Zeus had nine daughters. They presided over the various arts and were dubbed the Muses. So usually, when people think about a muse, they think female. I don’t. My muse is music. Male or female singers. Sometimes simply instrumentals. Depending on the day, time, or event, music affects me in different ways. Instrumental music can wash over me and provide me with a sense of calm. I usually put this kind of music on when I’ve already got a creative idea and I’m moving ahead with a story. I like Latin music, Mozart, guitar solos…almost anything except atonal. But when I’m in the “creation” mode, meaning I have to come up with a brand new idea, I pay attention to the lyrics of musicians. Like poets, they are storytellers in short form. The essence of drama, love, passion, and hate, i.e. conflict, comes through in a few short minutes. How do they do that? I mean, really…how do they do that? Thanks to a couple of rock and roll gems, I was inspired to write two of my screenplays. Thanks to a country western tune, I was inspired to write an emotional scene in my next CHEESE SHOP  MYSTERY, TO…

It is absolutely the best time to be a contemporary category romance author. I am normally not a person of great pronouncements—I leave those to my husband, the Main Man—but I will make this one, loud and clear and from any available rooftop. I am one lucky girl to have this gig and being one of the Indulgence authors at Entangled Publishing is the icing and the cupcake! I came to romance just like many of you. I pilfered the romance novels from my Granny and Mama’s stash and hid under the covers with a flashlight reading until the wee hours of the morning. (It was soooo worth being tired the next day—right?) It was a surreptitious education on friendship, glamorous locales, the consequences of betrayal and deceit, the rewards of becoming vulnerable, striving for your dreams and finding true love. These universal truths were wedged between two paperback covers and every page was full of emotion, escape, and a riveting plot. And, while I sit here at my writing desk in the early season of 2013, there are still some universal truths about writing great category romance, the expectations of readers, and the challenge of delivering the same great…

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve created a new series called Operation Shadow Warriors. BEYOND VALOR is the first of this new series that will encompass many books military romances/suspense stories to come in HRS and HQN. And they will all be related to one another so you’ll get ongoing updates on the characters that you’ve already read about. Operation Shadow Warriors is the brain child of U.S. Army General Maya Stevenson. Those who have followed the Black Jaguar Squadron since its inception, will recognize Maya from HEART OF STONE from the 1990’s era when I created the BJS series. Maya has created Shadow Warriors. She knows certain types of women can handle combat just as well as any man. She’s created this seven-year top secret operation and has garnered forty volunteer women from all the military branches who want to work in combat situations. It is designed to show how woman deal with combat. And from this experiment, all the military branches will either allow or disallow women into combat slots. These forty women have undergone a grueling one year of training with the Marine Corps to be ready for field duty. In BEYOND VALOR, you are going to…

I was thrilled to be asked to write one of the Larkville Continuity stories for Harlequin Romance. But when I discovered I was writing the last book, I was a bit shocked. The last book of a continuity series has to wrap up the entire series and this one was a doozie…8 books! In the final book, readers expect to see that the seven couples from the prior books are all still happy. They want to get another peek at the kids/babies from the books. And, of course, in this particular series they were dying to see the blending of all the siblings. Added to all that I had to toss in the romance of Matt and Claire, the hero and heroine of my book. It was a tall order! Except… When I started putting the story together, I realized what I had was a big family that longed to be happy. With their messed up past and dead parents, they needed a leader. They needed time together and they needed to forgive. So Matt’s story is a story of hope. Not just hope that he’ll become a good daddy to the baby he inherits when his ex-wife dies, but…

As an active and voracious reader, one of the very little delights I have is the anticipation of a new book by a favorite author. Waiting impatiently for the release is a harrowing ordeal; I must avoid previews at all costs because as a reader I fall into the category of “finish the book in one sitting.” So reading a preview doesn’t just whet my appetite—it makes me mad. And I don’t want to get too mad, because then I start to imagine what the book is really going to be like, including the plot and the … Read the rest on Kirkus Reviews