Thompson, Vicki Lewis
Thompson, Vicki Lewis
(Cory Kenyon)
PERSONAL: Married. Education: University of Arizona, B.A., M.A. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, cocktails, blogging.
ADDRESSES: Home—Tucson, AZ. E-mail—VLT [email protected].
CAREER: Former high school English teacher and journalist; full-time writer, 1984—. Has also worked in swimming pool maintenance and as a raspberry picker.
AWARDS, HONORS: Two Golden Quill awards; Heart and Soul Madcap Award; Scarlet Letter Award; Aspen Gold Award; Northern Lights Best Novella Award; Silver Certificate, Affaire de Coeur; Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choices awards, 1996, for Holding out for a Hero, 1999, for Pure Temptation, and 2003, for After Hours.
WRITINGS:
ROMANCE FICTION
Mingled Hearts, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1984.
Promise Me Sunshine, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1985.
Impractical Passion, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1986.
The Fix It Man, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1986.
When Angels Dance, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1986.
Golden Girl, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1987.
Butterflies in the Sun, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1987.
As Time Goes By, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.
The Flip Side, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.
Cupid’s Corner, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.
Impulse, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.
Babies and Bachelors, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.
Full Coverage, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.
Tis the Season, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989, reprinted, 2004.
Connections, Harlequin Superromance (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.
Forever Mine, Valentine, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1990.
Your Place or Mine, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1991.
It Happened One Weekend, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992.
Anything Goes, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992.
Critical Moves, 1992.
Ask Dr. Kate, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992.
Fools Rush In, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1993.
Men at Work, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1993.
Loverboy, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.
The Bounty Hunter, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.
Wedding Song, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.
Adam Then and Now, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.
The Lawman, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.
The Trailblazer, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.
Holding out for a Hero, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.
Stuck with You, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.
Going Overboard, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.
The Heart Breaker, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.
Mr. Valentine, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.
Manhunting in Montana, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.
Operation Gigolo, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.
Pure Temptation, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.
Notorious, Harlequin Blaze (New York, NY), 2001.
The Nights before Christmas, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.
Acting on Impulse, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.
Truly, Madly, Deeply (“Texas Trueblood” series), Harlequin Blaze (New York, NY), 2002.
After Hours, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.
Drive Me Wild (“Heat” series), Harlequin Temptation(New York, NY), 2003.
(With Janelle Denison and Carly Phillips) Invitations to Seduction (anthology; includes novella “IllicitDreams”), Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.
(With Leslie Kelly) Reading between the Lines (anthology; includes novella “Mr. Valentine”), HarlequinBooks (New York, NY), 2004.
Every Woman’s Fantasy, Harlequin Books (New York, NY), 2004.
Killer Cowboy Charm, Harlequin Temptation (New York, NY), 2004.
(With Stephanie Bond and Judith Arnold) Fool for Love (anthology; includes novella “Fooling Around”), Harlequin Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.
Old Enough to Know Better, Harlequin Temptation (New York, NY), 2004.
Talking about Sex, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005.
(With Julie Elizabeth Leto and Jennifer LaBrecque) Getting Real, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005.
(With Kate Hoffmann and Julie Elizabeth Leto) A Fare to Remember, Harlequin Signature Select (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.
WITH MARY TATE ENGLES, UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM CORY KENYON
Sheer Delight, Dell (New York, NY), 1986.
Fortune Hunter, Dell (New York, NY), 1986.
Ruffled Feathers, Dell (New York, NY), 1986.
The Quintessential Woman, Dell (New York, NY), 1987.
Fancy Footwork, Dell (New York, NY), 1987.
“NERD” SERIES; ROMANCE FICTION
Nerd in Shining Armor, Dell (New York, NY), 2003.
The Nerd Who Loved Me, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 2004.
Nerd Gone Wild, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 2005.
Gone with the Nerd, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 2005.
Talk Nerdy to Me, St. Martin’s (New York, NY), 2006.
Nerds Like It Hot, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 2006.
My Nerdy Valentine, St. Martin’s (New York, NY), 2007.
“HEXED” SERIES; ROMANCE FICTION
Over Hexed, Harlequin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.
