Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you today. I always love visiting TGTBTU.

I love romantic suspense, which likely isn’t a secret. I write erotic shorts, contemporaries without suspense, and am about to try some other romance subgenres, but romantic suspense has long been a favorite.

I love when they run:

“I haven’t done anything wrong.” The tension over her shoulders eased. She switched from fighting to boneless.

But he wasn’t ready to trust her, so he held on. “From my experience, innocent people don’t run.”

“You’re kind of big to be that naïve.”

“Sounds like you have trust issues, but-” He reached for his radio. In that brief span where his fingers didn’t wrap around her arm, she took off. “You’ve got to be kidding. You’re running?”

She crossed over the gravel road separating the back of her private property from the protected forest behind. Turning to the left, she slipped along the fence running parallel to the tree line. Not once did she look back.

When things explode:

She’d barely raised her leg when the ground shook beneath her. A deafening crash thundered through the sky and rattled in her ears. Her knees buckled as the pavement bounced and shifted.

One minute she saw Jonas’ shirt. The next he flew backwards as the railing in his hand broke free and the stairs blew apart. She tried to call his name but no words came out. Smoke choked the air and glass rained from above.

Car alarms exploded in unison into chirping sounds. People screamed and a baby cried. The roar of drums sounded all around her.

She hit her knees and threw her hands over her head. Sharp pricks assaulted the bare skin as she hid her face. She didn’t know she’d held her breath until her chest burned and she started coughing.

Her eyes itched and watered as if the smoke had worked its way under her contacts, but the raging heat had her full attention. Fire danced all around her. Flames engulfed the top floor of the complex except in the black hole in the middle. Papers flew around. Pieces of furniture littered the ground. And the sedan with Walt’s provided protection burned.

And when everything goes wrong. In fact, the more that goes wrong the happier I am. I can appreciate pretty ball gowns in historicals and the incredible creativity that goes into developing new worlds in paranormals, but give me a book that plays out like an action movie and I’ll forgive almost anything you do in it – except bore me.

[Ed. A copy of HelenKay's When She Wasn't Looking is up for grabs - or winner's choice from her back list - so be sure to leave a meaningful question or comment and we'll throw your name into the hat!]

Like any good sub, the writer does her very best work. Then she submits.

The Editor will respond at a time of Her choosing. The writer may wait weeks — or even months — for the Editor’s attention.

Waiting is good for the submissive writer. Patience, little writer. Sweet patience.

At last, the Editor has made Her decision regarding the writer’s submission, and she writhes in spasms of delight at the acceptance. Yes, Editor, yes!

The fun has only just begun. Now the writer must learn discipline. Or be disciplined. The Editor corrects a few insignificant things in the manuscript to make it more pleasing to Her. Like changing the hero’s name. Honestly, what were you thinking, writer? Twenty lashes with the Editor’s red pen!

This ending isn’t climatic enough. The heroine changes her mind too easily. The hero hasn’t groveled enough.

Lash, lash, lash!

And what does the good little writer reply? Oh, Editor, it feels so good to learn from your mighty pen. Lash me again!

~ * ~

In all seriousness, I absolutely love my editors. They’ve helped me grow so much over the years, and I’m constantly learning new things. Writing for publication does involve a complex relationship rather like BDSM.

TRUST is key. In a safe and consensual scene, the submissive chooses to submit to a Dominant because of trust. Likewise, the Dominant trusts the submissive to use the safeword when needed. A sub shouldn’t blindly do anything the Dom says regardless of fear, pain, and limits. The power is really in the sub’s hands and the Dom relies on the sub to give the safeword when the play is going too far.

It’s the same with a writer and editor relationship. When you’re working with an editor, you trust that the editor wants the best for the manuscript — yet the writer doesn’t have to blindly accept every single change. Edits require a back-and-forth discussion. If a change causes the writer pause, it’s her duty to bring up the issue with the editor so they can discuss it in detail.

A good Dominant pushes the submissive to grow and explore her limits in a safe and secure environment. My editors have pushed me to go where I normally wouldn’t have gone on my own. It’s painful, sometimes, to explore those limits. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve backed off from something because it’s too edgy or scary, only to have my editors call me on it. They’ve helped me push through that barrier and the story’s better for it. As I’m a better writer for it.

With all the opportunities in self-publishing, it’s tempting to decide to go it alone. While I do intend to explore self-publishing (I’ve only re-released works from a prior publisher who closed its doors so far), I fully intend to continue submitting, both to my current publishers and also new opportunities as they arise. I want to continue pushing that envelope and growing — the way an editor can help me polish my craft.

There’s so much to learn…when you submit.

[Ed. Joely Sue is giving away a digital copy of Yours to Take, so leave her a meaningful question or comment to be in the running!]

Destiny Carter was six years old when she had the first inkling that her life wouldn’t be a fairy tale. That was the day her mother left her in a grocery store and never came back. Destiny was right, her life went downhill from there. Bad foster homes, bad boyfriends, and really, really bad choices.

Then she died and went to Hell.

Until she was kicked out.

