Romance | Morgan in Romancelandia

I can’t wait for JAL’s new masterpiece!

What a fun and sexy romp this will be!

Will my new Halloween historical be able to stack up?

Dear Reader,

I don’t know if you know this, but October is my favourite month. The air has turned fresh and crisp, and smells of smoke and dying wood. The leaves crunch under my wellies when I take my dog for long walks around Silvermere Lake and along the Stave River on which I live. I start wearing the sweaters I knitted over the summer, and instead of donning just a thin t-shirt and a summer skirt, my clothing piles up in layers on top of me, so that I look like a young Mrs. Weasley—or a tea cozy, as the case may be. My husband and I make up our bed with the heavier blankets, a cozy nest of organic bamboo, wool, and down comforters. My mum’s birthday is in October, as is Canadian Thanksgiving—both of which will be celebrated next weekend. I will make so much food, we won’t be able to fit inside the house! Especially not after we eat it.

And, of course, the best part of October is that the countdown to Halloween officially begins. I start to imagine my outdoor decorations, take stock of what candy we have left over from last year, and buy much more Emergency Back-Up Candy than I really need— hence the leftovers every year. I make Halloween greeting cards for my friends and start collecting pumpkin recipes for using up the future Jack O’ Lanterns after they start to sag, but are still yummy enough to eat! Does anyone else eat their Jack O’ Lanterns? It strikes me as a particularly pagan ritual akin to burning a Wicker Man—which entirely appeals to my bloodthirsty All Hallows sensibilities X^D

This year, there is even more reason to celebrate my favourite season, an event that has never before made Halloween even more fantastic than it already is! The day before the fateful night, on October 30^th, my very first romance novel comes out with Avon/HarperCollins. This time last year, I had no idea that in nine short months I would sell my first historical romance to Avon, and make one of my dreams come true. I had no idea that the book would come out so fast that my head would still be spinning and my heart palpitating as the countdown began! It’s been such a whirlwind, not unlike a romance, and with what I hope will be equally life-changing results. Once you become a romance author, Dear Reader, you never want to go back.

I am extremely excited about October 30^th, and not only because my own book comes out. I’m thrilled to report that Midnight In Your Arms and I, its humble author, will be in very grand company indeed! For that very same day, Julie Anne Long’s new book A Notorious Countess Confesses and Eloisa James’ new novella Seduced By A Pirate both come out as well. There is a wonderful reassurance there, as if my shy debutant of a novel is taking courage and strength from more experienced and renowned compatriots. I am humbled to be in such illustrious company, and can only hope to live up to Ms. Long’s and Ms. James’ shining examples of what can happen when aspirations become reality. I feel like they will be my good luck charms. I can only hope to live up, even in part, to their achievements! Congratulations to them both, and to Avon, on their upcoming releases.

As for you, Dearest of Readers, please check back with me on any social media platform you like best this month, as I have some fun little giveaways planned, to thank you in advance for being so kind to me and my little book to be. I hope you will enjoy your beautiful, crisp October as much as I plan to do. If you take any pictures of your decorations, please leave me a link so that I can oooooh and ahhhhhh over your creations! I need all the inspiration I can get, and it can’t all come from Martha Stewart, now, can it?

Happy Halloween To Come!

Love,

Morgan.

Dear Reader,

It happened. It finally happened. I recently sold my first romance novella to Avon Impulse. It’s called Midnight In Your Arms, and will be coming out in time to chill your bones for Halloween 2012!

When I say that it’s my first romance novella, it really is true—I’ve never written a romance novella before. I’ve written two and a half romance novels, however. But that’s another story. Before Avon Impulse started putting out stand-alone novellas, and Harlequin did the same with their Briefs and Bites series, I wouldn’t have known what to do with a romance novella had I written one. For some reason, even though there are now places for them to go, I still didn’t write one until just under three weeks ago. Let me tell you, I’m sure glad I did! It’s been like an instant gratification party around here ever since. I wrote the story over the space of about 30 hours on May 29^th-30^th. I sent it in on May 30^th about an hour before midnight, using the electronic submission process Avon has now—and a week later, I woke up to an email from Chelsey Emmelhainz at Harper Collins asking me to please call her because she loves my novella and wants to make an offer on it! Her exact words? “I loved it and would like to make an offer on it!” A dozen little words that were music to my ears! Or rather, beautiful paintings for my eyes, since I was reading them :^}

As soon as I swallowed my heart several dozen times, I did just that—and we had a lovely conversation, in which we discussed releasing the novella as a stand-alone book, when I had thought it would be part of a collection, because I had written it in response to a call for submissions for a themed anthology. But Avon liked it enough to release it on its own! So it was even more exciting than I thought—because now I get my own cover, with my own name on it, and all of that lovely, self-important stuff that writers dream about.

I called my husband right away, and told him, and he was so excited! It’s wonderful to have support at home, and I’m really lucky. When he got home from work that night, he brought take-out from our favourite restaurant that is now very far away ever since we moved out of the city, so it was a special treat indeed. I love having someone to share all the special moments with—and isn’t that what writing romance is all about? Bringing two people together who weren’t quite complete living apart. Giving them each someone to love them and support them, cherishing their dreams as if they are their own. That’s what I want to do with each pair of lovers in every book I write. That’s what I want to do with Midnight In Your Arms, which, no matter what happens in my career, will always be my First—and as we all know, your First matters!

And now I will go, because I am elbows deep in edits, trying to make a stable time loop make sense.

You’ll understand when you read it.

Love, Morgan.