For the most part, I have a dream job.  I spend my workdays creating stories to touch a reader’s heart.  And better yet, I get to do that in the privacy of my own home.

While most people fight rush hour traffic on their way to and from work, I pour myself a second cup of coffee and remain in my jammies or a comfy pair of sweats.

But there are times when writing can be a lonely profession, especially when my family or friends are heading to the mall, the movies, or my favorite restaurant for dinner, and I can’t go with them because I’m struggling to make a deadline.  That’s when my office becomes a dark, dank writing cave.  And I have to admit, it’s not fun to be chained to my desk when I’m struggling with stubborn characters or plot holes.

However, that’s not the case when working on a continuity series, especially the Fortunes of Texas.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the process, I’ll tell you know how it works.

Suddenly, out of the blue, my agent calls and tells me that I’ve been invited to take part in a new series.  And I’m thrilled.  I’ll even shuffle other deadlines, just so I can take part.

Next the continuity bible, a detailed account of the series, arrives via email.  There’s an overview of the series and the continuity plot that begins in book one and builds until the wrap up in book six.   A brief synopsis of each book in the story, is included, including a cast of characters, certain locations, and other details.

Last comes the list of participating authors, their contact information, and their assigned books.   The authors then contact each other and work together to create six solid romances in a successful series.

Some authors don’t like the constraints of following the plot details created in the series bible, but I’m not one of them.  I love looking over my story assignment and making those characters my own.  I also enjoy hammering out plot or character issues with the other authors.

My most recent participation in a continuity series was the Fortunes of Texas:  Whirlwind Romance.  My book, MENDOZA’S MIRACLE, was the third of six books. 

In book one, FORTUNE’S CINDERELLA by Karen Templeton, a tornado strikes Red Rock and affects the lives of all the characters.  My hero, Javier Mendoza, was critically injured in the tragic event.  And it’s not until book two that his family and friends learn that he’s going to live.

So what happens in my story?

Here’s the back cover blurb:

From the Desk of Leah Roberts

Review of Patient Case

Name: Javier Mendoza

Age: 31

Condition: Injured in Red Rock tornado—still hospitalized. Recovering nicely. Too handsome for a hospital bed. Too sexy for his own good.

Prognosis: Likely to cause racing pulse, sleepless nights and hospital gossip.

Course of treatment: Walk away, STAT!

The Fortunes and the Mendozas had been anxiously awaiting Javier’s recovery. Finally he was on the mend, and no one was happier than his nurse, Leah Roberts. She’d been his rock during the ordeal, but now she was having thoughts that were most unprofessional. She was losing her heart to her flirty, sweet-talking patient.

But did Javier also have a case of true love?

When the Jaunty Quills asked me to blog, I thought it might be fun to discuss continuities, especially the Fortunes of Texas, and their appeal to readers.

So if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions, I’d love to hear them.  In fact, I’ll be giving away autographed copies of MENDOZA’S MIRACLE to two lucky commenters.

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Be sure to check out all six books in the newest Fortunes of Texas: Whirlwind Romance series

Available now:

FORTUNE’S CINDERELLA – by Karen Templeton

FORTUNE’S VALENTINE BRIDE – by Marie Ferrarella

MENDOZA’S MIRACLE – by Judy Duarte

FORTUNE’S HERO – by Susan Crosby

Coming in May and June 2012

FORTUNE’S UNEXPECTED GROOM – by Nancy Robards Thompson

FORTUNE’S PERFECT MATCH – by Allison Leigh

I thought it might be fun for you to see where I write.  Okay, so I had an ulterior motive.  Taking pictures of my work area forced me to do some much needed “Spring” cleaning. 

Just to be clear, my work area isn’t always messy, but it can get that way fast when I’m approaching a deadline.  This might be a good chance to show you how I keep track of my deadlines.   Yeah, a white board.  I’m real high tech.

A little history first.  I started writing in 1996 and sold my first book in 1999.  For those first few years, my “office” was a corner in the bedroom. The computer was on a lower shelf (not a desk) and on the shelf above it was a dot matrix printer.  When the paper came out of the printer, it would either A) fall on the floor, B) fall on my head or C) I would catch each sheet.  Ahhhh, the good old days.

