When I was growing up on Chicago’s south (east) side, only a couple bridges away from Indiana, I dreamed that one day I would live in a house with central heating. Not a very imaginative dream, I know, but when you continually wake up in the dead of winter to radiators that have turned into metal popsicles and your mom is keeping the kitchen warm from the open door of a four-hundred degree oven, central heating is all you can think about. That and the beaches of Southern California and maybe the ability to pull Daffy Duck out of the TV through a tiny hole I would magically discover in the picture tube. I always thought it would be great if Daffy and the gang could spend some time at my house, just for laughs.

By the time I hit high school, St. Peter and Paul, I was ready to give up my California dreamin’ and marry a Beatle, but only if he could promise me central heating. I’d heard that England could get very cold during the winter months and I wasn’t taking any chances. I still had visions of Daffy and the gang, but I’d given up looking for the magic passageway in the picture tube.

Instead, I started writing my own stories when my kids were all grown up, and my husband told me I needed to focus on one art form (I was into several at the time). We now live in beautiful San Diego, where central heating is optional, and where Daffy lives on in my heart when he’s not “yucking it up” inside my flat-screen TV.

My latest release, Cabin Fever, hits the book stores in February. It’s part of the Mediterranean Nights series from Harlequin, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it! Cabin Fever is book nine in the series and takes place in the Caribbean onboard the cruise ship, Alexandra’s Dream. The story is filled with intrigue, love and laughter, plus a helping of island lust to keep you warm on those cold winter nights.

Here’s wishing you a delightful winter, and no matter how chilly it gets outside, all you really need is a good book to keep you warm . . . and possibly the gang from Looney Tunes to keep you laughing.

Hugs and smoochies,

Mary - mary@maryleo.net