AWARD WINNING AUTHOR DELILAH MARVELLE IS IN THE BLUE ROSE WRITING ROOM TODAY

I’m giddy with excitement to have award winning author, Delilah Marvelle, author of Romancing Lady Stone, in the Blue Rose Writing Room today.

Welcome Delilah!

~Delilah will be giving away five digital copies of her book to lucky~ commenters. Make sure you leave your email address when you comment!

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Do you use a pen name/pseudo name? If so, why. If not, why did you decide to write under your own name?

I use a pen name for my last name. Delilah is my real name J. With the age of the internet and people being ridiculously nosy, I rather like my privacy, especially when it concerns my family. Because I write on the racier side of historical romance, it’s my way of ensuring my family is protected.

I completely understand. As a teacher I have to be careful too. What’s one thing you absolutely can’t tolerate during your writing? One thing you can’t write without?

I have to have complete silence when I write. No music and no people in the house. It’s not so much a focus thing as much as being unable to immerse myself in my historical world when I’m surrounded by too many things that remind me of the modern world. I also read everything aloud when I type and do it in British accent to make it feel authentic to me, lol, which is another reason why I don’t like having people around when I’m writing. It’s awkward, lol.

Oh, my gosh, love that! I have to have silence too, and I’ll act out gestures and facial expressions. What’s one place you absolutely want to visit before you die?

Venice. Without any doubt. Knowing that the city will be sinking completely underwater, I have all the more reason to go and will go.

Venice is on my bucket list too. Why did you choose to write in this genre?

I write historical romance because of my love of history. The contemporary world I already live in, so I feel it’s not as exciting to explore and with history, it’s still a world I can breath in and touch by visiting places of history and digging through books. My biggest passion is learning that people in history weren’t any different from the people of today. They were simply living in a different environment with different rules. And that’s where I come in, lol. I love to have them break those rules. Will I ever write in any genre? I’m never one to say never but I am too infatuated with history and writing romance that I don’t see myself straying anytime soon.

I’m with you; I’d rather write history. What historical figure do you wish you could have met?

Ninon de l’Enclos. She was such an amazing woman for her time and lived in an era (1600’s) when a woman’s only way of independently surviving was through her wit and her body. She was, believe it or not, the inspiration behind my entire School of Gallantry series. She would hold ‘classes’ for men in her bedchamber to discuss sex, love and philosophies with men. It’s why they loved her. She was open to discussing things women usually shied away from. What few people know is that she left a good amount of money to Voltaire for him to educate himself. Who knows, we may have never heard of Voltaire had that money not been passed on to him.

Fascinating! Can you tell us one unusual, weird, or curious fact you discovered while researching this book.

Curious fact. Russia back in 1830 didn’t allow their citizens to read any book containing political content. Those books were also banned and kept from entering the country. It was the Tsar’s way of controlling the people’s perception on what is politically acceptable and what is not. (Which still goes on today…)

Ah, keep the masses ignorant… How do you respond to negative reviews?

I don’t. I’ve been doing this for a long time and everyone’s taste in books and writing is their own. I don’t dwell on the negative unless it’s a review I can learn something from. Sadly, most negative reviews don’t educate an author on what they could do better. They just talk about how terrible the book is and some go on to even talk about how the author should stop writing altogether and even personally attack authors. Hardly helpful. So there’s nothing to respond to and nothing to learn from. No book is perfect, but a review should educate the reviewer and the author, not bash them.

Well said! What are you most afraid of?
Spiders. Eck, eck, eck.

I sooo identify! Do you have a favorite quote?

The resistance of a woman is not always proof of her virtue, but more frequently her experience. – Ninon de L’enclos, my favorite 17^th century courtesan.

AWARD WINNING AUTHOR DELILAH MARVELLE IS IN THE BLUE ROSE WRITING ROOM TODAY 2

Okay, now for the quickie questions: Answer in three words or less. Ready? Go!

Favorite Disney Character? Jasmine.
Favorite Fruit? Fresh figs.
Favorite Hero? My husband J
Favorite Eye Color? Dark brown.
Best Vacation Destination? Figi islands.
Food you can’t stand? Anything greasy.
What annoys you? People who take advantage of other people.
Coffee, tea, or something else? Water. All the way.
Nightgown or Jammies? Jammies. Nightgown is reserved for special occasions. *waggling brows*
Prefer dogs or cats? I love both. Don’t make me choose!

A tidbit about Romancing Lady Stone

At forty, Lady Cecilia Evangeline Stone thinks she has everything a woman could ever want. A title, a fortune, and four children who make her proud. After a marriage of convenience that was anything but convenient, she has no desire to complicate her life by including a man in it again. When her eldest son announces his engagement to a Russian actress in Saint Petersburg, Cecilia sets out to do what any good mother would do: stop the wedding. Unfortunately, destiny has other plans.

Konstantin Alexie Levin never considered himself to be a villain. In fact, he considers himself to be a Russian gentleman. Having grown up in a refined and well-educated family that embraced criminal life to avoid debtor’s prison, the only thing preventing him from knowing happiness is the rest of the world. Everything changes, however, when Konstantin is given a chance to start life anew and travel to London to collect an unexpected reward for saving a man’s life. To his surprise, he is about to become a hero at midnight to a beautiful aristocrat who desperately needs his help. The problem is…he wants to do more than save Lady Stone. He wants to make the fiery woman his, all his.

WARNING: This Book is rated Double S (Sweaty and Sinful) and contains strong language and sexual content that may cause respectable people to swoon.

Review of Romancing Lady Stone

Romancing Lady Stone . . . oh, yes! Sigh.

Truly an absolute delight!

Perfectly paced, and soooo romantic. The hero and heroine are scrumptious, faults and all. The instant attraction they feel for each other sets the foundation for a delicious, fulfilling story arc, with an, oh so, wonderful finish.

Page after page, I devoured the book, loving the descriptions, the internal dialogue, and the truly realistic characters. Cecilia, the titled lady, mother of four who married for money finds herself robbed and stranded in Russia. Konstantin, former Russian mobster is her unlikely rescuer. The sensual sparks fly in this spicy historical that takes the reader from Russian, to England, and back to Russian again.

If you not had the privilege of reading Ms. Marvelle’s work before, you’re missing out. Immensely talented, her stories always provide a romping good romance. I didn’t want the story to end.

I rank it five roses.