I’m giving one lucky winner a signed copy of my new release, Lucinda, Darkly. So don’t be shy about posting a comment on this blog. Winner to be announced in the blog comment section the next day, so be sure to check back tomorrow. My editor just emailed me last night with the happy news that my single title LUCINDA, DARKLY is a national bestseller. And ON THE PROWL is a USA Today bestseller—my anthology with Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, and Karen Chance. So I guess that elation is definitely going to affect the topic of this blog: how I became an author. For me, turning writer was a complete turn-about in careers at the mid-point of my life, from respectable family practice physician to penning erotic dark fantasy/urban fantasy. Which is more fun? Well, of course, the latter. This new career has lead to TV appearances on Geraldo At Large and CNBC, won me several awards—my first ever in my life!—and forced me out of my normal reserve into public speaking and meet-and-greets with complete strangers at conferences. But then, writing those hot love stories in more explicit detail than I could ever have imagined when I first picked…

When I first began taking my Texas ladies to England’s shores, I had to do quite a bit of research about the Victorian period in order to understand how things would go for them. One of the best research books I found was How to Marry an English Lord. It went into quite a bit of detail about American heiresses’ obsession with marrying English lords. And English lords, many of whom had fallen into an impoverished state as a result of changing times changing their income, were quite happy to provide these ladies with a title in exchange for a nice settlement. I saw one political cartoon of the time that showed an old, crotchety looking fellow–obviously an aristocrat–kneeling before a young, haughty woman. The caption read, “American heiresses, what will you bid?” It was, of course, making sport of the American obsession with the nobility. What will you bid? That phrasing stayed with me for a while and one day, I had a vision of a penniless aristocrat who didn’t want to bother with courtship. Being pragmatic, he invited all the American fathers, who he was certain were tired of the Season, and told them that he’d marry the…

Meeting with reader groups and bookclubs has been my favorite thing for a long time, and when I had more time I belonged to two bookclubs of my own. From the author’s perspective, at least this author’s perspective, these are readers who are so focused on the story and characters, I learn more from them than they learn from me. It’s always great fun to hear what readers like about your work, that goes without saying, but the value to me as I continue to write is learning from them where the story didn’t jive for them, where they wanted more and they are never shy about telling you what they want to see next. A favorite bookclub selection of mine has been The House On Olive Street – and one reader group took issue with the beginning, which several agreed was hard to get into. My immediate response was, “Oh yeah? Well you should’ve tried writing it!” There have been some fun surprises. I was asked to join a church bookclub as they discussed my book, Runaway Mistress. Runaway Mistress for the church ladies? Oh man, I thought, they’re going to chew me up and spit me out. While…

I have a book due — well three chapters of it — and I can’t seem to find a heroine. Or a hero, either, really. But I have two villains. And some dead people. And a missing woman and her almost four year old son. And to complicate matters, I have grown to like one of the villains, but he’s done such heinous things that I can’t redeem him. I’ve never been in this position before. But I have to find a way out because this is the third book in the Ivory Nation Trilogy — a series about a white supremacy organization. The first book, IN PLAIN SIGHT was a prosecutor’s story. It was out last October. The second, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, is a victim’s story. It’s out next month. My readers and I are going to need a third book. There are just too many questions unanswered, too much pain left unresolved. Too much fear surrounding us to allow us to just walk away. And here I sit with the words Chapter One staring at me and nothing more. My heroine’s name is Hannah. I don’t know why. It just presented itself last week. I thought she was…

Have you ever written to tell an author how much you’ve loved their book and then waited, hoping for an answer, in vain? I’m not one of those unresponsive authors. I love getting fan mail and make a point of answering every letter I receive. I even invite readers to stop by should they be traveling through this area, and I get quite a few such visitors, all of whom are stunned by the view of Lake Superior my writing desk provides. “How do you ever get any writing done with a view like this?” they ask. Yesterday I had several such visitors — a reader from Wisconsin who brought her daughter and her husband, another reader from the Twin Cities who arrived with her hubby and four ears of freshly grown corn, a young man and his two small children who wanted to see the small shed where I write. This view is actually one of the reasons I became a writer. Moving to this pristine and fairly remote area nine years ago changed me from a writing hopeful into an actual author. Prior to moving here, I’d worked for a literary publisher in Minneapolis where, surrounded by great…

