As romance authors, we’re often told to “Torture the hero!” Make him a deeply conflicted, wounded (irresistibly attractive) fellow, and spend the next 376 pages having the heroine drag him, entice him, lure him and goose him toward love and healing. I thus considered it required research to ask a bunch of guys how to bring a man to unbearable pain. Most of them looked at me like I was nuts, but my brother Dick—a hero in my eyes if ever there was one—said, “Make him choose between the competing demands of honor.” I think he got it in one, and his advice has been tremendously useful. With LADY MAGGIE’S SECRET SCANDAL, I more or less knew what to do with my hero. Benjamin Hazlit has been living half a life, traveling under a nom de guerre to hide from a family scandal, hiding his parliamentary responsibilities, and hiding, generally from his right to pursue happiness. Benjamin feels responsible for the things that have gone wrong in his family, and has dedicated himself to making sure other families’ potential scandals are diffused quietly. And for his sins, Maggie Windham does, in fact, drag him kicking, screaming (and occasionally, um, kissing)…

That got your attention, didn’t it? 🙂 I mean, who wouldn’t want a naked man in their kitchen? Well, provided he looked like Todd Best, the hero of my new release, BEAUTY AND THE BEST, that is. If he didn’t, I could certainly understand the complaints. But Jolie, the heroine, isn’t complaining. She’s wondering why, of course, as would any of us, but she’s definitely not complaining. The thing is, nudity isn’t exactly Todd’s M.O. when welcoming new employees to his home, but he’d had kind of a difficult night and well, there might have been some downer emotions and an old bottle of Jim Beam, and well, one thing led to another, and voila! Naked in the kitchen. On her first day on the job. One of the things people have been sharing with the release of this book is their on the job “horror” stories (sorry, I’m not calling Todd being naked a horror story). I have a few of my own; my favorite (?) being the ex-con who used a different middle initial and slightly different spelling of his last name and thought no one would figure it out. Ah, the internet, it Knows and Sees All……

A big thank you to Fresh Fiction for having me as a guest on their blog today! I have a confession: when I first started writing, I had a hard time creating an alpha hero. All of my heroes were more on the beta side. The overbearing, macho man didn’t appeal much to me. I wanted a softer, gentler version. Certainly not a wimp, because I do appreciate when a man can take charge, but I didn’t want some jerk bossing me around… Whoops. Sounds like I was taking this alpha hero thing awfully personal. Anyway, as time has passed, I’ve come to realize there’s something infinitely appealing about those alpha males. At least, in the fictional worlds we create or read. Living with one in the real world might be another story, but writing and/or reading about those sexy, strong heroes rushing in to save their heroines, I love it. And when they get all possessive and growly and say things like, “You’re mine,” or “You belong to me,” well. I love that even more. So I’ve deemed this the year of the alpha hero for me. I have not one but two new series chock full of them….

Confession time. I’m a music whore. Any and all types—I can’t get enough. I write songs for a local band, have a fully loaded Zune that goes everywhere with me, and over 100 different playlists. I can look back to almost every major life event and tie it to a specific song or album. I can be standing in line at the food store, or driving down the road, and think, huh…this is totally a <insert appropriate song here> moment. The same goes for my characters. Some writers pen intricate back stories full of dates and places for each of their characters—mine are all musical. A lyrical map of their past, present, and future. At the start of every book, each of my characters gets their own playlist (in addition to the playlists I have for each book). Take my heroine, Dez. Her personal playlist consists of a lot of Pink and Powerman 5000. Stuff that, like her, has tons of attitude. Kale on the other hand, is mostly instrumental and acoustic pieces—at least for this book. It changes a bit in book 2—for both of them. (Cue evil, taunting laugh) I also have songs for each major scene. The…

I’m so happy to be here at Fresh Fiction today! I love this site! Even though my series, Kismet Knight, Vampire Psychologist, (first book, THE VAMPIRE SHRINK) is primarily about bloodsuckers, it also features psychics, wizards, witches and . . . ghosts! In fact, in the new second book in the series, BLOOD THERAPY, Kismet deals with many incorporeal apparitions. Working on edits for that book made me think about my own experiences with the specters. Communicating with the dead is a tradition among my female relatives and ancestors. During my childhood, I remember hearing my mother chat with people who weren’t there as she washed the family laundry. Of course, I would have written that off as nutty if I hadn’t had my own experiences from an early age. Unlike my mother, who attracted no-longer-living siblings, grandparents, etc., I seemed to be a magnet for strangers – my “imaginary friends.” The longest ghostly visitation I’ve experienced was from a beloved aunt (eventually I shared my mother’s tendency to draw relatives along with anybody else who wanted to drop in!), who stayed with me for years. She was as frisky in death as she’d been in life. Her favorite activities…

