Lynne Marshall here. Thanks for stopping by the Medical Romance blog.
Once in a blue moon (to go forward from Amy’s latest blog) I get an opportunity that is too good to pass up. It happened last fall with The Mammoth Book editor Trish Telep when she asked if I’d be interested in participating in a multi-author anthology. Fortunately for me, she didn’t accept my first reply, and when she asked again I decided to join several of my fellow Medical Romance authors, and many more fabulous authors from all genres, in contributing to the book.
We were given a word limit of 12K. Having never written short before, except for a few short stories I wrote for Woman’s World magazine at lK (only one of which ever got published) I worried I couldn’t tell a well rounded story so quickly. As it turned out, I decided to write three acts (or chapters) each highlighting a piece of the bigger story.
When the story begins Ellen and Adam Deed, both ER doctors, are married but separated. My job in three chapters was to show the passion they still felt for each other, explain the reason they separated, and come up with a way to get them back together. YIKES!
I went the dramatic route with IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. I tortured my characters by asking these questions: What one thing could tear a loving couple apart and make forgiving seem impossible? What one thing could make Adam, a man devoted to his wife, family, and profession turn to drinking and lose hope? What would it take for Ellen to finally forgive Adam and let him back into her heart?
I worried I’d bitten off more than I could chew undertaking their story, but somehow I managed to pull it off in 10K! Reading time approximately fifteen minutes or there about?
If you love the drama of the emergency room, if you want to succumb to completely addictive and highly contagious medical romances, if you like something short to read on your lunch break or before bed, then I hope you’ll check out THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF ER ROMANCE!
Mills & Boon contributing authors: Wendy S. Marcus, Lucy Clark, Sue MacKay, Janice Lynn, Dianne Drake, Tina Becket, Fiona Lowe, and Lynne Marshall.
Plus an International list of contributing authors: Karen Elizabeth Brown, Cassandra Dean, Sam Bradley, Julie Rowe, Alina Adams, Jacqueline Diamond, Abbi Wilder, Cynthia D’Alba and Patti Shenberger.
Seventeen ER romances for your reading pleasure. Check out the book in US here:
QUESTION FOR READERS: What is your favorite setting for Medical Romance?
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Love is the Best Medicine 
Lynne, I think it is always great to stretch writing muscles. Harlequin asked me to write a ten chapter story that was released a chapter a day on their blog (http://bit.ly/1aLGPfT) . Return To Love was the result and I learned so much writing that story. I still get comments from readers. I’m glad you took the plunge and I’m looking forward to reading your story!
Oops, I’ve gone off topic already…um favourite setting? Easy? Small towns!
Hi Fiona!
I went to have a look at your story and it looked like 20 chapters to me. Did they divide it up? Yeah, that had to be a challenge, but knowing you and your writing skills, it was probably a piece of cake.
I love small towns, too.
20 chapters of 500 words! So it was the same size as our Mammoth stories.
sometime inexperienced writers think writing short will be so much easier than writing a “whole book.” HAHA Not so. It takes a lot of work to tell a complete story in a limited number of words.
I was THRILLED to be included with this group!
Hi Cynthia – I so agree – much harder to write short and tight.
I’m thrilled you’re in this anthology, too!
So what’s your favorite setting for Medical Romance? 🙂
Hi Lynne
Likeyou, I’d never written a short story so when Trish asked me to participate I wasn’t sure at first. Now I’m very glad I did. It was fun to write something so different from a full length medical. And this is a great group of authors to be included with.
Sue Mackay
Hi Sue – I thought it was tough, but also fun to try my hand at something very different.
I also agree that we’ve got a great group of authors in the anthology!
Hi Lynne
I think authors owe it to themselves and their readers to try new things and it seems that doing this one was a lot of fun.
I don’t really have a favourite setting when it comes to reading M&B but when it comes to writing them- MSF type settings in Africa wins. At the moment.
ps Good luck to you all with the Mammoth Book of ER Romance. I hope readers love it.
Anne x
Hi Anne
I agree authors need to try new things from time to time if for nothing more than for a challenge.
Please forgive my ignorance – what is MSF?
I hope we pick up some new Medical Romance devotees from this book. Break them in with short sotires, then they’ll be amazed to discover a whole book line of solid Medical Romance stories.
I personally love to read short stories (and, I admit, I read medical romances for the physiology porn; I’m that much of a geek), but writing them is definitely a challenge – in a good way! What is it Mark Twain supposedly said: I apologize for the length of this letter, but I didn’t have time to write a short one?
I was very nervous about participating in this anthology, and very relieved when Trisha wrote back to say she loved it (phew). Of course, I was also not at all surprised when she added, “So different from what I’ve been getting.” Yup, that’s me: Different. 😉
Hi Alina – now I really can’t wait to read your story!
