She interrupts me. I interrupt her. Elle A. Muse is unfortunately not amused…
You know that old saying, truth is stranger than fiction? Well, I don’t know about stranger, I think it’s more like wonderful and amazing. Romance author JoAnn Ross recently “met” her long-lost half-sister through, of all places, Facebook. JoAnn did an amazing amount of research to find her lost family. You can read all about JoAnn’s story on her blog.
I’m so happy for you, JoAnn!
Tomorrow I’ll welcome Harlequin Kimani author Dara Girard to the blog. Dara’s talking about rejections and is giving away a copy of her March release, WORDS OF SEDUCTION. Please join us.
About WORDS OF SEDUCTION:
From housewife to hot novelist…her real life is igniting more sparks than her stories!
When it comes to disastrous relationships, Suzanne Rand wrote the book. The frumpy-housewife-turned-superstar-author has come home to North Carolina to sell the family house—then hightail it back out of town.
But there’s an unfinished chapter in her life: bad-boy-turned-successful-businessman Rick Gordon. Suzanne’s been burned before and can’t let the roving playboy play fast and loose with her heart again…even if he is the sexiest thing on two legs. And once passion reignites in Rick’s arms, she has no idea where this story’s going…
Rick could write the book on how not to get hooked. But he’s never forgotten Suzanne, and now’s his chance to pick up where they left off. That’s why he’s plotting a course of seduction she’ll never be able to resist. But will their rekindled passion lead to love…and the happy ending they both crave?
About Dara: 
Dara Girard is an award-winning author of thirteen novels that feature strong heroines, sexy heroes, family dramas and romance. Her writing has been praised for its deft plot twists, witty dialogue and humor. Find out more on her website: www.daragirard.com
My phone didn’t ring once this morning when RWA board members were making RITA and Golden Heart calls (Penny entered the RITA). Usually, I get at least one phone call so I can pretend I’m a finalist in those briefs moments before I pick up the phone. The year it actually happened, I was doing laundry. I’ll never forget the excitement.
Congratulations to all my fellow RWA members who finaled! I’m not going to list everyone here, but I do want to give shout-outs to a select few. Click the headings to read the full lists of finalists.
Best First Book – The Gladiator by Carla Capshaw – fellow GH 2007 finalist sister!
Best First Book – Stolen Fury by Elisabeth Naughton – another GH 2007 finalist sister!
Contemporary Series – A Not-So-Perfect Past by Beth Andrews, who won the Golden Heart in the Long Contemporary category the year I finaled. So…another GH 2007 sister!
Contemporary Series: Suspense/Adventure – The Christmas Stranger by Beth Cornelison– my Facebook Wordscraper buddy! (Who better let me win now).
Contemporary Series: Suspense/Adventure – Cold Case Affair by Loreth Anne White – fellow member of the Greater Vancouver Chapter of RWA.
Inspirational – Carla Capshaw again for The Gladiator – 2007 GH sister!
Romance Novella – “Annelise and the Scandalous Rake” in The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor by Deb Marlowe – 2007 GH finalist sister!
Romantic Suspense – Elisabeth Naughton again for Stolen Fury! 2007 GH sister.
Romantic Suspense – Dark Country by Bronwyn Parry – 2007 GH finalist sister!
Young Adult – The ABC’s of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro – fellow Brainstormer, Scrabble aficionado, and my friend. I’m especially super excited for Tina. Congrats, girl!!
Contemporary Series: Suspense/Adventure – Breathless by Kimberley Howe – GH 2007 sister!
Contemporary Single Title – Sharing Spaces by Laura Graham Booth – GH 2007 sister! And a driving force behind our former group blog.
Historical – Between Heaven and Hell by Jacqui Nelson – fellow chapter member of RWA-Greater Vancovuer.
Novel with Strong Romantic Elements – Switching Sides by Maureen McGowan – GH 2007 sister!
Regency Historical – My Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Stock – GH 2007 sister!
Romantic Suspense – Deadly Recall by Donnell Ann Bell – GH 2007 sister!
Young Adult – Bloom by Shelley Coriell – GH 2007 sister!
Young Adult – Welcome Caller, This is Chloe also by Shelley Coriell – GH 2007 sister!
I’ll be cheering all of you on in Nashville. Congrats!
Well, if you count that I read these books in January, they’re “recent.”
First up, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE by Audrey Niffennegger. Sandorf Verster (a.k.a Claudia Zenk) lent me TTW several months ago. I saved it for my holiday to Mexico, when I had to read it so I could compare the movie version on DVD when I came home.
I’d heard about this book for years (like everyone else), but I didn’t pick it up because, for some strange reason, I thought it was about astronauts and spaceships. I thought it was about some guy who zipped off to Saturn or wherever, leaving his wife lonely back home. Well, the hero does zip off, but not in the way I thought. And now I’m wondering if there’s another book out there where the hero does zap off into space, and I’m getting them mixed up. Help me if you know I am.
Anyway, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE was worth the wait. I very much enjoyed it. I especially liked how the author handled the story and characters jumping around in time. I always knew what year it was and which character’s viewpoint I was reading. No confusion.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Did the movie version do the book justice? I think it did. The movie was a bit depressing compared to the book, but in my opinion was an accurate reflection of the story.
Seeing as I borrowed it, I no longer have the book to quote the back cover copy, but here’s the product description from on-line booksellers:
A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger’s cinematic storytelling that makes the novel’s unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.
An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler’s Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.
After I consumed TTW, I picked up THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards. (Note, if you want to learn more about Kim Edwards, don’t google her name. There are a lot of Kim Edwardses out there. Her website URL is the title of the novel).
