Giving Up The V - Serena Robar

My new book has a great cover. It’s fun. It’s flirty. It’s even got doodles. And the biggest compliment I get from people is how the girl on the cover isn’t anorexic looking. She looks healthy. Healthy is a great self image to project. I couldn’t agree more. Except the model on the cover of my book is supposed to represent the heroine of the book who is a ‘bigger’ teen. She’s supposed to be a size 13 and the gal on the cover is New York’s interpretation of that size. Is it still a positive body image if it’s a lie?

So I pose this question to you, dear reader. Is it worse to put a too thin model on the cover and say this is the ideal or put a healthy, normal sized girl on the cover and say she is chubby?

-Serena Robar

Giving Up The V, June 2009, Simon Pulse release

So much drama over one little letter.

www.serenarobar.com

Truth in Fiction

My husband and I saw The Taking of Pelham 123 last week. I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the fact that there were a couple spots in the movie that were highly implausible. (I had problems with the fact that the bulk of the movie took place over the course of 1 hour, yet the city of New York was remarkably well organized, responsive, and able to pull off an amazing amount of feats in that short period of time.)

Even though I found myself thinking a couple times, "Yeah, right," my enjoyment of the movie didn't waver. It was fun, it was entertaining, and that fine line of poetic license didn't get in my way. But I know it does for some people.

I have friends and relatives who are sticklers for accuracy in fiction. Put anything in a book or movie that is of questionable plausibility and they're turned off completely. Personally, I think if you insist on 100% reality maybe fiction isn't your thing. After all, the definition of fiction is "Not True". I know from experience that in order to write an entertaining story you need certain things to happen. Take an element out and you don't have a book. Imagine the movie Speed, then consider there's no way a bus could continue traveling through the city at 50 miles an hour. It's the central core of the plot. Lose it and you have no movie. Is it realistic? Of course not. But it's not being billed as a documentary. It's entertainment. We're expected to give a little on reality.

But how much? While I'm not excessively particular for reality in fiction, like most people, I have a line I draw, as well as hot buttons. I'm more willing to give on certain subjects than others. I know cops who won't watch CSI because the procedures aren't right, yet these same people watch a James Bond film without batting an eyelash. I'm sure doctors are sticky when it comes to shows like House. I know readers of Historical romance can be very particular about getting the period details right.

I think for me, I'm more a stickler about a character's behavior than I am about plot devices. The TSTL (too stupid to live) syndrome will cause me to toss a book across the room far faster than the improbable situation they're in. Especially in romance, one of my hot buttons is when thoughts of attraction are thrown in at a completely inappropriate moment. Like if a cop is standing outside a door, gun in hand, ready to storm a room where a woman being held hostage. 3..2..1 they bust the door open to find bad guy holding a gun to victim's head, and supposed smart-hero cop's first though is, "Wow, what a babe. Look at those beautiful green eyes. I wonder if she's single."

I would have gone with you through a half-dozen bungling coincidences that got the victim there in the first place, but the moment you throw the inappropriately-timed attraction in, I'm setting the book down for good.

That's my hot button. What about you? Are you a stickler for plausibility when it comes to movies or books? Can you forgive some things but not others? And if you have hot buttons, what are they?

Lori Borrill has just finished writing her 8th novel for Harlequin Blaze. Her next release, THE PERSONAL TOUCH, will be on shelves August, 2009. For more information on Lori and her books, check out her website at www.LoriBorrill.com.

Connemara - by Abby Green

Thanks Leena for inviting me to blog! I thought that I’d like to share with you all, a very special place. I live in Dublin, which is the capital city of Ireland. It’s a tiny island, especially in comparison with the UK and the US. Special as Dublin is though, it’s not the place I’m talking about.

This April, myself and the lovely Kate Walker drove from Dublin to the west of Ireland to a place called Connemara. It’s right on the west coast and stunningly beautiful. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked down there a couple of times last year and it was so nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of Dublin for a few weeks.


Anyway, we set off on our little road trip. I had decided to go to a place called Delphi Lodge for a week to, ahem, write. In fact what I needed was a break so when Kate said she’d come too, it was the perfect excuse to make it into a holiday. I will state for the record here that Kate did encourage me to write, I just seemed to find it easier to read some of her early Mills and Boon books instead. For inspiration of course.


Delphi Lodge is a very well known fishing lodge (Prince Charles stayed there!), situated in a gloriously beautiful valley, on a lake. (It’s about a ten minute drive from Leenane where ‘The Field’ was filmed).

It is quiet and peaceful. The house is run as if it’s your own home; there are no locks on the doors, dogs come and go, and the kitchen is open for you to have tea, coffee, whatever you want, when you want. There is a small library, stacked with books and comfy chairs.

In the evening everyone who is there for dinner, meets in the lounge for aperitifs. There is an ‘honesty’ bar, where you can help yourself and write down what you have in a little book – a very dangerous state of affairs for two lady romance novelists. Having said that, I’d recommend the gin and tonics.

Then at approximately eight pm, you are called into the dining room and everyone sits down to eat at the same huge table. The lodge is renowned for its menu. In the week that we were there we had dinner with: A doctor, a barrister, a writer, a twice Oscar nominated actress (!), a Hollywood producer, a luxury car mechanic whose gorgeous girlfriend was a fan of Mills and Boon (clearly a girl with great taste ;-))…and that’s just to name drop a few!

There were lots of obsessed fly fishermen too, so we now know more about fly-fishing than we ever did. I don’t know about Kate but I haven’t quite decided how to marry fly-fishing with an Alpha male just yet…!

The place is truly magical, and I’m lucky that I got to share it with a good friend and mentor. It is absolutely perfect for a writing retreat. However, we were too busy nattering and socializing and walking and getting massages to write. (There is a place called the Delphi Mountain Resort – not linked to Delphi Lodge at all, just ten minutes walk down the road where they have a spa…say no more.)

