First of all, I have to say how much I love Fresh Fiction and how thrilled I am to be here today talking about my June release, LOVEGAME 🙂 LOVEGAME is a little different from my normal books—it’s darker, twistier, more psychological and suspenseful—but from the moment I first had the idea, I knew I had to write it. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it was going to take me three years—and fifteen other novels—before I would actually get it done. And if you want to talk about coming full circle, I actually first had the idea for Veronica and Ian when I was in Dallas at a 2013 Fresh Fiction event—which is why it seems fitting that the first place I talk about the book is here on this blog 🙂 Every writer, at some point in their career, has an idea that scares them. That keeps them up at night. That matters to them so much that they are terrified they’ll never be able to do the idea justice. That—in the writing of it—makes them grow as both a writer and a person. I am lucky (and unlucky, lol) enough to have had two…
Every writer expects criticism of his or her work. All of us are warned about this early in our careers. Something I heard years ago has stuck with me, and I think of it when I encounter such criticism: “I cannot expect to be universally loved and respected.” My first one-star review was given to my debut novel, CODE BLUE years ago. And I expect to hear this particular criticism again as reviews appear for my latest novel of medical suspense, MEDICAL JUDGMENT. Certain people will complain because I write “Christian fiction.” I’m prepared to have my writing style criticized. Perhaps the reader doesn’t like medical novels. Maybe I don’t pack my work with enough suspense. It’s possible that the characters are one-dimensional. All these are valid criticisms. But I was surprised and disappointed the first time I had my writing criticized because it was written from a Christian worldview. I’ve noticed lately that the genre in which I write is now labeled “Inspirational” fiction. Perhaps that’s appropriate in our politically correct climate, but it doesn’t fully solve the problem. If we use this label, should we then also use terms like “Smutty fiction” or “Fiction containing lots of cursing?”…
As I drove my daughter to school yesterday, I was distracted (at a stoplight) by a sticker slapped on the bumper of the van waiting in front of us. Where Does a Woman Belong? In the White House. My daughter said, “They must like Hillary.” “Maybe.” Then, trying not to sound like an old codger, I mentioned how grateful I was that messages like this were part of her everyday life. “When I was your age, the response to that question would have been . . . In the Kitchen.” “Wow.” My daughter gave me a compassionate smile. That was then. This is now. Thank God. She turned the music up, and we drove on. I am a pre-Title Nine woman, raised in a community that didn’t take kindly to the likes of Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem. In my world, Billie Jean King’s defeat of Bobby Riggs was greeted with bemusement. When Helen Reddy sang “I Am Woman,” people looked heavenward or changed the radio station. Maybe women were strong, maybe invincible, but they didn’t make a big deal out of it. They didn’t roar. I came to assume that, with a few exceptions from the nineteenth century, women…
What kind of shifter would I write about if I no longer created stories about wolf or jaguar shapeshifters? That’s a hard one to answer because I love creating stories about the wolves and jaguars. I’m writing about cougars and also have one coming out about a polar bear because the first shifter book I ever read was about a man cursed to be a polar bear in EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON, a Norwegian fairy tale. Reading that book as a child, I had my first real experience about shifters and loved the romance between the prince and the maid who married him. The story was a fantasy, a wicked troll queen cursing him to be a polar bear by day and a man at night. But mine will be perfectly plausible. Looking for a hot polar bear to warm your heart? Cougars are really different from jaguars, so it’s fun for me to write about two unique big cats and how different the shifters are in their human form also. Jaguars are mysterious, hard to document, protected. Cougars are hunted and have seasons to thin their numbers. Jaguars are exotic big cats, whereas cougars…
Spring is finally here which, according to some love pundits, means that along with sweet-smelling flowers, fresh, dewy love is just around the corner. All that newly exposed flesh… all those newly liberated hormones! But if you’re in the market for a new man this spring, this author highly recommends that you consider trading up and going for a supernatural boyfriend. Here is a roundup of the top 5 reasons the #SNB is the better man. You’ll never be bored. Ever. One of the biggest failings of any relationship is boredom. This is never a problem with a #SNB. So what if you don’t have much in common? No one said that a vegetarian and the undead couldn’t get along! You may not be a drama queen, but the #SNB simply doesn’t have ordinary problems. Imagine lamenting to your friends over coffee about your new significant other and how he occasionally sprouts fur – and sometimes tears the heads off attackers in an effort to save the world and/or you. They’ll be just as enthralled by the discussion as you are. He’ll get you out of a jam. This is the boyfriend you want in your corner. He won’t leave…
