I have always loved books fraught with heartache, star-crossed lovers, and infidelity. And I’ve always liked novels and movies that allow the reader or viewer to know a little bit more than the characters do. Who can forget the scene in The Bridges of Madison County when Francesca grips the door handle of her husband’s truck and watches, utterly torn, as her lover Robert Kincaid drives away? Our hearts ache for her indecision and we want to cry out: “Go to him!” Equally memorable is the scene at the end of Doctor Zhivago when Yuri is travelling on a tram and, through the window, sees his beloved Lara. He struggles to get off the tram and, as he tries to catch up with her, he has a fatal heart attack. Our hearts ache and we just want to cry out to Lara: “Stop! Turn around!” But Lara hurries away, never knowing Yuri died trying to reach her. In Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, we know Juliet is going to wake up and we want to tell Romeo, “Hold on!” If he had only waited a moment more before plunging the dagger into his chest, Juliet would have woken up and everything…

When I decided to unearth the JUMP manuscript and strive to get it into readers’ hands in book form, I wondered how it would be received. I wondered, “Can I do this?” At the time I was mostly concerned with whether or not the story would be perceived as authentic enough, especially in the very possible case that a woman who happened to have walked a mile in the main character, Lena Hunter’s, shoes picked up a copy and read my take on the women in prison experience. What if that woman decided that I hadn’t somehow given the situation enough care and concern while crafting the story? What if she couldn’t find herself somewhere in the main character’s thoughts, feelings, or actions? A little back story is called for here, I think, so here goes: After serving eight years in prison for a heinous crime that she never denied committing, parole for Helena Hunter means long-awaited freedom. Killing her grandmother was a choice that she made all by herself, but she wasn’t thinking about the consequences of her actions when she pulled the trigger. The little girl she left behind is now a teenage stranger, who thinks her mother…

In A COURTESAN’S GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR MAN, a modern museum curator stumbles across the diaries of a young Regency lady who jettisons her staid existence and embraces a life built around the “Seven Sins of the Courtesan.” We’ve come up with Seven Sinful Reasons why Fresh Fiction readers should pick up this book. Sin #1: Lust. It’s true. There some extremely juicy love-scenes in this book, set in both modern Boston and Regency London. We advise keeping a cool drink and a warm guy close at hand. Sin #2: Appetite. The sweet, hot, and thoroughly delicious story will satisfy the needs of even the most discriminating reader. Whether you usually dine on contemporary or historical, you will scarf down this treat! Sin #3: Idleness. There’s nothing better than shutting out the world and settling down into a novel that transports you to another time and place, and with this book, you get the double the journey and double the pleasure. (And double the hot heroes!) Sin #4: Covetousness. Some of our early readers have told us A COURTESAN’S GUIDE has earned a permanent spot on their keeper shelf but they wanted to give it to their mom/sister/daughter/best friend/niece to…

Before I begin, I don’t condone stalking in any way, shape or form. So please don’t write me. I don’t have it in me to be a good stalker. From what I’ve determined, it takes way too much focus and effort and I’m basically lazy. But I asked a good friend one time (who happens to be a United Church minister) if plotting an assassination was a bad thing. She told me not at all. Plotting can be therapeutic. Acting on it is what tips the scales. So stalking is bad. I do, however, have a list of people I’d stalk if a) it weren’t illegal, and b) I wasn’t so lazy. #1. Madeline Hunter. I love love love Madeline Hunter. I leapt over a blind woman and knocked down a few librarians in order to introduce myself at RWA in Orlando last year. She was very gracious, didn’t call hotel security, and I’m hoping has forgotten the entire incident because I’ll probably repeat it in New York. (Although in fairness, that might be crossing over into creepy on my part. My friend the minister might not approve.) While she seems like a wonderful person, I love Madeline Hunter mostly…

I’m having so much fun writing about my fun and slightly dysfunctional royal family, the Devereaux.  It all began with ROYAL HOLIDAY BABY in November when good girl Princess Valentina had a wild night (just one!) with rancher Zach Logan and ended up pregnant.  Oh, the scandal!  Oh, the bumpy romance when Zach had to learn how to love again.  I’m pleased to tell you that this book was nominated as a Reviewer’s Choice Special Edition by Romantic Times BookClub, and is also a finalist for the Award of Excellence and Golden Quill. After that, it was like potato chips.  One Devereaux just wasn’t enough.  In THE PRINCE’S TEXAS BRIDE we have the crown prince Stefan who is accustomed to being obeyed by everyone (except his contrary siblings).  He hires Texan Eve Jackson as royal stable master and would never have expected to fall for such a woman.  For Eve’s part, she knows she’s not princess material.  She’s not the type to curtsey, that’s for sure!  So, anything that develops between them (and nothing should!) will have to be temporary.  Right? Coming June 21 is THE DOCTOR TAKES A PRINCESS.  Princess Bridget has one more mission before she takes a…

