A VALENTINE TO REMEMBEROne day they will never forget!
A DATE WITH HER VALENTINE DOC by Melanie Milburne
Bertie Clark really shouldnât be fantasising about Dr Matt Bishopâheâs her boss, and is 100% off-limits! But, working on the hospitalâs St Valentineâs Day Ball with him, Bertie knows she canât ignore the sparks flying around for everâsurely a girl deserves a little fun?
Fall in love this Valentineâs Day with these sparkling romances available from February 2015!
The question I am asked most frequently is: Where do you get your ideas? Itâs not always easy to answer as inspiration for stories can be a deeply subconscious thing and I often donât have a clue where the idea came from. But in the case of Bertie and Mattâs story I know exactly what inspired it.
On St Valentineâs Day in 2014 I was interviewed on national television about âHow to Write a BestSelling Romance Novelâ. One of the panel hosts, Joe Hildebrand, had recently published An Average Joe, a memoir of his quirky childhood, and I just happened to be reading it at the time of the interviewâwhich was kind of spooky! But then, Bertieâs mother would say that was the stars or the planets aligning, or something. :)
Last year I was asked to write a short story for The Australian Review of Fiction (the first romance author ever to contributeâyay!). I wrote EM AND EM in the first person and couldnât wait to do it again in a full novel, so when my lovely editor Flo Nicoll offered me a chance to write a special St Valentineâs Day book I jumped at itâbut on the proviso that I could do it in the first person.
I hope you enjoy Bertie and Mattâs story as much as I enjoyed writing it. BTWâwatch out for Bertieâs sister Jemâs story, coming soon in Mills & Boon>® Medical Romance>â¢!
Best wishes
Melanie Milburne x
From as soon as MELANIE MILBURNE could pick up a pen she knew she wanted to write. It was when she picked up her first Mills & Boon>® at seventeen that she realised she wanted to write romance. After being distracted for a few years by meeting and marrying her own handsome hero, surgeon husband Steve, and having two boys, plus completing a masterâs of education and becoming a nationally ranked athlete (masters swimming), she decided to write. Five submissions later she sold her first book and is now a multi-published, bestselling, award-winning USA TODAY author. In 2008 she won the Australian Readersâ Association most popular category/series romance, and in 2011 she won the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia R*BY award.
Melanie loves to hear from her readers via her website, www.melaniemilburne.com.au, or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/melanie.milburne
Each year I am part of the silent auction for the Heart Foundation in Tasmania. I offer a book dedication and this yearâs winner was Maria Chung, who wanted this book to be dedicated to her husband:
Dr Stephen Chung, a wonderful husband, father and doctor.
Thank you to both of you for your continued support of the Heart Foundation in Tasmania.
MM
THE FIRST THING I saw when I walked into the ICU office on my first day back to work after my honeymoon was my postcard pinned to the noticeboard. Well, it was supposed to be my honeymoon. Iâd booked the leave for months ahead. Itâs hard to get three weeks off in a row at St Ignatius, especially before Christmas. There are a lot of working mums at St Iggyâs and I always feel guilty if Iâm stuffing up someoneâs plan to be at their little kidâs Christmas concert. Which was why I hadnât come back to work until the âhoneymoonâ was over, so to speak.
My postcard was right in the centre of the noticeboard. In pride of place. Flashing like a beacon. The last time Iâd seen it had been in my chalet room at the ski resort in Italy, along with two others Iâd written to my elderly neighbours. I swear I hadnât actually intended to post them. It had been a therapeutic exercise my mother had suggested to rid myself of negative energy, but the super-efficient housekeeping staff must have seen them lying on the desk and helpfully posted them for me. Thatâs service for you.
If I turned that wretched postcard around I would see the lies Iâd scrawled there after consuming a lonely cocktail or two ⦠actually, I think it was three. All went amazingly well! Having an awesome time!
Now that I look back with twenty-twenty hindsight I can see all the signs. The red flags and the faintly ringing alarm bells I ignored at the time. I hate to sound like a cliché but I really was the last person to know. My mother said she knew the first time she met Andy. It was his aura that gave him away. My dad said three of Andyâs chakras were blocked. My sister Jem said it was because he was a twat.