Jennie Bentley | When life imitates art and vice versa

Last year around this time, I was getting ready to start promoting my debut, Fatal Fixer-Upper, first in the Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime, featuring New York designer turned Maine renovator Avery Baker, and her boyfriend, hunky handyman Derek Ellis. The book came out in November 2008, and since then, my life has pretty much gone by at warp speed. Launching a first book was insane, and then came Thanksgiving and Christmas, before we sold one house and moved into another in January. Since then, we’ve been renovating what is our ninth house in nine years. All while we’re going about the dual businesses of real estate and writing, and while raising two boys under eleven and caring for the menagerie of pets they’ve accumulated between them.

The latest house is a brick mid-century ranch, long and low-slung, with a big picture window in the front, situated on a large lot surrounded by tall trees. Chapter 1 of Spackled and Spooked has a description that matches that one in pretty much every particular. In Spackled and Spooked, Derek and Avery are renovating just such a house. It’s a local haunted house; I thought the idea of a haunted ranch would be fun.

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Rita Herron | THE DEMONBORN: DARK HUNGER

Myths and legends and the paranormal world

When I first conceived of the idea for the Demonborn series and Dark Hunger, I knew I wanted to write about strong men, demons, crime fighters and the battle between good and evil.

Next, I needed to build my paranormal world and make it different from all the other paranormals out there. What could make mine unique -- fresh?

The answer to that for me was to write about a world that intrigued me, a setting that I felt at home with, but one that naturally lended itself to a dark, eerie atmosphere that enhanced my story lines. I also thought having the paranormal creatures appear in the normal world was even more terrifying than to have a completely fantasy world. What if demons actually existed on Earth?

Born a Southerner, spooky stories about ghosts, local legends, cemeteries, and odd things that go bump in the night filled my childhood. Since my series is a dark, gritty romantic suspense filled with evil demons and murder, my setting had to reflect that same creepy feeling.

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Krista Davis | Everyone Loves A Wedding

Writing about domestic divas, Sophie Winston and her rival, Natasha, is always fun, but for my most recent book, I had the pleasure of planning an entire wedding without having to pay for it. Weddings used to be somewhat uniform. We expected the frou-frou bridesmaids’ dresses that would never be worn again, with dyed to match shoes, no less. The white cake was topped with a plastic bridal couple or flowers, and after a reception or dinner with dancing, the happy couple left for their honeymoon.

Today, brides face a staggering variety of choices. Cakes are topped with rhinestone studded initials, if there is a cake. Cupcake tiers are all the rage as an alternative. And wedding festivities don’t necessarily end with dinner anymore. Some couples arrange for a lounge with dancing and go on to a brunch in their honor before taking off. I was shocked to learn that some brides buy two wedding dresses so they can change between the ceremony and the reception. Of course, a lounge and dancing necessitate a third dress.


In the Domestic Diva Mysteries, Sophie and Natasha write competing lifestyle advice columns. Their tips are included in the books, along with recipes. Sophie keeps things simple but elegant, while Natasha thinks everyone should craft their own wrapping paper, make their own wedding veils, and spend six months cultivating a topiary centerpiece for a luncheon. Their rivalry is a friendly one, though there is that little issue of Natasha taking up housekeeping with Sophie’s ex-husband. Sophie is okay with it, though, since she has a weakness for hunky Detective Wolf Fleishman.

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Carolyn Haines | CHARACTERS OUT OF CONTROL

This summer, the 9th Bones book, GREEDY BONES, will be released by St. Martin’s Minotaur. I’m hard at work on the 10th book. People often ask me if I grow weary of the characters in Zinnia. After all, I’ve been in relationship with them for ten years or better, which is longer than many marriages.

I never get tired of the Zinnia gang. They’re old friends to me. Trusted friends who share wisdom, laughter, shenanigans, and a zest for life that I often find in my real life friends and in the letters of many readers who’ve written to me. Sarah Booth, Jitty, Tinkie, Cece and Millie bring out the best in me, I think. One of the most interesting things is how much these characters have grown and changed over the books, exactly as real people do.

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Laurel Dewey | Feeling the Fear and Writing the Sequel Anyway

It’s hard enough to write a solid first novel. There’s all that fear and concern that you won’t be able to navigate the territory correctly. But after you break through the angst, write the book and actually get an agent interested in it, you think you can sit back and take a break for a bit.


Wrong! When I finally scored an agent for my first novel, Protector (the first book in the Jane Perry series), he asked me, "So? What’s next?" I remember stammering something about how I wanted to just take some time off since I’d put sixteen months into writing the book and a year prior to that researching it. "No, no, no," he said, "I need to know where this story is going with Jane Perry."


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Mary Balogh | Love As Opposed To Romance

I always describe myself as a writer of love stories rather than as a romance writer. One of my reasons is an obvious one—romance is not highly thought of in the writing community beyond its own genre, and I firmly believe that my books are serious literature and not to be sneered at as trash. More important, though, I believe that love is far more powerful than romance and that we can sell ourselves short as writers if we are content to write romances at the expense of telling true love stories. A great deal, of course, depends upon how those two words are defined. Here are my definitions.

Romance is that wonderful aura that surrounds a couple as they meet (even if they initially feel hostility to each other) and interact and fall in love and finally commit their lives to each other. It's the growing sense of rightness about the relationship, and the sense of joy we get out of reading about the building attraction they feel for each other on their journey to the happy ending. It's a powerful reason for reading any book, and when it's well done it can pull us in and leave us thoroughly satisfied at the end and sighing for more. It can be pure magic. It is certainly an essential component of a love story, and a great deal of effort must be spent upon creating it. It's not easy, by the way.

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K. M. Daughters | Real Men Should Read Romance

At the 2008 Romance Writers of America conference, a talented and prolific author entertained and informed attendees as a luncheon keynote speaker. We delighted in her anecdote concerning her husband. Relating that he had never read a single one of her impressive body of published novels, she declared that she always made a point to kill somebody in each of her books with her husband’s first name.

The moral of her story for us is: real men should read romance for their overall health, oh yes, and enjoyment.

Our contention is not as tongue in cheek as it sounds. Men are, of course, half the equation in the yin and yang of traditional romance genres. Our heroes yearn for equal measures of romantic fulfillment and personal happily ever after conclusions as do our heroines. Sensuality, present in varying degrees in romance, isn’t as tantalizing and stimulating to the…imagination…for men?

Our virile husbands are delighted (forced) to read our books. In fact one of our husbands brought our latest release on a men only long weekend in the deep woods. By day, he and his friends blazed trails on ATV’s, fished and threw their catches back in the lake, canoed, hiked, and did rugged, outdoorsy real men things. In the evening he apparently read and finished our romantic suspense novel, sending home a text message: “Just read a great book. I got a ----- (slang word for aroused) and I cried. Who could ask for more?”

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Carly Phillips | Feeling Lucky?

Everybody fantasizes about going to Las Vegas and winning big. And certainly, we’ve all seen the "Whatever Happens …" TV commercials and secretly wished we were experiencing the spontaneity and frenzy of Sin City shown in these ads. Excitement and luck run rampant there. Everywhere you turn, someone or something is beckoning to you to try your LUCK!

Mike Corwin, the second Corwin cousin heads to the gambling capital for just such an experience, but will the infamous Corwin Curse that has plagued the males in his family for generations follow him? Or will he end up on a lucky streak that lasts a lifetime? This is the premise of my newest novel and the second book in my “Lucky” series, LUCKY STREAK.

And sometimes, thankfully, luck pays off for me! I definitely don’t like to presume good things will happen, I like to hope. I’m afraid of jinxing something. Can you really do that? I rarely tempt fate. But it’s an interesting concept, isn’t it? Luck?

LUCK is fickle. And yet many of us believe. When I ask myself why, I realize it’s because of HOPE. It’s the possibility that Lady Luck will step in and pick us up that provides a ray of hope. LUCK causes us to play the lottery, pick up a heads up penny, read fortune cookies, and many more crazy, superstitious things. It was the concept of LUCK that drove the idea for my new LUCKY series and book two is in stores now!

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Susan Mallery | What do our characters wish for?

In the last hours before college graduation, I was saved from life as an accountant by a continuing education course titled "How to Write a Romance Novel." Not that there’s anything wrong with being an accountant. It’s just that, for me, the infinite realm of numbers couldn’t possibly compare to the infinite realm of characters.

Numbers can’t surprise you by making bad decisions. Numbers don’t have quirks that make you laugh. (Except for 43,770. For some reason, 43,770 cracks me up every time.)

But "infinite" can feel overwhelming to a writer facing a blank page, and I’m always on the lookout for a new tool to get to know my characters better. I think I found one in Debbie Macomber’s wonderful book, Twenty Wishes. Anne Marie, a young widow, is stuck in a rut of grief and decides to make a list of twenty wishes, hoping this will give her something to look forward to and will restore her positive outlook on life. The bubble wrap popping scene is a hoot! I want to have a party like that.

What would I learn, I wondered, if I did this exercise from the point of view of my characters? What new insights would I gain? I mean, we're talking twenty wishes here – that's going to dig pretty deep. And we’re not talking Miss America-style "world peace” kinds of wishes. No, these need to be things the character can impact and achieve. Come to think of it, "world peace" might work as a wish for one of my monarchs. A king can refuse to start a war, right? But not for the everyday folks.

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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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Alexandra Benedict | The Reunion Romance

For me, the main appeal of a reunion romance is the prospect of getting a second chance at love. Have you ever wondered "if only ...?" or "I wish I had known then what I know now"? Time and experience seasons us, and the reunion romance offers characters the opportunity to right past wrongs.


As an author, writing a reunion romance can be fun (I get to start off with the passion and emotion), but it can also be challenging as the lead characters already know each other; there’s no "getting to know you" period, for the hero and heroine already share a history. I, then, have to inform the reader about the characters’ pasts, weave their time together "off stage" into the central story. In the end, the effort is worthwhile.

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Stephanie Bond | How to Refill Your Creative Well

I’m coming off a crazy-hard writing year where I wrote 3 manuscripts for my BODY MOVERS humorous mystery series so they could be released back to back. I also wrote 3 manuscripts for Harlequin Blaze, (romantic comedies), also for back to back release. And I wrote 2 manuscripts for novellas. The schedule tested me physically and mentally, and afterward, I confess, I was zapped. My brain was mush—I could barely remember the names of the characters I’d written, much less come up with something new. But I had more projects on the horizon (after a short break), so I knew I had to do something to recharge my batteries. Here are some tips to regain your creativity if you’re in a slump:

Adjust your Zzzzzzzs. Physically, you need to adjust your sleep patterns up or down to get 7-8 hours sleep. I got way too little sleep most of last year, so now I’m making an effort to go to bed an hour earlier. Conversely, though, too much sleep can leave you feeling lethargic, so if you’ve gotten into the habit of sleeping in, you might want to set your alarm to get up a little earlier and get a jump on the day.

Get moving. Exercise truly is a panacea for the mind and body. Try to break a sweat at least every other day and keep moving for 30 minutes. Cardio exercise delivers oxygen to the brain and makes you more alert. I jump rope for 5 minutes shortly after getting out of bed. For a quick pick-me-up during the day, I do jumping jacks.

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Amy J. Fetzer | The Challenge of Writing a Series

Jack of all trades…

A master of none? Well not quite. I don’t consider myself a master of anything, even writing novels. Each one is challenge. I’ve written 36 books in about five subgenres of romance; Historical, historical time travel & paranormal, Desires, Intrigues, even a Bombshell, but my favorite to date is my romantic thrillers, Dragon One.

The idea for Dragon One arrived in a hotel room at RWA national with my roommate, Maureen Child and one of those black and white speckled notebooks. Writing about Marines had to wait until my husband retired, otherwise, the Public Affairs Office had to read and approve anything I wrote. Not going to happen. Yet being the daughter, wife and mother of Marines, the advantage of living around predominantly men my entire life is I know them. I’m not saying I’ve figured men out, but I understand how military men will react to the most common events. The rest, I make it up.

It doesn’t hurt to sleep with your source, either. =)

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Kathryne Kennedy | What type of shape-shifter are you?

A reader commented that after finishing one of my books, she started looking at people differently. Started noticing that many people reminded her of certain animals. And then she had fun guessing what type of shape-shifter they might be.

So let me back up for a moment. My Victorian fantasy romance series, The Relics Of Merlin, features all shorts of shape-shifters. In Enchanting the Lady, my hero is a were-lion. In Double Enchantment, my hero is a were-stallion and his sister is a were-swan. In my newest release, Enchanting the Beast, the hero is a were-wolf, and my heroine’s assistant is a were-snake.

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Sara Reyes | Adventures in World Building, or Let This World Go!

Books I read this week, all good for me:


Buy Your Copy today

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Pre-order Your Copy today

This week it seems everyone's been talking about "series" or "trilogies" or "quartets" or something implying a bunch of books all taking place in a world created by an author. Not necessarily one in outer space, but it can be. Or it could be a historical world, as in Mary Balogh's Regency period, or it could be contemporary-historical-futuristic hybrid, as in Jayne Ann Krentz's "Arcane Society". Or it could be international as in Karen Kendall's "Take Me" world. It could be contemporary with paranormal flavors such as Christine Feehan's "Drake Sisters. Or thrilling contemporary as in Alison Brennan's "Prison Break." Each author manages to create a "universe," populates it, makes a set of rules and then invites us in to enjoy.

Recently some favorite authors seem to be forced into making a series instead of sticking to what they do best -- write a self contained world for a single book. One of our topics of book club conversation is that some authors are very good at "world building" and others not-so-much. We are talking about really good and favorite authors who can suck you into a book, make you forget all about other responsibilities and worries and then let you out at the end with a sigh of relief and thankfulness for being taken away for a few hours into a magical place that a good book can swept one to! So it's not books with plot problems or character issues or boring middles, we're just addressing the world building.

Sometimes I get lost in the story but brought up short by trying to remember -- is this a circle or level I've read before? Didn't this character have their own story in another book? Where is this located, I thought it was the east coast and now suddenly we're in California? Did they just change a hair color? Okay, so the hair color is easy to explain. After all I am a woman and changing a hair color isn't that difficult. But some of the other things make me sigh. And that isn't always good.

On the other hand, there are series I hope never end...Virgin River by Robyn Carr is one of those. Those mountain valleys and communities can live for a long long time!

