Karin Tabke | Bouncing Off the Walls!

If someone doesn’t glue me down soon I’m going to hurt myself. Why all the extra energy? Lot’s of reasons. Despite this economic downturn and the lull in publishing, romance has not only survived, it’s thriving!

Take that, literary snobs! Okay, that isn’t nice, but it’s how I feel. Would someone please tell me what is so bad about losing yourself in a passionate love story? One that ends with a Happily Ever After? Hot heroes to die for, heroines we’d like to befriend and that warm fuzzy feeling we get when we read The End. How can anyone have issues with that?

Not me, and I don’t defend romance either. I blow off the snarky comments with a shrug of my shoulders and a suggestion to the naysayer that perhaps they might want professional help to deal with that cynical chip on their shoulder. Okay, maybe that is a wee bit defensive, but it’s true!

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Jennifer Ashley | Unusual Heroes: Who Do You Love?

As most readers know by now, my May 2009 release, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, features an unusual hero. Ian Mackenzie has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is considered to be high-functioning autism. Traits include the inability to make eye contact, trouble with nonverbal cues and subtext, obsession with detail (but missing the “big picture”), and others. Not everyone who has AS exhibits the same traits, and the syndrome tends to present differently in men than women.

I’ve been recently praised for the risk I took writing Lord Ian. Which surprises me a little (though I don’t mind the compliments!), because when I sat down to write the story, I never thought: “Hey, I’m gonna go out there and take a risk! I’m going to do something different.”

Click here to read the rest of Jennifers blog, leave a comment and enter her blog contest.

Vanessa Kelly | WHAT IS IT ABOUT SISTERS?

What is it about the topic of sisters that causes so much controversy? My new Regency-set historical, Mastering The Marquess, is partly a story about a pair of sisters, and the life-threatening situation they confront together. Meredith, my heroine, will do anything to keep her little sister Annabel out of harm’s way—even if it means putting her own life at risk. And she does that without blaming Annabel for their predicament, or feeling resentful that she must potentially sacrifice her own chance for happiness.

Meredith’s selflessness didn’t seem odd or out of character to me, likely because I have an older sister who has always been uber-protective of her siblings. She would take on a herd of charging elephants without a second thought if it meant keeping me or my brothers safe. But to my surprise, a few readers of Mastering The Marquess expressed discomfort with Meredith’s willingness to sacrifice herself for Annabel. They thought their relationship was too perfect—that real sisters fought more, and that Meredith should, at the very least, be resentful of Annabel. That took me aback since I can count the number of times I’ve fought with my sister on one hand, with a few fingers still left over. Maybe I’ve been lucky and I just happened to win the grand prize in the sister lottery, or it could be that we’re just a pair of really irritating goody two-shoes!

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Leigh Greenwood | Series, Series, Series

I didn’t set out to write series. I fell into it by accident. I was watching the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with my younger son about twenty years ago. We didn’t pay much attention. He was eight and preferred trying to wrestle his father to watching a musical even though it was his idea to watch the movie together. (Since he’s never watched a musical before or since, Providence’s hand must have been at work.) After it was over, I thought that seven brothers looking for wives would make a good idea for a series, never dreaming it would turn out to be an idea for me. Sometime later, I realized I had a group of brothers in my head. I didn’t know where they’d come from or why they were there, but they were remarkably well defined. A little bemused, I asked my agent what I should do about them. She suggested that I write a proposal, let her send it out, and see that happened. Thus was born the Seven Brides series.

A John Wayne movie, The Cowboys, gave me the idea for my The Cowboys series. He recruited schoolboys to help with a cattle drive. My idea was to have a school teacher looking for homes for orphan boys nobody wanted and a rancher in need of cowhands to help with a cattle drive. She could provide the love and sense of belonging they didn’t know how to accept while he provided the safety and sense of purpose they needed. I just had to figure out a way to get them together. It took thirteen books, but I finally helped each boy find the love and family he’d always wanted.

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Elizabeth Hoyt | The Middle Child

So my May book is the third in a four book series set in Georgian England. The series is The Legend of the Four Soldiers and the book is To Beguile a Beast. The other three books are about soldiers coming home from war. But To Beguile a Beast doesn’t have a soldier hero.

