Friday, October 1, 2010

Meet Margaret Tanner/Contest


Thank you for inviting me to visit
One lucky person who leaves a comment will go into the draw to win an e-copy of Reluctant Father or Cardinal Sin-Winner's choice. Please leave your email address with your comment in case you win so you can be contacted and contest ends October 3rd, 2010

BIO:
Margaret Tanner is a multi-published Australian author. She loves delving into the pages of history as she carries out research for her historical romance novels, and prides herself on being historically correct. No book is too old or tattered for her to trawl through, no museum too dusty, no elderly relative too deaf or senile to interrogate. Many of her novels have been inspired by true events, with one being written around the hardships and triumphs of her pioneering ancestors in frontier Australia. She once spent a couple of hours in an old goal cell so she could feel the chilling cold and fear. She has visited the battlefields of France and Belgium collecting background information for her World War 1 novels.

Margaret is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, the Melbourne Romance Writers Group (MRWG) and EPIC. She won the 2007 and 2009 Author of the Year at AussieAuthors.com.

ARTICLE:
I write historical romance, usually of the nineteenth or twentieth century variety. I have written two novels with a Vietnam War background, Cardinal Sin, and my latest release, Reluctant Father, both from TWRP.
At the risk of revealing my age, I have to say the 1960’s was my time. Mini skirts, stilettos (I have bunions to prove it), beehive hair dos, I couldn’t quite manage that, although I did tease (back comb), the life out of my hair and regularly put in coloured rinses, French Plum or Rich Burgundy, were the colours I favoured. Of course, it goes without saying, I went through a couple of cans of hair spray a week. Going to bed with rollers in my hair, torture but you endured it to stay in fashion.

I can remember when the Beatles made their first visit out to Australia. A couple of girls I worked with were lucky enough to get tickets to their concerts. They camped out over the weekend to be near the top of the queue when the ticket office opened. They came to work the day after the concert minus their voices, and stayed that way for about a week, because they had screamed so much.

We used manual typewriters in those days. One original and four copies of everything we typed. If you made a mistake at the end of the page and couldn’t rub it out, you had to re-type the whole page. No cut and paste in those days. I don’t know how many blouses I ruined because I got ink on the sleeves from changing the typewriter ribbon or the black stuff off the carbon paper.

During this time the Vietnam War loomed in the background. The Australian government introduced conscription. It was in the form of a ballot, or the death lottery as many called it. All twenty year old males had to register, their birth dates were put into a barrel and a certain number were drawn out, and those young men had to report to the army and subsequently many of them were sent to Vietnam. This of course caused severe bitterness and division in the community, and even though the government denied it, was subject to abuse and unfairness. Rich men kept their sons at university so they didn’t have to go. At first it was only unmarried males that were called up, but when young men started marrying their girlfriends to beat the draft, the government quickly plugged that loop hole. Conscientious objectors were thrown into prison. Only sons were called up, yet families with two or three eligible males didn’t have any of their boys called up.

I only had one brother, and I can clearly remember my father (a World War 2 veteran) vowing, that if his son got called up, he would protest on the steps of the parliament with a placard on his back. Luckily for my brother, there was a change of government a few weeks before he was due to register for the draft, and the new government promptly stopped conscription.

Make love not war was the chant in those days. There were protest marches, anti-war demonstrations outside the army barracks, sit-ins at some university campuses. Often things turned violent. Not that I went to any of the protest marches, but a cousin of mine did and got trampled by a police horse. Returning soldiers from Vietnam had buckets of blood thrown over them by some demonstrators. A truly shocking act in my opinion. It wasn’t the soldiers’ fault they were conscripted to fight in an unpopular war. It got so bad that the soldiers were returned home to Australia in the dead of night.
The folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary were very popular at that time, some of their songs still bring a tear to my eye when I hear them played.

A very turbulent time in our history was the 1960’s and I was a part of it.


RELUCTANT FATHER BLURB:
Jordan Stamford is allergic to babies. At the height of the Vietnam war, this jet-setting playboy, whose motto is ‘money can buy anything,’ arrives in Sarah Watson’s seaside home to redevelop a disused factory complex. Sarah is the only child of an elderly minister of religion and adores her bay side home. She yearns for a loving husband and babies. Will Jordan’s shameful family history, and Sarah’s desperate longing for a child, be an insurmountable barrier for them to overcome?
Reluctant Father and Cardinal Sin are both available from The Wild Rose Press.

