Time-Travel Romance…Where You’d Least Expect It!

Today’s post (or posts — we have a two-in-one today!) was first published at our blog for the Harlequin Presents series, www.iheartpresents.com. But it contains news that will be of interest to paranormal fans: next month Harlequin Presents–home of billionaires, sheikhs, convenient marriage, etc.–is debuting a new miniseries of time travel stories!  Read on for posts from Presents editor Joanne Grant on how the series was conceived and author Sandra Marton, who kicks off the series with Blackwolf’s Redemption in May…

by Harlequin Presents editor Joanne Grant

Next month Sandra Marton has a new book out in Presents and whilst that is an exciting event in itself, this is no ordinary Presents (if there is such a thing!). The first thing you will notice is that the title, Blackwolf’s Redemption, is slightly different, some may even say, it has a retro feel to it. You may then notice that it is flashed as part of a new miniseries, Men Without Mercy – intrigued? Well let me introduce this exciting miniseries and tell you how it came to be about!

MEN WITHOUT MERCY

Arrogant and proud, unashamedly male!

Step back in time and experience a time when men were men and women knew just how to tame them!

These are Harlequin Presents with a retro twist…

Let me go back to the beginning. The editorial team are always looking for new innovative ideas from other cultural influences, such as film, TV and books, and around the time we were brainstorming ideas for 2010 publication, Britain had a new heartthrob. Was he tall, suavely handsome, well-dressed and with a silver tongue to charm the ladies?

Well, actually no – he was quite the opposite. He was slightly scruffy, grumpy, with a less than PC attitude to life and women, but his arrogant attitude and rugged looks had a rather sexy allure. We’re talking about Gene Hunt, from the hit TV series Life on Mars (coincidentally, the actor who plays him, Philip Glenister, was spotted near the London office just this Monday by our Editorial Director!).

For those unfamiliar with the show, in a nutshell a 21^st century policeman is transported back in time to 1970s Britain, where he meets DCI Gene Hunt – a completely unreconstructed alpha male from days of yore! In the second series, Ashes to Ashes, the action moved to the 1980s, when a 21^st century female is thrown back to meet the uncompromising Gene Hunt, and gradually tension of a different kind started to simmer, and this got us thinking…

What would happen if a 21^st century Presents heroine came face-to-face with a completely unreconstructed Presents alpha hero from the past?

And that is how Men Without Mercy was conceived! Yes, we would need to include a little, (dare we say) time travel to make it possible, but as long as the story, relationship and passion was pure Presents – why not? We would only want to publish a few and we had to tread carefully, we didn’t want an influx of ‘paranormal Presents’ – that would be missing the point, so we kept the concept close to our chests and stealthily approached our first author, who we knew would love the challenge and would execute the concept with panache…

Click “Continue Reading” at the bottom of this post (under the tags) for Sandra Marton’s post on Blackwolf’s Redemption…

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by Sandra Marton, author of Blackwolf’s Redemption (Harlequin Presents, Men Without Mercy series, May 2010)

A little over a year ago, my editor—hi, Jo!—contacted me with an question. Would I like to do something different for Presents?

I think she probably already knew my answer. I adore writing for Presents. I also adore trying things that are different but what, exactly, would the “different’ part involve?

Jo said Presents was thinking about doing a mini-series called Men Without Mercy. I said loved the title! It was pure Presents. Yes, she said, and the books would be pure Presents, too. Alpha heroes. Independent heroines. Lots of sexy passion and soul-deep romance–but with a retro twist.

I think I said something really smart, like “Huh?”

She said a retro twist meant a Presents in which a 21^st century heroine comes face-to-face with a 20^th century man.

A tough-minded heroine. A gorgeous, sexy, powerful, arrogant hero from a decade in which tough-minded women just didn’t exist. It sounded wonderful. When Jo asked if I’d like to do the first book, I said something along the lines of “Just try and stop me!”

“What ifs” began dancing through my head. I knew I needed two strong people, a powerful setting, a conflict (or two!) deep enough to keep them apart. And, of course, a meaningful way to deal with that retro twist.

Hmm.

What if my heroine was a graduate student in anthropology? It’s dawn on the morning of the summer solstice. She’s with her colleagues at an ancient sacred site in a Montana canyon. The old ones who once inhabited the canyon believed this event, at this place, held mystical powers. My heroine doesn’t believe that, of course. She’s a scientist.

And what if my hero owns the enormous, very successful ranch that contains the canyon? The site was sacred to his ancestors—he’s part Comanche, part Sioux, part plain-vanilla Westerner—but not to him. Not anymore. He’s turned his back on the old legends after his experiences as a Special Forces warrior. In fact, he’s about to sell his land. Still, something impels him to ride out to view the solstice one last time on this particular morning.

My story was coming together. My characters were coming alive. They whispered their names to me. She was Sienna Cummings. He was Jesse Blackwolf. And they told me one more thing.

For Sienna, the year is 2010. For Jesse, it’s 1975.

I have written books in which the words seemed to flow out of my fingertips but I’ve never had an experience like the one I had writing Blackwolf’s Redemption. I could hardly keep away from the computer! I love these characters and I needed to tell their story… and now, I invite you to join Sienna and Jesse on a journey of the heart that will be, I promise, unlike any you’ve taken before.

With love,

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