One of the challenges of writing paranormal romance is finding a way to build a really different fantasy, yet get the readers to buy into it. After all, everybody’s doing handsome leather-clad vampires and cheeky monster-slaying tough girls. Readers love that kind of thing, but they’ve also seen it before. Repeatedly. It’s a lot more fun if you can find a way to turn the concept on its head, surprising readers and creating a whole new world for them to play in. Besides, I’ve got ADD, and I’m easily bored. I love leather clad vampires, but I have no interest in doing the same thing everybody else is doing. That’s no fun at all. Here’s one of the secrets of writing you don’t hear about: it’s fun. Shocking, I know. Everybody always talks about how much work it is being a writer, and how we get paid peanuts, and how the publishing industry is imploding. All of that is true, but it’s also true that creating a universe and moving into it for 400 pages is the best fun you can have with your clothes on. I love coming up with weird ideas and playing with them, like: What if…

I write about vampires, immortals. So I got to thinking about what a New Year’s Eve might mean to them. Not much actually. Of course they notice the passage of time. But in big gulps, not in nibbles. Take Glory St. Clair, my vamp in the Real Vampire series. She was turned in 1604. Now she’s coping with 2011. Hmm. The girl’s seen some serious changes in her long lifetime. Think about it. As a woman, she’s gone from an illiterate chattel to an independent business owner. Now that kind of change could give you whiplash if it had happened overnight. Fortunately she’s had over four hundred years to get used to high heels and a checking account with her name on it. Luckily she was smart enough to survive and thrive. That’s the fun in writing about paranormals. I can put myself in the fantasy and imagine what it would be like to have lived that long, done so much, and, best of all, known so many hot guys. Speaking of… What about the men who are just as ancient as Glory? We’ve all known men who we think of as macho chauvinists. But one who actually wore a…

MARY BURTON CELEBRATES 2011 WITH  BACK-TO-BACK ROMANTIC SUSPENSE New York Times best selling author Mary Burton unleashes a memorable cast of characters in her back-to-back romantic suspense novels SENSELESS (just published) and MERCILESS (arriving January 25th). They include Homicide Detectives Deacon Garrison and Malcolm Kier(DYING SCREAM), convicted felon Eva Rayburn, and her half-sister, attorney Angie Carlson. And, as always, Burton’s signature attention to forensic detail and law enforcement procedure are in evidence. In SENSELESS, Eva’s part-time job at a shelter brings her to the attention of Deacon Garrison when an explosion destroys the building. The search for evidence uncovers the body of a woman who has been tortured, murdered and branded. Enter journalist Connor Donovan. He’s desperate to resuscitate his flagging career when he gets a tip about the case and its similarities to the Sorority House Murder, the investigation that brought him fame and sent Eva to prison. As Donovan drags Eva back into the media spotlight, Garrison, certain she’s connected to  the murder, is determined to find out how. In MERCILESS Burton ratchets the suspense up even higher when Kier and Angie come up against a psychopath who leaves behind the perfectly preserved bones of his victims. Kier—and…