Please help me welcome my friend and critique partner, Sharon Cullen, to my blog today. I’m reading her latest release, The Notorious Lady Anne, right now, and loving it!it! Five stars from me!

The blog is yours, Sharon. Take it away.

THIRTEEN YEARS LATER …
On February 11, 2013 by debut historical was released—The Notorious Lady Anne. The road to publication for this book was long. Really long. But my road to publication was even longer.

So 2/11 was a big day for me and not just because my book released. It was also my daughter’s 13^th birthday. She’s now a teenager! Whoot!

That also means that I’ve been writing for almost thirteen years because I started writing soon after she was born.

She is the youngest of three and I feel like, being the third, I had this parenting thing down to a science (don’t laugh, I really did feel like that J). What was nice about her is that she took long naps. Really long naps. She liked to sleep.

My son was in preschool two days a week, my oldest daughter in second grade and I had a rule in my house that when the baby slept, it was Mommy Time. That meant I didn’t feel obligated to run around and do laundry, dust, cook, whatever. That meant I could do what I wanted. It saved my sanity and I’m sure my husband’s sanity as well.

So what I chose to do was read. I’ve always been a voracious reader and I’ve always loved romances. It was at this time that I really got back into romance and I was, no lie, reading a book a day (I told you she loved to sleep). After a few months of this I started thinking, “I can do this. I can write a love story.” Yes, now looking back, I laugh at my naiveté. Like I can just whip up a romance story.

Undaunted, I started to write one of the many stories in my mind and it was like I finally, FINALLY discovered who I was and what I was put on this earth for (other than to be a mommy to my 3 kidlings). I fell in love. With my characters and with the process of writing.

Four years later my first book was published. Thirteen years later my twelfth book was published with the publisher of my dreams. And my baby was a teenager.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

The Notorious Lady Anne (On Sale Now):

Nicholas Addison, celebrated captain of the Blackwell Shipping Fleet, has agreed to take Mrs. Emmaline Sutherland aboard the Pride and ferry the raven-haired beauty across the Atlantic on what he imagines will be a routine trip. But when the ship is attacked by pirates, the seemingly innocent passenger is revealed to be none other than the infamous marauder Lady Anne, whose name strikes fear in the hearts of sailors everywhere—and whose seductive wiles commandeers Nicholas’s affections.

Lady Anne, a legend of the high seas, has spent the last eleven years plotting revenge against her father, the owner of Blackwell Shipping. She’s targeted the Pride in hopes of plundering its captain’s company secrets. But beneath her fierce courage and bitter determination, Anne has the delicate heart of a woman—a heart that cannot help falling for Nicholas. Now Anne must make a difficult choice: bring down Blackwell or surrender to love.

BIO:
After earning a degree in journalism from Ohio University, Sharon found the stories inside her head were more interesting than what was going on in the world around her. Yet, it wasn’t until years later that she decided to pursue her secret dream of writing a romance novel. Since then she’s been published in romantic suspense, paranormal romance and contemporary romance and historical romance.

Sharon’s other job descriptions include chauffer, laundress, cook and mediator to her three very busy kids, her husband and two dogs. She lives in southwest Ohio with her brood although her dream is to someday retire to St. Maarten and live on the beach.

If you’d like to find out more about Sharon and her books, you can visit her at her website. She’s addicted to social networking so you can find her on Facebook and Twitter. Friend her! Like her! Follow her! She’d love to hang out with you and talk about her passion—books.

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