Preflight

Posted on Feb 01 2011 by Adam Blodgett in Uncategorized

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Emphasis is when you emphasize something, Strong is when you want something to be strongly stated. Bold is when something needs to stand out, italics is when you want the word to really lean into it, and underline is when something must be lined under.

  1. Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC LLD (hc)[1] (pronounced /??r?tski/; born January 26, 1961) is a former Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed “The Great One,” Gretzky is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the NHL,[2][3] and has been called “the greatest hockey player ever” by many sportswriters,[4] players,[5] and the NHL itself.[6]
  2. Alexander Mikhaylovich Ovechkin (Russian: ????????? ?????????? ???????; pronounced [??l??k?s?ndr ??v?et?k?n]; born September 17, 1985) is a Russian professional ice hockey left winger and captain of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). Prior to playing in the NHL, Ovechkin played for HC Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Superleague for four seasons from 2001 until 2005.
  3. Gordon “Gordie” Howe, OC (born March 31, 1928) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League (NHL), and the Houston Aeros and New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association (WHA). Howe is often referred to as Mr. Hockey,[1] and is generally regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time.
  • Basketball
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Wonderful
When someone does something unexpectedly generous
Fabulous
The way you feel when you look beautiful

Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC LLD (hc)[1] (pronounced /??r?tski/; born January 26, 1961) is a former Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed “The Great One,” Gretzky is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the NHL,[2][3] and has been called “the greatest hockey player ever” by many sportswriters,[4] players,[5] and the NHL itself.[6] Upon his retirement on April 18, 1999, he held forty regular-season records, fifteen playoff records, and six All-Star records.[7] He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season—a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 WHA/NHL seasons (15 in NHL and 1 in WHA), 14 of them consecutive. Gretzky’s jersey number, 99, has been retired by all teams in the National Hockey League. He was voted one of six players to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team in a poll conducted by a group of 56 experts from 16 countries.[8]

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Minor Characters and Working Backwards, by Sharon Kendrick

Posted on Jan 27 2011 by Amy in amnesia, romance novel awards

by Sharon Kendrick, author of His Majesty’s Child (Harlequin Presents, February 2011)

Minor characters are dangerous.

No, I’m not talking about the  stunted and scary figure in the bright red duffle-coat from the classic film, Don’t Look Now – who terrified cinema-goers everywhere.  Neither am I talking about the luscious brunette with the long, scarlet fingernails (red for danger – geddit?) who has her steely-eyes set on your current hero.

Because both of the above are symbols, rather than real people.  They’re representations of threat. They distort reality and alert the mind to all the things which can go wrong in life, and in love….

The minor characters I have to beware of are the ones who won’t leave me alone.  The heroine’s younger sister who sometimes you want to shake.  The hero’s cousin – who is so outrageously gorgeous that he risks outshining the hero.

The Presents novel is a love story which is focussed and very intense – and for me, there is no room for too many bit players to start taking over from the central relationship.  But sometimes, you just can’t get rid of a minor character, no matter how hard you try.  And that’s when you know they need a book of their own.

When I wrote THE PRINCE’S CHAMBERMAID, the hero came from the beautiful island of Zaffirinthos.  The golden-eyed Prince Xaviero had a love-affair with Cathy, a humble chambermaid – and when it ended, he never expected to see her again.

But fate played a hand when his brother, King Casimiro was injured in a riding accident and lay gravely injured in a coma.  Xaviero had to return to the island to become Prince Regent and he needed a wife – which was why he married Cathy.

And then Casimiro recovered from his coma.  The still and prone figure came to life again and we caught a glimpse of a man who had been affected not only by his own past, but by the accident which had almost claimed his life.

It was obvious to me that Casimiro needed his own story, but how to go about it?  He’d grown up almost exclusively as King on a remote island and his access to women would have been severely restricted by his status.  And that’s when I began to work backwards.

I didn’t see him with a woman from his own class – I saw him with someone completely different.  Someone who would challenge him and his beliefs.  An “ordinary” woman.  And if he was to meet a woman like this – it would need to be away from  his homeland.

An idea began to form in my mind.  I thought of Casimiro coming back to life after his coma and it made me think of the story of Pygmalion and the statue which came to life.

