There’s a certain hero cocktail that hits all of my buttons. Big and gruff? Check. But a love on the inside. Also check. Scarred and messed up in so many ways? Check check check. And a loner. Yes. One hundred percent yes. I’ve got heroes who don’t fit this mold, because life is made up of more than just loners and I like to think my books mirror life, but when I can write one, I jump at the chance. And I absolutely love to read them. Luc, the hero of In His Hands, the third book in my Blank Canvas series, is a gruff, but sweet recluse and I absolutely adored putting him on the page. Here are a few other loner heroes who are impossible to forget. In UNBOUND, Cara McKenna gives us reclusive Rob who is kinky and strange and totally my kind of hero. He’s a mess, so of course I love him. The man is in self-imposed exile in the highlands, after his life fell apart in large part due to his alcoholism. By the time the heroine comes across him, he thinks he’s a lost cause. Aren’t lost cause heroes the best? Noah Gideon…

I’ve always been extremely creative. I missed the clues that I might enjoy writing…like loving my creative writing class in high school and even earning an A+ from a tough teacher, but like I said—Duh. I had already decided to pursue fine art, so I stubbornly stuck to that goal. But at Mass College of Art I discovered there were far more talented people than I, and we were all going to starve. LOL Fast forward several years with twists and turns like marriage, birth, divorce, and I became an RN to put food on the table. In nursing, creativity is highly discouraged by doctors who want you to follow their orders to the letter. Sheesh. I needed an outlet! I took a course in screenwriting. That taught me how to tell stories, but Hollywood passed on my romantic comedies. Oh well. I lived closer to New York, anyway. So I turned my ‘movies’ into novels and found where I fit in. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Well behaved women rarely make history.” Well, I don’t have to worry about that! I monitored my reading tastes to see what I might like to spend months writing. (Novels are a hellova lot longer…

Some conferences are quiet affairs where I get to hang with friends, talk books, and laugh for hours. Readers and ‘Rita’s is one such conference. There’s always something going on, but I never feel frenzied unless I’m dancing with a hot cover model. Other conferences are wild fan events where I’m overwhelmed and lost. And given how much of an extrovert I am, that’s saying something. Guess how last week at the RWA Conference (Romance Writers of America) felt for me. Zen walking meditation in a sauna. There’s no denying that Orlando in July is steamy hot. By the second day, I was soggy. My brain, my hair, and definitely my clothes—all wet mush. Military School on the first day. I meant to be crisp and clean, I meant to report where I was supposed to go when I was supposed to be there, but it just never quite happened. That’s why I never went to military school. Phew! Party with my friends! I got to hang out with great people all the time. In the bar, in the lobby, in the bathroom, in the bar… Well, you get the idea. Great friends everywhere! (Check out this picture of me…

I thought readers might be interested in tracking the evolution of my brand new series. I’d been happily writing the Caribou Crossing Romances, set in the interior of British Columbia, but after eight titles I was ready for a change of scene. Where better than my favorite spot for boating, the Gulf Islands near Victoria, British Columbia? I developed a series concept, with synopses for the first two books. Then, to give my pitch punch, I created a “one-sheet,” even including photos of the locale. Here’s what it looks like. My pitch centered on a fictional island that I called Destiny—Where finding love is a matter of destiny! Here’s what I said about the setting. Destiny, a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest, is blessed with craggy bluffs, forested hills, secret coves, and meadows dotted with wildflowers. The locals are individuals—make that eccentrics!—reflecting the island’s history of aboriginal people, loggers and fishermen, African-American and Japanese immigrants, hippies, artists, boaters, and escapees from the city. The picturesque town of Blue Moon Harbor provides the necessities of life for residents as well as attractions for tourists. When you meet your love on Destiny, life will never be the same. Well, my editor…

Military heroes are the twofer of romance. They fit the bill of a romantic lead with their alpha ways, rugged good looks, and heroic ways, and provide the double whammy of bad-ass protector. And yet despite the box we attempt to put them in, there are lots of different versions and interpretations of them. So, who would be my favorite military heroes? You would think picking them would be easy, but it wasn’t. Here goes: First up would be Kimberly Kincaid’s Kellan Walker from SKIN DEEP, the first in her Station Seventeen series. He is a scorching hot hero who is a tough-as-nails former army ranger. I love this story because of Kellan’s continued commitment to service through his dedication to his community as a firefighter once he leaves the military. When he’s not fighting fires, he’s fighting his attraction to for the sexy detective who he thinks botched a case that was supposed to keep his sister safe. But as with every great romance, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and Kellan has to work with her to stop a ruthless killer, despite the sparks that fly between the two of them. If you love Keanu Reeves…

