Kelly Hunter: Tule Publishing Group launches Holiday imprint!

From the publishing group that gave us Montana Born Books and Southern Born Books comes a new imprint aimed at delivering a fun, smart, playful mix of women’s fiction, chick lit, and contemporary romance - perfect for beach reads and a feel-good escape by authors you've loved for years.

Holiday launched with the first ever eBook release of Jane Porter’s charming chick lit debut, The Frog Prince. Print copies are also available again for the first time in years.

Once upon a time, a lovely maiden from Fresno married the man of her dreams. After the honeymoon, she waited for the “happily ever after” part…until her Prince Charming turned into a toad.

Now Holly Bishop is about to write a new chapter in her life. She moves to San Francisco to become an event planner-only to find she is dealing with a gorgeous fairy godmother for a boss and corporate witches wicked enough to sabotage her future. Not to mention the egomaniacal frogs Holly finds lurking at the bottom of the dating pool. With no one to save her, will Holly slay the dragons herself and stand on her own for the very first time? Will the man behind the mask at her costume ball make her believe in love again? And will she risk giving up her dreams to become the heroine of her own story?

http://www.amazon.com/Frog-Prince-Jane-Porter-ebook/dp/B00J5VEQUK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1399083535&sr=1-1&keywords=the+frog+prince+jane+porter

Today we're celebrating our newest release, , Megan Crane’s gorgeously quirky time travel romance, I Love The 80s   

Jenna Jenkins was getting married to her long-term boyfriend, Adam, and she was sure her life was all coming together. Until Adam left her for a twenty-three-year-old yoga instructor. To ease the pain, Jenna threw herself into her teenage memories of the late, great Tommy Seer, killed when his car crashed off a bridge in 1987, when she was just twelve, and focusing on the man who has been - and always will be - the true love of her life, however worrying that may seem to her best friend, Aimee. 

One day, working late, or thinking about Tommy at her office after dark, a freak accident sends Jenna back to 1987. It's a few short months before Tommy will die and Jenna's job is apparently working as his assistant. But Tommy is not the guy she imagined. He's mean and rude and obnoxious. But he is still deliciously good-looking. When Tommy takes her into his confidence, she starts to see the real him beneath the image and finds herself more in love than ever. He suspects someone is trying to kill him - and she knows it won't be long before they succeed. Why is she here? Is she meant to save his life? But how can she without revealing the bizarre, unbelievable truth? 

http://www.amazon.com/Love-The-80s-Megan-Crane-ebook/dp/B00K4W5K04

Then in mid June, Holiday releases it's original romance series titled Honeymoon.   International bestselling authors Carol Marinelli, Ally Blake, Melissa McClone and Kelly Hunter get creative with what what a honeymoon is...and isn't...while sweeping you away somewhere special!

To stay updated, visit Tule’s Holiday website http://tuleholidaybooks.com/ and sign up for our newsletter.

Or find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/holidaybooks

Tell us where you'd love to go honeymooning - or where you did spend your honeymoon - for a chance to win a Tule tote bag filled with fun reads by Megan Crane, Jane Porter, Ally Blake and Kelly Hunter, a colorful insulated tumbler, a DVD copy of movie, Flirting with Forty, Kona chocolate bar, $5 Starbucks drink card, and Holiday reader goodies!

Happy reading,

Kelly Hunter

***Kelly's winner is Kathleen Higgins-Anderson!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing details and we'll get the prize to you soon!***

Magic Ingredients :: Ally Blake

I looove sitting down to start writing a new book. My desk is tidy, my pencils sharpened, the big beautiful white word file on the screen before me is blank. The possibility that magic might appear on that their page is electrifying.

As I've started my latest new book, I've been wracking my brain to figure out why the three books I have out in September, October and November in North America have had the fabulous reader and reviewer reaction they have, hoping I can do it all over agian. And I've come up with what I think can be some magic ingredients.

