Home Sweet Home (26 page)
Where authors give you the inside scoop!
Dear Reader,
The first time I ever saw an Adirondack lake I was twenty-three years old and madly in love. My boyfriend’s grandparents had built their “camp” in the 1940s, and he’d often told me that it was his favorite place in the world. (“Camp” is Adirondack lingo for a house on a lake. If it’s really big, like the Vanderbilts’ summer home on Raquette Lake, people sometimes throw the word “great” in front of it.)
I can still remember my first glimpse of the blue lake, the sandy beach, the wooden docks jutting into it, the colorful sails of the boats that floated by. It was love at first sight. My mind was blown by the beauty all around me.
Of course, since I’m a writer, my brain immediately began spinning off into storyland. What if two kids grew up together in this small lake town and were high-school sweethearts? What if one of them left the other behind for bright lights/big city? And what would their reunion look like ten years later?
Fast-forward fifteen years from that first sight of an Adirondack lake, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce my Emerald Lake series to you! After thinking she had left the small town—and the girl she had once been—behind forever, Andi Powell must return to help run Lake Yarns, her family’s knitting store on Main Street. Of course everyone in town gets involved in a love story that she’s convinced herself is better left forgotten. But with the help of the Monday night knitting group, Nate’s sister, Andi’s mother and grandmother, and an old circus carousel in the middle of the town green, Andi just might find the love she’s always deserved in the arms of the one man who has waited his entire life for her.
I hope you fall as much in love with the beauty and people of Emerald Lake as I did.
Happy reading,
P.S. That boyfriend is now my husband (Guess where we honeymooned? Yes, the lake!), and four years ago we bit the bullet and became the proud owners of our very own Adirondack camp. Now, just in case you’re tempted to throw the word “great” around, you should know that our log cabin is a hundred years old…and pretty much original. Except for the plumbing. Thankfully, we have that!
Dear Reader,
In HEARTSTRINGS AND DIAMOND RINGS (on sale now), Alison Carter has been stuck in the dating world for years, and she’s getting a little disillusioned. In personal ads, she’s discovered that “athletic” means the guy has a highly developed right bicep from opening and closing the refrigerator door; and that a man is “tall, dark, and handsome” only in a room full of ugly albino dwarves. But what about those other descriptions in personal ads? What do they
really
mean?
“Aspiring actor”: Uses Aussie accent to pick up chicks
“Educated”: Watches
Jeopardy!
“Emotionally sound”: Or so his latest psychiatrist says
“Enjoys fine dining”: Goes inside instead of using the drive-through
“Friendship first”: As long as “friendship” includes sex
“Good listener”: Has nothing intelligent to say
“Likes to cuddle”: Mommy issues
“Looking for soulmate”: Or just someone to have sex with
“Loyal”: Stalker
“Old fashioned”: Wants you barefoot and pregnant
“Passionate”: About beer, football, and Hooters waitresses
“Romantic”: Isn’t nearly as ugly by candlelight
“Spiritual”: Drives by a church on his way to happy hour
“Stable”: Heavily medicated
“Young at heart”: And one foot in the grave
“Witty”: Quotes dialogue from
Animal House
Alison finally decides enough is enough. She’s going to hire a matchmaker, who will find out the truth about a man
before
she goes out with him. What she doesn’t expect to find is a matchmaking
man—
one who really
is
tall, dark, and handsome! And suddenly Mr. Right just might be right under her nose…
I hope you’ll enjoy HEARTSTRINGS AND DIAMOND RINGS!
Happy reading!
Dear Reader,
I love to write the love story of two people who have known each other a long time. I love it even more when they’re now enemies. First of all, I don’t have to spend time introducing them to each other. They already have a history and common experiences. They speak in a kind of shorthand that sets them apart from the people around them. Emotions are already more complex. And then I get to mix in the added spice that comes from two people who spit and claw each time they see each other. Well, if you’ve read the first two books in my Drake’s Rakes series, you know that Lady Kate Seaton and Major Sir Harry Lidge are definitely spitting and clawing. In ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS, we finally find out why. And we get to see if they will ever resolve their differences and finally admit that they still passionately love each other.
Happy reading!
Dear Reader,
St. Andrews University, alma mater of Prince William and Princess Kate, was Scotland’s first university, and it figures significantly in HIGHLAND HERO, the second book in my Scottish Knights trilogy, as well as in its predecessor, HIGHLAND MASTER (Forever, February 2011). The heroes of all three books in the trilogy met as students of Walter Traill, Bishop of St. Andrews, in the late fourteenth century. All three are skilled warriors and knights of the realm.
Sir Ivor Mackintosh of HIGHLAND HERO—besides being handsome, daring, and a man of legendary temper—is Scotland’s finest archer, just as Fin Cameron of HIGHLAND MASTER is one of the country’s finest swordsmen. Both men are also survivors of the Great Clan Battle of Perth, in which the Mackintoshes of Clan Chattan fought champions of Clan Cameron. In other words, these two heroes fought on opposing sides of that great trial by combat.
Nevertheless, thanks to Bishop Traill, they are closer than most brothers.
Because Traill’s students came from noble families all over Scotland, any number of whom might be feuding or actively engaged in clan warfare, the peace-loving Traill insisted that his students keep their identities secret and use simple names within the St. Andrews community. They were on their honor to not probe into each other’s antecedents, so they knew little if anything about their friends’ backgrounds while studying academics and knightly skills together. Despite that constraint, Traill also taught them the value of trust and close friendships.
The St. Andrews Brotherhood in my Scottish Knights series is fictional but plausible, in that the historic Bishop Traill strongly supported King Robert III and Queen Annabella Drummond while the King’s younger brother, the Duke of Albany, was actively trying to seize control of the country. Traill also provided protection at St. Andrews for the King’s younger son, James (later James I of Scotland), conveyed him there in secrecy, and wielded sufficient power to curb Albany when necessary.
We don’t know how Traill and the King arranged for the prince, age seven in 1402, to travel across Scotland from the west coast to St. Andrews Castle. But that sort of mystery stimulates any author’s gray cells.
So, in HIGHLAND HERO, when the villainous Albany makes clear his determination to rule Scotland no matter what, Traill sends for Sir Ivor to transport young Jamie to St. Andrews. Sir Ivor’s able if sometimes trying assistant in this endeavor is the Queen’s niece, Lady Marsaili Drummond-Cargill, who has reasons of her own to elude Albany’s clutches but does not approve of temperamental men or men who assume she will do their bidding without at least
some
discussion.
Traill’s successor, Bishop Henry Wardlaw (also in HIGHLAND HERO), founded William’s and Kate’s university in 1410, expanding on Traill’s long tradition of education, believing as Traill had that education was one of the Church’s primary duties. Besides being Scotland’s first university, St. Andrews was also the first university in Scotland to admit women (1892)—and it admitted them on exactly the same terms as men. Lady Marsaili would have approved of that!
Suas Alba!
