Dani Collins is visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #newspaper writing #romance #small town #billionaires #contemporary #historical

 

Hi! Thanks for hosting me today! I’m so happy to be visiting.

 

 

Day 1

 

1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

 

I knew in high school that I wanted to write romance for a living so all of my day jobs were purely to make ends meet. They were usually office jobs with some accounting tasks. All were very unglamorous. One was for an HVAC company. Another made stair parts and another made insulation.

 

I wrote for our local paper for about a year, which I enjoyed, but I wanted to write romance so journalism didn’t quite scratch the itch. I was a wife and mom through most of that so that was also a big part of my identity and impacted how much time I was able to devote to writing.

 

 

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

 

I like to say I write anything, so long as it’s romance. That’s usually my rule around reading, too.

 

I prefer to read and write hotter books. I mostly write contemporary, cis-het romance—lots of billionaires and virgins, lots of small town romance. But I’ve also branched into historical and erotic romance with a broad spectrum of diversity. I’m currently working on a romcom and really enjoying it.

 

 

 

3. What is your latest release?

 

On March 5, I released the first in my Raven’s Cove trilogy, called Marrying the Nanny. The initial concept was Three Men and a Baby on an Island.

 

Three half-brothers are forced back to their childhood home at a fly-in fishing resort on the west coast of Canada where they take custody of their infant half-sister. They’re estranged and the resort has fallen into disrepair and they are completely ill-equipped to look after a baby.

 

It’s funny and angsty and sweet and loosely based on a real island where my cousin worked for 20 years. The setting is stark and beautiful and I *love* a tiny town where everyone knows each other’s business.

 

 

4. What are you working on now?

 

My next Harlequin is due at the end of May. It will be my 61^st and so far I know the heroine is a housekeeper, but it’s still January as I write this. I’m sure a suitable hero will show up soon.

 

I’m also working on self-publishing another historical romance, The Saloon Girl’s Only Shot, but I’ve been crunched for time.

 

 

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

 

I think it’s the other way around. I’m careful what I’m reading, depending what I’m writing. I love Harlequin Presents, but I can’t read it while I write it. I wind up second-guessing myself a lot.

 

When I’m working on a historical, I read a lot of nonfiction for research.

 

I don’t devote nearly as much time to reading as I should. In those busy, pre-published days, if I had time to read it meant I had time to write so I learned to go to my desk instead. Now I’m a bit of a workaholic and mostly read on the elliptical at the gym which is only twice a week.

 

 

6. Where can we find you?

 

At my desk or the gym! Kidding. Please visit my website at: https://danicollins.com

 

Better yet, join my VIP list and you’ll receive a welcome sequence that includes five free samples of my writing, two full-length novels and three short stories. https://danicollins.com/vip/

 

You can also find me on social media, but I try to limit my time there:

 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/DaniCollinsAuthor

IG: http://instagram.com/danicollinsauthor

TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@danicollinsauthor

X: https://twitter.com/DaniCollinsBook

 

BIO:

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. While she is best known for writing contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule Publishing, she also writes historical and erotic romance. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. Dani lives in Southern BC, Canada with her high school sweetheart husband

Saturday's Excerpt from More Than A Convenient Marriage by Dani Collins

More Than A Convenient Marriage? by Dani Collins

 

 

BLURB:

 

It started with a signature…

 

Rich, powerful and with a beautiful wife to boot, it seems like Greek shipping magnate Gideon Vozaras has it all. But little does the world know his perfect life is all a façade…

 

After years of disguising her pain behind a flawless smile, untouchable heiress Adara Vozaras has reached breaking point. Her marriage, once held together by an undeniable passion, has become nothing more than a convenience.

 

But Gideon can't afford the public scrutiny that a divorce would bring and if there's one thing his harsh past has taught him, it's how to fight dirty to keep what's his...

 

EXCERPT:

 

Gideon Vozaras used all his discipline to keep his foot light on the accelerator as he followed the rented car, forcing himself to maintain an unhurried pace along the narrow island road while he gripped the wheel in white-knuckled fists.  When the other car parked outside the palatial gate of an estate, he pulled his own rental onto the shoulder a discreet distance back then stayed in his vehicle to see if the other driver noticed.  As he cut the engine, the AC stopped.  Heat enveloped him.

 

Welcome to Hell. 

 

He hated Greece at the best of times and today was predicted to be one of the hottest on record.  The air shimmered under the relentless sun and it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet.  But the weather was barely worth noticing.

 

The gates of the estate were open.  The other car could have driven straight through and up to the house, but stayed parked outside.  He watched the female driver emerge and take a moment to consider the unguarded entrance.  Her shoulders gave a lift and drop as though she screwed up her courage before she took action and walked in. 

 

As she disappeared between imposing brick posts, Gideon left his own car and followed at a measured pace, gut knotting with every step.  Outraged stung his veins. 

 

He wanted to believe that wasn’t his wife, but there was no mistaking Adara Vozaras.  Not for him.  Maybe her tourist clothes of flip-flops, jeans chopped above the knees, a sleeveless top, and a pair of pigtails didn’t fit her usual professional élan, but he knew that backside.  The tug it caused in his blood was indisputable.  No other woman made an immediate sexual fire crackle awake in him like this.  His relentless hunger for Adara had always been his cross to bear and today it was particularly unwelcome. 

 

Spending the week with her mother.  This ain’t Chatham, sweetheart.

 

He paused as he came alongside her car, glancing inside to see a map of the island on the passenger seat.  A logo in its corner matched the hotel he’d been told she was booked into.  And now she was advising her lover where to meet her?  Walking bold as you please up his million-dollar drive to his billion-dollar house?  The only clue to the estate’s ownership, the shields welded to the gate, were turned back against the brick wall that fenced the estate from the road.

