I’ve been thinking about the economy and war and my son and entertainment-market trends. Hang in there with me; I’ll tie this together. Just recently, I read this article that said, because of the Depression-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named, Hollywood has been finding success in adventure-escapist-fare such as this past summer’s spate of movies based on comic book heroes. Not much later, I spoke with my former print editor. She said there was a new, growing demand for “gentle fiction” of the same stripe as my Love Finds a Home series. And then, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, my son spoke with a sergeant, and he said, you’re headed for Afghanistan, private, before another month is out. My epublisher, thinking that last point might be overshadowing pretty much everything else in my life just now, reminded me I’ve a blog entry due to Fresh Fiction. She’s right; I’d forgotten, and now the hour is late. So I face this page with all these thoughts knotted up in my head and very little patience in untangling it all, so let me grab a thread and pull. A decade ago, before 9/11, I fought an uphill battle to find representation for Sing…

Do you ever get into a reading slump where, despite your teetering TBR pile, there’s not a single book that seems to interest you? Do you ever panic when there’s no “good” book waiting for you to read, or resume reading? Do you ever walk through a bookstore aisle and see nothing that calls to you? That’s where I am at the present time. I’m all caught up on my favorites: Mary Balogh, Beverly Lewis, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Rachel Gibson, Karen Marie Moning, Loretta Chase, Charlaine Harris, Janet Evanovich, Lisa Kleypas, etc. This is when I turn to my HUGE pile of books, mostly used, that I buy at the annual AAUW book sale. With the price of books today, this is the way I try new authors. If I try one, or a dozen, and don’t like them after fifty or so pages, I don’t feel guilty passing them on to Goodwill. But if I do find gems, I then go out and buy the entire backlists. It’s this way that I discovered Elizabeth Hoyt, Lisa Kleypas, Jillian Hunter, Julia London and others. But there are other alternatives. I never thought I would be one of those people who…

I’m always interested in how what we read changes how we think about things. Unfortunately for my hero in A DUKE FOR ALL SEASONS, he’s been reading the wrong sort of book. It’s called A Gentleman’s Guide to Keeping a Mistress and even though he has four different mistresses a year, Sebastian hasn’t found happiness following the guide’s precepts. At the beginning of every chapter of A DUKE FOR ALL SEASONS, I start with an excerpt from A Gentleman’s Guide. It gives you an idea of what’s been rolling around in Sebastian’s noggin. I warn you, each statement is more outrageously chauvinistic than the last. Chapter One “A woman, like a blooded hound or fine steed, has a finite period of usefulness. When that time has run its course, a prudent man divests himself of the asset without regret.” Chapter Two “Under no circumstances should a gentleman involve himself with a woman who has entanglements of a sort that might diminish his enjoyment of her.” Chapter Three “Selecting a mistress involves more than finding a pleasing bed companion. A gentleman must be sure the woman is an ornament to his arm and a credit to his reputation as a man…

People often wonder why I write in different genres. The answer is simple — it relaxes me. When I’m working on a contemporary romance or women’s fiction, the tone is usually heavier, the issues more complex, and there’s invariably a moral dilemma that’s ambiguous. My brain is tired when I finally type the end. I love the work, love the process and the results, but I need time to play…or in other words, write about brooding heroes and smart heroines aka Regency historical romances. I began writing these for the pure joy of falling into romance through a fairytale setting. The beautiful young women, the wealthy, titled men, the gowns, the carriages, the estates, even the villains are pure fairytale material reminiscent of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty. I still remember watching Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Leslie Ann Warren and Stuart Damon, (who was later Alan Quartermaine in General Hospital!) The historical lifts me up and carries me away into happily ever after. I love, love, love Mr. Darcy of PRIDE & PREJUDICE. What a delight when he appeared in movie theaters and later, on our televisions 🙂 I own both the regular and the deluxe…

I write romantic women’s fiction.  You may be wondering, what exactly is romantic women’s fiction?  Is that anything like romantic fiction? Yes, I believe it is.  Similar to novels with strong romantic elements, romantic women’s fiction is my term for combining the two. For me, romance centers on the hero and heroine and the slew of reasons these two characters whom are otherwise hot for one another cannot be together—and why they should be. It doesn’t give equal weight to best friends or family and it doesn’t focus on a woman’s personal growth and maturity where women’s fiction can. The main reason I consider JENNIFER’S GARDEN to be romantic women’s fiction is because it portrays the journey of Jennifer’s personal growth in regard to false impressions and misplaced judgments, particularly with regard to one Jackson Montgomery. My theme questions how a woman goes about the business of choosing her husband. Is it about social status and job title or a matter of chemistry and friendship? Must the man be equally or more successful? Men have been marrying up and down the social ladder for years. Can women? It’s romantic because there is a budding relationship at the heart of the…

