I met today’s guest many years ago at an RWA conference, and immediately loved how she was so warm and welcoming. Her warmth and great sense of humour translates into her beautifully written romantic reads and it’s a great pleasure to have Kandy Shepherd as my guest author today.  Kandy settled in Australia after having been born in Sri Lanka to expat parents, and then living her early years in Sri Lanka, India, England and Ireland. She says she devoured books from a very young age. “My mother loved literary fiction but also introduced me to Georgette Heyer, Anya Seton, Daphne du Maurier and Agatha Christie as well as Harlequin romances. So I can truthfully say I’ve been immersed in romance and popular fiction for most of my life.” Kandy worked in magazines and was an editor-in-chief of several mass-market titles in Australia and England, ending up as editorial director of a major magazine publisher. Now, Kandy is multi-published by Harlequin, has a self-published sensual r...

I’m delighted to welcome Australian Regency Historical romance and RITA Award winner, author, Anne Gracie, to the blog today ahead of her appearances at ARRA events in Melbourne (14 th August) and Sydney (16th August). Anne is a former Romance Writers of Australia president and multi-award winning author whose warm and witty romances have touched the hearts of many romance readers, including my sisters and me! I have to admit that I kind of “stumbled” across Anne when I read an excerpt of one of her stories in my RWA conference bag one year. Her writing style and sense of humour immediately appealed to me and the excerpt left me hooked so that I ended up purchasing “The Perfect Rake” and have bought every title since then! Anne, it’s lovely to be able to host you as a guest author for the quick quizzing blog. Thank you for taking the time today to join me. It’s lovely to be here, Alyssa. Thanks for inviting me.  And how lovely that you read my little excerpt booklet a...

I still have a copy of Trish Morey’s very first book, “The Greek Boss’s Demand” on my bookshelf. It was the start of my love of Trish’s ‘passionate, emotional, page turning stories’ and now sits beside many other titles she’s written. In short, no title I see written by Trish hasn’t accompanied me to the check-out of the bookstore, and I’m not alone in feeling this way. Trish’s third publication won an Australian Romantic Book of the Year award (RuBY), her story “A Storm Within” was nominated for a RITA Award, and many of her other titles have been nominated for awards. Trish is a USA Today Best-selling author but she didn’t always write romances... Trish obtained a degree in economics and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Just a little different from being a romance writer!! I remember seeing her talk at an RWA (Australia) conference and she conveyed how she’d written story after story and been rejected until finally she received a contract to write for Harlequin Mills ...

Quick Author Quizzing with Guest Author, Maisey Yates! A huge and warm welcome to NY Times and USA Today Best selling author Maisey Yates who has been creating one sexy alpha male after another for us to swoon over since she sold her first book in 2009. Despite the fact that Maisey is no stranger to Australian shores, I actually met her for the first time at a Harlequin author signing in Reno at RT2018. Although I was also a signing author at the event, it was a fan girl moment for me as I’ve been caught up in this multi-award winning author’s heroes and heroines since her very first book.  Her website describes her romance books as “funny, heart-wrenching and downright swoon-worthy”. They are all that and more!! I love her alpha billionaire heroes just as much as I love her cowboys. Pick up a Maisey Yates romance and you’re in for one satisfying romantic read. It’s such a pleasure to have Maisey here as my guest author today for a quick author quizzing.  ...

I am thrilled to be able to welcome Dani Collins as my very first guest author for the quick author quizzing! Dani, who lives in Canada and writes ‘sexy, witty, vibrant romance’,  is an Award-winning, USA Today Bestselling author who is published by Harlequin Mills & Boon (Presents/Modern (formerly ‘Sexy’ line)) and Tule’s Montana Born. While I can’t claim to have read all of her titles, a good many of her Harlequin titles grace my shelves and I’ve loved all of them. But, it isn’t just Dani’s writing I admire. Let me share with you the story my first meeting with Dani. I was an absolutely new author for Escape Publishing (Harlequin Enterprises Australia) and I was over at an RT Convention in Dallas. Dani was organising a Harlequin authors event and when I let her know at the end of the event that I was there and asked if it would be okay for me to hand out some promotional material for my titles as readers were leaving, her answer was an immediate and absolute ‘y...