This is a question I am often asked. As I begin a new book I always seek out a gorgeous, hot guy, from actors to male models, to inspire me and help me create my hero. Liev Dragunov, the hero of TO BLACKMAIL A DI SIONE was no different. What was different in this case was that I wrote the story as part of The Billionaire’s Legacy and was given character details and story outline. When I read about Liev, a very famous and very hot male actor came instantly to mind as inspiration. Daniel Craig, especially in Casino Royale, was that male actor. The powerful determination he exudes in that movie and the subsequent 007 movies was exactly what I envisaged Liev needing. So in my mind the James Bond of Casino Royale infused with all I knew about Liev Dragunov to become exactly the right kind of hero to match Bianca Di Sione’s frostiness. Liev has a score to settle, or rather revenge to seek. He lost his mother and father when he was a young boy after the collapse of his father’s business. The young Liev, alone in the world, found himself in many difficult situations as…

Rogue of the Moors (Samhain Publishing) was released August 31. This will be my fifteenth full-length novel. I thought it would be interesting to share how I plot a story. I hope you find this useful! Cynthia Breeding Facts: 350 page novel= 90,000 words=20 chapters=4/5 scenes (3-5 pages long). Need: 20 index cards (5” by 8”) Label each card upper right corner with “Chapter One”, “Chapter Two” etc. Top Line: write out the main purpose for this chapter (what is it about?) Every 3rd line: write “Scene One”, “Scene Two” etc. Jot down what action will take place in each scene. Use only one character’s Point-of-View (POV) in each scene. Analysis Situation: What is the problem/conflict going to be? When/where does it take place? Main Character/Protagonist: Goal: How is he/she going to fix the problem? Barriers to fixing problem: Internal/personal barriers (either physical or emotional) External barriers (people, nature, supernatural) Antagonist (outside force): Purpose: What motivation to keep protagonist from reaching goal? Action: What will the antagonist do to keep protagonist from being successful? Sub-plots: (secondary story-line that interconnects with main plot/characters—optional inclusion) Black Moment: When protagonist appears about to lose everything Ending: How will story conclude? Example: CAMELOT’S DESTINY…

For those of you who love a good love story SUNRISE CROSSING is the book for you. I’d plan to write two stories, both based on the idea that sometimes the perfect mate for someone isn’t who they think it might be. But, then, another couple came along. Maybe because I love reading happy endings, but this book was so fun to write. I believe in love, the kind that lasts a lifetime. My grandfather met my grandmother at a barn raising. She was fifteen and he was seventeen. They wrote letters back and forth for a year, then the next spring he drove a buckboard back to her place and married her that day. They were married 64 years and their children say they never saw them argue. It may not always work out that way in real life, but I like to think it should in fiction. When a reader picks up one of my books, I want them to feel like they’ve walked into a town and lived there for a while. And when they turn the last page and close the book, I want them to smile and know they’ll be welcome back for another visit…

I partially wrote this book with dictation software while lying on my back. My wonderful husband, Mr. Amazing, figured out a way to project my monitor onto the ceiling, I could see what I was doing and make corrections as I went along. I’ve just been waiting for someone to say, “See? We always knew you’d make your living on your back.” Peer pressure “forced me” to leave the country to research parts of this book. A year ago, my daughter and I took a trip to Ireland. What did peer pressure have to do with it? I mentioned, jokingly, on my Facebook fan page that I needed to go to Ireland to research my Irish dragons. Well, wouldn’t you know my wonderful fans started to chant, “Do it! Do it! Do it!” It was practically a dare. I mentioned it to my daughter, and she said, “That’s next on my bucket list!” Suddenly, we were planning our trip. I learned what it takes to become a Boston firefighter. My two main characters are both going after that job. Because one of my characters was from Ireland, I had to start at the very beginning. A Boston firefighter has to…

The final book in my Oxenburg Princes Series, MAD FOR THE PLAID, just hit the shelves and I thought I’d explain why I wrote three whole books with prince-heroes. Here are my top five reasons why princes are better than average men: Princes get invited to all the best places. Kensington Palace? Invited. Le Palais Royale? Invited. The Doge Palace? Invited. Wimbledon? Invited WITH special seating. It’s an endless list of invitations, which often come with gourmet meals and marvelous desserts. If you’re into that sort of thing, that is. Princes know how to dress. Well, the ones in historical romances do, and let me tell you, they dress WELL. Silk waistcoats across their wide chests, perfectly fitted coats stretched over their broad shoulders, well-made breeches outlining their powerful thighs, glossy Hessian boots over their muscled calves – oh my! Princes know things. Things like how to waltz without treading on their partner’s toes, how to ride while looking manly, how to kiss a woman’s wrist in a way that makes her shiver. Princely things. Things all men should know, but somehow don’t. Things they must teach in Prince School and nowhere else. Princes are instantly attracted to intelligent, spirited…

