I’m so excited about my new release, A SEAL’s Seduction!  It has a hot Navy SEAL, a sexy subliminal scientist and an intense hostage rescue all wrapped together in one sensual story. I’m probably an oddity as a writer.  I don’t re-read my books once they are in print.  In part, it’s because I’ve already spent months with them. Writing.  Re-writing.  Revising. Editing. Editing again.  Summarizing.  Summarizing the summary.  And then reviewing to put together promo stuff, like this blog post.  So, that part is burnout.  I’m pretty much done with the story by the time it’s out. Part of it is control craziness.  I’ve got a few minor control issues *g * So once that book is out, if I’m reading it, it’s been a few months since I last worked on it.  So as I read, I tend to see all sorts of things I’d want to change.   Phrases.  Different angles I could have layered.  Tweaks and minor adjustments.  But I can’t do anything about them.  Which leads to that craziness I mentioned. But, every once in awhile, I have a book that I cannot wait to read again.  One that stays in my mind, even as I’m…

With the start of 2013 comes what I think may be my best book yet. Once in a while I find a story where the characters take off and write the book. With a young lawyer who thinks someone is trying to kill him and another couple building love from a childhood friendship, CHANCE OF A LIFETIME won’t let you put it down. In this visit to Harmony, you’ll see people from the town that you’ve met in other books, but the plot begins with a quiet librarian, Emily and her former childhood friend, Tannon Parker. While he’s grown cold and hard over the years, she’s become afraid of the world. He comes to the library every Friday night because he knows she’s afraid of the dark and though they barely speak as he walks her out, he thinks his heart only beats when she’s near. For Tannon and Emily this may be their last CHANCE OF A LIFETIME. With Emily forming a writing club to draw people into the library and a kid named Beau Yates about to hit it big as a singer, you’ll feel like you’ve lived in Harmony forever and love all the folks. So, come…

I find every aspect of the writing process challenging—but I love a challenge, so that’s what makes this profession so exciting and endlessly interesting and enjoyable. But I have to say that the hardest part of writing a book is the planning and execution of the entire first draft. It all begins with an idea, which sometimes is inspired by something I’ve read or seen, but often comes after months of determined brainstorming in search of the right idea. After a bit of initial research I scribble notes expounding on the concept, jotting down possible characters and story directions. I put the idea aside for a while, and if it still intrigues me weeks or months (or years) later, I do further research and write a detailed story outline. At the outline stage it’s a huge challenge to develop the elements that I feel are essential to any good book: the theme of the novel and the main characters’ arcs. It’s vital to me that the hero and heroine each begin with a problem, a need, a goal, and an inner wound of some kind; that the story takes them on a journey which forces them to confront and overcome…

It shouldn’t even be a question. But for me, as I’m sure it is for many whose minds are inundated with stories begging to be told, I often asked myself the very same thing. Do I do it? Do I simply go for it? And the most pressing one: When? Let me back up a little, and start from the beginning-that pivotal moment when I realized maybe I had a talent, a knack for prose. No, not trying to sound cocky, but I do believe each of us has a gift or talent that should be shared in some way. I just managed to peg mine early, first grade to be exact. That was my moment in time when I knew no spelling bee, no grammar test, and no essay would send my mind a-whirling and my a-stomach churning. Research papers beware! English was always my best subject, and my first grade teacher recognized this, setting me aside and letting me write stories while the rest of the class labored away at other subjects like math(I’m sure this is why I still use my fingers to count). And even then, the limited capacities of my seven year old mind understood…

Last year, after writing thirty-four historical novels and novellas, I finished my first book for Harlequin Desire.  I was sweating bullets all the way.  The book, IN HIS BROTHER’S PLACE is a brand new release this month.  And my respect for authors who write contemporaries has grown by giant leaps. Let me explain.  Yes, historicals take a lot of research.  The Westerns I write are easier than most because the Wild West is bred into my bones.  The Mountain West is home to me.  I grew up on my grandparents’ stories of what it was like to be a pioneer, a settler, a cowboy.  I wouldn’t think of trying, say, a Regency, which involves a feel for England and enough historic minutiae to fill a shelf full of encyclopedias.  But the West just flows for me.  And when I get to a blank spot in my story, I can always throw in a gunfight, a prairie fire, an Indian attack or a rhapsodic description of a desert sunrise. A series contemporary, on the other hand…What can I say?  A story for a line like Harlequin Desire is bare bones plot—a hero, a heroine, a compelling situation and some (lots of)…