Hi Everyone! And waving to Sybil! I hope you enjoyed the opening of my current release, Where There’s Smoke.

Long ago it’s said angels came to earth and mated with humans. A new race started when children were born from this union—the nephilim.

I took that idea and ran with it. Destiny needs a soul to get readmitted into Hell and achieve demon status which will give her all the luxuries demon status can offer. But Destiny has no idea the sexy cowboy sitting at the bar is a nephilim. Chance has a very different agenda. He doesn’t plan on letting her win, but the best laid plans have a way of unraveling and he finds he’s in danger of losing his own soul.

Where There’s Smoke is an erotic romance. I write erotic romance because I want to embarrass my grown children…..no, no, no. That’s not true. I write erotic romance because I can and I enjoy writing it. I don’t want to look back on my life and say I didn’t do something because it wasn’t appropriate. I want to look back and say I lived my life and had a hell of a lot of fun!

I also make jewelry. I’m surrounded by bling-bling. I love Moscato and Merlot wine. Mexican food and frozen Margaritas. My style is farmhouse country and shabby chic. My back porch is my sanctuary where I get in touch with my inner self. Everyone should have a peaceful place, even if it’s the city park.

I’ve lost 99 pounds. Every time I get close to the 100-pound mark there’s a family function or it’s date night or something. I will reach 100 pounds lost, though. Still, I enjoy shopping for clothes.  And that’s who I am, sort of. I hope everyone enjoys Where There’s Smoke.

Best Wishes!

Today we have Genevieve Graham with us, so sit back and enjoy the fun!

Genevieve’s debut book, Under the Same Sky, a beautifully written Scottish historical story, released in January. She’s been receiving wonderful reviews and new fans are discovering what a delight it is reading her books.  Her second book, Sound of the Heart, releases today, so you’ll want to make a special trip to your local bookstore or head over to Amazon.com right now!

She’s one of only seven Canadians who have been published by Penguin. A very distinctive accomplishment. As a reader, I’m glad her editor has asked for more stories from Genevieve. These books should be on every romance reader’s keeper shelf. They’re that good.

So now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Welcome Genevieve! Since the usual first question in an interview is “Tell us about yourself,” how about instead you tell our readers that one thing that most other folks don’t know about you!

GENEVIEVE GRAHAM: Hi, Sandy! Thanks for having me here today! This is a REALLY exciting day for me – I get to be on your site AND my second book is being released. So I am responding to your interview questions with champagne in hand.

One thing folks don’t know about me? I can’t stand maraschino cherries. I ate an entire jar when I was three. My grandmother had a white carpet at the time. heh heh. Well, she shouldn’t have left them out for me!

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

GG: I used to think authors made that up, the part about the characters running the show. But I can safely tell you that with me at least it’s 100% true. I’d never written anything before Under the Same Sky, so I had no idea what to expect. Being pulled into Maggie’s world was a thrill for me because she was more than willing to show me everything in great detail, telling me how she felt about it as we went. The whole story came from somewhere I’d never been, so everything was a surprise. But I particularly love it when one of them comes out with a funny comment or blurts out “no” when I expected them to say “yes.” Under the Same Sky does that less than my second book, Sound of the Heart, but there are moments like that.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

GG: At one point during the writing of Under the Same Sky, I sensed two male characters off to the side, nudging me to be allowed into the story. I had no idea who they were, and they seemed a little shabby for my taste, so I ignored them. I figured if they were important they’d come back later. Well, I couldn’t write for two days. I finally relented and let them in, and I couldn’t stop writing for two weeks after that. The crazy thing is that those two characters were eventually cut from the story. There was no need for them to be part of the finished product; however, it was apparently essential that they come into the story at that point so that something else could happen. I’ve tried arguing, trying to persuade them when I think a story should go a certain way, but for the most part they aren’t all that interested in my suggestions. That’s fine with me. It’s their story after all, not mine.

DC: I know you’re a huge Diana Gabaldon fan. (Me too!) You just have to say “Jamie and Claire,” and everyone knows who you’re talking about. While I realize there’s probably more than one from any of those seven five-inch-thick books, but what’s your favorite J&C moment?

GG: Really??? One??? The first one that jumps to mind is the scene in Dragonfly when Claire returns and Jamie’s working in the print shop. He calls out to his associate (was it Geordie?) but it’s Claire in the front, waiting for him. I LOVED his reaction. But really, there are so many scenes. Diana Gabaldon is a genius, in my humble opinion.

DC: Oh, that is a wonderful scene! And my opinion is definitely the same as yours. What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

GG: Family movie night. We have two teenage daughters and right now we’re on a kick for adventure stories. Just finished rewatching the entire Lord of the Rings series, then Star Wars, and now we’re going through the entire Harry Potter series.

DC: Let’s talk about your MacDonnell family series. First, aside from being inspired by Diana Gabaldon, what was it that drew you to write about this family and this era?

