Sea side stories — Kandy Shepherd

There’s a stretch of the New South Wales (Australia) coastline, about 250 km south of Sydney, that is special to me. Not just because it’s a beautiful place with glorious beaches, expanses of natural bushland and quaint small towns, but also because it’s the inspiration for my fictional town of Dolphin Bay and its surrounds.

Ulladulla Harbour on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia

 Dolphin Bay was the setting for my first three books for Harlequin Romance and they have recently been published as a Dolphin Bay collection entitled Heart of the Bay. It was exciting to see my three linked but self-contained stories put together in one big “beach read”. And quite the coincidence that the cover model looks rather like my daughter!

I just returned from a short visit to the area, and realised I hadn’t actually been there since my first Dolphin Bay book The Summer They Never Forgot was published. It felt kind of surreal to see again areas which had been my inspiration, that I had then twisted and turned and embellished to become fictional places for my stories. The settings in my head had become more real that the places that inspired them!

The beach at Mollymook, again on the New South Wales South Coast

 The imaginary settings were top of mind because my May release for Harlequin Romance, Conveniently Wed to the Greek, starts off in Dolphin Bay. It tells the story of food blogger Dell Hudson, one of the supporting characters in the third Dolphin Bay book, A Diamond in Her Stocking. I’d really liked Dell and it was great fun to get reacquainted and to give her own story and—gorgeous man of course!

While my new story opens in Dolphin Bay, by Chapter Five it has moved to Greece, when Dell accepts a job with her former adversary, the hotelier Alex Mikhalis. Again I was heavily inspired by real-life locations for this story, in particular the beautiful islands of the Ionian Sea in northern Greece.

The beautiful islands of the Ionian sea in Greece: wonderful inspiration!

I visited there for the first time in 2015, loved it, and immediately knew I wanted to set a book there. I actually wrote the final chapters of the book while on vacation (writers never really rest!) in Greece last year.

Inspiration for settings for Conveniently Wed to the Greek

 Here’s the blurb for Conveniently Wed to the Greek:

A marriage for the sake of her baby...

When luxury hotelier Alex Mikhalis encounters the blogger who once nearly destroyed his reputation, he wants to get even. Only Adele Hudson isn’t exactly as he remembers. She’s pregnant and alone, and he can’t stop his protective instincts kicking in!

After a difficult breakup, Adele is very wary of all relationships. She has no choice but to accept the Greek tycoon’s offer of a job, despite their complicated past. But his next suggestion is much more intimate: becoming his convenient wife!

Conveniently Wed to the Greek will be published by Harlequin Romance in May 2017.

Like Dolphin Bay, my Greek island setting takes me again to the sea, a place I like to visit in real life as well as in fiction. Do you have a favorite place, country, town for a novel? Or one you don’t care for so much? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment for a chance to win a paperback copy of Conveniently Wed to the Greek.

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Tracy Solheim: A New Year and New Beginnings

It’s here:  2015.  The New Year.  And new year brings with it new dreams, goals and resolutions.  Stroll through one of the big box stores and you’ll find the holiday decorations and treats have been replaced by plastic storage tubs and bulk containers of cleaning supplies as if we need to wash away everything belonging to 2014.  A change in the calendar year means it’s time to get organized, get fit, and break those bad habits.  Store shelves are lined with vitamins and diet drinks to help facilitate the “new” you.  January has become synonymous with a blank canvass on which you can reinvent yourself.

In my upcoming book, BACK To BEFORE (Jan. 6^th from Berkley), Ginger Walsh is constantly reinventing herself.  She’s landed in the small coastal town of Chances Inlet where she’s working as a makeup artist on a home restoration show produced by her best friend.  The former ballerina-turned-soap-opera-troublemaker isn’t hoping for a new beginning, but rather a second chance.  The show’s star, architect (and Cosmo’s Bachelor of the Month) Gavin McAlister isn’t interested in reinventing himself so much as he wants to reclaim the life he had before he was forced to return home to the small town he thought he’d escaped. 

