While writing my latest release, THE RULES ACCORDING TO GRACIE, I was looking for a fun date idea that would help my characters get out of their comfort zones…well, get the heroine out of her comfort zone anyway. Gracie Greene takes all her first dates to the same restaurant. While the dates don’t ever go well, her friendship with the owner of the restaurant (and her bad date saviour!) leads to something special. It got me thinking about dating. Now, it’s been a long time since I dated as my husband and I met at the slightly crazy tender age of nineteen. Now, I enjoy a nice meal and a glass of wine as much as the next person, but restaurant dates are kind of boring in the beginning, are they not? There are a few elements to a great date. You need an activity that will allow you to talk and connect, something that will help the conversation along if it slows down (first dates can be so awkward!) and you want something that will make a great memory if you move onto date number two and beyond. If you’re looking for something to spice up date night then…

In every story, writers hope readers will root for the hero and the heroine. They’re the main characters, the center of the story. But without other characters, readers can’t fully understand the motivations of the hero/heroine. That’s one of the reasons I love antagonists. Not necessarily a villain, but someone who doesn’t blindly follow the others. Someone who questions why the h/h do what they do, or who may oppose them. To me, the antagonist is every bit as important as the hero or heroine. Without antagonists and the conflicts they present, the main characters might not show readers what they’re really made of. In TWICE IN A BLUE MOON, Hayden can be a real jerk. He’s sarcastic, snippy and downright rude sometimes. Just as I imagine a reality TV set to be like, with at the participants adding extra conflict by acting out personal drama. Audiences love the conflict they provide, and love to hate the jerks, which is one of the reasons viewers keep tuning in week after week. So I imagine producers would love Hayden too. Let’s take a closer look at Hayden. He’s a video guy for the reality show No Boundaries, so it’s his job…

The market is full of romance books – mainstream romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, medical romance, cowboy romance…the list goes on. So how does a romance writer attempt to stand out from the crowd? To keep her or his precious readers interested and anticipating their next release? I am lucky enough to write three romance sub-genres for two different publishers – I write Victorian romance for eKensington/Lyrical press, mainstream romance and romantic suspense for Harlequin Superromance. The fact that I get to alternate between the three keeps me interested as a writer and, I hope, keeps my readers looking forward to seeing what type of romance releases next. As I am currently writing my sixteenth novel, the issue of what keeps my writing fresh is a big one. I hope because I live so close to where my Victorian books are set and that Bath is a different city from London, I bring a different feel and atmosphere than many other historical romances. For my contemporary work, I am the first author to have books in the Harlequin Superromance line with all British characters in a British setting. Again, I hope this makes my books different than others on offer….

Location is an extremely important part of writing a successful story. For me, if a book takes place in a state, city, or part of the world I’m interested in, I’m more likely to buy the book. New Orleans happens to be one of those cities I not only love to visit—I love to write about it, as well. It’s also one of those cities that, if you do decide to use it as the backdrop for your story, you’d better do your research and get it right. If you make a mistake and put a famous hotel or restaurant on the wrong street or a musician’s name wrong, or a historical event or figure in the wrong time, your readers will let you know about it. In RUE TOULOUSE, I placed Ma Cherie on Royal because there are other similar establishments located on that street. Remi and Caterine eat at The Chartres House, which is a favorite of my husband and me. In fact, I had my characters order what David and I usually have ourselves.  I knew they’d like it! Caterine meets her grandmother at Brennan’s for brunch. Again, this is one of our favorite places to eat….

I guess I am the classic example of the woman who couldn’t decide what she wanted to do when she grew up.  Well, I did settle on “writer.”  But I started off with newspaper articles, then slopped into novels with a kids’ science-fiction book for Scholastic. Since I’d read mostly science fiction and mystery, I didn’t even know the romance genre existed.  But when a friend asked me if I wanted to try writing one, I found that these were novels all about the relationship thread that I’d loved in the books I had read, like The Puppet Masters, by Robert Heinlein, which is almost classic romantic suspense. After writing straight romances, I found I wanted to do stories with more plot, which was why I gravitated toward romantic suspense, like the Rockfort Security books, which all feature a man and a woman falling in love while determined killers threaten their lives.  And I also love creating a community of people like the Rockfort agents who will go the extra mile for each other. You see both these characteristics in PRIVATE AFFAIR, where Olivia Winters and Max Lyon have to pose as an engaged couple to investigate the murder of…

