Thursday, February 1, 2018

From Wards to Writing LILY HARLEM






  Well good morning everyone, January is a hard month to get through, let alone get out of bed on those days when the temperatures doesn’t rise above freezing. My solution, HOT STEAMY READS, preferably in bed! I am delighted to introduce my next guest, Lily Harlem. I am in the middle of one of her books, Cold Nights, Hot Bodies, which is sinfully good. I love meeting and chatting with new authors. I love discovering what makes them tick, and how they create their stories. It seems only fair to share Lily and her books with you all.

A quick fact, I used to be a RGN/Midwife working in a large teaching hospital for around 15 years. Working in the health care profession is something Lily and I have in common. It’s another reason for the post today because I love, and admire how women can reinvent themselves, use their life experiences, and create something new and awesome.




Please, give a warm welcome to LILY HARLEM….








From Wards to Writing
Lily Harlem

It’s great to be here today, thank you, Jennifer for inviting me. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m an erotic romance author, and I’ve been sitting at my desk overlooking the beautiful Welsh hills, tapping away on my laptop, for ten years now. To be honest it’s not something I ever thought I’d do, and certainly not when I was working in London on a busy trauma ward.

Nursing was all consuming physically and mentally, but I loved it, and I loved the camaraderie of working with a group of females (mainly females anyway). But after nearly twenty years of NHS service a move to Wales, because of my husband’s job, gave me the opportunity to change things around. He was very supportive when I decided to study creative writing and also kind of pleased that I didn’t find another ward to throw my energNightsies into; it meant I was home more (shift work is a bummer) and much less exhausted (I wasn’t asleep the  minute my head touched the pillow, which he highly approved of!). Not only that I loved my course and I soon realised the more I learnt about the craft of writing fiction, the less I knew. There are so many technicalities and reasons why a piece of writing reads well, or a character is believable, and a plot line worthy of a reader suspending their disbelief. It’s a case of mastering the basics, then the rest is endless fun to play with - a truly wonderful thing to become immersed in.

Which is exactly what happened, and soon, and true to my slightly obsessive nature, I was hooked. My next assignment was all I could think of, I was constantly going back to it tweaking and adding bits, then waiting anxiously to get it back from the tutor to read her comments - my creative writing professor was amazing, enthusiastic, whacky, energetic and not afraid to say when something was utter rubbish! I learned so much from her in three years and will always be grateful for her generosity of spirit and search for perfection.



                                      





But still, even at this point, erotic romance wasn’t on my radar. Until, that was, I saw a writing contest at LoveHoney (an online adult shop in the UK). It was a decent amount of prize money so I thought I’d give it a go. I dreamed up a steamy story about the President of the United States and a British female Prime Minister having a saucy rendezvous in the Oval Office (don’t worry this was long before President Trump and Theresa May, because I don’t think I’d have found them very inspiring LOL). To my surprise I won the top prize with my first piece of hot and steamy fiction (which you can read in my collection STORIES FOR WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN ) and was totally thrilled.

From that moment on I’ve always said the erotic romance genre found me, rather than me finding it. Before long I was having short stories accepted for anthologies and at publishers in the UK and USA. The short stories turned into novels, which became series, and I have more than a million published words (I stopped counting after that!).

Writing has become a huge part of my life, and is a full time job now. I do still miss working with a group of nurses, writing can be a lonely job, but I’ve found that my online friends - other authors and readers - have filled the gap. Although often not seen face-to-face, there’s daily chats, fun and support. I can’t imagine not writing now, there’s always a to-do list of ‘things to write’ on my notepad. It seems I’m inspired everywhere I turn and living in such a gentle and pretty part of the world, with a few rescued pets at my side, really helps my muse.

Thank you for having me, and for reading. If you’d like to sample my style, sign up to my NEWSLETTER and get a FREE ebook (18+).



                               


           Lily x

About Lily Harlem

Lily Harlem lives in the UK and is an award-winning author of sexy romance. She writes for publishers on both sides of the Atlantic including HarperCollins, Totally Bound, Pride, Evernight, and Stormy Night Publications. Her work regularly receives high praise and industry nominations.
Before turning her hand to writing Lily Harlem worked as a trauma nurse and her latest HarperCollins release, Confessions of a Naughty Night Nurse draws on her many experiences while nursing in London. Lily also self-publishes and The Silk Tie, The Glass Knot, Cold Nights, Hot Bodies, Bite Mark and Shared have been blessed with many 5* reviews – all available on Kindle Unlimited.
Check out Lily’s new reverse harem series – The Challenge – also on KU.
If you love sporty romance don’t miss Hot Ice a seven novel 5* series about those sexy bad boys of the ice all available on Kindle Unlimited and the first book FREE when you sign up to her newsletter. And also check out Formula One themed novel Accelerated Passion and sexy soccer story Scored.
Lily writes MF, MM and ménage a trois, her books regularly hit the #1 spot on Amazon Bestseller lists and Breathe You In was named a USA Today Reviewer’s Recommended Read of 2014. Her latest MM novel is Dark Warrior and you can grab Part One of her MM series Caught on Camera  for FREE!
Lily also co-authors with Natalie Dae and publishes darker plot lines and suspense under the name Harlem Dae - check out That Filthy Book which has been hailed as a novel 'every woman should read' and is available in book stores nationwide. The Sexy as Hell Trilogy, a critically acclaimed boxed set, is available on Amazon and KU.
One thing you can be sure of, whatever book you pick up by Ms Harlem, is it will be wildly romantic and deliciously sexy. Enjoy!
Visit Lily’s website for more details of her other books or her Amazon Author Page. Subscribe to her newsletter to get a FREE ebook and be the first to hear of new releases, and if you enjoy Facebook hop on over there and say hi!


                                  







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