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Monday, October 5, 2026
Monday, September 28, 2026
Sometimes the End is Just the Beginning
Hello! I’m Rebecca Heflin, and since this is my first time here, I thought I should begin by introducing myself.
I write contemporary romance and women’s fiction with romantic elements—stories about ordinary people finding extraordinary love, often when they least expect it. Lately, I’ve been especially drawn to writing what I call “seasoned romance”: love stories about characters in their fifties and beyond who bring a little more life experience—and maybe a little more baggage—to their happily-ever-afters.
I’ve published thirteen books over the years, and while my stories are fiction, bits and pieces of my own life inevitably find their way onto the page. Not the events themselves, necessarily, but the emotions behind them.
After all, writers are notorious for repurposing everything that happens to us.
Heartbreak? Material.
Embarrassing moment? Material.
Family drama? Definitely material. (Names changed to protect the guilty.)
And sometimes, the experiences that were the hardest to live through become the richest ones to draw upon years later.
Which brings me to divorce.
When I met my now-husband, I had been divorced for almost three years. It had been an especially rough patch in my life, as most divorces are. A mutual friend introduced us, and I have to admit, I was gobsmacked by him.
I was twenty-eight years old and hadn’t traveled much in my life, unless you counted the many trips I’d made to Georgia to visit family. This man, on the other hand, had just returned from the Galápagos Islands. I had to look them up, by the way. And he was planning another trip that summer to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro.
My head was spinning. I barely knew where these places were, much less imagined that I would ever go there myself.
Spoiler alert: I eventually went to both. Although I did not climb Kilimanjaro. Some adventures are better left to Hubby.
Since then, I’ve traveled to more than twenty-two countries and many U.S. states. This year alone I added Norway, Denmark, Bhutan, and India to the list.
If you had told my twenty-eight-year-old self what her life would eventually look like, she would have said you were lying. Because at the time, I couldn’t see beyond where I was.
I had come out of a very dark period in my life and eventually found a man I could absolutely trust. We built a life together that the younger me could never have imagined—a life filled with love and friendship and adventures in places I once had to find on a map.
Some days, I’m tempted to write my ex-husband a thank-you letter for being such a jerk. Had he not been such a spectacular jerk, I might never have found the life I have today.
Time has a way of changing our perspective on the difficult periods in our lives. The angst I felt back then has become more distant with each passing year. But I can still remember it. And as a writer, I can use it.
When I write divorced characters—especially my heroines—I understand some of the emotions they’re experiencing.
The loss isn’t simply the loss of a marriage. It can be the loss of the future you thought you were going to have. It’s questioning your judgment. Wondering what you missed. Trying to figure out who you are outside the relationship.
And perhaps hardest of all, it’s wondering whether you’ll ever be able to trust someone that completely again.
I can take those emotions and channel them into my fiction.
That’s exactly what I did with Eleanor Marshall in Under the Paris Moon, the first book in my Whirlwind Romances series.
Ellie is in her fifties when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Suddenly, she finds herself occupying a role she never imagined for herself: the divorced middle-aged woman whose husband traded her in for a younger model.
It’s a cliché, and Ellie knows it. That makes it hurt all the more.
She isn’t looking for another great love. She’s still trying to figure out what comes next when her best friend decides Ellie needs a reset—and secretly enters her in a contest to win a dream date in Paris with a real-life romcom heartthrob.
Enter Geoffrey Harrison.
Geoffrey is an aging actor whose once-thriving romcom career is beginning to falter. It turns out Hollywood’s romantic heroes keep getting younger, even if the people watching the movies don’t.
When his agent dreams up a social media contest to generate some buzz, Geoffrey agrees to have a romantic dinner in Paris with the winner.
The unexpectedly attractive Eleanor Marshall.
Then the publicity stunt blows up the internet.
Geoffrey persuades Ellie to extend their date into a ten-day fake romance, complete with handholding, candlelight dinners, romantic strolls through Paris, and, of course, kissing.
It’s like something straight out of one of his movies.
And just like in the movies, it isn’t long before their fake romance is anything but.
The problem is that falling in love requires Ellie to do the one thing she isn’t sure she can do anymore: trust.
And just when she begins to believe she might be ready to take that chance, her fragile trust is shattered.
Can Geoffrey convince her that their story deserves a Hollywood ending? Or will Ellie walk away from a second chance at her own happily-ever-after?
I sometimes wish I could go back and have a conversation with my twenty-eight-year-old self.
I wouldn’t tell her everything that was coming. Where would be the fun in that?
But I might tell her this:
The life you think is over is really just beginning.
There are places you haven’t seen yet. Adventures you haven’t had yet. People you haven’t met yet.
And love?
Well, sometimes the best love story begins after you thought yours had already ended.
Maybe that’s why, all these years later, I still believe so strongly in happily-ever-afters.
