I wish all the authors the best of luck and to all you romance readers out there, happy reading and thanks for being with us for all of these years!

Ellen

And now from Borders Romance Expert Kristin Smith:
I started with Borders nine days after graduating from college in 2002 at store #0052 in Westbury, NY. I became a merchandising supervisor and a Romance Expert in one fell swoop in 2005 when I transferred to #0270 in Syosset, NY. In 2008, I stepped down from the supervisor position when I found another full-time job at a local university, but I stayed as a part-timer and as a Romance Expert. I’d close at the store on Monday nights so I could help prep the merch for Tuesday and would show up at my other job the next morning, half-asleep with aching feet. I always had a pile of books on my desk waiting to be reviewed for our romance buyer (first Sue Grimshaw, now Ellen Clark), and ARCs to be read during my lunch hour. Despite my part-time status, Borders continued to be a full-time focus in my life.

The decision has now been taken out of my hands and my tenure at Border is coming to a close. After almost ten years as a bookseller with this company, there are countless people I have come into contact with and I asked Ellen for the opportunity to say thank you.

Thank you to Sue for starting the Romance Expert program and allowing me to develop as a reader & seller. Many thanks also to Ellen for keeping the program going despite those turbulent times.

Thank you to all the authors, publicists, and publishers who added me to their mailing lists and made sure I had all the bookmarks I could handle. Special thanks to Nalini Singh, Cathy Clamp, Cindy Hwang, and Thea Harrison for making me feel like a valuable asset rather than the minor cog I was.

Thank you to everyone who has expressed support and condolences these last few weeks. Deb Marlowe sent me a lovely handwritten note, SourceBooks started the #ThankUBorders Twitter hashtag, and Colleen Lindsay from Penguin has co-created a blog to help Borders employees find future employment. My gratitude and appreciation cannot be fully expressed.

Thank you to Stacey Becker for hiring me in the first place, the ‘classic’ team at Westbury for showing me the kind of bookseller I wanted to be, and the team at Syosset for helping me grow into the future I wanted. Thank you to all the people at the home office who tried their best to get us what we needed: the computers running, the air conditioners humming, and the displays fully stocked.

Finally, thanks to all of you. Thank you for buying books with us over the years, for coming back, and for seeing the end through with us. Thank you for saying ‘thank you,’ for smiling, and for being excited when I handed you the item you wanted. Thank you.

Setting: New Orleans
Subgenre: Dark Paranormal
Hero: Max Savoie
Heroine: Charlotte Caissie

One sentence summary: Police detective Charlotte Caissie and shape-shifter Max Savoie thought they’d overcome all odds and differences to be together. . . now, it’s the past that threatens to tear them apart as Cee Cee calls on Max’s preternatural talents to find the serial killer who’s kidnapped a colleague’s daughter.

Scene you like most and would never cut: It was cut. Sigh.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Wearing a polka-dotted Doris Day dress while making kitchen small talk with her partner’s sweet Stepford wife. Funny the things you’ll do out of love . . . and guilt. “Ken and Barbie off to visit the family.”

Tell us one quirky thing about your hero? Heroine? Max accessorizes his Armani business suits with red high top sneakers. The way to Cee Cee’s heart is through a big block V-8.

What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: Cee Cee’s an NOPD detective, so what’s she doing on stage at a strip club with the moniker Chili Pepper?

What is your hero’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Max is the prophesied leader of the New Orleans Shifter clan and a reformed mobster. So why is he letting his secret slip to outsiders and making deals to traffic human cargo?

What do you think readers will like best about this book: From page one to page end, it never lets you go. The pace is fast, the action furious, the suspense taut, the dialogue crisp and sometimes laugh-out-loud, and the romance hot, hot, HOT. And then there’s Max. Who could ask for a fiercer, sexier, more complicated, loyal and yet vulnerable hero?

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Jacques LaRoche, the muscle-bound Shifter owner/bartender at Cheveau du Chien who dispenses justice with a Louisville Slugger, has Max’s back and a soft spot for his friend’s human mate.

What’s next: Even though BOUND BY MOONIGHT wraps up Max and Cee Cee’s romance arc, the series continues with new heroes and heroines within the By Moonlight world. HUNTER OF SHADOWS will be available November 29, 2011 featuring a Shifter cop with a hidden agenda and a programmed assassin who complicates it on both professional and intimate levels, then Book 6 comes out in July of 2012, with Jacques LaRoche, because you asked for him.

