Guest Author: Melanie Milburne

Melanie Milburne is an Australian writing sensation — a prolific, multi-award winning, USA Best Selling author of Harlequin Mills & Boon Presents/Sexy and also Medical romance novels. Her 75^th Mills & Boon title was published in 2018 and I believe the 80^th title has just landed on her editor’s desk!  Melanie is one very special lady who has a huge heart and an eager willingness to do whatever she can to help aspiring authors along on their journey to publication.

I met Melanie many years ago at an RWAus conference, and she graciously offered to give a writing workshop to my RWAus group. At another workshop I attended, there’s a piece of golden advice she gave that I’ve always remembered: “The DELETE key can be your friend”! Over the years, what continually strikes me is Melanie’s energy and her positive outlook.

Melanie has a Masters degree in education, but her long love of romance novels led her to a highly successful career in writing. She says, “I read my first Mills & Boon novel when I was 17 and that encouraged me to continue reading romance novels; the lure of the tall dark handsome hero, who in reality I fell in love with and agreed to marry on our second date! We moved to Scotland so my husband could work and study for his MD in surgery. Two lively sons later I decided teaching was the last thing I wanted to do – I knew when I was beaten!"

Welcome Melanie, It’s such a pleasure to have you here as my guest author today.

Thanks so much, Alyssa for inviting me along!

Can you please tell us about your latest release and whether it posed any challenges to write?

Every now and again, I have a book that more or less writes itself, but it wasn’t this one! Writing always produces challenges, especially during a long career. If it’s not the book, it’s life getting in the way or both. I challenge myself on each book to write fresh, remove clichés where I can and deliver on the promise of a satisfying happy ever after. 

Bound by a One-Night Vow was mostly a fun book to write, but these days I find there is always a section in a work in progress that proves more difficult to write than others. And it seems to change on every book! Sometimes it’s the beginning, sometimes it’s the black moment and sometimes it’s the end. 
Heiress Isabella Byrne has twenty-four hours to find a husband otherwise she will lose her inheritance. Her father’s protégé, hotel magnate Andrea Vaccaro, offers her a solution- a temporary union. But the smouldering attraction between them threatens to burn the contract on their ‘paper’ marriage.

What is next for you as an author?

I have another release out in October- Bound by a One-Night Vow. And I am at the beginning stages of Book Two of a Duet with an Italian heroine and an English hero. My heroine popped up in Book One as my Italian hero’s sister and I loved her so much, I thought I’d better give her a story of her own.☺

It's amazing how our secondary characters often come back tapping us on the shoulder and demanding their own happy-ever-after ending!
I know you’ve lived in Scotland. In all your travels around the world, which place rates as your favourite? 

Actually, Scotland would be right up there. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world and I can’t wait to go back and revisit all my old haunts. But where I live in Tasmania is really beautiful too. It reminds me of Scotland in some ways: snow-capped mountains in winter, winds so icy cold they could drive holes in your chest, clean fresh air, and sunshine so bright it makes you squint. We regularly see the Southern Lights at night (Scotland has the Northern Lights) and just like in Scotland, it gives you an appreciation of a good summer that surpasses any other feeling.

Those beautiful descriptions make me want to jump on an aeroplane and get to either place right now!Which place is now at the top of your travel wish list?

I am really keen to go back to London and stay a bit longer than simply passing through. I am edited out of London and my lovely editor is promising me a nice lunch and a tour around the office. A month would be ideal so I could take in some shows at the West End and visit the museums and galleries and shop along the High Street. But maybe a month won’t be long enough!

There's certainly plenty to do in London and you definitely deserve that luncheon!In all the highlights of your career, is there one moment that stands out for you?

I absolutely loved winning the Holt Medallion in 2015, because I got the phone call just before I started teaching an all-day workshop on How to Write a Best-selling Romance. I put the phone on speaker when I saw it was an international call and the workshop attendees heard the announcement with me. It certainly gave me some credibility! But another special moment that is particularly memorable was receiving a hand-written letter from an older fan in Idaho in the US. She had just undergone a difficult stint of chemotherapy and she said how much my books had helped her get through it. I sat at my desk and cried. I was so deeply touched that she made the effort to write to me. 

I loved "At No Man's Command" which won you the Holt Medallion. Congratulations again on that accolade. 
How satisfying your reader shared her journey with you and your writing was able to give her so much joy. I had a slightly similar experience when a lovely lady I'd met at RT New Orleans some years ago saw me at RT Dallas the following year and told me one of my books was the first she'd been able to read after having suffered a stroke. (Hi C!) It's so lovely to hear from readers.

I'm sure Melanie is no stranger to followers of this blog. You may read more about Melanie on her website:   

http://melaniemilburne.com.au/  

LEAVE A COMMENT TO ENTER THE CONTEST! 

Melanie is very kindly giving away two of her backlist titles. Names of all who comment will enter the draw and two names will be drawn at random. The first name drawn will win "Tycoon's Forbidden Cinderella" and the second name drawn will win "Blackmailed into the Marriage Bed."

Please check back on the blog on September 24th to see if you're a winner. If you are, you'll have ten days to contact me with your address via my email alyssajmontgomeryromance@gmail.com or                                                                                      there'll be a re-draw.

Thanks for visiting the blog today. I hope you'll visit again next Saturday for my next guest author, Jayne Ann Krentz. Until then, Happy Reading!

Best wishes,

Alyssa J. Montgomery

www.alyssajmontgomery.com









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About the Blogger:

Alyssa J. Montgomery is an Australian contemporary romance author who is published by Escape Publishing (Harlequin Enterprises, Australia). She also 

writes medieval romance as Alyssa James,