When I began the RANSOM CANYON series, I moved my computer to a little room out back of my house that we now call the bunkhouse. It’s not big, mission designed and almost a hundred years old. I took down all the western art and put up white boards. I even removed all the books except those on ranching, horses, Texas, or research I might need. Family histories of characters fill one wall and plot lines another. When I step into the bunkhouse, I step into the world of Ransom Canyon. One by one my characters come in and sit down to tell me their story. Two people came into my mind as I began writing LONE HEART PASS. One, Jubilee Hamilton, who has just had all her dreams crash and the other, Charley Collins, who feels like he’s never had the chance to follow even one dream. Both are fighting to simply survive. Together they learn to start believing in love and form a dream, not of riches or fame, but of family. Jubilee and Charley came to me fully developed. I saw them sit down in front of my desk (in my mind) and begin to tell me…

A trope is a recurring literary device that’s been proven to appeal to a broad audience. Consciously or not, writers use them all the time. I choose two or three tropes when I’m planning a story. After that, I really don’t pay a whole lot of attention to them. The story is what it is. Her Secret, His Surprise is a secret baby story. (Yep, that’s a trope.) I love babies. But I’ve never been a huge fan of secret babies. In real life if a baby has to be kept a secret, at least one of the parents probably has some major issues and I don’t have much patience for people with issues either. (Other people, I mean. I’ve got plenty of my own. Those are okay because I try to keep them to myself.) As a writer, however, a secret baby and parent(s) with issues proved an irresistible challenge to me. Children aren’t bargaining chips in adult relationships. How could I possibly make myself, let alone readers, like these people? Enter Cass, Logan and little Olivia. Cass has baggage. She had a terrible childhood, so when she becomes pregnant by a man she can’t find, she chooses to…

Recently I read a suspense novel that left me wondering what the story was all about. I couldn’t follow the storyline or figure out character motivation. Although many aspects of the novel were outstanding, I couldn’t find the plot (storyline) and that meant I had no stake in the protagonist’s life. In short, I lost interest. After careful analyzation of story structure and my method of writing suspense, and I don’t always get it right/write, I made a checklist of what was essential to a SSS—Strong Suspense Story instead of a STOP—Suspense Totally Omitting Plot. At times, a writer neglects a story arc, so the reader stumbles through spine-chilling action without direction. The writer gets ambushed along the way because he forgot his tools of the trade. How can a writer ensure story has meaning? By taking the time to plot a story with explosive characters. The story has a dynamic beginning and propels toward a culmination of exciting events that burst onto the page. The following guidelines will help weave story happenings from ground zero to the climax and resolution. Each scene pitches the story forward by revealing new information, twisting subplots, and unraveling character flaws and strengths. Have…

Top Five Ways I Drive My Editor to Drink Describe the crime-scene stuff in my books with waaay too much detail, because I am a huge forensics nerd. What I find “fascinating,” normal people find “really gross.” Write an entire chapter merely to set up a joke (it was a funny joke, though. Maybe “forward momentum” and “plot” should to take a back seat and let humor drive for a while). Completely and utterly fail in my attempt to write short(er). Even after cutting two complete chapters from In Safe Hands (Book 4 of my Search and Rescue series), I added so much elsewhere that the manuscript was even longer than it’d been before edits. I just can’t stop adding words. It’s a sickness. Lament my inability to correctly use the subjunctive mood for an entire (long) email, because, in addition to being a huge forensics nerd, I am also a huge grammar nerd. Dump my insecurities on her head. “Do you like my book? Did the copyeditor like my book? Did your mom like my book? Will readers like my book? Do you think it’s good? Really? Honestly? Tell me again what you like about it.” Normally, I’m a…

Though my April release, OH WHAT A (WEDDING) NIGHT, is a brand new book, it’s germination occurred sixteen years ago. Long before most of us were reading books on ereaders—my New York publisher asked me to write a pair of connected historical romances set in Regency England. We didn’t label it as a series in those days, but I called it my Brazen Brides series. The first book was the lighthearted COUNTERFEIT COUNTESS. It went on to be a finalist for the Daphne du Maurier award. In the second book, ONE GOLDEN RING (Best Historical, 2005, Holt Medallion winner) my hero came from the wealthiest family in England, the Birminghams, who were prominent in banking and on stock exchange. I modeled them after the Rothschild family, and I wanted to make them Jewish, too, to make even more obstacles to the marriage of an aristocratic lady to a Jewish stockbroker. Unfortunately, my editor nixed the idea of a Jewish hero. Over the years, many readers wrote, asking that I give each of the powerful Birmingham brothers his own book. More than three years ago, I wrote a novella (Lady Sophia’s Rescue, no longer available) with William Birmingham as the hero….

