Tag Archives: harlequin

Crossing the pond!

26 Monday Nov 2018

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I got a box of books in the mail–this one from Mills and Boon in the UK! My Heartwarming book, HER LAWMAN PROTECTOR, was also released in the UK through Mills and Boon! How cool is that!

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This is a picture of both covers side by side.

When I did a search, I found that it also came out in Australia, New Zealand and the Phillipines, and their cover is a little different, too.

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I love this story, and I’m so glad that it’s coming out in North America, the UK, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand! It’s very exciting to cross the pond again.

❤

 

****

 

4.278504.512.9781335633828Their relationship isn’t real…

But his feelings for her are!

Detective Jack Talbott has devoted his life to ending police corruption. His latest target is Liv Hylton, the ex-wife of a dirty cop. She’s also the woman he’s secretly loved for years. To get close to her, Jack’s going undercover as her boyfriend. But when the evidence points to Liv’s innocence and a threat to her safety, he’ll do anything to protect her. Even risk his career…

Harlequin

Amazon

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Thanksgiving Free Read

19 Monday Nov 2018

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Last year, I wrote a Thanksgiving themed novella for Harlequin’s Free Reads! If you haven’t discovered the Free Reads, you have to. They’re great–novella short romances that are absolutely free!

Last year, I contributed a free read, and mine was a story about a woman falling for her billionaire boss… and I got a great response from it!

If you haven’t read it yet, why not check it out?

Thanksgiving with her Boss

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A late-night kiss is the last straw. Emmie Thomas has tamped down her crush on her boss, Rob West, for almost a year, but she just can’t anymore. What else is there to do but quit and fly to her hometown of North Fork, Alberta, for her family Thanksgiving celebration?

When a mixup sends Rob to Alberta, too, he’s determined to get her back. But does he just want her to be his assistant again? Or is he finally ready to admit he wants something more?

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Thanksgiving with her Boss

Free Read!

Little Mountain Towns

15 Monday Oct 2018

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Growing up, my father was a minister and we moved around a lot. I’ve found that it’s a lot like having a parent in the military. I was always in a new school, living in a new setting. For my high school years, our family moved to a little mountain town called Salmon Arm in British Columbia, Canada.

Shuswap Lake

It’s a gorgeous little town fuelled by tourism. It’s located right by the Shuswap Lake. I have so many great memories from those three years in Salmon Arm! Friends, rights of passage… We hung out at the beach, drove around, and I worked at the local McDonald’s where all the other kids worked, too. It was a really great place to graduate high school.

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This is a recent picture of the house we lived in back then.  (Snapped by a friend who went home to visit her parents.) That living room window has a view of the lake–just gorgeous!

Salmon Arm has stuck in my heart. There’s something about the way the seasons change in the mountains–like how you can know when winter is almost there because the snow line has moved down the mountains.

So when I wrote HER LAWMAN PROTECTOR, I decided to set it in the fictional mountain town of Eagle’s Rest. I gave her a bookstore… and I set it in the fall with the leaves all changing and the snow line moving steadily down those mountains… ❤

Sigh! I love this book! I really think you’ll like it, too!

*****

4.278504.512.9781335633828Their relationship isn’t real…

But his feelings for her are!

Detective Jack Talbott has devoted his life to ending police corruption. His latest target is Liv Hylton, the ex-wife of a dirty cop. She’s also the woman he’s secretly loved for years. To get close to her, Jack’s going undercover as her boyfriend. But when the evidence points to Liv’s innocence and a threat to her safety, he’ll do anything to protect her. Even risk his career…

Harlequin

Amazon

I worry for your health…

06 Thursday Sep 2018

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Tess Holiday has been raked over the coals recently for being on the cover a magazine. There were lots of comments by people claiming to be concerned about her health. Thin women don’t get that treatment. These people made all sorts of passive aggressive comments about how she might look happy and beautiful, but they worried for her health.

Worried.

