My first love had the name of Jeffy Terrence. It’s the name that came on his birth certificate.  I can remember the day I got him as clearly as I can remember yesterday.  He was sitting on the end cap at Sears in his muted yellow box. He had a bald head and a promise written on the box that he smelled like baby powder. And his bottom was signed by Xavier Roberts. He was wearing a blue and white one-piece sleeper. I wanted him more than I wanted my next breath. And I got him.  I took him home and we were inseparable.  If you haven’t figured it out by now, Jeffy is a Cabbage Patch Kid, and he was mine, all mine. He had his own carrier, and I would tie it to the limb of the tree outside and spend hours swinging him back and forth.  We took long walks together and I never went to sleep without him. I can remember with great clarity the day that I took Jeffy Terrence to school in my backpack. I knew he was not supposed to be there, but I wanted to show him off. I didn’t take him…

“Miriam, you write such unusual historical romances.  Medieval Russia, medieval Ireland, Vienna, Austria, pre-American Revolution, and even a Viking romance featuring twin sisters!  Where do you get your ideas?” I’m sure every romance author has been asked where she gets the ideas for her books, but the “unusual” aspect of that question surprised me.  I don’t recall that I set out to write unusual historical romances as a goal when I began my writing career.  I believe the inspiration for my stories came simply from life’s events, a romantic spirit, and probably too much imagination for my own good! My first historical romance TWIN PASSIONS was a tribute to my Norwegian grandmother and my fascination with Norway and its history.  Nana and I visited Norway for six weeks one summer when I was an impressionable teenager to reconnect with family, and I’ve considered that stunningly beautiful country as my second homeland ever since.  I even developed a major crush on a Norwegian sailor during that trip so I guess once a romantic, always a romantic. At every turn as we travelled across the country, I envisioned Viking dragon ships cutting across the water of those deep mysterious fjords.  On every…

Today’s guest is Shannon McKenna with an excerpt from her latest book: ONE WRONG MOVE. She’s also giving away a copy of one of her books: ONE WRONG MOVE, BLOOD AND FIRE, ULTIMATE WEAPON, and FADE TO MIDNIGHT. All you need to do is leave a comment. This excerpt is a bit hot “What?” he said, his voice testy. “What’s with the look?” She couldn’t think of a lie fast enough, so the truth fell right out. “I was trying to read your mind,” she said. He gave her a look from under hooded eyes, making her notice how long his eyelashes were. “What did you see?” “Nothing,” she said. “You don’t need to read my mind to know what I’m thinking. There are other indicators.” He paused. “Big ones,” he added. She stared fixedly as the apartment buildings, storefronts and schools crawled by. Bastard. Messing with her head. Heat and sweat, rising in her body. She must look like a tomato. And now they were mired in a snarl of rush hour traffic. No end in sight. “We’re going to be here for hours,” she muttered. “Get down.” He gripped her leg below the knee, pulling it so that…

I admit it. I have a ‘tude. More specifically, I have a stubborn streak that hates to be told no. The surest way to fire me up to do something is to tell me I can’t. I can’t have ice cream for breakfast? Pass the Ben and Jerry’s! I can’t fit my car in that parking place? Watch me! So when I started writing romances mumble mumble years ago and was told I can’t have a musician as a hero, I took offense. The prevailing theory was that readers didn’t like sports heroes (Ahem, Susan Elizabeth Phillips Chicago Stars anyone?)— nor artists, actors or musicians. Supposedly these careers had stigmas attached to them and weren’t considered hero-worthy. My inner rebel immediately shouted, “What? Musicians are sexy! Musicians are romantic! Musicians can be rough and tough guys who’ll protect the heroine from danger!” The gauntlet had been thrown down, and I set out to write a musician hero readers would swoon over. Based on reader mail I’ve received regarding CHASING A DREAM, I succeeded. In CHASING A DREAM, country musician Justin Boyd has a dream of making it big in Nashville. He’s got the winning combination of talent and tenacity. Nothing…

I want to thank Fresh Fiction for the review of my latest book, TALLIE’S HERO. As a writer with only three books in print, I am flattered to be in the company of romance writers, whose work I have long enjoyed. For almost forty years I have lived with a writer, and I have come to accept that he goes into his office, sits down at the computer and within a couple of months he has another book done. Over the years I have started many books and I have even finished several of them, but when I look at my time frame I see five years for this one, three years for that one—well you get the picture.  I have learned that writing on a deadline is hard work.  Sometimes the bed doesn’t get made, or the clothes don’t make it to the drawer, or the plants get a little droopy.  All that I can justify. But now I have found another distraction—research. The three books that I have on the market are all historical romance.  They have been set in the West, but I can’t classify them as specifically Western.  One reviewer has classified them as Americana, and…

