Extra Type: Author Notes

I was delighted when my friend, fellow writer, and manifesting-mentor Heather asked me to be part of Fractured Fairytales.

It’s a multi-author giveaway featuring over fifty fabulous stories written as reimagined fairy tales. Mine is based on The Frog Prince and was supposed to have an amnesia theme, but I forgot to put that in. ~pause for laughter~

I did have a ton of fun writing about Tez and Cat and their soulmate connection.

This short story was written exclusively for the Fractured Fairytales giveaway, but will be available for purchase after Sep 1, 2025. Enjoy!

Ah, Hawaii. A genuine tropical paradise. And the absolute inspiration for this story.

We’ve been lucky enough to visit Hawaii four times. On one of our trips, the man behind the hotel reception counter introduced himself as ‘Love’ and I immediately wanted to put him in a book as a matchmaking character.

Long story short, that ultimately didn’t work for this story, but it was the jumping off point for a destination wedding gone wrong. I knew I wanted Ashley to think she was starting a new, exciting life only to have the rug pulled. I knew I wanted the best man to be the hero. Turns out that’s a hard trick to pull off, but I think I did it. I love their relationship as they firmly friend-zone each other and slowly realize they mean more to each other, but at what cost?

This story is also about what we think we can’t have, dreaming big, and finding the bravery to go after what we want. I hope you enjoy it!

When I was writing Maid to Marry, the hero had a sister who was a real piece of work. She was an alcoholic with a ton of flaws and a pithy sense of hummer. I loved her and only kept her from hijacking the book by promising her a book of her own.

As I cast about for Carmel’s hero, I realized a wild child like her would have a lot of dark secrets–including an impulsive marriage that lasted about a week? One she had never actually dissolved?

Damian never really got to know her beyond their whirlwind marriage and has a terrible impression, based on the fact her snobby father treated him like trash. He would rather not know Carmel today, despite her apologies and insistence that she only wants a divorce as part of a fresh start. No, he is ready to throw her out of his home, but his sick grandmother thinks he should give Carmel a second chance. So he does.

What I love best about these two is that they would have fallen deeply in love if they hadn’t got in their own way five years ago. They’re perfect together. It just takes them time to realize that. I hope you enjoy watching them reconnect to find their happily ever after.

p.s. Don’t you love this title? So ominous!

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I don’t consciously make secondary characters into potential heroes of their own stories, but when I was writing Marrying the Enemy, Eve had three brothers. They were all older and they were all smoking hot.

My editor asked if I was planning more stories with the Visconti family. I didn’t have anything planned, but I had this idea that something could happen between one of Eve’s brothers and one of Dom’s sisters. Wait! Don’t get excited. That’s not this story. Not yet.

I still want to write that one, but as often happens to me, I tried writing that and it turned into something else. In this one, Eve’s middle brother, Jackson, learns he has a three-year-old with a ‘Bree,’ a woman who was coming off a heartbreak and wanted a vacation fling with a handsome Italian. Jax was more than willing to rock her world and walk away.

Three years later, however… ?

I loved revisiting the Visconti family and I hope you do, too!

I started out thinking this would be a housekeeper in the hero’s house, but somehow when the book opened, Stella was a chalet girl in Switzerland and Atlas was a reluctant underwear model.

I adored both of them instantly and I especially adored their snowy visits to the Alps! I especially loved Atlas’s sister, Carmel, who starts out horrible, but will get her own story eventually. She’s got reasons for her bad behaviour.

Back to Stella and Atlas. Stella is such a great, tough, independent heroine who gets bad break after bad break and keeps bouncing back. One of my favorite scenes is when he says he wants to marry her and she tells him to take a long walk off a short pier. Everyone wants to marry him. Doesn’t she know that?

She soon finds out how awful his father is and why Atlas marries her in such a cold-bloodedly strategic move. Too bad she’s already in love with him.

As with all my stories, they do find their way to Happily Ever After, but they sure had to work for it. I hope you love them as much as I do!

I don’t know what to say about this book except that I loved writing it. I loved having the broader canvas of the whale-watching tours to explore more of this beautiful part of the world and I am absolutely heartbroken to let go of Raven’s Cove.

When I conceived of this series, I knew that Storm’s aunt would become the love interest for the third brother. I didn’t expect Cloe would twist my heart up so much. She’s trying so hard and life is determined to not go her way, right up to the point that Trystan lets her down when she least expects it. (But she rallies! And so does he.)

I adore Trystan, mostly because he’s so good at appearing to have his act together and, it turns out, he doesn’t. He is human like the rest of us. I especially love that he has to admit his failings to his brothers. He messed up, he’s a little bit lost, and these tough, stubborn, arrogant men (finally!) say out loud that they have each other’s back.

