I’ve been asked a fair number of times why I jumped from my typical fare of hardcore police officers on elite squadrons and hot sexy beach dwellers to… cowboys. I often blink confusedly when asked this question. Why did I want to write about gritty, tough-as-nails, cowboys that know what they want and are not afraid to get dirty? That seems obvious to me, but I certainly do not mind elaborating. So, here are my top five reasons for writing the Camden Ranch erotic romance series in no particular order- Cowboy boots and Wrangler butt – they do something to a girl. Something very good. I love the hardworking grit of cowboys. They aren’t afraid to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. They’re up before the sun and don’t mind any extra work in the bed that night. The juxtaposition between their rope-roughened hands and the might of their muscles as compared to the gentleness they so easily tap into when, say, they’re cradling the loves of their lives in their arms. I adore their natural honesty. The Camden cowboys will tell you precisely what they’re thinking and they won’t hold back. They see no reason to…

I’m heading out to our family beach house for a week of fun in the sun and toes in the sand. Life has been crazy stressful over the past few months and I’m really looking forward to getting away. Working from home has a number of benefits but one of the downsides is that you never really turn off your job. I’m constantly plugged in and it’s beginning to grate on me. In fact, at my physical earlier this summer, my doctor told me that I need a vacation. He literally wrote it on his prescription pad and handed it to me with direct orders to take some time off. I am ready to follow his orders! Part of my vacation will include some much needed reading for pure enjoyment. Not for research or to keep up with trends. Nope. Nope. Nope. Part of my escape this week will involve slipping inside some well written worlds. Here are the the 5 books that are going in my beach bag. THE RIDGE by Michael Koryta: This looks like a scary suspenseful read with a hint of romance thrown into the mix. I’ve never read one his books before but the blurb…

Top five things Griff loves the most besides Amy (in no order): Evenings by the fire in the fall. He’s just beginning to get sleepy for his semi-hibernation, and he loves just sitting in the cabin in the warm glow of a fire, preferably with Amy at his side. Griff loves Italian food, especially takeout from the Italian restaurant in Oakwood. Amy isn’t the best cook, but she’s learning and can make spaghetti now without all the noodles clumped together in a sticky mess. His Jeep. Not only is it his mode of transportation when he isn’t running as a bear, but he can take off the roof panels and feel the forest air around him. It’s almost as freeing as being a bear. Griff drinks a lot of it and he doesn’t care what brand as long as it isn’t Hazelnut or some weird flavor. He likes it hot with honey and sometimes a touch of cream. His clan. He loves his surrogate father, Elijah, and his clan-mates. Derek is as close as a brother to him. Derek even loves Powell, who can be pretty annoying at times. WAKING THE BEAR by Kerry Adrienne Shifter Wars #1 Sexy shifter…

In 1820, author Washington Irving published a short story called “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which is still an American classic to this very day. If you do the math, you’ll see that this story is almost two hundred years old. So, why do some stories continue to be popular generation after generation? Well, aside from Irving being one of the first authors to make it BIG in 19th Century America, so big, in fact, he paved the way for other famous writers, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and even beloved goth man, Edgar Allan Poe, Irving’s story tells some universal, timeless themes, and here they are in no particular order: GHOST STORIES WILL ALWAYS BE COOL – As long as humans have lived on Earth, ghost stories have been around to scare off our knickers. Our fascination with death and what lies beyond is bred from our fear of the unknown, so stories of darkness, things that go bump in the night, and wispy wraiths moaning about unfinished business will always be popular. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the old wives of the town insist that the valley is filled with seen and unseen things, and trust…

It seems that every romance reader has their own personal favorite tropes that they’re drawn to when they select a romance to read. You know, those little hooks like secret baby, enemies to lovers, brother’s best friend stories that they just can’t get enough of? One of my longest standing favorite tropes is the Ugly Duckling to Swan/Makeover trope. You know, when the girl, for whatever reason, is never really “seen” by the man of her dreams until some miraculous makeover? Fortunately, my idea of a swoony-worthy ugly duckling retelling has changed from when I was thirteen to now. Back then, it seemed the idea was that WE had to be the ones to change, like poor Sandy did for Danny in Grease. Today I’m glad that we can recognize that if our heroine ended up with a guy who only saw her AFTER the big makeover, she’d be stuck with a superficial twit who never really loved her for her inner beauty and character. When I set out to write this ugly duckling story, I wanted the woman to be funny and spirited and already attractive in her own personal way—but lacking the confidence to see herself in the…