What if Zaffirinthos had some beautiful marble statues which were sent on a world tour – and what if King Casimiro spent some time abroad promoting that tour?

I could picture him at a big party in a grand house on a rainy night in London.  And a young female party-planner called Melissa, with shoes which weren’t designed to let in water….

Sometimes chemistry can happen in the most unlikely of settings.   Casimiro and Melissa had five beautiful, stolen days of love and then he went away and forgot all about her.  Literally.

But Melissa could never forget Casimiro – because he had left her with a lasting reminder.  His unknown son and heir!

You can find out what happens to Melissa and Casimiro in HIS MAJESTY’S CHILD.

And is there a minor character in book or film which has captured your imagination?

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Anne McAllister on Pulling Ideas Together for “Hired by Her Husband”

Posted on Jan 24 2011 by Amy in writing

by Anne McAllister, author of Hired by Her Husband (Harlequin Presents, February 2011)

One of the standard questions writers are asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?”  And the answer, of course, is: Everywhere.

Simple, right?

But of course for every book there isn’t just one idea. Books are made up of many many ideas, impressions, experiences, people.  Each one is like a patchwork quilt that the author puts together into, we hope, a unified compelling story that is more than its individual parts.

When I started to write Hired By Her Husband, I had some pieces to start with. I had George, my hero, who wasn’t intended ever to be a hero. But, well, people kept saying, “What about George?” and when even George started saying, “What about George?” I thought, um, better find him a woman.

George Savas, being a pro-active sort of guy, actually did that work for me.  I think the theory was that he didn’t trust me to find him the right woman, so he chose her himself.  And, lucky for me, married her before my book even began, thus giving me a back story for my characters. George was a pretty obliging guy, come to think of it. I suspect it’s because he was afraid I’d throw in the towel and say, “Forget it,” if he didn’t make it easy on me.

Because from the get-go, George was something of a challenge as a hero. He was a physicist.  In the Presents line, physicist heroes are not thick on the ground.  He was distant, remote and potentially nerdy.  (aside from George: “That’s what you think!”).  Anyway, besides being a physicist, which made him happy, and me nervous, I didn’t know much about physicists. One of my children’s godfather is a physicist.  That’s the extent of my knowledge.  I had to learn.  So I watched a couple of Great Courses on Physics.  Learned a bit more about how physicists see the world.   Got a handle on George’s character and, in the process, more pieces for my quilt.

I needed a place for George to work and to live.  Back to the scrap bag of experiences.  I pulled out “my” neighborhood in New York City where I don’t live, but where I’ve spent a lot of time.  George was going to spend time there, too. I found him a place to live — a gorgeous Upper West Side brownstone, a home because George was tired of living out of his laundry basket.  He was settling down.   He taught at Columbia.  I got to wander around Columbia, take snapshots of the physics building, discover they really did have a lab north of the city where George worked as well.  All pieces of the quilt that gave him a setting and a life.

New York City Brownstone (l) and Columbia University (r)

Then he got a dog.  Another quilt piece.  Majorly important because I loved George enough to give him my dog, Gunnar.  Gunnar, as one of my sons once said about another of our dogs, “improved the quality of life around here.”  Gunnar did that for George. He humanized George. He made George not such a loner.  And Gunnar turned out to be a wonderful reason for the heroine to have to stick around for an extra day. Gunnar was the catalyst.  He would definitely approve of that!

Oh, and yes, there is a heroine.   I did remember her, finally.  And she came to me from another book as well — she was Natalie’s (from One-Night Mistress…Convenient Wife) cousin Sophy with whom Nat ran their Rent-A-Wife business.   Sophy had warned Natalie off Savases in that earlier book — to no avail.  Sophy was speaking from experience.  She’d been married to George.  Still loved George, though she wished she didn’t.

Sophy’s patchwork pieces came from an autumn clothes catalog where I saw a girl who looked just like her, and an apartment I had lived in during college in California not far from the beach.  And like I gave George Gunnar, I gave Sophy Lily.

Lily is Sophy’s daughter.  But when I write about her I see a little dark-haired girl with big brown eyes who is going on four years old.  Whenever I wrote Lily, I could see this little girl in my mind’s eye.

