The Pink Heart Society

Weekend Wind Down :: NaNoWriMo!!

2009-11-07T00:00:00.004Z

Jenna Bayley-Burke is here with The Pink Heart Society annual NaNoWriMo post!!

What is NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month comes every November. All around the world, writers vow to collect words until they hit 50,000, throwing aside all notions that tell them that they can’t. It is the brainchild of No Plot No Problem author Chris Baty. Each year the NaNoWriMo website and forum teem with writers hopeful to turn someday into today.

Anyone with an inkling they want to write a novel can join the NaNoWriMo brigade. It’s free, it’s fast, and it even has perks like a laptop loaner program, a free copy of your NaNo novel from LuLu if you finish, and a great reason to head out to your local community NaNo meeting and find likeminded writers in your area. If you’d prefer an online writing group, Romance Divas and eHarlequin both host specialized groups in their forums during November.

For years I found something wrong with the stories I wrote, usually right around chapter four. I’d drop it like a hot potato, chasing after the next idea so I’d soon forget I meant to go back and finish. Until I signed up for National Novel Writers Month in 2004, and forced myself to muddle through that fourth chapter, following it with more chapters until Just One Spark had a beginning, middle and an end. It became my first finished - and published book, put out by Mills & Boon in 2006.

Drafting a novel in thirty days isn’t for everyone, but for those who’ve never finished a novel, the magic of a deadline does pull you across the finish line. And those writers who hope to write category can benefit from the discipline. The draft that you have at the end of the month isn’t publishable, but it is fixable. As a great romance writer once said, you can’t fix a blank page.

Some might be concerned about how good a book could possibly be if it only took a month to write. There is magic in a book that spins together quickly. Don't take my word for it, be sure to read fabulous authors like Romance newcomer Nikki Logan & Modern Heat’s Natalie Anderson both of whom have told some amazing stories with stories they disovered in under 30 days.

What are you waiting for? Don’t write a novel someday, write it this November.

Jenna is actually writing this November. While she's busy, be sure to check out Compromising Positions -- available with chocolate, Kama Sutra yoga, a decade old crush and a steady addiction to sugar. To find out what Jenna is up to now...check out her website or daily NaNoWriMo reports on her blog.

Must Watch Friday - Spooks

2009-11-06T06:19:00.000Z

Last month Kate Walker talked about her love of spooky ghost stories. This time, with the must watch TV slot, her focus is on some very different sort of Spooks.

Spooks is back. My autumn (Fall) viewing treat is guaranteed. I have a date and a space on my living-room sofa every Wednesday 9pm BBC 1 - for Spooks. (Well, I also have one for Flash Forward but that’s another topic.) Spooks is back and I’m happy. I’m also at the end of the current book and so can afford a little extra time to just totally relax, enjoy – and do some heavy duty research.

This is series 8 and so far nothing has grown tired or totally repetitive, the characters still fascinate even when the political machinations, behind the scenes machinations and need to save the world every week can sometimes blur into one. But it’s the characters who matter. I can still remember the first episode of the last series that had me sitting in the edge of my seat, watching Adam Carter played by Rupert Penry Jones drive a car that was literally a ticking bomb through London, thinking ‘They can’t. kill him off . . they won’t. . .’ But they can and they did. The car exploded and one of the main reasons for watching was gone. Spooks is like that. They are not precious with their stars. As the cast have often commented no one is safe on Spooks. Anyone can be killed off at any time.

And it’s that edge of the seat quality, the sheer sofa-chewing, nuclear bomb-defusing vividness of last December’s season-ending cliffhanger, that when the show blazed back onto our screens last night after a gap of almost a year it was as if time itself had stood still, leaving us effortlessly picking up the story with Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) the old –school knight of the realm, head of MI5’s counter-terrorism division still in the clutches of a Russian from Putin’s security service, trussed up in the boot of a car with tape across his mouth and that ‘they can and they might’ sense exerting its grip all over again

Spooks, after all, has a remarkably cavalier approach to its leading characters, and has a considerably higher personnel turnover than most long-running series. In fact, landing a big role here is just one step away from booking a spot on the mortuary slab – in the TV studios at least. No fewer than 12 major characters have been brutally decommissioned over the course of the last seven seasons, with almost the entire cast being regularly refreshed by way of bullet, bomb, radium injection or – most controversially – a head in a deep fat fryer. On this show, you’re lucky to make it to the end of an episode, let alone settle in for a comfortable retirement. And its that nerve-shredding feeling that you can’t relax and think ‘he/she’s a star so it’ll be all right’ that gives the show it’s extra special pull.

But for however long they last, the stars are worth the hour spent watching it every week. And that’s where the research come in. From the start the cast has been filled with the sort of actors who can deliver lines that can sometimes veer into ‘we have to save the world’ silliness with the sort of clench-jawed control and sang froid that somehow holds it just this side of melodrama in spite of the endless and often bonkers conspiracies they have to fight – both in the outside world and within ‘the Grid’ itself. (Because that’s another thing about Spooks – you can rarely, if ever, believe that just because a character has access to the central ‘grid’ they are in fact squeaky clean and totally trustworthy. Some aren’t and the revelation of just who can’t be trusted is another of those ‘Oh, they can’t’ elements because again they can - and they do.) )

Those stars have included , along with Peter Firth, Hugh Simon and Gemma Jones as the older team, the ever watchable Matthew MacFadayen, Keeley Hawes, Ruprt Penry-Jones, Hermione Norris, Alex Lanipekun. And that’s without including the list of guest stars such as Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy, Tim McInnerny, Bruce Payne, Ian McDiarmid, Jimi Mistry, Andy Serkis, Andrew Tiernan, Anton Lesser, Anupam Kher, Alexander Siddig and Anthony Head.

And the last series provided compensation for the loss of Adam with then introduction of the new – and decidedly ambiguous - character of Lucas North played by the man the Romantic Novelists’ Association voted the sexiest thing on two legs – Richard Armitage. And as someone who has been addicted to dark, brooding , possibly untrustworthy, definitely ambiguous heroes who might turn out to be villains, this piece of casting just added to the ‘must see’ quality of the show. Especially when the BBC killed off Guy of Gisborne over on the much less watchable Robin Hood.

Incidentally, in an interview about this new season of Spooks, Richard Armitage admitted that he trained as a dancer, and his best dance was the Argentinian Tango. Now that is an Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars I’d love to see. But for now I’ll settle for the heavy-duty research of Lucas North, steely blue eyes narrowed as he deals with one of Spook’s many puzzles, and many more villains - or those eyes warming as he charms the female American agent into cooperating with the scheme he has planned.

Spooks still delivers high-class escapism at its slickest, most glamorous and entertaining. Over the years it has had its ups and downs. But the last series managed to claw things back superbly, balancing pin-sharp characterisation with plots of such tension-ratcheting complexity that a rollercoaster ride was virtually guaranteed in every episode. If last night’s opener was anything to judge by, series eight promises to be just as good.

Kate Walker’s latest Presents title Kept For Her Baby is still available in Presents EXTRA. And the hero, Ricardo was inspired by none other than Richard Armitage in the last season of Spooks.

One reviewer called this book “a masterpiece that will live in the hearts of the reader for many years to come!” (We Write Romance)

You can find out more about Kate and her books on her website or her blog

Thursday Reading - YA Books Aren't Just Twilight!

2009-11-05T00:00:00.000Z

Brigid Coady is talking about her recent reading experiences.

I’m putting my hand up to confess that recently I have mostly been reading Young Adult books. Why you may ask? Why am I reading YA instead of grown up books?

Well I say to you that some of the best stories out there are being written for the YA market. Yes I have read the Twilight books and seen the movie (Robert Pattinson swoon) but there are some other YA books out there.

Here are some reasons I love YA books and what I am learning from them:

1. They mix up the genres, everything is YA whether crime, romance, paranormal, fantasy or historical. And sometimes they can be all of the above. They make me think out of the box, mix things up and take chances.

2. The books grip you from the start. These books are being written for an audience that has so many other pulls on their time. If they want to keep them reading they have to get in, grip you and keep it going till the end. I am learning loads about writing brilliant beginnings and pacing.

3. Who doesn’t remember being a teenager? Everything was more intense, ups and downs seemed more catastrophic. We had our first loves, our first kisses, our first dates. When I read YA books it comes flooding back and it reminds me of the intensity.

And because I am a nice person I’m going to recommend some recent books I’ve read.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before—and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...

I read this book in one sitting and then haunted the bookshop until the second one came out! Brilliant, disturbing with a love triangle that has you picking teams.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
I'm Annabel. I'm the girl who has it all. Model looks, intelligence, a great social life. I'm one of the lucky ones. Aren't I? My 'best friend' Sophie is spreading rumours about me. My family is slowly falling apart. It's turning into a long, lonely summer, full of secrets and silence. But I've met this guy who won't let me hide away. He's one of those intense types, obsessed with music and totally unafraid of confrontation. He's determined to make me listen. Will I ever find the courage to tell him what really happened the night Sophie and I stopped being friends?

I would actually recommend any book by Sarah Dessen including ‘The Truth About Forever’ and ‘Lock and Key’.

They have all had me up until 2am sobbing my heart out by the end. Funny, sad, heart wrenching and dealing with difficult issues in a sympathetic way.

So go on, tell me what YA books have you been reading lately?

