I’ve lost count of how many romantic comedies I’ve seen over the years. Dozens, at least. Most of the classics and pretty much every major motion romantic comedy since like 1985. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still firmly camp Action Movie. But what is it about romantic comedies that just draws me to the screen? Dissecting this love affair has made me see a few similarities in what I like to read. And write. So let’s explore. First up, heroes. Have you ever noticed the heroes in romantic comedies? Of course you have! You’re supposed to. They’re these perfectly imperfect men. Good looking. Often funny, boy next door kinds of men. Even the wealthy ones are fairly approachable and yet, flawed.  I’m thinking of Hugh Grant’s character in Two Weeks Notice. Poor man. Handsome. Wealthy. And he didn’t know what he had until she was gone. The heroines. The gal we’d all like to be. Or be friends with. An underdog. Perhaps not the prettiest girl in the room (yet.) Just an all around likable person.  Kate Winslet in The Holiday, anyone? Of course, she is the prettiest girl in the room but she’s so conflicted all while being…

That’s me.  Evil Overlord of my characters. It’s kind of just like that. Evil Overlord: Plans to interfere with his targets’ lives. Me: Plan to interfere with my characters’ lives. Evil Overlord: Is constantly thinking, “What can I do to cause trouble for these people?” Me: “What can I do next to cause trouble for these characters? Evil Overlord: “In fact, what can I do to tear them to shreds?” Me: In fact, what can I do to make things as difficult as possible? Evil Overlord: “HOW SHALL I KILL THEM?” Me: HOW SHALL I– No, no no.  Wait a minute.  Here’s where we part ways. For me, it’s How will they get out of it? What new depths of themselves will they plumb to climb out of this personal disaster I’ve created, possibly while also saving the world? (Possibly.) Because the thing is, as the author, I don’t usually have any idea how they’re going to get out of what I put them into.  I’m so focused on getting them to the point of ultimate internal and external disaster (because, you know, that’s just the way I am) that when I reach it, I often go… Me: Uh, durrrr……

I have love on the brain. Not sure why… Maybe it’s because my kids are still ruining their teeth on leftover Valentine’s Day candy. Maybe it’s because I just wrote a short scene depicting my protagonist’s first crush. Maybe it’s because I’m going through an Ingrid Michaelson stage–and especially adoring “The Hat,” a sweet and soulful song about first love. Anyway, all this talk about first love has me thinking about my own. My first love was the first boy who I found attractive on a million different levels. Of course I had found boys “cute” before, but my first love was funny, charming, intelligent, talented in so very many ways, and attractive on top of it all. I got to know him as a friend over the course of two and a half years, all the while loving him in secret and mourning every time he fell for another girl–and tripped over himself to race to my side so he could tell me all about it. Sigh. Anyway, when he finally woke up and realized that he just might love me, too, I had already found the strength to let go of him. It was too little, too late….

OUTCAST MINE is a departure for Jaime Craig in more ways than one. As you may or may not know, Jamie Craig is actually a pseudonym for the collaborative works between myself and Vivien Dean. Usually we write books a paragraph at a time. And by “usually” I mean “we always do that.” But when we started OUTCAST MINE, we wanted to try something new and challenge ourselves. We began by discussing the sort of book we wanted to write. I had just seen a movie Leonard Nimoy made in 1966 called “Deathwatch.” It’s based on a play and it’s very much an existentialistic nightmare. Nimoy’s character is a thief, and he’s in a cell with two other men. The other two men do have sex, and there’s a great deal of sexual tension between all three of them, as well as an impending sense of doom, and an ever-present claustrophobia. Leonard Nimoy is amazing and beautiful, and I was so inspired by this movie that I told Vivien we MUST write a prison story full of sexual tension, violence, and claustrophobia. Once that was decided, we gave each other a list of short prompts. Lines we liked from songs…

Why are do we get hooked on fiction? What in us supports the reading habit and the huge industry that feeds it? Escapism of course. Escapism has a bad rep. Undeservedly, in my (possibly self-serving) opinion. I think that far from being a sign of mental deterioration, it is a hallmark of adaptation. Animals, humans included, evolve in response to stress of one kind or another. Not going deep into Darwinism here, but survival of the fittest is the basic rule. Early on, this meant those who had the skills to get food, to run off competitors, to ward off threats and to abundantly procreate won the day. (Sound familiar? The romantic hero/heroine is a prototype for successful biological adaptation.) These days we have come up with group solutions to most of the stressors: we no longer have to chase down our food, we have laws to define our turf, police to deal with threats to life and limb, and procreation in vast numbers—no longer necessary to the survival of the species—is now frowned upon. Along the way, we’ve collected a host of other stressors: various health woes because we don’t have to chase down our food, annoying neighbors we…

