About

Morgan Malone

Seasoned Romance Author

My Story

My pen-name is Morgan Malone. A twist on the old “What is my stripper name? A combination of the name of your first pet and the street you grew up created Morgan Malone, an erudite yet brazen hussy, who left her career as an administrative law judge and counsel to pursue her first great love: writing.

I am a published author of a variety of romance novels: some steaming hot, some sexy, some sweet, mostly contemporary but a Pirate trilogy is in the works. I also write romantic memoir. I belong to several romance writers groups. My mainstream essays can be heard on NPR’s 51%, a nationally broadcast show directed at women, and also on Roundtable, the weekly morning program on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. They have also been published in the Times Union. I frequently give workshops at author-reader conferences about writing “later-in-life” love stories featuring heroes and heroines, who are falling in love for the last, or maybe the first, time in their lives. Because, if you’re over 25 (and I am), maybe your book boyfriend should be too!

black and white profile of Morgan Malone

I live in Saratoga County, NY with my rescue diva dog, Princess. My daughter is a clinical psychologist practicing in Westchester County and my son (the real estate magnate), daughter-in-law (award-winning registered nurse) and two grandsons, live nearby. I travel, paint watercolors, play Mah Jongg, and arbitrate employment contract disputes in between writing romance and memoir.

Morgan Malone writing a book at her computer

When I retired from my thirty-year career with the State of New York, my writing was lawyerly: dry and wordy. I enrolled in a creative writing class to lose my “lawyer” voice. I found myself writing personal essays. Since I had recently begun dating online after 15 years of widowhood, the subjects of many of my essays were the men I was meeting daily on the Internet. After three years of memoir class, I had enough stories to combine into my first book, Cocktales: An Over-5o Dating Memoir. It was published by Turquoise Morning Press in February 2015.

While Cocktales was in the editing process, TMP requested a “dark love” manuscript, which became Katarina: Out of Control. Best described as a “light” BDSM tale, Katarina was both difficult and wonderful to write. Katarina dates a variety of men who taught her about “control” and let her explore her fantasies (and some of mine) before she finds true love with the man she least expected to fall in love with. Katarina was also released in February 2015. Briefly out of print when TMP closed its doors in late 2016, Kat is back as Out of Control: Kat’s Story, with a new cover.

What was next? I began writing Unanswered Prayers over ten years ago, after I finally discovered the music of Garth Brooks. I thought it was wonderful but my talented editor, convinced me it needed a total re-write. It was a labor of love; Unanswered Prayers may still be my favorite book. I was thrilled to publish it in June 2015.

Since becoming an indie author, I’ve found that except for Unanswered Prayers, each of my books has inspired me to write sequels. So, now I am immersed in writing series.

My Love In Control series started with Out of Control: Kat’s Story. Taking Control: Rick’s Story is the second book. The hero is 50ish Rick, one of Kat’s lovers. He returns to his place on the Jersey Shore for a quiet summer after a lengthy undercover op for Uncle Sam. He finds that Brit, late 40’s, is renting next door with her yellow Labrador Retriever, Alex. Brit is recovering from physical and mental injuries suffered in Afghanistan as part of an Army Special Forces team. Rick believes he is bad luck for any woman and Brit needs to learn to trust men again. Over a hot summer at the Shore, they find their way into each other’s lives and hearts, with Rick attempting to control Britt, to keep her body safe and to protect his damaged heart. His best friend, widower Mick, tries to give him advice but Rick must first to find his way to forgiving himself and offering his heart to Britt. Heat level is hot, there is a little bit of control, not really BDSM and an HEA, that features the good work of Saratoga War Horse Foundation.

Out of Control Kats Story book cover

Losing Control: Mick’s Story is the third book in the series. Mick, Rick’s best friend, is a widower who is still getting guidance from his late wife in Heaven. After five years, she tells him he has to get back to living and she gives him six months to find someone because she needs some rest. Rick hasn’t dated in over 25 years and he’s clueless. He happens to meet Maggie, a fiery redhead who is almost 50 and is a talented potter living not far from him in Avon-by-the Sea. Maggie has steered clear of romance for over two decades having suffered the last of two broken hearts. Maggie has an abortion in her past and the two men she loved held that against her. She adopts a rescue dog ad lets a little love into her heart. Mick is smitten and trying to find his way back to physical love. The heat level is hot, not too much control in this one, there are some tearful moments and a touching HEA.

