I get asked a lot why there are so many tortured heroes in romance novels.  First, as a writer, they’re some of the best characters to write.   You can put them in circumstances that seem impossible to get out of, or have them do things that would doom lesser men.  They can be good men, or bad men who are reformed (another one of my favorites). But, I think it comes down to women.  We have an innate need to want to improve things.  What’s better than taking a man who feels there’s no turning back from who or what he is and showing him love to convince him there’s so much more if he’s willing to let go of the past? Who wouldn’t want a piece of that? Lol.  Now, this isn’t changing a man – the inner person who a heroine falls in love with.  No, this is helping him overcome whatever obstacles he faces, even if its nothing more than saving said heroine. For me I get such a thrill when a hero is not only an alpha male, but who is so tortured even I wonder if there’s a way to save him.  Those are the…

When I first began writing the book that would become QUEEN OF SWORDS, it was a completely different story. I had it in my head that I was going to write fairy tales in space. My heroine, Roselyn, was strong and curious and was perfect for a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Except I never made past the halfway point. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what the issue was. I had my Alpha hero (the yumastic Boone) and my devious villain (the too-pretty, sadistic Kristian). I had a universe created, just waiting to be explored. The problem was my heroine. Oh, she was completely functional, but there was nothing about her that wowed me. I know there is a lot of talk about heroes—which ones drive us nuts, and which ones we would kidnap and tie up in our basements (er…maybe that’s just me). However, the thing that makes or breaks a story for me is the heroine. If I don’t love her and root for her, the book is dead in the water. My saving grace came in a somewhat unexpected form. I had just received a Nook for Christmas and…

In FAR FROM HERE, my beautiful, quirky, only slightly neurotic protagonist, Dani, is a bit of an artist. She doesn’t paint or draw, nor would she likely be considered an artist by most people. But she is. If you look up the definition of artist, and scroll on down the list to the very bottom you’ll find: “a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.” And there’s no caveat that the work in question must be some form of traditionally defined art. I think we’re all artists. We all create. In our own small (or enormous) way we try to make the world just a little more beautiful than it is. And I believe that is art. Some people paint pictures. Others snap them at exactly the perfect moment with their camera. Still others take those pictures and arrange them in such a way that when you walk into a room you have to pause, if only for a moment, to admire the way it all fits together. Maybe you’re a virtuoso in the kitchen or you can make perfect strangers cry when you slide a a bow across the strings of your violin. Perhaps you make people laugh, and I…

Hello again Fresh Fiction readers! It’s a pleasure to be back here talking with you today. In my current release, THE LORD OF ILLUSION, England has been conquered by seven mad elven lords, who sundered the barrier between our world and Elfhame. When they opened the doorway, they brought magic with them, and handed down physical attributes to their half-breed human children. They divided the land into seven realms, each altered by their primary magical power linked to their scepters: Firehame: Fire. Dewhame: Sea and Sky. Bladehame: Metal. Dreamhame: Glamour and Illusion. Terrahame: Earth. Verdanthame: Tree and plant. Stonehame: Rock and gemstone. Their half-breed children inherited their other attributes: – Extraordinary strength, grace and speed of movement. – Looks: faceted eyes, glimmering silver sparkling in their hair, pale smooth unblemished complexion, straight even white teeth, beautiful features, tall perfect physiques, long elegant ears with a slight point at the top. – Extraordinary talent in singing, art, dancing, fighting or musical ability (result of first item). – The ability to heal (non-lethal wounds or ailments), or soothe mental stress. – The ability to make plants flourish, or calm a beast. – The ability to find water, lost items, or glimpses into…

Thank you so much to the folks at Fresh Fiction for letting me blog here today. I love paranormal romance because it’s such a great escape from the real world. Not only is it prevalent in romantic fiction, but paranormal elements seem to be infiltrating television too (or maybe it’s just the shows I watch: Supernatural, True Blood, Once Upon a Time, Fringe, Grimm, Ghost Hunters…and many more). For me that’s a great thing! Well, maybe bad too because now that I’ve discovered so many great new shows it gives me an excuse to not work when I should be. Currently I write paranormal romance for Signet Eclipse and Harlequin Nocturne (Cravings). ALPHA INSTINCT (which is releasing in less than a week!) is the first book in my new Moon Shifter series from Signet and I had a lot of fun creating this paranormal world. In the Moon Shifter world shifters and vampires made a unified decision to reveal themselves to humans a couple decades ago (and other paranormal beings just had to get on board). There were a multitude of reasons for their decision, advancement in technology being a big one. The first five years after shifters came out…

