Welcome to Elizabeth Loupas

Welcome Elizabeth Loupas, author of The Red Lily Crown to Get Lost in a Story today. It’s so exciting to have you here Elizabeth!

Author Elizabeth Loupas

Book Title: The Red Lily Crown

Publisher: NAL Trade

Elizabeth Loupas was born and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. She has lived in New Mexico, New Orleans, North Carolina, Chicago, Dallas, and Austin, and now makes her home halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.

She hates housework, cold weather, and wearing shoes. She loves animals, gardens, and popcorn. Not surprisingly she lives in a state of happy barefoot chaos with her delightful and faintly bemused husband (the Broadcasting Legend™), her flower and herb gardens, her popcorn popper, and two beloved beagles.

ABOUT THE STORY

April, 1574, Florence, Italy. Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici lies dying. The city is paralyzed with dread, for the next man to wear the red lily crown will be Prince Francesco: despotic, dangerous, and obsessed with alchemy.

Chiara Nerini, the troubled daughter of an anti-Medici bookseller, sets out to save her starving family by selling her dead father’s rare alchemical equipment to the prince. Instead she is trapped in his household—imprisoned and forcibly initiated as a virgin acolyte in Francesco’s quest for power and immortality. Undaunted, she seizes her chance to pursue undreamed-of power of her own.

Witness to sensuous intrigues and brutal murder plots, Chiara seeks a safe path through the labyrinth of Medici tyranny and deception. Beside her walks the prince’s mysterious English alchemist Ruanno, her friend and teacher, driven by his own dark goals. Can Chiara trust him to keep her secrets…even to love her…or will he prove to be her most treacherous enemy of all?

LINK TO EXCERPT

WHERE TO BUY THE BOOK

AMAZON

BARNES AND NOBLE

POWELLS

INDIE BOUND 

GOOGLE 

AND NOW, ELIZABETH ANSWERS A FEW FUN QUESTIONS

LIZ: How often do you get lost in a story?

ELIZABETH: All the time! Paper book, Kindle, my own manuscripts... start me reading and I’m pretty much gone. My husband knows to approach me carefully when I’m reading!

LIZ: What’s the first book you remember reading? 

ELIZABETH: : I think it may have been The Road in Storyland, a wonderful old collection of fairy stories and folk tales edited by Watty Piper. My mother used to laugh about reading to us from that book at bedtime, and how we would follow along and express outrage if she skipped over any parts. Gorgeous art-deco-style illustrations. I still have the book, although it’s tattered and worn and the pages are ripple-y from surviving a flooded basement.

LIZ: What’s your favorite “love” word?

ELIZABETH: “Sweetheart,” I think, although spoken as if it’s two words—sweet heart. I’m not sure why this makes me melt, but it never fails.

LIZ: Name three things that are, at this moment, in your heroine’s purse, satchel, or amulet bag.

ELIZABETH: A moonstone from the kingdom of Ruhuna, beyond the Silk Road. A packet of a red powder called sonnodolce. A piece of stone from the Via Romana, outside Florence. Oh, and a few dog biscuits.

LIZ: What sound or noise do you love?

ELIZABETH: Beagles baying at a rabbit. It’s the sound of pure, instinctive joy.

LIZ: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you go and specifically why?

ELIZABETH: I’d go to the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano in Tuscany, on October 17, 1587, and find out once and for all just what really happened to the Grand Duke Francesco and his wife (formerly his notorious mistress) Bianca Cappello. Alternatively, I’d go to The Wash in England on October 11, 1216, join King John’s hapless baggage train, and see exactly what happened to the Crown Jewels of England. Perhaps even recover them!

LIZ: What will always make you smile, even on a bad day?

ELIZABETH: A beagle leaning against my legs and looking up at me with those big brown beagle
eyes. I’m also a sucker for puppy and kitten videos.

LIZ: What’s your favorite movie of all time?

ELIZABETH: A tie between Gone With the Wind and El Cid. Sweeping, technicolor romance that just rips your heart out.

LIZ: Who’s your favorite villain?

ELIZABETH: Raymond Reddington, James Spader’s character on the television show The Blacklist. They’ve gone way dark with him, and he can’t really be considered anything other than a villain, but I can’t take my eyes off him.

LIZ: What is your biggest vice?

ELIZABETH: Popcorn! I love it and sometimes it’s my whole lunch or supper. However, it must be real plain white-kerneled popcorn popped from scratch in a special pan, the pan my father used to pop corn when we were children. Butter flavored oil, no additional butter, just a little salt.

LIZ: What do you hope for the future of romance publishing?

ELIZABETH: More books, please, and a continuation of the flowering into more variety. To me, romance doesn’t always have to have a happy ending... see my favorite movies above. More intense emotion, more courage and beauty, more diversity, and more wonderful success for romance writers and publishers, so there are more rich and delicious romances for readers to read.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO ASK YOUR FANS?

Yes! Do you like timeslip romances, romances with two linked storylines set in two different time periods? Why or why not? (One lucky commenter will win a special prize from Elizabeth!)

CONTACT ELIZABETH

Website: www.elizabethloupas.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethLoupasAuthor 

Twitter: @elizabethloupas

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4041697.Elizabeth_Loupas__

 MORE BOOKS BY ELIZABETH LOUPAS