Author of the Month: June 2011

Delilah Marvelle

"Delilah Marvelle spent her youth studying various languages, reading voraciously, and playing the pianoforte. She confesses that here ends the extent of her gentle breeding. She was a naughty child who was forever torturing her parents with countless adventures that they did not deem respectable. Confined to her room on many occasions due to these misadventures, she discovered the quill and its amazing power. Soon, to the dismay of her parents, she rather enjoyed being confined to her room and finished writing her first historical romance (which was a heart stopping 800 pages long...) at the age of 14. You can visit her at her website at www.DelilahMarvelle.com or her blog that explores the naughtier side of history at www.DelilahMarvelle.blogspot.com" from author's bio page

Find Delilah online: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

My Thoughts: Delilah is a riot! I love following her on twitter and reading her hilarious (but very factual) blog posts! She's the type of author you can just TELL you're going to enjoy. It seems like she has a literary voice that'll just mesmerize a reader. I can't wait to get to her books (blame Mt.Kill-A-Reader a.k.a my TBR pile for why she has not been read already). But in the meantime, you must tell me what's your favorite book by Delilah! Which of her Scandal series characters do you love the most?

Author of the Month: March 2011

Maya Banks
"Maya Banks lives in Texas with her husband, three children and assortment of pets. When she's not writing, she can be found hunting, fishing or playing poker."source

Bio from Author Website:

"My name is Maya Banks and I live in Texas with my husband and three children and our assortment of pets. I’m more of a cat person, but my daughter became convinced she NEEDED a dog. So convinced in fact that it became her mission to convince her father and me. She prepared a two page handwritten proposal that detailed WHY she needed a dog, and well, after I sent her to her father (I knew he wouldn’t tell her no) we embarked on the search for the perfect dog. The journey that was two hours away and that I got pulled over for speeding while I was on the phone with my agent who had an offer from a publisher for one of my books… The officer wasn’t impressed. He wrote me a ticket anyway. Thus, I now tell my daughter that her dog turned into one very expensive concession! [...]

Author of the Month: December 2010

Debbie Macomber
"With more than 130 million copies of her books in print, Debbie Macomber is one of the world’s most popular authors.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author is best known for her ability to create compelling characters and bring their stories to life in her books. Drawing on her own experiences and observations, Debbie writes heartwarming tales about small-town life, home and family, enduring friendships and women who knit. Every book features the delightful sense of humor for which readers clamor. Not bad for a woman who is dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until she was in the fifth grade.

Author Of The Month: November 2010

Christina Dodd

"Readers become writers, and Christina Dodd has always been a reader. As she was growing up, she read everything, but discovered, because she liked humor, that she liked romance best. In romance, the relationship between one man and one woman holds center stage, and that’s always good for a laugh.

A woman wants things like world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants things like a Craftsman router with attachments, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will miraculously make his bald spot disappear.

So while Christina was working as a draftsman, she would read during the lunch hour, go back to work to design a sawmill, and plot the conclusion of the story in her mind. The book never ended like that, and she liked her endings better. When her first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to quit work and write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Quite a bit, it seemed. It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before her first novel, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was published.

In the seventeen years since, her novels have been translated into twelve languages, featured by Doubleday Book Club, recorded on Books on Tape for the Blind, won Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year’s best by Library Journal. Christina Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, #13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) Christina is a regular on the USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times Bestseller Lists. Publishers Weekly praises how Christina’s writing style “showcases Dodd’s easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.”

Christina's releases for 2010 included her first new historical in four years, IN BED WITH THE DUKE. Yes, IN BED WITH THE DUKE is one of the Governess Brides as well as the much-requested story of Michael, the brother from MY FAIR TEMPTRESS! In July and September, Christina publishes CHAINS OF ICE and CHAINS OF FIRE, the highly anticipated continuation of her acclaimed paranormal series, the Chosen Ones. In 2011, another Governess Brides historical, TAKEN BY THE PRINCE, will be released for your pleasure, and more stories of the Chosen Ones will be out in the autumn.
Her legions of fans always know that when they pick up a Christina Dodd book, they’ve found a story “For the wild at heart!” Sourced from author bio page

My Thoughts: I first fell in love with Dodd's work after finishing 'My Favorite Bride'(click link for review). It was such a simple, yet deep story with many levels and I couldn't help falling in love with all the characters! Dodd is a top notch historical romance author but also writes very popular Paranormal and Romantic Suspense novels! Readers have fallen in love with her Chosen One (paranormal) and Governess Bride (historical) series, along with the 50+ books she has currently written! I am looking forward to many, many, MANY more books by Ms Dodd!

-Also, check out other posts where Christina Dodd is featured, right here on the blog: click here

And there is your Author of the Month for November 2010

*For more info on Christina Dodd, you can visit her website: (http://www.christinadodd.com)

 

Author Of The Month: October 2010

Emma Wildes

"Award-winning author Emma Wildes writes for NAL's Signet Eclipse line but she started in e-publishing where she has garnered an Eppie, a Lories Best Published, and a WisRWA Reader's Choice Award. She has been a # 1 bestselling author at Fictionwise, Capa nominee, and received several gold star awards from JERR. Recently, Publisher's Weekly said of An Indecent Proposition (Signet, April 2009) that it provides a spectacular and skillfully handled story that stands head and shoulders above the average historical.

