you get a preview, but for every 100,000 pages browsed from this site, Avon will donate 100 books to ProLiteracy Worldwide, but only before December 23^rd, so start reading! (And tell a friend!)

And, because you’ve all been extra good this year, here’s a link to one of Anna’s short stories, titled The Return !

To learn more about Anna, her thoughts on writing, interviews from both sides of the keyboard, and when her career as a conference s*** (her phrasing, not mine!) was born, click here!

Last but not least, here’s a link to her contest page. Remember—you can’t win if you don’t enter! (And all you have to do is tell Anna what tempts you. How easy is that? Chocolate, wine, and Anna Campbell books!)

So, without further ado, I bring you my interview with the amazing Anna Campbell!

What is your favorite:

     Color? Blue

     Movie? Ooh, that’s hard. This week it’s Dirty Dancing! Last week it was The Last of the Mohicans.

     Beverage? Champagne.

What one Super Power would you like to have? (Or, if you’d like, which Super Hero would you like to be?) I’d like to be able to fly.

In the alternate universe where Anna Campbell wasn’t a writer, what would she be? A ballet dancer? How alternative is this universe?

How did you celebrate when you:

     Heard you double-finaled in the Golden Heart? I emailed my good friend Christine Wells who was the only person I knew would be up at 3am with a teething baby! Then I booked my trip to my first Romance Writers of America conference, the one in Atlanta.

     Sold Claiming the Courtesan? I got some sleep. The auction had gone on nearly all week and I was absolutely exhausted!

     Heard you were a double RITA finalist? I emailed my good friend Christine Wells who was the only person I knew would be up at 3am with (another) teething baby!

Tell us about the quiz show win that helped you move to Sydney. What was the final question/stunt that catapulted you into your win? I was a short-lived champion on the local (and also short-lived) version of Jeopardy! I made a reckless bid on a Daily Double which turned out to be not so reckless. I’m now eternally grateful to tree-climbing foxes because that was what the question was about!

How do you replenish your creative well? I read. Truly, reading great books really inspires me and somehow prods my subconscious into working on my own stories. Otherwise water helps – swimming, walking by the sea, even taking a nice long bath!

What are you reading now? I’m on an Elizabeth George kick. I’m currently reading Playing for the Ashes which is my seventh Inspector Lynley book in a bit over a month! They’re great mysteries in the style of P.D. James, really rich plum puddings of books.

You describe Claiming the Courtesan as a Beauty and the Beast story, and Untouched as Beauty and the Beast/Sleeping Beauty. Are these fairy tale designs intentional? And where does Tempt the Devil fall? I think fairytales and myths teach us the basic shapes of stories and I must say I always loved fairytales when I was a little girl. It’s not deliberate that the books have a parallel in a fairytale, I think it’s just how they come. But once I’ve got the link, I definitely use it! Tempt the Devil is a Regency noir Affair to Remember. It’s about two jaded sophisticated people who fall in love very much against their will!

What’s coming up after Tempt the Devil? Lots more? Lots and lots more? (Please!!!) Ha! My next Regency noir for Avon comes out next November. As yet, it’s untitled! It’s about a runaway heiress who runs into a man suffering extreme PTSD. Full of drama and angst! I’m just about to start my fifth historical romance for Avon – I could tell you about it but then I’d have to kill you! I will say the heiress book is a little in the mold of Untouched – you know, a knight in shining armor type as the hero. The next one features a bad boy hero which should be fun to write!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am just counting the minutes until this beauty comes out on Tuesday, December 30th! And as soon as I get this book in my hot little hands, I’m curling up with it in my favorite chair with my fuzzy slipper socks and some peanut butter M&Ms. If that’s not heaven, I don’t know what is.

 (To head straight to Amazon.com and pre-order, click here. Or, to gift somebody with this delicious book for Christmas, click here for a gift certificate.)

 Thanks, Anna, for visiting PamWritesRomance! I’d love to have you back anytime!!!

I don’t love Anna Campbell because she keeps a lucky penny I gave her on her desk.

I don’t love Anna Campbell because her path to publication is so inspirational that it should be a book of its own.

And I don’t love Anna Campbell because she gave me chocolate.

Well…maybe a little bit of that last one, but I digress.

Truth be told, I love her for all of that, plus the hours of reading enjoyment she’s given me with her fabulous, emotional, gripping, amazing books, and she’s such a dang nice person I dare anybody not to fall in love with her. Allow me to explain.

I had picked up a copy of Anna’s first book, Claiming the Courtesan, in the summer of 2007. In the sweets shop of romance books, it was dark chocolate with a truffle center. This book was so richly emotional, so deeply textured with fears and vulnerabilities, so old-school historical with a fresh, new voice, that I was instantly a fan. When Untouched came out last November, it was in my eager little hands before Borders had even finished turning their cash registers on. Another home run for Anna. And when I heard she had double finaled in the RITAs this year, the only thing I could say was, “Yup. I won that bet, hands down.”

So, knowing I was going to be in San Francisco at the RWA National Convention, and knowing Anna was going to be, I stopped lurking on her blog, and actually made a comment. She had posted about the souvenirs she was going to be looking for in the city by the bay, and asked her readers what type souvenirs they liked. I’m a stamped penny gal—you know those machines? Put a penny in (along with 2 quarters), pick a design, spin the handle, and voila! For $.51, you now have a lovely souvenir. I mentioned this and Anna replied in such a lovely and heartfelt way, I knew I had a mission.

I grabbed Montana and we went to one of the local penny machines, and I got three pennies—an Arizona one and a Lucky Penny one for Anna, and a Lucky Penny for me. At the literacy signing the Wednesday of the conference, I got to give my pennies to Anna and she was so excited that I became a superfan right then and there. Then she gave me 2 Cadbury Carmello Koalas that she had brought from Australia (Montana got one, too!) and it was all I could do not to hug her and never let go. She is warm and cheerful and nice and just delightful. Combine that with the fabulous books she writes and you officially have “The Full Package” when you’re talking about Anna Campbell.

So when the little countdown timer on my computer warned me that it was just a few weeks until Anna’s next release, I knew I had to tell everybody in the Pam Writes Romance world all about it. Tempt the Devil comes out Tuesday, December 30^th and this is a book you’re not going to want to miss. (And I know what I’m talking about—Romantic Times gave it a 4½ stars, TOP PICK! And New York Times bestseller Eloisa James says, “Truly, deeply romantic. There are too few books like that in the world.”) I’m going to be talking about it more on Friday’s post, including a fun interview with “The Full Package” herself, so mark your calendars now, but since I pride myself on being a little bit of a Full Service Blog, I’m going to do something extra special for my readers.

Now, with the release of Tempt the Devil, I know what most of you are thinking, because I thought the same thing. “But Pam—Anna’s book really does sound fabulous and I have a friend/sister/mother/myself who would love it, but it comes out 5 days after Christmas! How can I wrap an empty space and put it under the tree?”

Here’s how.

That’s right. Download this handy-dandy little Christmas gift certificate and you can give one of the most amazing books of 2008 without having to wrap an empty box and put it under the tree! And when you’re at the store, you can get one for yourself, too! (Isn’t that the rule of Christmas—one for you, one for me? Works for eggnog, fudge, cookies, candy canes, sexy books…) And, if you’re the type who has to have something solid to wrap, you can always get Claiming the Courtesan or Untouched and put one of those RITA nominated books under the tree. It’s a win-win!

So go check out Anna’s site, print out the gift certificate (or pre-order from Amazon) and come back on Friday. We’ll be talking super powers, quiz shows and fairy tales.

Because, of course, there’s going to be a happy ending. I wouldn’t have it any other way.