In the past five years, I’ve published books in three distinct series: The Profiler (a psychological suspense series featuring FBI profiler Evelyn Baine, whose job is to get into the heads of killers), The Lawmen (a romantic suspense series about three friends who make a pact to join the FBI after violence tears apart their lives, and what happens ten years later when that violence returns) and The Lawmen: Bullets and Brawn (a romantic suspense series about three foster brothers ripped apart as children, who are determined to unravel the secret of their past). What is it about series that keeps me coming back? As a writer, it’s many of the same reasons that I can’t stay away from series as a reader: I can’t wait to revisit the characters: My Profiler series features one primary character, who returns book after book with new cases to profile for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. While the plot of each story revolves around her work as a profiler, part of what I love about her series is the character growth. In the first book in the series, HUNTED, Evelyn was socially inept and purposely isolated. By the time book four, STALKED, rolls…

Characters make or break a story, no matter the genre or theme. Readers have to be able to take the journey with each character that is written into the pages. They need to be able to place themselves in the characters’ shoes so they can experience the story as if it were a part of their own. When you accomplish this, you create a reading experience that is unforgettable. When creating a suspenseful setting and mysterious plotline, the characters have to be as dynamic and dimensional as possible. And not just your lead, but also the other major character roles that I believe every good suspense novel needs. First—The Protagonist: This one is obvious. Your hero, or lead, has to be relatable and honest. This is their story mainly, so all the elements of the story are in place to pull them forward to the end discovery. People need to like them, of course, but they also need to have weaknesses and struggles. They need to make mistakes, take the wrong path at times; they need to be afraid, and then filled with strength when the time comes. They need to reflect us so that the reader can relate to…

I remember buying my first Christine Feehan book over fifteen years ago—DARK GOLD, Book 3 in her Dark series. I also remember almost not buying it, and the reason was entirely superficial. The hero’s hair was horrible. Like a pompadour and mullet got together and had all kinds of crazy wrong off-spring. Yeah, that bad. But my twin sister, who’d already read it, shoved it back in my hand, saying, “Don’t worry. He looks nothing like that. His hair’s long.” She could totally read my mind. So I bought it, and thus began my love affair with all things Christine Feehan. Just think… I could’ve missed all her wonderful goodness over a hairstyle. Hair on a hero is important to me. Great eyes, great body and yes, great hair. Because, I’m just sayin’… No hero should have a mullet. Or the Zach Efron-High School-Musical fringe bang. Or that Beatles-Ike-Turner bowl cut thing. Just a big bucket of nope. To me, a man’s hairstyle says a lot about his personality. When I start my characters sketches before beginning a book, I carefully choose the hero’s name and his appearance, which includes his hair. Here, let me regale you with my wisdom……

I’m so happy to be here, sharing my new release TO CATCH A TEXAS STAR! This brings the Texas Heroes series to an exciting conclusion and it’s been a long time coming. After I wrote the first two – KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING – the publisher folded and I never got to complete the series … until now. This is the book of my heart that I always wanted to write. We met Marley Rose McClain as a baby in KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and now she’s all grown up and looking for love. But there are secrets. Why does she look so different from her parents? What is the secret they’re keeping? Why does a mysterious stranger seem to know her? She discovers Roan Penny lying severely injured at the side of the road one frosty morning and takes him to her family ranch. As he recovers, their attraction grows stronger and stronger and Marley knows he’s the one for her. He calls her his Texas Star and she sees undeniable love in his eyes even as danger surrounds them at every turn. Much of Marley’s time is spent helping to…

When I first began writing the Cat Lady Mysteries for Kensington Lyrical, I realized all too quickly that I’d swallowed one giant hairball of a project. For a few terrifying moments, panic set in. How could I write about a dozen or so cats living in one household? Wouldn’t it seem like, well . . . just too many cats? After sucking in a few deep breaths and gulping back a hearty swig of coffee, I reminded myself: You’re writing this for all the cat lovers out there . . . and they can never have too many cats. So, with that mantra ringing in my head, I scurried over to my keyboard and started typing. To my surprise, I was easily able to imagine myself living in the quaint Folk Victorian home on a gentle hill in New Hampshire that eventually becomes the cat shelter. In my head I saw the rooms—the large and small parlors, the eat-in kitchen with myriad cat bowls lined up along one wall, and the back porch that would eventually become the shelter’s meet-and-greet room. Even more important, I could clearly picture the cats: the black feral with a white ‘stache, the cuddly calico…

