I currently write the Dragonfire series of paranormal romances, a series which features dragon shape shifter heroes called the Pyr. Each book focuses on the firestorm of one dragon dude, which occurs when he meets the one woman who can be his mate. Although the firestorm is about breeding — making more Pyr! — the romantic relationship ends up being a lot more complicated than that, and generally involves the dragon dude of choice learning or choosing to make a permanent relationship. I have a lot of fun with these guys and their preconceptions — as well as those of the women who win their hearts. I also like the action of these plots — since bad dragons are also attracted to the heat of the firestorm, and the best way to defeat the good dragons is to eliminate their mates and their chances for procreation, there are generally a lot of dragon fight scenes in these books too. In May, DARKFIRE KISS, # 6 in the series was released. What I want to talk about today, though, is organically spinning off a second series from a first one. My June release, FLYING BLIND, is the first book in a…

My Dragonfire series features heroes who are dragon shape shifters. That means they’re hunky guys one minute, and fire-breathing dragons the next. (And yes, this is tons of fun.) I’ve always been crazy for dragons and always have loved shifter stories. To me, this was a natural combo. Just to give you a bit of background, the idea of the series is that my dragon shifters (the Pyr) defend the treasure of the earth and are the guardians of the four elements. They’ve been around for millennia, and as you might imagine, they’ve had their spats with each other. They tend to be independent, opinionated and often hot-tempered. They are, however, locked into the final battle for the defense of the earth, against the Slayers — which are Pyr who have turned bad. Because these are romances, there needs to be a love story, too: when each Pyr meets his destined mate, sparks literally fly. That meeting, which occurs once in a lifetime and signals the opportunity to create a son, is called the firestorm. It’s not an easy interval for the Pyr hero – he has to romance his destined mate; convince her that when she sees him turn…

One of the interesting things about the popular fiction market is the way that it changes. Tastes in fiction are fluid, and constantly on the move as people develop interests in new areas, or ideas come into fashion. I think that this dynamism, while it can be frustrating, is also fascinating. And it offers authors the chance to try new things. Many of you will be familiar with the medieval romances that I wrote in the 1990’s. I wrote a lot of them, because I had so much fun. What I liked about writing medievals was the world-building, that challenge of creating a slice of a lost time and place so tangible that readers might feel as if they were standing right there. I loved doing the research, and I really enjoyed weaving myths and legends into the fabric of my fictional worlds. I particularly loved my heroes. My guys were usually wounded or otherwise compromised, and they were always caught between a couple of apparently bad choices. So, when the historical market became less vibrant than once it was, it’s not really surprising that I focussed on the challenge of bringing a fictional world to life on the page,…