Beautiful clothes and an evening at the opera or ballet with my husband are certainly high on my list of what I consider romantic. But little gestures from my husband can be romantic too. An inexpensive but unexpected gift is romantic. A small flower from the garden presented at the right moment and with the right words. An unexpected kiss behind the shelves at the grocery. I find all these incredibly romantic. But I think the very top of my list of romantic gestures is a man who cooks and does the dishes for his woman, and enjoys doing all the previous things as well. That, to me, is romantic. I guess that's why I've been married for 28 years to a man with these tendencies.

I've always been an incurable romantic, so I adore books about love and happy endings. This makes reading and writing romance an excellent genre choice for me. Also, I started my career as a literary poet with two degrees in creative writing. Since I chose not to pursue that path, historical romance is a perfect place for me to exercise my love for lyrical language. I enjoy painting scenes of poetic beauty, such as the one in Shetland Summer where Drummond, the hero, first meets Gemma, the heroine.

I love romantic stories of great deeds by great people from the past. Since I feel certain many of those great deeds were accomplished by women, but only a few of them were written down, many of my books have "augmented history." I take a real event or person from the past, then slide in my fictional hero and heroine, telling the story of the event from their point of view. In Shetland Summer, my story focuses on the real 16th century Earl of Orkney and Laird of the Shetland Islands. History records represent him as a terrible tyrant, so he became the villain in my story. Gemma Sinclair, the heroine, is struggling to free her uncle from him. In the process, she plays a part in what history tells us really happened to the earl, although that's just a subplot of my story. The focus of the story is on the growing love between Gemma and Drummond and the barriers they must overcome to find love.

In Shetland Summer, Drummond Graham is a man beloved by women. As he travels up the coast buying wool, women fall in love with him for his kindly interest in their lives and his willingness to help with their daily tasks. Yet he loves none of them in return. Through her network of friends, Gemma Sinclair hears of this perfect man and resolves that she will not involve him in her troubles. The last man who tried to help her ended up dead.

Drummond is a man who makes his own decisions, though, and he handfasts with Gemma to save her life. But he doubts that Gemma can be happy with him. His legacy is to wander the world on an endless quest. Though they escape from the earl, they have nowhere to live while they seek to free Gemma's uncle. They take up residence on the moor among the wild ponies, in a stone cottage with no roof and with no ready source of food. The one thing Drummond doesn't doubt, though, is the growing passion he feels for the fair island lass who returns his embraces with a fiery passion of her own.

Just to the north of Scotland, in the wind-tossed North Atlantic, lies a cluster of islands known as the Shetlands. Originally the property of Norway, the islands were pledged to Scotland in 1468 by Christian I as the dowry for his daughter Margaret, who married James III. The dowry was supposed to be paid in gold, but the king did not have the money at the time, and subsequent generations of kings did not manage to redeem the islands. Thus, they became part of Scotland, and the two cultures--Scots and Norse--merged. Today, despite the passage of years, you will find a mixture of Scots and Norse vocabulary, customs, and culture on the islands. The islands are virtually treeless, but you are never far from the sea and the many seabirds, and bird watching is popular there.

I guess I got ahead of myself and already answered the question about Shetland Summer. I should add that Drummond, the hero in this book, appears as the young cousin of the hero in my very popular book Firebrand Bride. Spellbound Summer is about the youngest sister, Angelica, of my Cavandish romance series. In Dorset where she was raised, the guilds will not allow her to practice as a professional potter. So she goes to Argyll, Scotland, and finds her own marvelous bed of clay. Disappointed in love, Angelica never expects her love for her art to be challenged by interest in a man . . . until she meets Geddes MacCallum.  But how can she concentrate on love when she's just discovered that she's digging clay in the middle of property claimed by two different clans.

Geddes, a bold young chieftain, is surprised indeed to find an angel of a maiden digging for clay in the burn near his home. A notorious rakehell, he's never met a woman who didn't fall at once under his seductive spell . . . until he meets Angelica Cavandish. In the midst of the enchanted summer, the fire of their passion for each other burns as hot as the flame in Angelica's kiln. Yet Geddes knows he will have no peace until he finds his clan's magical Faerie Flag, missing for half a century. Only then can he make Angelica his spellbound bride.

Oh, I should mention that my husband is a potter, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to make my heroine a potter.

I can't help but say that I'm enjoying www.RomanceEverAfter.com. This is a new site to me and most enjoyable. I like the combined presentation of both books and many other things romantic.

Gosh, do I have to stop at three? Okay, I have also worn out the site for Castle Duntrune in Argyll, Scotland. I don't remember the exact URL, but this is the castle where I set Spellbound Summer. Imagine my surprise when, after exhausting many avenues to book resources on this castle, I typed in the name of the castle in a search engine and found it had an official web site, complete with photos! While the castle itself is privately owned, various cottages on the grounds are available for rent. Someday, I'm going to go there!

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