When a central character is still deeply in love with someone you and I would judge harshly, for, say, murder, that presents a challenge for the writer. How can readers be sympathetic to a misguided, love-struck protagonist? And does a writer necessarily have to sympathize with him?I know all about this challenge. In my debut novel JANEOLOGY, Tom Nelson is still in love with the woman who has destroyed his life. He misses her. He craves her. He wants to touch her. He wants to talk to her over a cup of coffee the way they used to as friends. But this is never going to happen. The story begins with Tom’s horrific discovery that his wife Jane drowned their toddler son. An act he feels is so out of character that it defies logic. Now, he judges himself harshly for still loving the woman he thought he knew. The world quickly vilifies Jane and urges him to join in their group hate. If that weren’t enough, prosecutors charge him with ‘failure to protect’ believing he should have known Jane was ill and shielded his child from her. This legal charge only makes Tom delve deeper into questioning his love…

I’ve been told that Jazz, the witchy heroine in 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover and I are very much alike. So let’s look at the similarities. Jazz and I both speak our minds at times, but she can says what I’d love to say and have magic if she needs it. She’s snarky. I’m snarky. She has red hair. I have red hair. She’s tall. I’m short. She’s gorgeous. I’m short. I think many of us would say we echo at least one of our characters. I know that’s happened to me, but never more than with Jazz. She’s lived with me for quite awhile as I worked on the book and then had no choice but to work on the second book, Hex Appeal, which comes out this November. She also gives me the chance to stick bits of history in the book. After all, she and her witch friends have been around for 700 years. She’s lived history, had passionate ups and downs with Nikolai Gregorivich, a vampire enforcer from The Protectorate who’s now a private investigator. She’s dealing with a cranky ghost haunting her beloved 1956 T-Bird convertible and having to keep a tight rein on…

Genesis Beach, my first novel (published in 2007) tells the story of an investigative intern on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast, who is trying to solve the murder of a millionaire. Imagine her surprise when she discovers he was beaten to death with a sock! She pursues a prime suspect who is a slippery rascal (to borrow a phrase from the movie, Pretty Woman). While in pursuit, Logan Hunter must deal with a hurricane that wipes out most of her worldly possessions. At the same time she is having recurring sleep terrors that threaten to derail her when she realizes she may have been molested as a toddler. Her strength and determination keep her in the hunt, and she nails the killer even though she trusted the wrong person. Just North of Luck evolved out of my need to carry on with Logan Hunter’s character. (Reader feedback indicated that she was likable and, perhaps, worthy of a few more adventures.) Logan is assigned to corral some bootleggers in the remote mountains of North Carolina when two murders occur. Once the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) is called in, Logan takes the lead and teams up with hunky Chase Railey, a local…

As a reader, don’t you just love finding characters you’d like to have as friends? Or for back up if life got down right dangerous? Or, oo-la-la, as a secret admirer if not a lover? I adore it when I become attached to the characters in books. Those I meet in only one book, I’ll revisit by rereading over and over. Those I meet in a series, I get to revisit with each new book. And, yes, I have been known to reread every book in a series before I read the newest one, if only to touch base and catch up. As a writer, I’ve grown attached to my own characters. So much so, that they are no longer merely “imaginary” friends – they’re full-scale invisible ones!In my debut from Berkley, LA VIDA VAMPIRE, my heroine Cesca is a born and bred native of St. Augustine, FL, the city I now call home. When I go down to the Old Town – with friends or by myself – it’s all too easy to view the sites from Cesca’s point of view. In fact, it’s a struggle not to see through her eyes because she’s that real to me. When…

One of the reasons I wrote Hot and Bothered (Kensington BRAVA April 08) was to set a book in the South and not just geographically but in characters and language and food! Characters in NY are way different than characters in Savannah. You won’t hear the doorman at the NY Hilton say Y’all come back now, ya’ hear. And food? Just try getting a cream egg in Savannah or sweet tea in Manhattan. I’m more Savannah then Manhattan. Not that I don’t looove NY City, I do. But I live in Cincinnati and feel connected to the South. I fry chicken and make cream gravy and make my own pumpkin pie. I don’t have a hidden tiara in my panty drawer but I do subscribe to Southern Living, think Paula Deen is the cutest thing on earth and have actually waited in line for two hours to eat at Lady and Sons. Yep, it’s worth the wait! And I can twirl a baton! I have a pair of white gloves in my drawer and use cloth tablecloth and napkins and set the table proper with flowers for Sunday dinner. If my kids don’t mind their manners they get “the look…

Some writers start their books with a character they love. Others start with plot. Then there are the folks who look to the market to see what’s hot: a vampire lesbian spy thriller shape-shifter historical—count me in! And then there’s me. Me, I get mad. Here’s something that made me mad: reading a twenty-something’s blog about her search for the “perfect” husband. He had to be tall, rich, successful, etc. I wanted to smack that woman. I wanted a mysterious Gypsy psychic to swoop in and rock her world by telling her that her one soul mate on this earth was a penniless single father, down on his luck.Hey, wait…that would make a good book. (My first book, Make Me a Match.) But I was still mad. Which was good, because I had another book due. This time, I was mad about reading my 7,436th kick-ass heroine romance novel. Enough already with the spy/killer/half-beast/vamp woman who does it all in heels. Not that I don’t love those books; but I needed a change. I wanted to read about a heroine like me, an overweight mother of two… …um. Okay, so I didn’t want to read that. But what about a…