Are you like me, shopping for the perfect gift at this time? Every year I try for that special gift that nobody dared to ask for but had been dreaming of. This kind of experience has happened to me a few times in my life and I know how magical it feels. I remember the Christmas when transistor radios had just been invented (okay, I realize I am dating myself ) and I longed for one. But my parents were giving me the train ticket to a friend’s wedding as my Christmas gift. Besides, transistor radios were a big deal when they first came out and certainly not cheap. So I didn’t even ask for one. Then on Christmas morning I went through my stocking—okay, I know I was a teenager but I still liked my stocking—and came across a battery. What a strange thing, I thought. What could I possible want a battery for? Then I felt hope and amazement flooding through me. It couldn’t be, could it? Not possibly… I went through the rest of the stocking and there at the very bottom was the transistor radio. I still tear up when I think about it now. The…

No one ever successfully controls a familiar. Historically, familiars were said to be magical helpers of witches. They had the ability to shift shape, often appearing as cats, bats, or other creatures in their service to the witch. It was assumed by inquisitors that familiars, as a type of imp or evil spirit, served the witch willingly. At other times, they were summoned by a magician, then trapped in a stone or piece of jewelry. The familiar spirit was trapped, coerced into service, like genies in bottles. In the world of EMBERS and SPARKS, Anya has a familiar, Sparky. He’s a five-foot long speckled hellbender with eyes like marbles–a fire salamander elemental, a creature that’s the embodiment of fire. The German magician, Paracelsus, called fire spirits &mquot;salamanders&mquot;in the sixteenth century. Salamanders were long associated with fire, despite their amphibious nature, because they crawled out of forest logs cast on fires. The salamander was assumed to dwell in fire, and embodied the impetuosity, power, and destructive changeability of the flickering flame. Anya’s had Sparky since she was a child. He’s tied to a necklace her mother gave her, which suggests that, like the familiars trapped in jewelry, he was coerced into…

Veterans are close to my heart. My father-in-law served in World War II and was a soldier in Patton’s army. We miss him and I dedicated my December release to him to honor what he meant to our lives. My dad was also a soldier in World War II. In addition, my college years were impacted by the Vietnam War and many of my high school and college classmates served. I wrote to a serviceman in Vietnam for two years and still have his letters with the details of his service there. A few years ago I wrote about a veteran hero in THE BRACELET and beforehand read diaries that one of our community colleges had collected—oral transcripts of servicemen’s lives in Vietnam. In all my research, one thing was clear. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was ignored for years, although these men and their families recognized the symptoms all too well. I wanted to bring it to the forefront now because it’s important to remember what our soldiers face after they come home. When I began my research for my hero in TWINS UNDER HIS TREE, I was interested in learning more about the National Guard…about men who didn’t realize…

Who remembers that wonderful old movie from the eighties, Revenge Of The Nerds, about 2 gawky kids who go off to college eager for good times and a taste of freedom? Things quickly go from bad to worse for the ungainly pair as they get pummeled by jocks, snubbed by the pretty girls, and ignored by college administrators. But by the end of the movie, our intrepid geeks not only prove they’re much smarter than their popular counterparts – by winning the day through some cool, high tech antics – but they’re sexier and more desirable, too! Why? Because they take the time to figure out what makes a girl happy. In fact, the nerdiest nerd of all ends up stealing the gorgeous head cheerleader away from the captain of the football team. Who among us didn’t cheer at the very end when all the nerds stood tall and proud to the tune of Queen’s We Are The Champions? I know I did! There’s no getting around it, Simon de Burgh, the hero of OUTRAGEOUSLY YOURS (book 2 in my Victorian series, Her Majesty’s Secret Servants) is a nerd – of sorts. While rowing and wrestling at Cambridge University have…

I first wrote Second Chances in 2005. It was, in fact, the third book I’ve ever written. The experience was not the best for a whole host of reasons, but I learned a lot about myself during the process. About editing and standing up for myself when I felt strongly about something. It was a book I liked writing, a book I got notes about from time to time and when I got the rights back in 2007, a book I knew I’d want to revisit someday. But you know how someday can be. It seems like you just thought about it yesterday and then a year or two has passed and I saw a tweet from Angela James about how she’d been looking for BDSM erotic romance to fit in an October slot. Here I had this book, finished but in need of some revisions and I thought perhaps it was time to drag it out and give it a once over. Angie had been my editor before, in fact, she’s been my editor longer than I’ve worked with anyone else in publishing, how cool is that? Anyway, that does not mean she gives me any free passes! She’s…

