I’m not really much of a television watcher. I have commitment issues. If I get into something in the evenings, it tends to be episodic and funny and no-strings-attached. I like the Big Bang Theory for that reason. If I miss an episode I can catch up with no problem. I’ve tried to make Black Widow Demon, the second book in my Demon Outlaws trilogy, standalone for that reason. Nobody likes the middle book in a series. And nobody likes having to read books in order. My husband is the TV junkie in the household. It’s a good thing I’ve got him or my brain might turn to total mush. He watches Discovery and Oasis, and I tune in and out between reading and Facebook because I like looking at the pretty HD images. Now that I’ve discovered NetFlix, however, that’s all starting to change. I can binge watch at leisure. Mind you it’s Canadian NetFlix so my choices are limited, and that’s just as well. Thanks to social media, my attention span is shot. But I do have my favorites. My Demon Outlaws series is set in a dystopian future with a Wild West setting. Because of what I…

When I tell people that my first paranormal romance, PARTS & WRECK, is set amongst the vivisectionists of a secret organization that repossesses demonically infected transplant organs they do tend to give me a double take and then they ask, “What’s a vivi-who?” It’s basically someone who cuts into a living person or animal, usually for the purpose of research, but not always. The premise is intended to bring to mind that urban legend of tourists waking up in bathtubs with plenty of ice cubes but far fewer kidneys. Which doesn’t sound very romantic, but that’s where you’d be wrong. Dead wrong. So the next question is, invariably, “How in the heck did you come up with that? Well, when the opportunity to write a romance for Covet (Entangled Publishing’s paranormal romance flagship), I knew I had to do something very different. I’d always incorporated elements of romance into my urban fantasy stories but never used the romance itself as the central story. I had to rise to the challenge without watering down my weirdness. If you’ve never read my zombie comedy series (Happy Hour of the Damned, et al), you need to be aware that there’s a ton of…

It all started with a televised news segment. At the center of the story was a young boy who frequently suffered from physically violent night terrors about dying in a plane crash. His knowledge of obscure historical facts eventually convinced his skeptical parents that, in a past life, he had been a WWII pilot who perished in battle. For personal reasons, the account instantly piqued my interest. Not only had my oldest son suffered from night terrors as a toddler, he also used to speak about a grandmother who didn’t exist. No doubt, it could have been merely the creative ramblings of a youngster. And where I stand on the topic, I couldn’t tell you for sure. But the news story did cause me to wonder: What would I have done if my own son had spouted historical details he couldn’t possibly know? And, from a literary view: What if those details were secrets other people wanted to keep buried? In completing the premise of my novel, I soon recalled a declassified report a friend had once shared with me—a case of Nazi saboteurs who were dropped off by U-Boat on the East Coast of America in 1942. As I…

I began writing my first novel in 1997, the year my wife and I moved from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee. I have wanted to be a published writer since the first grade, evidenced by the blank next to the question What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up? in my elementary school progress book, in which my six year-old little hand scrawled the word “author.” Throughout adolescence I was a prolific writer, churning out short stories and school newspaper articles and lessons for my church youth group and the like. My dream all along was to write a novel like the ones I enjoyed so much as a kid, and in my dreamy imagination I knew I could work some idiosyncratic literary alchemy with proportionate parts C.S. Lewis and Stephen King. The conditions seemed right in ’97. I had a few months free before resuming studies at a university in our new state. Having left the comfortable familiarity of our hometown struck the right creative chords too. So—pouring decades of ambition, years of mental composition, and months of between-homes angst onto the page—I eventually produced my first full-length work of fiction, a supernatural thriller titled OTHERWORLD. Things…

Aloha from the 50th state and the land of a thousand rainbows. Have you ever read a book with not only a terrific storyline, but where the setting of the novel comes to vibrant life and becomes a character in its own right? Maybe you’ve read about different locales and dreamed of traveling there. But short of time travel or culture hopping, you may never be able to personally experience an 1864 Civil War battlefield or dystopian sci-fi adventure. But these worlds are to book lovers as easy to access as picking up our e-readers or the latest paperback. Because the best novels transport readers to a vivid place and time, becoming almost a character in and of themselves. Some of my favorites include: Mitford in the Jan Karon novels; and the world of Narnia created by C.S. Lewis. Creating captivating settings is half the fun for me. Last year, I reunited with a college friend, who shared with me how she’d located her birth father in Hawaii and how a wonderful, new chapter in her life had opened. Through a difficult personal journey, she and her family had come full circle. And that very day, the seed of ALOHA…