And why I love writing them.
Friday, September 25, 2026
WATCHING THE EARL by Lexi Post has Released!
Watching the Earl
(Courting a Curious Lady: Book 6)
by Lexi Post
has released!
Amazon
| Amazon UK
| Amazon AU
| Amazon CA | Amazon DE
Lady
Georgina is devastated. The lord who said he loved her, ruined her, then
married another. Now her parents are desperate to keep her situation private by
marrying her off to the first willing man no matter who he is. But even then,
everything depends on her keeping her shame a secret…and she’s never kept a
secret in her life.
Lord
Philip Durham has lost it all on a sure bet. Desperate to save his father’s
legacy and keep his situation hidden, he agrees to marry a woman with a large
dowry. Discovering she’s also ruined only makes him more determined since it’s
fitting penance for his past failings. Being forced to make a life with her,
and thereby raising his family’s reputation, will satisfy both of his goals.
However,
Lady Georgina appears to have goals of her own, including digging into his
awkward family dynamics and returning to London for the remainder of the
Season. As she becomes more confident, she seems to rise from the ashes of her
old life like the mythical Phoenix. But can he avoid being burned or will her
transformation bring him down in flames?
Need more Curious Ladies? There are five others who have found their happily ever after 😊
About Lexi:
Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance
inspired by the classics. She spent years in higher education taking and
teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan
Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, she's read, studied, and
taught wonderful classics.
But Lexi's first love is romance novels so she married her two first loves, romance
and the classics. Whether it’s sizzling cowboys, dashing dukes, hot immortals,
or hunks from out of this world, Lexi provides a sensuous experience with a
“whole lotta story.”
Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her two cats in Florida. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and you’ll never see her without a hat.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Changes
Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well
and staying safe!
Today, I’m going to talk about change.
There are some who like change…actually look
forward to it. For them, it’s an opportunity and they’re willing (and eager) to
accept that change.
I’m not one of those. You probably already
know that I am a creature of habit, of routine, and I have a really hard time with
anything that upsets that routine. It throws me off because my days are
carefully orchestrated, particularly weekdays.
Am I stuck in a rut?
Maybe, but
with so many things going on, I really need my routines to get everything done.
Weekday mornings are devoted to working on my latest story before heading into
the day job, where anything can happen and usually does, but some reason, I am able to go with the flow! Saturdays are reserved for laundry and cleaning (that’s not to say
I don’t clean during the week because I do, but Saturday is the big cleaning
day for the inside of the house). Sundays are my outside chores, like weeding,
watering the plants, grocery shopping and running errands if I don’t stop on my
way home during the week). See? Nice routines. Easy Peasy.
So here’s what happened to throw a monkey wrench
into my routine. At the day job, we’ve been working from home on Fridays, which
has been really nice. It’s a good day for that. Well, last week, that changed
and we are now working from home on Tuesdays…and I can’t tell you how much that
messed me up (not only me, but everyone I work with, my DH…and my dogs! They
have their routines, too).
But…
I’ve decided to run with it because 1) I have
no choice if I want to keep my day job, which I do, at least until I can retire;
and 2) because shaking things up once in a while can be good for the soul. And
might even be good for the brain.
Why do I say that? Because I realized that, at
its core, change is what I write about. Falling in love is a big change from
the everyday, ordinary things. And that’s what my characters do. My heroes and
heroines are going along with their lives as they know it then boom! Someone
new comes along and shakes it up. In a big way! Maybe they’ve been looking for
love but don’t think it’s in the cards for them. Or maybe they’re not looking
for love at all and are happy with the way things are.
Then suddenly, it just…happens.
They’re in love. They might not be expecting it. Heck, they might have given up
on finding that someone special and then, just like that…the life they knew has
changed!
That’s what happening with Faith and Tysen in
Wife Unexpected. They both have goals, neither of which involves falling in love.
It’s happening anyway, almost against their wills. And it’s been fun (from my
point of view at least).
So, yeah, sometimes change is a good thing!
One last thing before I get back to
Faith and Tysen and turning their lives upside down. I would be remiss if I
didn’t mention that we have new contributors to HEAT (another change!). Welcome
Michelle and Darlene (I love pirates, too)!
Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread
kindness wherever you go!
Marie
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Happy ITLAPD! (International Talk Like A Pirate Day)
Avast, me hearties! I'm Darlene Marshall, and I write historical romance with pirates, privateers, smugglers, and the occasional possum. In honor of this year's International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, I want to give a shout-out to my favorite pirates, the ones Romancelandia refers to as "chicks in breeches."
