So, the other day after my computer blew up, I decided that I needed a break from reality and I stuck a DVD in the player, sat back, and prepared to enjoy a whole lot of bare nekkid male chests. But a strange feeling came over me as I watched the previews to the movie. A feeling that I may have chosen A Really Bad Movie. Herewith is a list of my Ten Clues that perhaps I was not the target audience for the movie 300: 1. The pre-movie advertisements are for violent video games aimed at fourteen-year-old boys. 2. The men are all wearing leather shorts. 3. All the bad guys are ugly or gay or both, and the chief bad guy is wearing gold lipstick. 4. Sacred lepers. 5. Eugenics is a good cultural practice and the only people who are against it are wussy hunchbacks who can’t fight like real he-men anyway. 6. The traitor bad guy has a bad guy mustache. 7. The traitor bad guy tells the heroine that the only way she can save the hero is to have skanky sex with him. And she falls for it. 8. War rhinos. 9. The Deep…

I’ve been asked many times about whether I research before writing my historical novels, or as I go. The short answer is: I research as I go. But that’s partly because I’ve been writing, reading, and watching historical fiction for a long time. So, I already have at least a sense of the era. I know the basics about what the people wear, how they travel about, what conveniences they have and don’t have, etc., so when I sit down to write a book set in the past, I have enough information just to be dangerous.But the fun part comes as I’m writing, because that’s when things start to happen. Usually, I have the bare bones of a plot, but not the details. And the details, in my opinion, are what make a book. And the details are what I research when I’m in the process of writing. When I have to make decisions–about what someone is wearing in particular, about where a certain house or building is located, about what they might eat at a ball or fete, about a political event that’s happening–that’s when I do the research for that particular thing. I stop writing and start searching….

What do those two words mean, anyway? Strong, stalwart, dependable, intelligent, good in a fight. Oh, and definitely an alpha male – at least to a romance author! In fact, it sounds like an good list of things I’d want to find in a hero, doesn’t it? But when politicians talk about citizen-soldiers, they’re usually speaking about citizens who are about to leave their day jobs and go off to serve their country, probably to fight. That’s an extremely noble calling and I honor anyone who has done it. But hasn’t any such citizen-soldier also been changed – even hardened or scarred – by what he’s seen and done while he served his country? What interests me, as an author, is what happens when that citizen-soldier comes home and becomes more of a citizen than a soldier. I want to know how his military skills and personality blends into his peacetime world – for example, how he takes the strength and discipline he gained in the military into the civilian world, how his loved ones temper his cynicism, how he learns to sleep quietly at night again. It’s reassuring to know than an ex-soldier can still grab a gun and…

I’m thrilled to be guest blogger here at Fresh Fiction today, and the excitement only expanded when I saw the impressive list of authors posting before me here (Gemma Holliday, Jill Marie Landis, Sabrina Jeffries…WOW!). Talk about a treat! With so many fantastic romance authors working these days, it’s mind-boggling to think my books are now going to be placed near them in bookstores. Someone pinch me… wait, don’t. I bruise easily. I was able to see my very first published novel, THE DEVIL’S POSSESSION, in the bookstore last Saturday during another first – my first booksigning. So far, the ride has been amazing, and the readers have been astoundingly gracious with their feedback. So yes, I’m a brand spanking new author. I write medieval romance. But my love for the paranormal and magical things refuses to allow me the purely romantic story lines of ladies like Julie Garwood (my hero) and Johanna Lindsey’s medievals. Amidst all the romantic growth and amazing story-telling in their books that drew me to medievals so long ago, I acquired the seeds I needed to grow my own story ideas. But, from the staple plots of alpha man meets woman who tames him, my…

I had an impulsive idea a couple of months ago. Wouldn’t it be cool to make one of those video trailers for my next historical romance, Lessons of Desire (due September 25)? What the heck, I thought. I’ll take a shot and see what happens. The way I saw it then, I’d contact that company that makes them, sign up, and voila’, it would be done. Um, no. It turned out I had to do a bit of work myself before we got to voila’. COS Productions wanted to make a video that I liked and approved, so they needed my input. This was how I found myself in early August looking at hundreds of faces. My video was going to use live action, which meant an actor and an actress had to be hired. I needed to help make the choices. My producer opened a folder for the project at an online West Coast casting site, and posted the job description with general appearance requirements. Actors and actresses deposited their headshots and resumes in the folder. I could then go online and look at their files from my home in Pennsylvania. I have never associated my characters with known…