There is a fine line between creativity and clinical pathology.  I can say this with some conviction because the love of my life is a psychologist and he knows about these things.  The whole topic came up one day as I was readying myself to sally forth to find a nice coffee pub that would keep me supplied with caffeine and sugar while I casually wrote a best-selling novel before lunch (one can dream, can’t they?). As I said my good-byes, I flippantly remarked, “I’m off to play with my imaginary friends.”  The look on my love’s face was a Kodak moment, I can tell you that.  And it stopped me in my tracks.  “What?” I asked, not seeing anything alarming or unusual in the repartee up to that point. “You do know,” he answered sounding rather serious, “that to many of my colleagues you would be an annuity.” “Hey, look on the bright side,” I parried.  “With me you don’t have to choose between business and pleasure.” Then I turned serious myself.  “Fix whatever you can.  God knows, I need it, but don’t mess with this.”  I handed him a copy of my novel, WANNA GET LUCKY? He read…

It’s that time again, VALENTINE’S DAY!  I’m so honored to once again be Fresh Fiction’s special Valentine’s Blogger.  This year I thought I’d talk about what Valentine’s Day means to me.  Thanks to the commercials on television, on the radio, on the Internet, in our email boxes, you couldn’t forget the holiday if you wanted to!  Forget about the commercialization of the holiday.  Instead I’d like to break it down to it’s most basic premise – LOVE. For me, Valentine’s Day is about telling the people you care about how you feel about them.  Valentine’s Day can be and should be celebrated no matter what your “relationship status” is.  For the last few years, I’ve treated Valentine’s Day as a day about love.  I love my family.  So I go onto Kodak Gallery, pull out a few favorite photos and create a photo card and send to my family – my parents, my kids, my husband, my inlaws, brother and sister in laws, etc.  Occasionally I send to my friends if the mood strikes me.  Why? Because I care about them and I want to share my life and my feelings with them.  I also want to give them a…

Hi, Fresh Fiction! Thanks so much for having me today! I thought I’d yak a bit about the television romances that have inspired me as a writer. Some of them probably aren’t what you’d expect. No McDreamy or McSteamy in the bunch. Nothing wrong with the McDreamys and McSteamys of the TV world, of course — I love a hunky guy as much as anyone. Put him in leather pants or slap a tool belt on him, and I’m so there! But the TV relationships and/or scenes that have inspired me as a writer are a bit less mainstream. So here goes … — Buffy kills Angel (probably not that much of a surprise for a romance writer): One of the things I loved so much about Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the metaphor for high school … and life, actually. I mean, I feel as though I fight demons every day, either mine or someone else’s. I remember clearly the exact moment I fell in love with the world of Buffy and Angel. Near the end of the second episode, Buffy has saved the day, and Angel stands outside the Bronze, looking surprised that she pulled it off. “I’ll…

BREAKING THE RULES BLURB: What do you get when you mix a military hero on a mission with an independent artist hell-bent on proving something?  A battle that can only be won between the sheets. Sophia Castillo is finally calling the shots in her life, and she’s determined to stay in charge.  The last thing she needs is a babysitter.  Not even a babysitter as sexy as US Army Sergeant First Class and EOD Squad Leader, Maximillian St. James.  But when someone is sabotaging her art gallery, she turns to Max for help.  When he proves to be a challenge to her independence, she lays down their relationship rules.  Hot sex, good times and a lot of laughs are all good.  Anything involving their hearts is strictly off limits.  Before they catch the vandal, Max and Sophia both have to decide just which rules they are willing to break, and how high a price they are willing to pay. In so excited about the release of BREAKING THE RULES that I’m throwing not one, but two parties.  The latter is mentioned at the end of this blog.  But the first is right here, right now.  And what better way to…

Thanks so much to everyone at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today! Romantic suspense has been a favorite genre of mine for about a decade—basically ever since I discovered it. I grew up reading contemporary romance but once I discovered this genre (namely Linda Howard), I was officially hooked and devoured everything RS I could find. There’s just something exciting about running from bad guys, dodging bullets and trying to hunt a serial killer while trying to stay alive. Of course this is only exciting in fiction. I wouldn’t want to deal with what most of my heroines do. In DANGEROUS SECRETS, my recent release from Carina Press, my heroine makes one decision that changes her life. In the beginning of the story, Izzy (my heroine), sees a young woman being assaulted outside of the bar where she works and instead of letting the hero handle it, she scares the would-be attacker off. This one act is such a small thing but it puts her on the radar of a psycho. From that point forward, her entire life changes. Years ago I made a decision that changed my life. At the time I didn’t know it but this…