“I need to learn to ride a bike.” Sarah didn’t try to hide her grimace. “By the middle of next week. Even though riding one of those things is basically daring God to smite me.” That’s the opening of READY TO FALL, my fourth Lovestruck Librarians book. Now, I will freely admit that my heroine, Sarah Mayhew, has a flair for hyperbole. She’s earned her nickname DQ (for Drama Queen) among her friends honestly. But in this instance…well… I can’t help but agree with her. My mother taught elementary school for many years, and—to my dismay—she used to tell her kids three main stories about me. They were cautionary tales, or maybe reassurance that however delayed her students might be in learning certain skills, they certainly couldn’t be as laggardly as her younger daughter. Occasionally, she’ll also tell the same stories to friends, acquaintances, restaurant servers, grocery checkers, random pedestrians, etc. “Olivia didn’t learn to tie her shoes for years! She claimed the invention of Velcro made shoe-tying skills unnecessary. She made the same argument about digital clocks and her inability to read analog clocks. And you would not believe how old she was before she learned to ride her…

What is your name? Do you have a nickname? My name is Gianna York Elmsworth. People close to me call me Gia. Who is your best friend? What kinds of things do you do when you’re together? I’m very close with my sister-in-law, Alice, but my best friend is Madeline Merrick. As sole survivors to separate tragedies, Maddie and I share a special bond. No one else truly understands the extent of what we’ve lost—and gained—in the wake of our traumas, and we’re fortunate to have found each other. Maddie resides in another town, but we see each other as often as we can. When we’re together, we spend much of our time in private, sharing the trials and triumphs of using our secret abilities to help others. We also share our fears of discovery and the destruction of the lives we’ve fought so hard to rebuild. If you have a family, how do you get along with them? If you don’t, are there people in your life that you consider family? How do you get along with them? My parents and I are estranged. I survived an accident that killed my two brothers, and after that, my parents could…

What is your name? Do you have a nickname? My name is Gianna York Elmsworth. People close to me call me Gia. Who is your best friend? What kinds of things do you do when you’re together? I’m very close with my sister-in-law, Alice, but my best friend is Madeline Merrick. As sole survivors to separate tragedies, Maddie and I share a special bond. No one else truly understands the extent of what we’ve lost—and gained—in the wake of our traumas, and we’re fortunate to have found each other. Maddie resides in another town, but we see each other as often as we can. When we’re together, we spend much of our time in private, sharing the trials and triumphs of using our secret abilities to help others. We also share our fears of discovery and the destruction of the lives we’ve fought so hard to rebuild. If you have a family, how do you get along with them? If you don’t, are there people in your life that you consider family? How do you get along with them? My parents and I are estranged. I survived an accident that killed my two brothers, and after that, my parents could…

“Second Chances” was a thing before it was a trope. I think everyone at some point or another has thought about that long lost love, the what-if’s and maybe’s. Whatever happened to that guy in high school that you used to date but eventually lost contact with? What about the random hook-up in college? Or more meaningful, what ever happened to your first love after the two of you broke up because of a silly argument? Even if we’ve moved on (hopefully) from the past there are sometimes when that little inkling of a feeling either sneaks up on us or comes roaring back with force. When I first began writing ON THESE PAGES I hadn’t intended it to be a second chance love story. It was just a contemporary about a girl who ran back into her college crush. But as the story progressed I realized that I had a trope! My first thought was to scratch the storyline and start over, but as the story progressed I couldn’t get around some of the animosity that the heroine, Toni felt for Ahmad (the hero). Just because I’d scrapped the info about them meeting before, Toni hadn’t forgotten about it…

I never thought much about cops until I started writing them. Sure, there were times when I sped past a radar-toting cop in a cruiser, and my heart leapt into my throat. A few times I’ve glanced into the rearview mirror and seen the red-and-blue flashing lights. I had to think about cops then. But until I started writing cop characters, I never thought about how they thought or felt. I never wondered what is was like to do the brave things they did, like burst into the home of a criminal with a gun or chasing a bad guy down an alley. The process of diving into cop characters lent me a new appreciation for their bravery and sacrifice. I wonder, though, what it is like to see the things they see, day-in and day-out. Not only the horrific and the senseless. But all the stupid things criminals do. I did a blog a few years back that included some of the dumbest of all time. There was the guy who stole someone’s pet monkey, then didn’t know what to do with it, so he tried to sell it back to the owners. Then there was the lady who…