The first four books in my By Moonlight series featured the same hero and heroine, which is common in urban fantasy but rare in paranormal romance. The next two By Moonlight books have a different hero and heroine in each book. As a reader, do like a relationship that carries over from book to book or do you prefer your happily-ever-after on the last page of each one?

About Me:
1. What’s your favorite movie of all time? L.A. Confidential. Fabulous acting, smart dialogue, fascinating twists and turns. And Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey.
2. What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in? Any Dean Koontz book.
3. What’s the first book you remember reading? My mom used to read to me every night. Rutabaga Stories was my number one request, but for doing my own reading, Dr. Seuss was my go-to guy.
4. What’s your favorite fairy tale? Cinderella. After I saw my name in print when my fractured fairy tale version of it was published in my elementary school newspaper, I knew all I wanted to be was a writer.
5. What’s your favorite cartoon character? Yosemite Sam is my hero and Pepe LePew eez my lovair.
6. What’s something you’d like to tell your readers? Authors really like it when you come up to them at conferences or book signings or even in the checkout lane to talk to them, especially if you love to read, write or want to gush about their characters. Don’t be shy. It’s a privilege and a perk, not a bother to us. And we like to have our pictures taken with you, too.
7. What would your occupation be if you were no longer a writer? I still have my full time job as a 9-to-5 legal assistant to fall back on.
8. What do you do to unwind and relax? Netflix and a warm cat when there isn’t a sandy beach available. It’s more fun than exercising or cleaning house, which is what I do to get my creative muse kicked into gear.
9. Tea or Coffee? And how do you take it? Strong, flavored coffee, black, in my Keurig every morning…best Christmas present EVER!
10. What does love mean to you? Never having to say “Put the seat down” or “Hang up that towel.” Actually, it’s my grandson running down my apartment complex’s hallway yelling, “Grammy!” at the top of his lungs. That sums it up.
11. Which era would you least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? Most? Would hate all the restrictions of the Victorian era. I don’t even like underwire. I’m a 1940’s gal. All that big shouldered glam and hats!
12. What name have you been dying to use as a lead character, but haven’t found the right fit yet? Price, so I can say, “The price is wrong, beeotch.”
13. Dog person or cat person? Fur, feather and fin person. Love ‘em all, have had them all…and still feed most of them on my 4th floor balcony.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Take care of it yourself.

What is your heroines occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: Emergency Room Nurse and it is EXACTLY what she should be doing

What is your heroes occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Cop and it is EXACTLY what he should be doing

What you think readers will like best about this book: VANISHED IN THE NIGHT is the most psychologically intense book I’ve written to date. I became so engrossed in the characters’ thought processes, particularly the villains’ thought processes, that I ended up creeping myself out.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Elise from HOLD BACK THE DARK. She makes a cameo in VANISHED IN THE NIGHT, also. Everyone (including me) loves her. She’s funny and sassy and smart.

What’s next: I’m very excited about my next project, VEILED INTENTIONS. It’s a much more political and issue oriented book than VANISHED IN THE NIGHT or HOLD BACK THE DARK, but I think it is just as psychologically tense and suspenseful.

One of the characters in VANISHED IN THE NIGHT sees himself as an avenging angel. Have you ever taken revenge against someone? Wanted to and not done it?

About Me:

What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in? I adore stories that revolve around lost letters or diaries. I don’t know what it is about them, but they grab me every time.

What’s the first book you remember reading? It had to be one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I loved the Little House books. My mother used to read to me every night and I know there was a gradual transition from her reading to me, to us taking turns reading to me reading on my own, but I can’t say exactly where that happened. Those books were nightly favorites. We both loved them and still refer to them a lot. In fact, just recently, my sister called and asked me for an urgent favor which I immediately did. My mother asked me why my sister needed the favor and I told her that I was being like Laura and Mary when Ma told them to get out of the barn. They didn’t ask questions and because of that, the bear didn’t eat them. My mother totally understood!

What’s your favorite fairy tale? We had a beautiful illustrated book of fairy tales and I remember being really taken with the tale of Bright, Deardeer and Kit. Looking back, it was terribly grisly, but I adored it. There’s a lot of sacrifice and redemption in it.