Brigid Coady is currently NaNoWriMoing (as BeeCee - come buddy up). She is finishing off ‘Bah Humbug!” and starting on a YA story of her own. Her short story ‘The Great Leap Forward’ will be published by Tonto Books in ‘Even More Tonto Short Stories’.

Writer’s Wednesday—Pondering Tension… aka An Excuse to Watch TV!

2009-11-04T00:00:00.003Z

It's Wednesday at The Pink Heart Society, so we'll be writerly and talk about, you know, writing. Thankfully, Steeple Hill author Missy Tippens stopped by to make it fun!

Missy Tippens, here. I’ve recently discovered yet another reason to watch TV. :) To study tension in a story.

Have you ever watched a show week after week and been totally hooked. But then bam!, they do something that defuses the tension, and you find you’ve lost interest? Think of the classic example of this…Moonlighting.

I was pondering this the other night after watching the movie Tristan and Isolde. Man, what conflict there: loyalty vs loyalty. In Tristan’s case, it was loyalty to the man who saved him and took him in as a son (and also to country) versus loyalty to his true love (and thus self).Painful to watch. And it made me realize the proposal I’m working on doesn't have that kind of tension. It reminded me that we have to be sure come up with book-length conflict, and we can’t give our characters a break! The readers have to want to keep reading to the end of the book before they get the big payoff.

So what am I doing to add that tension to my proposal? I pulled out one of my favorite how-to workbooks, Alicia Rasley’s The Story Within Guidebook. In her books, she talks about heroic conflicts such as loyalty vs loyalty and gives a helpful list of some common heroic conflicts/issues. So I’m in the process of figuring out the type conflict my characters will be facing.

In my new release from Steeple Hill Love Inspired, A Forever Christmas, I planned these conflicts in the early stages of writing. For my heroine, Sarah, her conflict is betrayal versus trust (the hero, Gregory, had betrayed her in their past and she has to learn to trust him again). For Gregory, it is guilt versus expiation (he needs forgiveness for past mistakes to be able to move on and love again). And neither of these conflicts could be resolved until the end! I have to admit, this is one weakness of mine. I have a hard time creating conflict (torturing my characters) because I don’t like conflict in real life. But I’m learning to stick it to ‘em. And if I ease up on that tension in the least, my editor lets me know! :)

What about you? What do you do to make sure to keep that tension running through the whole story?

Missy Tippens’ third book for Steeple Hill Love Inspired, A Forever Christmas, has just released. Read an excerpt at e-harlequin.com. It’s also available at Amazon.com or on the shelves wherever you buy Harlequin books.

Temptation Tuesday - Stationery

2009-11-03T00:00:00.014Z

Today our columnist Annie West explores a widespread but little discussed temptation - stationery!

It doesn’t sound as sexy as a Male on Monday, does it? And when we talk about temptations most of us think of the usual indulgences: a tropical island retreat, a candlelight dinner, new shoes, a sleep in (!), luscious chocolate truffles, a day in retail therapy, a week alone with our TBR pile… Yet, among the many romance readers and writers I know a surprisingly large number have a weakness for stationery.

Whether it’s funky designs and brightly patterned sticky notes, pads with cute messages, elegant pens or the sort of thick, creamy velvet paper that makes you long to write something wonderful, stationery is a hugely popular item.

Maybe it’s to do with our love of books. Though e-reading is increasing in popularity a lot of readers still say they love the feel and smell of a book in their hands, the physical sensation of curling up with that story. From an early age we fell for words on paper. In a similar way I think many of us who love the written word are drawn to the gorgeous array of stationery items that we can’t do without.

Go on, put your hand up if you’ve succumbed to the lure of the glitter gel pen (just for special messages), the multi-coloured post it notes or kaleidoscope tinted paper clips. Do you drool over embossed stationery and envelopes with decorative rice paper lining? Do you run your hands possessively over soft as butter leather journals, or the ones made to look like a vintage traveller’s diary from Paris and Rome?

Do you have a soft spot for the old Florentine design or Mickey Mouse note paper or even custom designed stationery of your own? Personalised address stickers? Notice boards with fancy pins? Fun diaries? Novelty design erasers? Hand made paper or pens that glide across the page for those days when the words flow so fast you can barely get them down (I wish!).

For the really serious, how about calligraphy sets or sealing wax and a personalised seal? The smell of sealing wax seems to make writing and sending letters somehow more significant.

Have you ever used a (modern) quill pen? Late last year I spent a night in a castle looking across vineyards to the river below (yes, I know how disgustingly luck I was). At the desk in the window nook was some gorgeous linen-finish paper, embossed with a scene of the castle, and a ‘quill’ pen (no ink well required, this was an up market biro). I used all the stationery in the desk! I sat and sipped sherry and wrote letters and felt very special indeed. Why not share my adventures with friends who’d love the holiday update and also get a kick out of the castle stationery? And they did – without fail.

Getting letters and parcels in the mail is such a thrill (except for window envelopes with bills inside). Sending out letters on great stationery is something that makes me feel good too, as I know others like the treat of a hand written message, plus it’s an excuse to indulge a taste for nice paper and cards.

How about you? Does stationery tempt you? Do you linger over the stationery supplies even though you don’t need anything, just in case you see something you just have to have? What’s your favourite piece of office paraphernalia or stationery?

To stimulate discussion, Annie is offering a choice of backlist book to one person who leaves a comment.

This month Annie is celebrating the almost release of her next US release. BLACKMAILED BRIDE, INEXPERIENCED WIFE goes on sale in December.

It was written straight onto computer, but plot points and queries were scrawled in a large purple spiral notebook Annie keeps on her desk and her fluoro post it notes were invaluable to mark passages as she revised that book.

If you want to find out more about this story (with Annie's first sexy Sicilian hero) visit her website for details or better yet, just order the book!

Male on Monday :: GEEKS!

2009-11-02T00:00:00.005Z

Silhouette Romantic Suspense author Sharron McClellan sneaks over to The Pink Heart Society to talk about her favorite kind of Male On Monday -- The Geeky Hero-Then and Now.

Geeks. Nerds. Trekkie. Or Techie. Whatever you call them, geeks are the new hotness.

Now, I have always loved nerdy males. Smart men are a turn on and whoever said that sex was mostly in the head wasn’t lying. So, one can only imagine what naughty, creative thoughts a nerd has rambling through his big ole’ noggin.

What I like about these guys is that most of them are like Clark Kent. They’re nice. They take out the garbage. Face it, when you’re down with the flu this is the guy you wants at your bedside because he will bring you soup and take care of you.

But that doesn’t make them weak. In fact, it makes them a little scarier and stronger, IMHO. No one expects the nerd to don the big-bad Alpha hat. But once the ones they care for are in threatened, look out—the good-guy suit is coming off and a geek will do whatever it takes to protect the ones he loves whether it’s using his MacGyver smarts or picking up a Glock and blowing someone away.

GEEKS THEN: The first Geeky Bad Ass

Richard Dean Anderson/Angus MacGyver

The original geek turned hero, MacGyver didn’t use guns. But he could use a paperclip and a stick of gum to disarm a bomb and save the girl. He was crazy creative, smarter than any two men put together and was a total bad ass. Plus, he made duct-tape a household word.

Hot then—mullet and all. Just a hot now!

GEEKS NOW: The New Geeky Bad Ass -- Zachary Levi/Chuck

Staring in the television show “Chuck”, Zachary Levi is the new nerdy hero. An “average” nerd, he’s turned into “super geek” when he opens an encoded email and ALL government secrets are downloaded into his brain.

Besides being wicked smart (and that’s even before the secrets were stuffed into his brain), he’s kind and I love a kind man. Plus, he’s funny. Tall. Has a great head of hair. And who could ignore that devastating, disarming smile! I think I am in love with him.

As far as fighting…. I’d be thrilled to have him guard my back. Whether it’s using his skills at Apache Commander (a computer game) to land a helicopter or using his knowledge of James Bond movies to cut the right wire on the bomb, he comes through in the end. And when the bad guys are in jail and the chaos is over, he brings you pizza just the way you like it. YUM!

When she's not travelling the world or writing about being on the run, catch Sharron at her blogs or website.

BOO! Happy Halloween Treats!

2009-10-31T00:00:00.003Z

Today's the spookiest of days so to help with the enjoyment (and be a little more creative than bite-sized chocolate bars and mini bags of potato chips) I thought I'd post a few fun recipes that kids - and adults - can love.

In the craziness of getting your ghosties ready for trick or treating, something make ahead is a real plus. And your kids will probably love chili - especially when you serve it with Breadstick Bones.

CHILI

Get out your crock pot and mix together the following:

2 (16) oz cans kidney beans, drained
2 (14) oz cans diced tomatoes
2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
1 large onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper

1 can kernel corn
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tbsp taco seasoning
2 teaspoons Tabasco

Simmer on low all day or on high for the afternoon.

The easiest way to make the breadsticks is to buy the premade ones from your grocery freezer section. Peel the dough on the marks and roll out into 12 inch strips. Then tie a loose knot at each end and bake according to directions!

For dessert, why not freak out the little beasts with some Witches Finger Cookies? A variation of almond fingers, they're fairly easy and sufficiently spooky.

1 cup (250 mL) butter, softened

1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp (5 mL) almond extract

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

2-3/4 cups (675 mL) all-purpose flour

1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

3/4 cup (175 mL) whole blanched almonds

1 tube (19 g) red decorator gel (blood for fingers)

Preparation:
In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla; beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remaining dough refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful (5 mL) of dough into finger shape for each cookie.

