Several years ago, someone in the blogosphere referred to me as a “veteran author” of romance fiction. This term caught me by surprise because even after a decade and a half as a published writer, I regarded myself as a newcomer, someone who still felt astonished to be doing this for a living and still a bit awed by her own favorite authors when she chanced to meet them at conferences. But when I began counting books and years, I realized (with some chagrin) that the moniker “veteran author” had become true. I’d been too busy writing to notice. Genre fiction is a relentless form of creative endeavor in the sense that the next book always looms on the horizon, whether you are ready to write it or not. Output is measured in pages per day, not pages per month. Books are counted, not by how many one can write during the course of a career, but how many one can write in a single year. For those of us with major publishers, genre fiction is also very specialized, with reader expectations and preferences always paramount, impelling the writer to weigh commercial considerations at least as heavily as creative ones….

It was a dark and stormy night… Beginnings. I know so many writers that love beginnings. They love them so much they have drawers (really files since most of us don’t keep our writing in actual drawers) full of story beginnings. It’s nothing for them to whip up a new proposal and send it off to their editor or agent. They love the excitement, the freshness, the limitless possibilities. Me? Not so much. And that’s really putting it mildly. I hate beginnings. It’s not that I don’t love all the possibilities, that’s great, wonderful, even. I mean that’s why brainstorming can get a bit addictive. I get the whole newness thing, I can see where they’re coming from, but I can’t feel it. Getting and shaping the idea is one thing, but when it comes to the actual writing, I’m a bundle of nerves. Well, I’m nervous and stressed pretty much the whole time I’m writing, but the beginning, especially. (And the ending, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog) The way I look at it, I’ve got a blank canvas with two people I don’t know at all (regardless of how many things I know about them, it’s way different…

Twenty five years ago when I first started writing, my goal was to become a successful author.  I wanted to be able to quit my real estate job and write full time.  Fortunately, with my husband still working, I was able to make that happen fairly quickly. Still, when I finally I sold my first book after months of trying and numerous rejections, I earned the whopping sum of four thousand dollars–not much money for a year and a half of working ten hours a day!  But I never lost faith.  I thought, “I can do this.  I know I can.” I think one of the toughest things about being an author is continuing to believe in yourself.  Insecurities swamp you.  Is this book any good?  Is this book as good as the last one?  Will my readers like it?  Will the publisher renew my contract? After twenty five years, those questions remain.  It’s only sheer force of will that keeps a writer pounding the keyboard, sheer determination that keeps an author from quitting. So when I hit the New York Times printed list (as opposed to the extended list, which I had been on a number of times), it…

I last blogged at Fresh Fiction last September–about Animals, Novels and Me. I’m back. And I’m still at it–obsessing and writing about animals, that is. March 1 is the debut date for BEAGLEMANIA, the first in my new Pet Rescue Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. It’s a spinoff series from my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series. Yes, both series contain animals. So do my Harlequin Nocturnes about Alpha Force, a covert military unit of shapeshifters. The protagonist of my new Pet Rescue series is Lauren Vancouver. She was introduced in the eighth Kendra book, HOWL DEADLY, and she also appears in the ninth, FELINE FATALE. She is the head administrator of HotRescues, a no-kill private animal shelter in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. She doesn’t have to worry about funding, since HotRescues is under the auspices of Kendra’s new guy friend Dante DeFrancisco, who’s really rich. But she has plenty of other things to worry about. Worrying, and doing something about it, is at the heart of pet rescue. It’s also at the heart of being a protagonist in a cozy mystery series. When I tell you that, in the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people… well, I’m…

Hi, everyone (sending a big cyber-wave!) I’m thrilled to be here and want to thank the Fresh Fiction gang for inviting me. Some of you might recognize me from the romance community. These days you’ll find my keyboard planted in the mystery world, thanks to a reluctant amateur sleuth named Anastasia Pollack. Anastasia took over my life and my writing and hasn’t let go, so I had no other choice but to write about her. ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN, which debuted in January, is Anastasia’s story, but because there’s so much to tell, it’s also the first book in my new Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. When I made the move from romance to mystery, I found I had to switch up my writing style. Romance readers and mystery readers have different expectations when it comes to their preferred genres. In a romance the story centers around the hero and heroine, but mysteries don’t have heroes and heroines. They have protagonists, whether amateur sleuths or law-enforcement professionals, and those protagonists may or may not have a love interest. If there is a love interest, the love story is subordinate to the mystery. Usually way subordinate, often only a…