What’s your favorite cartoon character? I’m not sure about my favorite, but I can tell you my least favorite. I can’t stand Tigger. I think he’s a total narcissist.

What would your occupation be if you were no longer a writer? I’d love to be a psychologist. I’m fascinated by why people do what they do and what they’re thinking when they do it.

What do you do to unwind and relax? I love to crochet although lately I’ve discovered locker hooking. I pretty much always have a project going. It’s a little repetitive and a little mindless and it really calms me down.

Tea or Coffee? And how do you take it? COFFEE!!!!!!! How do I take it? I’d prefer by IV . . . Seirously, I’m not consistent about my coffee. We have an espresso machine and I make lattes several mornings a week, but I also like regular coffee with a big ole slug of Coffeemate French Vanilla in it. During the summer months, I sometimes make a coffee smoothie with coffee, ice, milk and dash of chocolate syrup.

Which era would you least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? Most? I do not have a figure suited to the twenties. I’m a very curvy girl. I think the forties might have worked well for me, though.

Dog person or cat person? Cats. We have two plus one that’s just spending the summer with us.

BORN TO DIE

When my editor at Kensington Publishing came up with the idea for a new series, I thought he was nuts. His idea was a series about a team of two female cops. I immediately thought of Cagney And Lacey of 1980’s television fame.

Really?

That’s where we were going?

Now you have to understand that John Scognamiglio and I work closely together. We take turns coming up with and sometimes discarding new ideas. Most of my ideas come from something I’ve seen or read about or heard, a germ of a story that I develop into a novel. Honestly I don’t know where John gets his ideas.

So when John suggested the two female cop thing, I wasn’t completely on board. Then out of the blue, his germ of an idea blossomed. In my mind’s eye I saw the first cop–a struggling, twice-married single mother of teenagers, and not necessarily A students at that. No, those kids didn’t appreciate her. She had red hair to match her temperament. I’d name her Regan–-yeah, Regan Pescoli, once married to Luke “Lucky” Pescoli. Yeah! She’d have a daughter and a son by different fathers, neither of which were supportive. Hot-tempered, willing to bend the rules every which way, Regan would be teamed with a emotionally distant, never-been-married woman who was smart as a whip and played everything by the rules. Selena Alvarez began to form in my mind and she came to me with a dark, deeply-imbedded secret.

And they weren’t city cops. Oh. No. These women were detectives with a county sheriff’s department. Far away from New Orleans where my Bentz/Montoya series is set, I came up with the town of Grizzly Falls, Montana set right in the heart of the Bitterroot Mountains.

I’d deal with craggy mountains and a small town perched on an icy river rather than the sultry, big-city feel of New Orleans.
I saw the town and peppered it with the characters that came into my mind. A sexy, guilt-riddled sheriff, a loner who is convinced he was once abducted by aliens and a women who talks to ghosts are a few of the citizens.

Recently I wrote BORN TO DIE, the third book and it’s available in August 2011. Detectives Pescoli and Alvarez are on the scene again and this time they discover the victims have an eerie resemblance to each other. No one is more aware of this disturbing fact than Dr. Kacey Lambert, who, herself, bears an uncanny likeness to the victims.

From a B level actress in Hollywood, to a teacher in the local elementary school, the victims are near mirror-images to Kacey. It only makes matters worse when she learns that the sexy rancher she’s confided in has been involved with several of the dead women.

And it scares her to death.

All in good old Grizzly Falls, Montana around Christmas time! Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-Ti-Dah!

Question: What really has had you so frightened you could feel your heart skip a beat?

Setting: Mirabelle Island, Lake Superior off Wisconsin’s north shore
Subgenre: Romantic suspense
Hero: Jonas Abel
Heroine: Missy Charms

One sentence summary: What would you do if the love of your life, your husband, a man who’s supposed to be dead and gone, shows up on your doorstep, bleeding from a gunshot wound?

Scene you like most and would never cut: Jonas and Missy have always had a very hot, physical relationship. Even when their marriage was falling apart, it was the one thing that always worked. So when Jonas, in anger, goes to Missy’s bedroom one night and sees her naked silhouette, bam! It’s not a nice, happy, successful love scene, but it’s so critical to the story.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Missy would never eat meat. She’s a vegetarian.