Humour. It can be a precarious thing. What's funny to one person might not be to another. Look at American sitcoms versus British sitcoms; whole different ball of wax. But for that I don't think it's something any writer should be afraid of. If you're enjoying the story, chances are others will too.

Naturalness. That's a word right? Well, I guess I'm kind of saying if you want it to be a word then it can be. As can any other word. Hearts can "thumpety thump", tummy's can "shezizzle" if that's what feels natural in your voice. I'm all for correct grammar, but sometimes it's not as important as getting across a story with fun, and pace, and uniqueness. There is something warm and inviting about reading a book that feels like it has been spoken onto the page.

Secondary characters. In a short series romance novels secondary character can all too often take away from the central romance, either by taking up too much time, or being cooler than the hero and heroine ;). But I just love 'em. A best friend, a sister, a crazy great aunt can tell you sooo much about a main character that can only be told by those who know and love them. Secondary characters can add fun, frivolity, texture, context, layers, pathos, and parallels.

Oh yeah, and I was pregnant with my nearly one year old while writing those books. Awash with happy hormones. Heck maybe that's the one magic ingredient that trumps all others. So guys, if you were hoping to one day write a book to be proud of you know what you have to do ;).

For more about Ally's books and writing tips check out her website, and her blog.


"HIRED: THE BOSS'S BRIDE"
Harlequin Romance, out now! UK & North America
Sweet Romance, Aus/NZ December


"A NIGHT WITH THE SOCIETY PLAYBOY"
Modern Heat, out now! UK
Harlequin Presents, North America November
Sexy Sensation, Aus/NZ December

Holding out for a hero... with Ally Blake

From the very first book I ever wrote, I have always “cast” my heroes and heroines. Keeping my eyes open for pictures of people who give me an immediate emotional reaction - whether it be happiness, joy, sadness, regret. So long as the picture conveys emotion, it's up for grabs.

Google is good for this. As are magazines. But most of my guys come from watching copious amounts of television.

Maybe it’s the cheeky smile and gravelly voice of McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy, the suave, tall dark handsome Alpha with a twist of Mr Big from Sex and the City. Whatever it is, there is something, some spark, some way about them that sends me searching the internet for that one perfect picture that represents the man I see forming slowly in the back of my mind as I get to know him in writing his story.

For my current UK release THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL, I went through a few incarnations before I settled on my Damien. At the beginning he was pretty alpha, overtly strong and powerful, a big guy.

But as the pages were filled he began to change. He became of all things funny. And kind of nice. And he had a complete aversion to all things technological that I simply could not deny. So how was I to write a strong Modern Heat type hero with those traits and get away with it?

Television, that's how.

To be more precise The West Wing and Brothers and Sisters. Two shows I love, both of which have Rob Lowe looking fine in a suit and tie, being masculine, beautiful and charming while at the same time giving the viewer glimpses into the inner sensitivity of a man in power.

Rob Lowe isn't my Damien, and neither are Sam Seaborn or Senator McAllister. But the characters he plays are cut of a similar cloth. And you know what? Boy oh boy were they a lot of fun to watch and rewatch in the writing of this book!

Ally's latest novel THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL is her third Modern Heat and is out in the UK as we speak!

Grab a copy now to find out what happens when a gorgeous, entirely too privileged for his own good Luddite in a suit meets a lively dog groomer with persistent shampoo stains on her skirt and a past filled with disappointing men. Throw in matching mobile phones and match-making friends and you'll get yourself a Modern Heat!

Read an excerpt on Ally's brand spanking new website, or better yet, go buy the thing! You can get it online now at Mills and Boon.

Whatever Gets You to 'THE END' :: by Ally Blake

I'm in the process of beginning my next Harlequin Romance and as I sat at the computer wondering what it might be about, I got to thinking, Do I have a process?

This will be my eighteenth novel. Boy oh boy does that feel odd especially since I still feel so new at this. Every book is different. Some are easy, others have made me want to watch lawn bowls on telly rather than sit down at the computer. That said I pretty much always start each book the same way: with a hero name, a heroine name and a working title. So much can spring from those three things. I mean a guy called Phil Smythe will bring on different mental images to a guy called Rocco Santiago. Am I right?

