I (Heart) Presents &#187; author

Some Like It Steamy… by Kate Hardy

Amy — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:50:26 +0000

by Kate Hardy, author of Good Girl or Gold Digger? (Harlequin Presents Extra, May 2010)

Ever since I was a tiny child, I’ve always enjoyed the glitter of the funfair. When I was very small, apparently I used to drive my parents insane with polite requests to go on the roundabout in the park – again and again and again. (Apparently I liked driving the bus. We even have cine film of it – this was about 1969. I got my comeuppance when I had my own children: they had a thing about funfairs, too, and even now if given the choice my littlest will always plump for the beach that has the funfair and beg to go on the roller-coaster.)

I particularly like the old-fashioned rides – the ones driven by steam, with old-fashioned organs. In my part of the world, any new UK fairground rides were tested out at the King’s Lynn Mart (a 14-day fair that’s held around Valentine’s Day), and many of the old gallopers still in existence (such as the one below) were made by Frederick Savage in Norfolk.

This all had absolutely nothing to do with the book I was intending to write, set in Venice. Except Daisy Bell walked into my head, wearing purple Doc Martens, and told me that she wanted her story told. Uh, OK. Then she told me that she was the manager of a steam fairground museum and was a qualified mechanic. (Uh-oh. How was I going to sell that one to my ed?) Oh, and she had a thing about songs from musicals.

I really, really tried to resist. But then Felix walked in, all gorgeous and sexy (from his very, VERY posh and glamorous London flat), and he informed me that he needed to rescue my heroine, so could I please just give in and write their story? Like, now?

No, because I was working on a book set in Venice. I wasn’t planning to do an ‘opposites attract’ story any time soon, so they’d have to wait their turn.

They didn’t want to wait, so they sent in the heavy mob: Titan. (Titan is Daisy’s cat; when she’s busy being a mechanic and someone walks in to the workshop, he smacks her head with his paw to get her attention. And he smacked me about a bit… OK, I’ll come clean. That’s based on my spaniel: when Byron wants to get my attention while I’m sprawled on the floor with a good book, he nudges me. If I don’t respond then he’ll pat me on the top of the head with his paw and lick my ear. He does the same with my husband when he’s reading the paper. The kids think it’s hilarious. And I couldn’t resist borrowing it!)

What was an author to do? I gave in and shelved Venice.

It meant reading up about fairgrounds and then doing some location research, aka visiting our local fairground museums and riding on an antique gondola (the one below – this only runs two rides a day at weekends, so I was very privileged to go on it). I was also forced to eat donuts and ice cream (aka researching the food sold at fairgrounds – isn’t that the best excuse ever?). And I had to paddle in the sea. Because the book happens to be set in an area which owes rather a lot to this place… (These are some of the beach huts at Southwold in Suffolk, which are very posh and cost a fortune – and I mean just a beach hut, not somewhere to stay. One in need of repair was on the market recently for £40,000 (about $60,000 – and if you don’t believe me, check out the BBC news story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8457000/8457946.stm!)

Do you have happy childhood memories of funfairs? What’s your favourite kind of ride?

Kate Hewitt on Opposites: Do They Really Attract?

Amy — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:56:02 +0000

by Kate Hewitt, author of “Italian Boss, Housekeeper Mistress” in Her Mediterranean Playboy (Harlequin Presents, April 2010)

The idea for my April release Italian Boss, Housekeeper Mistress, which is part of a duo with Melanie Milburne, started with a house. I love houses and all they can represent: safety, security, comfort, love–the very essence of a home. Whether it’s a draughty castle in Scotland, a sprawling Greek villa, or a rugged palace in the Arabian desert, houses tend to play an important part in my stories.

In this case, the house in question is a gorgeous villa on the shores of Lake Como that has been in my hero Leandro Fillametti’s family for hundreds of years. Leandro is returning to the villa after many years away to finally sell it; for him, the home only has unhappy memories of a childhood marred by the embezzling and infidelity of his father.