Have you ever searched for books with the word wedding in the title? On Amazon alone, there are over 22,000. Add in bride, and you’ll have a mini-explosion on your screen. We have runaway brides, mail-order brides, princess brides, virgin brides, substitute brides, pretend brides, and, yes, bridezillas! There are right at 29,000 book titles that include the word bride. Groom? Another 2,000. I know. A lot less. Sorry, guys, but it’s best you understand right now that it’s all about the bride. Why so many books about weddings? Because we love to read them! We get to vicariously share that magic moment with the bride and groom, their families and friends. The reader is given a front row seat at the affair…and through all the ups and downs it takes to reach that moment. In Magnolia Brides, my new series, we’re right there when wedding planner Jenni Beth Beaumont (THE BEST LAID WEDDING PLANS) and florist Cricket O’Malley (EVERY BRIDE HAS HER DAY) meet their brides and plan that perfect-for-her event…and smile when, along the way, each finds her own special someone. We love the little pink purses bursting with sweetheart roses, calla lilies, Bells of Ireland, and strands…
There’s something ’bout the bad boys that makes the good girls fall in love. ~ Zara Larsson It isn’t just Zara who sings about good girls falling for the wrong boys, we hear it all over the radio, we see it in books and movies, as well as every day in real life. In THE SOCIETY, Sam definitely found herself pulled toward a “bad boy.” He was hot, rode a motorcycle, and had that almost indefinable edge of danger about him from the first time they met. One sexy grin and she was hooked. So what exactly is the allure of bad boys that makes so many girls, especially teens, lose their heads and hearts chasing after them? One surface answer might be that some girls love the bad boy image—that kind of wild, devil-may-care attitude coupled with a sexy grin can leave a girl weak in the knees. Most of us have been there at one time or another. I know I have, especially as a teenager and in my early twenties. On one hand, you might have a perfectly nice guy who your mother would adore, and on the other? The rebel without a cause. How many of…
I love a good sandwich – some amazing French bread, ham, roast beef…a bit of provolone or cheddar…oh, it makes my tummy happy! But grilled cheese – in all its varieties – is my absolute favorite sandwich to make. I think it’s my favorite because of all the variety: I can go kiddish with straight-up American and white bread or take it on a bit of a grown up turn with some broccoli and mushrooms. One of my favorite recipes is for Double Bacon Grilled Cheese – it’s a recipe the characters in PROTECTING THE QUARTERBACK, Jonas and Brooks, sample. Here’s how to make it: Ingredients: 8 slices bacon – we prefer thick cut, but use your favorite Some chopped red onion (to taste and totally optional) 4 slices Cheddar cheese, 3 ounce slices 4 slices mozzarella cheese, 3 ounce slices 8 slices sourdough bread, medium (1/2″) slices Cook It Up: You can use a flat skillet or a closed contact grill, I prefer the closed contact grill, but both make yummy sandwiches. Either way, heat the pan/grill for 5 minutes. Skillet Method: Cook the bacon until lightly crisp, and remove from heat. Sautee the onion in the bacon grease…
Exclusive Excerpt: About DARE TO TAKE A one-night stand. A secret. A mistake they tried to forget. On leave from the army, Tyler Dare is just looking for a little fun, but his best friend’s sister is off limits. Yet unable to deny how sexy and alluring she is, he finds it all too easy to succumb to a night of passion and heat that ends the next morning in the worst way possible. There are just some guys you don’t touch–even someone as innocent and inexperienced as Ella Shaw knows that. But when her brother’s best friend is up for grabs and willing, she can’t resist. After all, she’s wanted him for years… Now, Ella is stranded on a tropical island with a hurricane bearing down, and only Tyler can save her. It’s his chance to make amends for the past and show the woman he’s never forgotten that he’s coming after her . . . in more ways than one. Buy DARE TO TAKE: Kindle | BN.com | iTunes/iBooks | Kobo | Google Play | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR Tyler had been standing in the hallway for a good half hour…
Where does an author come up with her stories? Sometimes from watching a movie or reading a book or news article that piques her interest and gets her thinking “What if this happened next… And sometimes, when a secondary character sticks in her head and refuses to be dislodged until she agrees to tell his story. Such was the impetus for my new Hadley’s Hellions series, which begins this month with FORBIDDEN NIGHTS WITH THE VISCOUNT. The character in question was a key player in rescuing the heroine in FROM WAIF TO GENTLEMAN’S WIFE, a story set more than ten years earlier, when farmer’s orphan David Tanner Smith was still a boy. But a sharp, intelligent, resourceful boy who so impresses hero Sir Edward Greaves that he decides to sponsor the lad at Oxford. Davie has great ideas and a dream of reforming England so that commoners like himself have a voice in government. But power is wielded by those of birth and wealth, so I knew to implement those plans, Davie would need to link up with men of like ideas and better connections. Men who had compelling reasons to be estranged from others of their birth and class….