It’s a thrill to be back at Fresh Fiction, talking about the next novel in my exciting psychic fantasy series. SECRET LEGACY takes us even deeper into the world of the “near-here”–ruled by the peculiar things that happen daily around us, only in my Psychic Real, these not-so-everyday things that spook and surprise and amaze us are real, rather than just coincidence or our imagination getting the best of us. That’s the best part about being back to blog with you guys, I guess. I get to talk some more about this contemporary fantasy realm that grew from my own dreams and obsession with how close we just might be to the “fringe science” we find ourselves occasionally thinking might actually be real. I mean, what if you could program your dreams to work for you, while you’re resting from all the “real” work you do each day? There are scientists who believe you can. And “what if” those dreams and the progress you make through them could be an even more exciting adventure, because you’re sharing it with someone close to you? Shared dreaming is an accepted possibility in some circles. And “what if” there were psychics who could…

According to the dictionary to play dirty means to play hardball, to break the rules, or to play rough. Jackie Mercer knows how to play dirty when necessary. She is one heck of a woman and I loved, loved writing her first story. Jackie is the protagonist of my new PI series. This series marks two new steps for me. One, Jackie Mercer is a major change from my long-running Colby Agency series (book 44 came out this month!). My first goal with Jackie was to create a character who had real life challenges, like being forty-five years old and running a business traditionally dominated by men. She’s a single mother with a son in law school. She’s an only child with an aging mother to see after. She worries about her weight and ever finding love again. Oh, and let’s not forget paying the bills! She’s a real woman who has real problems and I adore the way she charged onto the page all sassy and clever and determined. Of course it was absolutely necessary to give Jackie the extra challenge of sheer temptation in the form of Derrick Dawson. Dawson is a former NYPD detective who applies for…

So how do you like this Brave New World we are living in now, readers? And do you have any idea how much you personally are going to be forced to change your reading habits? I write funny sexy romance novels. Whether they be Vikings, knights, Navy SEALs, Cajuns, Creole planters, or, yes, even vampire angels, whether they be historical romance, time travel, or contemporary books, the underlying theme in all my books is humor and sizzle. For example, I have a new historical romance coming out in October, THE NORSE KING’S DAUGHTER, and a new Deadly Angels series starting in May, 2012 with KISS OF PRIDE, plus a gazillion reissues of all my Viking novels being put out monthly starting in January, 2011 through May, 2012. Not to mention my still-in-print Cajun novels, including SO INTO YOU. Thus far, all my books have been put out by traditional publishers, in both print and ebook formats. Vikings THE VIKING TAKES A KNIGHT 9/2010 DARK VIKING 10/2010 THE NORSE KING’S DAUGHTER 10/2011 I’m wondering, though, how readers, especially those who are new-to-me are going to find my books in the future, and that is true of all other authors, as well….

SEALED FOREVER, my latest release, landed in bookstores the same week the biggest story of the year, put SEALs, whose very secret work usually goes unlauded, on the front page. Suddenly from family, friends, and fans I’m getting phone calls and emails praising me for showing the world what heroes SEALs are. My stories have more in common with Army Wives than with Saving Private Ryan, but really, they don’t have much in common with either. I took the quintessential action figure hero, and turned expectations about what a SEAL story was like on its head. My stories are entirely character-driven. Where I got lucky was that SEALs not only have great bodies, and warrior abilities honed to the absolute pinnacle of the humanly possible, they have the characteristics every romance reader is looking for in alpha hero. SEALs absolutely would not be SEALs if they weren’t the men they are. Aggressive, violent, competitive, bulldog tenacious, self-assured to the point of arrogance, a strategic thinker and also generous, protective and nurturing. Up to now my SEALed books have shown the heroes, away from what for them is the “real world” of operations and the support of other SEALs. To meet…

How do you measure that which is not quantitative?  My husband, Tim Barney, and I are on tour with our new book, IT HAPPENED ON MAPLE STREET.  We were here at Fresh Fiction last month.  And last week, a ‘tour mate’ asked if there was a way for us to know if we’re doing what we set out to do.  Is the tour working?  Is the book working? It’s not a question I’ve ever heard from a reader before.  As a reader, I’ve never once wondered such a thing. As an author, I ask that question every single time I put words to paper.  My editors and the marketing and sales and art departments that all have a hand in the creation of my books never stop asking that question.  For the publishing professionals, there is a quantitative answer.  For a lot of them, there is only one scale upon which they judge — did the book sell well?  For them, it’s all about the numbers. For my editors it’s more than that, of course, but ultimately, they, too care if the book sells well or not.  The sales of a book they’ve purchased and worked on reflect on them…