Developing characters for my romance stories requires inspiration. My volume of names is usually where I start. It lists the meaning and origin of names, as well as associated gemstones, colors, and elements. It helps tremendously with character profiles, but sometimes I need visual inspiration. This was true in writing The Song series. If you haven’t read the books, let me share what the trilogy is about. Two of the alpha heroes served as Army Rangers along with their friends. The team was facing death when Dalir, an ancient warrior, gave them a second chance at life. He also shared one of his special abilities with them: Time travel. They use this gift to protect people. When they’re not facing danger, they play music. Their band, Thane’s Redemption, gives them an outlet from the stress of their quest and serves as a cover between missions. In short, hot guys in a band with supernatural abilities, teamed with an equally tough, drool-worthy, ancient warrior, on a mission to save the world. A dream team was a great visual aid and inspiration for writing the books. Here are my picks for The Song series alpha males. Kit Harington as the hero in…

Tell us about your Love Affair with Writing My love affair with writing began in the third grade when I read The Chronicles of Narnia and fell in love. I fell in love with Narnia (my deep imprint for how Faerie should be), and with storytelling. I decided then I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. I wrote my own Narnia story, but with a few twists. What I remember now is that there was no High King, instead a High Queen. I think her name was Louise. Instead of centaurs, I had bucentaurs (half-human, half-cow). These creatures I found in some forgotten mythological resource or from browsing in the dictionary. The other detail that comes to mind all these years later is that in this Other World country there was a Plain of Fire and a Plain of the Moon. The former, golden grass; the latter, silver. I had it “bound” in a 3-ring notebook wrapped in a blue-and-white cloth I rescued from my mother’s scrap basket. I’ve never looked back. I’ve been in love with writing, with storytelling, and with one author or another ever since. I try to write every day, even if that…

Being possessed by a character is a kind of out of body experience. For me, it’s as if someone or something real has taken over my mind, and I have no choice but to hold on for the ride. Most times the experience results in those light bulb moments when I actually believe I’m brilliant—or rather the characters that have spun themselves out of dust and cobwebs are brilliant. I’m just along to document their lives in ways readers can connect with. Case in point, I’ve been writing romance fiction to the tune of somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 plus books. Only rarely does a fictional character charge at and through me like Winter Barstow has. Sad to say, Winter existed long before I completed a story that satisfied both of us. Death Chant, I believe, does that. It’s a book of the heart. All I can do is hope readers of this romantic suspense with paranormal elements in the form of a ghostlike wolf will understand why I feel the way I do. Getting back to Winter, I can’t recall when she first started insisting I listen to her. I initially became aware of a lonely voice visiting…

More specifically, how “Save the Cat,” a trip to the San Diego Zoo, a sprinkle of Christmas magic dust, and a warm, wonderful heroine helped me figure out how to (hopefully!) make readers love my hero as much as I do. Mo Kincaid used to be a sinner. He knows it, he owns it, and he’s turned his life around. Even so, he’s a loner, a man who fixes vehicle engines and avoids getting close to people—because in his twenties he hurt everyone he cared for. When HOLIDAY IN YOUR HEART starts, Mo has returned to Caribou Crossing, the small Western town he left many years ago, abandoning his wife and son. He now feels compelled to see them and offer his sincere apology, and see if there’s any way to make amends. He thinks no further than that. He never dreams, because he doesn’t believe he deserves to dream. The last thing he imagines is that he might become part of a family and find an amazing woman to share his life. But long before any happy ending could happen, I needed the reader, right up front, to see that this man, a true lost soul, was capable of…

Hello friends, Welcome to the first Fur Babies, Real and Imagined… Each month, I’ll be talking about those little four-legged creatures that steal their way into our hearts. I never planned to have animals in my books, but the furry devils just kept popping up—Peggy, a three-legged cat in THE LETTER, Mr. Bunny, a rabbit in LOST IN HER, Pretty Girl and Sally, war dogs in ONLY HER. All of my books have at least one animal of one kind or other in them, probably because I love the creatures, especially cats. In ONLY HER, book five of the K2 Special Services series, my hero, Cody, suffers from PTSD, but his war dogs give him a reason to get up each morning. That is a creation of my mind. There is a fabulous real organization, Warrior Canine Connection, that… Well, here it is in there own words. “Warrior Canine Connection is a pioneering organization that utilizes clinically based Canine Connection Therapy to help wounded Warriors reconnect with life, their families, their communities, and each other.” Warrior Canine Connection is a fabulous organization that pairs a dog with a wounded warrior hero. If you’d like to check them out, their website…

