Okay, you’re in a pickle.  A fix.  You didn’t put yourself there, but in it you are, and now you must choose: Do you do the right thing?  Or do you do the easy thing? Oh, the temptation is strong.  You’re weary and worn and you silently scream, “Easy!  Can I just this once go Easy? I’ve fought the good fight.  I’ve tried to be a good person, to treat people well, to do what I say, and not be a jerk about things.  I do what I can to help others—even though when I need help, often no one’s home.  And for my trouble I’ve been betrayed, stabbed in the back, unjustly accused, stepped on, lied to—you name it.” Sound familiar?  We’ve all been there.  We’ve all felt that way at one time or another.  And we’ve all been so weary of it all that we just want to duck our heads back under the covers and block out the world. But we don’t duck because we know the world won’t go away.  Because we know we have to come out sometime.  And if we don’t deal with “this junk” (whatever it might be) now, we’ll have to deal…

I grew up loving science fiction.  My earliest sci-fi memory is of my dad coming home one rainy day and, with all the furtiveness of a spy, closing the shutters and hunkering down in front of the television to present my brother and me with his valuable prize: a bootlegged videocassette of Star Wars.  This was way back in the late ‘70s, when Star Wars mania gripped the world.  I don’t remember ever seeing the first film in the theater, but I do remember watching that video tape over and over again.  I think my brother and I saw it almost fifty times—maybe more.  We knew every line, and quoted them back to each other endlessly, much to our parents’ dismay. That bootlegged copy of Star Wars began a lifelong love of sci-fi that’s with me to this day.  Of course, Star Wars was always my first love.*  I remember lining up around the block to see The Empire Strikes Back, and how the audience clapped when C3-PO and R2-D2 appeared at the beginning of Return of the Jedi.  I thought Luke was a dork, and Han Solo indescribably cool.  And Princess Leia was not only a take-charge woman, but…

I was listening recently to writers wailing on a historical mystery discussion list about readers who say they find historical fiction boring. Among the theories proposed was these readers are themselves boring, which I guess might be true, but I think it’s more like…just as some readers can’t get into fantasy, some readers can’t relate to historical fiction. In fact, for some readers, historical fiction might as well be fantasy! I’m not sure what sales are like for regular historical fiction, but I write mystery and romance, and to my way of thinking there are two schools of thought, and possibly two sets of readers for that kind of historical genre fiction. One set favors the romantic historical — the kind of thing where history is altered as needed to make for a “better” story — and the other set favors historical romance — where the writer works as hard to get every detail accurate as would a writer of non-fiction. Of the two schools, the romantic historical typically sells better. That probably doesn’t come as a shock to anyone. Dessert is generally more popular than broccoli. In my opinion, the very best historical fiction combines all the elements we…

Celtic legends often speak of warriors so overcome by bloodlust in battle that they are changed. The fury and killing, the peril of certain death, and the instinct to survive merge into something that overcomes the warrior’s humanity, leaving him a savage beast bent on destroying his enemy. Men who have lived through war recount the moments up to the first strike but often have no memory of what came after until it is all over and they wake, as if from a nightmare, to find themselves blood drenched and exhausted beyond belief. The Celts had a name for this phenomenon: Riastradh. Tiarnan, the hero of HAUNTING DESIRE, is no stranger to the frenzy of battle. His entire life has been spent defending his way of life, his family, his lands. If the memories of the bloody battles he’s fought had stayed with him, he would likely go mad. It is not until he meets Shealy O’Leary, HAUNTING DESIRE’s heroine who has traveled through time, that he learns why he is such a formidable warrior. When his enemies take Shealy from him, he will stop at nothing to get her back and that means embracing the beast within him and…

Readers always ask me what my book’s hero looks like.  I’m lucky enough to almost always have an answer for them, even if I don’t know how I got it.  Sometimes I “see” the hero’s face and sometimes I know how he moves.  But sometimes he reveals himself piecemeal – and only after I’ve started working on his story.  (The rat!) That’s the way Jake Hammond, the hero of THE SHADOW GUARD, told me about himself.  Astrid and his story rumbled around in my head for years before I could write it.  I knew all sorts of personal stuff about him – his blind dedication to being a cop, his love for his family and hometown, his fumbling inability to form a long-term relationship with women, you name it. But could I have recognized him on the street?  Not a chance. That’s very painful for a romance author who has to write scenes from her heroine’s point of view.  What kind of guy makes her swoon?  Tall and dark, with six-pack abs the envy of everybody else in the gym?  Blond and handsome, chased by women of all ages?  I had no idea because neither of them would tell me….

