Five Fun Facts – A Passion for Pleasure by Nina Rowan & Giveaway

About the Author:

Originally from California, Nina Rowan holds a PhD in Art History from McGill University, Montreal, with a specialization in 19th century French and Russian art. She began writing when she was an undergraduate at UCLA and lived a dual life as a student and a pseudonymous erotica author. She has studied Indian and Southeast Asian art and film, worked as a curatorial assistant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and traveled in India and Europe.

A librarian-at-heart, she also holds an MA in Library and Information Sciences, a course of study that renewed a deep-seated interest in folklore and fairy tales. In addition to being an eternal student, or likely because of it, Nina possesses an abiding love for research that involves dusty, old books. She also thinks popcorn should be one of the four food groups. She lives in Wisconsin with her atmospheric scientist husband and two children.

Prelude to a Kiss
A brilliant pianist and notorious rake, Sebastian Hall indulges his passion for music and women with equal aplomb. But now that his elder brother has married, his father insists he pursue a more respectable path and find a suitable wife.

Music to Her Ears
As a girl, Clara Whitmore quietly loved her piano teacher from afar. Yet her youthful crush cannot compare to the powerful desire she feels when she unexpectedly meets Sebastian again. Perhaps the man who once dominated her dreams could be the husband she has hoped for—and save her from the fate she most fears.

Love Strikes a Chord
Risking scandal, ruin, and their own reputations, Sebastian and Clara enter into a marriage of convenience. But the pair soon discovers that their undeniable attraction is anything but convenient. Swept up in a crescendo of desire, Sebastian and Clara take each other to new heights of ecstasy—until secrets from the past threaten to doom the duet forever. Now Sebastian will have to change his tune—and prove his love is true.

Fun facts for A PASSION FOR PLEASURE

1. One of the automata that Clara tells Sebastian about is based on a real automaton called the Draughtsman-Writer built by the Swiss inventor Maillardet in 1800. The automaton can create four drawings and three poems, one in English and two in French.

2. The cipher machine is also based on a real invention by Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), which he called the Playfair cipher after his friend Lord Playfair. In 1854, Playfair first suggested to the British Home Office and Prince Albert that they use it as a field system during the Crimean War.

3. Sebastian's intention to create piano compositions for the left hand only is based on Maurice Ravel's "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major," which Ravel composed for the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I.

4. Franz Liszt really was "Kapellmeister Extraordinaire" at Weimar in Germany when Sebastian would have been there in 1854.

5. Clara pays a visit to Mudie's Library, a successful lending and subscription library that had moved to New Oxford Street close to the British Museum in 1852.

Also by Nina:

A Heart Divided
Blessed with an uncanny gift for mathematics, the lovely Lydia Kellaway can solve the most complex puzzles. The one thing she can’t figure out? How to manage the most infuriating man she’s ever encountered.

A Passion Multiplied
Alexander Hall, Viscount Northwood, has purchased a one-of-a-kind locket from a pawnshop, unaware of the priceless sentiment it holds for Lydia. The gentlemanly thing to do would be to simply return it. But Lydia sparks a desire that has Alexander curious to see just how bold this brilliant beauty will be…

A Love Unequaled
What begins as a playful wager quickly escalates into a contest of the minds, a clash of the wills—and a battle of the sexes—as their fiery attraction grows. Even a genius like Lydia can’t account for the feelings Alexander arouses with his smile, or the fire he ignites with his touch. But when a dark family secret is suddenly thrown into the equation, it just might divide them forever.

GIVEAWAY

2 Lucky commenters are going to win a signed copy of A PASSION FOR PLEASURE!

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Ends on May 1st, 2013