Power Panel at MERWA

Oh — and I love coming home with a list of books to find (both more writing and/or research books as well as new romance authors recommended during those conferences and workshops!

But really, I think it boils down to the fact that I really REALLY love writers.  Leave us alone and soon we’re talking about people who aren’t real, situations that will be the catalysts that incite the characters to move and change and even ways to kill people!  So many interesting conversations about factoids and details. So many chance encounters that will help or entertain me. So many special moments meeting and getting to know more writers.

Denise Robbins

Even though this was a small conference, more like a retreat, focusing on some basic workshops along with writing (or chatting) time, it met or exceeded my expectations!  Denise Robbins led us through a characterization workshop and I will never be able to say or think the name ‘Raphael’ without sighing. A panel made up off bestselling authors Tess Gerritsen, Kathy Lynn Emerson (aka Kate Emerson), James Hayman and their agent Meg Ruley answered lots of questions about how and why they write, the business and the secrets of the universe  — Meg even  reminded me  during an informal reception that the meaning of life is 42!

And lest you think conferences like this are all work and no fun, you should know that the MERWA group even. . . ahem. . . arranged. . .er. . .participated in an upclose look at how firemen work — a surprise field trip event happened in the middle of the night when the fire and evacuation alarms went off, forcing us to seek safety outside the hotel. And, in those confused, somewhat frightening moments, inspiration of a different kind — but inspiring nonetheless — it gave us all a chance to observe how people react in emergencies.  . . and to watch the fire department respond, too!

Inspiration comes at the weirdest times, in the most unexpected ways and even when we’re not prepared — or when we look like this >>>>>>>>>>>>

How about you? Where do you find inspiration – for writing, for your work, for your passion? Do you find it reading books? Talking to people? Watching hunky firemen answer the call in the middle of the night? What’s your inspiration in life?

   Terri is busy at work on a new project (another Highlander story!) and awaiting the release of TAMING THE HIGHLAND ROGUE (in August) and THE HIGHLANDER’S STOLEN TOUCH (in September). She’ll be presenting workshops and signing throughout the summer. Visit her website for more info about all that!

Tonight though, my heart is heavy and I find it difficult to write something light and funny.  So let me tell you about true love.

Maureen and Len married 37 years ago and Len would proclaim to everyone who would listen that Maureen was the love of his life.  Every six months when they came into the dental office where I’ve worked for the last 20 years, they would continue to talk to each other across the office even as their appointments continued. They ALWAYS scheduled appointment together and rarely came without the other. Len usually began his conversations with ‘my wife Maureen’ and then would go on to tell anyone who would listen about the wonderful woman he loved and had married.

They raised three daughters and Maureen taught school for almost 3 decades, in a struggling school system and never talked about retiring until the year before she did. Len had already and they had lots of things they were going to do together — because that’s how they always did things. Together.

Then, just after retiring ( I would run into them at the local health club pool — spending time together in the exercise pool and class), Maureen was diagnosed with lymphoma. Through it all, Len and the girls were at her side, encouraging her and supporting her through all kinds of treatments and were optimistic when the docs thought her through the worst. And hopeful when she went into remission.

We got a call today at the office letting us know that Maureen died suddenly last week – a powerful infection struck her down and she went from recovery to ventilator to death in only a few days. Len called to apologize for not letting us know that his wonderful wife, the love of his life, had passed away. I happened to take the call and all I could do was cry as he told me once more about the special person she was and how he could not imagine how he would live without her.

As I thought on all he’d said, all he’d ever said about his Maureen, I realized I was hearing true love. Through the good times and the bad, through decades of married life and raising children, into retirement and through trials, they were always together. They were soulmates — the other half that was never far away. And even now, I know their love will remain strong between them….how could it not?

And, as I grieve tonight for the wonderful man who lost the woman he loves, I know I was privileged to see real love in action. Not the fictional love I create in my stories, no, this love was true and deep and abiding and won’t end just because she’s passed away.

So, help me celebrate this true love by sharing a story about a true love you’ve witnessed. Your own? A family member or friend? Please post it — I’ll appreciate hearing about true love during this sad time.

