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…

I oddly enough know the exact day I became a writer, almost the exact hour. I had no intention of writing fiction, not in the 35 years proceeding, nor in that moment. My total creative writing efforts had included two terrible short stories and my resume. In the meanwhile, I had climbed the corporate ladder until I was flying to three cities a week and my little two-person company was consulting to the Fortune 100 on IT-infrastructure redevelopment. I had it all, until the moment when I had nothing. In four months I lost the business, the career, any desire to continue in the career, my house, and finally my furniture and car. Actually I sold the last three because I’d found the solution to my burn-out mid-life crisis. The solution was to set off around the world on a bicycle… Okay, well, it made sense at the time. Four months had seen me from having two houses, four cities, and all that noise, to sitting on a bicycle. Suddenly I could pick up my life with one hand, tent and kitchen included with nowhere to sleep that night but somewhere down the road. Four more months saw me on…

No matter what the subgenre, research is necessary when writing a book. For some of us, research is just as much a passion as getting our words onto the page. Over the years, I’ve done a lot of research for my books. However, some research isn’t found in books. Sometimes a writer visits a place to experience its sights, sounds, and sensations. It helps them translate that experience onto the page for a reader. Experiencing research first-hand is amazing. One such moment for me occurred in April 2007 when I fulfilled one of many life-long dreams. I toured the King Tut exhibit. When a writer experiences “word fail” when trying to describe something, it’s a sure sign it’s a phenomenal moment. Writers rarely have “word fail.” We might occasionally get writers block, put words down in the wrong order, or despise our words, but “word fail” is something monumental. It’s our way of saying we’ve come up against something magical. Even now, almost five years later, I still find it difficult to come up with the right words to describe what I saw. For a large number of people, research is a dark library with tall stacks of dry, musty…

So I’ll be the first to admit, I watch a fair amount of reality TV, and I’ve been doing so for years. Initially I filed my slight obsession under the character-study category. I’m a writer, so by watching real people live their lives on TV, I was doing research. That was way before I realized how scripted reality TV was, also before all of the fighting started breaking out. Why some reality shows insist on showing that behavior among adults just baffles me. I’m sure the women on these shows who get sucked into behaving that way regret their actions later…more sooner than later. Now I’ve cut back on the number of reality shows I watch, but I haven’t given up on all of them: Welcome to Sweetie Pies, Braxton Family Values, and Real Housewives of Atlanta are three shows I still tune into. My latest novel THE ONE features a reality show in the backdrop—a show more on the lines of The Bachelorette, only different. It’s a new show, and the premise is to take one woman around the world to explore ten romantic destinations and meet ten eligible bachelors. By the end of the season, she’s supposed to…