FALLING FOR YOU
When the weather cools down, hearts heart up . . .
Bonfires aren't the only things warming up the night. Curl up with a pumpkin spice latte and warm your heart with ten tales of autumn love.
Foreword by Brenda Novak
I've coaxed these ten talented authors into a cozy Q&A about my favorite time of year, so grab a pumpkin spice anything, curl up, and enjoy their toasty take on autumn.
Tara Taylor Quinn, author of “It Was You”
My novella is book 14 in a 15-book series, Where Secrets Are Safe! The series revolves around The Lemonade Stand, a very unique, resort-like women’s shelter I created off the coast of California. The books are mostly completely unconnected, though there are a few that have sequels. The novella stands alone!
Pumpkin patch or city park? Are you a country girl or a city slicker?
I am a CITY GIRL!!! I get claustrophobic in the country with no grocery story or mall close by! And yet…I just bought a house I love out in the dessert at the base of Arizona’s largest mountain range! It’s considered out of the city, but shopping is about two minutes away!
Home-made or eat out for holiday dinner?
Holiday meals are always homemade. I haven’t eaten out even once in my entire life on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I hope I never have to, but if I do, I’m sure I’ll find something good about doing so!
Having written over 80 novels, Readers' Choice winner Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA TODAY bestseller with over 7-million copies sold, and a past president of Romance Writers of America.
Heatherly Bell, author of “The Right Man”
“The Right Man” is part of the Harlequin Superromance Heroes of Fortune Valley series. Jimmy and Trish are two minor characters from Breaking Emily’s Rules, and Emily makes an appearance in the novella.
Is your location based on a real place?
Fortune, California is based on my own small town in the Bay Area.
Where’s your favorite or dream place to visit in the fall?
It’s on my bucket list to someday visit New England in the fall.
Heatherly Bell drinks copious amounts of coffee, craves cupcakes, and occasionally wears real pants. She lives in California.
Lisa Dyson, author of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
The location in Can’t Help Falling in Love, my novella in the Falling for You anthology, is Whittler’s Creek, Maryland. Although not a real place, it’s a combination of other small towns in western Maryland. It’s so much more fun to make up all the details!
Upside/downside to writing a novella?
The upside is that a novella is only a quarter of the length of a Superromance book. The downside is that it’s only a quarter of the length of a Superromance book, so there’s much less room for character development, secondary characters, and subplots.
Home-made or eat out for holiday dinner?
Definitely home-made holiday dinners. The only time I’ve eaten a holiday dinner in a restaurant was over thirty years ago when my husband and I took our oldest son to Disneyworld over Thanksgiving weekend. We ended up eating turkey at Denny’s. And the food was exactly as you would imagine!
Lisa Dyson has created stories ever since she got an “A” on a fifth-grade writing prompt. She grew up in eastern Pennsylvania and now lives near Washington, DC, with her husband and rescue dog. She has three grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and four adorable grandchildren. Besides writing, reading, and family time, she enjoys rooting for her favorite sports teams.
Kris Fletcher, author of “If I Fall”
Yes it is! Comeback Cove was heavily inspired by the town of Morrisburg, Ontario (Canada), home of one of my favorite places in the world, Upper Canada Village.
What’s your favorite autumnal event?
I've always been a huge fan of Halloween, and that appreciation is all the sweeter because that's when I met my husband.
Home-made or eat out for holiday dinner?
Oh please. If it's not homemade, why bother?
Kris Fletcher lives in central New York, but her heart and her stories still reside in her native Canada.
Kristina Knight, author of “Outsider in a Small Town”
Yes, it is! Outsider in a Small Town is part of my Slippery Rock series, and features Aiden (twin to Adam, hero from Breakup in a Small Town) and Julia, a newcomer to Slippery Rock. Both of them are feeling a bit outside the small town circle they're finding themselves in.
Pumpkin patch or city park? Are you a country girl or a city slicker?
Depending on my mood, all of the above...but I confess, I love visiting a local-ish farm (Ramseyer) every fall to wander through the two different corn mazes, take a hayride, and sample all the apple-offerings!
Is your location based on a real place?
Slippery Rock is very loosely based on the small lake towns where I grew up in Missouri, but it's a bit farther south in the state. I drew a little from several different towns to come up with the area - and it's been so fun to write!
Kristina Knight is a bestselling author of contemporary romance, part-time swim-kid wrangler, and a very bad housekeeper. She lives on the shores of Lake Erie with her very own Knight in shining cowboy boots, precocious 9 year old, and 2 very silly puppies.
Claire McEwen, author of “Her Hometown Cowboy”
Is your offering part of a series you’ve written?
Yes, Her Hometown Cowboy introduces the hero from Wild Horses, the first official book in my Sierra Legacy series. But it's also a story that stands very much on its own.
Is your location based on a real place?
Yes! My fictional town of Benson is based on several towns just east of the Sierra Nevada. I love Bridgeport and Bishop in California and Gardiner in Nevada, and there are little bits of all these towns in Benson.
Where’s your favorite or dream place to visit in the fall?
I'd love to visit Vermont in the fall and see all the maple trees change color! But I do love the Eastern Sierras in the fall, when aspen trees turn golden.
