Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

I am thinking we would all agree that one of the high points in writing our stories is to type "The End" in bold print at the bottom of that final page. Maybe it is just me, but I always flash onto the scene in Romancing the Stone when Joan Wilder types those words - on a real typewriter no less - and is dissolving into tears while searching high and low for a tissue. I love that scene! Of course, until recently it was just a humorous moment in a movie with no relationship to my life. Now I have typed those words a few times, most recently two days ago. And let me tell you, it is a fabulous feeling! Of course, we know that just because we type "The End" it really isn't the end. We will read it over a few more times before we click the attach and send buttons. We will add a little bit here, take away something there, find some typo or misspelled word, all before we are satisfied enough to turn it over to our editor. And then it will be picked over by a series of...

by Sharon Lathan For several months now I have been eyeballing the extra room in our house to be an office for me. The history of this one room is convoluted and messy! Once upon a time it was my son’s bedroom painted navy blue with jungle animal wallpaper border. Then when my eldest daughter moved out and he moved into her larger bedroom (necessitating the paisley flowers of her room be revamped with a wall mural of a nature scene) the room housed our brand new iMac as the kids’ exclusive computer, and served double-duty as my sewing room (rarely) and general catch-all/storage room (frequently!). Several years and 2 iMacs later, I decided the jungle print had to go and redecorated yet again. It was 2004 and the room served as the PC and Xbox gaming room since the now-high school daughter had a laptop and my son was far more interested in playing WOW than doing homework! It also was now the cat’s watercloset and so stuffed with junk that a serious re-do was desperately needed. Plus, a...

by Sharon Lathan Moms must be on the brain these days. I know that I have been thinking constantly about mine. Primarily that is because she has been so ill lately, prompting our entire family to travel from far away reaches of the US to converge on where she lives. The spontaneous family reunion was wonderful for many reason, but mostly because it focused on my mom. I could write an entire book on my mother. Almost all of it good! Seriously, she is a wonderful person who has been a guiding force in my life. She is a good woman who often single-handedly raised us kids, has always shown us love and support no matter what we do, displays strength and humor through the trials of life, and is immeasurably proud of her family. Yet my mom and I are very different in many of our beliefs. We have journeyed down dissimilar pathways. And I do not always agree with her. But these trivialities do not matter. Or rather, the fact that we are unalike in many respects augments my love and appreciation...

In my latest romantic conquest (of which there are so many, ::rolls eyes::), I found myself out to dinner with a lovely gent at a dee-lish restaurant talking about may different topics, when our food arrived and I exclaimed over my pasta, “There’s so much CHEESE. I LOVE cheese.” He looked back at me kind of like I was insane, but then proceeded to begin what became a lengthy discussion of our favorite types of cheeses, when different cheeses are appropriate for different foods, cheeses we dislike—we talked a lot about cheese. And guess what? I’m going out with him again. Why am I talking about cheese and dates? Because believe it or not, Casa ladies, this very cheese discussion was influenced by YOUR books. I know, none of you have written a scene about two people learning about a common affection for dairy, but you all have written about women, who, at some point or another, speak their mind, don’t hold back, and are not shy about who they are as a person. They’re confident (or be...