(Sorry This is late to get up, guys, but had trouble posting it - Hannah)

I would like to thank Hannah for inviting me to write for her fans. I love her books because like me, she loves exotic locations and exceptional characters.  One of the male writers at a recent book sale said the heroes in romance novels written by women do not act like real men.  My response is that perhaps males might try to be more like the heroes female authors depict.

I wrote in elementary school.  My parents were both teachers with long vacations, so every summer we took off, pulling a seventeen-foot trailer all over North America. I was encouraged to write about our trips and wrote mostly poetry, but in sixth grade I wrote a play that was performed in front of the whole school.  Pretty fantastic, being able to roam the country in our little trailer, but it didn't all go smoothly.  We weren't rich, and once we got stuck in the Rockies when our car gave out.  We stayed in a Sheridan, Wyoming trailer park for a couple of weeks while my parents called on relatives to send money.  Another time, we experienced a flash flood in Mexico and had to pull the trailer across a river on a rotting railroad bridge.  And on the Alcan Highway in the Northwest Territories, I watched people in a restaurant bang a man's head on the floor to knock him out.  The man had a burst appendix, and the nearest hospital was three hours away by helicoptor.  This was all fodder for my imagination.  I was destined to be a writer!

Travel to distant places is usually what inspires me to write novels, but my next book due out from Five Star in July 2010 actually is located close by.  The historical romantic suspense, Winter Harvest, takes place in the Hancock Shaker Village in 1838 when the Hammonds, their farm failing, decide to leave their seven-year-old daughter, Lucy, with the Shakers while they move west, braving Indians and uncultivated land to find a new farm.

Keepers of the garden, the United Society of Believers, better known as the Shakers, await the second coming of the Lord with strict rules.  Men and women live together in a commune but are physically separated to discourage coupling.  The men and boys tend to the farm and livestock while the women cook, clean, and make crafts to sell in the neighboring villages.  For a century, the celibate community flourished by taking in young children and training them to eventually become hardworking members.

Lucy becomes accustomed to the rigorous work and unusual form of worship, but is lonely.  So when an orphan, Sarah, is indentured to the group when she is twelve, Lucy immediately befriends her.  But having lived with her father on the outside, Sarah is wordly and often breaks the rules, expecting Lucy to follow.

When Sarah suddenly runs away with one of the boys in the commune, no one belikeves Lucy when she announces that Sarah is in trouble - no one except a bank detective who is visiting the commune in search of a bank robber.  Harvest time usually precedes winter.  But not all harvests are done in the fall.  In the winter, we used to have to harvest the ice that we kept in barn-like icehouses preserving it well into summer.  But this winter in the mid 1800s when the young men work to gather the ice from the Shaker farm, they get more than they bargain for.

Lucy earnestly continues to prepare to take her vows and give her life to the Shakers, but her esteem for the detective grows too.  Will their relationship interfere with her plans?

Winter Harvest is my fourth published book.  I have three others.  Two of them, women's fiction, Passup Point and Lety's Gift, take place in the rugged desolation of Newfoundland/Labrador.  My third, a mystery called L'Oro Verde, featuring a nun detective in Tuscany, was published under the name L E Chamberlain.

While my books are not romance novels per se, they all have romantic elements.  In Passup, after dealing with their pasts, both the hero and the heroine find love.  In Lety's Gift, the heroine falls in love with a fellow priest.  And in L'Oro Verde, there is unlikely passion and a relationship between two of the characters.

Lety's Gift also has some paranormal elements.  Sophie is born with the gift - a gift that leads to her breakdown in an orphanage.  After she is ordained, she becomes the chaplain in a hospital on the remote tip of western Newfoundland, and spirits in the closed-up mental ward on the fourth floor warn her of dangers.

You can visit my website at http://www.coraliehjensen.com/  or go to my Facebook account under Coralie Hughes Jensen or my twitter account under Corkyhj.
You can also veiw Letty's Gift at http://www.amazon.com/Lety'sGift   and L'oro Verde at http://www.amazon.com/L'oro

Where's my Muse?!

See that?  Those are the feet of my cat Jackson.  I just spent a lot of time getting him to stand on the copier so I could scan them in.  It's called procrastination taken to the heights of a true art form.  Oh, sure, I could claim I was practicing how to use the scanner so I could scan in old pics and important papers but the mind scoffs at such an excuse.  Big loud scoffing.  I was - plain and simple - wasting time.  Dithering about.  Doing anything but what I should be doing - working on the next book.

