50th party blog guest - Fiona Lowe

I’ve known Fiona Lowe for what seems like for ever, since she sold her very first medical romance. We have lots in common – gorgeous men, music, cookery (though she’s way more sporty than I am – tennis I could just about cope with, but skiing??? Scary). And I’m absolutely thrilled to see how her career has blossomed this year – with her first mainstream novel, Boomerang Bride, she won both the Rita and the R*BY. I’m so proud of her, especially as this is the book of her heart! I’m hoping that we’ll actually meet in person, next year, and there will be an awful lot of talking and laughing…

Over to Fiona:

I am thrilled to be here today to help Kate celebrate her 50th book. What a milestone! Congratulations, Kate.

Why Wisconsin?

Somewhere in the mid 90s Hollywood sit-com writers started to write one liners about Australia and Wisconsin. Not sure if it started with Frasier and Roz having come from WI but, none the less, it made me laugh because at the time, I had a foot in both countries. Just lately they’ve been targeting Canada (How I Met Your Mother) but they still love taking pot-shots at Wisconsin.

Why? All I can think of is that life in Wisconsin is very different from California and New York. For starters, it is under snow for six months of the year…well at least five anyway! It is the dairy heartland and home of the deep-fried cheese curd…a delicacy I never quite got but hey, maybe it’s like Vegemite and you have to be raised on it to really appreciate it. Settled predominantly by Germans and Scandinavians, it is the home of the biggest brewery in the USA and like Australia, every town in Wisconsin has at least one bar….usually more.

The countryside is pretty and dotted with distinctive red barns. Corn grows high in the growing season and it’s lush. I recently visited again, and even though they were in the middle of a heat wave, the hills still rolled green compared with Australia. I kept saying to my Wisconsin friends, ‘It’s so pretty.” And it is, in a bucolic way.

But fellow writers and readers have commented and said, “Why Wisconsin?” I guess it isn’t as sexy and exciting as New York or London but then again, my Harlequin Medical Romances don’t take place in big cities either. I guess I enjoy writing books about everyday people living out their lives and dealing with the bad and hopefully mostly good things that families and close-knit communities can and do dish out.

So why is an Aussie writing books set in Wisconsin? Cos I can ☺ Cos I loved living there and also because trying to sell a single title romance into the American market that is set in Australia is a bit like pushing boulders up hill. Boomerang Bride was my first US based book and many of the cross-cultural experiences of the heroine, Matilda happened to me when I lived in Wisconsin. I’m am thrilled to say it has gone on to win a RITA®. I had so much fun writing this book, that I’ve kept going and I’m excited to say I’ve sold a bride-themed trilogy to Carina Press and Saved By The Bride, Picture-Perfect Wedding and Runaway Groom will be out across 2013, staring in April.

If you’ve ever lived out of your own country and felt like a fish-out-of-water, or if you’ve lived away from home for a while, then you’ll probably related to Matilda, the heroine in Boomerang Bride. I’m giving away a copy of this award-winning book and all you have to do to be in the draw is to tell me your “fish-out-of-water” experience!

Fiona Lowe is a RITA® award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch with wine. A RuBY nominee, you can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter (@FionaLowe) and Goodreads.


Boomerang Bride is available now from Carina Press, Amazon Kindle, Nook and all other online book stores, as well as being available in print in Australia under the MIRA imprint.

Letting Go With Dr Rodriguez is available now in the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Her books can be purchased from The Book Depository , iBooks and other online stores.

competition(s): winner and more chances to win!

Thanks to everyone who left comments last week. Winner of the competition to win a signed copy of One Night, One Baby is J Squires. Please email me your snailmail address (to kate(dot)hardy(at)btinternet(dot)com – replacing the stuff in brackets with a dot and an @ symbol – sorry to make it complicated, but I’ve learned the hard way that if you put your email address in as a link, the spam merchants rub their hands together and deluge you!).

To find out who won a copy of The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas at the Medical Romance Authors’ joint blog, go take a look (sorry, I am such a tease)… and while you’re there you get the chance to win a copy of Fiona Lowe’s fabulous Vietnam book.

There’s also a Christmas Stocking competition over at Kate Walker’s blog (win lots and lots of excellent books, including a signed copy of One Night, One Baby), and at Liz Fielding’s blog she’s doing daily giveaways from her backlist – she writes the most beautiful books (and I allowed myself a bit of her new Sheik book last night – what a treat).

(And if you don't win, One Night, One Baby and The Doctor's Very Special Christmas are both available on the Mills & Boon website. As is Liz's excellent Sheik book.)

And more winners...

Fiona Lowe’s gorgeous sons picked Vanessa’s name out of the hat to win a copy of The French Doctor’s Midwife Bride.

Congratulations to Vanessa; please email me with your snailmail details, and I'll pass them on to Fiona!

Kate’s 25th party, guest blogger #15 – Fiona Lowe

Today I’m delighted to welcome my guest blogger, fellow Medicals author Fiona Lowe. We haven’t yet met in person, but we’re working on it (and there will most definitely be partying involved!). Despite a time difference I can never quite work out (it’s 12 hours, roughly, but before or after? I get it wrong every time), we manage to talk about all kinds of things – gorgeous heroes, chocolate, pianos, music, medicine… Anyway, I’ll stop talking now and introduce you to Fiona, who's just back from holiday - so don't mention the word cr*c*d*le to her...

It’s so exciting to be here to help Kate celebrate her 25th book!

It got me to thinking about what I was doing when I was 25. I had just started doing my Midwifery training. My very first shift was in the Nursery and I had to change a nappy. Much to my embarrassment, I had to ask how it was done!! I learned very quickly how to fold nappies for boys with the extra folds :o)

Up until that point in my life I’d had nothing to do with babies. At the time I wasn’t totally sure why I was doing Midwifery except that it was ‘the thing to do’ if you were going to work in the country. And that was the plan.

Training to be a Midwife was a turning point in my life. Suddenly gone from my working life were sick and dying people. Instead I was bringing new life into the world and watching families take shape. I adored it. I became passionate about it… just ask my friends and family :o)

And it influenced my writing. The very FIRST book I ever tried to write was all about midwifery. The French Doctor’s Midwife Bride is the rebirth of my very first book.

The original idea for this story hit me back in 1995 when I was pegging out nappies for my first-born. I loved the idea of an independent midwife who balanced her time between community midwifery and hospital midwifery. I loved Xavier and Charlie but the story wasn't quite good enough so I put it aside, waiting until I had the skills to tell their story.

When I peeked back into the lives of Xavier and Charlie I asked them this question. "What if everything you ever believed in suddenly changed?"

Xavier, my deliciously gorgeous French doctor, with an accent that makes your knees go weak, has just realized the women he thought he would spend his life with has been using him to gain a career advantage. He's packed his bags and come to Australia to restart his life and he is determined to give all career-minded women a wide berth.

Charlie is a passionate midwife and believes that delivering babies and living in Amaroo is all she needs to be happy.

Suddenly, with Xavier's arrival her independent midwifery program is under threat.

Set in a fictitious town in southern Australia where the whales come each winter and give birth, Xavier and Charlie battle their attraction for each other and eventually learn there is more to life than work and yet work is a vital part of their life.

GIVEAWAY: Fiona’s offering a copy of The French Doctor’s Midwife Bride (with the lovely new UK cover)

GIVEAWAY QUESTION: Please tell me a story about a baby, or a French Doctor or about whalesJ
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