I’m coming off a crazy-hard writing year where I wrote 3 manuscripts for my BODY MOVERS humorous mystery series so they could be released back to back. I also wrote 3 manuscripts for Harlequin Blaze, (romantic comedies), also for back to back release. And I wrote 2 manuscripts for novellas. The schedule tested me physically and mentally, and afterward, I confess, I was zapped. My brain was mush—I could barely remember the names of the characters I’d written, much less come up with something new. But I had more projects on the horizon (after a short break), so I knew I had to do something to recharge my batteries. Here are some tips to regain your creativity if you’re in a slump: Adjust your Zzzzzzzs. Physically, you need to adjust your sleep patterns up or down to get 7-8 hours sleep. I got way too little sleep most of last year, so now I’m making an effort to go to bed an hour earlier. Conversely, though, too much sleep can leave you feeling lethargic, so if you’ve gotten into the habit of sleeping in, you might want to set your alarm to get up a little earlier and get a…

Tonight is the season finale of one of my favorite TV shows, THE MEDIUM. In fact, this week a lot of my fave shows have season finales. So, I sadly bid farewell until the new season—which nowadays starts not in September or even October, but January! It’s depressing to think about all our favorite shows ending for the summer, but there is a positive side. Think of all the free time I’ll have in the evenings! I’ve made a list of all the things I can do this summer. 1. Write. Since there’ll be nothing to watch on TV, this is a good time to work. Especially since, beginning June 5th, my kids will be home all day, every day, for an entire three months (Ack!) and I certainly won’t get any writing done during the day.2. Catch up on my reading. My To Be Read pile—ok, PILES–are getting so ridiculously high I’m afraid they might topple over and give me a concussion while I sleep. If I don’t start reading some of them, I might be forced to cull through the stacks and pare them down to only the ones I actually think I might someday read. And how…

When I sat down to write this blog I really wanted to write something that would honor the connections between books and mothers. My first instinct was to talk about some books were mothers where featured prominently such as Shades of Grace by Barbara Delinksy, but then I worried that you as readers of the blog would want to know some impression I had from the book and while I read it and can remember totally loving it, I can’t remember anything else about it, and felt that was cheating. So now I think that I’m going to take this opportunity to publicly thank my mom, Betty for fostering my love of reading. Growing up there were things I didn’t want to do such as wearing my glasses, taking various meds when ill, doing my math homework if I did these things for a specified period of time I would get a new book. What a wonderful treat! So with the thought of honoring a special woman in your life is there someone who helped to foster your love of reading? How did they do that? If you can’t recall a special woman who fostered your love of reading, is…

Buy Your Copy today I was so excited this week, the latest Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire book went on sale, and I got my hands on a copy finally on Friday. So after a nice dinner with the family — no reading at the table, sigh — I was ready to drop all work and settle down for a nice couple of hours of reading enjoyment. Oh, yeah! Everyone knew to leave me alone, it was just me and Sookie, and Bill, maybe Quinn, definitely Eric. It was going to be great. Until… OMG, get Anna Paquin’s whiny voice out of my head! And while you’re at it take her stringy little ponytail and the gap between her teeth, too. She’s too perky for my Sookie. EEEEG. this is so-not-a-good thing! See, I’m one of those who after hearing someone (thing) read a story will forever hear the voice in my head when I read it myself. And mostly it is NOT A GOOD THING. Yeah, I’m shouting. The previous phrase is to be read with much emphasis. Seriously, I do not listen to any audio books I may later read, except for Jim Dale and Harry Potter. Other people…

About eleven years ago, a friend talked me into going to see a psychic. It was an amazing experience; she predicted many things about the future which have come true, including my becoming a full time fiction writer. But she also said I needed to learn patience. Boy, she was she right. I learned to practice patience when it came time for me to find an agent. It was required again when I finally got one and she sent out my manuscript, which seemed to take forever to sell. And now that I’m published, I have to be patient every time I hand in a book and wait to hear back from my editor about revisions (not to mention waiting for my publisher to pay me.) Believe me, none of this has been easy for someone whose blood pressure spikes when it takes a barista more than three minutes to whip up a single latte. But it’s been worth it, because in the process, I’ve learned to be patient with myself when it comes to writing. I now know there are days when my Muse doesn’t want to do her job. But I soldier on, patiently awaiting her return. My…