So be brave and step up, tell me what series you really like and some that are ready to be ended. After all, all opinions are welcome, none of us are entirely right or entirely wrong. It's those shades that make life interesting.

Until next time...
Get out there and READ a book...

Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group
Join us at Readers 'n 'ritas November 13-15, 2009!

Tina Leonard | MAKING LISTS

I love lists. I am a list-maker, a list-keeper, a doodling scribe of anything on any surface. My kids have picked up a dinner napkin as we left a restaurant because I had jotted a few ideas down on the paper. Bless their hearts, they were afraid to leave behind one of Mom's Big Ideas. Lists keep me organized, make me aware of how much I get done in a day or not done as life may have it.

I also love bestseller lists, especially when one of my books or a friend's book makes its way onto the hallowed spaces. Recently, my four-book series, The Morgan Men, was fortunate enough to make a few lists, one book being first on the eharlequin.com list, and another staying on same list for about eighteen days in various spots. Throw in a Waldenbooks/Borders list for three weeks in a row for my March book—culminating in the #2 spot in the third week!--and I began to ponder the scattered good fortune in the universe. (Remember, I am a student of listing—I try to figure out these random occurrences, whether or not I can find an answer being irrelevant). Greater minds than mine have written about the quirky fate in making bestseller lists, but my house is on the market so I have time to scattershoot while I'm scrubbing floors and cleaning out shrub beds.

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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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Dianne Emley | Ten Commandments of Fiction Writing

Thank you, Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today! I’m Dianne Emley, author of the L.A. Times bestselling Detective Nan Vining “thrillogy”: THE FIRST CUT, CUT TO THE QUICK, and, just out, THE DEEPEST CUT. These three are a thrillogy because they have an overarching storyline in which Nan Vining obsessively pursues the man who attacked her and left her for dead, the creep who Vining and her teenage daughter call T.B. Mann—The Bad Man. The Nan Vining series continues! I’m working on the fourth which will be out in 2010.

I’ve learned a lot about the art and business of writing since the first book hit the shelves. I’ve become not just smarter, but wiser. I’ve developed a few rules that I strive to follow when I’m writing and editing a book and some that govern my behavior when the book is out. I’d like to share these with you. Herewith:

Dianne Emley’s Ten Commandments of Fiction Writing

1. I shall heed good editorial advice, shun bad advice, and learn how to tell the difference.

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Caridad Pineiro | Creating Characters

First I’d like to thank Fresh Fiction for giving me an opportunity to chat with you! I’m Caridad Pineiro, a USA Today and NY Times Bestseller who has written of over twenty novels. My current releases are HONOR CALLS and FURY CALLS from the popular THE CALLING Vampire series from Silhouette Nocturne. In November 2009 I will have my first paranormal romantic suspense single title release – SINS OF THE FLESH – from Grand Central Publishing.

I love writing and creating characters that stay with readers long after the book is on the shelf.

The plot for FURY CALLS, my March 2009 release from Silhouette Nocturne, definitely has two of my most interesting characters and the plot of the story is driven by the conflicts of the two heroes – Blake and Meghan. Blake, in particular, helped define the nature of the villain and also, forged the redemption of one of THE CALLING’s more interesting Big Bads – Foley, the owner of the Blood Bank.

Blake has actually become one of my favorite characters of all time. Since he popped onto the scene in TEMPTATION CALLS in October 2005, he has been hanging out in the world of THE CALLING, always on the fringe of what’s happening and never really respected. Always screaming for me as a writer to give him a story that was worthy of his unique personality.

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Jennifer Lewis | Characters you love to hate

I like to blame it on the popularity of evening soap operas during my formative years, but I just adore villainous but intriguing characters. Texas Oil baron J.R. Ewing from Dallas was one of the most hated characters on television—but he was also the reason millions of people tuned in religiously for more than ten years. His cold-blooded, scheming character was originally supposed to be a small part, but he was such a hit with viewers that it wasn’t long before the whole show revolved around him. Anyone alive at the time will surely remember the angst and intrigue over the burning question: Who shot J.R.?

I’ve always wanted to write one of these odious yet absorbing characters, and with my new Hardcastle Progeny series, I finally have. The three book series revolves around billionaire tycoon Tarrant Hardcastle and his attempts to find an heir for his glittering Manhattan retail empire—by tracking down the illegitimate sons he once scorned.

Tarrant is not a nice guy.

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Tina Leonard | Fail-And-Succeed Success

I love writing. I feel fortunate that I get to make my living at putting words to paper. It means that I get to indulge my love of doing what I enjoyed when I was a child, which was read every single word I could get my hands on. Now I get to read wonderful works by other authors and friends, and sometimes I feel like I have a front-row seat to the ever-changing publishing world. I see a book make a bestseller list and I think, "Wow! I met that author!" Call me perpetually star-struck because I suppose I am. I root for everybody's careers and the state of the publishing industry because this is my team, the team that allows me to stay at home and do what I love to do most: Write, read, be a mom, a wife, a good neighbor and friend.

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Kate Kingsbury | Summers Past

Many years ago in my distant past, when I was still living on the southeast coast of England, I spent four memorable summers working for my mother in her small seaside hotel. I laid, waited on and cleared dining tables, cleaned rooms, welcomed guests and hauled heavy luggage up two flights of stairs since we had no elevator. It was hard physical work and long hours, made even longer by my mother’s insistence that I entertain the guests on the piano when all the chores were finally done. All I received for my pains were room and board, and tips that were few and far between. A poor return for the efforts I put in. At least, that’s how it seemed at the time, when I was stumbling exhausted to my bed, only to rise a few hours later and do it all over again.

Looking back on that experience much later in my life, I realized it had given me so much more. I made some wonderful friends, met some bizarre characters, and had adventures that would have made my mother’s hair curl if she had ever found out. Life back then was unpredictable, exciting and fun!

More than twenty years later, when I was searching for an idea for a series, I remembered those days. What better background in which to set my Edwardian mysteries! A seaside hotel, run by a strong woman with a dedicated staff, eccentric characters, wild adventures...it was all there, just waiting for me to spin my tales around it.

I have now written seventeen Pennyfoot Hotel Mysteries, and each one brings back memories of those bittersweet days. As I write each book, I’m reminded that there’s a positive side to everything. All we have to do is look for it, believe in it and make it work for us. May you all have a wonderful year making your own unforgettable memories.

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/

Kate Douglas | Will I get them all written?

I’ve been working on Wolf Tales IX for the past couple of months which, counting the novellas in anthologies, is the seventeenth title in my erotic tales of the Chanku. It’s due for release in January 2010. I remember wondering when I signed the contracts for the third set of novels and novellas if I’d ever get them all written. Now, all of a sudden, the stories I’m contracted for are almost done and I’m waiting to hear from my publisher about plans for more of the series. Characters who were new to me less than four years ago have now become old friends. I know their secrets, their loves, their needs and their fears. I wonder what the future holds in store for them, and I worry about them as if they’re real flesh-and-blood people who matter to me in the way of those I love in real life.

I’m either desperately in need of a good therapist, or totally involved in my imaginary world...and I’m hoping it’s the latter, because it’s such a great world to hang out in. For one thing, it’s filled with fascinating (to me, anyway!) characters with a strong sense of family and a natural code of honor that appeals to me. And, it’s a matriarchal society. Women, quite literally, rule. It begins with their ability to control reproduction and extends to an innate sense of leadership the males are genetically programmed to recognize. While the men are physically stronger and think they’re in charge, when it comes down to a final decision, the women have the last word. For some reason, I find that terribly attractive!

The latest in the series, Wolf Tales VII, has just released. For readers not familiar with the story line, this book might be a good place to begin, as there’s enough backstory to bring everyone up to date. I write the series like an ongoing soap opera, where it’s possible to jump in at any time, but it’s definitely more gratifying to start at the beginning. The one I’m writing now has been nothing but backstory—all the Chanku shapeshifters have gathered for the birth of a new baby, and during the course of the long night, they’re telling the stories of how they first discovered their shapeshifting birthright.

I’m learning things about my characters I never even suspected, so it’s really been a fun book to write. That’s the joy of not plotting. When I sit down to write, every story is a surprise to me. Even more fun, in this particular book I’m telling the stories my readers have asked for—the members of my newsletter were invited to request the stories they wanted to hear, and the response was phenomenal. Wolf Tales IX will be a direct result of their wishes. If you’re at all curious about the series—and if you’re eighteen or over—I have the first chapters of all my books posted at www.katedouglas.com/eroticromance.

Thanks to Fresh Fiction for giving me the chance to blog, and thanks to my readers, who are the only reason I have the privilege of writing my series. I want to wish all of you the very best in the coming year, and don’t forget to make time to read a good book! To help you along I am giving away a copy of Wolf Tales VII on my ONE DAY ONLY blog contest.

Kate Douglas
http://www.katedouglas.com/
www.myspace.com/katedouglas_wolftales

Karen E. Olson | SHOT GIRL

My fourth Annie Seymour mystery, SHOT GIRL, came out on Election Day. So far, reviews and comments from readers have been good. All are saying it's the best in the series.

It was the hardest one to write.

I decided to do something different with SHOT GIRL. With each book, I embrace a different style. My first book was a traditional mystery, the second is what I call my Mafia book, and the third is much more fast paced and thriller like. In SHOT GIRL, Annie is an unreliable narrator.

I had a friend express surprise that I would do this in the fourth — and last — book in the series. Wasn't it a risk? she asked. Sure it was, but I wanted to see if I could do it, if I could pull it off. When I'd started writing the book, I'd just finished reading Scott Turow's PRESUMED INNOCENT, in which he masterfully portrayed an unreliable narrator. Could I do that with Annie? I thought. It was worth a shot.

My goal was to have the reader ask throughout the book: Is Annie telling me the truth? What is she keeping secret? I know she's not telling me everything. But why?

I had to really think about how I was going to write this book, and since I don't outline there was a lot of going back and checking for inconsistencies. At one point Annie has a key that the reader doesn't realize she has. How did she get it? I had no idea. I kept a sort of graph about halfway through writing the book so I could keep track of the questions I had to answer before my editor got her hands on the manuscript.

I'm not sure I would ever do this again because it was difficult. But all reports indicate that I was successful. Annie most definitely is going out with a bang.

Karen
www.kareneolson.com/

Allyson Roy | Crime & Comedy

Are you one of those people who tend to crack a joke when you’re in trouble? Is it because fear brings out the urge to laugh, or is it that laughter helps us get though the worst of times?

And maybe it depends on who’s in it with you. Like a good buddy you can count on to watch your back.

Our heroine, Brooklyn sex therapist Saylor Oz, and her sidekick, Benita Morales, are buddies who race through crime adventures bickering and bantering, sometimes blaming, and always forgiving.

Kind of like our marriage. Being a husband-wife team writing under one pseudonym, we sometimes feel like we’re living a reality TV buddy movie. Aside from combining our opposite qualities -- a guy who loves boxing and a woman who loves perfume -- we use the roller coaster dynamics of a relationship between two strong-willed people to help shape the fun and exciting relationship of our characters.

Not that we’ve ever been given a deadly ultimatum by a hit man called “The Monster.” Or that we’d go poking into dangerous situations. Like Saylor does, only to find herself knee-deep in trouble against some slimy, nasty dudes. But we love combining a gritty, urban environment with an oddball cast of characters, a dash of romance, plenty of suspense, and of course . . . laugh-out-loud fun.

Come read an excerpt of APHRODISIAC, the first book in the Saylor Oz series.

Warm wishes to all for the upcoming holidays!

Allyson Roy -- Alice & Roy
www.allysonroy.com/
MySpace
Our Crime Comedy group

Patrice Michelle | Ideas pulled from the air...

The other day I received a question from a reader who'd already read my latest release Scions:Revelation (December 1st) and the last book in my Scions trilogy. She asked if the prophecy--that has been an underlying thread through all three of the books in the Scions trilogy--was something I planned from the very beginning, or if the outcome of the prophecy had come to me as I wrote the books.

The answer is actually somewhere in between. :)

The idea for the first book in my Scions series came straight from a dream. I'd dreamed about a woman who was kidnapped by a vampire and they were being chased by gunmen. Lots of running, leaping across building rooftops and gunshots ensued. The scene in my dream was right out of an adventure novel and too surreal not to write once I woke up. But once I started jotting down notes, I then had to figure out how to turn that "one scene" into a novel. Hmmm...I ask the question: Why the vampire might want to kidnap the human woman and why the gunmen were chasing them....and all the reasons in between....and that's how the first five chapters in the first book in my Scions trilogy (Scions:Resurrection) was created. Once I'd completed those chapters, my agent read them and said, "This is more than one book, right?" I pondered some more and came to the conclusion...Of course there would be more than one book! and there's even a prophecy, which I promptly detailed out as part of the proposal to pitch to potential publishers.

In the summer of 2006, I'd written five chapters of Scions book one, a synopsis detailing the rest of that book and a one-page overview of the other two books in the Scions trilogy (including the prophecy). As I was writing the overview, the actual prophecy itself came to me easily, yet I wasn't "set" in how that prophecy would play out in the stories.

Ultimately, even when wearing my author "hat" I'm still a reader at heart--I want to be surprised and I discover the twists and turns in the stories as I they unfold before me. ;) I didn't know who would uncover each of the pieces of the prophecy, how the layers would all tie together, who would be responsible for the biggest reveal or how each of the characters would be impacted by all the revelations. All those unknowns were very exciting to unearth as each story was written and each of the main characters played out their respective parts.

So I guess the answer to the question is that the prophecy came to me in...equal parts intuition, guess-work and good old fashioned...jigsaw puzzling. It never ceases to amaze me how the muse works in inexplicable ways!

If you're interested in reading an action-adventure paranormal story where a suspenseful mystery is woven along-side a sexy romance, then I hope you'll give my Scions books a try.

Note: Each of the Scions books are written to be read as stand alone stories, but if you'd like to read the adventures of each of the main characters in order, then they are as follows: Scions:Resurrection, Scions:Insurrection and Scions: Revelation.

Patrice Michelle
www.patricemichelle.net

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

Carly Phillips | Luck

I don’t have my own good luck charm, per se, but I do operate on the presumption of superstition in some ways. And sometimes, thankfully, luck pays off for me! I definitely don’t like to presume good things will happen, I like to hope. I’m afraid of jinxing something. Can you really do that? I rarely tempt fate. But it’s an interesting concept, isn’t it? Luck?

