In movies, books, and television, pirates are alpha personalities with a zest for adventure. They’re dangerous, highly skilled at fighting, and live by their own rules. And in many respects, these depictions are right. Hard to believe, but pirates typically did have their own code of honor. All who joined the crew were expected to “sign on the account,” as such agreeing to the laws of the ship. These laws were called the articles, and they included such things as mercy should be given to all who ask for it, that if the prisoners of a captured ship offered no resistance, they should be treated well, especially women. The articles also declared how all plunder would be distributed amongst the crew, because essentially the crew owned the ship. In fact, they elected their captain. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Almost honorable. And yet, as I did research on pirates, I found that sometimes they had bizarre habits and beliefs too. Let’s start with what they drank. Some of the recipes sound rather good, such as bombo, a mixture of rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg. Others, well…others were more unpalatable to me, like drinking rum with gunpowder. I can’t imagine that tasting…

For three days during the month of October each year, the little town of Sweet Pepper, Tennessee hosts their Sweet Pepper Festival where the hot pepper is king! The weather is mild and the trees are glorious in their full fall foliage of gold, red, and green. The festival boasts pepper-eating contests that range from mild to some of the hottest peppers in the world. Competitors come from everywhere to participate. Just watching them is funny, even if you don’t want to join in!  Bushels of the hottest, sweetest peppers in the world grown by local farmers are available for sale, along with local, mountain-grown apples. There is even a water tower shaped like a hot pepper, and a parade that is led by the sweet Pepper queen and her court which winds down Main Street past some of the cutest shops you’ll ever see, The festival is held in the center of town. Vendors from across Tennessee come to visit to play their wares and show off their skills. There are dozens of contests, games, and music. You can also take your pick of every kind of food that can be made with hot peppers – chocolate-covered peppers, pickled…

I’ve always loved characters who are out of their element and trying hard to fit in – think Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman or Reese Witherspoon in Wild. There’s something about having to force your way through a discomfort in order to grow, emotionally or spiritually or both, that appeals to me. So when it came to writing STAGES OF DESIRE, my historical romance, I couldn’t help but use the trope for my hero and heroine. William, Earl of Abingdon, reluctantly comes to the title when his brother is killed, after having trained as a physician and researcher.  Science is his first love, and he’s determined to find a cure for malaria to help his ailing sister. But he’s sent off to track down the flighty ward of the duchess whose daughter he’s been wooing, and finds himself penniless and on the road with a ragtag bunch of actors. It’s his worst nightmare, as he considers plays to be silly entertainment and actors untrustworthy. During the course of the book he is put through his paces, including having to appear onstage, and forced to reconsider his presumptions. Harriet Farley, on the other hand, was born into a family of strolling…

Beverly Allen is here to answer popular questions from readers about her Bridal Bouquet Shop mystery series. The most recent series installment, FOR WHOM THE BLUEBELL TOLLS, is available now from Berkley. Welcome, Beverly! How did you come up with the characters? Are they based loosely on some folks you know? Perhaps I had a little inspiration. Audrey Bloom’s Grandma Mae is patterned loosely after my own wonderful grandmother. But that’s probably the closest parallel. Much of the character development starts with Audrey. She’s really the girl next door, or at least that’s what I was aiming for. She doesn’t have it all figured out, but she’s getting there. She has a bit of a romantic streak, especially shown in her love of flowers and for the language of flowers, but it’s balanced with an inherent practicality, normal insecurities, and just a tinge of residual angst, so she’s not so idealistic and sentimental that her feet ever leave the ground. Where the other people come from is a little more complicated. It’s hard to create a person out of thin air. Some characters, like her cousin Liv, have helped Audrey become the person she is. Others might be antagonistic. Just…

It’s a new year and we’ve got plenty to meow about at the Cozy Corner, like T.C. LoTempio’s new Nick & Nora Mystery series! Welcome, T.C.! Q. Could you tell us about your journey to the release of your book MEOW IF IT’S MURDER, the first Nick and Nora Mystery? A.  That is a long answer! I’ve been writing all my life, but I only started with an eye towards publication sixteen years ago!  After a lot of false starts, I finally got an agent who subbed my vampire suspense novel with no success – and then the supervisor at my day job suggested I write about my cat…and thus was born Nick and Nora. Q. In your novel your characters have the same names as the husband and wife duo in THE THIN MAN, a book by Dashiell Hammett that was made into a movie in 1934 and then later a TV series. What about that story appealed to you and inspired you to use it as a reference for your new series? A. I’ve always been a big William Powell fan, the Thin Man movies in particular.  One night I was watching the movie on tv and my…

