by Harlequin Presents Editorial Assistant Pippa Roscoe

Clearly one of the best bits about working for Harlequin Presents is that you get to tell people that you work at Harlequin Presents. This has been my new joy. Waiting, (perhaps for the first time in my life!) and thinking silently in my head, ask me! Ask me what I do for a living! Because I just can’t wait to tell you!

So there I was last weekend, visiting a friend, and we’re at a birthday celebration, filled with people I do not know. Usually this type of situation makes me squirm, waiting for that, ‘so what do you do?’ question. You know the rom com scenes where everyone’s a couple except the heroine who is being interrogated for still being single in her (insert age here)? Yup. That is quickly becoming me.

But this time it’s different! Wonderfully, deliciously, different. Because I have the best job in the world which quickly elevates me to the best dinner guest ever! Who cares if I’m single? I get to legitimately scandalise dinner guests with the 3^rd topic you’re not supposed to mention in polite company – SEX.

The collective pause that hangs in the air for just a moment before the penny drops and everyone at the table mentally thinks aren’t Harlequin books super sexy? is where the smile creeps in to play at the edges of my mouth. And suddenly everyone wants to know if those are the books with ‘the quivering members’. No, I patiently correct…

It’s soooo much more! And then the girls start to lean in just that little bit closer, hunching down as if to share their secret — It’s been years since I read my last Presents! And there you have it. Everyone is sharing their first Presents experiences – and suddenly they’re asking for recommendations! Even the boys!

Having already successfully converted my brother’s girl-friend who waits patiently until I’ve taken my coat off before riffling through my bag to see what goodies I may have brought with me, I seem to be developing a group of new die-hard Presents fans at which ever dinner party I attend! And I love it.

I love the fact that I have the opportunity to spread the Presents love! I know that when they open the pages of a Presents novel, they’ll escape into a world of glitz and glamour, of heart ache and true love, of high passions and happily ever afters — the perfect antidote to the Christmas blues! And whilst we wait, shivering, for the return of the sun I’m happy to know that I’ve warmed up the chilly Februarys of a few more people…

And I can’t wait until my next dinner party — perhaps this time I’ll push the boat out further. I might even bring some copies along with me!

Question from Amy:  Do you ever discuss romance novels at dinner parties? What books would you recommend at one?

There’s not much I enjoy more than reading a book and letting it transport me far, far away from my own little world—so far that when I look up from it, it takes me a moment to remember where and who I am.

If there’s anything better than getting completely over-involved and wholly lost in a book, I don’t know what it is.

Writing books is different from reading them, of course.  The ways that I normally get lost in the books I’m writing involve daydreams, and my no doubt deeply obnoxious habit of running lines of characters’ dialogue in my head when I’m meant to be paying attention to the person in front of me.

But it was while I was writing my February Presents, Princess from the Past that I experienced this phenomenon in a whole different way and discovered that the “swept away” thing can sometimes be a bit of a double-edged sword.

I was out to dinner with my husband after a long day of writing. We were at one of our favorite sushi restaurants, and were sharing one of our favorite dishes there, spicy tuna on crispy rice.  My husband was talking about his day, and as he talked, I felt this mounting fury take hold of me. What is the matter with him? I wondered, beginning to scowl across the table at him.  How can he be so autocratic?  So demanding and unyielding?  So ruthless? The more he talked the more I seethed!

He asked me what was wrong and I opened my mouth to tell him—

And then I realized what was happening.  My husband wasn’t Prince Leo Di Marco, latest in a very long line of noble Di Marcos, so used to carrying the weight of his history that he failed to notice when he wielded it and his consequence like a battering ram.  Just as I was most definitely not sheltered Bethany Vassal, his estranged wife, who he’d coerced into returning to the family castello in Italy to hash out what was left of their marriage.  I had been about to launch into one of their skirmishes!

Luckily, my husband is a very patient man.  And also used to me.

I certainly hope you find yourself as drawn into Princess from the Past as I was while writing it—though I also hope you refrain from picking fights with your family members over the characters’ issues…  Unless, of course, you happen to be an Italian prince!