SIDELIGHTS: Vicki Lewis Thompson was a high-school English teacher when her first romance novel was published by Harlequin in 1983, and the following year she became a full-time writer. Since then, she has written dozens of titles for Harlequin and St. Martin’s Press, where she has developed her mainstream “Nerd” series, in which the heroines succumb to the charms of men who do not fit the traditional “hunk” profile. As Thompson explained on her Web page, she adores her nerdy heroes. “The hunky bad boys get so much press, and my nerdy guys, not so much. I’m on a mission to fix that!“
As a child Thompson loved to write, and as an adult she has won many of the romance-writing industry’s awards for her work. Her books include various holiday-related titles, such as Forever Mine, Valentine; Tis the Season; and the novella “Fools Rush In” (from the April Fool’s Day anthology Fool for Love), as well as novellas published in romance anthologies (A Fare to Remember) with other notable authors, and a number of books written with Mary Tate Engels under the joint pseudonym Cory Kenyon. Her more recent “Hexed” series features the supernatural goings-on in the small town of Big Knob, Indiana. Thompson’s stories are noted as much for their steamy love scenes as they are for their sense of humor and have been published by Harlequin’s imprints for sexy stories (Blaze and Temptation) and humorous tales (Love & Laughter). Romance reviewers and writers alike praise her work, including ubiquitous online reviewer Harriet Klausner of The Best Reviews, who summarized Acting on Impulse by stating that “Vicki Lewis Thompson furbishes her readers with a gregariously blazing contemporary tale.”
After nearly two decades as a published writer, Thompson released her first “Nerd” title, Nerd in Shining Armor. The book became a “Reading with Ripa” summer pick on the television talk show “Live with Regis and Kelly,” which vastly expanded Thompson’s audience. The story features Genevieve Terrence, who embarks on a business trip to Maui with her handsome boss, Nick, and the company nerd, Jack. Nick turns out to be a psychopathic corporate criminal and parachutes from the plane, leaving Genevieve and Jack to die. They are saved by Jack’s knowledge of flight-simulation computer games, which enables them to land safely on a tiny desert island. Jack may be a nerd, but Genevieve discovers that he is also a gentleman and an amazing lover. Booklist reviewer Brendan Driscoll commented that the “sex scenes leave readers conflicted about whether to root for the rescue party or not.”
The hero of The Nerd Who Loved Me is Harry Ambrewster, whose mother, Rona, was once a Las Vegas showgirl. He believes that this fact alone makes him immune from the charms of all showgirls, even the lovely dancer Lainie Terrell, whose four-year-old son, Dexter, reminds Harry of the nerd he used to be. When Dexter’s father, Joey, tries to abduct the child so that he can use him to gain an inheritance, Harry hustles Dexter to safety at Rona’s house. Harry and Lainie work together to thwart Joey’s plan and find love in the process. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that “smart, spunky and delightfully over the top, Thompson’s newest Nerd romance…possesses all the sparkle and vibrancy of a Vegas show, and it’s just as sexy.” Booklist contributor Shelley Mosley called the story a “sexy, madcap, and highly entertaining adventure.”
Mitchell J. Carruthers, the titular character of Nerd Gone Wild, is not actually a nerd. He was hired as a private investigator by Ally Jarrett’ss recently deceased grandmother to help protect the family fortune from Ally’s evil Uncle Kurt and Kurt’s dominatrix girlfriend, Vivian. Ally, who has left Southern California to follow her dream of becoming a wildlife photographer in Porcupine, Alaska, and Mitchell, who as her bodyguard must follow her, are thrust into a strange community in which the townspeople pass the long winter nights with kinky recreation. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the setting “sizzling” and the book “a delightfully cozy read for a cold winter night.”
The next book in the series, Talk Nerdy to Me, concerns Charlie Shepherd, a pool-playing, motorcycle-riding engineer who lucks out when Eve Dupree, a fashion model and amateur inventor, moves in next door. Eve has converted her garage into a workshop for her experimental, alternative-fuel hovercraft. Charlie is smitten by her beauty and brains and cannot stop himself from partaking of a bit of experimental mischief with her before he leaves town for a job on location at Hoover Dam. But someone is attempting to sabotage Eve’s invention, putting her life in danger. Diana Tixier Herald, writing in Booklist, appreciated the story’s humor and “wildly inventive sex.”
In Gone with the Nerd, Hollywood bombshell Zoe Tar-leton is preparing for her next movie role as a geeky scientist by shadowing a nerd. The nerd in question is Flynn Granger, a personal attorney and Bigfoot aficionado who is supposedly engaged. Zoe agrees to meet Flynn in Long Shaft, California, for a weekend of character research. What she does not know is that her best friend, Margo Taggart, has concocted the setup as a joke, which goes seriously awry when Zoe finds herself falling for Flynn. Although Diana Tixier Herald, writing in Booklist lamented the book’s “obvious plot,” a reviewer for Publishers Weekly called it a “sexually charged, funny romp.”
