Lynn Cahoon Writes About Family and Finding the Path Home

What’s in a Name?

THE BULL RIDER’S BROTHER started out as Trouble with Tilapia.  Yes, Tilapia, like the fish. My husband and I like to camp, so many weekends would find us driving the narrow dirt road (read trail) toward Atlanta, a small mining town in Idaho.  Just before our favorite camp site, (complete with a natural hot springs), a family had built a small resort.  Four cabins, one store-slash-bar, and a natural hot springs on the property.  Not a five star or even a one star resort, but the cabins were clean and the store a great stop after a dusty ride.

One day we stopped in for a cold drink, and the owner started talking to my husband about the large cattle troughs in the back yard.  He’d built a tilapia farm using water from the hot springs and expected his first crop in a few months. 

Of course, the writer’s mind filed this piece of information away and when it was time to start a new book, my heroine would be the frazzled single mom who ran this tilapia farm.

When I pitched the book to editors at RWA Nat’ls, they loved the idea, but thought the name would need to change. The more drafts I wrote, the less the story became about the setting and the cute fish hook. (Pun intended.) And more about the Sullivan brothers and the girl one of them left behind.

A reader once told me that my stories follow a theme of family and finding the path home.  I have to agree with her.  My heroines know exactly what they want, or think they do.  And my heroes believe in family, even when their definition leaves something to be desired.

In November, my publisher, Crimson Romance is releasing the second book in the Shawnee Rodeo Series, THE BULL RIDER’S MANAGER.

About THE BULL RIDER’S BROTHER --

Shawnee, Idaho is known for two things--Amazing salmon fishing and the first local rodeo of the summer.  For four friends, growing up in Shawnee, meant one thing, making plans to get out. Five years later, that wish has been granted for all but one.  What happens when they all get together again changes five lives.

When James Sullivan visits his hometown’s rodeo weekend and learns that his high school sweetheart had his child - six years ago – Lizzie Hudson’s world is thrown into turmoil. In THE BULL RIDER'S BROTHER, James struggles with family and Lizzie questions the risk of love.

Available at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/The-Bull-Riders-Brother-ebook/dp/B008195C2I ), Nook, Google, and iTunes.

About Lynn Cahoon:

Lynn Cahoon is a contemporary romance author with a love of strong, intelligent men, real and imagined. Her alpha heroes range from rogue witch hunters to modern cowboys. And her heroines all have one thing in common, their strong need for independence. Or at least that’s what they think they want.  She blogs at her website, A Fairy Tale Life.

Contact Lynn at her website: www.lynncahoon.wordpress.com

Or FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/LynnCahoonAuthor

Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/LynnCahoon

Please leave a comment to welcome Lynn Cahoon to
Sweet Not Spicy.

Her Handyman On Its Way by Morgan Mandel

Summer, with its countless distractions, has been a busy season for many authors, including me. In between outdoor activities, and trying but not succeeding in keeping up with emails and networking, I've  been hard at work on a new sweet romance. My romance, called Her Handyman will first be released on Kindle, and then to other markets.

I'll still be hosting sweet romance authors here as well. So far, Lynn Cahoon is scheduled for August 21 and Roseanne Dowell will be back on  September 18. More guests are also in the works.

For now, relax and check out the cover for my upcoming release.

Throw a crazy canine, a handyman and a talented artist together in one bathroom and you've got bedlam!

Jill Hughey's Sass Meets Class

Sass Meets Class in Jill Hughey's new romance

Conversation gets pricklier than a cactus and desert temperatures are bound to rise when American common sense meets British nobility in 1880s Arizona Territory.

We are all feeling patriotic with the Olympics in full swing and the flash of Independence Day fireworks still bright in our memories.  With an American heroine and British hero, Sass Meets Class is a sweet historical romance perfect to keep you in the summer mood.  Both heroine and hero are ready to assert their independence.  Might a blossoming friendship mean they could become independent together?