Sir Alistair Munroe is a civilian naturalist.

The other three soldier heroes were in the British army when their regiment was decimated by the French and their Indian allies. They volunteered for the army or bought a commission, but in any case, they chose to be there.

Sir Alistair just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And while the other heroines in The Legend of the Four Soldiers series are aristocratic heroines, Helen Fitzwilliam, the heroine of To Beguile a Beast is no aristocrat.

Nor is she a lady.

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Diane Whiteside | Once Upon A Time in A Place Far, Far Away

Historical authors always write about someplace that can’t be seen or felt by their reader. For KISSES LIKE A DEVIL (just published in February 2009 by Brava), I always knew Brian, William and Viola Donovan’s second son, would find his true love in turn-of the-century Europe. But I wanted it to happen in a fictional country, not someplace well-known where I’d have to walk the straight and narrow path of rigid locations and dates set down in an almanac. No, I wanted the fun of making up a country’s map and history all on my own, just like I would for a fantasy. Yes!

I decided to call it Eisengau, or “Iron Mountain” in German. Quite suitable for someplace that made topnotch guns and cannons, then sold them to the rest of the world at big time prices.

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Emily Bryan | VEXING THE VISCOUNT

"The decision to become a courtesan is not to be made lightly. A woman must be willing to make her own choices . . . and pay for them."

“--from the memoirs of Mlle. Blanche La Tour

Thanks for the chance to guest blog here at FreshFiction. For those of you who’ve been following my blog tour, I hope you’ll bookmark this site. FreshFiction is fabulous.

When I started writing VEXING THE VISCOUNT, I wanted to play with the idea of my heroine masquerading as a courtesan. But I knew Daisy Drake wouldn’t be convincing unless she had some inside information, so I allowed her to discover the memoirs of Blanche La Tour, a French “woman of pleasure.”

Which meant I needed to research the life of an 18th century courtesan. Here’s a little of what I discovered:

Move over, Britney! Eat your heart out, Paris! Courtesans were the original prey of the paparazzi. These darlings of the London tabloids provided the cartoonists of their day with juicy on dits and outrageous exploits to lampoon. Top-tier 'birds of paradise' demanded and received generous stipends, clothing allowances, jewels, houses, a box at the opera and endless diversions from their well-placed protectors. When the relationship ran its course, these astute businesswomen often had negotiated an annuity to comfort them in retirement.

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Donna Russo Morin | Characters are the soul of the plot; plot is the receptacle of the soul.

That’s the answer I give whenever asked the timeless question, “which is more important, character or plot?” And invariably I get a look of skeptical confusion. But to be truthful, we must recognize that not only can one not exist without the other, but that one cannot be successful without the other…a good character can not carry a book without a stirring story to breathe in.

When we fall in love with a character, it is not only his or her instinctive traits that endear them to us, but their responses to the situations in which they find themselves. Quite frankly, Scarlett O’Hara (one of my favorite heroines of all time) would simply have been deemed a demanding diva if she acted the way she did under normal circumstances. If the war hadn’t broken out and if her struggle did not become one of survival for herself and her family, she would have become a character worthy of reality show depiction and abhorrence.

Jeanne du Bois, the protagonist of my recent historical fiction release, THE COURTIER’S SECRET, would have been considered no more than a spoiled brat were her father not a controlling and abusive man, did she not live in a society that afforded her no control over the course of her own life.

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Lauren Willig | Driving by Misdirection, or Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Most things in my life happen when I’m trying to do something else. I don’t even mean the big things, like planning to write a dissertation and coming out with a series of romance novels instead (ought I to get an RD for that? I like the sound of Romanciae Doctor), or the fact that if I meant to go right, I usually walk left (I find all sorts of new and interesting places that way). This happens to me in my writing, too. What I wind up writing is seldom exactly what I intended it to be.

Take my first book for example, the lengthily titled Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I very firmly told my agent that what I had produced was a “traditional Regency romance”. My agent is a very kind, patient sort of person. Instead of making snorting noises, he said, very gently, “Are you sure?” I was quite sure. “Um…” he said, flipping through the mental filofax for Tactful Ways to Deal With Deluded Authors. “Are you really sure?” That’s how I found out that what I’d really written was Napoleonic-era historical fiction/ romantic suspense/ mystery/ chick lit. No can quite agree on what it is, but it sure ain’t a traditional Regency. In a word, ooops.

