Let’s face it, there’s something hot about sports players. From the way they handle the ball/hockey stick/bat to all the muscles it takes to play competitively. In ANATOMY OF A PLAYER, Whitney goes undercover as a sports reporter, her assignment to expose all the unfair perks the college championship hockey team receives. But she’s completely unprepared for Hudson Decker, the bad boy of the hockey team, and once he turns his charms on her, she has a hard time not falling for the guy. Since we’re talking about irresistible athletes, I thought I’d talk about the professional athletes who make me swoon. The ones I’ve sometimes wished didn’t have to cover their pretty faces with helmets while they played. I mean, safety first and all, but would it kill the cameramen to show them without them on a little more? My five most crush-worthy sports guys. Eric Decker – As a Broncos fan, I was especially proud hottie was part of my team. When he was traded, it was a sad day, and the games have had a little less eye candy ever since. Gabriel Landeskog – Hockey player for the Colorado Avalanche. Another guy who plays for the home…

It’s no secret I write a lot of sex scenes. My muse is erotic and I assume when people buy one of my books they consider the sex scenes “the good bits.” But some comments from readers recently made me realize this isn’t true of all books or all readers. I was intrigued to hear some readers regularly skip sex scenes. When I asked why, the answers varied, but often it seems the “good bits” are nothing but–well–sex. It isn’t that the sex depicted isn’t good, but that it’s too often the equivalent of stock film footage, like a montage that you can just fast forward over until the plot starts again. To me that’s a waste of a scene. Here are five things that sex scenes can do in a novel besides “be sexy.” Sex is a catalyst Stories are about change. If characters don’t grow and change in the course of a book, something’s wrong. Sex is one of the events that can change a person’s inner landscape, one of the things that can start the avalanche of change that a character might go through. In a romance that might be because it’s sex with the right person;…

In this second book of the RANSOM CANYON series called RUSTLER’S MOON, I wanted to add a mystery whispering through my story. Angela Harold is running for her life after her father is killed. She has no family she can trust and no close friends she wants involved. Applying for a job as a curator for a small museum in Crossroads, Texas seems her only way out. It was great fun to bring someone to Texas for the first time. Angela is surprised how fast the whole community takes her in as one of their own. The setting for RUSTLER’S MOON is a ranch called the Devil’s Fork and a museum set on the edge of Ransom Canyon. Since I grew up going to the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon, Texas, it was easy to build a museum in my mind. I had one character, Carter, who really brought my museum and the canyon alive in my story .He’s long retired and comes to Crossroads, Texas, every summer to walk the canyon and search for a childhood memory. One rainy night when Carter was five, he and his father found a cave that had drawings of stickmen on the walls….

I am first and foremost a military spouse. I’ve been married to this insanely hot Apache pilot for the last 14 years, and between our six kids, four duty stations, and juggling both our careers, there’s still nothing harder than the days I kiss him goodbye and send him to war. I’ve sent him a total of four times. Twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan. Iraq almost didn’t give him back. I’m still picking pieces of that country out of him, and probably always will. As a military brat, I wrote FULL MEASURES, the first book in the Flight & Glory series, asking the question, “if my father had been killed in action when I was twenty, how would that have affected my outlook on love? On risk? On the military?” In HALLOWED GROUND, the fourth and final book in the Flight & Glory series, I go back to Josh and Ember, and put their love and lives to the ultimate test by sending Josh to Afghanistan. But how do you keep your hero and heroine connected when they’re on different continents, different time zones and different mindsets? The same way we military spouses do: Skype, love letters, and…

Behind the Scenes of a Lingerie Fashion Show. One of the fun things about writing is the places your research takes you. In INTO THE FURY, Ethan Brodie, a bodyguard at Brodie Operations Security Services– BOSS,Inc, the guys call it–is hired to protect the models in the La Belle lingerie fashion when they receive threatening notes. Ethan isn’t happy with the assignment. He’s been having trouble with his ex-girlfriend and he’s sworn off women. The last thing he wants is to travel with what he thinks will be a group of hot-bodied, air-head divas on a cross country tour. Worse yet, he’s promised his cousin’s wife he’ll watch out for her close friend, Valentine Hart, one of the models on the tour. When one of the women is murdered, things go from bad to worse, with copycat killers, unruly fans, and millions of dollars in diamonds. Ethan has his hands full, and of course, he is rapidly learning that being a lingerie model is a whole lot harder than he thought. And the women, including Valentine, are a whole lot smarter. In order to get a feel for what a lingerie model–think Victoria’s Secret–actual does, I did a lot of…

