Most women know it’s hard to juggle career and family. We all do it; we manage our time between the kids’ school and athletic activities, make sure there’s food in the house and that the bills are paid, take care of the pets, give some attention to the husband and—oh, yeah—some of us have careers, too. And yet somehow we manage to do it. We figure out how to allocate our time (you don’t really need to sleep, do you?) so that we can somehow juggle all these important things and not let any of the balls drop. Women are good at that. We seem to be natural multi-taskers, and sometimes men don’t understand that. A lot of men are single-task oriented people: they do one thing, they do it well, and they move on to the next thing. This is the dynamic I used in my Western historical, DONOVAN’S BED. Jack Donovan is looking for a wife, and he’s hot for Sarah Calhoun. Seems simple, right? But Jack has this idea in his head that his wife needs to be the type of woman who stays home all day, cleaning and making cookies for him and riding herd on…

When I started writing mysteries, I spent a lot of time researching the gritty underbelly of society, but when I was given the opportunity to write A Cheese Shop Mystery series, all of a sudden I had to spend more time in the kitchen. Why? Because I wanted the stories to make you hungry for more than just the mystery; I wanted the stories to titillate all of your senses. I wanted the moment you entered Fromagerie Bessette (what the locals in quaint Providence, Ohio call The Cheese Shop) to be a moment that you experienced on many levels. That kind of detail requires research. My mysteries include a literal feast of foods: cheeses, as well as meals devoured at homes, the Country Kitchen diner, and the local pub. I would find it difficult to write about these moments if I didn’t experience them for myself. Sometimes I make myself hungry when I insert food and cheese descriptions into a chapter, but it’s the sacrifice I make for my art. [Can you hear me laughing? Such a sacrifice! Lucky me.] FROM THE LONG QUICHE GOODBYE: However, when I treated her to a taste of Tuscan Tartuffo, the ultimate in Italian…

First of all, thank you so much to Fresh Fiction for hosting me today. This is one of my favorite sites. I especially love the contests. In fact, while you’re here, check out mine listed on the contest page! If someone had told me, when I was eighteen and going into my first year of college, that I would be a romance writer, I would have laughed. I didn’t even know writing was a career. I mean, I knew Stephen King and Anne Rice wrote books for a living, but I didn’t think of them as real people. To me, they were like Mark Twain or John Steinbeck—very far removed from my real life. Of course, this was in a different time. The internet was only just beginning to become widely available and lots of people didn’t even have computers. I didn’t. If I wanted to use the computer, I went to the computer lab. And if I wanted to surf the ‘Net, I used Netscape and didn’t have a clue what to search for because I didn’t know what kind of stuff was even out there. Oh, and email. You pretty much had to know programming code to email….

Who doesn’t want a bad boy? Hmm… I prefer to let them bake for a while. Those misbehaving boys will rise to be irresistible, dominant, and experienced men. When cooked at the right temperature they’ll still taste disobedient, but with the right amount of heat they’ll become succulent and tantalizing. Bad boys may have once fulfilled our whimsical hearts, but as women it takes more than a sexy little smile to get our blood pumping. Sure, your Mama might have warned you about bad boys, but she certainly kept those all grown up, sexy, and naughty men to herself. Nevertheless, I did eventually find them nestled between the pages of my romance novels (thanks to all you wonderful authors!). After years of reading about these magnificent men, I wanted a chance to introduce the world to my all grown up bad boys. But like their aging process, from boys to badly behaving men, my aging process has taken my men, who were once nestled between paper pages, to the 12 point font of the ever-rising eReader. Hey, at least now they’re just one click away! No more need to purchase them at the store, wait for them in the mail,…

Like many of us, I take my caffeine very seriously. I had my first cup of coffee when I was twelve. I don’t remember if I liked it but I guess I must have. I haven’t been able to function without it since. Seven years ago I quit smoking with little difficulty. My longest run without coffee? About two weeks during college, and I’m pretty sure I cheated during that stint with the occasional Red Bull and vodka. While editing KING OF DARKNESS, my favorite coffee flavor was Caramel Vanilla Cream. While finishing the sequel, Golden French Toast. If I don’t have my daily jolt, I can’t really make with that whole stringing words together business that I rely on for my livelihood.  I probably wouldn’t pass a field sobriety test. Next to getting dressed, it’s the most important part of my day.  Sometimes there’s growling and biting, and I don’t mean from my vampire characters. So as I am writing this post from my favorite local Starbucks and hugging my beloved Blonde roast while I type, I thought I’d do something a little lighthearted. Today I bring you coffee trivia: Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to…

