Guest Blog & Giveaway with Kathryne Kennedy

Today I'm excited to have Kathryne Kennedy as my guest. She's here to talk about her latest release My Unfair Lady. Welcome Kathryne!

Thank you so much for hosting me as a guest on your blog, Anna. I have to say that I love your graphic header! I adore fairies, and yours is particularly lovely.

I should start by introducing myself. My name is Kathryne Kennedy, and I have a Victorian romance releasing in December titled, My Unfair Lady. I’m writing today about my inspiration for the book.

I loved the movie, My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s, Pygmalion. But, being a romantic at heart, I was rather disappointed in the ending. I adore a definitive happily-ever-after and unfortunately, it was left to the imagination. Did Eliza return to Mr. Higgins, or did she run off with Freddy? Would I have been content with either scenario? For despite Higgin’s bullying, I waited for him to see Eliza’s true character and fall madly in love with her…but that never quite happened.

Which, in truth, makes it a unique twist on the Cinderella story, a theme that draws me time and again.

There’s something alluring about a woman coming out of her cocoon to transform into a butterfly. And yet, it’s always a surface transformation, for we know that the heroine is a beautiful person inside, it’s just that situation or circumstance doesn’t always allow her beauty to be obvious. But we root for Cinderella, who is always a good person inside, instead of her stepsisters, who despite their advantages, are truly wicked.

But…must a woman transform herself to find a man to love her? Will changing your outward appearance have any effect on what’s truly inside of you? Do we place too much importance on outward appearances, and not enough on an individual’s character?

And that is the inspiration for my story, and the title, My Unfair Lady.

I wanted to explore all those questions in My Unfair Lady. My heroine, Summer Wine Lee, is truly brash, a Wild West heiress who has had to be tough in order to survive growing up in a mining town. Her reasons for wanting to be remade into a lady are at first easy to understand. She’s fallen in love with an American who is related to Lady Astor, the grand dame of the New York set. Only in London—where Summer can be presented to the Queen—can she acquire the polish of a lady and make herself acceptable to her fiancé’s family. But she learns that perhaps the reasons for wanting such a transformation lies deeper than surface appearance.

Summer managed to raise even more questions. Can anyone love you, without loving yourself first? And can someone really love you when they want you to change? Should you try and change yourself, when you’re doing it for someone else, and not yourself? It was a joy for me to watch my heroine struggle for those answers for herself.

My hero is a duke, the cream of London society, who, like most of the large landowners in the late Victorian era, is practically penniless. He has supported himself by becoming feared among the social set for his merciless wit and his friendship with Prince Albert Edward. And truly, like so many of the social set, he’s bored out of his mind. My heroine is like a breath of fresh air to him, and unfortunately, or so he thinks, he starts to fall in love with her just the way she is. But he has a long struggle ahead of him to convince the heroine to trust her own heart. And in order to win her, he will be forced to break down all the barriers he’s so carefully erected to protect himself from the world. Although he has all of the beauty on the outside, what truly lies inside of him will be difficult to find.

Despite their struggles, one of the things that constantly draws them together is their sense of humor, and a love for stray animals. I had a grand time with all the fun scenes they created together.

As you can tell, My Unfair Lady is not a remake of Pygmalion, but loosely inspired by the classic. Are there any themes that draw you to a fresh rendering of a story? Do you find yourself drawn to books that have similar themes? I would be very interested to know, and will be checking in throughout the day to comment.

Wishing you all my very best,
Kathryne

My Unfair Lady by Kathryne Kennedy—in stores December 2009!

He created the perfect woman…
The impoverished Duke of Monchester despises the rich Americans who flock to London, seeking to buy their way into the ranks of the British peerage. So when railroad heiress Summer Wine Lee offers him a king’s ransom if he’ll teach her to become a proper lady, he’s prepared to rebuff her. But when he meets the petite beauty with the knife in her boot, it’s not her fortune he finds impossible to resist…

For the arms of another man
Frontier-bred Summer Wine Lee has no interest in winning over London society—it’s the New York bluebloods and her future mother-in-law she’s determined to impress. She knows the cost of smoothing her rough-and-tumble frontier edges will be high. But she never imagined it might cost her heart…

About the Author
Kathryne Kennedy is the author of the Relics of Merlin series, acclaimed for her world-building and best known for her historical paranormal romances. She has also written a fantasy romance and this Victorian historical romance. She has also published nearly a dozen short stories in the SFF/Romance genre, receiving Honorable Mention twice in the “Writers of the Future” contest. She has traveled a great deal and has lived in Guam, Okinawa, and several states in the U.S. She is a business owner and currently lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons. For more information, please visit http://www.kathrynekennedy.com/

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Giveaway:
Thanks to Sourcebooks I have a copy of My Unfair Lady to giveaway. To enter leave a comment along with your email address. The winner will be announced on December 16th. Good Luck!!