GG: I wish I had a more brilliant answer for you, but the truth is that the story wrote itself. Maggie introduced herself to me the first day I started to write, but the second day I landed in the middle of Culloden Moor. I knew I’d be writing in that time period (yes, Gabaldon’s influence), but I didn’t know where I’d be starting. Fortunately, Andrew dragged me through the muck, showed me his determination, giving me insight into his history and family as he went. Andrew is a deep thinker, so I learned a lot. When I write, I don’t just follow my characters. Especially with Maggie and Andrew. I’m a part of them. I experience all their senses, and because I know them so well, their emotions also flow through me.

Here’s another truth for you: I never planned to write a second MacDonnell story. Under the Same Sky was the one and only thing I’d written, and when it was done I’d never really considered writing anything else. But Penguin asked for a companion novel in the contract. Who was I to say no to Penguin? So, of course, I said yes, then I panicked. For days I tried shoving ideas into my brain, but nothing stuck. Just as I was feeling desperate, I sensed Dougal. He was kind of shaking his head at me, smiling wryly, looking a little disappointed. It was like he was asking, “Why stress yourself out? I already have a story for you. All you had to do was ask.” And what a story he had!

I assumed I was done after that, but no. Maggie’s sister, Adelaide, woke me up one morning, saying she, too, had a story to tell. She is a very quiet, shy girl with a lot of emotional scars, so I’d never expected her to be keen to share. But she was. My editor will be reading that book this week and I’m looking forward to hearing what she thinks of it.

DC: Which fictional character would you like to hang out with?

GG: In my books it would be Dougal. In other fiction, well, I really like Roger Wakefield. As far as lady characters, I like the fun frankness and intelligence of Elizabeth Bennett.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

GG: Not to worry so much about what other people say. Everyone has flaws and weaknesses, and those are a big part of what makes us unique. Just be confident in who you are and what you can do.

DC: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

GG: That there are so many of me! Actually, the big list is on Twitter, but the one that jumped out at me on Google was Genevieve Graham the designer! She was on Project Runway, which is a reality designer show here in Canada. I’m not a fashion person (big fan of pyjamas), so I had no idea who she was. Now I just hope people don’t come to me asking me to write a book AND design an outfit to go with it!

DC: What book would you like to read again for the first time?

GG: Outlander.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

GG: Genevieve already had her happily ever after. Now her dream’s come true and she didn’t even know she had that dream.

DC: What would your “voice’s” tagline be?

GG: Often mysterious and mystical, always heart wrenchingly real.

DC: Sound of the Heart, second book in the series, hits the bookstores today. Congrats! This story is turning out just as beautiful as Under the Same Sky. Would you give us a sneak peek into Dougal and Glenna’s story?

GG: I love this story. I love Dougal’s fun-loving nature, his purely masculine presence, and his complete and utter loyalty to Glenna. He would happily die for her, though he admits he’d prefer not to.

Dougal is taken as a POW after the Battle of Culloden (1746) and we learn what it was like to be a captive back then. He escapes and discovers true love with Glenna, but when the English capture her and send her to the colonies as a slave, Dougal must join the despised English Army (albeit as part of the Highlander regiment) and travel over the sea to find her. Glenna, who believes Dougal is dead, has her own adventures to survive as a slave, then suddenly discovers he is indeed alive and not too far away.

DC: What romance book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run? (Yes, in addition to any Genevieve Graham novel!)

GG: You mean besides Outlander? There are so many. Personally, I love the epic stories of Penelope Williamson and Jennifer Roberson. If I were to go with more recent releases, I’m really enjoying the exciting western romances by Kaki Warner, the Napoleonic intrigue by Joanna Bourne, and the time travel romance of Susanna Kearsley.

DC: What an honor to be one of only seven Canadians to be contracted by Penguin to publish your books. Tell us about “the call.”

GG: Absolutely unexpected. I think the most difficult part of the entire writing process is finding an agent and finding the RIGHT agent. Jacques de Spoelberch worked with me on my book, then set it immediately on the desk of Wendy McCurdy, Executive Editor at Penguin. She bought it (and the companion novel) within the first 48 hours. I don’t think I slept for two days after that, I was so pumped on adrenaline. It’s still incredibly surreal. I am particularly proud of being a Canadian published in the U.S.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

GG: Well, my university degree is in music, but I’d worked in marketing, media, and promotions for about fifteen years before I became a stay-at-home mom. Now I run my own editing business and teach piano to the local kids. So I guess I’d just be doing more of one or all of those!

DC: What else is on the horizon for Genevieve Graham?

GG: I’ve been writing non-stop and have three slightly more “modern” stories coming along. The most recent is a time travel romance, which I’m really enjoying. I like to set the stories around the area where I live, in a tiny town in Nova Scotia. This place is steeped in history, and the ghosts are only too happy to share their stories with someone who will listen.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?    – MILK
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?     – CHUNKY
- heels or flats?     – FLATS
- coffee or tea?      – TEA
- summer or winter?      – AUTUMN
- mountains or beach?     – BEACH
- mustard or mayonnaise?     – MAYO
- flowers or candy?     – CANDY
- pockets or purse?     – PURSE
- Pepsi or Coke?     – WINE
- ebook or print?     – PRINT

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?    – LUGUBRIOUS

2. What is your least favorite word?     – PUCE

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – FREEDOM

4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – PEOPLE TRYING TO PUSH THEIR BELIEFS ON OTHERS

5. What sound or noise do you love?    – BIRD SONG

6. What sound or noise do you hate?     – NAILS ON CHALKBOARD

7. What is your favorite curse word?     – F___

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?     – MAKING MOVIES

9. What profession would you not like to do?     – GARBAGE

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?   – “COME ON IN! I’LL GET YOU A LATTE.”

