I love spring, love everything about spring.  The warm, steady rain, the temperatures that are neither too hot nor too cold (which in Texas is really saying something), the flowers that seem to pop up everywhere and the birds that sing outside my window while I work. I love taking my boys to the park and playing basketball or football or simply watching as they swing and climb and generally act like the sweet, funny, slightly insane children that they are.  I love the fresh fruit that has suddenly come back into season—and working in the kitchen with my boys to turn it into fun desserts.  I love walking in the rain with my youngest son and working in the garden (or what we hope will one day be a garden, LOL) with my husband. I love daylight savings time and the long, lingering afternoons where I can sit by the window and write or go for a long walk and admire the way everything is blooming, coming back to life after the long, dormant winter. And this spring, particularly, I love all the fun things that are happening to me career-wise—in April and May, I have three books out…

March 2011 On Sale: March 8, 2011 192 pages ISBN: 0062018108 EAN: 9780062018106 Hardcover $19.99  Add to Wish List Cookbooks, Non-Fiction Religion Buy at Amazon.com Second day of Passover Our Haggadah by Cokie Roberts Uniting Traditions For Interfaith Families New York Times bestselling authors and journalists Cokie and Steve Roberts share their Passover traditions in this engaging version of the Haggadah for couples and families of mixed faiths. When they met more than forty years ago, Cokie and Steve Roberts found common ground in their shared values, despite their different religious beliefs. Choosing to honor both of their faiths and traditions, they began hosting a Passover Seder that has evolved from a small family gathering to a veritable event celebrated with loved ones from all walks of life. Based on the time-honored Haggadah—the text read throughout the evening that gives order to the ritual meal—Our Haggadah is a practical guide for interfaith families, whether they’re celebrating their very first Passover or starting a new tradition. Originally composed on a typewriter and stapled together, Our Haggadah has been the Roberts family’s handbook for each Seder and comes from years of adapting and expanding their Seders to welcome all who wish to…

I’m so glad to be back with Sara and Gwen and Faye and everyone here at Fresh Fiction.  My husband, Tim Barney, and I are on a fifty stop original post blog tour, and a physical tour as well for our new book, IT HAPPENED ON MAPLE STREET.  We’re having all kinds of new experiences and are very grateful for every one of them, but it just plain feels good to be someplace familiar!  In celebration of our return to Fresh Fiction, we’re giving away a copy of IT HAPPENED ON MAPLE STREET to one of today’s commenters. IT HAPPENED ON MAPLE STREET is a very unique book.  It’s marketed as romance fiction.  And it’s a true story.  I am a romance writer.  And I wrote my true life story in the form of one of my fiction novels.  As we travel, we’re hearing some of the same questions over and over and today I’m going to answer the three at the top of the list! First:  How much of the story is true? Almost all of it.  As in with films based on true stories, some of the names and circumstances have been changed, but not many of them. …

Greetings and salutations! I want to say thanks to the folks at Fresh Fiction for having me on the blog today. Thanks, guys! Now, I love reading and writing, but I have to admit that I’m totally addicted to TV as well. Seriously. I watch waay too much TV. Why? Because the characters on TV are just as fascinating as the ones I read about in books – and so many of the male characters remind me of hero archetypes that can be found in romance books. Like these guys: Chuck: Chuck is the classic beta hero – a nice guy who gets thrust into a world full of spies and danger but manages to come out on top every single time. He’s a sweet nerd who always manages to save the day. Who wouldn’t want to come home to a guy like that every night? How I Met Your Mother: Ted, Marshall, and Barney. Ted is the sweet, hopeless romantic, Marshall is the sweet married guy, and Barney, well, let’s just say that love isn’t exactly the first thing on Barney’s mind. But it was so much fun watching him pine for Robin – it gives me hope that…

How many times do writers edit their manuscript before showing it to an agent or a publisher do you think? If they are anything like me, countless times. Once the agent has made a few editorial suggestions, there are more changes. Then, you work with the editor, the copy editor, the proof editor … By the time a book goes to press, the writer will have been over the manuscript so many times they can probably recite sections by heart. So when you are reading the same book over and over again, how do you keep it fresh? The final, beautiful hardback copies of my debut THE BEAUTY CHORUS were delivered by DHL the day before publication. Opening the box, and seeing the real book was a dream come true. The first thing I did was sit down and read the book again – and it felt fresh. Of course, I knew what was coming, but falling in love with the characters again – laughing with them, loving with them, crying with them – had the quality and depth of a long relationship or friendship seen in a new light. That, I think is the key to keeping a story…