The story itself?  Well, haven’t we all experienced infatuation, idealism, hope, dreams, doubt, heartbreak, fear?  George and Sophy felt all those things.  They married precipitously.  They hoped, but they didn’t entirely trust.  Their doubts undermined their convictions.   Now they are older. Wiser?   Let’s hope.

I loved writing George and Sophy’s story.   I loved sharing with them bits and pieces of my own experiences — the places and people and, yes, the dog, that I love.  I hope you will enjoy all of them, too — and will realize that stories and ideas are everywhere.  It’s just a matter of pulling them all together, finding the people whose lives they fit — and then writing the book!

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More Great USA TODAY News!

Posted on Jan 21 2011 by Amy in bestsellers

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

Last week I was thrilled to post that 6 January 2011 Harlequin Presents had made the USA Today Bestseller list — and this week brings more good news! Mira Lyn Kelly’s January Harlequin Presents Extra release, Front Page Affair, has also made the top 150 (it landed at #149)!

Congratulations Mira! :)

Find out more about Front Page Affair by reading Mira’s I Heart Presents blog post about the book, eHarlequin.com, or Mira’s website.

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Flawed Characters, by Sarah Morgan

Posted on Jan 20 2011 by Amy in miniseries, sheikh, writing

by Sarah Morgan, author of Bella and the Merciless Sheikh (Book 7 of the Balfour Brides miniseries, February 2011)

Any book or article on the craft of developing believable characters in fiction will advise the writer to give them flaws.  Doing so makes them ‘human’ because real people aren’t perfect and if you want the reader to become fully involved in the story then the characters need to act like real people.

When I was first invited to contribute to the Balfour Bride series, I was thrilled. As I waited nervously for the brief to arrive, I hoped that my Balfour sister would be someone ‘real’ – someone whose journey would be absorbing and emotional.  Right from the first moment I read Bella’s story I was excited, and that excitement stayed with me all the way through the writing of the manuscript.  Bella was definitely flawed. She was also complex and sometimes spoiled, but I sensed immediately how vulnerable she was underneath all that attitude and how much of her ‘image’ had been developed as a defence mechanism.

Advice on writing craft is also likely to tell you that a character should change, or at least learn something during the course of the story and that was certainly the case with Bella.  Spoiled Bella became humble Bella and then bold, brave Bella.  I loved her (Go Bella!), and I hope you love her too.  Her story, Bella and the Merciless Sheikh, is out now in the US (It’s called Bella’s Disgrace in the UK and if you’re looking for it on the Mills and Boon website you’ll find it in ‘Special Releases’).

So how do you prefer your heroines?  Sweet and good or seriously flawed?

Sarah

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Link: Sharon Kendrick’s Writing Workshop on the Harlequin Blog

Posted on Jan 19 2011 by Amy in on the web, writing

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

Attention aspiring romance novelists! Harlequin Presents author Sharon Kendrick has blogged about her week-long writing workshop in Tuscany on the Harlequin Blog (www.harlequinblog.com). What better place to hone your writing skills in one of the beautiful places on earth (Sharon has pictures to prove it)–the perfect setting for a Presents, no? :)

The workshop runs May 7-14. More information can also be found at the Watermill website (including about a second workshop in September led by Harlequin Romance author Jessica Hart).

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February 2011 Harlequin Presents Book-Matcher Quiz is Back!

Posted on Jan 18 2011 by Amy in just for fun

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

The Harlequin Presents book-matcher quiz took a break over the holiday, but it’s back! 6 questions, find out which February 2011 Presents book is for you.

And have a laugh that the program wouldn’t let me use the word “Sex” in “Sex and the City” ;)

Edited to add: I also left off the “k” is Sharon Kendrick’s name my accident! Unfortunately I can’t edit the quiz after a certain period of time (boo-urns!). Sorry Sharon!

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Mira Lyn Kelly on “That Guy” and Front Page Affair

Posted on Jan 13 2011 by Amy in reunion stories

by Mira Lyn Kelly, author of Front Page Affair (Harlequin Presents Extra, January 2011)

Remember that guy? The one who trips into your thoughts from time to time and—no matter the number of years it’s been or how incredibly happy you are with the way your life turned out—makes you wonder what if?