Press almond firmly into 1end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape; using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond; squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back into place, so gel oozes out from underneath. Remove from baking sheets; let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

And after the wee goblins are in bed and the doorbell has stopped ringing, kick back and relax with some well earned Butterbeer a la Harry Potter - the adult version.

BUTTERBEER

Ingredients:1 cup butterscotch schnapps

7 cups cream soda (2 liter bottle)

Carefully mix just before serving, adding the schnapps to the soda then stirring gently to mix well, or the fizz will dissipate too soon.

Happy Halloween!

Donna's latest book celebrates another season - Christmas. Montana, Mistletoe, Marriage hits store shelves in November, just in time for Christmas shopping!

Must Watch Friday: Wuthering Heights

2009-10-30T01:00:00.000Z

Michelle Styles looks at the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Does it match the sheer power of the novel?

Once upon a time, when I was about six, my first grade teacher started to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl to the class. I loved the book but Mrs Hemming read it far too slowly. My mother bought me the book and it became the first chapter book that I ever read and really turned me on to reading. When the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came out several years later, I could not wait to see it. However, as I watched it, I wept bitter tears. The movie had missed the essential point of the book – Charlie never does anything wrong. He is a good kid.

And thus began my disillusionment with movie adaptations or television. In my humble opinion, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the book offers a far richer experience than the movie.
Now that I am grown, I can divorce my pleasure in a book from my pleasure in an adaptation. An adapatation stands or falls on its own merit, not its protrayal of the book.
I was forcibly reminded of this recently when I watched the latest ITV adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is a novel which taunts movie makers. No adaptation that I have seen has ever quite managed to capture the raw power of Emily Bronte’s novel. And I believe you can tell those people who have only seen an adaptation versus those people who have read the novel. Wuthering Heights is not a romance as protrayed in the classic 1939 version with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliffe and David Niven as Edgar Linton, but a novel about the destructive power of love and obsession. It scandalised a nation when So when I came to watch the latest television adaptation, I emptied my mind and tried to enjoy it for its own sake.

Rising star Tom Hardy played a credible and ultimately ruggedly sexy Heathcliffe but Charlotte Riley was a bit weak as Cathy. She somehow lacked the strength that is needed to play the part. And it was difficult to see what Cathy saw in Edgar Linton (Andrew Lincoln) and why she decided to marry him. And why her sense of betrayal at Heathcliffe leaving is so great, particularly when he decides to return after just after she marries. Equally the adaptation does not show why the whole cycle of revenge was so important to both men and defined them both. For example, Edgar Linton is not as kindly as he makes out and even though he knows that his sister has been ruined by Heathcliffe, he turns his back on her. But in this adaptation, it came as being somehow out of character and Lincoln’s portrayal of Edgar Linton did not quite have the complexity needed. The adaptation missed somehow.

A few weeks later, I went to Haworth and the Bronte Parsonage. There they had an exhibition of the costumes with an explanation of what the designer had done. For example, when Cathy is wild on the moors with her illicit love for Heathcliffe, she wears bright colours and then as she becomes tamed by the Lintons, she wears the pale shades. So that when she marries Linton she is basically in white. After Heathcliffe returns, now a wealthy man, colour is once again added to Cathy’s wardrobe as she struggles between her old love of the moors and her new respectability. seeing the exhibition, I wondered if I had not given the adaptation enough of a chance. Was it better than I thought?
>At my daughter’s entreaties, I purchased the dvd and watched again. I enjoyed it far more the second time. Tom Hardy is an excellent actor and he does bring a complexity to his portrayal. There is a certain power to his acting and you do really feel for Heathcliffe. He becomes a tortured soul who loves and loses and ultimately loses his mind. I also enjoyed Rosalind Halstead who played Isabella Linton who becomes trapped in the terrible triangle and is seduced by Heathcliffe. I actually found myself hoping that Heathcliffe would see sense and settle down with Isabella...alas it was not to be. It is good entertainment. But it is not my vision of Wuthering Heights.

So if you want Wuthering Heights as a romance, watch the classic black and white version. If you want to see a passable adaptation which gives several hours of entertainment, watch the Tom Hardy version. If you want to glory in the sheer raw power of gothic emotion, then read the book. Emily Bronte's vision of her book remains the most true.

Michelle Styles's next book The Viking Captive Princess is published by Harlequin Historical in December and she will admit to being more of a Mr Rochester fan than a Heathcliffe one but Tom Hardy did make a case for Heathcliffe.

What are You Reading Thursday - Ghost Stories

2009-10-29T00:00:00.000Z

It's the season of ghosts and ghouls - so columnist Kate Walker takes a look at some reading that really fits with the spirit(s) of Halloween.

Is the ghost story coming back to haunt us?

It’s October 29th and that means that it’s heading up towards Halloween. In the shops, witches’ broomsticks and cauldrons, plastic bats and skulls with glowing eyes fill up the shelves and children are planning costumes they will wear to go out Trick or Treating. Halloween has origins in the ancient celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an) which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half".

The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.

And of course at this time, everyone talks about ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night. Films like the Blair Witch Project, The Others and the new Paranormal Activity have frequently been made, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats. And programmes like Most Haunted and Living With The Dead carry out paranormal investigations in houses and ancient sites up and down the country. I’ve even been involved(indirectly) in the making of one of these when the Babe Magnet was a consultant on Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns (Halifax).

But for a long time the real old-fashioned ghost story has been out of fashion. When I was growing up in Yorkshire - not very far from the moors where the Bronte sisters lived and where Wuthering Heights was set - I used to love to settle down on a dark winter’s night beside a fire, with the wind ‘wuthering’ around the house and curl up with a book of ghost stories. There was a big old volume on the family bookshelves – 100 Greatest Ghost Stories or something like that and I loved to lose myself in it and scare myself silly. Much to my mother’s disapproval. She had grown up in a small village in Ireland, in a house that was out in the country at the end of a long, rutted lane and she used to frown disapprovingly when she saw me with a ghost story and say ominously ‘If you knew what the dark was really like then you wouldn’t mess with things like that.’ A warning that my sisters and I never heeded, with the result that we had many sleepless nights hearing strange noises that we just couldn’t explain. (The house we lived in was built in 1870 so it was probably just the floorboards creaking.)

Many of the best – and scariest - stories in the 100 Greatest Ghost Stories book were written by the ‘master’ of antiquarian ghost tales, M. R. (Montague Rhodes ) James. I can still feel a shiver run down my spine simply at hearing the title of one of his most famous tales Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad which was made into a Ghost Story for Christmas – a great tradition that I used to love but that sadly is no longer made. By the time I was grown up and married, the ghost story seemed to have died a death. No one was publishing them – or even writing them – any more it seemed. Working as a Children’s Librarian, I found a few books in the children’s/young adult market – The Ghost Of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively and some of the books by Robert Westall went some way towards filling the gap in my reading life but there weren’t many really good supernatural stories.

The problem was that the horror genre took over from the traditional ghost story and horror isn’t what I want. I want old houses surrounded by mists, dreadful warning , things that go bump in the night and a slow creeping sense of horror – not blood and gore and special effects. The late 1980s and early 90s provided me with some great ghostly reading – Susan Hill’s two classic stories The Woman in Black ( now also on stage) and The Mist in The Mirror had that understated sense of something dark and dangerous just out of sight – and Jonathan Aycliffe’s Naomi’s Room had me sitting up late at night transfixed by a few words at the end of a chapter. Like Whistle and I’ll Come to You, ‘ It was Naomi’ still makes me shiver when I remember that Naomi was the narrator’s daughter, kidnapped and murdered at the beginning of the book. Jonathan Aycliffe is a pseudonym of Daniel Easterman who now writes thrillers.

I’ve tried James Herbert but his Haunted and other books just don’t work for me. The idea of ghosts interacting so easily with the living – and with the hero even sleeping with one of them, not realising she is in fact dead, just doesn’t work for me. So for a while I’ve had to be content with the investigative programmes and the Hauntings in Yorkshire/Lincolnshire/Dublin collections of real-life ghost sightings that my husband has published. But just recently there seems to be a revival in the ghost story as a fiction genre and as I’ve just finished my latest novel and have a change to catch up on some reading time, I’m really glad to see it. I just hope the new crop of books are better than one I tried recently – The Birthing House which had a lot of potential but, for me, became too much of the horror tale and not a ghost story.

But Sarah Waters has published The Little Stranger that is described as : A chilling and vividly rendered ghost story set in postwar Britain. Audrey Niffenegger, author of the bestselling Time Traveler’s Wife’s latest story is Her Fearful Symmetry which is set in and around Highgate Cemetery . And my son has just given me a copy of The House of Lost Souls by F G Cottam which isn’t quite a ghost story but he says he found it scary – so they will all go on my Halloween reading list.

So what about you? Do you just go Trick or Treating at Halloween of do you like to turn off the lights, light a candle, sit round the fire and tell spooky stories until you’re afraid to go to bed? Do you have any great ghost stories (fictional) that you’d recommend I try? Or maybe even a real ghost tale to tell. I’d love to know about them if you have. My mother would definitely not approve but I really do love being scared!

Kate's latest book - Kept for Her Baby - is on the bookshop shelves right now in America where it's published in Presents EXTRA. It's also out in Australia. And it's still around in the Modern Romance edition too. No ghosts, but it's getting a reputation for reducing readers to tears - so you have been warned!

Writer's Wednesday - Using Pets for Inspiration!

