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Celebrating Seasoned Romance: Liz Durano
Today’s featured author of seasoned romance is Liz Durano–although Liz majored in Journalism in college, she discovered that she preferred writing fictional stories and poetry over news and ad copy. She currently lives in Los Angeles and when she’s not listening to her Muses, she’s drinking coffee and stepping over her son’s Legos all over the place. But I’m going to let her tell you a little bit more about herself… LIZ: I’ve been writing since I was about eleven or twelve, back when I played with paper dolls and then later when I fell in love with anime cartoons and wrote and drew their stories. By eighth grade, I…
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Celebrating Seasoned Romance–Why?
This month, I’m featuring authors who write seasoned romance–stories with characters who are over 40 and finding a second or even a third or fourth chance at love. Way back in February 2012, as I was writing the first Women of Willow Bay novels, I wrote this blog and it feels just a relevant today as it did then. Let me know what you think. I’m bugged. It seems that romance novels are the bailiwick of characters who are younger than 40. If 40 is the new 30 and 50 is the new 40, then how come romance after 50 isn’t sexy anymore? Well, folks, I’ve got big news–sexy is…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Mary Gardner
It’s the last day of my January celebration of Indiana Romance Authors, so it seems appropriate to end the month with an budding author–Mary Gardner. Mary is as yet unpublished, but she’s doing all the right things to move her career in that direction. Mary wears many hats as a Christian, mother, grandmother, writer, reader, and manager of her homeowner’s association. She writes romance and romantic women’s fiction with small town settings. Although she is not yet published, she has been a finalist in several contests and won her category in a few. She was a 2007 RWA Golden Hearts finalist and the 2nd runner up in the 2008 –…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Jeana Mann
Today I’m featuring award-winning Indiana Romance Author Jeana Mann. Doesn’t that fabulous smile just make you want to invite her out for a night of wine, food, and fun? Jeana was born and raised in Indiana where she lives today with her two crazy rat terriers Mildred and Mabel. She graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Speech and Hearing, something totally unrelated to writing. When she’s not busy dreaming up steamy romance novels, she loves to travel anywhere and everywhere. Over the years she climbed the ruins of Chichen Iza in Mexico, snorkeled along the shores of Hawaii, sailed around Jamaica, ate gelato on the steps of the…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Sandy James
Today I welcome romance author Sandy James, who is not only the first person I met when I joined the Indiana chapter of RWA, but she is also one of my critique partners. I’ve learned so much from Sandy about writing and about writing romance in particular. Sandy lives in a quiet suburb of Indianapolis, where she teaches psychology. She owns a small stable of harness racehorses and enjoys spending time at Hoosier Park racetrack. Published through Forever Yours, Carina Press, and indie-published, she has been an Amazon #1 Bestseller multiple times and has won numerous awards including two HOLT Medallions. Sandy is represented by Danielle Egan-Miller of Browne &…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Donya Lynne
Are you all having as much fun as I am celebrating Indiana Romance Authors this month? I hope you’ve found some new books to read and some new authors to follow. Today, I’m featuring another of my IRWA chapter sisters, Donya Lynne. Donya is the bestselling author of the award-winning All the King’s Men and Strong Karma Series and a member of Romance Writers of America. Making her home in a wooded suburb north of Indianapolis with her husband, Donya has lived in Indiana most of her life and knew at a young age she was destined to be a writer. She started writing poetry in grade school and won…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Kyra Jacobs
Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors continues with Kyra Jacobs. Kyra is an extroverted introvert who writes of love, humor, and mystery in the Midwest and beyond. Her romance novels range from sweet contemporaries to urban suspense, and paranormal/fantasy to YA. No matter the setting, Kyra employs both humor and chaos to help her characters find inspiration and/or redemption on their way to happily ever after. When the Hoosier native isn’t pounding out scenes for her next book, she’s likely outside, elbow-deep in snapdragons or spending quality time with her sports-loving family. Kyra also loves to read, tries to golf, and is an avid college football fan.Be sure to stop by her IndianaWonderer…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Jillian Jacobs
One of the best parts of joining Romance Writers of America was meeting so many genuinely nice people. One of my very favorites is Jillian Jacobs. Jill is not only a great writer, but she has given tirelessly to our Indiana chapter of RWA. I had the pleasure of working with her on our mini-conference a couple of years ago and I was so impressed with her energy and how easily she just got everything right. I’m excited to introduce her to you now. In the spring of 2013, Jill changed her solitary path and became a romance Writer. She’s been reading for years, so she figured writing a romance…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: A.D. Ellis
I’m continuing my January salute to Indiana Romance Authors today with author A.D. Ellis, who is an Indiana RWA chapter sister. I haven’t had much of a chance to get to know A.D. very well yet, so I’m pleased as anything to have her here with me today. I asked her to talk about writing M/M contemporary romance because it’s a topic I know nothing about and I confess I’ve always been curious about how women write gay male/male stories. A.D. is an award-winning independent author. She is also a wife, a mother of two, and an inner city alternative education teacher. So without further ado, I’m turning the blog…
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Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Lisa Caviness
Wow, this whole Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors has already been such a charge for me! Today, I’m excited to welcome Lisa Caviness, a charming writer, whom I got to know a little better when we both spent a few days on retreat with some other writers at Turkey Run State Park a couple of years ago. As a lifelong reader of an eclectic pool of books from mystery/thrillers, science fiction, contemporary romance, and the classics, Lisa has never been without a book on her nightstand. Like many writers, she started crafting stories as a child. She and her sister shared a room as kids and many nights before they fell…