Sent the next vamp novella in Monday.  Began to think it was cursed as I changed the start and it required a lot more rewriting than I had anticipated and then - just as I'm about to get it sent in - the lights go out for a day.  So, yes,one could say I deserve a little break - but scanning a pic of my cat's feet into the computer?  That's stretching it.

The thing is, I have another Murray tale to write and I just don't know how to start it.  Have about three beginnings in mind and don't know which one I like best.  My heroine Ilsabeth is not helping and all the hero wants is for me to get her delicious self to him ASAP so he can seduce her.  Men.  No help at all.

My Muse?  Obviously on vacation or just plain undecided.  The solution is - write all three openings and see which one starts the old creative juices flowing.  The urge to do that is lacking.  I seem to think I can just mull it over and inspiration will strike.  Ain't happening.  Instead I'm scanning weird things into the computer. 

Oh, I know what is to happen at the start, what will send Ilsabeth running into Simon's arms, but just how that takes place is the puzzle.  Beginnings can be a real pain in the buttsky.  You want them to grab the reader, entice the reader,  make the reader want to turn the page and keep on going.  That can actually be very intimidating to a writer.  Yes, sometimes it's just there, ready to practically write itself .  Other times it's almost there but maybe this would work better or this - you get the drift.  It's not writer's block but it can be just as bad.  Roadblock - you're sitting there wondering which way to turn and the Tom-Tom in your brain is giving you too many ways to go.  So - you idle there.  Not good.

In the end, what I will do is write the first couple sentences of each beginning - maybe even the first paragraph - and see which has more snap.  Or which makes me want to keep on going and thumb my nose at all the other possibilities.  So Ilsabeth best step up to the starting line because I intend to get this book done by May.  I want to be able to do some gardening and not spend that all important month(to gardening) sitting at the computer.  But right now I see Perkins - Jackson's sister who has a lot of extra toes - and am wondering if I can get her to stand on the copier.

COWBOYS OR MEN IN KILTS: MUST WE CHOOSE

As countless thousands of her loyal readers know, Hannah Howell has written many wonderful books set in sixteenth century Scotland. The level of heat between hero and heroine is suggestive but not explicit.


You can read Hannah’s books in the cafeteria at work, on public transport, or anywhere. My favourite place is the bathtub with water hot, white wine chilled and dark chocolate within reach.

There’s just something about a tall, strong man in a kilt that sets my heart beating. That broad chest, those muscular thighs, that kilt blowing in the wind….

Then there’s cowboys, riding high in the saddle, setting blood pumping through my veins. The broad chests, muscular thighs, snug jeans cupping butts that just makes you want to smile.

I should mention I write hot and erotic romance.

COWBOY SANDWICH, electronically published by Siren-BookStrand, Inc. in June, 2009, features two hot cowboys. Adam and Bryan are eager to prove to our heroine that live is worth living fully.

The sequel, COWBOY DOUBLE-DECKER, due out electronically by June 2010, has even more fun. While happy with his life, Bryan heads out from their Montana organic cattle ranch to find himself a wife of his own.

But no matter the level of heat, the men in Hannah’s kilts and my saddles are heroes. The sort of man you rarely see anymore in cities. No office ‘cube dudes’* the heroes in these books are the type of men who go out in all weather, facing dire consequences, to do what must be done.

So, what is it about these heroic men that makes us want to jump into stories featuring them? Yeah, great bods are a given. And isn’t it wonderful to take those arrogant so-and-so’s down a few pegs?

Real men wear kilts with pride. These men know what they’ve got and how to use it with dignity, perseverance and a twinkle in their eye. Muscles? Go to any Highland Games and you’ll see men tossing the caber (56 pound telephone pole, end to end) or throwing a (16 pound) hammer. Watch them dance the fling or the sword dance (two crossed swords, dancing between and around the sharp bits). See the kilts, well, fling as they dance.

Is it hot in here or is it just me reacting to all that testosterone?