The crime scene is more than the chalk outline marking where the victim falls. It’s the world surrounding that pale silhouette, spreading out in uneven ripples from the perimeter cordoned off with yellow tape to the metes and bounds of the jurisdiction that investigates and prosecutes the offense to the ill-defined society that wittingly or not harbors a killer in its midst. The place where these overlapping scenes congeal and conspire is as alive and organic as any flesh and blood character. It makes and breaks promises, rewards strength and punishes weakness. It fills hearts with hope and drains them without a backward glance. Done right, place becomes a central character, casting heroes and villains against a geographic backdrop, driving the action as surely as any twitchy trigger finger. Los Angeles has been immortalized as a place character by authors from Raymond Chandler to Michael Connelly. Dennis Lehane created domineering characters in the Points and the Flats of Boston while Elmore Leonard gave Detroit a singular pulse. George Pelecanos made real Washington, D.C.’s struggle to provide justice for all. New York’s literary parents are legion and legendary. Fictional places are no less powerful characters as Scott Turow and Nancy Pickard…

Holiday season always makes me think about the best times I had, the memories last, hopefully for a lifetime. I surely don’t remember very many toys I received as a child, maybe I didn’t get any? Except the game of Life from my uncle when I really wanted a Barbie doll. I never did get Barbie but I did play Life for many years through my teens. Maybe my uncle made the best choice. I remember my mother was so sad that as the oldest I let my disappointment show. It did teach me something, to never expect something as a gift, that being a role model had its downside, and to always accept graciously. I think I was about 10 that Christmas, and both my mother and uncle have passed on, but their Christmas memory lingers as long as I live and can tell the story. This year my family decided to forgo presents at Christmas but instead go on a family vacation together. It is our first family vacation in eight years and I blame Harry Potter. The opening of the Harry Potter park in Orlando pushed each of us, except my husband who is not a HP…

Fiction writers always hear that we should “kill your darlings.” William Faulkner is the first credited with this excellent advice, and it has been repeated by many other authors, including Stephen King. I’ve always nodded when I heard it, and I’ve lost count of how many times I repeated it to my students.  But after writing six thrillers and three young adult Star Crossed novels, not to mention mentoring many authors, I finally had to  ask myself, “Which darlings?” Here are the ones I believe you should murder first. The Researchitis Darling. How nice for you. You’ve spent a year researching a topic, and you want to dump it all on your reader from Page 1. I can so relate. Thanks to my Cosmopolitan astrologer friend, Hazel Dixon-Cooper, I researched every aspect of astrology in order to write the Star Crossed Series. As a Gemini ruled by Mercury, I got kind of obsessed by where one’s Mercury was located, and what that meant. Mercury in Pisces? Less forthcoming. In Aries? A communication champion who blows rules out the window. In Taurus? Even more controlling. But—and this is a big but—my readers were still working on their Sun signs. They weren’t…

When people think about settings for romance, Detroit is one of the last cities to come to mind. My hometown has a rough reputation, and much of it is earned. When I was dreaming up my Urban Arcana series of paranormal romances, though, I never thought twice about using Detroit as the home for elves, witches, werewolves and more. So why is the Motor City such a perfect backdrop? Metropolitan Detroit’s over 300 year history is rich with industrial success, making it the home of numerous immigrant groups. That diversity could easily include other species. Who’d notice werewolves in Hamtramck (eastern European enclave), djinn in Dearborn (large Middle Eastern populace), or Fae in Corktown? The city is built over salt mines, and salt figures frequently in legend and myth. Now that most of the industry has left, there’s an air of gritty decay. All the abandoned factories full of rusting iron lend ideal settings for supernatural activities. Furthermore police and other city civil servants, understaffed due to budget constraints, often adopt a pragmatic “not my problem” attitude. As long as nobody’s getting hurt, it’s a whole lot easier to look the other way. Why worry about some guy with pointy…

for books…and authors and storytellers. On the day of the year where our nation collectively gives thanks there are a few things that I’m truly grateful to have. One of those and maybe not the very first but near the top of the list is the ability to read. It’s so much in the fabric of my person I don’t realize it’s something not everyone has. I can read, read fast and comprehend quickly. Reading has taught me so much over the years and allowed me to visit worlds I’d never be able to travel, meet people I’d never know, be so happy with my own life and give me a business I love every day, even at 4:30am. Authors and books and publishers of books are wondrous devices that feed my obsession. This year, I’m truly thankful for all of them. Yes, and I’m also thankful for my family who supports me by knowing not to bother me when I have a book in hand and for my strange obsession in reading and meeting new readers and authors. For allowing our home to be opened to visitors each month to talk about books and authors without complaint and actually…