Finding the right match for the hero and heroine is one of the toughest and most exciting parts of writing a novel. The hero of INTO THE FIRESTORM is Luke Brodie, one of my strongest, toughest, sexiest heroes. Luke, a former special forces soldier, is a bounty hunter who works at Brodie Operations Security Services, BOSS, Inc., in Seattle. A fat $600,000 is the 20% bail enforcement fee he’ll collect if he brings in international criminal, Rudy Vance. Luke is a womanizer par excellence and a dedicated bachelor. But he is also a complex man, one who has given up the idea of having a normal life. Fortunately, Emma Cassidy showed up, a strong woman in her own right, a fighter, a lady determined to achieve the goal she has set for herself–bringing a murderer to justice, a criminal who is threatening her family. Emma is also hunting Vance. It’s been almost a year since she arrived at her sister’s home to find the housekeeper murdered and her young niece the victim of Vance’s sick assault. Emma is determined to find Vance and make him pay. And no one–not even the infamous Luke Brodie–is going to stop her. I loved…

Ends February 8th! Special Book Launch Offer! Order LOST IN TIME (Book 3 in The Fine Art of Deception Series) before February 8th and you’ll get it at a special subscriber discounted price! ($2.99 instead of $4.99) You’ll also get Book 1 in The Fine Art of Deception Series with a printable bookmark and character cards — ALL FOR FREE!! And, your purchase will register you for one entry in the drawing to win the Lost in Time Grand Prize – A Peridot and Pearl Necklace! ($350 Value!) LOST IN TIME by Alyssa Richards The Fine Art of Deception #3 Searching for the answers she needs, will Addie lose everything she has? Adeline “Addie” Montgomery is searching for the truth. As she and Blake travel back to 1922, she expects her nemesis Otto is behind a string of art forgeries. The only problem is that the villain has completely disappeared. Addie must now find Otto without blowing her cover to keep the past intact, as long as a lover from a past life doesn’t get in the way… Blake Greenwood wants nothing more than to catch Otto and return to the present with Addie, the love of his life. When…

From as far back as I can remember, reading in my youth or reading books today, I’ve always loved stories about the supernatural and magical worlds. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll made me love unique and mischievous characters. After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, I became fascinated with portals leading to other worlds. It was stories like these that inspired the Mystik world in my Library Jumpers series. Hidden behind bookcases in some of the most beautiful libraries in the world lies a magical realm hidden for centuries from humans. In the Library Jumpers series, wizards, with help from the fey nation, created the Mystik realm to protect creatures with unique exteriors and magical abilities from human persecution. It was to house havens where the Mystiks could live in peace, but with all good things, evil festers and finds a way to destroy what is good. The magic faltered and splintered until the many havens and Mystik places became separated like islands. The fey created the gateway books for the wizards to make travel to the individual havens and villages quicker and easier to access. As time went by, the gateway books were…

One of my favorite things to read are summer romances! When we’re out of our comfort zone, in a beautiful (or even strange) new place and along comes that one boy who completes that perfect trip. *swoons* But does it happen in real life? Well, I mean we’re not always lucky enough to find the perfect guy every time we head to the beach, but travelling sure does seem to lead to a crush or two (or three). We fall in love with the world around us when we travel. We learn more about ourselves. And we open our hearts so much more easily! I remember my most crush filled vacation was in high school, when I went to the beach with one of my best friend’s and her family. I was away from home, in a beautiful place, away from family and with one of the most flirtatious girl’s I’ve ever met (love you, Karissa ;). I really didn’t have much of a choice but to meet a few cute boys… or twenty. On the boardwalk in Ocean City Maryland, every boy we passed was a new potential romance, and we met several of them! We even kept a…

Stereotyping is a technique used often by storytellers as a shortcut. It can come in handy to quickly get across what a character is like. One of the most common Australian stereotypes out there in the world is that of the “Crikey” uttering, beer-loving, thong-wearing (thong in this case being the things worn on the feet, not the butt 🙂 ) bloke who calls all the women he meets “sheila”. Now, I grew up in rural Australia. To this day, I still use terms like “fair dinkum”, “crikey” and “g’day” in general conversation even though I’ve lived in the city for over twenty years. My husband, a city boy, quite often laughs at my country-ness. So yes, I can vouch for the fact the stereotype Australian man does exist…but he’s NOT the norm. So why did I set out to write an Australian businessman sexier than sin and calmly confident in everything he does in THE STUBBORN BILLIONAIRE? Because this kind of Australian man also exists and I want the world to know it. He walks around Sydney and Melbourne, dressed in a killer suit, oozing sexual energy and never ever pulls out a knife to gloat how big it…

