There is a fine line between creativity and clinical pathology.  I can say this with some conviction because the love of my life is a psychologist and he knows about these things.  The whole topic came up one day as I was readying myself to sally forth to find a nice coffee pub that would keep me supplied with caffeine and sugar while I casually wrote a best-selling novel before lunch (one can dream, can’t they?). As I said my good-byes, I flippantly remarked, “I’m off to play with my imaginary friends.”  The look on my love’s face was a Kodak moment, I can tell you that.  And it stopped me in my tracks.  “What?” I asked, not seeing anything alarming or unusual in the repartee up to that point. “You do know,” he answered sounding rather serious, “that to many of my colleagues you would be an annuity.” “Hey, look on the bright side,” I parried.  “With me you don’t have to choose between business and pleasure.” Then I turned serious myself.  “Fix whatever you can.  God knows, I need it, but don’t mess with this.”  I handed him a copy of my novel, WANNA GET LUCKY? He read…

It’s that time again, VALENTINE’S DAY!  I’m so honored to once again be Fresh Fiction’s special Valentine’s Blogger.  This year I thought I’d talk about what Valentine’s Day means to me.  Thanks to the commercials on television, on the radio, on the Internet, in our email boxes, you couldn’t forget the holiday if you wanted to!  Forget about the commercialization of the holiday.  Instead I’d like to break it down to it’s most basic premise – LOVE. For me, Valentine’s Day is about telling the people you care about how you feel about them.  Valentine’s Day can be and should be celebrated no matter what your “relationship status” is.  For the last few years, I’ve treated Valentine’s Day as a day about love.  I love my family.  So I go onto Kodak Gallery, pull out a few favorite photos and create a photo card and send to my family – my parents, my kids, my husband, my inlaws, brother and sister in laws, etc.  Occasionally I send to my friends if the mood strikes me.  Why? Because I care about them and I want to share my life and my feelings with them.  I also want to give them a…

Hi, Fresh Fiction! Thanks so much for having me today! I thought I’d yak a bit about the television romances that have inspired me as a writer. Some of them probably aren’t what you’d expect. No McDreamy or McSteamy in the bunch. Nothing wrong with the McDreamys and McSteamys of the TV world, of course — I love a hunky guy as much as anyone. Put him in leather pants or slap a tool belt on him, and I’m so there! But the TV relationships and/or scenes that have inspired me as a writer are a bit less mainstream. So here goes … — Buffy kills Angel (probably not that much of a surprise for a romance writer): One of the things I loved so much about Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the metaphor for high school … and life, actually. I mean, I feel as though I fight demons every day, either mine or someone else’s. I remember clearly the exact moment I fell in love with the world of Buffy and Angel. Near the end of the second episode, Buffy has saved the day, and Angel stands outside the Bronze, looking surprised that she pulled it off. “I’ll…

BREAKING THE RULES BLURB: What do you get when you mix a military hero on a mission with an independent artist hell-bent on proving something?  A battle that can only be won between the sheets. Sophia Castillo is finally calling the shots in her life, and she’s determined to stay in charge.  The last thing she needs is a babysitter.  Not even a babysitter as sexy as US Army Sergeant First Class and EOD Squad Leader, Maximillian St. James.  But when someone is sabotaging her art gallery, she turns to Max for help.  When he proves to be a challenge to her independence, she lays down their relationship rules.  Hot sex, good times and a lot of laughs are all good.  Anything involving their hearts is strictly off limits.  Before they catch the vandal, Max and Sophia both have to decide just which rules they are willing to break, and how high a price they are willing to pay. In so excited about the release of BREAKING THE RULES that I’m throwing not one, but two parties.  The latter is mentioned at the end of this blog.  But the first is right here, right now.  And what better way to…

Thanks so much to everyone at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today! Romantic suspense has been a favorite genre of mine for about a decade—basically ever since I discovered it. I grew up reading contemporary romance but once I discovered this genre (namely Linda Howard), I was officially hooked and devoured everything RS I could find. There’s just something exciting about running from bad guys, dodging bullets and trying to hunt a serial killer while trying to stay alive. Of course this is only exciting in fiction. I wouldn’t want to deal with what most of my heroines do. In DANGEROUS SECRETS, my recent release from Carina Press, my heroine makes one decision that changes her life. In the beginning of the story, Izzy (my heroine), sees a young woman being assaulted outside of the bar where she works and instead of letting the hero handle it, she scares the would-be attacker off. This one act is such a small thing but it puts her on the radar of a psycho. From that point forward, her entire life changes. Years ago I made a decision that changed my life. At the time I didn’t know it but this…

