Welcome to A Bride For All Seasons, a brand new mini-series from Harlequin Romance launching in April 2008!

From reader favorite authors:

Liz Fielding

Fiona Harper

Trish Wylie

and

Shirley Jump

The series begins with The Spring Bride in award winning author Liz Fielding's 50TH BOOK The Bride's Baby

The wedding of the season!

Events manager Sylvie Smith is organizing a glittering fund-raising event: a wedding show in a stately home. She has even been roped into pretending to be a bride…a bride who's five months pregnant!

The bride everyone is talking about!

It should be every girl's dream to design a wedding with no expense spared, but it's not Sylvie's. Longbourne Court was her ancestral home, and she's just discovered that the new owner is Tom McFarlane—her baby's secret father. Now Tom's standing in front of her, looking at her bump.…

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Praise for our Spring Bride ~ multi-award winning author Liz Fielding's 50th book The Bride's Baby.

"Weddings are event planner Sylvie Smith's specialty, and her old friend Candy's is going to be amazing. Then Candy dumps her fiance, billionaire Tom McFarlane, and elopes with someone else. A heated discussion of the subject leads to an even hotter romantic encounter between Tom and Sylvie. Then he leaves the country, never receiving the letter informing him she's pregnant. When Tom returns, he discovers he still wants her, baby or not. Liz Fielding begins A Bride for All Seasons with The Bride's Baby (4.5). This story has everything: sparkling dialogue, multifaceted characters, sizzling chemistry and a powerful emotional core." ~ Romantic Times

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Liz Fieldings’ THE BRIDE’S BABY is sheer magic! One of those feel-good stories that is so realistic it could be drawn from the headlines. I fell hook, line and sinker for smart, savvy Sylvie, a woman whose quick erotic interlude with a handsome man brings a positive result to a pregnancy test." ~ Romance Reader at Heart

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"This is another dazzling story from the pen of Liz Fielding. Sylvie is a tough, no-nonsense heroine, and Tom is a gorgeous hero to fall in love with – and fall I did!" ~ The Pink Heart Society Reviews

Behind The Scenes ~ Excerpt ~ Spring Weddings ~ Author

Want to be in with a chance of winning the entire A Bride For All Seasons collection, all signed by the authors along with goodies from Wales, England, Ireland and America?

Then you've come to the right place.

As our theme here is weddings we'd like you to share with us your wedding day stories. You can add your stories to the comments here or email us at abrideforallseasons@hotmail.com - with pictures if you like! And we'll add them to a special section here at the Blog and select a winner from a random draw at the end of November...

So did you have the wedding you always dreamed of? Are you planning a wedding? Have you always been the bridesmaid? Did you have a wedding nightmare? What is you favourite memory of a wedding day? What season was the wedding in?

Maybe we can even persuade some of the authors to tell us their wedding stories!

The Winter Wedding

A winter wedding can be such a stylish affair - the groom either in traditional morning suit or velvet frock coat, and the bride in a floor-length white gown with a white fur wrap. This is the perfect time of year for luxurious fabrics - sparkling crystals, feathers, fake fur, white velvet and satin. Look for wraps, shrugs, and capes, or dramatic coats - how about a red velvet opera coat to wear over your wedding dress? If you want just a small touch of colour, a narrow dark velvet sash over your dress can subtly pick up the Christmas theme. Embroidery, lace and veils decorated with tiny crystals are all extra beautiful at Christmas time and bridesmaids look great with fake fur stoles around their shoulders and fur muffs to keep their hands warm.

When you're planning a winter wedding, you can indulge in a little fantasy. How about a glittery, sparkling Narnia theme, with lots of frosty white, icy sequins and soft faux fur? Or a nostalgic Dickensian look with bright reds, deep greens, shimmery gold and rich, warm colours? Or, for the minimalists among you, stark and elegant black and white winter wedding themes, with pure white dresses and black tailcoats?

Look for a country house hotel with a grand fireplace for an atmospheric winter wedding and make sure you ask about heating and what seasonal decorations they are planning. Beware of rooms with too many windows, they can seem cold and unwelcoming in winter; and although you may imagine drifts of beautiful snow, you could end up with a freezing sleety day. It might be romantic to arrive at the church or reception by horse and carriage with a fur throw to keep the bride and groom warm. If it's close to Christmas, it is likely that your church or reception venue will already be decorated for festive celebrations, which can save you quite a lot of money, and you could include a popular carol in the wedding service. You will also need to send out your invitations a little bit earlier than usual for a December wedding - about 12 weeks before the event, as people make plans early for Christmas.

If you are having a church service, it might be nice to have a choir sing some carols while you sign the register or have the organist play traditional Christmas music. A madrigal choir or string quartet could welcome guests into the venue with Christmas music and the DJ can play Christmas party songs as well as current hits when you all hit the dance floor.

For food you can have all of your winter favourites - smoked salmon canapés, Parma ham and fig wraps and goats cheese parcels make great winter nibbles, and how about a warming winter vegetable soup to start? Roast beef or lamb is a great option for the main course, followed by a rich dessert and cheese. Consider serving hot winter Pimms, mulled wine, or hot chocolate as a warming welcome drink or outside during the photographs if the weather permits. A white iced wedding cake, decorated with snowflake patterns, silver decorations, and flowers that suit your scheme will really complement the winter wedding theme.

