Ways to Be Wicked (Mass Market Paperback)

Long's trilogy about the three orphaned daughters of a murdered government official continues in this second steamy Regency-era novel. Original.

San Francisco-based romance author Julie Anne Long has been a storyteller from almost the moment she could write: her first completed work of fiction was an illustrated (courtesy of Crayola) opus about talking apples. Her second full-length work of fiction, the Regency-set historical romance THE RUNAWAY DUKE, will be published by Warner Books in August of this year. So how does one make the leap from talking apples to historical romance? Well, as you may have guessed, Julie’s career trajectory wasn't exactly a straight one. Though it seemed straight enough at first: she was editor of her fifth grade class newspaper (Mrs. Little’s class at Glenmoor Elementary in Fremont, California, did indeed have one), of her high school paper, of her college paper. She began college as a Journalism major and ended up with a degree in Creative Writing. She won a few writing awards. She gulped down history books and romance books and literature of every stripe—Jane Austen was an early favorite, Laura Ingalls Wilder earlier still. She published a few articles. She loved writing and dreamed of being a novelist, and—well, it seemed she was heading in that direction. But writing had some stiff competition for her affections: namely, electric guitars. Not to mention the men who played electric guitars. Midway through her college career, Julie Anne Long bought a Fender Strat and then, much to the horror of several of her English professors, set out to be a rock star instead of a novelist. She managed to make a reasonable success of it for about eight years, playing guitar, writing songs and singing in bands in the San Francisco Bay Area. But when the charm (ahem) of playing to four people at midnight on a Wednesday in dark sticky clubs finally wore thin, Julie realized she could incorporate all of the best things about being in bands—drama, passion, and men with unruly hair—into novels, while at the same time indulging her love of history and research. So stuffed her guitars in the back of her closet and reached instead for a keyboard—the computer variety—and returned to her first love, writing. Which is how the THE RUNAWAY DUKE— the story of a wayward bride, a blackmailing dandy, a scheming duchess, two bumbling highwaymen, a pack of gypsies, and an Irish groom with a very big secret—was born.