Would YOU marry a stranger for two million dollars? I totally would not. Definitely wouldn’t. No way, not happening. Not in a million years. Certainly not for something as trivial as cash. Unless… I could finally take that trip to Fiji I’ve wanted to take since watching The Blue Lagoon when I was an inappropriately underage pre-teen girl. But I loved that movie. Loved it. Fantasized about wearing a loin cloth and traipsing around carefree though lush foliage and abandoned caves. Dreamed of swimming underwater Brooke Shield’s-style with seriously cute Christopher Atkins (I might have been ten years old, but I noticed). Whatever happened to him, anyway? He was adorable in a permed-hair, blonde, native islander kind of way. Or if… I could hire the housekeeper I’ve dreamed of hiring since buying my first home fourteen years ago. I’ve basically lived in the slums since then. Okay, not really. But things would very likely be one-hundred percent better if someone would clean my toilets a little more often than I manage to do them myself. And don’t get me started on my windows. I’m pretty sure there’s a sun shining outside most days. It might be nice if I could…

On Thanksgiving Day, I’ll find out. The Basques are descending on my home for the holidays. My husband’s family is from the Basque country in Spain, and ten of them are coming for Thanksgiving. They love to eat Squid’s Ink Soup (it’s black) and clams with rice. My own family, which hails from Texas and Oklahoma, prefers the traditional turkey and cornbread dressing. We like beer; they like red wine. But on Thanksgiving, we’re all family. We will celebrate being together, even if we don’t share the same tastes. Fiction readers are like that, too, aren’t we? Some of us love dark mysteries, some prefer gentle romances, and some want to explore space or history. (Personally, I like to explore the lives of notorious women in history, like Jezebel.) Yet we’re all family. We can hang out on the same blog and celebrate what bonds us together: a story, well told. Readers and writers long for the beauty that a great story delivers. We all appreciate words and their power. That’s why this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for you. We may share the same tastes, or we might not. Either way, words have made us a family. And whenever a…

Animals bring joy to my life. Not just my own pets, but anyone’s animals. Even the big guys. Which is why, when I thought it was time to start giving back, I decided to volunteer at Lincoln Park Zoo. I’d been volunteering there for more than ten years when I wanted to do something more personal—socialize cats up for adoption at the then new PAWS Chicago. While I was volunteering there, the Humane Society of Illinois had a couple of informative meetings about getting legislation passed to help stop dog fighting. Which is how I came up with the original idea for ANIMAL INSTINCTS. I wanted to help spread awareness. I was soon convinced, however, that people loved their pets too much to want to read about such a troubling practice, so I made a left turn and transitioned dog fights to shifter fights—humans who shift into predators. And that gave me a whole new angle on my story. Skye Cross is the most like me heroine I’ve ever created. She’s an animal advocate. She even lives in my neighborhood, in my city 2-flat. I’d always wanted to have an animal rescuer heroine, and this was my opportunity. To make…

How combining the two genres pleased my inner historical/fantasy geek and the romantic adventurous in me. I’ve always been a fan of epic fantasy novels and epic mega-sized historical novels. The bigger the better. Marion Zimmer Bradley, Terry Goodkind, Jacqueline Carey, George R.R. Martin and numerous other fantasy authors kept me turning the pages until I looked at my clock and noticed it was now the morning. Books by historical novelists, such as James Michener and Bernard Cornwell made me fall in love with the past, adventure and with heroes, of the warrior variety. Diane Gabaldon with her Outlander series hooked me. Wow. Paranormal elements in a well researched historical novel. Loved it. Years later, I became passionate about wolf/werewolf lore and hence werewolf romance. The wildlife science geek in me loves wolves, ravens and raptors and I thought, why not create an alternative world where lycans exist unbeknownst to the rest of civilization? This was the start of my epic fantasy/historical paranormal romance series, The Wolf Maiden Saga. My werewolf heroes can be warriors: gladiators, knights, Vikings, soldiers, etc…My heroines are strong, adventurous, intelligent and determined to right wrongs. So, allow me introduce you to my Wolf Maiden Saga…

Every year, I stock up on holiday books, and I’ve always wanted to write one. Well, I finally have! CHRISTMAS IN SAVAGE BAY will be released (ebook only) on December 1st. The story is not only my first holiday book, it is also Book 1 in my Savage Bay Series. I’ve created a small fictitious village in Connecticut for my series called Savage Bay . . . where all the men need taming and the women are up to the task! I love all the traditions of the holidays, so I made Kara Sinclair, star of CHRISTMAS IN SAVAGE BAY, a homebody who loves the holidays too. She loves every strand of tinsel and every cookie on the plate. I paired Kara with Reed Savage who returns to Savage Bay to confront his past. He’s Vagabond Guy. He lives out of a suitcase. I hope you’ll pick up the book and see how Kara “tames” Reed! But when Kara first meets Reed, she’s not sure if her attraction is real or just the result of too much wassail! One thing she knows for sure, the kiss she shares with Reed under the mistletoe is just about perfect! I’ve put the…