Dear Reader,
In September 2004 you got a chance to revisit the first McCoy in Marry Me…Maybe? Hold onto your socks because here come the next two brothers in From McCoy, With Love.
After one close call with matrimony, Mitch McCoy is a happily confirmed bachelor...until his long-lost bride breezes back into town wearing another wedding dress and red shoes! In The P.I. Who Loved Her, Mitch might not be "in love" with Liz anymore, but he's never stopped wanting to "make love" to her. But will Liz finally give Mitch the wedding night they never had? Or will her latest groom track her down first?
In the Holt Medallion winning story For Her Eyes Only, I.N.S. Agent Jake McCoy prides himself on being a loner. So how does sexy illegal alien Michelle Lambert steal her way into his heart--and his bed--so quickly? She won't go home without her child and Jake can't blame her. Unfortunately, he can't keep his hands off her, either. Torn between duty and desire, Jake never guesses he'll soon be a fugitive himself--and a married man!
From McCoy, With Love leads into a brand new McCoy title next month in A Real McCoy. Stay tuned for this one because you'll never guess who's coming to dinner...
We hope you enjoy revisiting the McCoys as much as we did. We love hearing from readers. Email us at toricarrington@aol.com, and visit the webpage dedicated to all those magnificent McCoys, including their family tree, by clicking here.
Wishing you happy -- and hot! -- reading,
Lori & Tony
aka Tori Carrington
Bonus Feature: Author Interview
When interviewed for this book, Tony and Lori were on holiday in Tony's native Greece. Maybe it was the warm morning air, the chance to relax or the laid-back vibe of the country but whatever combination of elements were at play, we think you'll find these personal reflexionts as inspiring as we did.
1. Tell us a bit about how you began your writing career.
Our career began with reading and love of a great story. I (Lori) have always been a voracious reader, beginning with Goldilocks and every printed page I could lay my hands on thereon. Tony has always been an avid movie fan, starting with the likes of the old spaghetti westerns and continuing with every genre available. So it was only natural that when a book or a movie moved either or both of us, we’d spend sometimes hours discussing it, what came after the words The End, how we might have changed the direction of the story, essentially not wanting the experience to end. So when in 1984 Tony suggested we try our hand at writing a story of our own, everything clicked perfectly into place. Here we are now, some thirty published novels later, happier for the experience.
2. Do you have a writing routine?
Since we write fulltime our days are pretty regimented. We write from about eight in the morning until one in the afternoon, break for lunch and a siesta, then are back in our shared office again by seven or eight at night until about eleven or so most every day. Half our evenings are devoted to keeping our extensive website (www.toricarrington.com) updated and chatting on line with fellow romance lovers and fans. It’s said that technology and the web serve to further isolate people. We disagree. We’ve met some of our best friends on line. And there’s something uniquely beautiful about meeting someone you’ve talked to for sometimes years on line in the real world. We have fans we call friends in faraway places like Pakistan, Bulgaria and Australia we probably would not have connected with outside our books. That would be a shame, indeed!
3. When you're not writing, what do you love to do?
Everything! Well, short of jumping out of airplanes and rock-climbing. We love to travel and explore different cultures and towns and cities. And since Tony’s originally from Greece, we spend a great deal of time there, as well, soaking up all things Greek. We attend at least six major writing and fan conferences a year and have no problem putting work aside to schmooze with fellow writers and friends and to refill the creative well. We also try to carve out time either before or after a conference to get out and explore the local environs. Recently in Dallas after the Romance Writers of America’s annual writer’s conference, we spent the afternoon with a couple of longtime friends searching a nearby cemetery for Bonnie Parker’s -- of Bonnie and Clyde fame – grave marker. We never did find it, but we had a hell of an interesting time looking. And it certainly isn’t an experience we’ll soon forget.
Reading, of course, is also a favorite pastime. Wherever we are you’ll find newspaper, magazines and all sorts of books littering the place. A hotel room? Brochures and travel books and local papers will be stacked on the floor and tables along with biographies of local interest. At home our to-be-read piles poses a direct threat to our health because they constantly seem at risk of toppling over on us. And, of course, it only stands to reason that the book we want is always near the bottom of those piles.
Kayaking is a newly acquired hobby. We were turned onto it by our Harlequin editor Brenda Chin and love everything about the feel of gliding on top of a body of water taking in nature and just enjoying feeling connected to everything around us.
4. The McCoys have a large fan base. What is it about these guys that keep readers wanting more?
If we knew the answer to that, all our books and the characters that inhabit them would be equally as compelling. Honestly, we don’t know why others feel the way they do. We can say how we feel about this family, however. And it begins with them being a family. They’re adorably dysfunctional and strong and each individual doesn’t think twice about coming together as a whole for the good of the family.
We will say that we’re endlessly flattered by the interest in these magnificent men and women. We’re incapable of writing a single, stand-alone book. Good characters always seem attached to other good characters, whether they be brothers and sisters or friends or the neighbor that lives up the way, our stories are colored with people that often demand stories of their own.
In the case of the McCoys, we began with Marc McCoy. We hadn’t planned for a series of books. We’d merely been searching for his identity and part of that included his being the often overlooked middle son of five. It was our Harlequin editor who called us up after reading License to Thrill to say, “You know Marc has four brothers, don’t you?” And thus our first miniseries was born. We so thoroughly enjoyed writing the books and exploring the minds and hearts of each of these stubbornly irresistible men that when we finished the fifth and what was then the final book, we were already thinking of ways we could continue the miniseries, if just for the sake of our own imaginations, you know, to keep these men very much alive in our minds and hearts. And so was born Kathryn Buckingham McCoy, the complete opposite of these men career-wise, but no less strong and stubborn. It was wonderful visiting with this remarkable, salt of the earth family again. And, dare I say, our minds are alive with ideas on how we still might continue the saga.