With Nerds Like It Hot, Thompson moves the action to the high seas. Gillian McCormick is a Hollywood makeup artist who witnesses a mob-related murder at the movie studio. Fearing for her safety, she takes advice from Cora, a fabulous movie star of yesteryear who still believes in living large, and embarks on a cruise with two private investigators serving as her personal bodyguards. The idea is to skip town and hide out in Mexico once the boat docks. The catch is that the hunky private eyes are required to disguise themselves as nerds in order to fit in with the nerd theme of the cruise. Lex Manchester, the love interest, is reluctant to shed the macho demeanor he fought so hard to attain, but finds himself becoming increasingly comfortable in his nerd disguise—and increasingly attracted to Gillian.
My Nerdy Valentine is a comic love story between Amanda, a psychology student serving an internship with a sex-crazed sex therapist, and Will, a nerdy stock broker who is the unwilling object of the sex therapist’s affection. When Amanda is besieged by anonymous valentines at work, she is convinced that Will, who has a penchant for a dorky flap-eared hat, is the perpetrator. As it turns out, Amanda is being stalked, and the only way to get to the bottom of the situation is to convince Will to pose as her boyfriend. Nothing could please him more, except for the fact that he would rather be Amanda’s boyfriend than simply pretend. Diana Tixier Herald, writing in Booklist, appreciated the steamy love scenes, as well as the “endearingly quirky characters,” and Kristin Ramsdell of Library Journal wrote that the book is “wildly sexy” and full of “sassy humor.”
Thompson’s Over Hexed was greeted enthusiastically by readers and reviewers and looked to be a promising start to a new series of books with a supernatural theme. Dorcas and Ambrose are matchmaking wizards who have been banished to Big Knob, Indiana, with their attention-deficit-disordered pet dragon, George, because one of their spells backfired. Unable to resist their matchmaking ways, they spell trouble for town hunk Sean Madigan. For years Sean has fought women off with a stick, and he is tired of it. Dorcas and Ambrose offer to relieve him of his sex appeal in exchange for some work around their house. When the lovely Maggie Grady arrives in town to scout a location for a new store, Sean is horrified to find that she does not find him attractive. To add to his misery, she plans to tear down the very house in which he grew up in order to build her store. Booklist reviewer Aleksandra Kostovski appreciated Thomson’s playful sense of humor in this “pleasing paranormal romance,”and a reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that despite an “outlandish premise,” the story exhibits Thompson’s “trademark blend of comedy and heart.”
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2003, Brendan Driscoll, review of Nerd in Shining Armor, p. 1585; August, 2004, Shelley Mosley, review of The Nerd Who Loved Me, p. 1910; August, 2005, Diana Tixier Herald, review of Gone with the Nerd; February 15, 2006, Diana Tixier Herald, review of Talk Nerdy to Me, p. 54; January 1, 2007, Diana Tixier Herald, review of My Nerdy Valentine, p. 68; August, 2007, Aleksandra Kostovski, review of Over Hexed, p. 52.
Library Journal, August 1, 2005, Kristin Ramsdell, review of Gone with the Nerd, p. 63; December 1, 2006, Kristin Ramsdell, review of My Nerdy Valentine, p. 102.
MBR Bookwatch, February, 2005, Harriet Klausner, review of Nerd Gone Wild.
Publishers Weekly, June 21, 2004, review of The Nerd Who Loved Me, p. 48; December 20, 2004, review of Nerd Gone Wild, p. 42; June 20, 2005, review of Gone with the Nerd, p. 20; November 27, 2006, review of My Nerdy Valentine, p. 37; August 6, 2007, review of Over Hexed, p. 174.
ONLINE
Best Reviews,http://thebestreviews.com/ (December 24, 2001), Harriet Klausner, review of Acting on Impulse.
Curled up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (October 2007), Helen Hancox, review of Over Hexed.
Fresh Fiction,http://freshfiction.com/ (October 22, 2007), Rosie Bindra, review of Over Hexed.
Romance Reader,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (February 13, 2008), review of Nerds Like It Hot; review of Talk Nerdy to Me.
Romance Review,http://www.aromancereview.com/ (January 2006), review of Talk Nerdy to Me; (July 2006), review of Nerds Like It Hot; (December 2006), review of My Nerdy Valentine; (October 2007), review of Over Hexed.
Vicki Lewis Thompson Home Page,http://www.vickilewisthompson.com (February 6, 2008).