Rebecca Paisley
Personal Information
Description
I wanted to write things ever since I learned to write my name. I started with letters to my grandmother like: “Der Grammey, I went on the ralerode trax today and finded a big pees of gum by the raleing. I piked it up and ate it. It was bananna. I chwed it till it did not have inymor flaver in it. Aftr I swaloed it I kind of thot I had sum majic in me frum the persen who first ate it. Mama sayed wat I did was veree nasty but I beeleeve in that majic.” To this day, I remember that gum and the way it made me feel. I continued to write about things that happened to me. Sometimes they were pure non-fiction. But other times they were invented, like when I wrote a one page story about my father being Superman. He was an Air Force Fighter Pilot and often had to leave on secret missions he was forbidden to tell us about. He told us his Superman costume was hidden in the flight bag he always took with him when he left. So I wrote a page about how he didn't need his jet on that mission. No, he flew in the plain air and directed the other pilots where to go. Because of his instructions, all the enemies scattered and were never seen again. And then I grew up and became a woman, but not before I wrote hundreds of stories. When I was about 28 or so, I wrote a very long historical romance…with my 2 year old son hanging on my leg the whole time. I sent that manuscript to every publishing house in NYC, and the editors rejected it every single time. You want to know why? Because I was writing what I thought the publishing houses wanted to buy. I was copying other authors’ styles. I didn't know any better. After 17 rejections, I decided to write the book I wanted to read. Not a book for an editor or even readers. Freedom, at last! Freedom to invent characters that made sense to me. Characters whose thoughts mirrored mine, whose ways of doing things were my ways of doing things. Whose hearts were offspring of mine. I never thought to submit that manuscript to anyone. It was going to be mine, all mine, and no one else’s business because the heroine was so wild, so outrageous and different. She was not a romance heroine, Chickadee McBride. She defied every romantic heroine in the publishing rules. But I did end up sending her and story in, and Avon Books bought her. The editor told me Chickadee McBride was a gamble, but Avon was willing to try her out. That book was THE BAREFOOT BRIDE. After that sale, I never again wrote what other authors wrote. I stayed true to what I loved, what made me cry and laugh and be surprised. I never knew what my characters were going to do or why. I just wrote. And eventually I became a Publisher’s Weekly Bestselling Author, which gained me a place on Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll and the accomplishment of becoming a RITA finalist. I won Romantic Times’ Lifetime Achievement Award and Career Achievement Award as well as a Reviewers’ Choice Award for Historical Romance Fantasy and a Best Love and Laughter Award. None of these things would have happened for me had I not decided to write a book that appealed to my quickness to laugh, my love for the outrageous, my deep sensitivity. . . or the belief that if I can dream it up, it can happen. *goodreads
Books
Midnight and Magnolias (An Avon Romantic Treasure)
A lying, unscrupulous doctor told Peachy McGee she was dying. Now the wildly unpredictable Carolina mountain beauty has resolved to live the last of her life to the fullest - and sets sail for the tiny island kingdom of Aventine to marry herself a prince. But while Seneca, the heir to the Aventine throne, is wealthy and unbearably handsome, his aristocratic arrogance infuriates the flame-haired hellion. And Peachy is not about to let any domineering blue-blood have his royal way with her - not unless Seneca reveals the caring, gentle soul hidden beneath his princely mask... and learns to love the charming country miss, outrageous quirks and all, truly, passionately and forever.
Harvest Hearts
A collection of romance tales includes the story of a farm girl who masquerades as a rich woman, a young woman who hides a fugitive Apache warrior, and a prisoner doing hard labor on a young woman's farm. Reissue.
Moonlight and Magic
What should a would-be enchantress do with her very own “knight in shining armor”? Chimera’s bumbling attempts at witchcraft had only succeeded in conjuring up a reputation for lunacy. But when she sets a “werewolf trap”, she finally snares the one thing she’s been praying for—a handsome “knight” who can protect her from the ruthless land baron who has been lusting after her property. It has not been a good day for Sterling Montoya. He had awakened next to a naked, screeching stranger, been chased across hostile Apache territory by her shotgun-toting father and had become the reluctant guardian for a newborn babe… And now he was the prisoner of a beautiful, but batty, would-be sorceress—a stunning, Shakespeare-spouting enchantress whose passionate touch promises Sterling heaven…until he realizes that whenever she’s around, all hell breaks loose. Can Sterling break the tender spell Chimera casts over his hungry heart or will he discover her love is the one enchantment too magical to resist?
A Basket of Wishes
"I AM CALLED SPLENDOR, WHILE I AM WITH YOU, I WILL DO WHATEVER YOU DESIRE." Clad only in her ankle-length copper tresses, Splendor lay atop the twelfth Duke of Heathcourte, who was speechless at having been thrown by his horse and caught by a violet-eyed sprite. She couldn't tell him she was a fairy princess, chosen to conceive his child, but then she and her baby must leave the human world, or die. Unless... Was he mad? Or dead? Suddenly Jourdian Amberville, of the Midas touch and ironbound heart, wed a naked stranger to stop a burgeoning scandal. But instead of an ordinary duchess to bear his heir, his wife was an alabaster-skinned temptress who drank of his kisses and wept diamond teardrops. Splendor was made of magic, but only Jourdian had the power to keep her in his world. It would take only the one emotion he couldn't give....
