As a lover of time travel romance, it’s only natural I think for an author to be interested in history. If I had my time again with my schooling, I would’ve become an archaeologist and spent the rest of my life quite happily digging up the past. History has always fascinated me, what they wore, what they ate, their customs and lifestyle is something you can get caught up in quite easily while doing research for books. To image going back in time, even for a day, and seeing how others lived would be an awesome dream come true. Unless you landed in the middle of Waterloo or the battle of Hastings, then that would be bad. And if you’ve read my latest release, A STOLEN SEASON you’ll see that my heroine Sarah is in fact, a time travelling archaeologist. Pretty cool in my book. No pun intended. In my life I’ve been lucky enough to travel around the world a couple of times, visiting cities that are older than my own land, Australia. Walking through the streets of Rome, seeing the Colosseum and imagining well built, musclier sweaty gladiators, made for quite a fun day, not that my husband…

Full disclosure: I actually like winter. But I live in West Virginia, so my definition of “winter” may be slightly skewed. I haven’t had the chance to burn any hot chocolate calories by shoveling snow, at least not yet. (I may have just jinxed myself – April snowstorm, here we come!) It’s not that I’ve never lived through a *real* winter. I grew up in the Northeast, and I went to grad school in the Midwest – trust me, I’ve had winter. But I’m not going to lie, having some geographical distance from the real white stuff is affecting my memory. Falling snow is so romantic if you know you don’t have to get up early to shovel out your car. Admit it, there are nice parts to a blizzard. Hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. Curling up in front of a roaring fire. Snuggling under a pile of blankets with a handsome guy… Sorry, where was I? Right. Blizzards. The best remedy for the Blizzard Blues is something hot and sweet, like Gavin Fraser, the hero of my novella, SNOWED IN. When he meets Maureen O’Connell, she’s kind of a mess. But he’s a gentleman, and when they’re stranded…

THE IMMORTAL WHO LOVED ME (Argeneau Vampire book #21) brings new life to the series with its heroine’s unique job: she owns a kitchen goods store. This was largely inspired by Lynsay’s own kitchen renovation, which was underway while she wrote. In celebration of the book’s recent release–and the completion of her new kitchen, as you can see in the photographs–Lynsay has shared some of her favorite recipes for you to prepare in your own kitchen. And one more delicious detail from the Argeneau Vampire series: one of the main side-effects of being a vampire who’s just found his or her lifemate is a sudden craving for good food (not blood!). And lots of it. So whether you are cooking for yourself or a lovestruck vampire, these recipes should keep you satisfied. Ants Climbing A Tree -6 dried shiitake mushrooms -250g pkt bean thread vermicelli noodles -2 tablespoons peanut oil -2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger -2 garlic cloves, crushed -2 small fresh red chillies, thinly sliced -5 green onion, ends trimmed, thinly sliced -400g pork mince -2 tablespoons soy sauce -2 tablespoons hoisin sauce -1 tablespoon water -2 teaspoons cornflour -150g firm tofu, cut into 2cm pieces 1. Step…

My name is Danielle. I write both Young Adult and New Adult fiction for Entangled Publishing and HarperCollins as D.R. Graham. People ask me all the time where I get my ideas for the novels I write. Those who know me assume because I am a child and family therapist that I must draw all my ideas from counseling sessions. I guess that’s partially true when it comes to character traits, but my stories don’t actually come to me as ideas based on other people’s lives. They start as intense feelings or random images that I find fascinating. ONE PERCENTER, which is the first book in the Noir et Bleu Motorcycle Club series, was inspired by a funeral of a high ranking member of an outlaw motorcycle club. I watched as the crowd exited the church into a parking lot full of police officers, and I was struck by the image of the little kids holding hands with their rough looking biker dads. It moved me to tell the story of what it is like to grow up loving people the rest of the world is terrified of. The first book I ever published, titled HIT THAT AND YOU’RE DEAD,…

I am so excited to introduce readers to my new series – The Montana Men. When I think of the rough, rugged land in Montana, I think of the even tougher guys who live and work there. After all, there’s something about a cowboy. Their strength of character. That rock solid guy who knows who he is and what he wants. Under all that grit lies a man who’s got down-home charm and manners any mama would approve of. Their loyalty runs bone-deep, as deep as their love for home and family. Cowboys are wild at heart. They work hard and play harder, that wild streak taking them from the ranch to the rodeo circuit where there’s no fear or hesitation to get on a giant bull or ride a bucking bronco around an arena, chasing the thrill of the ride. Let’s not forget how damn good they look in those tight jeans. Or even better, sitting atop a horse. All it takes is one cocky half grin and a sexy as hell narrowed gaze from under their cowboy hat and any woman would melt in their strong arms. Oh yeah! With such an iconic image and the beautiful Montana…