DC: Thank you so much for spending the day with us, Genevieve! It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Well, the first day of RT has passed and I’m still here and still standing.

There is nothing quite like RT. Enthusiastic readers treating themselves to a vacation, enthusiastic aspiring writers and jaded writers, editors and publishers all crowding together in one huge hotel.

Actually, no. Because you can’t help but get enthused and excited by such a great bunch of people. Honestly, jaded though I sometimes get with the publishing world, RT is something else.

So, what did I do? I reconnected with my lovely friend and roommate Desiree Holt, and we went to various events. The panel I was booked to appear on, about pseudonyms and should you use them, went beautifully, ably chaired by Celeste Delaney. We told our avid audience that they should think carefully before using a pseudonym and be careful to create it properly. For most writers, writing under more than one name, even if you let people know it’s really you, includes creating two identities, two websites, two sets of promotion plans, so it has to be good. Writing under a pseudonym to keep your real identity private could be because you have small children or work in a profession where they might not like your name associated with what you do. Although, saying that, my husband teaches at a school whose patron is the Queen, and he told them about it, so if the Queen is okay with me writing erotic romance, then other people maybe should be less prissy!
I was fortunate enough to be invited to a reception for the booksellers and librarians at the suite of Kathryn Falk and Kenneth Rubin. That was fun. Packed, but the food was great and the company even better.

The Ellora’s Cave ball was a blast. We had a great demo from The Geek Squad, a hip-hop troupe who intimidated me into not even trying to dance, but I did get my ten seconds of fame when I walked across the stage on the arm of a cute Caveman. I sat next to a lovely lady who turned out to be Lynn Raye Harris, so it was great to catch up with her at last.

After that I went to bed. Actually, I didn’t. I met with Susanna Kearsley in the bar, to discuss the panel we’re to be on the next day, and she, Lauren Willig, and Molly O’Keefe had a blast. Business over, we set to discussing the “trumps” game. You pick a gorgeous man, and he is your starting card. Then you pick another one, and decide if he trumps your original. Believe me, the more Cosmos you drink, the more fun it gets.

In case you’re wondering, Richard Armitage and David Gandy came up tops. If you don’t know them, look them up. You won’t be sorry. Tell you what, I didn’t take any pictures yet, so here’s a picture of David Gandy instead.

Wow, what a terrific day we had with Lynn Viehl and her guest blog about going through her Darkyn files with readers. Thanks to Lynn and all of you for such eager and fun participation!

And now for our winner of that stupendous prize Lynn has put together:

The French-inspired tote, made by Olivia by Design on Etsy, includes:

A signed set of my seven novels in the original Darkyn Series
A signed ARC of Nightborn, the first book in my Lords of the Darkyn trilogy
A set of twelve Herman Wu bookmarks
An amethyst crystal bookmark “pen”
A font mug from Author Outfitters
A handmade brooch from Olivia by Design to match the tote

Drum roll please!

(#74) Chinyere Etufugh (ezinwanyi)

Congrats! Please send your snail mail address to lighthousetagger@gmail.com and I’ll contact Lynn for you.

Thanks to Beth Kery for joining us recently with a very intriguing guest blog. Love and romance rising out of tragedy is some of the best reading we can ask for, as Beth proves with her Home to Harbor Town series.

And now for our winners! Each winner will receive their choice of two books from the Harbor Town series: The Hometown Hero Returns, Liam’s Perfect Woman, or Claiming Colleen.

So congrats to:

Kim (#4)

and

CrystalGB (#1)

WTG, ladies! Send your book choices and snail mail addy to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll pass it on to Beth to get your books on their way to you!

We’d like to thank Joan Swan for a fun day with her though-provoking Guest Blog recently. That point of no return for our heroes and heroines is one romance readers anxiously wait for in their books. Thanks for joining in on the discussion for the day!

And now for our winner. Sometimes it pays to be the first out of the gate –

Jen G  (#1)

Your copy of Fever will be on its way to you soon!

Congrats! Please send your snail mail addy to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com.

What a fun day we had with Deirdre Martin discussing other lives that maybe, just maybe might be easier than being an author. All in jest, of course, because there’s no way we can do without Deirdre Martin books on the shelves!

The winner of a copy of Deirdre’s current release, Breakaway, is

**drumroll please!**

Kim (#3)

Congratulations, Kim!

Please send your snail mail address to Lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll pass it on to Deirdre to get your book on its way to you.