Terri is working on a new proposal for Harlequin Historicals, another MacLerie Clan story, and recovering from her recent month on the road for various work assignments. Visit her website for more info about her upcoming books and events.

Last year, I put together a presentation for an event about the mysteries and possibilities of romance novel coverart and I collected examples of many — some beautiful, some questionable and some downright horrendous covers to show to my audience. I talked about author branding, marketing concepts, reader/story expectations and the one thing that the attendees could simply not believe was that authors have little or no control over covers.  It’s true but after having input on the four covers of my recently republished books, I can say that I think I’m grateful for not having been involved in all those others! LOL!

Actually, that’s not completely true — working with the cover artist/graphic designer on my covers forced me (FORCED!) to sift through dozens and dozens possibly hundreds of photos of gorgeous young men. It was a terrible experience, comparing their eyes and faces and . . . other bits, trying to find the perfect representation for my heroes. As I explained to my husband who was wondering why I was looking at gorgeous young men for hours and hours, it was my responsibility to find the right one from among all the wrong ones.

So, back to the other covers — the ones designed and created by my publishers. I have been blessed with mostly fabulous covers over the years. Lovely ones, gorgeous ones for the most part, across time periods, with hunky Highlanders, Saxon maidens, Regency duchesses and earls, and a few headless women, too. More than a few headless people–LOL!  To capitalize on the trend for my books to feature headless heroines (THE COUNTESS BRIDE, MAID OF LORN, THE BETROTHAL, THE CONQUEROR’S LADY, and all of my Bravas) then headless heroes (THE NORMAN’S BRIDE, TAMING THE HIGHLANDER, SURRENDER TO THE HIGHLANDER, etc), I even held a website contest to guess what the next cover would be!

Well, today I got the first peek at my next Harlequin Historical’s cover and I am blown away by it! I think it’s the best one yet — but I may be biased. What do you think?

When you look for a romance novel, in stores or online, what do you like on the cover? Are you partial to clinches? Hero-only? Heroine-only? Naked manly chests? Images not people?  And which of mine (found here ) do you think is the best? This new one or one of the others? Post a comment and I’m going to choose two people who will each receive a signed book (from this weekend’s Desert Dreams Conference in Phoenix AZ).

Terri is on her way to the Desert Dreams conference this weekend where she’ll be presenting a workshop and signing at the conference bookfair. The bookfair on Saturday is open to the public.  Stop by if you’re in the area!

I’ve attended it a couple of times — twice as a ‘reader’ and twice as an author so I’ve had both sides of the experience — and it can be wild. Though if you’ve heard my stories about helping out in the dressing rooms of the cover model contest (which did involve helping the guys get dressed — and some help with smoothing out the oil they used to glisten on stage!!)  and meeting Fabio and just having a great time overall. My times as an author were fun, too, meeting tons of readers and other writers and spending the better part of a week feeling very special.

But this week, I’m working…actually visiting Grand Rapids MI for a couple of days. And I’ll be watching lots of FB postings and blogs to see what’s going on in Chicago. And hoping I can get there next year….

So, have you ever attended a readers convention? Or writers convention? Do you want to? Why or why not? Will you be following authors on their FB pages or tweets? Let me know! I’ll be looking for an exciting souvenir from Grand Rapids to give to one person who posts today about readers conventions or which authors they’re following at RT — I’m sure there’s something exciting in Grand Rapids, right? LOL!

Terri is on her way, on a baby airplane that hasn’t grown up yet, to sunny Grand Rapids today but she’ll be checking in and searching for that exciting souvenir, too!  Visit her website for more info about her books ( her latest republished title is THE QUEEN’S MAN!) and her upcoming events.

Have you seen this one?

(I especially like the clanging skillets on his manly belt! LOL!)

Or how about this one:

(I can guarantee you that only women can remember where he drops each piece of clothing as he makes his way to the deck!)