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Mary Nichols | Writing Historical

I love writing historical romance, researching the backgrounds and working out how my hero and heroine are going to resolve their dilemmas. Although the majority of my books have Regency backgrounds, I have also used the English Civil War, the Jacobite Rebellion, the building of the railways (Working Man, Society Bride) and the outcry for and against building the Crystal Palace in Victoria's reign (A Desirable Husband). Romance can be found in the most unexpected places. For instance, the conflict between Roland, the Earl of Amerleigh and Charlotte Cartwright in The Earl and The Hoyden, just out in the UK, involves a quarrel over the ownership of a Shropshire lead mine.

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Kat Martin | Trapped in the Past

Trapped in the past for nearly two years, I have written four historicals in a row! I much prefer to mix in Contemporary Romantic Suspense, but contract obligations made it impossible.

The good news is, when you are writing in a certain time period, you begin to get a feel for that period. Mostly, my historicals have been set in the Regency Period, but a few years ago, I got an itch to move on, and so I set The Heart Trilogy: HEART OF HONOR, HEART OF FIRE, and just released, HEART OF COURAGE, in London in the 1850’s.

The books are all set around the London ladies’ gazette, Heart to Heart. I chose the period because it was a time when women were beginning to be involved in activities outside the home. They worked, they owned businesses, they were becoming more outspoken. I thought this time would give me an opportunity to explore a broader range of stories and I think it has.

Currently I am immersed in The Bride’s Trilogy, books about three brothers, also set in the Victorian period. The first, ROYAL’S BRIDE, will be out next September.

In the meantime, I hope you will watch for HEART OF COURAGE and that you enjoy! All best wishes for a great 2009!

Kat
www.katbooks.com/

Diane Gaston | A Regency Christmas

As an author of Regency Historicals, I love to imagine myself in Regency England. At this time of year that means imagining a Regency Christmas.

The Regency (1810 – 1820) was the time period of the Napoleonic War, of literary greats such as Jane Austen and Lord Byron. Many familiar Christmas traditions--decorating Christmas trees, singing Silent Night, waiting for Santa Claus--did not emerge until the later Victorian times, but a Regency Christmas did have other traditions still celebrated today.

Regency families decorated their houses with holly and ivy and evergreens of fir and pine. Mistletoe was hung and the tradition of a gentleman and lady kissing beneath it would have been part of a Regency Christmas. With each kiss the gentleman plucked a berry from the mistletoe. When the berries were gone, so were the kisses.

Christmas was mainly a religious holiday during the Regency. Gifts were exchanged, church attended, and guests might be invited to Christmas dinner. At Christmas dinner a goose or turkey would be served. A Regency household would also serve a Christmas pudding that was made on Stir Up Sunday, the Sunday before Advent, and served on Christmas day. The pudding was a porridge of sugar, raisins, currants, prunes, and wine that was “stirred up” and boiled together in a pudding cloth.

Some of the traditions of the Regency holiday season had their origins in ancient winter celebrations. First-Footing customs of New Year’s Day may have originated in ancient Greece. In order to have good fortune all the year, an uninvited stranger--a dark man in some areas of the UK but the hair color could vary by region--should be the first to cross the threshold on New Years Day. He might carry symbolic gifts- salt (or a coin) for wealth; coal for warmth, a match for kindling, and bread for food. The householder might offer him food and drink. In some villages one tall, dark, and handsome fellow was selected to visit all the houses, receiving food and drink at each one.

Twelfth Night, the eve of the Epiphany, was even more of a time for revelry than Christmas day during the Regency. It was a time to drink wassail (ale or wine spiced with roasted apples and sugar) and play games. A bean was buried in a cake and whoever found it was designated the Lord of Misrule who presided over all the Twelfth Night festivities, which might include theatricals or singing, although many of our most popular Christmas Carols were translated from German later in Victorian times. When Twelfth Night is over, the house decorations are removed and the season is over.

