This Sunday we welcome Harlequin Historicals and Kensington Brava author Terri Brisbin (who is also a 2009 RITA nominee)! Comment for a chance to win a signed copy of The Conqueror’s Lady…

Riskies: Welcome to the blog, Terri! Tell us about your July release, The Conqueror’s Lady. Where did you find the idea for this book?

Terri: I love the classic medieval romances about a victorious Norman knight and a Saxon lady and I tried to think of a twist on that premise–in researching the battle, I discovered that the Bretons were blamed for a big misstep that nearly cost William his invasion so I wondered if that was true or if the Bretons got the bad press? LOL! Anyway, after meeting a very sexy Breton harpist in Scotland, I decided my heroes should be Breton knights, all linked by being fostered by the same man. So, The Conqueror’s Lady is the first of my trilogy–Knights of Brittany.

In this, Giles Fitzrobert is the first one to be sent to lands granted by William and he needs to fight his way in! As he arrives, he interrupts a wedding between his betrothed and another man and Giles is not happy. Fayth is trying to hold everything her father worked so hard for together and ends up married to a warrior who may have been her father’s killer. But of course they begin to learn about each other and there is much more there than meets the eye going on…

Riskies: Did you find any interesting research tidbits?

Terri: Yes!!! William the Conqueror had anger management issues and poison seemed to be his favorite weapon of choice when taking out his enemies. The story of his rivalry and hostilities with Conan of Brittany were verryyy interesting. FYI–Conan died after wearing poisoned riding gloves…poisoned LEATHER riding gloves. Did I mention that William’s mother was apparently the daughter of a tanner? Ahem…

Riskies: And what is “risky” about this book?

Terri: Any time an author begins a new series, it’s risky…Will the readers like it? Will it all work out the way I planned? Will the characters do as they’re told and stop whining about it being THEIR story? All those things and more went through my mind as I wrote this story.

Riskies: And tell us about your July “Undone” release!

Terri: Now, this is the RISKY thing I wrote! It’s amazingly difficult for me to write these shorter length stories–I am used to having 350+ manuscript pages to tell my stories, so asking me to write something good in 1/3 of that for a novella was hard. But this Undone is 1/2 of a novella, so the same elements–plot, characters, emotions, relationship–all had to be a oart of it…and it had to make sense, too!

So I decided to tell the story of how the Knights of Brittany decided to fight for William and introduced the noble-born knight Simon, whose father fostered the other 3. It is Simon’s wedding day to the lovely, feminine Lady Elise and Simon worries over how things will go between them. Lady Elise has the same worries and they spend the day trying to be the person they think the other wants them to be. Simon is wooing her gently and Elise is tempting him to the brink of his self-control.

Riskies: I see on your website you have lots of beautiful pics of Scotland! What are some of your favorite places there?

Terri: I do love Scotland! A couple of my favorite places are Edinburgh (so much to see and do, oh my!), Pitlochry (a small Victorian village in the Cairngorm mountains) and the Highlands. And Islands. Too many places to list, really. I’m planning a trip for September and my problem is that I want to visit too many places there!

Riskies: And what’s next for you?

Terri: I am so excited to share that after my July Harlequin Historicals release, my next book will be in December and from Kensington Brava! A Storm of Passion is a medieval historical, set in Scotland when magic still glimmered in the Highlands and Islands. It’s a story of a gift and a curse and forces so strong that only love can prevail, if it can be found. That is also the first of a new trilogy so there will be two more to follow in 2010 and 2011, and they promise to be very emotional and sexy romances.

The next one out from Harlequin will be Brice’s story–I’m writing that now, so I suspect it will be a Spring 2010 release?

Also, Kensington just asked me to do a novella for an anthology headed up by Susan Johnson–THE Susan Johnson! I am so excited to be part of that project. I don’t have a title (or even an idea!) for it yet, but it is scheduled as a May 2010 release.

Please check my website for all the details, and for a new contest I’m going to do over the summer. Mills & Boon, the UK Harlequin company, is releasing all 3 of my Highlander novels this summer, so I’m doing some giveaways of the British editions. Lots of new stuff and I’ll be announcing it through my website and newsletter.

Thanks to the Risky Regencies for inviting me here today! Please ask me questions–I’ll be stopping in during the day and would love to hear from readers and writers…