Or this one where the irrepressible bad boy uses his roguish smile to entice even the most-hardened noble  and saves the servant girl with a lift of his brow:

And of course, the recent ongoing tv and internet battle between the old Old Spice Guy and the new Old Spice Guy even used one of the best known faces (and bodies) of romance novel history :

The New Old Spice Guy:

versus the Old Old Spice guy:

Have they missed anything in trying to get a woman to buy this product for their man? LOL!

So, clearly they are aiming at the hearts and experiences (and reading memories) of romance reading-women…have they won yours?

Have I missed any that you’ve liked lately? Any that you didn’t? Let me know!

   Terri is head-down, deep in the midst of deadline mania and binge-writing her way to THE END as fast as her fingers can type. This video-based interlude was her attempt to blog. . . with pictures because all her words belong in THAT DA*N BOOK!  She’ll be back among the rest of us soon — in the meantime, visit her website or FB page for more info about her!

Long, long ago, in a very small town in southern New Jersey, I discovered a magical place where I could spend hours, days really, losing myself in other worlds and other times and other places. This was a legal place for a kid to visit and so I spent countless hours there, reading my way through any book I could get my hands on (and that at my reading level!).

The library in Mt. Ephraim was a small building — it would probably fit into my living room and dining room now — but it didn’t matter. It was filled with a seemingly endless supply of books for my hunger to read. I became a fixture there and it wasn’t long before I was allowed to borrow more than the maximum books others were limited to. And I read fast — returning and borrowing more books.

The librarian during those years became a friend, quietly placing books on the table where I sat reading that she thought I would like whenever she found them. She knew I was a sucker for Nancy Drew and then The Black Stallion and The Three Investigators and would reserve them for me. My friends and I would take turns reading the books and then talk about them for hours. My BFF and I even planned to buy horses and have a horse farm after reading The Black Stallion series!

  Needless to say, I am very excited to be visiting the Public Librarians’ Association’s 2012 Conference tomorrow (Thursday) in Philadelphia. Can you imagine a meeting filled with people who love books?! And who are there to recommend and offer books to patrons day in and day out? Wow…….

So, as the librarians descend on Philly this week, what memories do you have of your local library? Was it big or small? What books did you like to read as a kid in a library? Or as an adult! LOL!  I’ll pick up a couple of books tomorrow and send them out to one person who comments about their love of libraries.

   Terri is thrilled that her time travel romance, THE QUEEN’S MAN, is now available to readers in digital formats! Visit her website for info about how and where to purchase it and for info about her upcoming releases and events!

    I lost a friend last week — and readers lost a wonderful storyteller — when Judi McCoy passed away due to complications of diabetes. She’s lingered in a coma for a long time until the end came on Saturday.

  Judi and I have known each other for years, meeting waaaay back when our first books were being published and renewing our friendship at a variety of conventions and conferences in the last decade or so.  We spent many hours discussing our favorite books, editors and actors — Gerard Butler was a topic of our discussions many times.

And during my first visit to the Washington DC chapter’s retreat in Harper’s Ferry, I was the required virgin member of the “Women in Jeopardy” team that also included Kensington editor Kate Duffy (an editor we both wrote for at one time) and others. Judi (at Kate’s orders) even had lovely (????) t-shirts made up for the team which became the envy of everyone there!

    I think our team may have won that year — after stealing….er…borrowing another team’s points in a final, last ditch effort to win in a game that included the frequent yelling of the phrase — “That isn’t fair!” which was answered with “Life isn’t fair!” A tough game for sure!

    Many, many romance writers met Judi through her participation in the 2-day pre-con writers’ workshops at the RT convention. Judi took over those workshops some years ago when their founder, Ann Peach, passed away. With Judi’s help, hundreds of writers have been guided closer to their goal of becoming a published author.

    Judi has always had a passion for animals, being a champion of no-kill shelters and animal welfare causes for a long time. So, it should have been no surprise at all to me or anyone who knew her when her storytelling talents took a break from the paranormal romances she’d been writing and moved to a new mystery series featuring a dog-walker in NYC and her favorite dog, Rudy. Rudy helped his owner solve mysteries and was named after one of Judi’s favorite dogs. She even donated the proceeds from sales of the first book, HOUNDING THE PAVEMENT, to the largest no-kill shelter in the US.  Now, the sixth and last book in the series will be coming out in early March.

