THE TEMPTATION OF LAURA is the second book in my ongoing series with eKensington. The books are set in and around the famous historical city of Bath, England. I am lucky enough to live just a short, thirty-minute drive from the city, which means I can go back and forth as often as I like. Bath is rich in history. From the Roman times, right through to the late 19th century, there are many sights, museums, talks and festivals to educate and entertain. My books are set in the late Victorian era, and I tend to focus on the social entertainments and issues of the time rather than specific historical events. My stories are peppered with descriptions and referrals to real and existing Bath buildings, streets and homes that I have been lucky enough to visit, and I hope each adds enough to ground the reader in the beauty and mystery of this beautiful city. Very little has changed in Bath over the years and it was my absolute pleasure to show one of my dearest online US friends around in September last year. We had spoken online for around six years so when she intended to fly in from…

How often do girlfriends get together to talk about sex and romance? Well, we decided to do more than that…to take it a little further and write a romance novel – together. Genie had already published a number of different books including several award winning romantic suspense novels and a mystery. We’d worked together on film scripts, and we were used to collaborative writing. Linda comes from the world of television where she’s worked on everything from comedy to reality to news. And we both know a thing or two about romance, or at least we think we do. So it was just a simple matter of finding the right story and figuring out what we wanted to eat for lunch! Seriously. Many of our friends and a few total strangers have asked us why we wanted to write together, lunch aside. Actually, many of them seemed stunned, since we both have careers that have been relatively successful on our own. Occasionally, Linda’s husband still asks that after he’s come home to hear us arguing over a minor sentence. For instance – Doesn’t everyone know what a dust mote is? Debating this point took up at least thirty minutes of…

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY turned BDSM erotic romance into standard reading fare on subways and in airport lounges. What’s that all about? The DIRTY GIRLS BOOK CLUB in my series for Berkley Heat might well be the only female book club that hasn’t read BDSM. When one member, Marielle, suggests they try it and find out what the fuss is all about, reactions are varied. Kim cheerfully admits she doesn’t know for sure what BDSM is, but she’s game to find out. Marielle says she thinks she’s done it. George, who was sexually abused as a girl, is skeptical. Lily, a fiercely independent feminist and a family practice doctor, is opposed. But, in the interests of research, they all agree to try one book. Their choice is Bound by Desire (it’s not a real book; I wrote the excerpts myself). The premise of my series is that each time the club reads an erotic novel, one of the members has her own sexy romance that in some way parallels the book they’re reading. In my latest release, BOUND TO BE DIRTY, the heroine is Lily Nyland. Unlike in the previous two books—THE DIRTY GIRLS BOOK CLUB (Georgia’s story) and DARE…

So, hi there! I’m Ava Miles, the new contemporary romance writer who burst onto the scene with her book NORA ROBERTS LAND, which kicked off my acclaimed Dare Valley series. Now, I’m delighted to announce the first book in a connected series called Dare River, set in the deep South, titled COUNTRY HEAVEN. This book isn’t called COUNTRY HEAVEN because it’s set out in the rural areas dotted with hay bales and cows (and hey, I’m originally from Nebraska so I love that scene.). No, this book is about country MUSIC, one of my favorite types, and writing a steamy country music singer as my hero was just the most fun ever. Rye Crenshaw is larger than life, a total bad boy. But he’s hiding a deeper pain, having been disowned by his blueblood conservative Southern family. He thinks his life is complete until he meets the heroine, Tory Simmons, whom he hires to be his cook on his tour bus. When he’s called home when his father has a heart attack, he leans how to forgive and reconnect with his family who needs him…and how to love a woman like she’s his last breath. Here’s my top ten reasons…

Do I prefer writing Alpha or Beta heroes and why? Oh gosh…I think all my guys are a little of both. I like a strong man that isn’t afraid to be soft and gentle. What I like comes out in my heroes, of course. I mean…I have to hang out with them non-stop for months…I better love them! Where do I find the inspirations for my heroes? Some are simply favorite traits from men I know. Some from well-known entertainers that we all know. The inspiration for Cody Tuggle in OUT OF FOCUS and PECAN PIE AND DEADLY LIES was Bret Michaels. From a looks perspective he was kind of a Toby Keith/Bret Michaels combo, but what struck me as I watched Celebrity Apprentice was that Bret Michaels was so much more than what he came off as on Rock of Love and in the tabloids. I was so impressed with how kind-hearted and sincere he was and his daddy/daughter moments absolutely melted my heart. My husband just passed away last week. He was a man’s man. Very rugged. Handsome. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. He had an amazing quick wit and there are lots of little pieces of…

