There are so many reasons to love reading, but one of my favorites is the element we bring to each book we devour by using our imaginations. Sometimes we imagine ourselves as the heroine, other times we picture our favorite actress, and still more we conquer someone we’ve never even seen before. As for the hero, he could be our significant other, a hottie from Hollywood, the guy on the cover, or a unique compilation of all three. We pair the author’s descriptions with our own imagination and create something completely new, and with each page we turn, a movie plays out in our minds. As an author, it’s the same thing. Sure, I start out every book I write with a ‘dream cast’ in mind. Photos of celebrities or models that represent the characters I’m forming in my mind. But, as I write the book and flesh out the characters through their individual journeys, the result is often an altogether new creation. With THE NANNY ARRANGEMENT, I set out with my dream cast as usual…but things changed during the writing process. For Deacon, my country music fiddle player, Chase Rice was the perfect choice while plotting. He was born…

When I was eight years old, I fell hard and fast for Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block. I wallpapered my bedroom with his face, slept on a pillow with his likeness, and even owned a doll—complete with unfortunate rat-tail. Many summer days were spent daydreaming that the group’s tour bus would randomly break down in front of my house, forcing them to stop inside to make a call, and he’d see my prepubescent self and fall madly in love. Any surprise I became a fiction writer?? No surprise, that dream didn’t quite pan out. One dream that did was that I became a published author. I began the journey with my young adult time-travel series and then last summer, I decided to enter the exciting world of adult romance. My debut, TASTE THE HEAT, introduced readers to the world of Magnolia Springs, a fictional small town based on the real ones I grew up in around New Orleans. That hero was a widowed father fire captain and he instantly stole my heart. Next up was a crooning restaurant owner/tatted up math nerd, and once again, my heart was a goner. When it came time to write book…

Hello, my name is Rachel, and I’m addicted to romance. But when it comes to addictions, I happen to think mine’s a pretty good one. Reading and writing romance stories reminds me of the good in the world. The power of love and personal connection to overcome hardship and struggle. The need we all have to be truly understood by another. How despite our various backgrounds, social status, and nationality, at our core we’re all the same. We all love to swoon. We all love to see the growth that results from a true love journey. And we all love to believe that in the end, everyone has a perfect match. I don’t know the first romance novel I read, but I can tell you it had a red spine, and was swiped from my mama’s bookshelf. I remember bringing similar books to school and hiding them inside other books so I can read them at recess and not get in trouble at my Catholic school. Soap operas were also favorites, and fan fiction about a super couple gave me my first full-length foray into writing. Romantic comedies and dramas line my DVD shelf. But there’s just something about crawling…