Circling back to what keeps readers wanting more, since our own reluctance to let go of certain stories was what inspired us to load our first sheet of fresh typewriter paper in an old manual IBM we bought at a garage sale for twenty dollars, we’re proud that our stories are now finding a special place in others’ hearts.
5. What or who inspires you?
For Tony, his first source for inspiration was his parents. His father Evaggelos Karayianni passed away in 1987 at 102 and was the quintessential Greek philosopher, imparting sage advice much like the Oracle of Delphi. If at first you didn’t understand what he was saying, you could be sure that one day you would. We’re still awed by advice he gave us long ago that we’re only now beginning to grasp. Philosophy for him wasn’t a handful of archaic words in a book to study for an exam; it was a way of life. And his mother Kostoula Kaloyeropoulou Karayianni found strength in hard work and her family. Salt of the earth. We miss them both enormously and we feel their presence always.
Also, everything and everyone we cross paths with inspires us. We hate to be so vague, but it’s true. Since we’re in Greece as we write this, I can tell you how just this morning we walked to the beach to pick up some fresh fish for dinner and on our way back we stopped to get some greens to fix along with them. The supermarket was just opening and it’s then you get a feel for how such a business operates by watching employees work together to get things up and running. There was a synchronicity that’s fascinating. A way of coming together to make something so large and complicated look simple and accessible. There was also an easy camaraderie between the employees that spoke of having worked together for some time, giving them a family feel (hmm, I’m seeing a theme here). As we watched from outside, the whole began to break off into separate entities and characters began emerging along with endless questions. The elderly man who handles the tomatoes with such care with gnarled fingers and smile grooves around his deep-set eyes, what has he done all his life? Does he have family? Live nearby? What does he do with his time when he knocks off work for the day? The pretty cashier, is she hit on by male customers? Does it bother or flatter her? Does she have a boyfriend who picks her up when her shift ends and do they go for a ride along the nearby beach before going home? Linger over baklava at a cafe? Who do they all love? What do they hate? Do they have dreams of possibly reaching out beyond the supermarket? Or are they happy there, working together as a family?
Sometimes we ask these questions when we have a chance (the elderly man is a widower from an island in the southern Aegean and used to sponge dive. He has five children, two of which now make their lives in the States with families and children of their own. He enjoys going for long walks by himself and passing the time in a nearby cafeneio with his friends drinking Greek coffee and contemplating politics and the world at large. The pretty cashier just broke up with her longtime boyfriend and is mostly flattered with the attention she gets. She dreams of designing her own line of clothes and takes night classes toward that goal. Both are happy with their present jobs). Sometimes we allow our imaginations to answer the questions.
Will the supermarket idea ever make it to paper? Maybe. Maybe not. But for us the time was well spent. Because for a little while we shared the lives of these people we all overlook as we move through our own lives.
So, simply, life inspires us.
6. How did you meet?
At a Greek diner, of course. In the East Side of Toledo, Ohio over coffee and baklava no less. It was a clearly defining moment – until then I believed “love and first sight” were words reserved solely for romance novels. Not anymore. The instant I met Tony’s rich brown eyes I saw my future stretched out in front of me like a strand of polished, precious pearls. I glimpsed breathless joy and happy years spent together. Of us sitting on a front porch swing enjoying the weather and each other well into old age. Neither of us could have imagined that now, twenty-two years after that first meeting, we would be where we are right now, doing what we’re doing. Sometimes it seems like a dream. Like we’re still standing in that diner seeing all this in each other’s eyes.
I like to joke that ever since learning about Greece, I wished I were Greek. Since that wasn’t possible, I did the next best thing: I married a Greek.
7. What book do you wish you had written?
We could write another book just talking about the books we wish we had written. While not every book we read qualifies – or perhaps they do because even when books disappoint they inspire conversation on how we might have written them differently – there are enough of them that to try to pick a handful would be too difficult to contemplate. Every book, whether it be fiction or nonfiction, a classic or a postmodern feminist day-in-the-life comedy, evokes myriad responses in us. When either of us reads a particularly good book by a natural talent, we may walk around in a reflective daze for days pondering what it was that made us think we could write. And ultimately we’re moved to reach farther, work harder, write better. A bad book also teaches us what not to do. But all books hold some message, some meaning that adds something to our lives.
8. What keeps you real?
Each other. Reality. Life. Whenever we start to feel a little full of ourselves, experience the desire to puff out our chests in self-satisfaction, something will happen to provide a much needed reality check. Recently our niece Matina had major surgery and three months after the procedure when we all thought she was experiencing a difficult recovery, she fell deathly ill. It was eventually determined that the surgeon had accidentally nicked her pancreas during the original surgery, sending her entire system off balance and into jeopardy. Following an additional three months in the hospital in intensive care, she’s thankfully well on the road to recovery but her struggle reminds us of how very fleeting life is. And how very lucky we are to be healthy and happy. And in the end that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?
Marsha Zinberg, Executive Editor, Signature Select Program, spoke with Tony and Lori in the spring.
FROM McCOY, WITH LOVE