Dear Reader, When the weather starts to turn colder here in the Northeast, I always reach for my knitting needles or my crochet hook. I learned to knit when I was in my early twenties. I didn’t actually want to learn, but a determined aunt ignored my protests, sat me down, and said “you’re going to knit and you’re going to like it.” Sure enough, she was right! Now, a decade later, my favorite part about knitting or crocheting is giving away what I make to the people I love. I always send some prayers and good energy in the direction of the recipient. Its feels so natural to do this–I believe that handmade gifts are, in and of themselves, wishes for blessings. It wasn’t a far leap from there to, “Wouldn’t it be cool if a person could knit magic spells?” And that’s how my novel THE WISHING THREAD was born. In the story, three estranged sisters in the historic village of Tarrytown, New York, must come together to save their family legacy: a yarn shop called The Stitchery that’s rumored to be magical. There, generations of Van Ripper women, going back to the Revolutionary War, have been knitting…

Deciding what to write is always a problem. A blank piece of paper has traditionally been a writer’s nightmare. And a blank computer screen with all of its polite little prompts is, if anything, even more intimidating. But what to write isn’t the only problem-what not to write is even a bigger issue. Even a short thriller – say, one that begins and ends in a week – requires that the writer think carefully about what to say and what to leave out. If each minute in a story covering one-week gets a ten-word sentence, you’d have a book of over 100,000 words and an undifferentiated pile of mush. Writers typically focus on a series of key scenes and leave everything in between to be filled in by the reader’s imagination. If they need more, they usually have the characters recount earlier events and then reflect on them a bit, as they try to tie those prior events into the story. The trick is to shoe-horn the earlier events – the back story – into the story at hand without slowing down the narrative. Sometimes that’s not so easy. The main story line of THE CIRCLE OF THIRTEEN is written…

That Wallflower Moment…when the hot guy doesn’t see you Why do the hot guys fall for the mean girls (like Lady Katherine Abernathy, whose acquaintance in the second stop on The Wallflower Moments Blog Tour?) Perhaps it’s because all too often they don’t even see the wallflowers. Lady Emma, heroine of THE WICKED WALLFLOWER, learns this lesson at the worst possible moment: when she’s finally waltzing with a handsome beaux and in the midst of falling in love with him when she’s accidentally interrupted by none other than the Duke of Ashbrooke, who is the most charming, scandalous, gorgeous rake the haute ton has ever seen. Check out today’s excerpt below, in which the hot guy doesn’t see my wallflower and and then join me on the rest of The Wallflower Moments Blog Tour! Excerpt: THE WICKED WALLFLOWER and the disastrous encounter with the duke Lady Emma’s perfect moment waltzing with Benedict Chase came to an abrupt end when a large, hulking masculine body stepped backwards and bumped into her. The force of their collision sent her sprawling to her knees on the parquet floor of the ballroom. Emma peered up at the horrible, inconsiderate brute and found herself looking…

Reading books, watching programmes and going to games is a great way to learn about players. You can also get a wealth of information listening to the commentators — especially when they’re as good as the Devils’ duo – Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick and Glenn ‘Chico’ Resch – and hockey expert Stan ‘The Maven’ Fischler. But, there’s nothing like talking to the real thing. And you don’t get any more real than Mr Devil himself, Ken ‘Dano’ Daneyko. That’s why it was an enormous thrill for me, when Devils’ owner Jeff Vanderbeek arranged for me to meet with Dano. Ken Daneyko was a gritty, physical defenseman, an almost impenetrable wall in front of the Devils’ goal. One of only a handful of Devils to be on all three Stanley Cup-winning teams, Ken won the Bill Masterson Trophy in 2000 for perseverance. No greater tribute could have been paid to Ken, than having his number 3 raised to the rafters. Only the second player in Devils’ history to receive that honour. I met Ken at his gym in Hoboken — Sky Club. There he answered all my questions honestly, openly and with great humour. Whether it was about his pre-game routine, the…

Best-selling women’s fiction authors Claudia Carroll, Sheila O’Flanagan and Julie Cohen will be ready to arm aspiring authors with all the best writing tips, tricks and methods on October 15th at the upcoming WritersWebTV workshop, Getting to the Heart of It: Writing Women’s Fiction. This free-to-watch-live, online workshop will cover all aspects of women’s fiction and viewers will be able to interact with those in studio to help them develop their skills. WritersWebTV has developed a world-first innovation in online education for writers by providing live-streamed interactive workshops to a global audience, featuring Irish and international best-selling writers and industry professionals. The one-day workshops are streamed live from a multi-camera broadcast studio in Dublin. Bestselling authors interact with an in-studio audience of aspiring writers, who present their work for critique. Online viewers can communicate with those in the studio using Twitter, Facebook or email. They can ask a question, take part in a workshop exercise, comment online and benefit from on-screen feedback from the authors in-studio. Led by experienced workshop facilitator Vanessa O’Loughlin, founder of writing.ie, the panel will consider the key elements of fiction writing and furnish viewers with tips, advice and actionable insights to help them improve their…