There are so many great combinations and colour schemes for winter - silver or gold and white creates an elegant Christmas look, or celebrate the festive season with reds and greens. Try silver-dollar eucalyptus mixed with white roses, lilies and stephanotis. If you're looking for a colourful bouquet, consider deep red roses with berries and greenery. Flowers that are in season such as tulips, roses, and ornamental berries will be better value and smell wonderful and gold and silver ribbons add a celebratory touch.

Decorate your tables with white linen table cloths, and beautiful white poinsettias or winter roses and use plenty of spiced winter scented candles. Create a magical atmosphere by hanging fairy lights around doorways, over tables and on archways. You could use miniature Christmas trees with fairy lights on tables, and why not use some Christmas snow-globes as centrepieces? If you get married late in the day you could hold the entire ceremony and reception by candlelight.

A ceramic Christmas tree decoration makes a perfect winter keepsake, as does a scented candle with the bride and groom's name on the label. Small gold mesh bags of gold chocolate beans make festive gifts, or small boxes of truffles or Turkish delight. For Christmas weddings you could have individually boxed luxury mini-mince pies.

The Summer Bride ~ Excerpt

First date: Trafalgar Square, London...

When cautious Fern Chambers is challenged by a friend to say yes to every question, she never expects to spend four days with dreamy Josh Adams in a charity treasure hunt.

First Dance: Covent Garden...

Daredevil millionaire Josh never stays in one place - or with one woman - for long. But Fern is challenging that rule...

First Kiss: The National Gallery...

As the final clue is solved, Josh realises the treasure he's been looking for is, in fact, the beautiful Fern. Can he persuade her to answer yes to his final question, the most important one of all?

~ o O o ~

Excerpt:

‘No, I can’t. I don’t think I can do this!’

Solid ground was a distant memory. Fern glanced down past her feet and a tidal wave of nausea crashed in her stomach. The Thames glittered in the June sun and London politely carried on about its business one hundred and fifty feet below her. Someone behind her muttered, ‘Is she going to jump, or not?’

Not. Definitely not. Surely, if God had meant us to do this we’d have been born with lengths of elastic attached to our feet.

She gulped. Every muscle in her body had tightened itself into a dozen knots. She closed her eyes, but that just made things worse. The darkness magnified the dull roar of the traffic and the flap of the bungee cord as it swung in the faint breeze. Her body swayed.

No. She was not going to do this.

Her eyes snapped open and she twisted her head, opening her mouth to tell them it had all been a horrible mistake. But, before the sounds emerged from the back of her throat, a warm pair of hands steadied her on either side of her waist.

‘She’s all right. Aren't you, Fern?’

Fern shook her head, but the squeak that finally made it out of her mouth sounded an awful lot like yes.

She caught a faint hint of aftershave as he moved closer, felt his breath as it tickled the fine tendrils of hair that had worked their way out of her ponytail and now curled in front of her ears.

‘You can do this.’ The voice sounded so warm and reassuring. ‘You know that, don't you?’

For a second, Fern almost forgot where she was, high on a crane on the banks of the Thames. Almost forgot the crowd of onlookers and charity event organisers looking up at her from the hard concrete below. She recognised that voice!

Josh was here.

And he was right behind her, whispering words of encouragement into her ear. Her pulse didn’t know whether to speed up, slow down or stop all together. But, bizarrely, she felt safe with him there, so close she could feel the beat of his heart against her back.

‘Yes,’ she whispered. This time, she half-believed her answer.

‘So... I'm going to count to three, and when I say go, you just allow yourself to fall.’

He had the most delicious voice. It seemed to curl and roll inside her ears. She got carried away just listening to the sounds, the individual syllables, forgetting the meaning of the words. And then suddenly she realised he was saying three.

‘But, I—’

He didn't shout; he said the next word so gently it was almost as if he’d just breathed out. ‘Go.’

And then she was falling, falling—the breath sucked so hard from her body that she couldn't even scream.

From the title: Saying Yes To The Millionaire. By: Fiona Harper Imprint and series: Mills & Boon Romance Date: April 2008 Copyright: © 2007 by Fiona Harper By: Harlequin Books S.A. This excerpt is posted by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. For more romance information surf to: http://www.eharlequin.com/

Saying Yes To The Millionaire is available in June 2008 and can be pre-ordered from both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

~ Behind The Scenes ~ Home ~ Author Bio ~Summer Weddings

The Summer Bride ~ Behind The Scenes

The inspiration…

What would you do if you had to say ‘yes’ to every question you were asked? I spotted a similar sentence on a tag line of a New Year article in a magazine. I’m sure you know the sort of article I’m talking about. The kind that encourages you to take up new hobbies and embrace strange fads. I stopped in my tracks and didn’t even bother to read the rest. The lightning bolt had already struck and an idea for a story was brewing. A nice, ordinary girl could get herself into all sorts of trouble if she accepted a challenge like that, couldn’t she?

This spark of a story then combined with another idea. I absolutely love the hit TV show ‘The Amazing Race’ in which teams race each other around the globe trying to beat each other to a million dollars and had been waiting for an excuse to throw a hero and heroine into that pressure-cooker situation where everything they’d been trying to hide would come bubbling to the surface.

