Courtney Milan's Blog » buy tessa’s books

Dangerous Excerpts!

Courtney Milan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:18:02 +0000

Those of you who were at RWA Nationals know that we had the Dangerous Book of Excerpts–a book that had first chapter excerpts from both me and Tessa Dare–in full force there. We printed 400 copies, and walked away with maybe 30 between us, total, left over. And that’s only because we didn’t put those 30 out in the Goody Room.

So for those of you who missed out, we made a PDF version of the Dangerous Book. Warning: it’s 1MB in size (and I tried to get it as small as I could–this is down from the initial size of 10MB. Sorry, but that’s just how it turned out!) Second warning: The original Dangerous Book of Excerpts had the full first chapter of both my novella, “This Wicked Gift,” and my debut novel, Proof by Seduction. But I got special permission from Harlequin to reprint those, as they’re longer than the average 2,500 word excerpt. Since I only have permission to post up to 2,500 words on my website, this copy contains not quite the full first chapter. Those of you who got one of those print versions should count yourselves very, very lucky.

Enjoy! Celebrate! And buy Tessa Dare’s July 28th, 2009 release this Tuesday!

Never resist temptation

Courtney Milan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:00:30 +0000

2009 is going to be a year of some awesome historical romance debuts. Believe it or not, it is time for the first one! It’s Miranda Neville, whose historical romance debut, Never Resist Temptation, comes out today. The title is reminiscent of Oscar Wilde, one of my very favorite of favorite snarky authors. I read the first few chapters on Avon’s Love Gives Back site, and I can tell you that the Oscar Wilde title is definitely deserved. Miranda had me laughing within the first five pages, and after I finished the excerpt, I immediately rushed out and pre-ordered it for my Kindle. It looks to be the kind of romance I love–tartly clever dialogue, an intelligent hero and heroine, chapters filled with recipes from Antoine Careme (the first Celebrity chef!). . . . The story itself is lovingly set amidst painstaking research on the running of kitchens from the Prince Regent’s to much smaller ones. Most importantly, this book is engrossing from page one.

I definitely want to share this book with you, and so one person will win a copy of Miranda Neville’s Never Resist Temptation. Here’s what you have to do to get a chance to win:

1. Read the excerpt on Love Gives Back.

2. For one chance to win, send an e-mail to courtney @ courtneymilan dot com, telling me the salary that Jacobin is offered in order to make French pastries.

3. For a second chance to win, include in the e-mail one pastry that the Earl of Storrington asks Jacobin to make for him.

That is it! You have three days–until Thursday, February 27, 2009, at 8 AM EST–to send the e-mail. I’ll choose one winner at random from the entries. (EDIT: Should be Friday, February 27. oops!)

The Historical is Dead

Courtney Milan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:00:22 +0000

Two years ago, all I was hearing was how dead historicals were. Historicals were dead, dead, dead. They were going the way of the dodo and chick lit. If you wanted to get published, you had to write vampires and werewolves–everyone knew that.

Today, I did a quick tally in my head of people I know–and by “know” I mean, have met in person and talked with–who have debut historical novels coming out from major New York houses in the upcoming year-or-something. By my count, that number stands at eleven.

Here are the debut authors in that once-dead genre (note that release dates are tentative the farther you get out):

Kris Kennedy, to Kensington: Debut Novel, THE CONQUEROR, out May 2009
Lavinia Kent, to Avon: Debut Novel, A TALENT FOR SIN, May 26, 2009
Jennifer Haymore, to Grand Central: Debut Novel, A HINT OF WICKED, out May 19, 2009
Jackie Barbosa, to Kensington Aphrodesia: Debut Single-Author Anthology, BEHIND THE RED DOOR, out June 2009
Tessa Dare, to Ballentine: Debut Novel, GODDESS OF THE HUNT, out July 28, 2009
Lori Brighton (website coming soon), to Kensington: Debut Novel, title unknown, out Fall 2009
Courtney Milan (that’s me!), to HQN: Debut Novella in HQN’s Regency Christmas anthology, ~Oct 2009; Debut Novel, PROOF BY SEDUCTION, ~March 2010
Susan Gee Heino (2008 Golden Heart Winner for Regency Romance), to Berkeley: Debut Novel, MISTAKEN BY MOONLIGHT, out December 2009
Beverley Kendall, to Kensington: Debut Novel, A LADY’S COMPROMISE, out January 2010
Sara Lindsey, to Signet/NAL: Debut Novel, PROMISE ME ALWAYS, out March 2010
Erica Ridley, to Kensington: Debut Novel, TOUCHED, out late 2010/early 2011

All that doom and gloom two years ago? It turned out kinda like this:

Covers!

Courtney Milan — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:00:59 +0000

Over the last handful of days, I’ve been filling out some basic information as a prelude to starting work on the cover of my debut, PROOF BY SEDUCTION. This, more than anything–more than the deal announcement on Publisher’s Marketplace, or even signing the contract and shipping it to Canada–has made the sale seem like it really happened. My book will have a cover. It will be produced in a format other than Courier New double spaced, and it will be bound and everything. Whoa!

But along those lines, my amazing critique partner, Tessa Dare, just got her covers for her back-to-back trilogy from Ballentine. Her trilogy starts with Goddess of the Hunt, released on July 28, 2009, and I can’t wait for everyone to be able to read this book. It sold at auction, and once you start reading it, you will know why. As her critique partner I read it through several times–and let me tell you, there is no book I would rather have read 10 times. I loved it every time I read it, and you will, too. The most amazing thing about this trilogy is that with a first book this good… the second one, Surrender of a Siren, is even better.

So here are her covers! Now go preorder these books.