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I made it! I'm finally here! My first book, Lord Of Desire, will hit the bookshelves August, 2005.

It's been a long road.

I've always loved stories. I was fortunate to have a mother who not only read to me, but made up tales of her own. My luck continued as I grew up. Fourth grade was one of my favorite years as a student. Some things you just never forget, like Sister Joseph Anne and her original stories about the adventures of Jane and Fifi at Avocado Green. I could have sat at my desk for the next ten years and listened to her.

When I was eleven I had the supreme audacity (and confidence) to submit my own masterpiece, a short story, to a science fiction house. To my disbelief and dismay, my story was rejected. Not one to be disillusioned by a mere, We're sorry, but this is CRAP, I submitted yet another manuscript, this one a full length paranormal. Rejected again. What did they know, anyway?

It didn't stop me from writing. I wrote poems, plays, and short stories. But I never submitted any of them again. They were the children of my loins! (Sure I thrived on the dramatic, but doesn't every pre-teen?) I couldn't bear having someone critique them.

An avid reader, I read The Exorcist and Jaws before the movies came out. After all, what could a producer show me on screen that could compare with my imagination?)

My favorite genre in reading was science fiction, but something was always missing. Enter my other first love. When I was fourteen I met the boy who would become my husband. By then, I was already a hopeless romantic, (I just didn't know it yet) so the poor guy didn't stand a chance. Then one day he kissed me. Aha! That's what had been missing from my library! A knee-melting, heart-accelerating kiss! I bought myself a black and white composition notebook and poured my heart out into sonnets, which I read to my sweetheart while he yawned. But who cares if I brought him close to unconsciousness? I had found my niche! Romance, ah, sweet, scintillating romance! Life made sense. I finally understood why I always had to have a Ken doll to go along with my Barbie.

Happiness. Bliss.

Then reality came a' knocking. I wrote because I loved writing. The thought of making it my career hadn't crossed my mind. (And those rejection letters tucked deep beneath my stack of journals, calling out, remember me? Remember me? Well, they didn't help either.) I had to get a job. One that paid real money. My life took a different turn, one that I affectionately call, The Joys And Why Can't You Just Put The Toilet Paper On The Roll Thingie Of Motherhood. Yes, I married my knee-melting kisser of a boyfriend and had three beautiful children and a zoo, complete with a Lhasa Apso, a Chihuahua, a brand new beautiful Cockatoo named Marley, and lots of finches, keets, and fish.

I still wrote. I happily clicked away at my keyboard, page after page, content to share my stories with my mom and my best friend before sealing each manuscript in a colorful plastic envelope and retiring it to my file cabinet. Fortunately, I took them out every so often and read them to my husband late at night, after the kids went to sleep. He never yawned, but he did fall asleep on several occasions.

But he was always my champion. (Would a romance writer marry anything less?) And he convinced me to submit my work.

No. I can't. Ok, just one.

My brother-in-law, George (I miss you so very much) hooked me up with a great agency who-What? Are you kidding? loved my book! Unfortunately, the agency didn't handle historical romance. (Did I mention I love history? Don't even get me started.) So, anyway, they loved me but, We're sorry. Goodbye and good luck.

In rides my champion once again. My husband forced, yes he forced me to send my book to another agency. They loved my work again! Hey, what is this, the Twilight Zone? Lord Of Desire was sold to Warner Forever, and the rest is history. (Did I mention....Oh yes, I did.)

The moral of my story is:
Ladies, always keep your eyes open for a champion. They do exist.

All right, so there wasn't supposed to be a moral, but I'm a romantic. Oh yes, now I'm a novelist too!

 

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Fun Facts

1. I realized yet again while writing Ravished by a Highlander, that a king plays a vital role in all my books. It began with William the Conqueror from my Risande trilogy. There was no ruling sovereign during Laird of the Mist but the MacGregors' fate and proscription were the work of a king sixty years prior. Briefly, we met King Charles II in A Highland Never Surrenders, and in my new Children of the Mist series, King James has just been crowned. I don't know what it is about kings, but I find myself always writing about them. Don't even get me started on King Arthur. 