Claire McEwen writes heartfelt contemporary romance set mainly in her home state of California. When not writing, she can usually be found digging in her garden, or playing on the beach.
Jo McNally, author of “Meet Me in the Middle”
Yes and no. The setting, Gallant Lake, is very much part of my Lowery Women series with Harlequin Superromance. Meet Me in the Middle moves away from the Lowery cousins and begins a small town series about the people of Gallant Lake (and a familiar face makes an appearance).
Upside/downside to writing a novella?
The downside for me is I love words - lots of words. I panicked at the thought of writing an entire romance with such a limited word count. The upside? Plot structure is the same regardless of length. This story came together nicely (but still barely within the limit!).
What’s your favorite “taste” of fall?
I am proudly Team Pumpkin Spice! I had some pumpkin yogurt yesterday that was delicious.
Jo McNally lives in coastal North Carolina with 100 pounds of dog and 200 pounds of husband – her slice of the bed is very small. When she’s not writing or reading romance novels (or clinging to the edge of the bed…), she can often be found on the back porch sipping wine with friends while listening to an eclectic playlist.
Dana Nussio author of “Home to You”
Fall reminds me of going to the pumpkin patch with my parents and sister. I was notorious for always picking the biggest pumpkins that were oddly flat on one side or wouldn’t even stand up, so they would make lousy jack-o'-lanterns. Sadly, my choices were usually overruled. (Oh. So that’s what happened to me. 😊 )
Pumpkin or apple pie?
Apple, of course, especially when it’s my own recipe for Apple Amaretto Pie. Yum!
Where’s your favorite or dream place to visit in the fall?
I’m an Indiana native, so in the fall I always want to return to Brown County, Indiana, where I can get my leaf fix at Brown County State Park and then satisfy my shopping need in nearby Nashville, a little artist community with tons of cool shops. Hmm, now I want to go back.
Formerly an award-winning journalist, Dana Nussio took a sharp turn toward fiction and never looked back. She is member of the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll of Best-selling Authors.
Janet Lee Nye, author of “Finding Harmony”
Not entirely. Jericho Falls is a composite of all my favorite Western North Carolina small towns.
Favorite autumnal event?
The changing of the leaves. Hiking through a forest of red, yellow, and orange, breathing in the crisp air scented with pine. Heaven!
Where’s your favorite or dream place to visit in the fall?
Continuing with my love of Western NC, I'd say it is my favorite place to visit in the fall. A foliage tour of New England would be my dream place to visit.
Janet Lee Nye is a writer by day and a neonatal nurse by night. She lives in Charleston, SC with her fella and her felines. She spends too much time on Twitter and not enough time on housework. She has no plans to change this.
Angel Smits, author of “Perfect Fit”
Yes, this is part of my A CHAIR AT THE HAWKINS TABLE series. If it were in number order this would be 4 ½.
What’s your favorite autumnal event?
Growing up I LOVED Halloween. Now that I’m grown, it’s not nearly as much fun, but I still love it. We lived in the Denver suburbs, and dozens of us kids would dress up, run around the neighborhood in the freezing cold, ring door bells, scream trick-or-treat and laugh until our sides hurt. That was back in the day when the parents stayed home and gave out the candy. We’d run wild and free—and they knew we wouldn’t go far since it was almost always so danged cold!
What does the fall season remind you of from your childhood?
Fall is when EVERYONE in my family has a birthday, including me. I’m a twin, and my sister and I have always celebrated together. As kids we’d get the same gifts, have the same cake (though one for each of us), and I seldom got to watch her open her gifts as we opened them at the same time in order not to spoil each other’s surprise. It’s nice now that we’re grown to be able to watch each other! And now that there are 5 of us with October birthdays…it’s just one great big, cake-eating party!
Angel Smits lives in Colorado with her husband, two grown children and a hyper border collie mix. Her social work background inspires her characters, while improv writing allows her to torture them. It’s a rough job, but someone’s got to do it.
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Just as favorite seasons end, it's hard to say good-bye to a beloved longer-length line of heart-warming stories. Sadly, Harlequin is closing the doors to Superromance, but be sure to watch for these authors in other contemporary venues. FALLING FOR YOU is a parting gift to a wonderful family-friendly imprint. Take it to heart, and take it home for the holidays.
Thank you so much for hosting us, Nancy. I really appreciate your kind words regarding Superromance. I'm going to miss these stories as a writer and reader. It was lovely having the opportunity to work on this anthology with these talented authors. It's a great chance for readers to sample the works of so many wonderful writers at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great legacy to leave for the line. Nice job, ladies!!
DeleteWhat a fantastic group of Super authors! Loved reading the Q and A 's. Thanks, Nancy, for the fun blog of support for these talented writers. Success to them all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting us, Nancy! We're so thankful for your support!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Lisa!
DeleteWhat a perfect fall read! It's so fun to hear what each author has to say. Congratulations to all!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it, Loralee! And, yes, Nancy's support is invaluable. Thanks for the congrats, Elizabeth!
ReplyDeleteA great collection of authors. Best wishes to all, and especially to you, Dana.
ReplyDelete