The HEA Cafe

There’s something about spring that gets me thinking about how I can do things differently, about finishing projects and starting new ones, and making new plans. One of the things I haven’t been doing this past year is posting to the HEA Cafe, but that’s about to change.

My new spring plan is to get here once a month, maybe more!

So, today – since I’ve been AWOL for a while, I thought I should bring you up to date on what I’ve been doing all this time. I’ve been writing, which is good – and the bonus is that now I can show you some results.

First off, I have finally found a way to tell Rosamunde’s story. Many readers wrote to me after the Kinfairlie trilogy was published, complaining that they didn’t know Rosamunde’s fate. She had been trapped in the realm of Faerie in book #2 of that series – obviously I had expected there to be more books, so I could save Rosamunde and give her an HEA but it didn’t work out that way. This year, though, I published a short story in the MAMMOTH BOOK OF IRISH ROMANCE. You’ll find Rosamunde’s story there, entitled “The Ballad of Rosamunde”. And yes, she finally gets her HEA. Here’s some linky goodness.

Secondly, my fallen angel series is coming to its conclusion. This is a finite trilogy, set in the future – a pretty grim future, actually – about 100 years from now. The world is post-nuclear but pre-Apocalyptic, things are going badly, and the angels are volunteering to shed their wings in a last-ditch effort to save humanity. These books are romances, each one featuring one angel and the mortal woman (this isn’t really a spoiler, is it?) whose love persuades him to stay on earth. The series started with FALLEN, then GUARDIAN, and book #3, REBEL, will be out in September of this year. Aren’t the covers gorgeous?

My other series, Dragonfire, just keeps on going. I’m having huge fun with my shape-shifting dragon heroes, so that’s fine by me. Dragonfire #5 is called WHISPER KISS and will be released in August of this year – it’s Niall’s story. #6 is Rafferty’s book and is called DARKFIRE KISS – it will be released in May 2011. There will also be an additional novella about the Dragon’s Teeth Warriors this July, which will be released as a Penguin eSpecial – more about that on my blog here.

Also, more Dragonfire news – there will be a Dragonfire YA series launching next year, which focusses on the coming-of-age of the only female dragon shapeshifter – Zoë must be the new Wyvern, except there’s no one to teach her how to use her powers. She has choices to make and skills to master – this trilogy will also include the resolution to the story of Sophie (the last Wyvern) and Nikolas. More about that on my blog, here.

Phew! You can see how busy it’s been! I also was the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library last fall, the first time they’ve ever hosted a residency focussed on the romance genre. I did create a blog for the library about writing and publishing romance, including some guest posts every Friday – here’s the link, although it will display the latest posts first. You might want to scroll back to the first post and read them in order.

I hope you’ve been well this past year or so, and look forward to chatting with you again next month!

all my best

Deborah Cooke
also writing as Claire Delacroix
blogging most days at Alive& Knitting