In 2006 my Christmas novella, A Twelfth Night Tale, was released in the Harlequin Historical Christmas anthology, Mistletoe Kisses. Last year the same stories were released in the UK as A Regency Christmas. Read more about them on my website. Both books are available at used book sites online. I’ll also be blogging about the holiday on the Risky Regency Blog and The Wet Noodle Posse.

Do you have any questions about a Regency Christmas?

What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Diane Gaston
www.dianegaston.com/

Karen Harper | RESEARCHING THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

No, I don’t write vampire novels, but I do write both contemporary and historical fiction. For the last ten years of my twenty-five-year writing career, I have written one romantic suspense novel and then one historical novel—back and forth. I have a writer’s split personality since it takes different skills and research techniques to do both. I love reading and writing in two genres and in two times, but it does have its challenges as well as its rewards.

For my contemporary romantic suspense novels, I can visit the settings for my story and interview people who live there or have the same careers as my hero and heroine. For THE HIDING PLACE (Nov. 2008), I spent a week in the Rocky Mountains outside Denver. I was able to interview men with dogs trained as trackers. I took two classes to learn about how my female P.I. would work, one class from a tracer who looks for lost people, and one from a female private investigator.

When I write my Elizabethan novels (most recently, THE LAST BOLEYN and MISTRESS SHAKESPEARE), I can, at least, still visit my settings. Nothing like a research trip to England! The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Greenwich—and museums, of course—help me to understand Elizabeth Tudor and her times. Although I can’t interview anyone from that era, the Elizabethans were great recorders of their lives: diaries, lists of their possessions, wills, books, and, of course, their literature such as poems and plays. I even have a reference book of the poems, prayers and speeches the queen herself wrote. All of that helps my characters to come alive for me, and, hopefully, for the reader too.

One of the great things about being a writer is that I learn so much about things I would not ordinarily know. I hope my readers not only enjoy my books for great entertainment and emotion, but also for a fun, easy way to become more educated. Whether writing the past or the present, that’s my goal.

Karen Harper

www.karenharperauthor.com/

Steve Berry | The Mystery of Charlemagne

Charlemagne is a historical figure you don't see a lot of in thrillers. Katherine Neville is the only writer I can recall who’s made good use of him. But he's fascinating. He ruled for 47 years, and lived to be 74, at a time when kings rarely reigned more than 5 years, and people died long before age 40. He unified a continent, laid the groundwork for the formation, centuries later, of a modern Europe, and many of his policies and practices became proven models for western civilization. He was a visionary who surrounded himself with smart people and, for the first time, placed the needs of his subjects before royal ambition. He was so progressive that it begs the question—did he have help? Was he privy to special knowledge?

Both questions spurred my imagination.

Within The Charlemagne Pursuit I utilized an actual artifact known as the Voynich Manuscript. It’s preserved in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University . Supposedly created sometime in the 15th or 16th centuries, its folios are penned in a language that no one has ever been able to decipher. In addition, there are a multitude of colorful, odd drawings. By general consensus the Voynich Manuscript is probably an elaborate medieval hoax, designed to fleece a royal patron out of a hefty payment. But no one knows for sure. Writing may well have been the single most important creation of human kind. Once we learned to memorialize our thoughts, in languages that could be understood by others many millennia later, human civilization rose to new levels. The Charlemagne Pursuit explores this all-to-real-phenomena.

The Charlemagne Pursuit is an intensely personal journey for my recurring hero, Cotton Malone. For 38 years he’s pondered what really happened when his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic. Then I came across the book Ice, by Marianna Gosnell, which described the amazing affects of Antarctic cold. Once I realized what was actually possible, I increased the intensity of Malone’s journey. As a writer, I struggle with character development. This book, my seventh novel, allowed me an opportunity to work on that aspect of my craft. It's much more character-driven than the others (though I don't scrimp on plot). I only hope reader’s regard my effort as a positive one.

In writing the story, I visited the Zugspitze in Bavaria and rode the same cable car, 10,000 feet up, that Malone finds himself trapped on. I also loitered around the cathedral in Aachen for four days, trying to conjure up the Charlemagne pursuit. Biltmore Estate in Asheville is one of my favorite places. I’ve visited several times, especially at Christmas. As for Antarctica, unfortunately I didn’t make it there (thank goodness the good Lord created National Geographic). My goal is to walk upon all seven continents. I have two to go.