Tell us one quirky thing about your hero? Jonas’s mother died when he was six and so he traveled the world with his military father. As a result, Jonas can speak German, Spanish and several Arabic dialects.

What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: She owns a small gift shop that specializes in earth friendly gifts on Mirabelle, a small tourist island, the wedding destination of the Upper Midwest. She also makes a lot of the jewelry she sells in her shop.

What is your hero’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Jonas is an FBI agent who’s been deep undercover for several years. He takes his job a little too seriously, which is a part of his journey in this book.

What you think readers will like best about this book: I think they’ll like the entire book, but if the ending doesn’t make readers both cry and laugh, then I haven’t done my job!

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: I’ve received a couple of reader letters asking when I’m going to write about Garrett Taylor’s three brothers. He’s the Mirabelle Island chief of police and the hero in my 2nd Mirabelle story, Next Comes Love. I’ve written about his youngest brother in The Pursuit of Jesse, just out this July. But Christian and Drew are still percolating.

What’s next:
The Pursuit of Jesse, Her Sure Thing, and Redemption at Mirabelle, the 5th, 6th and 7th Mirabelle stand alone books, come out back to back this July, August and September. I’m currently working on a Navy SEALS novella with a large group of authors, to be part of SEAL of My Dreams, due to be released on 11/11/11. And I’ve got a proposal in with Harlequin for 2 more Mirabelle stories, so I’ll be keeping busy!

About Me:
What’s my favorite movie of all time? Romancing the Stone and The Princess Bride generally run neck and neck for first place, but Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightly version) and Phantom of the Opera run close seconds.

What’s my favorite kind of story to get lost in? Since I would never dream of writing a historical romance, they’re the easiest stories for me to sink into.

What’s the first book I remember reading? Oh, that’s a tough one. Probably a Nancy Drew mystery. Although it wasn’t long after that I graduated to Harlequins!

What’s my favorite fairy tale? I’ve always loved the story of The Ugly Duckling. I had three sisters who were 8, 10 and 12 years older than me, so I think I identified with that baby swan!

What’s my favorite cartoon character? Oh, oh. Haven’t watched cartoons since my kids were little and I’m not sure South Park qualifies. I really liked watching the Rugrats with my kids when they were little and Angelica Pickles was probably my favorite character. From when I was a kid, though, and I’m dating myself here, I drooled over Johnny Quest!

What’s something I’d like to tell your readers? I love you guys. I wouldn’t be able to do this without every single one of you!

What would my occupation be if I were no longer a writer? I have an undergrad degree in accounting, so I’d very likely jump back into business.

What do I do to unwind and relax? Watch moves, walk the dogs, read, garden.

Tea or Coffee? And how do I take it? I love coffee with cream, but all that caffeine isn’t good for me. I drink tea. Black is my favorite, but I like green, too.

What does love mean to me? Love, to me, means accepting a person in his/her entirety. We all have flaws, but they’re part of what makes us, us.

Which era would I least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? Most? I’m not crazy about wearing dresses, so I’d dislike just about any pre-1960 era from a fashion standpoint. I’m actually pretty happy with today’s fashions. So eclectic just about anything goes!

What name have I been dying to use as a lead character, but haven’t found the right fit yet? Oh, I love this question! Names are so important to me. For a long time I wanted to use the name Jamis, but the perfect hero, a horror writer, showed up for that one in THEN COMES BABY. Now I’d love to find a character to match the name Dixon. Haven’t quite figured out who he is yet.

Dog person or cat person? Both. I have two dogs and two cats. There are times when only my dogs’ devotion will do. And other times when a cat’s purr in my ear is just the ticket!

Question –
As I mentioned earlier, I have proposals in for books 8 and 9 in my Mirabelle Island series, that will hopefully come out in 2012, so I’m very curious about this. Do you ever get tired of reading a series written by the same author? What makes you stop reading a series?

Setting: London
Subgenre: Regency Historical
Hero: Xander Jones, illegitimate son of a courtesan and a lord
Heroine: Cleopatra Spencer, impoverished daughter of a baron

One sentence summary: A self-sufficient loner, so cold he might be stone, marries for money and finds a woman passionate enough to tempt a saint.

