Presents week continues with another of my favourite people and writers, the mega-talented Trish Morey who is a three-time #1 Waldenbooks Bestseller AND a winner of RWA's prestigious Romantic Book of the Year award (affectionately known as the RuBY.) Trish is popping in to chat about her 11th Harlequin Presents title, The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin.

I first heard the storyline for this book while walking along a Victorian beach last March. Trish and I were part of a group of authors at a writing retreat and on that morning walk, Trish was nutting out some details of her book-in-progress and I just knew by her passion for the story and her vivid descriptions of characters and setting that it would be another classic Trish Morey. The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin is a March release in America and already a Waldenbooks #3 bestseller, so I've invited Trish in to chat about sheikhs and linked books and the appeal that makes Presents the world's bestselling category series.

Mea culpa, Trish, I haven't read your latest sheikh. Can I make it up to you by offering to share this bottle of Dom Perignon?

Trish: Only one? LOL! Thanks Bron, for the warm welcome, it's lovely to be here!

I loved your Stolen by the Sheikh (half of a closely linked duo with The Mancini Marriage Bargain.) The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin is also part of a duo--with last December's hugely entertaining The Boss's Christmas Baby--so I'm looking forward to another fab read. Let's start by talking about that link. My guess is you planned this as a duo from the start?

Trish: I did! Like most people, I've always been fascinated by sister swap stories like The Parent Trap--or even identical cousin stories (showing my age here, but who else remembers The Patty Duke Show?) (Bron: me, oh yes, I do.) So I started out with twin sisters, Morgan and Tegan, and took it from there. The first story is a sister swap story and was a lot of fun. The second, The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin, sees the second sister find her own HEA, but it really doesn't matter what order you read them, as they're both stand alone titles.

Morgan and Tegan... Those names sound vaguely familiar...

Trish: Funny about that... I wanted the sisters' names to be close, and as luck would have it, a very wonderful mutual friend of ours has girls with those names and because they were so perfect, I asked if they'd mind if I borrowed them. They were thrilled and The Boss's Christmas Baby is dedicated to them both. (I had to dedicate The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin to my own girls, who were demanding equal time.)

As they should. Now, about that sheikh... This is your second (no longer a sheikh-virgin, hehe) -- what do you love about writing and reading the sheikh hero?

Trish: I love how there's a timeless appeal about sheikh stories--did you know it's almost a century since EM Hull penned her classic "The Sheik" and still there's this fascination with the desert prince, something forbidden about this untamed man in an untamed, exotic wilderness. I love all our Presents heroes, but I really think sheikhs represent the quintessential, alpha male, maybe more educated than a century ago but still so much a product of their isolated and harsh desert kingdoms.

Oh, yes, the untamed alpha in his own exotic kingdom. That taps into quite a few fantasies, doesn't it? You mentioned loving the Presents hero in all his guises -- is he the key to the Presents worldwide popularity?

Trish: Oh yes! Presents offers readers the ultimate get-away fantasies with the ultimate alpha heroes, the most wonderful heroes who get turned inside out by the love of one very special woman, because for all his wealth, power and status, it's that woman, and only that woman, who can make him whole. It's wonderful to see these rich, powerful men brought to their knees by love. Just wonderful!

Love your alphas, Trish, because they're always masterful and determined to have their way and a tad wicked (which is sexy as all get-out.) What do you love in a fantasy hero?

Trish: Thanks Bron! I love a hero who is all those things and who I can fall in love with myself. He's strong, passionate and a wonderful lover. And while he's forceful and powerfully motivated and gives the heroine no end of grief as she in turn is rattling his chain, at his core he's a man of integrity. Compelling masculine good looks and a lean hard-wired bod don't go amiss either.:-)

A couple of fun one-liners to finish:

What I love most about writing romance is...
making up gorgeous men all day and calling it work

My favourite books are...
by Candice Proctor and Tom Sharpe.

I can't write without...
checking what's in the pantry. Regularly. Even though I know what's in there down to the barcodes (so, so sad...)

I'm looking forward to...
my next reader letter. Just love getting those.

In my next life, I want to come back as...
a well-loved cat

My next release (book) is...
The Italian Boss's Mistress of Revenge, out Aug US/Sept UK and Oct Downunder.

The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin is in stores now in America and available at your favourite on-line store (incl Amazon and eHarlequin) as a print or eBook. Tell Trish and I what you like best about sheikh heroes and romances and you're in the draw to win a signed copy of The Boss's Christmas Baby. (Prize drawn March 8.)

Labels: giveaway, Guest blogger, Harlequin Presents

Ever since I first heard that the brilliant and prolific and funny Carol Marinelli was writing linked books about a pair of dark, dangerous, sexy Russians, I've been hanging out for the first of the Kolovskys. Expecting His Love-Child did not disappoint and nor did Levander. He is my favourite kind of alpha, with so many layers and levels due to the shadows of his past. And did I mention sexy? I believe he may have just usurped Hunter-with-the-scissors (Contracted: Wife for the Bedroom) as my favourite Marinelli hero. And Millie, the heroine, is just a delight...as is this whole emotionally rich book.