Steve Berry
www.steveberry.org

Cathy Maxwell | The stress of the holiday season is already upon us!

And it has always been that way. Not because we are doing anything stressful. What can be stressful about seeing family and friends? Okay, let me rephrase that—what can be stressful about seeing friends?

The truth of the matter is that it isn’t a bad thing to try and do too much. It isn’t bad to push ourselves a bit or do a little extra. These shorter days beg for us to do something especially cheerful. But what is bad to not take our time and enjoy the doing of it.

One of the ways I de-stress is with books. Hey, books are the best entertainment bang for under twenty dollars—many times less than five. If you go to your library, they are free. Reading helps you keep real worries and fears in perspective or gives you insights into other people’s lives that you can apply to your own, even in fiction. Perhaps I should say most always in fiction. I always feel revitalized after spending time with characters I love. Plus, I’m one of those read-at-bedtime people. It’s “me” time at the end of a long day.

Right now, I’m helping Sid Halley solve a murder in a Dick Francis book. I’ve just finished Kristan Higgins TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE which will be out soon. Delicious contemporary romance. Sort of a Gilmore Girls meet Susan Elizabeth Phillips. She has three other books on the shelf now that you can enjoy before her new one is out and I suggest you do (look up CATCH OF THE DAY). I also devoured an advance reading copy of a Tracy Anne Warren historical romance that is classic Beauty and Beast titled TEMPTED BY HIS KISS. Warren always delivers a great read.

I have a book out now, too—A SEDUCTION AT CHRISTMAS—that has been, thankfully, flying off bookshelves. It’s the beginning of a new series for me that we are calling “Scandals and Seductions” and will give you a glimpse of how the Regency celebrated Christmas which was very much a family holiday and meant it had to have a few stresses! Avon Books has also repackaged YOU AND NO OTHER, the third book I wrote and my take on the Sleeping Beauty story. I think the covers for both of these books are absolutely divine. Each would make a great stocking stuffer. If you’d like an autographed bookplate, email me your mailing address http://www.cathymaxwell.com/. Let us not forget what great reading weather we’ll find in January and February!

But whatever you do this holiday season, please focus on the people you love. They alone give life meaning. And, yes, they are worth the stress.

So share with me, what books have you been reading? You know I have a radio program titled “Books!” where we operate under the belief folks like talking books and we haven’t been proven wrong. I’m always looking for books (even classic ones) to recommend . . .

Cathy Maxwell

Karin Tabke | The Holidays Are Here!

And I’m still full from my turkey induced coma of last week, have done no shopping and don’t plan to. What am I going to do this holiday season? Read. And read some more. Funny thing that. Thanksgiving night I was going a bit stir crazy wanting a good book. One with a hot alpha, who had hot alpha friends, and who meet up with a heroine who was like no other woman any of them had ever encountered. I was stumped because this story also had to have mad passion, conflict and angst. I looked over my to-be-read pile and still could not quite find what I was looking for. Then I looked down at the box that had arrived from my publisher Simon and Schuster the day before. I knew what was in it, and I smiled. There in that box was a true love story that still haunts me almost 8 months after I wrote it: MASTER OR TORMENT, book two in my Blood Sword Legacy series. This story is of Sir Wulfson and Lady Tarian Godwinson. It is without exception a story of my heart and soul, and it transcended the pages. Reviewers love this story, readers are panting for more, and well, I couldn’t help myself. I grabbed a copy, went downstairs and stayed up until 6 the next morning reading. I loved it more. While I love writing my contemporary hot cops, there is something different about the Blood Swords, something more primal. More is at stake and these brave proud men must fight not only their own longings for love and acceptance in an era where bastards were looked upon as less then whole men, but they must carve out a place for themselves and their lady love and begin a legacy that will transcend time. They always make me sigh. What is the Blood Sword Legacy?

The Blood Sword Legacy

Eight mercenary knights, each of them base born, each of them bound by unspeakable torture in a Saracen prison, each of them branded with the mark of the sword for life. Each of their destinies marked by a woman.

