Harlequin Superromance | Mary Sullivan, Author

Category Archives: Harlequin Superromance

May 25, 2010 · 1:32 pm

Sweet Acknowledgment

In March, my sister and I took a road trip to Columbus, Ohio, to attend the Romantic Times conference. I was given their Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best First Series romance for my first Superromance, NO ORDINARY COWBOY.

I was thrilled!

Acknowledgment is crucial for everyone in every field. It is especially important for writers who spend so much time working alone in offices, caves, spare rooms, or niches carved out of dining or living rooms. Writing is a solitary pursuit. It isn’t always easy to determine whether what we are writing will mean anything to the reader, whether s/he will find excitement, peace, wisdom, fun, escape–whatever it is that we are trying to make her feel.

I think that’s why reviews matter so much to us. The good ones are like gold and make a rough day better. Bad reviews? Not so much. My favorite reviews? From readers who were touched personally by something that I wrote. In NO ORDINARY COWBOY, the hero and heroine each had a painful secret that filled them with shame. I won’t disclose those secrets here, but I will say that I received letters from readers who had suffered with the same problems and had been touched deeply and personally by the book. So, so gratifying.

Every remark made to writers touches us deeply.

To you readers who purchase our books, thank you for reading them, for taking the time to recognize our work and for sharing our passion.

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Filed under Best First Series Romance, Harlequin Superromance, No Ordinary Cowboy, Reviewer's Choice Award, Romantic Times

May 25, 2010 · 1:29 pm

Hands-on Men

There is something about hands-on men that is so appealing when their gestures are warm and affectionate.

I sat at the beach one day for a brief coffee break of twenty minutes or so and watched a young couple who were on a blanket nearby.

He lay on his side supporting himself on one elbow. She sat with her back to him curled over a big textbook studying. Perfectly normal, right? At first, yes, but while I watched, for my entire visit, he touched her non-stop. He ran his nails lightly over the part of her back exposed by her sundress and her shoulders and arms, hands, knees, legs, feet.

There was nothing lascivious about it. His actions were perfectly suitable for a beach. It was gorgeous and sensual. Everywhere his fingers went his eyes followed. He was obviously fascinated by her.

I thought, wow, I have to use this guy and this scene in a novel one day. I also thought, if this is what he is like in public, what on earth is he like in a bedroom? As a writer, that thought certainly fueled my imagination.

Cut to another scene, another beach. I had been sitting with a friend while we watched our children play in the sand when a large bunch of men and women formed a party nearby. They were middle-aged to older people.

Same thing again. Another man who loved to touch. The group was large and voluble, very animated. I would guess the man to be in his late fifties to early sixties. He sat beside his wife with his hand on her back, or her shoulder, or her knee, while they each talked to different people. Such an ordinary looking man, but so sweet and loving. When they all settled down, she lay on her stomach and he rubbed her back, then lay down beside her and rested his hand against hers.

Ah, such simple romance and so lovely.