     So, today, as her family and friends gather in her hometown for a memorial service, I’m also remembering her — thinking about our times together and all the laughs we shared. Judy always told me that my lack of the pet gene didn’t keep her from liking me — which she usually didn’t if someone was a non-pet person. I’m glad she could get my failing. We talked, laughed, celebrated, brainstormed ideas, discussed writing and writers, signed our books, and met readers together. And, even now as I write this, I just can’t believe she is gone.

     I miss her already………

Terri

 PS — If anyone is interested in honoring Judi by making a donation, her favorite charity was:

Last year, seven Harlequin Historical and Mills&Boon authors were invited to write short stories about real historical royal weddings to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. They were released in digital formats only in April 2011 and were a big hit with readers looking for stories about some of William’s ancestors or those on the throne (before he will be.) Since we know that not all royal matches have been love matches, we were invited to choose either the actual royal couple involved or to use our own fictional couple and set their story at the royal wedding.

And we were off! Time was short – we were invited right around Christmas week in 2010 and the stories were needed by mid-January for publication in April – so we were writing at breakneck speed. The collection spans more than 8 centuries and all include Author’s Notes to give some historical background or context to our choices and research. While others were shopping for fascinators to wear while watching Wills and Kate, we were hard at work creating these stories!

We were recently thrilled (and surprised) to learn that Mills& Boon would be publishing the collection IN PRINT as a February Special release and so it has – ROYAL WEDDINGS THROUGH THE AGES is a beautiful trade-sized paperback now available in the UK.

So — what are the stories about? Why did the authors choose their particular time period, royal couple or wedding? Let’s ask the authors!

My own story – WHAT THE DUCHESS WANTS – is about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry of Anjou(who would be Henry II of England). I have always been drawn to Eleanor and have featured both her and Henry in several of my medieval HHs. I have always through that, since Eleanor had the extremely rare opportunity of choosing her (2nd) husband, there must have been something more personal, more attractive, more passionate in her choice of Henry of Anjou. She could have her choice from among Europe’s elite and eligible nobles and royals – so why Henry? That drove me to tell this story!

Michelle Willingham set her story in 1191 – LIONHEART’S BRIDE is about King Richard and Princess Berengaria. “I write primarily in the medieval time period, and choosing the story of Richard the Lionheart allowed me to create a second generation story from my MacEgan Brothers series of Irish warriors,” Michelle said.

Bronwyn Scott’s PRINCE CHARMING IN DISGUISE is set at the wedding of Prince George and Caroline of Ansbach in 1704. “I wanted to pick something in the Georgian period and mostly I wanted to pick a real marriage that was considered happy,” Bronwyn said. “When I saw this, I knew I had the one I wanted. I’ve always wanted to write ‘historical fiction’ ala Philipa Gregory or others of that genre and this seemed like a perfect chance to experiment with that.”

A PRINCELY DILEMMA by Elizabeth Rolls is set at the ill-fated wedding of George, Prince of Wales, and Princess Caroline of Brunswick in 1795. “I chose Prinny and Caroline because their marriage was such an unmitigated disaster from start to end and the scandal surrounding it from the start gave me lots to work with. I have to admit that with the Maria Fitzherbert – Prinny – Princess Caroline situation I could see certain parallels with a more recent royal marriage. Which just goes to show that there really is nothing new underneath the sun. Plus it was fun to slip back a little further in time into the late 18th century.

Going back to the continent, Lucy Ashford featured Napoleon and Marie-Louise’s wedding her THE PROBLEM WITH JOSEPHINE. “I chose the wedding of Napoleon and Princess Marie Louise of Austria in 1810, partly because I love the Napoleonic era, and partly because it was such a huge, lavish wedding – fabulous celebrations, ending with fireworks all along the Seine. The wedding took place in the Louvre, which was full of Napoleon’s prized art collection (much of it looted!),” Lucy reports. “And while I was reading up about it further, I discovered that at the last minute, some unknown courtier suddenly discovered that there were lots of portrayals of Napoleon’s previous wife, the notorious Josephine, still in the Louvre – but painted into larger works, which were impossible to remove. So, at the last minute, they had to be painted out, or Napoleon would have gone crazy when he saw them on his wedding day!”