And while we’re on the subject of heat, what about hot cowboy romance? Erotic romance featuring cowboys fly from electronic publisher’s shelves, downloaded by eager readers all over the world. The men in my COWBOY SANDWICH are so hot they’d leave a brand in the saddle if they lived in real life.

Ah, yes. Real life.

Would we want to marry any of these men?

I know what you’re thinking: have one man to fix all those things falling apart, another to cook and clean, and the third to amuse you. In fantasy-land the master bedroom is larger than the back half of your home or whole apartment, the bathroom is the size of your kitchen and you never have to bend over to scrub the darn tub!

But real life? We get up before the crack of dawn to start on our day. Working outside the home, or even harder inside it, with hungry children with homework to supervise, food to cook, laundry to wash and that man holding the remote with an iron grip until everything’s done and he wants to get frisky.

THAT’S why we need to read a romance book. To sigh over wonderful heroes in kilts or saddles who take us far from reality.

To Scotland, where the midges never bite naughty bits while we’re rolling in the heather with our heroic man, sans kilt.

To the mountains and plains where our cowboys ride hard and fast in tight jeans to meet us by the secret pond. Where we then enjoy kisses and more without black flies, mosquitoes, chiggers, snakes, or [insert your choice here] to bother us.

In both cases we return home to castle, keep or ranch where some helpful servants take care of all those boring chores. Then it’s happily ever after time.

We close the cover of our book (or e-reader), sigh and realize the bath water is cold, the wine warm and the chocolate melted.

Whether it’s with a cowboy or hunk in a kilt, we’ve spent some wonderful time far away from reality.

We might even learn something to teach our partner(s). With erotic romance, you might point out to your partner a few choice sections to provide ideas of what you’d like. Maybe not the whipped cream and chocolate because we know who’ll end up doing the laundry, but maybe that thing about the silk ties and blindfold….

* Reece Butler claims the phrase ‘cube dude’, referring to men who sit behind computer screens all day, surrounded by five foot high cubicle walls, yet think they’re wild and free. Some are, but others only live it through the television, trading one screen for another. They race from one to the other in revved-up vehicles with more acceleration than common sense. Perhaps it’s a compensation thing, to make up for their oh-so-normal jobs? Unless the large, heavy trucks and SUVs are to compensate for something else, something no romantic hero would ever sport. Yeah, this does have something to do with that three-syllable ‘O’ word. But I digress.

Reece Butler writes hot and erotic romance. Her first two publications feature Montana cowboys (plural) having a lot of fun after working all day on the Double R ranch. You can find her work at to http://www.bookstrand.com/cowboy-sandwich.

Introducing Madelle Morgan and her release Diamond Lust

I am so happy to share my excitement at being a newly published author with Hannah and all readers of her blog. My debut romantic suspense, Diamond Lust, was released February 18 by Cerridwen Press.

This book had its genesis back in the 80s when I was a 20-something engineer based in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. During five years of flying over vast empty landscapes and short stays in various tiny communities, I developed a deep love and respect for the Arctic and its people. That respect includes an awareness of the strength and resilience northerners require to survive in what can be a dangerous and unforgiving environment where in winter temperatures drop to -40, daylight is nil for weeks, and help can be hours away. The men are real men. The women are so strong!

Gems and crystals fascinate me; I almost chose to study geological engineering instead of civil engineering. When diamond deposits were discovered in Canada’s far north in the 90s, I’d found the hook for the story I wanted to set in the north. The premise for Diamond Lust was born. After all, what woman does not lust after a diamond or two?

Petra Paris is a professional diamond-hunter, a beautiful field geologist on a mission to collect drill core samples indicating high grade rough diamonds. If she does not return from a remote diamond mine site in the Arctic within five days, her dad’s career will be ruined. The CEO of Excelsior Mining and Exploration had her father charged for fraudulently salting the mine’s preliminary drilling results. She suspects the CEO is trying to divert attention from his own criminal activities, but has no proof. What’s crystal clear is that someone is trying to stop her.

Seth Cooper is a police detective assigned to the Diamond Protection Unit. When a mine employee with a gut full of priceless pebbles dies trying to smuggle them out of the open pit mine site accessible only by air, Seth goes undercover as a charter company pilot to investigate.

Needing an excuse to infiltrate the mining camp and search for the smugglers at the source, he convinces Petra to allow him to pose as her boyfriend so he can overnight in the mine dormitory. No fool, she agrees; she needs all the protection she can get.

