Welcome to our New Faces column, where we're pleased to introduce some of the newest authors in the romance genre. This time we're visting with Shari Boullion, whose historical romance A Stolen Time is a Leisure release.

Welcome, Shari! Tell us about yourself.

I grew up in Iowa in the type of small town that everyone loves - riding bikes everywhere, walking to school, playing kick-the-can after dark. No one locked their cars or their houses and the biggest altercation I remember was a dog that liked to tip over garbage cans. When I graduated from the University of Iowa and discovered that nurses can move anywhere, I tried on states the way some people try on jeans, moving through Texas, Washington and California. Then I took graduate courses and worked as a software engineer in Oregon and then in Florida where they have "palmetto bugs" that are basically humongous cockroaches that fly. (eeek!)

I met my dearheart scuba-diving in the Caribbean (tropical nights, sea-breezes, palm trees) and we turned a summer romance into marriage. Wanting a small-town life for our children, we moved to northern California after we adopted our first child. We tried our hand at raising chickens, goats (I learned to milk a goat!), cows, sheep (I learned to spin!), ducks, geese. Since we made pets out of all our animals, including thousand-pound steers, our livestock days were a joy, but not exactly a success.

Now we live in a small town with two gorgeous, wonderful, creative, marvelously smart children (who use those creative little brains to talk rings around us). Engineering and nursing were easy compared to raising children!

Are you coming to romance writing from another job?

I worked as a hospital RN, then a software engineer, and now I work two days a week as a home health nurse and write the rest of the time.

What led you to write romance?

I've always read romance. I must have been around fourteen when I tried to check out the French book, "Angelique." The librarian frowned over her bifocals, ”"Does your mother know you're reading this?"

After a hard day in the hospital (doctors yelling, patients vomiting, bleeding, IV's running dry, call-bells), I found that a Harlequin was the perfect comforter before bed. The older I got, the more I liked bigger books (I think I picked up Outlander just because it looked like the perfect size!). I've always read every genre, from Clancy's thrillers to Bujold's sci-fi, but I keep returning to romance. After all, where are we without love? That's what makes the adventure worthwhile.

Tell us about your road to publication.

I started getting serious about writing about ten years ago, although with children and adopting and moving, it's been sporadic at times. When I sent my first book off, (a long category) I was sure someone would be calling, oozing compliments and large amounts of money. It seems I was a trifle premature. Would you believe the editor suggested I might want to look into the conflict? (What conflict?)

So I joined Romance Writers of America and discovered a special chapter for people who live in the boonies (called Outreach). There I found critique partners and friends and advice. I read tons of writing books, learned from each critique partner, and tried my hand at writing a sci-fi romance, then a fantasy romance. I joined the Sacramento chapter of RWA where they hand out chocolate kisses for winning contests or selling, and give even more chocolate for rejections. Writers need other writers (and chocolate).

Deciding to return to the more popular contemporary, I started a new book, but my hero just wouldn't cooperate--too bossy, too bold, too arrogant. When I put him back in the old west, he settled right in. That book finaled in contests. The next one, A STOLEN TIME, not only finaled, but won the contests including RT & Dorchester's New Historical Voice contest which netted me a contract from Dorchester. And here I am.

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

Oh, my. To write a book set in the nineteenth century means research on what people ate (no frozen dinners!), wore (no bras!), cooked with (no microwaves!), furniture (where's the TV?), housing styles, mannerisms, language, weaponry, transportation, schoolhouses, children's games. Every time you turn around, there's another question you have to look up. How does someone do laundry? Where does a lady buy her drawers?

A STOLEN TIME is set in an actual town. Some of the businesses and people actually existed in Shasta in the 1860's, others I made up. I visited the town, read actual papers and diaries written by people back then, surfed the net and my bookshelves slowly filled with research books. (Built another bookcase.) But, picking out the fun little tidbits about living back then makes all the research time worthwhile.

Tell us about your debut book.

A STOLEN TIME is set in northern California (how could I resist?) in 1861. Janet Garret, raised in the notorious Garret gang, knows no other life. Disguised as a man, she has robbed banks, picked pockets and held up packtrains. During a bloody shootout, she promises her dying father that she'll go straight. Given a chance to be a respectable schoolmarm, she eagerly accepts. Although she's never been in a schoolroom before, her outlaw skills serve her well. The transition to being respectable is hard. Acting like a lady is much harder. Severed from everyone she's known, she comes to cherish the town and the citizens in it - even Marshal Blade Blackthorne whose brother she crippled in the shootout. Will he recognize her and hang her as he's vowed? And can she survive falling in love with him?

Who are your influences as a writer?

How can I start - there's so many wonderful authors. My main decorating technique is putting up more bookshelves! My children's friends, after seeing all the bookcases, suggested we start a bookstore. I love reading Nora Roberts/JD Robb and Jayne Ann Krentz. Suzanne Brockman's SEALS can visit me any day (or night) they want. I adore Maggie Osborne's heroines and Kay Hooper's psychics. Growing up, I read the Nancy Drew books, but I also stole all my brother's sci-fi books, like Heinlein, Clark, Asimov and then went through a cowboy stage, reading Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey. (don't you just love those tough western guys?)

What does your family think of having a romance author in their midst?

My husband has always been wonderful. He'll list off famous authors (like Stephen King) and tell me how many rejections they each received. My children cheered when my book sold and have been carrying bookmarks to school, telling their teachers to buy Mom's book. Of course, when Dorchester gave me a 3 foot copy of the book cover, my twelve-year-old son and his friends all came in to (ahem) admire the female model and her quite ample assets.

Tell us about plans for future books.

My editor at Dorchester has the sequel to A STOLEN TIME on her desk now. It's called A HEALING TIME and is Blade and Hannah's story. Hannah's wanted Blade for years, but when he returns to Shasta after the War, she's not happy about it at all, especially since she'd lied to everyone about her son's father. (living in small towns can be sooo awkward). I also have a romantic suspense series with a paranormal touch which my agent is marketing now. The books are also set in a small mountain town.

How can readers get in touch with you?

I love to hear from readers! You can email me at shariboullion@earthlink.net
Or check out my website: www.shariboullion.com
Or write me at: P.O. Box 786, Red Bluff, CA 96080

July 11, 2003