I’m a hard worker, a good mom, a loyal friend, and sometimes a pretty decent writer, but that doesn’t mean everything goes smoothly. In fact, sometimes it means nothing goes smoothly and life becomes what life generally is: one endless roller coaster of highs, low, and loop de loos. I’ve been most this year on the roller coaster and the past six months have pretty much been loops and swoops and hair curling drops that put your stomach up in your mouth and leaves it there. Like everyone else, I’ve had sick family members and lost family members and had financial worries and child worries and work worries but what the heck, we can’t cry (too much), we just have to keep going. And that’s what I’ve been doing. Putting one foot in front of the other as I finish one book and begin to hit the road and promote another. My kids hate me being gone. I’m a single mom and the boys’ dad has been in the hospital since April. They don’t want to be left with sitters. I don’t blame them for not wanting to be left with sitters but sometimes we do what we don’t want…

What if and why are two of my favorite things to ask. I’m notorious for asking them in writing and in life. (I think I ask often enough I drive my husband a little nuts, to be honest). I’ve what if’d everything from the idea that we are really all just microscopic beings on the thumbnail of a giant (hey, I was twelve) to the slightly-obsessive emergency kit I packed for the drive through a snowstorm for a family emergency (hey, I’m a California girl… how was I supposed to know those flutters weren’t a storm? and we MIGHT have needed those empty tuna cans and tealight candles for heat… really, we might have). And I ask why more than an eight year old. Just ask my eight year old, she’ll tell you! A psychologist might refer to it as catastrophic thinking (taking what if to its highest degree of drama) but for a writer, it’s mighty handy. After all, the question of “what’s the worst thing that could happen” is what provides me with plot and conflict. Better yet, what if is what keeps the reader turning the pages. When I read a book, I’m always wondering, always asking…

Well, not gears, exactly. What I’m talking about is a shift in seasons. I live in New England. That’s in the northeastern part of the United States, for those of you who might not know. ‘New England’ is the name we gave the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, in honor of the English who settled this area in the seventeenth century. My state, Connecticut, is more ‘New England’ in feel than the others, especially our part of it. Whenever I’m in England, especially heading north, I see the strong resemblance. Our roads are narrow and twisting; we have lots of beautiful stone walls; many towns, counties and rivers bear English place-names. We’re also famous for our weather. Coldly beautiful winters. Blossom-infused springs. Hot, colorful summers. Absolutely gorgeous autumns. That’s our most famous season and deservedly so. We have lots of forests and woods in New England. During the autumn, our maples, oaks and hickories, all our hardwood trees, put on the most glorious display imaginable. It’s happening right now. As I write this. I look out the door of my office and see the colors of fall. Flaming reds, brilliant golds, deep purples, hot orange, rich…

When you’ve lived as long as I have and in as many different places, maintaining friendships takes a lot more time and energy than it did when I was a kid and my best friends lived right upstairs and next door in the same apartment building. Or even when I reached my teens and so many of my friends were at school or in the same youth group at church or just a few houses away in the town where I spent my summers. These days they’re in Denver and Ohio, in California and Vermont and even in Egypt. Email makes staying in touch easier, but there’s nothing like sitting in the same room with a cup of tea or a margarita and talking over old times or current problems, laughing about whatever strikes us as funny (trust me, the number of things that qualify for laughter increases as the margaritas flow). At any rate, friendships matter. They make our lives richer, provide much-needed comfort and support in times of tragedy and hours of shared laughter through the years. Given how I feel about all this, it’s not surprising that I wanted to deal with the deep friendship shared by…

Ahh, another day in the life of a romance novelist, spending long hours fantasizing about a lingering kiss–that all-important first kiss scene, to be exact. It’s a tough job, but if I need some assistance, I can always find a bit of inspiration on film.Clark Gable bidding Vivien Leigh farewell on a bridge outside Atlanta, Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint seducing each other on a train–I love to sigh over kisses that hint about forever and last nearly as long. In Learning Curve, I splurged on an I-shouldn’t-be-doing-this-but-I-can’t-help-myself first kiss scene that spread across ten pages.Do I want to add a touch of go-for-broke passion to that first embrace? In Moonstruck, Nicolas Cage gets his message across when he upends the kitchen table before grabbing Cher. My hero in Maybe, Baby may not have knocked over the kitchen table, but he sweeps everything on it to the floor, pushes the heroine down on its surface, and sprawls over her before helping himself to a greedy gulp of a kiss. I love Bacall’s sass in To Have and Have Not when she kisses Bogart and then tells him, “It’s even better when you help.” Because my hero and heroine share…

