DUKE OF DESIRE Long Excerpt Iris tasted of red wine—the red wine she must have drunk at dinner—and all the reasons he shouldn’t do this fled his mind. A vital chain broke in his psyche and everything he’d held back, everything he’d restrained with all his might, was suddenly set free. He surged into her mouth, desperate for the feel, for the taste of her, his wife, his duchess, his Iris. She was soft and sweet and warm and he wanted to devour her. To seize her and hold her and never let her go. The deep unfathomable well of his urges toward her frightened him, and he knew that if she became aware of them, they would frighten her as well. But that was the thing—she wasn’t aware of them. She thought she was simply consummating their marriage or some such rot, God help them both. She gripped his naked arms and the beast within him shuddered and stretched, claws scraping against the ground. Dear God, he wanted this woman. But he had to remember—to keep that human part of his mind awake and alive—that he mustn’t seed her. Must never do as his cursed father had done. He…

There are several themes in MARCH WIND, things that have begun to come clearer to me as I’ve watched loved ones deal with serious health concerns, and as I’ve tried to face some of my own fears about death. Love doesn’t stop when someone discovers they’re dying. If anything, love seems to be the one thing that grows stronger, rings out more truly, because people become less afraid to say how they feel. Why is it so hard to look at those we care about on an ordinary, nothing’s happening Wednesday and say, “I love you” or “You matter to me” or “You make my life better”? Those words shouldn’t be reserved for times when we fear we’re losing the ones we love. They should be spoken every day…without reservation. Life is too short to hide who you truly are. There is a freedom in feeling comfortable enough to say, “This is me. Warts and all.” Life is hard enough. Wearing a mask and pretending to be someone we aren’t only adds to the struggle. You want to know who I am? I’m an overweight, middle-aged wife and mother who drinks way too much wine, curses her ever-growing curves and…

We’ve all heard the old saying: You’ll always remember your first love. As I get a little older and wiser (I hope), I can’t help but wonder if the adage is actually true, or do we simply wish it was? Last year, I released my first New Adult book, SEVEN WAYS TO LOSE YOUR HEART. One day when I was obsessing over reading over some reviews, I was blindsided by a blogger who was irate over the fact that my HEA couple, established as each other’s first love but later separated by tragic events in their lives, had the audacity to have relationships with other people before reuniting. I mean this blogger was ANGRY. I wasn’t bothered that she didn’t like my book (cause if you can’t handle a negative review, then you shouldn’t be in the business of story-making), but I did start to wonder why do we revere first loves as if they hold the key to deciphering all of our future romantic choices? Romance novels do this a lot (I write romance, so I can say it…right?). They present the story of first love as this pure, holy experience that can never be recaptured (I wrote two…

Where did the idea for WINTER’S CHILD come from? Without doubt, the most frequent question fielded by authors is what I call the “idea question.” I’ve always liked the answer Willie Nelson gave when asked where he got ideas for songs. Ideas are floating around in the universe, Willie explained, and from time to time, one drops into his head. But there is something more. Your head has to be ready. Ready, open and welcoming. You have to be on the constant lookout for ideas. The mat must be out: come on in, make yourself at home. Because, as Willie says, ideas are indeed out there. Everywhere. And they are looking for you—writers, musicians, artists. The billboard you just passed, the commercial interrupting your favorite show, the little old lady shuffling by in the parking lot, the phone conversation annoying you in the airport. And books, of course. Books are chock full of ideas. I have gotten ideas for lots of stories from books. Often I’ve been doing research for the novel I happened to be working on when, wow! An idea for the next book jumped off the page. That’s how the idea for WINTER’S CHILD came. I was…

  There is something that I am paying attention to as I work on The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin, the first book in The Baldwin Family Series set in New York in the late 1800s. This is something that authors don’t pay that much attention to, unless they are self-published and do their own formatting or hire a formatter. What I”m talking about is “spacing”.  Especially the “white space” around the words and paragraphs. Read on » Gail . . . INDIGO SKY by Gail Ingis In a whirlwind romance, a lovely New York socialite marries a fêted, debonair author. But beneath the charm is a cheating husband addicted to hasheesh. Her dream marriage turns sour and the simplicity of her life runs amok when a handsome stranger, her husband’s business partner, threatens her staunch loyalty to her wayward husband. When she faces the ugly truth about her marriage, her need to finalize her divorce sends her on mad chase across the wilds of nineteenth century America with a handsome stranger where she learns the hard lessons of murder, kidnapping, and more, that almost destroy her. Romance Historical [Soul Mate Publishing, On Sale: October 21, 2015, e-Book, / ] Buy INDIGO…

