If you enjoy historical romances where a spun-sugar princess has servants at her beck and call to dress her in a sumptuous gown for a lazy afternoon of flower-gathering, you may be disappointed in my books. I like hard-working, goal-driven, salt-of-the-earth heroes and heroines, people who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. In CAPTURED BY DESIRE, heroine Florie Gilder is a goldsmith’s apprentice who’s had to learn to fend for herself, and Rane MacAllister is a huntsman who provides food for starving villagers. Why this preference for commoners? Basically, there are three reasons: I get bored with do-nothing characters. (In fact, I tend to make them the villains!) Characters that spend all day fretting over their attire for the ball or learning how to flirt with a fan or going on leisurely flower-gathering expeditions are dull, dull, dull. I’d much rather write about hard-working people with dreams and motivations. Renaissance jobs are cool. Sure, Lady Winifred and Lord Rupert can indulge in certain proper occupations—sewing, dancing, hawking, hunting, attending feasts, going a-Maying. But can they be waxchandlers (candle-makers)? Chapmen (traveling salesmen)? Thimbleriggers (scam artists)? Broom-dashers, beekeepers, or beerbrewers? Who wouldn’t want to write about a hero who’s a vaginarius?…

I grew up watching movies like Clash of the Titans, BeastMaster, and Highlander (one of my favorites!) so it was no wonder when I began writing that myths and legends worked their way into my stories. Every culture has hundreds of legends and millions of myths. The great thing about writing fiction is that I can add any of these myths and legends into a story. And some I just make up. ? In FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDER, the second book in my Dark Sword series, the series uses its own myth and legend. When I had the first kernel of an idea for the series, I knew I would need something substantial for a legend. Since the series takes place in medieval Scotland, it opened up many possibilities. After all, Britain itself is steeped in magic and lore. With primeval gods trapped inside my Highlanders who happen to fall in love with Druids, I realized I could take this back hundreds of years. Rome, as we know, invaded and conquered much of Britain. But not Scotland. Why is that? Is it because of the Celts? Do we believe anything written in that history since it was written by Rome? So, that…

Sometimes your characters (and your publisher) take you places you don’t want to go — like to a not so happily-ever-after ending. Caleb and Maggie from Leaving Paradise wanted a happy ending. They deserved one. They had both been through so much — juvie and a crippling accident — but they still didn’t get their HEA. Not in Leaving Paradise, anyway. As much as they (and I, their author) wanted it, it wasn’t going to happen. Too bad for them. Worse, too bad for me. And so, romance lover that I am, I agonized and fretted over what to do. I had sold the book to the publisher as a YA romance with a HEA. But Caleb and Maggie wouldn’t stay in their box; their characters took over and led them (and their book) to an ending that was real…but not happy. So, after some time (and a few more books – Perfect Chemistry, anyone? were written and hitting the bookstore shelves) I was ready to give Caleb and Maggie their turn in the limelight again. They had suffered enough. Strangely, though, my publisher loved the ending to Leaving Paradise. For them, Leaving Paradise was done. Finito. Paradise had been…

Anyone who has been reading my novels lately may see a theme there. I’m currently writing both cozy mysteries and paranormal romances–two fun but different genres. What’s similar about them? They all involve animals! My cozy mysteries consist of the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. Kendra is a lawyer who temporarily lost her law license because of an alleged–and untrue, of course–ethics violation, and took up pet-sitting to support herself and her dog, Lexie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She enjoys pet-sitting so much that she continues to do it even after she gets her law license back. Among the pets that she sits for are dogs and cats, of course, plus ferrets, pot-bellied pigs, macaws, iguanas, and even a ball python. Because these are cozy mysteries, Kendra becomes what she calls a “murder magnet” and has to solve murders in each of the books. I’m currently working on a spin-off from the Kendra series, the Pet Rescue mysteries, also for Berkley Prime Crime. The protagonist, Lauren Vancouver, runs a private no-kill animal shelter that is funded by a good friend of Kendra’s. The first, BEAGLEMANIA, will be published in March 2011. They, too, involve murders…

For the past 20 years we have been writing novels, seven in total—the eighth in the works. No Pulitzer or Nobel winners, but well crafted stories that have enlightened and entertained tens of thousands of readers. Our first “big book” Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made was published in 1997, has never been out of print, is in its fifth edition and has sold over 750,000 copies, without any major advertising or endorsements. But that was then. Now, we along with many of our “classmates”, black women writers who started their careers in the mid 90’s, find our future in jeopardy. This precarious position is not because we write bad books, but because we all fall in the general category “African American Fiction” and we just aren’t selling as well. What we write is women’s fiction with Af-Am characters–stories of struggle and triumph, loss, coping, love, and life, learning. But we are labeled, handicapped, before we’re out of the gate. Folks who might enjoy our work because the theme might be relevant to their life- like What Doesn’t Kill You, our 2009 novel—a funny and uplifting story about a woman who loses her long-term job, but finds her…