I have a great, personal love for the people of Afghanistan. Because I’m a GIA Colored Stones graduate, my hobby is creating beautiful gemstone necklaces, earrings and bracelets for my worldwide clientele. Every year I go to the Tucson Gem Show in Tucson, Arizona. It’s the world’s largest gem show! Nearly every country in the world flies in their lapidary items that are indigenous to their country to be sold to buyers like myself. There are thousands of buyers who flock to this stellar event. The Tucson Gem Show is so big that it’s not held in just one place. Rather, it is scattered all over Tucson at different venues, tents, motel/hotels. It’s the dim sum plate of the lapidary world. I love Lapis Lazuli, a dark blue stone that is indigenous to Afghanistan. Over the years, I have made friends with our dealers who come from that war torn country. These men are hospitable, kind and always offer to feed us when we come into their hotel room where they have their lapis on display. Afghans are some of the greatest ‘horse traders’ in the world, and I mean that as a compliment. This is a very poor country…

I’m delighted to be at Fresh Fiction today and I look forward to chatting with readers. People who’ve read my books won’t be surprised to hear me say that, for me, it’s all about the characters. My plots only exist to send my characters on challenging emotional journeys where they confront deep insecurities and fears. If they’re to win love, they have to find the courage to do some growing. We writers call that “character arc.” Jenna, the heroine of my February release (chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top 10 Romances of Spring 2011!), is a woman I’ve known for a while. That’s because HIS, UNEXPECTEDLY is the third book in my sexy “planes, trains, automobiles, and a cruise ship” Wild Ride to Love series about the four Fallon sisters. I knew from the first book that Jenna, the third sister, is viewed by her family as a flaky eccentric, and that she sees herself as a free spirited butterfly who flits from place to place, job to job, and man to man as the mood strikes her. I knew that Jenna would need a very special kind of guy to make her consider commitment, and so…

Tell us a little bit about your newest novel, A LIGHT AT WINTER’S END. This is the third book set in Cedar Springs, following SUMMER OF TWO WISHES and ONE SEASON OF SUNSHINE. In this book, Hannah Drake has always done everything right: getting married, having a baby, caring for her mother in her final days, all the while performing impeccably in a high-level job. Her sister Holly Fisher is the college dropout, the one who works at a coffee shop and wants to be a songwriter. Then one day perfect Hannah suddenly—without explanation—leaves her baby with Holly and disappears. Holly takes little Mason to the empty family homestead, where she can stay while she figures out how to take care of a baby and what to do with this sudden change in her life. It is there she meets Wyatt Clark, a close-mouthed, handsome cowboy who is mysteriously good with babies. And then, just as Holly can no longer imagine her life without either Mason or Wyatt, Hannah returns for her son. Wyatt Clark was first introduced in SUMMER OF TWO WISHES, where his wife’s soldier husband literally came back from the dead, and she was forced to choose…

I don’t know about the rest of you but I am tired of reading stories about vampires, werewolves and fairies. I realize the paranormal craze has reached new heights since the release of Meyer’s TWILIGHT series but I have to ask, how much is too much? Don’t get me wrong, I have purchased and enjoyed several new paranormal reads (Twilight being amongst them) but lately it seems I can’t walk into a bookstore or library without seeing an elaborate table display for books about vampires. It reminds me of when the Sex and the City HBO series first aired and everyone fell in love with Carrie’s fabulous lifestyle. Before you knew it, new TV shows were popping up on every major network about a single white female who lives in a thriving metropolis. When she is not on the search for true love, she manages to squeeze in enough time to write an article for the trendy magazine she freelances for. I’m sure you can think of a few shows that easily fit this criteria. My point is, when ‘the power that be’ see a formula that works, they will beat it into the ground. Thus … the flood of…

Ask ten different scholars of rhetoric to define the word, and you’ll get ten different answers. Dictionary definitions usually say something along the lines of “the skill or study of using language as persuasion” (the one I give to my students gets even more specific: The art and skill of using language to communicate and/or persuade”). I suppose the key words in these definitions are “language” and “persuade”. Analyze any piece of writing—be it fiction or non-fiction, a bumper sticker or a political speech, a text message or a tweet, a lab report or a love letter—and you’ll find that each one is designed to move the reader in some way: to thought, to action, to response. The language may make an emotional appeal, a logical appeal, or an ethical appeal. What’s more, each one of these aforementioned texts tends to be in response to something else and is part of an ongoing conversation. Moreover, when we write, be it a novel or a blog post or a marketing analysis or a resume, we write with purpose and an audience in mind—even if we keep a private diary, we write “Dear Diary,” implying an intended reader, even if that reader…