‘Twas whispered along the Marches that the demon knights who rode upon black horses donned in black mail wielding black swords would slay any man, woman or child who dared look upon them. ‘Twas whispered their loyalty was only to the other and no man could split them asunder, nor was there enough gold or silver in the kingdom to buy their oath. ‘Twas well known each of them was touched not by the hand of God but by Lucifer himself.

‘Twas also whispered, but only by the bravest of souls, that each Blood Sword was destined to find only one woman in all of Christendom who would bear him and only him sons, and until that one woman was found, he would battle and ravage the land...

If you love proud, handsome knights in black armor whose passion runs deep and swift and the ladies who bring them to their knees, this is the series for you. I love writing the stories of these eight Blood Swords. Each knight is unique but bound to the other by blood and suffering, and to their ladies they are bound by their hearts and souls. Set in the tumultuous time of William the Conqueror’s England the stories are gritty, hard hitting with passion woven throughout every scene and through the hearts of the heroes and the heroines who love them. I sigh each time I think of them and their stories. Whether you love contemporary or historical romances, the stories of each Blood Sword is a testament to love conquering all. I invite you to pick up a copy of MASTER OF TORMENT, and see for yourself.

I’ll also be giving away a signed copy of MASTER OF SURRENDER, book one that unleashes them all into your heart at my ONE DAY ONLY BLOG contest.

I also have a question: Does time period matter or do you always fall for the love story regardless of where and when?

And since ‘tis the season, I want to wish you all a safe and joyous holiday!

Karin

MASTER OF TORMENT, Pocket Star, Out Now!
HAVE YOURSELF A NAUGHTY LITTLE SANTA, Pocket Star, Out Now!
www.karintabke.com/

Sara Bennett | Angst or Not

Thanks for inviting me to blog! My name is Sara Bennett and I write historical romance for Avon. I have to confess that I tend to write books that have a lot of angst in them. I try not to. I tell myself that I’ll lighten up, write one of those bubbly, sunny books. But no matter how I try the angst creeps in. Before I know it the hero has suffered some terrible trauma or the heroine is struggling with the memory of a miserable childhood. For some reason my creative voice tends to dwell on the darkside.

My November book is called Her Secret Lover, and is the final in my series of Aphrodite books. Aphrodite is an infamous courtesan living in Victorian London, and she has lots of angst in her life. The first three books (Lessons in Seduction, Rules of Passion and Mistress of Scandal) told the stories of Aphrodite’s three daughters and some of the issues covered are, well, dark. The next book (A Seduction in Scarlet) deals with widowhood, the expectations of others, assassination attempts . . . yes, there are some angsty subjects in this one as well. Now I’m saying goodbye to Aphrodite, but I believe I’ve written a wonderful farewell in Her Secret Lover, a rollercoaster ride of suspicion and mistrust and misunderstandings and, you guessed it, angst.

I’m looking forward to my next series, beginning in June 2009, and I’m going to try for lighthearted. Maybe this time I’ll manage it.

Come and visit me at http://www.sara-bennett.com/ I have contests, updates, and excerpts.

Sara Bennett

Jodi Thomas | Writing the West, Texas Style

I’ve been lucky in writing. I’ve been in the game 20 years with twenty seven books on the shelf with my name on them. I’ve had a wonderful time, lots of fun, many dear friends and only a few bumps along the road.

My brother says we have Irish Luck in our family. He knew it the month after he came home from Viet Nam wounded. Someone said to him, “Man, are you lucky. You were hit bad enough to send you home but not so bad that you won’t recover.” My brother’s one thought was that if he’d been lucky, he wouldn’t have been hit at all.

Sometimes I feel the same way about my writing career. Man, am I lucky. Lucky it only took me four or five years to find an editor. Longer to find an agent. Lucky I picked a field, Historical Romance, about the time it died. Lucky my wonderful editor kept getting pregnant and finally quit.

But, remember, I have Irish luck. In all those years of waiting I kept writing so when I did sell, I sold five books in 15 months. Lucky I picked Historical Romance and stayed in until finally as it comes back I’m at the top of the game. Lucky my editor kept having babies because after she quit, she became my agent.

So, after twenty years, I doing what I love, I’m writing the west in Historical Romance and in present day fiction. My newest book, TALL, DARK, AND TEXAN is the story I feel like may be the best I’ve ever written. It’s a tender love story that will make you laugh and cry and feel good all over. It’ll make you believe that even people who’ve never loved can find someone they’ll love forever.