Lake Como

Zoe Clark is an insouciant free spirt who has never had a proper home. Her mother moved around the country taking temp jobs and living a carefree, rootless lifestyle. Zoe learned pretty quickly not to even try to stay settled, and now she is living a life similar to her mother’s, which is why Leandro’s offer of a temporary housekeeping position suits her just fine.

From the get-go, Zoe and Leandro seem and act like opposites. Leandro is dark, brooding, restrained, responsible; Zoe is light, fun, carefree–and, in Leandro’s opinion, careless. I had fun letting the sparks fly between the two, especially since their physical attraction to each other is instant and all-consuming.

And it is the house–which is really a character in itself–that allows Zoe and Leandro to change into the people they were always meant to be, had not their parents’ choices prohibited them. And they both begin to learn, to their surprise, that they might not be as opposite from one another as they thought. As they fall in love, the house gets its own happily-ever-after and becomes what it never was allowed to be–a home.

Yet it left me wondering: do opposites attract in real life? And even if they do attract, can opposite stay together for the long haul? Do they change as they spend more time together and become more like each other? What do you think? Do you know of any opposites who have found their happily-ever-after?

Thank Dog for the Internet! by Kimberly Lang

Amy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:41:24 +0000

by Harlequin Presents author Kimberly Lang

Writing is often a lonely occupation. The people in your head, while fascinating, can only provide a limited amount of company. I mean, it’s not like I can take my hero and heroine out to lunch and talk about the latest and greatest Hollywood scandal or ask their advice about what I’m planning to wear to the RT Convention. They won’t go shopping with me and talk me into buying those great boots. Or tell me that those pants really do make my butt look HUGE. (I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy yet. The voices in my head aren’t that strong. I love my characters, and they may feel real at times, but I do understand they’re not really real people.)

Many writers are introverts, so the long hours alone are great for them. They thrive on it. Me, I’m an extrovert in a career where there’s no water cooler, no one in the office next door, no one to talk to when I take a break for lunch. Don’t get me wrong – I need the silence and solitude in order to write, but wandering through the house alone all day actually starts to wear on me after a while.

Thank dog for the internet! Thank dog for the social networking sites and writers’ loops which function as the break room for those of us who work at home (and can’t really leave the house because we haven’t bothered to shower or put on real clothes yet . Yeah, this is the glamorous life, folks!) And because the Presents authors are spread all over the world, there’s always someone somewhere ready to chat. If it’s midnight here and all my US author friends are asleep, the Aussies are awake down under where it’s tomorrow afternoon. And if I’m really pulling an all-nighter, by two am the Brits are up checking their email with their first cup of tea in hand. Of course, the downside is that there have been many mornings where I’ve gone to check my email first thing only to find that something important has happened while I slept and I’m now twenty messages behind!

How did writers survive before the internet? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.

Being able to contact other authors is a blessing for newbie authors trying to swim in the deep end without a life jacket. I wouldn’t have wanted to go it alone. They keep you sane at the same time they tell you what you’re supposed to be doing and what’s coming around the bend next. (And, usually, they’re pretty forgiving of the overuse of exclamation points that just happen when Your! Book! Has! A! Cover!!!!!) They’re still important six, ten, thirty books down the road. They’re your coworkers as well as your support group. Sadly , though, there’s no Christmas Party.

Slightly off-topic tangent: I’m also quite lucky to have a good friend who also writes for Presents here in my hometown. I can honestly say I knew Lynn Raye Harris before she became Lynn-Raye-Harris-Who-Won-The-Instant-Seduction-Contest. Right now, Lynn lives four miles from my house. After I move into my new house on April 1^st, she’ll be literally right up the street (walking distance actually, if I wasn’t completely lazy)! Lynn and I – for business purposes, only, of course – lunch a lot. It keeps the writing mojo flowing. Refills the well. In fact, my mojo feels a little sluggish and the well’s running low. I need to schedule a lunch date soon. (Hey, Lynn, call me!)