LUCK is fickle. And yet many of us believe. When I ask myself why, I realize it’s because of HOPE. It’s the possibility that Lady Luck will step in and pick us up that provides a ray of hope. LUCK causes us to play the lottery, pick up a heads up penny, read fortune cookies, and many more crazy, superstitious things. It was the concept of LUCK that drove the idea for my new LUCKY series, starting with LUCKY CHARM.

Fortune hasn’t been so kind, however, to the men in the Corwin family. And Derek Corwin is the latest to cross her path. Long ago, as revenge on a Corwin who stole her son’s fiancée, a witch proclaimed an eternal curse that every Corwin male who married for love would be destined to lose his woman and his fortune. Derek thought he could outsmart the long-standing Corwin curse by breaking up with Gabrielle, his first love – and marrying someone else. Now, divorced and broke, all he has left is his teenage daughter and a healthy respect for ancient sorcery. But then Gabrielle returns, determined to defeat the curse and rekindle their passion. But will her stubborn streak and her unwavering love be the lucky charm Derek so desperately needs?

After Derek comes Mike Corwin in LUCKY STREAK, June 2009 and Jason Corwin in LUCKY BREAK, October 2009.

I wanted to extend LUCK to my readers so I’ve created an on-going contest which encompasses all three books in this series for those who read them. I call it the “Lucky You” Contest. Put your own lucky charm to work for you! In 1 page or less, tell me about the one special item that brings you luck and why it holds that “lucky” place in your heart! Six lucky winners will receive a special gift! For more information on how to enter, visit www.carlyphillips.com/.

So, what do you all think of LUCK? Does it exist? Are you at all superstitious? Or do you meticulously plan?


Carly Phillips

Sandi Shilhanek | Yahoo Groups

In the last few weeks some authors are being discussed quite a bit in a few of my yahoo groups. Naturally, I expect to hear about authors and their latest works through my groups, but what surprises me about the ones I’m hearing a lot about is that people are just discovering them, and because they enjoyed the newest title having to go on a back list hunt.

One of these authors is Robyn Carr. I have to admit to being somewhat new to the Carr party. I once read a book for review (Down By The River) and didn’t enjoy it at all. What I didn’t’ know at the time was that it was part of a series, and the third in the series. Had I known that I might have been a bit more lenient in how I thought of it. Years passed and I had the opportunity to review her new book, Virgin River. Since I knew it was the beginning of a series I thought here is a way for this author to make my auto buy list. I was of course wowed by what I read, and told one and all you must read this series. It’s been over a year and I still am telling everyone run out and get The Virgin River books and read them ASAP!!!! What I didn’t know is how long Ms. Carr has been writing, and am amazed!

The second author I’m seeing a lot about is Susan Wiggs. Ms. Wiggs has just released a hardcover book called Just Breathe, which I enjoyed, and have been recommending whenever the opportunity presents itself. What I most like about Ms. Wiggs is that she writes connected series, and her recent Lakeshore Chronicles is another of those that I take every chance to say you haven’t read them….but you must! Again, I don’t know how long Ms. Wiggs has been writing, but suddenly I see her name a lot!

The last author I’m going to give a shout out to at this point is Debbie Macomber. Those who know me best know that I am a truly devoted fan and can’t wait for each release. I’m amazed by the number of people I’ve recently been chatting with either online or in person who are just discovering this author and her Cedar Cove Series. Like the others I know Ms. Macomber has been writing for a long time, but as with the others seems to be suddenly the author to read!

So I’ve noticed that these three authors have become something of an overnight sensation, even if overnight took them years and years of honing their craft.

Which authors have you been hearing a lot of buzz about? If they have an extensive backlist is there one book getting talked about more than another? If it’s a new to you author are you going to have to do a major backlist hunt?

Thanks for sharing with me because remember inquiring minds need to know!

Sandi Shilhanek | Series

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading the Bakery Sisters Trilogy by Susan Mallery. People who know me best know that I love connected stories. I tend to horde the first and second book until the third becomes available, and then read them back to back to back.

While for a short series that will release quickly this is a great plan, but for a longer series such as the In Death books this does not work. When Naked In Death by J. D. Robb first came out I bought the book even though I didn’t think it was truly my thing. I saved it knowing there would be more to follow.

What happened? I’m sure you know. I kept collecting expecting an end to this series so I could finally begin to read, but that end is still nowhere in my line of vision. Finally I saw a website that was beginning a book of the month read, and offered people several choices to choose from, and amongst the choices Naked In Death.

A few friends and I decided to all vote for Naked In Death and get one book or perhaps more should our choice win out of our TBR mountains. Luckily for us it worked! Now three years later the three of us are current and awaiting the next release.

However, I truly digressed, I’m reading The Bakery Sister books, and saved them once again until I could attain all the books. Thank you to the publishing person who decided to release the books in quick succession. I’m learning a bit about the bakery business and a lot about family dynamics. Would I be getting these lessons if I had had to wait for the books and read them spaced apart? That’s a question that will never be answered.

What about you? Do you save a book until you have all the books in the series or do you read them as they release? If books are spaced apart like the In Death books or the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by J. R. Ward do you have to reread them before you read the new release?

Brenda Joyce | Masters of Time

Everyone fears the shadows of the night. No one likes walking down a deserted street after the sun goes down, not in 2008—and not in 1508. Of course, we think we’re being silly to start at every little sound we hear—when we know nothing is lying in wait for us out there in the dark. And violence and crime is on the upswing because our society has broken down—and not for any other reason….right?

Welcome to the world of the Masters of Time.

The Masters of Time are Highland warriors sworn to protect Innocence through the ages. They do not choose their destiny—it is chosen for them. The Masters are medieval men to the core—savage in war, ruthless in outlook, totally sexist in nature, and impossibly powerful—after all, they are descended from the old Celtic gods. And one of their greatest powers is the power to leap through time…

And then along comes a very modern and independent woman…

The romantic conflict is instantaneous. Imagine turning your street corner and coming face to face with the medieval hunk of all time—a Highlander who has more power than any mortal, a mandate to save the world, the knowledge he’s a cut above-- and he wants you, big time! Passions arise, worlds collide, cultures and ideas clash! This is romance the way it should be!

Dark Embrace is the third book about the Masters of Time, following Dark Seduction and Dark Rival. Aidan of Awe has fallen. Once a Master, he is furious with the gods and he has forsaken his vows, abandoned the brotherhood, turning his back on everyone— family, friends, and mankind. He walks alone and wars alone, lusting for power and revenge. He is a Highlander without a clan, feared by all and trusted by none. And the evil that he is hunting, the evil that destroyed his son, is now trying to destroy him…

By day, Brianna Rose fights evil from the safety of her laptop on the basement of CDA, a government agency. But she is a Rose, and the Rose women have been fighting evil with their gifts for generations. By night, Brie wages the war on evil with her two cousins, Tabby and Sam, using her vision to defend and save the innocent. But Brie has a little secret. She met Aidan once briefly, when he was a Master, and has had a mad crush on him ever since. Which is fine with her—a crush is really safe. Because Brie is a computer geek with no interest in a real relationship—men never look at her and she doesn’t expect them to. Brie is also highly empathic. And then one night she wakes up consumed with Aidan’s pain, hearing his screams of anguish—in spite of the gulf of centuries which separate them. And she knows he is in danger.

Brie is instantly obsessed. She has to find him, help him, and when she does, she is unprepared for the near immortal facing her—a man so dark, so heartless, he doesn’t think twice about using her. And it doesn’t matter. Brie finds a courage she never knew she had, and she will do anything she has to in order to redeem him.

Dark Embrace is a story of fury, desperation, loss, and revenge—and love, and the redemption that can come from it. It is a story of faith—Brie never loses her faith in Aidan. It is also Book One of the Rose Trilogy, because every Rose woman has a destiny, and Sam and Tabby have their destinies, too, and their destiny is not exactly what either woman is expecting! Dark Victory is on sale in March 2009, followed by Sam’s story in September, Dark Lover.

Welcome to the Masters of Time!

Brenda Joyce
http://www.brendajoyce.com/

Linda Conrad | Why Do It?

I had every intention of writing a blog about my latest release for Silhouette Romantic Suspense, SAFE WITH A STRANGER (the first book in my new trilogy called The Safekeepers.) The Safekeepers is a series of suspense novels about bodyguards for children--with the fun addition of Mexican witchcraft and a family curse. Or maybe I could’ve blogged about connected books. That seems to be my thing lately. My last series for Silhouette was six books long! I just don’t seem to be able to write single books anymore. I like fleshing out characters over several books and really enjoy revealing a series-long connection inside each book.

But as I was sitting here at my desk, my mind wandered off (as it usually does,) and I began thinking about why I write at all. As I have said before, I hate to write. Really I do. Oh, I love telling stories. I love getting into the heads of my characters. I love doing research. And I love finding just the right word to make a sentence sing. But the process of sitting my back end into a chair and shoveling out the words makes me want to cringe. In fact, right now I am avoiding beginning a new work that has a looming deadline date.

So why do it? I can’t say it’s because I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I haven’t. What I’ve always wanted to be was a reader. I guess I should’ve been an editor. Or maybe a librarian. But no, those weren’t really right either. Actually, what I have always, always, been is a dreamer. I make up stories in my head. And have done so since I was two or three years old. Reading is just an excuse to tweak my stories into something better—in my head.

If my father was still alive, he might be surprised to find that at this point I have written twenty-three books (all in the category lines for Silhouette.) Many times while I was a teenager he would look at me with my head in the clouds and call me lazy. He couldn’t see how I would ever accomplish anything when all I ever did was daydream.

My mother knew better. She was the real reader in the family. I can remember as a little girl being frustrated with trying to get her attention only to find that she was so absorbed in a book she couldn’t even hear her name being called. I can do that too, by the way. Get lost in a book.

Mother knew in her heart what I should do, even when I didn’t. In high school she nudged me toward creative writing, but I was so wrapped up in earning a living that I couldn’t see my way clear to giving it a try. Not me. Nah uh. I became a stockbroker. I did fairly well at it too, but I was never totally happy and I didn’t know why.

Not until my mother had a stroke. My father was gone by then and I became Mom’s main caregiver. I took a leave of absence from my job and worked with her everyday. She could no longer read or watch TV, her eyesight betrayed her. So in an effort to make her hours more pleasant, my sister and I found books on tape. But that wasn’t a perfect solution either. Her mind wandered too much. In fact, she began daydreaming stories about all of us. So I went along with her and helped make up the story lines. While she was in the nursing home, the nurses would become fascinated to hear our stories. The hours went by quickly and I found I enjoyed entertaining people by doing what I’ve always done—daydreaming things in my head.

Still, I might not have given it a second thought if in the week before my mother passed away she hadn’t asked me to consider writing books as a career. She knew how much I loved giving others pleasure and taking them away from their troubles for a while. And bless her heart, she was just positive I would be good at writing the stories down. I didn’t know it for sure, and my husband was completely unconvinced. But I made the promise and then did my best to make it happen.

So to all of you mothers out there, nudge your children to do what’s in their hearts—even if they can’t see it. And to all of you dreamers out there, I’ll be the mother and say maybe it’s time to stop dreaming and make it happen.

I dream in Technicolor and with dialog and scenes fully formed. What do you dream about?

With all my very best,
Linda

Linda’s latest release from Silhouette Romantic Suspense is Safe With A Stranger, now available on stands and online from eharlequin.com, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please visit her at http://www.lindaconrad.com/ for the latest news, extras, contests and a complete Behind the Book description of The Safekeepers series!

Denise Swanson | School Psychologist, Writer, and People Watcher

One of the first questions I’m often asked when I speak about my writing is why I chose to write mysteries instead of romances (I assume this is because I have such an innocent, baby face). My answer is simple: after twenty-two years in public education there are a lot of people I want to kill, there are very few I want to have sex with.

Seriously, although I enjoy writing mysteries because I like knowing that the bad guy is going to get caught and pay for his crime at the end, I would like to write in other genres such as romance and fantasy.

On the other hand, I love the sense of justice a well-written mystery brings to its readers. One thing I’ve learned from being a school psychologist for so long is that justice rarely happens in real life, so it gives me a sense of fulfillment to have it happen in my fiction.

Having worked in almost every type of school setting, from the poorest areas surrounding Washington DC to upscale suburban Chicago, and from rural to urban, I’ve heard so many stories and seen so many bizarre situations I’ll never run out of plots.

My Scumble River Mystery series is set in a fictional small town in Illinois, and features a school psychologist-sleuth named Skye Denison. It's got a lot of humor, a bit of romance, and I’ve based many of the stories on my personal experiences—although I've never found a dead body—at least not yet.

When I decided to write a series, one of my goals was to highlight the profession of school psychologist. Most people have no idea what a school psychologist does, or even that they exist. I still get reviews where they call Skye a school counselor or a psychiatrist, both of which are very different jobs.

One of the reasons I enjoyed being a school psychologist is my abiding interest in people. I love studying them and figuring out what makes them tick. This is also, why I enjoy writing. My books are character-driven, and one of the things I like most is examining the relationships. Throughout the series my sleuth is torn between two men, and my readers seem very interested in this relationship. When I do book signings there have even been some skirmishes between readers who have different opinions on which guy Skye should end up with.

Another aspect of writing that is similar to school psychology is that the characters surprise me every time I write about them. In Murder of a Sleeping Beauty, which deals with body image among teenagers, I was surprised by my research when I found a large number of parents living their lives through their kids, as well as by the rising number of teenage girls who think they are only a pretty face and thin body. (Girls should be judged for something besides their looks. For that reason I made Skye a plus-size woman who is comfortable in her own skin. I’m hoping that the teens that read my books will come to understand that people come in all sizes, and weight is just another attribute, like hair or eye color. Skye shows that whether a woman looks like a Barbie doll or a Rubens painting, she can do anything and experience life to the fullest.)

In Murder of a Barbie and Ken, Skye’s then boyfriend, Simon’s mother appeared out of nowhere. I had thought she was dead up until that point. In Murder of a Smart Cookie, nearly all my characters surprised me, especially Simon.

In my newest book, Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry, Skye’s current boyfriend, Wally’s father comes to town and reveals their family secrets.

