Fans of author Kristin Hannah count on romance in full swoon.

In what seems like a previous life, Kristin Hannah was a Seattle attorney specializing in entertainment and antitrust law.

The work was challenging, yet enjoyable. When she and her husband decided to start a family, her world changed dramatically, like something out of a book the best-selling author might have penned.

Hannah has written 13 romantic novels – including “The Things We Do For Love,” “Summer Island,” “Angel Falls” and “Between Sisters” – several of which have been on the New York Times Bestseller List.

On Thursday, her latest book, the novella “Comfort & Joy,” joined that prestigious circle, and Hannah will read at 3 p.m. Sunday at Eagle Harbor Books.

Much to her father’s dismay, Hannah began to think writing was interesting while in her third year of law school.

As many law students discover, that third year was boring; Hannah was taking gift and estate tax and bankruptcy classes and found the subject matter dry.

At the same time, her mother was hospitalized with breast cancer and every day after school Hannah would spend time with her. One day she was complaining about her classes and her mother said it didn’t matter, because “you know you’re going to be a writer anyway.”

The comment floored Hannah. To help pass the time, mother and daughter decided to write a book together.

“She had a history degree and I had a history minor from UW and we decided to try historical romance,” Hannah said. “My mom was a big romance reader and she sent me home with a stack of books.”

They became experts in 18th-century Scotland, researching the clothing, the landscape and the people. They put together “this very clichéd romance plot” and worked on it for several months.

“I had just gotten to where I was actually going to write something and Mom passed away,” Hannah said.

The notes and research materials were packed away. Hannah married and started practicing law; she found herself reading romances, but didn’t do any writing.

Three years later, in the late 1980s, she experienced a difficult pregnancy. In bed for nearly five months, she had little to do besides watching soap operas.

Hannah picked up a pen and started writing. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she “really got the bug” and wrote for months.

When her son was born, she decided to be a stay-at-home mom and try to get something published by the time her son reached kindergarten. She set out to write romance novels the same way she learned law.

“I decided it was a conquerable realm, I knew that research and knowledge were what I needed, and I stayed very focused and dedicated,” Hannah said. “I had to do my writing from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. a lot of times.”

Eventually, Hannah stated trading baby-sitting time with a friend and would have whole days to write. The first manuscript she sent out was rejected by an agent who said, “You might have talent here, but it’s impossible to tell.”

That’s when she realized writing wasn’t going to be easy. She redoubled her commitment and chose the romance genre because it held a framework and an expectation from readers.

“It’s just a way of telling a story. In romances, love lasts,” she said. “It helps you focus on characters and dialogue and the myriad things you have to do as a writer.”

Hannah waited almost four years before submitting another manuscript. After she won two national contests with “A Handful of Heaven,” she got a contract with Ballantine Books, the only company she has been with in her 15-year writing career.

She completed six historical romances – one a year – and then decided to write more about women’s issues and experiences.

Hannah laughs away the notion that being a writer is a glamorous endeavor.

“Writing is so much fun,” she said. “You’re sitting in a room by yourself with a pen.”

She writes every manuscript in long-hand on legal pads and forges through multiple rewrites before she is done.

“There’s something so immediate about a pen and paper and you can do it anywhere,” she said.

All Hannah’s hardback books, including “Comfort & Joy,” are set in the Northwest.

“The feeling is palpable,” Hannah said. “Personally, I feel like there is not enough Northwest fiction.”

Sense of place

Hannah was born in Southern California. When she was 8-years-old, her father loaded up the car and took the family in search of what he called the most beautiful place on earth. They stopped in Washington, and she went to Port Angeles, Issaquah and Snohomish schools.

“One of my primary jobs as a writer is to write my world, but anchor it in the world as it is,” she said.

When Hannah became pregnant, she and her husband decided to move to Bainbridge.

She is firmly rooted as a writer. Novella “Comfort & Joy” took her a mere seven months to write, compared to the 14 months to two years she spends on novels.

The book has a spicy beginning and a page-turning ending, which posed an interesting dilemma for the author.

“I wanted to hide the ball, to (have you) be able to look back…and see the clues you missed. I had a lot of fun with it,” she said, adding this marks the first time she has written in first person. It had to be because of the plot. It’s incredibly intimate,” she said.

Although as a fiction writer, everything in her life is up for grabs, Hannah draws the line at making characters of her husband and son, a 17-year-old senior in high school.

“Surprising to me is how big a readership I have in the high school,” she said, adding that her being a writer is a source of embarrassment for her son.

Her mother, however, is present in almost every book.

“The mother-daughter relationship is so central to who we are,” Hannah said. “I feel her presence all the time.”

Hannah’s next book “Magic Hour” will be released in February.

“As with any longtime marriage or career, there are good years and bad years,” she said. “I am very lucky to continually have success.”

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Ode to joy

Best-selling author Kristin Hannah will read from her novella “Comfort & Joy” (Ballantine Books, $15.95) at 3 p.m. Nov. 13 at Eagle Harbor Books. See www.kristinhannah.com for more information.