And then, of course, there were the others who said that by being on the cover of Cosmo, she “glorified obesity.” Just by standing there. As if by being on a magazine, she’ll inspire millions of women to leap from their treadmills and change their entire body type. (“Never mind! I never realized there was another option!”) There’s no risk of that, I can assure you.  But... there might be some girls who look at Tess, look down at themselves, and realized that they’re beautiful just as they are. Heaven forbid girls and women feel attractive and worthy, right?

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We women go through enough at the hands of “the system” without turning on each other. No one is worried about a plus-sized woman’s health to the point that they feel they can invade her privacy and spout off. Because really… you’re concerned about her health? I call BS on that. If she were thin and standing here with a can of pop in her hand, would you worry about the amount of sugar she was consuming? Would a cigarette or an alcoholic drink make you suddenly alarmed for her longevity? Not likely. But when a plus-sized woman simply stands there feeling confident, looking beautiful and drawing the gaze of people who might not have looked before, suddenly everyone is concerned about a complete stranger’s health.

I wrack my brain to think of what their motivation is, because I highly doubt they are personally concerned about her health. Is it jealousy? A worry that there might be more competition for the male gaze than before? Is it just a toppled sense of the hierarchy of women, where she isn’t supposed to achieve that level of attention? Why the anger? Why the negativity?

Ms. Holiday doesn’t need anybody’s worry. She’s beautiful, successful, and at the top of her career. She’s married with a beautiful family. Any “worry” on her behalf is very misplaced, and I love that she’s on the front of Cosmo! She makes me feel beautiful, too.

Being a woman has never been easy, and it’s high time we stopped fighting each other and banded together.

In my my upcoming release, I wrote my most recent heroine as a gorgeous, confident, plus-sized woman. Why? Because I wanted a heroine who looked like me, and who was absolutely perfect just as she was. She’s sweet, sassy, and just the hero’s type.

No treadmill required. 😉

****

4.278504.512.9781335633828

Their relationship isn’t real…

But his feelings for her are!

Detective Jack Talbott has devoted his life to ending police corruption. His latest target is Liv Hylton, the ex-wife of a dirty cop. She’s also the woman he’s secretly loved for years. To get close to her, Jack’s going undercover as her boyfriend. But when the evidence points to Liv’s innocence and a threat to her safety, he’ll do anything to protect her. Even risk his career…

E-book available on the Harlequin site now!

Don’t change a thing!

30 Thursday Aug 2018

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I do like to read books that have beautiful, thin, interesting heroines who can eat whatever they want and still stay lithe and lean… It’s fun to escape into a new person’s life. But when I put the book down and look in the mirror, I feel the difference. I don’t look like that. And there is a beat where I look at myself, and I lose the confidence that I normally have.

I hate that feeling.

I don’t tend to come across too many books that feature a beautiful, plus-sized heroine who isn’t fighting her weight or filled with self-loathing. There are a few, and what I like most about them is that when I finish reading the book and look in the mirror, I feel beautiful. So I decided to write the kind of book that I need. I wanted to write a book where the the heroine is gorgeous, plus-sized, feels no need to change herself, and is absolutely intoxicating to the hero.

Because in real life, being plus-sized is not a liability! At least it isn’t for me, and I hope there are a lot of other women who share my experience. There are men out there who aren’t seeing a dress size–they’re seeing curves! My husband loves my figure, and that includes my size! He thinks I’m gorgeous, and he wouldn’t change a thing about me.

So this book has a special place in my heart. I hope you’ll be swept away in the romance, and when you’re finished reading it and you pass by a mirror, I hope you’ll feel a little thrill when you realize just how beautiful you are.

 

*****

4.278504.512.9781335633828

Their relationship isn’t real…

But his feelings for her are!

Detective Jack Talbott has devoted his life to ending police corruption. His latest target is Liv Hylton, the ex-wife of a dirty cop. She’s also the woman he’s secretly loved for years. To get close to her, Jack’s going undercover as her boyfriend. But when the evidence points to Liv’s innocence and a threat to her safety, he’ll do anything to protect her. Even risk his career…

Coming October 2!

 

 

 

Put a twitch in your step

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

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Dress_form_(AM_2017.18.1-1)In my head, I’m 40 lbs lighter and ten years younger. Is anyone else like that? Now, I’ve tried on enough clothes to know what size to look for in the store, but in my head, when I see a medium on a rack, I figure it should fit! Which makes me chuckle a little as I type this.

