Let's Talk About Anna Campbell!

Anna Campbell

Anna Campbell’s 2007 debut, Claiming the Courtesan, was a finalist in the Best Regency Historical Romance, Romance Writers of America RITA Award 2008 and won the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award as best debut historical.  Anna’s second book, Untouched, won the Favourite Historical Romance in the Australian Romance Readers Awards for 2008.

Bestselling Australian author Stephanie Laurens launched Anna’s third book Tempt the Devil at ARRC09. Every year, Anna sponsors the Anna Campbell Award through Romance Writers of Australia for the highest placed historical in the unpublished manuscript contest, the Emerald.

In the 2009 Australian Romance Readers Awards Captive of Sin won Favourite Historical Romance and Anna was also voted the Favourite Australian Romance Author for 2009.  Collectively, Anna’s five books published with HarperCollins have won a total of 15 industry awards and were finalists in a further 12 awards. Her books have been translated into ten languages including German and Italian. Anna’s current release is My Reckless Surrender and her next release will be Midnight’s Wild Passion, due out May 2011

 Anna will be a keynote speaker on The 2011 Australian Romance Readers.

 Anna Says

I was born in Brisbane, Australia, and grew up on an avocado farm with views of Moreton Bay and Stradbroke Island. As a result, my ideal setting ever since has involved lots of water – even if it’s just a large bathtub with me lolling around in it.

The other element in my ideal setting is lots and lots of books. I was the sort of kid who spent her childhood with her nose buried between the pages of a book. To me, the worlds I read about were at least as real and ten times as exciting as anything that happened to me in Redland Bay. I still think one of life’s finest pleasures is picking up a great book and just losing myself in it for however long it takes to finish it.

Being such an avid reader seemed naturally to morph into wanting to do what these wonderful writers did. My mother very proudly kept my grade two composition book in which I penned a heartfelt wish to become the new Enid Blyton (my obsession at that stage – my reading life has been marked by particular crazes. We won’t talk about the Dorothy Dunnett period). At least you can say I had a sense of vocation very early.

When I was eight, that same mother was so desperate to shut me up – in between reading, I used to talk a LOT – that she gave me a Mills & Boon romance. That was back in the days when you were lucky to get a kiss at the end. Rather tame by today’s standards. But I was immediately hooked. The emotion and the fact that a woman is so central to the story made these books precious to me. And I still feel that way about a good romance. Don’t get me started on why I think romance is empowering for women, contrary to all the intellectual claptrap you hear about romance novels propping up the patriarchal conspiracy.

I started my first novel when I was in grade three – at least I took the promises I made myself in grade two seriously! An exciting saga about horsenapping that I never actually finished. I fiddled with various stories until I left high school, when I managed to finish a historical in the style of Kathleen Woodiwiss. Pretty dire and well deserving its place under the bed. Which is where everything else I wrote ended up over the coming years. Started to get crowded down there!

In between, I did an English literature degree at Queensland University. What bliss! Someone actually wanting me to read all day! I spent three years working in a bank before living in the UK for two years. That was  a wonderful time when I got to see so many places in Europe and Britain that I’d read about with all that dedicated library mooching. I’ve been back a couple of times since and the magic has never waned.

I came back to Australia determined to act on my writing ambitions so that’s when my gypsy years started. So many jobs, so little money. Retail. Hospitality. Marketing. An art gallery. Technical writing for training companies. Eventually, I settled in to a twelve year stint in Sydney (thanks to a totally fluked win on a quiz show which funded the move). There I worked at a charity which subtitled TV programs for the deaf and hearing impaired.

During all this time I wrote. As many beginner romance writers do, I decided category would be an easy way into the industry. Even though my heart has always been with long juicy historicals. I finished seven short contemporary stories, all of which were rejected very nicely by Harlequin. By this stage, under the bed was more crowded than the center of Hong Kong at Chinese New Year. Then I worked on a pile of totally unmarketable historicals, some of which I finished, most of which I didn’t. More boxes for the dust bunnies to eat in the bedroom. You’ll notice housework never featured in my mixed-up career choices.

