Back to Writing

Well, this is it, my first blog post and my first steps back into the wonderful world that is romance novels and especially the awesomeness that is military romance!  I took a break from writing to go to grad school, but now I'm back.  I'm a newbie all over again.

Since I haven't been around for awhile, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about myself.  I've been writing for as long as I can remember.  That said, some days, I can't remember why I went downstairs, so that's not saying much!  I got serious about writing in 2000 and got my first contract in 2004.  I wrote steadily until the environment at my day job necessitated going back to school.  With working full time and going to school part time, something had to give and regretfully that was my writing.  But now that's all done and I can finally write things that don't have to be in APA format!

I tried my hand at mysteries (since I'm not a plotter, I'm not very good at the who-done-it) and historicals, but fell in love when I dove into my first military romance.  I'm not sure what took me so long to come to that realization, since Suzanne Brockmann and Catherine Mann are two of my favorite authors and a man in a military uniform has to power to stop me in my tracks (My father always reminds me to behave when he takes me on a base!).

Men in uniform have always had my heart.  I'm an Air Force brat, I grew up around flight lines and men in OD green.  One of those men came home at night (or morning as the case may have been) to my mom, my brother and I.  I grew up around men who put duty, honor, and country first but still managed to be fantastic husbands and fathers.  Not to mention the hot physically fit bodies!!  Let's not forget the sexy bods!!  Not that I could ever forget a sexy bod.  It takes a very special man to look good in OD green fatigues (I'm showing my age since the USAF doesn't even wear those anymore and hasn't for a while!).  Now my son wears the uniform of an USAF LT (I don't drool over his co-workers, though, there's a fine line between cougar and creepy!).

It only made sense, then, that I'd want to bring those qualities exemplified by the members of our military to the heroes of my books.  Because of my history, I choose to make my heroes (and a heroine) members of the USAF.  What can I say, I love a man in (or out of) a flight suit!

My WIP is about a C-130 gunship crew member grounded because of bad intel, a dom who meets his match with a do-gooder social worker sub.  I hope to share (call sign) Truck and Genevieve's progress with you.  I also hope to be able to share the stories of the other crew members of the gunship.  And maybe, just maybe, Truck will let all of us know what name is on his birth certificate!  Because I'm really beginning to wonder just how horrible his name is if he won't give it up!

I can be reached at FeliciaForella @ comcast dot net.  Check me out on Facebook.  And you can check out my webiste for my backlist, www.FeliciaForella.com.  My website needs a new design, desperately, which is in the works.

On a complete and total side note, Happy Birthday to my mom!

Military Brat to Wife to Writer

I will be honest with you. I never really planned on writing military romance. I am a military brat and a military wife, so I don't see much that is romantic about the military. Don't get me wrong. I love to read military romance, but trying to make it romantic myself, I wasn't sure I could do that. I was worried it would end up in a rant about how every time something goes majorly wrong, DH is on TDY.

I had written former military folks here and there, but never active duty. There is a different feel to an AD hero or heroine. Your life is not your own, therefore the life of those you love is not their own either. So, I had avoided it. Then, a couple of authors, Alyssa Brooks and Karen Monroe, came to me with an idea. Triplets who were military brats who swore never to marry military. That I could get behind because I was so that girl once upon a time. Operation Love was a blast to write with two other authors and I started to see there was a part of me that might want to write military romances.  Not enough but it was a start.

Flash forward from 2005 to 2011. I was writing A Little Harmless Submission and Malachi Dupree popped up. He had been mentioned in a few books but he had never been on the "page" so to speak. Since I had started my own publishing at that point, I knew there was a place for him and his friends in a book. A Little Harmless Military Romance was born.

Infatuation released November 2011. It was odd that people loved them so much. Or, at least, it was to me, but many of the emails and comments from readers told me that people wanted more of them. I had not really planned five right off the bat, but the lure of showing people the real behind the scenes lives was a little too much to resist. With our active duty military life winding down (SEPTEMBER!!!!!!!), I feel more comfortable writing military romance. Later this year Craving and Relentless will release, and this May, I decided to pay an homage to our military lives by releasing The Santinis.

After twenty years a military wife - not to mention my years a military
dependent - I wanted to write about a family who gave their lives for their country. Each book will feature a place we lived during the last twenty years.  Understand, at least from my point of view, that when you agree to go into the military, you are giving over your life. For two to thirty years...your life is not your own. And for military brats, four brothers, to do that is amazing. You know the problems that go along with the commitment. Knowing that, all four brothers went into the military. So, you know that men like that are not going to love easily. I wanted to explore their dynamic as brothers and in their relationships with women. I wanted to give them their happily ever afters because, people who serve in that capacity definitely deserve it.