When the cold weather arrives, I often think of sitting,
covered in a warm quilt, reading a book. My favorites are romance anthologies.
I got the idea for our Aspen Grove Romance Anthologies on just such a cold night.
I wrote the prologue for the first book and sent it to an
author friend, Sherry Derr-Wille. I knew
her work, and I felt it would be perfect for the project. She immediately
agreed. I asked a mutual friend and another author friend, Christie Shary, to join us. Snowflake
Secrets was born.
Unfortunately, our mutual friend became very ill and was
unable to continue with the project, so I asked another of my author friends.
She agreed, but a week or so later, decided she wouldn’t have the time. Another
friend, Luanna Rugh, overheard
our discussion and asked me about the project. By the time we finished our
conversation, she had already written the first chapter in her head.
One of Sherry’s publishers, Oak Tree Press (now owned by Start
Publishing), loved romance anthologies. We had a contract for this book even
before we finished it.
We decided to create a fictional town, Aspen Grove, Colorado,
as our setting. I had lived in Colorado for a year, Christie’s brother lived
there, Luanna had driven through the state several times, and Sherry lived in
Wisconsin, so she knew all about seasonal weather. I chose Idaho Springs and Georgetown as the inspirations,
but Aspen Grove is wholly fictional.
We had so much fun with Snowflake
Secrets, we all decided to do a second. For this one, each of us took a
different season and wrote a novella—all of them set in Aspen Grove. In our
first book, each of the novellas was written in the first-person voice of the
character. For this one, Seasons
of Love, we wrote in third-person. (It is the only one of the
anthologies written in third-person.) My novella in this one, “Winter’s Song,”
is based on a real couple, Dan and Amy. I even play a role in the story. Can
you guess who I am?
We liked writing together, and our publisher asked for
another. For this one, we each chose a compass direction. I set mine, “Finding
Love in Paradise,” in Hawaii and Japan, both places I know well. This book, Directions
of Love, won the 2012 EPIC eBook Award for best romance anthology.
I had already written about Christmas, but I felt we needed
an anthology dedicated to the season. For this book, An
Aspen Grove Christmas, we added Cheryl Gardarian. This was her
debut as a published author. This book is Luanna’s husband’s favorite, and
Larry has read it many times because he enjoys it, too.
Christie decided not to join us for the next anthology, The
Art of Love, so we were back to four authors. We each took an art form,
and crafted a story around it. The inspiration for my story was the last name
of a friend from work: Amalfatano. It sounded as though it could have been the
name of a winery. This novella, “A Shot at Love,” is set in Aspen Grove and the
wine country of California and features a photographer.
Number six in the series, and probably the last, came about
one day when Luanna and I were talking about the old rhyme: Something old,
Something new, Something borrowed, and Something blue. I mentioned that you don’t
often hear the last line: …And
a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe. We called Sherry and Cheryl. Each of us
had one stanza we liked best. I took “Something Old,” inspired by my mother’s
wedding dress. When the cover artist couldn’t find a photo of exactly the right
dress, I sent her a picture of my mother in hers. It is now on the cover of the
book.
So, if you are looking for a sweet romance to warm a cold,
winter night, or you know someone who enjoys romances, please consider one of
these as a gift.