Scene you like most and would never cut: Cleo overhearing Xander make a bad marriage proposal to another woman in a bank. It all starts with that.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: She might be caught dead at it, but she’d never back down.

Tell us one quirky thing about your hero? He hates closets.

What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: Cleo Spencer’s occupation is making ends meet for herself and her younger brother after their father dies and their uncle gets hold of their money. She should be a bank president.

What is your hero’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Xander Jones is an early entrepreneur in Regency London. He’s an investor with a vision of lighting the darkest streets of London.

What you think readers will like best about this book: The push and pull between two characters who are sure they can’t fall in love with each other.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Kit Jones, a character who appears at the end of To Tempt a Saint. The good news is that his story has been written as To Seduce an Angel and comes out this September.

What’s next: I’m working on the first book in a series about an exclusive club for young lords who have ruined their reputations and their fortunes and get a chance for redemption by spying.

About Me:
What’s my favorite movie of all time? I love movies, so this is a hard one. Monsoon Wedding and The Empire Strikes Back are two of my favorites. In both love is tested, and beautiful men are called by women to become heroes.

What’s my favorite kind of story to get lost in? I’m a sucker for stories about the outsider who reluctantly finds love and connection. See Monsoon Wedding.

What’s the first book I remember reading? Early books for me were Coarse Gold Gulch and A Little Maid of Boston. I was hooked on girls having adventures in far away times and places.

What’s my favorite fairy tale? “Petronella,” from “The Practical Princess and other Liberated Fairy Tales,” by Jay Williams. Petronella sets out to rescue a prince and wins a powerful enchanter instead.

What’s my favorite cartoon character? Wall-E

What’s something I’d like to tell your readers? Thank you. Romance readers are the best.

What would my occupation be if I were no longer a writer? I’ve never stopped teaching high school English, but I could be tempted to run a stationer’s store, maybe at Lake Tahoe.

What do I do to unwind and relax? I let my husband and my children make me food and make me laugh.

Tea or Coffee? And how do I take it? Coffee, a Peet’s low-fat latte in my own cup to start the day.

What does love mean to me? Love is the unfinished business of our lives—becoming who we are meant to be by giving and receiving love.

Which era would I least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? Most? The Victorian Era would be my worst nightmare. Everyday would be a bad hair day, and I’d be lost in the layers and giant sleeves, and extra frills. The Roaring Twenties would suit me best, with bobbed hair and skirts that flirt with a girl’s knees.

What name have I been dying to use as a lead character, but haven’t found the right fit yet? I think I just found it—Violet Hammersley!

Dog person or cat person? A wild bird person. Dozens of birds come to our feeder every day.

Question – What movie scene is your never-fail three-hanky scene?

Setting: Whedon, PA
Subgenre: Contemporary Romance
Hero: Liam Franklin
Heroine: Anna Chapel

One sentence summary: “A Special Kind of Different.”

A Special Kind of Different—that was my working title for A One-of-a-Kind Family. The book was certainly a different kind of romance for me. The story is Anna and Liam’s romance, but neither the story, nor their romance would have worked without Liam’s special needs brother, Colm, who became a major character in the story.

I love working with secondary characters, and many of my older ones have their own following…they get their own letters from readers. Pearly Gates and Nana Vancy are two reader favorites, but Colm’s catching up. He’s truly all heart…and his heart and courage are what brings my hero and heroine together, and ultimately keeps them together.

What’s next?
A One-of-a-Kind Family is the second book in my Whedon, PA series for SuperRomance. The first book, Unexpected Gifts, was a Readers’ Crown finalist last year, the third book was last year’s Homecoming Day. The final book, A Father’s Name, is my next release this September. I love working on a series of stories that allows me to bring past characters back so readers can catch up on what’s going on with them. The heroine of A Father’s Name, Tucker, has appeared in all the books in the series and a number of readers had asked for her story. I’m thrilled to be able to bring it to them!

About Me:

What’s my favorite fairy tale? When I was little, we walked to school and went home for lunch. On rainy days, I walked across the street from the school and had lunch with Annabelle (I named a character after her in my Everything But…series). Annabelle was one of my grandmother’s best friends, and after we ate, she’d let me pick two books to read before going back to school. I always, always chose Snow White and Rose Red as one of them. I think what appealed to me most about the story was that Snow White and Rose Red were sisters. I have brothers. Lots and lots of brothers. I always dreamed of having a sister. I think that longing is why I write a little of a fictional sister into each of my heroines.