Need You Now book cover

I was thrilled to be invited to be part of Roxanne St. Claire’s Barefoot Bay World in 2017. Shoulder to Lean On is the first of four books set in the imaginary community of Barefoot Bay, an island just a causeway away from Naples, FL. Levi is 50ish. He is the shoulder specialist at Ortho-FL and is known as Dr. Hottie Rock Star for his movie star looks, skill as a surgeon and huge ego. Divorced with two teenage daughters who live with their mom in Albany, NY, he loves his sprawling beach estate, his assorted vehicles (toys), his operating suite with its murals, his assistant Missy who keeps his life running smoothly and his chocolate Labrador, Hersch. Into his life comes Ella, needing some supervision over her almost healed shoulder surgery. She seems skittish and she is, having survived a brutal assault in Central Park, major surgery, plus she’s on the run. Ella is a former prosecuting attorney turned NY Times best-selling author of a police crime series made into blockbuster movies. Now, all she wants to do is hide out and try to write a romance for the lead characters in her crime series. Ella and Levi dance around each other as they share some secrets, but not all. This is a very sexy later-in-life romance on a wonderful island featuring some great supporting characters.

Need You Now, the second book in the series. Fitz is the head surgeon, specializing in knees and hips, at Ortho-FL. In his fifties, white-haired and Paul Newman handsome. He’s known as Dr. Slow Hands, Fast Cars, for his penchant for hot cars and his meticulous surgical skills. Fitz has never married; some think because he is a ladies’ man but really because he is afraid he might become his cruel, domineering father who demeaned his mother and terrorized Fitz and his sister. Maureen has been the Office Manager of Ortho-FL since its inception. Then she was a diffident, mousy-haired recent widow, but over the past five years, she has been discovering her true self. Hidden from a domineering husband for her entire marriage, she is now reveling in her independence with the support of her two sons. And she has had a crush on Fitz from the day they met. He has always relied on her professionalism and her friendship. But he doesn’t recognize her all dolled up at Levi and Ella’s wedding and he starts have entirely different thoughts about her. Another sexy, seasoned romance set in Barefoot Bay.

Color My World is the third book in the series. Missy has worked for Levi for several years, managing his house, his dog, his “toys”, his meals and almost everything except his medical practice. It comes easy to her because in her former life, she was a high-powered Washington D.C “fixer.” She ran away to Barefoot Bay and Levi took her in, just like he adopted the orange marmalade cat that has become her roommate. Except when Don, the talented muralist and landscape painter, sleeps over. They’ve been friends-with-benefits for a few years and share fabulous sex, great meals, and gossip about their tiny island. But no secrets. So, Missy doesn’t know that Don is a famous portraitist that left the international art world after the tragic deaths of his beloved wife and their son over ten years ago. As Hanukkah and Christmas approach, they begin to reveal their secrets to each other. Except the life-altering, perhaps relationship destroying secrets about Don’s lost loves and the baby that Missy has just discovered is on its way. Very sexy but incredibly sweet romance between two strong, but badly damaged characters in their forties.

Color My World book cover

Dreams of You is the fourth and final book in the series. Joel is a successful orthopedic sports surgeon and the newest doctor to join Ortho-FL. Known since med school as Dr. McDreamy since he looks like the character of the same name on Grey’s Anatomy, Joel is a fun and funny bachelor…on the surface. He has his own secrets: he is the son of the CEO of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporations, a billionaire and a man trying to cover up the heart that was shattered ten years earlier when the love of his life, his soon to be fiancée, leaves him just before they begin their residencies together. Sydney is living in Barefoot Bay now, since she joined a cutting-edge cancer-research practice across the causeway in Naples. A recent widow of a brilliant research physician, she is starting a new life, anxious to find a cure for breast cancer, a cause to which she has devoted her professional life and most of her inherited fortune. She and Joel bump into each other after Fitz and Maureen’s wedding and all the sparks from med school burst back into flame. They have a lot to overcome: sorting through the lies and misconceptions that surrounded their break-up, professional ethics and the continued interference of Joel’s powerful and vengeful mother. A sexy second-chance romance with characters in their forties.

