by Christina Hollis, author of The Count of Castelfino (Harlequin Presents, July 2010)

I love traveling – once it’s all over and I’m safely back home!

The excitement starts with choosing and booking.  Town or country, at home or abroad? Should it be a sun drenched Greek Island this year? Paris in the Spring? Or my own particular favourite, a villa tucked away in the hills of Tuscany? Enthusiasm builds, and the tickets arrive. Then the work starts. First, there’s arranging to have all the livestock fed, watered and regularly checked over while we’re away.  Next, there’s packing. And then repacking, and negotiating, as our party includes a beautiful teenager who has to go fully equipped. As I was once nineteen myself, I know exactly what she’s going equipped for.  So I worry, which barely leaves me enough time to anticipate accidents, illness and acts of God!

Once a year, I manage to slip away to London on my own for a few days. It’s a real contrast to my daily life in the middle of nowhere, giving me the excuse to get out from behind the computer and explore. Last year, in front of a rank of buildings that looked like something out of Charles Dickens was a chalk sign pointing through a shadowy entrance to ‘THE PLACE YOUR MOTHER WARNED YOU ABOUT.’  That’s it.  No cheery exclamation mark, just a grim warning. Who could resist that? I couldn’t, but the place was closed while one person busily scrubbed down the paving slabs with masses of hot soapy water and another washed the windows.  Hmm — not so scary after all. Or maybe they were cleaning away the evidence of the most recent crime?

That’s the trouble with being a writer.  If a real life solution seems a bit tame, there’s a terrible temptation to embroider the facts. In the town, people and buildings crowd in on all sides. Everyone and everything has a story to tell.  Out in the countryside, a good storm provides drama while birdsong and the fragrance of flowers sets the scene for romance. I love writing about both town and country, but on balance, I prefer natural settings rather than man-made. That’s one of the many reasons I loved writing The Count of Castelfino, which is released in July as a Presents Extra. Meg gets to indulge her love of orchids and other exotic plants in the sumptuous surroundings of an old Italian estate. In return, she must work hard to win her employer Gianni around to her way of thinking — but with all that sun, blue sky and birdsong, business starts to take a back seat…

What’s your favourite setting for a romance – town excitement, or country sensuality?

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When she isn’t reading, writing or wrangling swarms of honeybees, you can catch up with Christina here -

Website: http://www.christinahollis.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter/com/christinabooks

Facebook: http://bit.ly/9rv4df

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by Annie West, author of Scandal: His Majesty’s Love-Child (Harlequin Presents, July 2010. Final book in the Dark-Hearted Desert Men series)

It doesn’t sound right, does it? In fact it sounds downright mean to suggest you’d enjoy someone else’s pain. But that’s what romance writers (and, I’d propose romance readers), enjoy.

OK, I’m not actually saying that we get a kick out of someone else’s pain. But, when a hero is tortured by their past, it makes him ripe for the plucking by some enterprising romance author.

A wounded hero is so interesting – all those hidden layers to discover. Their behaviour is affected by what’s gone before, often in an attempt to protect themselves or someone they care for from further hurt. Or perhaps it’s colored their assessment of others, making them ready to jump to conclusions about people’s motives and methods.

I’ve written wounded heroes before. The man who’d lost his family as a child in traumatic circumstances, driven to regain the trappings of his family’s past wealth and possessions and home, in lieu of having a family himself. The hero who’s lost his memory of the woman he loved. The one who’s determined to wreak vengeance on the person who destroyed his mother. The man who’ll do anything to save his child rather than watch her suffer. I’m sure if you think through the Presents titles you’ve read you’ll find plenty of men with pasts – pasts that have made them suffer and change.

Recently I had the absolute pleasure of discovering another wounded hero. I was lucky enough to be asked to write the final book in the Dark Hearted Desert Men series to follow books by Carol Marinelli, Jennie Lucas and Trish Morey.