So you’ve spent enough nights fantasizing about finding your own square jawed and sexy cowboy to tame the bronco bucking inside your blue jeans.  You’ve finally made up your mind to get out there and snag one for yourself. It’s a no brainer at Starbucks on Saturday morning when you notice that the low-fat latte’ drinker filling out his gym clothes puts his phone down when you walk in the door.  Easy enough. This is your domain.  But sadly, there ain’t a cowboy in sight. That’s where I’m going to help you girls fulfill your cowboy fantasies.  By following these 5 simple steps, you’ll have your very own boot-strutting cowboy with his tight butt wrapped up in denim calling you his lady before the night is over. 1. You’re Going Honky-Tonkin’ There are plenty of places to find a cowboy in his natural habitat. The feed store. Dairy Queen. The gas station. Tractor Supply Company. But here you’ll find your cowboy in his work mode, and that isn’t very sexy. A cowboy at work is a dirty, stinky mess because he’s been working with cows all day. That’s why you’ve got to go to the honky-tonk to find your cowboy….

So my editor asked me if I wanted to do a series set in Texas.  I said “Sure, I’ll be happy to do a series set in Texas.”  Then I wrote the proposal and my three chapters and the synopsis and the editor called my agent and said, “Why, Elizabeth knows Texas like the back of her hand . . .” Well, hold on now.  It’s not all that easy.  Elizabeth doesn’t only not know Texas “like the back of her hand,” she’s never been there. Next thing, after having the hubris to think I could take on the whole state of Texas without ever going there, was to get there fast.  My daughter, Kathy, was up for the trip and we were off.  It was June—getting hot in some parts of Texas—but still nice in the hill country where I got to visit a pecan farm like the one my story family: the Blanchard’s, own in Riverville, which is down in south central Texas. Now, don’t ask me why I put my town there—I’ve got no idea—but when I got there and was hiking along the Colorado River and visiting the little towns, it was all pure Riverville.  I’d…

The Deadly Notions mysteries are set in the fictional nineteenth-century village of Millbury in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In LIE OF THE NEEDLE, my heroine, Daisy Buchanan, owner of the vintage sewing notions store, is conducting research for the Historical Society on the village’s connection with the Underground Railroad. It wasn’t a real railroad, of course, but a series of safe houses or “stations”. Pennsylvania was a destination for many fugitives because it had a reputation for being anti-slavery. They came from the nearby slave states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, and crossed the Mason-Dixon Line at the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania. A good number stayed in Chester and Lancaster counties, where there was a large free African-American population, but for some, the goal was always Canada, as it was simply safer. The underground line through Bucks County was less used than the main routes further west with more direct access to the north, but some slaves did come to the area by way of Norristown or Philadelphia. The towns of Solebury, Quakertown, Doylestown, Yardley, Newtown and Buckingham were all stops on the line, and they were hidden in churches, barns, spring houses, fields and caves. The last important stop…

Choosing the professions of my characters is always a lot of fun. I try to pick something I am interested in, so I can write about it with conviction, passion and sincerity.   I would not, say, write about an accountant or a mathematician; for me, math is a major irritant, like getting sand in my eye. That still leaves a lot of fields wide open.  I have written characters that were violinists, ballerinas, children’s book editors, podiatrists, obstetricians, bar owners, interior designers, and architects.  One character owned a bra shop.  Another did not know what she wanted to do, and found her calling in the course of the novel.  What I didn’t know about these fields, I was able to research–a process both invigorating and thrilling because it allows me, however briefly, to slip into someone else’s life. On the deepest level, though, the character’s profession needs to speak for her or his soul, and it is my job as the author to match my understanding of the character’s inner life with a suitable profession.  When I wrote my latest novel, YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME, I had three main characters for which I needed to create professions. I chose…

Shifters are fast becoming my favorite paranormal beings. I love the protectiveness, possessiveness, and the compassion for family. I also love the mixture of human and animal qualities inside one person, the internal struggle for control, and the primal instincts. I’m a cat person, so I tend to lean toward the felines of the shifter worlds. But I also like a HOT werewolf, or two, or three. When I set out to develop my own shifter world, I wanted the best of both the cat and dog worlds. That was when I came up with Ashwood Falls. Two Packs must depend on each other to survive and fight against their enemies—a rogue Pack called Onyx. The wolves and leopards came together to form one den and community where their people can rebuild their lives after the attacks that nearly destroyed them. So why two different Packs that are opposites and generally don’t mix well? Because I like tension and conflicts in my story lines, and I get to explore the differences between the wolves and the leopards. I also get to watch the Packs grow and strength together as the series develops. I believe they can learn from one another….