Title: NO PROPER LADY
Genre: Historical
Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Imprint: Casablanca
Imprint: Casablanca
Format: Mass-market
eBook
eBook
Pub. Date: September 2011
Pages: 352
Book Heat: SCORCHER
Pages: 352
Book Heat: SCORCHER
Read an Excerpt
It’s Terminator meets My Fair Lady in this
fascinating debut of black magic and brilliant ball gowns, martial arts, and
mysticism.
Simon Grenville has his
own reasons for wanting to destroy Alex Reynell. The man used to be his best
friend—until his practice of the dark arts almost killed Simon’s sister. The
beautiful half-naked stranger Simon meets in the woods may be the perfect
instrument for his revenge. It will just take a little time to teach her the
necessary etiquette and assemble a proper wardrobe. But as each day passes,
Simon is less sure he wants Joan anywhere near Reynell. Because no spell in the
world will save his future if she isn’t in it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debut author Isabel Cooper lives in Boston
Interview with
Isabel Cooper
Author of No Proper Lady
What is the best part of
being a writer? What is the worst?
IC: The best part is
getting to create stories. When everything’s going well, it’s like a game: I
put this character with this other one, in this situation, and see what
happens. Also, because my plots and stories tend to be on the bizarre end,
describing them to my friends is hilarious. “…and he’s attracted but he says
something snotty to disguise it and she smiles but is inwardly all ‘I will stab
you with a hatpin, fool’ and then the dining room explodes. No, it actually
explodes. There’s a thing with a demon.”
The worst is probably
getting stuck on a scene and not knowing how to get around it. It’s rather
frustrating—but hardly the worst thing ever. There’s not much about writing
that I don’t like, come to think of it, other than the occasional software
glitches and so forth. Actually, the worst part may be “wait, I had a
file here”, but that’s less of a problem these days: I am paranoid about
backups.
Why do you write?
IC: Because it’s fun, basically: that’s why I do
just about anything that doesn’t directly keep me alive. I’m quite the
hedonist.
Really, though, telling
stories in one form or another is something I don’t think I could get away from
if I tried. I end up thinking out stories when I’m walking, and when I don’t
have some narrative project or other going on, I get weird and twitchy and
restless.
Name one eye-opening
thing you learned from your book research.
IC: Just how varied the Victorian Era was. We’ve
had a tendency—though steampunk has mitigated this in the last few years, which
is awesome—to think of “Victorian” as a synonym for repressed, stratified, and
overly mannered. In some places and times, that’s correct, but it definitely
wasn’t universal. The first waves of feminism, socialism, religious plurality,
and even gay rights were emerging during the late 19th century;
science was making new discoveries and coming up with strange theories; and all
sorts of weird countercultures were busy pushing various boundaries.
Do you have a favorite
motto?
IC: “Carpe diem”. I don’t know if we only get to
go around once, but this is the only time we’re here and who we are. Might as well
enjoy it as much as we can.
Do you have a favorite
fictional hero? Favorite fictional
heroine?
IC: On heroes, it’s a two-way tie between Aragorn
and Giles—I apparently like men with accents and destinies, who knew?—with a
small yet vocal minority in favor of Conan. (Not as played by Arnold
Which fictional character
would you hang out with?
IC: I’m assuming this is “just hang out with,”
not “hang out with and attempt to hit on,” in which case see the fictional heroes
thing, plus David Bowie’s character in Labyrinth. Honestly, I might hang out with that guy
anyhow. He seems like he’d be entertaining.
What is one of your
favorite book covers, your own or someone else’s?
IC: Can I pick those
seriously bejeweled books in the opening of the Disney princess movies? Those
were *awesome*.
What would readers be
surprised to learn about you?
IC: I was the least romantic person ever back in
high school and early college—I think my entire MP3 collection was along the
lines of “Love Stinks”, I scorned anything to do with makeup and fashion, and
man, was I a pain.
What’s the strangest
thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?
IC: I found the Wikipedia entry on Isabel
Cooper-Oakley, a Victorian lady and Theosophist who wrote a lot of books on the
Count of Saint-Germain and Freemasonry. She married Alfred J. Oakley, and he
changed his name as well.
I had no idea about any
of this when I went with “Cooper”—it’s actually my middle name—but coincidence
is neat!
If you could go backward
or forward in time which would you chose?
Why?
IC: Backward if I could come back afterwards—men
had fashion sense a few decades ago and more of them could dance, plus I’d love
to be able to get some vintage clothing on the cheap—but forwards if I had to
stay there. Assuming the future isn’t Joan’s, of course. I don’t think I’d be
very good at fighting demons.
Isabel, please tell us more
about your debut novel, No Proper Lady,
in stores this month from Sourcebooks Casablanca.
IC: As I hint in the question above, my heroine,
Joan, is from a dark future. Demons rule the world, most people are either pets
or food, and the few who aren’t are a ragtag band of warriors hiding out in
caves and losing. Joan comes back in time to kill Alex Reynell, the man who
brought this future about—and meets up with Simon, his former best friend.
Simon agrees to help Joan out by teaching her how to fit into Victorian
society, and the two of them end up falling for each other in the process.
Which do you
find is most important to you as a writer, voice or story? Why?
IC: It’s a bit of a balance, but I’d go with
story. That doesn’t mean I need all
sorts of action, but there has to be a compelling plot, and I have to like the
protagonist characters. Voice and style
is great, but if I hate the hero or the story doesn’t go anywhere, I’m pretty much done.
Isabel, please tell us where we can find you out in cyber
world.
IC: I’m still
working on getting a web page together, insofar as I’m really bad at coding.
You can find my blog at isabelcooper.wordpress.com, though, or I’m Isabel Kunkle
on Google+.
I know this is a difficult question with there being so many amazing
authors out there to choose from but who are some of the GOT -TO-HAVE authors in your TBR pile?
IC: Ooh. Huge pile—I’m so glad for both ebooks and my library, since I’m
paranoid about acquiring too much stuff. (Moved sixteen times in ten years.
Argh.) Just off the top of my head: Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Robin
McKinley, Naomi Novik, and Diane Duane.
What’s next in the works for you?
When can readers expect to see it out on shelves in their local
bookstores?
IC: My next book is No Honest Woman, coming out in April
2012. It features Gareth, a former Army surgeon with healing powers and Olivia,
a fake medium who learned real magic by accident, both of whom become teachers
at the school Simon and Joan found—sort of the Victorian magical equivalent of
Xavier’s School for the Gifted from X-Men.
Thank you Isabel!! It has been a pleasure having you stop by to share more about you and your fantastic book. =)
Celebrating the the September 2011 release of "NO PROPER LADY" by debut author Isabel Cooper Over the Edge will be giving two lucky readers the chance to win a copy. Here is what you will need to do to enter.
* If you could time travel where would you go?
Who would you be?
and
What would you do?
*Leave a comment for
Isabel Cooper
*Tell us what you like about
NO PROPER LADY
book cover.
The giveaway is open to ALL readers and will be running until October 1, 2011. I'll be picking and contacting the winners directly on October 2, 2011. One entry per reader. Please make sure to include your email with your comment.
Happy Reading!
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