So if anyone has a yen to get away from it all and to sit and write, in a room of one’s own, in peace and tranquility, Delphi Lodge is worth thinking, and dreaming about. Perhaps one day I’ll go back and actually write…or perhaps just go back with a friend again and relish the peace. And have more gorgeous massages…and gin and tonics.

Delphi Lodge is like the best treat you could ever give yourself…so go on, don’t you deserve it?! Check it out: http://www.delphilodge.ie/

Abby
http://www.abby-green.com/


ps - I have a Harlequin Presents Extra out this June – The Spaniard’s Marriage Bargain, and in September, Mistress to the Merciless Millionaire is released as a Harlequin Presents.I have a Harlequin Presents Extra out this June – The Spaniard’s Marriage Bargain, and in September, Mistress to the Merciless Millionaire is released as a Harlequin Presents.

What Makes a Father?

Father's Day is just around the corner and as I stood in the mall yesterday, contemplating what on earth I could possibly by my husband, it occurred to me how much he's changed--as a husband and as a father-- since we first got married. Our first son was a honeymoon baby, so we were married less than a year when he put in an appearance-- and neither of us had any idea of what we were doing.

From the very beginning, my husband was an enthusiastic father-- he wanted to be involved in every aspect of our son's life and was a very exciting playmate for him once he was able to sit up and crawl and run around. But despite his interest and enthusiasm, my hubby was also an immature father. One who expected the baby to only need him when it was convenient for him (i.e. no grad school tests to study for, no job to run off to), one didn't expect a kid to cost very much and one who didn't understand just how much sacrifice comes with raising a healthy, happy child.

Now, twelve years and three children later, my husband is the best father and husband I could ask for. A great provider, an interested and involved father who is still a great playmate, he does an excellent job of balancing his own needs with those of our children. I definitely consider myself one of the lucky ones.

In my June book, From Friend to Father, my main character, Reece, also has trouble with the transformation from being a man who only needs to take care of himself, to one who must step up and be a father to-- not only his own baby-- but my heroine's twin boys from a previous marriage. Becoming a dad isn't easy for Reece-- he makes a lot of mistakes along the way. But that only makes it so much sweeter when he finally gets it right with baby Rose and the boys. And it certainly makes things interesting between him and Sarah, a natural-born nurterer who doesn't believe that Reece will ever be able to make the transformation. It was great fun proving her wrong.

So, as Father's Day approaches, what about the men in your life-- father, husband, sons, friends-- makes you grateful? And if anyone has an idea for a great Father's Day present, please let me know. I left the mall empty-handed yesterday ...

My Favorite Authors - Cara Summers

My Favorite Authors—(the ones who’ve shaped me as a writer and perhaps as a person)

I’ve always been a reader. Growing up, my favorite thing to do was to curl up with a good book. And I credit my parents with my lifelong addiction to popular fiction. My dad read to relax, and he was always willing to share from the pile of paperback mysteries and westerns he kept on the table near his bed. My mom subscribed to several magazines. My favorites were Good Housekeeping and Redbook because each month in addition to short fiction they offered a full length novel. I even had a favorite place to read—a window seat that could be screened off by a curtain. I could hide there and read to my heart’s content. Whenever I had a doctor or dentist appointment, my mom would take me to a bookstore afterward and I got to choose a new book.

If I hadn’t been such an avid reader, would I have eventually become an English teacher, a college writing teacher, and a published writer? I don’t think so.

I was recently asked in an interview to name some writers who’ve influenced me, and that started me thinking…

At the top of my list is Carolyn Keene. You may not recognize the name, but Carolyn (probably a pseudonym for several authors) wrote the Nancy Drew Mysteries. My Aunt Kathleen gave me my first one when I was seven. It took me a long time to finish it, but I did. And then I was hooked. By the time I was ten, I had read every Nancy Drew book that had been written.

And Nancy became my heroine. She was bright and independent and she drove a convertible—a coupe. (I had no idea what that was, but I wanted one.) Nancy had two best friends (George and Bess), a handsome and fairly undemanding boyfriend named Ned, and a father who was supportive and rarely interfered in her life. She had exciting adventures, she solved mysteries, and she had an ingenious way of getting herself out of scrapes! Was it any wonder I wanted to grow up to be Nancy Drew? I still carry an image of Nancy in my head. She’s tied up in a locked room, and she gets herself rescued by tap dancing S.O.S. in Morse Code on the door. Amazing!

Perhaps I owe Carolyn Keene for the fact that in every single romance I write there’s always some kind of intrigue in the subplot. And I frequently put my heroines in jeopardy. (So far none of them has ever tap danced her way out of a locked room, but…)

The next writer who has influenced me is Mary Stewart who wrote several modern gothic romances before she turned her attention to the Arthurian legend. My favorite is Nine Coaches Waiting. The book is a superbly crafted, twentieth century version of Jane Eyre, and reading it reawakened my love for the Bronte sisters and also led me to read other modern writers of gothic romance such as Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, and Daphne DuMaurier. (If you’ve never read Nine Coaches Waiting or DuMaurier’s Rebecca, I highly recommend them.)

Two years ago, my editor invited me to write a modern sexy gothic for the Blaze line and I jumped at the chance! I set it near San Diego in a Spanish hacienda with a mysterious past. All of its mistresses had met an untimely death, and two of them had jumped from the hacienda’s tower. And, of course, that tower is where my heroine finds herself in the climactic scene! I had so much fun writing that story (aptly titled Tell Me Your Secrets…) and playing around with all the gothic elements, not the least of which was creating a hero who just might be the villain.

In addition to inspiring me with her books, Mary Stewart also influenced me to start writing. In an interview she was once asked what inspired her to write her first novel. She said that one summer she simply couldn’t put it off anymore. She had to write. I wish I could say that after hearing that I sat down and wrote my first novel. But I didn’t. Still, her answer kept coming back to me until I finally stopped finding excuses to put off the compulsion I had to write. One summer I set myself the goal of writing a romance. I wrote it on yellow legal pads, and I found that I could finish about eight pages a day. Did I sell that first book? No. It wasn’t very good. (The word dreadful comes to mind). I didn’t even word process it. But I’d written it. And I stopped putting off my dream of “becoming a writer” and wrote my second book…and my third…and all the rest.