I’m NOT a medium. I’m nowhere close. But seeing myself as a medium in my head isn’t just about size, but about how attractive I feel. For the most part, we’re fed that message that tiny=beautiful. If you look at the supermodels, there isn’t very much woman under those clothes. So I catch myself traipsing along with the societal messages twisted around in my head–seeing the size medium and feeling like that’s for me, because I feel beautiful.

That’s the thing–I do feel utterly beautifully at my current size. (Somewhere around size 14-16, depending on the cut.) I don’t want to change my body–it’s done well for me! I love the way I look and the way I feel. I just need to change my mental attitude about it. Beautiful isn’t necessarily a medium. Beautiful, in my case, is plus-sized.

92574efcfa9a1502a03cd5de9ed50d4d--ashley-graham-plus-size-modelI’m currently starting a brand new book entitled, HIS LITTLE GIRL’S HERO for Harlequin Heartwarming. The heroine in this book is plus-sized and gorgeous. This is my second plus-sized heroine for Harlequin Heartwarming. The first comes out in October of 2018. I like writing plus-sized, beautiful heroines because I think it’s high time we start recognizing that beauty has nothing to do with a clothing size.

When I read a romance novel, I like to put myself into that heroine’s shoes and feel what it’s like to be her for a few hundred pages. And sometimes I enjoy being the tall, lithe athletic type for a little while. But what I love more is seeing a heroine who looks a lot like me, and having her be the most beautiful woman in the room. With some extra padding, ample cleavage, a softened tummy and silky skin. When the hero sees her, he’s put under a spell. Her femininity is intoxicating.

And that’s how I like to feel about myself. No need to starve yourself–just shop in the right stores and put a twitch in your step. 😉

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Beauty begins in the way we see ourselves. 

Burning the Beans

05 Monday Aug 2013

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I’m a terrible multi-tasker. I like to think that I can juggle ten things at once, but I really can’t. The two things that don’t seem to be mixing well lately are my writing and my cooking.

I’ve been burning everything I cook for the last few days, but I’ve gotten a bunch of great writing done. Seriously–this manuscript is flowing so easily. It just pours out of me, chapter by chapter, and I tend to lose track of time. It’s great for the book, and bad for whatever meal I’m trying to throw together.

My husband works some long hours, and when he gets home from a twelve hour shift, he’s hungry. The other day, I served up some chili (burned at the bottom of the pot.)

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“I’m really sorry,” I said. “It burned, but I think it’s still edible.”

“No, it’s good.” He tucked in and ate a huge portion.

“Does it have that smoky, bbq taste?” I asked hopefully.

He shook his head. “No, it reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking.”

“Really?” (Swell of love!) He was about to earn some Brownie points with that one.

“She always burned the beans,” he said.

What can I say? I’ll bet his grandmother was doing something else at the same time as cooking, too. And I’m sure it was equally important as messing with the love lives of characters on a page. We “interesting women” have to stick together and defend our burned beans to the bitter end. 😉

Staving off “Writer’s Paranoia”

03 Monday Jun 2013

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I finished up a rewrite for my longsuffering Harlequin editor, and I emailed it off. No better feeling!

But that’s also when the Writerly Paranoia sets in. It feels good to get the manuscript off my desk and into my editor’s inbox, but that also means that it’s off my desk. It’s out there—waiting for judgment.

Did I get it right? Will she like it? Will she hate it? Has she read it yet?

Is she reading it now?

Taking a writer who spends hours every day all by herself, cooped up with a computer and a preschooler (so not technically alone, but definitely free of any adult, calming company), and then fill her overactive imagination with questions like these, and the outcome tends to involve comfort eating.

So I stave off the inevitable Writerly Paranoia by starting a new story. This one isn’t brand new—it’s the firefighter story. I’ve done research and decided on my basic premise, so it was a matter of plotting the novel, and getting back into first draft writing. It keeps me occupied. It gives this creative imagination of mine someplace else to wander.

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Much better.