Okay, no, that’s not what Christmas means to me, but when I think of the holidays, I definitely think of food.  Cookies, sausage bread, soup, tamales, posole, caramel apples, Brad Pitt’s mother’s egg bake (yes, that’s what it’s called… I found the recipe years ago in a magazine.  It is, apparently, one of Brad’s favorite dishes, and we still use this basic recipe every year), and, wait for it… Caramel Corn. Sweet goodness.  Crunchy goodness. There’s just nothing better than this awesome treat, better still because I’ve had the recipe now for, yikes, 30 years!  I first learned to make it when I was in high school home ec class.  Yes, back when there still was high school home ec. It was good then, and it’s good now.  And we make it every year, give mountains of it away to friends, and basically just gorge. And we love every minute of it. The best part is that it’s so super easy to make. Pop about 8 cups of plain old popcorn. In a pot, melt 1 stick of butter ( ½ cup ).  Add 1 cup of brown sugar and ¼ cup of light corn syrup.  Next, add ½  tsp…

One of my favourite movies is Four Weddings and a Funeral.  It’s a fun movie because, as viewers, we are able to attend so many weddings and I love weddings.  I love the beautiful outfits, the gorgeous flowers, the speeches and of course, significance of the ceremony. But when the bride enters the church and looks down the aisle at her husband to be I always cry.  My favourite moment every time. Stupidly, I didn’t remember this for my own wedding. When I walked through the church door the tears began to rain down and there wasn’t a tissue in sight.  At least my flowers were well watered. My strong, brave heroine Sienna in THE CONVENIENT BRIDE doesn’t dream about being married, but if she were to do so, she’d definitely wear her mother’s wedding dress. Her mother has died and wearing her dress on that special day, would make Sienna feel as though her mother were close by.  Each year on the day of her mother’s death, she holds that precious garment and remembers her hard-working, feisty Italian mother. Then, she carefully wraps it up, stores it and returns to running the family hotel in her mother’s place. But…

At the end of the day when you have moved mountains and conquered projects, who do you celebrate with? These may be the same people that you lean on, scream and cry with, and get a shot of confidence from. You have their back and they have yours! As a romance writer, I believe we bring ourselves to our work and produce the best story we can write, but there are also editors, marketing people, and distributors who are part of the equation, too. Then there are the critique partners, readers, and friends. These souls lift you when your spirit is weakened or your energy is lagging, and there is the family that forms the base for your hard work and the reason for pulling yourself to the line. When I wrote A SEAL AT HEART, I was reminded how vital having a Team is. These are the people that protect your life like it is their own, and they are hyper-conscious of your survival and ability to achieve a goal. My husband is retired from SEAL Team and he has taught me a great deal about being a Teammate, which in the Teams is considered a label of honor….

Hello, all y’all at Fresh Fiction. I’m honored that you’ve asked me to come back to your site and visit a spell about the newest book in the Spikes & Spurs series, JUST A COWBOY AND HIS BABY! It’s not exactly a Christmas book but since it ends on a Christmas note, it’s perfect for the holidays. Gemma O’Donnell always wanted to be the first woman to win the ProRodeo buckle for saddle bronc riding but Kaila Mussell beat her to the punch on that one. However, she’s darn sure got her mind set on being the second woman to win it so the sexy cowboys on the rodeo circuit can just move over because a cowgirl has come to town. Trace Coleman doesn’t care a lot about the title. He wants the prize money to buy his dream ranch. But one sexy, determined cowgirl gets in his way every time he turns around. Since the only way most of you folks know Trace and Gemma might be by their pictures on the cover of the book (Isn’t it just gorgeous with the stars twinkling in the background? And you did notice that she’s wearing red boots, didn’t you?), I…

At the risk of giving away my real age, I can remember watching cartoons on a black and white television. I can remember using rotary phones and the excitement of having my father—who worked for the telephone company—bring home the first push-button telephone I’d ever seen. I remember learning to type on an honest-to-goodness typewriter, and not an electric one, either. I wrote my first—unpublished—manuscript on a word-processor. I can certainly remember what things were like before cell-phones, when you took your life in your hands going on a daytrip in the car. What if you had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, and no way to phone for a tow-truck? You might be stuck overnight, miles from anywhere! And you know what? I’m not as old as you think. That all happened within the past 40 years. Hell, most of it happened within the past 20. Some of it within the past ten. I bought my first cell phone in 2005. Seven years ago now. Almost eight. It wasn’t a smart-phone, either. It didn’t take pictures. It didn’t play music. I couldn’t surf the internet on it. It was a phone. One I could use to call…