Excerpt:
As they neared the lighted doorway, he gave a soft chuckle. “You’ve got a thoroughly-kissed look, and your hair is all mussed up. You’d better go to the little girl’s room and repair the damage.”
“I haven’t got my purse.”
“I don’t have any makeup, but you’re welcome to use my comb. I’ll wait here for you.”
As she walked towards the ladies’ powder room, she forced herself not to glance back at him. In the gilt-edged mirror her eyes looked wide, fever bright, her lips swollen from his fierce kisses. She detected a faint mark beneath her left earlobe where his teeth must have nipped.
She drew the comb through her hair, and heat curled through her at the intimacy of using such a personal item of his.
Outside, he waited in exactly the same place as she had left him.
“Ah, that’s better,” he acknowledged with a grin.
“You left a mark on my neck.”
“Good. I always put a brand on my women.” Laughter lurked in his eyes, and something else she could not quite understand.


My website: http://www.margarettanner.com/

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh the memories!!!!

Looks like a good read too.

Valerie
in Germany

Linda Henderson said...

I enjoyed the excerpt very much. I went to high school in the 1960's so I know what you are talking about. Although I do live in the US, things were much the same.

seriousreader at live dot com

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Linda and Valerie,
Thank you so much for dropping by, I am a little late in getting here as I am on the other side of the world to you and the time differences are a bit of a problem.

Best wishe

Margaret

Lisbeth Eng said...

Margaret, your post brings back memories for me, too, of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations (we had them in the US too but I was only a small child at the time); I didn't release Australia was also involved. You mention of manual typewriters brings back memories, too. That's what I learned to type on! What would be do now without "copy and paste", not to mention spell and grammar check! (I was always and still am a very bad typist.) I won't tell you how many error have already been caught by the "spell-check" embedded in Blogger right here!
Your book sounds wonderful. It was a fascinating, turbulent time. Best of luck with it.
Lisbeth
www.lisbetheng.com

Keena Kincaid said...

I don't remember the 60s, but it's a time that seems to loom large in our social conscious, and I think many people are horrified now about how the returning soldiers were treated.

I remember when the first Iraq War broke out. I was a newspaper reporter then and I covered a campus protest. All of the protests were very clear to say that they supported our soldiers but were protesting our government's action. Once I was in an airport when a group of soldiers got off a plane. Everyone started clapping. It brought tears to my eyes.

Caroline Clemmons said...

Margaret, I'm apalled at the treatment of returning soldiers, although I didn't know at that time about their mistreatment. I remember a neighbor's brother went in two weeks after he married and a month later lost his legs and one arm when he stepped on a mine. So many needless deaths and injuries! No wonder the Vietnam vets have a high ration of mental problems. They were forced to fight in pointless war and villified for it.

Ah, well, I should get off my soap box. I did enjoy your post. Good luck with sales! You're a terrific writer.

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Lisbeth,
Thanks for dropping by.
Copy and paste. My writing lives and dies by that. So, you were too young to wear the mini-skirt. I used to wear them all the time, but I had good legs in those days.

Regards
Margaret

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Keena,
Thanks for dropping by.Ooh a reporter, that would ahve been an exciting job.
There was no clapping when our soldiers came back from Vietnam, the government (who sent them over there in the first place), used to sneak them in at night time so the public wouldn't see them. It was a disgrace. At least the Iraq veterans are treated better.

Regards


Margaret

P.L. Parker said...

I graduated from high school in 1970 so I remember. My sister, Karlyn, was drafted into the Army which caused us some concern. Dad had to take her down to the draft office and prove she was a girl.

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Caroline,
Thank you for dropping by and for your kind words, I appreciate it. How awful, a young man losing both legs and his arm. Only hope his wife stood by him, although it would be hard for her too, poor soul.

After WW1 and WW2, the veterans were welcomed home as heroes,for Vietnam, they were spirited back in the dead of night and hidden from sight, at least here in Australia. Only over the last few years are they getting the accolades they so richly deserved.
I have jumped on the soap box with you.

Regards

Margaret

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Patsy,
Thanks for dropping by. How awful for your sister being drafted. Your father had to actually take her down to the recruiting place to show them she was a girl.Now that is terrible.

Regards

Margaret

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Patsy and Caroline. I left messages for you a couple of hours ago, but they don't seem to have come out. Anyway, thank you so much for dropping by.

Cheers

Margaret

Jenn J McLeod - Australia's small town storyteller said...

Thank you Margaret. this was a great post for me. I was a 1960 baby (yep the big 50 for me a couple of weeks ago). My latest WIP touches (just a tad) on the Vietnam War so I was most interested in your info, adding to my researh.

Jenn J McLeod - Australia's small town storyteller said...

Thx for the post Margaret. I was a 1960 baby (yep - turned the BOG 50 last week). My current wip also includes a little Vietnam war backstory, so your post was very timely.

Pauline said...

Remember those times, too. Turbulent indeed! Congrats (sorry to be slow, but had company all weekend!)

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Jen and Pauline,
Thank you so much for dropping by. The sixties were a turbulent time, but a lot of fun, too, when I think about it.
Good luck with your book Jen. Reluctant Father just touches on Vietnam too, but it fairly dominates the other novel, Cardinal Sin.
Regards
Margaret