Okay, perhaps there’s still a little too much holiday nog in my system making me feel warm and fuzzy as I type this, but I’m about to lay a true confession on you: I’m truly, madly, deeply in love with artist who designs my book covers. Not, you know, that way, I’m talking a spiritual appreciation here people. As renowned cover designer Chip Kidd says, a cover artist’s job is to ask “What do the stories look like?” This is a big flipping deal for an author, because the way a cover artist answers this question can and does affect a reader’s desire to pick up a book. I’ve been known to grab a book for the cover alone, so I know first-hand that this importance. As an author, you must have love and respect for the person who does that job for you and does it well. Equally important for me, during the writing of a book, is how does the story feel? Every writer has a different process, but for me the way a romance feels comes in part with the music that helps act as a sort of invisible score. A backdrop that infuses the scenes with…

In the past, New Year’s Eve was always bittersweet. I spent Christmas with my adoptive family before returning to my lonely condominium in Toronto. By the time New Year’s Eve arrived, I’d be itching for human contact. So I’d do what I always did when I craved a connection. I’d walk to Lobby, my favourite club. On New Year’s Eve it was difficult to get in. But on this particular evening, as on most nights since I became a club VIP, I was welcomed by the bouncer, who directed me to skirt the long line and enter the building. I approached the bar and ordered my favourite drink – a double shot of Laphroaig, neat, with a side of spring water. Within five minutes, I was sitting on a banquette near the wall, sipping Scotch and scanning the room. My criteria for female companionship were simple. I preferred tall, leggy blondes but would occasional approach a red head or a brunette. I liked women who were attractive, confident, and intelligent. I avoided those whose mannerisms hinted at self-esteem issues or overt aggression. I also steered clear of women who arrived at Lobby in packs, since I found it tiresome to…

To say this has been an eventful year may be a grand understatement. Between political, social and natural events, there’s a tremendous amount to feel distressed, and maybe even saddened over. With the final hours of 2012 dwindling away, it would be tempting to allow the weight of this year’s challenges to sit vulture like on our shoulders. But what if we took just a moment – maybe until the end of that cup of tea or coffee you’re enjoying – to look back and find things that happened this year that we’re thankful for? Here, I’ll start us off: ·I’m thankful for everyone who bought my books, and particularly thankful for those readers who took the time to review them online. Nothing both humbles and motivates me more than to know someone’s out there rooting for my characters. (It’s also mildly terrifying, but I’m going to tuck that under the ‘motivating’ part of this point.) ·I’m thankful for all the hard work of my editor, and all the editorial staff, at Carina Press. It’s easy for a new writer to fall to pieces during the editorial process, but it’s so much easier to keep it together when you work…

Really, I couldn’t have planned it better. My paranormal romance, titled A TASTE OF ICE, was released yesterday, December 31 … right in the heart of frigid winter. A TASTE OF ICE is set in a snowy, desolate, historic town in the Colorado mountains. The funny thing is, when I sold my paranormal romance series, The Elementals, to Berkley Sensation/Penguin, the winter release date for A TASTE OF ICE, the second in the series, was set long before I had ever turned in the manuscript. How perfect that turned out to be! One of my goals in writing The Elementals was to change the locations for each book to best suit the storyline of the hero and heroine I feature in each. I really didn’t want to keep them all in one place, and I wanted to expand beyond an urban setting. LIQUID LIES, the first book in the series, takes place in beautiful Lake Tahoe. The third book, coming 2014, will take place … well, I can’t really say because it would give away a major plot point from A TASTE OF ICE, but let’s just say it’s someplace exotic and warm and far off the California coast (hint…

Here we are on the cusp of another new year. It is for some, a time of reflection and for others a time for looking ahead, at a new year of potential and possibilities! In FALLEN ANGEL, the second book in my time-travel romance series based on the Tales of the Sweet Magnolia, I write about two souls, who in search for connection receive the gift of a second chance. A second chance at redemption, at forgiveness, at finding love, even if that means having to travel through time to find their deepest desires. It reminds me that each morning is a clean slate; each New Year stands at the ready to offer great opportunities. That everything that has happened to us shapes us in some way—to strengthen, to give us wisdom, to instill us with gratitude for all that we do have. And to make you realize that there is power in love. There is power in hope. I have learned this year to be more grateful. To realize that all that has happened has brought me to where I am supposed to be and I look ahead to a new year of what can be. What are you…