Even better, Lynn will go shopping with me and talk me into buying those great boots. Or out of buying those pants that make me look fat.

So, I have little reason to be lonely or curse the silence. My virtual friends are always around the water cooler waiting to chat about everything from books to life. It keeps me sane. Thank you, internet.

Now I just need to work on staying off the internet and finishing the book!

Out of curiosity, how many virtual friends do you have? Folks you know really well because you chat with them online all the time, but you’ve never heard their voice or seen them face-to-face?

Kimberly

Note: Kimberly’s latest North American release Magnate’s Mistress…Accidentally Pregnant! was out in February — watch for her next UK book What Happens in Vegas… from Modern Heat in August!

My Call Story by Caitlin Crews

Amy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:36:09 +0000

Please welcome new Harlequin Presents author Caitlin Crews to IHP today! Her first Presents novel, Pure Princess, Bartered Bride hits the shelves in North America with the February releases next month and is on sale now in the UK! North American readers can also order it now from eHarlequin.com (print) or the Harlequin eBook Store. ~Amy

by Caitlin Crews, author of Pure Princess, Bartered Bride (Harlequin Presents, February 2010)

Romance novels are really my one, true love when it comes to books. I found my first one when I was 12 years old in the local five and dime (my mother was more into spy thrillers) and I was an instant addict. Big, sweeping historicals. Sweet contemporaries. Shorter categories. My mother would drop me off at the local used book store, and pick me up again many hours later after I’d spent ages scouring the shelves and discovering so many new and new-to-me authors I’d stagger under the pile of books on my way to the car. I read and read and read. Many adults questioned my taste in books—teachers confiscated my books in school and demanded to know, in scandalized tones, what my mother would think.

I told them, truthfully, that she did not believe in censoring my reading material!

Fast forward a whole lot of years, and a whole lot of writing. I was first published in women’s fiction/chick lit, but I spent all my time at RWA conventions swooning in delight every time I saw the great names of romance happen by. I felt like I was watching my own, personal awards show—and I got to sit in the same room with women who had created stories that I lugged around with me from home to new home, unable to part with their words.

I spent all my free time reading more and more romances, single title as well as category, just as I always had. But I found myself gravitating more and more toward Presents. I just couldn’t seem to get enough of the stories– so big, so intense, and so delicious. I just loved them! And then, in the summer of 2008, I got a pair of wonderful characters in my head, and I dared myself to try and write in that fantastic Presents-style voice–which could not be more different from the other kinds of books I write. It was a whole new world for me!

I finished the chapters, polished them as best I could, and sent them in. And then I waited. Months and months, until, just over a year ago now, I got an early-morning email from the Presents office. They had read my chapters, had some thoughts/suggestions about the characters’ motivations, would be interested in seeing the whole book–and did I know when I might be able to submit the whole of it?

Well. First, I danced around a little bit in my desk chair. As you do.

I picked a date that seemed reasonable, and assured them I would submit then. I don’t know why I was so confident–I’d never written a Presents before. And I thought I could write one to a deadline?? Let me tell you, that was the roughest stretch of my life! But it was also exhilarating. I was so drawn into the story–so swept away by the world I was creating and the unbelievably alpha hero I was falling in love with as I worked my way through the story… I had no idea if anyone else would ever read or love the story, but I knew I did.

When I sent the manuscript in, I was surprised to get an email back almost at once from my editor, who told me that she was working at home, as London had been hit with a blizzard. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if she was snowbound, I thought, and bored, and just happened to click open the book I’d sent her and dive in… Well, I have no idea if she did that, but I do know that about a week later, I got another email, this one saying that Harlequin wanted to buy my book! I couldn’t believe it! I think I danced around my house–at seven in the morning! I definitely screamed! I was over the moon.

