When readers learn the nickname I use for the hero of my latest book—Sean Owens, the “stuttering hacker”—they usually get caught on the “stuttering” part. A romance novel hero who stutters? What the what? Yes. He stutters, and he’s sexy and awesome, competent, caring, somewhat screwed up in the head—all the great hero stuff. I promise. Today, though, I want to talk about the “hacker” part. Why write a hero who’s a hacker? What’s the appeal? The first thing I knew about Sean Owens was that he doesn’t talk to the book’s heroine, Katie, at all, and it drives her crazy. The second thing I knew was the reason why: he had an enormous crush on her in high school, and he’s afraid that if he tries talking to her, he’ll stutter. The third thing I knew about Sean wasn’t a thing, it was an image of a fifteen-year-old kid sitting all by himself at the front of the school bus, trying not to be too obvious as he watches the beautiful, popular girl he’s got a crush on make her way to the back row with her far-more-popular-than-Sean-will-ever-be boyfriend. This image is at the heart of how I see…

Don’t you just love sequel characters? I know I do. I love returning to a series, discovering the new romance, but also learning more about the lives of the characters from an earlier book. LORD OF THE HUNT, being reissued this month in ebook form, is all about sequel characters. When I finished my historical romance, LORD OF THE MIST, I really missed the characters. The emails I received told me fans wanted to know more about the characters as well. I aim to please, so LORD OF THE HUNT, crafted around a character from LORD OF THE MIST, was born. Along with sequel characters, I also love SECRETS! LORD OF THE HUNT has lots of secrets. The hero, Adam Quintin, has two. First, he’s really the son of the banished lord of Ravenswood Castle. This isn’t a spoiler, you know this right away. His second secret could have two results…fabulous rewards or death! Adam must hunt down a traitor who is conspiring with the French king against England. Adam is willing to risk death for the reward of catching this traitor, but Adam doesn’t care about gold or silver. Instead, he wants to win back Ravenswood for his family….

Once in a while I write a story that touches my heart. When I finish the book, I feel like I’ve been abducted in the middle of the night away from my home and friends. How could I be stuck in a snow storm in the Texas Panhandle when I should be in Harmony, Texas, dancing in the rain? Where are Martha Q and Tyler Wright? Where’s my ranch? Where are my chili-cheese fries from the diner? That’s kind of how it felt when I wrote the end to CAN’T STOP BELIEVING. I lived there, found and lost love there, and the day I mailed the book in, they all left me. Cord McMillan looked like he’d be a hard man for anyone to love. He’s an ex-con thanks to a mistake he made when he was 17. He hates everyone almost as much as he hates himself. All he has is a rundown farm and even working all week in town then farming till dark, he finds he’s about to lose the place. Nevada Britain, Cord’s neighbor, has always had the best of everything only now alone, she fears for her life. Using her last chance, she makes Cord…