So, if you’ve read FROM ASHES, then you know the whys of Connor’s weird mood in the beginning of NEEDING HER. If not—eh, well, you find out later in NEEDING HER, I guess 😉 But ever since I wrote his character in FROM ASHES, I’ve known he would get his own story. He had to! I loved him! With how things ended though, I knew it couldn’t just start off all rainbows and puppies for him. He was hurt, and he needed his time to be hurt. Bring in Maci: she’s his best friends’ little sister, and the girl next door. It is everything cliché, and everything perfect for these two characters. I knew Maci would help him out of his funk, I just needed a way that fit them. Since they would have grown up together, they would’ve had to go through that phase where I’m sure Connor couldn’t stand the little gangly girl who always followed him around, and he would have no doubt picked on her. I didn’t have brothers, but I had cousins my age who were boys, and pranks between their friends and me were always happening. I don’t know, to me it just seemed…

Home for the Holidays! It’s a theme that has long been one of my favorites growing up and especially now that we have our grandson—with another grandson on the way! Holidays have always been a special time of year for me, but I’m not sure if it was the visiting or the baking that I loved more. Visiting with relatives was always fun as a child, but easy too because we lived right next door to my Great Aunt and Uncle and two doors down from my Grandparents. It was the perfect way to grow up, giving us three homes instead of just one. The funny thing is we used to believe mom when she told us she heard Grandma calling us. We never doubted it, we just waved bye and ran out the back door and up the hill. Now that I’m a grandmother, I realize that dear old mom was using it as a ploy to get us out from underfoot. But no matter, we enjoyed the time with Grandma just the same. I’m a homebody and love spending time in my kitchen and playing in the dirt in our gardens…although it’s no longer the time of year…

Beginnings are such fun. I love finding new and amusing ways to introduce new people, it’s something I always look forward to. Part of the fun is realizing that there are intense series readers, casual series readers, and brand new readers and my goal is to keep each of them happy. Intense series readers may remember Tim and Lola’s first meeting, because it occurs late in the third book WAIT UNTIL DARK. “That’s our only backup.” The Major pointed to the crew readying the Combat Search and Rescue bird on the other end of the freezing deck. They all looked over to watch the third crew. Unquestionably SOAR. The way they moved, the gear they wore. These were not folks to be underestimated. They flew into full battle with a gun and a stretcher and were notorious for getting their people back alive. They didn’t have the heavy weapons, but they had door guns and an underslung chain gun and Vulcan cannon. The kind of medic you’d want coming for you. “Their pilot,” Tim yelled just loud enough for John to hear him over the icy wind, “Damn, but she’s hot.” “Don’t get your heart caught.” It was an old…

Stepping back into 1814 for A BREATH OF FROST was just like eating the most delicious, decadent dessert. I adore the language, the complicated social etiquette I would never be able to follow, the candlelight and corsets.  And having loved both PRIDE & PREJUDICE, and the fantasy genre for as long as I can remember, combining them gives me the best of both worlds. I can have my cake and eat it too. Because frankly, that saying is just cruel. If I have cake, I am eating it. With historical fantasy, I can take a landmark like London Bridge and fill it with goblin-men and witch-girls. I can add magic and strange creatures and secret powers. It’s especially satisfying to give my girls an edge in an historical setting that strove to blunt them down. Not to mention that there is instant romance to bowing gentlemen and curtsying ladies and kisses stolen in ballrooms. Just as there is instant danger to magic gone awry, restless spirits, and the threat of deadly curses. One without the other is like that cake without frosting. And at the end of the day, people are people, whether they’re in 1814 or 2014, whether they’re…

Top Ten Reasons to Get Swept Away by THROWN Hello! I’m Colette Auclair, and I’m thrilled to be here. My debut novel, THROWN, is a December release and I’m delighted to be here with you during my very first book launch. So… Why spend your time with my book? Aside from the fact that I’m a wonderful person, even though you don’t know me and I’m asking you to take my word for it? As it happens, I’ve made a list for you. 1. The cover is pretty. First things first. I mean, come on, look at that gorgeous horse! (And no, it’s not my horse, and no I had nothing to do with it.) 2. Grady Brunswick, the hero, is to die for. I know he’s fictional, I know I created him, but I have to tell you, I’m so in love with him I can’t even stand it. I have to remind myself that he isn’t going to show up on my doorstep and whisk me off to his mansion. I think you’ll like him too—he’s a famous movie star, but he’s not stuck up; he’s charming; he’s funny; he’s scrumptiously handsome; he plays the piano like Billy…

