With my fifth mystery, RAINING CAT SITTERS AND DOGS (St. Martins Minotaur), having just hit the bookstores, and my fourth mystery, CAT SITTER ON A HOT TIN ROOF, a nominee for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award, I sometimes catch myself looking back in some wonder at how I got to this point. I’ve been a writer almost as long as I’ve been a reader. I wrote because I had to write, the same way I had to breathe. But I also had to make a living, so while I wrote short stories, essays, plays, non-fiction, and books “ghosted” under other people’s names, I never considered writing as a serious career. My career was being a psychologist, which allowed me the freedom to write whatever I wanted to write. If an essay or a story found a publishing home, that was fine. If it didn’t, that was fine too. Not having to rely on writing to pay the rent, I could explore ideas, try out different voices, spread my wings as widely as I wanted. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was putting in an apprenticeship that would one day be vital to a new career. To…

Guild Hunter #2 February 2010On Sale: February 2, 2010Featuring: Elena Deveraux; Raphael352 pages ISBN: 0425233367EAN: 9780425233368Paperback$7.99 Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Archangel’s Kissby Nalini Singh New York Times bestselling author of Angels’ Blood Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel-and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan’s power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena… The Guild series continues with a completely unique and perfectly detailed story and characters. Excerpt Elena gripped the balcony railing and stared down at the gorge that fell away with jagged promise beneath. From here, the rocks looked like sharp teeth, ready to bite and tear and rip. She tightened her hold as the icy wind threatened to tumble her into their unforgiving jaws. “A year ago,” she murmured, “I didn’t know the Refuge existed, and today, here I stand.” A sprawling city of marble and glass spread out in every…

January 2010On Sale: January 5, 2010Featuring: Nora Grey352 pages ISBN: 1416989412EAN: 9781416989417Paperback$15.99 Young Adult Paranormal, Young Adult Buy at Amazon.com Hush, Hushby Becca Fitzpatrick In Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush sixteen-year old Nora finds forbidden love. For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment. But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life. Excerpt Loire Valley,…

I think perhaps one of the hardest things for a budding novelist to master is determining what the “through line” is and meaning of the book you are writing. In other words: what is its theme? I am not talking about the book’s “message,” though there certainly may be one by the time the story ends. Think, for a moment, about the Wizard of Oz. Sometimes there is a line in a book that states the theme loud-and clear, as when Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home!” That same theme also holds true for the film Apollo 13. At the heart of both stories is the idea that we humans long for and are hard-wired to want the safety and refuge of being in a familiar place, inhabited by the people we love. The simplest and most simplistic expression of the theme? “Home is where the heart is.” In my experience, however, I often don’t uncover the theme until I’m well into writing a new book. For instance, I was very nearly at the end of ISLAND OF THE SWANS before it dawned on me: this is a story about coping with nearly unbearable loss. My eighteenth Scottish heroine,…

Demonica #4 February 2010On Sale: February 1, 2010Featuring: Lore; Idess384 pages ISBN: 0446556823EAN: 9780446556828Mass Market Paperback$6.99 Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Ecstasy Unveiledby Larissa Ione DEMON ENSLAVEDLore is a Seminus half-breed demon who has been forced to act as his dark master’s assassin. Now to earn his freedom and save his sister’s life, he must complete one last kill. Powerful and ruthless, he’ll stop at nothing to carry out this deadly mission. AN ANGEL TEMPTEDIdess is an earthbound angel with a wild side, sworn to protect the human Lore is targeting. She’s determined to thwart her wickedly handsome adversary by any means necessary-even if that means risking her vow of eternal chastity. But what begins as a simple seduction soon turns into a passion that leaves both angel and demon craving complete surrender. Torn between duty and desire, Lore and Idess must join forces as they battle their attraction for each other. Because an enemy from the past is rising again-one hellbent on vengeance and unthinkable destruction. Excerpt What. The. Fuck. Lore stood like a dope, knee-deep in snow in the middle of some godforsaken forest, cradling his would-be killer to his chest and wondering how everything had gone to…