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the second book in a series that I have been waiting eons on to come out. Like eons. Literally, I evolved while waiting for this to come out. So needless to say I was super excited. Now, I get to a certain point in the book, aaaand I start getting an itch at the back of my neck. What I like to call my WTF Itch. It’s like a sixth sense. It gives me a head’s up when someone’s about to drop by my house uninvited so I can go hide in the back bedroom and act like I don’t hear the doorbell. It warns me when when the hubby is about to roll over with “that look” in his eyes so I can grab the Excedrin for my headache… Just kidding! I grab my inhaler. Asthma attack. Much more believable. See what I mean? I trust my WTF Itch. So when it started up half-way through the book, I had to heed it. I flipped to the back of the book, and BAM! I read that the heroine cheated on the hero. Noooooooooooooooooo!! Wait, wait. I have a couple more “ooo’s”…

Those of you who have read my books know that I generally write characters that are fairly compatible. I mean that Polite Society would not think twice about the match. There are no misalliances. Their friends and family always say, “They would be perfect together, if only . . .” Naturally, lots of stuff is thrown in their paths. All very realistic to the Regency, but everyone can see them getting together at the end, and fun to watch them get to their HEA. Well, in WHEN A MARQUIS CHOOSES A BRIDE, not so much. In fact, were we in high school, they would probably be voted least likely to get together. Dom is stuffy. Dotty is not. He thinks his life should be perfectly ordered. Dotty fills hers with misplaced and mistreated animals and people. He always takes considers what is best for his rank. Dotty could care less. Her friends encourage her to kick him to the curb. And his friends refuse to believe he would align himself with anyone like her. You know these people right? It doesn’t matter if it’s the guy or the gal who is stuffy and stuck up or which one who is…

When I was growing up in Central Florida the space program and NASA was a really big deal. There wasn’t a launch that I couldn’t see from my house (even though I lived in the middle of the state and not on the coast) in fact when there was a launch sometimes my dad would get out the ladder and we’d all climb up and sit on the roof to watch it. This is probably something that no parent would do today but I loved it. My first job was at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando and it was in Tomorrowland. The ride I worked on was Mission To Mars. It was a simulated space journey to Mars and part of my job was interrupt the audio animatronic Mr. Johnson in mission control to get guests onto the space craft. I had a thirty second interaction with a robot, how cool is that?! If you remember the ride you might have thought it was tired in the 80s but a part of me just loved it. And in that last hour before the theme park closed and we didn’t get that many guests through the ride I’d make…

IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY is the second book in the Elizabeth Harris series, a series of murder mysteries set in Lancaster County, PA and involving the interplay of the Amish with the non-Amish Lancaster police. I’m thrilled to have it published under Berkeley Prime Crime. IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY by Jane Jensen Elizabeth Harris With its peaceful, hardworking Amish population, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a rural paradise. But former NYPD homicide detective Elizabeth Harris knows that evil lurks there—it’s just easier to hide… By solving the murders of two local girls, Elizabeth has gained some trust in the Amish community. So, she’s the first person its members turn to when a fast and fatal illness takes hold, though many believe that the sickness stems from a hexerei—a curse placed by a practitioner of old-world folk magic. Elizabeth doesn’t believe in curses, and when an entire Amish family is found dead, she begins to suspect something far more sinister… As the CDC is called in to investigate, customers of a Philadelphia farmers market selling Amish raw milk start dying. Amid rapidly escalating panic, Elizabeth must peel away layers of superstition and fear to save the…

I love my mother. Arguably, she’s the person who knows me most because she’s seen the arch of my life choices from my beginning to now, from a perspective of outside looking in…unconditional love and worry assuring her focus. Having said that, she’s appropriated the right to a certain level of criticism not acceptable coming from my husband or children. They know better. Simply put, as the old adage goes, if mom isn’t happy, no one is happy—my husband and children quite rightly pick their battles. Whereas my mother has nothing to lose when she tells me something I don’t want to hear, so she’s free with whatever is on her mind. (I mentioned I love her, right?) We talk a lot, reminisce, beat dead horses, and struggle to find the good in the bad, and over the years I’ve noticed a phenomenon unique to talking with her. We remember things differently. We have shared memories, but remember them as if filmed by different directors, cut by different editors, written in different genres by different authors. What I credit to be a personal moment of transformation in my past, never happened for my mother. Did. Not. Happen. This disconnect challenges…