Welcome Sharon Noble! Comment for a Chance to Win Velvet & Topaz

Thanks, Alison, for allowing me to ramble about my books, my life, and my small pleasures. I’m a new author with only three published romances, but I’ve been a voracious reader of romance novels since the days before they existed. As a prepubescent, I read Edison Marshall and Frank Yerby back in the old days and fell in love with the romance genre, even though, strictly speaking, these gentlemen wrote romance/adventure novels.

I never thought about writing. I thought that, in order to write, you had to be a writer. I know, garbled thinking, right? So I moved to Canada with my Canadian husband and became an actor. Flushed with success and making a living as an actor, I continued for another bunch of years, finally moving back to the U.S. and settling in L.A. Unfortunately, enough years had passed so that I’m now an o-l-d actor, and we know what happens to female actors as they get older. Except for Meryl Streep, of course.

Then I discovered Kathleen Woodiwiss, and I was in romance heaven. After reading and absorbing for another bunch of years, I broke the ice with Autumn Desire, a contemporary romance published by The Wild Rose Press. My mother went back to college at age 50 and had a great four-year adventure, so I thought that might be a stepping off point for a romance novel.

I wish I had the discipline and skill to plan my books and write an outline, but I’m a complete failure. I guess I’m either lazy or just inept, but I wait until I hear the first line in my head, then I just follow where that leads. The result is that it takes forever to get started. I think that’s called seat-of-the-pants writing, and I don’t recommend it as a writing technique. I frequently find I’ve written myself into a corner with nowhere to go. That’s the point at which I invite my son out to brunch and ask for help. He’s cleverer than I am, and he usually offers at least three solutions to my problem.

My Autumn Desire heroine, after being widowed suddenly, decided to go back to college at the university where her husband had been a respected chemistry professor. There she met his detested rival, and (of course) sparks flew – hers in anger, his in attraction. You know where this went, of course.

Passion’s Design took my heroine to South America where she was to design an elaborate wedding for two aristocratic families, but (silly girl) she fell in love with the groom – who just happened to hold all things American in contempt. You know where this went.

Velvet and Topaz was the result of a trip to England to indulge my love of all things Tudor, so my heroine followed in my footsteps, but she actually indulged in carnal relations (yep!) with one of the courtiers who reenact the history of the castles. Bad move. But you know where this went.

Velvet and Topaz is the giveaway today. It’s an ebook, so no fuss, no bother to send it along to one of you.

So while I wait for that first elusive first line, what do I do? I read romance novels, of course.
Thanks, Sharon!
Next week: Kathy Lane