RBL Presents!
MARILYN PAPPANO






We have been reading and enjoying Marilyn Pappano's books ever since we began reading romance. First recommended to us by a bookseller, we bought and read her mainstream contemporaries. Then we started searching for her backlist of categories. Then she began writing her "little town of Bethlehem" single titles, and we were really hooked! Marilyn's stories grab you and reel you in, her characters capture your heart. We are so pleased to give you Marilyn Pappano ...



Judy and Lory: Marilyn, we always like to "get to know" our authors a little bit. Would you tell us something about yourself - where you live, your background, family, hobbies or work ... what you do when you aren't writing?

Marilyn: After sixteen years of moving wherever the Navy sent my husband, Robert, I'm back home in Oklahoma now. We're out in the country at the top of a hill that overlooks my hometown of Sapulpa. We have woods, a huge pond, fruit trees and more lawn than I'm ever able to get mowed all at the same time. Robert retired from the Navy shortly before our only child, Brandon, joined the Army; he's currently stationed in Italy. We have surrogate "sons" in our dogs - a Lab/hound mix, a black-and-tan coonhound, and a shepherd/terrier mix. My mom swears I love my dogs more than most people, and I think she's right!

As for hobbies, I love puzzles - crossword and jigsaw - cross stitch, and sewing (I'm currently doing slipcovers for the living room furniture, but one of these days I'm going to start that star quilt I've always wanted). This being summer in Oklahoma, my primary hobby these days is yard work. Our yard is about five acres and was sorely neglected last summer, so I'm trying to play catch-up.

Judy and Lory: When did you decide to become an author and why did you choose to write romance?

Marilyn: I've always made up stories and, before I started school, told them to anyone who would listen. Once I learned to read and write, things became more peaceful for my family because I became very committed to putting the stories on paper. Writing romance just came naturally once I got old enough to realize boys were good for something besides beating up. It was what I loved to read, and after all these years, it's still what I love to write.

Judy and Lory: We have many of your wonderful series/category romances. Did you "start out" writing these? How long did it take you to sell your first book - and can you tell us about that experience? What were some of your earliest books?

Marilyn: Through all my early years of writing, I only wrote the "good stuff." Set-up, background, any action involving anyone other than the hero and heroine together - I skipped all that and went from highlight to highlight. The first real books I wrote, ones that actually had a beginning, middle, and end, along with the "good stuff," really didn't fit anywhere. They were too short and generally had as many category elements as non-category. In fact, all they were really good for was proving to myself that I could actually write a book.

The year I turned 29, I decided to try not only writing a book, but also selling it. I wrote one, submitted it to Silhouette Special Editions, and received back a rejection suggesting, though in slightly nicer words, that I not bother that editor again. I was crushed. I wept and swore I would never write again, then two days later I returned to the manuscript I was working on. When I finished it, I queried Leslie Wainger at Silhouette Intimate Moments. Specials and IMs were the only category lines I read regularly, and no way was I letting that Special editor have another crack at my fragile ego.

Leslie asked to see the manuscript, and I mailed it off. In the meantime, my husband got orders for a cross-country move. Once we'd found a place to live, I called my mother to give her the new address and phone number. As soon as I'd gotten out the words, "Hey, it's me," Mom asked, "Why didn't you tell me you'd written a book?" Leslie had wanted to buy the book, couldn't reach me by phone, and so had sent an overnight letter that was forwarded, along with all our other mail, to my mother's address. Figuring that anyone who would spend $10 to mail a twenty-cent letter (or whatever postage was back then) had something important to say, Mom opened it.

I'm the only author I know of who got "The Call" from her mother!

Judy and Lory: Where do you get ideas for your stories and characters? Do your personal acquaintances or experiences ever end up in your stories? What type of research do you do for your stories?

Marilyn: Ideas come from everywhere - other books, TV and movies, headlines, daydreams, songs, names, etc. Very little of what appears in the books comes from personal experience (other than emotions, I suppose). Truthfully, my life is so boringly average that there's nothing worth reading about. I don't use acquaintances, either, though I admit to once borrowing from an ex-friend who'd done me wrong when I needed a name for a whiny, spoiled, snot-nosed brat.

My husband does my research for me. He has a far more interesting background - medical, military, law enforcement, and all those careers entail. If he doesn't know the answers to my questions, he knows where to find them. I like having the information gathered and presented to me like that. I'm not a real outgoing person, so hands-on research isn't usually for me, though I do love to visit the setting for a book if at all possible.

Judy and Lory: How long does it take you to write a story? Do you write from an outline? Do your stories always end up the way you planned? Do your characters ever "take over" the story?

Marilyn: You know that saying about a job expanding to fill the time available to do it? That fits me to a T. I try to finish a category romance in six to eight weeks, and I can usually do a longer book in ten to twelve weeks. But I'm a real sucker for taking unscheduled days off, thinking I can make up the time without a problem. Luckily - knock wood - I usually can.