Our thanks to Alexandra Hawkins for her guest blog giving us a look into author deadlines and the crazy lifestyle that goes with them. I sure as heck appreciate those wonderful stories I get much more now!

And now for our winners…

For a copy of Sunrise with a Notorious Lord – Lori Y (#19)

and

For a copy of the Lords of Vice book of their choice – Jeannette (#15)

Congrats, ladies! Please send your snail mail addresses to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com, and, Jeannette, be sure to visit Alexandra’s website to let me know which LoV book you’d like, and then I’ll send all info on to Alexandra.

When I had a chance to pitch to my publisher some new books set in the Darkyn universe, I didn’t just jump at the opportunity; I flung myself at it, knocked it down and sat on it until I had a contract.  I was pretty sure this would make my readers, who have been asking for more Darkyn ever since my publisher ended the original series, very happy.  I was also delighted, as I’d never had the time to write all the stories I’d wanted.

Once I’d signed the contract, I took out all my old Darkyn files.  While I’d never stopped thinking about the Darkyn, it had been a few years since I’d featured them as main characters.  I wanted to look over things and chat with my immortals so I could explain the new venture.  Of course, I expected them to be as excited as I was.

All authors who talk to their characters are not crazy.  At least, I’m pretty sure we’re not.  My conversations are strictly mental meetings that take place at an imagination conference table in my mind’s novel library.  The shelves are packed with my books, a box of zero-calorie jelly donuts is parked in front of my chair, and my favorite classical music plays in the background.  But when I go in to give them the good news, the library is empty and the invisible stereo is playing Take This Job and Shove It.  Worse, there aren’t any jelly donuts.

I walk down past the archive rooms of Unfinished Stories, Finished/Unsold Stories and Finished/Unsold/To be Burned stories to the character vault area.  I don’t like opening the vault because I know who’s in there, and they don’t appreciate me keeping them locked up.  Only I find the vault door standing open and black and red confetti all over the carpet.  I can also hear Gloria Estefan singing The Conga from inside.

An immortal Darkyn warrior stops me just inside the threshold.  He’s big, handsome, muscular, and has a two-handed sword in one hand.  “Have you an invitation, my lady?”

“You’re kidding, right?”  I can see he isn’t.  “Who do you think your writer is, you blockhead?”

“I cannot say.  We’ve had no writer since the black-hearted, evil, conniving, merciless Satan of a wench ended our lord Locksley’s tale by changing him into . . .” his voice trails off as he bends down to peer at me.  “God in Heaven.”  He shuffles back a step.  “You are the very image of her.”

“That would be because I am Satan.”  I pat his pale cheek.  “Where are Alex and Michael?”

He points a trembling finger toward the interior of the vault.  “They may be found within, oh powerful, all-knowing beauteous one—“

“Too late to suck up now, Red Shirt.”  I go in to enter what looks like a rocked-out medieval banquet room/tavern.  Banners from all the Darkyn jardins flutter overhead as racks of upside-down wine glasses do the conga over the bar.  The place is wall-to-wall immortals, but instead of dancing they’re watching a mini-melee between a bunch of scowling Italians I recognize from the last book.

“A genuine mortal.  How enchanting.”  An iron hand in a black velvet glove settles on my shoulder.  “Has someone ordered delivery?”

I glance up at Lucan, once the most lethal assassin among the Kyn.  “You turned my vault into a vampire nightclub?”

“I was bored.”  He rubs his forehead.  “What is it now?  Another free story?  Haven’t I appeared in enough of them?”

“I created you,” I remind him.  “I also got you on the New York Times bestseller list and on shelves in seventy countries.  I found a woman who not only loves you but puts up with everything that makes you an eternal pain in the ass.  You can spare me five minutes.”

He sighs, lifts two fingers to his mouth and produces a piercing whistle.  Gloria Estefan falls silent, the mini-melee comes to a halt and dozens of gorgeous faces go white as they see me.

“Oh, no.  No. We just got back here,” Alexandra Keller gripes from her bar stool.  “We did your cameos.  We were nice to the genetically-enhanced humans.  Go write something else.”

“Your gratitude is overwhelming,”  I tell her.  “I’m here because I sold three more books.”

“Congratulations.”  Michael Cyprien comes over and kisses the back of my hand.  “As always, we hope you enjoy much success.  You must return to your world now, oui?”

“Three more Darkyn books.”

Wine glasses start cracking as groans sweep around the room.  Alex props her forehead against her fist.  Some of the Italians begin to pray.  From the back someone mutters “Can’t we just kill her?” and someone else says, “We’re fictitious, you dolt.”

I have to raise my voice to be heard.  “It’s a quest for treasure trilogy.”  No one says anything.  “No one’s DNA will be stolen.”  A faint cheer from the left makes me smile.  “And you get more women.”

A suspicious-looking warrior emerges from the crowd.  “How many more, Evil One, and what are they?”

“They’re allies and good guys.  Mostly.  By the end of the trilogy, you’ll have . . .“ I do the math.  “Sixty new immortals.”

