COLD FEET – The feeling of uncertainty about moving forward with your wedding In CHAOS AND COLD FEET, Sunny Meadows begins to have cold feet about her wedding. She knows she loves Detective Mitch Stone, but everything that can go wrong does go wrong in planning their wedding. It took forever to pick a wedding date in HAZARD IN THE HOROSCOPE, and Sunny’s horoscope revealed the best time for her and Mitch to get married. When people mention maybe changing their date, Sunny is horrified. She can’t possibly change her date. She starts to panic and begins to look at everything that’s going wrong as signs that maybe she and Mitch weren’t meant to get married. This time around, it’s Mitch convincing Sunny that these mishaps aren’t bad signs. They’re sabotage. Someone is trying to sabotage their wedding, and he won’t stop until he finds out who and why. Saying “I Do” is the easy part. Planning a wedding can be a very stressful time. I have been with my husband since I was eighteen years old and we’ve been married now for thirty-two years. That’s not to say everything was or is perfect, but we’re happy and that’s what…

I think it’s safe to say that a swoon-worthy hero, the ever-elusive book boyfriend, is what makes a good book great.  As a reader, I’m always chasing this man. To me, he’s like the unicorn of the contemporary romance world. They come in many forms. We have the nice guys, alpaholes, daddies, and Dominants, mob bosses, to name just a few. What’s swoon-worthy for one reader might not cut it for another. For example, I tend to prefer the nice guy to the alphahole, but nice guys and alphaholes can share many things in common. All the heroes in every single book I’ve written are different, but they each possess some of the same attributes that make me swoon. I’ve been reading romance way before I started writing, and it’s all about the hero for me. Yes, I love a strong, feisty heroine, but I read to find a book boyfriend, and now that I’m a writer, I can mold and shape my hero to meet my book boyfriend criteria. Here are the five things that make me fall in love with a fictional character, whether a nice guy or not. POSSESSIVENESS – A hero who knows what he wants…

Every year I say I’m not going to start planning for the holidays until after Thanksgiving, but who am I kidding? I start watching Hallmark holiday movies the second they come out, usually before Halloween. With all the shortages in supplies as well as delivery services from the pandemic, this year more than ever it’s time to start planning early. Start what, you ask? Everything, I say! Start making a list and checking it twice. Start reflecting on the past year. Have you been naughty or nice? In NAUGHTY OR NICE, Samantha Darling is through being nice. Nice has gotten her nothing but heartache, so she decides to give naughty a try. Getting back at her ex is worth ending up on the naughty list. You’ll have to read the story to see what crazy situation her new motto has landed her in and how she handles it. I have no “real” exes to get back at because I’ve been with my hubby since I was eighteen; but if I did, I could see myself doing what Samantha does. Sometimes I feel like I’ve always been way too nice in life. Don’t get me wrong, I love being nice. Helping…

People who read add power to their lives. I’ve read since I was old enough to put letters into words. Soon I discovered the library was my source of adventure and a means of exploring new people and worlds. The desire to write suspense developed with series featuring Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, Donna Parker, Cherry Ames, and many more. Nonfiction books that explored other countries, cultures, and biographies inspired me to dream about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Books added power to my life and they can for you too. With all the techy ways to entertain ourselves, why do leaders and successful people spend hours reading or listening to fiction, nonfiction, articles, and blog posts? Gain Knowledge The more we learn about people and the world, the wiser we become. When we study topics and become proficient in understanding concepts, we can speak with authority. “Knowledge is power.” Many historians believe Sir Francis Bacon coined this phrase in 1597. Thomas Jefferson was known to use the phrase in his writings. How Does Reading Add Power to Our Lives? Improves Communication Skills Adding words to our vocabulary and learning their meanings helps us…

VALLEY OF SECRETS comes out on September 7th. It’s a women’s fiction book with romance and a bit of mystery. The story is about a woman following her aunt’s journal on a journey of self-discovery who finds herself in an unlikely relationship with the editor-in-chief who is trying to solve a mystery that has haunted him for years, but a valley of secrets and a devastating loss threaten the new life she fought so hard to create. It takes place in a fictional town called Mystic Valley, but the state of Vermont itself is very real. I lived in Vermont for a while, and the state is beautiful and mystical with many things to love. Everyone has their favorites but my top five favorite things to do in Vermont are: See the Covered bridges Covered bridges are on my list of must-sees. You won’t find any better than those in Vermont’s Bennington County, where every spot to cross a stream seems to be under wooden eaves. You will find most of the covered bridges in the state’s southeastern corner, including the 88-foot-long Silk Road Bridge, which spans the Walloomsac River and dates from 1840. Anna drives over a covered bridge…

