Cathie Dunn writes...

We're already well into the new year. For some, it brings more of the same (positive or sad). For others, new adventures beckon. 2014 and 2015 have been sad years, with us losing first my mother-in-law to cancer in August 2014, and last January, my father-in-law followed her. He made it to 93. Quite an achievement for the old sailor! Bless. Last September, hubby and I travelled to Dorset where he grew up. We met with his extended family and scattered my in-laws' ashes on Stonebarrow Hill near Lyme Regis. They're now forever enjoying the sea views and fresh air. I couldn't imagine a more befitting and wonderfully peaceful (if a tad breezy) spot. The perfect resting place. Stonebarrow Hill, Dorset In 2016, big changes lie ahead for me and hubby, but I can't reveal those as yet. All I can say is, exciting (if a little scary) times ahead! :-) I'm also going to make sure to set aside time to write. I've woefully neglected my creative side in recent ye...

Today, I'm extending a warm welcome to author Miriam Drori , who tells us about Jerusalem, the city she now calls home. It's also where her romance, Neither Here Nor There , is set. I'm intrigued! Let's see what Miriam has to say... ~~~ Writing Home Jerusalem was the obvious setting for Neither Here Nor There . I wanted to write a romance. I wanted to write an unusual romance. I wanted the heroine to have a reason to hold back from throwing herself into a relationship. I wanted to write something I knew about. Having the heroine come from the haredi community ticked all the boxes. It also made for an interesting topic – one that I was keen to explore. What better place to set my story than Jerusalem, my home town, where I see people from the haredi community every time I leave my house? Sorted, or was it? View of David's Tower I wasn’t sure about setting the novel in my home town. Writers often prefer to describe places further away from them, beca...

Today, I extend a warm welcome to award-winning author, Maris Soule , who's currently on blog tour with her latest release, A Killer Past ! I'm sure you'll find the background to her novel very interesting. Over to Maris... Thank you, Cathie. For years I’ve written romances and mysteries where the heroine’s age was somewhere between 25 and 35. Women in their prime, both physically and sexually. When I started writing and being published, I wasn’t far from that age group, but that was many years ago. Now my body isn’t as limber as it once was, and gravity (and too many cocktail parties) has changed the silhouette of my figure. I took Judo in my late teens and I can still remember the things I used to be able to do, how easily I could escape from a hold or throw someone to the ground. I wonder, at my age, would I still be able to do those things? It was that question and a TV show called “Nikita” that led to A Killer Past . I wondered what Nikita would be like ...

So, here we are. The first of February. How did that happen? Well, I'll tell you. The last five weeks have been a bit of a personal roller-coaster. After the successful re-release of Highland Arms , I spent a wonderful Christmas Day with hubby and his lovely step-dad, Joe, who was widowed last August. It made a welcome change to the usual routine of just the two of us. Cooking for a third person was fun, and he very much enjoyed his turkey with all the trimmings. He gave it a nice thumbs up! :-) Then, near the end of the year, Joe took ill. The first time, really, in his 93 years. Over the next three weeks hubby and I visited him daily, and it was heart-breaking to watch. Sadly, the great sailor Joe passed away last week Saturday. He's now roaming the great seas in the sky. So our minds are currently all over the place. Not with work, writing, editing or designing. A break away soon will be very welcome. What's going on apart from that? Well, hubby has started G...

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome a very special friend, author Nicky Wells . She had the wonderful idea to combine a New York Christmas with a romance of a special kind: he's a rock star! An intriguing mix, don't you agree? I can't wait to read it! But now, let's hear it from Nicky... A Fairy Tale in New York… involving snow and a stranded rock star. What on earth inspired this story? I mean, the rock industry is hardly the stuff of fairy tales, or is it? This is only one of the incredulous reactions I got when I first announced I was writing a Christmas book mixing together   Christmas with my love for rock, music, and fairy tales. Those ingredients go together perfectly, as far as I’m concerned. Fairy Tale in New York is my version of the perfect Christmas story, and I really went all out on the happiness factor. Everything gets kicked off with an epic snowstorm—and I mean epic, of the ground-all-planes-and-halt-all-transport variety. You see, being ...