In our newest release, Celebrating Romance 2 to celebrate our 20th anniversary, we held a romance writing contest and chose 10 winners to publish. 
Lee Malcolm, one of two winners from Canada, was born in Medicine Hat and grew up in Calgary, Alberta, where she still lives and works as an actor and teacher (for the past 18 years). She holds a B.F.A. and a B.Ed. from the University of Calgary.
Lee was recently married to the “the love of her life and is joyfully blessed to have a beautiful self-assured daughter.”
She’s been a copywriter for a local radio station where she also voiced commercials, a playwright for local theatre, an actor, an Artistic Director and Producer of her own theatre company and an educator.
“What better exercise is there for someone who loves to write than to tackle a whole new genre and format?” she says of her motivation for trying her hand at the contest. “You have to keep stretching the muscles for them to develop and go to the next level. I love a dare — and so I dared myself to try it!
“My husband was very encouraging and enjoyed reading my rough drafts immensely. To peak his interest, my first drafts featured us as the characters with all of our personal information inserted into the appropriate places – which really made it exciting reading, let me tell you!”
Lee feels that her relationship with her new husband is an immense blessing in her world. “We find each other very funny, which is an enormous joy, since having a sense of humor is essential to happiness! And when it comes to romance, whether it’s leaving sweet messages in my lunch kit or just giving me a foot massage, he knows all about it. I love coming home on a cold, dark winter evening to candlelight in my living room and his welcoming arms!”
No wonder she can write romance.
What about the subject of her story: taking control? Lee remarks, “I make decisions all day long as a teacher. That’s the last thing I want to do at home!.I prefer it when my partner will make plans for us, and takes the leadm and I happily follow along to his ‘rhythm’, as the story says…but there is another side to me that will emerge on occasion– the one that likes to be in charge. I think many of us see-saw between those two roles, and frankly, it’s just fun to change it up.
“I’ve had one shortm love story published, and two non-fiction articles published. I also love to write plays for local theatre and for my students in class, and I’m always jotting down new ideas for those. A psychic once told me that I’d publish a novel so from then on, I decided to believe in psychics!”