When the fabulous ladies of Fresh Fiction contacted me and asked if I would guest blog today, my first reaction was to be excited. We’ve all met a few times and they are, of course, lovely and fabulous and always fun to hang out with. So now I’m hanging out with them in a virtual world. My second reaction was to freak out because I realized I had no topic. I tried to sneakily ask for a topic, but was told that I could blog about ‘anything’! Oh boy! Anything. Which means I can blog about ANYTHING and that doesn’t narrow it down at all. So I went out in search of a topic. I went blog hopping. Yes, this was a travesty. To have to hop from interesting blog to interesting blog, reading fabulous authors’ words about a variety of topics. Yeah. Poor me, right? But as great as it was, it didn’t help me at all. A lot of authors were talking about writing, which I’m always happy to talk about (after all, I run The Passionate Pen , but Fresh Fiction is more about readers and authors coming together and I didn’t think that writing about plotting…

My second Love Inspired Suspense from Steeple Hill came out this week! Seeing SCARED TO DEATH on the shelf in my favorite bookstore is the continuation of a dream come true that started in April when my debut novel, NOWHERE TO HIDE, was first released. If you’ve ever worked to accomplish a goal that at times seemed almost unobtainable, I bet you can relate to the elation I feel having two books in print. The path to publication can be long and winding, filled with dead ends and detours. Constructive feedback is hard to come by, yet rejection abounds. Taking an idea and developing it into a full-length manuscript demands intense effort and self-discipline. Unfortunately, many would-be authors don’t persevere long enough to see their books in print. Because perseverance and determination are the key. Everything else can be learned. I made it because I kept trying. So can you. No matter what you’re hoping to achieve. Most dreams start with a tiny spark of an idea. For a writer, the process usually begins with a “what if!” What if a woman’s husband was murdered and the people who killed him are now after her son? If you read NOWHERE…

I started writing family stories. Seriously. I thought I would sell to Silhouette Special Edition and I tried. Boy did I try … but it wasn’t meant to be. Seven years, ten manuscripts, I caught on. Shorter contemporary seemed to be my style. In 1998 I sold to Harlequin Temptation/Heat and in 1999 BRAZEN was published. I wrote category for two years before segueing into single title contemporary with THE BACHELOR, THE PLAYBOY and THE HEARTBREAKER. Since then, all my trilogy or linked books have been light and fun – until CROSS MY HEART and SEALED WITH A KISS. In those books, I took a turn back to family mixed with drama and less lightness … it’s been a good break. A fun break. It seemed right when CROSS MY HEART was in hardcover to try something different. But I listen to my readers and I know they want more of my lighter books, more often. SO A NEW YEAR IS COMING – and in 2008, I’ve decided to return to the light books that my readers love, all in PAPERBACK. I know that for everyone’s wallet, this is a good thing. I know that as a reader, as much…

So, when I went to Paris for research last year, part of our itinerary was, of course, a trip to the Opera Garnier, which is the opera theater that figures in the original Phantom of the Opera. I learned a lot about the famous building, as well as some of the legends and facts that surround it and were used (or tweaked) in Leroux’s and Webber’s versions of the story of the Opera Ghost. That’s me, standing in front of the Opera House on a very cold, dreary, yucky day! First of all, the tour was great–it was fabulous to be inside the opera house! And, yes, there is a lake under the building–nothing like the one we see in the movie, but there is a lake there. I guess Gaston Leroux took very appropriate artistic license when he described the Phantom’s underground lair and its lake. It’s really no more than a very large tank–not that I got to see it. That was the disappointment of my tour. We got to see pretty much where the patrons would sit or congregate, but nothing backstage or beneath the stage! In that sense, it was very disappointing. However, the building itself…

Fresh Fiction always seems to be changing and our blog is going in a new direction. We’ve asked several authors and readers to contribute over then next few months. So, please stop by and check us out. If you’re interested in being a guest, please contact us at info @ freshfiction.com Jasper Fforde Originally uploaded by freshfiction At last, we have our THURSDAY NEXT signed!Now, to our field trip… Austin — north west — confusing directions (Google Maps does its best, but it would really help if the streets actually had their names up!) WHERE is MOPAC? but we found the Barnes & Noble eventually and arrived only five minutes late for Jasper Fforde on Friday night. It was hot and steamy, outside and in the store, especially up in the alcove where Jasper was talking about THURSDAY NEXT First Among Sequels to a crowd of about 150. I know, I counted to 150 then got bored. It wasn’t as if I could actually see him being stuck in the walled off video/music section with the usual assortment of “small children” wandering through complete with skateboards obstructing the view. (What WERE they looking for?) The center section of the alcove,…