What made the biggest difference to me was joining Romance Writers of Australia. Suddenly I had like-minded people around me (up until now, I’d basically been working alone) who could offer advice and encouragement. I had a writing group, Turramurra Romance Writers, to work with at regular monthly meetings. I had competitions I could enter that gave me an indication whether I had anything to offer or whether I was just kidding myself. I had a conference to go to every year where I could talk myself silly.

Then one day, I got this idea for a dark sexy Regency historical about a duke who wants to marry his mistress, London's most notorious courtesan. And 'No Ordinary Duchess',  which Avon released in April 2007 as CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, was born. CLAIMING THE COURTESAN went on to final in the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for best Regency Romance and the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year Award. Among numerous awards, CTC was both best debut and book of year of 2007 in Michelle Buonfiglio's Romance: B(u)y the Book, best long historical in the Booksellers Best Awards and best first historical in the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards. I was also delighted to be voted best new author in the All About Romance reader poll of 2007.

My second book for Avon, UNTOUCHED, was published in December 2007. It also won numerous awards and finaled in both the RITA Awards and the Australian Romantic Book of the Year Awards.

In January 2009, TEMPT THE DEVIL was released to amazing reviews, including a Top Pick from Romantic Times magazine. TEMPT THE DEVIL finaled in the most popular historical category of the Australian Romance Reader Association Awards and won the Golden Quill Award as Best Regency Romance of 2009.

CAPTIVE OF SIN, my November 2009 release, also received wonderful reviews, including another Top Pick from Romantic Times. It was selected as one of the 100 best books of 2009 by prestigious industry journal Publishers Weekly, one of only five mass market paperbacks to make the list. So far, CAPTIVE OF SIN has finaled in 12 contests and has won the Golden Quill as Best Historical Romance of 2009. It was voted most popular historical romance of 2009 in the Australian Romance Reader Awards. I’m delighted to say I was voted Favorite Australian Romance author of 2009 in the same awards.

In June 2010, my fifth book, MY RECKLESS SURRENDER, was released to more great reviews including another RT Top Pick. In July, 2010, my extended short story ‘Upon a Midnight Clear’ appeared in the MAMMOTH BOOK OF REGENCY ROMANCE. My next release is MIDNIGHT’S WILD PASSION in May 2011.

My books are available (or shortly will be!) in Turkey, Japan, Australia, Germany, France, Norway, Spain, Russia, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand.

This information is shared from her website. She loves hearing from readers, so you can email her.

MY RECKLESS SURRENDER

~ Avon Books ~

June 2010 (North America and Australia)

Headlong into sin...

A well-practiced rake, weary of easy conquests and empty pleasures, Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft, knows women - and his every instinct warns him to beware of this one. Diana Carrick’s brazen overtures have thrown the haunted, sinfully handsome lord completely off his guard. Why, the exquisite temptress stated outright that she wishes to be his lover! But it is neither Diana’s boldness nor her beauty that intrigues him so - it is the innocence he senses behind her worldly mask.

Intent upon the seduction that will finally free her, Diana has set her sights on the notorious Ashcroft - never dreaming that there is much more to the enigmatic rogue than sin and deviltry. His kiss is bewitching,  his caress intoxicating - and even the dangerous secret Diana must protect cannot shield her from Ashcroft’s dark allure.

Unwittingly yet most willingly, they are playing with fire. Now the fuse has been lit and there is no escape…except surrender.

You can read an excerpt here.

This passionate story had a very special twist. The heroine goes out with a special mission to seduce the hero and will she be successful in her mission?
It is a very interesting and mind blowing read!

Overheard conversation between Anna Campbell and Diana Carrick (heroine of MY RECKLESS SURRENDER),

"Why did you have me do uh..um... that...and that...," asked Diana, shocked.

"Well! You loved it!" Anna Campbell replied.

"Yes, I did. But you knew for the last eight years, I was..."

"Yes, but then I gave you the freedom to experiment and experience," Anna told her severely. "You should at least be grateful!"

"I'm grateful. But my surrender was so reckless," Diana complained, "At least you could have warned me that Tarquin would be so...so... relentless!"