Emma was born in Minnesota and she lives in the Midwest, though she grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She attended Illinois State University where she majored in geology, and there she met her husband, Chris. They have three children, a temperamental cat named Poot, and are lucky enough to live on a beautiful lake. On warm days, she does enjoy a glass of wine on the dock now and then, and always loves to sit at her desk, winter or summer, and tap at her keyboard."Sourced from the author's website (About Emma page)

My thoughts: Wildes is one of those authors that I can't help but follow. Her titles are fun and alluring and I am ecstatic to have some of them in my TBR pile at the moment. If you haven't given her a try, do so!

-Also, check out the Emma Wildes content I have right here on the blog: click here

And there is your Author of the Month for October 2010

*For more info on Emma Wildes, you can visit her website: (http://www.emmawildes.com)

Author Of The Month: September 2010

Sabrina Jeffries

"In the last 11 years, New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries has penned 18 Regency romances and four novellas — becoming a regular on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists and winning more than a dozen industry awards in the process.  

    

Photo by David McNeese, McNeese Fitzgerald Photography

New Orleans-born, Thailand-reared, Jeffries attributes her success to listening to what peers, her publisher and her own common sense told her she should be writing: “I write what I enjoy reading: lighter, sexier historical romances, with more dialogue and more sensuality.”  

Writing about 19th-century English life comes naturally for Jeffries.  Not only is she a lifelong Jane Austen fan, but she has a doctorate in English lit from Tulane and a specialty in Early Modern British literature.  Yet the impetus for her stories, Jeffries says, is always “what if” — not what if her hero likes this or that, but what if this happened and this happened ... what would it do to a person?

And she writes, she says, because “I can't not write . . . I have stories in my head, and I have to get them out.”

Today, the novelist has more than 4.5 million Sabrina Jeffries books in print.  She writes at her home in Cary, N.C., where she lives with husband, Rene, and their son, Nick.  When not answering e-mails as she logs miles on her treadmill or doing jigsaw puzzles (“my reward for finishing a book”), Jeffries can be found championing the cause of autistic children in the name of her son." sourced from the author's page on Jeffries' website

-I personally LOVE this author to distraction! All of her books are just butter-to-bread beauties! I think what Jeffries does with a pen (or keyboard) is what John Travolta did for Grease (huh? lol). My first read by her was 'A Dangerous Love' and I just loved it! I will be featuring Sabrina's books in review form on the blog a lot in the coming weeks, so look forward to that!

*Also, check out the Sabrina Jeffries content I have right here on the blog: click here

And there is your Author of the Month for September 2010
*For more info on Sabrina Jeffries, you can visit her website: http://www.sabrinajeffries.com/

Author of the Month: August 2010

Mary Balogh

   The Beloved Balogh, as I love to call her, is an authority (in my eyes) in the world of Regency Romance. (And I have been pronouncing her name as BAL-LOW, instead of BEL-OG) Her books are insta-classics that every reader of romance should definitely have grace their bookshelves.
--
   "Balogh was born Mary Jenkins in Swansea, Wales.She moved to Canada on a two-year teaching contract in 1967 after leaving university. There, she met and married her Canadian husband Robert Balogh and settled in the small prairie town of Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada. She taught high school English for a number of years, and rose to the level of school principal. She has three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian, and four grandchildren, Matthew, Shianne, Jayden and Cash.
    As an adult, Balogh discovered the world of the historical romance as written by Georgette Heyer. The vast majority of Balogh's novels have been set in Regency or Georgian England or Wales. Balogh began her writing career in 1983, when she wrote her first novel A Masked Deception in the evenings at the kitchen table while home and family functioned around her. A Masked Deception was accepted by Signet and published in 1985. Mary Balogh won the Romantic Times Award for best new Regency writer that year.
   She is the author of more than 60 published novels and over 30 novellas and has met with critical success. She has received numerous awards, including a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Short Stories in 1993 and has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list."Source

-For a complete list of Mary Balogh's works, there is a very helpful list on her website on the 'books' page with cover pics, blurbs and everything else you need to know: click here

-Also, check out the Mary Balogh content I have right here on the blog: click here

And there is your Author of the Month for August 2010

*For more info on Mary Balogh, you can visit her website:  www.marybalogh.com 

 