2. I love to match my characters' faces to real ones. Lots of authors do. A little quirk I have though is that, if the characters are related in my books, the faces I choose for them have to all resemble one another. Even if those faces are different for my readers, for me, they have to fit and be believable. Matching the MacGregors' and Grants with their sons and daughter was especially fun. You can check out some of my characters pictures on Pinterest. 

3. Speaking of the real faces that have shaped my heroes and heroines, the beautiful Matthew Jett Schaefer, pilot/model/actor was the inspiration for Rob in Ravished by a Highlander. Sadly, Matthew passed away while I was writing the book. I didn't know him, but he had become Rob for me and the tragedy of his death made it difficult at times to write Rob's story. I thought about changing his face, but instead I researched Mr. Schaefer and discovered how well his family and friends loved him. He was a pilot and did Air Ambulance medical evacuations and Angel flights. He was a true hero and a determined warrior, fighting cancer until the end. I couldn't think of a better man to be the face of Robert MacGregor. 

4. The terrible proscription against the MacGregors had been lifted and most, not all, of their rights returned to them after the restoration of King Charles II. During the writing of this series, the MacGregors were not outlaws. That made this author happy. 

5.I come from Italian heritage on both sides, but my dad's surname is Scottish and not Italian as everyone first believed. 

6. I am what my Catholic characters would call a Protestant. 

7. I would rather write a battle scene than a sex scene. 

8. I fell, quite unexpectedly, in love with Finlay Grant in Ravished by a Highlander. 

9. I go through three pairs of iPod headphones during the course of one book. (I either lose them or break them. A pair once fell into the toilet.) 

I0.I have always wanted to write a character named Tristan. It's one of my favorite names for a man. 

11. I love all things having to do with King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Tristan MacGregor is the closest I've come to writing about a true knight in shining armor. Well, it will be shiny after Isobel Fergusson gets through with him. 

12. I write well under pressure. After missing my deadline for SEDUCED BY A HIGHLANDER by a month, I had two weeks to edit the entire thing. It came out better than the original. 

13. An Italian actor named Daniele Liotti inspired Tristan's physical appearance, but his character is loosely based after the gorgeous Errol Flynn. Seriously, have you seen the man smile? 

14. Isobel Fergusson was a challenging character for me to write. Isobel had good reason to hate the MacGregors after they murdered her father when she was a child. It was a tough trauma to heal from, despite Tristan's kindness. But there were many lessons to be learned, and as the gallant Robert Campbell once said, What lessons can be taught when there is no effort to learn them? Robert, like Tristan, was one of my favorite heroes to write. 

15. I love classic movies. My favorite classic male actors are Errol Flynn, Robert Taylor, and Gary Cooper. My favorite classic female actresses are Grier Garson, Doris Day, and Lucille Ball. 

16. I love animals, am very sentimental, and I hate to cook. 

17. My favorite genre to read is not romance, but fantasy. Romance is a close second though. 

18. My least favorite part of a book to write is the beginning. 

 

19. Laird of the Black Isle was the fastest full-length novel I've written. 3 months!

20. My character who... 
...I fell the most in love with: Callum MacGregor, Lachlan MacKenzie

...Made me cry: Lachlan MacKenzie
...Made me smile the most: Finlay Grant 
...I found the sexiest: Dante Risande, Prince Gareth and Tristan MacGregor 
...I wanted to slap a few times: Claire Stuart 
...Affected me in a profound way: William the Conqueror 
...I want to be friends with: Maggie MacGregor and Davina Montgomery, Charlotte (Charlie) Cunningham 
...I find distractingly handsome: Connor Grant 
...Sex scenes were the easiest to write: Connor Grant and Brand Risande, Lachlan MacKenzie
...I hated: all of my villains