Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to the folks here at Fresh Fiction for having me on the blog today. Thanks, everyone! Some of you might know me as the author of the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series. The books focus on Gin Blanco, an assassin codenamed the Spider who can control the elements of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing people and righting wrongs, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit in the fictional southern metropolis of Ashland. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vampires, and elementals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone. The first two books in the series are SPIDER’S BITE and WEB OF LIES. VENOM, the third book, will hit shelves on Sept. 28. TANGLED THREADS, the fourth book, will be published in May 2011, while the fifth book (untitled) will be released in October 2011. I’ve also sold a young adult urban fantasy series called Mythos Academy. The first book is called TOUCH OF FROST and will be out in August 2011. The books focus on Gwen Frost, a Gypsy girl who has the gift of psychometry, or the ability to know an object’s…
I write historical novels that tell the life stories of people who have actually lived, and whose bones are still physically on this earth. My career involves fleshing out those bones and bringing past lives and times back to life for readers of today. Who were these people? What were they like in life? What were their dreams, their aspirations, their stories? I am always aware that in such telling that my path involves extensive use of the imagination. From the first piece of dialogue, I am putting words in the mouths of my characters. I am writing scenes for them that sometimes never happened, sitting them down to dine on meals they never ate, and giving them thoughts that I think they may have had, but I don’t know for sure. Nevertheless, I am a storyteller trying to bring modern readers close to what happened back then and it is my duty to weave my tale with integrity and a care for the known historical facts and the people involved. I strongly believe that any author who is going to write about a person who actually lived, should do their level best to find out everything they can about…
It isn’t only about men in kilts, although those are sexy. I’m sure a lot of people wonder why I set most of my stories in Scotland, or why I go gaga over getting to visit Scotland (which I will be doing in a couple of weeks!) Most people will tell you it’s a cold, windy and rainy place. That the skies are cloudy most of the time. That you will need your winter clothing, even in June. True, true. But Scotland doesn’t hold the same kind of appeal that a tropical island does. Scotland holds a unique and spellbinding appeal all its own. For me, Scotland is a magical place, a place that seems almost surreal. A place out of fantasies and fairy tales where you might stumble upon a medieval castle at any moment, or glance out the bedroom window at the inn and see an ancient castle ruin in the distance. That doesn’t happen too often here in the US. Scotland has a distinctive and sometimes harsh environment, especially the beautiful, remote and wild Highlands of the north. The people who lived there centuries ago had to be incredibly tough and resilient to survive, as do the…
A few readers, after having read my two novels, asked me a similar question, “Is it difficult to write about a prostitute then a nun?” My answer was no. Because prostitute or nun, they are women and human beings. I love to write about women, especially heroines who are on the verge of drastic transformation — their courage, struggles, and triumphs. In my debut novel Peach Blossom Pavilion, story of the last Chinese courtesan, or geisha, Precious Orchid is tricked into a prostitution house after her father is executed for a crime he had not committed and her mother banished to a Buddhist nunnery, Precious Orchid finds herself abandoned in Peach Blossom Pavilion, an elite house of prostitution. At first, life at Peach Blossom Pavilion feels like a dream to the thirteen year-old. Precious Orchid enjoys her poetry, music and calligraphy lessons and feels herself thriving. But all too soon she discovers that this is merely a prelude to her role of pleasing customers, including China’s most powerful men. The novel relates her survival and ultimate triumph: how she escaped from the prostitution house, reunited with her long lost mother, avenged her father, finally finding true love and starting a…
If you enjoy historical romances where a spun-sugar princess has servants at her beck and call to dress her in a sumptuous gown for a lazy afternoon of flower-gathering, you may be disappointed in my books. I like hard-working, goal-driven, salt-of-the-earth heroes and heroines, people who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. In CAPTURED BY DESIRE, heroine Florie Gilder is a goldsmith’s apprentice who’s had to learn to fend for herself, and Rane MacAllister is a huntsman who provides food for starving villagers. Why this preference for commoners? Basically, there are three reasons: I get bored with do-nothing characters. (In fact, I tend to make them the villains!) Characters that spend all day fretting over their attire for the ball or learning how to flirt with a fan or going on leisurely flower-gathering expeditions are dull, dull, dull. I’d much rather write about hard-working people with dreams and motivations. Renaissance jobs are cool. Sure, Lady Winifred and Lord Rupert can indulge in certain proper occupations—sewing, dancing, hawking, hunting, attending feasts, going a-Maying. But can they be waxchandlers (candle-makers)? Chapmen (traveling salesmen)? Thimbleriggers (scam artists)? Broom-dashers, beekeepers, or beerbrewers? Who wouldn’t want to write about a hero who’s a vaginarius?…
