“I’m so glad you’re writing a fireman story.” “Oh, goodie…I love fireman books.” “I’ve been waiting for you to do a fireman book.” I’ve gotten a lot of this since announcing the launch of my series about the Gordon Falls Volunteer Fire Department that starts in February with FALLING FOR THE FIREMAN.  Romance readers love fire fighter heroes.  It’s not rocket science–or is that pyrotechnics in this case?–to figure out why: – Fire fighters are heroic. They are true heroes, risking their lives to save others.  Nobody gets rich fighting fires, and lots of people get hurt.  How many times have you heard about the brave men who rushed UP the stairs of the twin towers on 9/11 when people were racing down?  That’s courage, and our hearts are drawn to it. – Fire fighters wear uniforms. Dissect the psychology all you want, but women love a guy in uniform.  I think we crave the sense of honor it implies.  Integrity, commitment, service.  Easy on the eyes is always nice, but the attraction of a man in uniform is more about his personality than his pectorals. Speaking of which… – Fire fighters are hunky. The physical elements of that kind…

We all love novel series. There is nothing more fun than revisiting beloved characters even if they aren’t the main focus of the story. Amazon Heat is the first in our series that revolves around a lost tribe of Amazons hidden deep in the Brazilian rain forest. Before we started to write the story, we made a conscious decision to write this as a novella versus trying to dive into something longer. Why? In large part because this is the first time either of us had attempted co-writing and we didn’t want to dive into something long until we knew we worked well together.  By the time we got to The End, we were a comfortable team with the intention of doing more stories together. Still, we opted to continue our series on in a short format. We want to tell this particular collection of tales as serial novellas. We think that we can have a lot of fun exploring our exotic action/adventure filled world in short format. Sometimes, you just want a quick fun read. With a novella an author can offer a quick emotional punch. With Amazon Heat we got to play with both the emotion as well…

On the big screen Robert Downey Jr. or Hugh Jackman might play him. For books I’d have to say that it all started, for me, with Mr. Darcy. The hero. The alpha male. The hottie that keeps us glued to the screen or the pages. But is tall, dark, and handsome enough? Like most romance readers, a big part of the reason I read the romance genre is because of the heroes. I particularly enjoy reading a lot of paranormal romance, which many times involves a dominant alpha male. The man is tall, dark and handsome. He takes charge and rarely apologizes. He reeks of sexuality and strength, and he always gets the girl. Pardon me while I fan myself. In BANSHEE CHARMER, I definitely didn’t want to mess with what works so well in a hero, but I wanted to humanize my hero as well. And humor is something I find very attractive—no one can make me laugh like my husband. So I gave Aidan a bit of humor. Here’s an excerpt of how my hero and heroine, Mac, first meet. This scene sets the tone for the rest of their relationship in the story: I swung my gun…

If someone asked you to tell them a little something about yourself, what would you say? Now, imagine that everything you thought you knew was a lie. The woman that raised you isn’t your mother. She doesn’t even really like you. The man you thought was your father never existed. And you are from a long line of female assassins. Would your account of who you are change? There’s a saying, “If you don’t know where you come from, you won’t know where you’re going.”  This is what happens to Somiar Ayers. She is the daughter of Monica Ayers, the wealthy owner of several luxury resorts all over the world. She always knew she could control her dreams and looked at it as a harmless escape from reality. Or so she thought. One night she gets a call from Monica requesting an urgent meeting. Monica tells her that she is adopted and her birth mother was part of a group of assassins called Dreamers. When Dreamers go to sleep at night, they astral project anywhere they want to go. They can change their appearance and leave no DNA or fingerprints. Her birth mother has been caught and only Somiar can get her…

One of the most frequent comments I hear about my recent release, THE FALLEN QUEEN, is “I was leery of reading another book about angels and demons, but this surprised me.” I cringe when I hear people are coming to my book with trepidation and preconceived notions that it isn’t going to be their cup of tea, but I’m gratified to find readers are enjoying it despite themselves. The funny thing is that I somehow missed that angels and demons were becoming a trend in urban fantasy and paranormal romance when I began the House of Arkhangel’sk series. I guess I had my head too deeply buried in researching this world that had taken me over to notice what was going on around me in the world of publishing. It also wasn’t meant to be an urban fantasy; in epic fantasy, the “Elysian field” seemed wide open. It was only after I started writing my demon hero that I realized he had ideas of his own. I had no choice but to follow him when he fell to the world of Man. One of the things that makes my demons and angels different is that they have no religious origins….