But Seth didn’t anticipate that Petra’s arrival at the mine would spook the smugglers, triggering events that lead to murder. When Petra refuses to leave the mine site without the drill cores necessary to absolve her father, Seth must identify the killers before she becomes the next victim.

To read more, see Chapter 1 on the Cerridwen Press web site.

If diamonds and/or Canada’s north fascinate you too, visit my blog at www.madellemorgan.com .

Guest Madelle Morgan is a member of the Ottawa Romance Writers chapter of RWA, and works for the federal government in Canada’s capital. Diamond Lust is her fourth completed manuscript.

Valentine's offer you simply can't refuse

Well Happy Olympics and Happy Valentine’s day weekend. It’s a weekend for chocolate for couples and those who are single as well. This single gall will stick with cookies. In honour of Valentine’s my publisher is offering the ebook to my award nominated romantic suspense DEADLY SECRETS for FREE. Yep it’s completely free. All you have to do is go to LBF Books and get a copy.

What I hope to donate this weekend is over $100, that means 400 free downloads. So please help me by getting a download or if you want me to make a bigger donation pick up a print copy at the site or anywhere it’s available online.

Guest Author - Brynna Curry

The wizard's taking over...

Good morning! A big thank you to Ms. Howell for allowing me to visit with you today! I write light paranormal romance and suspense while feeding my love of books as a book reviewer for You Gotta Read Reviews. I'm the forth member of the Frightening Journeys blog paranormal writers and serve as a judge for several RWA contests a year. On a personal note, I'm married to my high school sweetheart with a son and
two daughters. *One commentor will win a copy of Earth Enchanted. Please check back tommorow for announcement*

I thought I'd talk a little bit about Earth Enchanted and the Elemental Magic Series. *jumps as a hand touches her shoulder*

Yeah, you could, but I'd bet your blog readers would rather hang out with me. You and your 'cat' feet. You scared me half to death, Devin, just whose the author here? *takes the keyboard away from Devin*

~Always spoiling my fun. *smiles*

You're smiling. No. Wait. That's not why I gave you magic. What about your creed to harm none? You wouldn't dare.

You know I would...and enjoy it, besides when have I ever played by the book. *conjures blue fireball with a wave of his hands* This won't hurt a bit. It's cold fire. *claps fireball over Brynna's head. showering sparks of blue enveloping her in a force field* She's fine really. I'll let her out when it's time for me to go.

So, you want to know about Earth Enchanted? It all started a thousand years ago with a spell. My cousin and teacher Daemon fell for a healer named Briella after she rescued him from the sea. He would never have been there in the first place, but he went against Laird McLoch's wishes and continued to help me hone my magic. My father wanted me to forget my powers and learn to rule our clan. Thanks to Briella's sister
Arianne's scheming, Daemon, Briella and Arianne were turned into the elements they called to for power.

While Daemon cast his dark magic, I was deep in battle with the laird of a rival clan. My father had fallen along with many of our clansmen. Covered in the blood of my kin, I knew I would die under the blade of that dirty cur's sword. All at once I could see with my mind's eye the power Daemon had unleashed and I knew how to save my clan. I called forth a great ring of fire and surrounded the village walls with it, protecting the women and children inside, but I couldn't have known the consequences of mixing magics would bar me from my home or that my fire would destroy every last McGavin on McLoch land. As dead to my clan as my father, I left Scotland and went to Ireland to break the spell, but only Daemon and Briella's descendants could do that.

For a thousand years I've been waiting for someone to break the spell. Funny thing is only love is powerful enough to fight back Daemon's magic and free us all.

*releases force field* See now that wasn't so bad.

So you say. You know I'm claustophobic. I'd like to put you in a bubble.

I'm her favorite. Later.

As I was saying, Earth Enchanted is the first in a series of five books featuring the Corrigans from Ireland, a family with a ancestry of mages. Liv Corrigan, telepath and writer, visits her brother in the states only to find he's neck deep in a diamond smuggling ring. While there she meets ex-cop Jackson Roarke, a man with secrets still reeling from his wife's death. Here is a short blurb.