One of the challenging parts of writing a book is the research you unwittingly thrust upon yourself.  When I began writing COURTING HIS FAVORITE NURSE for Harlequin Special Edition, I saw a pivotal scene play out in a hot air balloon.  For someone who has a fear of heights and who once gave her husband a hot air balloon ride as a birthday present, but who stayed behind, feet firmly planted on the ground, I needed to do research! Thank goodness a lady can sit in her office chair and through her browser, research hot air balloon rides and how those big, colorful balloons with baskets work.  Without dumping too much research into the scene – I wrote it something like this: COURTING HIS FAVORITE NURSE – Excerpt: Suspended in the sky beneath a blimp-sized rainbow-colored balloon, Anne gripped the thick wicker and concentrated on looking out, not down. Lush farmland divided into neat squares, patches of orchards and rows of newly developed vineyards passed in the distance. Once again, she’d forgotten the humble beauty of her hometown. Oregon was so much greener, but the yellow and brown hills of Whispering Oaks held their own special charm, and the farmland,…

Imagination has no boundaries – it is a vast landscape without maps or limitations. I know the old axiom is ‘write what you know’ but why should it be? Why should female writers confine themselves to the domestic and the minutiae of life, while their male counterparts explore fresh new terrain? I decided when I started writing that I would do only one thing and that was write the kind of book I would read and I would not limit myself. Of course it is difficult taking on the voice and culture of another country that is not your own but that is what a library and research is for. I spent a lot of time doing research about America and Iowa in particular (I read a lot of Bill Bryson who described what it was like to grow up in Iowa and I found his anecdotes – particularly his description of the state fair really invaluable). I was also lucky that I had an agent in America who could look over my first draft and say to me ‘an American would not say this or do this’ about small things that I would never have thought over. But these…

It’s the month of love and everyone is eager to hear bittersweet romance tales. Well, I’m here to give you something a bit different! That’s just the way I do things. The story I’m about to share with you is totally true and totally rats me out as a super-self-absorbed maniac. A few years back, my husband decided to wait until Valentine’s Day to get me a Valentine of any kind. Now, I’m not the kind of woman to ask for much. Seriously, he could have scratched out a “Roses are Red” poem and I’d have fallen for him all over again, but no…Not my man. He wants to please me. On this very special day, he decided to let the kids pick my gift. Okay, I know….ah, how sweet. But, really, I’m with my kids all the time. Christmas is now “From the kids.” Birthdays are “From the kids.” I wanted just one day for it to be “From my hubs.” After ten + years, I hoped that I still deserved at least one day of non-kid romance. So, here they come.  It’s late (because he forgot) and they’re carrying McDonald’s bags. I cooked. You see my husband would…

. . . those small solid bits of gold or other precious substances (silver, copper, diamonds?) or simply small compact units of just about any item (at least that’s how thefreedictionary.com explains the term). However, nuggets aren’t always small. For instance, Denver has Nuggets (the basketball variety) and Denver’s Nuggets are far from tiny. Mickey D’s has Nuggets (chicken) of the small variety. We all know about gold nuggets and even nuggets of wisdom (otherwise known as adages—some original, most not). Did you also know that Tasmania includes a group of islets called ‘The Nuggets?’ (Might be an interesting place to set a story.) Even more obscure (although no less fraught with narrative possibilities) are the Nuggets belonging to the music industry. No, these Nuggets are not a band. They are several box set compilations detailing the ‘Artyfacts’ of Psychedelic music in the US. I want to add to the list of nugget trivia the term ‘narrative nuggets’ (stories of 35,000 words or less). Yes we already have terms for these tales—novella, short story, snapshot fiction, etc. However, narrative nuggets are especially golden, bright shiny short fiction works. The type of memory making fiction that every author wants to write…

Lately, I’ve received quite a few comments about my hero’s professions and why, or how, I chose them. Noah Garrett in TIDES OF LOVE is certainly the hero I receive the most questions about – a marine biologist in 1898 is not exactly your typical romance guy. Personally, he’s my favorite character that I’ve created. Why? Because he’s my type: a sexy nerd. But that’s another guest post! Anyway, I tend to really relate my character’s professions (yes, that includes my independent heroines) with very aspects of their psyche. Seriously. It’s a key aspect of the story for me. Noah relates to the world – and love – as a scientist. His older brother, Zach, feels he is responsible for the happiness and safety of an entire town (he is the town constable) and this weighs heavily and influences his decisions in TIDES OF PASSION. Protecting people is just a part of who he is. It’s not simply a job. Adam Chase in TO SEDUCE A ROGUE? Editor of a newspaper at a time when journalism was a dangerous business (1850). He also relates to his profession in a very personal way. And his true love? One of the few…