I admit it; my process is a bit backward. First the character calls to me then the plot slowly evolves. I start to feel like I’m writing about real people and I hear their dialogue in my head.  My current work in progress has a hero that came to me while watching episodes of Lost on Netflix.  The character of Sawyer from the show was a man you love and hate and I wanted that for my next book.  Often I listen to classic rock and type away. It’s the same songs I grew up listening to and I find the feelings of nostalgia spark my creative side. The strangest thing I do when writing though is walk around my neighborhood, dictating plot into a digital recorder.  Every once in a while I have to change words around or take a break because the kids are out playing and I’ve reached a steamy scene.  They probably all think I am nuts anyway! I suppose I started wanting to write after reading Julie Garwood’s books – they made me laugh, cry and sometimes want to attack my husband.  The strong hero brought to heel by an even stronger heroine is very…

One of the reasons I love the Regency era is that it’s so easy to create conflict between the hero and heroine, as well as the secondary characters. If you’ve read my first two books, you’ll know that I believe a love story revolves around more than just the hero and heroine. In our far flung society where almost anything goes, it’s easy to forget how much ones family controlled what a lady or gentleman did. The same is true in my latest novel, THE TEMPTATION OF LADY SERENA. When Lady Serena is pretty much booted out of the only home she’s known because her new sister-in-law doesn’t want her there, Serena’s choices are limited. She has money, and today she’d be able to move into her own house or apartment, but, even though she’s twenty-six, during the Regency she was too young to set up her own household. Fortunately her uncle The Marquis of Eth, a secondary character in THE SEDUCTION OF LADY PHOEBE, as well as his wife and Phoebe are there to help Serena navigate the shoals of a London Season. Ah, but enter, well known rake, Robert, Viscount Beaumont, whose grandmother is insisting he marry. He…

One of the reasons I love the Regency era is that it’s so easy to create conflict between the hero and heroine, as well as the secondary characters. If you’ve read my first two books, you’ll know that I believe a love story revolves around more than just the hero and heroine. In our far flung society where almost anything goes, it’s easy to forget how much ones family controlled what a lady or gentleman did. The same is true in my latest novel, THE TEMPTATION OF LADY SERENA. When Lady Serena is pretty much booted out of the only home she’s known because her new sister-in-law doesn’t want her there, Serena’s choices are limited. She has money, and today she’d be able to move into her own house or apartment, but, even though she’s twenty-six, during the Regency she was too young to set up her own household. Fortunately her uncle The Marquis of Eth, a secondary character in THE SEDUCTION OF LADY PHOEBE, as well as his wife and Phoebe are there to help Serena navigate the shoals of a London Season. Ah, but enter, well known rake, Robert, Viscount Beaumont, whose grandmother is insisting he marry. He…

My day to day life is very dull. I do paperwork at my day job for a chiropractor. I edit marketing materials in my freelance job. Coincidentally, both jobs require a lot of sitting and typing. My kids are older now, the oldest away in college and the youngest in high school and very self-sufficient and independent. So I might drive her around some, and do household chores or run errands. When I get down time, I’m watching the TV shows that have piled up on the DVR or, if we’re getting really wild, going to a movie with my husband. No one would ever want to read about what I do in my real life. Which might be why I write stories about people who are doing anything but real-life-type activities. Take my Goddesses Rising trilogy. When it starts out, Quinn has a “regular” kind of day-to-day life, if you consider owning a bar and using her abilities as a goddess in a side business “regular.” But right off the bat, she’s racing off to try to stop a leech who’s draining goddesses of their powers. None of them ever get back to normal after that. All three books…

That Dixie Chicks song is on my iPod, and whenever I go for a walk or a drive there’s a decent chance I’ll find myself singing along about Wanda and Mary Ann and the abusive man who deserves to bite the dust.  I sing with relish, letting go of my better nature and diving headlong into a world of vigilante justice where people get what they have coming to them:  their just deserts. In cozy mysteries, the victims of our murders are often the Earls of the world.  They have done Very Bad Things so we don’t feel too awful about their deaths.  Moreover, they’ve wronged enough people to give us an array of potential suspects.  I’ve found, though, that this is a convention I have to bend. Some of my victims start off looking like Earls, but most of them turn out to be likeable folks.  Flawed, but likeable. Take Sherry Harper, the victim in PAWS FOR MURDER, the first in the Pet Boutique Mystery series.  She’s been handed a generous trust fund without ever working a day in her life, she’s completely irresponsible, she’s dedicated to agitating and protesting no matter whom it hurts, and she’s an unreliable…