New Year’s resolutions are a lot like second chances.  There’s something energizing about pulling out that new, unblemished calendar and loading it up with all the future events, goals and, yes, dreams.  Resolutions are just that:  dreams.  It’s up to us whether or not we get the first—or second—chance to achieve them.  Hey, we all have a few do-overs from our past and what better time to try again then at the beginning of a new year, right?  Just add them to the list of resolutions.

I’m not a big proponent of publically declaring my resolutions.  Mostly because I like to let the characters on my pages do the dreaming while I keep my own goals private.  But each year, my husband and I have the “Solheim Summit” where we both write out our annual goals on a piece of yellow legal paper.  This list can include things that need to be accomplished in our home—clean out the garage; or financially—put more money into retirement; to getting fit.  Admit it, we all have that one on our list! 

A few years ago I decided to add a very personal dream to our list of goals/resolutions:  To write a book.  I can tell you checking that item off the list the following year was one of my biggest accomplishments.  But then I got greedy and I declared on that yellow paper that I was going to get that book traditionally published before I was fifty.  Needless to say, I didn’t get to cross that dream off the following December—but I did twelve months later!  This week as my husband and I plot out our 2015, my seventh book in eighteen months will be released.  My resolution is to try to enjoy the process more.  To live the dream I worked so hard for. 

And if that doesn’t work, February is around the corner with lots of sweet stuff to wash down my defeat!

How about you?  Is there a dream among your list of New Year’s resolutions?  Maybe a second chance or a do-over you’d like?  Let me know.  I’ve got a signed copy of Back To Before up for grabs.

Chances Inlet, North Carolina, has an infamous power for second chances. But its charms are lost on the town’s favorite son—until she comes along…

When his father’s sudden death puts his family’s construction business in serious debt, architect Gavin McAlister is forced to put his dream career in New York on hold. Making matters worse, his fiancée calls it quits. Desperate to return to his big-city life, he discovers an opportunity to save his family, one that has him reluctantly starring in a home restoration TV show.

Former soap star Ginger Walsh hopes this job as a TV makeup artist will lead to better things. So far it’s only brought her to a hamlet full of people who don’t like her—except Gavin. After a wild night out leads to Ginger waking up in Gavin’s loft—and the rest of town talking—the two of them soon wonder if getting back to before is what they want. Because being in each other’s arms certainly feels like what they need.

Buy it here:

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE | GOOGLE | iTUNES

Where to find Tracy:

www.Tracysolhem.com

Facebook: Tracy Solheim Books

Twitter: TracyKSolheim

After years of writing reports and testimony for Congress, Tracy Solheim decided to put her fiction writing talents to better use.  Tracy is the international bestselling author of the Out of Bounds series for Berkley and southern novellas for Tule Publishing.  She lives in the heart of SEC country, also known as the suburbs of Atlanta, with her husband and their two works-in-progress.   When she’s not at the barn with her daughter or working out with friends (i.e. lifting heavy bottles of wine), she’s writing.  Except for when she’s reading, but according to her, that’s just necessary research.  

***Tracy's winner is Melissa McEntrye.!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing address.***

Come visit Dolphin Bay! - Kandy Shepherd

One thing I really love about being an author is creating settings for my books. The most fun are settings that spring from my imagination but are heavily influenced by real life places I have visited.

The beautiful south coast New South Wales, Australia, is the setting for The Summer They Never Forgot

 For my fictional small coastal town of Dolphin Bay, the setting of my February 04 release, The Summer They Never Forgot, I was influenced by the beautiful south coast of New South Wales, Australia, about four hours south of Sydney.

I wish I was there right now!

 I have spent many happy vacations there and plundered memories of quaint towns, pristine beaches and unspoiled bushland to create Dolphin Bay. One early review of the book says the setting “is described so beautifully, readers will almost feel the sand between their toes”.

