Whenever I tackle a story set in another time or place I really like to see if I can find some actual event that happened there and weave it into my novel. It has long been my belief that the best way to teach or learn from history is to take it out of the larger context and focus it in on one event or one group of people. The step after that is to place myself in their situation—in their minds if possible—and figure out how I might have survived. Such is the case with my latest novel SAFE HAVEN—the third and final installment of my Peacemakers series. In researching the first two books of the series I stumbled across the incredible story of a boatload of European refugees brought to America in 1944 (before the end of WWII) as “guests” of President Roosevelt. These nearly one thousand men, women and children had lost everything in the war—their homes, their businesses, their belongings and in many cases their dignity and their faith. So hooray for FDR for rescuing them, right? Well, sort of. The refugees were brought to the USA by boat and taken immediately to a fort in…

St. Clair was attempting a confession or a condemnation of himself; Milly wasn’t sure which, but she did know she wanted to take him in her arms when he spoke like this. “Every time you describe your role, my lord, you paint yourself as more and more of an animal, and less and less a man.” And he let her see more and more of the cost to him for having played that role. He opened his eyes. “I am an animal, a traitorous animal, but I’d rather be honestly viewed as that than as any woman’s toy, ever.” He touched Milly’s chin, so she had to look him in the eye. “I tortured those officers, Milly. I studied them, toyed with their trust, and determined how best to wrest from them their dignity, their health, their sanity. Among the English I gained the sobriquet, “The Inquisitor,” and I was very, very good at what I did.” His hand remained under her chin, as if he’d will Milly to repeat his ugly words. His gaze pleaded with her to agree with their import, to accept the truth of his self-characterization. “And nobody was torturing French officers, were they?” Milly spat….

“You captivate me. I admire your thirst for adventure…your joy for freedom, your vivacity. I want you because you rouse me as no other woman has done in years, if ever. And I want to burn in the passion I see beneath your cool gaze, a passion I suspect will satiate my every need. I want to see you bound to my bed with silken ropes as I spank you, fulfilling your every dark fantasy. Then I want to ride you hard and deep, until neither of us can move for spending.” These are the words that my hero Lord Anthony Thornton whispered to Miss Phillipa Peppiwell in a moonlit enclosed garden at the Countess of Blade’s midnight ball in my latest release THE IRRESISTIBLE MISS PEPPIWELL. Anthony is a charming, sweet, and an honorable rogue who has some edgier sexual needs, one that he felt free to pursue with the tantalizing Miss Peppiwell because he felt he had finally met his match in a woman as passionate, sensual, and scandalous as himself. Anthony is an eclectic reader and he possesses a collection of naughty erotic books in his library which he reads and shares with his lovely Miss Peppiwell…

When I began writing hockey romances, I discovered that NHL players love to play pranks on each other. For instance, here’s a video showing Patrick Sharp and Adam Burish ordering an unwanted breakfast for two of their fellow Blackhawks. Some might find these type of hijinks immature, but I find them amusingly endearing. Like Sharp and Burish, my hockey players are intense competitors who train and play hard, but I like to balance that by showing their playful side, like in this scene from my book ACROSS THE LINE, book two from the In the Zone series. Calder Griffin has enlisted the help of his teammates to play a trick on one of the rookies… “Okay, guys. Listen up,” Mac said, turning to face everyone like a flight attendant. “It’s time to give Fishy the tie.” Calder and Mac hadn’t been able to give a heads-up to everyone about the prank, but the guys all knew Mac. When he said or did something crazy like this, he was up to something, and unless you wanted to be on the butt end of his next joke, you went along with it. Plus, it was always funnier to see the thing played…