A while ago, I ran into an old friend while at the gas station. When he asked how I’d been, I told him my good news. It was a couple weeks after I sold the Demons Unleashed series, so I was excited beyond words. Then he asked me what the books were about. I’m not someone who’s ashamed at what I write, so I told him it was a series of paranormal romances. “Oh like Twilight?” he asked. “Not really my hero is a demon,” I replied. “And the characters are adult.” I gave him a rather brief synopsis of what DEMONS PREFER BLONDES was about. As I was preparing my coffee, he came back over and said, “I feel sorry for you.” What? Sorry for me? I was confused to say the least. “Why?” I asked against my better judgment. “All you romance authors write about love and you’re as lonely as ever.” News flash, now no longer friend of mine. Not all romance authors are single. Most of my close friends who write are very happily married. I might be single, but it’s a choice I’ve made. I haven’t met someone I want to share my life with…

Big news – I have a brand new book out which I have been keeping under wraps until now.  To quote Connie Brockway, I have “gone rogue” with this one, and I am releasing it independently. It’s called THE SEXY GIRL’S GUIDE TO COWBOYS, and it’s a wild, quirky time travel romance that takes a modern day heroine back to Dodge City in the Old West.  Official release date: June 20. It’s a story I wrote in 1995, when I was still an unpublished writer and time travels were all the rage.  When I finished it, however, publishers weren’t buying time travels anymore, so I had to shelve it and start something new. I wrote PRAIRIE BRIDE, also set in Dodge City, and sold that book to Harlequin.  It was my first published novel.  After that, I wrote THE MARSHAL AND MRS. O’MALLEY, then ADAM’S PROMISE. Let us now do some time traveling of our own, and skip ahead to the year 2011. Here we are, with Blackberries and Ipads, and the ability to self-publish e-books.  It is astounding, and I love the fact that I can finally deliver this book to readers, and do it quickly without waiting a…

I can’t fathom writing a novel without weaving suspense and romance into the plot. The idea of two people falling in love while sharing danger has my fingers poised to type 95,000 words filled with a new adventure. The hero and heroine are independent people who show a strong reliance on each other to solve a crime. No weak heroes or wimpy heroines, simply two people who initiate action and are committed to whatever is ahead. They refuse to stop their investigation until the villain is arrested—or has met his/her demise. Along the way they find an appreciation for the strengths and values of the other. He pulls her from a burning car, and she pulls the trigger at the precise moment to save him. They are self-sacrificing and capable of great love. After spending all that hair-raising time together, the two experience a sundry of emotions, and their hearts take a dip into new territory, often more frightening than physical danger: love. When you think about it, love is suspenseful. Adrenaline flows like a waterfall racing down a mountain slope. In some instances it’s forbidden. Hearts pound like a tympani on steroids. Take a look at the characteristics: Pulses…

I was talking with my husband the other day about how children say they are “bored” when they’re at an event that they don’t enjoy. That statement didn’t make much sense to me, and I realized it might be directly related to my profession. As a writer, I think I view everyday actions differently than most. When I’m walking down the street, I’m thinking about the people, shops, and even the vehicles, from the perspective of how they can be weaved into a storyline. Something as simple as taking out the trash can, in my mind, turn into an abduction. Take CHASING AMANDA, for instance. Molly Tanner got into her car in a Walmart parking lot and saw a man trying to get (what looked like) his daughter into his vehicle. The child was struggling, trying to avoid the restrictions of the seat belt. Everyday occurrence? Not on that day. In MEGAN’S WAY, when Olivia found herself in the hands of an attacker, she had started out by simply using a social network. Again, common occurrence, but it was twisted and turned into something vastly different. Perhaps if children (and adults) viewed their surroundings with a tad bit more curiosity,…

Thanks so much for having me here today to talk about the seventh book in the Cat Star Chronicles, VIRGIN! I thought I would let my characters do the talking… Marla: Hello! This is Marla Elkhorn, interviewing Cheryl Brooks, Dax Vandilorsk, Ava Karon, and Waroun, the author and main characters of The Cat Star Chronicles: Virgin, which was released earlier this month from Sourcebooks Casablanca. It’s such a pleasure to have all of you here today on Fresh Fiction. Waroun, I understand you claim responsibility for the pairing of Dax and Ava. Would you care to tell us about that? Waroun: Oh, absolutely! I’m the only reason they’re together today. Mainly because I didn’t steal the lovely lady right out from under his nose. Dax: Really? I thought Threldigan was the one trying to steal her. Cheryl Brooks: (scratches head) That’s what I thought too, but then, I’m only the one who wrote the book. What do I know? Waroun: (waggles his sucker-tipped fingers) Ava’s essence was so delicious! Ava: Not sure you ever got that much of it. Waroun: (regretful sigh) Once was enough. Marla: Ahem. Well… moving right along… Ava, what can you tell us about yourself? Ava:…

