Last year, my family spontaneously decided to take a cruise over Christmas. With six of us – including a married daughter and son-in-law who live in another state – it can be tough to juggle schedules in order to find a time when we can vacation together. Christmas break is usually the only time that consistently works, so we decided to take advantage of the chance. This was a celebration trip to honor several momentous event in our lives – our daughter was graduating from college with a teaching degree, our middle son graduated from high school earlier in the year and my book SNOWFALL ON HAVEN POINT hit #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. We opted to leave on a 7-day cruise out of New Orleans for the Western Caribbean, leaving two days before Christmas and returning two days before New Year’s. It was surreal being on a ship with 3500 strangers over Christmas, but the vacation had its unforgettable moments, too. On the morning of Christmas Eve, I woke up early and walked out to our fore-facing balcony and for nearly an hour I watched the sun rise over the vast ocean, feeling as if I…

Alpha. We all see this word when looking for romance novels to read, but what does it mean? According to the dictionary, the word has numerous meaning, from chemical compounds, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, beginnings, or the most dominant animal in a pack. Hmmm, I suppose for romance authors we take the last meaning for our descriptive word. I describe my heroes as sweet alphas which, I hope, delineates them from what I read in so many other books. My alphas do not grunt their responses, order everyone around, nor expect the woman to sit down and be quiet while the male goes off to save the day. So, what do I mean when I say I write sweet alphas? A sweet alpha is a man unafraid to take charge when the situation calls for it. For many authors, this includes literally telling the woman to sit down and shut up. Not for my books! My heroes respect their women, but also have an innate desire to protect and have no problem stepping up as the situations calls and placing themselves in front to face the danger. A sweet alpha is a faithful to the woman they…