Why is it that so often, in fiction and in life, opposites attract? It’s the perfect set-up for a romance and we see it time and time again. The overly-cautious heroine and the daredevil hero. The popular girl and the computer geek. The urbanite and the wilderness lover. The biker and the debutante. Opposites attract in my current release, THE MILLIONARE’S CONVENIENT ARRANGEMENT, Book No. 2 in my Miami Lawyers series. Ritchie Perez is a successful millionaire lawyer living in a waterfront mansion. A former prosecutor, he believes that the way to clean up gang violence and drugs is to convict anyone involved in illegal gang activities and get the maximum sentence. No second chances. Maria Martinez is a struggling artist who dropped out of school to raise her orphaned younger brother Joey, and now works two jobs to put food on the table. She’s also trying to keep Joey out of trouble and away from the gangs so he doesn’t end up like their brother Tito, who has been in jail for the past eight years. Put there by – you guessed it – former prosecutor Ritchie Perez. Maria knows that life can be hard, and believes people are…

Hey, Everyone! Samantha Chase here getting ready for my favorite time of year!! Besides having a new book out – which is always a cause for celebration – I am super excited for the holidays. I love the decorating and sending cards and seeing friends and family…I love it all! So with celebrating the release of THIS IS OUR SONG, I got to thinking about this being Riley and Savannah’s first Christmas together. How cute is that? They’d be decorating the house together and making plans for holiday parties…and then agonizing over what to get each other as the “perfect” Christmas gift. Here’s what I imagine would be the top five things on Riley and Savannah’s Christmas list: A new laptop. Savannah’s very practical and she’s going to want the most up-to-date computer to keep her going with her writing career. And it’s going to need to be lightweight and easy to travel with since she’ll be on the road with Riley so much. A new guitar. For Riley, there will never be such a thing as too many guitars. He won’t care if it’s acoustic or electric, it will just be something new to play with and inspire him…

My daughter was reading my upcoming release, MORE THAN FRIENDS when she laughed out loud and said, “Mom, dad brings you food all the time when you’re writing, just like Owen does for Gabby.” Then she asked if I meant to do that and I thought…yeah, I probably did. Sometimes, though, I don’t mean to. I don’t think anyone can write, not from an emotional perspective, without giving up pieces of themselves. If I had to look closely at all of my characters and the worlds in which they live, I’m certain there are elements of my own life. The outside reader might not pick up on these “pieces”, but people close to me certainly do. Another example was when my daughter read my last release, FALLING FOR KATE. In the story, Kate never lets a song finish. This is something I do. It drives my daughter nuts. But to me, the song is over once you get to the last few bars. And I want to see what else we can listen to. I didn’t intentionally think, what little habit of mine could I insert into this moment? My characters were in the car and she was restless. The…

Do you listen to music while you read? Maybe I’m weird, but I’ve never been able to listen to music that has lyrics while I’m reading. I’ll switch the two processes and suddenly the lyrics jump from the novel’s page and vice versa. Reading words and hearing different words at the same time confuses my brain. My attention gets too divided and I can’t retain anything I’ve heard or read. Am I the only one like this? And then there’s my complicated relationship with music while I’m writing. In RACE THE DARKNESS, Xander Stone has supercharged hearing. His hearing is so sensitive he can hear people’s thoughts. He can hear a person’s heart rate shifting and the way their voice changes ever so slightly when telling a lie. And because of his sensitivity to sound he absolutely can’t tolerate music. His mind hears an overwhelming noise. When I was writing Xander’s story, I tried repeatedly to listen to music. But a weird thing happened. It always felt uncomfortable to me. The best way to describe the feeling I had was when a song gets on your nerves. Maybe you’ve heard it too many times. Maybe you just don’t like it….