No idea what the first book was, but the first romance was a historical. It had one of those fainting women, manly men covers. And it was fairly dark, with a carriage in the background. I was sick in bed – really sick – and my sis brought me over a paper grocery bag full of books. I’d never read a romance and in fact, I felt sorry for women who did, thinking they must be very lonely and desperate. (Yes, I was soooo misguided!) I can’t recall the title or author, because once I read that first book, I was hooked and I went on to glom the rest of the books. But I recall that the heroine had been fleeing her home for some reason, and she was pregnant and started having a miscarriage. The hero found her and took care of her – and I was both awed by the depth of emotion and horrified for the heroine to be in such a compromising position. Even as a modern woman, I couldn’t imagine a stranger having to give that type of detailed and intimate care.

From that point on, I was hooked!

Almost immediately after reading that first stash of books, I knew I wanted to write. I didn’t think in terms of finishing a book and selling it, or ever seeing myself published. I just wanted to twist some of the plots so that the books went in the direction that I preferred. But within 5 years of getting hooked on reading romance, I was finishing entire books and trying to figure out how to submit my stories, and learning the whole process. We didn’t have the internet, or at least it wasn’t so common. (As part of the PTO at the elementary, we had just done massive fundraising to get a computer for the library, then later a computer for each grade level, and eventually, a computer for each class. Life was changing in leaps and bounds!)

4. Who gave you your first break in publishing?

I credit the most wonderful, Stella Cameron, with a lot of my success. She was at a local conference for our RWA chapter and she was so gracious... we sort of hit it off right away. (But I think most people hit it off with Stella!) She offered to read some of my work, I ran home all twittterpated and nervous, fetched my manuscript (which was done on a typewriter) and went back. Stella and I sat in her room and she read several pages, and then told me that I was very good and that I’d get published. Talk about a boost!

Later, at that conference, Stella spoke to our visiting editor – the editor I was querying – and told her she would send my manuscript to her agent and editor if it wasn’t bought very soon. And that editor admitted that they were going to buy me. Before that, the editor hadn’t committed to me at all!

5. What was your first published book and what did the cover look like? Did you love it or hate it and why?

My first book was with Harlequin Temptation, titled “Impetuous.” It was just recently reissued as part of Harlequin’s “Famous First” program. The original cover wasn’t bad, but it was nothing to get excited over either. Man and a woman, standing by a car. The book was, at the time, far sexier and more explicit than what Temptation was publishing at the time, so I had sort of expected a cover to show that. But no. Like I said, I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t really grab me either. It was pretty bland.

This one is easy! “Hard to Handle” is my favorite, because it’s the first time a publisher gave me a really accurate, to the point of the book, cover. Prior to “Hard to Handle,” I’d written other related books featuring MMA fighters as the heroes, including “Causing Havoc” and “Simon Says.” The first had a corset looking thing (I think it was the laces on a boxing glove, but no way does it look like that) and the next cover had a bomb – and finally, after those books did really well sales-wise and on the bestseller’s list, I got a fighter on the cover. The other covers were great, don’t get me wrong about that. I liked them. But this was a dead-on cover that would tell readers about the story. I love it! The two fighter books after that, “My Man Michael,” and in February, 2010 “Back in Black,” also feature fighters.

This one is easy too. While writing category romances for Harlequin (and I LOVED writing those category books) I got a lot of really horrid covers. But “Sawyer” stood out as by far the worst. I had given some images to show what my heroes looked like in the hopes of getting better covers (after several stinky ones) and instead, I got the worst one by far! What I ended up with is bad enough, but the initial cover shown to me was even worse. My tall, good looking and hard working country doctor ended up looking like a mentally challenged mutant gnome. His chin was way long, he had no neck and I swear his eyes were crossed. After I fussed (probably too much, looking back now) they did add in some neck and shortened his chin a little, but it was still horrid. Not one of the highlights of my career.

February 2010 is “Back in Black,” and I LOVE the cover. I think it’s sexy and fun and let’s readers know that it’s an SBC fighter book – that is, part of the series I’ve been writing. Each book stands alone, but they have characters that have appeared in their own books.

This book has a fighter on the cover, but the main story isn’t about a fighter. It’s about the president of the fighters’ organization. However, there is a secondary romance with a fighter, so it works!

Penquin Group, February, 2010

 

Lori Foster's website

 

Linnae Crady () - December, 2009

 

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Author image, and covers are displayed with permission from author.