SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Canadian Author Dani Collins

Joining me today in The Loft is award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins. While she is best known for writing contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule Publishing, Dani also writes historical and erotic romance. She thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. Dani lives in southern British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, who was her high school sweetheart.

Author Dani Collins

S: Good morning, Dani. Thanks for joining me in The Loft!

What do you think is the biggest issue facing romance authors today?

D: Finding your reader, but that’s always been a challenge. This is the best of times and the worst of times for it. Social media makes it possible to connect with people around the globe, but there’s so much content, it’s hard to be seen.

S: The rise of self-publishing has really flooded the marketplace, and that makes it difficult to promote a book. I've found social media very time consuming, but it has to be done.

Do you have a literary agent?

D: I did have an agent and I got her with this book, actually! We had a very good relationship and I found her to be invaluable with industry information, but we’ve since parted on good terms.

S: Have you ever attended a writer’s retreat? Did you find it helpful?

D: I’m going to attend my first one this May. I find writing conferences to be overwhelming, but this will be only a dozen people and it feels like there will be a slower pace and a chance to really connect. I’m very excited!

S: Why write romance?

D: Why not? I’ve always found romance, with its guaranteed HEA (Happily Ever After) to be very hopeful and uplifting. The world is a rough place. In romance, everything works out. I’ve always found that to be very reassuring.

S: I've always found reading romance to be a great stress reliever. When I was in law school, we'd trade romance books. It provided the break we needed from studying.

Do you outline the plot for your stories before writing?

D: Sometimes, I plot ahead. I often like to go into the opening blind, with only a few details and an idea for the first few scenes. Once I get to know my characters, I might plot out the rest. Sometimes, I have to write a synopsis for my publisher before I’ve finished writing. Sometimes, if I get stuck, or if I’m rewriting a draft that doesn’t seem to be working, I’ll write out the plot points and rearrange them before going in and moving the chunks of story. Often, when I’m in the final push through the last fifteen thousand words, I’ll write out the various scenes that have to happen which helps me get it all down, then I go back and clean it up.

S: I find outlines too limiting. I pretty much let my characters dictate where a story goes.

Do you write in other genres?

D: I like to say I write anything, so long as it’s romance. I write billionaires and virgins for Harlequin, small town for Tule, historical and erotic romance, and romantic comedy for other markets, including self-publishing. I like variety. I find that when I switch between subgenres, I come into another one feeling fresh and ready to exercise different creative muscles.

S: If you had to do it all over again, would you still choose to write books?

D: Absolutely!

S: What do you consider your greatest achievement?

D: Publishing. Making it my full-time career.

S: What inspired "Marrying the Nanny?"

D: My aunt showed me pictures from her visit to a tiny village on the British Columbian coast where her son--my cousin Lorne--had worked for 20 years. I immediately knew it would be a wonderful place to set a book. I had been noodling a Three Men and a Baby take-off, one where three half-brothers take custody of their infant half-sister. From there, it was a matter of finding them the appropriately complicated love interests.

S: That sounds like a great twist.

Is there anything special you would like people to know about "Marrying the Nanny?"

D: It’s the first in my Raven’s Cove trilogy, coming out in 2024. After "Marrying the Nanny," look for 'Forgiving Her First Love." Book Three isn’t titled yet. These books are pure delicious escape to the wilds of British Columbia’s central coast. You’ll see wildlife, go whale watching, and witness three rugged, remote, untethered men fall head over heels for the women who bring them out of their shells, while they also learn to become a family with their adorable baby sister.

Here's the blurb--

When infant Storm is orphaned, nanny Emma Wright, on a work visa and still reeling from a painful divorce, yearns to adopt her but must relinquish Storm to her three adult half-brothers. They remind her of a pack of wolves–protective, but not prepared to care for a baby. Alpha male Reid is especially aloof and intimidating.

Like his younger brothers, Reid Fraser left the Westcoast village of Raven’s Cove at eighteen and never looked back. Now a successful corporate consultant who rescues failing businesses—which is what this fly-in fishing resort has become, Reid must rally his brothers to save Storm’s inheritance, but he and his estranged brothers barely get along. They can’t deal with an infant, too. They need the nanny.

As Emma coaches Reid through midnight feedings and teething, they try to ignore the sexual pull between them. Then they learn Storm may have family who could take her from them. Reid proposes a marriage of convenience, but will it be enough to keep this fractured family together?