I am working with Harlequin to do something rather innovative for my many loyal readers. I got a lot of emails begging me to right a novella epilogue for NEVER SURRENDER (Bay and Gabe, the main characters). I did that, but I also wanted to take a secondary from that book, Mike Tarik, and add him to this 11,000 word novella. I married the two of them into it so that the novella was not only an epilogue regarding “what happened next to Bay and Gabe,” but also became a bridge to Mike’s book, TAKING FIRE. There are actually THREE books involved, with ZONE OF FIRE (February 1, 2015) coming out first to set up Mike’s book. Then, on February 25th, TAKING FIRE comes out and is Mike and Khatereh’s story. It is followed on March 1st by ON FIRE, Ebook only. It is what I term a “director’s cut” to their story. Unfortunately, in paperbacks, a 100,000 words is the max amount one can write about a story. I over ran that mark by roughly 40,000 words! And I did not want to delete it and forget it. My editor, Tara Gavin, agreed and so did Harlequin. This is…

They say it’s the small things, and I totally agree. Little gestures to profess something larger is enough to bring tears to my eyes. My favorite gesture was when a very nice man carried me over a muddy puddle so I wouldn’t ruin my shoes. I don’t think I can possibly forget something that sweet (and I really love those shoes)! As romance readers, we expect those gestures from our heroes. He must show the heroine in a subtle—or not-so-subtle—way that she is important to him. Her happiness is his happiness. Her pleasure is his pleasure. Even if he gets him nowhere with her, it’s unconditional. In LEFT TO FOREVER, the hero Jacob makes a series of gestures, but one of them was catalytic to the heroine’s self-progression. Isn’t that what’s wonderful about little things and grand gestures? They breathe life intp us—tiny puffs and large ones. They change us. Make us see in different light. So now, I want to share with you two of my favorite grand gestures: 1 – On Frasier when Niles finally tells Mel in front of their very snobby and judgmental social circle that he loves Daphne. To me that was so pivotal for…

Snow was falling outside the window, my two young boys were sleeping upstairs, and these images came to me like a recurring dream; a mother sitting poolside, her daughter playing beside her, and the feeling of freedom whisking through the air like a breeze—freedom from a marriage unraveled. Those are the images and the sensations that first sent me running to my computer. There was a story in my head vying for release. That was in 1991. Fast forward many years, and several children, later, and here I am—a full-time author. I have craved writing since that bitter winter afternoon, when I began poking away at my IBM Thinkpad balancing in my lap on a chair in our guest room. That particular story has yet to be written, but it opened a door for many more to develop. Writing is a curious, and solitary, process for me. I can write just about anywhere with a window and a radio. For the most part, though, I must be alone. I sometimes act out my scenes several times before finding just the right emotions to portray. I talk to myself, urging myself to think harder, be more creative, give the readers what…

Lots of people (and by people I mean “ill-informed snobs”) say romance novels are unrealistic, that they idealize relationships in a way that’s somehow irresponsible and lets women get away with harboring silly fantasies. I could write a whole post on what I think about that, but for now let me just quote one of my favourite authors, Tessa Dare, who said: “Women are constantly told it’s fantasy to expect fidelity, respect, and orgasms in this life and to seek the same in our reading. It’s not.” So, in complete agreement, I would say, yeah, romance novels absolutely idealize love. And not only is there nothing wrong with that, that’s the whole point. But I’ve been thinking lately about how romance novels idealize another kind of love, too: the best friend. If romance novels give us something to aspire to in terms of how we expect to be treated by men, they also model female friendships that are healthy, supportive, and fun. And I think that’s awesome. In my newest release, SLEEPING WITH HER ENEMY, my heroine Amy is left at the altar on page one. Yes, she has to learn some stuff about herself in order to earn her…

There’s one thing about VK Sykes that consistently surprises people: we’re a husband and wife writing team. While Vanessa writes bestselling historical romance as Vanessa Kelly, Randy’s attention is focused on the contemporary romances and occasional romantic suspense that come out under the VK Sykes pen name. He also manages most of the book-related finances and paperwork, while Vanessa handles the promo end of things. So far, so good, right? Because finances, promo, and paperwork can all be done as separate tasks, but writing a book…that’s a different story. People often want to know how we can pull off a writing partnership, much less one between spouses. Because unlike most working relationships, you can’t really walk away from your spouse when you have a disagreement—at least not for long! It has to be resolved or life in our household won’t exactly be kittens and unicorns. The first thing you need to know is that we do try to separate out the various stages of the process so that we’re not doing the same thing at once or tripping over each other. Randy usually comes up with the germ of the idea for each of our contemporary romances, especially since Vanessa…