Like many readers, I have always loved LITTLE WOMEN and read it many times. But I didn’t know very much about Louisa May Alcott until I picked up a biography of her at the library. What I learned was surprising and intriguing. Louisa wrote many more novels and stories than just LITTLE WOMEN and its sequels. Some of what she wrote was considered so sensational, it was published under a pseudonym or not published at all and later found among her papers. Speaking of her papers, she burned a lot of them, journals and letters, before she died. That piece of information, along with questions that had lingered for me about why Louisa wrote LITTLE WOMEN the way she did, prompted me to consider writing a novel about the young author. That was when the real research began. I read every biography of her and her family that I could find. Interestingly, they varied in tone and slant, which is how I learned the truth about biographies: They say more about the biographer than the subject of the book. From there, I went on to read the journals and letters that remain, collected by a family friend after Louisa’s death….

Reunions are tricky and usually I avoid them. But when I had the chance to reconnect with a childhood girlfriend, I jumped at it. I’m speaking of course about the sleuth of my mystery series, Louisa May Alcott. I read LITTLE WOMEN several times in my early years; Jo was a model for me, a girl of strength and strong opinions, independent, temperamental, yet also solid, steady, gentle. Later I realized that Jo was Louisa’s alter ego: both of them were writers, both chose independence and work over being a wife and mother, both worked hard to keep the wolf from the door and their family intact. Working with Louisa as a character in my novel, LOUISA AND THE MISSING HEIRESS, required getting to know her very well. I read her works, this time delving particularly into some she published under a pseudonym, the somewhat lurid tales she called her ‘blood and thunder’ stories. Because Louisa was a lady from a good family, when she wrote fiction of what some might deem a questionable nature, she did not use her family name. But the reasons for sometimes publishing under a pen name are deeper than that: Louisa and her family…

I’m not sure anything beats a cool, air-conditioned library on a hot summer day. The silence, the relief of a chilling breeze, the scent of dusty books. When I was younger, I’d walk a six or seven blocks to my local library, where I’d dive into a book of fantasy or science fiction, a craft book for kids, or an historical novel that would take me away from the steamy southern temperatures outside. I don’t have much time to read right now, but here are a few suggestions for your summer library or bookstore visits! 1. Check out the crafts: In addition to being fun to flip through, you never know when you might find a project to keep you cool and indoors on an otherwise roasting summer day. Check out the Big Ass Book of Crafts, the Journal Junkies Workshop or Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts for a little summertime inspiration. 2. Travelogues: The best way to escape a hot summer day if often to pretend you’re somewhere else. I love travelogues–books that transport me to another time and place. And they don’t even have to take place all that far away to be intriguing. I want a travelogue…

Hello, my deliciously fresh fictionites! I’m delighted to see you here among all the other fabulosity that fills this page. And I’m quite pleased to be here! When I was asked to do a blog post, my initial response was, “Sure! … Um, about what?” To which the response — to wit: “Anything!” — left me flailing for a while for subject matter. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that being a writer for a living, I could manage to come up with something, huh? Good fortune! I happen to have something to address, right in this very blog. So, without further ado: Hi! I’m Karina Cooper. I write paranormal romance, and I’d like to talk to you about witches. Because I love witches. No, really, I absolutely do! As I traveled through the United States, spending a few months to a few years in various locales, I really got to meet a whole gamut of people. Somehow, no matter where I went, I always made the acquaintance of at least one witch. Some were the stereotypical type dressed in black, wearing enough silver to choke a werewolf, with names that remind one of goddesses or constellations. Some were gentler on fashion,…

On June 6th, my 51st published work, WHEN TONY MET ADAM, an e-short-story about characters from my Troubleshooters series, was released.  It features Navy SEAL Tony Vlachic and movie actor Adam Wyndham, who also happens to be my most popular character Jules Cassidy’s ex-boyfriend.  I wrote this story in part to celebrate the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and in part to show readers what happened during the months between the end of ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (TS #12), where Tony and Adam have a chance meeting, and HOT PURSUIT (TS #15), where it’s made clear that the two men have been romantically involved for quite some time. But June 6th was also a special day for me for another reason entirely.  It was Day One of shooting for THE PERFECT WEDDING, a SAG ultra-low budget feature-length movie that I co-wrote and that I’m producing this summer. A quick description of the movie:  The Perfect Wedding is the story of two gay men, Paul (Eric Aragon) and Gavin (Jason T. Gaffney), who fall in love when they spend a holiday weekend at Paul’s parents’ house, where they gather to help plan Paul’s sister Alana’s (Apolonia Davalos) wedding.  The question…