Shortly around the time that I sold, we did some home remodeling and what should have been a spare bedroom became my office. I’ve included several pictures for your viewing pleasure.  The first is my computer.   You’ll notice the laser printer to one side.  It prints SEVENTEEN pages per minute and NONE of those pages fall on my head.  I consider this exceptional progress.

When I moved from the corner to the spare bedroom-turned-office, I decided my book covers would be my office art.    Thankfully I continued to sell (30 sales and counting) or my walls would have been pretty bare.  I also keep a copy of all my books, including all the foreign editions in a bookcase in my office.  If you have eagle eyes and notice all the children’s books…yes, I have a collection of books from my childhood.  They never fail to make me smile when I see them.  So many good memories.

I’ve got a good amount of desk space when it’s not cluttered with papers and post-it notes that I write to myself to remind me of different points in my current work-in-progress.

 Unfortunately some of my desk space is taken up by my office cat, Oreo.     I wish I could say she’s a big help, but she’s really more of a hindrance.  She sits in front of my monitor, sprawls on my papers and kicks my notes off the desktop.  But I love her anyway.

What I really like about my office space is it feels like home to me.  I can sit down at any of the day or night and do what I love to do best…write.  It doesn’t get any better!

I’m curious.  Do you have an office area at home?  Or a special place you like to read?

I’m often asked why I write historical romances—specifically, books set in the Middle Ages.  Quite simply, I love that historical era.  I adore castles and the romanticism of chivalry.  And, dare I say, I love bold, sexy, alpha male knights whose heroics make ladies swoon.

Is it any wonder that when my British husband and I married close to twenty years ago, our song was the theme to the movie Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves?  My heart still flutters when I hear Bryan Adams singing “Everything I Do, I Do it For You.”

My love of all things medieval began as a child, when I listened to fairy tales.  My dad, who is British, often took my sister and me to England during our summer vacations to visit relatives, and he took us to many historic sites.  We visited awe-inspiring churches built centuries ago, ruins of Roman baths, Stonehenge, The British Museum, old graveyards, and other places that left upon me a lasting impression of how fascinating the past can be.

After graduating from university, I further enriched that fascination through a one-year course with Sotheby’s auctioneers in London, England, where I studied silver, glass, porcelain, furniture, jewelry, paintings, and more from the Middle Ages through the 20^th century.  It was an amazing year.

An added perk?  I met the tall, dark-haired, charming Brit who became my husband.  And yes, he loves castles, too.

When I started writing medieval romances, I wanted to bring the past I’d experienced to life in a way that was meaningful to me and hopefully other people, too.  To do that, I had to make my characters and story settings three-dimensional.  I needed vital emotional conflicts for my heroes and heroines to struggle to resolve.  I needed to know what foods were cooked, what the different social classes wore, what weapons were used, how a man trained to become a knight, and how wounds were treated.  More simply, I needed sounds, smells, tastes, and textures.  Easy peasy, right?

Um…  No.

I spent many, many hours doing research on the internet.  I brought armloads of books home from the library and jotted pages of notes.  I accumulated a small library of books on kings and armor and medieval recipes (one day, when I’m feeling really ambitious, I’m going to try making a few dishes).

I also bought CD’s of medieval-era music and listened to them while I cooked dinner.  One of the songs started out slowly and then sped up to a vibrant melody accented by drums.  I was captivated.  Immediately I had an idea for the opening chapters of Dance of Desire, a fast-paced, emotional story of a proper noblewoman desperate to save her younger brother who is imprisoned as a traitor and the “barbarian” sheriff she is coerced into marrying to help rescue her sibling.

Dance of Desire was my first novel published in paperback and it won numerous awards.  My daughter, in elementary school at the time, proudly announced to her teachers that her mom was “a published romance author.”

With each book I penned, my love of the Middle Ages grew.  A Knight’s Vengeance, my very first medieval that I wrote when my daughter was a baby (and I revised from start to finish about seven times, because I was still learning how to craft a book) had several secondary male characters who deserved to be heroes of their own books.  The idea of connected novels, all set in the fictional county of Moydenshire I’d created, took seed in my mind.  The Knight’s Series was born.

Originally published in paperback, the first four books will be available again as eBooks on Kindle (A Knight’s Vengeance, Book One, and A Knight’s Reward, Book Two, are are up now, the other two will follow later this year).  My goal for the next year is to write the fifth and final novel and to wrap up the series the way I always envisioned.  And then…  I already have ideas for more medievals.

