Happy New Year, everyone! It’s great to be here so I can wish you all the very best for 2008. I’m thrilled to announce the release of 3 books in January and February.The first, Laying Down the Law, is particularly dear to my heart, because it tells the story of a young trainee barrister and her bad-boy American Italian pupil master, Lorenzo Domenico. I can’t deny this UK Modern Heat release was inspired by my daughter training to be a lawyer- but she now complains she never got to meet anyone remotely like Lorenzo! Bought: One Island, One Bride, is a Harlequin Presents release in February, and was inspired by my meeting a passionate environmentalist while I was holidaying in the Greek islands. It was impossible not to be inspired by the romantic promise of such a fabulous setting, and by the passion of Jamie, the young man who opened our eyes to the vulnerable eco-systems surrounding us. (I only hope Jamie hasn’t minded my changing him into my heroine, Ellie Mendoras!) My third book, The Tycoon’s Virgin Is a Harlequin Presents 2nd cycle release in February, which means it will be shelved near the Desire titles, and a little…

Last year, I set three goals. 1. Sell more books2. Lose weight3. Learn self discipline Well, to quote the always quotable Meatloaf, two outta three ain’t bad. I sold two more books and I lost the weight. So this year I’ve decided to tackle the whole self discipline thing. How hard can it be? It’s simply a matter of retraining my brain, right? (snicker chuckle snort)In order to lose the weight, I had to learn a bit of self discipline. And although I still believe Reeces Peanutbutter Cups and buttered popcorn deserve to have their own section on the food group pyramid, I no longer believe I’ll die if I don’t eat both of them every day. So, with the basic principal of “I’ve sort of done it before, so surely I can expand on it further”, I’ve set out to define the areas in which I need to increase my self discipline: 1. I write in fits and spurts, instead of every day. That has to change. 2. I have convinced myself that plotting is the curse of death and that winging it is the only way I can write. That has to change. 3. I tend to let…

Inspiration for most writers comes straight from their lives. So it’s not surprising my works all begin with those core pieces. Things I love, people I have met, or the places that have been a part of my life become building blocks of the foundations for my novels and short stories. Living on both sides of the Pond has given me a diversity of inspiration to tap. I used Scotland for the setting of The Invasion of Falgannon Isle, the first book in the Sisters of Colford Hall series (Dorchester Love Spell, December 2006). However, with Riding the Thunder the second book in the series (October 2007), I drew heavily on a small part of my childhood and early teens to conjure the setting and people for my offbeat world of The Windmill. People reading the book continually comment that the setting is so strong they almost expect the place really to exist. Well, it did once. Long time ago, before urban sprawl took away the quirkiness of the odd spot on Nicholasville Pike, a halfway point between Lexington and Nicholasville, Kentucky, and turned the area into shopping centers and apartments, there was actually a restaurant called The Windmill. Mysteriously,…

What sparks that excitement inside that urges you to write? Is it a news report, a TV show, a person, or a place? For my debut book, The Angel and the Outlaw, a historical romance, it was the setting that captured me and begged me to write. Growing up in San Diego, I often visited the Old Pt. Loma Lighthouse with my family. My imagination would take flight there, and I’d conjure up scenarios involving the cliffs, the tide, and the caves. As a child, the news reports of people stranded when the tide came in made me nervous enough to keep a close eye on each and every wave while exploring the tide pools (and have nightmares about tidal waves!) The stories of shipwrecks off the coast added even more adventure to the mix. The Old Pt. Loma Lighthouse was built in 1854. Through its 36 years of service the light keepers saw many of the things I mention in my book such as the community picnic. The light keeper, having a perfect view of the ocean, would hang a red flag on the railing when he spotted a pod of the California Gray whales migrating to alert the…

I’ve been talking on the radio all morning long about my new young adult novel, Paraworld Zero… literally. 18 radio interviews, back-to-back. Just about all of the interviewers had one question in common, so I’ll address that topic, which is… drum roll, please. Now that Harry Potter is over (and even that is questionable) how do we get young adults to keep reading? Being a father of five boys–all of whom enjoy fighting with light sabers on a daily basis–I have my work cut out for me. After watching my book’s video trailer on my website (http://www.paraworlds.com/) a dozen times yesterday, my oldest son said he couldn’t wait for me to put the rest of my book into a movie, so that he wouldn’t have to read it. He’s only eight-years old, so it’s understandable that he’s not into reading just quite yet, but his comment made me realize that I’m going to have to work harder at helping him to enjoy reading. The first step is to understand your child’s interests. I have boys who can’t get enough fantasy and science fiction in their lives. They breath it in like air. So I naturally need to pick some shorter…