“Not even you could manage so many females in but three novels.”  The warrior gives me an uncertain look.  “Could you?”

I show him some teeth.  “Fifty-eight of them show up in one book.”

“Well, I have some time on my hands,” Lucan murmurs, and winces as I smack him in the back of the head.  “I cannot help myself.  You made me this way.”

“You’re taken, pal.”  I turn to Alex, who has walked over from the bar.  “I ended your story arc.  You’ll be guest appearing only.  I promise.”

She holds up a hand.  “No Brethren, no torture, no burning down strongholds, and absolutely no more emergency marathon rebuild-a-face surgeries.”

“Deal.”  I finally notice that the vault isn’t as crowded as I left it when I retired my last series.  “So what did you guys do with all the other characters I had stowed in here?”

Suddenly everyone is looking at anything but me, and Alex sighs.  “Remember back when you put us in here, and I asked you to install a blood bank?  Well, you kind of forgot, and . . . “

[Ed. Lynn has put together a terrific prize basket for one of our lucky commeters today. Here's a list of what's included, along with a pic:

The French-inspired tote, made by Olivia by Design on Etsy, includes:

A signed set of my seven novels in the original Darkyn Series
A signed ARC of Nightborn, the first book in my Lords of the Darkyn trilogy
A set of twelve Herman Wu bookmarks
An amethyst crystal bookmark "pen"
A font mug from Author Outfitters
A handmade brooch from Olivia by Design to match the tote

So be sure to ask a question or leave a meaningful comment for Lynn today, because you really don't want to miss out on any of this!]

As I write this blog for The Good, The Bad and the Unread, I’m looking forward to the release of Claiming Colleen, the third book in the Home to Harbor Town series, while at the same time, doing edits for One in a Billion—Deidre’s story and book four in the series—and writing the fifth book—Ryan’s story. It’s one of those strange experiences that an author has, that by the time a book is ready to make its debut, the writer’s mind is months or years later in the character’s journey. But it’s a wonderful perspective, too, sort of like sharing familiar photographs with a friend or family member who hasn’t yet seen them and experiencing them fresh through another’s eyes.

Claiming Colleen is Eric Reyes’ and Colleen Kavanaugh’s love story—one I’ve been looking forward to telling since book one. The heat, conflict, and attraction between the two has been simmering just below the surface for two books, so it was so much fun for me to finally give these two special characters the full spotlight and their own unique romance.

One of the fun things about Eric and Colleen’s story is that the two have knowledge of things going on behind the scenes that other characters in the books (and thus, the reader) haven’t had thus far. Perhaps there’s a reason Colleen acted so uncharacteristically and slugged Eric in book one, and maybe there’s a thread of common history beyond their family tragedy that makes Eric always remember her with warmth and a touch of regret, despite their apparent coolness toward one another? These are the little elements that get to be brought to the surface as these two take the stage for their own passionate romance. One of the things that’s nice about this is that old readers can peek into formerly obscured events going on in the background of former books, while new readers can experience it new, fresh, and complete.

I noticed that as I wrote Claiming Colleen that the tone of the story was different than the two former books—a little lighter, less somber, and a bit more tongue in cheek. Eric’s and Colleen’s dialogue flowed in a quick, familiar rhythm, highlighting these two individuals’ inherent confidence, intelligence…and, of course, stubborn streaks that go miles deep. Their chemistry provided a nice alteration in the flow of the series. Yes, this couple has also been touched by past tragedy and their lives today show undeniable marks of it. But they are also both intensely vibrant and present individuals, and thus their romance has an active, vigorous feel to it.

I suppose some people might think it was strange that I came up with a romance series that was at least partially inspired by news articles of the Taconic Parkway crash. For whatever reason, I was deeply moved by this heart-rending story about senseless death, multiple families’ losses, and the inevitable grinding pain of the survivors. Romance novels are, at their essence, books about love, though; the power of love to transform, grow, and eventually heal our flawed human selves. What’s more, Harlequin Special Edition is an imprint that focuses on families. I thought it was a perfect home for this story about three very different families, their journey to forgiveness and acceptance, and, finally, happiness within the arms of the one they love.

For the giveaway today: Thank you to The Good, The Bad and the Unread for hosting me here today! I’ll give two randomly chosen commenters their choice of two books from the Home to Harbor Town series, The Hometown Hero Returns, Liam’s Perfect Woman, or Claiming Colleen.

~Beth

I’m revising a manuscript right now, and I’m at that point in the story where my hero and heroine are approaching the point of no return.  That place where one or both make the decision to do something that changes everything in the existing relationship.  From that point on, there is no going back to the way things were.

I love this place.  In fact, it might be my very favorite spot in a story.  At least it is in the stories I write.  The action—or inaction, as the situation calls for—is a conscious investment in their new future; a commitment—to themselves and to the other person.  And I love the emotion involved in making that choice.

In Fever, Alyssa makes that choice in a pet store.

A what?

I know.  It happens in the damnedest places!