Kate Carlisle is the New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mystery series, which launched in 2009 with HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER. The latest Bibliophile Mystery is ONE BOOK IN THE GRAVE (Bibliophile Mystery book 5). The Bibliophile Mystery series follows San Francisco-based book expert Brooklyn Wainwright as she restores classic texts to their former glory, and solves contemporary murders linked to each book. Visit Kate online at www.katecarlisle.com. I can’t imagine not being a reader. Think about it. If you didn’t have books in your life, how would you spend your time? What would you do? When you went to bed… what? You would just lie there, no book in your hand, no story in your head? You have a long wait at an airport with an even longer flight ahead of you and… no book? How do people do that?! Pardon me while I pause to shudder. I do not want to live in that world. One of the things I love best about reading is that, while the actual act of reading is a solitary one (except for story time at the library), reading is a very social activity. When we finish a good book, we pass…

Ugly things happen in the world.  I know this quite well based on my ten years as a criminal prosecutor.  Whether it be coldly calculated or committed in the heat of passion, humans are capable of the worst kinds of atrocities. Yet, I believe they are also capable of good.  That life can be beautiful.  That people can be redeemed.  And that ultimately love is the beginning, middle and end of any sort of goodness to be experienced in life. Romantic suspense melds what is both dark and light about human existence, and exposes it not in grays, but bright, vivid, exhilarating color.  It is both escapist entertainment and a palatable reminder of the decision we face each and every day—whether to step out into the world and live our lives despite the risk that entails.  We risk being hurt, whether by accident or design.  But we take the risk and we endure the mundane along with the struggles because we know the payoff is worth it.  We know that human connection, intimacy and passion, and victory are within our reach.  It’s what all romance readers know, and it’s why I love writing the genre! Virna DePaul is a national…

“No man is an island….” When John Donne wrote that, he did not take into account the needs of literature. Literature in general—and Young Adult literature in specific—makes a habit of forming men, and women, into islands. Indeed, writers go to great lengths to isolate their characters. So common is the trope of isolation that critics and teachers often overlook it when discussing books. Isolation has been used as a structural and thematic tactic in every genre. Hamlet is written as an outsider, a professional student who has been permitted, or urged, to separate himself from his his country, his family, and his inheritance. The Pevensie children have been sent away from their home, parents, and friends. The orphan Oliver has been separated, at birth, from his family, as have fellow orphans Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter. My own Rosi Carol has lost her parents and been uprooted from her hometown and sent to a place that is alien to her. This is no accident. Nor is it a coincidence. The very nature of reading a book requires an element of isolation. Music is often listened to in a group. Plays and movies are intended to be consumed by masses…

I rediscovered My Little Ponies in my early twenties. My folks were going through a divorce, and I wasn’t taking it too well. If I had to sit down and do a bit of self-analysis, I guess I could say I it was a subconscious need to reconnect with happier times that drew me to eBay, and that first fateful search for My Little Ponies from the eighties. I proceeded to get into not one, but two bidding wars, the second one a little more dramatic than the first. However, I wasn’t going to let that never-removed-from-box baby sea pony get away. No sir! (Especially not when I hadn’t had one as a kid.) Ah, the thrill of victory! And the start of a habit that has served my writing in the most roundabout fashion. Turns out I’m a tactile, emotional collector, which is a nice way of saying I don’t mind if the item of my affection has a bit of play wear (that’s what Mr Clean Magic Erasers and kiddie shampoo is for), and if it comes in a box, it won’t stay that way. (Unless it’s a Comic-Con collectible. Then it stays mint-in-box, by order of my…

Would it surprise you to know that it’s been 18 years since the birth of the e-book forced the RWA Board of Directors to decide what the organization meant by “book”? You aren’t a published author unless you’ve published a book. As it turns out, not only do writers refuse to be boxed in by paper or even covers, but so do readers. Who knows what a book is anymore, never mind a cover? And a publisher? Can’t anyone be a publisher? One thing the writers at The Story Garden know for sure is that we grow stories. And we’re going to draw readers into our garden, come rock, paper, scissors or android. Writers and readers are all in the throes of change together. Question is, what have you learned so far? Let’s ask Gardeners Judith Arnold, Teresa Hill, and April Kihlstrom before we throw the discussion open to the WWW. What’s your experience with digital publishing? Judith Arnold: I’ve gotten the rights back to a lot of my out-of-print books, and about a year ago, I started reissuing them as independently published e-books. I currently have ten indie-published e-books for sale at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords and other e-book retailers,…