Music has always been important to me, but it took on a whole new meaning when I became a romance author. I can’t write a single chapter without music playing in the background. Seriously—no character playlist, no words. Music sets the tone, helps me dig into what my characters are feeling and sometimes, can drag and entire scene out of nowhere that has me rushing to my notes app to get the dialogue down. SCOTCH ON THE ROCKS is a pretty messy love story, that, at its core, is about meeting the right person at the wrong time and being willing to wait until the stars align. So, I thought I’d share a few songs with you that helped me learn my characters and dig into those emotions. Black Magic Woman by Fleetwood Mac This is the first song I added to the SCOTCH ON THE ROCKS playlist, so it has to be the first song I talk about. Callum has been yearning for Juniper for several years and mentions this song on the page when he thinks of her. Just like Callum, it’s a song about a man so enraptured with his love he feels he must me under…

            July 4th reminds me that we’re in the middle of summer. It doesn’t matter that I’m a glass-half-full type personality, bells and whistles are going off in my head and telling me to get every last minute of enjoyment I possibly can out of the remaining days of summer. Fall is knocking on my door with the daily grind of school, work, and responsibilities.             With that in mind, I have some must reads for you to sneak into your library before the summer gets away from you. ETIQUETTE FOR LOVERS AND KILLERS by Anna Fitzgerald Healy What are the chances of receiving a love letter and an engagement ring for a perfect stranger, only to see that same woman murdered the very next day? It’s 1964 in the tiny town of Eastport, Maine, and Billie McCadie is bored to death. She’s surrounded by dull people with more manners than sense, and no sign of the intrigue or romance that fill her beloved novels. That is, until an engagement ring and cryptic love letter turn up, addressed to “Gertrude.” Until she meets yacht-club handsome Avery Webster. Until the unsettling phone calls and visits from a man in a fedora begin. Until…

Romance books are described as being hot or steamy. A subtle warning that the content may be too much for some readers. There used to be a simple rule: would you recommend the book to your mother? Since my mother handed me THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT by Sidney Sheldon, that criteria didn’t work for me. Also people are described as being hot. Those who are above and beyond attractive and alluring. Again, hotness is in the eye of the beholder. What’s hot and what’s not is subjective. Except in the case of Tom Hardy, it’s a universal truth. When I say hot, I mean the weather. To say it’s been hot this summer is an understatement. For those forced to work outside, shade is the most sought-after spot. The poor dogs in my neighborhood are only outdoors before 7am and after 7pm. Since ice melts so fast, cold drinks must be consumed immediately. My hair does a special dance with humidity and refuses to lay flat. Even if I hold still, sweating is a constant. I’m a winter person. I like snow and not polar vortex cold, but normal cold. It’s quieter, no nightly fireworks, store bought or thunder….

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE BLACK HIGHWAY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A headless, handless body washes up on the banks of the river Thames in the heart of London. The only clue as to the identity of the body is something the killer wrote on the victim’s arm – P.Brannigan. At first they think it might be the man’s name until one of the detectives assigned to the case, Dr Laughton Rees, realizes it refers to the Penthouse of the Brannigan Building, close to where the body washed up, an address she knows well because it’s where she lives, and also where their teenage daughter Gracie is currently home alone. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? When I lived in London I found out about Dead Man’s Hole, an open-air morgue built into the foundations of Tower Bridge where they used to display all the people who drowned in the Thames so people could help identify them. They built it there because the curve of the river and the currents combined to gather all the bodies there, and I always wanted to include this fact and…

My series, Ghost Ops, is coming out soon. The first book, HEART OF DANGER, is coming out on July 8. The second book, I DREAM OF DANGER, is coming out on August 5, and the third and final book. BREAKING DANGER, is coming out on September 9.                 These books are books of the heart. I loved writing them. The books are set in the near future where things are unravelling fast but Haven doesn’t unravel. Everyone in Haven is strong and steadfast.                 The Ghost Ops series features three elite warriors, Thomas ‘Mac’ McEnroe, Nick Ross and Jon Ryan. Ghost Ops was a classified Special Operations unit so secret that there was no trace of the men who belonged to it. They had to be men without connections – no family, no girlfriends, no wives, no children. All of their records were expunged. All photographs destroyed. No trace of their previous life was left. They were completely dedicated to the task of fighting bad guys, and winning. But their work was secret and in the shadows.                 They were Ghosts.                 Each had his own reason for renouncing the world. The outside world had nothing for them. Their unit…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE MEDICI CURSE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A family curse. A missing heirloom. A house full of secrets. A daughter suspected of murder returns to her late mother’s lavish estate in Tuscany only to face long-buried secrets. A suspense novel that leans into the Gothic and supernatural. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I took a trip to Tuscany with my husband to visit family and was inspired to write the novel. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Good question! Anna de’ Medici Rossi has real issues. She’s come into her inheritance and is heading back to her mother’s family villa in Tuscany to decide whether she can really live in the house where she murdered her mother. That means facing her troubled past. So, she might not always be easy—or safe—to be around. That being said, I absolutely would hang with Anna. We both love art, opera, and good wine, and we both paint. So I think we could find something to talk about. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Tortured. Artistic. Determined. 6–What’s something…