Who are my other favorite authors? The list is a long one, but I’ll mention a few more. Charles Dickens is on the list because of his ability to create characters that stick in my mind forever. (Who could forget Scrooge or Miss Havisham, the jilted bride who never changed out of her wedding dress?) Also near the top of the list is Harper Lee who wrote one wonderful book, To Kill a Mockingbird. I taught that novel to fourteen year olds for fifteen years straight, and each time I reread it, I found something new. If you haven’t read it in a while, read it again. And I’ll end the list, for now, with William Shakespeare. His romantic comedies, with their devices of disguise and the recurring theme of appearance vs. reality, have had a huge influence on my books.

In my two Blazes that are out this summer, Twin Temptation and Twin Seduction, identical twin sisters switch places and walk around in each other’s lives for three weeks. Where do you think I got that idea? Betcha Disney got the idea for The Parent Trap from old Will too. But in my books, of course, someone is trying to kill both of the twins. (Thanks to Carolyn and Mary!)

Who are the authors who have most influenced you?

Cara

http://www.carasummers.com/

The Temperature's Rising... - Christina Hollis

How does the weather make you feel? The last couple of summers in the UK have been so wet and miserable, I’ve had to escape. Not by travelling – well, no further than my computer keyboard, anyway! I turned my back on the grey skies and continuous rain by writing about hot summer sunshine and long lazy days. This month one of those summery books, The Tuscan Tycoon’s Pregnant Housekeeper goes on sale. It starts off with a flirtation in the South of France, the perfect antidote to the last two summers here. Then in July, The Ruthless Italian’s Inexperienced Wife is released as a Harlequin Presents Extra. In it, Marco whisks Cheryl off to his private tropical island for a relaxing break which turns into something a lot more intimate:

In one sinuous movement Marco slid an arm around her waist. He swept her into her apartment, off her feet- and onto his. Half a dozen steps in her new silver stilettos convinced them both Cheryl was no dancer. She stumbled and fell into him.

This is our first meeting all over again.’ He chuckled softly into her ear. Her cheeks pinkened with a rush of guilty pleasure. He supported her, and showed no signs of letting go. Despite the feeling she must be leaving prints all over Marco’s bare feet, Cheryl let him carry on. This chance to feel his arms around her one more time made her reckless, and she laughed.

‘Oh, dear. I’m sorry, Marco!’

‘Don’t be,’ He murmured. ‘I can’t expect you to be absolutely perfect in everything. After all, dancing isn’t part of your job description.’

Oh how I wish it was, Cheryl thought. It would be the perfect excuse to accept his arms around her at any time, without any consequences…

When I was writing that, it was so much more enjoyable to think about cocktails on the beach than to look out of my window at the thunderclouds!

This year seems to be getting off to a rather better start. We had a burst of warmth in April, and some more last month. The blizzards of February are a distant memory now. Looking back on the roaring logs fires, hot chocolate and brilliant starry nights is quite romantic. Perhaps I should try setting a romance in a ski lodge. Miles off the beaten track, with a handsome hero chopping logs for the fire – it’s almost enough to tempt me in from the sunny summer garden, and on to the computer!

Christina

http://www.christinahollis.com/

The 2009 R*BY Awards

by Anna Campbell

I had a lovely thrill last week. They announced the finalists in the Australian and New Zealand Romantic Book of the Year Awards (the R*BY) and my green monster, UNTOUCHED, is one of four finalists in the Long Romance category.

This not only means I have a chance at winning the spectacular glass trophy pictured on the left. It also means quite a lot of local publicity through Woman's Day, one of the sponsors, and the chance to write a short story for them. When I finaled last year with CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, my short story THE RETURN was published in the magazine, which is Australia's most popular. You can read THE RETURN here.

There's some really great books in the running this year. I'm flattered and proud to be counted in their number.

Here's a list of the other finalists:

SHORT SWEET CATEGORY:
Claire Baxter - The Single Dad's Patchwork Family
Melissa James - A Mother in a Million
Marion Lennox - His Island Bride
Fiona McArthur - The Midwife's Baby

SHORT SEXY CATEGORY:
Miranda Lee - The Millionaire's Inexperienced Love Slave
Carol Marinelli - Expecting His Love Child
Trish Morey - The Italian Boss's Mistress of Revenge
Paula Roe - Boardrooms and a Billionaire Heir

LONG ROMANCE CATEGORY:
Karina Bliss - Second Chance Family
Anna Campbell - Untouched
Anne Gracie - The Stolen Princess
Elizabeth Rolls - A Compromised Lady

ROMANTIC ELEMENTS CATEGORY:
Maggie Alderson - How to Break Your Own Heart
Bronwyn Parry - As Darkness Falls
Suzanne Perazzini - Beneath The Surface
Suzanne Perazzini - Crash into Darkness

Congratulations to all the R*BY finalists and good luck for the winner announcements at the gala awards dinner at the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Brisbane in August.

So that got me thinking about my best read in the last year. And I realized there were too many for me to choose just one. I wondered if you had a favorite recent read. I'm always looking to add to my towering TBR pile.

Annie West: Foreign Delights

I adore getting mail. Always have. It's an incentive to write letters, and even in these days with almost instant access to friends and acquaintances via email there's nothing I love more than getting mail. Well, not the dreaded 'window' envelopes that inevitably contain bills. My favourite of all is the parcel.

Today I received two. Fantastic. First was a special delivery: a largish box with American editions of my June Harlequin Presents release, THE GREEK'S CONVENIENT MISTRESS. Then later, with the rest of the mail, came a small padded envelope containing two copies of my latest title in Spanish: Noche de pasion con el jeque, Not speaking Spanish, I'm guessing it means something like Night of Passion with a Sheikh. I know that story as THE DESERT KING'S PREGNANT BRIDE but I think the Spanish edition has a wonderful ring to it.