But with FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR, my current Harlequinh Romance release, I went about things a little differently.

Firstly my hubby gave me the opening scene. Now this is one for the books, literally ;). I usually don’t let him do anymore than name the pets in my books as his ideas are destructive. Here is a taste of the beginning of the book…

Through a gap in the seemingly never-ending wilderness, Hud was blinded by a pinpoint of light. He held up a hand to shield his eyes and tugged his rucksack through the heavy brush until he found himself face to face with the old pool house.

A half-smile tugged at the corners of his mouth and pressed against the backs of his tired eyes as echoes of more long forgotten recollections tickled at the corner of his mind. Dive bombing. Performing pretty darned legendary back flips off the diving board. Lying on his back in the water for hours simply watching clouds shift past the pitched glass roof, wondering if his mum and dad looked up if they would see the same clouds while trekking some thrilling spot on the other side of the world.

He levered his heavy rucksack to the ground, and left it where it lay. Claudel was fifty metres off the road, behind a ten foot brick wall, and a ten minute walk through a pine forest to the nearby township of Saffron. If anybody was lucky enough to find his shabby old khaki bag they were welcome to the raggedy clothes, and just as threadbare passport within. It wasn’t as though he’d be needing them to head through a different kind of wilderness with his trusty Nikon camera slung over one shoulder and a hunting knife slung over the other with his team of documentary filmmakers at his back any time soon.

He cricked his neck, pressed his hands into the tight small of his back and glanced upwards to find brilliant red bougainvillea creepers seemed to have swallowed half the long building, leaving the hundred odd remaining white-framed glass panels that had survived the tests of time, thick with dust and mould. He could only hazard to guess how foul the inside might be after not having been blessed by a human touch for a good ten years.

‘If memory serves correctly...’ he said out loud, the sound of his voice raspy and deep in his ears after hours of non-use. Then he made his way around the back of the building to find the door was ajar, at an odd angle, askew on rusted hinges, as though it had been yanked open.

Instinct born of years spent stepping unannounced into dark, secret places he stepped quietly - toe to heel - over a small pile of worn broken glass and inside the pool house where his feet came to a giveaway scraping halt of boot soles on tessellated French tile.

The pool house was clean. The mottled green tiles around the margins sparkled and the dozen white marble benches were spotless. Miniature palm trees in plant boxes edging the length of the room were luscious with good health. And the water in the pool shimmered dark and inviting against the black-painted concrete bottom.

A sound broke through Hud’s reverie. A soft ripple as water lapped gently against the edge of the pool. And he was hit with the sense that something was about to break the dark surface. He held his breath, squared his stance, squinted into the shadows and watched in practised silence as...

A mermaid rose from the depths.

From there everything seemed to slow; his breaths, his heartbeat, the dust floating through shards of sunlight, as the nymph waded through the water, away from him, leaving a trail of leisurely wavelets in her wake.

Water streamed over hair the colour of brandy. It ran adoringly over pale, lean, youthful arms. And as she swayed up the steps, water gripped to her willowy form as long as it could before cruel gravity claimed it back to the dark depths.

Hud felt like he ought to avert his gaze. Like he was too old, too cynical, too jaded to be allowed such a vision. But those same qualities only meant that his curiosity far outweighed his humility, and his eyes remained riveted to the back of the exquisite stranger.

And secondly I made myself a collage, sticking random bits of pieces of torn out pictures from magazines that had no meaning at the time but which I hoped might help form some sort of whole. All I knew at that time was that my hero would happen upon my heroine swimming in the pool of the abandoned house he owned. I had no hero name, no heroine name, and no story. Not even a working title, which for me is like stepping into a void with no safety net. Here’s the collage…

And you know what? This was one of the easiest, most pleasurable books I have ever written. Mmmm, you’d think a smarter woman would have picked up on that and tried to replicate the circumstances! Well, it may have taken me another handful of books to give it a go, but at least I got there in the end.

