“Write what you know.” We’ve all heard it, and maybe we’ve even stayed true to that. But what happens when you need to write about something you don’t know? Well, that’s where research comes in. Now, I love research, and right now, I’m researching something I’ve always been interested in – modern and ancient Egypt. The problem? Trying to blend fact with not only fiction, but paranormal fiction, and strangely enough, while there is a ton of information about ancient Egypt, information on modern Egypt, outside of politics, is lacking. See, I’m working on the third book in my Demonica series, which is set mainly in Egypt. The first two books, Pleasure Unbound (July 08,) and Shadow Lover (April 09) were largely set in New York City and in an underworld hospital. New York was easy enough to research, since there is oodles of information available (plus, I was constantly bugging Stephanie Tyler, my Sydney Croft writing partner, for details, since she lives there,) and the hospital was easy, because I made it up, using real hospitals and my depraved imagination (hey, it’s a hospital run by vampires, demons, and werewolves – it takes a little depravity to come up…

A couple of weeks ago, I called a local romance-friendly bookseller to invite her to have lunch with the published authors of my RWA chapter. And she invited me, in return, to attend the monthly paranormal readers’ meeting, which would take place that evening at her store. The kids were at Grandma’s for spring break. And though I did not read heavily in the paranormal genre, I thought it was a good opportunity to get out of the house and meet the bookseller in person. Did I mention that I don’t read heavily in the paranormal genre? I was surprised when I got to the meeting to realize how many I have read. There was another author from my local chapter at the meeting. Other than the two of us, none of the other readers present had yet to try J. R. Ward. We practically shoved the Black Dagger Brotherhood books into their hands. During the course of the evening we’d recommended Shana Abe, Nalini Singh, Lara Adrian, Meljean Brook and Marjorie M. Liu, among others. And right after I left the meeting, I smacked myself on the forehead. How could I have forgotten Kelley Armstrong? It was, believe it…

We’ve all “met” her in romance novels: the heroine who is Too Stupid to Live (or TSTL, for short). I read a novel recently that I really loved–except for one scene where the heroine had a TSTL moment. The book was good enough, and the TSTL moment came late enough, that I was able to forgive the author and still enjoy the book. I’ll even buy her next one. But how I wish I could have been her editor for just a few minutes and convinced her to change that one scene. Often, a heroine has TSTL moments because the author needs to get her into danger for plot reasons. Perfectly understandable, particularly in suspense plots. But I think most of us as readers prefer the heroine to get into danger for reasons beyond her control. We want to think that she is too smart to make any of these kinds of mistakes–even though we know that even the smartest people do occasionally make mistakes. There is, however, one character whom I greatly enjoy who has constant TSTL moments. If you’ve read any of the Stephanie Plum books, you know that she’s often having battles between “Smart Stephanie” and “Stupid…

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if one thing in your past were different? Just a single thing? Like the movie Sliding Doors, what would your life be like if you’d missed the train home one day? Invariably that thought process always leads me to think about what my life would have been like if I hadn’t pilfered that first romance novel from my grandmother’s house. Silver Angel by Johanna Lindsey. That book changed my life. I remember staring down at it, intrigued by the cover – the heroine had long blonde hair, something this dark haired girl had always desired – thinking, Should or should I? I was about fourteen and if I got caught with it, I would have been in big trouble. But in the end, I did it. Snatched it up, and devoured it in a night.Before reading it, I was a girl who hated to read. A girl who was behind in every subject at school. A girl who had to be held back a year just to catch up. After reading it, I improved in every subject (my mother would insist I add: but math). I read every spare…

Have you ever gotten this question before? Have you been asked just why you decided to write in the romance genre? There are so many different areas out there…why romance? Well, for me, the answer is simple: I love romance. I’ve been addicted to romance novels since I read my first story almost twenty years ago. (I was twelve, for anyone curious about the math!) I love romances because I like to escape from the real world—I like to sink myself into a story that I know will give me thrills…and a happy ending. I love romances because the romance genre—it’s huge! I can read historicals, futuristics, romantic suspenses, or contemporaries. With romance, cross-over is welcome. My upcoming Kensington Brava release, HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT, is probably best described as a paranormal romantic suspense. My heroine, Dr. Emily Drake, is a psychologist who only treats paranormal patients. She gets pulled into a murder investigation as a profiler—and teamed up with sexy wolf shifter, Detective Colin Gyth. I loved being able to add darker elements to this tale. Romance, a serial killer, wolf shifters and psychics—lucky for me, the romance genre is so broad and so wonderfully accepting. I feel like writers…