When I was asked to give the perfect set of circumstances for a historical mystery, I didn’t have to think long. It’s just like putting together a perfect recipe. A GOLDEN CAGE, A Newport Gilded Age Mystery. Take one opulent era of history. Mark Twain called it The Gilded Age and it ran from around 1870 to 1900. It was an era of serious social problems masked by a thin veneer of gold. A time of industrialization, huge growth, incredible wealth and wide spread corruption. A time of power struggles in commerce, justice and morality. A time of conspicuous consumption by the haves and poverty and hard work by the have nots. Add in one seaside Resort town. Newport Rhode Island in 1895. Where the nation’s wealthiest families summered in sumptuous mansions they called “cottages”. Add a dollop of family. The wife and daughter of a prominent well respected judge threw him a huge birthday fete and invited all the richest families (among them, the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Oelrich’s and the Fishes), mayhem ensued. Mix with a professional theatrical troupe. Hired away from their theater for the evening to present a play called The Sphinx. Stir in one ingénue…

One of the biggest perks of writing historical fiction is the research! I am a library junkie, and could spend way too much time digging through dusty old books. Getting to travel and see the places in my books is even better! Fontainebleau is one of the most beautiful palaces in Europe, with a fascinating history, and I enjoyed the chance to spend a little more time there with Kate Haywood (even if only in my imagination!) at one of its most turbulent times in history. The 1560s were an incredible period for amazing women, and I had a lot of fun incorporating two of them, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Catherine de Medici (one of my favorite historical figures) into Kate’s adventures. Mary Stewart (1542–1587) has, of course, been a figure of much fascination for centuries, the subject of endless stories/movies/plays, and it’s easy to see why. She was renowned for her beauty and charm, she was an adventurer at heart (even though those adventures ended in mayhem more often than not), and she died most tragically. She is a counterpoint to her cousin Elizabeth I’s great success. The only surviving child of King James V of Scotland (who…

I have been accused of being a bit of a domestic diva. That’s not surprising with books like THE DIVA SERVES HIGH TEA! But I like to keep things easy, and I love recipes I can prepare in advance. This is celebration season. Graduations, bridal showers, and family reunions are on the calendar. So I thought I would share a dessert that everyone loves and anyone can make. I’m not in the habit of promoting products. Recently, though, while I waited for something, I killed some time (and some cash) in WalMart where I found adorable little glass trifle bowls. They’re the perfect size for a single serving. At $2 a pop, you wouldn’t break the bank if you needed enough for a small luncheon. Imagine how they would dress up ice cream! This recipe is super simple. If you’re a domestic diva, use your favorite sponge cake or pound cake recipe. If there’s no time for baking (or it’s just not your thing), pick up a sponge cake at the store or look for Sara Lee’s pound cake in the freezer section. Kick this up a little bit by adding your favorite liquor for the adults. I’m fond of…

Do you ever glance at the windows open in your internet browser and realize you’d have a lot of explaining to do if someone walked up behind you? That’s an everyday thing for me as an author of offbeat romantic comedy. People see “romance author” in my title and assume any research I might do would involve fur-lined handcuffs or creative uses for butterscotch syrup. But for my newest romantic comedy, THE HANG UP, there were several unique bits of research required for me to tell the tale of a devout city girl and talented PR pro who hooks up with a sexy mountain man turned CEO. Here are five things that made my research list when I wrote THE HANG UP. Spelunking Contrary to what my city girl heroine believes, spelunking is not a sex act. It’s a fancy word for exploring caves, and it’s kind of a hobby of mine. In real life, I’ve been lucky enough to explore caves as far away as Slovenia, Mexico, and Greece, but my favorites are the lava tubes in Central Oregon where I live. I wanted to set a scene in THE HANG UP in one called Arnold Ice Cave, but…

I’m so excited to be here today talking about The SECRET LIFE OF A DREAM GIRL, my first ever Entangled Crush book. 🙂 It’s totally stand alone, but is part of the Creative HeArts series, a bunch of stories written by four different authors that all take place at a creative arts high school in my home town of Austin, Texas. Anyway, my main character—Dahlia—is pulling a reverse Hannah Montana. Instead of being an ordinary girl hiding her life as a pop star, she’s a world famous pop star masquerading as an ordinary girl as she tries to get her career—and life—in some semblance of order. She’s been under the thumb of her very overbearing manager/father for her entire career, and all she really wants to do is take a breath and spend some time pursuing her real musical passion of being a singer/songwriter. I had so much fun writing this book because it’s all about music—my hero and heroine talk to each other in song lyrics, there’s a great scene at Waterloo Records, Austin’s most famous indie record store, and there’s an awful lot of early, feel good Beatles stuff in there too. Which is why I thought I’d…