With a fresh new book in the works I spent a glorious day collaging like a pre-schooler, and getting my story idea in place before I figured who might star in the thing.

I have a working title, the heroine all sorted out which are another couple of huge steps for a romance as mine are always heroine based. If only I could find a name for my hero I'd be set!!!

I may just have my process down pat. Seventeen books down and I've only just figured it out. Wish me luck!.

Ally's current release FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR is out now in North America and the UK. Hud and Kendall were born out of pictures of gorgeous Marat Safin and delightful Rachel McAdams.

To read more about Hud and Kendall and the swimming pool, check out Ally's website or better yet buy the book!

Ally would love to know, do you have a process that has worked best for you? And it doesn't have to be writing related!

What I Never knew... by Ally Blake

I’ve written numerous books about single mums and single dads finding love. Kids are an excellent source of fun banter, of conflict, of reasons not to want to get close. But being that I was not a parent myself, writing about families such as these fell under the “write from your imagination” place inside my head.

One of these books is my current Australian release MILLIONAIRE TO THE RESCUE. Brooke is a single mum with two young kids. Her husband, a big shot motorbike racer has died leaving her with nothing. And in steps goooorgeous Danny, her husband’s best friend and agent, a guy who has been on the periphery of her life for over a decade, and the one man she was sure would never be on her side.

Brooke's kids, Beau and Lily, were wonderful foils. They served to keep Brooke an emotional island unto herself, their comfort and safety were the only reason she gave into Danny's invitation to stay in his mountain hideaway until media interest died down, and watching them interact with Danny only made her fall for him the more. Makes me wonder why I don't give every heroine a coupla kids!!!

Anyhoo, the reason I bring this up is because last month I had a baby. My first. A gorgeous little girl my hubby and I named Bridget. (Excuse the gushy mum moment but if you wann see some piccies check out my blog ;))

As was to be expected our whole lives have changed since her arrival. My time is not my own. As a mum everything I do feels in dedication of my little girl's happiness and safety. Doing revisions in five minute blocks, napping during the day any time I can, washing two loads of baby clothes a day, realising I may never get to sit down and watch a whole DVD uninterupted again are some of the new experiences I am living every day.

These are the kinds of precious reality bites that someone who hasn't been there can't know. Can't even imagine. These are the insights that give a writer scope and colour and light and nuance when they "write what they know".

I wonder even as time goes on and I expiernece new changes to my life each and every day if I will even remember half of the weird and wonderful realities of being a mum with a newborn. And I wonder too how I will next approach writing about a character with a child.

Or will life as a new mum be too...challenging to even imagine such a thing being romantic ;)?

Hmmmm......

"MILLIONAIRE TO THE RESCUE"

Sweet Romance Aus/NZ December 07

Harlequin Romance, Mills and Boon Romance October 2007

Available now online!!! @ eHarlequin NA & @ Mills and Boon UK

Read an excerpt here!

All in the name of research

"Write what you know!" they say. Though that doesn't much help if your plan is to write an intergalactic space western set in 4012 starring Garruvian monkey people. But if you are a romance writer, setting books in the here and now, writing for an international publisher, that ain't a half bad thing. Especially when setting a book somewhere fabulous ;).

Though every book I've ever written has its heart in my home town of Melbourne, I've set portions of several in such fabulous places all over the world. So naturally that meant I had to see said places first hand right? Trips to

Italy, London, Paris, New York... Okay so that was one massive trip I took a couple of years back before hubby and I sunk every cent into buying our first home. *Gulp!* But being a writer, such trips paid off for me, literally with each of these places making a huge mark on a book I have since written.

My latest novel, Billionaire On Her Doorstep (Harlequin Romance) came about after a trip I took to Sorrento located at the very bottom tip of Victoria, Australia, about an hour from where I live. Hubby and I set off on a cheap holiday (remember new house mentioned earlier) and as soon as we drove into the beachside town, I knew a book was about to be born.

