Mind you, I’ve never done this before. Write a series, that is. Not intentionally, anyway. I tend to discover secondary characters along the way as I write and realize they need a story. But that isn’t how it happened this time. This time I set myself up to write a trilogy about three women who become friends under the most trying of circumstances, The Battle of Waterloo. It was to be called The Three Graces, and I had it all plotted out. Well, I did until the second book, NEVER A GENTLEMAN, when Diccan, the hero, returns to his apartment to find eight other men draped over his furniture enjoying his brandy. You know that part about discovering secondary characters who need stories? Yeah. It was then that I realized that Drake’s Rakes, the informal group of aristocratic gentlemen I’d casually put together to protect England(I love nefarious spies), needed their own stories. Nine of them—well,  eight by this time. One, Jack was already taken in BARELY A LADY. I’d set out to write a trilogy about women and ended up with a—what is a group of ten, a decatet? What did I do now? The first thing I did…

As an erotic romance author, one of the first questions I’m asked is if I’ve “done” every sexual scenario I’ve written about…Umm…No. The really funny thing about that? I’m also a mystery writer but no one ever asks me if I’ve actually killed someone. Gives the person asking the question something to think about 🙂 In the Mastered series, in BOUND, UNWOUND and SCHOOLED (a novella out December 2nd) my two main characters are Ronin Black and Amery Hardwick. In addition to being an 8th degree black belt in jujitsu, Sensei Ronin Black is also a kinbaku rope master. What does that mean exactly? Well, he likes to use rope on women as an artistic and sexual expression of beauty. I’ve read lots of books where the hero is very much into rope bondage, but my starting point for the series wasn’t a male character’s need to immobilize sexual partners as a measure of control, but the fact kinbaku and shibari were borne out of hojojutsu—the traditional Japanese martial art of restraining a person using cord or rope. I wanted to explore rope bondage from a different angle. Which meant lots of research. My favorite type of research is the…

A guest blog from Laura Childs, author of the Cackleberry Club Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries, and Scrapbooking Mysteries. As I fuss about my writing studio, stumbling over sleeping dogs and gazing at Christmas presents I’m trying to keep hidden, my thoughts seem to naturally drift back to Christmases past. I have a hazy memory of a Christmas party I attended when I was three years old.  This was back when moms didn’t work, but baked cookies and fudge and congregated with their toddlers in each other’s homes.  While us kids played with train sets and fuzzy bears under a twinkling Christmas tree, our moms sipped coffee and talked.  As the day slipped into a blue-black winter evening, fathers would arrive from work, stomping snow and wearing hats and long coats, ready to gather up wives and children.  It was magical and lent a feeling that all was safe and right with the world.  And I miss that feeling terribly. When I began writing my Cackleberry Club Mysteries, I tried to capture that magical, innocent, fifties-feeling.  Though the mysteries are set in contemporary times, they offer a raft of small-town characters that make you yearn for simpler times.  At the top…

About halfway down the coast of California stands a grand estate on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Called San Simeon, or Hearst’s Castle, it is, indeed, much more than house. It was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper heir, and built by the amazing Berkeley-based architect, Julia Morgan – a bespectacled woman who, at 4’11”, ran her own construction crew at a time when women were told to stay home, mind the children, and leave public life to the menfolk. As a native Californian, I toured Hearst Castle as a child. The estate is a Gothic/Italianate/Spanish revival wonder, a mix of styles and resources and artwork. With Hearst’s almost unlimited checkbook, Morgan took trips to a war-torn Europe and bought entire rooms – paneling, ceiling medallions, corbels, built-ins – and whole stone staircases. She purchased ancient Roman birdbaths and medieval tapestries. She imported mural panels and dismantled small stone houses to be rebuilt in the garden as guest accommodations. Also, Julia Morgan designed two swimming pools: one a Grecian wonder featuring massive columns, and the other a subterranean fantasy of cobalt blue and brilliant gold. It took me years to get over that sparkling grotto – in fact,…

Question: What is the hardest part of learning to ride a bike? Answer: The pavement. Evie Bloomfield here, all the way from Chicago to the happy land of Mackinac Island, the setting for GEARED FOR THE GRAVE. There are no cars, no motor anything on the island. Fact is, if you want to get somewhere it’s by horse or foot or bike. See that Chicago reference above? I’m a city girl and that means I have zip history with horses and with bikes. I got the foot part down from running after trains and buses but even an eight mile island it a lot to take in on foot. I could jump on a horse-taxi here on the island of course but that’s expensive so that brings us to the bike mode of transportation. And there’s another reason I should learn to ride a bike…I work at a bike shop. Rudy’s Rides. So how do you learn to ride a bike? I asked Rudy the guy who owns the shop and this is his advice. (warning: Rudy is a little crusty around the edges so if you are easily offended you might want to stop here.) Rudy said learning to…

