Leah Braemel on toques, toboggans, and knitting!

Hi everyone! And thanks to Kacey for inviting me to join Romance Eh?

I guess I should introduce myself. *drums fingers and tries to think of a way to sound interesting. Nope, I got nothing.*

Let's start with the basics. Like, my name -- Braemel -- for some reason people have problems pronouncing it. A lot of people pronounce it as BRUM-mel or BRAH-mel (I'm not a brahma bull, believe me!) but I say it as Bray-MEL, the emphasis on the last syllable. And it's A before E.  But really it doesn't matter how you say it as long as you can find my website and buy my books. ;)

I'm from just east of Toronto, Ontario, though that may be changing later in the year depending on the Ontario government and what they decide to do with my hubby's job. As a kid we moved around a bit and lived for a while in my birth city of Montreal, Ottawa and then to a few other small central and southern Ontario towns. I married my college sweetheart back in 1978 and we're still going strong. We have two sons who are now both taller than me -- I'm still adjusting to being the shortest in the family. (Though it helps when my 6'2" youngest can reach those shelves I would have to drag out a stepstool for -- at 5'7" I'm not THAT short, but there are still spots I can't easily access.)

We have a three year old shih tzu named Seamus who behaves more like a cat than a dog -- as in he's the most stubborn dog I've ever met and wants to sit on the arm of the chair like the cat.

We also have a cat named Turtle who in addition to be a crazy cat often behaves like a dog should -- as in he comes when he's called. Although come to think of it, I think Turtle owns us rather than the other way around.

I've worn a lot of hats during my career -- nurse, admin assistant, teacher, and now author. I write steamy stories--westerns and romantic suspenses, but all but one are set in the States. Which means unless I'm writing a Canadian location or character, I've had to learn to edit out my Canadianisms. Like how in one of my early manuscripts of Private Property, my first published story, I had my heroine pulling on a toque.

To which my American critique partners all went "Huh? What's a toque?" (Did you know that in Texas, toques are known as toboggans? Yeah, that one had me and my family howling like monkeys in laughter because who pulls a sled on their head?) But I listened to them and my heroine now pulls on a knit cap.

By the way, the photo above is of the very first toque I knitted, and only the second project I'd knitted at the time. I just discovered knitting in the fall -- a friend of mine suggested we take lessons together after seeing all the beautiful knitted work inspired by Outlander. OMG talk about addictive. Not that I've made anything for me yet -- all my projects have been given away as Christmas presents.  Well, other than the toque. Knitting has been a godsend for letting me unplug in the evenings, and for some reason I've found that it's helped my creativity.

If you want a sample of what I write, on New Year's Eve I released First Night, a short story that is a prequel to Private Property -- it would be a good place to start if you love romantic suspenses, as PRIVATE PROPERTY is the first book in my HAUBERK PROTECTION series.

If you like westerns, there's my Grady Legacy series -- start with Slow Ride Home, and if you love steaming hot erotic westerns (these are menages), try Texas Tangle, or my lone historical Tangled Past. (You can also buy both Tangle books as a bundle.)

Oh and you can find me all over the net:
My Website
Facebook (profile) 
Facebook (page) Not sure how much you'll see with the changes though unless you add the page to a list.
Tsu 
Pinterest (I admit--I'm a Pinaholic)
Twitter

Anything else you want to know about me? How about you tell me about yourself? Do you have any hobbies? What genres do you like to read?  And ... go!