I did everything I could to wrap up any dangling threads with this book. As much as I would love, love, love to continue going back to Raven’s Cove, I think it works best to close it with Trystan and Cloe and the knowledge that all of them are living very happily ever after.

If you do need a small Raven’s Cove after-dinner mint, you can get the bonus epilogue Marrying the Nanny here.

Thanks for visiting!

For this one, I knew I wanted my heroine to have been a child star–someone who is both beloved and deeply misunderstood by the public. Finding the right hero for her was difficult, though. Lexi is strong and capable and has had to take care of herself from an early age. What kind of man could challenge that?

My editor suggested a royal hero so I began playing with where his fictional island might be located and Wow! In walked Magnus. Or should I say stormed? He’s a six-foot-five viking with all the strength and arrogance you can imagine in a man with his presence. He falls like a redwood for Lexi, but she’s a magnet for scandal and he can’t afford such things. Duty prevents him from offering her more than a single night.

Of course that night has consequences! Soon he discovers she’s carrying the next heir to the throne. He has to marry her, but they’re both incredibly strong personalities so there’s a lot of flash and clash and passion before they surrender to each other. It’s worth it, though!

Prepare to be ravaged. Magnus is about to carry you away…

When my editor asked if I wanted to write a Christmas-themed story, she gave me a gift. She said, “For some reason, I’m picturing a department store elf.”

How fun is that? I couldn’t wait to put poor Eloise into a horrible costume completely with curly-toe shoes, pointy ears, and fake yarn braids.

After losing her beloved brother, Eloise is very down on her luck. Her stepfather is trying to marry her off and not only holds the purse strings, he’s got her mother fooled into believing she doesn’t need help. Eloise is making ends meet with a thankless job that requires she dress as an elf and deliver toys for the Twelve Days of Christmas to all the most exclusive high-rises in New York.

She’s feeling pretty wretched, thinking her life can’t get any worse when she bumps into her brother’s best friend, her massive lifetime crush, Konstantin. He’s appalled to see what’s become of her and feels like a heel for not checking on her sooner so he does what any good Presents hero does: he completely takes over her life and offers her a marriage of convenience!

Konstantin never had a proper Christmas and, despite her current circumstances, Eloise really does love the season so she’s determined to make it fun for him. I adore this sexy, sentimental holiday romance and hope you do, too.

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It was the middle of a snowy winter and my husband and I were planning a big trip the following May. Much as we longed to find some sun, he was saving his vacation days and I had a book to write.

I don’t remember exactly how he wound up with a few days off midweek, but we were so excited, we started looking up flights. Flying from Canada, however, means the flying time to get far enough south to see some sun would take up all the time we had.

We settled on trying a spa about four hours from here. We’d heard of Sparkling Hills in Vernon, BC. Now was our chance. Doug called and booked us in, then said very facetiously, “Any chance you can set a book there so you can write it off?”

I said, “Actually…”

I already knew I would be writing a Cinderella theme and had been trying to think of a business my heroine could run or own that she was trying to rescue from the clutches of her avaricious stepmother. A spa was perfect!

Away we went and had a very relaxing time in the hot pools and saunas. It was very much the quick, warm getaway we’d been craving.

I came home and moved Sopi’s spa into the Rockies Mountains because I thought that was a more picturesque setting and worked better for the story, given Sopi’s mother was a princess in hiding until she died.

I hope you enjoy your visit to Cassiopeia’s and my modern take on this classic fairytale!

The most frequent question I’ve received about The Prospector’s Only Prospect is, “Will Pearl get her own book?”

Yes? I was expecting her book to be this one, but it’s not. I had all those partners in the Venturous Mining Company to choose from and Owen was the natural choice as he’s Virgil’s best friend, but they just didn’t feel right as a couple.

But I wanted Owen to be the hero of this book. He’s a bit of a handful, but he’s full of wisecracks, which is fun. Pearl is too flighty for him, though. He needed someone to ground him.

I pitched a saloon girl to my editor at the time and she gave it a thumb’s up so I started crafting the story. I made the mistake of telling my husband what I was up to and he said, “I think she should have a geology background and help him find gold.”

It’s 1859. The fact Temperance has as much education as she does is pretty remarkable, but I got to work with researching and her backstory began to take shape. I love Temperance Rose Goodrich! I love that she’s gritty and resourceful, but sensitive and loyal. She thinks she’s ruined and Owen becomes her perfect match when he says, “That’s nothing. Do you know what I’ve done?”

They fit together like two jagged edges of a broken heart to make a whole one. I adore these two and hope you will, too.