It Happened One Night is an anthology of four novellas by Stephanie Laurens, Jacquie D'Alessandro, Candice Hern, and Mary Balogh. It will be published by Avon in October, 2008.

The concept is an intriguing one, I believe. For a number of years I thought it would be an interesting challenge to get a group of writers to write stories using the same basic plot idea. My theory was that the stories would be very different from one another and that readers would enjoy seeing them together in one anthology. No one seemed to agree with me until I was out on a book-signing tour with Jacquie and Candice and broached the idea with them. They were instantly enthusiastic, as was Stephanie when we invited her to join us. We found a publisher-Avon--with no trouble at all. Obviously the time for this concept was right!

The plot idea we agreed upon was this: a man and a woman meet for the first time in ten years at an inn, either by chance or design. The action of the story spans no more than twenty-four hours.

My novella is Spellbound and brings the hero and heroine together at a small village inn on May Day. Both have been stranded there as the result of the collision of a stagecoach and a curricle. They have met before, and the memories are bitter on both sides. But for one day and one night they have to co-exist, and they do so against the background of a village fair and maypole dancing. Will twenty-four hours be sufficient time to erase years of anger and pain?