There are times I look back on my teen years and wince. There were some very happy times but there were definitely hard times too. Those years are full of ups and downs and they can be very hard to understand. When I was a teen, everything was big. My emotions were big. Every fight with a friend, or crush I had on a boy felt like it would make or break my life. I think that’s pretty normal for the age group. I drew on those feelings when I wrote SEARCHING FOR BEAUTIFUL. I remember those times when I felt everyone was beautiful except for me, when I thought I understood what true beauty was, but now I know I didn’t have a clue. If I could have had my adult knowledge as a teen things would have been so much easier. I had no idea who I was, but didn’t know it. I had no idea who I wanted to be. That’s why I wrote this book, and those are the kind of feelings I hope it helps people work through. I wrote this book for my daughters but also for ANY girl. Like Brynn, most of us…

What happens when a supporting character in a book gains a following? Lily was always going to get her own book, as she is one of The Three Diamonds, glamorous courtesans and the heroines in my Jewels of the Ton series. What I did not expect was how popular she was going to be with readers before her book, SAPPHIRES ARE AN EARL’S BEST FRIEND was even released. Readers definitely let me know they were ready for Lily’s story in emails, Facebook posts, and tweets. When are you going to write Lily’s book? I can’t wait for Lily’s story! Lily is my favorite character. Andrew is dreamy. What do you mean March of 2013? It’s the third book? I could sense readers’ impatience that Fallon’s book IF YOU GIVE A RAKE A RUBY was released before Lily’s. Even my friend emailed me, “I have wanted to read Lily’s book since before it was written.” No pressure! Especially considering it still hadn’t been written! I was really a little perplexed over the Lily-mania. Lily had a handful of scenes in WHEN YOU GIVE A DUKE A DIAMOND, and Andrew had even fewer. They only had one scene together before SAPPHIRES, and…

It’s been a long day of writing blogs, so I’ve gotten a bit punchy. What does that mean for you? YOU GET THE FUN BLOG!!!! Yes, the later it gets, the more bizarre I get. So we’re going to do some multiple choice about my book WHAT THE GROOM WANTS alternating with JADE LEE TRIVIA! 1. Radley (the hero of WHAT THE GROOM WANTS) is looking forward to a bright career as captain of his own ship when he steps off the boat and (a) is met by solicitors who tell him he’s suddenly become a duke! (Because that always happens) (b) celebrates his promotion with a dozen prostitutes of questionable age and gender. (c) rushes to Wendy’s house (she’s the heroine) and drags her to his loveshack where he makes mad, passionate love to her for 800 pages. (d) looks at the author and says, “Truly were you drunk when you wrote this?” Answer: D! Okay, A because soon after he steps off the boat, yes he’s told that he’s inherited a dukedom. 2. Jade Lee has multiple names and personalities. Which ones of the following are true: (a) She’s porn star Jade Lee and don’t you forget it!…

 “New York Times” Bestselling mystery author Joanne Fluke would like to invite you to join her for a dessert reception in celebration of her newest Hannah Swenson mystery,  “The Blackberry Pie Murder.” On Thursday, March 6th from 6-8pm we are turning the beautiful Chocolate Angel Café and Tearoom in Plano into Hannah’s bakery, where recipes from Mrs. Fluke’s award-winning series will be served. Try a delicious mini blackberry pie, a gooey cinnamon roll, and a slice of delectable red velvet cake while Joanne talks about her series and signs copies of “The Blackberry Pie Murder.” A suggested donation of $35 covers the cost of the desserts and a copy of “The Blackberry Pie Murder” for you to take home. Space is limited, so please RSVP to Gwen Reyes at 972-741-0988972-741-0988 or [email protected] to secure your spot at the Joanne Fluke Dessert Reception.

The people of medieval Europe sometimes seem as if they are from another planet, their world view is so radically different from our own. How could people have had such blind faith, asked so few questions, expected so little of life, been satisfied with only the hope of heaven? It’s hard to imagine writing a compelling story populated only by docile, unimaginative people, and I am happy to report it is completely unnecessary to try. However valid the above generalizations may be, there was enough independence of thought and action in the Middle Ages to provide fertile ground for historical novelists. Vicki Leon has done a great service by compiling hundreds of profiles of “Uppity Women” for her series by that name. Although the protagonist of my new novel, THE MAPMAKER’S DAUGHTER (Sourcebooks, March 2014) is not one of Leon’s heroines because she is my invention, knowing that such women existed gave me a greater degree of license to create a woman who was doing more than stereotypical things like cooking gruel, making crone-like remarks, darning old socks, and dying in childbirth. Jewish matriarch Amalia Cresques makes many courageous choices during the course of her long life, decisions she recounts…