When a reader asks me what my new novel, A MARRIAGE OF INCONVENIENCE, is about, I usually say, “It’s a Regency Cinderella tale,” or, if they seem like they want a slightly longer answer, “A historical romance about a marriage of convenience that’s almost destroyed when the bride’s family secrets come out.” But the real answer is “control freaks in love.” James Wright-Gordon, my hero, is a wealthy viscount who inherited his title at the age of 15 and came into full control of his estates, fortune, and political birthright in the form of a seat in the House of Lords at 21. He doesn’t know what it’s like to NOT have power, and he’s confident enough about his intelligence and view of the world to have no qualms whatsoever about wielding it. Because he really IS smart and well-intentioned, 90% of the time he uses his powers for good. Everyone from the tenants on his estate to his wife’s impoverished relatives are better housed, fed, and educated because James is so eager to decide how to improve their lives and then spend the money to make it happen. Heck, he’ll leave England itself a better place than he found…

Though I did not consciously plan it this way, I find I like to write about brave women who live unconventional lives, not always by their own choice. My new novel  SONG OF THE SILK is a romantic adventure on China’s fabled route and the Taklamakan Desert with the lure of a three million dollar reward. I owe my this novel to a brave and unconventional writer — and a dream. A Taiwanese woman who called herself Echo was one of my favorite  authors. She was much loved by Chinese readers but, sadly, her work has never been translated into English. In the seventies, her descriptions of her adventures with her husband in the Sahara Desert captivated many readers, including myself. One episode – I won’t give it away here – is based on something that happened to her husband. Inspired by her, I always wanted to write about a young woman’s adventures in the desert. I had thought of drawing on Echo’s life for my desert novel, but then found my imagination led me in a different direction. A lifelong fascination with the romantic history of the Silk Road was brought to life when I traveled there a few…

Yesterday I did my first school visit as an author.  The occasion was the career fair at my great-niece’s middle school.  Yeah, my sister is old enough to have a granddaughter in middle school! The PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) was looking for people with interesting jobs to serve as presenters for their eighth-grade career fair.  Although I live 100 miles away, I raised my hand and volunteered to take a day off from the day job and show up.  Besides, it would give me the opportunity to combine the trip with a visit to local bookstores, so I would get double use of my travel time. I asked them to list my job title as “Mystery Writer,” figuring that might sound more exciting than “Published Author.”  Or at least friendlier somehow. In the days leading up to the event I found myself worrying about a million things.  What if I dressed like a dork?  What if they didn’t want to know about writing?  What if they thought writing wasn’t cool?  What if nobody talked to me? Good grief!  It was like being in junior high all over again! The big day finally arrived.  I put on my best outfit, loaded…

A compelling and great writing draw us into a story—but what we stay for is the characters. Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy; Jane Eyre and Rochester—what’s a romance without great lovers who come alive on the page? Giving life to characters is the best part of writing. I love creating a small town of my own, peopled by characters who hopefully come alive for the reader. They’re certainly real to me! I spend a lot of time in my fictional universe, and my characters become like friends—or maybe more like family, because much as I love them, they sometimes drive me crazy. Demanding, difficult, and determined—they’re just like real people. Teague and Jodi have been with me a long time, waiting for their story to be told and gradually revealing who they are and what they want. By the time I actually sat down to write the book, they’d taken on so much personality that it was all I could do to keep them under control. It wasn’t easy to keep them out of bed, either. These two were definitely made for each other. The best part about having a new book released is knowing that my new characters are out…

As I type this, I have butterfly bush in my pants. This sounds like a wonderfully naughty Brazilian wax, but I mean it literally. I was cutting back the butterfly bush in my yard, and the flecks of last year’s petals rained down the back of my shirt and into my long underwear. Not sexy at all, though probably not quite so uncomfortable as waxing. This led me to thinking about all the ways in which I am NOT like the heroine of my latest book, VOWED IN SHADOWS. Nim—aka, the Naughty Nymphette—would know all about waxing. She is a pole dancer; I sit at a computer for ten-plus hours a day. Nim goes on dangerous adventures fighting monsters; I avoid looking in the back of the fridge toward the end of the month. Nim is possessed by a demon….Okay, that one we kind of have in common. Although hers is a repentant demon trying to earn its redemption, and mine is the demon of writing. That demon can never be redeemed. People often ask which parts of the characters are the author, at least in disguise. Sometimes I wish it was more. Like when I see the covers of…