--Denise Swanson writes the Scumble River mystery series published by Penguin/NAL/Obsidian. Her books have been nominated for the Agatha, Mary Higgins Clark, Daphne du Maurier, and RT Reviewers Choice awards. She is married to classical music composer, David Stybr. To hear some of David’s music go to Denise’s website http://www.deniseswanson.com/

Elizabeth Hoyt | Muses on Detours in Life and in Writing

I’m writing my sixth historical book now—the third in The Legend of the Four Soldiers series—and already I’ve gone off my writing map. Writers generally fall into two groups: ones who plot out their story before they begin writing and those who wing it. I’m in the former camp, but here’s the thing: no matter how meticulously I plot before I write, no matter how much I try to foresee all eventualities, I always end up making detours from my plot.

Detours, in writing as in life, are sometimes frustrating (How do I get back on the main road?) sometimes confusing (Can I get back to the main road?) but usually interesting, and sometimes revolutionary.

For example.

About ten years ago my life took a major detour. I was a stay-at-home mom living in the city where I’d grown up, spending what free time I had volunteering in a non-profit organization. Then my husband got a new job. In a different state.

I wasn’t pleased, but my husband was the main breadwinner at that time in our family, so I pulled up my roots, left the non-profit I’d been so active in, and moved away from both family and friends.

And you know what? If I hadn’t made that life detour I probably wouldn’t have started writing. I would’ve stayed in the non-profit organization, stayed near family and friends who kept me busy, and never had the push to start writing a book.

All because of a detour my life took.

The detours that happen in my books are frustrating for me as the writer, but they can be revolutionary for the book. In To Taste Temptation, the first book in The Legend of the Four Soldiers series, I suddenly started writing a scene in which my hero, Samuel Hartley, is running. In London, of all places. Why? I thought. Nobody runs in Georgian England for pleasure. Where is this scene going? Why am I writing this?

Well, as you’ll find out when you read To Taste Temptation, running becomes a central facet to Sam’s character. He runs to forget, he runs for the sheer pleasure of feeling his muscles move, and in a pivotal scene near the end of the book, he runs because his world will end if he doesn’t.
All because of a detour my writing took one day.

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com

Kathleen Long | The Gifts of Writing

I want to thank everyone here at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today. I was sitting at my computer this morning trying to settle on an interesting topic for today’s blog. My new series? My future plans? My typical writing day?

Instead, I found myself thinking about the gift of writing—or should I say gifts, plural. Writing has brought so many layers of good to my life—new friends, new challenges, new skills—that describing those gifts would take all day.

Then, the best “gift” of my life announced she was awake for the day. That was the moment I realized a toddler’s chattering was the perfect place to begin—and focus—this blog.

Did writing bring about my two-year-old? No, but my writing career taught me to work hard and chase my dreams. In life, just as in writing, there aren’t any shortcuts. Our daughter came into our lives after a ten-year pursuit of parenthood, and I wouldn’t trade a single moment of the journey. After all, each step brought me to this wonderful moment filled with alphabet songs and questions and belly laughs.

My writing journey has been no different. Writing—like life—is about doing the legwork.

Writing is about believing your dream is worth chasing. It’s about dusting yourself off and trying again each time you face an obstacle in the road. Writing is about reading—how-to books, favorite authors, market news. Writing is about learning—pacing, plotting, story techniques. Writing is about writing—first drafts, second drafts, third drafts, and more. It’s about starting over time after time simply because you refuse to quit and because the need to write is part of who you are.

Writing is about setting the alarm to wake up two hours before your family to steal time in front of your computer. It’s about staying up far too late—or early—because the storyline in your head won’t take no for an answer. It’s about rolling over at 3am and thinking, wait a minute…what if my heroine said this instead? then racing downstairs to make notes or fire up the laptop.

Writing, for me, is its own reward.

Writing is about setting free the words and characters and places in my mind that come to me so clearly and purely I couldn’t ignore them even if I wanted to.

Writing is about creating worlds into which readers might escape for an hour or two or three.

The Body Hunters is my first trilogy—my first series—and I loved the process of creating the cast of characters and their stories. Developing the series provided me with the opportunity to form a longer-lasting, deeper connection to the characters in my mind. I hope the series will provide the same opportunity for connection—and escape—for readers.

Escape. That one powerful word sums up why I write.

At a particularly difficult point in my life, a book pulled me out of the fog of grief that had overtaken my every thought and movement. A book carried me away, helped me turn the corner toward becoming whole again. Since then, books have been my escape time and time again—be they books I’m writing or books I’m reading.

That particular book gave me the kick in the pants I needed not just to live again, but to write again. That book made me want to provide that same escape for others.

I sat back that day and decided to value my dream enough to chase it.

To every author out there—both published and as-yet unpublished—thank you for believing in yourself enough to chase your dream. Without you, I might still be stuck in my fog. Instead, I’m headed upstairs to help a two-year-old start her day. I can’t imagine a greater gift than that.

Please visit me at www.kathleenlong.com for the latest news and release info, and at www.thebodyhunters.com/ for the latest on The Body Hunters trilogy and just what inspired your favorite character or scene. Join me all this week over at the www.eharlequin.com/ Forums where an entire thread has been dedicated to discussing The Body Hunters. Most importantly, thank you for stopping by today, and thanks again to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog!

Shirley Jump | I Do…Again

When I wrote SWEETHEART LOST AND FOUND, the first in a six-book Wedding Planners series--a series about friends who are wedding planners, that I wrote with real-life author friends--I had no idea what great fun I’d have, or how many memories the series would open up.

For one, writing with friends is a blast. The other authors are all terrific women, and amazingly talented writers. Brainstorming was more like brain exploding--we all fed off each other and created some of our best work yet, IMHO. The ideas flew faster than our fingers could hit the keyboards. Then the best part was reading all the finished stories and seeing how our vision became real love stories.

But more than that, writing a series about wedding planners made me revisit my own wedding 18 years ago (next month, actually). All those memories of flowers and bridesmaids (oh, those ugly green dresses…sorry gals!), veils and gowns, came rushing back, filling me with a sense of romance and nostalgia. I forgot the stress of planning the wedding, the last few days of ‘oh my goodness, what am I thinking’ and the first few years of ‘oh my goodness, what was I thinking,’ LOL.

I remembered only the fun parts. The falling in love. The wonder of the proposal. And the magic of those two words. “I do.” They took me and my husband from a dream to a reality that now has two kids, three dogs and a cat, in a wonderful area of the country. I’d Do…all over again, given the chance. And I don’t think I’d change a single thing. Okay, maybe the bridesmaid’s dresses ;-)

Tell me--what is your favorite memory of a wedding, either your own or another? Or a wedding disaster? In the Dear Reader letter of SWEETHEART LOST AND FOUND are my two wedding disaster stories, both my own and my stepmom’s. A fire and a stumble ;-). Would you “I do”…again?

Shirley

www.shirleyjump.com/

Richelle Mead | Writing Pressures

The release of a new book is always a scary thing. The debut novel? Especially terrifying. A new series? Yikes. Nail-biting. Yet, none of these compare to the pressure of when the second book in a series is about to come out...

When Vampire Academy was released last fall, I didn't know what to expect. Adult urban fantasy was where I felt most comfortable; I'd kind of stumbled into YA. Fortunately, Vampire Academy had solid sales early on, which was a huge relief. (When you write full time, you always have the weight of the rent and the grocery bill on you!) But then something else started happening. I started getting fan mail--lots of it. I'd gotten a fair amount of it with Succubus Blues, but nothing like this. And reading through these emails, I discovered something. People weren't just buying my book; they loved my book.

That's every author's dream. It was my dream--and is still my dream today. I've often said that I don't need J. K. Rowling fame, so long as I have a large enough group of devoted fans to let me keep writing. I stand by that--only, I didn't realize how daunting that would end up being. Frostbite, the sequel to Vampire Academy, was written while I was in the process of getting divorced. Those writing conditions were, uh, not optimal in the least. I had just about finished its revisions when Vampire Academy really took off, and suddenly, I started freaking out. These fans were telling me how much they loved the first book and how they couldn't wait to read Frostbite. I panicked. Was I going to let them down? Was this manuscript good enough for them? I felt like I should have been locked away in a pristine mountain retreat to write the book, not plotting chapters in the throes of depression and monetary settlements. I was certain I should have done something more in writing the book--only, considering the circumstances, I didn't think there was anything more I could have done.


And it was too late anyway. The book had to go to press. I had a great editorial team at my back, and I had to believe that all of us had done our jobs. Still, the worry stayed. Mail from people who were excited about the book was still coming in, and soon, it was joined by people who were also excited about the third book! I have a new series coming out in the fall, beginning with Storm Born, and friends were asking me if I was nervous about it. My response: "Hell no! That one has no expectations yet. All the pressure's on Frostbite." I so, so wanted it be good enough for my readers.

Then, last week, I got an unexpected email. It was from someone who had apparently gotten a hold of an early copy of Frostbite, and--they loved it. A huge pressure suddenly lifted from me. A day or so later, I heard from someone else with an early copy of Frostbite--and they loved it too. Slowly, it began to occur to me that maybe I had done it after all, that I really had written a book my readers loved as much as the first. It’s an amazing feeling.

Knowing this has suddenly taken the stress off from book 3, Shadow Kiss. I finished it a week ago and had a bit of that same fear while writing it: should I be doing more? Should I be in the mountain retreat to make sure this is perfect? But, the truth is, books aren't written in mountain retreats. Well, not most of them. They're written in chaos, while we're happy and while we're hurting, and that all goes into the pages. That’s how authors write, and that’s what makes good writing.

Thank you so much for letting me blog today! More info about me and my books can be found at: www.richellemead.com/





Richelle Mead

Cait London | The Aislings/Psychic Triplets

Since my lucky number is three for many reasons (including I have 3 daughters), a trilogy with three sisters was a natural choice. I understood the relationships, the family order, and the mother’s reaction. (Yes, their mother, a powerful psychic is included in all three books.)

A STRANGER’S TOUCH is the 2nd of the Aisling Psychic Triplets and features Tempest Storm, the middle-born. AT THE EDGE was the first and sets the trilogy in motion with Claire, the empath and gentle. FOR HER EYES ONLY 10/08 ends the trilogy with Leona, the precognitive and the most fierce. The trilogy is based on the contemporary descendents of an ancient Celtic seer and a Viking chieftain. The triplets have inherited the seer, Aisling’s gifts—and they don’t want them. They want to be like normal women.

That’s understandable, isn’t it? The very gifted, haunted by senses that are not reality, images and thoughts that aren’t their own suddenly flashing in their minds could be a little disturbing. Because these adult sisters are birth and psychically connected, they cannot live close to each other. This is especially true when a sexy hunk comes into the picture, such as when Marcus Greystone re-enters Tempest’s life. He’s the dark and brooding, steel-hard corporate man who really didn’t appreciate her leaving the morning-after without a good-bye. Of course, Tempest wasn’t looking for a relationship that night; she was only set to celebrate her successful showing, to top off the night in bed with a gorgeous man. She wore gloves to protect her psychic hands—she’s a psychometrist, who can tell the history of an object by holding it, or the person’s emotions/personality who held it.

In A STRANGER’S TOUCH Marcus hasn’t forgotten those gloves on his body, and he wants her naked hands on him. He also wants something else…

I understood Tempest, the restless, the creative, the sculptress on the run from her past, something so dark she didn’t want to share it with her sisters. Since I am an artist, and you can find my paintings at my website Studio, I understood how Tempest would visualize artistically.

She’s also a very athletic, physical woman who takes what she wants. She reveals her emotions more readily than her sisters. Tempest is a busy girl. She’s on the run from a dark and haunting past; she’s also hunting an ancient brooch which could save her family. (Claire has just been attacked and the clairvoyants are certain dark forces are at work.) Because the origins of the Aislings date back to that Celtic seer, I was influenced by my own interests and personal items. The earrings and the Runes are mine.

Marcus sets a trap and Tempest is caught. If she takes up his offer to seek clues to a cold-case murder, she’ll be basically living with him for the duration. But guess who has the ancient relic she seeks? Marcus.

Tempest must play ball with Marcus to get what she seeks. As writers, we tend to label stories. Tempest’s story would be “A Captured Bride.” But her ancestor seer was also a captured bride. However, Tempest’s traits are different from her sisters; she may lean more toward her Viking ancestor: ready to take challenges and restless. And Marcus looks like a real challenge. I love Vikings and researched brooches/swords, etc. heavily. This trilogy is heavily researched.

The name of Port Salem, the fictional town on Lake Michigan, should be enough to scare any psychic. (If I write about it, I’ve been there.) While Claire’s setting was rural Montana, without major bodies of water, Tempest is where she and her sisters should NOT be, near the universal portal of psychics, a major lake.

Danger is never far away and Marcus stays close. Tempest isn’t used to having a “Protector”, but that’s exactly what she has in Marcus. He’s determined to keep her safe. I was delighted with Marcus. He gradually transforms from a stone-cold man with a grudge (he’s had a hard childhood) to a man entranced with Tempest.

A murderer who doesn’t want Tempest’s psychic hands uncovering his identity is determined to kill her. Her touch reveals startling secrets about Marcus’s own dark past, but will he hate her, if she tells him?

Then someone from Tempest’s dark past is circling her, and danger prowls around her entire family. This girl moves fast, but does she move fast enough?

Tempest’s personality is different from her sisters, and her story is unique to her. And to me. I hope you’re enjoying this trilogy, and you can find more about the Aislings at my website and blog. I’m guest blogging heavily with A STRANGER’S TOUCH, and my schedule is posted at my website.

*Watch for FOR HER EYES ONLY, Leona’s story, set in Lexington, KY.

Cait

Gena Showalter | What If?

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 moment. Relationships (in every form) suddenly fascinated me. First awakenings, the journey to happily ever after, the complexity that is known as Man, I couldn’t get enough. I was hooked. (I’m still hooked!)

And that love of reading eventually blossomed into a love of writing, of weaving my own tales. So here I am, awaiting the release of my Lords of the Underworld trilogy – featuring immortals warriors who opened Pandora’s box and are now cursed to carry a demon inside themselves – and enjoying my career more than I could have ever imagined. All because I picked up that first book. I always shudder to think about what might have happened if I’d decided I shouldn’t.

To learn more about New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter and her sizzling new trilogy about immortal warriors possessed by demons (and the women who love them), visit http://www.genashowalter.blogspot.com/.