What was the last book that swept you far, far away?

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Life can be tricky. Sometimes it takes two, three, maybe four tries to get something right.  Second (and third…possibly fourth) chances are essential. From the little things, like baking peanut butter cookies, to bigger things…like love, we’ve all made mistakes, and I believe, we all deserve a chance to try again.

Aleksei Petrov and Madeline Forrester*, the hero and heroine in my upcoming release The Petrov Proposal, both badly need second chances.

They’ve both loved and lost…but in very different ways. Aleksei lost his wife, the love of his life, to death. Maddy lost the love of her life because it turned out he was a lying, cheating scumbag who took advantage of her naivete and deep need to be loved.

Maddy lost the respect of her colleagues and her job. And any fragile trust she had left in people. Aleksei’s afraid of opening himself up again.

Maddy has worked as the event coordinator for Aleksei’s jewelry design company for nearly a year, but they’ve never met face to face. But when they do, it sparks an attraction between them that’s too strong to ignore…even though they both know they should.

Of course, neither of them want a second chance at love. At lust? Well, that’s a different story. Even though it’s the worst idea in the history of terrible ideas, neither of them can resist that. But simple lust doesn’t always stay simple. Sometimes, even when you don’t want it, love hunts you down and tackles you.

Actually, I think I can sum it all up in a series of Petrov Haikus best:

Russian Widower/ He’s skilled with sex on a desk/ Needs to love again

No good bastard ex/ Ruined her reputation/ Time to take it back

Sex, no strings attached/ with her sexy Russian boss/ how could it go wrong?

Phone sex is okay/ classier in a castle/ that’s what Maddy thinks

Aleksei can’t sleep/ haunted by ghosts from his past/ Maddy brings him peace

So, you get the idea.

Have you ever needed a second chance (or third…or fourth)? And what do you think of characters who need them? Do you like to see people who have made mistakes, even big ones, find their happily ever after? (speaking of needing second chances with peanut butter cookies, I once reversed the salt and sugar in a batch…that was NOT okay!)

*Maddy is Gage’s sister, from Marriage Made on Paper

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Do you consider yourself a planner?

Leo Zamos is. He has to be — he’s an international business broker, travelling the world and bringing deals and parties together, oiling the wheels of negotiation and give and take and never able to relax until the deal is done. He can’t afford to leave anything to chance. He lives for his plans. He lives for success.

Eve Carmichael has her own big plans — in the forefront of her mind is renovating her grandfather’s old house in Melbourne before it falls down around her. But another is to never meet Leo Zamos in the flesh again. Just one meeting and she’d abandoned good sense and ended up in a filing room clinch with him that ended all too soon and left her wondering and wanting more. But she doesn’t want more now. She has a young child to look after — an unplanned result of all that pointless wondering, but a result she wouldn’t change for quids.

Eve is a virtual PA now, working from home to support herself and her young son, and by chance and happenstance Leo is now her number one client. And if there’s one good thing about being a virtual PA, it’s that they conduct all their business via the internet. If they never meet, she figures, he’ll never know who she really is and she’s safe pretending they don’t have history. It makes perfect sense — until Leo lands in Melbourne needing more of Eve’s services than she’d ever expected possible.

Here’s an excerpt from the opening of Fiancee from One Night…

Leo Zamos loved it when a plan came together.

Not that he couldn’t find pleasure in other, more everyday pursuits. He was more than partial to having a naked woman in his bed, and the more naked the woman the more partial he was inclined to be, and he lived for the blood-dizzying rush from successfully navigating his Maserati Granturismo S at speed around the sixty hairpin turns of the Passa dello Stelvio whenever he was in Italy and got the chance.

Still, nothing could beat the sheer unmitigated buzz that came from conceiving a plan so audacious it could never happen, and then steering it through the ensuing battles, corporate manoeuvrings and around the endless bureaucratic roadblocks to its ultimate conclusion—and his inevitable success.

And right now he was on the cusp of his most audacious success yet.

All he needed was a wife.