What if I’d said yes…

What if I’d made a move…

What if I’d had the chance for just one night…

Oh sure, see, now you know who I’m talking about. That guy.

I think most of us probably have one. A man who lingers at the fringe of our mind, occasionally drawing a wistful sigh or maybe even two. A guy who looked like the kind of fun you knew would be bad for you…but never got to find out for sure.

It was that guy and all his unrealized potential that inspired FRONT PAGE AFFAIR. I loved the idea of a heroine sick and tired of being the “good girl” getting the chance to dabble in a little bad boy’s attention…

And then he saw her.

Payton Liss, slinking through the crowd, using every evasive technique at her disposal to dodge the conciliatory hand pats, air kisses and general gossipy blood sport that occurred post nuptials—regardless of the social strata involved.

The good girl from his past. Brandt’s little sister. Miss Off-Limits herself.

Payton didn’t need his money. She wouldn’t want his name. And she’d help him regardless of what went down with Brandt all those years ago because she habitually did the right thing.

Or make that, she mostly did the right thing.

…And a bad boy realizing the good girl he thinks he knows is more than he expected…

Neck deep in a cloud of ill-fitting taffeta and tulle, Payton Liss pressed her shoulders into the wall behind her. Stretching across the floor of her hideout—a miraculously unlocked utility room, discovered purely by accident three weddings before—she braced a foot against the door and straight-legged with the determination of a second-string bridesmaid on the run.

“Not a chance, Nate. The women will sniff you out. Go find your own storage closet.”

Between the gap of the door and frame, ice-blue eyes slid over her, bringing to both mind and body the heart-pounding effect that gaze once elicited. “You open this door, Payton, or I’m heading straight back into that reception—and I’m telling every schmuck I can find you’re alone in here…crying.” The last word he delivered with the smug satisfaction of a man who knew he’d already won.

Her breath caught as she stared in outraged indignation. “I am not crying!” Hiding, yes. Sulking, some. Crying, not a chance.

“It’ll be like open season. Every guy intent on snaring himself a top-floor job in Liss Industries moving in for his white-knight moment. And the talk.”

Her stomach seized. It was the talk that had driven her into hiding in the first place.

The “Poor Payton” talk.

“…Such a good girl…so desperate for a wedding of her own…so disappointed when he left her…what her father had wanted, but what did he expect.”

She couldn’t stand the sound of it anymore.

They were all wrong. But even if she bellowed out the truth, no one would believe her. She’d done too good a job for too long of forcing herself into the mold of a quiet-souled, docile-minded lady who didn’t exist. And for nothing.

…But most of all, I love giving my heroine what so few of us ever get… a last chance for a little reckless adventure with that guy…

“Come on…trust me.”

“You like it,” he challenged, with a pointed jut of his chin, just daring her denial. But, God help her, she couldn’t.

That grin!

“I don’t trust you,” she shot back, her pulse rocketing in response to the predatory intent blazing in his eyes. She’d be a fool to trust a man leering at her like that—as if she’d made his week with this little game of cat and mouse.

“You should,” he cajoled, this time taking a step int her space. “I’ve got a knack for making things work.”

Payton peered up at him as he drew her closer—to the point where their feet tangled, legs touched. He was so bad. So incredibly, unrepentantly bad.

“You’re arrogant,” she accused, laughing as she nearly stumbled into his chest.

Now all that said, one of the best things about being a writer is getting play with the fantasies you don’t actually want to act out in real life. THAT GUY is a prime example. Oh, I’ve got one alright…but unlike Payton, you better believe I want to keep him banished to the realm of my memory banks. In addition to having found my own HEA many years ago, I like to keep that guy shiny and new. Buff. Beautiful. And a little bit bad. Where the only worry he knows is whether he’ll have his bike running in time for the weekend. For me, that guy is a twenty year old romantic fantasy I don’t want to mess with, because I like the magic of that once in a while wistful sigh…and I don’t want to risk it on the chance that he’s working on wife number sixteen. Or he doesn’t work with his hands anymore. Or that he does…but he’s taken up knitting to help with his nerves.

