Writing suspense is all about the tension, red herrings and zig-zags. Think you know where the story is going? WHAM. A house just fell on the apparent bad guy. You know that hot guy/girl you liked? GONE. Eaten by a bear. How about that old gnarly guy you trusted with your life? SUCKA. Now whatcha gonna do? Back flip, karate chop, blazing weapons and….stick the landing. Wow. Hero and Heroine can now ride into the sunset, matching cowboy hats and all. But what happens next? With romantic suspense, it matters because readers need to believe that the characters will stay together after the drama ends. It’s what makes the end of the story so satisfying. This challenges the author to give the characters something in common beyond the bad guy. Enter laughter. When we think about our friends and partners in real life, these are the people that make our lives lighter. They remind us to smile and give us a reason to laugh. We feel happy around them. Our characters need this happy to stay together, making laughter the ties that bind. Today is the release date of my newest book, LOST IN SHADOWS, from Entangled Publishing. The hero,…

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” Shannon Alder. Tabitha Moffat Brown was a grandmother when she headed west to Oregon Territory in 1846. Her story and that of her daughter and granddaughter is a part of the novel I wrote called THIS ROAD WE TRAVELED (Revell). On that journey, Tabby (as I called her) decided to write her memoir telling stories of her greatest challenges, a legacy gift she planned to leave her children. I used that fictional device as a way of sharing Tabby’s history as the family dealt with trials during a fateful trek on the Oregon Trail. I’ve long thought that stories are the sparks that light our ancestor’s lives; they’re the embers we blow on to illuminate our own lives. Tabby did actually write letters about her life that became the basis for my novel. I had her use the occasion of a life-changing journey to share some of her stories. But I think any time of the year is a good time to write down memories and experiences, not in any great order, but as they come to…

Hi, all! Jennifer here! With Christmas only a few weeks away, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on the subject. And found some surprising things on the Internet. So I thought I’d share FIVE FUN FACTS about the holidays that you probably don’t know. Like… To deliver his gifts in one night, Santa would have to make 822.6 visits per second, sleighing at 3,000 times the speed of sound. At that speed, Santa and his reindeer would burst into flame instantaneously. Wow. It’s a good thing they don’t teach Physics until high school! December is the most popular month for nose jobs. I found this puzzling. Do people treat themselves to their own Christmas gift? Or is it because people have more time off this month? Coca-cola came up with the red suit for Santa. I had heard this before, but am still amazed at the power of advertising! Rudolph was almost named Reginald. Huh? Well, apparently, a copywriter named Robert L. May first invented the reindeer in 1939 as a marketing gimmick for Montgomery Ward’s holiday coloring books. (Again with the advertising!!) In fact, he didn’t even want his nose to be red, since it was associated as…

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a Bad Boy. I think it’s because I’ve been taught to avoid them, which of course just makes me want them more, enough to write about them in MIA AND THE BAD BOY, book #2 in Backstage Pass: The Complete Series. Their allure is undeniable and they usually have the reputation to back it up. They are cocky, arrogant, inconsiderate, closed off and as fans we can’t get enough. We want to break their hard exterior. We want to be the one girl to get through to the bad boy. Here are a few of my favorites – in no particular order: John Bender The Breakfast Club Dylan McKay Beverly Hills 90210 Chuck Bass Gossip Girl Jordan Catalano My So Called Life J.D. Heathers Who are some of your favorite bad boys? About Lisa Burstein Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University. She is the author of Pretty Amy, The Next Forever, Dear Cassie, Sneaking Candy and The Possibility of Us. As well as a contributor to the…

Criminal profiling is a fascinating process, a mix of psychology and criminology that tends to create divided reactions: people seem to think it’s either magic or complete BS. The reality is that it’s neither. Profiling takes a crime and predicts the type of person most likely to have committed it – profiles can be as vague as a “white male in his twenties” (which has become a bit of a joke about profiling serial killers) or as specific as “a man in his forties who works a blue-collar job during the second shift, is divorced, has at least one child, and drives a dark-colored sedan.” Narrowing down type of person helps law enforcement center their search and the FBI has an entire unit devoted to the job. Now called the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), it’s been memorialized in both fiction and non-fiction: CRIMINAL MINDS: Although some of the details of the show are just literary license for the sake of fast-moving plot (the BAU’s own private jet, all the profilers flying to consult on each big case, the active “door-kicking” roles the agents take in most of the cases), the profiles themselves are pretty solid. And they should be –…