You can see where this is going, right? Eve has to front up as Leo’s pretend fiancee for the night (because getting an actual wife within 8 hours was decidedly more tricky). But it’s what happens then that gets more interesting. You’ll have to buy the book to find out exactly what:-))

RT Book Reviews have awarded Fiancee for One Night a 4.5 star review, saying -

Broker Leo Zamos needs a fiancée to seal the deal on his latest coup so he turns to his über-efficient virtual PA, banking on her professional appearance — but she turns out to be a showstopper. Single mom Eve Carmichael needs the extra money Leo’s offering, and hopes Leo won’t recognize her from when they met years before. Morey takes readers on a lush tour of the land down under as she lets her romantic plot play out with characters who enrage and endear, and love scenes hotter than a blazing Australian summer.

I love it when plans go astray and get blindsided by life, and it’s kind of funny that both Leo and Eve found much, much more than they were planning on when life dealt them both a curve-ball.

Have you ever had your own plans come unstuck in spectacular style? And have you ever been grateful that they did? I’d love to hear your stories.

And to celebrate the recent acceptance of my 25th title for Harlequin Mills & Boon, one lucky reader commenter will win a signed copy of Fiancee for One Night, plus a book of their choice from my back list titles. Your choice!

Look forward to hearing your stories,

Trish

x

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Update: The contest is now closed. Please check the comments for the winner announcement.

There’s something about a Sheikh.  Something which captures our hearts as well as our imagination.  Something which makes a heroine shiver with a mixture of fear and longing.  Fear that this man can never truly be hers – because deep in his heart is a cultural darkness she feels she’ll never be able to penetrate.  And longing because, quite simply – he is the most masculine man she has ever met.  The classic novel The Sheik, first published in 1921 – illustrates this conflict of feelings perfectly, I think.

The sense of brooding presence and enormous power might help explain the enduring popularity of the Sheikh hero.  Or maybe it has more to do with their old-fashioned mastery – which women aren’t really supposed to want any more.

But of course, they do….

For me, it’s the ultimate fantasy.  The autocratic ruler leaping onto an enormous stallion and riding it bare-backed across the endlessly baked sands.  The arrogant leader who has experienced the harshness of the unforgiving desert terrain, and has survived it.   These are Sheikhs we can all recognise – I can picture the man and the horse as I write.

But what of someone who has the burden of Sheikhdom thrust on him unexpectedly?  Who has had little preparation for the mighty role he must now assume.

My latest hero is such a man. 

The characters of Zahid and Francesca were first introduced in a book I wrote a few years back called Italian Boss, Housekeeper Bride.  They made only a brief appearance – less than a page in total – but something about them obviously appealed to readers.  (Probably because they’d just had a row!). Every so often, someone would email me and ask if I’d written their story and after a while, I realised that I had to give them a life of their own.  And that’s how Monarch of the Sands was born.

There had been a definite equality between the two characters and I wondered how that might have come about.  Because everyone knows that it’s difficult to get to meet a desert King!  I decided that the only way Francesca was going to feel relaxed enough to be rude to the autocratic Sheikh, was if she’d known him for a long time.  And she had.  She’d known him ever since she was a little girl – a geeky misfit of a girl – and she had always adored him.

But Frankie’s all grown up now – and Zahid has changed, too.  The fact that he has inherited the crown made that change inevitable.  Frankie liked him better before – and Zahid found her much easier to deal with when she was a child.  But suddenly she’s all woman….  Although neither of them want it – they can’t deny the overwhelming physical chemistry which sizzles between them.

I loved the challenge of picking a moment in Francesca and Zahid’s  lives and working backwards until I had the beginning of their story.  And the result was Monarch of the Sands.

I hope you like it – and I’m wondering just what it is about a Sheikh hero which makes you go weak at the knees?

And while you’re pondering an answer, I’ll leave you with one of the most inspirational theme tunes in the history of the cinema.  As you watch and listen, just take a good look at Peter O’Toole’s eyes….

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The Gurdian has posted an obituary for author Penny Jordan (real name Penny Halsall), who passed away on December 31, 2011. Click here to read the article.