Teague and Alyssa have been on the run for a couple of days now.  Alyssa has been injured in a gang fight and developed an infection.  Teague takes her to a pet store to get antibiotics.  Interestingly enough, the same type used to treat aquarium fish are those humans take.

It’s there that Alyssa has her epiphany, a surprise, on-the-spot reaction that changes everything between her and Teague.

“How long ‘til we stop for longer than ten minutes?”

“About an hour.”

“And when will this all be over?” she asked as they approached the entrance.  “When will you let me go?”

He didn’t answer.

A young woman with her dark hair in a ponytail greeted them.  “Can I help you find something?”

“Fish,” Creek said.

“Along the back wall,” she gestured.  “Fresh water on the right and salt water on the left.”

“Thanks.”

Teague led Alyssa past the cash register where a young man sat talking on the phone, a newspaper spread out on the counter in front of him.  He glanced up as they passed and returned his gaze to the paper, hardly more than an uninterested blink.  Just as Alyssa looked away, the man’s eyes jumped up again.  She continued to watch him from the corner of her eye as the conversation on his end of the phone ceased, and he slowly pushed to his feet.

They turned down an aisle and Alyssa lost sight of him, but by the way his eyes grew wide as they’d disappeared, she was sure he’d recognized them.  Instead of excitement, the sighting brought apprehension.

Creek turned and looked down at her, his steps slowing.  “What?”

“Wh-what do you mean, what?”

“You squeezed my hand.”

“I didn’t…  I mean, I didn’t mean to…”  She was torn between pulling him from the store and stalling to keep them there as long as possible.  This was exactly what she’d been silently begging for at Wal-mart and here it had been handed to her without even trying.  “Never mind.  Nothing.”

She turned her attention to the shelves where he’d stopped and stared at the contents in disbelief.  “You brought me in here to buy fish food?”

“Little trivia for you, doc.”  He crouched and picked up a bottle.  “Fish ailments are treated with human medications.  Antibiotics.”

Her mouth dropped open and her mind temporarily veered from her turmoil.  “You expect me to take off-the-shelf medication for fish?  Okay, this nails it, Cr—“  She stopped herself and forced his first name out of her mouth.  “Teague.  You are officially certifiable.”

A grin tilted his mouth as he looked up at her and something strange and uncomfortable twisted in her chest.  His teeth were straight and white, his eyes a sparkling blue beneath the hat’s dark brim.  A glimpse of someone else shone out at her.  Maybe the man he was beneath the fear and desperation.  Maybe the man he’d been before he’d gone to prison.  She didn’t know, but whoever it was touched her in a way she hadn’t been touched in a long, long time.  Maybe ever.

“Here’s the thing,” he said.  “The emergency room would have asked too many questions and then called the cops to report a knife wound.  Internet sources would take too long, and I’m not in the mood to knock off a vet’s office.  So.”  He pointed at two more bottles on the shelf.  “You have your choice of Amoxicillin, Erythromycin or a sulfa-combo.  What’ll it be?”

Curiosity won out and Alyssa took one of the bottles from him.  Sure enough, as far as she could tell, it was the same stuff she’d given out prescriptions for in the past.  “How is this legal?”

“Let’s not worry about that right now.  Just tell me which one you can take and we’ll get back on the road.”

That comment had her looking up and toward the front of the store.  The two young clerks loitered there talking, their heads together, body language hunched and tight.

“Well?”  Teague prodded.

He’d truly made this stop to help her.  He’d risked being seen just to find antibiotics for her infection.  So many thoughts zoomed through her head at the same time she couldn’t prioritize or sift.  She looked back at him. “Do you have that gun on you or is it in the car?”

His face tensed, eyes sharpened.  He glanced the direction she’d been looking and watched the clerks.   “I have it on me.  Why?”

Let me make one thing very clear:  I am not going back to prison.  Ever.  I’ll die first.

“I think we should go.” Alyssa pulled him toward the opposite end of the aisle.

He resisted.  “Why the rush?”

“Come on.”

He pulled on her hand until she was forced to turn back around and face him. “Talk to me first.”

She lowered her voice to a whisper.  “I think they recognized us.”

Teague’s mouth went stone hard.  His bright eyes scoured the store and he urged Alyssa toward the rear corner of the building.

“Where are you going?  The front doors are that way.”

“Which is exactly where the cops will come in if they’ve been called.”

They reached a single rear door with a banner reading, No exit.  Fire alarm will sound. Teague tinkered with a lever on the big red bell over the door then pressed the metal bar.  Alyssa cringed, expecting an ear piercing alarm, but it never came.  Teague poked his head out the door, took a quick look around then pulled her out behind him.

**Skipping over unrelated occurrence in the scene…**

He remained silent as he drove, his hands busy in a familiar wringing of the steering wheel, his brow heavy in thought.

As Alyssa’s mind turned back to the fiasco they’d just fled, nausea rolled in her belly.  She’d just walked away from her chance to escape, and she wasn’t sure if the queasiness stemmed from missing the opportunity or from nearly getting the opportunity.

At the first exit, Teague veered off the freeway and drove half a block to a gas station-slash-mini mart.  Her muscles tensed, jutting another round of pain through her torso.

