1–What is the title of your latest release? THE INVISIBLE BRIGHT 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A golden-retriever Knight and a disgraced nun fight romantic feelings as they solve a murder on their utopian planet, where violence is supposed to be impossible. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The Halcyon Universe is a fantasy-flavored sci-fi world that I’ve been building for a long time. Halcyon is a seemingly utopian planet where the peace is enforced by the alien “dragons” who claim it as their ancestral home. I’m fascinated by the idea of utopias and solarpunk-esque futures. No matter how perfect a society is, there’s always going to be someone for whom it’s a dystopia, and that was something I wanted to explore with this book. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Probably! In the book, Miri goes through a lot of things I’ve experienced in my past. Becoming disillusioned with a religion she once placed her trust in. Losing a first love in a painful way. Finding happiness and fulfillment in a place she never expected. I think we’d have a lot to talk about. Leo and…

He looked huge. He looked like a monster. He looked like hers. ENSNARED BY THE ALIEN MEDIC by Nessa Claugh   I have been a paranormal romance fan for years. I always trace back my affection for paranormal romances to when I read the first vampire romance by Christine Feehan when it first came out. Over the years I have read books with assorted supernatural heroes like vampires, werewolves, psychics, and others. That’s different from the kind of hero I’m writing about here. Those heroes were ones who either could change shape from human to animal or were a vampire or something else otherworldly who mostly looked human – even if they weren’t at their core. The kind of hero I’m writing about today is one who has mostly unhuman-like physical characteristics. So much so, that I know there are readers – even devoted romance readers – who would be appalled and disgusted to have them be the hero of any story. I understand that initial reaction, but I think they need to read one of these books and re-evaluate. I have read some of these books and hope to read more soon. Though these characters may have fangs, fur,…

Your book, DARK FIRE, just came out. It’s part of your “Fireblood Dragon” series. I think that might be the only series of yours I haven’t dipped into. Can you explain for readers what that world is about? Where it takes place and the basic dynamic between species. DARK FIRE is set in the world of Fireblood Dragons, which is our world, except seven years in the past, a Rift between worlds was torn open and a host of dragons flew into our world from another. The dragons immediately went crazy and destroyed everything, killing, and destroying until there wasn’t much of civilization left.  Now people live in ‘forts’ set up in old cities and try to eke out an existence. Turns out that the dragons aren’t just sky-sharks – they’re also people. Shifter people! And the only thing that can tame a male dragon is a mate.   I was so happy to find out your Ice Planet Barbarian books were being reissued. I have many of them on my kindle, but with the new covers being so pretty, I might finally get print copies of my favorites. Will all your Ice Planet Barbarian books be reissued? I get…

The best feeling in the world for me is when I am reading a book and fall so completely into the story that I feel like I’m there. That feeling of being transported is why I wanted to be an author from a young age. I loved that sensation and want to create it for others. I work hard to suck my readers in, and some of the best compliments I receive about my books is readers telling me they didn’t want to leave the world I’ve created, or that the book can’t be long enough for their liking. Or that they read through the night and ended up going to work in zombie mode. Winning! 🙂 I started out writing historical fiction, and while the times and places I wrote about really existed, as we don’t (yet) have the ability to travel back in time, it is still a foreign landscape. The world-building was just as intricate and challenging for my historicals as the worlds I create for my fantasy and science fiction romance novels. I think that’s why I was able to move from historicals into fantasy and science fiction so easily. The world-building skill-set was the same….

With COVID-19, nowadays “quarantine”, “social distancing”, and “isolate” are common parts of our everyday vocabulary. While isolating is necessary right now, it can lead to varying levels of depression and other unexpected emotions – even for an introvert like me. As I was sitting in the quiet of my apartment, with my cat keeping vigil next to me, I was longing for any type of travel and human interaction. Travel and human interaction are not normally things that are normally high up on my “must haves.” While dystopian films and novels might seem like a natural for readers to gravitate right now, a lot of my friends have avoided those types of entertainment because it seemed off-putting. It’s as I was sitting at home in isolation that I thought of some of my favorite romances that take place in far off worlds and unique characters and bizarre situations that seem like just the thing to perk up a reader longing for travel, adventure, fun, and excitement. You might not be able to go far right now, but books provide an entertaining alternative. Although I don’t normally read sci-fi, something about the Cat Star Chronicles books by Cheryl Brooks intrigued me….

“Imagine what would happen if you took Die Hard and swapped out John McClane for Han Solo and Princess Leia?” This is what I asked my agent. Her answer? “I’m going to need more coffee for this.” And so Red Awakening was born. In Red Awakening, the hero, Mace Armstrong, is tough, cynical, doesn’t give a stuff about what’s going on around him, and hates to get involved. But, just like Han Solo, when he’s pulled into a situation he can’t avoid, he just can’t stop that honorable core of his from breaking free and making him do the right thing. Although, his actions do come with a heft side-serving of sarcasm. Meanwhile, our heroine, Keiko Sato, may be smaller in stature than Mace, but she’s fierce enough in personality to run rings round him. And even though she starts the book quite oblivious to the wrongs happening around her, when she does find out the truth about her employer – CommTECH – it ignites her own core of integrity and after that, there’s no stopping her. I adore how these two interact with each other. The initial attraction is hot and explosive, but the reality of how well-matched they…

When you get right down to it, most stories in the romance genre are fated pairings. The hero and heroine either “meet cute” or “meet against all odds,” often disliking one another in the beginning. The romance in Mystic is not only a fated pairing, but it is also against all odds. Aidan Banadänsk finds Sula Enduran as the result of a recurring vision, although the romance isn’t even hinted at in his vision. He only knows she is in danger and he must rescue her. What he doesn’t realize is that the rescue is only the beginning of their story.   Most of my stories involve pairings that seem fated, beginning with Slave, the first book in the original Cat Star Chronicles series. In her quest to rescue her kidnapped sister, Captain Jacinth “Jack” Rutland needs a man to pose as her master on a planet where all women are enslaved, so she buys a male slave whom she dubs Cat. The attraction between Cat and Jack is immediate and strong, despite the fact that she is human and he is Zetithian. Moreover, she had to travel halfway across the galaxy to find him in the slave market on…

As a Canadian, I love snow. I grew up with the white stuff and remember fondly going out for Halloween with my costume on over my snowsuit, carrying my goodie bag through the show. So, when I was imagining a place forWarrior Nights, my thoughts went to a small town that would be snowed in at least once a year. Just imagine—the perfect little town in the mountains, a lovely place that happened to get snowed in for a few days. Nothing big to worry about, right? You snuggle in, stay warm and read those books on your TBR pile, maybe binge on holiday movies until the plows come in from the Big City to re-establish communication… There’s a certain beauty about small towns. I grew up in Toronto, so I was a classic city girl—mass transit right outside the front door, a corner store within a few minutes walking and shopping… well, let’s just say that my credit card never had a chance to catch his breath. Add in an amazing number of food choices, most of them within walking range and you can’t beat a large city for making it easy to spend money! But there’s something to…