And another thing... In addition to being criticized for having a Caribbean setting we were also told that we could not have a married heroine. Really? Are all marriages forever? Do divorces never occur? Is there no married woman who doesn't have some thoughts about a man other than her husband? Mercy me! I must be living in someone else's universe.

Where do people get this stuff? Actually I know. One fact is that an amazing number of people are pretty myopic in their view of the world. The word "inflexible" also applies. And then, too, it seems in Harlequin romances married women are as rare as hen's teeth.

But we thought it better if Jamie, our heroine in A Dream Across Time, was married. It was a far more likely scenario if she was to go to St. Lucia. And we saw these stories all the time. The affairs, the Caribbean meltdowns and all the other ugly things that happened to some people. So, we decided to stick with reality rather than the conventional prejudices.

Oh yes. There was another thing we encountered. Some people thought it was preposterous and beyond belief that part of a family would be found after 200 years. The problem is we knew people in Martinique who introduced us to the long lost family members they had found. And since in my wife's family there was an eighteen month old boy lost in Ellis Island and never found, it seems there just might be truth in legends.

All of this boils down to writing what you know, sticking to your guns and not permitting yourself to be swayed by ever bit of stray advise which might be utterly misguided.
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