READY FOR HER CLOSE-UP

A MOTHER’S DAY MATCH novella

A CASE OF KISS AND TELL

READY FOR HER CLOSE-UP

AVAILABLE MAY 2012            

Behind the Scenes

Gail Little signs up with Matchmakers, Inc. and spawns an entire reality television show thanks to her best-friend Willow Stead who is the producer of Fabulous & Fit and Preggers & Proud.  

At first Gail is reluctant to be a part of the reality TV show Sexy & Single, but when their other best-friend Nichole Reynolds joins in with her enthusiasm Gail agrees.  But she has no idea what she is getting into.  She’s got a checklist for Mr. Right and the dreamy Kiwi Billionaire that she’s matched with certainly looks the part but she’s unconvinced he is actually the right man for her.

My Inspiration

In the summer of 2010 I was engaged to my second husband.  While planning our wedding on one of those wedding planning websites I got an invitation to interview to be on Four Weddings--the TLC show.

I’d never seen the show and auditioned and have to say luckily I wasn’t what they were looking for!  But that process made me start thinking about reality TV shows and very personal events in our lives. 

Meanwhile one of my besties was tired of online dating and had hired a matchmaker in the hopes of finding Mr. Right.  Somehow these two events merged in my head and I came up with an idea of a TV producer (Willow Stead) who wanted to get revenge on the guy who dumped her in high school and she wanted to do it on a big scale.

When I mentioned the idea to my editor he liked it and I started developing it.  I was toying with including a reunion as well which was just too much.  The gem of the idea was lost in all these TV shows, but then I honed it down.  One show, one premise and three very different people who were single for very different reasons.

The idea has morphed and been refined into the Matchmakers, Inc. series.  I hope you enjoy it!

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A MOTHER’S DAY MATCH novella

AVAILABLE MAY 2012            

Behind the Scenes

Fiona McCaw needs a husband and a father for her eight-month-old daughter Bella Ann.  Bella’s biological father wants nothing to do with parenting or with Fiona.  Her parents having a loving relationship and its important to Fiona that Bella Ann grow up in that kind of household so she goes to Matchmakers, Inc. to find a husband.

Alex Cannon has always thought he’d settle down some day but instead of finding Ms. Right he’s dated a lot of Ms. Right-Nows.  When he goes to Matchmakers, Inc. his demands for a wife are simply that she is attractive and that she wants a family.  His mother had a health scare last year and Alex doesn’t want to waste any time in starting a family so that his kids can know his parents.

When he sees Fiona for the first time he is blown away by her beauty, but he fears they were put together for television ratings and not for the sake of a real match.  After all she’s certainly a beauty and he is definitely a geek--granted a wealthy, work-out obsessed one thanks to his gym teacher father making him spend the same amount of time outside doing something physical as he did sitting inside at his computer or playing video games.

They both have their doubts and issues but family is at the heart of this story and they work together to ensure they have A MOTHER’S DAY MATCH.

My Inspiration

I have to confess I haven’t watched the Millionaire Matchmakers but I do enjoy reality television.  I like the chance to see behind the scenes into people’s lives, but then I also really like eavesdropping on conversations when I’m out.  Other people fascinate me!  

In the Matchmakers, Inc. series as I had envisioned it, I knew there would be couples who’s stories wouldn’t be told on the main page of the books.  They were secondary characters who’d be there to move the action of my main couples forward.  But in my head they were real couples too.  People who wanted to find someone to settle down with.

One of the chief fears most of us have is being alone in our life.  I think that it motivates people in one of two ways--they end up in a lot of bad relationships or they end up staying alone for fear of making the wrong choice.  Having a matchmaker help with the choice kind of helps weed out the people who wouldn’t make a good match.

I had just finished reading Ines de la Fressange’s book PARISIAN CHIC and wanted to create a heroine who’d grown up with that type of mother and Fiona McCaw was born.  To be her foil I knew I needed a man who wasn’t like the other guys she knew.  He had to be different and intriguing with his own set of issues.  

I’ve been watching a lot of BIG BANG THEORY.   I love the show and don’t know how I missed out on watching it until now.  But those geeky guys with their uber intelligence and nerd collections appealed to me with my game producer hubby and my superhero loving kiddos.   I get that type of person and just because a man has those smart nerdy tendencies doesn’t mean he cant’ be sexy.  So Alex Cannon was created in my mind. 

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A CASE OF KISS AND TELL

AVAILABLE AUG 2012            

Behind the Scenes

Nichole Reynolds is the type of woman who doesn’t let anything stand in the way of a good story.  Not even if that means she has to crash a party, flirt with a Polo star and eventually corner her prey...no subject.

Reclusive Conner Macafee hates reporters and shuns the spotlight and he isn’t shy about saying so.  But there is something about Nichole that more than captures his attention and he decides then and there that he wants her.  He knows its only a harmless flirtation until Nichole says she’ll do anything to get an interview with him.  Suddenly & impulsively he makes her an indecent offer.  If she’ll be his mistress, he’ll give her her story.

From the moment those words left his mouth the story just sort of took off.  Nichole wants Conner but she has ethics and being a reporter is her entire life its how she defines herself and if she gives in to him will she still respect herself.

Conner just plan wants Nichole and he plans to keep his secrets.  He is determined to have his cake and eat it too but he doesn’t count on Nichole finding her way into his heart.  Hell, he didn’t even realize he could care for anyone before her.

My Inspiration

I have always loved the Thin Man movies from the 30s or 40s.  Sorry but those old eras kind of blend together in my head.  But what I love and still remember was the high society back drop, a dashing hero and a sexy flirtatious woman who used banter and wit to stay ahead of that hero.  I really wanted to create that kind of fast-talking dialogue in the book but also that feeling of high emotional stakes.

I had written a different synopsis for this book that was darker a sort of ABSENCE OF MALICE kind of story and my editor said this is too dark.  He was right and so I went back to the drawing board and to be honest struggled with the plot.  Then I remembered something the late, great Carol Quinto said to me when I first started writing...you can’t write a synopsis unless you know the characters.

Carol was right as she always was.  And I just sat down and started writing the scene where they meet.  And it wasn’t Nichole and Conner meeting.  It was Conner watching her at a party she clearly wasn't invited to.  It just all sort of clicked.  Nichole was ballsy enough to crash a party and then act like she was the star guest.  And Conner and I were both intrigued by her.  It was magic and from that moment the story was off like a bolt of lightning.

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Calling All the Shots

AVAILABLE NOV 2012            

Behind the Scenes

Willow Stead was the first character who came to me when I was plotting out this story. I pictured as someone who keeps the best of herself hidden away from the world while digging into everyone else's lives.  So it would seem natural to her to make a television show about Gail's matchmaking efforts that way she doesn't have to confront her own fears about her lack of a steady relationship.  In the end its through making the show that Willow is forced to change and become the woman she has always been afraid to be.

Jack Crown is a guy who always lands on his feet.  He has a lot of opportunities but has lost a lot of them too.  For Jack there is this feeling that nothing lasts so he kind of keeps rolling a long and re-inventing himself as he goes.  Because of this he is a live-for-the-moment kind of person.

He is in fact the exact opposite of Willow who is so stuck in the past and trying very hard not to let herself make the same mistakes as she had before.

My Inspiration

I wanted to play around with two things.  First that image isn't always reality--so Jack Crown is America's Sweetheart--that guy everyone loves, but people who know him see a different side.  The reality of Jack isn't so convivial all the time.  The second thing was the thought of revenge and wanting to really get even.  Willow has a grudge against Jack but can't see that she's really moved beyond it in her life by the choices she's made.