One of the absolute joys of writing for Harlequin is seeing my work translated into other languages. Most of the time my linguistic skills are such that I can't read the translations but knowing that people in Brazil or Korea, Greece or Germany are reading about my characters in their own language is a thrill.

I've included here a Japanese cover and a Spanish cover for the same story. Isn't it fascinating the way each country has set its own stamp on FOR THE SHEIKH'S PLEASURE? What made this particular Japanese edition particularly interesting was that it's actually for a manga book - a cartoon book. Like other Japanese editions you read it from right to left. But unlike other editions I've received, this one has a minimum of text and most of the drama is represented in clever pictures. Once I got used to the rather interesting fashions that the heroine prefered it was rather fun to 'read'. I'm told I've suddenly become 'cool' with various teenagers of our acquaintance - no one else they know has made it into manga.

It would be lovely to think that one day I might read my books in translation but I received my first Polish edition last week and I'm afraid I'm not up to that challenge. And as for Korean...much as I love the look and feel of the book, I think I'll stick to something in an alphabet I can understand.

In the meantime I give away most of my foreign editions to libraries in areas that cater for people who's first language isn't English. It's great to think of them going to a good home.

We love foreign languages in this house. Though I'm not a good linguist I have a tiny smattering of other languages and am married to a man who's passion is languages (and me, of course!).

What languages do you know? Which appeal? If you could learn any language what would it be and why? To read a terrific book in the original text? To go travelling somewhere special? To understand every syllable when a sexy foreign lover whispers sweet nothings in your ear?

I'm currently celebrating the release of THE GREEK'S CONVENIENT MISTRESS in North America. You can visit my website to read an excerpt or enter my latest contest. Or click here to buy a copy.

I'll give away a copy of this new release today to one person who comments on this post. And, if you read Spanish, or know someone who'd appreciate it, I'll also include Noche de pasion con el jeque.

Nora Roberts Lifetime Movies

I can't say that I'm a big fan of air travel these days. But who is? Packed like sardines into uncomfortable seats, told when you can stand or use the bathroom, ordered to remove your shoes or produce your bag for inspection at someone else's whim... actually it's all a lot like being back in elementary school.

But it does give you time to read, and/or watch, for example, Nora Roberts's Lifetime Movies on your iPod. Originally, these four came out:



I don't know about you all, but I loved them all. Different from the books? Yes, of course. But who could possibly put all the richness of a Nora Roberts book into a single tv movie?

Have you all seen the latest selection?



These movies got me through serious delays at JFK, "maintenance issues" with the plane, and an unexplained wait out on the runway for no apparent reason. Not to mention the various indignities visited upon me by my seatmates. Long live the Nora Roberts Lifetime movie, I say!

The Incredible Shrinking Everything (Except Me!)

Downsizing is happening to an alarming degree these days, isn't it? For instance, last week I saw all these women at the pool for the first time since last summer, and they'd all downsized. Damn them, squeezed into teeny bikinis like they were. Of course that's the good type of downsizing. The rampant scaling back, the kind we hate, involves jobs and salaries and such. And groceries. And that, alas, is everywhere.



I first noticed a large and steady uptick in grocery prices a couple of years back, when practically overnight ethanol became embraced by Washington lawmakers as the alternative fuel of the future (despite its not being such a great alternative fuel).
All of a sudden those ubiquitous mono-culture corn fields draped across the heartland became fields of gold. And then the fields producing wheat, soy and oilseed crops soon got flipped over to grow yet more corn to feed the Archer Daniels Midland ethanol beast. So anything made with corn products—pretty much everything falling under the categories of food, clothing and shelter, from soda to wallpaper paste—doubled in price. And products made with flour, soy and most other staple crops also ratcheted up in price because there were half as many fields devoted to producing those crops. Remember when a trip to the bakery was the best bargain in town? Now you better re-mortgage the house before you seek out pastries, what with the cost of flour these days. That is if the bank will let you.




Now I'm no economist. In my college Econ 101 class, when asked on a test the definition of "economics," forgetting the exact answer, I replied, "Economics is the dismal science." To which my professor wrote on the margins in bold red ink, "perhaps for you it is." And he was indeed right about that.

My finance skills are equally lacking, but we'll save that for another day. But I am a grocery store economist and I can tell we're all getting hosed when I see it. And I see it. First, of course, came the rapid doubling of prices. Then came the shrinkage of products.

A roll of paper towels went from the diameter of a healthy adult's thigh to that of an anorexic gangly-legged 'tween. That pound of pasta? Now twelve ounces. Same great price; a bit less filling. And they thought we wouldn't notice how much smaller the box has gotten. It's as if food companies have decided to put America on a diet, since we are all so bad at doing it for ourselves (but for those bikini-clad moms at the pool, damn them).



I'm not a big fan of grocery shopping. There are only two things I like about it: Running into friends mid-aisle and chatting, thus temporarily forgetting that I’m grocery shopping; and the self check-out. I'll be forever grateful to Giant, despite all they have done to make their product selection less desirable to us shoppers over the past few years, for trailblazing with self check-out machines. Nothing can be more momentarily thrilling while at a grocery store (and yeah, it's not like much of anything would be thrilling at a grocery store, I'll grant you that) than being able to scan your purchases, making that bar code force a beep out of the scanner. Power at your fingertips. Till you have to pay for it, that is.

Even better? Learning your numbers and foodstuffs in Spanish. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by checking out in Spanish, though it occasionally backfires when I don't know what certain produce items are called in Spanish. Who knew "apples" begin with an "m" (manzanita)? But I can tell you now that an awful lot of groceries end in noventa y nueve centavos (99 cents). Yeah, make it a penny less than the next highest dollar price and you don't feel so ripped off paying what you do for undersized groceries these days.

Apart from the sticker shock, the other thing that has made me loathe grocery shopping that much more these days is the less-than-subtle ways in which stores are economizing. It was bad enough when times weren't so tight—I'd shop at three stores to fulfill the grocery mandate, bulk at one place, organic another, the main things a third locale. But now most stores have sneakily swapped out national brands for their own product. It used to be that store brands were often fairly comparable. Nowadays, the store brands don’t usually tend to stack up to the name brands. I mean how else are these stores cutting costs but for cutting quality?