I enjoyed THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, but I absolutely, thoroughly loved THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER. In fact, I developed a serious crick in my neck reading MKD on the plane home from Mexico, and I had to go to the chiropractor to get adjusted. That’s one good book when you don’t notice the uncomfortable angle of your head as you’re reading it.
MEMORY KEEPER is a keeper for me.
About the book:
This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins.
His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love.
I worried that the story would end sadly, but, for me, it didn’t. I loved the ending. I know a lot of romance readers really don’t like sad endings, but I’m not one of them. Probably because I devoured literary fiction since the age of 13, long, long before I began writing and reading romance. I find sad endings cathartic. But! I did NOT want this book to end sadly, and I had to keep reading and reading to find out how it did end. Which wasn’t sad in the slightest (at least not for me).
Don’t ask me why MEMORY KEEPER wasn’t made into a big-screen movie. I learned while searching for the book cover that it was a 2008 Lifetime movie starring Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, and Emily Watson. But I haven’t seen the TV movie, so I can’t compare it it to the book.
Anyone read THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER? Did you catch the Lifetime movie? How did they compare? Which did you like better? Is the movie a fairly accurate portrayal of the book?
If you’ve read both THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, which did you like better? Why?
You can hand in your book reports at the end of the class. No apples necessary. I’ll take diamonds. Okay, okay! Cinnamon buns. Sheesh. With extra raisins.
By Bonnie Edwards
I’d like to say from the cabbage patch, or even that a stork delivers them in the dead of night, but the truth is, heroines are born in weird and interesting ways.
A lot of times secondary characters scream out for books of their own. Sometimes readers will ask so often about a background character the seed for a new heroine is fertilized. Voila! A connected story comes about.
Connected stories please the readers, editors (and marketing folk) like them and writers get to play in a familiar world again. Readers aren’t the only ones curious about former lead characters. Writers want to know how they’re doing, too.
On occasion heroines appear not from inside a story, but from outside, so to speak.
Take Morgan Swann, for example. She’s my heroine in POSSESSING MORGAN.
I was working on another story entirely. This one was aimed at a different Harlequin line, when I realised my heroine would have known (and still did) people who walked on the far side of the law. Growing up in her neighborhood, it would have been impossible to avoid knowing some rough characters, or schoolmates headed down different, and more dangerous, paths. At some point, her best friend fell into stealing cars.
Fast cars. Expensive cars. Morgan stole for money, yes.
But more for the thrill.
And that, my friends, was a lightning bolt moment.
Morgan Swann never set foot in the story I was writing, but she existed for me. Fully formed. She was feisty, tough and out for herself. She was scared, but loved the thrill of boosting cars, the hunt, the adrenaline rush of excitement.
I loved this teenager. She had her reasons for falling in with the bad crowd: frail, scaredy-cat human reasons. The universality of her need as a powerless teenager spoke to me. She broke my heart.
No sooner had she walked on stage, than I wondered how to make her a heroine. I loved this character too much not to try to give her a happily ever after. Even bad girls can be brought back from the brink. Right?
So, a reformed bad girl who no longer steals cars, but who’s still feisty, still determined and still chasing the thrill.
What better place to write her story, than in a Blaze?
I’ve had some great fan letters about Morgan. I hope she touches your heart the way she’s touched other people, like me.
But if quirky heroines aren’t your thing…what is? Cool, aloof blondes? Warm, artsy redheads? Maybe the earth mother type? Who are your favourite heroines? And if you can explain why, I’d like to hear it.
Remember one lucky commenter will win a copy of POSSESSING MORGAN, so you can see for yourself how I turned this babe around!
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Leave a comment or question for Bonnie to enter to win POSSESSING MORGAN. If you’re reading this post through a feed on Facebook, Goodreads, or another social network, please visit the comment trail at Muse Interrupted to be eligible for the draw.
To read Bonnie’s bio and the back cover blurb for POSSESSING MORGAN, see yesterday’s post. To learn more about Bonnie and her books, check out her website.
Romance author Bonnie Edwards joins us again tomorrow to celebrate the release of her first Harlequin Blaze, POSSESSING MORGAN (March 2010). Please drop by and leave a comment or question for Bonnie to enter for your chance to win.
About POSSESSING MORGAN:
He’s everything she’s ever wanted…
Repo woman Morgan Swann can hardly believe it. She’s been hopelessly infatuated with headline-stealing heartthrob Kingston “Mac” McRae for most of her life…and now she’s in his driveway, about to repossess his fancy car. If only she could pick up the rest of him so easily…
Mac can’t believe, it either. His car is being stolen…but all he can think about is getting the sexy-as-hell Morgan into the the backseat. And their engines only rev hotter once she shows him how easily her Daisy Duke shorts come off.
It’s a sweaty, fast ride—the ultimate thrill. Until Morgan realizes she wants not only the fantasy, but the key to Mac’s heart as well.
About Bonnie:
Bonnie Edwards has sold everything from luxury bathroom fixtures to sexy lingerie but loves writing sexy romances best. She lives on an island with her husband and a variety of pets within view of the Coastal Mountains and the City of Vancouver. Bonnie enjoys teaching writing in Continuing Education classes at a local university.
In 2006, she helped launch the Kensington Aphrodisia erotic romance line.
She’s thrilled to debut her Harlequin Blaze POSSESSING MORGAN in March 2010. Bonnie loves to hear from readers! For excerpts and news please click on over to www.bonnieedwards.com.