Ann Lethbridge chose Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold’s wedding in 1816 for her story – PRINCESS CHARLOTTE’S CHOICE. “I chose the wedding of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold because it happened in the Regency, which is when all my books are set, and despite all the odds against it, theirs was a real romance.”

And last, or most modern of the historical stories is Mary Nichols’ WITH VICTORIA’S BLESSING set at the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. “I chose Victoria and Albert for my Royal Wedding because I wanted to write a love story and theirs was a love true love match. So many Royal weddings in the past have been politically driven and consequently disastrous and I wanted to my fictional hero and heroine to overcome obstacles and be happy too.
In trying to be both romantic and also historically-accurate, the authors discovered some fun facts while researching for theirs.”

Since readers ask us where our ideas come from, I thought the authors could share a tidbit or two that they found interesting!

Elizabeth reported that “Since Prinny took back the pearl bracelets he gave Caroline and gave them to his current mistress, Lady Jersey, I thought I should try to find something positive to write about him, so I focused on his legacy to the British Nation which was quite extensive. Windsor Castle, the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, a Royal Collection to rival that sold by Charles I – and the Brighton Pavilion, which the Rev’d Sidney Smith described as looking as if, ‘…the dome of St Paul’s went down to the sea and pupped’! You can sort of see what he meant and it just made my day reading that.”

Bronwyn discovered that shortly after they married, Caroline came down with small pox and nearly died. George was so devoted to her that he stayed by her side at the risk of his own life—and it was a risk. He did contract the disease and nearly died as well. But they both recovered and went on to have a long marriage.

Surprisingly, Ann found that people often assume that women during this time were prim and proper and thoroughly subdued. Princess Charlotte was a very strong-willed young woman, who grew up in an exceedingly dysfunctional family. She regularly broke the rules set down by her father, the Prince Regent, and got into all kinds of scrapes. Sometimes the ladies set to watch over her turned a blind eye to her shenanigans and sometimes she found ways to avoid their eagle eyes and do what she wanted to do. In the summer of 1814 after Napoleon’s abdication Britain received a great many visits from European nobility and since the Princess was not officially “out” she was unable to participate in many of the festivities. Many thought this was unkind of the Prince Regent. Those Princes were a bit like the rock stars of today, and Princess Charlotte found her own way to meet with the glittering young men at her home and then rid herself of her chaperones. She walked a very fine line and could have been utterly ruined. It seemed to me, reading about her pushing the boundaries she was set, that she wasn’t much different to teenagers today.

Mary revealed that one of the things she learned was that Prince Albert was terribly seasick on his way to England and most of his staff succumbed too, and that also worked well her story, because it gave Richard the opportunity to speak to the Prince and meet a long lost relative destined to help with his courtship of Emily.

And scandalously, Lucy found a fact of ‘artistic’ interest — Jacques, her hero, talks about the famous Canova sculpture of a naked Napoleon, which Napoleon rejected in 1811 as being ‘too athletic’. This statue later came into the possession of the Duke of Wellington and is now on view to the public at Wellington’s former home, Apsley House, in London. How (in)appropriate!

So, real history, seven royal couples, seven weddings – seven phenomenal love stories in one collection for you all to enjoy! Different styles and voices from seven leading Harlequin authors – something for everyone and we hope you’ll give it and us a try!

The authors will be dropping in during the day from all over the US, England and even Australia, so please ask your questions — we all have more interesting tidbits to share and will tell you all about our other upcoming releases, too! Five lucky commentors will be chosen to win either a copy of the anthology or a copy of an author’s backlist — so post away!

For anyone interested in purchasing this special UK edition in print, I would suggest Book Depository – free shipping to most countries world-wide. (Digital copies will be available through only the UK sites like Mills and Boon or Amazon.co.uk.)