Sure, the packaging has come a long way from the days when generic products came in no-frills black and white boxes (remember those?). Now the outside looks great. But the inside? Not so much. So if I want to find the products I used to buy at the closest store to me? Sorry, gotta add at least one more store into the grocery round-up, often two. These days pursuit of groceries can take on part-time job status. And cost about the much as a salary from a part-time job, sadly.

I guess in a twisted way this less is more happening is a good thing. We're all learning to do more with less, and to expect less for more. Something about lowered expectations can actually make life simpler, bizarrely enough. And perhaps we'll just have to focus on that forced diet all of these grocery store shrinkages are bound to result in down the road. Who knows, maybe by next swim season I'll be the one flaunting the bikini…Although since I barely wore a bikini when I was in my twenties, perhaps I'm morphing into fairy tales now. Let's just stick with less products at the store means less time shopping. And that can't be such a bad thing, now, can it?

A full house - Donna Alward

Today is release day for my latest book, HIRED: THE ITALIAN'S BRIDE. To be honest, I nearly forgot the exact day. Things are a little busy at Chez Alward. Summer has arrived and with it weeds in the garden, lush grass that needs mowing twice a week, a pool to get up and running, and sunny days to enjoy.

There is not a day goes by that I am not thrilled to be living here. I miss people in Calgary, but I do not miss the city. I'm simply not a city girl. Right now I'm sitting in my office and I hear no traffic, no shouts, only the birds and the odd airplane as it takes off (with a husband in aviation, we always seem to live on flight paths, and I don't mind). I do tend to be awakened early in the morning as the crows and pheasants like to chat it up as the sun rises. But even then, I love it. It is much better than noisy neighbours arguing or coming home to party at 4 a.m. On any given day the only unwanted guests in our yard are bunnies, deer, and maybe the odd raccoon. The next few years promise to be fun as we have added apple trees, rhubarb, and a few strawberries to our garden. The blackberries and blueberries already run wild through the bush at the sides of our lot.

I am also blessed to have a bigger house. The last was a 1000 sq ft bungalow on a 9 metre by 30 metre lot (we now have an acre and a third, part of it treed). We had one bathroom for the four of us. When company came, the husband and I slept on a blow up mattress in the living room, which we'd have to move or deflate each morning. These days, sleeping arrangements are much more flexible.

My inlaws are currently here as my father in law is having surgery this week. They live three hours away, and I am glad that we are here so that my mother in law can stay with us for the week-plus that he will be in hospital. When we bought the house last year, we bought a good sofa bed for the sitting room. It has seen plenty visitors already.

My sister in law is also flying in tomorrow to stay for a few days and be with her mum and dad which is lovely. When we bought the house, we also bought a futon for my office. It is my reading spot and we bought a nice one which in my mind is as comfortable as any bed.

I'm not sure if any other family members are heading our way, but we also have a camper we can set up (to put this in perspective, if we set it up in Calgary, it took up our whole back yard, and it's just a small tent trailer). It can sleep five. And while our basement isn't finished, we do have a double bed that we could press into service if need be. The girls' rooms are large enough we can double them up and someone can have our eldest's bed.

This makes me happy.

So this week, while my book hits the shelves, I'm going to be doing something even more important - spending time with family. Not the best of occasions, but with my husband's families, laughs are always guaranteed.

Back to the beginning

I'm a bit late writing this blog. In the UK it has already been the first Sunday of the month for most of the day, so I'm sorry that my post has been a bit delayed. I've been away, you see, and I've only just got back.

One of the interesting things about being a writer and having established my name and my publishing history, is that sometimes people find out about me - through my web sit or my blog - and they ask me to be involved in bookish things that I don't expect. And that's what I was doing this weeked. I was in Haworth, West Yorkshire, appearing on a panel that was discussing the Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and their books - Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and all the others. We were also talking about their influence on romantic fiction. Some weeks ago, the Arts Officer of the Bronte Society had seen a blog I wrote on the way that part of Wuthering Heights had influenced my book Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and as a result that was why she asked me to be on the panel this weekend.

It was a like a trip 'back home' to me as I grew up in Yorkshire, not too far from Haworth and this was the first time I'd been there for ages. It was wonderful revisiting places I'd loved - but it also made me think about the way I got into writing romances.

When I was growing up in Yorkshire, my mother had a friend who wrote for Mills & Boon as Margaret Baumann, and she gave my mother her books when they were published. I read some of those and quite enjoyed them but they seemed quite mild to me when I was interested in stronger emotions, more passionate stories. (It has always intrigued me that my mother was thrilled to see me reading Wuthering Heights with its story of passion, betrayal, death and hateful revenge but she didn't like the idea of my reading contemporary romance!) So after I left home and went to university I stopped reading Mills & Boon novels for a while. I was studying Children's Literature as part of my degree and I turned to that for my fix of good, straightforward storytelling.


But then when my son was very small, on an impulse I picked up a book that appealed to me and when I read it I remembered the old romance I had read - but this one did reach out and grab me. It was set in the North of England with a dark, saturnine hero and a young innocent heroine. I loved it and it sparked my interest in romances all over again. I read more and, recalling how Margaret Baumann had written her novels while looking after 2 young children, it spurred me on to write my own first (and pretty dreadful) attempt at a romance.(I hadn't read enough of the current output to really understand what editors were looking for so I made the classic mistake of not understanding the genre properly.)


Over the years, that first book had got lost, mislaid in several house moves, and as my career progressed I kept wishing I could remember just which book it had been. I knew the author - Anne Mather (still writing today) and I remembered that the hero and heroine had been called Jake and Ashley and that she had lived in the local small hotel of pub. And I knew that when I'd bought it it had been a Bestseller reprint, not the first published edition. I kept looking though and talked to author friends about it - but no one could recall the book I was talking about. Sadly, I have never met Anne Mather so that I could tell her of this book and ask her which one of her many novels it was.