I’ve just finished my third Presents now, and I’m still over the moon, and I don’t imagine the feeling is likely to go away any time soon. My first Presents, Pure Princess, Bartered Bride, is already on sale at eHarlequin and should be showing up in bookstores soon. It’s still very hard to believe!

It wasn’t my first call–it wasn’t even a call, in fact–but it was my first sale to my first love, and I couldn’t be happier. Or more honored to be a part of the Harlequin tradition!

Further Extracts from my Diary (Had I Kept One) by Lucy King

Amy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:55:44 +0000

Lucy King first wrote “extracts from her diary” about her Feel the Heat writing competition win. Now Lucy is back with more to celebrate the North American release of that book, Bought: Damsel in Distress!

by Lucy King, author of Bought: Damsel in Distress (Harlequin Presents, January 2010)

October 2009 – After nine long months Bought: Damsel in Distress is out in the UK. I’ve been jumping up and down with anticipation and my nails are no more. Luckily the publication date happens to coincide with a visit to the UK so I’ll be able to see my book on the shelves. The first glimpse I get of it is when my sister waves a copy at me when she picks me up from the airport. While she says she thinks it’s great, she also looks a little worried. Given that the story opens with the heroine’s sister posting her on an internet auction site as a damsel in distress, my sister is understandably concerned. I tell her that she could end up with a man like Luke, which gives her pause for thought.

Over the next few weeks I sidle into various branches of WH Smith and have to pinch myself when I see my book on the shelves. My story. Typed and bound and with the most gorgeous cover. I never imagined it would happen, but incredibly, it has. Buy 3 copies and then glue myself to the computer in search of Amazon ranking and reviews. A couple of emails drop into my inbox from readers who’ve enjoyed the story, and am slightly stunned. It still hasn’t really sunk in that anyone other than family members and friends (who have had no choice) might actually be reading it.

Toy with the idea of sending a copy to James Blunt. After all, if I hadn’t caught his interview on BBC’s Top Gear, in which he revealed he’d once put his sister on eBay, the book would never have been written. Emily would never have got over her fears, Luke would never have learned to love again and I would never have had the fun of telling their story.

November 2009 – Book 2 has sold! Not without something of a struggle as I rather lost the plot. Literally. Foolishly thought that because I’d written one book I sort of knew what I was doing. Big mistake. Spent the first half of the year convinced that Bought: Damsel in Distress must have been a fluke because Book 2 turned into a bit of a nightmare. However, eventually managed to untangle the mess and shape my manuscript into something that hopefully delivers the Harlequin Presents promise. Propositioned by the Billionaire will be released in the UK in July 2010.

January 2010 – Bought: Damsel in Distress is out in the US and the thrills just keep on coming. Writing-wise, 2009 was a very steep learning curve. Fervently hope 2010 is somewhat less so.

The Pregnant Presents Writer’s Call, by Maisey Yates

Amy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:03:39 +0000

On Dec. 1, Maisey Yates got a wonderful early Christmas present — The Call from Harlequin Presents! Please welcome Maisey with her Call story!

by Maisey Yates

I’ve always wanted to write, but I haven’t always known exactly what I wanted to write. That changed when I was pregnant with my second son and I picked up my very first Harlequin romance, a Presents by Miranda Lee. I was hooked.

In that year I think I read over three hundred Presents. I couldn’t get enough of them. I loved the glamour, the passion and the seduction. And I decided I wanted to try to write one. But when I went to Harlequin’s website site and saw the guidelines for submission I was so intimidated at the thought of trying to submit that…I just didn’t try. Until I saw the announcement for the Instant Seduction contest.

I sat down to write my chapter and synopsis and after a couple of weeks, with butterflies in my stomach, I entered my chapter into the contest. That step was the confidence boost I needed to start writing a manuscript that I could get ready for submission the traditional way.

By the time the contest results were announced a couple of months later, I had finished a complete manuscript. I didn’t get any feedback from the Instant Seduction contest, but by then I felt absolutely committed to the manuscript I had completed, and I sent the partial all the way from Oregon to the Richmond office.

