Writing humor is not for the faint of heart. It is a difficult task for anyone – stand-up comics, sit-com writers and even those who produce comic strips. However, humor writing is the hardest for the novel writer because body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, funny drawings, and sound tracks are not available for use. Novel writers are slaves to the power of their words. The problem inherent to writing humor is that everyone has a different idea of what constitutes a funny situation. You, as the writer, can’t tell someone what is funny. Each person is unique and therefore, has a different sense of humor. There are even some people who have no sense of humor at all (I refer to them as humor-challenged). You have to realize you can’t please everyone, so you have to write what makes you laugh. How can you effectively use humor in your writing? One way is to make an ordinary situation extraordinary. Shake things up with a surprise situation or an unexpected result to an otherwise normal day. Play with words by using metaphors, similes, irony or satire. Bring misunderstandings to the forefront of the action and incorporate a bit of…

When I was a younger and much harder on myself, I wanted my Christmases to be perfect. I wanted professionally wrapped gifts (I made my own intricately looped handmade bows!). I wanted caterer-caliber iced sugar cookies (I applied silver dragées with tweezers!). I wanted a picture-perfect family to go with everything else (I frog-marched everyone to a photographer to take a stiff-looking holiday-card photo, sporting “dress up” clothes we only wore twice a year, at most!). You know what I mean: I wanted a Martha Stewart holiday…but I had a typical working mother’s time, energy level, and expertise to accomplish it with. And the bad news is: I’m not Martha. But the good news is: I’m not Martha. I learned pretty quickly that gingerbread men always taste delicious, even if their little legs are snapped off during marathon decorating sessions with six year olds. I learned that Christmas trees actually look better if you pile on lots of (mismatched, shiny, and potentially tacky) decorations…including the ones your children make and hang by themselves on all the lower branches, giving your tree the kind of “pear shaped” effect I usually only associate with “skinny” jeans. I learned that, in proper gift-opening…

I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but as a romance writer I often have family and friends anxious to tell me of their latest romance dilemma. From the perspective of most people, romance writers are thought of as the go-to person for love advice because we know how the guy can get the girl. But romance writers do not have all the answers when it comes to love, even though, we do have the ability to create heroes who can fly through the air, rule over kingdoms and woo women, in only a few hundreds pages. So when a friend of mine told me that her husband had given her stainless steel pots and pans for her birthday, and that she couldn’t believe how she could marry someone who has no sense of romance, I just shrugged. It was not exactly the reaction she was seeking. Then I said to her, “What did you tell him you wanted? Did you tell him you wanted pots and pans?” After mulling it over for a few seconds, my friend replied, “Well, not exactly.” And right there was the beginning of the dilemma. So I shared with her what I…

Dear Reader: I love writing romances. And for me, it’s always about the hero. It doesn’t matter what he looks like, or what he does for a living, or even who his family and friends are— it’s about his heart. So it’s funny to me that my new contemporary romance series centers around three sisters—three disenchanted, estranged sisters who don’t know each other and aren’t even sure that they want to. And just for fun, I had them inherit a dilapidated beach inn that they’re forced by circumstances to run. Together. A difficult concept for them to say the least. The first book is Simply Irresistible (out now) tells the story of the middle sister, Maddie “The Mouse,” who decides she’s done being mousey, thank you very much. She’s tired of being too accommodating and too trusting. Her transformation begins when she takes a stand with her sisters Tara and Chloe and hires a contractor to help renovate the inn. Enter hot and handsome Jax Cullen, whose laid-back, easy-going personality matches the ways of the sleepy Washington beach town of Lucky Harbor. Only he’s not nearly as harmless as he seems, but much more like a very sexy sheep in…

Every romance reader knows that a hero can make or break a book. Being the author of more than 25 novels I’ve had a bunch of heroes. The latest, Sean Gallagher, is on the cover of my current novel, AN ACCIDENTAL SEDUCTION. Now, I’ll admit that he doesn’t look quite like I saw him in my mind’s eye while I was writing the book. Because, even though Sean is bent on ruining the heroine, Savanna Hearnes, in an effort to avenge his brother, I envisioned him a little less dour, a little less intimidating and somber. I saw him with an unruly shock of dark hair, a killer grin and a devil-may-care attitude. But once my publisher sent me the cover, I was like…oh, yeah (slobber, slobber, swoon) well, that’s good, too. And look, Savanna seems to agree with my assessment, because she’s obviously drooling on his shoulder. The hero of my Christina McMullen mystery novels has never been on a cover, so he’s all my to create. I see him like this. Yummy, right? But with a lot of attitude and angst. He’s a lieutenant named Jack Rivera who causes no end of trouble for Chrissy from the first…

