“Good Vibrations” in Red Sage Secrets Volume 21: Primal Heat is my first erotic romance novella. I had a blast writing it, and I’m thrilled to share the story with readers. My heroine, Lexi O’Brien, is funny and practical and dead-set on her goals. She’s about to give notice at her quirky aunt’s love shop where she works so she can enter a competitive MBA program. In the past, mixing her studies with dating has caused Lexi’s grades to suffer, so she’s decided to remain celibate for the next two looooooooong years. Then Gage Templeton, her favorite out-of-customer, shows up as she’s about to close shop for the night. Lexi realizes this might be her last chance to see him…and her last chance for some hot loving before she straps on her chastity belt. So she does what any bright girl in her position would do–she modifies her goals. Lexi’s new goal is to share one wild weekend with Gage and then go merrily on her way. However, Gage has other ideas. Unknown to Lexi, he was raised in her city and is moving home. He has no intention of settling for a short-term affair. So…Lexi’s plans are turned upside-down….

It’s December 26, Boxing Day, one of my all-time favorite holidays. Not that I know what it’s about—I looked it up in Wikipedia and I still don’t get it—but because it marks the winding down of the annual Chrismahanukwanzakah Festivity Vortex. Much as I love the holidays, this time of year tends to make me just a little bit tense. It always seems like there’s a whole lot more stuff to do than I have time for in my already harried life, and I have to admit to a sigh of relief when it’s all over but for New Year’s—which, in our upstate New York household, means champagne and cigars with our closest pals as we huddle under afghans in the “smoking lounge” (our screened-in back deck) until the wee hours. My favorite night of the year. But back to Boxing Day. This year, there’s another reason to love it, and that’s because it’s the release date for Bound in Moonlight, the second book in my Hidden Grotto series. You can’t miss it in the bookstores—it’s the trade paperback with the bright, shiny gold cover and an oval inset of Bouguereau’s Evening Mood, a romantic Victorian masterpiece. I’ve posted this…

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…

After 21 published novels, and numerous reprints of my old titles, I’m getting ready once again to contract with my publisher to write some more books. It’s always an interesting time for me, because I get to pick new characters, new plot twists, and new storylines. As I go through this process, I’m interested in what readers think. I’m renowned as “The Queen” of erotic romance, as well as “The Queen” of villains, so I write a story that’s very different from mainstream romance. My books are very plot driven. By this I mean they’re very fast-paced, with a focus on action and dialogue. They’re also very passionate and very dramatic, with extremely evil villains. If you’re one of my fans, and have read some (or all!) of my novels, I would love to hear what you enjoy about them. For example, is it the macho heroes? The great sex scenes? The heartbreak? The drama? The villains? What do you relish the most? Also, what could I leave out or tone down? The answers to these questions help me pinpoint the direction my books should go. If you haven’t read my books before, I’m curious as to why not. Is…

One of the questions I get asked most is whether it’s difficult to write in different genres. The answer is absolutely not. I love genre jumping. In fact, I think it would make me insane if I were to write in only one genre. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been writing in multiple genres since I started writing. It’s impossible for me to stick to one…flavor. I love so many. When I first started writing for Ellora’s Cave, I started in contemporary, then branched out into paranormal. Then I got this great idea about faeries so I started a fantasy series. Then came futuristics and…well, you get the idea. I can’t seem to stay with one genre, and I’m fine with that.Several years and multiple publishers later, I’ve pretty much settled on mainstream paranormal romance and contemporary erotic romance…mostly. And that was because I was given the wonderful opportunity to write for Bantam Dell and Berkley, and each contracted me for something completely different, which was like a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to write paranormal romance, and my writing roots were in erotic romance. Now I can do both. And I also write for Samhain Publishing where I can…

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….

I’m giving one lucky winner a signed copy of my new release, Lucinda, Darkly. So don’t be shy about posting a comment on this blog. Winner to be announced in the blog comment section the next day, so be sure to check back tomorrow. My editor just emailed me last night with the happy news that my single title LUCINDA, DARKLY is a national bestseller. And ON THE PROWL is a USA Today bestseller—my anthology with Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, and Karen Chance. So I guess that elation is definitely going to affect the topic of this blog: how I became an author. For me, turning writer was a complete turn-about in careers at the mid-point of my life, from respectable family practice physician to penning erotic dark fantasy/urban fantasy. Which is more fun? Well, of course, the latter. This new career has lead to TV appearances on Geraldo At Large and CNBC, won me several awards—my first ever in my life!—and forced me out of my normal reserve into public speaking and meet-and-greets with complete strangers at conferences. But then, writing those hot love stories in more explicit detail than I could ever have imagined when I first picked…

When the fabulous ladies of Fresh Fiction contacted me and asked if I would guest blog today, my first reaction was to be excited. We’ve all met a few times and they are, of course, lovely and fabulous and always fun to hang out with. So now I’m hanging out with them in a virtual world. My second reaction was to freak out because I realized I had no topic. I tried to sneakily ask for a topic, but was told that I could blog about ‘anything’! Oh boy! Anything. Which means I can blog about ANYTHING and that doesn’t narrow it down at all. So I went out in search of a topic. I went blog hopping. Yes, this was a travesty. To have to hop from interesting blog to interesting blog, reading fabulous authors’ words about a variety of topics. Yeah. Poor me, right? But as great as it was, it didn’t help me at all. A lot of authors were talking about writing, which I’m always happy to talk about (after all, I run The Passionate Pen , but Fresh Fiction is more about readers and authors coming together and I didn’t think that writing about plotting…