I like to keep the fantasy intact.

But that’s just me…what about you? If you’ve got a that guy, would you want to know how he’s turned out or keep the fantasy alive? Would love to hear what you think.

Best wishes in the new year!

Mira

www.miralynkelly.com

Look me up on Facebook and Twitter!

Note from Amy: Front Page Affair also got 2 great reviews: 4 stars from RT Book Reviews, and a 9 from The Season, making it The Season’s January Contemporary Top Pick. Congrats Mira!

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Travels with “The Bride Thief”, by Jennie Lucas

Posted on Jan 12 2011 by Amy in author, settings

By Jennie Lucas, author of The Bride Thief (Harlequin Presents, January 2011)

It was a thrilling moment. Last September, when Lynn Raye Harris and I were in London to attend the AMBA (Association of Mills and Boon Authors) luncheon and champagne toast to authors, we spent our last day in England touring nearby Windsor.

And there, on the shelf of the local bookstore of this picturesque town, I actually saw my book for sale! It was the first time I ever saw that outside the U.S., and I’ll never forget my delight.

Now, this same book has just been released in North America with a new title – The Bride Thief. In the story, a bride is kidnapped from her wedding by a Greek tycoon, Xerxes Novros, who was introduced in my last book Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant. (He is beyond ruthless – in fact, my original working title for The Bride Thief was The Villain’s Virgin!) He drags Rose around the world, to his private Greek island, to the Maldives, and finally to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

And guess what? That’s where I’m going on Monday. In one of my all-time-best Christmas presents ever, my own husband is whisking me to Cabo San Lucas, just like Rose, for a four-day getaway at a luxury beachfront resort. We haven’t had a romantic getaway in… hmmm….maybe the Nixon administration? So when I opened his gift Christmas morning and saw the itinerary, I wept with joy. For real.

My kids, panicking: “What’s wrong, Mommy? Why are you crying?”

Me: “Nothing’s wrong” (sniff) “I’m just so” (sob) “haaappppy.”

So I’m getting ready to pack and trying not to worry about the holiday pounds that have left me something less than bikini-ready. I’m telling myself that after a few margaritas, I won’t care how I look. And anyway, my husband likes me how I am. (A true Presents hero!)

But I’d love to know – does anyone have any tips for how a girl can feel confident in a bikini with an extra five (*cough* ten) pounds?

Jennie

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The Joy of Scents by Kate Hardy

Posted on Jan 10 2011 by Amy in Uncategorized

by Kate Hardy, author of Champagne with a Celebrity (Harlequin Presents Extra, January 2011)

The South of France: gorgeous beaches, the Cannes film festival and all the glitz that goes with it, acres of vineyards… And acres of lavender, roses and jasmine, because Grasse is known as the perfume capital of the world. How could I resist setting a book there?

My working title for Champagne with a Celebrity was ‘Scents and Sensibility’ – and I loved doing the research for it. My hero is a parfumier, so the best way for me to get to know his job was to learn how perfume is created. And there just happened to be a perfume course on offer, all of 15 miles away from my house: clearly this book was meant to be!

I learned all about the top, bottom and middle notes of perfumes, and how they’re blended together – and then I got to make my own personal blend (and to name it!). It meant sniffing various blends and putting them into piles of yes, maybe and definitely not (pretty much as Guy does with Amber before they, um, distract each other), then adding them and subtracting the notes until I got the blend I liked best.

These are the tester sticks; you fan them out, then wave them under your nose very fast to get the overall effect.

I also learned about the perfume equivalent of a sorbet for cleansing the palate (but I will be mean and say you’ll have to read the book to find out what that is – I was really surprised!).

And then, once I’d chosen my blend, the teacher made it up for me in a pretty bottle. I’d asked if she could tell me numbers rather than names of the scents while I was choosing them (otherwise I knew I’d end up with a vanilla-based floral like my own favourite perfume, Dior Addict). But, um, guessed what I ended up with? Yep, double vanilla and amber base, floral middle, floral top notes… About as near to my favourite as I could get!

So what’s your favourite scent (whether it’s a branded perfume or something else) and why? Curious minds would love to know!

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