I adore romance. I always have. I started out on Pride and Prejudice but then, lucky me I found Johanna Lindsey! Woo! The door didn’t shut. I got to read about quivering loins and lots of pleasuring. Plus, the characters often felt larger than life. In the romance from the 80s the heroes were lords, dukes, highwaymen! The heroines were almost always bold and willing to give the arrogant heroes a huge set down. So, when I started writing Less Than A Lady it was absolutely due to those larger than life characters. And I wanted epic adventure, so I looked to the past. I looked to a time when women were experiencing more freedom and scandalous clothing than they ever had before! Under the reign of Charles II, aka The Merry Monarch, women saw a rise in freedom, political influence, and general expectation. Women weren’t just supposed to be breeders. They were supposed to be clever, fun, sexy, and bold. In fact, just about anything went for a few decades. How marvelous it must have been after years of repression. For the first time ever women were allowed to play women’s roles on the stage. Before, only boys played…

The New Year is fast upon us. Have you made any plans to ring in 2016? Maybe you have excited youngsters who can’t wait to wave glow sticks in your city or town at a family-friendly celebration. Perhaps you have family visiting for the holidays, when the last days of December become moments to savor before returning them to the airport. Maybe your tradition involves a more casual get-together with old friends at home. Or perhaps this year is a real treat and you’ve booked a romantic dinner for two, planning to linger over a leisurely gourmet meal. Over the years, I’ve had a chance to spend December 31st in many of these ways. Yet I’ve never had the pleasure of greeting the New Year in Stonehaven, a Scottish town south of Aberdeen along the northeast coast. Something about witnessing Stonehaven’s fireballs ceremony whispers to the place inside of me where my Highlander series’ characters reside. In the early 1700s when my “>Highlander Series takes place, Highland society was a curious mix of belief systems. Though Christianity was firmly in place in the Lowlands, some Highland parishes were still trying to bring their Gaelic-speaking people to the church by translating…