Love the Mark Twain quote.
Lynne,
You story sound great. I look forward to reading everyone’s. Who doesn’t love ER drama? TV series are made of them all the time.
Hi Susan – yes, TV medical dramas love the ER scenes, I guess because they’re bloody and intense? Fortunately, ERs aren’t always that crazy, unless they’re trauma units in big cities, you know?
I agree. Your story sounds awesome, Lynne! Need to sit down and read it. Feel guilty that my excuse is finishing my current WIP.
I’m glad you decided to be a part of the book.
Abbi 🙂
Hi Abbi – I’m with you, I keep savoring this book for when I can read without distraction. The great thing is, we only need 20-30 mins to get a complete story, and we can take all seventeen days to read everyone’s.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Lynne, it’s an honor to have a story in the same anthology with you, and a treat to read stories by other medical romance writers (I write a miniseries, Safe Harbor Medical, for Harlequin American Romance). Terrific blog, too!
Hi Jacqueline! I am in awe of your Harlequin American books. I love that many of the Harlequin book lines include medical settings for stories, HAR, SE, SR, and of course the MedRo line which takes a more in-depth look and the actual medicine for us diehards. LOL.
We’re all happy medical diehards around here.
I’m glad you like our group blog, too.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
The book looks fab, Lynne! I’ll add it to my pile 🙂
I do love the ER for hospitals settings purely for the variety of cases and people who walk through the doors!
I’m with you on the ER setting, Amy. Never at a loss for interesting cases to include in the love story using the ER as the backdrop.
I have this anthology sitting on my ipad just waiting to be read! I can’t wait to get stuck in and read so many of my favourite authors!
My favourite medical setting? I don’t have one- truly, I love reading about different places, small community clinics, outback, large hospitals- so long as the story grips me I don’t mind where it’s set.
Hi Louisa – so true, as long as the story grips, the setting can be interchangeable. I just saw a news story about this small community clinic in Colorado, out in the middle of nowhere where people travel hundreds of miles from different states to get medical care. I can only imagine the diverse conditions this doctor must deal with on a daily basis. The underserved need more docs like that.
I first heard of the Mammoth books when Sue MacKay talked about her contribution to the book. I don’t read a lot of short stories but this book sounds like I’d enjoy it very much.
I love small town settings for medicals where the doctors are faced with challenges of all kinds.
Hi Kaelee – I’m glad you’ve heard of our group effort book. I hope you’ll give it a try. I love small town settings too. My Son-in-law is a family practice resident and he must deal with every kind of situation. I suspect they’ll end up living in a small town, and bringing much to the health of the people there.
Thanks for reading the blog and commenting. 🙂
This book’s just got to be a winner, Lynne, with so many fabulous authors contributing. Thanks for giving us a taste of your story, I can’t wait to read it!
I tend to write big city settings – partly I guess it’s because that’s what I know, but also because I like the way that there are so many diverse small communities within any city. But I love to read stories set in all kinds of places – it’s one of the delights of medical romance that doctors turn up everywhere, and there are so many different kinds of setting to choose from.
So True Annie – doctors are needed in every situation, which makes our job of writing about them easier. There are so many settings to choose from. I like big city hospital stories, small town clinics, family clinics within big city neighborhood, home health, traveling medicine. On and on we can bring out stories anywhere.
I’m glad you agree this book should meet just about everyone’s requirements for medical romance.
It was very cool to be able to contribute to this anthology, but I have to admit writing short is HARD! Much, much harder than I thought it would be. But it was also good for me to think through every scene and decide if it pushed the story forward enough. “Kill those darlings” soon became my motto, as I had to cut anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. 😉 And yay that the book was waiting for me when I arrived home. Very cool to see that cover!
My favorite setting? Small towns, I think, although I also love reading about exotic places.
Hi Tina – yes, and you write exotic places so well! I back off from such settings since I’ve never been to the really exotic places in the world. I’m too big of a chicken.
I’m thrilled you’re finally in touch with all of your books now that you’re back home. Hug all those babies – rewards for your hard work.
Lynne, I’m finally catching up with the blog and I was tickled pink to see your post about the Mammoth Book of ER Romance! Congratulations to all of you who contributed – i think it’ll be a fab read! And now I’ve just been over to Barnes & Noble to I see they’ve got it available in Nook and I just so happen to have a gift voucher burning a hole in my e-pocket! Now I’ve got the perfect thing to spend it on!
Congrats Ladies! I just found you and featured you on my blog (www.patriciawfischer.com) and my Examiner.com page.
Here are the link: http://www.examiner.com/article/the-mammoth-book-of-er-romance-celebrating-emergency-room-nurses-week
Great work and love the cover.