But then I decided to have one last go at finding this title. With the help of the database over on Fantastic Fiction and a vague idea of the date, I worked through all their synopses for Anne Mather titles of that time. And eventually I found it

There were the names Ashley and Jake, and the small hotel. And it had been first published in 1974 which would mean that it could have been reprinted in about 1981.

And the title was Witchstone



When young Ashley Calder's father died she travelled north to make her home with her uncle and aunt in their small hotel. It was while helping them there that she met Jake Seton and her whole life changed yet again. For Jake Seton and her whole life yet again. For Jake was unlike any other man she had ever met, and beyond her reach in just about every way. Although a man of immense and undeniable attraction for her,- he was far too old and sophisticated for her, his social sphere was far removed from her own-and above all he shortly to be married to his fiancée the glamorous Barbara Forrest. So why did he persist in making it clear to Ashley that the attraction was by no means only on her side?


Armed with this information I found a secondhand copy of Amazon and to my delight it was the Bestseller reprint edition that I originally remember buying. That was published in December 1980. Which was four years before my own first book was published.

It’s intriguing rereading it today - for example – in the chapter one, the heroine first appears in her school uniform! (She's 17) And first her aunt lights up a cigarette when she's finished her baking, then Ashley's uncle lights his pipe and finally at Jake Seton's first appearance he hands round a pack of cheroots. Can't imagine that happening today.

But this got me wondering – what was the book that really got you involved in reading romance? Can you remember your ‘first time’? What was the title of the book and do you still have a copy? Do you still read that author? I’d love to know.

And I’ll ask Sid the cat to pick out one of the posts to win a copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire.


Kate has just learned that her latest novel has been accepted and scheduled as will be released as The Konstantos Marriage Demand in February 2010

Coming up is Kept For Her Baby which is to be published in August (UK) and October – in Presents Extra in America. But before that there is the reprint of At The Sheikh’s Command coming in the Sold to The Sheikh collection in June in the UK.

You can find out more about Kate and her books on her website or for the most up to date news, visit her blog.

Added 12th June

I'm so sorry for the delay in replying. My life speeded up rather too much after I posted - editorial discussions, new contracts, special projects, plans for next year - for 2010 already!! and I've been trying to catch up ever since.

Thank you all so much for your replies I've found them fascinating to read. I'm just sorry I didn't get in here to chat with you - story of my life!

Sid has picked awinner and the winner is Terry S - great choice Sid - those are two of my favourite boooks and ones that had me reading romance too.

Terry please can you email me and send me your postal address and I'll get your prize in the mail.
Kate

Dogs and Raisins

This post is a warning.

Until a few days ago, I did not realise that raisins and other grape products were poisonous to dogs. After all some trainers used to advocate raisins or grapes as treats! You can still find recipes for birthday cakes for dogs with raisins baked in. Then in about 2004, a study did prove that an excessive consumption of grapes or grape related products can be fatal to dogs. There is anecdotal evidence about cats as well. At the moment, no one knows what a safe level of grapes or raisins is. Some dogs tolerate them. Others don't.

We have two border collie puppies -- Tess and Hardy. The reason why you do not get two puppies at once is that they are like twins. If one doesn't think up some mischief, the other one will. Anyway, they got into the store cupboard, and covered the kitchen in flour. A friend then issued the warning about raisins because she knew a dog who once ate half a fruitcake and ended up on a drip.

I duly put the raisins out of range.

My eldest son, trying to be helpful put the raisins back in the store cupboard. To compound matters, he then went and had a snack of raisins, and forgot to lock the cupboard. After all our other pets knew enough to stay out...

Tess & Hardy being partners in crime got into the cupboard. Tess explored the cupboard while Hardy decided to play with the nice raisin bag. I discover the pair in situ.

My son swore that there were very few raisins left and besides, Hardy could not have eaten very many. He implied that I was panicking over nothing. After all, Hardy would have to consume huge amounts of raisins and there were very few left.

So erring on the side of my son, I decided to wait and see.

Not all dogs are allergic. The main symptoms of raisin poisoning are vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Follow by loss of appetite, lethargy and ultimately complete kidney collapse and death. The vomiting normally occurs within 6-12 hours.

Hardy developed the runs with raisins the next morning so I knew my son's assertion was not correct. He had eaten raisins and a reasonable amount. Cue an emergency visit to the vet and Hardy on an IV for 24 hours as the test showed his kidneys were not working properly. As far as we can determine he ate about 20 raisins.

It was his size and his age. An older dog quite likely would not have had any problems.

He is now fine and there seems to be no permanent damage. He did, however, shred his discharge papers and attempt to destroy the dog bed at the vets. The raisins have now gone from the house and my eldest son is paying the pet insurance excess out of his money.

I am hoping for no more than routine vet visits. However, note Hardy's interest in his bandage.

What to do if you suspect poisoning -- this includes the consumption by dogs (and cats) of chocolate, raisins and onions.

1. Make the dog vomit. A weak solution of hydrogen peroxide in milk will do it. Be proactive. Do not wait and see, even if your 18 year old son swears there was very little left and look the bag wasn't even ripped.

2. Call your vet immediately as the vet can make the dog vomit and may have other ideas about treatment. The vet would rather you call, then did not. The earlier the intervention, the greater the chance of saving the dog's life.

3. If you notice vomiting or runs with undigested bits of raisin or chocolate or onion, call the vet. Lots can be done. The vet will take a blood sample and if there is a problem, the dog will be put on an IV drip for 24 -48 hours. The IV treatment works the vast majority of the time.

4. Prevention is worth a lot. So keep chocolate, raisins and onions away from puppies and dogs.
It saves trouble in the end.

When not playing with her border collies puppies, Michelle Styles is busy working on her next historical romance for Harlequin Mills & Boon. You can see more puppy pictures on her blog.

It’s My Party And I’ll Blog If I Want To - Paula Roe

It’s my birthday today... and I don’t mind saying, it’s a milestone – I’m 40 years old.