In my most recent two books – RESISTING THE REBEL and THE REPLACEMENT CRUSH – the heroes save the heroines from creepy guys. Both books are definitely rom-coms, but deal with an important issue facing girls and women – jerk guys who intimidate and bully girls to try to get what they want. While I consider myself a strong feminist and completely support girls standing up for themselves in every way possible, there are times when it’s not enough- when someone else needs to step in. Standing around as a disapproving spectator doesn’t cut it – good guys need to step in. In RESISTING THE REBEL, the hero Caleb has the school “bad boy” reputation, while the real bad guy Gus puts on a phony act to try to win over Mandy, the heroine. However, as the story progresses Caleb realizes what Gus is up to, so he sets out to 1) prove to Mandy that he’s the better guy, 2) protect her from Gus, and 3) demonstrate his superior kissing skills, because this is a rom-com, after all. In THE REPLACEMENT CRUSH, Jake the Snake is a more serious threat. He intimidates the heroine Vivian and threatens her, after…

About MAY THE BEST MAN WIN Opening five lines: On the upside, the prelude had already begun, and chances were good that Mozart’s Sonata in E-flat Major pumping through all those organ pipes would cover any sounds of distress emanating from St. A’s sacristy. Jase Foster crouched in front of Dean Skolnic, groom du jour, and cursed. This had to stop happening. “You think she’s gonna notice?” Dean asked, wincing as Jase pulled one strip of duct tape after another off the garbage bag of ice currently secured to Dean’s shoulder. “The arm?” Jase clarified, because while he wasn’t an every-Sunday kind of guy, they were in a church so he couldn’t flat-out lie. Theme: Enemies-to-lovers, second-chances Inspired by: An intense discussion over the myriad flavors of “HOT” guys came in…and the subsequent dive into Pinterest’s man-candy files that left me with a handful of “tuxedo-fine” morsels, and a story idea about a group of best men I just couldn’t ignore. Order: First in the Best Men Series MAY THE BEST MAN WIN Scrap book: https://www.pinterest.com/miralynkelly/may-the-best-man-win/ About Emily Klein… Emily’s first thoughts about Jase: Best man her butt. Seriously, how did Jase Foster keep getting this gig? Obviously, the guys…

  He’s quiet. My other characters made things (relatively) easy for me. They let me use their voices to establish personalities and explain things and move the plot forward and all that good—and necessary—stuff. George, though…George is not a talker. He made me work for it. Instead of words, I had to use body language and facial expressions and grunts to define him. Despite this, it was surprisingly fun to write George. Once he did start speaking to Ellie, everything he said had extra importance. He’s like that quiet person we all know in real life. When that person finally says something, we all go quiet and listen. He’s willing to change. There’s something so special about his conversations with Ellie. He doesn’t talk to anyone else, but he’s willing to push himself out of his comfort zone because there are things he wants to say to her. This shows how very important Ellie is to him. It was late in final edits (really, really late) before my editor realized that George never told Ellie he loved her. We hadn’t noticed that scene was missing because it was so obvious that he did. After all, he talked to her. Of…

My idea way to spend a Saturday? Is that a trick question? You’re asking a writer who works at home and whose kids are grown up and aren’t going to school any more. If I don’t look at the date up at the top of my computer screen, I rarely know what day of the week it is. And I only look at the date to see how much time I have before the next deadline. Even so, there is something special about Saturdays that goes back to childhood. When I think about Saturdays, memory transports me back to a time then I was about twelve years old. Saturdays were magical back then. School was over for the week, you could wear blue jeans instead of school clothes, and Sunday stood there as a buffer between Now and Monday. I don’t know if my Saturdays all had a sameness about them then, but I remember them all following the same pattern. My friends and I went to the movies. First we gathered at somebody’s house to decide which movie to go to. There were three movie theaters in our neighborhood, the Earle on 74th Street, the Colony on 82nd Street,…

There’s a fine line between love and hate. So it’s no surprise that “Enemies to Lovers” is one of the most popular tropes in all of storytelling. From Jane Austen to Julie James, from Shakespeare to soap operas, the push/pull between a hero and heroine as they go from “I hate you” to “I love you” can be entertaining to watch. Instalove, or love at first sight, definitely has no place here. Hollywood has certainly made a buck or two producing romantic comedies that put the hero and heroine at odds from the very beginning: The Proposal, Sweet Home Alabama, You’ve Got Mail. Kate Moseley, the heroine in The Cutting Edge described the trope perfectly: “Did you ever play with magnets? You know how you used to have to push them around and they’d push away. You’d push them around the table when all you really had to do was flip them over. And then suddenly… Don’t you see? That’s why everything has been so awful. All we needed was a little flip.” Aaah… the flip. Isn’t it glorious? That’s what has us all waiting on the edge of our seats. Or in the case of romance novels, turning the…