The 5th book in my Ghost of Granny Apples series, GHOST IN THE GUACAMOLE, is about to be released. Wow! The fifth! And that doesn’t count the two Granny Apples e-book novellas that are already out: THE SILENT GHOST and DUMMY OF A GHOST. When this series first started I really had no idea that it would be as popular as it is or would extend beyond a few books. (Not that I’m complaining!) Really, I didn’t. I thought after a couple of books, there wouldn’t be much to write about or that readers would grow tired of it. Boy, was I wrong! On both counts! Just as readers are thrilled to see another Ghost of Granny Apples mystery hit the shelves, so am I thrilled when the ideas for stories continue to present themselves to me. Maybe ghosts are whispering in my ear? Ideas for these fun books are triggered from all kinds of sources, but mostly it’s a place that plants the seed for a story. I love to weave a little bit of history into these stories about a 100-year-old pioneer ghost who helps her great-great-great granddaughter, who is a medium, solve murders or prevent them, and…

In my new romantic suspense HOUR OF NEED, Major Grant Barrett returns home from Afghanistan after the murders of his brother and sister-in-law to find that his infant niece and young nephew have been placed in foster care. Grant is thrust into parenting with no preparation for the role. Thankfully, he has a sexy neighbor and her family to help him. But when romance begins to form between Grant and Ellie, they find themselves juggling the chaos and demands that come with family life. How do they manage to find a second alone? To begin, they embrace the help of family. Ellie’s teen daughter loves to spend time with Grant’s nephew, and her grandmother bakes a mean casserole. Even Grant’s sister, a corporate attorney with less experience than Grant with kids, can learn to feed a baby, even if the learning process is comical. I have a houseful of kids and pets and chaos, and let’s face it: The most difficult thing about raising kids is finding the time to keep your relationship strong. Here are my tips for finding time for romance, learned over twenty years of marriage, kids, and chaos. 1. Teenagers are often great with young children…

Writing about women, their relationships with each other, with the other women in their families, and the growth they experience through it all inspires me. Relationships are complicated, and when they’re authentic… and when they’re strained, I find them really interesting. I just love the relationships women have with each other. I love the idea of women’s organizations, too. The Red Hat Society, for example. Their motto is: fun, friendship, freedom, fulfillment and fitness Right now I’d be a Pink Hatter, and I haven’t made that commitment to fun, friendship, freedom, fulfillment and fitness with the group, but when I hit 50 (in about 12 years), I think I will. Red Hats. Purple clothes. Spunky women on a mission to have fun, stay young, and live large. That sounds like a great way to stay young at heart and I definitely have the philosophy that you are as young (or old) as you feel. I’m all about staying and feeling young for as long as possible! That philosophy definitely represents many of the supporting characters in A SEAMLESS MURDER, book 6 in A Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series. They are the Bliss chapter of the Red Hat Society… and one of…

When a ballplayer retires, that’s the time to make a final review of his stats, adding up his career runs, his strikeouts, his RBI’s and analyzing his more controversial plays.  So that’s what I find myself doing with my old friend Adrian Monk.  After 125 episodes, and nineteen novels, it looks like the man’s fabled career is coming to an end.  After this last novel, there will be no more Mr. Monk mysteries.  And I feel enormously lucky to have been part of it from beginning to end. Monk’s first “on-base” happened in the late 1990s, when producer David Hoberman saw the movie As Good as It Gets and thought, “Hmm, could that annoying guy with OCD (Jack Nicholson) be a police detective?  Would that make good TV?”  He took his questions to comedy giant Andy Breckman who answered yes and yes and wrote the pilot. After several years in development hell, Monk came to bat in 2002 and made an immediate hit, one of the first basic cable series to have any real impact.  It was so successful that ABC, then in a ratings slump, showed our reruns in prime time.  The following year, NBC did the same, filling…

My Regency series: The Scandalous Seasons series and The Heart of a Duke series. My Latest Release: MORE THAN A DUKE just debuted January 3rd, 2015 and it is the latest release in my Heart of a Duke series. A Little Bit About Me: I’ve always considered myself a writer. I’ve loved to write since I was a girl of 13 and knew when I picked up my first Judith McNaught book that I’d someday write Happily Ever Afters. I divide my writing into two parts: before I was a mother, and after I was a mother. When my son was born, I discovered he had Down syndrome, and it redefined my life as a writer, mother, and as a person in general. He opened my eyes to the beauty of imperfection. From then on, I began to create Happily Ever Afters for oftentimes broken, imperfect heroes and heroines deserving of a happy ending. Readers, authors, and reviewers also frequently call me prolific. I have the ability to craft stories rather quickly and I love to share them with my readers! Therefore, I tend to release a new book/novella every 6 weeks or so! What You Will Find in My Books:…