So, before I say happy trails to you, I wish you all Irish Luck. May whatever you want in life come to you, not always when you want it, but always when you need it. In the mean time, I’ll meet you when you open one of my books and we’ll take an adventure together.

See you soon,
Jodi Thomas
www.jodithomas.com/

Janet Dean | Orphanages

Thanks to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to guest blog today. November isn’t usually the prettiest month here in the Midwest, but it’s still a favorite of mine. I’ve always loved the Thanksgiving holiday and our first child was born in November. Although our daughter’s original due date was November 13, as babies will, she came a little later. Even with little sleep and the extra pounds I could have done without, we put our firstborn at the top of our “thankful for” list that Thanksgiving. And there she’s remained, joined by her younger sister and down the road, their husbands and our four grandchildren. Family means a great deal to me. Perhaps that’s why I was fascinated the first time I heard about the orphan train and decided to use this slice of history in a book.

Before writing my novel, I researched the orphan train phenomena. Between the years of 1853-1929, over 250,000 children were sent by train to new homes in the Midwest and beyond. The idea to place out orphans originated with Methodist minister Charles Loring Brace, founder of The Children’s Aid Society. At the time Brace came up with the plan, immigrants were pouring into the country. Problems with poverty and disease were staggering. Brace saw children working in sweatshops, peddling newspapers and living on the streets. His and other orphanages overflowed. He decided relocating these children to homes in agricultural areas would give them a chance for a better life. For some, it did. Others lived more like indentured servants than members of a family.

My “what if” moment became the kernel for Adelaide’s story in Courting Miss Adelaide, Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historical, September, 2008—What if a lonely spinster wanted a child and saw the orphan train as her last chance for motherhood? Though the town fathers refused to give a single woman a child, Adelaide wasn’t a quitter. Her life and that of editor Charles Graves becomes entangled with two of those orphans. Already at odds over dual ownership of the town newspaper, tensions rise for Charles and Adelaide when she insists a respected man in town is abusing William and Emma, the orphans in his care. Charles and Adelaide’s investigation tests their faith, threatens their livelihoods, and then their lives, yet, neither can turn away from a child in jeopardy.

It breaks my heart to think of children suffering under the hands of adults, especially those who are to love them. Sadly, the problem is still with us today. My prayer is that all children may one day live in the happy, safe homes they deserve. Until then, I hope someone will notice the abuse and speak up as Adelaide had the courage to do. To me family isn’t restricted to those sitting around our tables this Thanksgiving. Family includes all of us.

My second book, Courting the Doctor’s Daughter, Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historical, will release in May 2009. As I write my third book while leaves are falling and we brace for another winter, I want to express my thanks to all my readers. Your letters and e-mails are a huge blessing and I’m grateful for your encouraging words.

Janet Dean

www.janetdean.net/
www.janetdean.blogspot.com/
www.seekerville.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth Amber | Lustworthy Pin-up Guys

As I write each novel in The Lords of Satyr series, I always have an idea of what the hero looks like in my head. And pinned on my wall. Since my pin-up guys are cut from magazines, they’re usually actors, musicians, models--someone I consider lustworthy. He has to have the right hair, eyes, and muscles.

But most importantly, my pin-up guy(s) must capture the mood of my hero. It’s the mood that inspires me and reminds me who my guy is, inside and out, lest I forget over the months it takes me to write a novel.

For The Lords of Satyr series, which is historical paranormal erotic romance, I found at least some of my inspiration in a single statue I saw on a trip to Europe a few years ago. I was writing about half-satyr half-human males. Imagine how thrilled I was when I stumbled on this life-size statue of a satyr male in the Louvre! I took so many photos of it, I’m pretty sure I worried the hovering guard. I explained to her that I was writing romances about satyr brothers in Tuscany and showed her bookmarks. She was intrigued—or maybe that was bafflement I read on her face due to the language barrier. Either way, she was happy to have me autograph the bookmark, which she pocketed. But she still kept an eye on me.

