Giveaway and Interview with Megan Frampton

I’m thrilled to welcome Avon historical romance author Megan Frampton to the blog today for an interview and a giveaway! My Fair Duchess, the latest in her Dukes Behaving Badly series, is the perfect witty and warm escape I needed from this lingering Wisconsin winter.

LB: I love the trope-twist of a woman inheriting a dukedom and how you cite an actual historical example. How did you first come up with the idea and what other interesting historical tidbits did you uncover while doing the research for the book?

Megan: Well, I was thinking about ways to keep the Dukes Behaving Badly series fresh, and I thought it’d be fun to have a duchess who behaves badly. I’d never heard of a woman inheriting a title, though, so I set off to do some research, and found that the Duke of Marlborough got a special Act put through Parliament to ensure his daughter could inherit his title, since his two sons predeceased him. With that fact tucked into my head, I was able to write Genevieve’s story.

LB: I read on your blog that you had a clever/hilarious working title for this book with a rock and roll inspiration– Duke Looks Like a Lady. How did the title evolve, and can you please do a series of Regency novels based on 80’s glam metal songs?

Megan: I am a fool for a pun, and I was playing around with “duke” puns in my head, and I thought of Duke Looks Like a Lady about my female duchess and kept laughing about it (to myself, which is odd, I agree). My editor liked it also, but as I was writing the book, I realized the title might be viewed as a cross-dressing hero, so I changed it.

For glam metal titles—we could have Earls, Earls, Earls, Duke Gone Wild, Shout at the Marquis…okay, maybe not (feel free to suggest more!)

LB: Haha – Earls, Earls Earls – love it! What about Lord Feelgood?

Megan:  Welcome to the Palace?

LB: Lol – we could do this all day. Maybe a reader will think of another fun title. Booklist wrote a swoony starred review of My Fair Duchess, describing it as, “a captivating symphony of scintillating wit and sophisticated sensuality brilliantly conducted by an author writing at the top of her game.” Does the conductor metaphor work for your writing process? Do you have special methods or writing rituals that help you find the music of each new book?

Megan: I wish I were this organized! I usually just get a cup of tea and open up the doc. I can’t multi-task worth a damn, so I don’t listen to music (I would likely end up singing instead of writing, and nobody is foolish enough to pay me for singing).

LB: Is this the last book in your Dukes Behaving Badly series? What’s up next?

Megan: This is the last book in the series! Next up is the Duke’s Daughters series, which is if Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice was a duke and had five daughters he had to marry off. Lady Be Bad is the first book, and that will be out in late July.

LB: The new series sounds fantastic. I can’t get enough of anything Pride and Prejudice related and I’m sure readers will agree. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Megan: Thanks for hosting!

Leave a comment for a chance to win an autographed copy of My Fair Duchess! (U.S. shipping only).