Tahir, from my July Presents ‘Scandal: His Majesty’s Love-Child’ isn’t driven by vengeance or the need to build a world to replace the one he’s lost. He’s is the consummate loner. He’s made and lost and made again several fortunes. He has wealth, power, prestige, women who vie for his attention, a jet setting life of business, extreme sports and high stakes gambling. Yet it all means nothing to him. He’s discovered that despite his ‘success’ in the material world, he cares for none of it. If you want to find out what he’s like then visit my website http://www.annie-west.com and you’ll find an excerpt on the book page.

Oh, what a joy he was to write! Though he had it all, Tahir instantly grabbed my sympathy. Beneath the uber sophisticated gloss was a man suffering from his past. Yet a man who didn’t take out his dissatisfaction on others. He was still, at core, a decent man, though he’d be the last person to think so. Even when he believes his actions are tainted by selfish need, he behaves with honor. And I loved him for that!  As Tahir became alive on the page the more I wanted him to find the happiness he’d been cheated of. I couldn’t wait for him to discover the one woman who could redeem him and help him lay the ghosts of his past.

Fortunately for him, he finds that woman even in the most unlikely of places. Stranded in the desert after a chopper smash, he’s saved by a woman who doesn’t fit his glamorous world. Yet Annalisa brings out feelings he’d thought long buried. She makes him long for what he’s denied himself – love. Even when he returns to the ‘real’ world – to life in a palace, he discovers Annalisa has changed his life, as he’s changed hers.

I love romantic heroes of all sorts, especially if they’re one of the strong alpha heroes we find in Presents. But there’s something about a wounded hero that really grabs me. Maybe it’s my nurturing instinct, wanting to protect him from past and present hurts, even though he’s the epitome of the strong, capable man we all admire. Or my delight in cheering someone who’s survived bad experiences and yet keeps going, refusing to be bowed. Maybe too there’s something about having a soft spot for a bad boy, and wanting to be the one who helps him change his ways.

What about you? Do you enjoy stories about wounded heroes? Do you triumph when they overcome the odds and find happiness? Do you have any stand out favourites?

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Today we have a Harlequin Presents reader blogging about why she loves the books! ~Amy

By Harlequin Presents fan MK Sidhu

Between working, going to the gym, picking up groceries, making meals, and sleeping, the normal course of a day for me (or sometimes even the entire week!), can be very much go-go-go. Yes, weekends are lovely for socializing with girlfriends and downtime with the hubby is always a bonus but when it comes to relaxing and taking time off just for myself I would have to say it would be a tie between going to the spa and reading romances.

My hubby would tell you that of the two, reading is definitely easier on the budget and I would have to agree. Putting aside an hour or two at some moment in the day and allowing myself to be drawn into a story that has been written to be romantic and full of emotion is one of the most relaxing activities that I can think of.

Harlequin stories, especially the Presents series, really do “present” this opportunity (pardon the pun). I can literally indulge myself into a romantic tale filled with exotic locations, deliciously passionate men and beautiful endings right from the comfort of my living room. And because length isn’t over 200 pages for most Presents books, I don’t have to worry about having to put the book down time and time again and can usually finish it in one sitting: a huge bonus because there is nothing that is more annoying that having to put a book down just when things are getting good.

My favorite authors are Lynne Graham, Susan Napier, Sandra Marton, Miranda Lee and Helen Bianchin and I think I’m often drawn to their stories due to the fact that not only do they present strong male leads but their stories are the stuff that romance is all about: who doesn’t want to be swept off to a foreign island by a wealthy, intense, passionate alpha Greek male? Or watch the awkward duckling transform into the beautiful swan?  These situations are often at the heart of the Presents series and even though I know that the ending of a book is to be sure a happily-ever-after, the pleasure is in seeing how my favorite authors reach that ending with different sets of characters and settings, and what obstacles love will overcome: it has been this way for the past 10 years that I’ve been reading and I hope this never changes.

by Joanna T., aspiring author

Hello everyone, I’m an aspiring writer  and an avid Presents reader. I would like to share a story with you. I was one of those who received the R form back in December after the iHeart 2009 Writing Competition, in spite of the feelings that such form can bring, I must say that it was the best thing that ever happened to me during my short writing trail.