2009-10-28T00:00:00.001Z

This Wednesday, please welcome Carla Capshaw with a post about gaining inspiration in the cuddliest of places - pets!

As an author, I'm often asked where I get my ideas for my books. It's a tricky question, because, to be honest, half the time I don't even know. As writers, I think all of us are constantly on the prowl for the next plot idea or perfect setting. And we look for, and find, inspiration everywhere. Whether it’s in the people we love or love to hate, our home or travels, our own personal experiences or the experiences of others, we catalog ideas in our head and seem to pull magic out of thin air when we need it.

When I asked a few writer friends where they found inspiration for their characters, I wasn't surprised to find many an ex-boyfriend had been killed in the most painful of ways between the covers of countless novels. One friend said she based all her heroes on her own husband. Awww... Others turned their bosses into trolls or their whiny children into good little fairies--although one friend turned her kids into orphans. Yikes!

Me? I just use my pets. You see, I love my cats. How this happened I have no idea. I'm a dog person. I enjoy the loyal sweetness of a good canine and I was always raised with at least one mutt in the house. Cats and "cat people" (code for crazy) were on a different plain altogether. On the surface, felines are snotty little beasts, I'll grant you and the saying, "Cats were once worshipped in Egypt and they've never forgotten" is perfectly apropos. But what isn't so obvious is that once you've earned a cat’s love they're so adorable, you just want to spoil them.

I found this out three years ago when my cats adopted me. At the time, they were homeless little ferals who came and sat by my garage. I told myself, "Don't feed them and they'll go away," but I was soon learning the difference between Fancy Feast and Purina. After a mere eight months of clawed arms and sitting in the grass next to their dish while they learned to trust me, I had them tucked into their little beds every night and eating out of my hand. In so many ways, my experience with them was like living a Romance novel (minus the gorgeous hero who swept me off my feet, but you hopefully get the idea. :-) From the distrustful beginning, through the tumultuous middle, I wasn't sure where things would lead until the very end when my little wild cats turned into lap cats and we decided to live happily ever after. Since then, I've used the critters shamelessly. In my debut novel, The Gladiator, which hits stores next week, I turned my fourteen-pound tiger, Oliver, into a real tiger and made him a pivotal character. In my current WIP, my once abused little girl, Onyx, has been personified in the black-haired, golden-eyed beauty of my heroine.

I have no idea how my cats will inspire me in the future, but if I'm lucky they will for a long time. How about you? Have you ever used your pets for inspiration? Did you use them as pets or people or both?

Thank you Pink Heart Society for letting me visit with you today. Happy reading.

Carla Capshaw's debut novel, The Gladiator, is available next week from Love Inspired Historical and enjoying great reviews. In January 2010, The Duke's Redemption, set in Revolutionary War-torn Charleston, SC hits stores. Currently, she's back in ancient Rome working on a sequel to The Gladiator. She hopes you'll visit her website: www.carlacapshaw.com to read excerpts of her books and come back often to learn more about her future projects.

Travel Tuesday: Under Tuscan Skies

2009-10-27T01:00:00.000Z

Christina Hollis explains why for her --Tuscany is a Temptation.

I fell in love with Italy and the Italian people the first time I went there. Until then my books had been set mainly in the English countryside, with occasional jaunts across the channel to northern France. The sun and wide blue skies of Tuscany come as quite a shock to the system of people born and raised under grey English clouds. For a while we squint in the unfamiliar light, but it doesn’t take long to get into the holiday mood. Wiggling bare brown toes on sun-warmed flagstones around a beautiful pool can make anyone forget the winter blues in an instant! The place and people are so warm and welcoming I can’t resist setting romances there. My latest, The Count of Castelfino, is no exception. The great thing about writing is that you can take a place you love and make it absolutely perfect. If I don’t fancy thunderstorms, killing frosts, brambles or mosquitoes, they don’t exist in my little corner of paradise. I write them out. The sun shines all day, the birds sing and the car-free countryside spreads far and wide like a perfect picnic blanket.

Meg Imsey is determined to start her new job in the gardens at the Villa Castelfino, although the new count disapproves. Assuming he’ll keep well away, Meg goes off to the walled garden and loses herself in her work until Count Gianni lets himself into her sanctuary…

‘I never dreamed anyone would disturb me in here. The door was locked. I have the only key. How did you get in?’ she blustered, embarrassment mixed up with growing anger.
One hand in his pocket, Gianni strolled over to the old medlar tree where Meg had hung her hat and shirt. Plucking them from the branches like particularly desirable fruit, he made his way over to her. He took his time. It was painfully obvious to Meg that he was making her wait for her clothes. She wasn’t in the mood to be toyed with. As soon as he got close enough she snatched her things from his hands and pulled them on. He watched with something close to amusement. Then he drew a second key from his pocket with a flourish.
‘As I said –I live here. I have a copy of every key in the place.’
Barefoot but otherwise decent, Meg rallied.
‘That doesn’t explain why you felt the need to come in here.’
‘It wasn’t a need. It was a want. I wanted to see you, Megan.’
There was a haunting look in his dark eyes. It was so delicious she could hardly meet his gaze. Nervous that he might be able to read all sorts of things from her own expression, she looked down at the coarse wiry grass at her feet. All sorts of hope were beginning to stir deep within her…

Copyright Harlequin Mills and Boon Limited, 2009

I don’t use real people in my books, but that scene is based around a spectacular medlar tree in a real Tuscan garden. It is planted directly below a terrace, which gives spectacular views of the snowy white flowers and later the strange, wide-mouthed fruit. The brownish medlars look something like giant rose hips. They are picked while still as hard as conkers and stored on flat trays until soft and wrinkled. The overripe pulp has an odd, winy smell. When boiled up with lemon juice and sugar, then strained it makes a glorious amber jelly to serve with cold meats and salamis. It’s an acquired taste, somewhere between wine and cider but without the alcohol. I’ve found a recipe for Medlar fudge, too, but that has so many other delicious ingredients (cream, brown sugar, maple syrup etc) that I suspect they mask any medlar flavour. A pile of pancakes, some home made vanilla ice-cream and a drizzle of medlar fudge sauce sounds like a perfect pudding for those autumn nights when summer days in Tuscany seem a long, long way away.

What is the most exotic thing you’ve ever tasted? There’s a signed copy of The Count of Castelfino for the most original contribution!

When Christina Hollis isn’t writing, or thinking about writing, she divides her time between enjoying the fresh air and doing far too much home baking. Catch up with her on http://christinahollis.com and on Twitter as christinabooks

Male On Monday - Chris Meloni

2009-10-26T00:00:00.001Z

Presents author Kimberly Lang is back with her current crush - Chris Meloni.

Best known as a sociopathic killer on the gritty disturbing prison drama Oz and a sex-crimes detective with a receding hairline and the un-sexy name of Elliot Stabler (at the same time, mind you)...

And yet he still managed to capture me with those blue eyes.

What is it about Chris Meloni? Is it the drool-worthy biceps? The piercing stare? The bad-boy you can just see under those suits he wears on Law and Order: SVU?

People magazine featured him in their 2006 “Sexiest Men Alive” issue, and I have to agree. Whew.

Meloni’s work on SVU has earned him both Emmy and PRISM nominations, and his time on Oz made him a gay icon, but Meloni’s acting roots are in comedy – something he still occasionally dips into with appearances in Scrubs, the Harold and Kumar movies, and the lead in the upcoming National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie.

He has an intensity that draws me in, but then he smiles and I’m totally captivated by that. He has that rough-around-the-edges vibe that makes a girl think he’d be just a little dangerous to fall in love with, but at the same time, he seems solid and trustworthy and Alpha-enough to guard you with his life (and take down the bad guy at the same time). The man has layers. Layers I’d like to peel back and explore… ahem.

In case I haven’t made it clear, I’m currently crushing on Chris Meloni.

~Sigh~
Kimberly

http://www.booksbykimberly.com/

Kimberly’s also crushing on Will Harrison, the hero of The Millionaire’s Misbehaving Mistress (Harlequin Presents, October), as well as the model on the cover…

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Wild Card Weekend - Intrigue-ing Themes!

2009-10-24T00:00:00.001+01:00

Julie Miller joins us this weekend with some insider info on the upcoming Intrigue Pitch at eharlequin!

Thanks for having me back at Pink Hearts this month—it’s great to be here!

Do all you aspiring writers out there know that Harlequin Intrigue Senior Editor Denise Zaza is hosting an Intrigue Pitch contest on www.eHarlequin.com next month? Entrants need to submit a one-page synopsis of their completed ms by November 4th—and the finalists she selects will get to do a live chat with the editor. There have been many manuscript requests from these eHQ Pitch contests in the past (across several Harlequin/Silhouette lines), and some have even gone on to sell! You can find more details on the contest at http://community.eharlequin.com/content/editor-pitch-harlequin-intrigue .

Because of the contest, on the Intrigue Authors Group blog and other discussions there at eHarlequin.com, we’ve been chatting a lot about writing for Harlequin Intrigue—some of the qualities that are unique to the line, like fast pacing, larger-than-life heroes, ending scenes with hooks, heroines who are smart/scrappy/strong, villains who demand the best and more from our hero/ine, sexual tension and deep emotions, how much sex can there be in an Intrigue, the differences between Intrigue and Silhouette Romantic Suspense, and so on. And as we were discussing what kinds of stories work well for an Intrigue, I got the idea for my blog post here.

Traditional romance storylines.