And why send them racing round the globe, I thought, when they have the wonderful cosmopolitan city of London on their doorstep? So I set the entire book in London and learned some very interesting facts about the city in the process. So, because she can’t say no to Josh, Fern ends up partnering him in a treasure hunt that last four days. All they have is £10, the clothes on their backs and each other. I’m not telling you if they find the treasure first or not – you’ll have to read the book to find out!

Heroine…

Fern Chambers is a risk analyst for a big insurance company. She spends her days weighing up how dangerous everything is and working out how to avoid it. Unfortunately, that philosophy has spread into her personal life too. Her much-loved older brother died of cancer when she was just a child and, since then, her parents have done their best to protect Fern from the big, bad world. Fern thinks she’s broken free of her parents’ suffocating influence, but old habits die hard and some attitudes and behaviours are so ingrained that it’s going to take a catastrophe to shake her loose…

Hero…

Josh Adams is the boy next door – literally. He was Fern’s brother’s best friend and the boy Fern had a gigantic crush on growing up. In contrast to safety-conscious Fern, Josh is an adventurer and a wanderer, never happy unless he’s moving – preferably at high speed with an accompanying adrenaline rush. Now he’s back in town and has decided to rope Fern into helping him out in the Secret London treasure hunt.

Only he hadn’t anticipated noticing how much ‘little’ Fern has grown up, or the sudden need to plant kisses on her in front of major London landmarks. So, as Fern and Josh race around London, they discover surprising things about the magical city, about themselves and especially about each other…

~ Excerpt ~ Home ~ Author Bio ~ Summer Weddings

The Summer Bride ~ Fiona Harper ~ Biography

As a child, Fiona was constantly told off for two things: having her nose in a book and living in a dream world. Things haven't changed much since then, but at least in writing she’s found a use for her runaway imagination.

Fiona grew up in the London suburbs and was nearly always doing something arty as a teenager. In fact, she found it difficult to narrow her interests down to one discipline. She got the performance bug and dancing won the race as she considered what to study at university. After get an honours degree in Dance and Theology (don’t even start with the dancing nun jokes!) Fiona worked as a dancer, teacher and choreographer before trading that career in for video editing and production.

Fiona joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association) in 2005 and submitted her first completed manuscript to their New Writers’ Scheme and nervously awaited the verdict. Much to her delight, they liked it and decided to send it on to Harlequin Mills & Boon, who bought it two weeks later!

In 2006 Fiona received the RNA's Joan Hessayan New Writers' Award for her first book, Blind-Date Marriage, which also won a Cataromance Reveiwer's Choice award and was nominated in two categories, Best First Book and Best Traditional Romance for the prestigious RITA award in 2007. This year has also brought more good news, with both Her Parenthood Assignment and English Lord, Ordinary Lady making their way onto the shortlist for the RNA's Romance Prize.

Fiona still live in London with her husband and two daughters, but her other favourite places to be are the highlands of Scotland and the English countryside on a summer’s afternoon. She loves cooking, good food and anything cinnamon-flavoured. Of course, she still can’t keep away from a good book, or a good movie—especially romances—but only if she’s stocked up with tissues, because she knows she’ll need them before the ending, be it happy or sad.

To find out more about Fiona and her books you can visit her website at http://www.fionaharper.com

~ Behind The Scenes ~ Home ~ Excerpt ~Summer Weddings

The Summer Wedding

Summer remains the most popular wedding season, with warm sunshine and pretty flowers adding to the atmosphere of the occasion. Many brides and grooms take advantage of warm weather, sultry summer evenings, endless sunshine, lush green vegetations, and clear blue skies.

For tropical countries, the summer starts at April and ends at May. For northern and southern countries, the summer starts at June and ends at September.

Summer weddings are ripe for an outdoor setting such as a beach, a garden, a traditional church filled with summer flowers or a beautiful yard. Take advantage of the long days with an afternoon wedding, or highlight the glorious sunsets by saying your vows as the sun goes down behind you so the guests enjoy the warm breeze of summer.

You can use fresh fruits and vegetables to decorate -- perhaps including clementines and cumquats in your flower arrangements, or simply filling a large vase with bright yellow lemons. Bring light to an evening wedding with torches and strings of lanterns in the trees. An extra-summery idea is to use gingham tablecloths with a few sunflowers in metal watering cans as centerpieces.

The bride who marries in the warmth of the summer is a lucky one; over 75% of dresses are sleeveless and/or strapless, making them perfect for the season. Look for light fabrics such as organdy, linen, chiffon, crepe, georgette, and other light weight silk, so as to not add too much bulk. Same goes to suits, ties, and trousers for the men.

Then there are beach weddings. At a beach wedding, look for an easy and elegant slip dress, the bridal party can all go barefoot, and the men can wear dress shirts with slacks, or linen suits.

Think about sunsets, sand sculptures, white sands, mountain background, beach rocks, palm trees, coconut trees, and clear blue waves for wedding photos...

For a garden wedding you could consider big straw hats, either for just you or for all the bridesmaids. You might even choose brightly colored dresses or short floral cocktail dresses for the bridesmaids to really evoke the season. The men in the bridal party can go for the classic navy blazer with khaki slacks, or beautiful suits. Or for a more formal affair, there's no reason not to choose morning suits or tuxedos (depending on whether it's an evening or daytime wedding) but give a nod to the season by replacing the black tuxedo jacket with a natty white dinner jacket.

