HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!: Contest & Conversation with THE BLACK HAWK'S Award-Winning Author Joanna Bourne

RCJR eZine Blog Interview

Readers,

There comes a time when an author you have adored from afar says,” Yes” to doing an interview and appearing on your blog, leaving you shaking with excitement. One such author for me (that I always feel butterflies flitting around in my stomach) is the wonderful Joanne Bourne with her distinct voice, addictive reads, and flawless, fascinating romances. I believe it was a few weeks ago I found my fingers typing an email to this author, extending an invitation for her to come RCJR eZine Blog and chat with us about her November 2011 Berkley Sensation release,” THE BLACK HAWK”. Please join with us as this magnificent writer engages our hearts and minds in this beautiful and telling interview. Enter her lusciously sensual love story, “THE BLACK HAWK.”

THE BLACK HAWK

Interview

With the Wonderful

Joanna Bourne

Why do you write?

It's an addiction. If I don't write, I get these twitches and facial tics. It's all very worrisome and unattractive. You want me to write. Really.

Name one eye-opening thing you learned from your book research.

I was impressed to discover how many people tried to kill Napoleon and didn't quite succeed. I mean, people put considerable thought and effort into this for years.

Do you have a favorite motto?

In writing? I'd like to say it's 'Never, never, never give up.'

But I think it's more like, 'So. This technical thing. Can you explain it again, slowly?'

Do you have a favorite fictional hero? a favorite fictional heroine?

Which fictional character would you hang out with?

I'm fond of Sherlock Holmes, especially this new TV series. And Elizabeth Bennet. I'd like to hang out with either of them, but probably not together. I don't think they'd get along.

What is one of your favorite book covers, your own or someone else’s?

I got a very fine cover for “The Forbidden Rose.” In general, the Young Adult covers impress me. So original. So varied. So beautiful.

What would readers be surprised to learn about you?

I don't know that anyone would be surprised by this exactly, but I can’t spell at all, in any language. If there were no spell checkers, my writing career would be over.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

There's a wonderful printmaker in England with my name. I always make a point of checking in on her exhibitions. Also, I think, a jewelry maker. And a fictional character. And somebody with my name keeps running marathons. I promise you, that's not me. =)

If you could go backward or forward in time which would you chose? Why?

Forward. I am so certain things will be better and more exciting in the future.

If it isn't, then I'll just come back here and be more grateful for it.

Joanna, please share with us more about “THE BLACK HAWK”, released by Penguin Group on November 2011.

Black Hawk is a mystery and a historical novel all rolled up in a Romance.

Oh, yes. And there are spies. Regency spies.

In Black Hawk, two of my favorite characters -- Justine and Adrian -- get their love story. Adrian is ... think of an East End street punk who's never reformed. He's just learned to pretend at being a gentleman. And Justine? She's very much a genuine lady. She never lets that get in the way of being a spy.

My two young agents are brilliant, gifted, determined, and on opposites sides in a long, long war. Sometimes they get into bed together. Sometimes they're more or less shooting at each other. Life is never dull.

And just when love seems impossible . . .

I noticed that you set your Spymaster series around or in the French Revolution? What was it about the French Revolution that piqued your interest?

There are a few years at the end of the Eighteenth Century when our whole view of how people should live and think and be governed changed irrevocably. Almost every philosophical concept that we take for granted today, dates from that period.

The equality of men, the right to vote, freedom of religion -- These were not established truths in 1789. They were hot new ideas. This is what folks were fighting about. 

Name a few fascinating things you learned about what it was like to be a spymaster during the French Revolution.

The spy game never really changes. There's new technology, new record keeping, better communication. But the heart of the art is still the same.

Get in, gather intelligence, get out alive.

Okay, I want to give a warm welcome to, Justine DeCabrillac and Adrian Hawkhurst. (Waving franticly, trying to get the besotted couple’s attention). I know you two have gone through a lot to get to your happily-ever- after, so I will try to be brief. (Blushes scarlet as she catches the intimate glance between the newlyweds, clears her throat).Okay, so you two are still in the honeymoon stage, I see. I would like to know what each of you thought when you first laid eyes on the other. Was it love at first sight?

