Have you ever read a book and fallen in love with the male lead? Waving my hand. I still sigh just thinking about Marcus O’Malley from Dee Henderson’s book The Guardian. But the thing that tripped me up is that same man would have driven me crazy in real life. Marcus was a bossy, alpha-male who expected everyone to do what he said. Okay, so he was a US Marshal and had a job to do, but still . . . LOL, if my husband was like that, neither of us would be happily married. But for some reason heroes in fiction can get away with this type of behavior, and we love them all the more for it. I suppose it’s because we are able to get into their heads and see their loving intentions. To this day, I still adore Marcus. I was drawn to his strength, courage, tender heart, his desire to protect the heroine at all costs, his sense of justice, and most of all his values. Yet if he were real, he’d drive me nuts. J This got me to thinking about the heroes in the books I write. What is it that draws me…

I’ve always been a sucker for the lighthearted romantic stories, whether in book form or on the big screen. When I wrote my debut novel, Five Days in Skye, I wanted to create a fun, flirty novel that had just a touch of seriousness at the end. Naturally, when it came to the second book in the series, London Tides, I set out to write the same sort of thing. Funny thing about writing books, though…sometimes the characters take over without your permission. The hero, Ian MacDonald, had been introduced in Five Days in Skye, as somewhat of an antagonist—the rule-following older brother. But I knew there was a reason he had gone from the fun-loving athlete of his youth to a rule-following stick-in-the-mud. Deep down, the poor guy was heartbroken. But considering how much Ian had to offer to the right woman, how could his true love ever leave him? Enter Grace Brennan: a war photographer whose need to expose the injustices of the world were even more pressing than her love for Ian…a conflict that led her to leave him six months before their wedding. I’ll fully admit she’s an unlikely heroine for a romance: troubled, suffering from…

There seems to be a misconception about sweet romance. Sweet romances are not all bonnets and prairies. Nor are they about baking or chocolate, though that would definitely make for a delicious book. One that would probably have me reaching for bonbons with every page. As with any romance, sweet romances must have a satisfying ending. After all, a romance without a happily-ever-after is like a Starbucks without coffee. To help set the record straight, though, here are a few things you may or may not know about sweet romances. Sweet romances do not have sex. Or as I tell people, no bodice ripping. Okay, so you may have already figured this one out. However, as the name infers, sweet romances are loaded with romance. Two people falling in love. And isn’t that the best part of a romance novel anyway? In sweet romances, sexual tension, rather than sex itself, move the relationship and the story forward. By the end of the book, the reader knows the couple has a strong foundation to build a solid future together. Sweet romances have real people, with real problems. Just because a romance is sweet, doesn’t mean the characters are. They are flawed…

To me, shifter love is intense, commanding, and all consuming. When you have heightened senses it makes sense to me that everything you do is just that much more intense. So when a shifter falls in love, whether with a human or another shifter, it’s all about the passion and connecting. That is why I love writing about shifters. While I love any paranormal element in books that I read or write there is just something about a strong alpha male falling in love that draws me in. I enjoy the entire process from when our shifter meets his love interest, the internal struggle of putting his heart out, the moment he realizes he’d be lost without her, to the final confession of being in love. The bigger and badder the shifter the more fun it is to watch him fall. Am I right? Cole Babcock is the shifter in WOLF PACK, book five in the Shifter Chronicles series, which is my brand new release. Cole is one of those characters that thinks he likes being alone. Only to find out he had no idea what he was missing. He has his new position with the Shifter Coalition, new friends…

A couple of years ago I happened upon an interesting yard sale. It was made up entirely of books. Back in the olden days, before the advent of digital readers, a yard sale exclusively of books was like my own personal nirvana. I ended up buying an odd assortment of paper backs. They were mostly mysteries, some sci-fi, a few westerns (yes, I read them) and a couple of tame romances. When I got home, I found among the fiction, a book on home decorating according to the concept of Feng Shui. For young readers, Feng Shui was a really big thing fifteen years ago. I couldn’t imagine how the book made it into my purchases, but I was intrigued. And let’s face it…a book is a book. If it’s around, I’m probably going to read it. The first few chapters dealt with Chinese numerology and determining from your birth date and birth year, your element. I turned out to be the water element, meaning I would be most comfortable surrounded by gray and blue in my home. Quite content living in a house painted with warm brown tones, I kept reading. Sadly, I found being a water element was…