The local flavour of the place was so overwhelming it was location heaven!! My Maggie could live her hermit lifestyle in a crumbling mansion atop the imposing ragged cliffs. My city boy turned beachcomber Tom could fish for calamari off the pier at sunset and own himself one of the amazing secluded multi-coloured beach huts littering the shrubs along the coastline.

And without having been there I never would have known about the distinct beige and blue colours that seem to permeate the area, I wouldn't have known how the ragged old pier felt beneath my bare feet, the exact taste and texture of meals they served at the local pub, or how the main street shops give the town a cosy village feel. And there's nothing I like better as a reader than feeling as immersed in the place as I am in the characters and the story. I hope I was able to do some of the same.

That said, I'm pretty sure I've never met a billionaire in real life, but who ever said a good dollop of pure fantasy wasn't a good thing ;) ?

BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP is a Harlequin Romance release hits bookshelves in North America this week! And Australia and New Zealand as a Sweet Romance in July.

For excerpts and more behind the scenes details of how this book came about check out Ally's website and blog.

I'm a quiz addict, how about you?

We’ve all been there - flicking through the glossy pages of women’s magazines at the supermarket check-out, in the doctor’s waiting room, or hiding under the bedclothes with a pen and a flashlight, reading the ubiquitous sex quiz pages with headers like The Top Ten Ways to Keep Your Man.

An addict to filling out forms of any kind, I have filled out sooooo many of these quizzes over my lifetime without ever really wondering who wrote them, or what kind of education and background the creator must have had before dolling out such essential relationship advice. They could be psychologists, franticly overworked editors, or sixteen year old interns for all we know.

Or they could be like Abbey Parrish, the heroine in my latest novel, and my very first Modern Extra Sensual, GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS. Abbey doesn’t have one single clue how to get a man much less what to do with him when she ultimately does get him!

Yet somehow her advice resonates. Perhaps it's all about collective experience. Or the way we can all see in our daily stars how that kernel of advice might actually relate to our lives. A need for solidarity, to know we're not alone in feeling out of place, out of time, and on the verge of never being able to find someone to love.

Next time I head down to the supermarket, and flick through a magazine I wonder which question will speak to me, and head me off on a tangent I was simply waiting for the right prod to head along any old how.

How about you? Have you ever read something in your stars or an advice column that was like a lightbulb moment? Do you think such random things can really change a person's course in life?

Did somebody say Christmas shopping?

It was Kate Walker was it not? She of the fantabulous Christmas prize pack? Just out there mentioning Christmas shopping like it was a good thing. * whimper whimper* Less than a month to go, and I am in the process of blithely ignoring it.

I bought a couple of faaaabulous gifts early on, ones that I know the receivers will adore, and thus I convinced myself I was on some kind of roll. I have only now realised that two gifts does not constitute a roll.

A start. It constitutes a start. But where does it end? I have a crazy mother who still fills the room under the Christmas tree to exploding point while my in-laws see Christmas as a chance for a huge lunch but don't do much in the way of gifts. So do we buy gifts in accordance with each of the different familys' traditions? Then there is the whole where do we have breakfast, and where do we have lunch, and where do we sleep dilemma that becomes a part and parcel of each holiday once you get married...

Okay, stopping for breath... One deep breath. Two. And you know what? It's okay. It's all good.

The buzz is in the air. Musak in shopping malls has changed. Everywhere you look there is the hint of tinsel. I have clothes laid out on my bed in preparation for a Christmas party tonight.

This next month is quite simply full of joy. I'll be far too busy, I'll eat too much chocolate, drink too much champagne, spend too much money, get not enough sleep and enjoy each and every second of it!

The fact that I have a book due in six days, five Pink Heart Society posts this month, as well as all the parties and chocolate and champagne is beside the point ;).

Big deep breaths...

A MOTHER FOR HIS DAUGHTER

Reviewers' choice winner for Best Tender Romance (UK) first half of 2005 @ CataRomance.com. Out now through Silhouette Romance.