I write about vampires, immortals. So I got to thinking about what a New Year’s Eve might mean to them. Not much actually. Of course they notice the passage of time. But in big gulps, not in nibbles. Take Glory St. Clair, my vamp in the Real Vampire series. She was turned in 1604. Now she’s coping with 2011. Hmm. The girl’s seen some serious changes in her long lifetime. Think about it. As a woman, she’s gone from an illiterate chattel to an independent business owner. Now that kind of change could give you whiplash if it had happened overnight. Fortunately she’s had over four hundred years to get used to high heels and a checking account with her name on it. Luckily she was smart enough to survive and thrive. That’s the fun in writing about paranormals. I can put myself in the fantasy and imagine what it would be like to have lived that long, done so much, and, best of all, known so many hot guys. Speaking of… What about the men who are just as ancient as Glory? We’ve all known men who we think of as macho chauvinists. But one who actually wore a…

As I write this 2011 has already been spotted for some of our friends in the Pacific Rim and is slowly methodically working its way across the planet. So Happy New Year to all! At the end of the year, I usually reflect on the good things of the past year and look forward to even better opportunities and life ahead. What’s past is past and the future is bright and shiny, a silver ball. Yesterday I spent looking at some of my books, because I’ve also decided I really need to be honest and clean out some of the ones I’ll never read again or that have no specific meaning in my life. Not being cruel just realistic that even with more bookcases I am NOT going to be able to keep every book. It’s a sad decision but one that had to be made. However in my throes of feeling strong about eliminating “clutter” I came across some of my collection of Georgette Heyer books. Not the popular ones that are reissued over and over but the medieval ones like THE CONQUEROR and SIMON THE COLDHEARTED. Wow, these were old ex-library books I’d collected, printed over 50 years…

This blog is for those of you who want to write, are struggling to write and who want to publish. My latest book, DEADLY IDENTITY, HQN, December 2010 is out. It is book #2 of the my next saga-series, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. When I turn around and look at my zig-zag path to publishing, then I feel anyone can do it. I’d like to share some tips with you that may support your dream of writing a book. For five years I taught at Kent State University and Akron University, Ohio in their adult education programs. I offered classes in Fiction Writing, Nonfiction Writing and Manuscript Evaluation. My classes were always packed to the gum stumps with a maximum of thirty students. My first rule for them was: one did not pass through the door to my class the following week unless they had ten pages of fresh (not edited or revised) writing material. I told them if they didn’t think if they could meet my requirement, to get their money refunded and don’t bother coming back for class number two. I created Writing Boot camp. It wasn’t for sissies. It was for people who had a dream deep in…

When my husband walks into the post office, Deb the postal clerk says, “So…who are you in COWBOYS NEVER CRY?”  Sometimes this idea that people think I’m writing thinly veiled memoir scares me – who do they think I am?  After publishing three novels, a schizophrenic is the only possible right answer! Readers often assume that fictional characters are really based on actual people.  It’s hard for those who don’t write to imagine a person could conjure a completely original character.  This is how it works with me: I never write about real people in my life, but I do write about real characteristics of people in my life. But try to tell that to Deb at the post office. I haven’t consciously written about myself, my life or the people in it in any of my novels.  Yet all those years of inappropriately thinking everything that occurred in the world had to do personally with me helps now that I’m writing.  Also, all that empathy I experienced earlier in my life, before learning how to hold psychic boundaries has given me insight into others.  That’s one nice thing about being a writer: even your failings are eventually useful. If…

When I first started writing, I heeded the admonition to “write what you know,” even though it severely limited my topics and focus. As a result, most of my novels were set either in Southern California, where I was born and raised and currently live, or up in the Pacific Northwest, where I also lived for several years. My characters were a lot like me and/or the people around me, and their lifestyles and circumstances often paralleled my own to some degree. But somewhere along the line I had to ask myself, Is that all there is? Can I move beyond my own little corner of the world in my writing, even if I can’t actually do so physically? With the Internet at my fingertips, I decided I could. That’s how my Extreme Devotion series with New Hope Publishers came about. RED INK, the third book in the series, is set in China, and though I’ve never been there myself, my readers tell me the book reads as if I have. The same is true of NO GREATER LOVE, set in South Africa, and MORE THAN CONQUERORS, set in the San Diego/Tijuana area (been there!), but also San Juan Chamula…

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…