Justine:

He was in many ways like a fine gun. At rest, well made, efficient, and even beautiful. Pull back the cocking piece and the gun became deadly. This boy, elegant in motion, perfect in feature, cold as carved crystal, was the cocked gun. He was, in fact, rather frightening.

Hawker: The first thing I said when I met her was, “You can trust her. I’m not going to.” I don't know when I changed my opinion. Not for a good many years, anyhow.

When you met, did you believe in true love? You can both answer. I’m quite curious to know both of your opinions.

Justine: Well. Not really. No.

Adrian: Hell, no.

Joanna: I don't think either Adrian or Justine believed in love at all, when they met. They'd been too damaged by life. They were too cynical.

Justine, name the one thing about Adrian that you believe won your heart.

Justine: It is the way he handles his knife, so entirely at nonchalance. So skillfully. How could I not admire it?

Adrian, name one thing about Justine that you believe changed your outlook on love.

Adrian: She's just so bloody competent. And strong. There's nobody like her. You look at a woman who can shoot better than you can and run a spy operation against you . . . it's a right turn on. That's what it is.

Now back to Joanna

Joanna, while you were writing Justine’s and Adrian’s story, was there a scene that popped out the most?

I like to think the first love scene, the one in the rain, was nicely done. I'm proud of that.

Joanna, what is more difficult to write: an intense sexual scene or a heart-wrenching emotional scene? Why?

I don't know about difficulty, but I'm always aiming for the emotionally charged scene. If I do intense sexual, it's because I'm using sex to build a more complex and strong emotion.

When you were writing “THE BLACK HAWK” did you have music playing in the background? If yes, what type? Does music play an intricate part in your writing?

I don't listen to music when I'm writing. I do a lot of work in coffee shops so there's all kind of noise in the background, some of it in the form of music. But that's just a bit of distraction to keep me focused on the work.

Which do you find is most important to you as a writer, voice or story? Why?

I don't think so much about voice when I'm writing. If it comes, it comes. I'm working at the story and the plot that contains it. I don't know if that's the important part, but that's what I need to concentrate on.

Joanna, please share with desperate readers where they can connect with you in cyber world. =)

I'm at my blog at

http://jobourne.blogspot.com/

 and my website is

http://www.joannabourne.com

I know this is a difficult question with there being so many amazing authors out there to choose from, but who are some of the GOT-TO-HAVE authors in your TBR pile?

Judith Ivory, Mary Jo Putney, Laura Kinsale, Jo Beverley, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julia Quinn, Loretta Chase, Tom and Sharon Curtis, Anne Stuart. More recent authors include Anne Gracie, Sherry Thomas, Grace Burrowes, Anna Campbell, Jeannie Lin, Meljean Brooks . . . I am missing a lot of great authors here.

What’s next in the works for you? When can readers expect to see it out on shelves in their local bookstores?

I'm working on Pax's story. It should hit the shelves in 2013. And I have a short story in a collection coming out next September, Mischief and Mistletoe.

Joanna, thanks so much for stopping by and chatting with Romantic Crush Junkies readers and me. It has really been a blast getting to know more about you and your books.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780425244531
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Publication date: 11/1/2011
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 336

Overview

Attacked on a rainy London street, veteran spy Justine DeCabrillan knows only one man can help her: Hawker, who also happens to be the enemy. With London crawling with hidden assassins and someone out to frame Hawker for the assault, the two spies must work together to find who's out to destroy them...

~ CONTEST~

RCJR is proud to present Penguin Group  bestselling author Joanna Bourne's , THE BLACK HAWK, released November 2011.   

THE PRIZE: three (3) copies of THE BLACK HAWK are up for grabs.

To enter: Please leave a comment for Joanna Bourne including your email address.

*Connect with RCJR eZine at:

***

Contest is open to ALL

It will runs until March 23, 2012

I will contact the winners directly on March 24, 2012

HAPPY READING! =)