Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Like it or not, our brothers and sisters are genetically the closest relatives we have. If we share the same mother and father, then we all took that same dip in the old gene pool. (SPLAT!) And in most cases, siblings share the same early environment that shaped us into adults, too. No wonder relationships between and among siblings are so intense and complex. What great fodder for fiction! Brothers and sisters pop up in my own stories a lot. I am the eldest of four siblings, so I know all about those bossy older sister characters from personal experience. Having two younger brothers whom I alternately abhorred and adored (as they did me) , it is no surprise at all that the heroes in all three of my books have older and er, um, somewhat domineering older sisters. In The Wild Sight and The Treasures of Venice , both heroes were raised by their older sisters when their mothers died. Luckily, I was never forced into that role, but I can easily ...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!! It's that time of year again, and just WHERE did the past year go?!?! In fact we're almost into a brand new DECADE! ACK!!! Anyway, it's the time of year when most of us look back at the months gone by and reflect on what we did and didn't do. Then, reorganize and set ourselves some new goals for the coming year. In the past, I've found it far too easy to concentrate on the negative aspects of the previous year. Things I didn't accomplish, opportunities I missed, goals that were beyond my control to achieve... So this year, I've made a vow to focus on the POSITIVE things that happened in 2009. As for my goals, I'm going to concentrate on things I can actually accomplish. Right at the top of that list will be: Stop worrying about things over which I have no control! Accomplishing that one will be a challenge, but I know with the help of the CasaBabes and our readers and...

Sorry to report that I've been sicker than the proverbial dog all week. Too sick to even write a new blog post (which proves I really AM SICK!). So apologies to those of you who may have already read this, but I'm reposting some interview questions with Keirnan Fitzgerald, the hero of my latest release, The Treasures of Venice . My critique partners, friends, and thus far the readers and reviewers have been very enthusiastic about this charming Irish rogue. They’ve all expressed interest in learning a bit more about him and I thought the readers here might like to know too. (Special thanks to my critique partners Cathy D. and Jo-Mama who helped with some of the questions.) Hello Keirnan, you have a somewhat unusual name. Is it a family name? As a matter of fact, it is. I was named for both my grandfathers, Keirnan Fitzgerald and Sean Farley. My sister was also named for our grandmothers, Kathleen Mary, so I guess you could say it’s a family tradition. In the stor...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Everyone knows that yer olde Aunty is NOT a morning person. Anything that happens before 10 a.m. West Coast Time is not something Aunty needs to know (unless, of course, it is a flight to a vacation destination) ! You can imagine Aunty's chagrin when recently she was awakened from dreamland at 8:30 by someone pounding on the front door. NOBODY pounds on my door. First, they must brave Aunty's stalwart protectors the Pug-wa-wa and the Yorkie Unholy Terrier. Should they happen to arrive when said obstacles are not in attendance, they will receive Aunty's Nasty Lecture Number 23B which references the "No Solicitors" sign in plain view on the front gate, IF Aunty deigns to answer at all. But the other morning at the ungodly hour of 8:30 a.m. someone dared my canine security squad (who were barking like the hounds of Hades) to knock... LOUDLY! Figuring it must be something dire, I crawled out of bed, stumbled to the door...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Recently one of my critique partners and I were discussing favorite scenes in books, what we liked and why we liked them. We quickly came to the conclusion that we consistently liked scenes where the hero and heroine kiss for the first time. I have fond memories of first kisses from special ‘dates’ over the years. Usually the anticipation of those kisses proved more enjoyable than the actually lip contact. Maybe that is why first kisses in fiction make such enjoyable scenes. The author can take her time building up all that wonderful tension between the hero and heroine and the actual moment of contact never has to be disappointing. The author can revise and reinvent to her heart’s content, and the reader can savor all the lovely anticipation as many times as she wants. Since my new release, The Treasures of Venice has a dual storyline and two sets of lovers, I got to have all the fun of writing the ‘first kiss’ scene twice! Here is the f...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy As most of you know, Aunty recently returned from a fabulous eleven day cruise to Mexico. Yes, I had a wonderful time, but I'm here to tell you that it wasn't all fun and games! Okay, maybe it really was fun and games, but our lovely publicist Danielle has rubbed off on me, because I also found an opportunity to promote my newest release, The Treasures of Venice . In the midst of my cruise, no less! In case you haven't been on a cruise before, you might not know that not every day is spent in a wonderful and exotic port. Some days you have to spend getting from place to place. On these 'at sea' days, the cruise director and his staff try to provide entertaining ways for passengers to occupy their time. Since I am not a sun-worshipper, a card player, or an exercise fanatic (EEK!) , I do appreciate the efforts to provide other ways to occupy ones time. After all, there are a limited number of times Aunty can force herself to...