Anne McAllister | No Such Thing As A Loose End

Thanks so much, Fresh Fiction, for inviting me to come and blog with you today. I love reading all the various blogs and getting to know writers (and thus adding to my TBR pile) in the process.

I've been writing romance fiction since the mid 80s and am currently working on my 61st book. For quite a few years I would amuse myself on long car trips by seeing if I could name the books and the heroes and heroines in order. Then I started seeing if I could name them in any order. Now I just write the books and think fond thoughts about all those lovely men in my past.

Sometimes, though, there's one who doesn't get his happy ending in one of my books and he turns up, rather like a bad penny, demanding one of his own.

That was what happened with Flynn. Six years ago Silhouette published a single title of mine called The Great Montana Cowboy Auction. It was part of a series of books I'd been doing for them since the mid-90s called Code of the West. TGMCA ran to 97,000 words, which should have been long enough to give everyone in Montana a happy ending.

But sadly, the heroine's daughter, Sara, who had a brief life-shattering fling with a footloose Irish journalist called Flynn Murray, got pregnant in the book. But she didn't get her happy ending. She came back in a later book and we knew she was doing fine as a single mom, but there was no Flynn in her life. Nor was there anyone else.

I went back to writing Harlequin Presents and wasn't writing Code of the West books anymore (it's what happens when you write as slowly as I do -- they make you pick a place to be since you'll be spreading yourself to thin if you're both places. That's the theory anyway). So I wasn't doing those books anymore.

Try telling that to Sara and Flynn.

They wouldn't let up. They kept coming around asking when was it going to be their turn. I said, figure out how you can be a Presents, and you can have a turn.

They're nothing if not resourceful. They did. Flynn managed to stop being quite so footloose, got himself saddled with a 500 year old castle that is crumbling around his ears, and an earldom which he really doesn't want any part of, but is obligated to shoulder because, well, he is the earl. Sara, of course, knows nothing of this. She hasn't heard from him in six years.

And then one day, Flynn got a letter out of the blue. . .

That was basically the way they told the story to me. I told it to my editor. Said, "Sound like a Presents to you?" She said, "Give a shot." Of course I had to. I owed it to them. They were quite right -- they deserved more than to be a 'loose end' in someone else's book.

I'm delighted to have written it because it took me back to my roots. And I got to revisit places and characters I didn't realize how much I'd missed.

That's one of the really lovely things about writing so many books -- especially linked books -- there is a whole other universe out there with these people in it that I can dip into now and again, stop back in and check on. It's like getting Christmas cards from them -- only better. Every once in a while they invite me back into their lives and let me share them with you.

And if you haven't read The Great Montana Cowboy Auction and are thus worried that you won't have a clue about the people in One-Night Love Child, let me assure you that I can barely remember what I wrote yesterday, so every book absolutely has to stand on its own!

How do you feel about linked books? What are some of your favorites? I never mind adding more books to my TBR pile, so suggestions for great reads, especially linked reads, are very welcome!

One-Night Love Child is a March 2008 Harlequin Presents and an April 2008 Mills & Boon Modern. If you want to read an excerpt, please click on the link.

Anne McAllister

http://www.annemcallister.com/

Delilah Devlin | Today's the day!

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 would like to browse on their own rather than approach the help desk with red cheeks to ask where it's shelved.

I'm hoping they are already hooked on the series and dying for the second book. Yes, it's another vampire book--BUT, it's not the same-O, same-O--it's hotter, scarier, and full of twists and turns. Yes, it's set in New Orleans--BUT in the aftermath of a “great storm,” which will remain unnamed.

My Dark Realm series began in my mind long before Hurricane Katrina hit. I'd read a newspaper article about some minor flooding around New Orleans that lifted coffins in graveyards and left them and their occupants strewn along river banks. A very creepy concept, but so tantalizing to my devious mind, I filed it away.

When I decided to write the series, I pulled out that article, and a stack of books covering subjects like demonology, Sumerian mythology, and Templar Knight lore and constructed a history for my otherworld that is still unfolding in book #2, Seduced by Darkness. I'm really not very methodical about how I plot or write, but I let my research spark ideas, then pluck what I want from the source material, and twist it up a bit. I started submitting the book to agents, but oddly didn't get any bites until Katrina. I guess it really is all in the timing.

The second Dark Realm book is tightly interconnected with the first, INTO THE DARKNESS. I've written several series and don't know any other way to write in my other worlds without having the characters interact and work together toward a common goal. Writing series gives me chance to flesh out those intriguing secondary characters, uncover new layers in events that unfold, and give another perspective on “the battle.” That's not saying, you couldn't read one of the books on its own and be fully satisfied. I'm very careful to plant previous plot threads throughout. Of course, again, not in a methodical way. It just happens.

Delilah Devlin




http://www.delilahdevlin.com/

Hope Tarr | Keeping it in the family-or at least together: Writing the romance series

To paraphrase the late great John Lennon, life is what happens while you’re making other plans.

To directly quote my mother—and mothers everywhere—"Don’t do as I do. Do as I say."

Both sage snippets segue albeit circuitously into my blog topic—how to write connected romance novels, or rather how not to write them, or at least how to recover from (cough, hiccup) going about it all wrong.

My Men of Roxbury House trilogy—VANQUISHED, ENSLAVED, and now UNTAMED—is my first shot at writing connected books. Like anyone’s first anything, in the aftermath, there are lessons learned, battle scars to be shown off—and FYI, I’m not just in it for beads. ;)

Seriously, I don’t write like grownups do. Never have and likely never will. For starters, I don’t write sequentially, linearly, or well, in any reasonable, replicable fashion. You’ll never catch me at a writers’ conference touting my “process,” flashing charts and graphs, or God forbid, instructing others on how to write like me. If anything, I’m the textbook case for what not to do. I do it all wrong—and yet for me, it works.

I write scenes out of order, the characters voicing firing off like canon shot in my head. I’m not a plotter (duh) but I’m not a "pantser," either. I start out with a synopsis, though fat lot of good it does me. I’m what you call a "puzzler," which I’m coming to think amounts to starting down that path paved with good intentions that leads to You Know Where.

In the case of my trilogy books, I thumbed my nose at any notion of creating character sketches, a timeline, a “bible” of people, places, dates, you name it. My muse must have free rein and besides that, all that set-up "stuff" felt like…well, like a lot of work.

Creative freedom tasted sweet for VANQUISHED and ENSLAVED. Then I got to UNTAMED. My challenge (AKA “big problem”) was that Kate and Rourke, my UNTAMED heroine and hero, had already met in ENSLAVED. To keep the sexual tension at a slow sizzle building to burning point, I had to backtrack and start out UNTAMED *prior to* where ENSLAVED left off, all the while keeping clear in my head on where the other secondary characters were at each stage e.g., were Callie and Hadrian (VANQUISHED) married yet and just where were Daisy and Gavin (ENSLAVED) with opening that refurbished theater in the East End?

Memo to whomever manufactures those Post-It notes, please let me know where I can buy stock. Ditto for Starbucks. As to the guy who delivers my carry-out sushi/sashimi, the one whose twins are now contemplating medical school, no need to thank me. I’m always happy to support higher education.

There’s no anchor in a free fall. That said, once you take that leap of faith, there are some pretty amazing surprises that crop up amidst the brambles and screes scraping your knees. In my case, my circuitous “process” has led me to think about adding a fourth book to my so-called trilogy. It seems Rourke’s sexy friend, Ralph, former con artist turned valet is angling for a book of his own. For sure, Kate’s pretty but prickly younger sister, Bea, will be pretty disappointed if he doesn’t get it. I think I will be, too.

What are your experiences of detouring off the so-called beaten path in fiction or in real life? Ever thumb your nose at conventional wisdom—and found yourself thanking the Universe that you did?

Hope’s Unconventional Wisdom:

1. To paraphrase Louis Carroll, begin at the beginning.
   
   
2. If you ignore #1, and of course you will, then at least keep a damned log book, so you can figure out where you went…shall we say, awry.



3. Drink coffee. I recommend a latte with an extra espresso shot—all that shaking keeps you on your toes, or at least awake.



4. To combat being wired from all that caffeine, drink red wine, good red wine, or substitute your mood altering beverage of choice.



5. Keep all carry-out menus within easy reach. Unlike your "work" files, and the character log that in all likelihood doesn’t actually exist, the menus should be kept in meticulous order, preferably alphabetized.



6. Drink another glass of red wine—repeat as needed.

Hope Tarr routinely thumbs her nose at Conventional Wisdom and, hair pulling and teeth gnashing aside, generally finds herself glad she did. To enter her more than monthly contest, and have a shot at winning the latest releases from romance buds Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Kathryn Caskie, visit Hope online at www.hopetarr.com/.

Hope Tarr

Leslie Langtry | Greatest Hits Series

Hello! Thanks to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today! As some of you may know, I write the Greatest Hits Series, featuring the Bombay Family – the first name in assassination since 2000 BCE. My first book, ‘SCUSE ME WHILE I KILL THIS GUY, featured Gin Bombay – soccer mom/assassin. My second book, GUNS WILL KEEP US TOGETHER is about her brother, Dakota Bombay – playboy/assassin. I love writing about this family of hitmen. The Bombays have kids to raise, bills to pay, PTA presidents to avoid, and so on. And they kill people. Well, bad people, really.

A lot of people ask me where the inspiration comes from to write about this subject. I have to say that movies like MR. & MRS. SMITH and GROSSE POINTE BLANK as well as books like Hugh Laurie’s (yes, the guy from HOUSE) THE GUNSELLER rank pretty high on the list. I think it’s because the characters are ordinary people with extraordinary jobs. And it’s easy to write about family life because everybody can relate to quirky cousins and a mother who ignores the fact that you are no longer twelve and still buys you barrettes with your name on them (are you reading this, Mom?). My own cousin came up with the tagline for the first book, “You can’t pick your family, but you can pick them off.” Unfortunately, you actually can’t pick them off if you want to avoid jail time, but I still think truer words were never spoken.

I hope you enjoy the Bombay Series as much as I enjoy writing them! Let me know what you think at leslie@leslielangtry.com, or visit http://www.killerfiction.net/!

Leslie Langtry

Stephanie Bond | Why Romance and Mystery Make Great Bedfellows

I just finished writing the third book in my Body Movers sexy mystery series (Three Men and a Body, due out August 2008) in which the main character, Carlotta Wren, works for Neiman Marcus by day and helps her brother move bodies from crime scenes by night. Carlotta’s life is further complicated by the three men in her life: her first love, a cop who has reopened the case of her fugitive father, and her brother’s body-moving boss. For me, romance and mystery are a natural fit, because one helps to foster the other in the story. The suspense of a mystery is further heightened when the players are emotionally involved. Likewise, the romance between characters is heightened by the adrenaline pumping from the suspense scenes. Nothing gets the heart racing like danger!

In writerspeak, mystery and romance make for a great intermingling of external and internal conflict. The mystery is the external conflict of the story, but if, for example, two characters are on opposite sides of solving the mystery, it makes their internal (personal) conflict more real, and more complicated. This is why I love combining the elements of mystery and romance—they are better together than on their own. (An example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.) And it’s why I think we’ll see more and more “hybrid” books on the market in the future that contain two or more elements of separate genres—because readers appreciate the blending of both worlds. When I sold the Body Movers series to Mira, I suggested that instead of making the reader guess what kind of story it is, that we simply tell the reader what to expect, which is why each cover plainly says, “A Sexy Mystery.” In other words, it lets the readers know that there will be dead bodies, and there will be naked bodies.

(Am I the only person perplexed by the phrase “A novel” on the front of books? What the heck does that mean anyway? If it’s fiction, of course it’s a novel!)

The only downside of blended genre books? Booksellers aren’t quite sure where to shelve them! In mystery? In romance? Both places? In some chains my Body Movers series is shelved in romance because that’s my background and where readers will most likely recognize my name; in other chains the series is shelved in the mystery section, and in others, general fiction, which doesn’t exactly help the reader find what they’re looking for. But I’m confident that bookstores will someday have blended genre sections and that more publishers will begin to tell the reader what to expect, either by spine designation or on the cover itself. Until then, if you don’t find what you’re looking for in one section of the bookstore, don’t be afraid to ask a bookseller for help. And expect more genres to be jumping into bed with each other!

Stephanie Bond

Emilie Richards | Finding Nemo

Nemo came into our lives the way the best ideas for novels often do. One morning my husband and I had no dog. We had memories of two who had aged and died, dogs we had loved for years and mourned with a startling intensity. We also had vows that we would not get another pet while our lives were so busy. Then we got the phone call.

"Mom," our oldest son, the lawyer and country gentleman began, "we found a puppy dying in the grass off our road. Jim–" their neighbor, "nearly ran him over with a bush hog. If I hadn't stopped to talk to him, and he hadn't turned off the tractor. . ."

We didn't need a dog. "What kind of puppy?" I asked, because like any mom I wanted to keep the conversation going. "Who knows. Spotted, starving and sick. I'm not sure he'll make it."

He did make it, of course–or why would I tell this story? My son and daughter-in-law carefully nursed the foundling back to health. Then puppy came to visit one afternoon and simply never left. I couldn't bring myself to name him for days, not until my husband returned home from a conference and saw the baby blue tick beagle with his own eyes. "Nemo," we decided together, because our dog had been lost, then found.

Tonight Nemo is sleeping in his bed beside me. Months later, he is thirty-five pounds of healthy energetic adolescent. He's adored and adorable, the quintessential happy ending. But it occurs to me that Nemo came into my life the same way my idea for a new mystery series did. I had other plans. I knew what was best for my career. I knew from experience that one impulsive detour would take me so far from my planned route that I might never find my way back. And somehow, none of that mattered.

That's how my series arrived. I was happily writing women's fiction, one book a year, then wham, out of nowhere, an idea about a minister's wife who finds murderers appeared at my doorstep. I told myself I was too busy. I told myself this was too far removed from what I was known for. Apparently telling myself anything is a waste of time.

The Ministry is Murder series for Berkley Prime Crime debuted in 2005, and in November of 2007 the third book, Beware False Profits made its debut. I've given up worrying about how sensible an idea is or how much attention I should pay to it. If it wags it's little tail and licks my hand, I'm hooked for life. I've learned that the best books, and the best dogs, are found in the least likely places. They are the gifts we aren't expecting, the joys we only have to reach out and embrace. Nothing else is required.