I write from a very basic outline. I know where I'm starting and where I'm hoping to end up. It's just all that stuff in between that isn't clear. I almost always end where I planned; I just don't always get there the ways I thought I might.

My characters do sometimes "take over," but generally it's because I'm trying to force them or the story in a direction that's not right. It's really not so much "taking over" for me as it is refusing to do anything. The dialogue becomes stilted, the action stops cold, and so forth. I have to keep going back in the story until I find the place where things went wrong, and start fresh.

Judy and Lory: Several of your books are parts of a series. At what point do you determine that a sequel should be written? When and how do you know that a certain character "deserves" a book of his or her own?

Marilyn: My Southern Knights series was conceived as a three-book series from the start, as was the Heartbreak Canyon series. (They're both up to six books, though.) The Bethlehem series was more luck, I guess. I'd done the first book, SEASON FOR MIRACLES, then changed publishers. Initially, I was going to write romantic suspense for the new publisher, but my editor read MIRACLES, loved it, and wanted more. Though there are ongoing storylines and recurring characters in the whole series, only the eighth and ninth books, CABIN FEVER and SMALL WONDERS, were plotted to tie together more closely.

Sometimes I know a character's getting his own story when the readers start asking for it. Years ago, when GUILT BY ASSOCIATION came out, I received a number of letters asking for the hero's best friend's story. One of them was forwarded along with a note from my editor saying, "We're telling them Gabriel's story is in the works, so can you come up with something?" (I did - SOMETHING OF HEAVEN.)

Other times it's my choice. When I wrote THE TRUTH ABOUT TATE, the hero's brother, Josh, makes only two very brief appearances, but I knew immediately I wanted to know more about him. (THE TROUBLE WITH JOSH came out in April 2003.) Logan Marshall, brother to the hero of LAWMAN'S REDEMPTION, doesn't show up at all in the book, but he interests me a lot, so I suspect his story will come sneaking around sometime in the near future.

Judy: I absolutely loved your Heartbreak Canyon SIMs categories (CATTLEMAN’S PROMISE, THE HORSEMAN’S BRIDE, ROGUE’S REFORM, THE SHERIFF’S SURRENDER, and LAWMAN'S REDEMPTION), especially the story of Easy Rafferty and Shay Stephens (THE HORSEMAN’S BRIDE). Easy is one of those tortured and sympathetic heroes that RBL readers take to their hearts - plus this is a story of love lost and found again, one of my personal favorite themes. Can you talk a little about this series - how it came about, its storylines and characters?

Marilyn: Thanks! I'm glad you've enjoyed them. I was coming up for a new contract with Silhouette not long after THE OVERNIGHT ALIBI, set in my home state of Oklahoma, came out. Leslie Wainger asked me to do a trilogy involving ranchers/cowboys living here. For whatever reason, I'd decided I absolutely would not have children in any of the three books, but I was having a dickens of a time trying to plot the first one (CATTLEMAN'S PROMISE). Out of frustration, I thought, "Sheesh, these characters aren't cooperating; I ought to give them a handful of trouble in the form of twins," and that was all it took. The whole story fell into place.

Guthrie, the hero in CATTLEMAN'S PROMISE, is my favorite kind of hero - a good, honorable, decent man. When he realizes that his half-brother has swindled the homeless heroine and her twin daughters, he gives them a home and his heart.

Easy and Shay's story just evolved naturally out of the first book. Guthrie needed a heartache in his past, so I gave him a double whammy - his fiancee ran off with his best friend just hours before the wedding. Of course, with that kind of guilt, the relationship didn't work out. Easy and Shay got their own heartaches that mended when he - a rodeo cowboy who'd skated through life on the basis of his good looks and talent for roping - was injured in an accident, leaving him scarred and handicapped and ending his career.

I have to say ROGUE'S REFORM is my favorite of the series (and not just because it won RWA's RITA Award, either!). Ethan was a good-for-nothing liar, thief, and con artist with a reputation that wouldn't quit. Grace was shy, withdrawn, finally free after years enduring her father's abuse. She was finally finding the acceptance she'd always longed for when she got pregnant by the scoundrel with the worst reputation Heartbreak had ever seen.

THE SHERIFF'S SURRENDER, featuring Reese Barnett, was the one that took me by surprise. Readers either loved him or hated him - there was no middle ground. I truly wasn't prepared for the reactions to him. There was no simple misunderstanding between Reese and Neely, and very little external conflict keeping them apart; they had serious issues that dealt with the fundamentals of who and what they were. Luckily, even readers who hated Reese admit to having liked the story. (It's not one you put down and forget, one reader wrote; it stays with you. Good enough for me!)