It’s a while since I wrote a marriage in trouble story and I’m very excited about this one! Once A Ferrara Wife… is an intense, emotional tale about two very different people who were joined by love, but found their love tested by life events.

In everyone’s life things happen that can’t be predicted or prevented and none of us really know how we’re going to react when we’re faced with a challenge. Good people are capable of doing and saying the wrong things, especially when under pressure. That doesn’t make them bad. It’s what makes them human, and human beings are flawed and imperfect (that’s what makes them interesting!)

In Once A Ferrara Wife…, neither of my characters are bad people, but they are flawed.

Laurel is a fitness instructor, a strong independent woman who has never relied on anyone in her life until she fell in love with Cristiano Ferrara, but he let her down so badly that she walked away. Briefly reunited at his sister’s wedding, they are forced to re-evaluate what went wrong. Unable to forgive or forget, Laurel intends to walk away again once the wedding is over but Cristiano has other plans…. He wants his wife back and he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to heal the rift in their marriage. He’s even willing to consider the fact that he might have been in the wrong….

This book contains scenes of serious grovelling (on the part of the hero!) and sizzling hot chemistry all set on the fabulously romantic island of Sicily. If the weather is cold where you are then I hope this will bring a little Mediterranean sunshine into your life and if that doesn’t work then hopefully the scorching heat between the hero and heroine will warm things up.

As I wrote this book I fell in love with the Ferrara family. I love their commitment to each other, their determination to fight to keep the family whole and healthy. I loved them so much that the moment I finished Once A Ferrara Wife… I started another story about the same family, this time featuring Cristiano’s brother, Santo. It will be out in May and is called The Forbidden Ferrara.

Happy reading!

Love Sarah

xxxx

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Question from Amy: Do you like marriage in jeopardy or reunion stories? Share your thoughts in the comments!

I wish I knew where ideas come from but imagination and the writing process are a mystery to me (apologies to anyone hoping for words of wisdom!)

I have no idea why Emma Marchant, the heroine in my latest book A DANGEROUS INFATUATION, came into my head. She arrived from nowhere and I immediately knew her as well as if we had been friends for years. I saw her in my mind — and I’m so pleased that the cover of the Presents Extra version of A DANGEROUS INFATUATION has Emma exactly as I imagined her — although looking more glamorous than in her nurse’s uniform!

So Emma is a district nurse working in cold, wintery Northumberland. She is also a single mum bringing up her little daughter alone after her husband — a fireman — was killed on duty.  Jack was regarded by everyone as a hero, but just before his death Emma had been devastated to learn that he had been unfaithful throughout their marriage and was planning to leave her.

Despite feeling hurt and betrayed Emma is determined that her daughter Holly will grow up to be proud of her father and she never reveals the truth of her marriage to anyone. She definitely has no time for gorgeous Rocco D’Angelo, who is the grandson of one of her elderly patients. Like Jack, Rocco is a charmer, but Emma has been bitten once and now she is on her guard and refuses to give in to the fierce attraction she feels for him.

As for Rocco — he enjoys being a wealthy playboy. There is only one important woman in his life and that is his beloved English grandmother. He’s not impressed with Cordelia’s sharp tongued nurse, who seems to think he has abandoned the old lady. But beneath Emma’s thick winter clothes he discovers a beautiful, sexy woman, who stirs his interest. The only trouble is, she’s prickly and defensive and won’t let him close.

His grandmother is too frail to live alone and Rocco decides that the ideal solution is to take her to his home on the Italian Riviera — accompanied by her nurse, and of course Emma’s adorable little daughter. Secrets in Rocco’s past mean that he has good reasons why he avoids commitment. He desires Emma, but all he wants is a temporary affair – isn’t it? Even if he wanted something more, he believes Emma is still in love with her first husband. How can he compete with the ghost of a hero?

A DANGEROUS INFATUATION is the story of Emma and Rocco’s journey to finding love despite the fact that they are both determined to steer clear of it. For Emma, it is about letting go of the past and finding the courage to trust. As for Rocco, he has to learn that all his money and charm won’t win him the prize he wants most. Does he have what it takes to win Emma’s heart?