Every great story begins with a “what-if?” What if the world were struck with a horrible plague that killed 99% of the population? (Stephen King’s The Stand) What if a boy was trapped in a rowboat with a tiger? (Yann Martel’s Life of Pi) What if a man was locked away for a crime he didn’t commit? (Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo) The dramatic “what-if,” whether it’s just an image or the heart of a conflict, is what propels a story forward and makes a novel memorable long after it’s over. As a fantasy writer, “what-if” is a staple of my trade. I’ve had a love affair with Ireland for as long as I remember: its landscape, its people, its music, history, and culture. But the idea of writing a historical novel set in Ireland, especially during the dark ages, that mythical time of heroic literature, was daunting. So I applied my “what-if” to a fantasy scenario: what if a land existed just like Ireland… but different? Divided by clan and religion, as the real island’s bloody history attests, but guided by a prophecy that held out hope for a united future? And what if all those stories…

With ice and snow everywhere I look this week, I suddenly appreciate a ‘holiday’ that celebrates love and romance with cheery perks like red roses, luscious chocolates, frilly cards, pink cupids…well, you get the picture. It kind of warms the heart. And sometimes—especially when life is stressful or disappointing or just plain cold—our hearts need a good warming. When I wrote my first Valentine’s novella, ONCE UPON A WINTER’S HEART, I had no idea that this particular Valentine’s Day would be such a bitterly freezing one. I just heard that this winter is the ‘worst on record for nearly 100 years.’ Now that’s cold. So in my new novella, I threw in some winter weather by creating a scene on ice that still makes me smile. My main character Emma is not unlike many young women these days—she’s grown somewhat cold-hearted toward love and romance. In fact, when her beloved grandfather, the last of the romantics, passes on Emma concludes that love is dead. And with Valentine’s Day around the corner, Emma proclaims herself the Valentine’s Day Scrooge. Naturally, that gets fixed by the end of the book. So how are you feeling about Valentine’s Day this year? Has the…

The inspiration for THE COWBOY’S MAIL ORDER BRIDE came from a situation near and dear to my own heart and life. I am a mail order bride. More than forty years ago my best friend’s fiancée sent home a picture of him and bunch of his soldier buddies and I simply picked out the one I thought was the best lookin’ one in the bunch. Brazen hussy that I was at the age of fifteen, I wrote the first letter. Two years later I received an engagement ring and proposal on paper and after I graduated from high school, I got on a bus in Oklahoma and went to Pennsylvania to marry the soldier without having ever met him. Fast forward from 1966 to 2013 and I got to wondering what if that engagement ring and letter had been lost in the mail. This was pre-texting, pre-Skype, pre-cell phones or even the luxury of talking to anyone on the telephone when long distance was so expensive. We were putting a lot of faith in the postal service. If the letter and ring did get lost would my handsome young soldier think I’d forsaken him and my lack of response as…

In the third installment of my Shakespeare in Love series, MUCH ADO ABOUT JACK, Countess Angelique finally finds a man who can live up to her. After years of neglect and ill treatment at the hands of her husband Geoffrey, and later her lover, Anthony Ravensbrook, Angelique is ready to be treated like a queen. Captain James doesn’t always treat her like royalty…actually, he refuses to bow and scrape at all. But he always treats her with respect, something no one else has ever done. Angelique meets her match in James and finds a man who is her equal, in bed and out. A man who doesn’t hesitate to stand up to Anthony, to the Prince Regent, or even to murderous dukes. From one of my favorite heroes and the woman who loves him, I learned: 1) Keep your pistols loaded and your powder dry. 2) When the enemy is on your port bow, get your cannon ready to fire. 3) Friends who back you in a fight are friends you should keep. 4) On the deck of a ship, watch out for random coils of rope and passing waves. 5) True love doesn’t show up every day, so when…

The year is 1813, and you’re a young bride whose gorgeous, wealthy, brave, confident, and extremely successful privateer-captain husband is—thanks to a flaw in his own character— about to make a fatal mistake in judgment. A mistake that will cost him the respect of those who depend on him . . . a mistake that will cost lives . . . a mistake that will lead him into the very depths of hell itself. Not exactly “hero material,” is he? Or is he? As a writer, we’re called to challenge ourselves, to present fresh new stories and new takes on old tropes because if it isn’t interesting for us, it’s not going to be interesting for the reader, either. I like to challenge myself, and I never write the same hero twice. And heaven knows, none of my heroes are “perfect.” In fact, I’ve always found it fascinating to take a hero who is far from perfect and make him not only understood, but sympathetic. Not only sympathetic, but lovable. Not only lovable—but heroic. But just how far can one go? How flawed can a hero be, how far can an envelope be pushed, both with character and with storyline,…