I grew up watching movies like Clash of the Titans, BeastMaster, and Highlander (one of my favorites!) so it was no wonder when I began writing that myths and legends worked their way into my stories. Every culture has hundreds of legends and millions of myths. The great thing about writing fiction is that I can add any of these myths and legends into a story. And some I just make up. ? In FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDER, the second book in my Dark Sword series, the series uses its own myth and legend. When I had the first kernel of an idea for the series, I knew I would need something substantial for a legend. Since the series takes place in medieval Scotland, it opened up many possibilities. After all, Britain itself is steeped in magic and lore. With primeval gods trapped inside my Highlanders who happen to fall in love with Druids, I realized I could take this back hundreds of years. Rome, as we know, invaded and conquered much of Britain. But not Scotland. Why is that? Is it because of the Celts? Do we believe anything written in that history since it was written by Rome? So, that…
Sometimes your characters (and your publisher) take you places you don’t want to go — like to a not so happily-ever-after ending. Caleb and Maggie from Leaving Paradise wanted a happy ending. They deserved one. They had both been through so much — juvie and a crippling accident — but they still didn’t get their HEA. Not in Leaving Paradise, anyway. As much as they (and I, their author) wanted it, it wasn’t going to happen. Too bad for them. Worse, too bad for me. And so, romance lover that I am, I agonized and fretted over what to do. I had sold the book to the publisher as a YA romance with a HEA. But Caleb and Maggie wouldn’t stay in their box; their characters took over and led them (and their book) to an ending that was real…but not happy. So, after some time (and a few more books – Perfect Chemistry, anyone? were written and hitting the bookstore shelves) I was ready to give Caleb and Maggie their turn in the limelight again. They had suffered enough. Strangely, though, my publisher loved the ending to Leaving Paradise. For them, Leaving Paradise was done. Finito. Paradise had been…
Anyone who has been reading my novels lately may see a theme there. I’m currently writing both cozy mysteries and paranormal romances–two fun but different genres. What’s similar about them? They all involve animals! My cozy mysteries consist of the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. Kendra is a lawyer who temporarily lost her law license because of an alleged–and untrue, of course–ethics violation, and took up pet-sitting to support herself and her dog, Lexie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She enjoys pet-sitting so much that she continues to do it even after she gets her law license back. Among the pets that she sits for are dogs and cats, of course, plus ferrets, pot-bellied pigs, macaws, iguanas, and even a ball python. Because these are cozy mysteries, Kendra becomes what she calls a “murder magnet” and has to solve murders in each of the books. I’m currently working on a spin-off from the Kendra series, the Pet Rescue mysteries, also for Berkley Prime Crime. The protagonist, Lauren Vancouver, runs a private no-kill animal shelter that is funded by a good friend of Kendra’s. The first, BEAGLEMANIA, will be published in March 2011. They, too, involve murders…
For the past 20 years we have been writing novels, seven in total—the eighth in the works. No Pulitzer or Nobel winners, but well crafted stories that have enlightened and entertained tens of thousands of readers. Our first “big book” Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made was published in 1997, has never been out of print, is in its fifth edition and has sold over 750,000 copies, without any major advertising or endorsements. But that was then. Now, we along with many of our “classmates”, black women writers who started their careers in the mid 90’s, find our future in jeopardy. This precarious position is not because we write bad books, but because we all fall in the general category “African American Fiction” and we just aren’t selling as well. What we write is women’s fiction with Af-Am characters–stories of struggle and triumph, loss, coping, love, and life, learning. But we are labeled, handicapped, before we’re out of the gate. Folks who might enjoy our work because the theme might be relevant to their life- like What Doesn’t Kill You, our 2009 novel—a funny and uplifting story about a woman who loses her long-term job, but finds her…
Don’t ask me why, but I suddenly started wondering how many of our blog-ees are lifelong romance readers and how many came to the game later. I think of myself as a lifer, but the romance genre as we know it today bears little resemblance to what was available when I was a kid and young adult–which I considered at the time to be zilch. That wasn’t entirely true, of course. There were the early Harlequin books, and I loved them for a while, but then they began to bug me because the hero was always this older than dirt guy (to my 12, 13, 14 year-old mind) of 30, who treated the 18-year-old English flower like crap through most of the book then pledged his undying love on the last page. Huh? I could never see where that was coming from, because he sure as heck didn’t show it. (“I love you darling, truly I do. And by the way, you look lovely in your frock. We must spend a fortnight in my flat.”) Gak. But then came the Gothics, with their covers of women looking over their shoulders at a castle/manse/decrepit old house with its one lighted window…