Excerpt from A BOOKSELLER IN MADRID by Mario Escobar: My father was a writer. We had loads of books at home, our huge library bigger than anyone else’s I knew except my grandfather Gábor’s. He was a well-known playwright who passed away when I was young. I inherited another passion from my father: his love for the French language. We Germans have always had a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the French, swinging between deep admiration for their culture and literature and complete disdain for so many other things. Yet since Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and relentless attempt to take over every aspect of German society, France had become just one more enemy to take down. My other grandfather, Klaus, came from a much humbler background, and his family trade was woodworking, though he became a pastor. I was just a child when he built me a lovely little bookshelf for my room in our house on the outskirts of Berlin. From then on, I played at being a bookseller. I practiced all the time with my two sisters and my friends. When I finished my degree in French philology, it was the most natural thing in the world for…

Book Title: THE PECULIAR GIFT OF JULY Character Name: Anita Odom, proprietor of the Island Grocery How would you describe your family or your childhood? I grew up here at the Island Grocery. It was just the three of us—Dad, Mom and me—running the shop and living in the apartment above the store. I’ve been working the cash register since I was nine. Ebey’s End is a small town on a small island. Everyone needs groceries, so they came to us. We didn’t go out much. After Mom died, it was just me and Dad. He needed me, so there was no going anywhere after that. Now, I’m in my 40s, live in the apartment I grew up in and run the shop by myself. I’m not saying it’s great, but it’s comfortable. Then July showed up. Technically, we’re cousins, but until the social worker called, I didn’t know she existed. Now she lives here with me. And look, I’m glad and all, I’m just saying someone might have mentioned the whole weirdly-specific-psychic-ability thing. That’s the sort of situation you want to prepare yourself for. What was your greatest talent? I am very good at this. Show me your grocery…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE NIGHT SPARROW 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Elena Bruskina joins the Red Army as a sniper to get revenge from the fascists who murdered her family, but when she’s ordered to give up her rifle to become an interpreter, she is entangled in a secret hunt for the most evil Nazi of all. From the bestselling author of Daughters of the Occupation. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Since THE NIGHT SPARROW is based on true events, the setting was determined by the historical events within the narrative. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! Elena is a loyal friend who speaks her mind and secretly questions Stalin’s motives. I can imagine vigorous conversations over coffee with Elena.   5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Modest, decisive, valiant. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Of the hundreds of things I learned, what stands out most is the disturbing way these sniper women, who risked everything to fight for their country, were greeted at the end of the war. Instead of being celebrated as heroes,…

Book Title: BOUND BY STARS Character Names: Weslie Fleet and Jupiter Dalloway Interviewer: Let’s jump right in, shall we? What brought you aboard the maiden voyage of the Boundless? Jupiter: I’m on my way home from my Earth Experience Mission with my parents. Weslie: Won a ticket. Interviewer: Speaking of parents, how would you describe your families? Weslie: Pass. Jupiter: Come on, Wes. Weslie: Fine. Small. Interviewer: And yours, Jupiter? Jupiter: My sister was the best person in the universe. My dad is cool. Mom is…complicated. Interviewer: What do you consider to be your greatest talent? Jupiter: Weslie’s an incredible robotics engineer. Weslie: Jupiter’s good with people. Obviously. And an incredible artist. Interviewer: Do either of you have a significant other? Weslie: That’s a weird way to ask a 17-year-old if they’re dating anyone. Jupiter: (glances toward Weslie) Interviewer: Okay, next question. Where do you live? Jupiter: Elysium. The capital habitat city on Mars. Weslie: Earth. Interviewer: Do you have any enemies? Weslie: How much time do you have? Jupiter: I don’t think so. My cousin and I butt heads, but I wouldn’t call us enemies. Interviewer: Greatest disappointments? Jupiter: Recently. Leaving Earth. Weslie: Humanity. Interviewer: Greatest achievements? Weslie: My…