Of course, for all the women in the bridal party you must think about what heat, humidity and moisture will do to your hair. Most importantly, don’t try to fight your hair in the summer: straight hair will get straighter and limper, and wavy hair will get wavier and frizzier. Updos by a professional who will design a long-lasting style are one of your best bets. A crown of flowers, or a single large flower tucked into your hair will look summery and beautiful.

As the summer weather opens the wedding to the outdoors you could think of outdoor games, colorful parades, picnics, tented backyard, tented garden, green lawns, tropical cocktails, beaches, palm trees, lanterns, sea shells, torches, parks, and white flowers as the wedding summer theme. The guests might even like outdoor games - a variety of badminton, volleyball, football, sack race, lawn bowling, horseshoe dart, and Frisbee. The blue skies are the limit!

You can't go wrong with an abundance of flowers at a summer wedding. In fact there are so many varieties in season, you may have a tough time narrowing your choices down! Fill the scene with bright and cheerful flowers such as roses, sunflowers, red and yellow calla lilies, dahlias, gerber daisies, cosmos, mums, and zinnias. Bright purple dendrobium orchids are much less expensive during the summer months, so you can feel like a queen without the budget of one. An alternative idea is an airy summer look with mostly white and light colored flowers such as roses, stephanotis, white phlox, elegant white calla lilies, huge and fragrant casa blanca lilies, hydrangea, snowball mums, and daisies. Flower accents on wedding dresses elegantly complement the already lovely wedding dress like crown of flowers, and bouquet of flowers.

As to the food - celebrate the bounty of the season by filling your menu with fresh fruits such as watermelon, and berries, and fresh vegetables such as corn. Between courses, or as an additional dessert, offer refreshing granitas and sorbets. An elegant summer wedding menu could include a bevy of cold meats and fresh seafood, including lobster and oysters. Start with lobster bisque, green salads or fruits and to quench thirsts, you may use tropical cocktails, lemonade, lime soda, or any fruit juices. As for dessert, the different flavors ice cream and gelato will cool off the summer heat.

Then send your guests home with a taste of the season: a fresh pear, or earlier in the summer, a ripe peach. For a beach wedding, you might consider giving out perfect sand dollars, seashells, or beach-themed candles. Summer weddings are also perfect for seeds or small pots of flowers as favors. If it will be warm or extra sunny, give out beautiful wooden fans or paper parasols to use during the ceremony and then take home. Love-boat candles, wooden sailboats, coconut shell candles, seashells gel candles, miniature Adirondack chair, mini torch, mini lanterns, palm tree candles, orchid gel candles, mini flip flops card holders, mini vine chair, ice cream scoop, paper fan, golf tee set, palm leaf fan, palm leaf handbags, miniature sandals, mini flip flop keychain, and river stone candy... so much to choose from!

~ Behind The Scenes ~ Excerpt ~ Home ~ Author Bio ~

The Autumn Bride ~ Excerpt

Of all the cities in the world, he chose Paris to propose!

Ronan O'Keefe has everything money can buy. He'd give it all up in an instant to keep the one thing he's losing. The jet-setting playboy is slowly being robbed of his sight.

Alone in New York, Kerry Doyle isn't feeling quite so brave about her trip around the world. Luckily, a millionaire has come to her rescue...

By the time they get to Paris, Ronan doesn't want to let beautiful, bubbly Kerry go. His secret is casting its shadow, but Kerry has lit up his life...

~ o O o ~

Excerpt from The Millionaire's Proposal by Trish Wylie ~ The Autumn Bride in Harlequin Romance's A Bride For All Seasons:

With his finger still painting lazy circles on the soft canvas of her palm and his gaze still tangled with hers, he couldn’t help but feel exactly the way he had when he’d met her on the plane during the second leg of the flight to New York; wishing there was more time.

How many amazing places could he have shown her? How many things could he have seen with the same sense of magic he had the very first time simply because he was seeing them through her eyes? How many nights would there have been for long, languid sessions of -

Well, suffice to say if he were the kind of man to let himself wallow in bitterness he’d have been doing it for not having those chances with someone like her.

But the specialist in New York had put paid to any glimmer of hope he had left so this trip with her was his last chance to escape facing up to reality.

Cowardly? Probably.

He could hear the husky edge in his voice when he spoke, hiding his intense desire to accept the silent invitation she was unconsciously issuing to be kissed by focussing on her hand,

“I’ll make it up to you,” He silently cleared his throat and spoke in a steadier, intimately low tone, “You tell me what fantasies didn’t make it off that list of yours this time round and I’ll see what I can do about fulfilling them. How does that sound?”

He made the mistake of glancing up when she didn’t answer, Kerry’s lashes dropping down from where she’d apparently been studying his hair. And after a brief flutter of her lashes, as if she was embarrassed being caught studying him, she looked him straight in the eye – and the smoldering heat he saw in hers hit him so hard it was like being kicked in the chest.

Heaven help him – had she added being with him to her list? Because if she had – he wasn’t sure he had the strength to deny her. Not when he wanted her as badly as he did while she looked at him like that.

