My Harlequin Moment: Hope Tarr

Books have always fascinated me, love stories especially.  I still remember being a little kid and my parents taking me to see the Disney version of "Sleeping Beauty" in the movie theater.  Even if the characters were animated, that True Love's Kiss at the very end seemed like...well, a really good thing.

I was still in my "tweens" when I discovered my aunt's secret stash of Harlequin romance novels, which she kept on a bottom bookshelf in a mostly unused sitting room.  Well, maybe the books weren't exactly a secret but certainly they were off-limits to the budding prepubescent likes of me.  I read them anyway.  Since it was summer vacation, and I was still too young to get a permit to work, I had lots of time on my hands, time to do whatever I wanted which in my case meant reading.  I logged in so much time in that sitting room that my grandmother, who lived there as well, threatened to dust me.  I'm not so sure she was joking. ;)

For the next several summers, I read Harlequin romance novels for hours-and hours.  While my friends were out riding bikes or splashing around in swimming pools, I was happily indoors doing a belly flop on my grandmother's big bed, my nose tucked up in a Harlequin.  Historicals and contemporaries; exotic locales and Midwestern ranches, I didn't care.  I loved them all.  I couldn't read fast enough.  Whether the hero was a viscount, a cowboy, or a corporate mogul, he was always dark, daring and dangerous with yep, you guessed it, a hidden heart of gold.  The heroines back then might have listed toward virginal ingénues but still they were smart, sassy, and ultimately the hero's equal match.  The couple faced down a series of Job-like obstacles to surmount, which usually involved a villain who had it in for the hero-and the hots for the heroine.  In the end, the lovers not only prevailed but got married, and it was usually then and only then that they shared their first slightly more than kiss.

These PG-13 romances stirred not only my hormones but my heart and imagination as well.  I knew that someday when I grew up I wanted to not only be a writer.  I wanted to be a romance writer.  I wanted to write great stories like the ones I was by now not so secretly reading.  I wanted to write for Harlequin.

Flash forward several years-okay decades.  I signed my first Harlequin contract in 2006 and my Blaze debut, IT'S A WONDERFULLY SEXY LIFE came out for the 2007 winter holiday season.  More Blazes have followed-a paranormal set in part during the American Civil War (THE HAUNTING); STROKES OF MIDNIGHT, an urban contemporary featuring a down-on-her-luck romance novelist (go figure!); and coming up in January, EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, a second chance at love story set in modern day Manhattan and Belize.  In July I helped to launch the Blaze Historical Miniseries with my Scottish Medieval, BOUND TO PLEASE.  In it, the heroine doesn't fall in love with the laird.  She is the laird.  But then Harlequin never stops growing, evolving.  As a Harlequin author I embrace the variety and welcome the chance to deliver the hopeful Happily Ever After stories to readers that I savored first as a girl and later as a woman in new and fresh ways.

Here's wishing you an autumn filled with sexy second chances, bright new beginnings-and a Harlequin romance novel to fit every setting and mood.
Hope Tarr

About The Author:

A dedicated preservationist, for more than five years Hope has made her home in the Fredericksburg Historic District, the setting for The Haunting, her second Blaze title, scheduled April 2007. Funny thing, Hope's heroine, Dr. Maggie Holliday, just happens to buy an historic house that looks a heck of a lot like Hope's former turn-of-the-century Victorian.

Currently Hope lives in Virginia with too many books and too many cats, not that she'd have it any other way. She loves to hear from readers and runs a monthly contest from her Web site at www.hopetarr.com.