I have always loved the friends to lovers romance trope. The challenge to making a story like this work is to be able to first show how good the hero and heroine are as friends but also create that subtle tension that lets you know something more than friendship is on the rise. That’s what I I hope I’ve done in my contemporary romance, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY. Because of…reasons, my hero, Jamie, and heroine, Brynn, are on a road trip from Chicago to L.A. We know from the outset that Jamie has feelings for Brynn that go beyond friendship, but obstacles have kept him from telling her. His hope is that by the end of the trip she’ll realize he’s the one. What does that mean for me as a writer? I get to put these two in situations that will make them squirm with tension. Here’s a short little scene from early in Jamie and Brynn’s road trip. Because of a travel mishap, Brynn is without her glasses or contacts for their overnight stay in Tulsa, OK. Because our hero is a beer brewer and their hotel bar has tons of microbrews on tap, Jamie and the…

If you visit Amazon these days, you’ll find millions of books. Millions in the romance category alone. So many stories. So many ideas birthed in the writers’ imaginations. But where do those ideas come from? Ask most writers that question and you’ll most likely get some variation of Oh, geez. Everywhere. That’s because life provides the seed for every story, whether it be a song lyric that hits your ears at just the right time, a news headline, a funny comment overheard… Or something as simple as an elderly man holding a bouquet of flowers as he waits for a train. I stood in Grand Central not long ago, watching such an old man and thinking, where is he going? Who are the flowers for? He must be meeting a woman. Look at how sweet and dapper he looks in his fedora as he anxiously studies the board with the train schedule. My mind quickly slipped a romance heroine into the picture. She sits next to the old man on the train and… The possibilities are endless. For me, at least, those seeds normally sprout sideways, never taking me where I first thought they would. Like the idea that came…

I love food. I love to eat food, cook food, and watch chefs make food on TV, so when I thought of Tessa Lawrence, the protagonist for COOKING UP TROUBLE, I saw her in a kitchen. When her grandfather died and her grandmother decided to move to a ranch house in town, Grams gave her their farm and business. Tessa grows fresh fruits and produce. During the summer, she runs a farm stand and a bakery. She and Grams bake together every Thursday and sell their goods on Fridays and Saturdays—cookies and specialty cakes and pies. The shop’s shelves are lined with all things pickled, along with a variety of pestos. While Tessa and Grams cook together, Grams gladly dispenses advice. Tessa’s given up on men after finding her fiancée in the arms of another woman. Grams wants her to get out there again, to find someone else, so when Ian McGregor buys the property next to Tessa’s, Grams sees an opportunity to jumpstart Tessa’s hormones and jolt her back into the world of dating. Grams just might be on the right track, too. Ian’s happy to drop by Tessa’s for supper most nights. He’s good-looking and charming…and engaged. That…

Isis Blake’s Five Rules For Winning Wars Against Pretty Boys And Other Vital Protips For Surviving High School Never trust them: When girls turn 13, there’s this crazy phenomenon I like to call ‘the grownup syndrome’ that happens to them. All of a sudden, dudes think it’s okay to snap bras, call girls whores, and sexualize their bods without their consent. It’s a tragic product of the patriarchy! And idiocy. But mostly patriarchy. There’s only one way to deal with teenage boys, and that’s to never trust them ever. They’re programmed to see girls as objects for their gratification and that is kind of extremely gross! Teenage boys don’t know how to kiss: Sure, the movies like to pretend they do, but outside of sparkling not-real vampire stalkers, kissing is a foreign concept to most boys. Except Jack Hunter. Don’t ask me how I know that – I might die from embarrassment. Or punch his face all over again. Regardless, they’ll try to suck your face like a lemon and it’ll be a very wet, and very scarring, experience. Let them mack on some other girl and get a bit of experience before they worm their way over to you….

When I was in the 8th grade I had to do a project that covered the decade of The Great Depression which was, of course, depressing. Hoovervilles, Dust Bowls, The Grapes of Wrath. Gah. The details of this project are mostly forgotten except for one thing—my introduction to the movies of the Golden Era of Hollywood. I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time and was enthralled. I’m fairly certain I was the only 13 year old who had her mother take her to find an A-line, ankle-length skirt and practiced walking pigeon-toed to make it sway the way Scarlett made her hoops go side-to-side. After my Technicolor romance with the Old South, I moved on to the exotic, smoke-filled Rick’s Café of Casablanca, then screwball comedies, the epic battle of the sexes, and, of course, the sentimental romances. At the time I was probably more enamored with the debonair leading men of the 1940s than those I was paying to see at the theater with my friends. My grandmother and I had a running argument over who had been more handsome: she said Gary Cooper, I said Cary Grant. I think we both won. In my new…