Just off the coast of Cornwall lies the most gorgeous, welcoming holiday destination you’ve probably never heard of: the Isles of Scilly, a place of puffins and palm trees, flower fields and harbor seals. The North Atlantic Current bathes the islands in such warmth that it rarely snows there. Designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the islands are famous for flowers, bird watching, stargazing, and hospitality. What better place to fall in love? Not that Michelle Cole was looking for love when she went there. Her trip to the island of St. Mary’s was mostly a favor to her best friend, who’d just inherited a bed and breakfast called Valhalla’s Rest. As a former B and B owner, Michelle went there to survey the property and the island, to see if Vicky should keep the property or sell it. Really, it was supposed to be a quiet two-week vacation… Until ex-Royal Marine Ray Powell showed up on her doorstep, battered and bruised from a rescue mission in the desert, seeking a refuge from the stresses of his job as a military security consultant. Valhalla’s Rest had been his haven since childhood, the place where he could go to…

It’s hard to believe that MURDER, SERVED SIMPLY is my eighth book featuring Amish characters. Throughout those eight novels, I’ve stuck my Amish characters in many funny and even dangerous situations and have loved every minute of it. When I write about the Amish I focus on the interaction between the Amish and English in Ohio where I live. In some counties in Ohio, including Holmes County where the Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series is set, the Amish and English interact every day. No English (non-Amish) person living in those counties thinks much about passing an Amish person on the street. The Amish are just neighbors. Yes, they dress different, but they are a part of everyday rural Ohio life. Some of my novels focus on how Amish people leave their communities to become English but still interact with their Amish families. Some relationships are broken when this happens, and most relationships between former Amish and their Amish families remain tense. Because I have written on this topic a lot, I thought what if an Amish man left his community but remained Amish in his own way? What if he went rogue? I suspect that there must be a rogue…

SUSPICION AT SEVEN is the latest in my Lois Meade Mystery series, and involves another murder hunt alongside Detective Inspector Hunter Cowgill. The inspiration for this story came to me one day when I was lunching in a restaurant in a converted water mill. I remembered as a child seeing the mill and all its workings and work people were covered with a layer of white. It looked then as if a gigantic flour sprinkler had dusted it ready for the oven! During lunch, I watched the huge millwheel, glassed in for safety, an attraction for customers, going heavily round and round, dripping slimy green weed ….. A plot, surely? One for Lois Meade, who has become friendly with Aurora Black, an attractive baker from her shop opposite the mill, and it is on a pleasant summer day that the pair decide on lunch after a walk with Jemima, Lois`s small terrier, across the water meadows. Aurora is not entirely happily married to her husband Donald, since he has a wandering eye, and a mistress who helps him with his pyramid jewellery selling and other less innocent occupations. Aurora is also part of the business, and they have one precious…

For the last three years, I’ve been writing about navy SEALs, and I’ve been reading about them for a lot longer than that. Biographies, true accounts of their missions, and novels. I’m not picky about format, I’m just fascinated by these men who serve America with such excellence. Not only are SEALs great warriors, they also make excellent romance heroes. Here are five reasons I love writing them. 1. Determination. In order to become a SEAL, they have to survive the most grueling training known to mankind. I’m not talking about just an unpleasant experience. This training is designed to push every limit—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. The ones who make it, the men who call themselves SEALs, have mastered every challenge thrown at them and never given up. That’s months of jumping into the freezing Pacific Ocean, rolling around in the sand, and then running miles. That’s carrying boats over their heads and running endlessly across the sand. That’s jumping in deep pools, hands and feet bound. It’s training designed to weed out the weak. SEALs are anything but weak. So when they face a hard times, when relationships are tough, they don’t give up. They know how to fight…

I don’t know about you, but I totally love a good second chance romance. In a second chance romance, love, once lost, is eventually found and oftentimes it is more real and poignant than ever. And there’s something about second chance romances set around the holidays that really does it for me. For many, the holidays are filled with love, and the traditions associated with the season invite reminiscing about our pasts—of loves once had—maybe even about the one that got away. There’s also an urgency that goes along with an old year ending and a new one beginning—that love must happen before it’s too late…before another Thanksgiving, another Christmas, another season, another New Year’s Eve passes us by. So finding love during this season, especially a long-lost love, just packs maximum impact. It’s this exact situation that takes place in New Year’s in Napa. Two years ago, out of guilt, brilliant scientist Mandy Aligheri gave up on a chance for love with winemaker Liam Flynn. Hurt and disappointed, they both went their separate ways. When she runs into him again, not much has changed—she’s still as beautiful, intelligent and stubborn as ever and he still has the same easy…