Karen Marie Moning's dream started coming true because of, well, a dream.

        “I was 30, I was dreaming and heard a voice inside my head say, "Who the hell lived the last 10 years of your life? You sure didn't.' ”

        That was the nudge she needed. She quit her job and became a full-time writer.

Karen Marie Moning

        Today, the tiny 37-year-old redhead who loves roller blading and lavender undies is a single East Walnut Hills resident who's in the process of moving to rural Indiana with her “totally spoiled” cat Moonshadow. She has a national reputation, a string of awards and a new romance (Kiss of the Highlander, Dell, $5.95) that debuted, of all days, on Sept. 11, to glowing reviews and recently hit No. 29 on The New York Times best-seller list.

        “My aspirations were more modest. I just wanted to hit the top 150. When my editor called and said I hit 29, I accused her of tricking me.”

Lust and love

        Kiss is Ms. Moning's fourth book. All are set in medieval Scotland, three of them involve time-travel, each is a stand-alone with some recurring characters. Oh, and all of them plenty lusty.

        And sorry, but this synopsis is going to sound dumb, but Ms. Moning makes it work.

        Kiss is the story of 30-year-old Gwen Cassidy's trip to Scotland where she hopes to “divest herself of her virginity.” While hiking out in the hills, she falls into a cave and lands on Drustan MacKeltar, a 16th-century Highlander in a state of suspended animation thanks to a gypsy curse.

        You guessed it: He wakes, he's a hunk, there's animosity at first, then lust, then love. And yeah, he's more than happy to help with her, uh, divestiture. They spend the first half of the book in the 20th century, the second half in 1518 thanks to an ancient Druid ritual.

        The thing that makes it all work so well is the rich and detailed picture Ms. Moning paints of 16th-century Scotland — slavish accuracy to everything from eating customs to furnishings, clothes, even hygiene — “did you know they used straw for toilet paper? Ouch.”

        OK, we give up. Why Scotland?

        She stops short of chalking it up to a previous life, but does say, “I know things about Scotland I've never researched — 900-, 1,000-year-old customs. Maybe I did read it and forgot. I don't want to come off like a flake, but I keep an open mind to the possibility of reincarnation.

        “I've always been drawn to the country. There's such a passionate ruggedness there. I've never been there, and I don't even collect Scottish memorabilia, although I'd love to collect Scottish men.

        “I do study Scotland. Of the 10,000 books I have at home, 1,000 are research books on Scotland and physics. I'm self-taught in both areas.”

Land of misfit toys

        Right. Back in college at Purdue she majored in “law & society” and “had no idea what I'd do with it. I always wanted to be a writer, but my dad kept saying do something practical.

        “So I did and ended up in an office. It was truly the land of the misfit toys. I lasted 'til I was 30 when I quit and started researching the publishing business. I started out knowing nothing, while working part-time jobs. After four years, I dove in.”

        Smart move. Book one did OK, but book two, Beyond the Highland Mist, did stunningly: It was nominated for two RITA awards by Romance Writers of America, won Romantic Times' Reviewer's Choice Award and a Waldenbooks' award for Bestselling Debut Romance Author (1999).

        All that commotion for Mist made No. 3, The Highlander's Touch, an anticipated event. By now she had wracked up lots of readers, none of whom were too surprised when it won a RITA Award for Best Paranormal of the year and a Paranormal Excellence Award for Romantic Literature.

        No telling what this one will wrack up, but this much Ms. Moning already knows: “Publisher's Weekly is doing a Nov. 19 article on the best of 2001. Whoever's doing it chose Kiss for one of them, something my editor says never happens with a mass-market paperback.”

        And this much she also knows: “I'm getting better as a writer. I know that, because I almost like Kiss. My other books ... don't even ask.”

Happy endings

        But you can ask why she's so devoted to the romance: “Happy endings are required, and that delivers intellectual and emotional justice. Romance is the only place in the world where you can get that.

        “When people call them bosom heavers, I tell them I've had over 1,000 e-mails since Kiss and they all say the same thing — that amid all this tragedy and fear going on all around us right now, we need something that takes us away for a day.”

        Which is why there are two more books in her Highlander series — Dark Highlander is due in September 2002 — and heaven only knows what comes after that.

        Whatever it is, she says she'll continue with the very direct sex scenes like those in Kiss: “I hope it turns them on. Gets them excited. I'm pretty sure it does, because I know there's a strong demand for good, frank sex scenes in today's romances.”

        She's sure her readers find her Highlander character Drustan sexy.

        “I sure wouldn't turn him away. He has looks, he takes care of his body, he's kind, intelligent, honorable, truthful. Anybody would be crazy to turn that away.”

        Maybe she'll find her own Drustan next April when she makes her first trip to Scotland. Or maybe later this month, when she goes to Orlando for the Romantic Times convention.

        “The thing with the convention is they fly in all the romance cover models. Talk about some major eye candy parading around! We'll be doing some heavy-duty partying.”

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