Susan Mellott doubts there is much substance to the Englishman who has been traveling west with her family.  When two Apaches threaten the wagon and her Pa has gallivanted ahead as usual, Susan fears she may have to defend herself and her sister alone.  She soon learns that the fancy-talking, boot-polishing Alexander Dorcester knows how to handle a gun.  Their paths part in Gateway, and even though Susan knows he will be visiting his parents just five miles away, her family's new general store requires so much attention she mostly forgets about the Redcoat.  Until he arrives to do some shopping with his oh-so-proper mother.  He returns alone the next month, then again the week after, and the week after.  Not sure of his intentions but certain of her own interest, Susan decides to encourage Alex a little.  Next thing she knows, he's bolted for England.

Or has he?  An unexpected letter from Wyoming brings both hope and despair to Susan.  Does she dare to keep dreaming about her British viscount?  Time and distance and secrets cannot end a friendship meant to be love.

Sass Meets Class is a dose of small-town life, complete with an old coot on the general store porch and it was a refreshing story to write.  It is completely different from my other books that are set in Europe in the 830s (yes, that is eight hundred thirty) and are definitely spicy.  I really enjoyed the light-heartedness of Sass Meets Class and I admire Susan's spunk.  The biggest writing challenge was keeping Alexander and Susan "alive" to each other when he is in Wyoming.  I used an unexpected stand-in for Alex and a few letters to keep the conversations and emotions flowing.   When he finally returns he knows exactly what he wants but learns that Susan has not been waiting around for him to deliver her happily-ever after!

When I'm not writing, I work part-time as a business administrator and I take voice lessons.  Most important, I take care of my hubbie and two teenaged sons.  Football practices have begun so I will be happily typing away on a laptop most evenings until October!

Thank you to Sweet Not Spicy for having me here today.  Sass Meets Class is available as an ebook on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and in print on Createspace and at the Amazon link.  I can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jillhugheyromance and you can follow me on Twitter @jillhughey.

Please welcome Jill Hughey to Sweet Not Spicy by leaving a comment below.

We're Still Here, but Enjoying the Summer

Many of our guests are busy enjoying the summer, as I assume many of you are doing as well. A few schedule changes have been made because everyone's so busy. To date, our next guest will be Jill Hughey on July 31, then Deborah Grace Staley on August 7.

In the meantime, enjoy your summertime, and try to keep cool! We've got 100 degrees here in Illinois today!!!

Debra Holland Proves That Sweet Is In!

At Last: Sweet Stories Come Into Their Own
by Debra Holland

I wrote my first novel, Wild Montana Sky, around 1998-2000. I wrote it as a traditional romance, the type I liked to read. At the time, New York publishers were still buying sweet books. The book won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award. On the strength of the GH win, I was able to interest an agent.

By the time my agent starting submitting Wild Montana Sky to publishers, the historical market, especially for Westerns started to decline. Sexy books became more and more popular, and within a year or two, publishers stopped acquiring sweet stories. WMS started building up a nice pile of rejections.

In the meantime, I changed genres and wrote a fantasy romance, Sower of Dreams, the first book in a trilogy. This one also wasn’t sexy. Although Sower finaled in the Golden Heart, my agent also couldn’t sell this trilogy. After a few years, he stopped trying, and I left him.

Agent number two loved Sower of Dreams and was sure she could sell it. She also tried to sell Wild Montana Sky. Because she had a good knowledge of the inspirational market, she also tried revising WMS into an inspirational. The book already had some inspirational elements. The characters went to church and sometimes prayed when things were tough. My agent had me beef up those aspects.

I balked though when it came to chopping up a moonlight swim scene, where on a sweltering night, the heroine and hero accidently found themselves at the swimming hole. Although nothing happened but a kiss, the scene simmered with sexual tension, and (in my opinion) was beautifully written. My agent’s suggested edits took the life from the scene. I refused to turn the book into an inspirational. She wasn’t pleased with me, but I had to stay true to my vision of the story.

So my books languished unsold. I intuitively believed that there was still a market for sweet/traditional books. Many romance readers will read all heat levels, from sweet to spicy. Others don’t want spicy at all. I believed those readers of traditional books might have stopped reading romance because their choices were either spicy or inspirational.

Over the years, I had a chance to talk to editors at conferences about sweet books. In the conversations, they often agreed with me about there being a sweet market. But the problem was how to find those readers, especially if they’d stopped reading romance.

