A week ago today, I was in Orlando, Florida, attending the Dreamspinner Press Author Workshop, an annual get-together of Dreamspinner authors and staff. As always, it was an amazing creative battery recharge for me, and I’m more excited than ever to be working on some great new projects for Dreamspinner Press! Both my upcoming release (April 15th) and my current WIP are Dreamspun Desires titles. I absolutely LOVE writing these books!

My current WIP is my third installment in the Dreamspun Desires series. If you haven’t already picked one of the books up, think Harlequin, Silhouette, or Mills and Boon, those fun to read books with the catchy titles and recognizable covers your mother or grandmother might have read. Fast foward to the 21st Century, and Dreamspinner Press has created a line of gay romances with the same feel as those tried and true category romances. Tropey, romance-forward, and sweet, with a warm fuzzy HEA, a little spice, and low angst.

The trope I’m writing this time? Ugly duckling.

Robert Swann is a super successful employment lawyer who owns a law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina. He’s also tall, dark, and gorgeous. Rob has a secret: he wasn’t always the beautiful swan. He grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina a chubby, awkward, geeky kid who played in the marching band and crushed on the hot quarterback of the high school football team. The football players teased him mercilessly. Then his mom remarries and he moves out of state, takes his stepfather’s name, grows about a foot, and gets into a great law school.

Enter Dan Parker, whose husband died 4 years before. He’s just left a job as partner in a New York City law firm for a quieter life in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he can raise his daughter Lacey. Dan Parker also grew up in western North Carolina. In fact, he was the closeted quarterback who Rob Swann was secretly in love with.

You can imagine what might happen next! And I’m having a blast writing the story.

I really love writing Dreamspun Desires stories. Probably not a big surprise, since I grew up reading Harlequin romances by box full. I love the tropes, the over the top romance, and the way they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. My upcoming April 15th release, Forgotten Paradise, was no exception. I absolutely adore the amnesia trope, and what better place for a scuba diver and sail boater like me to set the story than an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. In fact, the resort is patterned on one I stayed in back in 2015 with my family.

Forgotten Paradise is now available for preorder at Dreamspinner Press. If you love sweet, tropey, romance-forward books with a perfect HEA, I think you’ll really enjoy the Dreamspun Desires line and Forgotten Paradise. Happy reading! –Shira

Blurb: It’s dangerous diving for secrets.

When a mega company threatens to take over his family-owned business, programming prodigy Adam Preston escapes the stress with a much-needed vacation in the Dominican Republic. There he meets attractive, intelligent, insightful Jonah James, a scuba dive instructor, and what starts as a holiday fling soon blossoms into much more.

But Jonah has a secret: ten years ago he woke up on an island beach with no idea how he got there… or even who he is. Their paradise may not be as perfect as it seems. When Jonah’s memories come crashing back like waves on the sand, will it be Adam clinging to the proverbial life raft, or will the two men find a safe harbor to ride out the storm?

Buy links:

eBook: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/forgotten-paradise-by-shira-anthony-8323-b

Paperback: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/forgotten-paradise-by-shira-anthony-8324-b

Bio: Shira Anthony was a professional opera singer in her last incarnation, performing roles in such operas as Tosca, i Pagliacci, and La Traviata, among others. She’s given up TV for evenings spent with her laptop, and she never goes anywhere without a pile of unread M/M romance on her Kindle. You can hear Shira singing “Vissi d’arte” from Puccini’s Tosca by clicking here: Shira’s Singing

Shira loves a great happily-ever-after and never writes a story without one. She’s happy to write what her muse tells her, whether it’s fantasy, sci fi, paranormal, or contemporary romance. She particularly loves writing series, because she thinks of her characters as old friends and she wants to visit them even after their stories are told.

In real life, Shira sang professionally for 14 years, and she currently works as a public sector attorney advocating for children. She’s happy to have made writing her second full-time job, even if it means she rarely has time to watch TV or go to the movies. Shira writes about the things she knows and loves, whether it’s music and musicians, the ocean, or the places she’s lived or traveled to. She spent her middle school years living in France, and tries to visit as often as she can.

Shira and her husband spend as many weekends as they can aboard their 36′ catamaran sailboat, Land’s Zen, at the Carolina Coast. Not only has sailing inspired Shira to write about pirates and mermen, her sailboat is her favorite place to write. And although the only mermen she’s found to date are in her own imagination, she keeps a sharp lookout for them when she’s on the water.

Shira can be found on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shira.anthony

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/4641776.Shira_Anthony

Twitter: @WriterShira

Website: www.shiraanthony.com

E-mail: shiraanthony@hotmail.com