As a romantic suspense author, I’ve heard and read complaints that romance authors create unrealistic expectations in our heroes. I beg to differ. My female and male heroes very much reflect my experiences in real life. They reflect people I know and love, including my husband. In fact, my perfect hero is much like the people in your everyday life, in all of our lives, struggling to be better and sometimes actually being their best selves. Keeping that in mind, here is my list of 4 perfect hero attributes. Funny–Have a good sense of humor or at least don’t take themselves so seriously. Though I’ve read and enjoyed books in which the blank-faced hero has no sense of humor, I’m a sucker for a funny and light-hearted hero or even a dry and witty hero. My husband has a very dry and witty sense of humor. He delivers his jokes straight, so there is often a processing pause to register the joke and then the burst of uncontrolled laughter. In the second novel of my Black Ops Confidential series, THE PRICE OF GRACE, there is a lot of tension and suspense, but also humor. Starting with Gracie when she’s hidden…

My current romantic suspense series, Shades of Leverage, is filled with action and adventure, set against the backdrop of sexy protector agents and strong-willed women. Locales can be anywhere from a city in the Midwest to the Florida coastline and the Gulf of Mexico. From the Northwest pines to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Filled with plot twists and cutting-edge equipment, most of the time, you won’t figure out the true villain until the last few chapters. Even then, there’s always one more thing you didn’t see coming. One more no-way will they survive. One more kiss. The Shades of Leverage series centers on the covert agency known as OPAQUE (Operation Protector Agents Quantum Elite). Their mission? Protect the innocent from the corrupt, and counter the crime-riddled greed and power of Coercion Ten (CT). The parts blur a great deal of the time because CT’s targets are their way of having leverage against someone lucrative to their exploits. Someday, OPAQUE will zero in on CT’s main base of operation. Until then, they keep fighting to save the targets. Keep compiling more and more intelligence. And leading the way is the Shades Team. They are an integral part of OPAQUE’s…

How many of you have thought of setting as a character?   As readers, don’t we all love to be taken away and sucked into the world we are reading about?   A great example of getting sucked into the world you are reading about is Julie Ann Walker’s Black Knights Inc. series. While I have never been to Chicago or been immersed in the biker culture, I could vividly picture it. She deftly draws you into the world until you can not only see it, you can hear and smell it as well. It’s like you’re in Chicago. Of course, I’d heard about settings being their own character, but it never really sank in until I was writing Dark Water. Not only did the lush beauty surrounding the Louisiana bayou firmly claim its place in the story, but New Orleans tagged in and brought its own personality to the page.   My ideas come to me randomly and in a different way every time I begin a new story. It can be plot, character… Etc. Well, you get the idea. With Dark Water it was my heroine, Evangeline’s Cajun grandmother, Maw Maw, who came to me first, and the…