Who doesn’t want to know the recipe for the perfect guy? Well, consider me your literary Julia Child. I’m going to show you how the right ingredients can build you the perfect fictional boyfriend. 1.A healthy helping of humor – this can be the trickiest ingredient, as humor changes from person to person, and a class clown doesn’t always mean a great love interest. It doesn’t mean he can’t be a great guy either. But if the guy can make you laugh, and put you at ease, it’s always a plus in my book. I’ve always liked funny guys in real life. Even in movies or TV shows, it seems other girls are dreaming about the super buff popular guy, and I’m won over by the funny guy, who often times is also a bit of a nerd. Sometimes these guys sort of morph and you get buff funny guy, a la, Ryan Reynolds—be still my beating heart. In FALLING FOR HER FIANCÉ, it was important for my hero, Wes, to have a good sense of humor. He can make his best friend Dani (the heroine in the book) laugh and definitely keeps things interesting with challenges like riding a…

The characters in my books can be inspired by many sources: movies, television, songs, books, or simply people walking by on the street. I live in an inner-city suburb of Sydney, Australia, a trendy, grungy locale, so I see plenty of interesting characters on the streets, from full on Goths to well-off urbanites to dirty tramps — all of them grist to the mill of my imagination. When I’m developing my characters I like to create their full back story. I think about their favorite subject at school, their hobbies and pet peeves, what they like to cook. All these details might be irrelevant to the story but they help me to see my characters as complete people and not just cardboard cut-outs. I like to think that Nate, the hero in my new release REAL MEN DON’T BREAK HEARTS, is a “real man”. He’s enjoyed his fast cars, his women, his wealthy bachelor lifestyle, but he’s man enough to realize this isn’t enough for him, that he needs something more fulfilling. And he’s man enough to make some drastic changes to his life, even though he has his doubts. He’s willing to take a risk to be a better…

The first month of 2013 is nearing its end–and I have two books being published in February! I’m not sure how that happened, but it’s keeping me extra busy, especially since I have some tight writing deadlines early this year, too. But I want to make sure people know about both of my new releases, so I’m also putting out the word via blogs and appearances and Facebook and–well, whatever. I’m especially delighted that Fresh Fiction invited me to do a guest blog. Thanks! I’m really happy to be here. Why can two different books come out in the same month? Because I wrote them for different publishers. Different genres. Different tones and characters and voices. There are some similarities, too, though. They both involve canines. Yes, I’m a dog lover and proud of it. Lots of my writing these days contains dogs… or wolves. Werewolves, that is. One of the books is UNDERCOVER WOLF. It’s the fourth in my Alpha Force miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne–a paranormal romance about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. The shifters are mostly wolves, which fits well with my love of canines, both real and fictional. In UNDERCOVER WOLF, Simon and Grace, the protagonists…

If you’re a regular romance reader, you know that most books tend to be part of a series. Some of those series are truly books that are sequels to each other, meaning you have to to start with the first and move forward or you’re kind of lost. The first one that comes to mind is the Sookie Stackhouse series. Yes, each story has a new plot arc, but you really miss out if you haven’t read them in order. And then others are what I’d call connected standalones, meaning the books have connected characters or a shared “world” but can each be read on their own with no issues for the reader. This is what I write. All of the characters in my Loving on the Edge series exist in the same place and know each other. And most of them are members of the fantasy BDSM resort, The Ranch, that plays a role in my books. But each book is a new story for that particular couple and can be read as a standalone. Of course, if you do read them in order, there is the added layer of getting to know secondary characters early on who eventually…

When people find out that I’m a writer, the first question most ask is, Where do you get your inspiration? I’ve thought about this a great deal, because it would actually be very useful to know where I find it! But those little sparks of inspiration can make themselves felt at the oddest moments and not always when it’s convenient. Let’s put it this way – inspiration doesn’t come on demand, no matter what music I play, or how quiet the house is, or how close that deadline looms. I wish it did. Truth is – my inspiration sulks. She is the diva that knows exactly how valuable she is and comes out of that dressing room when she’s ready. Not a moment before. And on a good day, when the stars are aligned, she puts on a show I don’t want to miss. Which is inconvenient if I’m supposed to be doing something else. I know I’ve always been a daydreamer and inspiration has treated me like her plaything, at her beck and call. I vividly remember a school PE teacher yelling at me on the basketball court for looking as if I was in “Paradise Lost”. I was…

