So how do you like this Brave New World we are living in now, readers? And do you have any idea how much you personally are going to be forced to change your reading habits? I write funny sexy romance novels. Whether they be Vikings, knights, Navy SEALs, Cajuns, Creole planters, or, yes, even vampire angels, whether they be historical romance, time travel, or contemporary books, the underlying theme in all my books is humor and sizzle. For example, I have a new historical romance coming out in October, THE NORSE KING’S DAUGHTER, and a new Deadly Angels series starting in May, 2012 with KISS OF PRIDE, plus a gazillion reissues of all my Viking novels being put out monthly starting in January, 2011 through May, 2012. Not to mention my still-in-print Cajun novels, including SO INTO YOU. Thus far, all my books have been put out by traditional publishers, in both print and ebook formats. Vikings THE VIKING TAKES A KNIGHT 9/2010 DARK VIKING 10/2010 THE NORSE KING’S DAUGHTER 10/2011 I’m wondering, though, how readers, especially those who are new-to-me are going to find my books in the future, and that is true of all other authors, as well….

SEALED FOREVER, my latest release, landed in bookstores the same week the biggest story of the year, put SEALs, whose very secret work usually goes unlauded, on the front page. Suddenly from family, friends, and fans I’m getting phone calls and emails praising me for showing the world what heroes SEALs are. My stories have more in common with Army Wives than with Saving Private Ryan, but really, they don’t have much in common with either. I took the quintessential action figure hero, and turned expectations about what a SEAL story was like on its head. My stories are entirely character-driven. Where I got lucky was that SEALs not only have great bodies, and warrior abilities honed to the absolute pinnacle of the humanly possible, they have the characteristics every romance reader is looking for in alpha hero. SEALs absolutely would not be SEALs if they weren’t the men they are. Aggressive, violent, competitive, bulldog tenacious, self-assured to the point of arrogance, a strategic thinker and also generous, protective and nurturing. Up to now my SEALed books have shown the heroes, away from what for them is the “real world” of operations and the support of other SEALs. To meet…

How do you measure that which is not quantitative?  My husband, Tim Barney, and I are on tour with our new book, IT HAPPENED ON MAPLE STREET.  We were here at Fresh Fiction last month.  And last week, a ‘tour mate’ asked if there was a way for us to know if we’re doing what we set out to do.  Is the tour working?  Is the book working? It’s not a question I’ve ever heard from a reader before.  As a reader, I’ve never once wondered such a thing. As an author, I ask that question every single time I put words to paper.  My editors and the marketing and sales and art departments that all have a hand in the creation of my books never stop asking that question.  For the publishing professionals, there is a quantitative answer.  For a lot of them, there is only one scale upon which they judge — did the book sell well?  For them, it’s all about the numbers. For my editors it’s more than that, of course, but ultimately, they, too care if the book sells well or not.  The sales of a book they’ve purchased and worked on reflect on them…

As writers, we have to create worlds. Whether it’s the real world, a make-believe world, or an alternate reality, we have to populate those worlds. We dress the characters, give them histories, anxieties, families, and dreams. But I think we sometimes insert a little more of ourselves into them than we realize. For instance, you’re eyeball deep in revisions and edits and you realize your heroine is…You. No wonder she felt so familiar. Is this writer’s therapy? Are we working out our childhood troubles and disillusions through our characters? Are we living through them, or just so enamored of ourselves that we are certain we must belong in a book? Well, I hope your life has been so exciting, but I suspect we’re just slipping into the familiar. As I was writing the character of Bree Kirkland, heroine of AWAKEN THE HIGHLAND WARRIOR, I realized that Bree bore some distinct traits that I either have or want to have. Bree is a quirky historian. Not boring and stuffy, but kind of Indiana Jones-ish. Okay, that’s not me, but I wish it was. She’s clumsy–that is me–and she’s always felt a little different than the other girls. Hmmm, maybe me. Of…

In my many dialogues about ASHES OF THE EARTH I have discovered a remarkable, though sometimes reluctant, resonance among others about post-apocalyptic scenarios. I expected that initial reactions from readers would be along the lines of “why select such a dismal context?” or “why would you want to spend so much time in such a dark, unlikely place?” –but that has not been the case.  Instead many readers seem almost eager to offer their personal view of the post-apocalyptic world. They don’t reject the notion that such scenarios are a real possibility, they want to explain their own version of what that world would be like. Apparently we have lived so many years with the Doomsday Clock set at five minutes to midnight that the apocalypse has taken on a familiar aspect. We may often treat discussion of the apocalypse as taboo but it is uncanny –even alarming—that so many of us are thinking about it. I have been truly amazed at how many people harbor ready, well-considered views on what post-apocalyptic geographies would be safe, what technologies would endure, what types of people would be most likely to survive, or even what food survivors would be eating. This may…

