Melanie Milburne: Outback Heroes

One of the biggest thrills of being a Harlequin Mills and Boon author is having one of your books come out in a collecting with other authors. It's even more thrilling when those other authors are ones you know personally and count as friends. Fiona Lowe and Amy Andrews are out with me in the outback this time with our Outback Heroes collection called Australian Bachelors.

I love the Australian outback. It's so rugged and the colours so rich and unusual. The red ochre of the rocks and the shimmering of the heat on the vast landscape is something I think of again and again here in my green English countryside-like state of Tasmania.

One of my favourite holidays was to the Northern Territory a few years ago. We went to Darwin and then Uluru and Alice Springs and Kings Canyon. We also went out into the desert for dinner under the stars where an astronomer showed us the constellations in the brilliant night sky.

Another highlight was when I went to the Darwin Show. It had such a wonderful old world feel about it. And all those gorgeous men in moleskins! I had to fan my face many times. It was such a great trip and truly inspiring, which is why I came to write this particular book.

In Top-Notch Doc, Outback Bride I have Kellie Thorne thrown out of her depth in the outback. She really is a fish out of water as she is a beach chick from birth. 

The guarded and unfriendly Matthew McNaught is not quite what she is expecting. She is all bubbles and enthusiasm. He is brooding and enigmatic. Just what I love in a hero! But behind Matt's aloofness is a man who is not quite ready to let go of the past. His fiancee was tragically killed six years ago and he has not moved on from it.

One of the things I thought about as I wrote this novel was how soon is too soon to have another relationship after a partner has died? Does grief have a time limit? What do people think is the right period of time? Does the length of time say something about the relationship that has been lost?

I used to think if men remarried quickly that they must have been really unhappy before, but apparently that's not what studies have shown. It is more likely for a happily long-term married man to remarry sooner rather than later after the death of his spouse. Interesting, isn't it? What do you think is the reason? I will send a copy of Australian Bachelors to a random comment posted.

Warmest wishes,

Melanie Milburne

***Marybelle, your name was picked as the winner!  Please email me at totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your full name and mailing address so we can get the prize in the mail to you. Thanks to everyone else who commented!***

A Most Unlikely Princess - Annie West

My latest story is just out now. It's about a woman called Luisa, who grew up on a dairy farm. She knows how to milk, fix a tractor, juggle increasing debts and run a farming co-op. She's very practical - she's had to be, with the family farm having a bad run of luck with drought and now flood. But Luisa knows that her hard work will be worth it to get the farm back on track and in the black.

This day is tougher than most. The bank is talking about foreclosure and she's spent hours down at the creek, saving a cow that got trapped in deep mud. Caked in muck, she returns to the old farm house longing for a hot shower.

But this is the day her plans go awry. Instead of an empty house she finds a helicopter, guys in dark suits whispering into earpieces and one man who stands out from the crowd:
The sun silhouetted a man who was long, lean and elegant. The epitome of urbane masculinity. She could make out dark hair, a suit that probably cost more than her car and tractor put together, plus a formidable pair of shoulders.
He looks a little like this.

Fortunately he's not from the bank. Instead he's foreign royalty, there specifically to see Luisa so she can take up her long lost inheritance as princess in his kingdom. He promises her the wealth and position she thought would never come to her since her mother was disinherited.

There's only one catch: in doing so she must also fulfil a contract signed years ago - for her to marry the prince. She'd never have to worry about money again. But is that what Luisa wants? It takes more than money to impress her. And even if she's persuaded to agree, how would a down to earth dairy farmer ever hope to transform herself into a princess?

This book was such fun from the moment I envisaged the meeting between Raul in hand stitched Italian suit and glossy shoes, with a mud-smattered and not so easily impressed Luisa. I also got to use two of my fave themes - the fish out of water and marriage of convenience.

Do you like fish out of water stories? If you had to create an unlikely princess, what background might you give her, just to make things interesting?

Annie will send a selection of signed cover flats as a prize to someone (drawn at random) who leaves a comment.

PRINCE OF SCANDAL is on sale now in the UK. You can find it at Amazon, Harlequin Mills and Boon and The Book Depository. Then in June it's released in Australia/New Zealand and finally in mid July in North America. If you want to read more about it, visit my website where you'll find an excerpt, background information and even a contest where you can win the book.