In this book particularly, the storyline developed from the hero and heroine’s backstories. I ‘met’ Emma first and I really wanted to tell her story.

I’m fascinated to learn how other writers plan books? Do you start with a plot idea and then create characters to live out the story — or as with often happens to me, do characters pop into your head and their story gradually unfolds?

For readers, is it a great plot, or absorbing characters that make a book memorable for you?

Wishing everyone a happy new year of writing and reading, daydreaming and plotting!

Chantelle

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Melissa’s story in There’s Something about a Rebel follows on from my previous book, Her Not-so-Secret Diary.  Lissa had led a sheltered life, indulged by her older brother — her guardian for much of her life, and needed a guy who’d open her eyes to the wider world.   Along came Jared’s best mate, Blake.  Blake, a clearance diver in the Australian Navy, is the kind of hero I enjoy reading and writing about — a wounded warrior, a loner by nature or circumstance.  A misunderstood man with a scandalous past but a rigid code of honour.

It wasn’t long after the 2011 Queensland flood crisis when I was creating him and I got to thinking about heroes.  We all know what makes a romantic hero.  He has the looks, the moves, the charisma.  Often a self-made man and irresistible to the heroine.  And of course, he has His Past.

Blake is a romantic hero, but he’s also a true Aussie Digger, or soldier.   Lissa referred to them in her speech at the charity event she organised to coincide with the opening of her business and to raise money for returned soldiers.  “Each and every one of them makes a huge personal sacrifice to protect us.  They leave their families and loved ones and endure life-threatening situations on a daily basis.  Some pay the ultimate price.  Others return, changed forever.”

Blake is one of those returned diggers whose life has been changed by tragedy.  Wounded and suffering Post Traumatic Stress, he holds himself responsible for circumstances which were beyond his control.   Lissa’s challenge is to get Blake to open up about his past and heal, and hence to look beyond herself and her party girl lifestyle.

But what about everyday heroes?  We can all think of someone deserving of the title.   He (or she) may not have the looks, he may not be irresistible to the opposite sex, he may not be wealthy, but he’s no less worthy.  I can think of one special young boy who, during the Queensland floods, refused to be pulled to safety until his younger brother was rescued first, and in doing so, lost his own life in the fast flowing torrent.   A true hero in every way.

There are countless acts of heroism happening all around us.  There’s Something about a Rebel is dedicated to them — Everyday Heroes.

Do you know a special everyday hero?

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I live high up on the wild Yorkshire moors — Here are some pretty pictures of the path I take when I’m walking my dog:

And here’s a not so pretty picture that takes you across the valley and on to the next county.

Men in these parts aren’t pretty boys — the type who are buffed and tanned, and who take up more mirror time than I do! They’re tough and hardy, with shoulders wide enough to hoist an ox (pause for happy reflection) - just like my hero, Heath in Working with the Enemy.

No wonder my imagination runs riot up here on the moors — producing more tough guys than polished playboys!

My hero, Heath Stamp used to be a bare knuckle fighter before he landed in jail and a  benefactor gave him a computer. Now Heath is a giant of the Internet, producing the games everyone wants to play.

Will Heath be interested in meeting up with the girl who used to torment him when they were young — the girl who even taught him to read?

My boho heroine Bronte is determined to save the Big House in the village high up on the wild Yorkshire moors where she grew up, and is quite preprared to drive Heath away, if that’s what it takes to stop him investing his millions in some glass and steel shopping centre.

‘Now then’ – as we say here in Yorkshire — Let’s have a little contest with the prize of a signed copy of the book:

1) Pretty boys, all buff and tan

Or

2) Rugged hunks — real men with all their flaws and contradictions.

(Why not send some pics if you have them)

Tell us which you prefer and why. Maybe you just like to look at the pretty boys and there’s nothing wrong with that. (Goodness knows, it’s safer   )

And we all have to make an exception for Henry Cavill, don’t we? He can be as pretty as he likes for me — and I won’t even give him the ox test!

Can’t wait to get chatting!

Yours from the moors

Susan

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UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed — check the comments to see if you won ~Amy