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy HOORAY! The big day is here at last! Time to celebrate the "OFFICIAL" Launch of The Treasures of Venice ! So break out the cyber-bubbly, bring on the hunky cover models and turn the music up REALLY LOUD! Here's the back cover copy to whet your appetite: He's a charming Irish rogue who never met a lock he couldn't pick... Keirnan Fitzgerald is desperate to locate the missing Jewels of the Madonna. With danger at every corner and time running out, he must use whatever means possible to to uncover the stolen jewels in time to save his sister's life... She's simply in Venice to relax and heal her broken heart... Samantha Lewis is shocked when a dashing stranger approaches her in a Venetian cafe, pretending to know her. She's ready for something new and exciting in her life, so she throws caution to the wind and accompanies the Irish charmer into his dangerous world of intrigue, theft, and betrayal... As the centur...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy As readers, we all have certain scenes in books that really "ring true" or for whatever reason, we find especially memorable. Well, as writers we have the same thing... Or maybe I should just speak for myself, I do anyway! Sometimes I know I'm going to LOVE a scene while I'm in the midst of writing it. This was the case when I was writing the scene in The Wild Sight where the heroine, Rylie confronts her biological father for the very first time. Same with one of the scenes in the train station in The Treasures of Venice (I won't say which one, coz ya know it might spoil part of the fun) . Other scenes kinda grow on me, and the more I re-read (and sometimes revise) them, the more fond I get of them. Not long ago, I asked my critique partners and a couple of my beta readers which scenes in The Treasures of Venice were their favorites. My CP and fellow Bandita Jo-Mama picked one where the heroine, Samantha was not buyi...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Way back when I was an AYU (As Yet Unpublished) writer (Was it really only 2 years ago?) , I never envisioned having this problem. Just a couple of weeks ago, I attended the RWA National Conference in Washington DC and during the conference, I signed copies and talked to readers about my debut release, The Wild Sight . As soon as I got home, I had to finish up work on my third book, The Wild Irish Sea , scheduled for a Spring 2010 release. Meanwhile, I'm about to embark on my whirlwind blog tour for The Treasures of Venice , due to hit bookstores on Sept. 1st. I know, I know! We should all have such problems... But honestly, I'm beginning to feel a bit like I'm suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder! Which book am I working on? Which characters am I channeling today? Am I promoting? Writing? Revising? Silly me, I never stopped to consider what it would be like to keep all these things going at the same time. Waay back in Aug...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy One month from tomorrow, my second release The Treasures of Venice is scheduled to hit the shelves. I'll be a multi-published author! WOW! I don't think the full impact has hit me yet, and probably won't until I go into a book store and see both my books there on the shelves. I'm still getting accustomed to the concept that people are reading my stories and loving my characters. I don't think this truly hit home with me until a couple of weeks ago. The afternoon of our Sourcebooks book signing to be exact! The other booksignings I've had thus far really didn't compare with this one. Suddenly there were all these people I didn't know lined up for me to autograph my book. WHAT A RUSH! (Here's a photo of me at the signing.) Many of them commented on how much they liked Irish heroes, and of course, I told them my next book had an Irish hero too. In fact, my critique partners and anyone else who has read The Tre...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Another RWA National Conference is over and yer olde Aunty is home again, exhausted but happy because it was all SO MUCH FUN! Well, mostly... except for all those huge emotional highs and lows that happened constantly. Yup, it happens to me at every conference, and I know I'm not the only one. (Aunty raises an eyebrow at her CasaBabes/Sisters.) This year's conference in Washington DC was no exception. Everyone who has been on this blog for more than five minutes knows that yer olde Aunty has a reputation for being a "tough cookie." I write about murder, mahem and things that go boom. Aunty does not like mornings (as several of the CasaBabes will now testify after seeing with their own eyes) and makes no secret of it. Aunty carries a whip (only a tiny little riding crop) and knows how to use it! That is why, to my everlasting chagrin, at some point in every RWA conference, I find myself tearful, and this year it happened a...