Whenever I’m asked what’s your favorite food, season, book, quote, whatever, I feel that pressure of “Oh, dear, I need to really think about this and get it right.” (Spoiler alert, or, actually, in the interest of full disclosure: I’m a firstborn child and a Virgo, which means I have double scoops of such unappealing—but ultimately very productive—traits like always feeling compelled to get things as right, as best, as I possibly can.) Then I remember, “Wait a minute, there’s no rule that you must have only one favorite. You can have lots! So just pick the first that comes to mind.” I hope you all, we all, have lots and lots of favorites of everything. Here’s what I love about taking a look at favorite things: the remembering, and celebrating, why they are such favorites…the emotions, memories, and happiness they evoke. For example, one of my (many!) favorite ice creams is peppermint candy topped with peanuts or cashews and smothered in chocolate sauce. There’s an obvious reason why I like this. It’s so good. For me, the combination of virtually any nut with any chocolate is a winner. But as I search for what this lovely indulgence evokes, it’s…

So many cool books to tell you about this month!  Some are departures–new things from established authors–and some are debuts, and some are just cool. PARANORMAL/SUPERNATURAL THE NAME OF THE STAR THE SHATTERING AFTER OBSESSION DRINK, SLAY, LOVE THE NAME OF THE STAR by Maureen Johnson (9/29/11 from Putnam) This one doesn’t come out until the end of the month, but I’m looking forward to it. Johnson’s voice is always engaging, but never fluffy.  The Name of the Star looks very genre friendly: Louisiana teen Rory starts boarding school in London the same day that brutal, Jack the Ripper copycat murders start, sending terror across the city. Rory is the only witness–literally, because only she can see the mysterious man the police consider the prime suspect. Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police (!!) and her own abilities… which make her the killer’s next target. Ghosts, mystery, murder, humor and romance, all in an Ripper-iffic thriller. Who can resist that?  It’s like she wrote this book with me in mind! THE SHATTERING by Karen Healey (9/5/11 from Little Brown). Keri is a planner, but she doesn’t know how to handle her older brother’s sudden suicide. When her…

I love romantic suspense, reading and writing it. There’s just something about two people falling in love in the midst of danger and chaos that I find fascinating. Writing the story to make it both romantic and suspenseful can be a challenge. It can also be a struggle to make the reader believe that once the danger has passed, the hero and heroine will stay together forever and the HEA is authentic. Even if the story was a good or fun read, if I close the book not completely sure of that happy-ending, I’m not going to be fully satisfied. Something else that can be a challenge is creating a convincing, believable villain—one who is a worthy foe for the hero and heroine to pursue. In SWEET JUSTICE, my September 6 release, the villain was an interesting one to develop. The hero, Seth Cavanaugh and the heroine, Honor Stone, are both competent professionals. Seth is a former cop; Honor is a former FBI agent. These two are savvy and experienced—experts in pursuing and apprehending criminals. The villain needed to be a good match for them. With two such proficient people, I knew the villain would have to be someone truly…

Many thanks to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog. Among other things, LADY OF THE ENGLISH is about two women and the struggle for the English crown that came to be a defining part of their lives. The better-known of the two, Empress Matilda was the daughter of King Henry I and his only legitimate heir.  The English crown was promised to her, but when her father died, her cousin Stephen seized the initiative and the crown and left Matilda out in the cold. She was determined to claim her rights and set about a campaign both military and diplomatic to regain her throne. The other lady is Adeliza of Louvain, second wife to King Henry I. She was  Matilda’s stepmother even though Matilda was older than her by a couple of years.  The women had much in common and would have known each other well. Unlike the Empress Matilda, Adeliza has been overlooked by history, but her story is one of quiet courage that deserved telling. Without her helping hand, Henry II might never have come to the throne. Adeliza was the daughter of Godfrey of Louvain, duke of Lower Lotharingia, now part of Belgium.  She married Empress…

The Serendipity series is small town driven.  The town of Serendipity in upstate New York is a fictional place filled with fascinating people, beginning with the Barron brothers, Ethan, Nash and Dare (oldest to youngest). In the Romance genre, we tend to talk about heroes in terms of type: Alpha – the strong, silent, take no prisoners, it’s my way kind of guy. Beta – the nice guy hero who doesn’t mind doing the chasing, the romancing, in southern terms, the wooing. Gamma – a rather new construct that mixes both. But at the heart of the matter, each hero is meant for one woman only and only she can capture his, up until now, elusive heart. I have never given too much thought to where my heroes fit in mostly because I write them from the heart and they are who they are.  In SERENDIPITY, however, Ethan was supposed to be the ultimate Alpha hero – and then he met (or should I say re-met) Faith – and everything about him changed for me.  She IS his heart and I think that made him more of a Gamma hero than anything else.  That said, he’s probably the most Alpha…

