Though many authors create imagined locations and history for their fiction stories, early on I learned that real locations and real history were going to be a foundation for my novels. The mystery in the first of my To Die For crime series was based partly on American Indian history many centuries in the past. That became story material simply because the presence of nomadic people in Arkansas after the end of the last Ice Age fascinated me, as did prehistoric drawings discovered in caves and bluff shelters in my area. After that, each novel and short story has included history relevant to my chosen story setting. The second series novel, MUSIC TO DIE FOR, takes place at Ozark Folk Center State Park–an area devoted to preserving Ozarks history and early music. A major secondary character in MUSIC is Mad Margaret Culpeper, 100-year-old matriarch of a family that has maintained illegal business activities in Ozark forests for several generations. Next I visited Hot Springs National Park. Again, early American Indian presence in the area was part of the story, but the novel’s criminal activity and murder is based on the shady history of Hot Springs. This was “Sin City” until…

I like to switch things up when I write, and that includes where I write. Here are my ten favorite writing places and spaces. In my recliner. My number one place to write is seated in my recliner with my laptop, preferably with coffee or water and a snack nearby. At my desk. Yes, I finally have a desk after fifteen years of not having one. I don’t write here as often as I should, mostly because I get bored easily being in one spot (and the recliner calls to me). But when I get down to serious writing business I go to my desk. It makes me feel very professional. You knew this answer was coming. I don’t go to Starbucks often because I’d go broke, but it’s nice to have an expensive coffee while trying to figure out my latest plot twist. I’ll have a salted caramel mocha, please. On my phone. This isn’t a place, but I can be anywhere when I write on my phone. I also dictate my stories sometimes, which I’ll usually do while pacing back and forth. Which looks as weird as it sounds. In my car. When I started writing sixteen years…

When you’re not writing, or reading, what is your go to activity for relaxation? Well, this question is impossible. Writing and reading historical romance are my two modes of relaxation. Without them, I don’t relax. I do relax a little on my one vacation a year to England, but I’m thinking that’s not a great answer. Sleeping relaxes me. Can I say sleep? There’s not a lot of time for relaxation because there’s always other demands on my time. Literally, every friend I’m thinking of at this moment would relate to that: a stay-at-home-mother of five, a social worker, an investigator for the Illinois DCFS, a university professor, a social media consultant, and a scriptwriter for corporate training programs. I think nearly every woman my age can relate to not having time to relax. For the past 12 years, I’ve worked 45-50 hours a week as an advertising producer with continual deadlines. Some days are easier than others, of course. Others are worse. After work, there’s my writing and promoting the writing. Even snapping pictures during my day to share on Facebook or Twitter falls into family-friend-reader outreach, and that doesn’t really relax me, though it is less taxing on…

As authors write, we get the opportunity to include any number of details. Some are vital to the plot of the story, some give us insight into the characters, some simply give us a sense of time and place, and some make us laugh, or cry. But some details are just for the author themselves. So I thought I’d share a hidden theme that runs through all four of my Second Circle stories, including the latest, THE DARKEST LINK, that releases today. To explain, I need to go back a few years and start with this…I LOVE STEPHEN KING! I started reading horror in high school when it was the cool thing to do. I began with a dog-eared copy of THE RATS by James Herbert, and quickly devoured (pun intended if you’ve read the stories) LAIR and DOMAIN. I’d meet up with school friends every morning, and we’d swap books before the school bell rang. One day I received a very beaten up copy of Stephen King’s PET SEMATARY (…yes, that’s the correct spelling of the book), and from the very first chapter, I was hooked. I worked my way through as many books as I could get my…

From the outside, Sycamore Glen, North Carolina, might look like the perfect all-American neighborhood. But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house. Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel. During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them? This is the question that Marybeth Whalen poses in her moving new novel, and she talks to Writing a Woman’s Life columnist Yona Zeldis McDonough all about how her moving new novel attempts to answer it. About Marybeth Mayhew Whalen Marybeth Mayhew Whalen is the author of five previous novels and speaks to women’s groups around the United States. She is the cofounder of the popular women’s fiction site She Reads and is active in a local writers’ group. Marybeth and her husband, Curt,…

