It's PARTY time here at Love Is The Best Medicine as we pop the champagne corks and toast the lovely Sharon Archer. Her debut novel, Single Father :Wife and Mother Wanted is now on sale!!!!!Holding your first book in your hand and then seeing it on the shelf is a HUGE thing and makes all those years of blood, sweat and tears worth it. (Technically as Sharon is in outback Australia and not the UK, she won't see it on the shelf for another six weeks BUT with a big kiss and a wave we thank Kate Hardy for some stellar work with her digital camera....)
So .......drumroll......Sharon Archer, come on down!!

I think the Medical Romance line has such great flexibility and scope. The stories range from light and almost humorous to darker, brooding and dramatic. From warm, family-orientated to hot, intense drama and everything in between. They can be set in the safety of our own back yard to somewhere exotic and dangerous. But they're all stories with an abiding belief in the love of a man and a woman.

How is outback Australia?
I LOVE it! It's fascinating. And HUGE! This trip has given me a fine appreciation of just how big it is. I knew, of course, but I didn't KNOW if you see what I mean.
We've seen astounding, beautiful things, stunning colours, amazing geography. It leaves me feeling inadequate to find words special enough to describe it --- but I'm a writer so I keep trying anyway! The whole trip is an adventure, meeting people, seeing the sights, the fellowship of being on the road and the challenge of doing it all on the back of a motorbike.

Hi Fiona and Everyone! I'm just tickled pink to be here and I'd just like to say a really huge THANK YOU for organising this blog party for me! I've been a regular visitor to the Medical Authors Blog and I'm so excited that I'll be joining you to do a regular blog spot soon.
What made you decide to write a medical romance?

Initially, it was because I'd heard you should write what you know and I'm a medical scientist with a background in microbiology and histology. I wrote a particularly awful chapter where I had the heroine stuck in a room plating up microbiology swabs while being browbeaten by a stern, brooding “hero”. She was a wimp and he was a pain and basically the story got mired in a petri dish of MacConkey's agar. And, thank goodness, that's where it stayed!
Then I tried my hand at other lines and wrote a Presents which I sent off to London with high expectations that my new career would be as an author. Heaven knows why I thought that – the story was singularly awful. A well-deserved rejection arrived for that!
I tried another couple of partials with the same result. I was a bit discouraged so I moved on to short stories and learned a lot about voice and worked on writing craft. There's something so much more manageable about 1000 words as opposed to 50,000.
I came back to have another go at category romance and wrote a couple of Sweet Romances which finalled in consecutive years of the Emma Darcy Award which was being run by the Romance Writers of Australia then. As you can imagine that was enormously encouraging.
Then I had an idea about a veterinarian and a country GP – and that was the story that sold.
We're excited that you can join us, Sharon, especially as you're checking in from far flung places where you need a satellite phone! So fill us in....
When did you discover medical romance? 
The very first medical that really stood out to me was one by Marion Lennox. It would have been years and years ago so I'm afraid that I can't remember the details. But I do remember that the characters were lovely, thoroughly likeable people working in a country hospital and I wanted so badly for them to end up together. There was never any doubt in my mind that their love would last and they'd have a very happy marriage.
It was an eye-opener to me because until then I'd been reading mostly the Presents line and the heroes tended to be stern, brooding, silent types – they were utterly gorgeous, of course, but demanding of their heroines.

The very first medical that really stood out to me was one by Marion Lennox. It would have been years and years ago so I'm afraid that I can't remember the details. But I do remember that the characters were lovely, thoroughly likeable people working in a country hospital and I wanted so badly for them to end up together. There was never any doubt in my mind that their love would last and they'd have a very happy marriage.
It was an eye-opener to me because until then I'd been reading mostly the Presents line and the heroes tended to be stern, brooding, silent types – they were utterly gorgeous, of course, but demanding of their heroines.
What made you decide to write a medical romance?

Initially, it was because I'd heard you should write what you know and I'm a medical scientist with a background in microbiology and histology. I wrote a particularly awful chapter where I had the heroine stuck in a room plating up microbiology swabs while being browbeaten by a stern, brooding “hero”. She was a wimp and he was a pain and basically the story got mired in a petri dish of MacConkey's agar. And, thank goodness, that's where it stayed!
Then I tried my hand at other lines and wrote a Presents which I sent off to London with high expectations that my new career would be as an author. Heaven knows why I thought that – the story was singularly awful. A well-deserved rejection arrived for that!
I tried another couple of partials with the same result. I was a bit discouraged so I moved on to short stories and learned a lot about voice and worked on writing craft. There's something so much more manageable about 1000 words as opposed to 50,000.
I came back to have another go at category romance and wrote a couple of Sweet Romances which finalled in consecutive years of the Emma Darcy Award which was being run by the Romance Writers of Australia then. As you can imagine that was enormously encouraging.
Then I had an idea about a veterinarian and a country GP – and that was the story that sold.