What’s my favorite cartoon character? One of my early Duets was How to Catch a Groom. The hero, a scientist, named his cat Schrodinger which gave me untold glee! Now, for you non-science geeks, Schrodinger was a physicist who had a theory known as Schrodinger’s Cat. I thought that the fact my hero named his cat Schrodinger showed he had a geeky sense of humor! I was beyond thrilled when the book was turned into Manga in Japan. I had to order a copy because they didn’t send me one. It involved going to the Japanese Amazon site, translating it, and paying a huge shipping fee, but more than forty dollars later, I finally got a copy and the first thing I looked for was Schrodinger…and he was there!

So, my long answer to a short question–my favorite cartoon character is and was Schrodinger!

What would my occupation be if I were no longer a writer? A year ago, I started basketweaving. Like writing, it’s a very creative process. If a weaver gets good enough, a basket can be art. I’m a novice, so my baskets are sort of the fingerpainting of basket-art. But if I ever gave up writing, I’d seriously consider making baskets fulltime.

Tea or Coffee? My Facebook and Twitter friends know I’m a coffee addict, but I’m also a fan of tea! I tend to kick-start my day with coffee, and switch to tea in the afternoon and frequently tweet my glee over both. I also tweet a lot of glee over Mondays. They’re my favorite day of the week, which seems to boggle a lot of friends, but seriously, after a weekend of chaos when no one in my family has to leave for school or work, Mondays are blessedly quiet and peaceful. As I sit with my steaming cup of coffee in the utter silence…well, what’s not to love?

What does love mean to me? Rather than answer about me, I’d rather answer for Anna, the heroine in A One-of-a-Kind Family. When she first visits Liam and Colm’s home, she notices the front porch.

“…Anna was promptly struck by a serious a case of porch-envy.

Some people dreamed about picket fences, or tons of acreage, or living in the right, fashionable neighborhood.

Anna dreamed about porches.

Porches like this one.

…Of course, it was a bit barren looking. Only two old folding lawn-chairs sat on it, and the paint had long since started fading and peeling. But with a little elbow grease…

Someday.

Someday she’d move out of her apartment and buy her own house with a huge front porch. Then she’d paint it some merry color–maybe green–and furnish it with big white wicker furniture that had overstuffed cushions. In the mornings she’d go out on it, have a cup of coffee and read her paper before going into work. Then in the evenings, she’d come home and after dinner, she’d sit on her porch and watch the day turn to dusk and maybe smile at neighbors who walked by.”

I wrote that description early in the book and it wasn’t something that I really thought a lot about. Towards the end of the book, Anna’s porch-envy became a pivotal part of resolving her problems with the hero. For me (and Anna) defining love was easy…Love is a front porch.

Dog person or cat person? Dog…well, dogs. I have two, Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald, plus I frequently babysit my daughter’s two dogs, Booger Monster (seriously, that child’s mind works in mysterious ways) and Cosmo. So, I’m a dog person in a big way. I walk all four, and they keep me company as I work.

Some ideas are simply before their time. Shortly after I sold my first books, I was invited to be part of a novella. My shapeshifters were born in the hundred or so pages I whipped up for it. These shapeshifters had no home of their own, no identity, no sanctuary, and faced certain extinction. They were stranded on Earth, a world that didn’t understand or want them. In turn, they were forced to become us to survive. I knew them. I understood them. I cried and cheered for them. I loved them. They deserved a book.

Unfortunately for them, the novella never took off and my shapeshifters were relegated to CD backups. I sat on that story for seven years, writing other books, fulfilling other contracts, and watching the world and the market change. To my wondrous ears, readers spoke—more paranormals, darker, edgier, grittier, and sexier. The time was finally right for my shapeshifters to make their début, and I was lucky enough to find a publisher and editor who believed in them as much as I did.

In this series, I bring alien shapeshifters into this crazy, chaotic, complex, treacherous, and sometimes fragile fabric of life we’ve woven. Their problems are real, and the issues they present are difficult, as complicated and challenging as any we face today. How can they be accepted here? How will they survive? Who will believe in them? These are the hard questions faced by my shapeshifters and the humans they fall in love with. Poised on opposite sides of the fence, they clash, they grow, and they come to understand that hope never dies and love transcends all. Even for those who aren’t quite human.

