Babes in the book

Do you like babies in your romance novels? For me, the reality of living with babies dictates their level of involvement in the story.

 In something very steamy, where the characters want to make spontaneous, uninterrupted (key word!) love at any opportunity, a baby character might not work as well (though, of course, such passionate love scenes could result in the creation of a baby character.) A sweet, community-based love story practically cries out for babies. And the way the hero and heroine interact with a baby in a book can reveal so much about their personalities.

In my new e-book release Something About Joe my baby character, eighteen-month-old Mitchell, is pivotal to the story. He brings hero, hot biker nanny Joe Martin, and heroine, single mom banker Allison Bradley, together—and also keeps them apart. It is her passionate love for her child that makes Allison fight her attraction to Joe, as she must make life decisions based on Mitchell’s happiness as well as her own. And Joe’s feelings on fatherhood present a stumbling block that he has to work to overcome.

I chose to make Mitchell eighteen months old as he is old enough to have a strong, vibrant personality, say enough words to communicate his feelings about Joe—but young enough to sleep through important scenes between Joe and Allison!

Something About Joe is a reissue of my first published novel Mitchell’s Nanny, and was written at a time when my daughter was still young enough for me to remember her baby behavior and write it into Mitchell. I don’t know why I wrote about a little boy with red hair—maybe a subconscious yearning for the second child I was not destined to have? Whatever, I loved creating this cute little boy and he seems very real to me!

I’ve heard people say they won’t buy a book with a child on the cover—others that will pick it up just because there’s a baby on board. I’d love to know your thoughts about babies in books—or on TV and in movies.Personally, I have a weakness for “secret baby” plots—I love the tension that the secret brings to the story.

Leave a comment to win a free download of my new e-book Something About Joe. Be sure to include your email address.


Something About Joe is available for just $0.99c at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other e-retailers.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. 

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

(Baby photos courtesy of www.stockvault.net)

That special first time

That very first time—why is it so special? Not the second time, or the third time, or the hundredth time. But that special, special first time. It’s new, it’s exciting, nothing will ever feel quite like it.  (I’m not just talking about first-time sex when, let’s be honest, the first time might not always be the most memorable time!)

However, there’s no getting away from the fact that first-time love is the standout. Who can fail to be moved by the beautiful lyrics of the Roberta Flack classic, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”?  No matter who sings that song, it turns this romance writer to the mushiest of mush!

Apart from those momentous first love moments, there are a few “first-times”  that stand out in my memory.

FIRST TIME I met my husband is a given—I thought he was heart-stoppingly attractive, but also liked him so much I knew we would have been friends under whatever circumstances we met.

FIRST TIME I saw my baby’s face after all those months of pregnancy, imagining what she might look like.

FIRST TIME I traveled around England and visited the settings of so many books I had read.

FIRST TIME I saw kittens being born—I was only eight years old but I’ll never forget the awe that overwhelmed me.

FIRST TIME payment for my writing—a check for the first short story I had published at age twenty.

But the moment an author holds a copy of her first book—for the very first time—that’s a very special kind of first-time thrill.

My first book to be published in the US was my romantic comedy Love Is a Four-Legged Word. And when the advance copies arrived from Berkley, with that beautiful cover, I danced my husband around the room.

But before that, published in Australia by a small, independent publisher, was my very first novel entitled Mitchell’s Nanny.  It was a small, green book and when I got an advance copy in my hands, I couldn't stop looking at it, and turning the pages, and smelling it and hugging it—you get the picture!

Even years after, readers let me know how much they loved that story of a stressed out single mom who falls in love with her toddler’s new nanny—a hot hunk on a Harley who roars into her heart. When a copy went for a surprising sum at a charity auction at a romance reader's convention, I began to wonder if Joe and Allison's story might reach a wider, new audience.

First thing I did when I decided to indie publish it as an e-book, was to change the title from Mitchell's Nanny (an author often doesn’t have a choice of their book title) to Something About Joe. The second was to commission a lovely cover from the mega-talented designer Kim Killion at Hot Damn Designs . The third was to update some of the details in the book to make it sit happily in 2012.

Something About Joe has just gone live at Amazon and Smashwords, for the special price of $0.99c. Other e-retailers will follow.

And you know what? This second time of seeing my first-ever book baby in electronic format is quite a thrill!

What about you? Any memorable “first times” you'd like to share? I’d love to hear about them!

Leave a comment to win a free download of my new e-book Something About Joe. Be sure to include your email address.

 Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. 

http://www.kandyshepherd.com


(Kitten photo courtesy of www.stockvault.net)