When I wrote the first book in the Dante Walker trilogy, I had no idea that Dante would speak directly to the reader in the opening pages. It wasn’t until I was done with copyedits and proofing, and ARCs were being prepped, that I had the idea. After all, I’d spoken for Dante entirely in THE COLLECTOR, and Dante Walker is one to speak for himself, whether he wants to be heard or not. So I approached my editor with the thought of including a letter from the soul collector, and she immediately embraced the concept. The next morning, I drafted the first letter from Dante which appeared in the final, printed version of THE COLLECTOR. Readers seemed to love it, and so I drafted a second one for the sequel, THE LIBERATOR. Now, with the release of the final book in the trilogy, THE WARRIOR, I wrote my last letter from Dante. This time, Dante’s words had a sharper edge. He’s been through a lot, after all, and is tired of the attacks on those he’s grown to care about. I hope you enjoy reading this final letter from Dante Walker, and the very first taste of this sexy,…

As a long-time renter, I often fantasized having my own garden; three seasons of bloom, a symphony of blossoms and butterflies. In winter, the snow would rest like lace on the dried stems and flowers. I did not allow the small discouragement, known as reality, to dissuade me from believing in my perfect garden. When my husband and I finally bought our little bungalow, I approached the garden with trowel in one hand, seed packets in the other, only to discover beneath the neat landscape, sheets of heavy plastic which, meant to foil weeds, would certainly deter my cottage garden, the one I had dreamt of for so long; foxgloves, hollyhocks, and herbs dropping their seeds to the ground in a perpetual rhythm of death and rebirth. My vision of sinking my (gloved) hands into the fertile earth was replaced by the sharp reality of scissors and shears, the sweat-inducing labor of removing heavy layers of mulch-covered plastic sheeting anchored to the ground by metal prongs. It took years to unearth all that plastic. I found an entire fern garden one spring; the fiddleheads in fetal curls unfurled their lovely fronds beneath the sun. The anemic bouquet of Black Eyed…

A couple weeks ago, I finished my contracted book. It’s a great book, coming out next year, titled (for the moment) The Duke’s Cunning Plan by Jade Lee. It was a ton of fun to do, but before I dive into the next one, I decided to do something weird. I’m now writing a book just for me. I’m making it as fun and quirky as I want. No thought of contracts or market or even genre. Whatever comes out, that’s what I’m writing. Now you have to understand, I’ve been a professional writer for two decades. The idea of creating something with no eye toward selling it? Something just for me? Well, that’s…like going to your job on your vacation. Except writing isn’t just a job for me, and somewhere along the road, the magic got buried under the technique and business of writing. But there is good and bad with this process. The great thing about writing just for fun is… A. No deadline. If I don’t feel like writing today, I can sleep in and read Pride and Prejudice. (Actually, I’m listening to it in audio which is making it much more fun) B. We’ve entered conference…

Can I just say this and you not think bad about me? I love to curse. Have ever since I was younger and would giggle when my very proper grandmother would lob the F-bomb when someone just really got on her nerves. She would deny it, but I learned the art form of swearing at her knee. She is a true connoisseur. But out of necessity I had to clean it up. The first time I realized I needed to watch my potty mouth was about eleven years ago. I was sitting in bed reading, and my three year-old son trotted in, jumped up on the bed beside me, and started playing with his Spiderman action figure. About ten minutes go by and then I heard… “S**t!” I jerked my head up, and he was staring over the edge of the bed where he’d dropped his toy. I was shocked. Yeah, of course, hearing his high-pitched baby voice grumble the curse word was surprising. But I was more stunned that he’d used it properly! I didn’t even have to ask myself where he got it from. This girl, right here. So, from that night forward, I made the conscious decision…

Here in the Ozarks we’re a “little bit country and a little bit rock and roll”- as in 1980’s big hair band ‘rock and roll’. We get our big screen movies 4 months after the rest of the country and by golly we like to grow our own food. For a small percentage of our rural population, this is a super-secret effort to thwart the coming end-of-the-world looters. But, those are mostly folks from Cal-i-forn-ia, who’ve moved in and think we don’t know what they’re up to with their solar water heaters and green houses. Please. We don’t need to loot their grub, we’ve got our own! Starting in March, most Saturday’s you can find Swap Meets to populate your food growing enterprise. Swap Meets are a visually arresting sight: Caged chickens, guineas, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, beagle dogs, goats, sheep, and a random used bicycle or sewing machine sit on the side of a curvy Ozark road. Some swap meets are high-class and have their own King John porta potty. Snazzy stuff. After spending a Saturday installing our $600 chicken coop, my husband and 3 young boys headed out to find some egg laying chickens. Even though we were late…