Please visit my website at http://www.emilierichards.com/ for more information on both my Ministry is Murder and my Shenandoah Album series. And watch for my updates and the new blog coming sometime later this month. Nemo will appear, I can guarantee it.

Emilie Richards

Trish Wylie | Do you get your ideas from real life?

Authors are constantly asked where they get their ideas from. It’s probably the most commonly asked question. And here in the UK and Ireland Mills & Boon (Harlequin’s UK division) is celebrating it’s Centenary, so we’re seeing a lot more press coverage - hence I’ve been asked this question about a half dozen times in the last week alone.

One of the next things they asked was ‘Do you get your ideas from real life?’ to which I consistently answered with a burst of laughter and ‘I WISH!’

But that’s probably not the real answer. Because the initial spark of inspiration *does* come from real life and the things we see and hear around us every day; a song, a movie we hated the end of, the sight of two people talking in a street café, a photograph that captures a moment we want to know more about. And then a chain reaction begins. The who, what, when, where and why starts to find answers inside our heads – the part of our brain in charge of creativity rubbing its hands with glee and setting to work with gusto! (We hope…)

For many it’s the best part of the job – that magical period when ideas come together and characters are born. It’s the putting it into words that makes it *work*. Add deadlines and sometimes it can even become a chore. But then there are so many jobs out there that lack that initial period of magic, aren’t there? I think that’s what makes it such a great way to make a living and what carries us through the harder stuff…

Well that and the readers of course! Because readers are just as capable of seeing that magic on the page, forming different images in their minds, adding personal experiences and how they felt at a certain point of their life to what they’re reading to create a completely original perception pf each book. And I kinda LOVE that. It’s why my February book for the Harlequin Romance line – Her One And Only Valentine – is dedicated to my Readers; the dream makers.

That’s what they are to me. By reading romance and sustaining the genre the way they do they allow me to do what I love to do. And by allowing themselves to get lost in a place where magic still exists they help celebrate love and hope in a world where it be so very over-shadowed by terrible things. So what is it you enjoy about romance novels? Is it that little touch of hope it leaves you with, the escapism, the way some plots make you think? Or was there a book that particularly touched you or helped you through a difficult period in your life?

To find out more about my books, where I got my ideas from and the Emerald Isle I call home you can visit me at My Website (http://www.trishwylie.com/) or my Blog (www.trishwylie.blogspot.com/)

Go n-eírí an bóthar leat.

Trish

Bronwyn Jameson | Working with Friends

They say you should be wary of working with children and animals, but what about friends?

This was a question I probably should have addressed when the Desire senior editor suggested a down-under continuity series back in 2006. I had worked on three continuity series before then, but each was an editor-led series. The overview of the series, the characters, the broad storylines were developed by the editors who invited the authors to participate.

This series, however, was to be author-led. In other words, the development of the series from initial concept to completion would be in the hands of the six authors. The idea of collaborating on a project like this excited me. So much so, I jumped right aboard that train while yelling encouragement to the others to join me.

"Come on," I cajoled to those dragging their feet. "It'll be fun! We'll brainstorm and bounce off each others' energy and we won't have to work in isolation as we usually do. Plus developing a whole series arc will be brilliant!"

Six strong-minded women who are used to operating in creative independence working together as a team... How would that work? Would we still remain friends after all that brainstorming, plotting, writing and promoting?

Two years later and Diamonds Down Under has launched with VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM (January, Silhouette Desire.) Getting to this point was all of the above AND about 300% more work than we'd anticipated. Along the way we honed our collaborative skills and learned about delegation, compromise, tact, and teamwork. AND--here's the happy ending romance always promises--the bonds of friendship have not only remained intact but have strengthened.

We're not the first to tackle our own multi-book continuity series for Harlequin or even for Silhouette Desire. Before Diamonds Down Under there was the six-book Millionaire of the Month, and before that The Madonna Key (7 books) for the now defunct (sadly) Bombshell line.

But when it comes to continuity collaboration, my poster gals are the Mills & Boon Medicals foursome who recently sold their 12th Crocodile Creek title.

Lilian Darcy, Alison Roberts, Marion Lennox and Meredith Webber have got together not once, not twice, but three times to develop and write three four-book mini-series. Who better to ask about the magic of collaboration? Here is what they had to say:

Alison Roberts: To sum it up, I'd say it's challenging but fabulous. And so much fun, working in little bits and pieces of the other books, like snatches of conversations overheard or even just the expression on someone's face.

Marion Lennox: It was indeed fun. It felt a bit like a free book cos there were four plotters rather than one. I think the fact that we totally respected each other as writers and we knew each other's characters would be treated sympathetically was the key.

Meredith Webber: What I loved was the intricacy of it, weaving the stories together so bits of one fitted seamlessly with bits of another. We even wrote little passages for each other's books so the stories melded. This might not have happened if we'd known each other less well or not been friends.

Lilian Darcy: What they said…plus I will add some advice to anyone attempting an author-generated series: give yourselves a simple over-arching continuity thread that hits the centre of your line's promise to the reader so that the complexity and uniqueness can develop within each story without you all getting tangled up and treading on each other's toes.

If you'd like to sample the results of the collaborative effort that produced CROCODILE CREEK, visit my blog (www.bronwynjameson.com/blog) in February. If you'd like to sample the results of the collaborative effort that produced DIAMONDS DOWN UNDER, visit www.diamonds-downunder.com/ for blurbs, extracts, backstory and our series blog. And don't miss the chance to win a diamond pendant in our Treasure Hunt. VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM, by Bronwyn Jameson, is available now.

Rhonda Pollero | Finnley is soooo not me!

I’ve heard that a lot since the debut of my of the Finley Anderson Tanner series. I can’t attest to how much she and I are alike. Yes, Finley and I share the same sense of humor and I suppose her moral code mirrors my own. That’s pretty much where the similarities end. Well, excluding the fact that she’s blonde and short. That’s a function of practicality. Being blonde and short myself, I know how to dress Finley (fairly high heels are important) and the physicality of the character’s actions reflect the fact that unless she started dating Michael J. Fox, she’d never know what it felt like to dance with her head resting on a guy’s shoulder.

In all other aspects, Finley and I couldn’t be less alike.

She’s a shopper, something I personally loathe. I’d rather remove a kidney than go to a mall. The whole idea of window-shopping makes me want to stick pencils in my eyes. Finley’s also heavily in debt, another personal taboo of mine. But the biggest difference is that she’s an underachiever by choice. I’m so much of an overachiever that I probably could benefit from lengthy therapy.

Crafting a character is never easy – nor should it be – and there will always be a sprinkling of the author’s personality and/or personal experiences in his or her characters. Figuring out where to draw the line can be tough, especially when doing an on-going series.

Knowing Finley needed room to grow, so I gave her some hefty flaws. In KNOCK OFF (available in paperback now), she takes her first foray into the realm of solving a crime. She isn’t all that adept in the beginning, but by the end of the book, she’s learned a few things, although she’s a long way from attaining the moniker of amateur sleuth. At best, she’s an accidental sleuth.

In the second book, KNOCK ‘EM DEAD (on shelves February 27th), she builds on what she learned in the first book, though she’s still a long way from a crime-solving whiz.

Finley marked a detour in my career. After writing more than 25 romantic suspense novels under my pseudonym Kelsey Roberts, I wondered how books penned by Rhonda Pollero would be received. Different name, and different flavor. Was there enough mystery to satisfy mystery fans? Was the sizzle between Finley and Liam enough of a subplot to draw fans of my romantic suspense? I honestly didn’t have a clue and after a lot of angst filled soul-searching, I decided I had to put those concerns on the back burner and just tell the story.

I’m glad I took the chance. People seem to love Finley as much as I do.

And that’s the bottom line, isn’t it? A writer is a storyteller; everything else is just window dressing.

Happy Writing . . . Rhonda

www.rhondapollero.com/ www.kelseyroberts.net/

Blaize Clement | Why Pets Are In the Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series

The first time somebody asked why my Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series includes pets, I was a little taken aback. I mean, Dixie Hemingway is a pet sitter, for gosh sake, so there had to be pets. But when I thought about it, I realized it had been my choice to make the pets equal in importance to the human characters. Not with human characteristics or psychic abilities or super strength, but just regular pets like regular people have. So I gave it some thought, and finally came up with an answer.

Every culture has mythic tales of a golden age when humans and animals lived as friends. In The Illiad, when a warrior was killed, his horse hung his head and wept. In The Ramayana, an army of brave monkeys rescued Princess Sita from an evil kidnapper. When the Buddha left his father's palace to seek enlightenment, his horse wept too, when he had to return to the palace alone. And then there's that serpent in the Garden of Eden who told Eve the truth about eating of the tree of knowledge.

In all those old stories, animals represented wisdom and courage and loyalty, and the friendship between humans and animals was one of unconditional love and sacrifice. As humans distanced from that connection with animals, I think we lost a connection to the best part of ourselves. So that's the real reason for putting pets in my stories. It's my way of trying to reconnect with the best part of humanity's story.

The third book in the Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series was published last week. It's titled Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues. Like Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter and Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund, it has several animal characters that are important to the story. You can read more
about all the books at www.blaizeclement.com/ and at my blog, Kitty Litter (http://www.dixiehemingway.wordpress.com/)

Blaize Clement

Susan Stephens| Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s great to be here so I can wish you all the very best for 2008.

I’m thrilled to announce the release of 3 books in January and February.

The first, Laying Down the Law, is particularly dear to my heart, because it tells the story of a young trainee barrister and her bad-boy American Italian pupil master, Lorenzo Domenico.

I can’t deny this UK Modern Heat release was inspired by my daughter training to be a lawyer- but she now complains she never got to meet anyone remotely like Lorenzo!

Bought: One Island, One Bride, is a Harlequin Presents release in February, and was inspired by my meeting a passionate environmentalist while I was holidaying in the Greek islands.

It was impossible not to be inspired by the romantic promise of such a fabulous setting, and by the passion of Jamie, the young man who opened our eyes to the vulnerable eco-systems surrounding us. (I only hope Jamie hasn’t minded my changing him into my heroine, Ellie Mendoras!)

My third book, The Tycoon’s Virgin

Is a Harlequin Presents 2nd cycle release in February, which means it will be shelved near the Desire titles, and a little later in the month than is usual for Presents.

The Tycoon’s Virgin was inspired by my house move to the remote Yorkshire moors and features a girl with plenty to hide and a hero who is determined to uncover all her secrets- Plus there’s plenty of hot mud and steamy showers in between!

Prize news

Some time in January I’ll be announcing a winner on my Blog, chosen at random from our list of Birthday Babies- and that winner will win a special hamper of gifts to make the New Year start with some much deserved pampering.

Plus, from January to June 2008 I am inviting you to bring two friends to join my Birthday Babies club. All you have to do is contact my assistant Lee at lee@susanstephens.net with your name and the names and info for your two friends who want to sign up and you will be entered into a special draw as a thank you. Yes, you have 2 chances to win!

I’ve also got some super new bookmarks to give away, so if you’d like one just send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Leena’s Goodie Room
Susan Stephens Goodies
4411, 76th Ave. West # 2
University Place, WA 98466
USA

USA readers should put 41 cents postage on the envelope and overseas readers should email lee@susanstephens.net for more information on how to get a bookmark.

Don’t forget, I love hearing from readers at susan@susanstephens.net and in the meantime, I’d like to wish you and those closest to you a very happy New Year with lots of love, laughter and reading pleasure!


Susan

http://www.susanstephens.net/

Kathryn Albright | Where do you find your inspiration?

What sparks that excitement inside that urges you to write? Is it a news report, a TV show, a person, or a place?

For my debut book, The Angel and the Outlaw, a historical romance, it was the setting that captured me and begged me to write. Growing up in San Diego, I often visited the Old Pt. Loma Lighthouse with my family. My imagination would take flight there, and I’d conjure up scenarios involving the cliffs, the tide, and the caves. As a child, the news reports of people stranded when the tide came in made me nervous enough to keep a close eye on each and every wave while exploring the tide pools (and have nightmares about tidal waves!) The stories of shipwrecks off the coast added even more adventure to the mix.

The Old Pt. Loma Lighthouse was built in 1854. Through its 36 years of service the light keepers saw many of the things I mention in my book such as the community picnic. The light keeper, having a perfect view of the ocean, would hang a red flag on the railing when he spotted a pod of the California Gray whales migrating to alert the Johnson Whaling Company on the harbor side of the peninsula.

San Diego in 1873, the year The Angel and the Outlaw takes place, was already an international mix of people—much like it is today. The Hispanic culture formed San Diego long before any Anglos made their mark. Then there were the Portuguese whalers and Chinese fishermen, each staking their own area of town. All of these add wonder and interest to the city’s history and also to the setting of my story.

Needless to say—history fascinates me. I’d love to hear how you are inspired. Add a comment here or contact me through my website at http://www.kathrynalbright.com/

Thanks Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog today!

Kathryn Albright www.kathrynalbright.com/ The Angel & the Outlaw ~ Harlequin Historical, Dec. 2007

Clea Simon | Kitty Cornered

What is scarier than losing your pet?

Okay, I guess I should have put that question in context. There are many things scarier than losing your pet. Losing your child or your spouse. Losing your own life. Colonoscopies. Spiders. But for me, for a period of about two months last year, I had to face one of my own particular fears. What’s worse, I had to make that fear come to life for my heroine, Theda Krakow, her pampered and beloved housecat, Musetta, and for any reader out there.

You see, I was working on what became my third Theda Krakow mystery, “Cries and Whiskers,” and I wanted to ratchet up the tension and suspense. But it had to be on my terms – for my readers. And my readers love their pets. So although I have long promised my readers that I would never hurt or kill any animals in my books (humans don’t count), I needed to put Musetta at risk. I needed to have her disappear into a blinding winter storm. And I needed on suspicious phone call to hint that maybe that disappearance wasn’t entirely voluntary.

So what’s the problem? Well, Musetta is based on my own pet. And so I had to put myself in the mind of my heroine. I had to imagine the panic I’d feel if I came home on a freezing sleet-spitting winter night and found my pampered house pet missing. I had to imagine searching in a frenzy. Checking and re-checking all her hiding places, and then, finally, dashing out in the storm to start the hunt in earnest. I had to re-learn everything I know about searching for a lost pet, everything I know about trapping and signs and microchipping. And I had to imagine how I’d cope with all of this in the middle of a wild winter storm, in my panic, with loss creeping up on me like the icy wind.

