It gives me great pleasure to welcome my friend and fellow Canadian author, Deborah Cooke to the blog. She will be attending Romancing the Capital hosted by Eve Langlais in April 2015.
Home Sweet Home!
By Deborah Cooke
(also writing as Claire
Delacroix)
When I first began to write, I heard that
authors should write what they know. My first books were set in Canada, since
I’m Canadian. I know southern Ontario better than any others. It took a long
time for me to place a book with a Canadian setting: American publishers tend
to be more interested in American readers, who are believed to be more
interested in certain settings (and Canada isn’t one of them!) I did ultimately
sell two Canadian-set romances, and they are two of my favourites of all my
books.
TheMoonstone is a time travel romance. It begins in
medieval England, where Viviane has been condemned as a witch and sentenced to
die. She makes a wish upon a magical pendant, hoping to be taken as far away
from that court of justice as possible. Niall, the knight in charge of this
particular prisoner, can’t believe it when she disappears before his very eyes.
When Viviane ends up on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, she figures
she’s made it to Avalon. It might just be paradise, especially when the hunky
knight who granted her last wish shows up, too. Niall is determined to fulfill
his vow and deliver Viviane back to the court, but a little time together in
British Columbia makes him doubt that she’s really a witch—although he does
find himself under her spell. This is a fun, light-hearted time travel romance,
set in one of my favourite places in Canada. It doesn’t hurt that Viviane—who
has a gift for telling romantic stories—decides to earn her living in our world
pretty much as she did in her own, and resolves (with the help of a few
friends) to become a romance writer. I had such fun writing this book and am
very pleased to have it available in a new edition.
More Information: http://deborahcooke.com/claire-delacroix-books/time-travel-romances/the-moonstone/
My second book with a Canadian setting is Love Potion #9, a paranormal romance,
set in the Annex neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. Lilith is a tarot card
reader and psychic, separated from her one true love for centuries, and waiting
on him to reincarnate. She’s hunted down an elixir of immortality to be sure
she’s still around when he turns up—because Sebastien, despite his promise, is
taking an awfully long time to show up and find her again. Impatient as many of
us get in the middle of a sweltering Toronto summer, she casts a little spell
to hurry him on. Her new neighbour, a single father named Mitch, knocks at her
door and she believes he’s Sebastien. You can imagine the welcome she gives him
after five or six centuries of waiting—and Mitch is astonished by the
friendliness of his new neighbour. I love this story for a number of reasons:
not only does it remind me of the quirky neighbourhood where I lived for years,
but each chapter is named after (and governed by) one of the tarot cards in the
higher arcana. I also love how Mitch and Lilith bring out the best in each
other and build a relationship that really will last for all time. Although
this one is also available in a new edition, I was lucky enough to have the
original cover artist make the illustration available for this edition as
well—I think it’s a perfect image of Lilith in her garden and love that it
still is on the book’s cover.
More information: http://deborahcooke.com/claire-delacroix-books/time-travel-romances/love-potion-9/
I’m planning a new linked series of
contemporary romances right now that will be set in a small town. I’m pretty much
convinced I’ll set it in southern Ontario. That way, I can put that extra u in
lots of words <g> and I’ll know all the best chocolate bars for my
characters to eat. It’ll be like coming home again.
Do you read books with Canadian settings?
Do you choose to read books specifically for that reason, or is something else
more important to you? Maybe you choose by the story, the blerb, or the author.
Tell me what you think of romances set in Canada—whether you read them and why.
About the Author:
Deborah
Cooke sold her first book in 1992, a medieval romance called The Romance of the Rose that was
published under her pseudonym Claire Delacroix in 1993. Since then, she’s
published over fifty novels in a variety of subgenres and under three names.
Her medieval romance, The Beauty, was her first book to land on
the New York Times’ List of Bestselling Books. She’s USA Today bestselling,
nationally bestselling and Kindle bestselling. In 2009, she was the writer in
residence at the Toronto Public Library, the first time that TPL hosted a
residency focused on the romance genre. Currently, she writes the Dragonfire
series of paranormal romances as Deborah Cooke, and the True Love Brides series
of medieval Scottish romances as Claire Delacroix. Her next release is a
collection of short stories and novellas called Beguiled: Tales of fantasy, romance and forbidden love, which will
be available on Thursday. (http://deborahcooke.com/claire-delacroix-books/novellas/beguiled/)
For
more information about Deborah and her books, please visit her website at http://deborahcooke.com