Don’t worry, I’m not insane yet. Please allow me to explain. We all remember the aftermath of the competition, well, some of us looked at the positive side. Thanks to it, I found the wonderful group of ladies who are today my critique group, which is a blessing in this hard road toward publication.

I want to thank the iheartpresents.com staff, Amy, our hostess, and my friend Christine Carmichael. Who formed our critique group inspired by another group who met at the iheartpresents.com after the Feel the Heat Competition, the Seven Sassy Sisters.

A lot happened after Christine convoked members for our critique group, Angels of Romance. 18 members replied, too many for a critique group. Christine asked if some of us would like to form small groups of our own. Four groups were created. Concerned that we would lose touch with one another, I came up with the idea of creating a group only for networking purposes, and sharing information among us.

That’s how Romance Angel’s Network was born. Today there are 36 members inside the group, many who didn’t participate in the contest. And in spite of my insistence of having smaller groups for critique purposes, members started sharing their work inside it. Recently, Christine and I decided to make the group a huge critique one, and for privacy concerns stop accepting new members. For networking we created Twitter and Facebook pages, and so far it has been a great experience. We share information, have little contests to encourage writing, pamper one another when new Rs keep coming, etc.

Writing is no longer a lonesome craft, and every day we learn together more and more in this challenging journey we once took by ourselves. So if you are writing all by yourself, try to find like-minded aspiring writers and form a group, you will always be grateful of doing it.

This week on the blog was a little thin for content, so I put out a call for posts by readers!  So for the next few days, we’ll have some posts by fans and aspiring authors. First up is Rachael Johns, who’s no stranger to IHP Welcome back, Rachael! ~Amy

by aspiring author Rachael Johns

In 2008, I got the next best thing to THE CALL. I woke up to an email from M&B editor Joanne Grant telling me that I’d come runner-up in their FEEL THE HEAT writing competition. Saying I was ecstatic, elated and over the moon, is putting it mildly.

This was it. I could feel it in my bones. The editor I was allocated sent me an email gushing about my first chap and requesting the full mss. This. Was. It. I LOVED this story and I was dead-set certain all the Eds would love it too. Surely I would be published within a matter of months.

So, with a month old baby, I set to work to finish the damn book. I sent it off and wiled the time away thinking about who I’d dedicate the book to, drafting acknowledgements and fantasying about how I’d tell all my friends and family that I’d sold. Oh and I also started my next idea.

I jumped the gun a bit and started telling a lot more people about my secret life of romance writing. I told them I’d won this contest and that I was now working with an Ed.

Fast forward two years later.

That FTH entry was ultimately REJECTED for underdeveloped conflicts and an unheroic heroine – she climbed in the hero’s rubbish bin looking for dirt on him and tricked him into taking her for a ride in his limo. Thankfully I was given the chance to sub my next mss directly to the Ed. Unfortunately it was rejected at partial stage!

OUCH!!!

Surely I couldn’t go backwards? I’d come runner-up in an official M&B contest. I’d finally had a full mss requested. What if that was it? What if that was the ultimate? The peak of my writing career? What if everyone I’d told about my writing now spoke behind their hands about me in the supermarket. ‘Oh look, there’s that silly woman who thinks she can write romance novels? Poor thing.’

These are very real worries for me. Don’t laugh, I’m serious. But I don’t have any choice but to keep going. I LOVE what I do. I LOVE creating up two characters who are so totally wrong for each other and yet at the same time so totally right. I love the social life I’ve got through writing and the friends I’ve made. I love reading books by people I know! And I still have the dream that there’ll be a book of mine on a shelf somewhere to read one day.