THE BACHELOR AUCTION by Rachel Van Dyken (January 31, 2017; Forever Mass Market Paperback; $7.99; The Bachelors of Arizona Book 1) NOW IN PAPERBACK! The first book in an all-new contemporary romance series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken. THE BACHELOR AUCTION by Rachel Van Dyken Bachelors of Arizona #1 Cinderella never had to deal with this crap. Jane isn’t entirely sure that Cinderella got such a raw deal. Sure, she had a rough start, but didn’t she eventually land a prince and a happily-ever-after? Meanwhile, Jane is busy waiting on her demanding, entitled sisters, running her cleaning business, and . . . yep, not a prince in sight. Until a party and a broken shoe incident leave Jane wondering if princes—or at least, a certain deliciously hunky billionaire—maybe do exist. Except Brock Wellington isn’t anyone’s dream guy. Hell, a prince would never agree to be auctioned off in marriage to the highest bidder. Or act like an arrogant jerk—even if it was just a façade. Now, as Brock is waiting for the auction chopping block, he figures it’s karmic retribution that he’s tempted by a sexy, sassy woman he can’t have. But while they can’t…

After being voted Most Likely To Never Leave River Bend, Zoe Brown from STAYING FOR GOOD didn’t just leave, she escaped. Eleven years later she returns to help her BFF plan the perfect wedding. When the man Zoe left behind reminds her of the love they once shared, Zoe is forced to make one of the hardest decisions of her life…confront the demons of her past, or leave River Bend and the man she loves again…this time, for good. Much like Zoe Brown, I left my hometown just days after high school ended. When Fresh Fiction asked that I come up with five of the best things about returning home, channeling my own ideas and Zoe’s were entirely too easy. So here we go! Scents. There is something about the smell of home. I don’t care if it’s in a city, or in a small town like River Bend… From the scent of the seasons, from cut grass to freshly fallen snow… Nothing smells better than home. History. Where we were raised always holds a richer history, even if it’s a past one would like to forget. In between the lines of Zoe’s harsh memories of her life, she manages…

My latest release, IT STARTED WITH A KISS, follows Avery, a kidney transplant survivor who is determined to explore every adventure life has to offer, only to find herself falling for a high-octane Search and Rescue hero who lives his life for others. Being married to a real-life Search and Rescue hero, and hearing the amazing rescues he’s been a part of, it was only a matter of time before I based a series around a brotherhood of S&R officers. What is sexier and more compelling than a team of alpha-heroes who put their life on the line to bring families safely back together? A hero in need of a little rescuing. My goal was to find the perfect heroine—and I wanted her to not just be a survivor, but a warrior. Avery Adams not only knows how tenuous life could be, but she is determined to live her life loud. I loved the conflict that came from pairing a strong, survivalist whose tragic past is a daily struggle, with a fragile woman who refuses to let anything hold her back. This story was important to me because it deals with many themes from my personal life. I spent much…

I read romances to fall in love with falling in love, and what’s better than a hot hero to make the journey into love a little more interesting? I write romances for the same reason, plus I love getting to spend a looooooong time with these heroes. While writing CALL to Honor, I alternated between my music playlist and playing the same handful of movies in the background. I knew that, unlike shorter books, these HQNs would be long stories in and of themselves, and since the three books, CALL TO HONOR, CALL TO ENGAGE and CALL TO REDEMPTION are all tied closely together, that I’d want to keep the same background theme going for the writing of all of them. So I chose a movie selection that was long enough and varied enough to last through a few writing sessions and watched the same movies in the same order multiple times because after a while, they become background rather than distraction. At least, the movie and storylines became background noise. The hot sexy guys? They were always distracting. Ready to be distracted? These are the top five hotties that inspired me during the writing of CALL To Honor… Chris…

Since I’m about to make my annual trek from the snow country to my house at the beach, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of my favorite places. Personally, I hate hot weather. Among my personal favorites are the ski slopes of Aspen and the chalet at the top of California’s Mammoth Mountain. Montana has some of my favorite places. Recently we visited Yellowstone National Park, which I’ve been to numerous times and never grow tired of. Just about anywhere in Big Sky Country is a favorite place to be. A day on the ocean off the coast of Santa Barbara is hard to beat when the sun is shining. Sailboat or powerboat, just being out on the water makes me feel completely carefree. Seattle is another one of my favorite places, which is the reason I chose the city for my BOSS, INC. trilogy. Book #3, INTO THE FIRESTORM, Luke Brodie’s story, is about to be released. Luke is a bounty hunter. A fat $600,000 is the 20% bail enforcement fee he’ll collect if he brings in international criminal, Rudy Vance. Emma Sullivan is also hunting Vance. It’s been almost a year since she arrived…