Whenever I say I write medieval romance, the first comment I get is “But you have to do so much research!” Let’s leave aside for the moment that for me, research is a “get to,” not a “have to.” The truth is, contemporary authors have to do research, too. I had breakfast with Mary Alice Monroe the other day and she is about to go out in the Atlantic Ocean on a shrimp boat in total darkness for the sake of her next book. This seems to me an entirely different level of commitment than Googling “forms of address Richard II.” The point of all the research, of course, isn’t to educate the reader. That sort of “information dump” kills the story. We do it because we want to plunge you into a world you can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. We want to draw you in so deeply that you forget about the “real” world and live in the fictional one, at least for awhile. We try to create an experience so authentic that you believe not only the world, but the truth of the characters who live there. For me, it’s not a only a question of…

Hey everyone! I’m really excited to be here blogging with you! I thought it might be fun to reveal to you the top three questions I’m most often asked by readers. Starting at number three: What made you want to become a romance writer? The answer is, my love of books. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love books. As a kid I loved Nancy Drew. Thanks to Nancy I wanted to solve crimes, travel to exotic locations, and find a guy like Ned Nickerson—smart, loyal, and heroic. I also loved the Cherry Ames series. Thanks to Cherry I wanted to join the Army and be a nurse. Then came Vicki Barr, the airline stewardess (bet you can’t guess what I then wanted to be??). Then I graduated to Agatha Christie and my family was grateful that those books didn’t inspire me to become a criminal, although reading about Miss Marple did inspire me to learn how to knit—not with very good results, I’m afraid. I managed to eek out one very crooked, bunched up scarf and half of an argyle sock. (have you ever tried to knit an argyle sock??? There’re like 12 bobbins hanging off the…

When considering a topic, I’ve decided to go with one few writers talk about–How do we get back up when we fall. In my writing career of nearly twenty years, like most writers I’ve had my ups and downs. Once, just after my fifth book came out, my numbers were so bad my editor assured me I wouldn’t be writing another book for them, except for the fact I’d signed a two book contract. I was down and almost went back to teaching. I’d already written book six, so I decided to try one more time. I won a RITA with that sixth book. Since then I’ve learned to take the ups with the downs. I love the ups—the awards, the lists, the money—but I think it’s been the downs I’ve had that have taught me the most in this game of writing. Sometimes I’ve learned to try harder. Sometimes I’ve learned to trust myself. This year I decided to take another chance. With my next Historical Romance, TEXAS PRINCESS coming out in November, I’m hard at work on something different. In April I’ll have a book of a different kind released. TWISTED CREEK, I can only hope my readers…

The heroes of Bonnie Vanak’s Egyptian books stood outside their creator’s house. Jabari of The Falcon & the Dove gave the door a blank look. “What’s wrong?” asked Graham of The Panther & the Pyramid. “I do not know what to do,” Jabari admitted. “I live in a tent.” Kenneth of The Cobra & the Concubine rolled his eyes. “You knock, you bloody fool.” “Do not call my father a bloody fool,” warned Tarik of The Sword & the Sheath. “You once lived in a tent.” “Do you think we should formally announce ourselves?” asked Ramses of The Tiger & the Tomb. “After all, she is not writing and may not want to see us.” The men exchanged glances. “You’re right,” said Thomas of The Scorpion & the Seducer. “We should just walk in and surprise her.” They went inside, walked down a hallway and entered a bedroom. Bonnie was sorting through laundry. Shock dawned in her eyes. “Not you guys again!” “We came here to recharge your creativity,” Thomas explained. “You haven’t written since my story was finished. I’m not published until next May, so you have time to write your next Egyptian historical.” Bonnie laughed. “What time? Come…

I wrote my first book when I was nine, the story of an unwanted teddy bear that found a new and loving home. Poor teddy! I guess even at the age of nine was a little dark, LOL! Years later, I tried my hand at romantic comedy (an abysmal failure). My next attempt was at a lighthearted, fun historical, the kind I loved to read. Only problem was, no matter how hard I tried, I just wasn’t funny. Everything that flowed from my imagination was creepy and dark and moody. So what is it with me and dark books? Whether I’m writing historical gothics or sexy, contemporary paranormals as Eve Silver, or speculative romance as Eve Kenin, everything I write is dark, dark, dark (with the occasional quirky humor thrown in). What is it about a dark, tortured hero that is so appealing? And why does the heroine love him when he’s so hard to love? In my historical gothics (DARK PRINCE, HIS DARK KISS, DARK DESIRES), the heroes are secretive and a little sinister. Terrible things have happened to them, and they’ve done terrible things in turn. Yet, the tortured hero captures the love of the heroine and the…

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…

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…

So, the other day after my computer blew up, I decided that I needed a break from reality and I stuck a DVD in the player, sat back, and prepared to enjoy a whole lot of bare nekkid male chests. But a strange feeling came over me as I watched the previews to the movie. A feeling that I may have chosen A Really Bad Movie. Herewith is a list of my Ten Clues that perhaps I was not the target audience for the movie 300: 1. The pre-movie advertisements are for violent video games aimed at fourteen-year-old boys. 2. The men are all wearing leather shorts. 3. All the bad guys are ugly or gay or both, and the chief bad guy is wearing gold lipstick. 4. Sacred lepers. 5. Eugenics is a good cultural practice and the only people who are against it are wussy hunchbacks who can’t fight like real he-men anyway. 6. The traitor bad guy has a bad guy mustache. 7. The traitor bad guy tells the heroine that the only way she can save the hero is to have skanky sex with him. And she falls for it. 8. War rhinos. 9. The Deep…

I’ve been asked many times about whether I research before writing my historical novels, or as I go. The short answer is: I research as I go. But that’s partly because I’ve been writing, reading, and watching historical fiction for a long time. So, I already have at least a sense of the era. I know the basics about what the people wear, how they travel about, what conveniences they have and don’t have, etc., so when I sit down to write a book set in the past, I have enough information just to be dangerous.But the fun part comes as I’m writing, because that’s when things start to happen. Usually, I have the bare bones of a plot, but not the details. And the details, in my opinion, are what make a book. And the details are what I research when I’m in the process of writing. When I have to make decisions–about what someone is wearing in particular, about where a certain house or building is located, about what they might eat at a ball or fete, about a political event that’s happening–that’s when I do the research for that particular thing. I stop writing and start searching….

I had an impulsive idea a couple of months ago. Wouldn’t it be cool to make one of those video trailers for my next historical romance, Lessons of Desire (due September 25)? What the heck, I thought. I’ll take a shot and see what happens. The way I saw it then, I’d contact that company that makes them, sign up, and voila’, it would be done. Um, no. It turned out I had to do a bit of work myself before we got to voila’. COS Productions wanted to make a video that I liked and approved, so they needed my input. This was how I found myself in early August looking at hundreds of faces. My video was going to use live action, which meant an actor and an actress had to be hired. I needed to help make the choices. My producer opened a folder for the project at an online West Coast casting site, and posted the job description with general appearance requirements. Actors and actresses deposited their headshots and resumes in the folder. I could then go online and look at their files from my home in Pennsylvania. I have never associated my characters with known…