The Writer's View: Maggi Andersen

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Maggi will be awarding the winner's choice of a backlist eBook to two randomly drawn commenters during the tour, and a $30 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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My writing space, I’m forced to admit, is messy. My father accused me of being an untidy dreamer. Dreams do come in handy for a writer at times. I’ve written more than one story based on fragments of a dream. Poor Dad, he was a very ordered man – a place for everything and everything in its place. My mother was a wonderful artist and a bit of a messy dreamer too. She had a great sense of color and design, and the decor in our home never lasted long enough for us to get bored with it. Like my mother, I can become easily distracted by some artistic pursuit. Hours later, I haven’t written a word!

I confess I tidied my desk up for the picture, but my writing space frequently lacks order. But ask me to find something and strangely, I can lay my hand on it quite quickly. Perhaps there is an element of order within the chaos. And now I am forced to become more ordered. I’m writing the Spies of Mayfair Series and must abandon my pansterish tendencies and gasp! Plot!

The view outside my window is a fearful distraction. A lovely old timber house painted dark red, and a Himalayan Dogwood tree in the garden which flowers in spring and turns lovely colors in autumn. Verdant green lawn slopes down to a stream where grey and white ducks folic. Bird life clamor for seed, fruit and meat and my Persian cat, Affie insists on settling on my papers beside the computer. So, despite my best intentions, it’s a fight to get the writing done!

About the Author: Maggi Andersen and her lawyer husband are empty nesters, living in the countryside outside Sydney with their cat and the demanding wildlife. Parrots demand seed, possums fruit, ducks swim in the stream at the bottom of the garden, and the neighbours chickens roam their yard providing wonderful eggs. She began writing adventure stories at age eight. Three children, a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing degree later, her novels are still filled with adventure and suspense, but are also passionate romances. Georgette Heyer among others, brought inspiration to her seductive Regencies and she also writes darker, Victorian novels, contemporary romantic suspense and young adult.

She supports the RSPCA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals) and animals often feature in her books.

Website: http://www.maggiandersenauthor.com
Blog: http://www.maggiandersen.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maggi-Andersen-Author/372854959805
Twitter: @maggiandersen
BUY LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Baron-Her-Spies-Mayfair-Series/dp/1908483342/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339661805&sr=8-2

London, 1816. A handsome baron. A faux betrothal. And Horatia's plan to join the London literary set takes a dangerous turn.

Now that the war with France has ended, Baron Guy Fortescue arrives in England to claim his inheritance, abandoned over thirty years ago when his father fled to France after killing a man in a duel. When Guy is set upon by footpads in London, a stranger, Lord Strathairn, rescues and befriends him. But while travelling to his country estate, Guy is again attacked. He escapes only to knock himself out on a tree branch.

Aspiring poet Horatia Cavendish has taken to riding her father's stallion, "The General", around the countryside of Digswell dressed as a groom. She has become bored of her country life and longs to escape to London to pursue her desire to become part of the London literary set. When she discovers Guy lying unconscious on the road, the two are forced to take shelter for the night in a hunting lodge. After Guy discovers her ruse, a friendship develops between them.

Guy suspects his relative, Eustace Fennimore is behind the attacks on his life. He has been ensconced in Rosecroft Hall during the family's exile and will become the heir should Guy die. Horatia refuses to believe her godfather, Eustace, is responsible. But when Guy proposes a faux betrothal to give him more time to discover the truth, she agrees. Secure in the knowledge that his daughter will finally wed, Horatia's father allows her to visit her blue-stocking aunt in London. But Horatia's time spent in London proves to be anything but a literary feast, for a dangerous foe plots Guy's demise. She is determined to keep alive her handsome fiance, who has proven more than willing to play the part of her lover even as he resists her attempts to save him.