My Passion
Wings in the Night is the signature work of my lifetime. It is the series of books for which I want to be remembered.
The first novel I ever submitted to a publisher was Twilight Phantasies. It was rejected, with a note suggesting specific revisions and inviting me to resubmit. While I was doing that, a different novel, Reckless Angel, a romantic suspense novel was contracted to Silhouette Books. And when I resubmitted Twilight Phantasies, it was purchased too.
While Reckless Angel (Now “Reckless”) was published in Silhouette’’s long-running “Intimate Moments” line, Twilight Phantasies became part of Silhouette’s groundbreaking paranormal romance imprint, Silhouette Shadows.
Shadows was a line ahead of its time. Paranormal Romance hadn’t caught fire yet, and sadly, the line folded before it really had a chance to take off. Some of the best writers in the business wrote for Silhouette Shadows. Chelsea Quinn freaking Yarbro did a guest spot in an anthology! And there were other brilliant storytellers; Evelyn Vaughn, Anne Stuart, Rachel Lee, Jane Toombs, Marilyn Tracy, Lindsay Longford, Heather Graham, Barbara Faith, Carla Cassidy–if you don't know, these are some of the romance genre's goddesses. We were all yearning to write paranormal stories, we'd been flooded with ideas for them and had been told they were not marketable for years, so we dove into this line like runners when the starter-pistol goes off. We were so excited to have a place to publish these woo-woo books, as some started calling them. We had a blast!
That’s where Wings in the Night was born, with three books and a Novella at Silhouette Shadows. Twilight Phantasies, Twilight Memories, Twilight Illusions, and the novella Beyond Twilight which appeared in the first Silhouette Shadows Anthology
The design of the newest covers are a deliberate homage to that line. And yes, I ran it past Harlequin to make sure it wasn’t a problem. They not only okayed it, but loved the new look.
After Shadows folded, and my editor told me there would be no place to publish more vampire novels, I wrote Born in Twilight in eight weeks flat. I think the working title was “Twilight Forever” as in, don’t tell me this series is done.
That book, Born in Twilight, found a home as a Silhouette Single Title, and after that I was invited to continue the series at the “big sister” imprint, Mira. These were bigger, fatter, “single title” (as in not category) novels.
Wings in the Night Tidbit: I had penned 8 or 9 vampire romances with “Twilight” in the title before Meyer’s book of the same title was published. It was hard to be miffed about it, however, since my titles suddenly got a lot more traffic.
I wrote eleven more Wings in the Night novels for Mira, plus several novellas for various publishers and lines. When I left Harlequin (which had absorbed Silhouette and has since melded with, I want to say, Harper Collins) they kept the rights to all those books.
I couldn’t let the series go, however, so I kept going, self-publishing three more titles. I couldn’t call them Wings in the Night, since the publisher owned it, so they were "Wings in the Night: Reborn.” During that time I also published a Wings novella for Penguin Putnam that was published in an anthology with Christine Feehan.
Wings in the Night Tidbit: Christine Feehan’s blockbuster Carpathian Series was inspired by my own Wings in the Night series
Last summer, something I’ve been working toward ever since 2014 happened. The rights to my *entire Wings in the Night series reverted to me.
There are two exceptions. The novella I wrote for Penguin, Dead By Twilight, did not revert and is still being published by them. And there’s a very short novella that’s really a glorified prologue to Prince of Twilight. It’s titled “Before Blue Twilight” and it was written as an online-read for Harlequin.com. To this day that’s the only place you can read it. You have to register for the site, but it’s entirely free.
Wings in the Night Tidbit: Did you know Lori Herter was the only other author with a true, vampire-romance novel out before my own Twilight Phantasies? It was called “Obsession,” and was one of a 4-book series. I have signed copies!
Anyway, with the rights to all the books back, I undertook the biggest project of my entire career. I needed to scan, update, proofread, format, package, cover, and upload all 24 Books to five different outlets each and in paperback to some.
I decided to release a Wings in the Night novel every other Tuesday until they were all done. I re-packaged the three self-published “Reborn” titles as Wings in the Night 20, 21, & 22, part of the main series as they were always meant to be. In the process, I wrote an 8-part serial, Fear the Reaper, and another entire novel,Young Rhiannon in the Temple of Isis, which are Wings in the Night 23 and 24.
On April 14th, I finished this project. While the books are still in the process of releasing, and will continue until June 13th when Young Rhiannon drops, my work is finished. Everything is formatted, proofed and uploaded. I even re-designed the Wings in the Night Universe title, Fiona: Origins. It’s book 1 of The Fiona Files, which will continue on. And the new novel is finished, edited, proofed, and uploaded as well.
All that remains is promoting them as they release.
Book 1, Twilight Phantasies, is still FREE.
Book 22, The Rhiannon Chronicles releases Tuesday April 18th.
Wings in the Night: The Fiona Files, Book 1 - Fiona: Origins releases May 2nd
Book 23: Fear the Reaper releases May 16h
On May 30th, download and enjoy “Dead By Twilight” in the anthology Edge of Darkness with Christine Feehan and Lori Herter.
Book 24, Young Rhiannon in the Temple of Isis releases on June 13th.
And that, my friends, adds up to a title every other Tuesday for a year. Are you even kidding me right now?
I might take a couple days off.