Don’t ask me why, but I suddenly started wondering how many of our blog-ees are lifelong romance readers and how many came to the game later. I think of myself as a lifer, but the romance genre as we know it today bears little resemblance to what was available when I was a kid and young adult–which I considered at the time to be zilch. That wasn’t entirely true, of course. There were the early Harlequin books, and I loved them for a while, but then they began to bug me because the hero was always this older than dirt guy (to my 12, 13, 14 year-old mind) of 30, who treated the 18-year-old English flower like crap through most of the book then pledged his undying love on the last page. Huh? I could never see where that was coming from, because he sure as heck didn’t show it. (“I love you darling, truly I do. And by the way, you look lovely in your frock. We must spend a fortnight in my flat.”) Gak. But then came the Gothics, with their covers of women looking over their shoulders at a castle/manse/decrepit old house with its one lighted window…

For authors, stories often begin with the question “What if” and that was certainly true for me with my Prometheus Project trilogy. It was late 2004 and I was pushing around a number of story ideas, thinking about trying something different from the historical romances I’d been writing since 1992. I had one vivid scene in my mind of a woman on a motorcycle. She was riding into danger, determined to see that justice was served. Her husband, it seemed, had died and she was the only one who knew the cause of death wasn’t an accident. But what had it been? Who was she? Where was she? One night, after watching all the doom and gloom on the nightly news, I wondered – what if the world really was ending? What if that’s where this woman is? And what if her husband was killed because he knew something that could have made a difference? What would that detail have been? That opened a proverbial Pandora’s box of new ideas — and new questions. I quickly decided that the world would have to be in much worse shape than it was currently for things to be on the cusp of…

Now that Labor Day has passed, and for the majority of us summer has come to an official close it’s time to perhaps reflect back and see what was the best thing about the summer. I was lucky to have many special memories in the summer of 2010. I know there’s no way to tell anyone which one was more special than any other one. My oldest son announced his decision to elope with his fiancée, and then announced that early next year my husband and I would be embracing our first grandchild. No clue yet as to the sex of the child, but my daughter in law is convinced it’s a girl, and my son convinced it’s a boy. We shall see. Then I had the terrific opportunity to attend RWA in Orlando and meet so many of my favorite authors such as Robyn Carr, Tara Taylor Quinn, Christie Ridgway, and so many more. Then I had the chance to meet authors I’ve yet to read, but am now anxious to such as Carolyn Brown, Leigh Michaels, and Tessa Dare. Finally I spent Labor Day weekend with my family celebrating my sister’s oldest child’s wedding. It was the first…

I’m often asked why I choose to straddle two genres writing romantic suspense. And the truth is that the combination of danger and romance has always been where my heart lies. I’ve been an incurable romantic for most of my life. As a little girl, I cried at the end of Cinderella because we didn’t get to see her get married. And I cheered endlessly for Calvin and Meg in A Wrinkle in Time. I wanted Aurora to find her prince charming. And I always thought Ned needed a bigger role in Nancy’s adventures. I was disappointed that Aragorn and Arwen didn’t have more page time together and I even had hopes for Lucy and Mr. Tumnus.I always wanted the guy to get the girl in the movies. And happily ever after was so important to me, I (only occasionally of course) double checked the last line of a book to make sure it was so. But I also craved adventure and suspense. I was raised on James Bond movies. My parents used to take my brother and I to the drive-in when we were little. We were supposed to go to sleep after the first feature, but I always…

What is it about cowboys? Readers these days love them—Linda Lael Miller’s McKettrick boys, Catherine Anderson’s Coulter brothers, and Carolyn Brown’s Honky Tonk cowboys, among others. I love them too—obviously. My September release, One Fine Cowboy, is my second contemporary cowboy romance, and there are more to come. So what’s the appeal of these rough-and-ready Westerners? Part of it’s the outfit. Worn jeans, slant-heeled boots, rugged, rakish hats—they all set off a man to perfection. Then there’s the body type. Whether it’s the tall, slim cowpoke slouching casually against a fence or the rugged, muscular type wrestling steers, the work a cowboy does makes for a perfect combination of muscle and sinew. Then there’s the fact that they work with animals. Whether they’re ranch hands, rodeo riders, or weekend wranglers, these men work with horses—and anyone who’s ever sat in a saddle knows you can’t just force horses to do what you want. Working with them requires a certain kind of sensitivity, a give-and-take that bodes well for the bedroom. But another part of their appeal is the old-fashioned simplicity of Western life, which translates into an old-fashioned morality that makes a cowboy the perfect romantic hero. Here in Wyoming,…