The town of Penguin has penguins everywhere, my fictional Dolphin Bay has dolphins

 The people of my fictional Dolphin Bay celebrate the dolphins that come to frolic in their waters in images and representations of dolphins all over town, from decals to trash cans.

On a recent visit to Penguin the penguins were dressed for Christmas!

 Here, I was influenced by the delightful small, beachside town of Penguin in the southern Australian island state of Tasmania. There are penguins everywhere in Penguin! I personally love dolphins so did for my Dolphin Bay what the good folk of Penguin do for their town.

I loved the dolphin outdoor shower at the Blue Dolphin Inn

 When eighteen months ago I stayed at the wonderful Blue Dolphin Inn in Cambria, California, and saw how cleverly they used dolphins in their décor, I knew I was on the right track!

More beautiful  dolphins at the Blue Dolphin Inn

 Of course in The Summer They Never Forgot the dolphins aren’t what have stayed in my heroine Sandy Adam’s memories of Dolphin Bay—her thoughts center around handsome surfer Ben Morgan, the first love she’d never been able to forget. When Sandy and Ben are reunited after twelve years will they get a second chance at a forever love?

The Summer They Never Forgot, will be released on February 04, 2014 in the US, the UK and Australia. (Yes, I'm counting the days!)

Do you have a special vacation place that lingers in your memory?  Anything quirky about a place that you particularly like? Please leave a comment—I’d love to hear about it!

I have two signed copies of The Summer They Never Forgot to give away. Please include your email address in your comment if you want to be included in the draw.

"Will you please unpack the books and give me the box," my kitty Ivy seems to say.

 Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.

Kandy’s contemporary women's fiction e-book, Reinventing Rose, is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and other e-book retailers. 

Her romances include the Amazon bestseller The Castaway Bride, Something About Joe, and the award-winners Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

New cover excitement - Kandy Shepherd

Great excitement this month when I saw the cover of my first book for Harlequin Romance, The Summer They Never Forgot , to be published on February 4, 2014.

That first view of a cover can be a tense moment for an author. How did the cover designer interpret my characters? Did they get my setting right? How does the title look on the page?

I’m pleased to report the Harlequin designers got everything right! The water setting, the dock where some pivotal scenes are played out, the carefree summer atmosphere. Most important, the heroine and hero, Sandy and Ben, fit my mental image of them. “He’s hot!” was my daughter’s reaction to Ben—you can’t get much better than that.

Oh, and I’m a big sucker for pink on covers and I love the pink on the Harlequin Romance covers.

The Summer They Never Forgot is a reunion story set in my made-up town of Dolphin Bay on the beautiful south coast of New South Wales in Australia. It’s a place where I’ve spent many happy vacations and is dear to my heart. 

I love the unspoiled beaches on the New South Wales south coast where The Summer They Never Forgot is set

The book is a deeply romantic, emotional story of second-chance love—I so enjoyed writing Sandy and Ben’s story. I hope you do, too, when you get a chance to read it.

Here’s the cover blurb:

It started with a summer kiss… 

Sandy Adams is on her way to an interview, but when she sees a signpost for Dolphin Bay she decides to take a detour down memory lane…. 

Ben Morgan has had his share of heartache. But when a ghost from his youth catches his eye memories of their last summer together come flooding back. 

Everything has changed in the past twelve years, and still they're right back where they started, facing a second chance they deserve…together.

Now I'm looking forward to the excitement of actually having the book in my hands!

Do you enjoy a reunion romance? Is there someone in your past you’d love the chance to reconnect with? Has social media brought an old flame back into your life?

Please leave a comment—I’d love to hear about it!

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.

Watch out for her The Summer They Never Forgot, her first release from Harlequin Romance in on February 04, 2014 in both the US and the UK.

Her new contemporary women's fiction e-book, Reinventing Rose, is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and other e-book retailers. 

Kandy’s romances include the Amazon bestseller The Castaway Bride, Something About Joe, and the award-winners Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com