A lust/hate relationship. Ever have one of those? He infuriates you, but turns you on. You can’t decide if you want to strangle him or have your way with him. You really don’t understand each other and don’t seem to have much in common, but can’t keep your hands off each other. Find angry sex satisfying? It’s all angry sex. Mercy, lust/hate relationships are hot. When you’re involved in this type of romance, you find you’ve never felt more alive. Or infuriated. Or confused. Or passionate. I highly recommend you give it a try. For about a month. After that, you’d better find something more substantial to build your relationship upon than burning lust and righteous anger. The problem with passion that rages like an inferno is that it burns hot and quickly consumes its fuel. Oh, but it’s so great while it’s last. And if you can make that kind of passion last a lifetime, without killing each other… Well, you’d better stock up on your energy drinks. In my most recent novel, ROCK HARD, the heroine and hero start with a lust/hate relationship. That hot, I-want-you, I-hate-you, go-away, don’t-leave-me, take-me, don’t-touch-me-you-jerk, I-can’t-get-enough-of-you kind of relationship. Well, the heroine,…

There’s a perfectly delightful movie about an Archangel with a screenplay by Nora Ephron called MICHAEL . In an interview subsequent to the film’s release, somebody (inevitably) asked Ms. Ephron if she believed in angels. She replied something to the effect that no, she certainly didn’t, but they were terrific to write about. She’s right. They are. After initial terrified trepidation—my response whenever I start a new project, whether it’s angels or not—I’m having a wonderful time with my Beaufort &Company series from Berkley Prime Crime. My protagonist, Brianna Winston-Beaufort, is a newly-hatched lawyer who discovers that she’s inherited her Great-uncle Franklin’s legal speciality; to handle appeals cases for souls condemned to Hell. Bree is a rational woman. Her chosen field of expertise is corporate tax law. She’s twenty-eight when the series begins, with a gym habit and a much-loved, if annoying little sister and warm-hearted parents with a habit of loving interference in Bree’s affairs. Like her creator, Bree is frankly skeptical about the appearance of beings from the afterlife in her present life. And again like her creator, Bree quails at the beginning of each new case. Although I began my writing career twenty-five years ago with two adult…

I write hot. Steamy, burn the bed [or insert alternative J] down hot. They’re romances first and foremost though. For me, I really believe the love/sex scenes of a book are crucial to the developing relationship in a romance novel. Yeah, you guessed it. You won’t find any closed doors in my books LOL. It’s during these most intimate moments people are perhaps at their most vulnerable and it provides tremendous opportunity for a writer to further the story and develop the characters. What they say, how they touch, their reactions, how they’re effected…all provide rich insight into the characters, their histories and how they’re changing at that moment. A love/sex scene should be important to the story, perhaps a turning point, but at a minimum divulge something about one or both of the characters either to the reader or to each other. It shouldn’t be included ‘just because’ it’s about time they got down and dirty. No, it has to have a specific purpose. At least in my view. AND it also has to be completely consistent with the characters and who they are. This is kind of a pet peeve of mine as a reader. Whatever the characters…

Since I’m here at Fresh Fiction, I’d like to talk about fresh heroines. These sorts of female characters are out of the ordinary, unconventional, interesting, spirited, bold, strong, and do things you might not expect. Alana, the heroine of my new Carina Press release, LAIRD OF DARKNESS is just this sort of heroine. She’s also entertaining. The story takes place in late medieval times in a Scotland filled with magic and mythical creatures. But this young noblewoman isn’t a virgin as young ladies of the time were expected to be. She’s not a prostitute, either. She’s simply a girl who had a tryst with a handsome stable lad of her own choosing when they were both teens. Why would I break with convention and create a sexually experienced lady? I wanted Alana to be a bit different from the heroines you normally find in historical romance. I wanted her to have an interesting past and memories she could draw upon when she is tempted by the hot dark Highlander, Duncan, who takes her hostage. It turns out she isn’t as afraid of him as he’s hoping she’ll be. In fact, she sees through his harsh, dark façade to the vulnerability…

Without a doubt it was the taming of Quinton Cameron. Oops…sorry, had to duck and run there because that big, highland earl didn’t take too kindly to me announcing that he’d been tamed. Now Deirdre found it rather amusing. The curse of being a writer is that your characters are always with you and not always at the end of their story. HIGHLAND HEAT was a fun book to write. But it was also stressful. Both Deidre and Quinton were hard nuts to crack. They’d both loved and lost, through bitter betrayal. The sort which leaves a painful scar across the heart. More importantly, neither wanted to trust their tender affections to another again. Those are points I often find myself pondering when I write a historical—trust and affection. These people lived vastly different lives than we do today. Marriage was a business first. A matter for level headed consideration and not because women were chattel. That was certainly part of it, but think about it for a moment… You have a daughter and the average life span is less than fifty. There are few good employment professions for women so that leaves you knowing you will not be around…