In the months that my manuscript waited in the slush pile, Harlequin held the Feel the Heat contest for Modern Heat. I entered that contest as well, and again, got no feedback other than the standard form letter. I was feeling pretty dejected at that point! I wasn’t sure what hope the Manuscript I’d sent had with two contests behind me and no personalized feedback to show for it.

But, only a week later I received a letter from the United Kingdom. I had been waiting seven months at that point and, as I opened the letter with (very) shaky hands, I anticipated a rejection.

I spent the next month or so working on revisions with the help of my lovely critique group and my patient (and gorgeous!) husband. After much agonizing, I resent my partial with (still) shaking hands.

A couple of months later another letter landed in my mail box. This time a request for the full manuscript. I was (and sort of still am) totally shocked. So much so that I literally couldn’t speak, and as my husband can attest to, that is an unusual turn of events. I imagine he must have thought I was somewhat crazy when I came running into the house waving a letter in the air, unable to string two words together.

I sent the full manuscript and three weeks later, received another revision letter, this time in my inbox. I was so excited that it wasn’t a rejection I set to work right away getting the revisions done, once again with my lovely critique group offering me much cyber support.

About six weeks after returning those revisions I got yet another revision letter. And at this point I’m just feeling eternally grateful for my editor’s patience! After completing those I sent them (yeah, hands still shaking). I had a feeling that this would be it. Three rounds of revisions. It had to be rejection or acceptance.

So I cringed every time of opened my email and jumped every time the phone rang. And then, on December 1^st, I got up and checked my email first thing. There was one from Jenny Hutton sitting in my inbox. She asked if she could call me and talk about the manuscript sometime that morning. And after squealing and jumping up and down (as best as a woman who is eight months pregnant can), I calmed down enough to get the phone and tell my husband my editor was going to call. Well, it may have come out more like “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!! She’s going to Call me!!!”

And then the phone rang at 8:00 am and a woman with a very lovely, sophisticated accent asked to speak to me. And then she offered to buy my book. Of course I said yes.

It’s a dream come true to write for Presents. I’m a true fan of the line and seeing my name on (here in the US) that white cover with the red stripe and the very beautiful people in the circle makes me absolutely giddy. In fact, I foresee being completely giddy for the next few years.

Family Gatherings (and How to Survive Them)! by Carol Marinelli

Amy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:30:28 +0000

by Carol Marinelli, author of Bedded for Passion, Purchased for Pregnancy (Harlequin Presents, Dec. 2009)

Does the thought make you smile, or go “yikes!”?

It’s that time of year again and I’ve worked several Christmas’s in Emergency, so I am sure that a few of you will know what I mean!

My December book – Bedded for Passion, Purchased for Pregnancy — isn’t a Christmas book, but it does start off with a big family gathering that has a rather unexpected guest.

I felt so much for Emma, my heroine, when she found out at the last minute that Zarios D’Amilo was coming to the party. I could just imagine the horror and the chaos and the EXCITEMENT it would create, at one of my family gatherings, if a Presents Hero suddenly dropped in.

All I had to do was imagine the sexiest guy on earth, landing on my mother’s doorstep and picture the sudden frenzy. I could just hear my mother announcing that he would be sleeping in my old room and the rapid clean up that would ensue…

I mean, a Presents Hero just doesn’t belong in our old bedroom, does he?

Nor do we usually find him at a family gathering, with uncles and aunts and a brother whose trouble, oh, and throw in a cougar or two.

Poor Emma!

So, for a bit of fun, and we all need it, I’m asking what you would quickly have to take care of, if you found a Presents Hero in your Christmas stocking….

You can cheat, you don’t have to factor in your DH because that just complicates things, but you do have to imagine that sexy Sheikh, or in my case Zarios, striding in, and catching you and your loved ones as you truly are. If things do get a bit heated on Christmas day, well, off to your imagination you go and do the same – your hero will still love you if you burn the turkey, or forget batteries, or can’t find the tonic for the gin. He’ll just smile that secret smile and so will you.