Weird settings, that is. What were you thinking? Earlier this week, my book DON’T BLACKMAIL THE VAMPIRE was released from Entangled’s Covet line. It is the sequel to DON’T BITE THE BRIDESMAID (although it can be read as a stand-alone story). The series is a lighthearted take on paranormal romance, something even contemporary romance lovers might enjoy. And one of the ways I’ve found to make vampires a little funnier, and their stories a little more lighthearted, is to take them out of their comfort zones and watch the awkward fun unfold. DON’T BITE THE BRIDESMAID took a vampire and made him ride around on a cruise ship for the majority of the story (that’s a lot of rays for a sun-challenged man!), and in keeping with this tradition, I set DON’T BLACKMAIL THE VAMPIRE in a place where you wouldn’t necessarily expect a vampire story to be set—a ski resort. Did you know vampires can ski? Well they totally can. And they can ice skate. Yep. I was surprised, too. Not only can they ski and ice skate, Charles proves that they can also be nice, charming guys, who are only sort of obsessed with blood. But the setting…

Readers love series. I love series. Stand alone, continuities, trilogies, serials, you name them, I’m ready to leap and get intoxicated by a new group of characters to invest in. One of my favorite ways to do this is mix old characters with the new. It’s a delicate balance to bring something fresh to my readers, along with giving a taste of what happened in the past books, like visiting an old friend. I remember when I was completely addicted to soap operas, and suddenly the young children were full grown teens one day, ready to take on their own story. Or one of the kids would disappear, and many episodes later, storm back into town as a full adult. We forgive soap opera time because it’s so much fun. Same thing with fiction. In SEARCHING FOR PERFECT, my hero Nate is a big golfer. When he’s on the course, he almost gets bonked on the head by a runaway golf ball, and when he meets the person holding the club, readers come face to face with Wolfe – my nineteen year old angsty, tortured teenager from THE MARRIAGE MERGER. But now he’s all grown up. Wolfe and Nate strike…

Thanks so much for having me here at Fresh Fiction to celebrate the release of FIX YOU, BASH AND OLIVIA, Book Two, and to share some cool news. Book #1 is FREE EVERYWHERE right now! *flails* And book two is only .99 for the next three days, AND I’m giving away three copies of book two today here at FF! FIX YOU is a three-part,new adult serial chronicling the relationship between sexy boxer Bash McDaniels and college student Olivia Beckett. Book three will be out on May 20th. That will conclude Bash and Olivia’s story, but then, in June, I’ll introduce you to Matty McDaniels and his love interest. Each McDaniels brother has a set of three novellas, and each novella releases a month (or less) apart. When the characters of Bash and Olivia first came to mind, I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I’d written a lot of adult contemporary romance, as well as YA romance, but this was my first foray into New Adult, and I wanted to make sure readers got exactly the book I wanted to write. But I was dying to write a serial, and in case you didn’t…

It occurred to me recently that the majority of my stories take place in warm, often exotic locations and nearly always in the heat of the summer. That’s certainly true of my latest release, OUT OF CONTROL, where most of the action takes place in the mountains of southern Spain, in a villa overlooking the Mediterranean. With a little thought, it’s not hard to understand why this appeals to me so much. I’m English, and I grew up in a small town in the north of England, in an area known as the Lake District. It’s a beautiful place but the sun rarely shines and it rains there—a lot. From an early age, I dreamed of hot places. When I started reading romances in my early teens, I was always drawn to the ones with hot, sultry settings and hot-blooded heroes. I fantasized of one day lying on a sun-kissed Mediterranean beach with a stunningly gorgeous, very-nearly-naked hero of my own. He’d be all golden skin and rippling muscles, and one look from his dark eyes would melt me into a puddle in the sand. It never happened. I found a lovely English guy instead, but we did travel a…

When a true story holds both impossible mystery and romance … The heart of mystery is perfection. The writer needs to find the perfect ‘crime’ with which to begin. The reader should not be able to work it out. If you committed it, you could … get away with it. As a writer you need to force yourself into becoming a master detective, into solving the mystery in a way in which you outsmart yourself. You need to discover the flaw in what you thought was perfect. But what if you discover a true story that not only holds all of these elements, but is also set in the most romantic city in the world, and encompasses a secret love story from the past, its ghost-like images captivating not only you, but also thousands of bloggers all over the world? This was what happened to me. I was writing a mystery surrounding valuable art. It involved a love affair from the past and I was working with an agency in London. The novel was almost ready. But then, I read about THE PARIS TIME CAPSULE. Now, you see, I adore France. I speak French, and I love history. I have…