Diamonds and Dreams
Love’s Masquerade Newly settled in Hallensham, England, petite American beauty Goldie Mae stands to lose the first real home she has ever known-thanks to her disreputable uncle's drunken boast of friendship with the long-departed Duke of Ravenhurst. Now, unless the Duke himself-or a convincing imposter-supports the old man's lies, the angry townsfolk will drive Goldie and her kinsman from their village. With luck--and Goldie's infallible "duke lessons"-the secretive stranger she encounters while bathing might fool the doubting locals. But little does the feisty, determined miss realize that handsome Saber West is, in fact, the very lord she wants him to impersonate-or that his gentle virility will awaken in her a passion beyond measure, embroil her in a danger beyond imagining…and fulfill the rapturous promise of a love beyond dreams!
Bed of Roses
In a hidden canyon of the Sierra Madres in Mexico, Zafiro Talavera is the caretaker of her grandfather's once-fearsome band of outlaws, and the task is not easy. She is constantly watching out for bounty hunters and other desperados searching for the loot her grandfather has hidden away. Equally daunting is coping with the eccentricities of the decrepit Talavera Gang. Zafiro's most fervent dream is of living in a normal town with a normal family. Then into her carefully guarded "fortress" comes a mysterious, wounded man known only as Sawyer. Has he come to steal her gold or her heart? She enlists Sawyer to teach her men to be the outlaws they once were so they can defend themselves against the evil bandit sworn to steal Zafiro away from them. Sawyer resists the task of teaching a drunk, a deafman, and a codger who believes himself to be St. Peter how to ride and shoot. But when the threat finally comes, Sawyer and the men rally, defeat the enemy and save Zafiro. Paisley is a master comedienne. This delightful story has characters that will make you laugh out loud and a love story that will give you goosebumbs.
The Love Goddesses
MEET THREE WOMEN WHO HAVE SPENT YEARS UNLUCKY IN LOVE. NOT ONE OF THEM IS PREPARED FOR A PASSION OF LEGENDARY PROPORTIONS... — TICKLE MY FANCY by Rebecca Paisley — With boyfriends ranging from a hypochondriac to a fiance who fancied himself as a kept man, spunky Southerner Cleopatra Murphy has given up on love. Now her sole passion is to forge a cosmetics empire from a salon in her Georgia backwoods garage...until she runs-up against a sweet-tongued Yankee business rival with a heart of stone that only she can melt. WHEN MONA LISA SMILES by Carole Buck Mona Lisa Lefkowitz has a generous spirit but a very smart mouth. She thinks she's an ugly duckling who will never turn into a swan and has decided that no one could ever love someone like her -- least of all her handsome best friend (and the subject of her dreams) when he learns she once posed for a Paris artist wearing nothing but a smile. MYTH AND MAGIC: HELEN OF TROY, NEW YORK by Paula Detmer Riggs Helen DiLorio left her home in suburban Troy, New York for a high-powered job creating fantasy vacations for Greek Isle Lines. Since her own romantic idyll was smashed long ago, she's settled for a sensible, unromantic lifestyle. But Helen's well-ordered world is about to be shaken up by a sensual stranger from her past who could make her dreams come true.
Heartstrings
WANTED: TALL, DARK-HAIRED, BLUE-EYED MAN TO SIRE GENIUS CHILD. $100 CASH IN GOLD Men flocked like flies to honey, drawn by Theodosia Worth's intoxicating whiskey eyes, masses of golden hair..and her blatant ad. Theodosia had traveled west from Boston with a secret mission: to bear a baby for her childless sister, in a strictly-business affair. Books were her only passion -- until she hired a bodyguard who turned out to be a hands-on-encyclopedia of love... Roman Montana galloped into town on his silver steed -- only to be unseated by a parrot's angry squawk, and catapulted into a pile of steaming manure. The parrot's ravishing owner was Theodosia Worth, his new employer, a genius without an ounce of horse sense ! The infuriating woman wanted him to post ads for a stud, then protect her from the lechers who applied. He tried to save her from herself. But how could he save himself from the thoroughbred fill who'd thrown him at first sight...
A Christmas Miracle
LOVE AND JOY by Virginia Henley - whisks us back to the reign of King Charles II, as a beautiful governess discovers unexpected passion -- and learns a lesson in love. — UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR by Katherine Kingsley - introduces us to a young blind woman who helps a desperate artist rekindle his genius as she brings the true spirit of the season to light. IN A TWINKLING by Rebecca Paisley - weaves an enchanting tale set in nineteenth-century England, where a magical girl transforms a cynic with the power of love. ANGELS IN THE SNOW by Stephanie Mittman - turns the tables when a thoroughly unsuitable heroine surprises a disillusioned tycoon with the one gift his money cannot buy. With four acclaimed authors and four unforgettable stories, A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE is a collection to cherish -- a holiday gift to savor throughout the year.