Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Surrey UK. This is a sweet little house where Jane lived for a short period of her life. There is a tea room and you can tour the house and I posed at her writing desk when no one was looking! The Algonquin in New York City. This was the place where the famous Round Table met. I have been there several times for drinks and I always find it inspiring. Ernest Hemingway in Paris. To be fair the entire of city of Paris was an inspiration to the Lost Generation authors and I loved visiting Shakespeare & Company but at the Ritz they have Hemingway’s Bar where you can see a lot of Hemingway memorabilia they have collected over the years and after a pricey cocktail I decided to give his typewriter a try! Charles Dickens house in London. There are several blue plaques in London notated the different houses he lived in. One of them is an attraction where they have recreated the way the house would have looked when he lived there including his writing space. John Muir and the Sierra Nevadas. I have visited Yosemite a few times and found it…

With October comes Halloween, and with Halloween comes… SCARY MOVIES. * dun dun dun * Even though I rarely watch them anymore, I thought it would be fun to tell you about my top five scary movies that made me not want to watch scary movies anymore. 13 Ghosts. I don’t know why, but this movie MESSED me up. I was so scared after seeing this, and I still, to this day, get nervous when I go into a dark bathroom. I always look at the bathtub and picture that woman all drenched in blood staring at me. Shudders The original. I don’t even remember it, or much about it, but I know I watched it as a kid, and ever since I hate clowns. Always have. Always will. Pet Semetery. Dead pets coming to life and attacking people? Yeah. No thanks. I’ll pass. The Shining. Red-rum. Red-rum. Yeah, I’ll red-run my ass outta that hotel, thank you very much! The Ring. Yep, that one got me, too. I still don’t like the static sounds on TV, and get nervous when people talk about watching it. Like, ya’ll could die now. As a bonus, I’ll tell you about the Twitter…

Hi, I’m Rebecca Brooks and I have a confession: I love mountain men. Scruffy men, rugged men, growly men who aren’t afraid to get down and dirty. They’re sexy, strong, and powerful—and sweet as can be underneath the tough exterior they show to the world. Although I’m a city girl, my heart belongs outside. Any time I have the chance, you can find me hiking, skiing, kayaking, picking blueberries, or drinking a cold beer while watching the sun set. So it’s no wonder that I love writing books set in the great outdoors, with dirty-talking mountain men ready to sweep the women they love off their feet. But it’s not just incredible views and racing down ski slopes. Writing sexy books about mountain men naturally means one thing. Hot. Outdoor. Sex. The more creative the better, IMO! In MAKE ME STAY, Austin is an Olympic skier and racing coach. He and Samantha discover that up against a snowmobile is the perfect place to get it on—especially when they can warm up after with hot chocolate and round two in front of the fire. In MAKE ME BEG, chef Connor prepares bartender Mack a picnic—and feeds it to her blindfolded by…

My favorite scene is at Darach’s keep in his great hall when Caitlin’s worst fears come to pass—her uncle, who’d kept her under guard for three years with the intent of marrying her to the highest bidder, has found her and threatens to take her back. But instead of trusting in Darach and letting him handle it, Caitlin takes matters into her own hands. In the process, she messes up all of Darach’s well-thought-out plans and brands herself a besom in the hopes that she’ll be “ruined” in her uncle’s eyes, and he’ll leave without her. Her uncle’s jowls quivered with outrage. “She was a maid when she left my keep, I made sure of it. ‘Tis someone here who’s ruined her. I had other men lined up if Fraser fell through. Now who will want her?” “MacInnes,” Darach said, “I’m sure Caitlin isna a—” “I am,” she said, cutting him off in her haste. If she had no value to her uncle, maybe he would leave too. “None will want me now. My bastard children will roam the halls wherever I live. They’ll overrun your keep, Uncle. More mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. You best leave me…

The third book in my MURDER BY DESIGNS series, ONCE UPON A GHOST, has a pesky ghost who likes to wake up medium Bailey Burke by singing. Celine Dion off-key by a dead mobster at three in the morning is so not romantic, but it got me thinking about the power of music and love songs. For me, music has always been a huge part of my life and it inspires my writing. Since Bailey’s relationship with Marner heats up in this book here is my list of top romantic songs. I Will Always Love You. I do love the original Dolly Parton version, but the Whitney Houston version from the movie The Bodyguard is just stunning. Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley. This song is just so sweet and stands the test of time. I could see Marner secretly listening to some Elvis music. Your Song by Elton John. I always said that the first man to serenade me with this song would be my husband. Sadly, my hubby, who we call Mr. Writer, did not sing it to me at any point, but I did use it to walk down the aisle at our wedding. Love…