My teenage son and I have been discussing pop culture lately. Mainly, we’ve been chatting up how real life spices up entertainment and how different forms of entertainment feed off each other. (Books becoming movies is an example of this.) These discussion always end up focusing on characters, and we get into lively discussions about real and fictitious people, and how they would interact with each other, or how they would react in a different setting. My argument is usually that a hero would be heroic, no matter what setting they are put in. It is not the circumstances that make the hero, it is the inner strength they have that drives them to do the right thing. Did Catniss need to be in the Hunger Games to be selfless? No. She was already this way. How do you think she got into those gosh-awful games to begin with? So lets talk for a bit about my personal favourite heroes from pop culture. I’m going to list them off the top of my head, because if I have to think about it too much, then the character were probably not strong enough to stay with me for one reason or…

To be honest, release day itself is somewhat stressful. It’s typically a day full of chaos, phone calls, blog interviews, Facebook parties, and emailing all the people out there that are helping to spread the word about the new book. Then there’s that horrible thing known as the SALES RANKINGS. Like pretty much every other author out there, I peek at my sales rankings—Amazon and Barnes and Noble mostly—the moment I get up, agonizing over what the total number is and what category I’m ranking in. “Oh goodie, I’m ranking number five overall in the category of romantic/suspense/wolf shifters/who are right-handed/and part their hair on the right!!!” “Yikes, is that good enough? What if I never get up to number four in that most sought-after category?” My publisher and agent tell me stop looking at the numbers and that my books are selling fine. I agree with them, then immediately check to see if my ranking has changed in the last three minutes! Fortunately, release day is only twenty-four hours long, though it can seem longer. After it’s over is when I really celebrate. For me, that celebration usually means a good movie (preferred an animated one…Disney if possible) and…

  Hey all! I’m happy to be here at Fresh Fiction. I’m still celebrating my newest release, MY TEMPTING HIGHLANDER. It’s the third book in my Highland Hearts series, Mairi Sinclair and Ronan Sutherland’s story. If you’ve been following the exploits of the time-traveling Sinclair family, you know that Mairi’s one of the last two Sinclair sisters still residing in the twenty-first century. She’s also determined to stay in that century but matchmaking Granny and cursed but wolfishly sexy (as in shifter type hotness) Highland Chieftain Ronan decide otherwise. Even when writing romances with such fantastical elements as time-travel, magic, and shape-shifting, research has to be done to make sure the story is just right. That’s why I’m so thankful for the internet and online writer groups these days. “Sensitive” inquiries can be tossed about without any drop-jawed stares or threats to call security. When I first started writing, some thirty odd years ago, the bulk of data hunting had to be done at libraries. Here’s a few questions that I’m glad I didn’t have to ask my local librarian. Could you direct me to the section on poisons or would you happen to know if arsenic has enough smell…

Today we’re featuring an exclusive excerpt from ACROSS THE HALL by Kylie Walker. About ACROSS THE HALL Jude Falken has just been released from prison on good behavior. He’s hot as hell, owns one of the largest fashion empires & has women coming and going day and night. A delivery girl that shows up at his loft leaves him intrigued. She’s gorgeous, shy & totally off limits. She’s his best friends little sister. Jude knows better, he swore he wouldn’t go there. After returning from a year long internship in Paris, Jillian Warren is back in her hometown of Manhattan and steering clear of men. Her new neighbor has her curious, wanting to know more. Her roommate & brother keeps telling her stay away but she can’t. As their worlds collide, Jillian soon finds out there is a darker side to Jude and she will soon be fighting her own emotions and memories of the one man she left in Paris. Her past will soon catch up with her. She will be forced to decide. Big brother’s best friend or the hurtful memories of her past in Paris. AUTHOR NOTE: Full length Brother’s Best Friend Romance Standalone Novel with HEA!…

My husband posed that question to me. Well, he didn’t POSE it, per se. He downright accused me of being a crazy cat lady. Let me point out that I only have ONE cat! Her name is Cinnamon and here’s a picture of her as a kitten. Yes, she is in a bag of toilet paper and she is adorable. But since I only have one cat, I cannot be a crazy cat lady. However, the following list of facts might indeed suggest otherwise. You decide. The picture of Cinnamon in the toilet paper bag is the background on my phone. I have more pictures of my various cats than I do of my children. But in all fairness, cell phones hadn’t been invented when my kids were at home.Since the bulk of my pictures are on my phone which I got long after the kids had moved out, I would say that’s just natural selection. I take pictures of what’s around me and my kids aren’t. Not as much as my cat. (My husband points out that he lives with me too, but I have a zillion more pictures of my cat than of him. I say when he…