A PLACE BEYOND COURAGE is the story of a Medieval knight, soldier and baron called John FitzGilbert, who, if you look him up online, had something of a reputation as a hard man of his times, willing to sacrifice his small son in order to hold onto one of his castles.  I was interested in finding out more about  his life, and to discover what really happened.  Did John really say that even if the boy was killed by the men who held him captive, it didn’t matter because he could beget better sons to replace him? John FitzGilbert was also known as John the Marshal. His second name was his job description.  So what exactly did a marshal do in the Middle Ages – and specifically the royal marshal, answerable to the king?  What were his responsibilities and duties? The name Marshal derives from Marescallus, which meant ‘Stable hand.’ So essentially the original job had to do with horses.  It was the marshal’s job to ensure there was stabling and fodder for the horses in the royal household.  From there, the duty spread out into provision and responsibility for the hounds in the kennels and the hawks in the…

This is Frank “Boss” Knight.  And his nickname says it all.  He’s the man, the head hancho, the big Kahuna.  And at Black Knights Inc., the custom motorcycle shop that provides the cover for his clandestine government defense firm, the buck stops with him – much to our heroine Becky’s intense chagrin.  A former Navy SEAL, Frank may spend his days as a simple motorcycle mechanic, but his nights are filled with the kind of missions too hot for Uncle Sam to handle.  With the help of his wickedly sharp KA-Bar knife and his custom-made Harley – appropriately named Boss Hog – he’s not the type of guy you want to cross.  Gruff, tough, and built like an Abram’s tank, Frank is all man.  But in the arms of our heroine, his hardened exterior softens to reveal a sweet and tender heart. If you asked Frank why he takes the jobs no one else would touch with a ten foot pole, he’d mutter, in that booming base of his, “Because somebody’s gotta do ’em.”  And if it’s not obvious from the hard line of his jaw, the scars on his face, and the grit in his eye, he’s done more…

When I was a child reading my grandmother’s Louis L’Amour books, I was always impressed by the author’s note that said if there was a stream mentioned in the book, that stream was really there. When I started writing books of my own, I realized that, while it was one thing to write about a geographical landmark or historical saloon, it was another to write about modern businesses that changed hands or names or even disappeared in the time it took to write a chapter. It was still another to write about unsavory characters doing unsavory things in real-life establishments owned by actual people who might sue you. And what if the place you need to write about doesn’t actually exist—but for the sake of the story, ought to? My detective, Jared McKean, operates in and around Nashville, Tennessee, and if I need him to go to a place that exists in the real world, all I need to do to describe it accurately is go there and look around. In A CUP FULL OF MIDNIGHT, the second book in the series, I needed a place for Jared to take a woman in whom he has a romantic interest. I…

Writing novels is surely the most portable career there is. The office cube farm is handily located right between my ears. Tools of the trade fit in the pocket of my oversize hoodie–a Clairefontaine notebook, a fountain pen filled with peacock-blue ink, and a smartphone that doesn’t actually get a signal at the house. The commute? My usual route is from the couch to the computer, and the only traffic I encounter is a sleeping dog or a teetering tower of to-be-read books. When you’re this portable, you have the ability to live anywhere you want. So why not pick the place that feels most like home in the world? My “anywhere,” as it turns out, is Bainbridge Island, Washington–a chunky green dot on the map, located a ferry commute away from downtown Seattle. This particular house has everything a writer could want–a nice big stretch of beach, privacy, a separate studio for guests, and a funky ’60s vibe that makes it a unique and creative space. There’s a timeless quality to life at the shore, where the work schedule is defined by the tides, and deadlines are dictated by the seasons. Blue herons, scoters and red-winged blackbirds inhabit the…

Tomorrow (9/4/12), Montlake Romance will publish my romantic suspense, EVERY BREATH SHE TAKES.  But it won’t be the first time this story has seen publication. It was first published in 2004 by Dorchester Publishing under the title LAUREN’S EYES, after it won Dorchester’s New Voice in Romance contest. I was thrilled to join the ranks of my mass market-published friends. Then I saw my cover. Actually, most of the romance writing community saw my cover before I did. It was unveiled at a Romantic Times conference which I was unfortunately unable to attend, but the lovely Julianne MacLean stood in for me and posed with my pretty cover on my behalf. And it truly was a beautiful cover, with gorgeous pastel colors, depicting three fantasy-type horses with long flowing manes. The problem? The book in question is not a pastel fantasy. It’s a sexy, gritty romantic suspense with a relatively slight – but key – paranormal element (psychic heroine). The upshot, of course, between the small print run and the lack of a genre-appropriate cover, was that the book failed to find its audience with Dorchester, and I subsequently reacquired the publishing rights. Fast forward to 2011 when I was…