I've been fascinated by pirates since I was a little girl, especially women pirates like Anne Bonny (pictured in the woodcut) and her bestie Mary Read. In the non-fiction Bold in Her Breeches, author Jo Stanley refers to these women as "transgressive rovers" and there were more of them out there than you might think
When I started writing Sea Change, the first in my High Seas series, I wanted a cross-dressing woman who goes to sea, someone who has to be able to hold her own on a ship full of men. One of the factoids from my research that interested me the most was this: If a woman's true identity was discovered, "he" was sometimes allowed to stay aboard ship if 1. they continued to dress and act as a man and 2. if they had particular skills like my like my surgeon/apprentice physician Charley Alcott. One of these sailors in the historical record is "William Brown", an Anglo-African hero of the Royal Navy who continued to serve after their identity was discovered. William was too valuable as a Master of the Maintop to be discarded during wartime.
Nowadays, of course, women serve with distinction in various navies around the world and when there are pirates about (as there still are), women may be going to sea with them. Transgressive rovers have always been with us, and when we are fighting off space pirates there no doubt will be bold people of all persuasions among them. So hoist your tankard of grog and toast the pirates past and future on International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2026!
Darlene Marshall writes award-winning historical romance set in the early to mid-19th c., mostly set around Florida and the Caribbean. She loves to hear from readers and you can email her at darlenemarshall[at]darlenemarshall[dot]com. Her books are available in French, German, English and Estonian. Marshall is Membership Director of Regency Fiction Writers, an organization for all authors of fiction set across the mid-18th to mid-19th c. She's also Section Leader for Erotic Writing at the Litforum.com. You can find her at her website www.darlenemarshall.com and on various social media sites wasting time when she should be writing her next book. She lives in North Central Florida, an excellent location for driving to the beach to do pirate research and drink mojitos.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Hello All!
Hi everyone!
I'm excited to be joining the group here! I tend to use a lot of emojis and memes, and ellipses LOL so...my apologies 😁
I figured I'd start by introducing myself. I am Michelle McLean/Kira Archer and I write both historical and contemporary romance - over 30 books so far between the two names. One of which has been adapted as a Hallmark Original movie (Truly, Madly, Sweetly). And another (69 Million Things I Hate About You) was optioned by Amazon MGM last year.
My historicals run the gamut of eras. I have everything from Highlanders to Regency to Wild West Gunslingers. Though lately I've mostly been sticking to Regencies.
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Until recently, all my contemporaries were published under Kira Archer.
But my newest - releasing in March and co-written with the amazing Lisa Rayne - will be published under Michelle McLean. So, it's a whole new world for me and my pen names 😍
I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl who is addicted to chocolate and Goldfish crackers (and Bomb Party jewelry...soooo pretty!), and I spent most of my formative years with my nose in a book. My non-writing hobbies include playing piano, diamond painting, regular painting more recently, decorating cakes, and bingeing shows with various members of my family (LURVE me some Ted Lasso!). I always have a book in easy reach, and my dream is to one day have a house with space for a library. With a secret bookcase door. I do not have too many books, despite what my husband says.
I do have a day job working in a high school library and it is a literal dream to be paid to play with books all day. I live in PA with my family, the world's most spoiled dog, and a cat who absolutely rule the house.
I think that covers most of the basics. If you'd like to follow me or sign up for my newsletter, all my links can be found on my website HERE. Along with info on all my books 😊If anyone has any questions about me or my work, please ask away!
~ Michelle
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Last day for PASSION'S POISON by Lexi Post for only 99¢
by Lexi Post
for 99¢ today only
Beatrice Rappaccini refuses to fall in love because she’s cursed
with deadly orgasms, but when she meets Zach Woodman the chainsaw artist, her
heart refuses to obey.
Beatrice
Rappaccini is tired of the one-night stands that keep her alive. Tired of the
illness she causes when she releases her sexual poisons into her partners. But
when she meets Zach Woodman, everything changes. Desperate for what she can’t
have, she puts her heart and life on the line, ignoring the anonymous letters
warning her to stay away.
Zach
Woodman, logger turned chainsaw artist, has the perfect life, but no one to
share it with after the deaths of the women he loved. Fascinated by the
sexually experienced yet naïve Bea, he promises himself he will end their hot
relationship before fate takes another beautiful woman from the world.
But he
discovers Bea has no idea how to have a relationship, and he is perplexed by
her strange behavior, hippie mother, six fathers and her request to give him
every man’s sex fantasy. It is only when he might lose her that he realizes he
must make a decision that will break his heart either way.
About Lexi:
Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance
inspired by the classics. She spent years in higher education taking and
teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan
Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, she's read, studied, and
taught wonderful classics.
But Lexi's first love is romance novels so she married her two first loves, romance
and the classics. Whether it’s sizzling cowboys, dashing dukes, hot immortals,
or hunks from out of this world, Lexi provides a sensuous experience with a
“whole lotta story.”
Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her two cats
in Florida. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and
you’ll never see her without a hat.
Website
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