Cozy mysteries are as American as apple pie. That’s why I chose Apple Valley as the setting for the third book in my Food Truck/Food Festival mystery series. Although comfort food and murder don’t necessarily go together, there’s always a bad apple in every murder mystery wanting to make mincemeat out of some poor victim or two. When Darcy Burnett, former restaurant critic, is greeted by the intoxicating fragrance of cinnamon, sugar, and baked apples coming from her Aunt Abby’s kitchen, she wants to know what smells so good. Her aunt, a former cafeteria lady, shares a bite of her latest comfort concoction, and informs Darcy she’s signed up her School Bus food truck to Apple Valley for the annual Apple Festival. And she invites Darcy and her son Dillon to come along. After Darcy reads over the festival promotional materials, she can hardly decline. “Nestled in the rolling Sierra foothills of El Dorado County is a wonderland of apple orchards and farms, apple wineries and breweries, all waiting to bring apple lovers a variety of sweet, tart, and tempting apple treats. The area, known as Apple Valley, provides the perfect place for a fruitful getaway, where you’ll find everything…

Tuesday, January 5, marked the launch of A GHOUL’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER—the tenth and final book in the Ghost Hunter Mysteries. I thought that as the release day approached, I’d feel sad. Melancholy. Filled with regret. But I feel none of that. Instead I feel tremendous joy, and truthfully my chest is near bursting with pride. This final book is my favorite of the series—not because of the plot or character development, but because it’s right. It’s just right. While putting together the newsletter to announce the launch, my assistant—who does artwork—created a block of all the books at the bottom of the page, and as I was reviewing the newsletter, I found myself staring at that group of all ten books, eyes brimming with tears for a long, long time, thinking how wonderful it is to have been a part of their creation. There’s a whole world inside those three-thousand-plus pages. A world I built and labored over and brought to life. What a divine feeling it is to look at them and feel such a sense of pride and accomplishment. And there is also that, with this final book, I know I’ve brought M.J. to the…

To celebrate the ninth installment in the White House Chef Mystery series, I’ve come up with nine all-new trivia questions. Test your knowledge about Ollie and the gang for fun and bragging rights (answers below). In STATE OF THE ONION, the First Lady must decide who to name as executive chef when Henry retires. There’s no doubt that Henry prefers Ollie succeed him, but who else is in the running for the top job? Martha Stewart Laurel Anne Braun Julia Child Buckminster (Bucky) Reed HAIL TO THE CHEF is the second book in the White House Chef series, but many readers pick it up mistakenly believing it to be the first in the series (meaning: they haven’t read State of the Onion). What is the number one comment/complaint I’ve received via email from this group of readers? New readers don’t believe that an underground bunker exists in the White House New readers think that Marcel’s gingerbread White House is too big New readers have an issue with (fictional) President Campbell New readers don’t immediately realize that Ollie is female Which members of Ollie’s family do we meet for the first time in EGGSECUTIVE ORDERS? her brother and father her mother…

Thanks so much for inviting me to visit your blog today. I’m thrilled to be here and to talk a little about writing THE CAKES OF MONTE CRISTO. The story takes place around The Belle Lune Ball, an annual high-society event sponsored by the Crescent City Vintage Clothing Society, and for which Rita and the crew at Zydeco Cakes are contracted. Not only is Zydeco obligated to make the cake for the event, but Rita—who is a trained chef—has agreed to cater the event, as well. That’s a first for the staff at Zydeco, but Rita believes they’re up to the task. Evangeline Delahunt, who is in charge of the ball, is difficult to please, but finally approves a menu and a proposal to create five (yes, five) cakes that look like vintage dress cakes. With just a few weeks until the ball, and it’s all hands on deck to get the work done. But a mystery novel wouldn’t be a mystery novel without something to throw a kink into the works, and in The Cakes of Monte Cristo, that something is an accident and the discovery of a hidden treasure at Zydeco. That hidden treasure comes along with rumors…

DAISIES FOR INNOCENCE is first in the Enchanted Garden Mystery series and features Elliana Allbright, aromatherapist extraordinaire and owner of Scents & Nonsense. A thirty-something recent divorcee, Ellie has lived in Poppyville, California her entire life. In fact, her great, great grandfather was one of the founders of the town – along with Pauline “Poppy” Thierry, the local madam in 1849. Originally settled in order to cater to the miners headed into the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the California Gold Rush, modern-day Poppyville is a tourist town chock full of Old West flavor and offering nearby hot springs, mountain biking, horseback riding, and fly fishing. Ellie lives with Dash, her Pembroke Welsh corgi, in a super-efficient Tiny House at the back of the Scents & Nonsense property. The shop is guarded day and night by a Russian blue shorthair named Nabokov who regularly attracts clusters of blue butterflies when he ventures out to sun himself in the garden. By the end of the book, Ellie’s growing menagerie is joined by a beta fish named Leonard. The space between Ellie’s home and work is packed with garden beds connected by winding stone paths. There are seating areas and cozy alcoves interspersed…