Let me introduce a character type—an independent, strong-willed woman, who has her life together. She owns a successful business, bought a home and is living a comfortable lifestyle thanks to all her hard work and dedication she has put into her career. When it comes to her business, she is a logical, savvy woman who knows what she wants and will bust major butt to obtain it. When it comes to matters of the heart, well, logic seems to fly straight out the window. In her head, she knows the type of man she needs: A settled down, ready-to-commit, has-his-life-together guy. Her heart disagrees. Her heart wants, has always wanted, her best friend: A the-party-never-stops, why-commit-to-one-woman, YOLO guy. (YOLO=you only live once) If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m talking about my heroine from my upcoming release, FIGHTING LOVE. Julie has been in love with Tommy “Lightning” Sparks since she was ten. As much as she loves Tommy as her best friend, she resents the hold he has on her heart, but no matter how hard she tries to move past him, her heart refuses to let him go. Love is such an odd thing. Most of the time,…

Thanks so much for having me at Fresh Fiction! My December release is GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF. As you might guess from the title, it’s a Regency-era story, and it’s a little playful. I love a story that can make me laugh while also touching my heart, and I hope that’s the kind of experience readers have with this book. I thought it would be fun to do a little character interview with my hero, Hal, Viscount Roxham. Tell us about you in five words or fewer: Playful, athletic, loyal, flirtatious (might as well be honest, *winks*) What do you see as your purpose in life? Do we have to get so serious right away? I’m not wild about that word “purpose”—it’s kind of stuffy. How about my purpose for today, which, actually, is pretty entertaining: my neighbor Lily Teagarden asked for my help in solving the mystery of the lights and sounds that have been observed in the woods between our properties, which people think are being caused by an evil spirit. I’ve been away for several years and just came back to my estate, so this was news to me. You know was else was news to me? Lily’s…

Hello, my name is Susanna, and I’m a writer. Years ago, my friend, the amazingly talented writer Tina Whittle, and I decided to go on a writing retreat at a horse ranch where we didn’t ride a single horse, but rambled about the grounds, drank wine, ate chocolate and talked about writing. We are great at chatting about writing, whereas actually putting words on paper is a different matter. She was about to get published by a prestigious press, and I was about to not get published for several more years. We had that great writerly philosophical discussion of what it means to your identity and psychology to admit in public that you are a writer. So when the business manager asked that fateful, “what do you do?” Tina took a breath and said, “I’m a writer.” A clear, concise statement to the universe. I hedged about the matter, saying I was a writer, mommy, web developer, pet owner, housekeeper, etc. Anything I could say to dilute that psychologically pungent word: writer. After all, I wasn’t really a writer. Real writers were published. And then a miracle happened, my book RAKES AND RADISHES was picked up by Carina Press. This…

I’m excited to be back at Fresh Fiction talking about…finding my sweet voice. Especially in the week my latest sweet romance, TANGLING WITH THE CEO has been released. In high school, Annie Seaton, author of The Affairs Series and DANGEROUS DESIRE had two goals. First, I always wanted to be the sweet girl. You know, a bit like Sandy in Grease … or like Samantha in Sixteen Candles. But nah … I was always the academic one. I was the serious one with the glasses on and my head down writing stories and screenplays… stories all with happily ever afters. But I was always fascinated by and quietly watched the bad boys from afar. And second, I wanted to live by the beach. Loved that scene where Sandy and Danny got together at the beach, just like From Here to Eternity. So I read sweet romances, dreamed of holidays by the ocean… and watched those boys. On to university and sitting in lectures, my head was still full of sweet romance stories, and not the stream-of-consciousness techniques I was studying in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading the classics and more literary works and…

Hello from the Guild Hall in Bath! As an ice-breaker to each leg of my Blog Tour for UNDRESSING MR. DARCY, I’m taking you along for a ride to England, where I traveled during the summer of 2012 to do some research for the book. Said research, however, did not include seeing Mr. Darcy do an educational striptease act (which I will explain in a second). Where am I on this stop? I attended the Summer Ball hosted by the Jane Austen Centre and held at the Guildhall in Bath. Here I am in costume with some handsome Regency gents! The Guildhall itself is gorgeous and, during the Jane Austen Festival in the fall, it houses the Regency Fayre where you can buy all kinds of Regency-inspired goodies. The dancing at the ball that summer evening proved impeccable, the music–inspirational, and the room–divine. So, let’s get back to this educational striptease thing. Yes, lets! Here’s how it all started. I was researching Regency male clothing for my first book, DEFINITELY NOT MR. DARCY, when I stumbled across a website in England called The History Wardrobe. Among its offerings, it featured a live show of a “Mr. Darcy” who would take…