All right it’s in big letters on MY calendar, but likely you’re scratching your head wondering if you’ve missed a national holiday or if I’m excited about watching the next round of American Idol. Well, it’s not a national holiday, but I’m embarrassed to say I am TIVOing Idol so I don’t miss a thing. But that’s still not why I’m so excited. SEDUCED BY DARKNESS will be shipping to readers and bookstores today! So, now that my book will be arriving at bookstores and in the mail to my more modest readers, I can start the next round of “Will they like it?” Writers are notoriously insecure. We live and die by reviews and readers letters, because the actual measure of our success – SALES – won’t be available for months and sometimes years. For those of you who don’t know me, it might be because my books are shelved with the “naughty” romances–sometimes with the romance books, but in a restrictive shelf high out of reach and sight of little ones; sometimes in the erotica section with the tantric sex and Kama Sutra books; and sometimes, strangely, in the zoology section. Which makes it tough for readers who…

Hello! (hello…hello) Yes, I am providing my own echo. This is what happens when you’ve been stuck inside waaaaay to long! (Come on, spring!) On the up-side, you tend to get tons of writing done. I’ve finished book four in the Jaz Parks series and am over a third of the way done with the fifth. But what I really want to talk about is the novel that just came out on February 11. The third of Jaz Parks’ adventures, Biting the Bullet shoves the CIA assassin and her vampire boss, Vayl, into the center of Tehran. Their mission is to partner with an elite team of soldiers to take down a terrorist mastermind called the Wizard. None of their assignments is easy, but this one could break them. Because not only do they have to unearth the mole in the soldiers’ unit, they’re under attack from demonic monsters, a manipulative Seer, and their own unresolved feelings toward each other. And you thought your job was stressful! I think you’ll like Jaz’s voice. Wise-cracking, smart-aleck, but always with a depth and vulnerability that lets you know she’s seen more at twenty-five than most people manage in a lifetime. Here’s a…

Years and years ago, when I still played with Barbies, Saturday nights were a magical time. They were all about steak dinners with the family around the candlelit table and my dad smoking his cigar in the backyard afterward. Saturday nights were also when IN SEARCH OF… aired on TV, and I remember watching it, enthralled, and oftentimes, scared to death when Leonard Nimoy told us about things like The Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. Of course, I was young, and I freaked out at everything. So when a certain episode about vampires aired, it left an indelible impression that’s stayed with me until this day. Long claws, sharp teeth, a woman in bed with a gnarly shadow creeping over her…. I was hooked, and it’s no surprise that I’m writing about vampires now for Ace Books. In keeping with what scared me when I was younger, my own vampires usually have a mean streak and will do anything to survive. In fact, my first vamp book THE HUNTRESS (for the defunct Bombshell line from Silhouette) featured a tribe of female bloodsuckers, feral and hard to slay. I loved those gals, but the real villain in that story was vampirism…

The Undead Next Door, which releases January 29th, tells the story of a French vampire named Jean-Luc Echarpe. Jean-Luc has done many things since his transformation in 1513. He’s been a knight, a musketeer, a lieutenant-colonel in the Great Vampire War of 1710, the owner of a fencing academy in Paris, and the Coven Master of Western Europe. That’s him on the cover. What a hunk! Having lived through many different styles of clothing, Jean-Luc knows fashion. So much so that he began designing evening wear for vampires in 1922. By the 1930’s, he was secretly designing evening wear for the Hollywood elite. In 1975, he expanded his business into the mortal world and became a great success! What a great life! He’s a celebrity, surrounded by beautiful models. What more could a guy ask for? Unfortunately, the media has realized that Jean-Luc hasn’t aged in over thirty years. They’re following him everywhere, hounding him with questions. There’s only one thing Jean-Luc can do—go into hiding. He’ll disappear for twenty-five years, then return to his beloved Paris, posing as his own son. He’s too recognizable in Paris or Milan, New York or Los Angeles. Where can he go where no…

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,…