Thanks to the wonderful people here at Fresh Fiction for having me over. Nice place you have here. I hope you’ll check out my group blog, www.storybroads.com/. Meanwhile, let’s chat. I have a lot of friends who are going through one of two problems. About a third are depressed, a third are fighting weight issues, and a third are battling with both. (There’s a tiny percentage in there of people who follow the same philosophy I do, who take everything in stride and are actually doing very nicely. But it’s probably less than one percent of my pals. Sadly. I’m trying to spread it around, though.) At any rate, I thought since these two problems are two I know well, have been through, and conquered, they would be my topic today. And interestingly, the same techniques are effective at fighting both depression and weight. Of course, the first one is exercise. You know I used to think I couldn’t “run” even if I wanted to. And I never really wanted to. I was one of those, yeah; I’ll run if someone’s chasing me with a knife. But a friend of mine inspired me, and so I decided to try. I…

The great thing about being an author is that the learning curve on your job is limitless. You’re probably wondering why I think that’s a good thing. LOL! I think it’s great because in my mind, I’m always learning. When I look at the books I wrote five years ago and the books I’m writing today, I can see how much I’ve grown as a writer; how my style and my approach to writing stories has changed. I’ve always loved a good story alongside my romance, but somewhere along the line, I wanted more. So I delved headlong into the vast paranormal genre. But even writing a straight paranormal romance wasn’t enough, and I began to add subplots, which evolved into suspenseful plot twists, which turned into more surprises in the story than even I had expected. Layering emotional romance over complicated plotlines with mystery elements forced another transition in my writing—moving from being a pantser writer (write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants), with no planning at all, to morphing into a hybrid style author where I wrote a high-level outline as to how the story would play out to the end. Would I follow it? Not necessarily (hence the reason I’m a hybrid writer…

Are you a CSI buff? Do you watch every episode of Cold Case, Forensic Files, Law & Order and all the spinoffs? Then you are one of the people who have turned forensics into a hugely popular field. These days, DNA, fingerprints, and all that technical stuff makes fantastic (or more correctly, realistic) fodder for fiction. So what better time to introduce a new kind of forensic expert? I’ve been in the field of handwriting analysis for forty years and occasionally, I testify in court cases as an expert witness. My practice includes working on cases of forged wills, anonymous letters, and all sorts of legal chicanery, as well as behavioral profiling. And my clients have never been as savvy or as interested in what their handwriting says about them as they are today. At the same time, there are some who believe that in an age of Ipod, BlackBerry, and text messaging, handwriting has lost its relevance. But the truth is, your handwriting–chicken scratch though it may be–remains an important form of personal expression, and it paints a true portrait of your personality. The way you arrange your handwriting on the page, the style you use, and the rhythm…

At the start of each new year, my thoughts linger on endings and beginnings. I think of memories and changes and the finite things about which I have hope. Then, there are those things that carry over from year to year, and book to book. The idea of true love conquering all. Soul mates. Love at first sight.In 2007, Loved Enough was released – my first contemporary romance and a story of love rekindled. Later in the year I ventured from contemporary into paranormal with Cast in Stone (Book One of the Quinguard Immortals Series.) He waited seven hundred years to find her. For what seemed an eternity, Julen endured a nightly punishment that never should have been his. Descended from a line of ancient warriors, he vowed not to become the creature his persecutors claimed he was – the creature they did their best to make him into. Now that he has found the healer who can end his nightly torment, the stirring she creates in his Agathyrsi blood threatens to bring more danger than redemption.She was sworn to destroy him. Sofia Evan, owner of Fortune’s Cup coffeehouse, had been raised on family lore and responsibility passed down through…

I’ve been asked that quite a few times and have come up with several different answers. I came up with one in particular that I thought was pretty good, but it turns out it had too much comedy involved to get a positive response from the asker. So here’s the other answer to the enigmatic question, “What is a 1080 Kiss?”“A 1080 Kiss is when your special someone’s lips touch your lips in a kiss, it sends your head into a weakening-of-the-knees spiral, thus doing a 1080, or two or three.” Okay, maybe not quite the perfect answer, but it’s as close as I could get to a logical one. Luckily, I recently conducted an interview with Vince and Morgan and asked them this specific question. Here’s what they had to say about it: Vince: “It sounds like a new snowboarding stunt. I’d probably be doing it right now if I hadn’t been dragged here for this interview.” Morgan: “Ever since he brought home his gold medals from the Winter Games, he’s been like this.” Vince: “Like what?” Morgan: “Eager to get out of your responsibilities. I know the Winter Games is still a-ways off, but you have to keep…