Dreaming of warmer climes, and smokin' hot heroes.

When I first started looking into getting published, a lot of other writers told me that US editors and publishers don't want to read about American settings. They told tales of 'their friend' who had a book set in small town Canada told to rewrite it setting it in...South Carolina/Texas/Florida/name your state. When I was at one of my publishers' dinners at a convention in New Orleans last year, I took the opportunity to ask one of the marketing people if that was true. She nodded and agreed that sometimes they would ask an author to consider changing her story's location.

The thing is, except for I Need You for Christmas which is set in the Haliburton Highlands of central Ontario, I've never really been excited about setting any of my stories locally. I just don't find it...exciting. it's just...here.  Which may explain why my romantic suspense series starts in Arlington Texas, then moves to DC, and why I love writing westerns set in Texas rather than Alberta. Which ends up with me having to bug my friends from south of the border to ask if my character would request a coke, a soda, or a pop, or if pancakes are called pancakes or flapjacks or griddle cakes down there. I think the funniest discovery was learning that while I would have my Texans donning what we would call a toque, Texans would wear a toboggan.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Alberta. And BC. OMG driving through the various mountain ranges from BC to Alberta was one of the best trips I've ever done.  Ontario and Quebec have some spectacular vistas too. From the beauty of Mount Tremblant and the European flavor of Old Quebec City, and all the sparkling lakes of the cottage country of Ontario, the sandy beaches of Sand Banks Provincial Park? They are beautiful.  Yet, when I dream up a story, when a character walks into my head, he rarely lives in the same country.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time writing Texans. Despite the added work, I like writing Texans. I like the romantic idea of it anyway. Mainly I like that their idea of a bad snowstorm is what we'd call a dusting. And how three days later they are taunting me about it being back up into the 60s or 70s. But during January and February, when we're hitting minus thirty degree with the wind chill factored in, and wake up to an extra foot of snow that needs to be shovelled (yes, we spell it with two Ls, not one), it helps to be able to lose myself in my characters' worlds as they curse that damned Texas heat, as one Texan told me she always refers to it.

Then again, I couldn't take the heat they endure all through the summer. Or their nasty brown recluse spiders. Eh, I write fiction--in my world, I can always have my characters be able to retreat to air conditioned vehicles and houses. And have special spider-repelling abilities. Huh, maybe I need to write an anti-Spiderman ;) ...Nah, I think I'll keep writing my hunky firemen and cowboys and let them generate a heat of their own.

By the way, I've got a novella coming out tomorrow -- and yes, it's set in Texas too.

FEEDING THE FLAMES

Sometimes your soulmate has been right in front of you their whole life. It shouldn’t take almost losing them to find them.

Volunteer firefighter Zac Buchanan has been carrying a torch for Tabatha Morgan since…well, forever. A promise he made years ago backfired, sending Tabatha into the arms of another man, and him into a decade of heartache. Now Tabatha’s back in town, newly divorced, and the sparks between them are setting them both aflame.

Tabatha would have bet her secret five-alarm chili recipe that her school girl crush on Zac had died out long ago. Except those slumbering embers reignited the moment Zac walked into her diner. Now each time she sees him—hears him, thinks about him—she can’t imagine her life without him again.

But if their new-found love and sizzlin’ hot action in the bedroom—and living room, kitchen and bathroom—is to survive, Tabatha must also accept the smoke, flames and danger of Zac’s job. Or their happy-ever-after will forever be extinguished.

FEEDING THE FLAMES was originally part of the FIVE ALARM ALPHAS bundle.

Pre-order your copy for just 99 cents through:

Smashwords

Kobo

Nook

iTunes

Normally I'd give you the link to buy through Amazon, but I screwed up when I was loading it and put the wrong price -- now Amazon won't let me fix it until it goes live. But you can buy a Kindle copy through Smashwords if you don't want to wait...

If you want to read more about Feeding the Flames, visit my website. 

In the meantime, I'm going to stay inside, curled up by the fireplace with the cat on my lap and the dog at my feet, and dream about one day being able to open the windows to enjoy balmy breezes and bird song. And better yet, to be able to walk across the floor and touch something without the resulting ZAP of static electricity from all this dry heat. Which isn't that far in the distant future at least.  

Oh and yes, the toque in the photograph is my latest knitting project.  It's not blocked yet, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

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!