Here’s a little secret that not a lot of non-writers realize: Authors are not always in control of their characters. Some of us are rarely in control, which makes for the occasional difficult conversation with our editors. For example: Me: Um, about that synopsis. It doesn’t actually bear any resemblance to the finished book. You’re good with that, right? Editor: (long-suffering sigh) Well, I’m kind of used to that with you . . . I can’t help it. It’s not like I consciously set out to drive my poor editor nuts. It’s just that I’m happily writing along, following my lovely plotted-out outline (yes, I plot, I love to plot, I outline, I describe scenes, sometimes I even include snippets of what I think at the time is wickedly brilliant dialogue), and then when I start to write . . . Most of it ends up in the recycling bin. When I was writing ATLANTIS AWAKENING (coming to stores near you November 6th!), I had an especially tough time with this. You see, I fell victim to one of the other problems that can strike unsuspecting authors, usually with no warning: The “I know too much about my characters” syndrome….

Hey everyone! I’m really excited to be here blogging with you! I thought it might be fun to reveal to you the top three questions I’m most often asked by readers. Starting at number three: What made you want to become a romance writer? The answer is, my love of books. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love books. As a kid I loved Nancy Drew. Thanks to Nancy I wanted to solve crimes, travel to exotic locations, and find a guy like Ned Nickerson—smart, loyal, and heroic. I also loved the Cherry Ames series. Thanks to Cherry I wanted to join the Army and be a nurse. Then came Vicki Barr, the airline stewardess (bet you can’t guess what I then wanted to be??). Then I graduated to Agatha Christie and my family was grateful that those books didn’t inspire me to become a criminal, although reading about Miss Marple did inspire me to learn how to knit—not with very good results, I’m afraid. I managed to eek out one very crooked, bunched up scarf and half of an argyle sock. (have you ever tried to knit an argyle sock??? There’re like 12 bobbins hanging off the…

One of the questions I’ve been getting asked a lot lately is if my new book, ON THE LOOSE, is still part of the CRAZY series, and the answer is Yes! All of the same characters from Steele Street and SDF, Special Defense Force, are in the LOOSE series of books. We’re still at the chop shop in Denver, dear readers! Much to my surprise, while tramping through the wilds of El Salvador with C. Smith Rydell and Honey York in ON THE LOOSE, I came across another lost chop-shop boy from Steele Street, and his story is told in CUTTING LOOSE, which comes out in January.So many people who have read the books have fallen in love with the cars, all those beautiful American muscle cars from the sixties and seventies, the ones with engines so big the insurance companies balked at underwriting them. In one instance, they did more than balk. By refusing to insure the cars, they actually shut down production on Don Yenko’s 1969 Chevy Yenko “SYC 427” Novas. Yenko converted thirty stock SS-396 Novas into the barely street legal monsters, before the insurance companies got cold feet. Marrying that much power to something as relatively…