We all know and love the classic meet-cute, but let’s be honest. Sometimes things completely go to hell. So what happens when the first meeting between hero and heroine isn’t so much cute as a total mess? What about the meet-disaster? In Wrong Bed, Right Girl, Special Agent Reed Bishop is pursuing a lead on a case when he heads to the apartment of the woman he thinks is his informant. Only it turns out she’s skipped town and sublet her apartment to none other than our heroine, who’s curled up in bed sleeping as peacefully as can be. That is, until a giant slab of man muscle stubs his toe on her suitcase and comes crashing down on her in the dark. So, yeah. The first words our heroine says (er, shouts) to the hero involve a few choice words I can’t publish here, and a threat to stab him in…a sensitive area. The stuff of great romantic memories, right? They might have to leave out some of the details when they’re reminiscing to their kids about how they met. And yet, it really is the start of something special. Talia, a ballet dancer prepping for a make-or-break role,…

Have you ever opened a book and found yourself walking the streets of your favorite city? I have. I’ve been transported to real-life places like New York, Atlanta, and Miami, and found myself yearning for imaginary worlds like the dangerous island cliffs of Thisby. It’s my favorite part of writing and reading—watching a setting become alive. Books, where setting and atmosphere created a significant dynamic between characters, is what inspired me to become a more atmospheric writer. Thankfully, my co-writer, Jude Sierra, is well known for using personal backdrops to amplify her characters, especially in her critically acclaimed Idlewild and well-loved new release A Tiny Piece of Something Greater. A love for setting and mood was one of the core concepts Jude and I used for building Shadows You Left. Gray, storm soaked skies, Seattle’s height, and sea-side scents, and the forest spanning the outskirts of the city were all used as parallels to mimic emotions and conflict between our two leads, Erik and River. As challenging as it might be, creating a character out of your setting is an intimate and poignant way to inject personality into the fringes of your story. We used this technique as we navigated…

In my newest book, His Second Chance at Forever, (Book #1 in the Santa Barbara Sunsets trilogy) I write about a nurse practitioner who has different ideas from her brooding doc boss. In fact, it’s a main source of conflict between them right off. One of the fun things I included in a small secondary thread was how Claire Albright believes in alternative approaches to medical care for all-around wellbeing. She also believes in the calming effect of certain essential oils. Jason his clueless, and at first, more than a little skeptical. For those who aren’t familiar with essential oils, they are concentrated forms of plants and flowers that are often used in massage therapy and aromatherapy. From my perspective, they are heavenly.  More and more people are discovering them, too. What about you? FYI: Breathing in essential oils goes to the part of the brain that is linked to emotions. Good ones. The soothing scents tend to cause a positive reaction in mood, blood pressure, and heart rate to name a few. If you suffer from white coat syndrome (fear of seeing your doctor) you might appreciate how Claire set up soothing aromatherapy in the office waiting room without…