“You’re gonna try and fulfil all my fantasies inside three months are you?”

Even her voice did him in. That soft, oh-so-feminine tone that was purely Kerry and probably always would be to him, even years after he’d left her to his memories. He’d bet in decades to come that if he heard a voice remotely like hers, even in darkness, he’d feel drawn towards the sound.

Why did he have to meet someone like her now? What kind of sick cosmic joke was that? Ronan dearly wanted to hit something – hard.

Her head tilted to one side, a curtain of rich chestnut waves glinting in the reflected light from the windows and the soft glow of the candles on their table. Finely arched brows then lifted a miniscule amount as she searched his eyes; as if she could see inside him and knew something was wrong.

He sincerely hoped she couldn’t. And just to be sure, he smiled a slow smile at her, his fingertip tracing the answer to her question on her palm,

‘Y – E – S –‘

Kerry’s moist lips parted in surprise, her gaze dropping to her hand as he finished tracing the ‘S’ and then rising as he smiled a larger smile at her.

She then laughed huskily – the sound doing all kinds of amazing things to his libido.

Amazing. He thought it about her more and more with each passing day. And he wanted to be the man to fulfil at least some of those fantasies. Who could blame him?

“Tell me all of them…”

“My fantasies?” She waited long enough for him to nod – just the once, “And then where would my sense of feminine mystique be, hmmm?”

She quirked her brows, this time in challenge, a teasing light diluting some if the heat that’d been so palpable in the air between them, “I gotta have something to work with to keep me interesting for the next couple of months, don’t I?”

“You’re interesting enough already.”

“You might not think so if you knew me better.”

He shook his head, reluctantly freeing her hand and leaning back in his seat as he mumbled his reply beneath his breath, “I doubt it.”

Lifting his napkin from his knees, he nodded at her cup, “Do you want to finish that? We have a ways to go tomorrow and an early start, so –“

“Yes an early night sounds good,” When her words translated into an innuendo regarding the activities people could get up to on ‘early nights’, his gaze locked with hers again, and he was rewarded with a dimpled, mischievous smile in return, “I’m done.”

Good, ‘cos so was he - in more ways than one – not least of them being with the constant daily battle against his attraction to her. The sooner she was tucked safely away in her room the better.

He made it all the way to the doors of their rooms, only briefly checking up and down the wide hallway before he made the mistake of looking in her eyes again.

Bad move.

Because when her long lashes rose and she looked at him with the same silent invitation she’d issued over the table he could feel himself weakening; the memory of the one kiss they’d shared slamming into the front of his brain, gaze dropping to her lips just as she damped them that way she always seemed to do when he looked there.

Give him strength. Wanting her was selfish.

Her voice was breathless, “If you aren’t going to kiss me then you have to leave - right now – before I do something I’ll be embarrassed about in the morning…”

He looked back into her eyes, “Not a modern thinking, take-the-initiative-yourself kinda gal then I take it?”

“That’s why you’d have to leave.”

From "The Millionaire's Proposal" by Trish Wylie Mills and Boon / Harlequin Romance July 2008 ISBN: TBC Copyright: © 2007 Trish Wylie ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. The edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. For more romance information surf to: http://www.eHarlequin.com

The Millionaire's Proposal is available in September 2008 and can be pre-ordered from both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. For more information follow the links below...

~ Behind The Scenes ~ Home ~ Autumn Weddings ~ Author ~

The Autumn Bride ~ Behind The Scenes

Of all the cities in the world, he chose Paris to propose!

Ronan O'Keefe has everything money can buy. He'd give it all up in an instant to keep the one thing he's losing. The jet-setting playboy is slowly being robbed of his sight.

Alone in New York, Kerry Doyle isn't feeling quite so brave about her trip around the world. Luckily, a millionaire has come to her rescue...

By the time they get to Paris, Ronan doesn't want to let beautiful, bubbly Kerry go. His secret is casting its shadow, but Kerry has lit up his life...

~ o O o ~

The Millionaire's Proposal, is a story that would never have existed if it hadn't been for a phone call with my lovely editor Jenny Hutton - she who drags, sometimes kicking and screaming mind you, the best possible work out of me, even when I think I can't do it... Now we have lots of these I should point out and in fairness a great many of them are just as peppered with discussions of hot men and lots of laughing as they are with actual story/book plans - but on this one occasion she invited me to *think outside the box*. At this stage I may have used the phrase *you might wanna be careful what you wish for with me*... and she's met me so she knew what I meant by that...

But without that impetus I doubt I would ever have tackled a story that would stretch me quite like this one did. *Outside the box* apparently translated in my head as *let's see how much work we can make for ourselves shall we?*

So let's just take our characters out of Ireland for a change - not enough? Okay - let's take them round the world - in 50-55k - AND fit in a plot at the same time. Let's have most of the destinations be somewhere I've never been - check. Oh and let's throw in an absolute doozy of a conflict for the hero shall we? And have the heroine not catch on until the end of the book. Oh and try to make sure there are hints sprinkled liberally all the way through it for her so when she DOES put it all together she feels like a complete idiot on top of everything else...