Almost two years after THAT email, I am still working with an ed (a different one than originally albeit) and I have just received a dreaded and painful REJECTION on another full mss. The ONLY consolation is that it made it to the senior ed’s desk.

So it’s back to the drawing board. Back to being that silly woman in the supermarket who thinks that maybe one day she can write romance! LOL!

My mission now is to read as many book as I can in the Romance line where I’ve been directed to aim my next submission and then write the best book I can. Only the Cosmos knows what the outcome will be but whatever it is… I’ll keep writing! I don’t have any other choice!

Update: Amy’s a bad blogger! I totally forgot to add that Rachael originally posted a version of this update on Seven Sassy Sisters, the blog for her critique group with some fellow aspiring Presents/M&B authors. Sorry Rach!

by Janette Kenny, author of Innocent in the Italians Possession (Harlequin Presents, June 2010)

There’s a deliciously dangerous threat that pulses on the pages when the rebellious son comes home.  This is the man whose views were way outside the box.  The man who refused to conform.  The one who snubbed his nose to tradition in favor of a better way—his way.

His only chance to succeed was to escape his constraints.  That was the only way he could flourish.  And oh, how this hero can prosper when left to his own devises!  Give the rebel clout and a reason he must return home and he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.  When he takes over the family or rival business, it will put everyone on edge.

I love it when the rebel leaves the life he was born into under less that hospitable circumstances, for this type pain is what fuels the inner drive in him that knows no bounds.  He’s made his own fortune through dint of will, superb business instincts and courage.  He has proven his naysayers wrong, and he likely strikes fear and/or awe in his detractors.

His stellar achievements force others to look up to him simply because he’s the type of man who commands respect.  He likely has an ax to grind, with any number of people, or the situation, he’s trust into.  Sparks really fly when he’s opposed to the heroine!

Stefano Marinetti, the hero in my June Presents, Innocent in the Italian’s Possession, is that rebel.  He was the second son, the one who took a backseat to everything in the family, including their shipbuilding business.  His innovative ideas for improving sea worthy vessels was immediately met with opposition.

So Stefano had no choice but leave the family fold, because he refused to play second fiddle to his elder brother.  Because he believed there was a better way.

Now the estranged son has been begged to take over the family business in the wake of tragedy.  Stefano doesn’t want to be there.  Doesn’t have the heart to build up the business that his father has nearly destroyed, which Stefano is sure, in part, is due to his father lavishly romancing his sexy, young secretary.

But he won’t turn his back on his father either.  His Italian blood boils with vengeance for he perceives Gemma Cardone is a heartless mercenary.  There is only one solution in Stefano’s mind – revenge!

Gemma is caught in an untenable situation, honor bound to hold the secret that would tear apart Stefano’s fragile family.  There’s only way she can prove her innocence without divulging the truth–surrender herself to Stefano.  That’s a prospect that becomes oh, too tempting!

I’m thrilled to announce that Innocent in the Italian’s Possession was a Border’s Group top-ten romance, and it marked my debut appearance on the USA Today Bestseller list!

I hope you enjoy Stefano’s and Gemma’s journey to love as much as I enjoyed writing it!  Do you have a favorite second son, or rebel hero story?  What is it about Italian men that makes them so sexy?

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by Nicola Marsh, author of Overtime in the Boss’s Bed (Harlequin Presents Extra, June 2010)

All you writers out there, how many times have you been asked if your stories are purely fiction?

Ever had a friend give you a *nudge, nudge, wink, wink* and ask if any part of your book (especially those scenes) are based on fact?

Until now, I’ve safely answered in the negative.

Then along comes my current release OVERTIME IN THE BOSS’S BED…where I can honestly say a scene is based firmly in reality.

Now, before you all rush off and start flicking pages to decipher which one, I’ll let you in on the secret.

The scene where Starr has found a new home, a gorgeous comfy cottage she adores, a place she finally feels safe again?

And lightning strikes the cottage, explodes roof tiles, sizzles the electrics?

All true.

