Romance novelist headlines fund-raiser

SPRINGFIELD - A Longmeadow romance novelist will speak at the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral's Philoptochos Ladies Society fundraiser on Nov. 1.

Linda Cardillo, author of "A Mother's Heart," published in April by Harlequin, will speak at the wine-and-cheese social fund-raiser to benefit the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield and other charities.

This is the third time Cardillo has been the featured guest for the Philoptochos Ladies Society fund-raisers at the Springfield church. This event is dubbed "A Thankful Heart," to mark the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

"At the last two events, we probably had about 60 people at each one of those," said Susan N. Alvanos, of Agawam, president of the St. George Philoptochos Ladies Society. "We've had such a great time - it's just a great afternoon."

Cardillo will read from her new and upcoming novels. Cardillo's "Across the Table" will be published by Harlequin in June. She is also working on two more novels.

Cardillo will have books available for purchase and will sign her novels. She'll also talk about how she came to write her latest book and will take questions from the audience.

"We really do have a great group of women and we are involved in a lot of different outreach programs, including within the church, then in the community and then on a regional level," Alvanos said. "Our mission is philanthropy for the poor and destitute."

Cardillo, who first had business books published, had her first romance novel picked up by Harlequin in 2007. "Dancing on Sunday Afternoons" was based on Italian love letters her grandparents wrote to each other. It was a very time-consuming process.

"It took me 10 years to write it, it took five years to get an agent interested in representing it, and it took another year to sell it a publisher," Cardillo said.

Cardillo said Harlequin, the global leader in series romance and one of the biggest publishers of books for women, picked up her book because the publisher was about to start a new line called "Everlasting Love." She said she was initially surprised that Harlequin was interested in her book, but she's glad she's working with the company.

"It's really about writing about people's lives and the role that love plays in one's life," she said. "I think what this genre gives women is a sort of a road map for what the possibilities in love are. It gives them hope and it certainly entertains."

"A Mother's Heart" takes place in the final days of the Vietnam War, when orphans were airlifted out of Saigon. The main character is a young female journalist who is friendly with a Vietnamese woman with an infant. The Vietnamese woman asks the journalist for help getting her baby out of the country. The journalist learns of many orphaned babies and writes an article about it, prompting a baby lift. The journalist develops a relationship with an ex-Marine who helps her with the children.

Cardillo said she loves sharing pieces of her novels with an audience.

"There's a real sharing of their own stories prompted by reading the book," she said. "I love doing this event. It's a great group of women, which is really committed to doing good with these events."