Are you a fan of games? I am. I even set a series of books set in a fantasy game based on Arthurian legend. My “Perfect Heroes” series is being reissued for the first time in digital form. In the first book, VIRTUAL HEAVEN, the heroine, Maggie O’Brien, considers her life pretty ordinary until she plays a fantasy game called Tolemac Wars. Of course, as the author of this romance, I made sure something goes awry so Maggie ends up in the game where she meets a warrior named Kered. There’s an instant attraction between them, but Maggie can’t tell this man the truth, so she claims she can’t remember who she is or where she comes from. Kered’s warrior code will not allow him to abandon Maggie, who seems defenseless in his world. And when he falls in love with her, he really can’t let her go. This book was so much fun to write as were the sequels VIRTUAL DESIRE (available this month) and VIRTUAL WARRIOR (available in October). I based the books on some lesser Arthurian tales and found there’s nothing more fun than creating my own world. Although virtual reality is not quite a reality yet,…

One of my favorite creative outlets is sneaking off to a movie. Preferably a matinee. Preferably alone. The dark theatre, huge screen, surround sound—it takes me completely away for two solid hours. No phones. No interruptions. (Unless you’ve got a rowdy neighbor.) I love all kinds of movies—drama, suspense, romance, comedy, thriller, even a horror if it’s not too gory, but until I started writing my Renegades series I’d never really given the action scenes in movies much thought. Now, I look forward to watching them with a whole new appreciation. The concept for the Renegades came before I knew much about stuntmen. Now that I’ve researched the industry, I’m even more fascinated and can see countless story angles emerging for these sexy, talented, adrenaline-seeking professionals. Here’s an intro to my Renegade’s series: The rough and ready stuntmen of Renegades are experts in the fine art of death and destruction on the big screen. The best of the worst. When it comes to tearing it down or blowing it up, no one can do it better, faster or with more flare than a Renegades’ bad-boy on a mission. When it comes to pleasing a woman, no one can do it…

Six months to Christmas? The idea in this blistering heat seems far removed, but it won’t be long before we’re preparing for that special time—the shopping for the perfect gift, the parties, the food and family that endears this special holiday to so many. Set in End of the Line, Montana, a few days before Christmas, my emotionally scarred hero, Wyatt Kinnison, oldest of the three Kinnison clan, assumes responsibility of the ranch while his brothers are away on business. Little does he know that a chance meeting, a blinding snowstorm and the unexpected visit of a second-grade class who become stranded at the ranch is about to change his life forever. It’a a transformation for the man the townsfolk call “the Grinch”—nothing at all like his civic-minded, involved step-dad, Wyatt is a loner whose built a stone wall around his heart, determined never again to be betrayed by this thing called love. Poor Wyatt, He just hadn’t expected teacher, Aimee Worth to come into his life, as determined as much to break down that wall. In fact, it wasn’t until Wyatt began to see himself through Aimee’s eyes that he began to trust and find himself worthy of being…

Have you ever made a major life change on a whim? I just did. I bought a house in Ireland! How mad is that? It had been eleven years since I’d done the most adventurous thing in my life; quitting my fulltime event planning job to write. However, I knew I had freelance work and my husband’s income to fall back on. It wasn’t exactly a wild and crazy change like the protagonist Samantha makes in my new women’s fiction book, KISSING MY OLD LIFE AU REVOIR. I’ve been tracing my Irish roots for six years and I’ve traveled to Ireland three times to meet my rellies. I dreamed of owning a writing cottage there…someday…maybe. This past April my dream came true. Following an unexpected business trip to Dublin, I rented a car and drove to County Westmeath to visit my rellies and friends. While having tea with my friends, they mentioned a friend was looking at buying a house in my ancestor’s homeland. When they went online to show me the home, they came across an old schoolhouse that had been renovated into a cute little cottage. They said it would be the perfect house for me. I told…

Writing romantic suspense is an adventure. My heroes and heroines include police detectives, CSIs, DNA experts, and forensic anthropologists like you see on the TV show Bones. The heroine of my new book, EXPOSED, is a forensic photographer. Every time Maddie Callahan grabs her camera and heads off to a crime scene, she is on a mission to help bring criminals to justice. EXPOSED is the latest book in my Tracers series, which focuses on a world-renowned crime lab where an elite group of forensic scientists known as Tracers help police detectives solve their very toughest cases. Maddie loves working at the crime lab and has built a stellar career as a forensic photographer. Her personal, on the other hand, needs help. After a major loss, Maddie has shut herself off from relationships, especially with men. But when she crosses paths with FBI agent Brian Beckman, all bets are off. Brian is determined to get past Maddie’s defenses and gain her trust. When a photograph Maddie took becomes key evidence in a federal investigation, Brian realizes Maddie’s life is in danger because of something she saw through her camera lens. He is intent on protecting her… and also unlocking her…