My Harlequin Moment: Helen Brenna

Forgive me, but I have two favorite Harlequin moments that immediately come to mind, but they're very, very different, so they both, I hope, bear mentioning.

The first one that came to mind was just a couple months ago at the Romance Writers of America's annual conference in San Francisco.  RWA has an annual award ceremony the last night of the conference, called the RITA, for their published authors which celebrates the best in romantic fiction of the previous year.  I was honored to be a RITA finalist in two categories, Best First Book and Best Series Contemporary Romance Suspense/Adventure.

It's a formal affair with a stage, big screens and an emcee, who happened this year to be Suzanne Brockmann.  Even Nora Roberts took the stage to announce one of the award winners.  Everyone's coiffed to the max.

As I was sitting there, awaiting the announcement of my categories, I was stunned to realize that close to half of the writers nominated were Harlequin authors.  That was when it hit me.  Harlequin authors make the romance market.  There were about 30 Harlequin authors out about 80 finalists.  Suddenly, win or lose, I felt so proud to be a part of such a prestigious and wonderful group.  A sisterhood of romance writers.  

And I guess what made it even more special was that my first SuperRomance, TREASURE, ended up winning the RITA for Best Series Contemporary Romance Suspense/Adventure.  That moment they read my name is something I won't be forgetting for a long while.  This is a pic of me (in the middle) with Susan Kay Law (one of my original critique partners) and Cindy Gerard (one of my Riding with the Top Down blogmates).

The second moment isn't actually a moment at all, but rather an entire summer, a Harlequin summer, the year I turned fourteen.  It's a very vivid time in my mind.  I think I read more romances in those three months than any time in my life.

Why that summer, you ask?  The hormones had kicked in with a vengeance, and I could suddenly imagine boys as useful for something other than bodies in the neighborhood football game.  I was a tomboy, of course.  Shy, as well, blushed at the drop of a hat and had very protective brothers.  Oh, and I wasn't allowed to date until I was sixteen.  

Now if some dastardly guardian had only kept me locked in a castle tower, I would've made a fine heroine in a romance.  Except that I grew up in Smallsville Minnesota and had very nice parents.  Dang.  That ruins it all, doesn't it?

So I'm fourteen, it's summer and I don't have a lot of money.  No allowance at my house and I hated babysitting.  So I didn't buy many books.  Those I did buy, I held of to as if they were pure gold.  (See the picture.  These books are more than thirty, count ‘em thirty, years old!)

Anyway, since I couldn't afford to buy many books, I had to get most of the ones I read from the library.  I remember riding my bike to that old building every week, like clockwork.  I'd check out five or six and head back to my bike, excited to crack that first cover.  After barricading myself in my bedroom, (see previous mention of several brothers) I'd read into the night, staying up until two or three in the morning.  That's saying something for a morning person like me.  I remember one week reading three books in one day.  I had to go to the library twice that week.  If I wasn't falling asleep in the middle of the day, I was getting into trouble for not getting my chores done, for putting off my mom for "one more chapter."

Oh, the men.  We're talking Alpha, right?  Were there any other kind back then?  They were handsome, expert kissers, knew how to flirt and had great, sometimes exotic names.  They were rich too.  Hey, I had planned on being a career woman, but a girl can dream, can't she?  I remember reading some parts (any guesses which ones?) over and over and over.  

But it wasn't all about the romance.  I was a sheltered young woman who'd barely ever traveled outside of the state of Minnesota and had never been on a plane.  These books let me travel in my mind.  I went to the Rocky Mountains, South America, England, the Caribbean Islands.  You name, there was a book set there.  No wonder that today I love writing adventure romances set all over the world.

I'm sure that if I hadn't read every romance that library had on it's shelves that summer, the next summer would've been more of the same.  Except that I had to get a job.  Dang.  What a summer!

Sometimes I miss those old, politically incorrect romances.  How about you?  Anyone else ever skip dinner to get to the next chapter?  Stay up late to finish the book?

And here's the doozy - ever practice kissing in the palm of your own hand?

About The Author:

With a B.S. in accounting, she started career life as a CPA and thought she’d end career life as an old CPA, but the decision to stay home with her kids made all things possible. Helen’s books have been nominated for the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA awards and for a Reviewer’s Choice award by Romantic Times.

She continues to write away, living in Minnesota with her husband, two children, two dogs and three surly (who can blame them?) cats and would love hearing from you. E-mail her at helenbrenna@comcast.net. Bloggers can chat with Helen and several other authors at ridingwiththetopdown.blogspot.com.