I love the national parks. In fact, my husband and I have visited over 20 of them. To me, nothing is more romantic than a beautiful alpine lake at sunset or sitting around a campfire on a starlit evening. That’s why each of my books is set in a national park. With so many amazing parks to choose from, it’s difficult to limit this list to only five, but here are a few gems for the romantic adventurer in all of us. North Cascades National Park – The Cascade Mountains in Washington State are among the most beautiful in the world. The views and lakes along the North Cascades Highway are truly stunning, but further south is one of my favorite hikes—the Cascade Pass trail. It’s well worth the challenging climb to see the sweeping views of the picturesque valley surrounded by snowcapped mountains. The remote location and pristine beauty of Cascade Pass make it the perfect romantic hike, and the natural choice for the setting of Avalanche, the first book in my Peril in the Park romantic suspense series. Yellowstone National Park – This is the most fascinating national park I’ve ever been to, with its extraordinary geological features…

As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2017, our Meet the Author interview series helps you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 10-12. Read on to get acquainted with Cooper McKenzie, and purchase your tickets to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! What book made you fall in love with the genre you write? I fell in love with the romance genre in 8th grade after reading The Ivory Key by Rita Estrada. I’ve read that book several times over the years and recently found a copy to keep in my own library. If a movie were made of your most recent book, who would you cast in the lead and why? If a movie was made of IRON LUST by my Keely Jakes pen name, I would try very hard to talk the men who suggested I write a bodybuilder romance, and who are featured on the cover, Christian James and Daniel Treat. What was the first story you wrote? The first story I ever wrote was a teenage angst novel about a girl escaping into her dreams to keep from killing herself. It sucked and was destroyed about a year after I wrote it. My first story…

As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2017, our Meet the Author interview series helps you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 10-12. Read on to get acquainted with Janna MacGregor, and purchase your tickets to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! What book made you fall in love with the genre you write? When I was a teenager, my mom gave me my first romance novel to read. It was Barbara Cartland’s The Impetuous Duchess. That’s where my love for historical romances set in the Regency period began. Always a prolific reader, my habit took a backseat when my husband and I became the proud parents of triplets–two boys and one girl. I found life somewhat hectic with all the family and job responsibilities. Consequently, I didn’t have as much time for reading as I had in the past. That changed when I dropped one of my sons off at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. After an emotional goodbye, I found myself at a bookstore in the Tampa Bay Airport. Desperate to find a diversion from my tears, I picked up Eloisa James’ A Kiss at Midnight. I devoured that book. When I returned…

As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2017, our Meet the Author interview series helps you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 10-12. Read on to get acquainted with Sharla Lovelace, and purchase your tickets to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! What book made you fall in love with the genre you write? Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner! If a movie were made of your most recent book, who would you cast in the lead and why? I’m so bad at this. I don’t picture celebrities as I write characters, so I never know who to compare them to. Sometimes I’ll be watching something and think THERE! YOU! YOU’RE HIM! But then I never remember who it is later. So if you’ve read LUCKY CHARMED, who would YOU cast as Sully? 🙂 What was the first story you ever wrote? I wrote many little stories growing up, but the first one intended to be novel length, and the one I cut my teeth on, learning about the rules, the business, about everything, was a friends to lovers romance I named A LITTLE SALTY, and it was a long rambling behemoth that ended at 215K…

As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2017, our Meet the Author interview series helps you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 10-12. Read on to get acquainted with Jodi Linton, and purchase your tickets to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! What book made you fall in love with the genre you write? Pride and Prejudice. If a movie were made of your most recent book, who would you cast in the lead and why? Chris Pratt. Well, do I really need a why? 😉 Right. I think he’d be awesome, because he’s funny and swoony at the same time, which embodies the type of heroes I write. I write humorous, swoon-worthy cowboys who know how to crack a joke with the right quirky gal. I think Chris could crack a joke or two, don’t you? What was the first story you ever wrote? PRETTY RECKLESS: A Deputy Laney Briggs Novel, which was published by Entangled Publishing. If you could change the ending to any famous book, TV show, or movie, what would it be and how would you rewrite it? (Spoiler alert!) Of course, I have to say Gone Girl. My need for a…