Yep. Amidst all the shoot-em ups and explosions and clues and daring escapes, the most popular storylines for Intrigue are ones that feature traditional romance story hooks. Of course, with Intrigue, we take that familiar story and twist it up with danger and heart-stopping passion and villainous show-downs. That traditional story of a woman with amnesia or a hero in uniform or a Cinderella tale or friends becoming lovers or reunited lovers or cowboys and on and on are all storylines that sell really well in Intrigues.

Take my December 09 Intrigue, BEAUTY AND THE BADGE. Hmm… Any clue what that storyline will be about? I’ve taken a romance classic—the Beauty & the Beast fairy tale—and turned it into an Intrigue. I made my hero, Detective Kevin Grove, a “beast”. He’s big, he’s bad, he’s scarred inside and out, and yes, he’s not handsome. But, ooh, does he ooze masculinity. And he’s got a protective streak in him that runs straight down to his bones. Both traits that make him a perfect Intrigue hero. My heroine is the beauty who wakens him in the middle of the night, needing his protection. She’s also the one woman who can break the spell of mistrust that encases his heart. She’s stumbled on to murder and conspiracy at the company she works for, and has nowhere else to turn. There’s even a wise grandmother/fairy godmother who plays matchmaker. He’s gruff—she’s stubborn. He’s sexy—she notices. When he falls, he falls hard, knowing he’ll probably wind up with a broken heart—but she’s the one with the magic, remember? It’s her love that ultimately saves him. After they get the bad guys and he saves her life, of course.

So I thought it’d be fun to turn some traditional romance story themes into something Intrigue-ing. I’ll start you off with a couple of examples, but I challenge you to put your own suspenseful twist on a favorite romance storyline of yours. What’s something you’d like to see in an Intrigue?

Plain Jane—spinsterish secretary sees her boss get murdered. Her boss’s handsome son, a cop, comes to her, demanding answers to the murder. When he see that the killer has his eyes on her, too, the cop steps up as her personal bodyguard—keeping the witness safe. What he doesn’t count on is how close quarters with the surprisingly sexy secretary not only fuels his passion, but soothes his grief and awakens his heart as well.

Cinderella—another secretary takes her lady boss’s place at a charity fundraiser ball, dressing in jewels and a ball gown. She even dances with a mysterious Prince Charming whose strong body and quiet charm make her feel like a real princess. But, terrorists attack at midnight, ending the evening prematurely. Mistaking her for her boss, the terrorists kidnap her and other wealthy patrons, holding them for ransom, intending to kill them off one by one until their demands are met. But Prince Charming turns out to be a government agent. The two of them use all their skills to free the hostages and escape themselves. She loses her shoe in the chase and spends most of the story barefoot. At the end, realizing how well they work together, and how well they love together, the hero presents her with a new pair of shoes… and an engagement ring.

Get the idea? You don’t have to be as detailed as I’ve been. I tend to be long-winded. Have fun - and good luck!

I’ll give away a copy of one of my Harlequin Back List titles to one lucky poster. You can see all my books on my website at www.juliemiller.org.

You can catch up with Julie's latest releases at www.juliemiller.org!

Beauty & the Badge--Precinct: Brotherhood of the Badge--Intrigue--December 2009

Takedown--Intrigue--April 2010

Must Watch Friday...or not

2009-10-23T00:00:00.002+01:00

In which Pink Heart Society editor Jenna Bayley-Burke begs to never be assigned a Friday again!

When you say that you don't watch much TV or make it to the movies people tend to think it's a political choice, or a statement about your IQ. But really...it's not. I don't have weekend babysitters or a desire to take a toddler to the cinema...so no movies. I use those prime-time TV hours to work, so I never know who is sleeping with whom on Grey's Anatomy. We don't even watch the news because we don't want the kids to catch something that might give them nightmares, so we read the newspaper.

Weekends the TV gets a workout changing channels between football (or basketball, or golf, or...) games, and I try to get some work done. So far this work has been largely unpacking, but soon I'll actually write something.

I'd love to be able to lose myself in a movie or a half hour sitcom, but it will be a few years until then. I don't really watch TV, not because I think it's a waste of time, but because I don't have the time!

Someday...I want a comfy couch, a snuggie, a remote, and a day all to myself :)

Jenna is not writing much of anything, and won't be until ~~September October~~ November. In the meantime, Compromising Positions is available with chocolate, Kama Sutra yoga, a decade old crush and a steady addiction to sugar. To find out what Jenna is up to now...check out her website or blog.

What Are You Reading Thursday - Amanda McCabe

2009-10-22T00:00:00.000+01:00

Harlequin Historicals author Amanda McCabe is here to talk about an old, favourite stash - Sunfire novels!

For the last few weeks I’ve been sorting and packing my books to get ready for a move. So far I have about fifty boxes full, but the job is going very slowly because I always end up sitting on the floor by the shelves re-reading the books before they go into the box! It’s so much fun finding old friends, rediscovering gems I forgot I had, and laughing and crying over favorites. I’m sure I’ll do the same once I unpack them in the new place.

One great thing I found was my stash of old Sunfire novels. These were my introduction to historical romance (along with Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer, and old Fawcett Regencies by Marion Chesney and Joan Smith). I was in junior high when I found this line, and I loved them. I ran to the bookstore every month to get the new titles. Who needed that silly Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club when there were the Sunfires???

These books were essentially YA romances/”girl power” stories set in various American historical settings. (The Old West, the Revolutionary War, etc—there was a very wide variety, including stories centered around the War of 1812, Vegas casinos, and the Triangle factory fire). There was always a smart, independent young woman looking for her place in the world and two love interests. (You could tell which one she would choose because he was always depicted in the right side of the cover—spoiler).

My first was Emily, a rich Gilded Age New York girl who wanted to be a nurse, and impress the hunky doctor from the wrong side of the city. I also loved Victoria (the Alamo), Nicole (the Titanic, way before Leo and Kate), Danielle (the Civil War), Sabrina (the Revolution), Elizabeth (Puritan New England, though she had a heinous ‘80s perm on the cover), Merrie (Pilgrims), and of course Amanda (wagon train).

Sadly, I lost many of them in a move when I was about 15, but thanks to Ebay and library book sales I have retrieved many of them. Going through these books now takes me back to when I first discovered them, and I realize I still love heroines like the ones I found in these pages—brave, smart, willing to change, fearless in standing up for her beliefs and fighting for her love.

What are some of your earliest romance reads? How have they influenced what you read or write now? And does anyone have any tips on organized a move???

Amanda’s new book, The Winter Queen, a tale of passion, danger, and Christmas at the court of Elizabeth I, is featured on her website at http://ammandamccabe.com, along with Behind the Book historical info and dates of upcoming releases. You can also visit her on the Risky Regencies blog.

Writer's Wednesday - Out Of The Comfort Zone

2009-10-21T01:00:00.001+01:00

Brigid Coady explores writing out of the comfort zone

I am a creature of habit. I have my routine every morning when I get up and woe betide anyone who messes it up. I wish I was more of a creature of habit about my writing but that is another post which would cover among other things my internet addiction and TV watching habits.

No the habit I’m talking about is in my creativity. The habits I had gotten into in terms of what sort of stories I want to write; the length, the subject, the ideas. For a long time I believed I couldn’t write short stories. I had attended all those courses about writing for those magazines that buy short stories and very quickly I realised my voice and ideas didn’t fit there. So I put aside all thought of short stories and plugged on with my Modern Heat and now my new work. I was happy. I was writing the stories I thought I wanted to write.

And then at the beginning of this year I decided that I needed to join a writing group. I looked around and knowing myself I knew it had to be somewhere near otherwise I wouldn’t go. I ended up joining a writing group run by my local library and suddenly for the first time in years I was with non-romance writing writers.

It was weird.

They wrote other sorts of stories and the writing exercises we did meant that I couldn’t resort to my default romance stories. At first I felt uncomfortable as if I was wearing a jumper with odd length sleeves. My writing was clumsy and broken.
And then there was a revelation… there were other stories out there, other subjects. Blimey. Who’d have thunk it? And then came the day when our lovely group leader, the Children’s Librarian issued us a challenge. There was a short story competition being run nationally and she thought we should all enter. Were we up for it? Me? A short story? You have to be kidding me. I didn’t do short stories. But I was already out of my comfort zone and I obviously felt brave so I started to write. This short story felt different but right. Its only constraint was its length and its theme. 2000 words on conflict.

Ping! Zing! WOW!

A whole different set of creative muscles woke up and started to flex. No longer was I constrained by boy meeting girl (although there was a touch of romance), I was writing first person as a 15 year old boy. And I finished it. It probably wasn’t the conflicted, war torn, literary masterpiece they were expecting but it was mine.
It didn’t win the competition but it did in another one but more than that it set my imagination soaring. Those creative muscles are still working and I have ideas buzzing round in my head.

When have you stepped out of your comfort zone? And how was it for you?

Brigid is basking in the glory that her short story ‘The Great Leap Forward’ will be published in Tonto Books ‘Even More Tonto Short Stories’ soon. When she isn’t basking she is working on ’Bah Humbug!’ and a young adult fiction idea.

Travel Tuesday: The Temptation that is Corfu

2009-10-20T01:00:00.001+01:00

Sarah Morgan shares the glory that is Corfu!

