USA Today best-selling author Hailey North describes herself as a “free spirit and a believer in happy endings.” She’s been penning stories set in her adopted hometown of New Orleans and the fictional town of Doolittle, Arkansas, since the mid 90’s. Bedroom Eyes, her first release, was hailed by the Detroit Free Press as “one of 1998’s top ten romances” and Love: Undercover, her June 2004 romantic comedy, is “just the book to give your spirits a lift,” according to Romantic Times.

A former “game-show lawyer”, Hailey loves to write stories that make people smile. If you’ve had a hard day and want to settle down with a book guaranteed to put a grin on your face, look for any one of Hailey’s romantic comedies: Love: Undercover, Opposites Attract, Tangled Up in Love, Dear Love Doctor, Perfect Match, Pillow Talk, and Bedroom Eyes.

 

Dear Readers,

Thanks to all of you who have written to ask when my next book will be out. The wait is almost at an end! Not the Marrying Kind hits the shelves October 30th.

This book is a very special one. As most of you know, it's the first book I've written since the devastating losses of Hurricane Katrina. Returning to Doolittle, the setting of Tangled Up In Love and Love: Undercover, for this book proved to be a healing process for me.

And for Harriet P. Smith and Jake Porter, returning to Doolittle, a town neither one of them ever wanted to visit again, proved to be just what the love doctor ordered.

Harriet is the nerd who turned into a beauty; Jake is the popular guy who never settled down, never looked back. Despite the gulf between them in high school, they shared one magical night together.

A magical night that forever changed Harriet's life, especially when she realized that Jake had left town with no forwarding address.

I'm going to let Harriet and Jake tell their own story. As you can see in this excerpt, Harriet has a secret she truly needs to share with Jake.

Don't miss my new contest. Enter for a chance to win a marvelous Don't Ever Forget New Orleans basket.

My publisher is launching an amazing new website featuring your favorite Avon Authors. Please visit often, as the site is constantly updated. I've posted some of my favorite photos there as well as some fun facts you might like to drop into conversation with your friends. They'll wonder just how you know my guilty secret!

Sincerely,

Hailey North

p.s.  Thanks again to everyone who wrote following Hurricane Katrina. The region still struggles in the rebuilding process. My family is doing much, much better. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers. My favorite photo from this period is of my husband and me taking a moment to share a kiss while mucking out our flooded house. What a hero!

 

Hailey's Photo Gallery

My cats, Mocha (right) and Stanley, enjoying a Charlie Ward bayou scene. Charlie is a New Orleans French Quarter artist.	Bishop Lamy's Chapel on the grounds of Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe, where I said a special prayer for friend and author Linda West/Dixie Kane who passed away March 1st, 2004.
Photos of some of my author friends at the beautiful and relaxing Bishop's Lodge in Santa Fe, during Novelist Inc.'s March 2004 retreat. It was the perfect spot for renewing our creative selves and our friendships. Pictured above left: Erica Spindler (l) and Karen Young; Center: Hailey North (l) and Karen Young; Right: Hailey North (l) and Erica Spindler.
	I had the pleasure of entertaining Rosemary of Rosemary’s Romance Books, of Brisbane, Australia, in February 2004 during New Orleans’ extravaganza of Mardi Gras. (Rosemary is pictured, left, wearing the yellow tunic. That's me in my bookworm outfit!) Our seasons may be different, but our love of romance is universal!

 

Read an exclusive Eclectics.com interview with Hailey here.