FAVORITES - MARGARET TANNER

FAVORITE PLACE FOR AN AUSSIE ON HOLIDAY

 What can I say?  All the razzle dazzle, flashing lights and excitement, we loved it.

We stayed in the older part of Las Vegas at a casino called the Four Queens in Fremont Street. Unbeknown to us there is what they call the Fremont Experience every night. A domed roof that was several hundred yards long was the venue for an incredibly colourful laser show. There was music, bands, performers and people walking around dressed as Elvis Presley, Batman, Superman, Mary Poppins, Dracula and heaps of other well known characters. Not forgetting the show girls, decked out in their skimpy costumes, fans and feathers. It was amazing, bus loads of tourist came down every night to see the display, but we were right in the thick of it, standing at our hotel door.

 

Many of the casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard - The Strip, have themes. We visited Paris Las Vegas which was very French with a giant Eiffel Tower as the main feature. You could actually take a ride right to the top, but for us unfortunately, it was too windy, so we missed out. Someone told us that the Eiffel tower here was exactly 1/3 the size of the Eiffel Tower in France, but it was still a huge structure. While we were there I bought the most decadent French pastry I have ever eaten. It was to die for.

New York New York, was another interesting casino, Circus Circus was actually like being at the circus, we were only there for a short time, but watched a world class juggling act. Hubby won $100 on the poker machines so he was happy. I wanted to stay and keep trying our luck there because he was on a winning streak, but he grabbed his money and ran. Another very interesting themed casino was Treasure Island, and the name truly said it all. It really did look like an island from one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s books, pirate ship and all.

We went through the Bellagio, luxury personified. Unfortunately, this poor Aussie author didn’t have enough pennies in the piggy bank to be able to afford to stay there.

Did I mention the shopping? Wow. So cheap. We had to buy an extra suitcase to bring home all the goodies that we bought.

All in all we had a wonderful time. The only downside was the trip home, talk about the flight from hell. We were diverted to Sydney because the plane was running low on fuel, then after sitting on the tarmac for an hour, a passenger became ill and had to be rushed off in an ambulance, then security stepped in because the passenger’s luggage was on board and he no longer was.  Three hours later it was all sorted out, and we took off and headed home, but Las Vegas was and always will be one of my favorite places.

 Margaret is an award winning Australian author who writes Australian Historical Romance and Western Historical Romance.
Savage Possession published by Books We Love.

A sweeping tale of love's triumph over tragedy and treachery in frontier Australia.

A mistaken identity opens the door for Martin Mulvaney to take his revenge on the granddaughter of his mortal enemy.

An old Scottish feud, a love that should never have happened, and a series of extraordinary coincidences trap two lovers in a family vendetta that threatens to destroy their love, if not their lives.

 http://amzn.com/B008EL0FTI

 

 

Website: http://www.margarettanner.com/

 

 

WHORE HOUSES IN THE WILD WEST - MARGARET TANNER

The movie, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, was made in 1982, and featured Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. It was based on a story by Larry King and inspired by the real life Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas.

The Chicken Ranch was an illegal but tolerated Texan brothel operating from 1905 until 1973. It was located in Fayette County a couple of miles out of La Grange.
The original brothel that became the Chicken Ranch opened in 1844. It was forced to close during the civil war but later re-opened.
There have numerous books published with a brothel or bordello, as some people like to call them, as a central part of the story, particularly in Westerns. I prefer to deal with high class brothels in my stories.

In my historical novel, Fiery Possession, there is a high class brothel known as Glory’s. In my novel Savage Possession, there is also a high class brothel called the Black Stallion. Both of these establishments figure prominently in my stories. Like the old West, in frontier Australia, there was a huge single male population but very few women.

