Gail R. Delaney is an award-winning, critically acclaimed author of several novels and has been writing for publication since 1996. She has written contemporary, suspense, science fiction and even some fantasy – although the last genre has never been published. She established herself in the ebook publishing industry first as an author and then as an Executive Editor and Acquisitions Editor for a now-closed publishing house. In 2008, she and her business partner – Jenifer Ranieri – opened http://www.DesertBreezePublishing.com to offer a new home on the web for classic romance storytelling. Although she lived in New England her entire life, she, her husband, children and in-laws moved to California in 2008, which allowed her to pursue her dream of opening a publishing company. She’s the mother of two, and has been married for nearly 18 years to the first boy she ever kissed. More on Gail’s books can be found at http://www.GailDelaney.com.

Romantic fiction, no matter the subgenre, holds the greatest percentage of sales across the board for all books sold today. Now, more than ever, the phrase sex sells applies to romance novels. Literally hundreds of e-books, small presses, and traditional publishers offer erotica and erotic romance. The market is saturated with it. Explicit cover art, and even more explicit storylines, fill the romance section in bookstores and on Internet-based book sites. And though it’s pointless to argue about the moneymaking potential of writing and selling these books . . . not everyone reads them.

I’ve been in the publishing world for years and had several books published before I opened Desert Breeze Publishing. More than once I was asked to “heat up” my novels: Add more love scenes, be more explicit, make it hot-hot-hot. I refused. I would be a hypocrite if I said my books were sweet, but my novels are about love and the change that love brings in a person—not ever about how quickly or how often they made it to bed. And regardless of the content in my books, the covers for my novels were often sexed up. I was always the squeaky wheel, making my opinions known until either they changed the covers or I was told, “This is it. Deal with it.”

It was one of these covers that planted the original seed for Desert Breeze Publishing. My business partner, Jenifer Ranieri, is a talented graphics artist. After seeing one of my newest covers a few years back, she begged me to get my publisher to allow her to make my covers. They wouldn’t, of course. Our conversations circled around cover art first—how we both felt we couldn’t buy certain books because we didn’t want our children to see the covers, and how we barely risked opening our eyes in the romance section—and then about the content of novels themselves: all sex and no love. Through the course of a conversation, one of us said, “We should just open our own publishing company.”

At the time, opening our own company wasn’t feasible. For one thing, we lived three thousand miles apart. Jenifer lived in California and I lived in New Hampshire. But it was that visit to California . . . and that conversation . . . that started a ball rolling that led to DBP. In 2007, my husband and I decided to move to California. Of all the major decisions I’ve made in my life, the choice to sell our home and move across the country felt the most “right” of any of them. There was no doubt in my mind it was the next step in God’s plan.

When I arrived in California, I immediately began looking for a new job. My day job for eleven years had been in the financial industry. With the current economy, I found no such jobs available, since most financial institutions and investment companies were letting people go, not bringing them on. Every time I came close to securing a position, something would happen and the offer would fall through. But with every lost prospective position, a door opened leading me toward starting Desert Breeze Publishing. A nudge here, a sign there. Until finally, I said, “Okay, Lord, I get it. I know what you want.” That’s when I stopped looking for a job, and Jenifer and I began the full-time career of running a publishing company.

Our goal is to offer a publishing house where readers of romance can find touching, heartfelt stories without the explicit

sexual content so predominant in the market. We offer a home for authors who either couldn’t find a publisher because their work wasn’t “hot enough,” where they are part of a cohesive group.

At Desert Breeze Publishing, our focus is on romance. Romance is about falling in love and finding that person who completes you. Falling in love is about that rush of happiness when you see that person.

It’s about the tingle that dances over your skin when he looks your way, touches your hand, kisses you. We don’t believe falling in love is about how quickly two people make it to the bedroom.

We offer multiple subgenres under the romance umbrella, from contemporary to suspense, paranormal to inspirational, historical to science fiction. Our books range from the “sweet,” where nothing more physical than a couple shared kisses or hand holding may occur, to the “intense,” where intimacy may occur on the page, but we do not allow highly explicit detail, purple prose, crass language, or gratuitous physical intimacy. A high percentage of our catalog is made up of inspirational romances.

Since cover art was one of the seeds that triggered the idea of DBP, we hold a high standard for the images that represent our company. When formulating our business plan, we showed how our covers would stand out in the crowd because of their lack of explicitness. We found within two minutes of beginning a search no less than thirty book covers with bare male chests. On our site, not a bare male chest will be found. Christian authors don’t worry about sending their friends and family to our site, in fear of what else they may see.

As Christians, Jenifer and I believed it was important that we create a company we could be proud of in every way. To glorify, not to diminish, love. To the authors reading, I invite you to visit our site and read more about us. See if Desert Breeze Publishing is a place you might like to call home. And to the readers, enjoy a discount on us for the months of January and February. See something you like? When checking out, enter promotional code CFOM and receive 25 percent off your order.