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Welcome to our New Faces column, where you can meet brand-new romance authors and find out about their books. This time we're visiting with Helen Brenna, whose first release is Treasure from Harlequin SuperRomance. Helen, welcome to TRR! Tell us about yourself. I'm from a small town in central Minnesota, but have been living in the Twin Cities for over twenty years. I'm married, have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 3 cats. I'm getting ready to send my oldest off to college in the fall, so it'll be an adjustment around here! Are you coming to romance writing from another job? I have an undergraduate degree in accounting, of all things, and am actually a CPA, but for most of the past fifteen years I've been focused on being an at-home mom. These days, my kids are old enough that I'm writing full-time. What led you to write romance? I've been reading romance since I was able to head to the library on my own. I devoured every Harlequin they had and then started buying my own. Although I don't have as much time to read any longer, I like to read about anything. As long as it's a good story. I never gave a thought to writing until I started staying home with my first child. She was taking 2 hour naps and I could clean the entire house in 2 hours. That left 4 other days to the week. We had an old clunking computer, but it had word processing softeware. I started typing one day, and that was that. Tell us about your road to publication. I've been seriously writing for about 10 of the last 15 years and have entered more contests and accumulated more rejections letters than I could count. My first critique group was with Susan Kay Law and Connie Brockway back before they'd published. We all finalled in the Golden Heart, one after another, and they sold their first books, but I didn't. I took a hiatus with my second child. When I got back into writing, I joined up with another critique group, all of us unpublished at the time. Rosemary Heim was the first to get published, and I had some successes along the way that kept me motivated. I won Georgia Romance Writer's Maggie with my fourth manuscript and then double finalled in the Golden Heart. That's when I started working with my second agent, Tina Wexler with ICM. I won the Maggie again, but this time with my third manuscript and that's when we sold. After I'd revised that third manuscript 3 times for 3 different editors. It's been a long road. What kind of research was involved for your first book? Oh, gosh, I do a ton of research. All of my books have been set in foreign locations, places I've never been. I guess that's because I love to travel. My first book is set in the Bahamas, so while I'd have loved to visit for details, I had to complete all my research with travel books or on-line websites. I've never scuba dived either, so I interviewed several divers, read alot of articles in trade magazines, that kind of thing. As for underwater treasure hunting, that was the toughest to research. Most firms are very secretive about their work. I read several books and articles on the subject, trying to aborb as much as possible. I love learning new things. Tell us about your debut book. TREASURE is an adventure romance set around the search for a sunken Spanish galleon and the cursed cross that brought it down in a hurricane 400 years ago. Some adventure, some light suspense, a lot of romance. TREASURE has it all. Harlequin says it best with the backcover blurb: Jake Rawlings has been searching for the Spanish galleon Concha his whole life. And he's paid a heavy price. Suddenly he's saddled with Annie Miller, a marine archaeologist who claims she can take him to it. Annie has her own reasons for going back to the Concha. Before their sudden deaths, her parents found the Santidad Cross-an artifact-on board. Since then the curse of the Santidad Cross has ruined her life. Now she wants to bury the cross at sea-and her bad luck with it. As they set sail for the Bahamas, maybe the real treasure is staring them in the face... Who are your influences as a writer? I don't read anywhere near as much as I'd like to, but there have been authors over the years who's work has affected me in one way or another: LaVyrle Spencer, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Lisa Gardner, Tami Hoag, Barbara Samuel, Betina Krahn, Deb Dixon, Jenny Crusie, Janet Evanovich, and I could go on. I love good story tellers. What does your family think of having a published romance author in their midst? They're all very proud because they've all been there with me from the beginning. They tell co-workers, friends, teachers. My kids wanted to go out to a store the first day my book was available. We went to the Barnes and Nobles closest to home, and my book was sold out. On the first day! I'm sure it was a neighbor or two, but fun all the same. Tell us about plans for future books. My second Harlequin SuperRomance, DAD FOR LIFE, will be out in June 2007. It's an adventure romance, as well, revolving around the search for an ancient Incan healing village in the wilds of the Peruvian rainforests. This was a Golden Heart finalist and won GRWs Maggie. A great story! Right now, I'm writing a Harlequin NASCAR romance, BACKSTRETCH BLUES, to be released in May, 2008. I think even non-NASCAR fans will love it. Hopefully, I'll have another SuperRomance out in 2008 as well. How can readers get in touch with you? I love hearing from readers/writers/everyone. Visit my website, www.helenbrenna.com, or come and chat at the blog I'm on, called Riding with the Top Down, with Christie Ridgeway, Susie Law, Deb Dixon, Kathy Eagle, Lois Greiman, Cindy Gerard, Michele Hauf, and Betina Krahn. My snail mail is PO Box 24107, Minneapolis, MN 55424 and my email is helenbrenna@comcast.net. Helen, thank you for joining us, and best of luck with your future releases! March 31, 2007
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