It’s October which means the evenings are dark, the mornings are chilly and winter is just round the corner. Although there are many things I love about this time of year, I’m not quite ready to let go of the summer so my temptation at the moment is my holiday photographs. While I’m reaching for another jumper, I’m still thinking sunshine and the island of Corfu, which we were lucky enough to visit this summer.
I am in love with Corfu. It is the most northerly of the Greek Islands, which means that even in July (school holidays for us!) it isn’t as hot as some of the more southerly Greek islands, like Crete, but still hot enough that all I really want to do is lie around reading or take a cooling dip in the sea. The water here is crystal clear and the beaches are some of the cleanest in Europe. Take a boat to one of the hidden coves and you’ll have the place to yourself because large parts of this island are undiscovered by tourists.
Inland, far away from the few noisy resorts that have grown near the airport, you’ll find tiny villages where farmers still use donkeys as a mode of transport, where goats graze in back yards and where you can stumble across a beach that no one else has discovered.
Corfu is unusually green and lush for a Mediterranean Island. It’s been called the Emerald Isle, and that is largely due to the enormous number of olive trees which cover the island – more than 3 million. They carpet the island, protecting it from the harsh summer sun. Olives are an important local industry here and, like wine, no two olive oils are alike. Interspersed among the olive groves are tall Cypress trees, which make the place feel more like Tuscany than Greece.
Part of travelling is trying new food and the local dishes on Corfu are delicious - my favourite is Stifado, beef simmered in local herbs and a rich tomato sauce - and of course everything cooked and dressed in the best olive oil you will ever taste. Even the thick, golden honey has its own special flavour because the bees on this island are spectacularly well fed. In every tiny village, and around every corner there are flowers - Oleander and bougainvillea tumble out of pretty pots, displaying dazzling colours even in the dry heat of summer.

I’m not alone in falling in love with this place - plenty of people have done the same before me. Corfu was Homer’s last stop before returning to Ithaca, Shakespeare reputedly used it as a background for The Tempest and Gerald Durrell wrote My Family and Other Animals while living here.
I’d definitely love to have a house here but sadly that’s just a dream. In the meantime I have my photographs.......

Sarah is currently working on a new Harlequin Presents set in Corfu so that she has an excuse to look at her photographs for a little longer. In the meantime her September release in the UK, Powerful Greek, Unworldly Wife will be published in Harlequin Presents Extra in December. For more information visit her new website which should be live from November www.sarahmorgan.com.

Male on Monday: Alexis Papas

2009-10-19T01:00:00.009+01:00

Michelle Styles discovers a new face and a hot commericial...because a picture can be worth a thousand words, particularly when you are doing revisions!

Ok, sometimes you see a face that just deserves to launch a thousand romance stories.

Greek model Alexis Papas who stars in the new Davidoff Hot Water campaign is one of those men.

He exudes a certain quality.

And well... very little is known about the model. He works for Ford Models Europe -- Homme and is 6' 2" with brown hair and green eyes. He wears size 11 1/2 shoes.

Or at least that I could discover...in my limited time. But inspiration does not mean you have to know that much about him. He's Greek. He has high cheek bones and broad shoulders. He stars in an incredibly hot advertising campaign.

And so after hearing about him from Judy Jarvie, I let Kate Hardy know who happened to share him with Heidi Rice and other MH authors.

The Davidoff Hot Water commerical should be required viewing for anyone interested in writing for series romance or indeed studying sexual tension. There is a certain chemistry between the couple. The female model is Alyssa Miller btw.

But there is something about his eyes that reminds me of the early Presents novels that I used to read as a teenager.

Here is that Davidoff Hot Water commerical in case anyone is interested:

And if you have not had enough pictures of Alexis Papas, here are some more for you to research:

If anyone knows more, I'd be delighted to hear...

Michelle Styles is currently hard at work on revising an early Victorian romance but she knows good eye candy when she sees it! Her next book The Viking's Captive Princess is published in December.

The CALL with new Romance author, Nikki Logan!

2009-10-17T00:00:00.009+01:00

On our Wild Card Weekend feature this week, we give a big welcome to newcomer Nikki Logan who has her debut with Harlequin Romance coming up in the New Year! Welcome Nikki!

My call story is in fact a series of emails escalating to ‘the’ call.

Email 1: an email from the competition coordinator for RWNZ ‘Great Beginnings’ to say that my first ever category romance had finalled (I’d been a Single Title girl until then). Great news but no time to celebrate because I was leaving for RWAus national conference.

Email 2: a second email a few weeks later to say it had won first place and Kimberley Young (HMB London) had requested a full.

Email 3: An email from Kimberley Young in the e-flesh hoping to catch up by phone to discuss some revision suggestions on the comp story. Eeek…revisions! Eeek… a phone-call! Maddeningly, our schedules weren’t compatible and in the days it took to get our planetary diaries aligned (and while I suffered death by a thousand impatient cuts) Kim also requested my most recent MS. I’d written this in the Australian equivalent of NaNoWriMo (50K in 30 Days) and then put it away to settle.

Email 4: When the revisions came, my comp-win manuscript was out and my newer story was resoundingly in. I was away on mini-conference so I hit the keyboard every night after work to get them done quickly. Kim had asked me how soon I could get them to her and I panicked. Four weeks might be too long and two weeks might have her chuckling to herself and thinking ‘how sweet, she thinks she can do it in two’. I suggested three.

Email 5: A few days after submitting the revisions, Kim emailed to ask if she could call with some follow-up questions. I interpreted that as editor-speak for ‘Gosh, I’ve made a terrible mistake and need to let you down gently.’ All day went by with me angsting over how embarrassing to be gently let down and how many people I’d have to un-tell my exciting news to until the phone finally rang early in the evening.

The Call: Kim must have heard the high-pitched whine from my finely tuned nerves because she got straight down to business and said she was delighted with the revisions and wanted to offer me a two-book deal. At which point I was certain I’d misheard (she wants to give me a ‘blue-hooked eel’??) and I had to ask her to repeat herself *blush*.

Then there was the oddest squealing noise on the line (oh, how embarrassing, it was me!) and we talked about things that I have very little recollection of and I tried desperately to sound intelligent whilst my brain collapsed in on itself. In the middle of all this, my DH came home from walking the dogs. I mimed ‘two book deal’ and he nodded, picked up his keys and left the house. I blinked but didn’t care. In fact I didn’t care about a lot of things that week. That month. That call was a good, good thing.

I rang my mum next. There is nothing—nothing—that beats the sound of your mother crying with pride. Then my crit group. They were primed and infinitely more optimistic than I, and were all hovering near their computers awaiting the news, for better or worse. Crit partners are good like that.

Then, God love him, my DH came home with takeout and a good bottle of sparkling white wine to celebrate. Looks like he’s learned to speak fluent hysterical-mute some time in our years together!

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

In a nice piece of serendipity, this blog falls on the one-year anniversary of the date I subbed my hastily polished category novel to Kim in response to the question ‘do you have something else I can see?’ That book is my debut release “Lights, Camera…Kiss the Boss” (Feb 2010)

The past twelve months have been the most amazing adventure. I’ve stumbled from the safe, supportive, familiar pond of the ‘yet-to-be-published’ into the mysterious, open ocean of the ‘published’. I’ve learned about tax, I’ve learned about international bank accounts, I’ve learned about deadlines. Boy, I’ve learned so much about deadlines. I’m starting to learn about the peculiarities of the publishing industry and about the author industry but I know I’ve only scratched the surface.

The writing satisfies me but the challenge motivates me. The opportunity to learn something new from the ground up. To build a new career. To write what I love for a living.

A few years back, I promised myself I’d be published by my fortieth birthday. Well, I didn’t have a book on a shelf, but I received a phone-call from my editor just two days before the big four-o offering me a three-book contract and taking my total Harlequin sales to six. And the new, positive me is calling that close enough.

Nikki Logan’s “Lights, Camera…Kiss the Boss” debuts for
Harlequin Romance in February 2010.

You can read an excerpt at: www.nikkilogan.com.au – A Romance with Nature.

Must Watch Friday : : Eyes

2009-10-16T00:00:00.003+01:00

Anne McAllister loved Eyes the first time they took it off the air. Now it's back and she's got a DVD recorder. So they won't be able to steal it away from her again!

Eyes is one of those television programs that you will have missed if you blinked back in 2005 or 2007 or whenever they showed it for five weeks (never consecutively). It was the victim of ABC television's 'pull the plug if it doesn't top the ratings' approach to prime time tv.

But if you saw the five (count 'em! Only five!) episodes they did air, you might be forgiven for wondering why they gave up on it so quickly.

The three or four of us who watched it certainly did.

I mean, after all, what is there not to like?

Eyes has a great concept, slick intriguing characters, energy, charm, and snappy dialogue -- not to mention a drop-dead gorgeous smart-ass hero Harlan Judd, played by Timothy Daly.

Harlan runs the high-tech ultra-classy upscale Los Angeles firm of Judd Risk Management.

JRM does private investigative work which occasionally (well, all right, often) seems to slip over from the legal to the not-quite-so-legal side of the line. Hardly anyone at Judd Risk Management is too worried about it, either, as long as whatever they're doing is 'the right thing to do.'

In fact they do it with such cunning, flair and enthusiasm that you can't help cheering them on, even though you're not entirely sure that one or another of them might not be knifing his or her co-workers in the back at the same time. After all, what's a little moral ambiguity between friends?

It's the characters and the dialogue that kept me coming back for more (when ABC allowed it).

