As the year ends, I’m going to do what my heroine Milagro calls a “state-of-the-chica analysis.” I’ve had two books published, NANCY’S THEORY OF STYLE (under the pen-name Grace Coopersmith) and HAUNTED HONEYMOON (Casa Dracula Book 4). I’ve sold a young adult gothic, THE SHADOW GIRL OF BIRCH GROVE, to Tor, and contributed a story to THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SCOTTISH ROMANCE, to be released January 4, 2011. I’ve been mentioned in the New Yorker’s book blog, spoken at book festivals, and learned that when editors say “winter 2012” they mean January 2012, not December 2012. I should be happy with all I’ve accomplished, but I see what’s desperately missing from my list: time spent reading books. All writers start out the same way: we love to read. We want to spend much of our days in imaginary worlds. We want to be surprised, engrossed, thrilled, and moved by the characters and stories we discover in books.  We love stories that transport us to other places and times, from ancient Rome to a far off future in another galaxy. We can usually learn something from characters, whether they’re diligent forensic scientists or inquisitive homemakers. It is a marvelous feeling to…

I’ve been an avid reader since I was 12, when my mom set me loose in the newly minted young adult section of our favorite Waldenbooks store. Armed with $20 and bored to death waiting for her to finish picking out this week’s batch of “hidden baby” romance novels, I discovered my soon-to-be favorite author L.J. Smith stacked amongst the shelves with R.L. Stine and Judy Bloom. I crouched on a round step stool, opened that first page of DARK ANGEL and dove head-first into a world where ghosts, vampires, shape shifters, and humans mingled and fell in love. To say I was hooked was an understatement. From that day, I spent every single one of our traditional Saturday afternoon book store visits huddled under the bookshelf ladder with my back pressed against some of my closest friends. As the years went by the young adult section grew from one shelf, to an entire case, to half of the children’s section. I returned week after week, always discovering something new or revisiting old favorites. I read so much then and often I look back at the Gwen of 15 years ago with longing. I wish I could go back to…

The Holiday Buffet at Neiman’s Zodiac RoomThe Holiday Buffet starts with a Neiman Marcus tradition, their hot chicken consommé, fresh popovers and strawberry butter. Festive Salads Vegetable Pot Stickers with thai soy ginger sauce Bocconcini & Grape Tomatoes: frisée, pesto vinaigrette Bistro Spinach & Field Greens Salad: apples, grapes, spiced pecans, blue cheese, sun-dried fruit, apple cider vinaigrette Gotham Salad: diced chicken breast, ham, gruyére, tomatoes, beets, bacon, egg, iceberg lettuce, thousand island dressing Southwest Quinoa Salad: avocado, roasted corn, cilantro, lime-chipotle vinaigrette Asian Shrimp Salad: edamame, napa, carrots, bean sprouts, sweet chili Roasted Garlic Eggless Caesar: romaine, anchovies, parmigiano-reggiano, croutons Italian Tuna & Antipasti: arugula, radicchio, artichoke, red onion, roasted peppers, olive oil, lemon, tomato NM Classics Orange soufflé, chicken salad, seasonal fruit, berries & poppyseed dressing Kendlebrook farms smoked salmon, chopped liver, egg, cornichons, hummus, grilled pita, olives, horseradish pickles, artichoke & roasted garlic puree, capers, onions, lemon Main Entrees Roast Black Angus Prime Rib Roast, au jus, creamy horseradish sauce Holiday Roast Herb Turkey & Traditional Sides, pan gravy, thyme & parsley dressing, yukon gold mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, spiced pecans & maple sweet potatoes Slow Roast Rosemary & Glazed Mustard Ham, pear & goat cheese…

There’s always a lot of discussion about heroes in romantic and erotic fiction. In many ways, it really is all about him, right? As readers, we need to find him likeable, redeemable (if he’s bad and I usually hope he is) and HOT. At the end of the day, we have to fall a little (or a lot!) in love with him. But what about the heroine? What about her? What kind of heroines do readers relate to because if a reader doesn’t relate to the heroine or her plight, the whole story falls apart. I think about this quite a bit and I spend a lot of time on developing what I call a “character map” for my heroines. I want my readers to really connect with them on some level, but I don’t aim to write perfect characters. That would be boring. I want them to be real and that means having quirks and faults and of course, room to grow. I feel as if the reader needs to get invested in their journey. It’s why I might throw in an embarrassing moment for my heroine, a mistake that you or I could make, a fear we might…

Winners may get all the glory in life, but I find the losers to be far more interesting.  They see the world differently—often because they’re flat on their back…in the store parking lot…after being trampled over on the way to the sale. But they’re looking at the stars. What I most enjoy is when the things the losers hate about themselves turn into powers. And look! One of my favorite examples of this is a Christmassy one: Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer. All the other reindeers laughed at him and excluded him because of his red nose, but when the snowstorm hit, suddenly his bright nose was awesome. I love the drama of that. And it’s something I really enjoyed playing with in my disillusionists trilogy. My characters have problems that run—and ruin—their lives. And I got to turn that upside down, into awesome superpowers. The whole idea started, oddly, from reading a depressing book. This book! OMG, it made me feel really awful, and I thought, if I had an enemy, I would give them this book as a gift, so that they could feel as disillusioned as I did. (In fact, I actually recommended it to somebody I was…