Since I’ve published seven Jane Austen-related novels, people often ask me why there’s such a fascination with Jane Austen in general and Pride and Prejudice in particular. I’ve developed a number of stock answers having to do with the brilliance and universality of her characterizations, the appeal of escaping to a different era, and the assurance that love will always triumph in Jane Austen’s world. And how can you not love Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy? But the current appeal, with new Austen-related novels being published every month, may have to do with something that goes beyond Jane Austen herself. Most women readers I run into already know the story of Pride and Prejudice. Either they read it in high school, or they saw the 1995 miniseries with Colin Firth or the 2005 movie with Matthew MacFadyen, but they all know the basic story. I can walk into any bookstore and start a conversation with a woman I’ve never met about Mr. Darcy, and chances are good I’m going to hear how much she loves Pride & Prejudice. It’s as close to a universal that we have for women who read. In today’s fragmented world, we’re always grasping for sources…

They start out as just a name—someone with a particular hair and eye color. Sometimes they have an extensive history and, sometimes, they have little more than a particular job or an odd quirk or two to help define them. But as you begin to write, as you begin to create the world around them, as you begin to make them interact with other names, something magical begins to happen… They become real. Welcome to my favorite part of the writing process. Creating characters in a series is like unwrapping a fairly innocuous gift and finding the most extraordinary present inside. And the best part of all? The present keeps getting better every single time you reach inside the box. When I started writing the Southern Sewing Circle mystery series, I knew my main character—Tori Sincliar—was a librarian. I knew her age, her general appearance, her basic personality. The same was true for the rest of the women in the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle—Leona, Margaret Louise, Dixie, Beatrice, Debbie, Melissa, and Rose. But as I continued to write, each and every one of them came to life to the point where they began to feel like true friends—friends…

When I sat down to begin the fifth installment in my Lady Emily series, I thought very seriously about where to set the book. Location is an essential tool when writing about continuing characters, not only because it provides the opportunity to introduce readers to another place, but also because it gives the author a chance to drop her creations into a new environment, one that exposes them to a broader, different world. A world that can be difficult, but one that in the end allows them to grow. Because in Dangerous to Know, Emily is recovering from the ghastly wounds inflicted upon her at the end of Tears of Pearl, I wanted to send her somewhere idyllic and beautiful. But I also wanted it to be a place where terrible secrets could be hidden. Normandy proved the perfect choice. Its sweeping landscapes look straight out of an Impressionist painting, and dotted throughout I found the ruins of châteaux, crumbling medieval abbeys, and rambling houses that screamed for ghosts. I spent a good portion of last summer researching and writing there, getting to know the area, the people, and the food. It was Author Heaven (especially if, like me, you’re…

Independent business owner. I’m eleven books and three novellas into the publishing business and the wise advice of a fellow author still remains in my head. &mquotYou are now an independent business owner. Treat writing that way.&mquot When I signed my first contract and months later turned in my completed manuscript, I believed my work was done and that I had fulfilled the terms of my contract. I was wrong. I had no idea about what laid ahead. There were so many additional aspects to becoming a published author that went beyond finishing the book. Writing a book is only the beginning. Here are a few items to consider: 1.Editing, Your masterpiece will come back and you will have to make some changes to it before it becomes a final product. 2. Promotions. Do you have a plan? Ideas for getting your novel to the reading population? Trust me, booksignings are not the answer; and 3. Keep writing. An author must keep writing. You must work on the next novel while doing all of the above and more. Authors don’t sit behind a desk and let the money roll in. We promote our work and invest our time in all…

“You work at home? You must have so much self-discipline!” Whenever I mention that I’m a writer and that I work at home, somebody in the crowd is amazed by my ability to be productive. A lot of people seem convinced that without a boss peering over the wall of their cubicle, they’d wile away the day shopping on-line, sneaking down to the kitchen, and tuning into Oprah. While I’ve never missed a deadline, most people would probably be surprised if they ever turned into that proverbial fly on the wall and watched me work. Even though I’ve never had a problem getting any of my books written on time, I’m hardly a nose-to-the-grindstone type. Whenever I’m sitting at my computer, I’m on alert for any distraction, any possible excuse to get up and do something else. Over the years, I’ve developed a few tricks to help keep me in my chair. The main one is keeping all the things I could use as an excuse to wander around the house nearby. Hand lotion, a nail file, and lip balm are always just inches away, as are my cell phone and my landline. So are tissues, a glass of water,…