Dani Collins: New Year, New Books!

I'm delighted start the year with a new book! Not In Her Wildest Dreams, released yesterday, Jan 15th!

I'm equally delighted to tell you that the wonderful Lee of Author Sound Relations, who runs this blog, was my cover artist. Didn't she knock it out of the park?

These books are very much a project of passion for me. I wrote them before I sold, back when I was struggling and facing repeated rejections and growing quite sure no one would ever read my books.

When you take twenty-five years to sell, you get pretty disheartened. But after much soul searching and fist shaking and crying in the shower, I accepted that I am a romance writer, whether my books find eyes beyond my own or not. I kept submitting because I hoped to sell, but I wrote because I had to.

I actually had an agent when I wrote these books, but they weren't picked up and we parted ways. I set the stories aside when I placed in Harlequin Presents Instant Seduction contest. By that time, I had realized that one of the reasons I hadn't sold was that I kept writing something different every time I sat down. Glamor? Check. Small town? Got it. Erotic Romance. Shh. Medieval Fantasy? Why not? I didn't know where I wanted to be.

Actually, I had always, always wanted to be with Harlequin Presents, so I focused on that and six or eight manuscripts later, this happened-->
(It should be noted that Harlequin Presents are published as Mills & Boon Modern in the UK.) The career I had been waiting for had arrived!

But I had all these manuscripts on the hard drive. Some were out on submission (The Healer) and some I'd started to look at indie publishing (Hustled To The Altar.) I no sooner had those published and I found Montana Born. Those six books filled my time between Presents for the next three years!

Paige and Sterling and L.C. and Mercedes waited quietly in the wings. Well, Paige was miffed, but she's used to being taken for granted so she just rolled her eyes. Sterling is perfection personified so he was like, "I know you're waiting for the right moment. I can wait, too." Mercedes was so busy running after her niece and nephew, she didn't have time to notice, and L.C. couldn't give a f--- about anything. Although, now that he and Mercedes have found their HEA, he's more pussycat than badass. Getting laid has a way of settling him down.

If you're a fan of my Montana Born books, you'll love these. They take place in fictional Liebe Falls. Actually, L.C. leaves after book one and winds up in Arizona, at a senior's complex, of all places, but certain things are calling him back.

They're longer books, full of quirky secondary characters, angst and drama and laughs. They're different from my Presents, but I hope you try them and enjoy the heck of them anyway!

Not In Her Wildest Dreams is available now on all platforms:

Amazon Universal | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay | Smashwords

Only In His Sweetest Dreams releases Feb 1:

Amazon Universal | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay | Smashwords

Dani Collins is the USA Today Bestselling author of thirty romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon, Tule's Montana Born, and herself. She lives in rural BC, Canada with her high school sweetheart. 

Some things never change - Kandy Shepherd

“Give me the child until he is seven and I'll give you the man” is a famous quote about how childhood experiences affect the adults we become.*

As a romance writer, I like to delve into my characters’ fictional lives to see what happened in their early years to influence the way they behave as adults.

What aspects of my hero’s and heroine’s childhoods; their ingrained likes and dislikes; their buried hurts and memories might have some bearing on their relationships? In particular what might cause my fictional heroes and heroines not to commit to the perfect partner I have created for them? Well, not to commit until near the end of the novel, that is! By that time, there can be no more barriers to stop them getting their wonderful happy-ever-after ending together…

My recent release from Harlequin The Summer They Never Forgot is a story of first love and second chances and features a hero and heroine who first met as teenagers. Twelve years later they meet again—are the aspects of their character that made them fall in love still the same?

Recently, while celebrating a significant birthday, I trawled through family photos to find images that represented milestone times in my life for a party slide-show. Here’s a few that made me smile—those early interests certainly lived on!

Copying my mother or an early obsession?

 I think I was about eighteen months when the photo above was taken. It was the start of a life-long obsession with my weight. Hopping on the scales is still a regular occurrence. (Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to stay a healthy weight! ) Sadly, these days the numbers on the now digital scales are less than edifying...

Cats have been a life-long love

 In this next photo I'm about seven years old. These two kittens, Lucky (left) and Big Boy were born under my bed, their mother a stray who had wandered into our suburban garden. Big Boy went to a home nearby where we could visit him, but Lucky stayed with us until I was eighteen. I was heartbroken to leave him when I left home to go to university and I think he must have been too as he died not long after. That precious feline was the first of a number of beloved cats in my life.

Ivy (left) and Alfie, the most recent additions to my kitty family

What about you? How different are you now to when you were a child? Any particular incidents you might remember? Have any of your interests carried through to adulthood?

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

I have one signed copy 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.

The Summer They Never Forgot is Kandy’s first release from Harlequin Romance in the US, the UK and Australia. Watch out for The Tycoon and the Wedding Planner in July 14.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

*Attributed by the Jesuits to St Francis Xavier