OHMIGOSH!! I nearly forgot to invite you ALL over to chat live with us tonight – Wednesday, February 8th — at 9pm EST on Romance Reviews Today. Here’s a link to their chatroom –just click on Mo’s Book Buzz — please stop by — we’re not really dangerous, we just write characters who are! LOL!

I really enjoyed stars and celebrities showing up in guest roles, too, even knowing that they’ll be either a) the viillain, or b) the opposing attorney. Jerry Lewis appeared on it and so did Julia Roberts along with many others. And almost the entire cast of the HBO series OZ appeared on the various versions.

I think it was my love of Law&Order that got me bounced from the jury box the last time I was called for jury duty. That or my general fascination in watching people and analyzing their behaviors (as any good writer does)! I made it to the jury box and noticed that the defense team (two young men accused of robbery, etc) were stacking the jury with mothers of boys and single young men and the prosecution team was going for single women and old(er) white men. Interesting, huh? Anyway, I was watching and kind of enjoying/appreciating their strategies when I was dismissed….

So, guess what I’ll be doing today as you’re reading this blog? Yeppers — jury duty! This time I’m going to try to be more circumspect. . . and discreet. . . yeah…sure! I’m packing up my not-yet-read magazines and a few books to take (because jury duty day IS guilt-free reading day) and getting ready to spend the day at the courthouse in Camden.

Have you been called to jury duty? Served on a jury? How did your experience go?  Are you as fascinated with law-and-order type tv shows as I am? What’s your favorite? I’ll check in when I can during the day to find out…and to let you know how it’s all going!

    Terri is thrilled that A MATTER OF TIME, the third book in her MacKendimen trilogy, is now available now in digital formats!! THE QUEEN’S MAN, her Elizabethan time travel romance will be available soon!

    Visit her website from info on all of her current and upcoming releases. . .

Okay — you all know (or some of you know) that I swear I don’t like vampire romances…….for sooooo many reasons. And I stand by that except when a new Midnight Breed romance comes out from Lara Adrian! LOL!  Her vamps are a different twist on the ‘same old’ vampire mythology and these stories are dark and steamy as are the heroes in them. Wow….. This one is special because it also marks Lara’s first  hardcover release AND because we finally get to Sterling Chase’s story — woohoo!

Next up on my anticipation list is Kerrelyn Sparks’ WANTED:UNDEAD OR ALIVE — hey! wait a sec! It’s a vampire romance! How could that happen?

Well, I am hooked on this series, too — Kerrelyn’s Love At Stake series has a lighter approach to vampires as well as those other paranormals I’ve sworn never to read — shapeshifters!  But I do enjoy these stories about the good vamps fighting the bad vamps to protect humanity — the good vamps’ leader Roman isn’t too bad either!

Okay, okay, before you all think I’ve lost my mind actually talking about vampire romances — I am sooooo waiting for the first book in Madeline Hunter’s next historical series – THE SURRENDER OF MISS FAIRBOURNE – coming in March. OH NO!! Why do Madeline Hunter books always come out on or near my own writing deadlines? I guess I’ll have to work something out with her publisher because there is no way I can NOT read this the day it hits the shelves….. It’s the first of her new Fairbourne Quartet and this time she tackles the world of auction houses. Since I love the rich, historical texture of her stories, I can’t wait for this one.

My newest addiction is Gaelen Foley’s INFERNO CLUB Regency historicals. I found a reference online to Gaelen’s stories involving a secret order of warriors founded in the Middle Ages and still operating in Regency England and France – I was hooked! I raced through the first two and am in the middle of the third — just as the fourth one was released — AND there’s a fifth one coming too! Woohooo for me!

So, how about you? What’s coming up in your reading future in 2012? Readers — what book or series are you looking forward to? Authors — what can readers expect to see from you in 2012? I’m looking for a few more suggestions for once I finish these….so what do you suggest?

     Terri is thrilled to see her 2011 short story WHAT THE DUCHESS WANTS included in the Mills&Boon Special Release – ROYAL WEDDINGS THROUGH THE AGES in February! Since it’s a M&B release, it can be ordered online here or here. For lots of exciting info about Terri and her upcoming books, visit her website.