Heather Hiestand is here today to talk about her current release, Marquess of Cake. She introduces herself and interviews herself! So I can just sit back and relax with my cup of coffee….

Hi, I’m Heather Hiestand. I’m 43 and live in south Washington State with my husband and four-year-old son. Both of them keep me on my toes. Technically I’m a full-time writer, which means I mostly get to work when my son is at preschool. I first sold in 2004, a mystery short story, then sold my first novel in 2006. Marquess of Cake is my 9^th novel (I think). I’ve written many novellas and shorts too, under two names, Heather Hiestand and Anh Leod.

After writing quite a few romances, where was I going to find another dreamy hero inspiration?

It wasn’t the first time I dreamed up a hero. Michael Shield came to me while I slumbered. The Marquess of Cake’s setting may have come from overdosing on The Food Network’s cake competition shows, but my twenty-eight year old, blue-eyed, brown hair with sun-kissed highlights hero came from this dream. Which might have involved Jake Gyllenhaal. But I’m not saying for sure. Certainly my cover artist seems to have been channeling Channing Tatum, which is fine. Either way…

My dream was actually set at my old airline job, in a location I stopped working at more than a decade ago. But the man in question was an austere type that everyone looked up to. He was also intensely charismatic. Too good to be true, I thought when I woke up. So I gave him a personal challenge, one which makes my heroine, feisty Alys Redcake, a career girl long before it was acceptable, the worst possible woman for him.

So that’s Alys Redcake, simply the worst woman in the world for the poor marquess?

Alys isn’t looking for romance at all. She’s twenty-six, and has been against marriage since she was fifteen. The problem is, her father’s businesses became very successful a few years ago and now he’s being knighted. Alys has two younger sisters who have been raised far more gently than she was, and they want to find well-born London gentlemen to marry. So Alys’s family has to figure out what to do with her, while she’s holding onto her cake-decorating job as hard as she can. She doesn’t fit into her family’s plans any more than she fits in to the Marquess of Hatbrook’s life. Frankly, her own life plan has been getting confused, now that she’s met the marquess. She’s changed from a woman who never fantasized about kisses to being desperate for them, from one special man. But if she becomes his mistress, that will destroy her sisters’ chances for good marriages.

The Marquess of Cake is the first in the Redcakes series from Kensington. It is a historical romance, set in 1886 London.

Here’s the blurb:

Coffee. . .tea. . .or a pastry chef sweeter than any confection. . .

Scotch trifle fit for Queen Victoria, scones with clotted cream. . .Alys Redcake knows the way to a man’s heart. Yet she is unaware that with each morsel–and flash of ankle–she is seducing the handsome marquess frequenting her father’s tea shop. Unmarried at twenty-six, Alys’s first love is the family business. But thoughts of the gentleman’s touch are driving her to distraction. . .

With his weakness for sugar, the Marquess of Hatbrook can imagine no more desirable woman than one scented with cake and spice. Mistaking Alys for a mere waitress, he has no doubt she would make a most delicious mistress. And when he finds himself in need of an heir, he plans to make her his convenient bride. Yet as they satisfy their craving for one another, business and pleasure suddenly collide. Will Hatbrook’s passion for sweets–and for Alys–be his heart’s undoing?

To read about Marquess of Cake go to http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/22722 You can purchase there or find all the links to your favorite etailer.

To learn more about Heather Hiestand and the stories she creates go to: http://www.heatherhiestand.com or http://blog.heatherhiestand.com or http://www.twitter.com/hahiestand

Heather is on a blog tour during the month of July. Check her blog to find out where she is. Many of the blog spots have prizes!