Fast forward to the Amazon Kindle and later other ereaders, such as the Nook. All of a sudden readers could easily find the types of books they wanted and immediately download them. Self-publishing became a viable option instead of a shameful choice. In April of 2011, I self-published Wild Montana Sky and Starry Montana Sky. In January, book three, Stormy Montana Sky went live. My Montana Sky series really took off, selling about 95,000 in the first year. In April 2012, Wild Montana Sky made the USA Today Bestseller list.

About Wild Montana Sky – 2012 USA Today Bestseller

With the tragic death of her fiancé, Elizabeth Hamilton believes she’ll never love again. The comfortable life she’s settled into with her brother in Boston is upset when he abruptly marries. Displaced by her spiteful new sister-in-law, and hoping to find a home for herself, Elizabeth allows handsome cowboy Nick Sanders to escort her from Boston to her friend’s Montana ranch. 

In Montana, Elizabeth meets attractive Caleb Livingston, a wealthy banker who strongly resembles her beloved fiancé, and hopes she has a second chance at love.  Yet, she has to fight a growing attraction to Nick. In braving the dangers and hardships of the West, Elizabeth discovers unexpected strengths within herself--strengths tested when an influenza epidemic ravages the town. As a child’s life hangs in the balance, Elizabeth must choose between the man who has everything, and the one with nothing but his heart to offer.

Kindle Link: Wild Montana Sky: http://amzn.com/B004YKZCD2

About Sower of Dreams -

On the run from a death threat, Khan Laenser stumbles across a secret desert shrine where he is sent by the goddess Withea to an ancient world to reclaim the wasted land that was once a flourishing civilization.When a spurned royal suitor invades her country, killing her family, and sacking the capitol, Princess Daria flees into the wilderness, only to fall prey to a pack of marauding beasts. When Khan rescues her, they fall in love, joining forces to defeat their enemies. But will his vow to the goddess and her royal responsibilities tear them apart?
Andre Norton says, “Desert and Sea both provide vivid backgrounds for action and real emotion in Sower of Dreams—outstanding and well-presented fantasy, which will keep the book in one’s hands, eyes on the page—a GOOD READ.”
Kindle Link: Sower of Dreams: http://amzn.com/B005FA30V6

About Debra Holland, Ph.D

Debra Holland is a three-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist and one time winner. She is the author of the self-published books, Wild Montana Sky, a sweet, historical Western romance, and its sequels, Starry Montana Sky, and Stormy Montana Sky as well as the first two books in The Gods’ Dream Trilogy, Sower of Dreams and Reaper of Dreams. In her first year of self-publishing, she sold almost 97,000 books, and Wild Montana Sky made the USA Today Bestseller list.

Website:  http://drdebraholland.com

Kindle - Wild Montana Sky: http://amzn.com/B004YKZCD2

Kindle - Sower of Dreams: http://amzn.com/B005FA30V6

Please welcome Debra Holland to Sweet Not Spicy by leaving a comment.

Leanne Tyler's Good Luck Charm

When I first started writing The Good Luck Charm, I didn’t own a dog. In fact, I hadn’t had a pet of my own since I was in elementary school. My first dog was a white Spitz we named Penny. She was fluffy and white, with a black button nose. I can still see her in my mind. And I recall pictures of her and me (as a toddler) sitting in the oversized rocking chair at my grandmother’s house. Penny was with me from the time she was a pup until I was in fifth grade when she died. That’s a pretty long life for a dog.

So what made me think I could write about a dog and make him an important secondary character in a story? I’m not sure now, but my critique partners who owned dogs repeatedly pointed out that he should do this or he’d do that, and what about this.  I learned quickly I needed to do my research. I needed to remember what it was like to own a dog. I also began observing a friend’s basset hound and I modeled Duke after the lazy dog in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies. When I pictured my dog for the story, I thought of that dog. This helped.

As I did revisions and prepared my story for publication this year, I can proudly say I am a dog owner again. I have been for the last seven years so I was able to add a personal knowledge to Duke that I have from my own very special little girl, Rocke.