Oh and let's not forget to let our fast paced, full of one-liners and completely and utterly contemporary Modern Heat voice loose on the Romance line just to see what happens. Yuh-huh this book is literally cover to cover chock-a-block full of writers angst. But you know what? It's a book I'm soooo proud of! And I made myself bawl - not cry or weep or shed a tear - but bawl at the end. That's how real these people and their emotions were to me.

I put my heart and soul into this book and I can only hope it shows.

*Outside the box* is a scary place to be - but lemme tell ya; it's one heck of a rollercoaster ride! And I quite like it out here...

Locations in this book:

Everybody got their passports ready?

Then allow me to take you on a round-the-world-trip... New York, San Francisco, Fiji, Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai, Paris and then back home to dear old Ireland for a bit of a wedding...

And there's a small mention of the Canadian Rockies and Hawaii along the way. Sigh. Cannot begin to tell you how much I wanted to be ON this trip.

The initial idea for this of course came from my adventures in the summer of 2007 when little-miss-live-in-the-writing-cave set forth on her first ever trip to the USA. First stop New York - where I fell completely and utterly in love with the city. And because writers never ever stop plotting stories in their heads there was of course plenty to get my imagination working! Hence this story starts with Kerry meeting Ronan on the plane to New York. A little daydreaming on the plane on the way over perchance Trish? Possibly...

Then there's the scene in Battery Park at the bottom end of the island of Manhattan where Ronan dances Kerry through the movement sensitive fountains. I sat in that park in front of those fountains in flipping 97 degree odd heat and thought seriously about dancing in them. Doesn't take much for you to get where that idea might have come from then... Did you dance in the fountains Trish? Erm - no - I'd have been about three feet taller than everyone who was. But man it looked like fun!

So all the New York stuff is from personal experience. And barring the fountains and the handsome guy to kiss me in Times Square I did most of the things in most of the places Kerry and Ronan do - I like to think of it as field work. And believe me - I hope to do a great deal more of it...

But as well as personal experience I also got to indulge a dream or two on paper. Where would you have sent them if you'd been me? I even asked the lovely lovely gang over at The Pink Heart Society Yahoo Loop for places 'off the beaten track' as Ronan is a travel writer and would know all those places, right? The response was over-whelming! And with members all over the world I got a TONNE of places I now have in a file for future reference. So THANK YOU LADIES!

In the end I added a lot of places I researched and just thought - WOW - I wanna go there and do that! It's my story after all. I took them to San Francisco 'cos that's where I'm hoping to be in the summer of 2008 - I took them to the most gorgeous paradise of an island in Fiji because, heck, do I have to explain why? Then while trying to pin down one place for them to visit in Australia I thought to myself - would you really go all that way to that gorgeous country and only visit the one place? I wouldn't. With that in mind I tripped across the Great Southern Pacific railway; taking passengers a-la-Orient-Express all along the coast from Sydney to Brisbane to the Great Barrier Reef to... well... again - I wanna go!!! And having taken Kerry to such an amazing place in Fiji Ronan really had to pull something out of the hat that was on a par with that fantasy. By now, understandably, I'm a little in love with Ronan myself.

All in all there isn't a single place in this book I haven't either visited or really, really want to some time in the future. I'm thinking of making a list like Kerry's as it happens...

And how better to wrap up the story than with a proposal by the Fontaine du Medici in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris followed by a dream wedding in Kinnity Castle in Ireland? Really doesn't get much better than that.

Now where did I leave my passport?

Trish

The Millionaire's Proposal is out in September 2008 and is The Autumn Bride in our Bride For All Seasons mini-series.

~ Excerpt ~ Home ~ Autumn Weddings ~ Author ~

The Autumn Wedding

Believe it or not, it's claimed autumn or fall is the second most popular time of year to get married. Think of storybook settings such as inns, 18th century churches and meeting houses, old mills and even barns. A fall wedding can be casual yet elegant set in a beautiful old barn. You might also look at an apple orchard, a vineyard, or any place that will have a view of autumn foliage. If you live in a climate where the leaves don’t change, look for a venue with lots of rich dark wood and warmth such as a gentleman’s club or university club. A fireplace is an extra special touch.

Set the tone for your fall wedding as soon as your guests enter with sheaths of wheat or corn at the entrance. Choose either rich jewel tones to decorate the room, or a traditional fall color scheme such as reds, oranges, browns and yellows. A modern fall color scheme uses only chocolate brown with light-blue accents. Fill the room with the bounty of the season - pumpkins, cornucopias, acorns, and gourds. Make jack-o-lanterns with decorative patterns rather than scary faces, or use paper bag luminaria for a similar effect.

An ultra-formal wedding can easily have elements of a fall/autumn theme without sacrifing the formality of the event. One of the ways in which this can be done is through your choice of colors. A few color combinations that can be considered both formal and autumnal are: burgundy & hunter, and wine & navy. By using these color combinations (as well as many others) you can maintain a formal air to your event while still maintaining your theme. These colors can be apparent in your decor, your flowers and even the attire for your wedding party.

A casual or informal affair is just as simple to create. Again, setting the tone is the key. In this case, color combinations such as rust/brick & kelly green or buttercup & light orange/dark peach can be used. Another way to set the tone of an informal fall wedding is by using decorations that reflect the casual atmosphere. In light of the fact that autumn is such a varied season, your only limit is your imagination. You can use any of the elements that you enjoy, and your wedding and reception will reflect those things you enjoy about the season.