Feeling down? Buy a new book. Seriously. Have you ever thought about the reasons we love to read? Sure, there are several, but lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the way stories comfort us. At our core, we all yearn to connect with others. And we do it all the time. We pet animals. We enjoy being held by and holding those we love. We like to share our energy in a calm, loving way because it soothes us and those we touch. As a child, did you ever press your fingers against a boo-boo or lie on the grass when you were upset? I did, too. Back then I didn’t think about the nature of energy, but innately I understood there was power within us and within the world. Power that could restore our emotional and even physical peace. As years passed and life brought me experiences, I explored that energy in different ways. Curious about the power of the mind, I became a certified hypnotherapist. I’ve received the attunements of reiki. I’ve sought healing from acupuncturists, massage therapists, and a shaman, among others. I was raised in Southern churches, have a relationship with God and…

Years ago I read a romance novel which, based on the title—and yes, I do sometimes judge books by their covers—made me expect a stepbrother/ stepsister romance. The stepsibling romance is a genre subcategory I enjoy reading. I think the book did revolve around a similar type of relationship but transgressing those longstanding boundaries seemed to be treated as humdrum, or certainly not as the illicit-temptation-being-vainly-resisted that usually drives my pleasure in those romances. Because of that (perceived) missing ingredient, I did not like the book. Since then I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a version of that story that pushed the taboo relationship theme to its boundaries. That’s why I wrote my latest erotic romance with Totally Bound, called BROTHER’S KEEPER. Feel free to judge BROTHER’S KEEPER on its title. I stand by it. But Alexa and Nik, the main characters in the story, are not stepsiblings. Uh oh. I mean, they are stepsiblings in reality but they were raised…or at least Alexa was raised thinking Nik was her half-brother. She also thinks he’s pretty terrible because he tried to make a move on her a couple years ago. Disgusting, right? Except Nik has always known what Alexa…

Fall always makes me think of the holidays. Sometimes with anticipation. Sometimes, I’m just plain not ready yet. This year, I have the holidays hitting me upside the head in September. We’re traveling this holiday season and it’s up to me to coordinate between all of the different families vying for our time, to schedule where we’ll be when to best suit everyone, and to find a loving home for our furry friends while we’re gone. Then there’s Mom’s boutique. It started out as a dream of hers told to me, by her, when I was a kid. She envisioned women working together throughout the year making crafts, socializing, becoming friends that would be a support system when life got rough. She envisioned them selling the crafts at a church holiday boutique and donating the proceeds. Eleven years ago, she made that dream a reality. Her boutique was open in her church social hall for six hours on one Saturday in November and made nearly a thousand dollars that was donated to children’s ministries. The boutique now has so much hand crafted stock and display equipment that it requires a large storage unit. My mother’s garage has been turned into…

That sudden fascination…the nervousness of being around him but yet the compulsion to seek out his company… Can anyone forget their first crush, finally understanding why there is so much fuss about “love” and “romance” and “soul mates?” The feeling that there is no place else and no other person with whom you want to be? For most of us, a first crush is an initiation into the wonder and beauty of being in love, left behind as life goes on. A full understanding of all the nuances of love, and meeting the one who’ll give us our “happily ever after,” generally doesn’t come until we are older. But for some, that first crush matures into a lasting love, the once-in-a-lifetime relationship. So it is for the hero of my latest release, STOLEN ENCOUNTERS WITH THE DUCHESS. When David Tanner Smith first meets Faith Wellingford, he is a penniless farmer’s orphan, his only assets a bold dream and a powerful sponsor. Faith is a girl trembling on the brink of womanhood, soon to embark on her first Season, whose connections of blood and friendship with all the great families of England guarantee she will be a success. Over the course…

This excerpt is a conversation between the hero, Jayson Harmon, a wounded Special Forces lieutenant, and the deputy director of the Department of Covert Ops, Dick Coleman. While readers (and almost everyone in the X-OPS Series) knows that Dick is always up to no good, Jayson, who is in a bad place in his life right now, sees a different side to him (or at least believes he does). So, when Dick offers Jayson a way to get back everything he lost when he was wounded in Afghanistan, he doesn’t realize the deputy director is using him to get what he wants. While the experimental serum Dick wants him to take could make Jayson practically superhuman, it’s also beyond dangerous. But Jayson’s girlfriend, feline shifter and newest DCO agent, Layla Halliwell, just went on her first mission and he’s insane with worry. He knows taking the serum is risky, but sitting at home worrying about Layla is worse. If taking the serum is the only way he can watch her back, that’s what he’ll do. “You can’t just go barging in there. I need to announce you!” Jayson ignored Dick’s secretary, walking past her and pushing open the deputy director’s…