To be honest, it was harrowing. My real Musetta sleeps on the chair behind my desk most days, but maybe she picked up my tension because several times while I was working on this part of “Cries and Whiskers,” she “went missing.” Not far in her case – I could usually find her in one of her regular spots, her “cave” at the back of the closet or her shelf by the window. But for many long minutes I’d find myself holding my breath, holding back my panic – all until I was holding my own cat, once again.

I’ve been lucky. Readers have responded to the real emotion I put into “Cries and Whiskers,” much as they have to my first two mysteries, the series opener “Mew is for Murder” and last year’s “Cattery Row.” And a recent skim through some new numbers has shown me why.

As silly as I sometimes feel – after all, not only do I write mysteries with cats in them, I’ve got kitty paraphernalia all over my office – it seems I am not at all alone. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (yes, there is such an organization), nearly half of those of us who cohabit with cats – 49.2 percent – consider our cats to be members of our families. (Dogs are even luckier: 53.5 percent of dog owners consider their pooches to be family.)
The more I think about it, the more I suspect the real numbers are even higher. After all, it’s only recently that we’ve been finally ready to admit that we do love these little creatures. But now that we’ve brought them into our homes, we’ve also welcomed them into our hearts – and according to that same APPMA survey, we’re willing to spend on their health, comfort, and safety, too, to the tune of more than $40 billion that we spent this year on our 88.3 million cats, 74.8 million dogs, 13.4 million reptiles, or that odd 24.3. million category simply called “other small animal.” We want them to have as long and as healthy a life as possible, a life that they’ll share we us, and we’re finally ’fessing up to that fact – and trying to make it happen. Which is why housecats are now living into their 20s and even the larger dogs are now enjoying longer play-filled lives.

And why not? I mean, with all the uncertainties in life, especially in the middle of winter when the weather outside is truly frightful, isn’t it wonderful to come home to that one sweet face, with its purrs or wagging tail? Cause no matter how much we spend on our pets, we’re really taking care of ourselves.What more could we want, on a long, cold winter night, than the warm, soft bulk of our best animal friend, curling up beside us?

purrs!
Clea

Cries and Whiskers
Now Available

Homepage: www.cleasimon.com/

my blog: cleasimon.blogspot.com

Clea Simon is the author of several nonfiction books, including “The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats” (St. Martin’s) and the Theda Krakow cat mystery series, “Mew is for Murder,” “Cattery Row,” and the brand new “Cries and Whiskers,” all published by Poisoned Pen Press.

Susan Mallery | I Like...

I like fruitcake. Yes, there it is. I’ve said it in public. I like it. It’s cake with fruit and nuts, which means it’s practically a health food. If my slice is big enough, it should count for at least two of the nine fruit and vegetable servings I’m supposed to have in a day. There’s enough sugar to keep me wired for at least two hours. Where’s the bad?

I also like wrapping presents. I have a ritual…I wait until everything is bought, then stack them by the table, get out all my wrapping supplies, put in the original Star Wars movie and wrap. I actually try to match the right wrapping paper to the gift or the person, I use all kinds of ribbons and little toys on the packages. Some years I’m done in two movies, but most it takes me all three. I wipe up the last of the glitter just as the wookies are doing the happy dance at the end of the third movie.

I like the fact that I’ve joked so much about not being a good cook that my sister in law won’t trust me with anything more than putting out rolls for our big family dinner. I wash the “good” dishes at the end of the meal, which turns out to be great fun. Everyone wants to keep me company (possibly out of guilt that I’m doing the clean-up, I’m not sure.) The kitchen is noisy and bright and there’s plenty of left-over wine to speed the process.

This year, I like that my book Accidentally Yours will be out the day after Christmas.

Books are supposed to be like kids—as writers, we shouldn’t have favorites. But this is one of mine favorites. I love everything about this book. I love Kerri, my heroine, who is determined and tough and vulnerable and willing to do anything in the world to get the job done. I like that Nathan, my hero, is so sure he’s a heartless bastard, when in truth, he’s terrified of loving and losing again.

Accidentally Yours is one of those special books writers talk about. A book of the heart. It just came to me over take-out, while my husband was out of town and I was trying to decide which chick flick to watch. I can’t explain the process by which a book arrives fully formed in my head, I only know I wish it happened more often. There was something so easy about writing this book, as if I knew everything that was supposed to happen. It felt a little like magic.

During this special time of year, I wish you and yours the very best of everything. May the new year bring you happiness, good fortune, health and fruitcake! And if you’re looking to add a little sparkle to your holiday season, give Accidentally Yours a try. I think you’ll love it!

If you get a chance, please visit my website http://www.susanmallery.com/. We’re having a “12 Days of Christmas” contest, with a prize being given away every day!!

Happy Holidays,

Susan

Jennifer Rardin | What A Day

What a fabulous day! I’ve got Christmas tunes on surround sound. The house smells like praline caramel sticky buns. And my second book, Another One Bites the Dust, officially releases in the States TODAY. I haven’t felt this fab since I spied a whole stack of Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstoppers on the shelf at my grocery and realized that I might actually live long enough to meet an oompa loompa. I’ll have to clean up my act first though. Far too much swearing for their taste, I’m pretty sure.

Should we talk about the book a sec? About the fact that Jaz has to belly dance as part of her cover? About how she’d much rather crawl through the mud while being fired upon by a long line of tanks manned by vicious, American-hating devil-worshipers? Never fear, our girl is up to the task. Gotta impress the boss-man, right? Plus, when Vayl looks at her that way…she may just learn to like the skimpy costumes.

It’s not all fun and games though. Jaz and Vayl have been assigned to take down a slippery old vamp named Chien-Lung who’s gotten away with far too much for way too long. Hindering their progress—a new kind of nightmare creature with ties that seem to stretch all the way to hell. If they don’t kill Jaz, her dreams just might.

When you finish this read, you can look forward to Biting the Bullet, which comes out in just a couple of months. February 11, 2008 if we want to be anal about it. Which I do. Sorry, one of my multiple shortcomings, along with a weakness for chocolate and a tendency to freeze like a Popsicle if I sit in one place for more than fifteen minutes at a time. I’d be a horrible mountaineer, wouldn’t I? I can just see me trying to scale Everest. If I even made it to base camp, all I’d do is walk around all day slapping my arms against my chest saying, “Damn, it’s cold! Why are we here again? And sleeping in tents? Seriously, somebody should build a hotel!”

I used to be into the whole camping scenario. When I was younger, and springier. But now, like Vayl, I kinda like my perks. Get a little grumpy, for instance, without the daily shower. Whenever I watch the survivalists on TV doing their seven-day treks all I can think is, How bad are you itching right now, not to mention the stench? Jaz could pull that off, no problem. But she’s tough, right? She’s been through it, almost from birth. And though you really have to appreciate her grit, you’ll see in later books how it’s becoming something of a detriment. After all, surviving is one thing. Learning to become a social, friendly, even loving human being post-tragedy is quite another. That’s where she’s going now as I edit the fourth book in the series, Bitten to Death and write the fifth, One More Bite. It’s been interesting watching her progress. When she falls. Whew! Spectacular. But she always gets up again. And that’s why we love her.

Jennifer Rardin, Author

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Another One Bites the Dust
http://www.jenniferrardin.com/

Francis Ray - The Graysons of New Mexico

First of all I'd like to thank the wonderful folks at Fresh Fiction for making this possible. It's always a pleasure to reach out to readers. You make all those solitary hours writing worthwhile. You are incredible and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

During this wonderful holiday season we are especially reminded of the joy of having a close, loving family. The Graysons of New Mexico is such a family. Four gorgeous, successful brothers and one beautiful, outspoken baby sister. There was only one thing wrong - or so their loving mother thought - they weren't remotely interested in getting married. So, Ruth Grayson with a mother's uncanny perception of what her children want in a soul mate, places in their unwitting path the perfect candidate.

For Luke, the protector and the oldest, she'd chosen Catherine Stewart, a noted Child psychologist in UNTIL THERE WAS YOU. The ideal match for Morgan, the defender, in YOU AND NO OTHER, was Phoenix Bannister, a renowned sculptress. For her middle child Brandon, the nurturer, the perfect woman was Faith McBride, executive manager of a 5 star hotel in DREAMING OF YOU. Pierce, the thinker and last bachelor, learned there were no rules in love when he fell hopelessly in love with Sabra Raineau, a Broadway actress in IRRESISTIBLE YOU.

In ONLY YOU, Book #5 of the Graysons of New Mexico Series and my current release, Ruth faces her greatest challenge with Sierra, her independent and stubborn daughter her sons nicknamed The Little General. The last thing on Sierra's mind is a man - until Blade Navarone "wins" her at an auction. An unexpected and torrid kiss leaves both reeling. Each has strong reasons to fight the attraction, but sometimes love won't be denied.

Before saying goodbye, I want to wish you and yours the happiest and safest of holiday season. And of course, time to curl up with a good book.

Francis
http://www.francisray.com/

www.MySpace.com/francisray

readersoffrancisray@yahoogroups.com

Linda Lael Miller | Growing Up Western

I grew up in a little town in northeastern Washington state, a place called Northport. My dad was, really and truly, the town marshal. I was raised on stories, told mostly by my adopted grandmother, Florence Wiley, about 'old times', when she lived on a farm outside of Coffeyville, Kansas. In my childhood, she was usually working at the wood-burning cook stove while she told her stories, and that stove has been in every western I've ever written, always in the same part of the kitchen. Later, when the uncles went together and bought her an electric model, she hated it, claiming it burned everything, and banished it. The black iron and chrome Kitchen Queen was soon back in residence.

Her stories were great. Jesse James once slept in the family barn, and she clearly remembered the day the Dalton brothers tried to rob the bank in Coffeyville. The townspeople had gotten word that they were coming, and they were ready, on roof tops and between buildings, with rifles. The gang was annihilated--the shots were audible from the farm several miles outside of town--and later the bodies were displayed as a deterrent to budding outlaws. Grandma Wiley's father was ahead of his time, psychologically, and refused to take his children to town and parade them past those bloody corpses, like so many others were doing.

My dad and uncles were rodeo cowboys in their younger days--Uncle Jack Lael was a champion, rode at Madison Square Garden, and got to kiss Miss America, so I grew up around horses and tales of the baddest bulls and wildest broncos on the circuit, of course. When people ask me how I can make the old west seem so authentic in my books, I like to say it's because I was born and raised in it!

lindalaelmiller.com

Ann Roth | Fodder for the Creative Mill

People are always asking, Where do you get your ideas? Oh honey, if they only knew! Here are some of my favorite idea generators.

Eavesdropping. I do that a lot. It's easy, fun, and good for getting those creative juices flowing. Also, when friends say something intriguing, I let them know that some day their story or clever word usage could end up in a book. Fictionalized of course, so that often they won't recognize themselves. With strangers.... they'll never know.

Observation. People watching is such a kick. Even more fun is making up stories about those you watch. Why are they behaving that way? Who are the people they are with? I'll bet even non-writers do this.

TV, radio, music and the movies. I've been known to take a premise or a snippet of and run with it. The end results never look remotely like the show from which I drew my inspiration.

Magazines and newspapers. Tons of great stuff there. Especially those advice columns and the stories of personal triumphs over bad situations.

And of course, life itself. Something happens to me or a friend or relative, or a friend's friend, and I get to thinking, What if?

I'm sure there are other ways of generating ideas. If you know of any that aren't mentioned here, please share.

Ann
http://www.annroth.net/
Mitch Takes A Wife, August 2007
All I Want for Christmas, November 2007

Tara Janzen | Book series and automotive infatuation.

One of the questions I’ve been getting asked a lot lately is if my new book, ON THE LOOSE, is still part of the CRAZY series, and the answer is Yes! All of the same characters from Steele Street and SDF, Special Defense Force, are in the LOOSE series of books. We’re still at the chop shop in Denver, dear readers! Much to my surprise, while tramping through the wilds of El Salvador with C. Smith Rydell and Honey York in ON THE LOOSE, I came across another lost chop-shop boy from Steele Street, and his story is told in CUTTING LOOSE, which comes out in January.

So many people who have read the books have fallen in love with the cars, all those beautiful American muscle cars from the sixties and seventies, the ones with engines so big the insurance companies balked at underwriting them. In one instance, they did more than balk. By refusing to insure the cars, they actually shut down production on Don Yenko’s 1969 Chevy Yenko “SYC 427” Novas. Yenko converted thirty stock SS-396 Novas into the barely street legal monsters, before the insurance companies got cold feet. Marrying that much power to something as relatively small and light as a Chevy Nova made a car that even Yenko considered “a beast, almost lethal.” Which, of course, is why I had to have one in the books! She’s named “Mercy,” because she has none, and of course, she’s raced by a girl who blows the tires off everything that goes up against her.

The first car in the books is Jeanette the Jet, a 1969 Camaro with a 383 LT1 stroker under the hood – my dream car. Or so I thought until I met Angelina, a 1970 Chevelle SS 454, Black Cherry with black racing stripes. And then came Coralie, a 1967 Pontiac GTO, Signet Gold with a 360-horse Ram Air 400. She stole my heart – up until I met Charlotte the Harlot, a 1968 Shelby Mustang CJ428, Candyapple Red with white stripes.

So what do you think? What’s the toughest, coolest car to ever come out of Detroit? Or does your favorite rubber-souled machine come from someplace else? If so, let me know. Right now, I’m spending my days dreaming of another 1970 Chevelle SS 454, the rare and wondrous LS6. Can anybody beat that for sheer heart-pounding, automotive infatuation?

Tara Jenzen

http://www.tarajanzen.com/

Maddy Hunter | Not Your Average Saturday Night

Having been raised in New England, educated in convent school, hired as a church organist at age thirteen, and born into a family that boasted five priests, I suspect the last place you'd expect to find me on a Saturday night is in Amsterdam's red-light district, but two weeks ago, that's exactly where I was.