She’s a shi tzu and I let my son name her before she was born. We were expecting a male pup, but the litter was all female. Rocke was the runt of the litter, yet looking at her now and seeing what she weighed at her last check up (a whopping 17.1 lbs.), you would never know it. Her father only weighed 11 lbs. when she was born and the breeder thought he was large so she didn’t really expect Rocke to get much bigger than that. Little did she know Rocke likes to eat homemade biscuits! She’s a southern dog through and through.

But back to Duke and making him an authentic character. As you see from the cover, my graphic designer did an awesome job bringing him to life. I couldn’t have described him better if I had tried. In fact, all I told her was that I needed a bloodhound on the cover. And she found the perfect one. By the way, if you enjoy Duke in The Good Luck Charm, you’ll see him again in The Good Luck Spell and The Good Luck Potion. (In fact, and this is on the QT, I wouldn’t let Lucinda know, but I think Duke is the real good luck piece for these couples instead of the charm.)

You ask, who is Lucinda? Oh, she’s the Cajun Jazz singer from the Louisiana bayou who practices voodoo. Not the evil kind, but the love kind. What charm? The gris-gris Lucinda gives Keely to wear. What’s a gris-gris? An amulet with an incantation or love spell attached to it.

If you'd like to become acquainted with Duke and the other cast of characters, check out my buy links below.

Buy Links:

The Good Luck Charm ~ http://tinyurl.com/7xkr9h6

A Country Kitchen Christmas ~http://tinyurl.com/c5ykffz
It's Always Been You ~http://tinyurl.com/c95xce2
Season of Love ~ http://tinyurl.com/bu9wasu
Victory's Gate http://tinyurl.com/c3os4ql

About The Good Luck Charm, a Sweet Romance:

Keely Jones believes all she wants in life is a successful advertising career and a corner office. However, that all begins to change when she bumps into a Frisbee player while jogging with her dog. When she’s given a good luck charm she’s skeptical about the magic of true love or finding her soul mate. But when things start to heat up between her and Darren, can she truly ignore it? Or will he be the one man who can ruin her career?

Darren Wright has returned to Knoxville to regroup and to join his sister’s advertising agency. He isn’t looking for anything major to happen in his life, yet when he bumps into a cute brunette and her dog, things begin to change. He’s soon promoted to Creative Director and falling for Keely. How can he tell her he works for an opposing firm? And if he doesn’t, will he risk losing her for good?

Award winning author, Leanne Tyler lives in the South and her writing reflects her heritage. She writes sensual Southern romances whether historical or contemporary. Leanne’s debut release Victory’s Gate was the 2007 American Rose winner of the Through the Garden Gate contest and was released electronically by The Wild Rose Press in December 2007. Finally in December 2009 the Through the Garden Gate Anthology is available in print and includes the four winning entries.
Stepping into the Contemporary circle, she debuted with her Class of ’85 Reunion story It’s Always Been You in August 2011. And her first full-length novel Season of Love (Nov. 2011) is a time-travel set in 1850 Charleston, SC. A recent release A Country Kitchen Christmas (Feb. 2012) is a light inspirational romance. Her first indie-publication, The Good Luck Charm is a romantic-comedy (May 2012).

Currently she has two upcoming releases from The Wild Rose Press. A short story, Ava is a sweet romance set in the pastoral country side of Georgia in 1836 and Because of Rebecca a full-length novel to be released in print is set in the deep South prior to the Civil War. She invites readers to step into her world and enjoy the passion.

You can find Leanne at:

Website: www.leannetyler.com

Twitter: @LeanneTyler

Email: leannetyler@gmail.com

Facebook fan page: http://tinyurl.com/6upmayo

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/LeanneTyler

My Sweet Contributions to The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories

Just wanted to mention that my short story contributions to The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories are definitely in the sweet category. 

In What Nice Blessings, tragedy strikes a young adult, testing her courage and teaching her the value of friendship.

The Closing of the Corner Cafe describes the rise and fall of a cherished eating establishment.

You'll hear more about these stories when I guest post at Helen Ginger's blog on June 14 at http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/

If you can't wait, here's the link to the collection: http://amzn.com/B0085YDO7E

Lots of diverse stories from 15 authors to suit every taste.

Morgan Mandel, the owner of this blog, is a past president of Chicago-North RWA, past Library Liaison for Midwest MWA, belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC.

Excerpts and buy links to her full length novels are at http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com/