Okay, I’ll go first -

Before he arrived, the second I found out that he was coming, I’d have to sort out my toe nails.

I always mean to, but I generally cram them into stilettos if I’m pushed for time, but, if I knew a Presents Hero was suddenly arriving, I’d be racing to the corner shop (hoping it was open on Christmas Morning) for some nail varnish remover… (just in case he wants to kiss my toes!)

Happy holidays,

Carol x

Emma Darcy Celebrates 100 Romance Novels!

Amy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:07:38 +0000

Emma Darcy has written an astounding 100 romance novels–and #100, The Master Player, is on shelves now in North America! Here, Emma remembers some of her favourite books…what are yours?

by Emma Darcy, author of The Master Player (Harlequin Presents, Dec. 2009)

THE MASTER PLAYER is my 100th romance. I know there are some of you who have read every one of them. What an amazing journey we have shared! I wonder if my most memorable stories over this writing span of twenty-six years are the same as yours…

THE WRONG MIRROR and MERRY CHRISTMAS for their sheer life drama – I wept many tears living those situations.

My first sheikh book, THE FALCON’S MISTRESS – so wonderfully exotic – and THE SECRET MISTRESS – huge drama in South America with my one Argentinian hero.

THE UPSTAIRS LOVER and JACK’S BABY – for the sheer fun in them.

BRIDE OF HIS CHOICE and The Outback Kings trilogy – very strong stories driven by family history, as so many lives are.

But my all-time favourite is THEIR WEDDING DAY: a magnificent hero slays all the heroine’s dragons and is the perfect father – a fairytale prince in their minds – for the children who have been deserted by her husband.

Because I loved this story so much, I wanted to choose another wonderfully masterful hero and a similar theme – White Knight to the rescue – for this, my 100th book. I do hope you enjoy it.

It has been the longest pleasure of my life, being a romance author – like being a fairy godmother who can wave a magic wand and make everything turn out right – and I want to thank you, my readers, for making it possible.

With love always
Emma Darcy

Kate Hewitt on Christmas Traditions

Amy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:03:29 +0000

by Kate Hewitt, author of Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage (Harlequin Presents Extra, November 2009)

I love Christmas! I love everything about it, from the promise of snow to decorating a Christmas tree to opening the presents underneath. I love Christmas carols and hanging up stockings and making gingerbread cookies. So I was especially excited to write a story set around Christmas.

Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage takes place during the month of December on the fictional island Amarnes off the coast of Norway. As a way to enhance the story, I researched a variety of Christmas traditions from Scandinavian countries. Since Amarnes isn’t a real place, I freely borrowed from several countries’ traditions, some of which I’d never heard of before.

Did you know, for example, that in Denmark Christmas Eve dinner starts with a pudding that has a magic almond inside? The person who finds it wins a prize. In Sweden, presents are distributed by a julbok, or Christmas goat! And in Norway children await a visit from a nisse who looks a bit like Santa Claus but actually plays tricks on people—he was originally blamed for taking the cattle’s hay to feed the horses. They leave him a bowl of rice pudding or similar treat to keep him from playing too many tricks. The nisse has a special place in Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage and Phoebe and Leo’s developing love for and trust in one another.

While each country may have a particular Christmas tradition, families can have unique ways of celebrating too. When I married my husband, I was amazed at how different some of our traditions were. His family always opened one present on Christmas Eve, while we would never dream of touching a present until Christmas morning! When my husband suggested we open a present on Christmas Eve the first year we were married, I was horrified! I’ve since learned to adapt—a little bit .

We now have four children and we enjoy creating new traditions unique to our family—we sing Silent Night on Christmas Eve, and always have cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Also, during the Advent season every child receives a new ornament to put on the tree, as well as a new figurine for our crèche scene.

What about you? What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?