I love writing. I mean, except when it’s killing me, but deep inside, there’s something potent and powerful that keeps moving, and keeps me writing, and keeps me loving it. I also love readers. And not just ‘my’ readers, the readers who written to say they’ve loved my books and the ones who’ve loved them in silence, although I have to admit, I have a special spot in my heart for you. But I’m talking all readers. I love readers. I love that just the idea of a good book excites a reader. I love how she absolutely must share her favorite books with others; it’s like a little treasure hunt, and there’s that little sense of pride when she’s the one who can turn her friends on to it. I love how she is willing to be so moved by written words, how she lets the words and ideas and emotions slip into her like steam. I love how she’s willing to be immersed. I love how her face shifts and moves as she reads, reflecting the emotions of the story. I love how readers keep giving themselves over to Story, again and again. It’s such a generous thing…

In his memoir, I WANTED TO WRITE, Kenneth Roberts, famous for his bestselling historical novels of the American northeast, pointed out (quite rightly) that: “Historians have a great advantage over a novelist in that they can state a supposed fact without explaining it…An historian can announce that a hitherto unmentioned Indian suddenly appeared in the ranks of a lost and bewildered [army] detachment and guided it to safety; he is not required to explain how the Indian got there, or who he was, or why he hadn’t acted as a guide before the detachment was lost. The novelist can’t be so mysterious. “An historian can state that an army has provisions for only fifteen days; then coolly permit that army to exist for twice that length of time without explaining the miracle. A novelist must find out how the army escaped starvation, and explain it to the complete satisfaction of the reader. Otherwise his story doesn’t, as the saying goes, hold water. Each omission is a hole in his tale. Most histories are filled with holes and leak like sieves.” Filling these holes can be one of the greatest challenges I face when writing a book like THE WINTER SEA,…

Some things in life age well. Wine. Scotch. Men and women with good bones and healthy physiques. Well-crafted furniture. Master paintings. And books. Yes, I said books. As I’ve been updating seventeen of my backlist titles for reissue in the coming year, I must say with shameless lack of humility that my books do age well. Going back to my first novel published in 1994, THE RELUCTANT VIKING , I have been reviewing them page by page, looking for errors, modernizing the content (Hey, Dolly Parton would not be considered the epitome of sexy lady today; nor would Kevin Costner, nor, God forbid! Mel Gibson, appeal to the younger reader). In the process of these new readings, I have been remarkably surprised at how enjoyable they are, even after all these years. And one added plus is that I get to make changes I deem necessary which has resulted in a major do-ever. I am “unkilling” two secondary characters in MY FAIR VIKING (now retitled THE VIKING’S CAPTIVE, January, 2011). Selik and Rain were the hero and heroine of THE OUTLAW VIKING, but I had them die in MY FAIR VIKING a few years later. Readers were outraged. So, voila!…

Awhile back, in the course of a fairly long series for Steeple Hill Love Inspired, I introduced some Amish minor characters, wondering what my editor would say about that. She responded, “You know that Amish thing? Do that more.” So, since I’m in the habit of saying yes to editors, probably in reaction to all those years when they were saying no to me, I agreed. It wasn’t difficult to write about the Amish, since my family is of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage and I’ve spent my life in rural Pennsylvania, where the Plain sects are very common. I also have several friends who grew up Plain, and I welcomed the opportunity to showcase that world in my fiction. Why is Amish fiction so popular? That’s the million dollar question. Based on the letters I receive from readers, I’d say that the books help feed a longing for a simpler lifestyle. Haven’t you ever wished you could get rid of the constant pressure and demand for interaction posed by e-mail, Facebook, cell phones, twenty-four hour news channels, and all the rest? The books allow readers to visit a society which gets along very nicely without all those things. It’s also a…

Shhh. Come closer, I’m going to tell you a secret. My next book isn’t a romance. And it’s not erotic. And it’s not also “new”. PRECIOUS AND FRAGILE THINGS began its life as a book called Three Months, and I wrote it long before I wrote anything most of my readers would be familiar with. In fact, I wrote it when my own children were the ages of the heroine’s children, (two and five), and now I have a teenager and a pre-teen. So while it might seem like a real departure or something brand-new to readers who’ve been good enough to follow me so far, the truth is that I’ve always written books that weren’t romance or erotic — they just weren’t the books that ended up being published. Well, until now. I’m thrilled to see PRECIOUS AND FRAGILE THINGS finally reach the shelves. It’s a book that had a lot of personal meaning for me both when I wrote it originally and later when I revised it for publication. Sometimes authors talk about the &mquot;book of their hearts,&mquot; and Precious and Fragile Things certainly meets those requirements. I wrote it before I had an audience, a blog, a…