September 30 , 2008

Dear friends,

I am thrilled to announce the release of the anthology It Happened One Night, which officially goes on sale TODAY! My novella in the anthology is called "From This Moment On" (borrowing yet another Cole Porter song title) and features the last of the Merry Widows -- Wilhemina, the dowager Duchess of Hertford -- as the heroine. After a life filled with scandal, she finally has a chance to re-connect with her very first love, but will he be able to overlook her notorious career as a courtesan, and will she ever be able to forgive herself for breaking his heart? I hope you all will have a chance to read the novella and see if Wilhelmina finds her own happy ending. Order your copy now.

Besides including the last of the Merry Widows stories, this anthology is special to me because of its unique premise. Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D'Alessandro and I each wrote a novella using the same basic plot as an experiment to demonstrate that no two, or four, authors will ever write the exact same, or even similar, stories. The story line is this: a man and a woman who know each other but have not seen each other in ten years find themselves stranded at the same inn for a night (hence the title). The stories each take place within a 24-hour time span. The only artificial difference we imposed was to have each author set her story in a different season, ie four authors, four seasons. (My story is set in the fall.) To keep the experiment pure, we did not read one another's novellas until they were ready for publication. You'll have to judge for yourself if the experiment worked. I think it did!

In other news, I have moved! After 30 years in San Francisco, I have relocated to Minneapolis. I am still surrounded by unpacked boxes of books, but am otherwise settling in nicely. So far, I like it here, but I am girding my loins for my first Minnesota winter! Wish me luck!

Thanks again for your continuing support, and I hope you'll enjoy the anthology It Happened One Night.