Ahhh, the big 4-0. While deciding on the topic for this post, I began thinking about what’s happened over the last forty years – events in the world, people who’ve come and gone, inventions that have become essentials. I also realized that during those years I’ve always learned something, discovered new insights and ways of doing things. There’s stuff I loved but in retrospect, wasn’t good for me (empty calories, tanning beds), stuff I still miss (the backyard pool, Friends, Firefly... curse you TV suits!!!), things I never want to see again (puff-ball skirts, headbands). And of course, great innovations (color TV, flu vaccines, DVD players). But for this post, I thought I’d take a nostalgic look at the stuff that’s personally enriched my life.

Computers and the internet – When I first started work in 1986, our office possessed one electric typewriter and one huge clunky computer, sans Windows. I was excited to be using a brand-new office machine, the fax. Yep it was that long ago J The office next door used a Benchmark computer that took dinner-plate sized floppy discs. I can distinctly remember the first time I used inter-office email (1992) and the internet (1995). And now? Netbooks, blogs, email, Twitter, Facebook, websites, internet phones. And cool white shiny iMac Books :::swoon:::

Email – every afternoon after school, my girlfriends and I spent hours on the phone. Now it’s email. Although some would say that with the advent of email, our face-to-face communication has suffered. But I love it for the amazing sense of community it brings, where you can reach out to someone in the next state, country or hemisphere and get an instantaneous reply. And you can do it in your pyjamas :)

e-Books – I’m a huuuge e-book fan (yes, I love today’s ‘instant gratification’ obsession, but only when it applies to books). Who’d have thought we’d be reading romances on screens smaller than a cassette tape? I can download my basket and be reading on my iPod Touch in less than a minute.

Portable music – yes, I had an original Sony Walkman, a big silver brick clipped onto my jeans, and boy, was I cool rollerskating around with my headphones on! Years later, I remember my brother paying $299 for a portable Discman. Thank heavens things have changed: I ADORE my iPod Touch, even moreso because I can watch my favorite TV shows (iTunes is a popular time waster)

Understanding of self – I know, no matter how hard I try, I’ll never be model-thin. A lively dinner with friends is better than a boozy night at some impersonal dance club. Change can be good (as long as I’m the one initiating it). I can’t write to a set schedule and need total silence in which to do so. I’m naturally an optimist and although speed bumps happen, I’m always surprised by them. I know that a comfy pair of jeans is better than an uncomfortable, fashionable skirt. And interesting minds can hide behind the most unlikely faces.

So here’s my question to you all - what’s made your life easier/better/fun/more productive over the years? What great insight have you discovered since your teenage years? Share your story and you could win a copy of my second book, Boardrooms & A Billionaire Heir.

A self-confessed contest addict, Paula’s been writing since 12. She got The Call from Silhouette Desire in September 2006 and has since finaled in the RT Readers’ Choice, Colorado Award of Excellence, and is currently a finalist in Romance Writers of Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year Award. Her next release, The Magnate’s Baby Promise, is a Desire August release. Visit her at www.paularoe.com

When the Sun Goes Down...: Travel and the Writer

Hi! Thank you so much for inviting me to blog here today! I’ll be giving away a copy of one of my Harlequin Blazes, ONE FOR THE ROAD, to someone who comments on this blog. Check back tomorrow morning for a winner….

Now, onto the topic… There are a lot of wonderful things about writing for a living: arranging your own schedule, actually making money from your daydreams, and giving free rein to your creativity. But, for me, traveling is the very best part.

Every trip I take is an opportunity for a story, whether it’s a casual weekend cruise with friends to Mexico (Check out my story in the Blaze anthology JINXED for that one.), a longer trip to London for devoted research (my most recent Vampire Babylon trilogy written as Chris Marie Green), or a road trip to write a chick-lit story that became a different book altogether (ONE FOR THE ROAD). I think that when you experience a setting firsthand, it becomes a strong character in your book, and that’s worth every penny you spend.

For my latest release, a Blaze called WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN… (June, 2009), I used a trip to Japan to build the setting of my novel. The rain-slicked night streets of Tokyo not only became its own character for me—I think it added to the development of the characters, too. In this Romeo and Juliet type story, the hero and heroine hail from two feuding families back in the States but decide to live for the moment with each other in exotic, erotic Japan, so there was plenty of opportunity to use my travel experiences in karaoke “snack bars” and even a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel.

What are some steps I normally take to make sure my travels lend to a story?

1. This sounds really obvious, but bring along a little notebook that fits in your pocket or purse. I even forget to do this sometimes, LOL. I can’t tell you how many times I sat on a bus, thinking about where I was, observing, coming up with a phrase to describe my experience, and then…forgetting it. All you have to do is whip that pad out and scribble down your impressions, and your words are gold when it comes to writing time. Also, when you take pictures, it’s great to be able to reference what exactly it is you were looking at, plus sensory details. I wrote WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN… a few years after my Japan trip, but with my notes, it felt like I was there again.

2. #1 leads right to another point—when you get home every night, try to journal, if possible. I’m not just talking about notes, I’m talking about full-on thought expansion, where you let yourself flesh out your experiences of the day. This also serves as the best souvenir ever; I go back to my travel journals all the time to see where I was at in my life on a personal level, too. Besides keeping a journal, you might want to keep a blog, if you have one. (To see my own travelblog from Japan, you can click here!)

3. Allow yourself to stop, sit, and take it all in. Oftentimes during travel, we’re so busy “doing” this or that (“Have you done a temple yet? Have you done Kyoto?”), we don’t take time to realize we’re there and how amazing it is. Sit on a park bench and look at the people around you. Linger with a glass of plum wine and look down on the streets below. Enjoy.

4. If you’re traveling with someone else, think about taking off alone for a day. Not to be antisocial, but I love this, especially if I’m on a long trip. I find that I’m even more aware of everything around myself because I’m not chatting with another person; also, personal space can be refreshing. And, if you meet your partner for dinner that night, you’ll have a ton of fresh things to talk about. You’ll find yourself describing your experiences to them in a way that gets you thinking about how to put these nuggets into your book.