On trips back to England, my husband and I have taken my daughter sightseeing at some of the historic sites, including ones I visited with my father.  A few years ago we toured Warwick Castle, magnificent to this day.  One of my clearest memories is of standing in an interior room, putting my hand on the smooth stone wall, and just listening, to the voices of modern-day visitors drifting in from outside, but also to the ancient pulse that still seemed to flow within the stone.  It was an amazing moment that snatched my breath away.

When I sit down to write, I feel again that ancient pulse.  It inspires me.  It breathes new life into my words.  And the writer in me is happy.

Do you read historical romances?  What do you find inspiring about them?  Is it the historical setting?  The characters?  I’d love to know!

This blog is about marital disasters, a topic that may seem far from Paris in Love, but it feels terribly close in my current life.  Thankfully, my marriage is healthy and happy, but I’m in one of those periods in which everyone around me seems to be breaking up.  Oh, the stories I’m hearing…

It has made me really think about a question I’m being asked at signing events for Paris in Love.  “Given the title, who exactly is in love?”  The simplest answer is: me.  I fell in love with the city, and so I paid it the same loving attention that we give a new, adored person.  But I also fell in love with my children (again).  Given the time to really listen to them, I discovered that they are growing up into fascinating, complex, and very funny individuals.  I fell in love with my husband (again): we found each other again during the year, in an unexpectedly delightful twist to the year we ran away from home.  And finally, Paris in Love describes a romance we watched throughout the year, which ended with a romantic twist that even I—author of over twenty romances—couldn’t have dreamed up.

But let’s get back to marriages and their possible demise.  Not everybody can sell their house & cars, as we did, and simply fly away to a foreign country.  But almost everybody can arrange, somehow, to spend a day and a night away from home—perhaps by trading babysitting/house duties with friends who have kids.  I think it’s deeply important to run away from home, every once in a while, taking your partner with you.  I’d say that’s the best advice I can draw from Paris in Love.

What’s some advice you’d suggest, for friends who may be heading toward marital disaster?  What’s worked best in your life?

Congrats to Linda Scarchuk and Molly who are the winners from yesterday’s blog! Send me your snail mail via my website at www.katherinegarbera.com.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their ideas on delicious!

Katherine

I was reading Oprah’s magazine and came across a little article by her at the end. She said she loved the word delicious. Just saying it brought a smile to her face and she said that it applied to so many things in life not just food. I read the magazine on my iPad so at the end there was this little credits list and arrows pointing to the different employees of the magazine and what they found delicious. Here are my top three delicious things:

My husband’s kiss–he just tastes perfect.
My mom’s lasagna-nothing and I do mean nothing comes close.
A silly long skirt I have that’s made of imitation silk, um that would be rayon. But it feels so delicious next to my skin!

What do you find delicious? I have some READY FOR HER CLOSE-UP notepads that I will send to two lucky blog participants today!

Kathy

Laurie G.!  Congratulations!  Please check your email for a note from me regarding your prize.   Thanks to everyone who visited with the JQs and Leigh LaValle on Friday!

The winner of Kate Noble’s IF I FALL is Molly!   Check your inbox, and congrats.

Congratulations to Barbara Elness, who will receive a copy of SOMEBODY TO LOVE! Email your snail mail addy to k.higgins@snet.net, Barbara! I hope you enjoy the book!

Writing a book is like going on a trip. I’m sure you’ve heard that before if you’ve ever talked to a writer. And some writers have a GPS and a back-up map and their car is fully serviced and they have snacks and water before they leave on their trip…I’m not that kind of writer.

I’m the writer who wants to go somewhere exciting and packs a bag and then figures the rest out on the way. And my latest book is a bit like that. This is the last book in the Matchmakers, Inc. series and the heroine, Willow Stead was actually the first one who came to me. Willow is nothing like me in that she doesn’t let go of things that have happened in her past.

I do. I push anything unpleasant to the farthest reaches of my mind and hope it never pops up again. In a way Willow’s a little like that. But really she just is patient. She doesn’t seek out revenge on Jack but when he shows back up in her life and starts flirting with her, she can’t help but feel like now is the time for her to even the score between them from all those years ago.

I’m too impatient to have waited that long for anything…it’s been ten years since Willow and Jack last saw each other when the first Matchmakers, Inc. book opens.

So what about you?

Kathy