How This Book
Came About

In 2005, while attending a presentation about Ellora's Cave Publishing, I won an EC Cavemen anthology. I don't usually read anthologies -- the stories are too short -- but this was the book I selected. (Mainly due to a writer I knew telling me she had a story in this particular book. And so did a speaker I'd enjoyed listening to earlier in the day.) I thoroughly enjoyed every story in the anthology and thought Gee, I wonder if I can write something that sexy and fun!

I can't recall exactly where the idea came from but I started writing like crazy. I wrote scenes willy-nilly then put them together. In January 2006 -- despite mistrusting the whole idea of "mailing " via the internet -- I sent my partial manuscript off into cyberspace.

And received an acknowledgement that my baby actually reached its destination. Whew! Was that a relief! In March 2006 someone very nice informed me my manuscript had been placed in queue for an acquiring editor. Then I was asked to submit the full manuscript. Which is when the real test of patience began.

Around the middle of October 2006 I received a gentle rejection -- my sex scenes were too "off-stage " but if I cared to "open the bedroom door " I was welcome to resubmit. I did. On November 1, 2006 my editor, Helen Woodall, offered me a contract. WHEEEEE!

This book was so much fun to write, I had to keep going.

Passion's Four Towers

Chapter One

"Dehy's following us again," Yvonne said as she and her two sisters left Marchon Castle behind and trekked toward the apple orchard.

Pippa frowned. "I can't see the pest. Can you, Willa?"

"No, but I haven't Yvonne's keen eyes," Willa said.

"Take heart, Pippa. He's only following us because Willa's with us. Perhaps we should go to our swimming hole." Yvonne's voice held laughter but her expression was somber.

"Don't start," Willa said, her voice menacing, a smile curving her lips.

"Yes, let's go for a swim. Willa can disrobe as she did last summer, slowly, inch-by-inch revealing her body. And you and I, Yvonne, can eavesdrop on Dehy when he tells the stable boys whether he likes Willa's bountiful handfuls and ass as much as he did last year."

'Pfft!" Willa spat then grinned at her siblings. "Keep on teasing and I'll order Cook to feed you only the most fattening foods." She sighed. "Not that it would do much good with all the exercise you two get."

"There's not much difference among us," Yvonne said, grasping her sisters' hands. "Walking the fields with Gaspar keeps you slim, Willa."

"Compared to you and Pippa, I'm fat."

'Pfft!" her sisters said together.

"Besides," Willa continued, "if we want our conversation to remain private, the orchard is the best place for it. Dehy won't come anywhere near the mother tree."

"Nor will any of the stable boys," Pippa said. "Do either of you know why?"

Willa shook her head, but Yvonne nodded. "Poor superstitious darlings. They all believe our mother tree grew the very apple that Eve used to tempt Adam."

"I think it was the snake that tempted Eve," Willa said.

"Whatever," Pippa said, waving her free hand dismissively. "Men blame women for every misfortune that befalls them."

Willa and Yvonne muttered their agreement.

"Perhaps Willa should take Dehy to her bed. 'Twould save us the trouble of this miserable tournament Aunt Aida and Gaspar are planning," Yvonne said, only half joking.

"Dehy is a child."

"Eighteen to your twenty," Pippa said.

"And besides, the tournament was neither Aunt Aida's nor Gaspar's idea."

"No," Pippa agreed, "it was our wretched--"

Willa and Yvonne gasped, appalled that Pippa would speak ill of the dead.

"Our mother's idea, may she rest is peace," Pippa corrected, her voice bitter. She'd heard enough gossip about her mother's love of men to think Kerrie uninvolved with her daughters' present predicament.