A LETTER FROM OUR SMITTEN AUTHORS

DEAR FRIENDS,

Have you ever noticed that life’s biggest blessings are often unexpected? That’s how it was with both our budding friendship and the origination of Smitten.

In the mid-1990s, God began linking us together, first Colleen and Kristin, and a year or so later, Denise. Bonded by our fledgling writing careers, we attended writing conferences, connected daily via e-mail, and eventually wrote a few romantic novella collections together. Our relationship deepened and became the kind of friendship we knew could only be a God thing.

Years later, our careers budding just as our friendship had, God brought us Diann. The lonely business of writing was lonely no more—it was a party for four! Diann frequently teased us about being “left out” of our previous novella collections, as if she were our group’s third wheel, but nothing could have been further from the truth. The fact was, we fit together like pieces of a heavenly puzzle.

Although our genres took us down slightly different paths, we were constantly connected by love and support—the kind that got us through bouts with cancer, family crises, and all the other storms that came our way.

When the opportunity arose to collaborate on a collection, we were ecstatic. Do what we loved with the people we loved? How could we turn that down? Besides, it was Diann’s dream, and we (including Thomas Nelson) couldn’t have been more eager to grant it.

Hours of brainstorming and hundreds of e-mails later, Smitten was born—a story that follows a fledgling town and four friends as each finds her true love. To make things simpler (not to mention more fun), we endowed our heroines with a healthy dose of our own personalities, so as you meet them you’ll also be meeting “us.” (We hope you’ll like us.)

In many ways, this collection is a celebration of our friendship, a celebration of enduring love, and a celebration of God’s unexpected blessings, all wrapped in one simple book. It’s our greatest hope that you, our readers, will feel a part of it all as you join us on our journey to Smitten.

Love,
Colleen, Kristin,
Diann, and Denise