EARTH ENCHANTED- Elemental Magic Series Book One

BLURB: Writer Liv Corrigan has the worst luck with men -- her telepathy tends to make them run for the hills. When she meets widower and ex-cop Jack Roarke, she decides to keep her talent hidden. Things are looking up until their third date crashes and burns as the man who murdered Jack’s wife turns out to be after him too. Injured, Jack retreats with Liv to his house under armed guard. But with Liv’s mysteries rapidly coming unraveled, a diamond-thief killer to stop and passion in the air, the safe house is anything but safe for their hearts!

After EE, To Take Up The Sword flash forwards to the end of the trial for Ashton Smythe, Gueraldi's (the villian from EE) right hand man. When Smythe is set free, Agent Spiller (EE), convinced Serena Roarke hid more diamonds there, goes back to Alabama in search of missing evidence that would have convicted her killer. Leannan O'Neal, Serena's sister, goes into the wind after the destruction of her home and threats on her life. She meets up with Spiller and together they try to get the diamonds to safety before both are killed. You can find out more about each book in the series by visiting my website and clicking the Elemental Magic tab. It's been a pleasure visiting with you today. I'll be here to answer any comments or questions you might have.

Be blessed,

Brynna
http://brynnacurrybriannaroarkebooks.webs.com/
http://brynnacurrybriannaroarkebooks.blogspot.com

On Twitter as BrynnaCurry on Facebook as Brynna Curry

Earth Enchanted- Available now from Lyrical Press, Inc. To Take Up the Sword- September 2010 from Lyrical Press, Inc. Wait for the Wind- January 2011 from Lyrical Press, Inc. Sea's Sorceress- April 2011 from Lyrical Press, Inc..

Fire's Ice- August 2011 from Lyrical Press, Inc.

Busy, busy, busy

Handsome dude, isn't he.  It's the cover for my March book which is a reissue of a 1999 Murray book.  It's about Nigel, the second of the original 3 brothers.  Always wanted my name printed on a studly chest.  Snicker.

Things have been a little crazy here.  Yes, I finished IF HE"S WILD - which comes out in June - several weeks ago and have already been through the copy-edits, but now have the page proofs ready to be looked through.  Get them in the mail on Monday(along with a bunch of prizes won that need to get out, too) and then get back to finishing the next vamp tale.

The vamp tale was being touchy.  Adeline and Lachann were dragging their feet and I wasn't happy with the start.  So - in puzzling over it and typing up the first three pages to take to a writer's retreat yesterday - I suddenly had an idea how to perk up the beginning.  Took the prologue I had just created to the retreat, read it to my fellow RIRW(Rhode Island Romance Writers) members and got a great response so will now do some reworking of the start.

And that brings me to the value of such retreats.  They are small, they are usually attended by just your own writers' group, a few writer friends, or a limited number of attendees to one put on by a chapter.  Small numbers, writers intent on working on their craft and talking, talking, talking about writing.  I always find them enervating.  At a regular meeting of your writers group, there is business, then a talk by someone, and a few short breaks and then everyone has to go home.  Even a critique group can have a more or less set agenda.   A retreat is by the group, for the group, and for the art of writing.  Yes, there are some exercises and some talks but the biggest - and best - part is getting together with other writers and talking - even if sometimes it's just about all the other things in your life.

To my way of thinking - small is good.  There were 18 of us at this retreat.  A good turnout yet still intimate.  I've also been to one with just two women (although we hope to add to that number next year)  You want one where there can be a lot of talking, a lot of discussion, and the exercises can be done by all and enjoyed by all.   Sharing a small piece of your current work in progress for input by the others also gets the ball rolling and the input can be invaluable.

So now feel raring to go.  Have had some fun and a lot of inspiration as well as the very important boost to the spirit one gets from peer approval.  I'll get this vamp tale out and then start right to work on the next Murray story.  Simon Innes and his lady are itching for me to get off the stick and get working.  Now I am ready to do so.

Oh - and if any of you are in the area of Cumberland RI - I plus 14 other New England writers will be there to talk about their writing, sell, and sign their books.  Monday, 2/8 from 6:30 - 8:30pm at the Cumberland Library.  I'm going to try and find the link to put up but might not be able to get it up in time.  These things can often defeat me.  Check out my website for the full info and the link - http://www.hannahhowell.com/
Hope all of you in the path of those nasty snow storms are doing all right!  Take care and stay warm!