Showing posts with label new zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new zealand. Show all posts

Saturday, April 25, 2020

What a crazy few years! by Bronwen Evans

Hi everyone

Waving from lockdown in New Zealand. Thank you, Judith and Sarah, for inviting me back to Romancing the Genres. I haven’t been with the blog for a while (I don’t blog much at all anywhere actually) and it’s fun to look back and take a moment to review what I’ve been up to as often we don’t look back. I’m up to 27 books published now and the list is growing. I never thought that would happen…

Bronwen Evans
April 25th is ANZAC Day (Australian New Zealand Army Corps). This holiday marks the anniversary of the first key military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War (1914-1918). It’s a public holiday where we remember those who have sacrificed their lives for us during wartime. It seems very poignant that at this very moment we have another brave bunch of front line professionals working at risk to themselves to help us against an invisible enemy COVID-19—health professionals, police and firemen etc. I can’t thank these people enough.

NZ has been in lockdown since mid-March. Everything is closed except supermarkets. Isolation isn’t that hard for me as I work from home anyway, but not being able to visit with friends etc. is surreal. We are allowed to walk our dogs or bike ride but must stay 5m away from others, so many of us are walking in the middle of the streets which are empty of cars.

I must admit I haven’t done much writing in this stressful time. I’m still writing Regency romances, although my output has slowed a bit. Two years ago I was diagnosed with a health condition that means I can no longer write for traditional publishing houses because I have flare ups, and when I have a flare up I can’t write. Plus stress often leads to a flare up, and deadlines stressed me completely. That meant I kept missing deadlines and that is not very professional, or fair, on my publishing house. So I made a decision (my agent wasn’t that happy about it) and I’m now only self-publishing my stories. My agent still looks after my audio and foreign rights. This has made a big difference to my creativity and life as I have less stress.

I still use an editor and copy-editor but I pay for them myself. I write a complete first draft before I book a slot with my editor so that I don’t muck them around either. This way I don’t miss a delivery date as they too are self-employed and I can’t take a slot that a paying client could have used. However, this does mean I can’t really plan out quick releases as sometimes I have to wait 3 months to get a slot with my editor.

I’ve also tried my hand at writing contemporary romance and I’m enjoying the variation this gives me. I’m publishing 2 contemporary romances this year and 3 Regency romances (2 are novellas) so I’m pretty busy.

Reckless Curves: Bad Boy Autos – Drive Me Wild series book #1 is my latest April release. It’s a reunion, wrong side of the tracks, secret baby story.

From USA Today Bestselling Author, Bronwen Evans, comes her latest sexy contemporary romance! A secret baby, best friend’s little sister romance set in Bad Boy Autos. Think Fast and Furious but nothing illegal!

Thomas (Tom) Lorde’s morning couldn’t get any worse. One call changes everything. Apparently he’s a dad. He should be on the phone to his lawyer. He wouldn’t put it past a woman—any woman—to lie to get at his hard earned money. His mother trapped his father into marriage and then left them both for deeper pockets. But when the news is delivered from between the sweet lips of Kendra Black, his best friend’s out of bounds little sister, and his one major ‘fucking’ mistake, he knows he’s screwed and that she’s not lying.

Kendra Black knew contacting Tom would be a mistake. Three years ago, he’d made it very clear he had no feelings for her. He slept with her and then flew to Europe without a backward glance. However, he left more than a broken heart behind. He might not want her, but now that’s he’s back in California, her son, their son, Connor (Con) Black, deserves to know his father. What she hadn’t expected was Tom’s old-fashioned lap of honor. He wants to marry her. Why couldn’t he simply be a weekend dad like her father? She can’t deny the physical attraction is still there. He might be okay with a marriage based on hot, raw, animalistic sex and only sex, but she wants more. She deserves a man who loves her and she refuses to wave the checked flag until he gives her his heart.


Other than that I am supposed to be building a new house this year, but it’s on hold as New Zealand is in lockdown for Covid-19. I think it’s going to be a slow building process as the Government takes us slowly out of lockdown. We suspect we will be seesawing in and out of lockdown for the rest of this year, but I’m hoping to be in my new house by Christmas.

Duke and Brandy
That’s about all my news, not very exciting I know, but I still enjoy walking my two Cavoodles, Brandy and Duke. They are now 7 and 6 years old. It seems like only yesterday they were little puppies.

Please stay safe, everyone and all I can say is thank goodness for eBooks so I always have a book at hand.

Cheers

About Bron:

USA Today bestselling author, Bronwen Evans grew up loving books. She writes both historical and contemporary sexy romances for the modern woman who likes intelligent, spirited heroines, and compassionate alpha heroes. Evans is a three-time winner of the RomCon Readers’ Crown and has been nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. She lives in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand with her dogs Brandy and Duke.

You can keep up with Bronwen’s news by visiting her website

and get a FREE book by signing up to her newsletter



Saturday, September 17, 2011

It's Winter in New Zealand

Hi everyone,

I’m waving madly at you all from cold and wintry New Zealand. I love story-telling – gobbling up movies, books and theatre.  For most of my life, my head has been filled with characters and stories, particularly lovers in angst. But I’d never had the courage to write them down.  In 2007, encouraged by a close friend battling a debilitating illness, I finally started down the path to publication by joining RWA and RWNZ. My first completed manuscript, a Regency historical, INVITATION TO RUIN,  was finished late 2009, and was sold by my agent, Melissa Jeglinski of The Knight Agency, to Kensington Publishing early 2010, in a two book deal.

I write Regency historical romances, although my agent has just submitted a MILLS & BOON® MODERN ROMANCE™(HARLEQUIN PRESENTS®) to HMB in London for consideration. What do these two genres have in common? Nothing other than they both contain very strong alpha males – I love the tall, dark, handsome and dangerous.

I guess my voice suits Regency. At my very first RWNZ Conference I was given the advice to write what you love to read. I loved reading historical romances (still do) – delicious rakes, Scottish lairds, men who are honorable but a little naughty – okay a lot naughty. The early 1800s were a politically incorrect period where men were men and women had to be very clever in order to survive and conquer in a man’s world. That lends itself to wonderful conflict and tension and of course romance.

I also loved the Regency period because there was so much going on – smuggling, war with Napoleon, war with America, India colonization, slavery (as shown in Invitation to Ruin), the Prince Regent and the morals of the time were not above that of an alley cat.

Plus, I had lived in England for almost eight years and the houses, castles and scenery are still very vivid in my mind. The clothes and carriages and houses, etc. all lend authors the ability to create tension filled stories. It wasn’t easy or quick to undress a lady in the Regency period. Also finding ways for men and women to mix freely within Society also poses its problems. It all makes for some very creative and clever plots. I must admit I do love a damsel in distress plot with a twist. A plot where the hero thinks he is saving her when in fact the heroine is saving him right back.
But most of all I love writing about strong alpha males, regardless of the period, because there is nothing like seeing a big, strong, handsome man reduced to a quivering mess for the love of a fabulous woman. Reading the HEA with tears in my eyes is what I’m looking for.

INVITATION TO RUIN was released in March 2011, and received a 4.5 star rating from RT Book Reviews and was well received in Publishers Weekly - Evans's debut Regency is filled with sizzling romance... Strong characterizations, smooth plotting, and plenty of explicit sex will appeal to fans of modern Regencies. (Mar.)

My second book, INVITATION TO SCANDAL will be released early 2012.

You can find me at
Website:   www.bronwenevans.com



Twitter:   @authorbevans