Besides the extremely watchable Mr Daly, there is the lovely Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon who plays Nora Gage, one of Judd's primary investigators. She knows her way around disguises and may actually be wearing one even Harlan isn't aware of.

But if Nora is ambiguous, Judd's other lead investigator, Jeff McCann (Eric Mabius), gives every indication of being as morality-free as they come. But for all his determination to only be on his own side, it's pretty hard not to like him, too.

As a high tech firm, Judd Risk Management has its resident nerds and geeks. The beautiful AJ Langer manages to pull off the role of the dowdy, awkward, self-despairing Meg Bardo with aplomb. And Mark Famigliatti is equally charming as earnest and honest Tim Smits.

They are a wonderful counter-balance to the sly, sarcastic Judd, the amoral McCann, the manipulative Nora Gage and Natalie Zea's analyst Trish, who has wrecked her marriage having an affair with McCann.

Lest you think everyone is a little wacky, Judd's best friend, Chris Didion, played by Rick Worthy, provides the steadiness and reason that keep Eyes' ship from tipping over.

Of course Chris is an ex-FBI agent who has spent time in a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown following the death of his gay lover. But for all that, he really is the voice of reason. Trust me.

There's the love interest, too. Laura Leighton, whom you may recall from Desperate Housewives, plays Leslie, a straight-arrow lawyer, who finds Harlan charming, but doesn't have quite the same attitude toward rules that Harlan ("Rules? What rules?") does. Plus she does have a boyfriend. And Harlan is not quite over his ex-wife.

Are there obstacles to this relationship? Oh, yes.

But wait, there's more. There's Clay Burgess, the arms dealer.

He and Judd have a history. Clay says he "made" Judd. And his determination to take over Judd Risk Management and buy Harlan out -- and Harlan's equally fierce determination not to let him -- creates the arc that runs across all of Eye's episdoes.

It's the reason for the moral shell game that Harlan, Nora and Jeff McCann are playing for or against each other while weekly cases are being solved.

I've waited two years --- or is it four? -- to find out how this all turns out.

And now Direct TV is showing Eyes! All of Eyes!

Anyone who can get DTV's channel 101 can finally enjoy the interactions, the repartee, Mr Daly's charm and (please God) some closure.

The episodes began airing in mid-September in the US and will run each week through early December. If you missed them, check the listings to see if they are re-running them at other times during the week (Tues at 10 eastern, 9 central is the official time).

If you live in some other part of the world, you may already have had your closure because elsewhere Eyes has fared a bit better than in the US.

In New Zealand, for example, TV2 aired Eyes in the second half of 2005. These NZ episodes appeared online via BitTorrent soon after (Is BitTorrent legal? Eyes probably doesn't care!)

The show was also aired in Singaore in part. It was shown in France on the television station Canal Jimmy in 2006. A year later it aired on the NINE network in Australia, and at the beginning of 2008 appeared on TV in Poland.

Before DirectTV began airing the episodes some were available on In2TV, a joint-service offered by AOL and Warner Bros. that enables people in the US to download television shows over the internet for free. Not all episodes were available (including the pilot episode), but most unaired episodes were online before the DirectTV airing. So if you've missed it and you live in the US, you might want to check that out and see if it still exists.

So far they haven't made a DVD of Eyes, but I live in hope. After all if they can make a DVD of Wonderfalls, which got just about as much network enthusiasm , anything can happen.

Eyes is fun, fast, and flirty. And given the recent success of Burn Notice, I have to wonder if perhaps Eyes wasn't ahead of its time. Or if it was simply a victim of American network television. Had it been introduced on a cable network, like Burn Notice was, it could have had more time to find its audience and fewer occasions on which it was yanked for some 'special' program instead.

Whichever, it's a shame it never had a chance to take off. But I'm grateful that Direct TV has seen fit to bring it back and introduce it to -- I hope -- more viewers. Though it will never get the second season it deserved, at least we've finally got the first one.

If indeed anything can happen, do you suppose I dare hope we'll ever get to see the unaired episodes of Cutter to Houston?

Er, probably not.

Anne just got back from New York where she did research watching Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain. Doing research for books is such very onerous work.

Keep an eye out for her latest Presents/Modern title: One-Night Mistress...Convenient Wife, coming in late October in the US and UK.

Stop by her blog or website to enter her "Hugh and Dan" contest which ends October 25th. You could win some books, DVDs and other great prizes.

Thursday Talk-Time - Going Digital at Harlequin

2009-10-15T00:00:00.006+01:00

Please welcome back Malle Vallik, Director of Digital Content and Social Media at Harlequin! She's passing through with an inside look on what (and who) makes up the digital division at the world's largest publisher of romantic fiction!

What is a Digital & Internet Team?

By Malle Vallik (http://mallevallik.wordpress.com/)

Most writers and readers have a pretty good sense of what editors, publicists and marketers do at a publishing house, but when it comes to the digital division most people have at best a vague idea that it’s a website and something called search engine optimization. To help clarify the situation I thought I would introduce you to Harlequin’s Digital & Internet Team.

Our team is divided into three areas:

· Digital content and social media (lead by Malle Vallik)
· Digital commerce & eHarlequin.com (lead by Eleanor Elliott)
· Digital marketing (lead by Sulemaan Ahmed)

I asked the director of each area to describe their responsibilities.

Digital Content & Social Media

We are the most public face to the author community: Jayne Hoogenberk, Amy Wilkins, Jenny Bullough (back from maternity leave on October 5) and myself. There are a number of freelancers who help us in community and other social networks.

Jayne, quite frankly, is one of North America’s top community experts. She keeps our wonderful community engaged and connected. There are lots of fascinating discussions about books; online editor pitches for aspiring authors; and a multitude of events like the Holiday Open House. Jayne also looks after our Myspace and Facebook pages. Most recently she has become our inhouse video expert creating our first series of book trailers – you can find them at our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/harlequinbooks)

Amy keeps our entire eBook program running smoothly, including creating bundles, adding backlist and researching content for our enriched eBooks. She finds images for our bundle covers, writes copy, deals with metadata, and oversees the freelance proofreaders. On top of that she manages both of our blogs, executed our most recent blog tour with Senior Editor Natashya Wilson for the launch of HarlequinTeen, and is our Twitter Queen (www.twitter.com/harlequinbooks) . As well she helps with our Audible downloadable audio program.

Jenny will be taking on a few special projects when she returns from maternity leave.
I’m incredibly proud of the many social media education workshops we’ve held with authors over the past year. We also have author podcasts. Our ongoing mandate is to think about what is next for digital content – mobile? gaming – and to continue to explore these opportunities.

eHarlequin.com & Digital Commerce

There are 10 people on the eHarlequin team 5 on the marketing side, and 4 on the website maintenance team – plus me!

The marketing team is responsible for all the web design, on-site promotions, and the eNewsletter program. This team is also responsible for eBook sales, both on eHarlequin’s eBook Store, and on other eTailers like Amazon, Sony, and Fictionwise. In addition, we’re constantly working on new projects designed to address the needs of our customers – some of the newest developments are the Coming Soon page, the mini-series index, our new Search feature (which is much more extensive than the old search), and our soon-to-be debuted Express Lane for customers who know exactly what they want to buy each month.

The maintenance team makes sure that all the books (covers, back cover copy, excerpts, etc) go up on-site, and that all of our content like Online Reads, Author Profiles, and Learn-to-Write articles go up as scheduled – and are (hopefully!) error free. Every month there are over 120 new books on the site, 50+ new pages of content, between 4-8 active promotions, over 2 million email messages sent (across a multitude of eNewsletters), and over 140 eBooks put up for sale on our site and others. This team manages the scheduling, copy-editing, HTML coding, quality control, and whatever else it takes to keep the site up and running every day.
We’re also supported by a fantastic team in the IT department who work on all the ‘guts’ of the website (databases, servers, etc).

One thing I’m very proud of is our BizRate rating – a rating assigned by shoppers after they complete a purchase from us. We’ve been rated by over 150,000 shoppers since we opened our virtual doors, and our overall rating is ‘Outstanding’. Customers can view our current rating at any time (it’s on the homepage on the bottom right)

If you ever want more information or have any questions, please contact me: Eleanor_Elliott@Harlequin.ca

Digital Marketing

The digital marketing team supports all of Harlequin’s initiatives in the digital space outside of the great website Eleanor and her team make happen.

We’re the newest group and 3 people strong. We promote eHarlequin and various retail initiatives and authors. Tactics include banner ads on targeted websites, Google ads, Facebook advertising and developing viral campaigns to support an imprint or author. A successful recent example is the Harlequin Teen sweepstakes.

Another part of our mandate is to establish new partnerships and therefore new ways to promote Harlequin as a brand. I particularly like our relationship with Harrrah’s . It was a real win-win – our Harlequin brand received prominent exposure to Harrah’s customers. Harrah’s customers got the opportunity to sample our editorial.

Ashley Hennessy manages the author affiliate program which is a simple program to join and use. As a Harlequin author you will receive preferred author-only commission rates for all books sold via your link (not only your titles). Please contact Ashley at Ashley_Hennessy@harlequin.ca if you want to join or have any questions. You can also contact me at any time, Sulemaan_Ahmed@harlequin.ca.

I hope this paints a much clearer picture of what the Digital & Internet team does. Questions? Do you have other question about the digital teams or see opportunities we are missing?

Writer's Wednesday: Teamwork

2009-10-14T01:00:00.000+01:00

Sharron McClellan says it takes a team!

