Get Swept Away with Trish Milburn

Trish is here!  Trish Milburn is one of my favorite people as well as being one of my favorite authors.  She's been a huge supporter of the Romance Dish from the day we first decided to embark upon this blogging journey and her visits are always a pleasure.  Trish joins us today to talk about a new venture of her own:  a Christmas anthology that takes holiday romance to the sunny, sandy beaches of southern Alabama.  Who needs snow when the balmy breezes and hunky heroes of Starfish Shores await?  

An award-winning author, Trish is multi-published in romance, young adult and women's fiction.  Visit Trish's website for more information about her books and for links to the many places where you can connect with her online.  

Please give Trish a warm welcome!

Welcome back, Trish!  Thanks for stopping by today to talk about your new Christmas anthology, Swept Away for Christmas.  Who are the other authors joining with you in this anthology?

Thanks for having me back, PJ! You gals are always so awesomely supportive. My fellow authors in this anthology are two of my best friends, MJ Fredrick and Tanya Michaels. MJ is a multiple Golden Heart finalist and EPIC award winner, and Tanya is a multiple RITA finalist and also one of my fellow authors at Harlequin American Romance.

I really enjoyed your story, “Crusin’ for a Kiss.”  (Love that title!)  What would you like readers

to know about your hero and heroine? 

Thanks. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. When Avery Phillips loses her magazine job right before Christmas, she heads back home to Starfish Shores to spend the holidays with the grandparents who raised her. The plan is to hit the job search hard so that she has a new position when the New Year arrives. What isn’t part of the plan is heading up a remodeling effort at her family’s beach motel or falling for the man helping to save the business into which her grandparents put a lifetime of work. As Christmas draws closer, will Avery stick to the original plan to leave town again or take a chance with Luke Taylor and a new life she never expected?

I love friends-to-lovers stories, so this one was a lot of fun to write.

I love friends-to-lovers stories too.  This one was my favorite of the three stories in the anthology. While your three stories aren’t exactly ‘connected’, they are set in the same small town and have some overlapping people and places.  How did you all stay on the same page?  Did you meet to hammer out the details (I imagine the three of you dipping your toes in the Gulf while sipping fruity drinks and discussing plotlines) or accomplish the process in a different manner?

We actually all met at a condo we’d rented in Orange Beach, Alabama, this past June to do site research and hammer out the main details of how we wanted to approach the collection, characters, the setting, etc., as well as a basic framework for four different collections set in our fictional town of Starfish Shores. After we all came home to our three different states, we communicated online whenever we ran into something that needed to be brainstormed with the other two authors. Having the stories only loosely connected made it easier for us to write our stories independently, but having some characters make brief appearances in the other stories and using some of the same landmarks made the collection feel connected.

I’m a big fan of anthologies, especially at this busy time of year.  Do you foresee doing more collaborations of this type?  Do any of you have plans to return to Starfish Shores for future stories?

Yes, we are planning three more seasonal collections set in Starfish Shores. We’re in the early stages of brainstorming our spring break collection that will be out sometime in the spring.

This makes me a very happy reader!

Swept Away for Christmas is an e-book.  Will it be available in print format at any time? 

It’s already available in print via Amazon’s CreateSpace: http://www.amazon.com/Swept-Christmas-Starfish-Shores-Volume/dp/0989060381/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1384319678&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=swept+away+for+christmas

Wonderful!

Your characters spend their holiday on the beautiful Gulf beaches of Alabama.  Where’s your favorite place to be swept away for Christmas?

I’d have to say the same place, pretty much anywhere along the Gulf of Mexico. While I appreciate the beauty of a white Christmas, I hate being cold and get cold very easily. So I would love to eventually winter on the Gulf. I could so get used to decorating a palm tree for Christmas. J

What else are you working on these days?

Right now I’m writing the next book in my Blue Falls, Texas, series for Harlequin American Romance. This will be the fourth full-length book in this series but the eighth story set in my fictional Hill Country town of Blue Falls, Texas. The town was introduced in my Teagues of Texas trilogy, and it continued in the series with the town name on the books’ covers. I have a special e-novella out now in the series, A Cowboy in Her Stocking, and the third book, Marrying the Cowboy, comes out in January. The book I’m working on now has a working title of The Doctor’s Cowboy Prescription.

I've loved meeting the people of Blue Falls, Texas.  A Cowboy in her Stocking is a wonderful holiday story and I'm already counting down the days until Elissa's story in January.  

Thanks so much for visiting with us today, Trish.  Do you have anything you’d like to ask our readers?

Thanks to you, PJ! And I liked the question you asked me about where I’d like to be swept away for Christmas. So, I’d like to know where everyone would like to go for a special Christmas trip if money were no option.

Christmas isn’t always snow-covered with a frosty chill in the air. Sometimes it’s sandy beaches with balmy breezes.

And sometimes we find love in the most unexpected places, a place like Starfish Shores.

Here Comes McBride by Tanya Michaels

Shelby James has only truly loved one man — but Finn McBride broke her heart when emotional baggage from his past came between them. Now, Shelby is serving as maid of honor at a beach wedding where Finn is the best man. Will reuniting with Finn be a Christmas miracle, or the worst mistake she’s ever made?

Two Hearts a Leaping by MJ Fredrick

After a break-up with her high school sweetheart, Harley Blume retreats to her brother’s home in Starfish Shores to lick her wounds and figure out what she’s doing next. But her brother is in the Coast Guard reserves and heading out of town, leaving her in the care of Liam Channing, his best friend since they played college football together. She’s never been able to keep her tongue in her mouth when good-looking, easy-going Liam is around. How is she going to find her way if she can’t keep her balance?

Crusin’ for a Kiss by Trish Milburn

When Avery Phillips loses her magazine job right before Christmas, she heads back home to Starfish Shores to spend the holidays with the grandparents who raised her. The plan is to hit the job search hard so that she has a new position when the New Year arrives. What isn’t part of the plan is heading up a remodeling effort at her family’s beach motel or falling for the man helping to save the business into which her grandparents put a lifetime of work. As Christmas draws closer, will Avery stick to the original plan to leave town again or take a chance with Luke Taylor and a new life she never expected?