posted on May 10, 2015 by Dani Collins

Launch Day! His Blushing Bride

by Dani Collins –

Dani CollinsBack when I was writing Blame The Mistletoe, the prequel to His Blushing Bride, I made the heroine, Liz, a nail technician from California. I’ll tell you a secret about that idea: I stole it from my cousin.

My cousin grew up in Canada, but married an American and moved to California where she made an excellent living doing nails. She was going to do hair, but the course for nails started sooner, finished quicker and cost less. It was a stroke of luck for her because the career has been really good to her.

Later, she moved to Las Vegas and started to really hobnob with the stars. I’m not mentioning any names, but one of them may or may not be Rocket Man with a title of Sir. (She got me tickets to his concert once. It was spectacular.)

Her career has always been my six degrees of separation from celebrities and I’ve always been in a bit of awe. She doesn’t name-drop, but every once in a while she’ll mention meeting someone that makes your eyes pop.

I thought this sort of job would make a good backstory for Liz and had her make an off-the-cuff remark about how working in her mother’s salon also put her brother through college. In that story it’s more about her confidence that she can revive a failing spa on Blake’s ranch into a lucrative enterprise.

His Blushing BrideThen I came to write His Blushing Bride and needed a hero and hmmm.

The thing that excited me, that I wanted to explore, was the idea of Bastian being a very good looking young man working with a bunch of Hollywood Housewives. Cougars. How would that shape a young man’s view of women? What impact did it have on him?

Well, he certainly doesn’t have the same level of hero worship I feel toward celebrity. He’s jaded, not impressed at all that Piper is doing the music for a movie star who is bringing the Wedding Of The Century to little Marietta.

And he really doesn’t believe in happily ever after. As far as he’s concerned, women are as prone to cheating as men so why marry and create an environment for it?

Piper isn’t looking for long term, either. She just wants to get over the ex who left her with a dented self esteem and that pesky virginity she’s been hanging onto a little too long.

She and Bastian agree to a brief affair while he’s in town. Except she’s not ready for it to end when it does and he soon realizes neither is he.

 His Blushing Bride

Wedding fever has hit the little town of Marietta…

Piper Tierney is busy wrapping up the school year and planning the music for Marietta’s Wedding Of The Century. She does not need one of her parents’ backpacking hippies under foot. Except the guy they let stay in their house is so much more than the California couch-surfer he resembles. Before she knows it, she’s making time to make time, even though he’s only in town for a couple of weeks.

Taking a break from working on his doctorate in political science, Sebastian Bloom wants to reassure himself his sister isn’t making another mistake with her upcoming wedding to a Marietta rancher. He’s definitely not looking for a bride for himself. Marriage and family are a trap. But Piper is cute, funny, and wants to move on from her ex.

They agree to a no strings affair, but will they wind up tying the knot?

His Blushing Bride is Book 2 in Montana Born’s Brides Series and Book Four in Dani’s series. Revisit all your favorite characters from:

Dani’s Montana Born Titles:

Book 1: Hometown Hero, Book 2: Blame The Mistletoe, Book 3: The Bachelor’s Baby, Book 4: His Blushing Bride

Montana Born Brides Series

Book 1: The Fairy Tale Bride by Scarlet WilsonBook 2: His Blushing Bride by Dani CollinsBook 3: Bride by Mistake by Nicole HelmBook 4: Finally His Bride by Maisey Yates, Book 5: Kiss the Bride by Rachael Johns, Book 6: Two Nights with His Bride by Kat Latham

MakricostaPostcardFrontBeach

GIVEAWAY!

Dani has another ‘fourth’ book going on sale in May. SEDUCED INTO THE GREEK’S WORLD is a June Harlequin Presents and wraps up her Makricosta Dynasty series.

Would you like to receive a signed copy of this postcard? Email Dani off her website with your postal address and let her know you saw the offer here. She’ll mail it later this month.

Stay current with Dani’s new releases by joining her newsletter or visiting her here:

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Dani Collins

Dani Collins

I grew up in Maple Ridge, a suburb of Vancouver, when it was still a small town. My father and both grandfathers switched up between logging and fishing so I grew into a quintessential BC girl: green, natural, and impervious to rain.

I started reading romance in high school. The first one I really remember featured a heroine researching her family tree in Scotland who meets a distant cousin (very distant!) and falls in love with him. I don’t remember much about the actual story, just the amazing setting, a heart-stopping kiss, and a happily ever after. I knew this was my kind of book and began consuming romances voraciously. Within a year or so, I wanted to write them for a living.

However, I thought becoming a writer was something you did when you were old. It was your second career. (Kinda turns out to be true in my case. Hashtag SpoilerAlert.) I still gave it a shot at twenty, taking up writing about the time I moved in with my high school sweetheart.

The key to writing, for those of you wondering, is to actually show up to the keyboard and make words land on a page. While I received my first rejection from Harlequin Presents when I was twenty-one, for the first decade or so, I was hit and miss at actually producing stories and sending them in. We traveled, got married, had kids… the usual distractions.

I also worked at various office jobs from a ski hill, to a real estate office, to a chiropractor’s office, to an air conditioning installer and some manufacturing facilities. None of these jobs was particularly glamorous and rarely a day went by when I didn’t imagine myself quitting to write full time.

When my husband took a job in the interior of BC, I thought my ship had come in. I was a stay-at-home writer for the first year, started writing for the local paper and concentrated on finishing manuscripts. When money got tight, I took a part-time job in yet another office. It turned into a fulltime job and I kept writing on the side, still hoping, dreaming, of someday writing full time.

I should mention that along the way, much like a gambling addict, I had just enough success to keep me going. I placed in several writing contests, most notably: HUSTLED TO THE ALTAR was a Golden Heart finalist and an American Title finalist. I also had an agent for a time. In 2008, I was notified that my story was a runner up in the Instant Seduction contest with Mills & Boon in London. I was convinced this was finally my big break.

Four. Years. Later…. And several (five or six) manuscripts later, they called to offer me a two-book contract. Did I quit my job? No. All those years of rejection had taught me not to count my chickens. So I wrote and worked and somehow managed to stay married despite the fact I didn’t really participate in family life or household chores. I’m surprised my kids didn’t sue me for neglect.

Almost a dozen books and two years later, I did quit my job. As of May 2014, I am a full-time writer and it is awesome. Click for my printable book list and you’ll see that I don’t have any problem with showing up at my desk and doing the work. I’ve even managed to pull a few of my old rejected manuscripts into the pile of paying titles. (Take heart from that, fellow rejected authors!)

And I was lucky enough to have one of my first books, PROOF OF THEIR SIN, nominated for a Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times Magazine. Having been a bridesmaid in so many contests, I was fairly convinced I’d remain honored to be nominated, but I won! Click here to see me with my daughter after I accepted the award.

What’s next? Well, I love, love, love writing for Harlequin Presents so expect as many of those out of me as they’ll take. I have some fun novellas with Tule Publishing’s Montana Born imprint and I have a few more of my rejected tomes I’d like to revise and publish. Honestly, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep this career going so I never have to work in any office except my own ever again.

http://danicollins.com

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