I think the Medical Romance line has such great flexibility and scope. The stories range from light and almost humorous to darker, brooding and dramatic. From warm, family-orientated to hot, intense drama and everything in between. They can be set in the safety of our own back yard to somewhere exotic and dangerous. But they're all stories with an abiding belief in the love of a man and a woman.
How many books did you write over what length of time before you got ‘the call?
I wrote five full manuscripts – though I'm awfully tempted not to count that very very first story! I'm very very slow so this happened over a period of about twenty years. During that time, as I mentioned, I went off and did other sorts of writing for a while, short stories, articles, journaling.
It's been a real journey during which time I've made the most fantastic friends who've given me brilliant advice and encouragement - including lovely, talented authors, Marion Lennox, Anna Campbell, Rachel Bailey and Fiona Lowe! I feel very privileged to have come to this point.
Did the editors at harlequin pick up your m/s and ring you up and say ‘sold?’
SINGLE FATHER: WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED took two years to travel from the slush pile to “The Call”. It went through three lots of revisions in that time. And I have to say it was the most fantastic experience to work with suggestions from my editor.
What were you doing when the call came?
Burning off on our five-acre property to prepare for the summer bushfire season. I'd just come back to the house, absolutely filthy and smelling of ash and smoke, when the phone went and it was the editor at the London office. It took a while for the reason for the phone call to sink in and once it did, all of me went completely rubbery. I think my side of the conversation was mostly “omigosh, omigosh, omigosh” Utterly scintillating, I was!
Tell us about your debut release, SINGLE FATHER: WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED
I wrote five full manuscripts – though I'm awfully tempted not to count that very very first story! I'm very very slow so this happened over a period of about twenty years. During that time, as I mentioned, I went off and did other sorts of writing for a while, short stories, articles, journaling.
It's been a real journey during which time I've made the most fantastic friends who've given me brilliant advice and encouragement - including lovely, talented authors, Marion Lennox, Anna Campbell, Rachel Bailey and Fiona Lowe! I feel very privileged to have come to this point.
Did the editors at harlequin pick up your m/s and ring you up and say ‘sold?’SINGLE FATHER: WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED took two years to travel from the slush pile to “The Call”. It went through three lots of revisions in that time. And I have to say it was the most fantastic experience to work with suggestions from my editor.
What were you doing when the call came?
Burning off on our five-acre property to prepare for the summer bushfire season. I'd just come back to the house, absolutely filthy and smelling of ash and smoke, when the phone went and it was the editor at the London office. It took a while for the reason for the phone call to sink in and once it did, all of me went completely rubbery. I think my side of the conversation was mostly “omigosh, omigosh, omigosh” Utterly scintillating, I was!

Tell us about your debut release, SINGLE FATHER: WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED
It's Matt and Caitlin's story. Veterinarian, Caitlin, is a life-long nomad who longs to find her roots. She travels to rural Victoria to look up the estranged family of her recently-deceased father, Martin Brown. The small town needs a veterinary locum urgently. Caitlin jumps at the opportunity to spend time getting to know her aunt, Doreen Mills, before revealing their family relationship and the sad news of Martin Brown’s death. Matters are complicated by Caitlin’s inconvenient attraction to Doreen’s foster son, MATT GARDENER. Matt is a rural GP and devoted single parent of nine year old Nicky. Lovingly fostered by Doreen Mills in between difficult periods spent with his feckless mother, Matt is very protective of his son and foster mother. Caitlin’s arrival in town challenges the careful plans he has laid out for his life.
And Fiona chimes in with, "I've read the book and it's a fantastic read! "
And Fiona chimes in with, "I've read the book and it's a fantastic read! "