Recently Samhain Publishing released a true book of my heart, BUTTERFLY TATTOO. This edgy and genre-bending contemporary romance is my seventh published book although it was the very first one that my agent shopped on my behalf. The winding path this novel took before becoming published is a true study in how important relationships are, not only in publishing, but in all walks of life. I thought it might be interesting for my friends and readers to learn the crazy relationship connections that are involved in my road to publication. The story begins with Louisa Edwards, the editor who ultimately bought my first book, PARALLEL ATTRACTION. Louisa is literally one of my favorite people in all of publishing. We’ve worn a lot of hats together, and it’s almost amusing as time goes on to see just how many caps and beanies we can swap. While Louisa was still an editor at Penguin Putnam, I placed three authors with her, and we always felt that our tastes overlapped and blended almost mystically. So when my agent Pamela Harty—a super goddess among agents, by the way—shared BUTTERFLY TATTOO with her, Louisa fell in love. I mean, head-tripping-over-heels, crazy in love. She fought…

In case you don’t know what Bunco is, let me explain. Think of a guy’s poker night. Then substitute the beer for frozen margaritas, the cards for dice, and the cigars for gossip. Sound like fun? I got the idea for my debut novel Bunco Babes Tell All while at the RWA writing conference in Reno. I was at dinner with friends and I was wearing my “lucky” Bunco bracelet. I was laughing when I happened to glance down at my bracelet and faster than you can roll a couple of dice, it all came to me. I needed to write a book about a group of women who play Bunco! I’d been an avid player since 1992 and knew firsthand that it would make a great backdrop to a fun and quirky women’s fiction novel. So now you’ve got to read the rest and comment to be entered into today’s contest to win a signed copy of BUNCO BABES TELL ALL… Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Orange Fairy Tales Russian version When I was a kid, I read my way through our library’s whole rainbow row of Andrew Lang’s fairy books. That’s hundreds, maybe thousands, of fairy tales and folk tales from all over the world. So naturally now that I’m all grown up, I read and write romance novels. I love being transported to another place, whether it’s Regency England or the coast of Maine. I love when the deserving heroine gets her shot at the ball. I love it when the handsome prince (or vampire lord or Texas billionaire) puts love for the heroine above everything else. I really love the happy endings. But thinking back on those stories, the other thing that strikes me is how ordinary the most of the characters are. The woodcutter’s son, the merchant’s daughter, the fisherman with the nagging wife, the soldier returning from war. Even the princes and princesses are taken up with the real life concern of getting married to an appropriate partner and producing heirs. The tales of the selkie–mythical creatures who shed their seal skins and come ashore as beautiful men and women to have hot, anonymous sex with human partners—come from a time…

We’ve all got tropes we like – assassin heroes, marriage of convenience, small town romance, older man/younger woman (or vice versa), uber alpha heroes, beta heroes, certain historical periods (me? I love me some wallpaper regencies), friends to lovers, whatever your preferences may be – we’ve all got em. Relentless is a story of opposites. In Abbie, we have a woman without political power. In the world I built for my Federation books, the haves are Ranked. As in they are members of the ruling Families who hold the reins of political and economic power across all the Federation Universes. Everyone else is unranked and therefore able to rise only so high. So Abbie is unranked. She’s also a barrister, a public defender if you will and she has spent her adult life working to bring a more representative form of governance to her home ‘Verse. She’s small and fiery and full of passion and conviction. Click to read the rest of Lauren’s blog and to comment. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Recently I attended a book signing for Kate Jacobs the author of several books including The Friday Night Knitting Club, Comfort Food, and Knit Two. Ms. Jacobs was promoting the paperback release of Comfort Food, and as she read a scene from the book it made me want to race home, and find the book in my TBR stack (well, really on my Kindle, but we won’t argue the semantics of it), and begin reading immediately. What you ask stopped me from doing just that? Two things…one I was already in the middle of a great romantic suspense, Behind the Shadows by Patricia Potter, and two I have review books that I am committed to getting finished before I do any pleasure reading. Can you hear the big sigh I have given out for not being able to just read whatever book is sounding good to me at any given moment? One solution that I have come up with is to do the audio version of the book yelling READ ME RIGHT NOW!!!! However, that’s not really the best solution either because my audio pile is also growing, so when I hear about a good book that I have on…