When I originally thought about this week’s blog I thought I would write about how far a reader would travel to “meet” a favorite author. I was thinking about that because I was going to attend a function in Ft. Worth in which Robyn Carr was going to be the phone in author. However, fate decided to give me a sick husband and I had to cancel. (We won’t even discuss how disappointed I was about that!) I’m lucky in that I live in a large area that has many interconnected highways, so if the traffic fates are smiling upon me nicely the commute between sites is smooth, and good for listening to a great audio book. If the traffic fates are conspiring against me well, I get a longer commute, and more audio book time! I don’t travel to Ft. Worth often because it seems far away to me, but in reality it might be only about a sixty (60) minute drive…I guess that translates into about sixty (60) miles. Is that too far to go for a favorite author? What about having to go out of state to meet an author? How far are you willing to go?…

Fallen Angels #1 October 2009On Sale: September 29, 2009Featuring: Jim Heron; Vincent Di Pietro496 pages ISBN: 0451228219EAN: 9780451228215Paperback$7.99 Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Covetby J. R. Ward Redemption isn’t a word Jim Heron knows much about—his specialty, both personally and professionally, is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charged with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. His weapon: the power of love. His enemy: the darkest of evil. And failure is not an option. Vincent Di Pietro has surrendered himself to his business—until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior, and a woman who will make him question his destiny. With an ancient evil ready to claim him, Vin has to work with a fallen angel not only to win his beloved over…but to redeem his very soul. Excerpt “She wants you.” Jim Heron lifted his eyes from his Budweiser. Across the crowded, dim club, past bodies that were clad in black and hung with chains, through the thick air of sex and desperation, he saw the she in question. A woman in a blue dress stood beneath…

February 2010On Sale: February 1, 2010Featuring: Jake Culpepper; CiCi Hurst224 pages ISBN: 0373753004EAN: 9780373753000Mass Market Paperback$4.99 Romance Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com Hill Country Hero by Ann DeFee Only desperate, try-anything-once CiCi Hurst would agree to take the job of mascot for her daddy’s football team. But the recently dumped Hill Country heiress doesn’t expect to be tackled to the ground by six feet five inches of flat-out gorgeous male…. Jake Culpepper is every woman’s dream. Too bad the pro-football star is exactly the type CiCi’s vowed to avoid. It’s a no-brainer: no more low-down, cheating athletes! So why is she getting the feeling Jake’s different? Jake can’t believe he just decked the boss’s daughter! Now he’s paying the price by working for CiCi at her family’s camp for underprivileged kids. He didn’t plan on playing the hero. Or falling so hard for her. He just hopes CiCi feels the same way. Or he’ll be the loneliest hero in the Lone Star State! Excerpt It was official. Collier Channing “CiCi” Hurst (formerly Tank-ersley) was slowly but surely losing her mind. And what was her first clue? Could it be that she was seriously thinking about asking Daddy for a job? CiCi…

I saw it again this week: “Romance novels, like fairy tales, lack realism; they make young women believe a handsome prince is going to rescue them with promises of happy-ever-after.” Oh, please. I loved fairy tales as a girl, but spent not a single second staring down the road for my prince. It’s my considered opinion that those who use this analogy know fairy tales only from Disney movies, particularly “Cinderella” with its dreamy-eyed heroine singing “Some Day My Prince Will Come.” They are seriously misinformed. (And don’t get me started on the premise that women can’t tell fiction from real life while men apparently have no problem distinguishing between James Bond’s 007 stunts and their daily grind.) To read more of REALISM AND FAIRY TALES please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

This Christmas, my son got me the computer role-playing game called Dragon Ageand when I need a break from writing and edits, I stop to play the game. Now, in one part of the game, and in many of these fantasy worlds, wolves are not nice. But not only do they have bad wolves, they also have badder werewolves. Some are rabid, some are plain old werewolves, some speak, but all of them are deadly to the core. To solve the problem of the local elf type people who have contracted the werewolf curse, my heroine with her team of hero and heroines has to destroy the original werewolf who caused everyone else’s disease. This is typical of the old-horror story werewolf myth. Here I am, playing the game, and wanting desperately to find a peaceful solution. I want to cure the elves, and turn the werewolves into all around nice guys. I want to show the wolves running around in the forest that they can hunt their regular menu items and leave adventurers to solve other kinds of worldly problems and nobody gets hurt that way. *sigh* To read more of WEREWOLVES NEED LOVING TOO and to comment for…