There are some mornings I wake up and I have no idea who I am. Doesn’t that sound like the premise for a thriller or a sci-fi movie? Well, it’s actually the story of my professional life, and it’s not necessarily a confusing or terrible thing. I use more than one pen name, and to tell you the truth, I love having multiple identities.  🙂 I suppose I’m comfortable with this because, in regular life, I’m an eclectic reader. I also love all kinds of music, food, entertainment, you name it. So it follows that this would branch out into my writing. One side of me is a sucker for a good rom-com, another loves being frightened by horror stories, and yet another is a fantasy geek. Allow me to introduce myselves then…. Identity number one: Crystal Green (author of romance, mostly for Harlequin Special Edition and Blaze) Crystal’s first book was published by Special Edition way back at the turn of the century. That’s over 13 years ago now!  One of her first books took place in a small, fictional Kentucky town called Kane’s Crossing and, from there, she was asked to write Montana Mavericks books, Fortunes of Texas…

With Super Bowl XLVI coming up many people are planning to be couch potatoes while eating unhealthy snacks as they enjoy the game. Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day of the year right behind Thanksgiving, and if you vowed to lose weight in 2013, the Super Bowl may be another obstacle to overcome. Celebrity Nutritionist and author of BREAD IS THE DEVIL (St. Martin’s Griffin/ December 2012), Heather Bauer has a perfect game plan to continue your healthy eating even at a Super Bowl party. Prior to Kickoff Ensure that you aren’t starving by the time your Super Bowl party starts. Make sure that you eat regular meals (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and a PM snack) before you arrive at your party so that you can perform well at game-time. The Defense As a Super Bowl party guest, you will be playing on someone else’s turf, and so you will need to be on the defensive. When you get to the party, hold off on hitting the food table. Converse with the other guests, and grab a glass of water to help fill you up. Allow yourself a small taste of everything at the party that you want….

I’m happy to tell you that THREAD ON ARRIVAL, the fifth book in my embroidery mystery series, was released in December. To celebrate the event, I’m offering one lucky Fresh Fiction reader a copy of the book in either paperback, Kindle, or Nook format.  It’s easy to enter the giveaway—simply leave a comment below with your email address and the format you’d prefer if you’re the winner.  In THREAD ON ARRIVAL, Marcy Singer gets hung up on a tapestry that may lead to sunken treasure and be the motive for murder…. When Marcy’s friend Reggie, Tallulah Falls’ local librarian, asks her to teach an embroidery class as therapy for domestic abuse victims, she gladly agrees. One of the women wants to flee from her abusive husband but is afraid to leave her elderly father-in-law behind. And she thinks Marcy can help. The elderly gentleman shows Marcy a tapestry his grandmother made, which he believes reveals the location of pirate treasure off the Oregon coast. He’ll move to a shelter—provided Marcy takes the tapestry to keep it safe. But when the police arrive the next day to escort him out, they find the old man murdered and the house ransacked. Does…

Since DOOMED came out, I’ve been asked hundreds of times about why I chose to go the cyber route with the Pandora’s Box myth.  So when I was trying to come up with a topic for this blogpost, I thought telling you a little about the book—and my motivation for it—might be the way to go. I’ve always loved the Pandora myth and have always wanted to write a book from her point of view because I think she got a bad rap (as women tend to do in mythology). In the original Greek myth Zeus and Hephaestus mold Pandora from clay as a punishment to Prometheus for stealing fire from the gods — she was specifically created to bring trouble to him and to do exactly what she did, so I find it very hard to blame her for that. Prometheus, of course, knows Zeus is unhappy with him and knows he wouldn’t be sending him a gift without strings attached, so he refuses Pandora. He warns his brother, Epimetheus, to do the same, but Epimetheus is less of a planner and much more impetuous than Prometheus. He accepts Pandora in what is one of the first love triangles…

I get a buzz writing about characters I call a “blank canvas”. Not knowing much about their own history, they’re free to invent themselves as Adam – a baby found at sea amid the wreckage of a ship – does in BIRTHRIGHT. He’s not my first blank canvas character. In MAN WITHOUT A PAST, the hero was found at a bus stop, his family unknown. My CODE OF THE OUTBACK romantic suspense series dealt with three brothers fostered by one couple. The worldwide success of family history TV shows tells us how universal is the desire to know ourselves, and to make up what we don’t know. My fascination with family history began with my own parents who cut all ties with their past after emigrating to Australia when I was seven. Much as I wish I were an alien, and friends have their suspicions LOL, I know I’m basically from English stock with some Celtic mysticism thrown in. But growing up without any close relatives made me wonder about people like Adam, and anyone who is adopted or lost to family in some way. Adam is a sexy-as-sin genius (more wishful thinking, Valerie?) so he isn’t given to fantasizing….