Happened to me last year while I was writing this book and for some strange reason I inserted it into the book.

Mind you, it gives Starr a great excuse to run into the macho, protective arms of Callum Cartwright.  Lucky girl, considering my hero was away for the weekend at the time I was frazzled over our house being sizzled.

So it’s ‘fess up time.

As writers, do you base your fiction on reality?  Or is it all pure imagination?

Tell all!

To find out more about my rampant imagination, drop by my website at http://www.nicolamarsh.com and blog http://www.nicolamarsh.blogspot.com

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Mira Lyn Kelly’s debut novel is out this month in North America! Please join us in celebrating the release of Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? with Mira today ~Amy

by Mira Lyn Kelly, author of Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? (Harlequin Presents Extra, June 2010)

When the box of author copies arrived at the house a few months ago, I thought I’d about died and gone to heaven. All those pretty books with their smoking hot make-out covers and my name on the front! Could anything be better?

This week I found out the answer to that question was a resounding yes. A shout it from the rooftops yes! A When Harry Met Sally style Yes, yes, YES!!

Because this week, I experienced the utter mind-blowing joy of seeing the culmination of all my hard work, hopes and dreams shelved at the local store. It took my breath away, surpassing my expectations of that much anticipated moment in ways I never imagined.

Which got me thinking about Jake and Cali, the hero and heroine of WILD FLING OR A WEDDING RING?, and the fun I had needling at their expectations for a single, irresistible bar-side encounter… and then taking that momentary indulgence farther than either of them expected it could go.

…maybe she just wanted to remember what it felt like to have a gorgeous man trying for her smile. After all, it wasn’t as though this Jake Tyler was asking her to dump her career to be with him. He was just a sexy bit of sporting flirtation. Harmless. Fun. A guy she’d never see again and couldn’t affect her future one iota.

Cali doesn’t have room in her life for romance…but what could be the harm of just a few minutes attention from this tall, dark, and sexy as sin stranger? Well, here’s the back cover copy to give you a hint…

On her first night in Chicago, Cali McGovern meets seriously sexy surgeon Jake Tyler. Since she’s still sore after her last relationship, her head’s yelling Run—but her body’s screaming for his touch…. For the first time ever, her head gets overruled!

Jake isn’t looking for a wife—been there, done that. But his hot new neighbor is in town just long enough for a wild fling…perfect! Yet when the time’s up, he can’t say goodbye. Is that just because of their sizzling chemistry—or something a whole lot scarier?

I loved writing this book and I couldn’t be more thrilled that it’s finally available to share with you!

~Mira

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by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

Here are our Harlequin Presents USA TODAY bestsellers for June (list ending June 6)!

#89: A Night, A Secret…A Child by Miranda Lee

#96: Forbidden: The Sheikh’s Virgin by Trish Morey

#102: Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife by Sabrina Philips

#106: The Master’s Mistress by Carole Mortimer

#111: The Prince’s Royal Concubine by Lynn Raye Harris

Congrats to all the authors!

Updated June 17: I somehow missed that Janette Kenny also hit #112 on the USA Today bestseller list with Innocent in the Italian’s Possession. Way to go Janette, and sorry it was left off the original post!

Note: In addition to the lovely tribute to Elizabeth Oldfield by Sandra Marton yesterday, Harlequin Presents Executive Editor Tessa Shapcott also had a few words in memory of late author Elizabeth Oldfield.

by Executive Editor Tessa Shapcott

It is with great sadness that the Mills & Boon editorial team in London has learned of the death of author, Elizabeth Oldfield.

Elizabeth began her career with Harlequin Presents in 1982 and went on to publish forty books with the series, until deciding to move into longer women’s fiction.  Her novel, Vintage Babes, was published in 2007.

Elizabeth’s writing style reflected her personality – passionate, witty and warm.  She will be sorely missed by fellow authors and her editors at Mills & Boon, as well as millions of readers around the globe.

Tessa Shapcott

Executive Editor