I write the Passport to Peril Mystery series, featuring travel escort Emily Andrew and her band of quirky Iowa seniors, so I travel the globe looking for exciting places to kill imaginary characters. To date, I've committed murder in Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Hawaii, Australia, and Scandinavia. With NORWAY TO HIDE due to be released at the end of October, it was time for me to select a new killing ground, which is how I happened to be eating dinner in an upscale Dutch restaurant, opposite two fellow tour members who suggested it might be fun to explore the red-light district after the bus dropped us off at our hotel.

The red-light District? That den of inquity where brothels had thrived for a century? Where people could indulge in hanky-panky while guzzling ardent spirits and smoking something even more potent than Marlboros? Me? Go there? A bit outside my comfort zone, thank you. My idea of a rousing Saturday night is five o'clock Mass and a burger at Culvers.

"Oh, let's," said a third tour member. "I'm game," said another. Even my husband expressed interest. Uh-oh. If I didn't agree to tag along, I'd not only look like a wuss, I'd be a poor excuse for a mystery writer whose credentials included killing people on three continents. I reminded myself that I'd been thinking of letting a couple of my characters -- "the two Dicks" -- run amok in the red-light district in the next book, so I wouldn't be gawking, I'd be... doing research. "I guess you can count me in, too," I finally spoke up, hoping I wouldn't live to regret it, .

After recruiting three more willing tour guests and receiving vague directions, we set off on our adventure like the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales– the New York paralegal, the IRS guy, the UCLA professor, the retired research scientist, the government employee with actual security clearance, the agricultural engineer, two avid Boston Red Sox fans and the cozy mystery writer. We walked in a clump, trying to blend in, but I suspected we weren't tall enough. (Factoid: If you're Dutch, you're really, really tall.) We passed a group of young men on a bridge and I heard the word "American" whispered. (Factoid: I wondered what gave it away? My husband's baseball cap, the IRS guy's Members Only jacket, or the name tags that were still pinned to our clothing?) We tried to determine which pathway we were on– the pedestrian sidewalk or the bicycle path. (Factoid: In Amsterdam there are walkways for people that run adjacent to bicycle lanes. The ground is littered with the bones of American who couldn't figure out the difference.)

"It sure is quiet for a Saturday night," I commented as we followed along a tranquil canal lit by strings of white lights. Amsterdam was spectacular at night with its patrician houses illuminated by sparkling chandeliers behind acres of glass. But the streets were oddly deserted. "Does anyone know where we're going?" asked the paralegal. "This way," said the BoSox fan, and after a left turn, we heard the commotion, which gradually increased to a rock concert roar.

So this was the red-light district. No wonder the rest of Amsterdam was deserted. Everyone was here! People milled shoulder-to-shoulder for as far as the eye could see along a narrow canal. Music blasted. Lights blared. Neon signs advertised products that I'd never find at my local Bed, Bath, and Beyond. A woman dressed in Victoria's Secret lingerie stood statue-still in a storefront window, staring at her cell phone. I couldn't figure out if she was sending a text message or having trouble with her system. "Stick together," the BoSox fan admonished as we wove through the crowd, grabbing onto the hems of each others' jackets.

The ladies of the evening occupied the same kind of cubicles made popular by Hollywood Squares. They were young, gorgeous, and looking for busy. Men gawked. Men whistled. My fictional Dicks would love it here. I was so glad I'd come! I could weave this into a story really well. Our BoSox fan started snapping pictures. "Should you do that?" I asked him. "I read someplace that you're not supposed to take photos in the red-light distract." "I must have missed that," he responded as he continued to snap away.

We walked briskly, losing our grips on each other as we snaked our way through the ever-thickening crowd. On a bridge across the canal I saw a group of brave souls holding up signs that proclaimed, "JESUS SAVES." I sidled looks at the ladies of the evening, my writer's curiosity piqued. Was there one woman who attracted more business than all the others? Did that make the others jealous? Did they ever get together to do lunch or shop? Was this their full time profession, or like in "Pretty Woman," were they only saving money to attend college? How much did they charge for their services? Did they have boyfriends?

The lights and music came to an abrupt end at a bridge and the members of our little troupe straggled onto it one by one. All except our BoSox fan. "Has anyone seen Dan?" asked his wife. We'd all seen him, but not within the last few minutes. So we waited. And waited. And waited.

No Dan. My husband whistled into the crowd. Someone whistled back, which did nothing but prove that two people in the crowd could whistle really loudly. We waited some more. "We should probably go back to the hotel," said his wife after a while. "He'll find his way back."

Go back? But what if something had happened to him? What if he didn't know his way back? What if he'd been arrested for taking pictures? What if he was floating in the canal? This was terrible! (Factoid: On the other hand, it was really great because it was inspiring some great ideas for my next book.) "He's a big boy," his wife assured us calmly. "He'll be fine." I was so admiring of her. If I'd been in her shoes, I'd be frantic. I was really regretting coming here. So we reluctantly shuffled back through the crowd on the opposite side of the canal, constantly looking over our shoulders for Dan. No one wanted to face our tour guide in the morning to tell him that it was only day two of our tour, and we'd already managed to lose a guest.

The eight of us trooped into our hotel with the weight of the world on our shoulders. "What do you want us to do?" we asked his wife. "Should we stay with you, contact our tour guide, contact the authorities?" "I'll give him a couple of hours," she assured us, "and if he's not back by then..." At which point Dan came bouncing into the lobby, bursting with enthusiasm. "I got some great pictures. You wanna see?"

"Where WERE you?" we asked as we crowded around him. "I was right there," he said as he flashed us a picture of a sultry blond. "With the JESUS SAVES people."

Jesus saves. Thank God. (Factoid: Yup. The Dicks were going to love the red-light district.)

Please visit my website at Maddyhunter.com.

Jennifer Lewis | Alpha Females

Anna Marcus, the heroine of my book Seduced for the Inheritance is a tough cookie. She’s dealing with the fallout of divorce and bankruptcy, and is freshly bereaved. Then she runs into my arrogant, demanding (and of course, irresistible) hero. Anna has just unexpectedly inherited her childhood home, a tiny cottage in the middle of the huge Paradiso estate. When estate-owner Naldo de Leon tries to buy back what he sees as an integral part of his own domain, does she hand it over with a whimper and run away?

Heck no. She’s constitutionally incapable of doing that. In fact, the more he tries to rush her and goad her into selling, the harder she fights back. She’s as stubborn, proud and insistent as Naldo…something he slowly, but surely, comes to appreciate and admire.

Anna is an ‘alpha female’ who can’t be pushed around, even by the most determined ‘alpha male.’

I enjoy writing the kind of strong heroines who stand up for their beliefs and their rights, even when that makes life more difficult for them. Perhaps I enjoy living vicariously through them. In real life I dislike conflict and will sometimes let an annoyance slide to avoid a confrontation. It’s fun to write about a woman who doesn’t mind taking the heat.

Most readers like a romance heroine to be someone they can identify with, and who they’d like to be friends with. Over the years, I think heroines have changed to reflect our changing society. These days, most of us have demanding careers and busy family lives, and can readily identify with strong women who work hard for what they want and won’t stand for being pushed around.

In a story with a strong alpha male hero, I especially enjoy seeing him matched with a woman who won’t let him steamroll over her. It makes for a lot of spark and passion, and I can picture them living happily ever after as equal partners who keep each other on their toes.

At Book Expo America this summer, I was signing copies of my debut book The Boss’s Demand, when a silver-haired lady walked up to the counter, peered at my cover, then collared me: “Does she have any backbone?” I explained that indeed she did. She went on to tell me she could only read books with strong heroines. When pressed, her friend admitted that she preferred sweet, gentle heroines.

Do you like alpha females? Or do you prefer a softer, more yielding heroine? Who are some of your favorite romance heroines, and what makes you like them so much?

Everyone who enters my contest today will be entered to win a copy of Seduced for the Inheritance . If you already have the book (a quality to be admired!) you will win a copy of my July book The Boss’s Demand. If you already own that too, then I dearly love you and I will give you something else.

Jen

http://www.jenlewis.com/

http://www.myspace.com/jenniferlewiswrites

Tawny Weber | What If and Why?

What if and why are two of my favorite things to ask. I'm notorious for asking them in writing and in life. (I think I ask often enough I drive my husband a little nuts, to be honest). I've what if'd everything from the idea that we are really all just microscopic beings on the thumbnail of a giant (hey, I was twelve) to the slightly-obsessive emergency kit I packed for the drive through a snowstorm for a family emergency (hey, I'm a California girl... how was I supposed to know those flutters weren't a storm? and we MIGHT have needed those empty tuna cans and tealight candles for heat... really, we might have). And I ask why more than an eight year old. Just ask my eight year old, she'll tell you!

A psychologist might refer to it as catastrophic thinking (taking what if to its highest degree of drama) but for a writer, it's mighty handy. After all, the question of “what's the worst thing that could happen” is what provides me with plot and conflict. Better yet, what if is what keeps the reader turning the pages. When I read a book, I'm always wondering, always asking -what's next? Why? When I'm writing, I love to think what if, and use that to keep tossing conflict and issues at my poor characters for them to figure out. Why is always in the back of my head. Why do they do this, why don't they do that?

This what if process can apply to any type of story, from paranormal to historical to suspense. My stories are pure fun... of the sexy kind. But that what if angle is always there. For instance - in my May 2007 Blaze debut I asked myself what would happen if a cop went undercover for the first time and was totally out of his element. Why would he be so uncomfortable? And what if, at the same time, a bad girl was dared to prove she was still just as bad as always. Why does she care what her friends think? What if she ended up with the wrong guy? Tada... DOUBLE DARE was born. I kept asking why, pushing the what if's and why's, playing with the idea, but that core question was the premise of my first sale and the heart of Audra and Jesse's story.

For my upcoming January release, DOES SHE DARE? I asked what would push a gal with major goal setting tendencies to create the ultimate Man Plan. Not only was it fun to ask the what if's for this story, it was even more fun to keep adding to them. What if this goal-setting gal wrote a Man Plan? Why did she think she needed a plan to hot up her sex life? What if the hottest dream guy she could imagine showed up on her doorstep? What if he got his hands on her plan? What if he was the one guy who could ruin everything she'd worked for... would she risk it? Why? (See how that works?)

What if and why -they are my favorite writing questions. How about you... do you ever ask what if? Do you make up stories to go with the question? When you're reading, do you ever ask yourself why on earth the character is doing THAT???

I know I do...

http://blog.tawnyweber.com/main
http://www.myspace.com/tawnyweber

Sandra Marton | Shifting Gears

Well, not gears, exactly. What I’m talking about is a shift in seasons.

I live in New England. That’s in the northeastern part of the United States, for those of you who might not know. ‘New England’ is the name we gave the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, in honor of the English who settled this area in the seventeenth century.

My state, Connecticut, is more ‘New England’ in feel than the others, especially our part of it. Whenever I’m in England, especially heading north, I see the strong resemblance. Our roads are narrow and twisting; we have lots of beautiful stone walls; many towns, counties and rivers bear English place-names.

We’re also famous for our weather. Coldly beautiful winters. Blossom-infused springs. Hot, colorful summers. Absolutely gorgeous autumns. That’s our most famous season and deservedly so. We have lots of forests and woods in New England. During the autumn, our maples, oaks and hickories, all our hardwood trees, put on the most glorious display imaginable.

It’s happening right now. As I write this. I look out the door of my office and see the colors of fall. Flaming reds, brilliant golds, deep purples, hot orange, rich chocolate. Our land is strewn with leaves and there are many more to come because lots of leaves still cling to the trees.

As always, I’m amazed at how quickly summer fled. I knew fall was here—I even had a soft of official reminder because I have a book out right now. The Spanish Prince’s Virgin Bride is an October release for Presents. And next month—still in the autumn—I have a book coming out in the United Kingdom: Seduced by Christmas.

So, it’s definitely fall—but the best reminder of all is the view outside my office.

I’m happy to be able to share it with you.

Sandra Marton

http://sandramarton.com/

Donna Lea Simpson | When series change their ‘look’.

Most authors’ romance or mystery series have a definable ‘look’. The novels in the series all bear a striking resemblance in graphics used, or models, style, color palette, and other similarities that ‘brand’ them. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are instantly recognizable for the bold colors and font selected. You can recognize those puppies across the bookstore! And that’s the point. The cover’s job is to draw readers, and once a rhythm is established, to signal to readers that this another book in a series they love.

When I received the cover for the first novel in my ‘Awaiting’ series with Berkley - Awaiting the Moon - I was relieved. I loved it! There are a lot of elements - full moon, wolf, castle, and brooding hero with moody expression – but I think it works. It’s mostly tones of blue… moody and dark. Most importantly, it really does signal what the book is; a historical paranormal werewolf romance. So it perfectly epitomized the series to follow! The heroes of my books are conflicted, moody, and secretive, and the tone is slightly dark and gothic, with secrets and mystery swirling throughout. Whew… that’s a lot to put out there! And yet I felt that the cover did its job admirably.

The second cover, for Awaiting the Night, really echoes the first; it has another enigmatic hero, a castle, a wolf, and the moon, but the colors are different. In other words, it does its job and echoes the first cover, establishing a rhythm.

But then I received the third cover, for Awaiting the Fire. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great cover: attractive colors, nice texture – kind of satiny in feel – with what I think of as the ‘Bowflex-fella’ front and center and the title in raised metallic red print. But… it doesn’t look anything like the first two. Not one iota. And that’s problematic, in that it doesn’t send the right signal; not only does it not echo the first two, I think looking at it, you’d be hard pressed to guess what the book is. A mystery? A romance? A fitness manual?

In a marketplace where authors compete fiercely to establish an audience, continuity and dependability of format are really desirable, but sometimes a publisher may feel that a change is needed, or may decide the ‘pattern’ isn’t working. I’m curious as to whether readers really look for that ‘patterning’ when they’re in the books store? Do you recognize series by appearance only sometimes? As far as genres go, there are trends, certainly; in the case of historical romances, a painting of a woman in a low-backed gown with a pearl necklace, or a fan seems to be a current favorite. I know that when I shop for murder mysteries, I can spot a cozy or a culinary mystery easily, and that’s a good thing! So, are there certain elements that attract a reader best, and do sub-genres have an easily identifiable ‘look’? I think the answer is ‘yes’, but that’s just my opinion. What do you think?

Meet me at my website: http://donnaleasimpson.tripod.com/

Or, check out my blog: http:// donnaleasimpson.wordpress.com

Donna Lea Simpson