Tell us about revisions on the back of a motor bike?
Oh, Fiona, this has been a bit of a struggle for me. Life has a way of popping up with interesting challenges for us at the least convenient times, doesn't it?
We're travelling around Australia for Glenn's long-service leave. The commitment for this trip has been on the table for several years now.
I have to give so much credit and thanks to my long-suffering husband. The revisions for my third book arrived while we were on the road. The editor has made fantastic suggestions to strengthen my characters and I could see she was absolutely right about what she's asked for. But working on revisions in the tent in a camp chair is hard. And I'm a pen and paper writer so I find doing the changes on screen difficult.
We stopped to have the manuscript printed out. But then decided that it would actually be easier just to buy a small printer and do it ourselves on the road. Of course, when you're
travelling on a motorbike with all your belongings in a small trailer, a printer takes up quite a bit of room. But we're in the tropics at the moment so we don't need many clothes!
And actually that has been a real eye-opener on the trip – how very little we can get by with in the way of “things”. I do miss my shelves full of books though!
Tell us where you are right now
Oh, Fiona, this has been a bit of a struggle for me. Life has a way of popping up with interesting challenges for us at the least convenient times, doesn't it?
We're travelling around Australia for Glenn's long-service leave. The commitment for this trip has been on the table for several years now.
I have to give so much credit and thanks to my long-suffering husband. The revisions for my third book arrived while we were on the road. The editor has made fantastic suggestions to strengthen my characters and I could see she was absolutely right about what she's asked for. But working on revisions in the tent in a camp chair is hard. And I'm a pen and paper writer so I find doing the changes on screen difficult.
We stopped to have the manuscript printed out. But then decided that it would actually be easier just to buy a small printer and do it ourselves on the road. Of course, when you're
travelling on a motorbike with all your belongings in a small trailer, a printer takes up quite a bit of room. But we're in the tropics at the moment so we don't need many clothes!And actually that has been a real eye-opener on the trip – how very little we can get by with in the way of “things”. I do miss my shelves full of books though!
Tell us where you are right now
I'm in the tent in Katherine, Northern Territory, famous for its steep red rock-walled gorge!
How is outback Australia?
I LOVE it! It's fascinating. And HUGE! This trip has given me a fine appreciation of just how big it is. I knew, of course, but I didn't KNOW if you see what I mean.
We've seen astounding, beautiful things, stunning colours, amazing geography. It leaves me feeling inadequate to find words special enough to describe it --- but I'm a writer so I keep trying anyway! The whole trip is an adventure, meeting people, seeing the sights, the fellowship of being on the road and the challenge of doing it all on the back of a motorbike.

But there are some standout things like:
– visiting the RFDS Visitors' Centre in Kalgoorlie. What an amazing group of dedicated people.
– Running out of petrol crossing the Nullarbor Plain. (we were rescued by Eddie, a well prepared Englishman and now firm friend!)
– Trying on a $100,000 string of pearls while we did a tour in Broome. I had a lovely fantasy about winning Tattslotto and then alas, the tour was over and the lady behind the counter wanted the pearls back.
– visiting the RFDS Visitors' Centre in Kalgoorlie. What an amazing group of dedicated people.
– Running out of petrol crossing the Nullarbor Plain. (we were rescued by Eddie, a well prepared Englishman and now firm friend!)
– Trying on a $100,000 string of pearls while we did a tour in Broome. I had a lovely fantasy about winning Tattslotto and then alas, the tour was over and the lady behind the counter wanted the pearls back.
– A camel ride in Broome.
– The dolphins and pelicans at Monkey Mia.
– Seeing the Phillip Goatcher curtain in the Town Hall at Kalgoorlie – Standing near eons-old dinosaur footprints in Broome Honestly, Fiona, I could go on and on.... oops, hang on, I have been going on and on! :)

Will you be using some of your adventures in a future book?
Absolutely. Can't wait. I'm collecting impressions and books and DVDs and taking a zillion photos all with the excuse that they'll be great for research when we're back home. If I don't write at least one story, my webmaster (aka long suffering husband) will not be amused! LOL
Absolutely. Can't wait. I'm collecting impressions and books and DVDs and taking a zillion photos all with the excuse that they'll be great for research when we're back home. If I don't write at least one story, my webmaster (aka long suffering husband) will not be amused! LOL
So Sharon, I hear you have a signed book to give away :-)
I do! So to be in the draw....My wonderful webmaster will draw a name out of the motorbike trailer...please tell us about the most unusual journey you've made or mode of transport you've used.
Thanks for joining me at my party!!
Sharon xx
Sharon Archer is a New Zealander who now calls Australia home. Her debut novel, Single Father: Wife and Mother Wanted is available on shelf in the UK, at Mills and Boon Site and at Harlequin Australia. It will be on shelf in Australia and New Zealand in August.










I lost my father last year, and I miss him terribly. He was always a hero in my eyes. He was a gruff man, having spent many a year in the Army and despite having three daughters, liked to run our house like some sort of Army boot camp. I can still hear him saying, “All right, troops! Listen up. Who’s on KP duty tonight? Get to work. I want this kitchen so spotless we can eat off the floor!”



FYI The male cover model doesn’t exactly do justice to my idea for the hero, Beck, so I thought I’d show who I had in mind when I wrote the book. However, the female cover model for January was right in keeping with what I had envisioned! 