There are many ways in which you can incorporate the fall theme into your wedding. For the most part, these ideas are very simple to execute. One of the easiest ways to incorporate the theme into your ceremony is by adding small touches that reflect fall/autumn. One idea is to use a pew bow comprised of printed ribbon with fall themes instead of the traditional white/ivory. This can range from prints of leaves to prints of pumpkins. For a more formal event, wide burgundy or hunter ribbon edged in gold can be used. Fall colors can be used in floral arrangements and a variety of fall flowers can be used as well.

Grapevine wreaths can be used on wall spaces at the ceremony or reception site. You can also use the items used for the ceremony as decorations for the reception. Pew bows can be tied to terra-cotta pots and filled with mini-pumpkins or colored leaves for centerpieces. You can also use swags of silk flowers or autumn leaves to decorate. There are numerous silk flower color choices (and fall flower choices) that are sold in the stores for fall decorating purposes and you can browse until you find choices that will reflect the formality and tone of your wedding and reception.

When it comes to flowers, generally you can find Mums, roses, daisies, yarrow, fall leaves, tallow berries and both natural and dried wheat for inexpensive prices during the fall. A spray of wheat or a mum accented with a pheasant feather makes an elegant boutonnière. Consider hollowing out pumpkins for your centerpiece containers – if you don’t have the time, many craft and home stores now sell realistic fake pumpkins. But if you go with the real thing, consider white or blue natural pumpkins for an elegant and unique touch.

Dress wise the autumn bride look can be cream and off-white dresses with gold beading and accents. Bridesmaids look wonderful in jeweltone dresses; matching the groomsmen’s vests to their dresses. Look at rich fabrics such as brocades and velvets for a luxurious touch. Remember that weather in the fall can be tricky – it may be hard to know in advance whether your wedding day will be warm or chilly - so maybe the bride and bridesmaids could wear strapless dresses with capelets, stoles or wraps and on a warm day, the overlayer can be easily removed.

The most traditional autumnal dinner is a roasted turkey with pumpkin pie for dessert in the States, but there are so many other options for a wedding menu. From roasted quail to standing rib roast, choose a hearty meat that will pair well with heavier side dishes such as squash and mashed potatoes. A mushroom ragout evokes the season and provides a nice entrée for your vegetarian guests. You might start the meal with a hearty soup accompanied by whole grain rolls. Serve warm apple cider in glass mugs with a cinnamon stick stirrer, and offer an alternative to wedding cake with a baked apple dessert.

You can give favors in keeping with the season too, such as a beautiful apple tied with a gold ribbon, or a bottle of maple syrup. If you have a sweet tooth, give guests caramel apples wrapped in cellophane, or give a DIY kit of a caramel apple recipe with all the ingredients they’ll need - a perfect apple, some caramels, and a Popsicle stick. Help your guests decorate for the season by giving them mini pumpkins, or an ear of ornamental corn tied with some wheat and a pretty fall ribbon. Marzipan fruit is also a wonderful fall wedding favor. Or, if you’re crafty, the idea of giving each guest a jar of homemade preserves as they leave is lovely.

~ Behind The Scenes ~ Home ~ Excerpt ~ Author ~

The Autumn Bride ~ Trish Wylie ~ Biography

Trish currently lives in County Fermanagh, Ireland - right on the border between North and South and within *hitting distance* of Counties Donegal and Leitrim. She's a single gal and shares her life with her cats and her horses and a plethora of friends and family who all live nearby in equally as small rural communities as the one she lives in herself.

She's an author who had wanted to write for Mills & Boon since she was a teenager - telling friends and whoever would listen that was what she would do it one day - 'you just wait and see'. After varying careers ranging from Promotions and Marketing and Sales she went back to her roots and trained with horses, completing BHS exams and teaching small kids to sit on ponies while she competed on the local circuit with her own horse One Day-Eventing.

After an accident Show-Jumping, when she ended up with blood clots that were caught working their way up an artery to her heart, Trish had some time to re-evaluate the dreams she'd once had for her life and decided to go back to a book she had started writing at eighteen. That book was her first submission, her first sale and later went on to win her first award when The Bridal Bet won the Romantic Time's Reviewer's Choice Award for Best First Series Book of 2005.

Trish continued to work full time as a Professional Show Groom on the UK and Irish circuit while writing her first few books - no mean feat while working a forty to sixty hour and travelling! But when an old injury to her shoulder placed her flat on her back for a month she knew it was time to make a decision between two jobs she loved and writing won with Trish going full time in September 2005.

Since then Trish's Romance line books have earned her another two Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award nominations - winning her second award for Best Harlequin Romance of 2007 with Rescued: Mother-To-Be - she has finaled in the Virginia Romance Writer's HOLT Medallion, finalled in the EPPIE Award for e-books and won several Cataromance Reviewers Choice Awards and nominations along the way.

When she branched out into Modern Extra her first book - White-Hot - won a Cataromance Reviewer's Choice Award and when released as a Harlequin Promotional Presents under the title The Firefighter's Chosen Bride made it onto the Waldenbooks Best-Seller list with the other three Modern Extras.

