The very first manuscript I ever mailed off went to Harlequin Presents when they were still accepting submissions in Toronto, back in the eighties. Not even joking.
By the time I was a runner up in their Instant Seduction contest it was 2008. It took another four years after that before I received The Call for this book.
I can’t tell you what was going through my mind as I wrote Nic and Rowan’s story except to say I was committed, grittily determined that I would reach the finish line if not with this book, then the next. I was going to keep at it until it happened.
And honestly, when you’re getting revision letters and the changes are getting easier each time, you kind of get the message that you’re pretty close. Still, it was a huge kick to have an editor call and say she wanted to offer me a two book contract.
It was an enormously gratifying moment, even though she told me it wouldn’t come out in North American, only in the UK. I had to run to work so I couldn’t get drunk on bubbly. We celebrated that evening and then the real panic set in. Website, head shot, social media. I stepped onto the roller coaster and haven’t stopped since.
No Longer Forbidden? is the first book in the Makricosta Dynasty Quartet, which was an accidental series. I didn’t know Nic had siblings until he mentioned them in the scene after the memorial in the middle of this book. I started thinking about his brothers and sister. That led to More Than A Convenient Marriage?, which is Book Two, Adara and Gideon’s story.
An Heir To Bind Them, with Theo and Jaya, is Book Three and Demitri turned up with Natalie in Book Four, Seduced Into The Greek’s World, the following year.
Bonus! No Longer Forbidden? was eventually published in North America as a 2-in-1 with More Than A Convenient Marriage?
