Ellen Hartman

Here is an excerpt from my hockey dad book, Calling the Shots . It's coming in October 2010 from Harlequin Superromance! There are purchase links on my website . -------------------- Bryan was beyond late. He’d missed Allie’s entire practice. He just hoped she was still at the rink. He’d texted her that he was going to be late, but she hadn’t replied. His sister, who watched Allie when he was gone, wasn’t picking up either. Not good. So not good. People weren’t almost an hour late to pick their thirteen-year-old kids up from hockey. At least not people who were good at being parents. He was going to have to arrange a backup plan for the nights he was coming in from out of town. One more arrangement he needed to get under control in this whole precarious mess he and Allie were calling a family. He sure as hell hoped Erin’s new life was worth it. He pulled into the drop off circle at the front of the rink. It was past nine o’clock—no one was going to complain if he left the Lexus the...

I like to post an excerpt of upcoming books here, but this time I'm torn. The opening scene is all the heroine's. It's a good scene (I think), and makes a fine excerpt. The issue is that I love the hero, Charlie McNulty. He's why I wrote the book. So...I'm posting the opening scene here, but there's a link at the bottom to my website where there is a second excerpt that's all Charlie. :-) Sarah Finley examined herself carefully in the mirror on the back of the closet door in her front hall. The gleaming walnut woodwork surrounding the mirror provided a dark counterpoint to her “hip, yet involved and respectable mother” outfit—a knee-length charcoal skirt with a slight flare at the hem to soften it, crisp, white shirt patterned with pale pink circles from the newest Talbot’s catalog, and a cropped black knit jacket with chunky, artistic buttons. She was debating about the abstract print scarf. If she wore the scarf would it say “I’m taking this issue serious...

Thought I'd post an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Boyfriend's Back . It's available from Harlequin Superromance in May 2009. Here we go: Church, bar, church, bar. Statlerville was exactly the same as the last time JT had been here. But he was lost. How did a person get lost in their own hometown? Move away and stay away for fifteen years. That’s how he’d done it, anyway. Now he was late which was just perfect. He was only coming because his brother, Charlie, said he couldn’t do this without him and now he wasn’t going to make it in time. He glared at the empty expanse of dashboard. Of course his rental didn’t have a GPS—why use technology when you can keep right on making the same stupid mistakes forever? He should never have agreed to this. But Charlie had asked him. JT rolled down his window and took a good look at the streets of Statlerville. Something would ring a bell—show him the way. There . St. Pete’s, his high school. His mom’s funeral was being held at the S...

One Night Changed His Life Forever Mason Star spent his teens living the fast life on the road with his band. Tragedy struck one rainy night when his tour bus crashed and a young fan was killed. Fifteen years later, Mason is struggling with his own teenage son who wants to quit high school and with the local zoning board that wants to take his home. Anna Walsh may be able to save his bacon but she just might ruin his life in the process. Mason went back toward where he’d parked his black Pontiac Firebird. It was the last thing remaining of his rough living Jersey boy days—he’d never been able to trade it in for a Subaru. He rested the poster display on the hood while he leaned on the car, patting the pockets of the suit jacket he’d worn in the hopes it would make him seem trustworthy. He might as well have worn camo. Just when he pulled out a pack of Marlboros and his silver lighter, a breeze kicked up and he turned his shoulder as he put a cigarette in his mouth and flicked the lig...