I admit it … I’m not a tidy person. It’s not in my nature. I don’t have a tidy mind. I certainly don’t have a tidy office. I find an empty desk and a neat office scary! Honestly, my brain freezes if there is too much tidiness! I like stuff and I like it around me. I like things on the wall, things on the shelves, my working tools on my desk and a cat or two lazing in the sun to top things off (although preferably not on my work!). I like photos and books and trinkets and my collections of penguins, Moomins, hockey memorabilia and autographs. I like cards I’ve been sent, my book covers and writing awards, gifts my family or friends have made me or that the kids I used to teach gave me. Everything in my office makes me smile and I’m sure it gives me some kind of positive energy for my work. People think that because I’m not tidy, I’m also disorganised. I like to say that I’m untidily organised. There is a method to the clutter and I know where things are. A place for everything and everything in its place –…

As I writer, I use music all the time to help me set a scene. It’s critical because, let’s face it, I’m often writing alone while still in my jammies, hair sticking up and wearing a non-flattering, fluffy pink housecoat. Yep. Pretty glamorous. So, imagine trying to write a really angsty or emotional scene while your kitten is all snuggled up in your lap, cozy-like. Or, trying to write a sexually charged scene while your kids watch Sponge Bob in the other room. It’s not going to happen. What I have to do is pop in my ear buds, find an appropriate song and play it – over and over and over again until it consumes me. If it’s an upbeat scene, I listen to dance music with a fast tempo, catchy lyrics and repetitive chords. Sometimes I even have to get up and dance around for before sitting down to write (this is not pretty – thank God I do it in the privacy of my own home). The slower tempo of ballads accompanied by acoustic guitars and pianos evoke the kind of sadness and melancholy I need to write heartbreak/achy scenes. And, the screaming electric guitars and frenzied…

Call me crazy, but I love to write alpha males. There’s something a whole lot of fun about a guy who can walk into a room, not speak a word and still let everyone know he’s the big dog. As much as I love alphas, they are challenging. They can be stubborn and arrogant and bossy. Most of the time, the good ones listen to reason. The good ones also march into battle with no idea if they’ll come out and they don’t care. All they want is to fix whatever problem lies in front of them. For me, that strength is the lure of the alpha male. When I began plotting my new Harlequin Intrigue, THE PROSECUTOR, I knew I wanted an alpha as the hero, but I wanted someone…well…different. This hero would be a prosecutor in his early thirties and wouldn’t have a military background. He wouldn’t know how to clean a gun or survive in a jungle for extended periods. But he had to be strong. Strong, but not overly-aggressive. He had to be ambitious, but not to the point where that ambition became a negative. In short, I wanted a guy who craved a courtroom battle…

Today we’re visited by Donna Thorland, author of THE REBEL PIRATE. She’s on a tour and we have an exclusive Q&A with her. What are your top 5 romance/women’s fiction novels of all time? I’m going to cheat a little, because some of my favorite books are part of a series… Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles is actually six books, but every one of them is a non-stop adventure with meticulous historical detail and extra servings of swashbuckling romance. There’s a love story at the center of it that doesn’t resolve until the last page, but when it does, it creates a true partnership of equals. In second place I’d put George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series. Flashman, the bully from Tom Brown’s School Days, is a cad, a rake, and an errant coward and his adventures simultaneously skewer and celebrate Victorian mores and British imperialism. They’re absolutely irresistible . . . except on the rare occasion when Fraser is describing cricket. I’m a Jersey girl at heart, so Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books deserve a place on the list. I ended up studying Classics in high school because I was fascinated by pre-Hellenistic Egypt but hieroglyphics weren’t on the syllabus, so…

I must admit that I’m a stickler for routines. I find routines to be easy and comforting when everything else is out of control. And between you and me, I usually have so many ideas and characters running through my mind that I’m obviously walking through life a little distracted. 🙂 Thanks to my routines I can get things done that I’d most likely otherwise forget while I’m daydreaming aka working (the benefits of being a writer). I actually get some of my best ideas while doing mundane daily tasks. Talk about your multi-tasking. Well, it just so happened that my writing was starting to take on a pattern of its own where I wrote about nothing but small towns and sexy cowboys. What can I say, I enjoy those stories immensely. Then one day my editor called. She wanted to talk. They were making major changes to Harlequin Romance / Mills & Boon Cherish. She wanted to know how I felt about writing stories with an urban/global/aspirational feel. I will say that my stomach literally quivered at the thought. I had so many small town/cowboy stories floating around in my mind. But there was that lure of trying something…