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/