I would be happy to give away one copy of Body Master to one lucky commenter.

For more, visit www.cjbarry.com

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Romantic Novella

Heroines Rule!

What do a racetrack gofer and a seed biologist have in common? They’re the heroines of my last two books, and at first glance they’re as different as two women can be. Jennifer Ashby, heroine of NO ORDINARY MAN, is 22, high-school educated, the granddaughter of a chicken farmer. She struggles to help her granddad out while putting herself through night classes and gofering by day. Sadie Beecham, heroine of HER BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING is 29, a genius (her mom’s convinced she’ll win a Nobel Prize) who studied at Princeton on a full scholarship, and now works as a seed biologist, developing new crops that will feed the world.

But Jenn and Sadie do share some traits. For example, they both know that they want in a man…and what they don’t want. Jenn wants an ordinary guy, which puts Eli Ward, a hot-shot NASCAR driver who thinks home is a dirty word, out of the running. And Sadie’s met the man of her dreams, the perfect Dr. Daniel.

But…and here’s something else they have in common…though both these women think they have their lives mapped out, their plans get overturned. Jenn finds herself posing as Eli Ward’s girlfriend to earn ten thousand dollars that could change her life…only her life is changing in ways she never anticipated or wanted. And Dr. Daniel gets engaged to Sadie’s best friend, leaving her no choice but to “stop the wedding.” If only the bride’s brother, the infuriating Trey Kincaid, would stop interfering in her schemes!

Turns out these women have one more, very important thing in common. They’re both capable of bringing a gorgeously difficult man to his knees! And that’s what I love about being a writer: I get to explore the different ways that different kinds of women end up with a guy who’s definitely not perfect, but he’s perfect for them.

If you’d like to see how these two very different women achieve the same result, leave a comment. One commenter will win copies of both NO ORDINARY MAN and HER BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING. To read excerpts from both books, visit www.abbygaines.com

Real Life Romance

I’m so grateful and honored that SLEEP NO MORE this year’s Readers Crown choice for Mainstream Women’s Fiction. As always, readers come first with me and the fact that they chose SLEEP NO MORE to be first with them, well, that’s just better than a steady diet of chocolate. (A nod here to Cindy Gerard’s previous blog discussing a study of the benefits of chocolate … and admitting I’m using it as justification for a daily dose of those yummy cocoa roasted almonds—a personally conducted non-scientific study, of course).

My thanks go not only to readers, but also to Borders and their steadfast support of romance and women’s fiction. We romance authors love you guys!

SLEEP NO MORE is the story of Abby Whitman, a woman whose sleepwalking has led to tragedy, isolation and opened the door to a danger she never saw coming. Psychologist Jason Coble is her salvation in more ways than she’d dreamed. An excerpt is waiting for you at http://www.susancrandall.net/sleep-no-more-novel-excerpt.shtml

This book has a full cast of secondary characters, including my favorite, Maggie, a teen with an indomitable spirit, sharp-eyed realism and Down Syndrome. Maggie led me to a wonderful group of people in real life, Best Buddies organization. In fact, I used my book launch signing as a fundraiser for the Indiana chapter. Best Buddies devotes itself to assisting those with intellectual challenges in developing one-on-one friendships, social integration, leadership development and integrated employment. This is particularly valuable to school age and young adults who often spend their time alone. There is a video interview of two of my favorite Indiana Best Buddies on my website homepage.

Writing strong women characters conquering the trials life throws at them and coming out stronger for it, and of course, finding love along the way, is the greatest job in the world. My days are filled with family drama, emotional journeys, a dash of mystery, a touch of danger and discovering true love—and lately not just my work day. My daughter is getting married in two weeks and all of those things have stepped out of my fiction world and into reality.

I love the way my daughter’s fiancé tells of their road to true love and happiness, he says my daughter “dated and dated and he waited and waited.” Just goes to show, there are many paths that lead you to your soul mate. For those of you out there who are frustrated with dating, and those who are tired of waiting, take heart, love will strike when the time is right. I believe that so heartily that I write about it every day!

Do any of you have stories to share of finding your true love? I never tire of hearing them!