 

Someone Like You by Morgan Malone book cover

Someone Like You is the first book in the I’ll Never Say “I Do” Club series. Four classmates at Smith College vow to never marry. They go on to graduate school and the making of their careers. Reaching forty, successful and prominent in their fields, Seri, their leader, meets a man online and gets married. At her wedding, she dares Jessica, Emily and Olivia, to go online and look for love. If they try for three months, she is sure they will be successful and end up engaged. If not, she will treat them to a New Year’s vacation in Hawaii. Jessica Mizrahi, a prominent psychologist in Saratoga Springs, scoffs at the idea. No way. But then she runs into a recent one-night stand, now living next door: Stavros Kolias. Known as Steve Cole in the cut-throat culinary jungle of Manhattan, Steve is opening a fabulous restaurant a few doors down from Jess’s apartment building; the first of his many resort restaurants. He has no intention of ever falling in love. But they’ve already shared one steamy night and they both long for another. They have a hard time trusting, they’ve had broken hearts and they love their independent single lives, but they are pulled toward each other physically, mentally, and emotionally. How can this work? Very sexy!

 

Rolling In The Deep is Emily’s story. Emily Livingston has a secret. She’s managed to keep her troubled past hidden from almost everyone for over twenty years. Only her dear friends, Seri, Olivia, and Jessica, know about the scar from the tragic accident that shattered her dreams. And destroyed her heart. Men are temporary pleasures reserved for vacations and business trips. Never close to home. Until she meets Wolfgang Biddle Wharton, rich, gorgeous, super-star conductor. He seems to have everything, but Wolf knows what it is to look for new dreams when the old ones die. Wolf arrives in Saratoga Springs as a guest conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra, looking forward to a relaxing summer residence in the Spa City. What he finds is a woman who immediately attracts him and almost as quickly dismisses him. Emily and Wolf have nothing in common. Except lost dreams and rebuilt lives. And an attraction that is not satisfied in one-night. Wolf wants more, but it will take all his patience and perseverance to win Emily’s trust. Fighting against her friend’s prediction that she would find love by summer’s end. Emily must face her past before she can reveal to Wolf the injury that is more terrible than the one that almost took her life: the scarred remnants of her shattered heart. Very sexy.

Look for Olivia’s story, Rumor Has It, in September 2023.

Book cover with woman in dress heading toward a brick archway.
Book cover with Menorah for Lights of Love A Dickens Holiday Romance

Lights of Love is my first book to be part of the The Dickens Holiday Romance multi-author collection. And it is the first Hanukkah story set in the fictional New England town of Dickens, where Christmas is celebrated all year! A sweet, later-in-life, love story about Judy, a sixty-ish widow who has moved from Boston to Dickens to be close to two old friends, and Saul, a debonair bachelor in his early seventies, finally deciding to make his vacation home his permanent residence. They meet at their local synagogue and Saul is immediately smitten. Judy is much more cautious but, as Hanukkah approaches, finds herself drawn to the handsome, mysterious gentleman who is courting her. The miracle of the holiday lights may be necessary to overcome Judy’s caution and Saul’s secrets.

Look for Games of Love, the sequel featuring Judy’s daughter, Ruth, in October 2023.

32 Days: A Memoir of Love and Death. I was married to my law-school sweetheart, Mitchell, for almost ten years, when injuries sustained in a freak pool accident took his life in 1988. This memoir tells the story of the 32 days that Mitch and I shared while he lay in a hospital bed in an ICU far from home, completely paralyzed. The book is based on the letters I wrote to Mitch each night he was in the hospital: letters full of humor, love, everyday details, hope and prayers. Letters discovered over twenty-five years after Mitch’s death. A story of a love that never died, this book will make you laugh and cry, pray for a happy ending and then realize that it is a never-ending love story. Make sure you have a package of Kleenex when reading this book.

I’ll be writing pirate stories for the next year. Look for my trilogy, Pirates of the Eastern Shore, coming in 2024.

32 Days Memoir book cover

I’m also traveling again, after Covid and some health issues. In April 2023, I was selling my books at Roz Lee’s Days of Wine and Romance in New Jersey. I’ll be at Lori Foster’s Reader Author Get Together at the Cincinnati Airport in June, Kitty Berry’s RomantiConn in Connecticut in July and Suzanne Eglington’s Fall In Love New England in Massachusetts in October.

You can also find me online at Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Morgan