Brynnde by M Pepper Langlinais - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host M Pepper Langlinais and her new book, “Brynnde”!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post – except the Available at Amazon picture.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!  Also, come back daily to interact with M Pepper and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!

Brynnde

by M Pepper Langlinais

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GENRE: Regency Romance

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BLURB:

Brynnde Archambault seems able to find matches for everyone but herself. With the help of the handsome and witty Viscount Burbridge, she manages to get his sisters, her brother, and a family friend paired off. But if she doesn't find a match for herself soon, she may be stuck with dull Mr. Dallweather. Can she find a suitor--or has the right match been staring her in the face all along?

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EXCERPT TWO:

After supper Brynnde had a break in the stream of dance partners, and she took advantage of it by stepping outside for some air. The spring night was cool and slightly damp; it smelled of grass and dark earth. Brynnde inhaled it deeply and wished once again she could go for a walk, alone and away from the pressing heat of the party.

       

She was checking her dance card to see if perhaps she had enough time for a short stroll in the garden when Mr. Dallweather appeared. “Miss Archambault,” he said, taking her hand rather abruptly, and Brynnde only just managed to keep from snatching it back. She didn’t want to hurt the poor old gentleman’s feelings after all.

“Is it time for our dance?” she asked, unable now to check her card.

“I’m hoping we have a lifetime of dances ahead of us,” said Mr. Dallweather. “Miss Archambault—”

“There you are!” a voice sounded from behind the columns at the far end of the house. Brynnde turned just in time to see Garrick Sommerford step out of the shadows. “Miss Archambault, I believe this is our dance.”

Bewildered, Brynnde started to say it was not, that he’d asked for the waltz, but Garrick went on, “But you do look fatigued. Let’s get you inside, out of the chill, and put some punch in you, shall we? Dallweather,” he added with a nod at the older man. Mr. Dallweather gave a stiff nod in return.

“That wasn’t very nice of you,” said Brynnde as Garrick ushered her inside. “Stealing Mr. Dallweather’s dance. I thought you wanted the waltz.”

“I did and I do,” said Garrick amiably. “I also wanted to save you both the embarrassment of him declaring himself to you.”

Brynnde gasped audibly. “That’s ridiculous!”

“That he planned to propose? Or that I wanted to stop him?”

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GUEST POST:

What’s In a Name?

The Pros and Cons of Writing Under a Gender-Neutral Name

I wasn’t always M Pepper Langlinais.

In fact, sometimes I’m still not M Pepper Langlinais.

My actual name is Amanda Pepper. Go ahead, Google it. I’ll wait. … … Find it? Find me? Of course you didn’t. Instead you found the Gillian Roberts books. When I worked in publishing, people were constantly reminding me of those books.

That, in short, is the reason I write under another name. I didn’t want to compete with a popular book series.

The M stands for “Manda” or “Mandy” or even my college nickname, which was “Methos.” You’ll notice I don’t use a period after the M (except at the end of a sentence). This is a personal preference. I don’t like to feel like the M is separated from the rest of the name.

Pepper is my married name. I once worked with a guy who called me “Pepper” all the time like we were on some kind of sports team. That guy was obnoxious. Don’t call me “Pepper” and for God’s sake don’t think you’re the first person to point out that I drink Dr Pepper (which also doesn’t use a period). Or the first person to suggest I become a doctor so people can call me that. Or the first person to sing the old Dr Pepper jingle about being a Pepper. I get all of that. A lot.

Langlinais is a family name rooted in my French Creole heritage. I’ll admit I hesitated over using it for my writing because it’s difficult to spell, and its pronunciation is not immediately obvious. (For the record, it’s long-lih-nay.) The reason I didn’t make my website URL my name is because I wasn’t convinced people would be able to spell it correctly, so I went with PepperWords instead. I may yet change that, though. Once I get through all my business cards…

So that’s the history of my chosen name, but one may ask—and some have asked—why I write under an initial rather than make my gender instantly clear. Well, there are a few reasons. The first has nothing to do with gender so much as length. Manda Pepper Langlinais is really long and I felt it might crowd my book covers. As it is, M Pepper Langlinais takes up a lot of space.

But yes, gender is another consideration. I got my start writing Sherlock Holmes stories, and while there is certainly a wealth of female authors who write in that genre—mystery, historical mystery, Victorian mystery, and Sherlock Holmes specifically—I still had a sense of not being taken seriously when using a womanly name. That may be a personal perception, but I wasn’t convinced as many [male] readers would pick up my stories if they had unmistakably been authored by a woman. Considering my Sherlock Holmes stories continue to be my best-selling works, I can’t say I regret shortening my first name to a mere initial, whether that contributes to their popularity or not.

Then again, I do have to wonder whether “Pepper” is very feminine? Taken as a name on its own, it might seem that way, but there is an ambiguity too—some people assume it is part of my last name, despite the lack of a hyphen. I’ll say here and now that, no, I should be shelved under “L” not “P.”

The question remains: Does “M Pepper Langlinais” feel completely gender neutral? If you had to guess, would you say this person was male or female? M. Night Shyamalan definitely sounds like a guy, but why? Is it the noun “Night” that sounds masculine? Why is that, when in so many poems we think of the night as womanly?

I do like the little bit of mystery that comes with using an initial, too. Makes sense when you consider I started out writing mysteries. And I like “M” because that’s James Bond’s boss.

Speaking of Bond, the pen name was also handy when my spy novel got published. There’s another genre that is largely considered the territory of men. Men write them and men read them, or so the conventional wisdom goes.

I’ve also found using a somewhat gender-neutral name helpful in screenwriting. Gender biases in publishing are as nothing to those in the film industry. Getting a script looked at is difficult under any circumstances, and having a woman’s name sets a preconceived notion in the script reader. Action film written by a woman? They’ve decided before they even look at the first page that it can’t be taken seriously. At the very least, they’ll need one of the boys to do a rewrite.

These are generalizations, of course. But these generalizations stem from wide experiences, not only mine but many others’. Having a gender-neutral pen name hedges my bets each way. I can write in any genre, and since I write in a lot of genres, it’s handy not to have to change my name every time. I didn’t want to have to keep track of a bunch of different personas. I wanted to be me, and I don’t think using an initial rather than a full name has made me any less, er, me.

Anyway, it makes me super easy to shop for. People give me necklaces, pillows, tea mugs with “M” on them. And so far I haven’t tired of it. “M” has become my brand in a way, my identity, all wrapped up in one little 3-point Scrabble tile.

M Pepper’s Home Office

  

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AUTHOR BIO:

M Pepper Langlinais is an award-winning screenwriter, produced playwright, and published author.

M holds a Master of Arts in Writing, Literature and Publishing and a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film. She has a love of Shakespeare, having both performed and taught his work, and has also interned on Hollywood film sets. M worked for Houghton Mifflin and Pearson before deciding to devote her full time to her own writing (and occasionally parenting). She lives in Livermore, California with her family, cats, and hamster. Find out more about her and her books at http://PepperWords.com.

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CONNECT WITH M PEPPER:

M Pepper’s Adorable Kitties, Crowley and Minerva

Website:

http://PepperWords.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/mpepperlanglinais

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/sh8kspeare

IMDb:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5997882/

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/MPepperLanglinais

Goodreads Book Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34050754-brynnde

Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/M-Pepper-Langlinais/e/B008FBOSPE

M Pepper’s Hamlet Skull, Benny, and her Sherlock figure

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AMAZON BOOK BUY LINK:

http://amzn.to/2ppWraS

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

M Pepper will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.