Who is Meg Maguire? Give us the low down.
Oh, jeez… She’s a sort of medium-sized woman who lives north of Boston and writes contemporary romances. And longs to squeeze fat little birds (though not hard enough to damage them.) She’s also Cara McKenna’s slightly less filthy conjoined author-twin. Whose characters are slightly less kinky and usually slightly less crazy. But only usually.
Strangers on a train is a five-book series featuring not only yourself but Ruthie Knox, Samantha Hunter, Serena Bell and Donna Cummings. And each story is set…on a train. What inspired this idea?
The origin story has become a bit muddy, but as I understand it, certain parties in my noisy little she-perv corner of Twitter were made aware of the “Hot Guys on the Train” Tumblr, and from there, fiction glands quickly became enflamed. I’m pretty sure it’s all Ruthie’s fault. Basically I was informed, “Hey, you’re doing this!” And I said, “Okay, then. I call subway!”
We knew we wanted to feature a variety of regions and types of trains in the five stories, and to stick to a steamy-romance heat level, contemporary setting, and a 20,000-word limit. But aside from those basic parameters, we really all just ran off in our own directions and had fun.
When I think of a train romance, I think of an old movie, with the heroine tearfully waving off the hero as he chugs away. Your book is set on a subway. Was that setting a challenge as a back drop to a romance? Or is it actually a good place to get your dirty on?
Gurl, don’t you get me thinking about North and South, now… [disappears into lusty Armitage fog] [returns twenty minutes later, flushed and antsy]
Yeah, I wanted dibs the subway immediately. It’s the type of train I have the most history with, plus I thought it’d be a fun challenge, since it’s not especially sexy or romantic, at first glance. And it was also a chance to write yet another love letter to Boston. I think most Bostonians have a love/hate relationship with our busted old T. We complain about it constantly, but if someone from another city tried to put it down, we’d defend its janky honor to the death.
It’s a terrible place to get one’s dirty on, though. Because it’s already really dirty. The bad kind of dirty. Which is why, despite the orgasms I give my characters, my story is probably the tamest of the lot, sex-wise. I usually endeavor to write with a certain breed of emotional realism, and it just didn’t feel believable to me, to have these two perfect strangers get buck-naked and bone in an unheated subway station in the dead of New England January. Plus the heroine (who owns all of the book’s POV) really likes the hero. She’s in that dicey new-crush position of, “I really want this guy to ask me out, once this ordeal is all over. So I better try to retain a little sexual mystery, and save some bases for once we’ve actually hung out, above ground.”
What is your favorite thing about your heroine Caitlin?
Caitlin is refreshingly baggage- and angst-free, for one of my creations. She gets dumped at the start of the story—during a shitty office Christmas party—so she’s on the rebound, as freshly as one can be. But she’s not venomous or victimy or vengeful about it. She may be the most relatable heroine I’ve ever written.
Of any heroine I’ve penned, I’d also say Caitlin’s inner monologue / voice most closely resembles my own. I think [read: hope] she walks that fine line between lovably weird and flat-out neurotic.
Thanks so much for having me, Mandi! And thanks as well from the entire SoaT crew!
Giveaway: To enter to win ALL FIVE Strangers on a Train e-books, just leave a comment. Contest open to all through April 4.
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Series Links! Amazon l B&N l Samhain l Goodreads
Meg Maguire – Website l Twitter
Sounds like a fun series!!
I have only read Ruthie Knox but all these stories sound interesting.
Ooooh! This collection really sounds fantastic. I love passenger trains and don’t think I’ll ever get over my bitterness at Amtrak discontinuing service to my part of the country. (Which happened about 20 years ago so … yeah. I hold a grudge.)
This sounds fun. I’d love to read all of them.
Would love to read all of these, but especially Meg’s because I live in NYC and have a love/hate relationship with subways.
I love the premise of this series…thanks for the chance to win all of them!
Would love to win these–my travel romance with my husband was conducted (forgive the pun) in large part on the trains of Western Europe (thank you, Eurail pass!).
Thank you very much for this giveaway, Meg Maguire & Smexybooks! I’ve been following this blog since January but this is the first comment I’ve ever made on here (I hope to rectify that in the future). I read “The Reluctant Nude” last November and loved it!
I am looking forward to checking these out!
Wow, sounds like a interesting series… Really looking forward to reading it!
The characters sound intriguing
I am so stoked about reading these stories. I’m crossing my fingers that I get lucky and win them.
Meg/Cara – you crack me up. You are a funny, strange person. And I mean that as a sincere compliment.
I bought “Big Boy” by Ruthie Knox and would like very much like to have the others in the series!
I’ve been pumped about these stories since reading about them on Serena Bell’s blog – I love the story of how the collection came together!
Sounds great! On my tbr list!
This sounds like such a great collection! Thank you for the giveaway.
This collection of novellas sounds great (says yet another person with a love/hate relationship for subways). I’ve enjoyed Meg’s other books, but all the other authors are new to me, and that’s always makes for a fun series.
Lovelovlove Meg/Cara! Fangirl swooning over new material, because I’ve blown through all her previous work. :)
All of the stories sound great and I love the train theme, and how differently each author chose to execute it.
Thanks for the fun post and congrats to all the authors in this series! It sounds awesome :)
This is a great idea for a romance collection. I’m only familiar with Ruthie Knox, so I’m really interested in the other authors takes on the theme.
This sounds really interesting. Looking forward to reading these stories!!