To Live the Impossible Dream or How I’m adapting to becoming a Full Time Writer It’s been a little over a year since I left my 21 year job as a Prep School Development Director to become a full time writer. You wouldn’t think adapting would be necessary when reaching your dream, but dreams don’t always match reality. No more twice-monthly paychecks. They come twice yearly, now. Then there’s medical insurance. I have to pay it myself. Yikes! I didn’t expect to miss the school as much as I do, nor the creative energy spinning around me there, but the Witchy Chicks have topped off the well of creative energy beautifully. Really, who wouldn’t want to leave their job for lots of great sex, psychic witches, scary ghosts, hunks who seduce, and kidnapping heroines with fuzzy purple handcuffs? I mean, the best part of a great story is living it, whether you’re writing or reading it. I don’t set my alarm clock anymore. Gee, somebody’s got to make the sacrifice. I often go from my bed to my computer, because I plot in my dreams, and I don’t stop writing, until I run out of creativity. Sometimes, my pesky muse…

Not very many people know (and the handful of people who did once know, have no reason to remember) that my first writing credit was in the December 1979 issue of ‘Teen’ magazine. The cover featured a pretty brunette model with blue eyes, her hair pulled up into a loose bun that looks Gibson-girlish, wearing a red shiny shirt with tiny black polka dots buttoned all the way to the top button. My, how fashions and hairstyles have changed! The theme for the magazine that month was “DAZZLE! Looks that sparkle!” The cover articles are “Party Pretties With Zip,” “Packages That Reflect You (easy gifts to make),” “Your Body (facts and fallacies),” Knockout Nail Care (complete hand book),” “Why You’re Shy (how to change),” and “Embarrassing Moments (celebrity blush up).” The entertainment section featured Dirk Benedict (Lieutenant Starbuck in Battlestar Gallactica), The Bee Gees, Charlene Tilton, and Michael Jackson (looking very different than today)! The regular columns in the magazine were Horoscope, Dear Doctor, Dear Jack, Dear Jill, Meet the Supersports, Flea Market, and Reader Write-On. In the Reader Write-On column, readers could submit original poems. I did, and my poem was chosen for the above issue. And now, I…

Well, I’m back! But this time it’s under my other name. Yes, that’s right, I’m one of those schizophrenic authors who has two names (actually three if you count my real name, which I really should since if I don’t that’s kind of scary). You already met and talked to me as Jenna Petersen earlier this month. Jenna writes historical romances for Avon. They are Regency-set and sensual. I hope they are also highly emotional and dark. That’s what I strive for, anyway, so if you like that sort of thing… well, look me up! But Jess… ah, Jess. She’s a whole other beast. Yes, she still writes highly emotional and dark stories, but she crosses over that sensual line and into the erotic. So if you like your love scenes a bit more adventurous and detailed, but you still want a story in there, too, Jess might be your girl. Luckily, both my names have books out in the next two months (Seduction Is Forever in October from Jenna, Everything Forbidden in November from Jess). It’s kind of weird being two (or three) people all at once. First off, there’s the name calling. Not that kind of name calling….

Why NOT write them? The connected series is a staple of most genre fiction. Mystery series have abounded for decades, as have fantasy and science fiction series, but only in the last fifteen years has the romance series become popular. At the beginning, they were rare. When an author did write them, as with Johanna Lindsey’s Malory series, they weren’t necessarily planned out ahead, the way they are now, with publishers announcing the series connections from the beginning. More often, authors wrote isolated connected books here and there, like Jayne Ann Krentz’s Gift of Gold and Gift of Fire (two of my all-time favorites). Eventually the romantic series came into its own, and now authors write them more often than not. My own School for Heiresses series, Regency-set historicals featuring the spirited graduates of Mrs. Harris’s School for Young Ladies, is the fourth series I’ve written. These unconventional heiresses who prove a match for society’s most irresistible rogues are connected only by their association with the school, but I’ve also written series where the characters were friends, royal half-brothers, and sisters. Here’s why I like writing them: The over-arching themes—in this particular series I include a running thread in the…

Well once again, I forgot to bring my notepad and pen with me to the book club dinner table. I did have it with me….just not at the table when we first started chatting with Robyn Carr (this month’s Plano book club author). Luckily one of the other ladies was able to run to the other room to get it for me. Thank goodness especially since I am getting to this so late. My evil day job is keeping me from everything lately. My apologies. As I said, Robyn Carr was the Plano book club’s author for our August get together. Anyone who has read her Virgin River series will be pleased to know she did spill the beans about characters in upcoming Virgin River books. The series could go on and on with the current area residents and Jack’s five unmarried marine buddies. Book 4, likely to be released in late 2008/early 2009, will center around Paul & Vanessa. Book 5 will center around a retired Army blackhawk helicopter pilot who owns several cabins in the area and a young caregiver named Shelby who was briefly mentioned one of the existing Virgin River books. Book 6 is Ricky’s book…