The new television season is upon us, and we’d thought it’s be fun to ask Cole Keller from Branded what new network shows he might be watching in between all that hard work he’s doing on the ranch. Not that he has that much free time any more. Not with heiress Callie Lewellyn all up in his business. But even a hard-working man like Cole needs a break now and then. He loves to read, but he also doesn’t mind kicking back with a beer or two and watching his favorite shows. Here are Cole’s top five new shows he’ll be watching: The Exorcist (Fox): My girl Callie likes a good scary movie, but she almost always ends up in my lap. That happening once a week is just fine by me. And that trailer for the show is creepy as hell. Pitch (Fox): Baseball. Enough said. And a female pitcher who gives as good as she gets, good for her. I think it would have been better if they picked my team, The Texas Rangers, instead of the Padres for her to play on. But I’ll give this a go. Notorious (ABC): I’ve had a thing for Piper Perabo…

All ladies of the Regency, if they could at all afford one, had a lady’s maid, a personal servant who attended her every day. Characteristics of a good lady’s maid included “great neatness, skill, and taste, as well as discretion and cleverness.” Many such maids “received special training so as to enable them to acquire a certain level of knowledge before entering the unique field of caring for a mistress.” Her main duties were to see to her mistress’s clothes, help her choose outfits, fix her hair, keep all clothing laundered, shoes cleaned and all items in good repair, know how to sew and mend, and bring her mistress early breakfast in her bedroom if she desired. Her focus was always on her mistress to assure that when she went out into Society, she presented a flawless appearance. Other important duties of the lady’s maid, according to Geri Walton, were “medical tasks, hair brushing, and money matters.” She might be called upon to change bandages or apply leeches. In addition to creating her mistresses’ coiffures, she was in charge of brushing her hair each night to keep it healthy and in good order. A lady’s maid also made sure that…

When I started writing the Poison & Wine series, I thought about creating a fictional town around Princeton, New Jersey. I even considered choosing a neighborhood small town as the location for the series, but something was missing. Much like the Martha’s Way series in which the island Martha’s Vineyard became a character in itself, I wanted to capture that same indispensable quality in the Poison & Wine series. After a lot of back and forth with myself and my supporting group, I decided to go with my heart. The medium-size vibrant town is family friendly, centrally located between Philadelphia and New York. It holds the record for having the most ice cream parlors in Mercer County, which include The Bent Spoon, Halo Pub, Thomas Sweet and Ricky’s…needless to say we eat a lot of ice cream. Princeton is also home to Princeton University, Colbie Bennington’s alma mater. The University is mentioned several times in the novel as Colbie is one of the two protagonists in SOMEWHERE TO BEGIN. Excerpt from SOMEWHERE TO BEGIN It had been almost five years since she waved goodbye to her alma mater. Yet standing across the street, staring at the oldest construction at Princeton…

I’ve never been a reader who enjoys the helpless, spineless, petty wiles of a senseless heroine—so, it is only natural that when I started crafting my own books I knew only an intelligent and cunning heroine would do. A woman who loves adventure and can go toe to toe with any alpha hero brings a story to life. My A Lady Forsaken Series features women of varying intellect and education, but all possess the wit to thrive and secure themselves a promising future complete with love and laughter. Each has their own struggles to wade through and wounds to heal, but with their cunning nature—and strong men by their side—they overcome all odds to find happiness. SCORNED EVER MORE, A Lady Forsaken (Book Three), details the life of a French spy, Lady Lorelei de La Valette, pushed into a form of servitude by country and family. She’s sent to England to infiltrate society and gain the hand of Lord Chastain, a man deemed valuable to Napoleon—love was never meant to happen, especially a love for the Marquis of Drake, Chastain’s best friend. Lorelei is faced with two options, deny her heart and fulfill her mission or allow love to take…

Romance gets put down for a lot of things. The supposedly purple prose, the heaving bosoms, the heroines who stamp their dainty feet and flounce from the room. I don’t think I’ve encountered any of those things recently in a romance novel, if ever. Frankly, I believe romance is most often rejected as “serious literature” because it’s largely written and read by women. Worse…there’s often detailed anatomically correct sex in the books. Women liking sex? Horrors. What will they want next…the vote? But what irks me the most is the assertion that any story with a happy ending is automatically disqualified from being good. Let me state for the record. I like happy endings. I can endure the worst trials and tribulations for the characters in a book if I know they’ll be headed toward a beautiful future by the end. In fact, the worse the torment they must endure to be together, the sweeter the reward at the finish. Honestly, if I want misery, all I have to do is turn on the news. It’s on 24/7 these days so your entire life can be filled with bleakness if you want. Natural disasters, murders, torture, and kidnapping of innocents….