FIERY POSSESSION - A SCENE FROM GLORY'S 

They passed through the almost empty main street of town, and about half a mile further on pulled into the drive of a large house. It was a double storied place, with delicate cast iron lace work on the balcony. An impressive entrance door had a huge fan light with pictorial stained glass side panels. Surely this wasn't where Glory operated from? 
In the cobbled backyard, the man helped them down before depositing the bag on the ground.
“Thank you.”
He acknowledged this with a nod, touched his hat, and drove towards a red brick coach house.
Glory hurried over, her large breasts bulging from the low cut bodice of a bright green dress. “You’re here at last!  Come to Auntie Glory.” She scooped Mark out of Jo's arms, and left her to carry the bag inside. “I thought,” she spoke over one shoulder, “you might prefer to come in through the back entrance because it's private.”
Inside this section of the house, Jo was surprised to find it tastefully decorated. In the hallway stood a seventeenth century, long case clock with marquetry inlay and a glass 'bull’s eye' at the bottom of the trunk. Entering the sitting room, she noticed several miniatures on the walls.
“How lovely.” She tried to hide her surprise at finding such a tasteful décor.
“Surprised, are you?”  Glory might well have been a mind reader.
“It's different than what I expected.”
 “I've had a bath house built recently.” Glory sounded almost childlike in her endeavor to impress. On the back lawn, almost concealed behind tall shrubs, stood a brick building with arched windows and doorway. The central bath had water pumped through pipes from the river.
“It's the latest thing, Jo.”
Out in the daylight, the thick make up could not conceal the deep wrinkles creasing Glory's face.
“It's all very nice, but maybe a bit pretentious, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
The other woman patted her on the shoulder, laughing uproariously. “Don't quite know about pretentious, but I like it. So do the customers.”
They passed a large pond with pink water lilies floating on top. Jo averted her eyes from the centerpiece of a white marble statue of a naked woman mounted on a rearing horse.
“Whereabouts do, well, the girls, work from?” 
“Upstairs. I'll show you around inside now.”
The gaming room had mahogany tables and chairs. Another room, obviously a private bar by the numerous bottles displayed at the back of a circular counter, was upholstered in velvet. Glory did not offer to take her out to the public bar, to Jo’s relief.
In all the rooms, Jo noticed that the ceilings had white plasterwork and intricately crafted cornices. Basket-shaped chandeliers formed the lighting. No expense had been spared to cater for everyone's comfort.
The bar room consisted of a small highly polished dance floor and a large piano set on a raised platform. Frescoes of naked cherubs decorated the ceiling in this room, and one wall was crafted out of beaten copper. Classy, all right, where a local man with money might indulge himself for a few hours, or a wealthy traveler could stay for days.
Glory explained that the girls circulated round the tables, letting the men choose their drinks and a partner if they felt so inclined.

Fiery Possession and Savage Possession are both available from my publisher,

Books We Love, in various formats

http://www.bookswelove.net/tanner.php

http://www.margarettanner.com/

MAKE-OVER MARGARET TANNER STYLE

MARGARET TANNER'S MAKE-OVER

As the countdown to midnight began so we could farewell 2012 and welcome in 2013, I wondered what the New Year would bring. Wealth, a multi-book contract and mega sales came to mind. But isn’t the health and happiness of your loved ones and yourself more important? World peace, the cessation of world hunger, these are all important. Not that I am going to write about these things. Today, I want to talk of make-overs. Not the kind where you get a new hair style or update your wardrobe to something more modern and sophisticated.

My make-over is to do with manuscripts.

You know what I mean, those manuscripts hidden away in a drawer, stuffed under the couch, or packed away in a box in the shed or on a USB stick shoved in your jewellery box, never again to see the light of day. Those clumsy first novels that you poured your heart into, wept over, and then mourned their passing when you decided they couldn’t be resurrected from the dead.

Fortunately, you kept on writing, honing your skills, sending off query letters and sample chapters until finally it came: The acceptance. What a thrill that was. You contacted all your friends and family, did the happy dance, joined the loops and created your own website.

Edits came and went, then your book arrived. You held it in your hand, drooled over the fabulous cover, caressed the pristine pages, and like vintage wine you savoured the perfume of new paper. You had made it. Your perseverance had paid off. So, you wrote a couple of more books and they were accepted. You were a multi-published author now.

You attended the conferences, gave talks at the local library, revved up your internet presence, and all the while, those manuscripts, those first few stories rotted away in the shed or hid in the jewellery box, cruelly cast aside and forgotten in the excitement of being a published author. You didn’t need them, like one of the rakes in your novel, you dumped these poor souls and left them alone and unloved while you went on to the next conquest.

Fast forward a couple of years. Your publisher is screaming for another two manuscripts from you. There is a deadline, but your creativity has suddenly disappeared. You heard on the grapevine, that those authors who don’t produce the required number of books would be dumped. What can you do?    Desperately you rack your brains, stare at the unforgiving blank computer screen. Your muse has gone. Deserted you in your hour of need. BUT all is not lost. You can pull out the old manuscripts, breathe new life into them, and send them off to your publisher.

I did this with my manuscript Savage Possession. It had lain dormant on my computer for a several years. Under a different title it had made it into the semi-finals of the Amazon Break Through Novel Award and for reasons I don’t recall, I relegated it to the bowels of my computer and virtually forgot about it, until my publisher, anxious to fill in an unexpected gap in their publishing schedule, asked me if I had anything suitable.  I rescued my manuscript from the deepest, darkest depths of my computer, gave it a make-over and sent if off, all within a month.

SAVAGE POSSESSION

Raw sexual emotion, revenge and redemption. If you want a sugar-coated romance, Savage Possession is not for you. In colonial Australia it took hard men like Martin Mulvaney to tame a harsh land.

A sweeping tale of love's triumph over tragedy and treachery in frontier Australia.

A mistaken identity opens the door for Martin Mulvaney to take his revenge on the granddaughter of his mortal enemy.

An old Scottish feud, a love that should never have happened, and a series of extraordinary coincidences traps two lovers in a family vendetta that threatens to destroy their love, if not their lives.

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008EL0FTI

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Savage-Possession-ebook/dp/B008EL0FTI/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351309491&sr=1-4