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Some of the questions I'm most often asked by readers and aspiring writers are about my characters. Specifically, how do you come up with them and are they based on real people? So without further adieu: HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH YOUR CHARACTERS? I don’t come up with my characters so much as they come up to me! My characters tend to arrive in my imagination fully intact, complete with their first, middle, and last names. Though I will admit, I changed my hero of The Treasures of Venice , Keirnan Fitzgerald’s middle name. My First Reader, whom I've known for over 30 years, told me she’d always been very fond of the name Sean. So in deference to her, I changed his name from Keirnan Padriag Fitzgerald to Keirnan Sean Fitzgerald. Luckily he didn’t mind. When my characters arrive, they tend to tell me all kinds of things about themselves. Quite handy, though I know it sounds bizarre to people who don't write. We writers are very possessive...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Tomorrow evening, I'll be giving a talk at a local library as part of their "Summer Reading Program for Adults." The librarians have asked me to talk about my some of my experiences reading and writing romance, so today I thought I'd give you all a little sneak preview of some of the things I'm going to say. I like to say that I started writing at the age of nine. Before that, I printed. From the time I learned to read, I made up stories. As a child, if I didn’t like the way a book ended, I made up my own ending. I guess that makes me one of those people who writes because they don’t know how to “ not write. ” I’ve written all kinds of things, fiction, non-fiction, even poetry. I took creative writing in high school and college because it was an ‘easy A’ for me. I was one of those people who liked essay questions on tests and loved to write term papers. But even though I loved to write, I didn't necessarily think...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy Last time my post was all about the hero of my upcoming release The Treasures of Venice , charming Irish rogue Keirnan Fitzgerald. I thought it only fair today to give equal time to my heroine, American Samantha (Sam) Lewis. Just as I always fall in love with my heroes, I also identify with my heroines, and I want my readers to do the same. Since I know far more about them than ever makes it to the printed page, let me share a few of those details about Sam. The only child of a flighty and somewhat irresponsible mother (I picture Sam's mom being like Diane Chambers on "Cheers") , Sam found solace in books early on, so it was a natural for her to become a librarian. By the time she reached her teens, Sam had taken over the parent role and her mother stayed the rebellious child. Choosing to do a complete 180 from her mother, by the time Sam graduated from high school she had her life all planned out with one year, five year, and t...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy I LURVE my heroes! Can't help myself. Must be because they are all (at least thus far) Irish hunks. And like all true Celts, they are dark haired and blue-eyed, but there the similarities end. Donovan O'Shea, my hero of The Wild Sight is a man who tried to escape his painful past. But basically he has a dual nature, and near the climax of the story he actually recognizes this in himself. One side of him is a healer. Though he himself may be wounded (not nearly as much as the hero of my current Work In Progress, but that's a blog for another day) , he seeks to fix things that are broken, soothe hurts, and generally set things right. But the other side of him is a warrior. When threatened, he doesn't hesitate to fight back, especially in defense of someone he cares about. Cross him at your peril! The same can be said for my hero of The Treasures of Venice , Keirnan Fitzgerald. When necessary, this man can be dangerous. In fact...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy For years and years, the place that occupied the Number One spot on my "Bucket List" was Venice. Every picture I saw, every guidebook, every travel program that had even a mention of the city nicknamed La Serenissima (the Serene One) made me salivate. Lucky me! My DH took me there! (maybe he was truly sick and tired of hearing me carry on about wanting to go) And La Serenissima did not disappoint, it truly is one of the most unique places on earth! The city left quite a lasting impression on me. No wonder I chose it for the setting of one of my romantic suspense novels. And because I wanted readers to feel as if they were really in Venice, I decided to include some of the most famous landmarks in the story. The Bridge of Sighs --This lovely Venetian landmark gets a lot of attention in guide books and virtually every person who travels there or every program that features Venice as a destination mentions this bridge. No surprise then ...

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy As some of you know, I am a type 2 diabetic (also called adult onset or insulin resistant diabetes), but my best friend of over 20 years is a type 1 (usually called Juvenile diabetes) and a very special one at that. She was diagnosed with diabetes when she was only two years old, and is one of only about 1,000 people in the USA who has lived with diabetes over forty years! Five years ago, shortly after her young son was diagnosed with diabetes, best selling author Brenda Novak started an online auction to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Association to do research for a cure for this devastating medical condition. Every year, Brenda's online auction has grown. So far, her auction has earned a half a million dollars for diabetes research! This year Brenda and her supporters would love to set a new record. People donate hundreds of items of every sort. There are things of interest to readers, writers, and everybody. Everything from exoti...