NSA field agent Mal Laughlin is a man with a mission: Bring down DeMarco Investigations for playing a role in the death of his partner. He doesn’t care that Grace and Frank DeMarco are two of the most decorated and venerated U.S. spies. He doesn’t care that Nic, their oldest son, is a man he’d want at his back in a fight or that second son Jimmy is a brilliant geek with a wicked sense of humor. And he most certainly does not care that youngest child, Janey, is as good if not better with computers than he is and beautiful and sweet and… Well, maybe he cares a little. Or maybe he cares a little too much… Excerpt from SEX, LIES & SURVEILLANCE by Stephanie Julian The woman’s voice wrapped around Malcolm Laughlin like humidity on a ninety-degree day, making him unseasonably warm for a cool April morning. From the adjoining office, Janey DeMarco’s husky tone soothed. “No, don’t panic. I can talk you through this. You have to slide off the cover on the tower to remove the hard drive.” He had no idea who she was talking to. Didn’t matter. Her voice mesmerized—calm, logical, competent. Mal stifled…

January 2012 On Sale: January 1, 2012 Featuring: Ross Bennett; Paige Hart ISBN: 1611940869 EAN: 9781611940862 Trade Size (reprint) $13.95  Add to Wish List Romance Buy at Amazon.com If you missed it the first time, don’t miss it now… Stuck With You by Trish Jensen As lawyers on opposing sides of a messy divorce case, Paige Hart and Ross Bennett ought to have kept matters purely professional, yet Paige and Ross came to loathe each other with an intensity that was strictly personal. The bad blood between them takes on an unexpected new dimension when the infuriated pair is forced to share a hospital room, when they’re quarantined after being exposed to the rare and highly contagious Tibetan Concupiscence Virus that’s reputed to shift sensual desire into high gear. When symptoms (which a nonmedical person might mistake for pure and simple lust) start showing up way ahead of schedule, the lawyers’ objections to each other are overruled — and they enjoy every minute of it. But, after the doctors declare that the disease has run its course, Paige and Ross are still feverish with a longing for one another that they hope will never be cured. When the verdict comes…

Since Sourcebooks will take care of sending a copy of THE LURE OF SONG AND MAGIC to two commenters on this blog, I think that’s pretty magical, so if I’m asked if I believe in magic, it’s obvious my definition of magic is pretty loose. Hi, my name is Patricia Rice, and I write romance, any kind of romance from historical to contemporary to paranormal. I have about fifty print-published romances under my belt, and my current one is called paranormal because most people don’t believe in the magic of psychic phenomena. Consider my definition above—I think Snow White with seven minions to take care of her comes under my definition of magic—I’m all in favor of invisible hands dealing with the packaging and mailing of prizes. Fantasy magic would be if I could wave a wand, and poof, the words wrote themselves. But we all know that’s not happening. Maybe we need a word that means possible magic as opposed to improbable. Given the title, it should come as no surprise that the heroine of LURE, Philippa Seraphina (Syrene) Malcolm James, has gifts that some might consider magical, but others think of as in the realm of possible. When…

I know the slush pile. I’ve been in it. Many times. About eighteen times in fact.  In the old days it was often the only option to get a story in front of an editor. The book was written, typed up, bound between cardboard and thick elastic or string and posted off. Then came the waiting, which was agonizing. A note would come in the mail to say the manuscript had arrived and was under consideration. Then more waiting. Some time later another letter might come in the mail.  In my case that was always another rejection. And for me the cycle started all over again. Until I figured a way out. Until I started thinking of myself as a professional writer, and as such, the proprietor of my own business. About four years ago I started doing research about who was getting picked up by the publisher I was targeting – and how.  I read blogs, websites, and any statistics I could find about what this publisher was looking for. Then I thought about contests. I’d entered a few randomly over the years, but without any real purpose. But my new found approach to my career got me thinking…

My mom often reminds me that I’ve always loved to cook. She also likes to remind me that every time she left me in charge of the kitchen, she had to call the plumber to clear the clogged sink afterwards – usually on a holiday. In fact, her plumber still talks about all the potato peels he unearthed from the drain the night I held my “Host a Murder” party in high school. (Sorry about that, Ma. I wish I could say I’ve learned a lot since then, but my husband would disagree, citing the great latke clog of 2008.) So take a budding cook who likes to write and always has a trashy romance novel hidden in her purse and send her to college…Pre-med. Ha! I switched my major to creative-writing faster than you could say calculus. However, I failed to write the literary short stories I longed to master. Every story I turned in was filled with post-adolescent lust and heartbreak, thinly disguised scenes from my own life. Even then, I was writing romance, and let me tell you, the group critiques of those babies were awkward, especially since I was usually dating someone in the class. Ouch!…