People change.  It’s one of the oldest adages in the book.  And yet, there’s a deeper truth: people RESIST change, even change they ought to embrace (because often change equals opportunity). For example, we moved in December 2020, because the company my husband works for relocated to a different part of North Texas.  I did not want to move, and the re-location was close enough that – in theory – we could have stayed where we were, and Jake would have just had a longer commute.  Much longer, but still doable, especially since he was partly working from home.  So much had already changed during the pandemic.  I had started teaching my continuing education writing classes from home.  I’d even had to have a virtual book launch party. But by wholesale saying no more change, I was missing out on an opportunity.  Jake and I were living in a one-bedroom apartment, which had worked until suddenly we were both working from home – with different work styles.  I have to have noise on in the background.  Jake needs quiet to focus.  We needed a change – just to function.  Once we committed to the move, we found a place that…

Why do they capture our hearts? From Cinderella to Heidi to Pip in Great Expectations or my personal favorite, Jane Eyre, orphan characters have a way of grabbing our affections and not letting go. My own recent novel, Jewel of the Nile, features an orphaned main character, although Chariline is grown up by the time we meet her. But her heart is still living like an orphan, abandoned and unwanted. For me, this perennial fascination with orphans finds its taproots in the third chapter of the book of Genesis. Overnight, humans go from being cherished by the perfect Father to living orphaned lives. We are reduced from flawless belonging to a life of loneliness. From the outset of the loss, God begins to weave the warp and weft of his plan for our restoration into our ailing history. Nonetheless, we have lost that perfect connection with our Father. Eden is gone. Hence the appeal of the orphan. We may have been born to good parents, lived with loving families. Yet deep in every soul, a hazy memory of Eden’s bone-deep attachment still remains. In this fallen world, every attachment falls short of that uninterrupted sense of belonging, and the heart…

So many of my friends are non-fiction readers.  They don’t grasp the true enjoyment of reading. In fact, their idea of “reading” fiction is binge-watching whatever the latest book adaptation is on Netflix.  They don’t make a connection between the vibrant stories they enjoy and the books that gave them life. And they are fine with that. Meanwhile, I scratch my head. I’m also puzzled by the readers who think Romance is only about sex.  Now, let me assure you, I love the pull and verbal sparring of a couple destined to be in bed together (or anywhere else they want to be.). But that isn’t the reason I’m a dedicated Romance reader.  I knew the moment I was introduced to my first Romance heroine this is where I belong. Without fanfare, here are the reasons I knew I was a Romance Reader: I love a book where the woman decides to take control of her destiny, even if it flies in the face of societal norms or puts her in dangerous situations, or encourages her to go after that promotion. I know she is going to triumph and I’m onboard with cheering her on. I believe love is the…

My new book, DISASTER GIRL, which was released on May 20, is my favorite thing I’ve ever written.  There are many reasons I like it:  It’s set in Chicago, the city where I live.  The plot, involving revenge porn and a sleazy Internet predator, is timely and fast-paced.  The romance between mouthy, feisty Tess and brilliant, sweet Max was unbelievably fun to write.  But the real reason this book is my favorite is because I absolutely loved writing from the perspective of Tess, the main character. Right from the beginning of the project, Tess’s voice was clear in my head.  While the story took many iterations to get right, Tess herself, did not.  I knew her.  Like most of the women I know in real life, Tess is extremely independent and capable.  She’s great at her job and she’s dedicated to her friendships and family.  But also … she loves drinking bourbon at her neighborhood bar.  Sex is a priority, and she relishes her silly escapades with one-night flings.  She has a tense relationship with her mother and is overly protective of her younger sister.  Tess has a bit of a past; she’s done some not-great things that affect the…

“Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.”-Charles M. Schulz We all scream for it, don’t we? Yep! Ice cream is that universal crowd-pleaser that makes us think of celebrations and summer days. So what better way to indulge in that sweetness than a mystery series centered around an ice cream shop in the wacky little town of Upper Sprocket? To whip up a sweet mystery series, we’ll have to have an interesting protagonist. How about, Trinidad Jones, a woman who lands in the same hometown as her two ex-sisters-in-law and finds out the police chief is her felonious ex-hubby’s sister? How is she going to keep her Shimmy and Shake Shop going when there’s a murderer on the loose? And any worthy cozy will need an animal sidekick, of course. Trinidad’s faithful friend is Noodles, the aged labrador, who flunked out of service-dog school due to his myriad of quirky behaviors. He’s been known to hoard the mail and activate the car’s turn signal upon occasion. Okay! We’ve got the protagonist, the fuzzy sidekick, and the town. On to the good stuff! Writing a series of this kind necessitates LOTS of…