Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Guest Blog by Emma Cane + Book Giveaway! {US Only}
Categories :
An Introduction to Emma Cane
Hello! My name is Emma Cane, and I’m new to contemporary romance. My first novel, A TOWN CALLED VALENTINE, was just published yesterday—and am I excited! Now I confess, I’m not a debut author. I’ve written twenty-five historical romances as Gayle Callen and Julia Latham, and I’ll keep doing so because I love history!
But…I read a lot of contemporary romance, too, from Susan Elizabeth Phillips to Debbie Macomber. I fell in love with the small-town America depicted in a lot of books and began to get the urge to try it myself. And so the town of Valentine Valley was born. Now it wasn’t an immediate sell to Avon Books, my historical publisher. They loved the idea of the town itself, a place known for romance, where people
come to get engaged, get married, or have the “Valentine Valley” postmark stamped on their wedding invitations. But I was thinking of setting it in the Fingerlakes region of New York, in the middle of wine country and the historic villages along the Erie Canal. And my publisher said, “How about setting it in a ranching community out west? Everyone loves cowboys!” I was immediately intrigued! My son lives in
Colorado, so it only seemed natural to set my series there.
To my surprise, I did just as much research on cowboys and the ranching life as any historical novel I’ve written. But ultimately, it’s fun learning about how other people live, and isn’t that part of the reason we all read? I realized that writing a romance isn’t so different when it’s set in modern times. Sure my characters can drive cars—that was so fun and different for me that I had the heroine driving a car in the opening scene!—but it still comes down to a conflict between two people who are falling in love, but really resisting it. In some ways, that’s a little more difficult to plot in modern times. After all, no one cares how many dates you’ve had before you sleep with a guy. There’s more tension in historic times where even a private kiss on the cheek can ruin a woman. But that’s okay—it just made me dig deeper into my characters and give them even more reasons why they resist falling in love. I hope you enjoy
reading all about them.
So which do you usually prefer, contemporaries or historicals? Tell me why! And don’t forget, a lucky commenter will win a free book today.
About Emma:
Win a Copy of “A Town Called Valentine” by Emma Cane!
TO ENTER:
Leave a comment about anything in this post (+ a way to contact you)
(or click on the cover above)
U.S. Only!
Ends February 6th!
(12:01 am EST)
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Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you soon!
xoxo,
16 Responses so far.
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ps2:
**As of Today, Feb 24th, This Blog is an Award Free Zone!**
I am sorry! I LOVE the awards you give me and I wish I didn't have to do this, but my blogging schedule in general has not made possible for me to follow the requirements for the awards I receive.
Because of that, I feel that this is for the best.
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Hi Emma, I love both contemporaries and historicals. I also read a lot of mystery (love Cozies) and suspense books. Each has their own appeal and depending on my mood as to which I read and I do love HEA. I am adding your book to my wish list and you as a new author. Thanks for dropping by to chat and share with us.
misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com
I like both to tell the truth, it's just that the Historical are easyer to find. so i'll go with historical:) great post and thank you for shareing.
elliott2668(at)yahoo(dot)com
Good morning, Misskallie and Loretta! I, too, like to read a variety of things. I'm in the middle of Sue Grafton's mystery series right now (A is For Alibi, etc.) But I always come back to romance, my first love.
I definitely like both, it would be hard to choose! edysicecreamlover18@gmailDOTcom
I am basically a contemporary reader, but some of my favorite authors have been discovered because of their historical romances. I guess I like contemporary books because the situations could actually happen to me!
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of historical romance, but the ones I do read happen to be very well written and so I give in and read them.
I've actually been looking forward to reading your book for awhile now, Emma. I remember going onto Goodreads to put it on my never-ending TBR list and not even seeing it there yet! So I just made a note of it from your site and made sure to look out for the release date.
Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
xo
Lisa @ Fic Talk
fictalk(at)gmail(dot)com
I've never really read historicals but i just bought a few and an going to give them a try. This is a great giveaway and i'm excited to see who wins :) smp0804(at)hotmail(dot)com
Wow, I step away a little and look how many of you stopped by to say hi!I love reading everyone's choices between historical and contemporaries. Sandi, I know what you mean, that it's fun reading contemporaries because the situations could happen to you! When I read historicals, I wonder if it happened to any of my ancestors... ;) Lisa, thanks so much for letting me know it was on your TBR list for so long. I'm very flattered!
I love the name of this book just the name makes me want to read it5. Thanks for the giveaway.
I usually prefer historicals, but I read contemporary stories too, especially ones set in those charming small towns with all the quirky characters that generally inhabit them. I'm looking forward to reading A Town Called Valentine, it sounds delightful.
Barbed1951 at aol dot com
Marlene, the title came from my editor, after she read the manuscript. I have a line in there about "when your town is named Valentine," snd she latched onto that, altering it to A Town Called Valentine.
I have always wondered what it would be like to live on a ranch and ride horses. I also wondered what it would be like to fall in love with a true cowboy. I would love to read this book. It sounds very good. Tore923@aol.com
I prefer historicals.
robindpdx(at)yahoo(dot)com
I read both historicals and contemporaries. I ignored historicals because I didn't think I would enjoy reading them. I found out differently when I gave them a try.
ainfinger@comcastDOTnet
I discovered this site.
Thanks for highlighting Emma's book. Would love to read it.
I like to read both historicals and contemporaries, but contemporaries are my favorite. This sounds like a really good book, I just love the name of it. Thanks for having this giveaway.
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net