When I wrote WEB OF LIES, I intended to take my reader back to her teenage years to think about the risks she took as she learned about her world and where she fitted into it. While she cared for her seriously ill aunt, Stephanie’s world was full of pressure. She dated Lachlan and found the love she so desperately needed. After saving the stranded whale, their emotions ran high, feeling superhuman and bringing them closer than either of them could have thought possible. With Lachlan’s imminent departure for the United States the next day, tension between them was high and the only way they could make sense of their situation was to turn to each other. Making love seemed to be the logical way of showing what the other one meant to them. A child was conceived and because they were only 16 and 17, Aunt Sonia and Lachlan’s parents believed the best outcome for the child’s future would be to adopt the child out and tell some ‘harmless’ lies that wouldn’t tie the young people down. Eight years later, Lachlan is a changed man and Stephanie is the victim of an abusive relationship. They reconnect and learn lies…

I always wanted to be a writer. When I was a little girl I lived with my grandparents in a 3 story house my grandfather built. One rainy day I went up into the attic to look for something, not sure what. Keep in mind that was before phones, before TVs and certainly before computers. I found a wooden crate full of old books—Gialli, that’s what mysteries are called in Italy. The books had been left there by my uncle Agostino who migrated to Canada. From then on I spent my weekends in the attic, reading. Agatha Christie, Rex Stout…I loved them all. In school my best grades were in Literature. My teachers liked my writing, often would read it out loud. Then my parents moved to Belgium, and I said goodbye to my grandparents, the attic and the books. In Belgium I had to learn French, and I did. Soon my teachers liked my French essays. I still dreamed of becoming a professional writer. By the time I was fourteen, not today’s fourteen, mind you, I entered a short story contest and won! A French newspaper published my story. Pretty good I guess, except, my parents didn’t read French,…

Many authors begin writing each book knowing exactly what their hero looks like. Tall and dark. Scruffy and broad-shouldered. Wears a leather bomber jacket and has a killer smile, etc. Often, the author has a particular actor or visual of that hero in mind. I’m not one of those authors. Many times when I’m starting the book, I only know the basics: hair color, eye color and build. Until this book, COUNTERFEIT COWBOY. When brainstorming the idea for this novel with one of my critique partners, she suggested the perfect hero for the book—Matt Bomer, who plays Neal Caffrey on the USA Network show WHITE COLLAR. She recommended I DVR a couple of episodes to get an idea of Neal’s personality and how it could play into my hero in my book—and I got hooked. Not only is Neal the perfect example of a hero—torn between two worlds, a guy with a questionable past, wants to do the right thing but doesn’t always pull it off—he’s one gorgeous man. And the hero of my book COUNTERFEIT COWBOY was born. The cover designers at Harlequin did a fabulous job of finding a model that looks like Matt Bomer with a cowboy…

My heroine from my new holiday romance JANE’S GIFT has only two simple wishes for the upcoming Christmas season. She wants to be surrounded by her family, and she wants to create new holiday memories for her young children. You see, Jane suffered terrible burns in a house fire—and lost her husband in the fire. Widowed and slowly recovering, she’s had a rough time of it. That’s why she’s come back home to Lone Pine Lake, the small town where she grew up, where the majority of her family still resides. It’s a place for her to reconnect with her siblings, her parents and her friends, send her children to the same elementary school she attended and open herself to new possibilities. Jane certainly doesn’t expect to fall in love again, especially with the handsome fire captain who happens to be one of her younger brother’s best friends. Christian Nelson is kind, handsome and he seems interested in Jane, despite what she worries is her emotional baggage. Soon, Jane’s falling for Chris…and her wish list grows to include allowing a special someone to become a part of her life—on a permanent basis. I hope if you get a chance to…

THE BRIDEGROOM WORE PLAID is my first venture into Victorian romances, and writing it necessitated spending many, many hours researching the period. I came across all manner of tidbits I couldn’t widgie into the book, but would love to share: 1) Part of the reason the Thames hasn’t frozen solid since 1815 is that when the Victorians put the London sewers to rights, they narrowed the river’s channel, thus making the water flow faster. (And we haven’t had the right sort of cloud ash, either.) 2) Queen Victoria, sometimes referred to as the “Grandmother of European Royalty,” was also the source of hemophilia in several of the royal houses. 3) We have daguerreotypes of the Duke of Wellington as a handsome older gentleman. This surprised me—Waterloo was nearly 200 years ago, and yet, we have photographs of its hero!? 4) Queen Victoria’s reign saw the first official air mail, which in 1890 used homing pigeons to carry messages between the islands of New Zealand. 5) Victorian doctors were the first to introduce women to the use of vibrators to achieve orgasm. Yes, you read that correctly. 6) The Great Stink in 1858 (before those sewers were put to rights) was…