 

Gideon’s entire body twitched with an urge to slip his reins of control.  He was not a poor man.  He’d got past envying other men their wealth once he’d acquired a level of his own. 

 

Nevertheless, a niggle of his dock-rat inferiority complex wormed to life as he took in what he could see of the shoreline property that rolled into a vineyard and orange grove.  The towering stone house, three stories with turrets on each corner, belonged on an English estate, not a Greek island.  It was twenty bedrooms minimum.  If this was the owner’s weekend retreat, he was an obscenely rich man. 

 

Not that Adara needed a rich man.  She had grown up wanting for nothing.  She had a fortune in her own right plus half of Gideon’s so what was the attraction here?

 

Sex.

 

The insidious whisper formed a knot of betrayal behind his breastbone.  Was this why she hadn’t shared that stacked body of hers with him for weeks?  His hands curled into fists as he tried to swallow back his gall.

 

Dreading what he might see as he looked to the front door, he shifted for a full view.  Adara had paused halfway to the house to speak with a gardener.  A truck overflowing with landscaping tools was parked midway up the drive and workers were crawling like bees over the blooming gardens.

 

The sun seared the back of Gideon’s neck, strong enough to burn through his shirt to his shoulders, making sweat pool between his shoulder blades and tickle annoyingly down his spine. 

They had arrived early this morning, Adara off the ferry, Gideon following in a power boat he was ‘test-piloting.’  She’d been driving a car she’d rented in Athens.  His rental had been negotiated at the marina, but the island was small.  It hadn’t surprised him when she’d driven right past the nose of his car as he had turned onto the main road. 

 

No, the surprise had been the call thirty-six hours previously when their travel agent had dialed his mobile by mistake.  Ever the survivor, Gideon had thought quickly.  He’d mentioned that he’d like to surprise his wife by joining her and within seconds, Gideon had had all the details of Adara’s clandestine trip.

 

Well, not all.  He didn’t know whom she was here to see or how she’d met her mystery man.   Why was she doing this when he gave her everything she asked for?

 

He watched Adara’s slender neck bow in disappointment.  Ha.  The bastard wasn’t home.  Grimly satisfied, Gideon folded his arms and waited for his wife.

 

 

BIO

 

Dani Collins spent twenty-five years dreaming of writing full time and finally made her first sale to Harlequin Mills & Boon in May of 2012. She’s still dreaming of making Romance Author her day job, but for now she writes around work, family, and enough exercise to keep her out of traction. For more information about Dani, you can visit her website at www.danicollins.com, listen to her interview with Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books, or watch her interview on GFTV.

 

 

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Friday's How She Does It featuring Dani Collins

We all know there are six elements of fiction. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. I believe the first five lead to the sixth, which for me is plot. What's your take on this?

 

Hi Janet, thanks for having me.

 

I agree with you. Romance readers in particular already know how a story will end. They are reading to find out how the characters get from No Way This Will Work to Happily Ever After. That ‘how’ is definitely the plot. 

 

 

1. How do you create your characters? Do you have a specific method?

 

I don’t have a template where I log that the hero has green eyes or other attributes (although I should have a rudimentary one. I often find myself searching ‘eyes’ so I can see if I gave him a certain color in early chapters.)

 

I do write a few paragraphs of back story for each. This typically covers their childhood, the relationships they had in their formative years that impact how they think about love and marriage, plus their current dreams and aspirations going into the opening of the book.

 

 

2. Do your characters come before the plot? Do you sketch out your plot or do you let the characters develop the route to the end?

 

Absolutely characters come before plot. I spent many an unpublished year learning how to plot and have had to unlearn a lot of it to write the character driven romance that works better for Harlequin Presents.

 

I usually sketch out a 1-2 page synopsis that I submit to my editor, to ensure the concept works for them and reassure myself I have enough story to fill the word count. I don’t stick to this outline very tightly as I write, however. The characters have a lot of room to stretch in other directions.

 

3. Do you know how the story will end before you begin? In a general way or a specific one?

 

Obviously in romance I know the story will end well, but I don’t really know how it will end. I’m just realizing this as I answer this question and am trying to tally up which books had a solid end as I wrote, but can’t think of one book that did.

 

I usually have a sense of where it will end which gives a clue, I suppose. Eg. A hospital, her parent’s house, his palace. The actual details and final conflict become clearer to me as I get closer to it.

 

 

4. Do you choose settings you know or do you have books of settings and plans of houses sitting around?

 

One of the best perks of writing for Harlequin Presents/Mills & Boon Modern is the settings. We’re trying to give the reader an imaginary vacation to the Caribbean or Paris or a fashion salon in Milan. I don’t think I could afford to do that research in person, although I aspire to!

 

 

5. Where do you do your research? On line or from books?

 

I do a lot of online research especially as things come up during the first draft, like a piece of jewelry or a villa or the local foods in Venezuela. I occasionally buy magazines like Hello! or Architectural Digest for inspiration. Oscar season is a fabulous time to research gowns. This Spring I bought Time’s 100 Most Influential People. It’s an amazing resource for things like careers, politics and culture.

 

 

6. Are you a draft writer or do you revise as you go along and why?

 

I revise as I go along. My deadlines are really tight so I have to feel confident when I reach The End that the rest is pretty solid. Also, it helps my process to continually go back and check my through line. Before I published, I wrote books where the ending was basically from a different book than the first half because I had changed so many elements. I’ve learned to stay the course for the sake of my time and sanity.

 

Thank you so much for having me, Janet.

 

 

PURCHASE LINKS

 

Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan

Nook | Kobo | eHarlequin | Mills & Boon Aus | Mills & Boon UK | ARe | BooksaMillion

 

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads