I attended my first reader event in March. The Tucson Book Festival in Arizona. It was so great seeing the hundreds and hundreds of people roaming around talking about the thing they love: Reading. And since I love to write, it was a good fit. We got to chat it up about demons, angels & Guardians, give away fun prizes, and I got to answer questions from readers. One question that frequently came up was, “How do you come up with your stories?” I get asked that a lot, especially when people find out I’ve written twenty-five novels. For me, ideas can spring up anywhere. At any time. I just need to be ready for them, because an ordinary situation such as strolling down the grocery aisle can turn into a scene of a book in a matter of minutes. You never know when you’ll meet interesting people that’ll trigger some unique ideas for a novel! That’s what makes this whole writing thing so exciting. Next up, Romantic Times reader convention in Chicago! I hope to see you there! Coming in May AWAITED (Wasteland, #2) The voice is a powerful thing. . . Russell Leonard is a centuries-old Guardian who’s…

Somebody asked me the other day in an interview why so many of my characters have suffered something horrible. Wow. Gut check! I looked through my backlist of forty books and realized I do write a great deal about people who have been through rough times. The loss of a spouse, infertility, the loss of a child, a terrible accident. Hmmm. Definitely a pattern there! As I dug a little deeper, it wasn’t so surprising. I find it inspiring to write about people who have faced difficult things and yet have still managed to overcome, to move forward with their lives and still find joy again. I suppose I am heartened by the many examples in my own life of friends and family who manage to face hard times with grace and dignity and come through to the other side with a beautiful strength. One of my favorite songs is sung by Martina McBride. The chorus has a great message that rings more true every time I hear it: “Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world.” Like my characters, nobody gets through this world without suffering pain of some kind. But I find great…

Raise your hand if you’re in the midst of prom season! I have two daughters who started going to prom when they were freshmen in high school. Yup, I had 8 years of gowns and make up and hair. When the youngest girl went off the college, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as spring came around and I had no daughter at home to spend my money. Who wants to do all that shopping? Who can listen to the giddy laughter of teenage girls or hear the breathless sigh of delight when the boy finally asks her to the prom? One year, a boy actually serenaded my daughter. He wrote a song asking her to the prom. Oh wow, I miss it. I miss my girls, I miss the pictures and the tuxes, I miss the excitement and specialness of it all. And frankly, that’s a bit of a surprise because I was never a very girly girl. And yes, I went to my prom, but back then it was not nearly as elaborate as it is today. I think it was in a fit of longing for my daughters that I created a series set in a…

What is it about romantic heroes that draws our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection?  Whether it’s Mr. Darcy or Edward Cullen, James Bond or Braveheart, our fantasy men may reveal much about a woman’s hardwired needs. Nora Roberts, the bestselling romance novelist of all time, says that romance novels “are about the celebration of falling in love and emotion and commitment, and all of those things we really want.”  That is the question that has been plaguing men since the dawn of time. What do women really want? I’ll admit that on some days, I would really like this: But as gratifying as this would be, this is really not enough.  I know I don’t speak for all women, but I make it my business to know what women want in a man.  I’ve written five romance novels, and read thousands more.  The most satisfying part of my job is getting to create characters so wonderful and so believable that my readers fall in love with them.  So speaking as a woman–and as an author–I think I can help to answer the question: What do we look for in a man, and more importantly, what does that reveal about…

When people say “road trip” do you conjure up visions of people chanting “Vegas baby” while crammed into a beat-up, two-door car? Or maybe it’s The Ricardos and The Mertzs singing “California Here We Come.” Whatever your vision of a road trip may be, it usually spells adventure in books and movies. Often it’s in the form of comedy, romance, disasters or even horror. Readers love to share the adventures of these characters as they travel from place to place, experiencing the unexpected. When I came up with the idea for IN SEARCH OF LUCY, I hadn’t planned on putting a road trip in the book. But as the story progressed and Lucy needed to reunite with her sister the idea of a physical journey was appealing given that my character was going through an internal journey as well. For years Lucy sacrificed her own needs to care for her half sister and alcoholic mother, only to be abandoned by both. But when her sister needs a kidney transplant, Lucy is the only one who can save her life. When she realizes she must travel to Houston where her sister is, she is reluctant to fly. She’d never been on…

The heroine of my new release, TRUE HIGHLAND SPIRIT, has an unusual occupation for a laird’s daughter in medieval Scotland. Due to the poverty of her clan, and her natural prowess with a sword, she joined the group thieves led by her brother, who roam the countryside looking for unsuspecting travelers from whom they “request” a donation to the fund for wayward highwaymen. While this was admittedly unusual, there are several cases of females from this era donning armor and leading the troops, which have survived through history. I can only imagine that women fought beside men in more instances which were never documented. Morrigan is actually named after a mythological Celtic goddess of war, strife, and sovereignty. The fact that powerful woman warriors exist in myth show that this concept was one that existed. Several examples of women warriors also exist in history in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was not unusual for the wife of a lord to take command of a besieged garrison if the lord of the castle was away. However, Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar and March, earned herself the nickname of Black Agnes by her brash antics in the siege of Dunbar. Black…

When I was working as a television and radio host “in another life,” I once interviewed a very famous romance writer who responded rather curtly to my question about her techniques when researching the setting and background of her characters. “Listen honey,” she replied with an edge to her Texas twang, “nobody cares who’s king–or what kingdom he’s from!” I guess she meant that, in her view, the characters’ backgrounds and the world they inhabited were unimportant. What mattered in historical romance was the sex. And I suppose for some readers that tends to be true. But not necessarily for other lovers of historical fiction–which is probably why I’ve gravitated toward writing a strong love story in my books—but I have always felt it important to include the “who, what, where, when, & why” about a story to bring imagined people to life.  Given these precepts I learned as a journalist, for me, this meant grounding my stories with strong sense of place and the history underpinning it. I’ve always felt that what intensifies the bond between readers and the books they love (to say nothing of the bonds between a book’s characters as they fall in love) is revealing…

I’ve been asked by Fresh Fiction for comments about my February release, WILDEST DREAMS, published both in print and as an e-book by Sourcebooks. I am glad to oblige, and thanks for asking! WILDEST DREAMS is a western romance set in the wilds of an unsettled 1800’s Montana. It is a love story told through the eyes of Luke and Lettie Fontaine, beginning with when they meet on a wagon train and ending a lifetime later with the Fontaine name being prominent in Montana and representing the owners of one of the biggest cattle ranches in Big Sky country. The life Luke and Lettie share depicts what it was like to settle an untamed American West, including outlaws, Indians, the severe elements of hot summers and bitter winters, wild animals and the struggle of survival against it all. Throughout the story it’s the love these two people share that holds them together through danger and personal loss that could easily tear two people apart; as well as learning to face tragedy from the past that inevitably catches up with them. The American West and Native Americans is all I write about, and I’ve done it over the past 30 years…

I’m an avid fan of TV’s Castle. Got to admit that Richard Castle and Detective Kate Beckett make a great team. Love the plots. Love the witty dialogue. Love the romance that Castle and Beckett attempt to keep to themselves. What is there not to love? When Cold Case aired, I often lost myself in Detective Lilly Rush’s investigations. I admired her spunky personality and her ability to solve tough cold cases. She gave closure to the victims’s families, something no one else could do. When I thought about the two shows, my thoughts raced ahead. What if . . . Castle met Cold Case? What if . . . I switched the characters’ genders and set a suspense series in my home town, Houston? Then I talked to a good friend, who happens to be the media coordinator for Houston’s FBI, and we brainstormed. What if . . . I wrote a series based on solved cold cases from the files of Houston’s FBI? THE CHASE, the first book in my Crime Scene: Houston series, was birthed over coffee as I talked to my friend, scribblings on napkins, and lots of research. My heroine would be Kariss Walker, a…

They say if you want to find your soul mate, stop looking. But it never occurred to me that the same thing would happen with the characters in my book. Dylan Maguire was supposed to be a one-book man. Laurel Maguire’s nephew, he travels from Ireland to care for her after an incapacitating stroke and shortly before Vicki Boyd arrives. Vicki isn’t expecting the man with the lilting Irish brogue, the merry half-moon eyes and a near body-builder physique. And she’s not looking for a relationship. Vicki is a psychic spy for the CIA, a vocation based on a real government program. After a mission goes horribly awry, she leaves the agency to begin life anew in a small town. When she meets Dylan, she is reluctant and reserved. VICKI’S KEY is my 13th published book, but it’s the first time a character has leapt off the page at me. I never felt as though I invented him. Even his speech patterns were foreign to me (pardon the pun), his cadence different from any dialogue I’d ever written. And a funny thing happened. Vicki fell in love. And so have my readers. Their repartee is reminiscent of Hepburn and Tracy,…