Our reviewer Miranda Owen had a chance to chat with L.P. Maxa. Listen in as we find out some of the behind the scenes scoop on the three series. In HEART STOPPING Baze and Pen are star-crossed lovers given another chance to make things right. Is this a favorite trope for you? Was it hard deciding how much of their past to reveal in the form of “flashbacks”? Who are some of your favorite fictional couples – ones you’ve written as well as others from either books or films? Second chance romance is actually not one of my favorites. I don’t typically read a lot of novels with that topic, for some reason I tend to veer away from those. I think with Baze, his history kind of unfolded for me somewhere a long the way. I certainly didn’t plan a star-crossed lovers HEA for him from day one. My publisher will attest to the fact that I’m more of a fly by the seat of my pants type of writer. It wasn’t until Linc’s book that I finally decided to bring in Pen the way I did. As far as how much of their past to reveal or not,…

I was in my 40s before I realized the role I was meant to play in my large family of six sisters. My parents had two sets of children. The first three girls were born in the 1950s, then, ten years later, the second set of three girls appeared on the scene. I was the baby of the first set. It was a surprise to all, especially me, when it turned out that, instead of being jealous of the three new babies in the house, I took their birth as a sudden and joyful opportunity to have “real” babies to play with instead of the fake ones that appeared every Christmas under the tree. Instead of being the “baby” of the family, I morphed into the mother figure for the younger set, a caregiving role I loved. Fast forward numerous years, when my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I became her caregiver. I’ll never forget when the doctor called my dad and me into his office to discuss my mother’s prognosis. Once I understood all the chemotherapy and radiation that Mom would need to undergo during her battle against this dreaded disease (while my father was still working full-time…

Hi, Eve Pendle here. I’m a UK based historical romance author. And I’m going to talk in this post about English spring flowers. What on earth, I hear you ask, have flowers got to do with historical romance? Well, quite a lot, actually. Because almost every historical romance character would have seen and known wild flowers. Why? 🌸 In the past walking was a much more common pastime than it is now. If you didn’t have a horse, or couldn’t ride, you walked. Think of Lizzy Bennet in P&P with her petticoat two inches in mud from her walk to Netherfield. In our cars now, we’re moving fast and we’re detached from seeing the plants that surround us. Walking, or even riding, you’re much closer to the ground and at a slower pace. So all the spring flowers would be familiar sights, and flowers were as much a definition of the time of year as the weather. Walking was also a much more popular pastime as an activity for its own sake and was a respectable way for men and women to be together alone. Again, think of Lizzy and Colonel Fitzwilliam walking together in P&P. 🌸 There were a…

  I’m coming to the conclusion that as writers, we have little choice in what we write. I find that once a story is with me, it takes hold and the characters take on a life of their own. I feel compelled to write their story. If I don’t, then they will still niggle me anyway. This was how it was with my novel, THE THINGS WE DON’T SAY. Consciously, or not, I find I am drawn to the stories of women who somehow, did not fit in with the world in which they found themselves. With my three French novels, the inspiration was the life and famous abandoned apartment of the Parisian Belle Époque courtesan Marthe de Florian, with SECRET SHORES, it was Sunday Reed, a leading figure in the Australian art world, along with Joy Hester, an unsung Australian artist, and with THE THINGS WE DON’T SAY, I became drawn in by Vanessa Bell. Vanessa Bell was Virginia Woolf’s sister. Vanessa was an artist who painted most days of her life and a central figure in the Bloomsbury group, the famous group of artists, writers and intellectuals who fascinate me for their avant garde views, for the way…