LAWMAN'S REDEMPTION is Brady Marshall and Hallie Madison's story. Hallie's a three-time loser at marriage, and Brady is still dealing with the abuse he endured growing up. He's also playing father for the first time - to a fourteen-year-old, purple-haired, tattoed, pierced, smart-ass daughter with an attitude. I had lots of fun with her!

The next book in the series is currently titled ONE TRUE THING - heroine Cassidy McRae can't tell the truth to save her life - though that title will probably change. I had a lot of requests for Jace Barnett, Reese's cousin, as a hero, so here he is. I don't have a pub date for this one yet - probably late 2003 or early 2004.

Lory: In your book MICHAEL’S GIFT, from the Southern Knights series, the hero and heroine have paranormal abilities. Do you believe in these types of abilities? Do you have any personal knowledge of these types of incidents in real life? Stories with paranormal themes are popular among romance authors and readers at present. Do you plan on writing more books with paranormal storylines?

Marilyn: I believe in ESP and clairvoyance and all that - though I also believe an awful lot of people claiming to possess those abilities are scammers. I've experienced it in small ways - knowing that someone was coming to my house before they came into sight, knowing who's on the phone the moment before it rings. But whenever money comes into it, I become skeptical.

Not that it's stopped me from writing about it. Crystal, in BIG SKY LAWMAN, is psychic, and one of my own favorites, Evie, from MURPHY'S LAW, is a genuine psychic pretending to be a fraud pretending to be a genuine psychic.

I love a good paranormal, and I've got several ideas I'd like to write - one involving a witch, another having to do with reincarnation, and a third that's a sort of life-after-death type thing. Right now it's mostly a matter of finding time!

Judy and Lory: Moving from your categories, your most recent single title books have been part of your wonderful "little town of Bethlehem" series - SEASON FOR MIRACLES, SOME ENCHANTED SEASON, FATHER TO BE, FIRST KISS, GETTING LUCKY, and HEAVEN ON EARTH. How did you get the idea for this series? ... for the angel characters? for the town itself?

Marilyn: I'm a sucker for the Capra movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," and I'm also a small-town girl at heart. I created Bethlehem as the ideal town to live in (in my mind, at least - and I'm always tickled when readers say, "I want to live there!").

The angel in the first three books, Noelle, was a part of the story from the moment it began forming. I wanted to write something really warm and fuzzy, with the magical qualities that we all think of with Christmas. I also loved the idea of the angelic nudges from above to help my characters along. Besides, Nathan and Emilie, and especially the kids, really deserved a few miracles!

After Noelle got her own happily-ever-after in GABRIEL'S ANGEL, a short story in the "Yours 2 Keep" anthology (Bantam Books, 1999), I had to come up with a replacement. I still love Noelle, but Sophy and Gloria have a special place in my heart, too. And in SMALL WONDERS, there's a new kid - er, angel - on the block named Eli, who threatens Sophy's composure, her sanity, and even her heart.

Judy and Lory: The first book in the series, SEASON FOR MIRACLES, was made into a TV movie - and it stuck pretty much to the story in the book (unlike what has happened to some other romances which were made into films, Julie Garwood’s FOR THE ROSES experience probably being the very worst nightmare for an author!). Would you tell us how this came about? Did you have any "say" in the movie script, actors, or the film itself? How did you feel about the finished product?

Marilyn: My agent sent the manuscript to the film agent she worked with in Hollywood, who sent it to Richard Welch at Hallmark Hall of Fame. Dick was notorious for not "doing" Christmas movies, but the agent told him this one was different and persuaded him to look at it. Dick read the book, then called the head honcho at Hallmark and told him he wanted to do a Christmas book. His boss's response was, "But, Dick, you don't 'do' Christmas books," and Dick replied, "But this one's different."

It was incredibly exciting, although I was in the dark through most of the process. They bought an option on the book in the summer of 1997, and that was the last I heard until a few days before Christmas 1998, when someone from my agent's office called to say, "Merry Christmas - and Hallmark's exercised the option."

I didn't have any say in anything that happened after that - Hallmark likes to keep most authors uninvolved. I was very pleased with the movie, though, and I had a ball when they flew my husband and me to Los Angeles for the premiere. We met Patty Duke and Carla Gugino, along with other cast members and production people. It was amazing seeing my characters and story come to life on the big screen, though it was just as special watching the broadcast the following weekend with my mom, sisters, and their families.

Judy: Although I loved another book in this series, SOME ENCHANTED SEASON, it was a particularly difficult book to read - I actually had to put it away for a while before I could finish reading it. The breakup of a marriage, the difficult rehabilitation of the heroine after her accident, the guilt of her workaholic husband, and the issue of infidelity - was this book as difficult to write as it was to read? What was the reaction of your fans to this story? I think that the heroine, Maggie, is one of the strongest, most admirable heroines of any novel. Do you have any thoughts about her?