So You’re the Writer I get asked that a lot. By everyone. My doctor. My dentist. Neighbors. Friends to my extended family. I’m not “a” writer. I’m “the” writer. Like there’s only one. Or it’s so odd, it deserves special definition. Most times I keep the writerly part of myself private. Only with other writers and among readers who know I’m published do I relax about my profession. But somehow, everyone finds out. And it’s always embarrassing. I’M not embarrassed to be a writer. No, never that. I LOVE being a writer. But some people have these interpretations, or just things they say, or maybe WHEN they say them, or HOW they say them, that can make it very uncomfortable. I recently attended a neighborhood block party, and lo and behold, the topic of my books came up. I’m NOT the one who raised the subject. A woman said, “You’re the writer!” And a male neighbor – a nice guy, but still… told me that, given what his wife reads of my work, he expected me to be a hottie. I’m positive that I disappointed him. 🙂 Not too long ago, I was sitting at a high school sporting event…

A great party, like a great mystery, needs to provide a few surprises and even a twist. I have given a good deal of thought to both parties and mysteries because I write about Hollywood event planner/caterer Madeline Bean, and it is her job (when not dodging murderers) to make sure every party guest has a good time. Pulling off a remarkable party isn’t a snap, but it helps to start off with the fun concept. Think vices! Do your friends enjoy imbibing? Try a wine tasting evening. Are they into gluttony? Make sure you feature gourmet goodies. Would they like to gamble? Have an Academy Awards party and keep a tote board to track each guests predictions in each category–perhaps surprising the group with a cool prize for the highest totals. Or try a casino theme. Now if your girlfriends are like mine, they don’t mind flirting, so by all mean pick a theme where everyone dresses up so the women can let their necklines plunge. In my books, the larger-than-life Hollywood types require the Godzilla of all party concepts–from a wedding held at the Natural History Museum’s Hall of Predators (KILLER WEDDING) to a Black-and-White themed charity ball…

It’s not my fault. I swear, I wasn’t the one who killed Kelly Ripa’s book club. Sure, I know it looks suspicious. In 2002 she was rockin’ along with her anti-Oprah picks, six of them, and didn’t we love it? Books with happy endings were getting on a TV talk show! Carly Phillips made it! Romance writers had a shot! More important – it was all about me – I had a shot. I figured Nerd in Shining Armor might make the grade with Kelly. Then she went on maternity leave and Reading with Ripa took a short break. But the book club message boards were still up, and no one was throwing in the towel, least of all me. Time marched on, however. My book came out the end of April, 2003, and no word from the LIVE folks indicating the book club would resume. It seems Kelly was home nursing her baby. I ask you, where were her priorities? Had no one suggested that she could nurse a baby and read a romance at the same time? In May, Kelly returned from maternity leave, and I held my breath. I held my breath for a very long time,…

Yay, I get to be on the Fresh Fiction blog! (squee!) Hi all! I’m Gemma Halliday and I write the High Heels Mysteries about L.A. shoe designer turned crime fighter, Maddie Springer, and the sexy yet stubborn LAPD detective, Jack Ramirez. So far I’ve had a blast writing about Maddie’s many adventures. In Spying in High Heels she navigates the L.A. freeways (no small task!) to track down a missing boyfriend, $20 million in embezzled funds, and ultimately, a cold blooded killer – despite the interference of one sexy detective, trying to derail her ‘girly’ investigation at every turn. The second book, Killer in High Heels, begins with a mysterious phone message that leads Maddie to Las Vegas were she encounters a group of Prada smuggling shoe counterfeiters, a handful of aging drag queens, and once very scary mobster. Not to mention the likes of Ramirez, hot and bothered to see her interfering in one of his investigations. Again. The third Heels installment just hit bookstores and, not to play favorites, but I think I had more fun writing this one than any of the others! Undercover in High Heels finds Maddie back in L.A., Hollywood to be exact, where…

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…