I was reading one of many blogs (avoiding writing, of course) and in one, the discussion worked its way to an author's work status. Some authors think they are they employees of the publishing house and agents. Others feel that authors are independent contractors.
Frankly, I find neither option appealing since both insinuate that we work for them or they work for us. Both options are limiting and for me, set a wrong tone. So, I am offering a third option. I am part of a TEAM. Yes, it's true and a little Pollyannaish. But so what? It's my blog I can be Pollyannaish if I want.
Anyway, I consider myself part of a team when it comes to my writing. Not alone. Not writing in a vacuum. But a valuable member of a group of people. Here's the breakdown in my world (or as I call it: TEAM MCCLELLAN):
1) Product Production (books in my case)--Me. A very important part of the process. If I don't produce (for whatever reason), there is no product and the team fails. On a side note, my critique partner is essential to this first step. Not every writer has one or wants one, but I couldn't produce decent product without her input. Seriously.
2) Sales--My agent sells the product. If he slacks and doesn't send my book out, then there is no sale and the team fails. For those without an agent-they are the agent and hey, the rule still apply. It's just a helluva lot harder.
3) Quality Control--My editor helps me polish the product and make it better. If my editor skims the book ,and makes no edits then I publish crap and get bad sales and the team fails. I am NOT a perfect author and my writing is NOT gold. I crave a "hard" edit. I yearn for my editor to help me become a better storyteller. If I had a book published with no editing, I'd be pissed beyond belief.
4) Production and Distribution--My publishing house produces the product and distributes. If the publishing house doesn't print or distribute then I have no sales and have to go back to work in the real world...and hey...we're back to the concept of team failure!
Perhaps the team concept seems a tad simplistic and I won't even go into PR and marketing and who is responsible for what, but I would hope one would see how all these pieces are interconnected. If one member of my teams fails, we're all left poorer and in my case--sitting in a cubicle and running spreadsheets for some executive. And no one wants that!

Sharron McClellan is an awardwinning Romancti Suspense author. Vist her website to learn more about her work as well as reading an excerpt from her latest book and her upcoming novella -- Blackout at Christmas.

Temptation Tuesday - There's Something About a Frenchman...

2009-10-13T00:00:00.000+01:00

Myrna MacKenzie joins us this Tuesday with her latest obsession....

My latest obsession (have to have an obsession—they make life so much fun!) is really an old interest that has revisited me of late. It begins this way:

A long time ago (in a universe far, far away), I decided to study French. My reasons were simple. I was told that I needed to study a language, and French was my automatic choice (and a totally logical choice, to me). Why? Well…it wasn't because I thought I would find it useful to know how to speak French. I didn't know a soul who spoke French, I didn't know anyone who'd ever visited France and I had absolutely no hopes of ever getting there myself, but…I totally loved the way it sounded. I still do (seriously, anything that a man says in French sounds sexy, even if he's just asking a woman to pass the butter. I long for men to ask me to pass the butter in French. Fortunately, I have the presence of mind not to ask them such things).

Thus began a love affair with all things French. From French men (bien sûr—of course) to French movies with subtitles (Amélie, anyone?) to French food. Yum!

The great thing about the language is that you don't even have to understand it to fall under its spell. Go on Youtube and find a video of someone speaking French. Johnny Depp accepting the Cesar award in French? Swoon. I could listen to him all day long, even knowing that it was pre-taped and his lips aren't moving.

And even when a Frenchman isn't speaking French…well, Olivier Martinez being interviewed (in English) about one of his movies? I'm totally entranced. Gilles Marini on Dancing with the Stars? He was fabulous, and I can't help thinking that part of the appeal was the image of the mysterious dark and gorgeous Frenchman (although yes, the dancing was great, too).

But as I dug deeper into the language, I discovered that it wasn't just the language itself that I found entrancing. The beauty of Paris, the loveliness of the countryside, the history, the wine? It's all good to me (did I mention that I am obsessed)?

Lately, I've been watching French travel shows. Provence? Burgundy? Paris? Alsace? I'm already halfway there in my dreams.

Now, if only Gilles Marini or Olivier Martinez would ask me to pass the butter…

Myrna's latest Harlequin Romance, The Frenchman's Plain-Jane Project, is an October release (4-1/2 stars, Romantic Times). You can visit Myrna (and enter her current contest) at www.myrnamackenzie.com.

Male on Monday: Jason Isaacs

2009-10-12T00:00:00.016+01:00

Can't decide if you prefer the hero or the villian in the story? This week our columnist, Annie West, discusses a Male on Monday who's great as either: Jason Isaacs.

We seem to have a tradition here at the Pink Heart Society, of choosing many of our Males on Monday from the acting profession. Here's another, someone I'm so glad hasn't already been featured!

I remember the first time I saw Jason Isaacs in a film. I was enthralled by the energy and vibrancy he brought to his role. Forget Mel Gibson (the hero). This guy stole the show.

He's the villian we love to hate (and he seems to revel in such roles) but he makes a fine hero as well. He's compelling to watch, and I tell myself it's not just because of his dark hair, good looks and gorgeous eyes. This is a man with charisma and personality.

Jason Isaacs is a British actor with a cv that includes film, television and stage. He was born in Liverpool to migrant parents from Eastern Europe. He has a law degree from Bristol University but followed that up by studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where he met his wife. He's quoted as saying:

I did a three year law degree but all the time I was constantly off somewhere in a room screaming and shouting and taking my clothes off. It was where I found my friends and found my feet, and my girlfirends as well. I just got totally addicted to it. People say, 'Well, why did you stop doing law?' Well, do you know any lawyers? [This is] a lot more fun.

Some of you would recognise him as the delightfully sinister Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, complete with long wig. No one could match him, I'm sure, for that air of supercilious hauteur and clipped, condescending tone. Personally I rather like the fact that he loves those books and was desperate to find out what happened to his character.

I first saw him in 'The Patriot' where he plays the appallingly vicious Colonel William Tavington opposite Mel Gibson. The verve with which he embraced the sheer villainy of his character was terrific, and made rivetting watching. That performance won him a nomination from the London Film Critics' Circle.

Other films include 'The Tuxedo' where he plays a very likeable 007 type spy, 'Black Hawk Down', 'Passionada', 'Peter Pan' (where he is both Mr Darling and Captain Hook) and 'Good'. He starred in the fast paced TV action triller 'The State Within' as well as the long running 'Brotherhood'. On stage he played Louis in the critically acclaimed Royal National Theatre production of 'Angels in America, Parts 1 & 2'.

The more I researched him, the more I found to like. He's a family man with two little girls. He says 'Every time I make a plan, God laughs at me'. I can relate to that. He's also got the rather appealing quality of not taking himself too seriously:

I was always bullied, I've never been the bully, I'm a terrible coward. I'm scared of people, I'm scared of horses [laughing] I'm scared of spiders, so you know, the chance to have this army [in 'The Patriot'] and every time I twitch an eyebrow to have a whole village of people quiver, to have one of the biggest, butchest superstars in the world be terrified when I ride into his house, it's very cheap therapy for me.'

If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Jason Isaacs at work yet, let me recommend him. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these few photos to be going on with... In writing this I've discovered a couple of new movies I just have to check out. Research - it's never ending!

Annie's just realised that by sheer coincidence the

hero of her next manuscript has dark hair, stunning eyes and a voice rather like Jason Isaacs'. Amazing! However, it will be some time before that book is available. She has to write it yet!

If you're interested in one of her other yummy heroes, check out her website for details, or grab a copy of her recent release: THE SAVAKIS MISTRESS. Or maybe even snaffle a copy of her next US book: BLACKMAILED BRIDE, INEXPERIENCED WIFE.

Wildcard Weekend: High School Reunions

2009-10-10T01:00:00.001+01:00

Pamela Ford discusses the pain and pleasure that is The High School Reunion

I missed my high school reunion last July because I had a conflict. But even without a conflict, I was conflicted about going. Why is it that getting an invitation to our high school reunion can send fear into even the most successful, self-assured women? What is it about going back to see old classmates that can send us into a dither, making feeble excuses why we can’t possibly attend, dieting, getting Botox, changing hairstyles, exercising like crazy, you name it. Is it because, seeing old friends, we fall into old insecurities about who’s popular and who’s not – and this time around, darn it all, we’re going to be cool…and successful…and someone to be envied. Or, is it that we feel the reunion is going to be a “life report card,” with people making assessments about how well we’ve done in life…and we want to make sure, this time at least, we get really good grades.

That’s what happens to the heroine in my newest book, Her Best Bet. Faced with an invitation to her ten-year reunion, she panics over attending the reunion as a lowly traffic manager. Instead, she decides to pursue her long-buried dream of becoming a filmmaker, and sets off to make a documentary about an old Wisconsin lodge and its gangster history.

Of course, the funny thing about dreams – especially high school dreams – is that they often change. Mine sure did. Sometimes what we think we want most isn’t really what we want at all. Did that happen to you? Did attending one of your reunions – or the mere thought of attending a reunion – send your life in a different direction? If you have a reunion story worth sharing – funny, dramatic, romantic, or just plain interesting, please share it with us!

Pamela Ford’s latest book for Harlequin Superromance, HER BEST Bet, is out now.

RT BOOKreviews gave HER BEST BET 4-1/2 stars and said, “Ford’s characters are wonderfully realistic – with real emotions and problems – plus, her dialogue is witty and the story is captivating.”

Stop by my website to read an excerpt and enter my contest: http://www.pamelaford.net/