Have you ever been caught by the scent of something that takes you immediately back to a particular time or place in your memory? Roasted marshmallows. Zing! You’re ten years old at summer camp. Did you know that baby powder is one of the all-time favorite scents, which is why it’s been made into a perfume? Our sense of smell is the only one of our senses that bypasses the conscious part of our brain and connects directly with our primitive emotional region. The place where our sexual feelings emerge. And our sense of danger. This is a key issue in APHRODISIAC, the first book in our romantic suspense series featuring Brooklyn sex therapist, Saylor Oz. Along with the idea that most people have a deep down secret wish to experience what it is like to be irresistible to the opposite sex. None of us is perfect, and in a society inundated with super-gorgeous media celebrities, that idea can plague even the most sensible, intelligent men and women (especially if you add in some major disses form high school). Enter our height-challenged heroine, Saylor Oz, who grew up with the revolting nickname, “the munchkin.” She may be small, but don’t…

I’ve been thinking a lot about siblings these days. I only have one — a brother — though there were many times growing up when I thought there were six of him. The boy was a holy terror, sometimes without the holy. I have the funniest memories of him growing up. Though he’s three years younger than I am, when he was around five or six, he used to beat me up. He did it because I’d never hit him back. Well, I woke up to that pretty quickly, and accidentally socked him one day. Guess what? My brother’s love of hitting his big sister suddenly faded. My brother used to torture me with dessert. Like a normal person, I would eat my dessert immediately after the meal. Not my brother. He’d save his for later that night when I had none. Then he’d sit in front of me eating his, waiting for me to ask for a bite so he could deny me. I wish I could say I never asked, but I always did. As we grew older, I seemed to get the upper hand on my little brother. My mom worked two jobs when we were kids,…

I had my first kiss at summer camp when I was twelve. 

 He was tall, with amazing green eyes, deeply tanned, and had the kind of white blond hair you usually only see on toddlers and the body of a swimmer—lithe, sinewy, and ever so faintly muscled. His hair had a slightly green tinge from the excessive chlorine in the pool, which I now think is kind of gross, but back then I just thought it made him even sexier. I had drooled over him all summer long, looking away and staring at my feet whenever his green eyes moved in my direction, So when I noticed he was staring at me one night at dinner in the crowded mess hall, my heart jumped through my faded red polo shirt, and I thought I’d fall face first into the tasteless plate of mystery mush in front of me as he slowly smiled, then winked. He showed up at my bunk a few nights later and suggested that we take a “walk”–which we all knew was code for lets-go-to-the-darkest-place-we-can-find-and-make-out-until-lights-out. I remember walking with him through the darkness behind my bunk, the smell of the freshly cut grass, the sound of…

A friend recently celebrated her wedding on the beach of Cayman Islands. The bright blue sky, turquoise water, and white sandy beach provided a romantic setting for the couple in love. The photos from her wedding remind me of my April release – No One But You – that beautifully highlights a bride standing on a beach ready and waiting for her perfect match. No One But You, Harlequin Kimani Romance, introduces the first in the Ladies of Distinction series about sorority sisters who pledged together and now face life after university. Basically after college, Jackson Thomas chose his family business over Sarafina Lovell. Now Jackson is back, and Sara plans to give him one sultry goodbye kiss to prove she’s moved on. His sizzling kiss awakens memories of passion too hot to ignore.… I am happy to have Essence Bestseller Francis Ray share her thoughts about my book: No One But You . . . is romance at its best – fun, sexy, memorable. Although I write romances, I am an avid romance reader. From 13 or 14 years old, I read romances that had lush settings in Australia, Argentina, English countryside, and so on. Yes, I could have…

Inspiration for most writers comes straight from their lives. So it’s not surprising my works all begin with those core pieces. Things I love, people I have met, or the places that have been a part of my life become building blocks of the foundations for my novels and short stories. Living on both sides of the Pond has given me a diversity of inspiration to tap. I used Scotland for the setting of The Invasion of Falgannon Isle, the first book in the Sisters of Colford Hall series (Dorchester Love Spell, December 2006). However, with Riding the Thunder the second book in the series (October 2007), I drew heavily on a small part of my childhood and early teens to conjure the setting and people for my offbeat world of The Windmill. People reading the book continually comment that the setting is so strong they almost expect the place really to exist. Well, it did once. Long time ago, before urban sprawl took away the quirkiness of the odd spot on Nicholasville Pike, a halfway point between Lexington and Nicholasville, Kentucky, and turned the area into shopping centers and apartments, there was actually a restaurant called The Windmill. Mysteriously,…