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…

I’m excited to be on Fresh Fiction today to talk about my debut Scottish Historical Romance, HIGHLAND DECEPTION. It’s about the Cameron laird and a secretive lass who won’t tell him who she is. Maggie knows that with the politics of the time, he would be obligated to return her to her father who wishes to marry her to an abusive man. Since Maggie won’t acknowledge her own clan, Lachlan fears she could be a spy for a rival clan, but where does the real history come into their story? I’ll admit, when I started writing HIGHLAND DECEPTION, I had a vague knowledge of the time period from reading other Scottish Historical Romances, but I didn’t know what history I would weave into the tale. I knew Lachlan and Maggie and how I wanted their story to play out, but I didn’t have all my facts straight. Although the political upheaval of the time and the stories of my hero and heroine intertwine and come together, the romance and the history in Highland Deception were first separate. It took a couple of revisions and a lot of research time to incorporate them into a seamless story, which I think led…

Excerpt The music had a lively air and Miss Katherine Locke would’ve thought herself fortunate to be out again in Society after a long, cold, dull winter in Somerset save that her partner, Lord Haversham, was the rudest man in London. Well, his lordship was about to discover that Kate Locke was not one to suffer fools lightly. “So you refuse to allow your sister to waltz, yet you are quite willing to stand up with me and dance this, according to you, most scandalous of dances.” Kate smiled into the odious wretch’s face. “My lord, I should say that smacks of hypocrisy.” “Indeed.” Lord Haversham turned them skillfully at the end of the floor. “I would say it showed a want of character in your brother for allowing you to dance it with me. The waltz should be danced by married couples and no one else.” He pulled her close against him, so their bodies almost touched. She gasped at her proximity to the rogue. How dare he make a spectacle of them on this crowded dance floor? “You see?” he whispered, peering into her face, his gaze intent upon her mouth. All she could see were his cool…

Fresh Fiction is moderating a tweet chat with Susan Wiggs on Thursday, August 25th from 2pm to 3pm ET (11am to noon PT) and we’d love you to join us! Tomorrow! Be there or be square. #twittertakeover pic.twitter.com/li7bupvknj — Susan Wiggs (@susanwiggs) August 24, 2016 It’s easy, simply use the hashtag: #FamilyTreeBook and post your questions or comments. Susan will be on @HarperCollins account and answering. Prizes and other goodies await!

Ah, summer. It’s a time that’s ripe for romance, don’t you think? I love it when weather places a central part in the story. Sounds kind of crazy but hey, if it’s cold outside, don’t you want to snuggle up with a big, warm man under a cozy blanket? Or stare at that gorgeous guy wearing only swim trunks as he struts around the pool on a hot summer day? Yeah. Me too. Currently in central California (where I live), we are in the depths of summer. We’re talking it’s bone melting hot. Add smoke from nearby fires and the air quality is awful. This doesn’t make me feel very romantic. It just makes me wish for cooler temperatures and pumpkin spice lattes… But I digress. What I do adore is a fun summer romance novel. There are so many out there, I can’t name them all, and yeah, I’ve read too many to count. Jill Shalvis is my go to for a solid, sexy contemporary romance—and she uses weather in her stories almost like a secondary character. I love that! I like to lose myself in the summery details. The characters are hanging out by the pool or the…

We are finishing up the audio book this week for Nashville SEAL: Jameson. This will be the 25th audio book I have done with the same narrator, J.D. Hart. Mr. Hart himself was a country western star in Nashville as a younger man, and played world-wide on tour. He then went on to a successful acting career, as well as being a voice-over talent, and now audio book narrator. I didn’t know J.D. at all when we first started, but over the course of the past two plus years, we’ve gotten to be best friends. I quizzed him about his earlier days, and his stories inspired my Nashville SEALs series with Jameson Daniels, as my hero. J.D. graciously allowed me to infuse some of his stories into the books. So now that we’ve completed Nashville SEALs, and are nearly completed with Nashville SEALs: Jameson, we’ve come full circle. The stories he’s told me have become my stories, and now he’s telling them back through my words and imagination. As best friends, we work so seamlessly together, it’s just amazing. Here’s my blurb for Book 2, which is a continuation of the story in Book 1, the novella. For a brief…