I really never thought I’d write a book about talking wolves.  I was going to write Very Serious Literature That Wins Prizes.  I had it all planned out, and had been trying for many years to write this Very Serious Literature.   Then one day, when I was sitting in my recliner recovering from a sore neck and minding my own business, the wolves barged into my apartment insisting that I was the one to tell their story.  They wouldn’t leave me alone. They sat under my desk at work, followed me as I walked around San Francisco, crawled onto the bed when I was trying to sleep. Soon I found myself immersed in the Wide Valley and in the life of Kaala, a young wolf living 14,000 years ago.  The wolves took over more and more of my life until I eventually quit my job to play with them. SECRETS OF THE WOLVES is the second book in The Wolf Chronicles trilogy, which tells the story of how the wolf became the dog from the wolf’s point of view.  It’s based on the theory of wolf-human coevolution (the idea that wolves, and later dogs, helped make us the dominant species…

Remember the furor over the royal wedding?  Kate became a princess and William became Prince Charming.  We watched the vows with tears in our eyes and couldn’t wait for that first kiss.  Cinderella might be an ages-old fairytale but the storyline encourages dreams from the little girls who watch Disney-princess movies to the women who faithfully follow the Bachelor and the Bachelorette.  Subliminally, our curiosity in relationships and interest in public romances is all about the happily-ever-after storyline.  Can two people fall in love and commit to each other for a lifetime? My husband and I recently celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary.  I wouldn’t be able to write romances from my heart unless I believed in them.  When I was a little girl, I remember pretending a lace curtain was a bridal veil.  My girlfriends and I reenacted the marriage ceremony.  Recently by BFF’s daughter asked if she could play dress-up with her mom’s wedding gown.  Are the dreams of little girls now any different than ten or twenty or forty years ago?  Loving and being loved drive our collective consciousness.  Have you ever been in the midst of a crowd at a wedding and watched everyone grow misty-eyed?  The…

It’s nice to be here today to talk about my book and to meet your readers. I was given free rein in this blog, and so I thought I’d talk about music and how it’s a part of FITZWILLIAM DARCY ROCK STAR. FDRS is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. It’s about Fitzwilliam Darcy, virtuoso guitarist and the behind the scenes leader of the world famous rock band Slurry. The other members are Darcy’s best friend, Charles Bingley, the frontman on vocals and bass, and his cousin, Richard Fitzwilliam on drums. While Slurry is hugely successful, they’ve had trouble completing concert tours and they’re current one is about to hit the skids. Right as they’re about to begin the American leg, they’ve lost they opening act, and they’ve gained a reputation for being impossible to work with. Forced to chose a ‘B’ group, and quickly, they hire Long Borne Suffering, a girl group made up of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet and Charlotte Lucas. These ladies are right on the edge of making it big, and they’re hungry for a chance, hungry enough to go on a tour with the band with the worst reputation in the…

Comment to win a Latte Cup! Crime writing can be a challenge at times, but it can also be barrels of fun— double barrels. Where else can you get even with a boss who lays you off with the line: “I wanted to do this myself because it’s such good experience for me as a new executive!” (No kidding. That’s how she did it.) In one of my mysteries, I cast this sadistically perky charmer as the murderess and brought her to justice via a smack to her noggin with a thick bestseller. In another, her lifeless body was found on the floor of a women’s room. (She’d mistakenly ingested a poisoned soy muffin.) I put a version of her in my latest culinary mystery, MURDER BY MOCHA, too. But I won’t spoil the fun for you. You can guess how I cast her by reading the book yourself. (Click here to see the first chapter.) When Crime (Writing) Pays Eight years after my ignominious layoff, I am happy to report that the pen is mightier than the corporate pink slip. I am now fully self-employed writing THE COFFEEHOUSE MYSTERIES—an urban cozy series set in a landmark coffee shop that…

Brought to you from Kathy Lynn Emerson (aka Kate Emerson and Kaitlyn Dunnett) When this blog was originally scheduled, I planned to talk about the next Kate Emerson historical, SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT: AT THE KING’S PLEASURE, which first had a release date of September 20th , then August 23rd. And now? December 27th! The novel is written and edited and has a gorgeous cover. It will be in stores eventually, but when my editor phoned to explain about the delay (actually a good thing in terms of marketing), I was disappointed, as I know readers are at having to wait those extra months. SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT THE PLEASURE PALACE #1 BETWEEN TWO QUEENS #2 BY ROYAL DECREE #3 AT THE KING’S PLEASURE #4 In a writing career that stretches back  more years than I like to count, this is far from being the worst setback I’ve ever experienced. That “honor” goes to something that happened in 1988, when I had three young adult novels already written and edited and scheduled for Silhouette’s Keepsake line. One even had a cover. Then Silhouette decided to discontinue the line, and none of them saw the light of day, at…