Since November is the month when we give thanks for being lucky enough to live in our great country—and since I figure I’ve given enough tax dollars to the government to say thanks for the next fifty years—I thought I’d list all those things that we, as writers, should be thankful for every day. Ergonomic chairs. Pretty self-explanatory. Agents. The first line of defense in any writer’s arsenal against rejection. It’s not that you don’t get rejections, it’s just that she gets them first. Yes, they still sting but having someone who believes in you makes it all a little better. Writing buddies. Knowing I can call them, day or night and bitch about my uncooperative muse makes me breathe easier. Call waiting. Don’t recognize the number? Ignore. Recognize the number as your mother-in-law’s? See response to first question. Cattle prods. For those days when the kids demand to know why they don’t have any clean underwear and what exactly you did all day if you didn’t do wash. Tazers. For the husband on vacation (or retirement) who walks into your office as you’re furiously typing away, leans on the door and says, “So, what are you doing?” And the…

Her footsteps go where no other woman has walked before. Through a doorway our heroine treads into a fracture in the universe, and empty space becomes a walkway to her destination. Stonehenge is the beginning of her journey; a renowned world is the end. And everything else between is…nothing? Science is an ingredient I really wanted to add to The Sea’s Embrace, but only as much as I could get away with in a romance novel. I managed to throw in enough to make it work, excluding a short prologue divulging the secret behind the mysterious floating orbs lighting the way. (You’ll have to read the story to find out about them.) The true science comes with time travel. I’ve always been fascinated with the Bermuda Triangle. Ever wonder why things go missing there? Did you know there’s a similar phenomenon off the coast of Japan? Some scientists believe these two locations are connected beneath the earth by a black and white hole. Though it hasn’t been proven, and has caused a bit of controversy within the scientific community, most gurus would love to believe in this fantastic theory. Think time travel. Not in a sense you can travel back…

Hi Everyone! I’m so excited to be here! And many thanks to the folks of Fresh Fiction for inviting me to their blog. I’ve met several of the ladies in person at Celebrate Romance in Columbia, SC, and let me tell you, they are a fun group! CR was my first ever conference, both as a reader and as an author, and I can tell you I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Rubbing elbows with some of my favorite authors, and getting to know the folks who love to read! What could be better? It was a wonderful experience, and one I shall always remember. I only wish I could make it to RWA or to RT this year, but sadly I will be unable to join all the wonderful authors and readers at those two. So instead, I thought I’d introduce myself here at Fresh Fiction and answer the one important question I seem to get. “Why Shape shifters?” Paranormal romance in general constitutes so many different types of creatures. There’s the vampires we all know and love. The demons we are just learning to have love affairs with, the selkies, the faeries, and even more. So what makes the shape…

This one tiny word encompasses all from which romance novels are made. It doesn’t matter what genre, category or heat level. It all comes down to those four little letters. Now, the word itself may be small, but the concept is huge. The tiny flicker eventually turning into an all-consuming flame–now that is love…or at the very least, lust. As a romance writer, I have to admit that this fire is what sucked me into writing the genre. I love…love. The sex is great, but it is so much more than hopping in the sack. The thrill of the chase, the spark of the first kiss, the flame of the passion, and the sigh of the happily-ever-after ending make it the only category for me to read and write. There are many people who say romance is nothing but predictable, just because they end the same. I have one word for them: Duh! Mysteries end with a resolution to the mystery and horror stories are going to have gruesome scenes, yet for some reason, they generally aren’t lumped into one bunch and pooh-poohed as a whole. Writing a book is all about the presentation and figuring out how to flow…

I’ve got a confession to make. The heroes in my romances are usually a prototype of my husband in some way, shape or form. After all, he’s the man I know best and I married him because I obviously find him hero-material. Combining him with a little Han Solo, I had in my opinion a wonderful male. But after many books, I began to think I needed a new prototype. Someone was bound to start noticing that my hot, yummy heroes were all a little alike. So, I started the search for another hero archetype. He had to be handsome, smart, witty and the number one requirement was that even if he wasn’t perfect (in fact, I was looking for slightly flawed), he needed to be okay with not being perfect. I like heroes who feel great in their own skins. I looked and looked and couldn’t find anyone. Months rolled by. I began to despair. Even the issue of People magazine’s yearly Best Looking People provided no new fodder. The men all looked too handsome, too delicate, so perfect as to be uninteresting. Then I saw him. I was meeting my old work buddies (think a table full of…

Why an eBook? I get that question a lot since I decided to publish Annabelle’s Courtship with Samhain Publishing. My first reaction is: Why not? 🙂 But seriously…Samhain Publishing is such an impressive entity to me that I really wanted to work on a project with them. It started with two Inspirationals I’d written before I discovered that my fit as a writer leaned much more heavily toward sexy romance. Samhain doesn’t have any of the limitations on publication for an Inspirational that the larger presses do and luckily for me, they were interested in publishing my books. Meagan’s Chance came out under the LC Monroe name in July and Miss Fixit will be out later this year with a co-author. I also had a historical I’d written early on that Berkley had not yet purchased and I saw this as a golden opportunity to do something with Samhain as Lucy Monroe. Berkley very generously allowed me an addendum to my contract to make this possible and voila…Annabelle’s Courtship was published! Not only has Annabelle’s Courtship come out as an original eBook, but it and Meagan’s Chance will be released in print (available in all major bookstores – and some…