Thanks so much to the crew at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to stop by! Anyone who’s read my books knows I love a good villain. For me, the villain has to be as clever as the hero/heroine, otherwise they’re no fun to outsmart.  Villains are fun to write because authors can do just about anything with them. We don’t have to worry about redeeming them at a later date. But just like heroes and heroines, villains have to have their own goals, motivations and conflicts. And they have to grow and change as the book/series progresses. Sometimes what was important to them at the beginning of the book isn’t what they’re after at the end. Sometimes they’re motivated by greed, sometimes revenge, sometimes power. But they ALL have reasons for why they do the things they do. And well-developed villain can be just as compelling as a main character. In fact, in a suspense-based book, they’re really the ones who challenge the main characters and keep the book moving at a rapid pace so readers are eager to see how the main characters will eventually win. I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a good villain. Hannibal Lecter…

Huge thanks to Fresh Fiction for having me here today. I’m really looking forward to chatting with folks! Writing my debut novel, A LADY’S REVENGE, proved challenging on many levels. Setting aside the fact that it’s my first manuscript and has undergone much reconstruction, I managed to stretch the bounds of the Regency romance world in several areas of the story. For instance, I opened the story with a torture scene and my heroine has suffered both physically and mentally at the hands of her enemy and now she can’t abide a man’s touch. From an early age, Cora deBeau’s heart was set on avenging the brutal murders of her parents. She trained, she planned, and she eventually sold her soul. Some would call her single-minded, stubborn, and ruthless, others will label her intelligent, courageous, and protective of furry four-legged creatures. Most will agree, however, that she’s a damaged and complicated woman. As you can tell from my description above, A LADY’S REVENGE is not a light and humorous read. The book focuses on the darker side of espionage and human nature. I enjoyed exploring this side of Cora and a few of my other characters as well. So, are…

We love a reluctant hero.  We’re quick to praise a man who won’t praise himself, who is blind to the attributes that others see in him.  I think we trust a man (or woman) like that because his command is authentic.  It’s not grabbed or sought, it’s earned or even thrust upon him.  It’s the old saying that the man who ought to be king is the one who least wants to be king. Captain John Gallows is a reluctant hero, but with an arrogant side.  He makes a big deal of himself because he knows he’s really no big deal.  It’s compensation.  He wears his medal of honor well, but doesn’t think it belongs on his chest.  He knows how to use his silver tongue to get what he wants, but what he wants most of all is to feel he’s worthy of the accolades that are laid at his feet.  I love to write complex characters like that–heroes and heroines who take the archetypes and turn them on their ear. The perfect foil for a man like that is a woman who hasn’t yet realized her worth.  Leanne Sample is far stronger than she knows.  John’s outward arrogance…

Parker Welles, the heroine of SOMEBODY TO LOVE, has to start over…though not voluntarily. She’s got a very nice life in the beginning of the book: a lovely five-year-old son, great friends, plenty of money courtesy of her trust fund and a mansion as her home. Unfortunately, dear old dad empties the coffers in an attempt to cover an insider trading deal, and Parker is informed at the end of Chapter One that she’s broke and will have to move. Surprise! But it’s not all bad. Her son will be on vacation with his father for a few weeks, so Parker heads north to Maine to flip the only asset she has left—a little house way up on the picturesque and remote coast in a little town some of you might remember from CATCH OF THE DAY. I confess that I’d love to have this happen to me. Not that I have a trust fund that could be emptied (or if I do, my mom has hidden that information very thoroughly!). And not that I’d want to have the pressure of finding a new job, new house, new life in such a short time. But I’d love the chance to…

I have a soft spot for contemporary category romance. It started me, long ago, on what has turned out to be a lifetime love of romances of all kinds, historical, paranormal, science-fiction… But I still return to category at regular intervals and often re-read old favorites. I have a degree in biology, so I know a little about evolution. And I’ve realized that one of the things I love about category romance is that it is always evolving. I started reading them when I was about twelve or thirteen. I’ve always been a voracious reader, and I was always running out of books. My mother read Mills and Boons (that’s now the UK side of Harlequin) and she had hundreds and hundreds of them. Bags full of them secreted all over the house. My mother was a wonderful woman—she had a husband, a job and five children and she still found time to read. One of my first memories is coming home from school and finding her lying on the sofa a romance novel in hand (so what if dinner was late—there are far more important things in life!) She’s always been my role model. Anyway, I thought, if I…