My day to day life is very dull. I do paperwork at my day job for a chiropractor. I edit marketing materials in my freelance job. Coincidentally, both jobs require a lot of sitting and typing. My kids are older now, the oldest away in college and the youngest in high school and very self-sufficient and independent. So I might drive her around some, and do household chores or run errands. When I get down time, I’m watching the TV shows that have piled up on the DVR or, if we’re getting really wild, going to a movie with my husband. No one would ever want to read about what I do in my real life. Which might be why I write stories about people who are doing anything but real-life-type activities. Take my Goddesses Rising trilogy. When it starts out, Quinn has a “regular” kind of day-to-day life, if you consider owning a bar and using her abilities as a goddess in a side business “regular.” But right off the bat, she’s racing off to try to stop a leech who’s draining goddesses of their powers. None of them ever get back to normal after that. All three books…

Releasing today! THE SCANDAL IN KISSING AN HEIR When Lady Rebecca, daughter of the Earl of Airmont, faked maddness to avoid an undesirable marriage, she never thought she’d wind up secluded from society instead. Now with the Kingsborough Ball on the horizon, she’s determined to sneak out and meet the man of her dreams. There’s just one catch: not getting caught. After losing the last of his monthly allowance in a game of cards Daniel Neville, rogue, reprobate and heir to the Marquisate of Wolvington, receives an ultimatum from his uncle: marry or get cut off without a penny. Faced with limited prospects due to his reputation, Neville can’t help but notice the beautiful young woman at the ball. He’s never seen her before and, better yet, she’s never met him either. This could just be a match made in heaven. When Rebecca is unexpectedly shot at the ball and her cover is blown, the two are bound by the last thing either expected to find: a passion so binding that they will risk everything for the chance to be together. About the Author: Born in Denmark, Sophie has spent her youth traveling with her parents to wonderful places all…

As my protagonist, Maggy Thorsen, recently put it: “If things had gone as I’d planned that weekend, the book would be called Fifty Shades of Sunburn, not MURDER ON THE ORIENT ESPRESSO.” But let me explain: This being the eighth installment of my Wisconsin-based Maggy Thorsen mysteries, I decided my coffeehouse owner should take a well-earned break from the cold and accompany her main squeeze, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, to South Florida for a mystery writers’ conference, where Pavlik is to speak. This wasn’t as much of a stretch for me as it was for Maggy. I now live in Fort Lauderdale and am treasurer of the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, which puts on the premier mystery writers’ conference in the world, Sleuthfest. For the record, Sleuthfest does NOT pile various warring factions of writers, reviewers and fans onto a night train into the Everglades to re-enact Agatha Christie’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. And if we did, we’d make damn sure the weather was good, the tracks were solid and . . . well, I can’t promise you an absence of critters. They are a bit of a nuisance down here. Anyway, I’d been dying to give…

According to Wikipedia, the Romans made promises each January to the god Janus for whom the month was named. The Babylonians, likewise, promised their gods at the start of the year to return borrowed items and repay debts. The impulse is deeply human, and so is the tendency to let those good resolutions fall by the wayside as daily life intrudes. Yup… no matter how you sugarcoat it, that means most of us will make promises to ourselves that we fail to keep. Depressing. That’s no way to start a brand, sparkling new year! So this year I’m going to make some resolutions right now that I know I will be able to keep. Join me in my attempt to stamp out self-loathing resulting from year end madness! In 2014 I resolve: 1 – To watch what I eat. If I watch it closely enough, nobody can steal the best goodies! 2 – To not buy anything frivolous. After all, the tablet I bought was absolutely necessary for promotional purposes, as proved by the one time I actually used it to update my Facebook page. Perfume? Everyone deserves to smell nice, right? And no one knows the perfume I like…

Check out our feature on Kirkus Reviews: Merry Christmas everyone! I’m confused: Why do people insist on putting the Twelve Days BEFORE Christmas instead of starting on the 25th of December? The twelve days start with the manger and end with presents from the wise men. I want to ask, don’t they read historical romances? Surely, we’d all know the right days if more people read historical romances. Now to be honest, I had to look up Twelfth Night the first or second time I saw it in a novel, and yes, dear reader, that was before Wikipedia, so I used this thing called a dictionary. I know, I know, I age myself all the time, but I love my dictionary. It’s filled with all these interesting facts and a mini history of how words evolved and how they were used over time. But back to the subject: The Twelve Days of Christmas. In Europe and the countries to our south, Christmas Eve just kicks it all off. There should be celebrations and parties and good food, and they should start with Christmas. Not end on the 26th with after-Christmas sales. Really, there should be massive celebrations happening now through…