“No one comes here by accident.” (Frontier Nursing Service saying) I came across that saying while researching the Frontier Nursing Service for the historical background of my novel, These Healing Hills. In 1925, Mary Breckinridge established a nurse midwife service in the Appalachian Mountains. As I read about the nurse midwives and the volunteers who assisted them in providing prenatal and maternity care along with other health services to the Kentucky mountain community, I could see why the workers felt they weren’t part of the Frontier Nursing Service by accident. Breckinridge recruited the first nurse midwives from England since at the time, America had no midwifery schools, so coming to Kentucky involved great effort and changes in the lives of those who came to the mountains. The volunteer helpers, called couriers, were generally privileged young women from society circles who would come and stay for a few weeks or months to take care of the midwives’ horses, run errands, and make themselves useful in a myriad of ways. It’s easy to imagine the life lessons these young women learned in this mountain community where the residents had few if any modern amenities. Most of the mountain families managed through subsistence…

The entire concept of the X-OPS series started around 2011, when the Navy SEALs were in the news seemingly every week. As I was coming up with ideas for the first book in the X-OPS Series (HER PERFECT MATE), I knew I wanted to partner up shifters with covert operatives. Think putting shifters on a team with SEALs, Special Forces, CIA or FBI. But for that to work, I knew my shifters were going to have to be different. I simply couldn’t imagine my operatives going into a dangerous situation with a partner who couldn’t carry a weapon when he or she shifted into an animal, even if that partner did have fangs and claws. I wanted the best of both worlds, so I made my shifters half animal, half human. That took them in a completely different direction than you’d normally see in a paranormal romance. Here are a couple different ways my shifters are unique: Where They Come From: In X-OPS, shifters aren’t some kind of monsters, aren’t cursed to live in the darkness, their change isn’t controlled by the phases of the moon, there’s no magic involved, and they aren’t possessed by a demon (which are all…

Hello! I am so excited to be on Fresh Fiction for Supernatural day! I love all things supernatural from creepy, bump-in-the-night things (hence SUMMONER, which is basically a ghost story and love story wrapped up together) to the pretty and fascinating things like unicorns and dragons and gryffins. (Gryffindor represent!) One of the really cool things about the fantasy genre, I think, is seeing how different creatures have changed in folklore over time, or how they can be different in different works of fiction. I mean, how cool are the flying thestrals in Harry Potter than you can only see if you’ve witnessed a death? What a new take on a normal Pegasus-type of creature? Those surprises and differences are something that I love as a reader and lover of all things geeky. When I settle down with my popcorn to watch a new show about vampires and learn that they can be in the sun, or the sun does in fact burn them, or they can have magical daylight rings that allow them to walk in the daytime (oh my gosh, early seasons of The Vampire Diaries, anyone? Can I just geek out about that show for a moment!?),…

In my debut book, BLACK BIRD OF THE GALLOWS, we meet Angie Dovage, high school senior with a talent for music and a crappy past. Her dream of coasting through that her last year of school under the radar are blown to smithereens when Reece Fernandez moves in next door with his family. She thinks he’s hot (naturally) but so does half the student body. Angie notices other things about him, though, that begin to make her wonder if Reece is a little more—or less—human than he takes such pains to appear. So I’m turning it over to my heroine, Angie Dovage, to share her three step program of determining if your hot new neighbor is supernatural, in her words (passes the keyboard to Angie)… Okay, so hey. Thanks, Meg. Also, thanks for, well, deciding Black Bird didn’t needed to be a tragedy. Even if you were just worried about bad reviews if you killed me or Reece off, whatever. I’m grateful. I’m not holding it against you for making my love interest a harbinger of death or anything. No, not at all. Actually, you did make Reece pretty amazing. But anyway, you want me to share my three steps…

Answer: Oh, my goodness, there is so much to this question! By book #4 (THE LAST OUTLAW), these two have been together for 32 years, and boy, have they ever been through a lot! Jake was a notorious wanted man when they met, and Randy actually shot him after he had a shootout with a bounty hunter right in front of her. She was scared to death, but she also felt bad after she watched Jake stumble out and get on his horse to ride out of town. She feels terrible that he will suffer alone, and possibly die, because of her. You will have to read the first book (OUTLAW HEARTS) to find out how these two actually end up back together. Their first love scene is in the back of a covered wagon somewhere on the plains of Wyoming, and it’s a wild, hot, desperate love scene because they realize they don’t belong together yet they can’t resist each other. It’s the beginning of an emotional roller-coaster ride as Jake ends up in prison – then a U.S. Marshal in Oklahoma (Book #2 DO NOT FORSAKE ME) – then a rancher in Colorado (Book #3 LOVE’S SWEET REVENGE)….