Author of the Month: July 2010

Samantha James

   At a young age, author Samantha James had a lot of ideas as to what she wanted to do when she grew up. Becoming a Best-selling, award-winning author was oddly not one of them. Samantha entertained ideas of becoming an astronaut, archaeologist, detective, nurse, history teacher and (briefly) a flight attendant (until she realized she did not like to fly). Most of her choices were inspired by series and novels she had been reading at the time (funny how life works, eh?). Trixie Belden mysteries inspired her to try detective work and the Cherry Ames series compelled her to think of nursing.
   She met her Mr.Right during a set-up semi-blind date (mouthful) at an office Christmas party. Six-months after that meeting, Mr.Right was shipped off by the U.S Army to Germany and Samantha jokes that her writing career began by the penning of her 3 times-a-week letters to him.
   Upon marring and welcoming 3 daughters into the world, Samantha left detective work to Mr.Right and settled into the blissful mom-role.
   She accredits two happenstances when her youngest daughter was six-months old with the sparking of the 'bright idea' bulb for writing in her: 1.) Her historical romance bug finally bit her in the form of Moonstruck Madness by Laurie McBain. and 2.) Her brother revealed his secret author ambitions of writing and submitting short-stories (and subsequently, getting rejected many times).
   Rejection didn't scare Samantha off, and if her brother could face it and live to tell about it, then she could too. That summer she wrote 3 books (during her kids nap time and bedtime and any other free time on hand). On the fourth book, she struck some success and her light has been shining bright ever since.Source
   She writes under two other pseudonyms: Sandra James  and Sandra Kleinschmit 
for contemporary romance ( the first pen name being published by Harlequin's Super Romance series and the second being published by Silhouette Desires and Mills & Boon Desires [one novel published by Loveswept] )

-- My First Samantha James novel was 'A Perfect Hero'. I feel in love with James' books instantly and began hounding my local librarians with patron request forms to add more of her titles to their holdings. I was just browsing the romance rack and saw a book with a quote by Lisa Kleypas on the cover and figured (I Love Kleypas, so if she says your boss', I gotta give you a try!) so glad that I did! Check out some more Samantha James content on this blog (reviews, ect): here

And there is your Author of the Month for July 2010!!

*Head on over to Samantha James' Website for more info on this stellar author!  

Author of the Month- June 2010

Julia Quinn

     With her novels translated into 13 different foreign languages and her 9-time appearance on the New York Times Bestseller List; I believe the consensus is, that Julia Quinn is a bona fide super-maven of the romance world. The Harvard alum with aspirations of becoming a doctor, entered medical school only to leave shortly after and pursue her dreams and write full-time. And what wonderful dreams they were! Every novel with her name scribed on the cover exemplifies her magnificent determination and talent; Each book by Quinn is simply marvelous. There is just no breaking down that sentiment; its fact. Readers fell in love with the Bridgertons, Blydons, Bevelstokes, Lyndons, Wyndams; and who can forget fan-favorite, Lady Whistledown! God-willing, through the years, Ms.Quinn will keep on as she's been keeping on and stick to the old adage; "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". Her humorous and emotional writing-style will surly be the text-book guide for the new generation of authors. But mark my words; Another JQ, you will never find!Source

-Notable Recognition
1997- Everything and the Moon nominated for Best Regency Historical by Romantic Times Magazine
2001 - Finalist in the Romance Writers of America(RWA)'s RITA Awards
2002 - Romancing Mister Bridgerton voted one of the top ten books of the year by RWA membership
Finalist for the RWA RITA Awards in the Long Historical category
2002 - To Sir Phillip, With Love named one of the six best mass market original novels of the year by Publishers Weekly
2003 - Quinn was profiled in Time Magazine (a rare accomplishment for a romance novelist).
2007 - Received Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Long Historical Romance, for On the Way to the Wedding
2008 - Received Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Regency Historical Romance, for The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever
2010 - What Happens in London nominated for Romance Writers of America RITA for Best Regency Historical Romance Source

And here is your Author of the Month for June 2010!!

-Make sure you head over to JQ's fabulous website, where you can find any and every thing you need to know: click here

Author of the Month- May 2010

My God Mama of Historical Romance:

Johanna Lindsey

This author is a GOD SENT! All of her works speak to me on different levels. Lindsey is responsible for giving me the introduction to GREAT HR's that have made me such a picky reader to this day. When you start of with the best, you think nothing of the rest!

   Since her first book in 1977, 'Captive Bride', Johanna Lindsey has become a raving success! The 40+ novels that have followed 'Captive Bride' have all reached the New York Times Bestseller List; many coming in at number 1.
   Lindsey has been around for a while and as the times changed, her writing evolved as well. She has weaved seamlessly in and out of many different sub-genres in the Romance world. From classic Historicals that hold her their own essences and makes them stand out in a crowd of other novels on the self, to stories of pirates and vikings that put Disney to shame, Lindsey has dabbled in a little bit of everything. There are exotic Arabian tales, medieval masterpieces, gloriously rustic Western American sagas and even some Time-Traveling and Deep Space exploration.
   Lindsey has done it all, but that doesn't mean were finished with her yet. Some of her most well known works and series are: the 'Mallory-Anderson Series', the 'Reid-Locke Series' and the 'Sherring-Cross Series'. Poised to come out in June 2010 with yet another addition to the critically acclaimed 'Mallory Series'- 'That Perfect Someone'  will undoubtedly be anticipated like a stimulus package until the day of release.
   And is it any wonder that our first 'Author of the Month' is the one that started it all for me? Someone with as impeccable a writing style and as captivating a story-telling ability such as Johanna Lindsey only comes by every so once in an often.

     So, there is your May 2010 'Author of the Month' !