Marilyn: I don't know that I could have written the infidelity angle into any book other than a Bethlehem book. Even though Maggie and Ross had to go through a lot, the angel, Noelle, was there to help them along, and to me, at least, that was the difference that made the infidelity storyline doable. Without the angelic help and the wonderful townspeople, it would have been a much tougher story to tell.

Most readers seem to appreciate the story - at least, the ones who had problems with it haven't let me know! Even though there was a lot of tough stuff in it, there was also a lot of hope, and genuine remorse and regret and love. Maggie and Ross so clearly belonged together, and I think readers could believe in their growth and changes and know they really would live happily ever after.

Interestingly, I toyed with the idea of making Ross the one who had the accident and the long recovery/rehabilitation, but decided almost immediately that it just wouldn't work. That character did require a certain strength, and Maggie was far more up to it than he was. I think she did a pretty good job of it!

Judy and Lory: What types of books do you read for pleasure (assuming that you have time to read for pleasure!)? What are some of your favorite books? Who are some of your favorite authors?

Marilyn: I don't get to read as much as I used to, and much of what I read is contest entries to judge. Frankly, one of the downsides of having written nearly sixty books is that I'm a much more difficult reader now. It's too easy to notice slips in point of view, inaccuracies, holes in the plot, poorly constructed sentences or stories, and so forth. (My son can hardly stand to watch a movie with me because I can't help but grouse when it cheats or fails.)

However, I do read romance and a few mysteries. I love Tony Hillerman's books, and I count meeting Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser series, as one of the high points of my career. In the past year or so, I've begun reading more historicals than contemporaries. Inaccuracies drive me up the wall, and I'm not such a history buff that I catch many historical mistakes.

Favorite authors ... hmm ... Julia Quinn, Christina Dodd, and Teresa Medeiros are auto-buys for me. Ditto with Tami Hoag and Janet Evanovich, along with the reissues of Jennifer Crusie's old categories (I like her current books - love the old ones). One of my all-time favorite books is ALWAYS TO REMEMBER by Lorraine Heath. It's on my keeper shelf and gets loaned out only to people I can track down and retrieve it from if necessary.

Judy and Lory: We know that authors hate this question, but readers love to know - among all of the books you’ve written, which one is your favorite? Who is your favorite hero? ... heroine?

Marilyn: Favorite book is an easy one for me _ my absolute favorites are PASSION (single-title) and SWEET ANNIE'S PASS (category). I adore the hero in PASSION - he also gets the nod for my favorite hero (with Ethan from ROGUE'S REFORM and Jack from MURPHY'S LAW close behind) - and I think the story is pretty darn good, too. ANNIE is just a typical, old-fashioned romance novel. There's no mystery, no suspense, nothing much at all happening - just two people getting to know each other and falling in love, and I love it.

Favorite heroine ... hmm ... Maggie from SOME ENCHANTED SEASON and Evie from MURPHY'S LAW are both so wounded but so strong. Hallie from LAWMAN'S REDEMPTION has been burned three times but she's still standing, still hoping. And Selena, in my current untitled book, just may give new meaning to "strong."

Judy and Lory: What’s next for your fans? Will there be more books in your Bethlehem series? What other wonderful books can we look forward to?

Marilyn: As I mentioned above, the next Heartbreak book is already in the works. I do intend to continue the Bethlehem series after these two upcoming ones - I can't face saying goodbye just yet, and there are still so many stories left to tell - though it'll likely be sometime in 2005 before the tenth book comes out.

I'm really excited about next year's releases - two romantic suspenses featuring my kick-ass heroine, Selena. These two books will come out in the latter half of 2004 under a pseudonym. My Bethlehem books are really fairly sweet books - the lovemaking is tame and so is the language. There's nothing tame about Selena's story. The plot, the language, the characters, the setting - everything is darker and grittier and tougher. I don't want my Bethlehem readers to pick up one of these books, expecting them to be similar to the Bethlehem series, and be shocked by the differences - hence, the pseudonym. I can't wait for them to hit the shelves!

Judy and Lory: Is there anything you’d like to add that you want to share with your RBL readers?

Marilyn: I'd love to thank you all for making it possible for me to live the best life. Writing is the most fulfilling career I can imagine (short of being Queen of Everything, and though I've claimed that title for myself, no one's offered me all the fabulous benefits to go with it). But without you guys there to read what I write, heck, I'd have to get a real job. So many, many thanks to all of you who buy books, whether mine or someone else's.



Thank you so much for talking with us, Marilyn! We do look forward to each of your books, and know that other RBL fans do as well.

~Judy and Lory~


Marilyn's Website



Return to the
Index of Author Interviews.




Copyright © RBL Romantica!
All rights reserved.
Reproducing material from this site without permission is prohibited.