From junior high all through high school, my best friend and I used to go to the local movie rental place and rent the worst horror movies that we could find. Being that it was a very small town in Texas, the clerk didn’t seem to mind that we were under 18, just that we had the cash. We’d go into her room and watch four slicing-dicing, demon-resurrecting horror movies in a row, stay up until dawn, and get all hopped up on sugar. Then I would go home, strung out on candy and the Candy Man. The beginning concept of DIARIES OF AN URBAN PANTHER was what would I do if trapped in a dark alley with a shadowy beast, taking into account that I have seen this scenario over and over and over in the movies that I marinated myself with as a teenager. Would it change the way that I reacted to the situation? Would I scream or would I look for the nearest weapon? Would knowing whatnot to do help me? I don’t know how many times I’ve yelled at the main characters “Do not go up the stairs!” Would knowing never to say “I’ll be…

“Have you considered the absurdity of it all, Rafe?  That you, a son of Ireland, are traveling to America to impersonate a British minister in order to catch a fellow Irishman?”   Rafferty chuckled softly to himself.  Phineas’s summation was all the more preposterous given this particular would-be British minister was filthy with coal dust and stinking with the sweat of hard labor. I think maybe those two lines sum up the basis of REDEEMING THE ROGUE more than any other.  My hero, Michael Rafferty, is more accustomed to the back alleys of London’s underbelly than the fancy posh receptions of diplomats, yet that’s exactly what he’s been assigned to do – impersonate a diplomat to catch a killer.  The man’s going to need a little help here – and he gets it in the form of Lady Arianne Chambers, the sister to a duke who is well acquainted with the falderal of the aristocracy. Shame that the two met earlier and on the basis of mistaken first impressions hoped never to see the other again.  Have you ever noticed how destiny has a way of playing tricks on us, though?  The reluctant reunion of Rafferty and Arianne has them…

For me, it’s one of the tougher parts of the publishing game—the time, usually a month or two before the publishing date—when I receive a forwarded email from my editor, with a vague subject line, usually something like, FW: Kirkus Review. Or maybe it’s not Kirkus. Maybe it’s Publisher’s Weekly or Library Journal, but it’s the first review of the book. I can feel my finger itching toward the mouse, excited. But some cautionary voice says, Get ready. Just in case. The range of emotions upon receiving and finally opening this bland appearing email can range from abject sobbing to happy-dancing around the computer. Some are zen about it. “Reviews are the one thing I have no control over,” says thriller author, Jamie Freveletti, whose been tapped to continue Robert Ludlum’s Covert One series. “Since they usually start to flow in about a month before launch there is truly nothing an author can do.” Some authors say they’ve gotten used to it. “I’m always resigned when I get those e-mails,” says Stacey Ballis, author of GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT and THE SPINSTER SISTERS. “I try to remember that once the book is published, it doesn’t belong to me anymore. All…

Hi everyone. Today I’m here to talk about my brand-spanking new release, BLOOD OF THE DEMON. This is the first book in my DEMONS OF INFERNUM series, featuring four half-demon brothers. What’s so great about demons, you ask? Well, let me tell you! They aren’t evil creatures from hell. The demons in my world are a race of beings from a different dimension. Though many of them have humanlike characteristics, they are stronger and heal faster than humans. Travel to other worlds is made possible through the use of an interdimensional portal. They’re sexy. Not just in the way they look (six-plus feet of solid muscle, olive-toned skin, dark hair), but in the way they act. They’re used to making life-and-death decisions with little time to go on, so they’ve got a bit of the Alpha in them, but they aren’t above listening to reason, and they give respect where it’s due. They’re loyal. The brothers in my series will kill to protect each other, and anyone else they love. And really, who doesn’t want that? They play by their own rules. Even though they work as interdimensional bounty hunters, and must therefore answer to the council governing travel between…

“So how is this different from all of those other Holocaust novels?” a literary agent who was considering representing my first novel asked in an e-mail years ago.  I wasn’t offended by the question – I knew what he meant and so I replied with a detailed and passionate answer about one young woman’s story of survival against the odds and the true historical events that had inspired the book.  He liked my answer and took on representation THE KOMMANDANT’S GIRL. Years later, as I’ve been promoting my latest novel, THE THINGS WE CHERISHED, which is also set during the Second World War, I’ve had the chance to reflect upon a similar question: what keeps bringing me – and my readers – back to this troubled time period? I was always captivated by stories set during World War II, even as a child. And my love for the topic was solidified during my years living in Poland and working on Holocaust issues for the State Department and becoming close to many survivors. But I know I’m not alone in my passion as either a writer or reader – the bestseller lists of recent years have been flush with wonderful stories…