So, I've invited Carol along to chat about herself, her books--she's written an amazing 40 and is a 3-time finalist in the Australian Romantic Book of the Year--and her Russians. Welcome, Carol. I'm so chuffed you've agreed to be my guest here at Bronz Blog. I've opened a lovely bottle of red so sit, relax, share.

Carol: How did you know I liked red wine! (Bron: I had a hunch.) Thanks for reading them and saying such nice things!

That's not the wine talking, Carol, I can assure you. So, let's start with the CM backstory. When and how did you start writing romance?

Carol: I started trying when I was in my late teens. When I say trying, it was more a hobby that went along with the usual angst filled poems teenagers write. Over the years, at different times, I would pull out this story. Eventually it was rejected, as were another two before The Outback Nurse was accepted in 2000.

(Bron: and she's now up to 40, whilst also working the wards and raising a family, hence my earlier use of brilliant and prolific adjectives!!!)

Do you have a fabulous first sale "call" story?

Carol: It was a great moment but, I can honestly say, my proudest writing moment was ringing my sister in the UK when I actually sent off my first full manuscript. For so many years I'd been saying I would do it and it was just a thrill to post my first full off. I knew the lady who worked in the Post Office and she used to say good luck to me when I sent them off (though she wouldn't kiss the envelope--I did ask!)

Bah humbug. So, after some 20 medicals for Mills and Boon you started writing for Modern/Presents as well. How did that happen?

Carol: With difficulty. Getting my first Modern/Presents accepted was just as hard and just as rewarding as getting my first Medical accepted.

And now you write for both lines equally?

Carol: I write between 4-6 books a year. Generally I alternate, and that works really well for me. By the time I've finished a Presents I can't wait to get started on a Medical and vice versa. Because they are so different it's a total change of scene for my brain.

What do you enjoy most about writing for each line?

Carol: I love hospitals, medical shows etc and all the drama that comes with a busy hospital setting. There is so much room for emotion in Medicals because you are often dealing with people/families when they are at their most raw, so there's lots of room for emotional writing.

With Moderns/Presents, I love the layers of the Alpha male and really trying to get inside his head. I find writing them very intense, especially as it so much more just the hero and heroine on the page.

The Russians are a cross-line series, right? Levander for Modern, then Iosef for Medical? Is this the first time you've linked books this way and did that present any difficulties?

<= This is Carol's collage for her Russians, BTW.

Carol: No, I've never tried to link between two lines. My first Presents started life as a Medical (it turned out a completely different book) and it didn't work for either line so I've steered well away from even attempting it.

I don't plot, not in the slightest. A story just appears. When Levander (I didn't know his name then!) appeared he had to be Russian. I had no intention of linking two books at that stage. Even when I wrote Iosef in as a doctor it wasn't knowingly my intention to use him in a Medical--his profession proved a point about the family (page 105)--then I fell further in love with this family and spoke to my Editor about doing a Medical with Iosef as the hero.

One of the joys about not plotting (I have found) are those brilliant moments when you work out the twist or have your aha moment and then realize that you've actually already set up for it--that it must have been in your head all along. I had that moment times ten with the Medical because that line on page 105 actually proved a very pivotal part of Iosef's character.

(I am going to have to get my hands on that book, stat! )

What is it you love about your Russians? What makes them unique?

Carol: I love them because they are to me just beautiful, complicated men...oh, and incredibly sexy too. I have especially enjoyed writing about one family and exploring the different angles from the different siblings' points of view.

Levander is just the most recent in a long line of scrumptious Marinelli heroes so tell us, what do you think makes a yummy man.

Carol: That something that brings out the worst and best in the heroine and she in turn brings out the worst and best in him.

Love that answer, Carol, and that's something I really enjoy in your books--the way you push that worst, that flaw, to bring them to their best.

Now, just for fun, I asked Carol to finish these sentences:

What I love most about writing romance is...
being paid to think about gorgeous men.

My favourite books are...
at the moment, by Ian Rankin.

I can't write without...
internet/ emails--love to have a break every 30mins or so and check my emails and perezhilton.com or horoscopes.

I'm looking forward to...
going away with a few wonderful writing friends.

In my next life, I want to come back as...
a thinner, more organized version of myself.

My next release (book) is...
Iosef Kolovsky's story, Billionaire Doctor Ordinary Nurse, May UK, June Australia.

In the meantime, don't miss Expecting His Love-Child, a February 08 Harlequin Presents available in print and eBook forms from eHarlequin.com, Amazon, or your on-line store of choice. Come say hello to Carol and talk to us about your favourite exotic brand of hero (whether Russian or Argentinean or Irish or an outback Aussie you picture as Hugh Jackman) and next weekend I'll draw a winner from the comments to score a copy of Contracted: A Wife for the Bedroom.

Labels: Guest blogger, Harlequin Presents

posted by Bronwyn Jameson @ 9:58 AM 16 comments