Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

from Mia Marlowe... We all hate it, don't we? Whether it's waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting to hear a loved one arrived someplace safely, waiting, to put it mildly, sucks. We crave instant gratification. We want it NOW! As I write this post, my DH and I are waiting to see if we have received an offer we can accept on on our condo in Boston. We have an appointment with our realtor at 5 this evening, so we don't have much longer to squirm, but believe me, we've already been waiting for quite some time. Some 30+ months ago, my DH said he wanted to figure out a way for him to retire early and for us to move back to the Midwest where most of our family lives. At the time, I didn't see how in the world we'd be able to accomplish that, but like a good little spousal unit, I didn't rain on his crazy parade. Turns out, he wasn't so crazy. He's a pretty smart guy, so it shouldn't have surprised me that he'd come up with a wor...

from Mia Marlowe... Update: Thanks to everyone who left a comment or question. I love hearing from you. My random winner is Betty Hamilton! If you didn't win, don't despair. I hope you'll pop over to my website for a chance to win a whole box of books just in time for Christmas! It's easy to list off the big things for which we're thankful. It requires a little more thought to recognize the small joys of our daily lives. We have to pay attention. We have to be intentional about noticing that glow of warmth that steals over us. When I was a child, I had a little book of verse called The Cheerful Cherub by Rebecca McCann. I love this collection of optimistic rhymes and many of the ones I committed to memory as a girl are with me still. Here's one that really describes what I'm talking about today: One minor joy I have in fall Almost too small to speak about-- It's after rain to step on leaves And see the water spurting out. Now that's a very small jo...

UPDATE: The randomly chosen winner of a copy of IMPROPER GENTLEMEN is Di! Please contact me through my website with your mailing info. To everyone else, thank you for commenting. I hope you'll pop by and enter my contest where you'll have a chance at winning an ARC of SINS OF THE HIGHLANDER (Jan 2012)! from Mia Marlowe I've always been an eclectic reader. Even though I write romance, I'm just as likely to pick up a mystery or a fantasy novel for my private enjoyment. I've even been known to burn through one of my DH's techno-thrillers. But for the past few months with my book club, I've been dipping a toe into the murky waters of mainstream fiction. You know what I mean. These are quasi-literary tomes. They're Oprah picks and the darlings of the media. While they're admittedly well-written, they are also almost universally depressing. It makes me wonder afresh why the romance genre takes so many hits from the media. I used to think it was because o...

from Mia Marlowe ... At one of my first booksignings, a lady I knew asked me, "Why do you write those kind of books?" The subtext of the question was "Why do you write explicit sex scenes?" My answer is that I write about life and I don't want to put any aspect of my character's experiences off limits if it advances the story or deepens my reader's insight into the secret life of my characters. It's been noted that having sex is the most intimate thing you can do with someone while not really knowing what's going on in the other person's mind. Sometimes, you're not even sure what's tumbling around in your own. My heroine Rosalinde experienced that in A Knack for Trouble , my novella in the new anthology IMPROPER GENTLEMEN . In the following excerpt, Rosalinde is having a bit of an argument with herself while she allows Aidan to take more and more liberties: If we only kiss, we’ve been a bit improper, but no worse than if we w...