Jeane Westin, our spotlighted author

Jeane Westin is our Author in the Spotlight this week! She finds inspiration in her own life for her historical novels. Here's what she has to say about The Spymaster's Daughter: 

The most intriguing part of writing historicals to me is what might have been and what should have been.  Frances Walsingham Sidney was the daughter of Elizabeth's spymaster and young wife of the wildly popular poet,Sir Philip Sidney, a man famous for writing the most beautiful love sonnets...to another woman.  After his death in the Holland war of the 1580's, she married the Earl of Essex, Elizabeth's favorite.  Little is known about her inner life, but these few facts intrigued me. 

Frances has been most often cast by historians as a shadow behind these men and little worth of note.  Since I was once a cryptographer at the Pentagon during wartime, I put myself in Frances' slippers: she must have overheard plotting, been aware of important secrets, seen the supreme urgency of her father's work.  It is unimaginable to me that she would not have been caught up in that excitement and wanted to be part of the spy business...just to prove she could.  This kernel of an idea became The Spymaster's Daughter.

Click on Jeane's photo to the right there to learn more about Jeane and her books.

Author Spotlight: Jeane Westin

Hi, all! The Author Spotlight this week is on Jeane Westin, whose new book is The Spymaster's Daughter. Jeane writes historical novels with an extra intense focus, in this case, intrigue in the Elizabethan court!

To get Jeane's book on Amazon

Click on Jeane's picture to the right there to read her Spotlight. Leave a comment or just say hi!

Maryann Miller: Excerpt from Open Season

I am so thrilled to be here on Your Need to Read. When I first found this website I thought the title was so appropriate for those of us who are immersed in books. We do NEED to read, and those of us who are also writers NEED to write. Reading is more than just a casual pastime. It is something we do to feed our intellect and our soul. I am bereft if I do not have a book to read.  Some people joke about reading cereal boxes or catsup bottles, but avid readers are reduced to that if we do not have a book handy.

Since everyone who visits here is also an avid reader, I know you are always looking for a new book to read. I hope you will consider Open Season. Here is a quick introduction to Sarah, one of the central characters. Enjoy….

Turning on the hot water tap until it ran steamy, Sarah grabbed a jar of instant coffee from the windowsill and leveled a teaspoon into the cup on the yellow Formica counter. Then she held the cup under the running water, watching the coffee foam to the top.

She owned a coffeepot for the occasions when she had company, especially those of the morning-after variety. But since those moments were rare, she relied on instant gratification. It worked until the real thing came along.

A plaintive meow drew her attention, and Sarah looked down to see the kitten regarding her with unblinking, amber eyes. “You hungry, Cat?” She scooped him up and set him on the counter next to her coffee. He sniffed the cup and turned away with a sneeze.

“What? Coffee not your drink of choice?”

He cocked his head and watched her pour milk into a bowl, then delicately started lapping at it, giving himself a little white mustache. “Maybe I should sign you up for commercials. Then you could make me rich.”

He ignored her.

Sarah took another sip of coffee, then leaned one hip against the counter and opened the paper, pulling the Metro section out. She preferred to start reading at the front page, but rarely had the luxury of enough time to indulge that preference. A glance through Metro, however, sometimes turned up interesting tidbits of information relevant to an investigation.

Once, a veiled reference to a prominent surgeon seen at a Dallas nightspot with a redhead who wasn’t his wife had given Sarah the grounds to vigorously pursue her inclination that he wasn’t entirely innocent in the tragic demise of said wife.

Author Spotlight: Maryann Miller

Hi, all! The Author Spotlight this week is on Maryann Miller, whose new book is Open Season.

Click on Maryann's picture to the right there to read her Spotlight. Leave a comment or just say hi!

The Research Jackpot by Darlene Gardner

The guest blog is by Darlene Gardner, our Author in Spotlight.

The Research Jackpot by Darlene Gardner

I’m a sportswriter turned romance novelist. Pretty unusual, right? Not in my family, it isn’t. Odd jobs are the norm.

One of my sisters—who, by the way, is tall, blond and beautiful—is a professional dealer at a casino. The other¬—just as tall and just as attractive but a brunette—is a private investigator.

Of the three of us, I think I have the best gig, in part because of their occupations. It’s fantastic to have two prime research sources who are related to me. No matter how many questions I ask, or how dumb they sound, they’ll answer.

The casino dealer doesn’t know it yet, but I’m plotting a book that involves gambling. And I’ll probably use some of her stories, like the one about the compulsive gambler who was told to go home and shower after forty eight straight hours at the casino because he was getting really ripe. Or the cheater who insisted she was picking on him—until the security cameras proved otherwise.

Private eyes show up in my books with regularity. The same female P.I. appears in The Truth About Tara, my current release from Harlequin Superromance, and my December Super Wish Upon a Christmas Star. In the first book, Maria DiMarco gets her brother to check out a tip that a teacher in coastal Virginia resembles the age-progression photo of a child who was abducted thirty years ago. In the second, Maria herself travels to Key West to determine if another brother, long thought dead, might still be alive.

You can’t imagine how many questions and phone calls I made to my sisterly source during the writing of those two books. The upside is that I’m pretty confident I got things right.

Don’t be surprised if the characters in my future books start arresting criminals and taking evidence to crime labs. My nephew was just hired as a cop, and my daughter is in grad school to become a forensic scientist.

I’ve hit the research jackpot!

Darlene Graham's The Truth about Tara

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Darlene Graham. 

 Darlene Graham's The Truth about Tara

Hello all, Alicia Rasley here, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome our newest Author to the Spotlight: Darlene Graham, the author of The Truth about Tara and is here to tell you about the book. She's a lifelong writer. She's even served time as a sports reporter!

We are excited to have Darlene spending some time with us. Please make sure to stop by the Author Spotlight page (you can find it at the top of the page, or just click Darlene's picture to the right) to find information about her and her book. In the meantime, check out the book (cover above) and leave a comment saying hi and letting us know you stopped by.

Author Spotlight: Darlene Graham

Author Spotlight: Darlene Graham. 

 Darlene Graham's The Truth about Tara

Hello all, Alicia Rasley here, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome our newest Author to the Spotlight: Darlene Graham, the author of The Truth about Tara and is here to tell you about the book. She's a lifelong writer. She's even served time as a sports reporter!

We are excited to have Darlene spending some time with us. Please make sure to stop by the Author Spotlight page (you can find it at the top of the page, or just click Darlene's picture to the right) to find information about her and her book. In the meantime, check out the book (cover above) and leave a comment saying hi and letting us know you stopped by.