5. Be the person you aren’t back at home. I’m not only saying this because that’s just what my hero and heroine do in WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN…, but traveling is the perfect opportunity to test yourself…and to think about how your characters might do the same. Would you be petrified of singing in front of other people? In Japan, you’re treated like a rock star in a karaoke bar, no matter how badly you sing, and everyone should feel like that at one time in their life. Would you swear that you’d never bungee jump off a bridge? Maybe, during a trip to New Zealand, you’ll get an unforgettable rush that’ll persuade you to live more “loudly” at home. Your characters might learn the same thing.

I hope every one of you gets to try these tips sometime. Meanwhile, we always have books to help us travel, too!

Sometimes going back is the right thing to do ...

A freak accident leads to a chance encounter and sparks off a chain of events that will change two people's lives forever ...

There's an old saying that warns "never go back". At various times in our lives, however, we find ourselves revisiting a place, an event - or even a person - from our past. We can be taken back for innumerable reasons ... a birth, a christening, a wedding, illness or death, because of work, or finally accepting the invitation to an old school reunion, or maybe it's the sudden grip of nostalgia, the yearning pull of old memories. All too often, though, going back brings nothing but disappointment. Things have changed, our memories prove to be rose-tinted and what once was is no longer what it seemed, leaving us feeling let down, even cheated, and wishing we had made a different choice and had left the past where it was.

Luke Devlin, the hero in The Rebel Surgeon's Proposal, is faced with just such a choice. An unexpected phone call draws him back to the hometown he escaped at eighteen, vowing never to return. Growing up, he lived under the shadow of the Devlin name, cursed and ostracised because of the reputations of his father and older brothers. Determined not to be like them, he followed his own path, one that took him to London and to medical school, finally earning him a coveted place on the team of Professor James Fielding-Smythe, a renowed orthopaedic surgeon. Luke's career is about to take off ... one of many reasons to ignore the call from home and never to set foot in Strathlochan again.

But there is one reason why he cannot keep away. Francesca Scott. He had thought her lost to him forever. Now she is back. And whatever demons he has to face returning to Strathlochan, he is determined to right the wrongs of the past and to claim Francesca at last.

The Rebel Surgeon's Proposal is the second of my spring/summer duo and the latest stories from my fictional community in Srathlochan. The first of the duo, The Emergency Doctor Claims His Wife, tells Nathan & Annie's story, and is out in the UK in May, Australia in June and the US (via eHarlequin) in August. In a very different way, there is also an element of "going back" involved, only this time to a person and not to a place, as Nathan refinds Annie.

Luke & Francesca's story is out in the UK in June, Australia in July and will be on sale through the eHarlequin website in the US in September. I hope you will enjoy them - and discover if going back was the right thing for Nathan and Luke to do!

How about you? Have you any stories, good or bad, about occasions when you have gone back and faced your past?

Love,
Margaret

www.margaretmcdonagh.com

FAIR GAME by Jasmine Haynes is out!

Okay, shameless promotion! Fair Game is out tomorrow! And I just got my author copies on Saturday. It’s got such a sexy red cover. Fair Game has the distinction of being my 20th book between all my pseudonyms and my 10th Jasmine Haynes. What a milestone!

Fair Game is Josie’s story. She’s Faith’s cousin from The Fortune Hunter and Show and Tell. And her hero is Kyle Perry. They have some very sexy times together. Though I don’t profess to be writing literary material, I do try to provide more than just a bunch of hot sex. In Josie’s story, I bring out a couple of issues I’ve faced in my working career. First is the Peter Principle. This is a business principle I learned about in college which basically states that people are promoted to the level of their incompetency, ie, you’re good at one job so you’re promoted to another that you’re not necessarily as good at it. The second issue is dealing with the life-threatening illness of a coworker. This one they didn’t touch in college. You know, they just don’t teach you how to deal with difficult life issues like that, instead they teach about the Peter Principle and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One of my experiences with a coworker’s illness occurred when I returned to a company after having another job for 9 months. The first time I saw one of the VPs after that absence, he’d lost a lot of weight and he looked very trim. I said, “Wow, you look great, how’s the wife and kids,” yadda, yadda, foot in mouth blabbing. He got the oddest look on his face. Shock. Like I was coming onto him or something. At least that’s the way I interpreted the expression. Later, talking to one of the Accounting girls, I mentioned how much he’d changed. That’s when she told me his wife had left him, then he’d been diagnosed with leukemia, hence the weight loss. Granted I couldn’t have known all that, but I felt terrible for having such a big mouth. My blundering actually made it very difficult for me to talk to him after that, and unfortunately he passed away after a long battle. For those who think work and personal life should always be kept separate, it’s very hard to do that when you spend 75% of your waking hours there. The personal always seems to come into it, and I don’t just mean your love life.

I’d love to hear about some of your work experiences if you’d like to share, especially any humorous ones. Post a comment and I’ll enter you in the drawing (you must type in your email address to be entered) for an autographed copy of Show and Tell, book 2 in the Fortune Hunter trilogy. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. And I hope you’ll try Fair Game to see how Josie handles her work issues, including how she mixes business with pleasure--that naughty girl--and the delectable Kyle Perry.

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!
http://www.skullybuzz.com/
Newsletter: skullybuzz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Blog: http://jasminehaynes.blogspot.com/

Team Betty or Team Veronica? -- Susanna Carr

When I read the news that Archie, the star of the Archie comic books, was going to get married, it reminded me why I don’t like love triangles. They seem to go on forever (68 years in the case of the Archie comic books series), and someone always gets hurt.

And I always get the sense that if there were strong feelings for another person, maybe the couple that winds up together doesn’t love each other enough to find that happily-ever-after.

That said, I’m on Team Veronica, and not because I want a happily-ever-after. I want Archie to suffer. Seriously. Betty is too good for Archie. She needs to forget him and have fun with a bad boy. I’m sure Reggie is available.

So, which team are you on? Team Betty or Team Veronica?