Billionaires in history? Definitely. Saffina’s story is set 200 years ago in Regency England. Aristocrats then were landowners, some making millions from rents, many the equivalent of today’s billionaires. Like now, they showed off their wealth with grand houses and flashy transport. A private carriage – complete with stabling, a team of horses and hay to feed them, plus gold-braided uniforms for coachmen and footmen – which cost a fortune to run, the private jet of its day. Some things cost a lot, but labor cost little. Even in a modest household, the candles cost more than the servant who lit them! In TAMING SAFFINA, my heroine, though rich, scorns the math – she’s set on fun. But sparks fly when her hunger for love clashes with her stern guardian’s desire that she marry well. Their sparks flare into shared passion as his discipline takes hold. Blithely, she ignores the dangers. Socially, bad behavior lost you points. Lose too many and you joined the Bums. Bums – in the sense of dependents – were everywhere. The palaces and great houses were the business corporations of their day, manned by fleets of servants, plus lawyers, secretaries, estate managers, gardeners, cooks and…

When I wrote the first book in my lighthearted Regent Mysteries series, WITH HIS LADY’S ASSISTANCE (2011), I knew it was romantic, and I knew it was going to be a series featuring the dashing Captain Jack Dryden and Lady Daphne Chalmers. But I did not know how I was going to sustain a fresh romance in subsequent books. Quite naturally, Jack and Daphne fall in love in Book 1. Thereafter, they team up to solve mysteries for the Prince Regent. In the second book, A MOST DISCREET INQUIRY, they marry, and many obstacles get in the way of the consummation of their marriage. When I got to the third book, I knew that as much as Jack and Daphne loved one another, their romance had been done. Readers needed something fresh. So in THE THEFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, two lonely souls of disparate ages are spending Christmas with Jack and Daphne, and while their hosts are off solving a mystery for the Prince Regent, they fall in love. Readers tell me the romantic subplot in the book is “precious.” Here’s what one reader on Goodreads had to say: “The romantic subplot with two side characters was surprisingly affecting; I was…

I confess that I’m not much for audio books myself. I’m partially deaf, and though my hearing aids are a masterpiece of technology, I still get more out of reading stories than hearing them. Still, I’m very pleased that two of my books—A SKELETON IN THE FAMILY and THE SKELETON TAKES A BOW—are being released on CD today. I just wish it could have happened a whole lot sooner. When my first mysteries came out—the Laura Fleming series, which I wrote as Toni L.P. Kelner—my grandmother was one of my most enthusiastic supporters. My first book was dedicated to her and my other five grandparents. (Yes, I had six grandparents. Southern families can be complicated.) Grandmama was so excited, but unfortunately, her vision was pretty much gone at that point. There were no audio editions, so my great-aunt read the book out loud, and recorded it on a cassette to send to Grandmama. It was so sweet, though I admit it was also a little inhibiting to me. Had I ever wanted to include blue language or sex scenes, there was nothing like knowing Great-Aunt Virginia was going to be saying those words to change my artistic vision. Eventually one…