The face of this statue doesn’t match what I envisioned for any of my satyr guys—Nicholas, Raine, Lyon, or Dominic. I’d find those faces elsewhere. But talk about mood! This alpha guy has what I remember Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City calling great “throw down” when it comes to his women. And the statue as a whole has a voluptuous, sensuous mood that’s perfect for what I wanted.

Like many authors, I don’t see my covers until long after my novels are finished, so I can’t base my heroes on the cover models. Rather, the marketing department and my editor choose the covers based on their vision of the heroes I’ve written. And I have a feeling readers put their own spin on every hero they read as well. I know I do.

In my November e-newsletter, I asked members to rank my four book covers in order of preference. Each cover depicts a single image—the satyr hero. Results are still coming in, but so far, one cover has been ranked last most often. It’s Raine, the most naked of them. Interesting. Still, three readers who ranked this cover last said it was the one that initially drew them to the series. They found the other books afterward. If you’d like to weigh in, visit www.elizabethamber.com/ to join the newsletter and vote (for a chance to win a book). I plan to pass the tally on to my editor.

How important are visual images of heroes to you? If the guy on the cover doesn’t fit your image of the hero, does it dampen your interest in the book itself? Is there one truly lustworthy romance cover that has stayed in your head for months or years? Which is more important to you--the specific look of the hero on the cover or the mood of the cover? Do you even want to see the hero on the cover?

I hope you’ll leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my newest release, Lyon, The Lords of Satyr. I’ll randomly select a winner from among the commenters a week from today.

Elizabeth Amber
Nicholas, The Lords of Satyr
Raine, The Lords of Satyr
Lyon, The Lords of Satyr
Dominic, The Lords of Satyr (March 2009)

Elizabeth Boyle | Baking Cookies

My son had this past Friday off from school. Imagine me, standing before the calendar and thinking to myself, “Only two weeks into school and already the teachers are shipping them home?” Haven’t they a care for my poor nerves? to quote the always quotable Mrs. Bennett.

And since it was only the littlest hero and me at home, we decided to bake cookies. He loves the measuring and the mixing, and we all love cookies, so it’s a win all over the house. The first step was the debate over what sort of cookies to make: Chocolate chip? No, Nick doesn’t like those. Sugar cookies? No, not Dad’s favorite. Quite frankly, I’ve never met a cookie I’d turn down, but go figure that my house of men are picky about such simple things. We finally settled upon an old favorite recipe for gingersnaps, which everyone in the house loves but then we had to make sure we had all the ingredients.

And it was about then, as I was hunting around the cupboard for molasses, that I realized how much baking cookies for one’s family is like writing romance novels for your fans. I smiled as I pulled out all the familiar ingredients: the flour, the sugar, the baking soda, the salt, the things that go into nearly every cookie one can bake. Elements as essential as the hero and heroine, the happy ending and the conflict that keeps them apart for most of the pages. And while there are always these stock elements in every book, it is the molasses, the ginger and cinnamon that give a gingersnap its distinctive flavor, and the author’s own mixology as she writes that makes every story different.

I suppose when an writer adds something new to the mix and you bite into what you think is going to be sugar cookie, with its sweet, mother’s hug of vanilla, and you find your senses being filled with hints of licorice or cardamom, you wonder what the heck your author was doing as she was writing that book.

I know this is true, since I did just that with my Marlowe Wish series. I added paranormal elements to my usual Regency romance. Imagine Jane Austen meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was how I pitched my new book, Tempted by the Night. Now some readers rejoiced and loved the differences, (they are probably your basic cookie-holics, just like myself) others curled up their noses, rather like one of my little heroes when you try to get him to eat a chocolate chip cookie. A Regency is a Regency, thank you very much.

To probe this peak inside human nature a little further, I tried to get the little guy to put something outside the recipe into our batch of cookies, and he looked at me as if I wanted him to commit heresy. “That is not what is says here, Mom,” he said, stabbing his finger at my grandmother’s faded, yet firm handwriting.

Ah, the lessons you learn when the kids stay home from school. There is nothing wrong with writing outside the lines, I know, but romance readers have their recipes for a great story, just as cookie recipes are written in exact terms for a reason. So the finished product comes out exactly as we expect it—to comfort us, to feed us, and to touch our hearts in a way that is familiar. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Eliabeth
elizabethboyle.com