You can find out more about Trish and her books on her website, http://www.trishwylie.com/

~ Behind The Scenes ~ Home ~ Autumn Weddings ~ Excerpt ~

The Spring Wedding

Many couples choose spring as the perfect season for their big day. Springtime is a time of romance, renewal and new beginnings. With the temperate weather and newly blooming flowers, there's no doubt that spring is a great time to tie the knot.

A Spring wedding brings a splash of excitement to what can be a long, slow trek toward summer. And the season gives rise to all kinds of enthusiasms. Even the blackest thumbs among us starting paging through gourmet food magazines and seed catalogs, and dreaming of wild strawberries and serviceberry trees, rhubarb pies and fresh asparagus.
So it's a sure thing your wedding guests will show up in a celebratory mood. Which means that all you need to do is plan the ceremony — and party — of your dreams, and the rest will follow.

Spring wedding colours break down into several camps. First, there's the "I just like it!" girly colors. You know, timeless choices like butter yellow, pink, lavender and pastel green. In fact for pink brides spring's probably the easiest time to get away with your favorite color!

Then there are the trendy colours. Chocolate brown is still so strong, it even shows up at spring weddings. But more common than a phalanx of chocolatey bridesmaids is taupe, which has that trendy zing but lightens things up a lot. Popular complements are the usual suspects: hot or pale pink, orange, baby blues, lime green or chartreuse.

City brides wanting an ultra-urban look need only turn to the newest colors of the season. Start with steel gray — often paired with a crisp white and a sophisticated honey-wheat.

As for patterns, this is where things get interesting. Florals with a telltale geometric spin are everywhere. Be a little tongue-in-chic and consider drawing on spring patterns and textures like gingham, Swiss dots, eyelet lace, or for a cool Asian touch, cherry blossoms.

Approach your cake and menu with a light touch. If ever there was a time for coconut frosting or fillings, this is it. Or fresh strawberries, or strawberry cream. Choose bright, lighthearted colors for your cake, and go all out on whimsical details like Swiss dots and fondant ribbons.
Sautéed fresh asparagus will add color to your plates. Ask your caterer about serving miniature quiches with fresh spinach and green onions, and tiny cream tarts that serve as a decadent background to the season's freshest fruit. Consider champagne your home base for beverages, but bring a splash of color to your drinks by serving Bellinis, Mimosas, or a masterpiece of your own design, and accent with fresh berries or mint sprigs.

Timeless choices for this season of renewal are delicate blooms like sweet peas, lilies of the valley, ranunculus, or lisianthus. Hyacinth, irises and daffodils have a vibrant Easter feel. A bouquet of cream tulips, or roses and subdued pastels or white, couldn't be more classic. As always, brides with a contemporary bent are drawn to orchids, which seem custom-made for vibrant spring palettes.

But how to decorate? A tried-and-true place to start are bare branch arrangements (ultra-large for the floor, or smaller for tabletops) gussied up with springtime flowers. Silk would be practical; real, a memorable extravagance. Evocative choices for blooms include magnolia, cherry blossom or plum blossom. Leave plain, or gild the lily with gossamer fabric wraps or chandelier-style crystals. And go heavy on the petals — bring them to your cake tables, candy buffet tables, guest tables. A blizzard of petals, not snowflakes, reminds your guests they've made it through the dark months.

Florists continue to innovate, bringing all kinds of non-floral pizzazz into table arrangements. Cool ideas we've seen for spring include fresh bunches of asparagus, tips painted in gold, woven in with more traditional blooms. And we love the rustic height of pussy willows. More than a few centerpieces have artfully included birds' nests, both naturalistic and not.

Another simple way to pull everything together is with ribbon. Casual arrangements of Gerber daisies and mason jars look smashing when you wrap the jars in signature ribbons. And ribbons could flutter romantically from shepherd's hooks, programs, the ringbearer's pillow, the bridesmaids' sashes, or even a maypole. Take it even further with a mini "tie the knot" theme.
Other popular adornments and spring themes include butterflies, dragonflies, wildflowers ... and more recently, frogs in the form of sleek silver placecards and whimsical bouquet picks.

Rice used to be a popular wedding favor, as it was traditionally thrown at the departing couple after the ceremony and reception. However, after it was discovered that rice can harm the birds that eat it, this tradition quickly went out of style. Try giving your guests tulle-wrapped bundles of birdseed to toss instead. This keeps the tradition of tossing grain alive, but is safe for our feathered friends. It's easy to create these bird-friendly bundles. Simply place a small pile of birdseed on a tulle square, shape into a pouch and tie with a pretty ribbon. Bubbles are another popular wedding favor. Imagine departing for your honeymoon in the midst of beautiful floating bubbles. It's fun for guests and even more romantic than the birdseed! You may want to give adults birdseed and younger guests blowing bubbles to take advantage of both traditions.

Practical gifts for guests are always a good choice. Try giving your guests seed packets as a way to celebrate springtime. They can plant their seeds as a celebration of your wedding. Sweet treats are also a popular choice. Miniature boxes of chocolates or strawberry cream-filled chocolate truffles wrapped in pretty foil are delicious and attractive wedding favors. Or, try placing a few individually wrapped herbal tea bags in a tulle bundle for a soothing treat.

You could choose wedding favors that