It doesn’t take much research to prove that the “bad boy” is one of the most popular hero types in romance fiction.  For the Regency, the operative term is “rake” or “rogue;” enter that word as a title name on Amazon, and you currently get 1816 books with “Rake” in the title, 9087 with “Rogue.” Whether he comes kitted out as an ancient Roman gladiator or medieval knight, an arrogant Regency rake or Victorian duke, a contemporary cop, private eye, billionaire businessman or a futuristic shape-changing warrior or vampire, it’s clear most romance readers love the the alpha male Bad Boy.  But what is it that we find so appealing? Maybe it’s the idea of all that hot, exciting, masculine energy, teasing and tantalizing you.  Maybe it’s the challenge of trying to tame him, or the heady thrill of believing you may be the only woman who can do so.  Maybe it’s the thought of all that barely-controlled sexual energy pulsing just under the surface, knowing it can sweep you to ecstasy at his whim, maybe at yours.  Maybe hooking up with someone who doesn’t play by the rules and gets away with it calls to the rebel in us…

I have a story to tell you about having a dream and not giving up, no matter how many times you get knocked down. Most of you know me as a historical romance writer.  Over the past 11 years, I’ve written 15 historicals for three different publishers, so I think it’s safe to say I’ve been branded as a certain kind of writer. Occasionally, however, a writer needs to step out of the box, and it can be both exciting and nerve-wracking to venture into risky, untried territory.  I know this for a fact, because I have just released my first women’s fiction mainstream contemporary novel, THE COLOR OF HEAVEN – and let me tell you, it was a good lesson about perseverance, because I had a very hard time selling it. I first came up with the concept for the book six years ago, because I’ve always been fascinated by near-death experiences and the question about what lies on the other side of this life. My interest in the subject grew after a serious car accident at the age of twenty-five.  Somehow, miraculously, I survived a horrendous wreck and walked away without a scratch. I’m still not sure why…

They’re everywhere and on everything—great debates and moral dilemmas.  I expected to run into a few when I tackled human trafficking in DEADLY TIES, and I did.  But I also ran into one I didn’t expect. Writers love it when that happens—when they get surprised, I mean.  But it’s hard to love a surprise that kicks you in the gut, and this unexpected surprise did.  And it didn’t mess around.  It kicked hard. You see, Lisa, the heroine, knows a domineering, controlling husband is holding her mother, Annie, virtual prisoner.  But her mother won’t leave.  She’s refused to leave for years.  Annie holds with the strict view that when you marry, for better or worse, it’s for life.  She’s far from alone; it’s a valid position many women hold. But there’s the other side of this, too.  The opposing view that says there should be no moral dilemma or great debate in leaving a man who is a control freak and guilty of emotional abuse.  I personally fall on this side of the scale.  To me, a loving and imperfect father wouldn’t want his child abused or living in an abusive environment.  If a loving imperfect father wouldn’t want that,…

In my latest novel, I delve into what it means to be a mother and all its manifestations ~ good, bad, attentive, indifferent. These Things Hidden is the story of an infant who left at an Iowa Safe Haven site and the women who pass in and out his life. It is the story of four women’s undeniable love for one little boy who was abandoned at a fire station as an infant. The individual manner and at times questionable means the women display this love will cause the reader to reflect upon their own loved ones and to the lengths they would go to ensure their safety and happiness and begs the question –  What does it mean to be a good mother? I love reading novels about motherhood. Amy Tan’s THE JOY LUCK Club introduced me to a new and wondrous culture where past and present is intertwined to tell an age old story of wanting what’s best for our children and wanting to make our parents proud. Of course there is benevolent Marmee from LITTLE WOMEN and patient Caroline Ingalls from the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder who made us believe that…

I love building relationships between main characters. In writing romance in particular, it’s a lot like playing matchmaker – creating the perfect yin for another character’s yang. “Yin and yang” is a Chinese concept that describes how seemingly opposite forces are interconnected and interdependent. Sort of how you want any exciting, romantic couple to be. In MIDNIGHT CALLER, my debut romantic thriller, FBI agent Trevor Rivette was created first. Handsome and intelligent (as most leading men are), he’s also serious, intense and hiding some pretty troubling aspects of his past. I wanted to balance him by creating a female lead with more lightness – but not too light, since after all it’s a dark thriller. Rain Sommers emerged from that. She’s a witty, somewhat eccentric radio show psychologist who has developed a following among New Orleans’s Goth community due to her famous (and many years ago, murdered) mother. See? I told you, not too light. In fact, that spooky “following” is how she becomes entangled in Trevor’s serial murder investigation. This is important, since in romantic thrillers not only do your lead characters need to have a strong physical chemistry, there also has to be a darn good reason for…