The Infinity Division series follows a group of teens who have the ability to travel between dimensions via a very special device. Each place they go is Earth—generally within their own town of Wells—but a different reality. The differences are sometimes minor—sometimes monumental. The best part of doing a series like this is the variety. The setting is always changing. I can work within the same town, yet have a completely different set of rules. The characters are always changing. Some of my favorite moments from Omega are when the main cast encounters alternate versions of people they knew back home. In some cases they’re so hilariously different. In other instances, it’s almost heartbreaking. There’s more dimension hopping—or, skipping, as Cade would say—in Omega. There are an infinite number of realities, and unlike in Infinity (which took place solely on Kori’s world), our heroes visit multiple ones in this book. The ideas for these different realities came to me from various sources. Some were worlds I’d love to see—like the world where everything was flavored with chocolate or the one with no cars. Everyone got around on horseback, yet they were all sporting massive computer tech. Others came from conversations…

It’s time for me to make a confession: I hate writing villains. As an author who delights in heists and capers and romantic suspense-y twists, you’d think nothing would make me happier than to create a big, bad villain for the hero and heroine to take down. Good triumphs over evil! Love rules the day! Happily ever after for all! While I do love a good HEA and the thought of a bad guy getting his due, this is a part of the storytelling process I struggle with quite a bit. Usually, it’s because I grow to love all my characters too much—even the dastardly ones. (Most of the time, I especially love the dastardly ones.) I like to think this is a natural side effect of writing realistic, compelling villains. Instead of just being an incarnation of evil, they have motives and feelings and flaws, are three-dimensional characters in their own right. In fact, every villain should be the hero of his own story…it’s just that this particular book isn’t his story. Yet. It’s not just my own books I feel this way about, either. Some of my favorite book, movie, and TV characters of all time rest on…

As fast as I could without running, I walked down the hall to get my purse and keys from the kitchen. A few more seconds and I’d be in my car on the way to school. My purse was not on the counter where I left it. Dammit. I didn’t have time for this. My heart thundering in my chest, I scanned every flat surface in the kitchen for my red purse and silver key ring. I wasn’t sure whether I was rushing to my appointment or just desperate to escape Noah. Noah. How was Noah at Vance and Magnolia’s? He was in California. As far as I knew, he hadn’t been back to Georgia since three months before we’d broken up. Why was he here now? Vance was an artist, but he was also an angel tech investor on the side. He’d met Magnolia when he hired her as his assistant, and they’d gotten married a few months before. Vance and Maggie met with a lot of guys like Noah, but there were angel investors in California. Silicon Valley was filled with them. Why was he in Atlanta? Why was he here? Maybe after what had happened, no one…

My favorite books are inspirational romance, and I’ve been reading them for over twenty years. I began in publishing with novellas because I used to devour those four-in-one romance novella compilations. Since then, I’ve written full-length fiction, but the romantic elements are the same. Here are some of the key ingredients I look for as a reader, and hope I include as an author, in romance novels: A Noble Hero Sure, he has to be flawed. He must make mistakes. There has to be that one element he doesn’t have the internal or external strength to do at the beginning of the story that he’ll be able to do at the end. But he must also have at least one area of his heart, his life, where he is noble. Perhaps he’s caring for his elderly grandmother. Or perhaps he’s good to animals. The more noble, the better. A Strong Heroine This doesn’t mean she’s bench-pressing twice her weight, nor does it mean she won’t need help along the way. In my Friday Harbor story, my heroine—a strong and competent character—needs rescuing. That rescue feels believable, without making her look weak. And don’t we all need rescuing sometimes? (By the…

Happy Friday friends, Today I am chatting about bravery. We all exhibit some level of bravery every day. I’m not talking soldiers on the battlefield bravery, they are heroes and I respect them immensely. I’m talking about the bravery it takes to be our real, authentic selves day in and day out through trials, obstacles, and fears. Being who we were created to be and resting in that is one of the most freeing things you’ll ever experience and I pray with all my heart you do. But it also takes a whole heap of bravery not to try to fit in with your peers, colleagues, friends, or even your family. To not feel the need to conform or to hide the beauty of who God made you to be. The verse I chose for this week’s principle is from the song of Solomon. “You are altogether beautiful my love. There is no flaw in you.” Solomon 4:7. (ESV)  Some things to keep in mind this week as you go through your days: “God knit each of us uniquely together in our mother’s womb.”  Solomon 139:13-14 “God knew you before you were born.” Jeremiah 1:5 “God has called you by name and you were…