Does a normal person ever get to a place where they forget or lose their sense of self? If so, what happens to those things that make us unique individuals? Things like the way we feel about love, morals, values, ethics, our perspective on the way we see the world? Our faith? Do our automatic responses stay the same? If we (hard to imagine!) hated chocolate, do we still hate it? Those were the kinds of questions in my mind and so I decided to think about them and explore them in FORGET ME NOT, the first book in my new Crossroads Crisis Center series. The worst-case scenario would be to have a person whose entire life was suddenly a mystery to them. That’s a feeling we’ve all had at one time or another; a moment when we look at ourselves in the mirror and we’re not quite sure who that person is looking back at us. So naturally the heroine had to have her life stripped from her–all of it! Once it had been, then I could see what was left. I was admittedly eager. I know. I’m awful. The protagonist endures a long, difficult and sometimes scary journey,…

Last month, I did a presentation at the Arlington, Texas, Public Library’s paperback swap event. Even though Valentine’s Day has already passed, we still kept the romantic mood alive by focusing on romance. Just to be different, I spoke about the romantic books you find outside the romance section. The romance genre itself has some expectations, the most important of which is a happy ending with the couple together in some kind of relationship that looks like it will last. That makes it a safe place if you want to read a love story where one of the main characters doesn’t die tragically at the end. But you can still find romantic stories in other places, though there’s the risk that it won’t work out in quite the way you might hope. Actually, romance has been important to fiction ever since people started telling stories. Look at all the hooking up that happens in Greek and Norse mythology, in Arthurian legends and in fairy tales. Then there are the literary classics. There’s a romantic happy ending in all of Jane Austen’s books. Jane Eyre is essentially an inspirational romance, since Jane is rewarded with her true love after she holds…

Reality is good. We all live our lives steeped in it. Some days are better than others. We know it, accept it, and consider ourselves lucky if we end up with a few more good days than bad ones. We take care of ourselves, our families, our careers. We handle the expected demands–the voluntary demands and the compulsory ones–and the thousand other things that need to be done on a routine basis. We also handle the unexpected demands, everyone’s crises, and the things that we couldn’t plan or prepare for with a million years’ advance notice. And, wonder of wonder, somehow we manage to do all these things and stay sane. So why then, when we mere mortals accomplish the impossible with monotonous regularity, are we’d begrudged our desire to indulge in an occasional bit of whimsy? Admittedly, I’m having a little trouble with understanding this. While it seems it’s perfectly acceptable for us to do all of the almost superhuman things that we do, we get every reaction from strange looks to admonitions for wanting to do something just for the fun of it. Sometimes, justification is actually asked for, and on occasion (can you believe it?) required or…

August 2009On Sale: August 1, 2009Featuring: Nancy D’Onofrio; Nell D’Onofrio; Vivi D’Onofrio320 pages ISBN: 0758228635EAN: 9780758228635Paperback$14.00 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Tasting Fearby Shannon McKenna New York Times bestselling author Shannon McKenna delivers a provocative, thrilling new novel in which three sisters search for their mother’s killer…and find unexpected passion on the way. BLOOD WILL TELL Nancy . . . Nell . . . Vivi . . . Three sisters who know there is no force on earth greater than love . . . unless it is the desire for vengeance. When their adored foster mother is murdered, the D’Onofrio women come together to hunt for her murderer—and track down a family legacy gone missing; rare, priceless art from the Renaissance, a treasure worth killing for. The law can only do so much and the three sisters are on their own—until three mysterious men get involved . . . Startled to find a brawny stranger at her mother’s house, Nancy is even more surprised at the heat of passion that flares between them. Liam is intense and instantly protective. But is it wise to trust him with every secret? Her sister Nell has turned to Duncan, her new boss, for…