Once Upon A Time, I wanted to be a historical romance writer.  I even majored in history in college, although I dropped out of the honors program when they won’t let me write an accurate historical novel (“like Michael Shaara‘s THE KILLER ANGELS,” I said) for my thesis.  They told me I had to go to the English department for that. Well, everyone I knew who majored in English ended up teaching writing, and I didn’t want to teach, I wanted to write.  In truth, I was already writing.  I had paid much of my way through college as a freelance nonfiction writer, and in my sophomore year, I started working as a reporter for a local radio station. There—and in my history classes—I learned about the importance of accuracy, of not committing anything to paper until it was absolutely right.  Which, somehow, I took over into the fiction side. It would take me years, I reasoned, to write a good historical romance.  And honestly, I didn’t (and don’t) have the attention span for that. So I gave up and wrote science fiction and fantasy (sf/f). Because I could make it all up.  All of it—the setting, the people, the…

I think all writers can agree that characters build as we write. Especially the hero or heroine. But what we don’t always expect is when the secondary characters—or as I like to call them, our secondary heroes—begin to speak louder and demand to be heard. It happens differently for every writer. I can only tell my own experience as it happened to me. And understand, it doesn’t happen with ever book or with every series. The stories of these characters becomes important to the reader, as well as the writer. So much so their voice comes through and they’re no longer shoved to the back of the book, but come forward to the front. And eventually—they get their own show. This is great news for a writer who’s developed a series that readers enjoy. It gives the writer a new path to follow from a different set of eyes, and it fleshes and fills out the back-story of every character within that writer’s universe. For me, it was a persistent character. A character that I used through the series as a dues ex machina. And as my books grew, and I continued to use this secondary hero—I realized I went…

Hello, my friends. It’s been a long time since I chatted with you here. Did you miss me? Laughing, probably not since we’ve had many many authors stop by and be our guest at Fresh Fiction, more interesting than what I usually rambled about. And so, here we are and I’m not quite sure what to say. Well, today is book club tea day in Texas. It’s a late one because the tea room holds it at 3:30pm to 5:00pm. That’s the strange thing about teas I’ve found over the years, the ‘proper’ time ranges from noon to 6pm. Each venue has their own idea of what is right. Most believe that a tea was a snack between luncheon and dinner so the ladies wouldn’t faint. I guess I’ve always thought of it as similar to feeding your kids when they came home from school before the family dinner. Give them a quick sandwich or snack and they won’t tear the kitchen apart rummaging for food. But whenever tea is held there is always someone who expresses that it’s too early, too late but never just right. Ah, well, life goes on. From experience I am certain the Chocolate Angel…

Fresh Fiction. I like this website’s name and theme. Everyone likes things fresh–fresh air, fresh fruit…and a fresh start. I’m author Linda Hubalek and many of my historical fiction books have characters longing for fresh starts for their families. I write about ancestors that moved to Kansas for a reason–to homestead land to start a new life for their families. For example Deborah and John Pieratt, featured in the first book of the Trail of Thread series) left Kentucky in 1854 when the Territory of Kansas was formed. They were part of the thousands of families that packed wagons and headed east for the promise of a new life. The thought of owning land must have seemed like the perfect fresh start for their six young children. THIMBLE OF SOIL, the second book in the series, features Margaret Ralston Kennedy. She was a widow who moved with eight of her thirteen children from Ohio to the Territory Kansas in 1855. (Margaret and two of her daughters are standing in front of their house in the photo with this post.) She was dedicated to the cause of the North, and helped with the Underground Railroad in both Ohio and Kansas. She…

“How do you say goodbye to a piece of your heart? If you’re a quilter, you have a time-honored way to express yourself. “A quilt is an object of peculiar intimacy. By virtue of the way it is created, every inch of the fabric is touched. Each scrap absorbs the quilter’s scent and the invisible oils of her skin, the smell of her household and, thanks to the constant pinning and stitching, her blood in the tiniest of quantities. And tears, though she might be loath to admit it….” That’s a quote from the beginning of THE GOODBYE QUILT, a story about letting go, leaving home, and obviously, quilting. I am not a quilter, but I’m a quilt-appreciator. The background of the author photo for this book is a family heirloom quilt, which is about a century old, yet just as sturdy now as when it was stitched. A really good quilter knows how to make things that last. When my own daughter was leaving home, I made her a scrapbook. However, The Goodbye Scrapbook doesn’t resonate in quite the same ways as THE GOODBYE QUILT. In the novel, the narrator, Linda, creates her quilt from the bits and pieces…