“Can we stop somewhere else?” Alyssa asked.  “Anywhere else?  I think I’m suffering PTSD.”

He parked around the corner from the front door, jammed the car in park and got out without a word.  The slam of the door made Alyssa flinch.  Instead of coming to her side of the car, he walked directly into the store without looking back.

A fresh sense of uncertainty tightened her chest.  He’d left her in the car unattended and uncuffed.  She looked out the window at a vacant office building with a ‘for rent’ sign out front, then to a darkened church next door, the parking lot empty.  There was no immediate shelter within running distance, but she should still run.  She should.  So what kept her sitting there?

He wasn’t gone long enough for Alyssa’s heart to slow to a regular rhythm let alone give her time to form an answer to the question.  He approached her side of the car carrying a bottle of water and a newspaper.  Popping the door open, he pulled the antibiotics from his pocket and twisted the top off then held both out to her.   When she took them, he closed the door without saying a word and walked around to the driver’s side.

He slid into his seat and sat there staring straight ahead without turning the car on.  His fingers fiddled with the edge of the newspaper in his lap.

Alyssa downed a healthy dose of the fish meds, hoping they didn’t kill her, then looked at him again.  “You’re kind of freaking me out.”

“What the hell is PTSD?”

“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

He rolled his eyes then turned to look at her with a quick snap of his head.  “Why’d you do that?  At the pet store?”

“I just…  I don’t know.  You made it clear you’d die before you went back to prison.  I…  I…”  Didn’t want to watch you die.  “I didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

Even though the dynamics between them had started shifting before this, Alyssa’s decision to save Teague from capture and sacrificing her own freedom in the process changes everything between them.  The conscious decision can’t be taken back, can’t be reasoned away, and they both know it.

You can read how Alyssa and Teague started out in the first chapter of Fever, here.

What is your favorite point in a story?

[Ed. Joan is giving away a copy of Fever to one of our commenters today, so be sure to leave a meaningful comment or question for her. AND! All comments will be entered to win either a Nook Color or a Kindle Fire during Joan's Blog Tour. How's that for a terrific contest! Thanks, Joan!]

Writing is hard work for me. Really, really hard work, since I can be somewhat insecure. What if I think the hero and heroine have chemistry, but they don’t? What if the sex scene I’m working on is about as steamy as a boiling pot of spaghetti?

On days when Madam Muse refuses to appear, or when I feel that writing is the equivalent of working on a chain gang, I daydream about doing something else for a living. My top escape fantasies are:

* Become a mailman. Woman. Person. Whatever the politically correct term is. The big attraction to this job is that I’d get to walk around all day, so I’d get really thin. Plus, I’d get to wear a uniform, so I wouldn’t have to worry about what to wear. This is of crucial importance to someone who once opened her front door wearing lemon colored harem pants and a Ringo Rocks! t shirt from 1975. On the negative side, I haven’t figured out yet how to handle the heat of summer, and the US Postal System is on the rocks. Note to self: see if mail people can do their job in the nude, as long as their mail satchels are strategically placed.

* Join the Merchant Marines. There’s no age limit to this profession, as long as you pass the physical. How hard could it be? I’m sure all you have to do is be able to climb a mast and properly wield a telescope. Plus I love to travel, I love the ocean, and sleeping in a mesh hammock is Number Four on my Bucket List.

* Work on a cruise ship. I’d be a really good entertainer: I can juggle, and I can also sing Bonnie Taylor’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” perfectly. I could easily brush up on my kazoo skills as well. Seriously: who doesn’t love kazoo music? Have you ever heard “Memory” from the Cats done on a kazoo? Haunting. I’m not kidding.

* Visit elementary schools as a Mary Todd Lincoln impersonator. This one is actu-ally the most viable: I’m plump, I’m moody, and I have a very tall husband with a beard who puts up with me. I’ve been trying to talk him into playing Abe to my Mary, but so far it’s a no go.

Alternate: visit nursery schools as Dora the Explorer. She’s little, plus we have the same haircut right now.

* Get a job as Bono’s personal secretary. I know, I know, I know: he’s the size of Rumpelstilskin and he never shuts up about aid to Africa. But I’ve had a mad crush on the man since 1981, when U2 released their first CD, Boy. Think about what a cool job it would be to be his PA: “Could you please call Edge and ask if he got his check for three hundred million dollars from the last tour? Because I haven’t gotten mine yet. Also, you know that luncheon I’m holding tomorrow at the Plaza to raise money for impoverished romance writers? Find out if Obama has any food allergies. I’m sure I can talk him into making a huge donation for these poor, struggling souls.”

Of course, if I ditched my profession, I wouldn’t have been able to write books like Breakaway, the latest in my New York Blades series. It combined two of my favorite subjects: hockey and Ireland. Here’s the back cover blurb:

They had it all planned out: college, marriage, happily ever after.

But it didn’t quite work out that way…

Erin O’Brien was everyone’s favorite in Ballycraig, while Rory Brady was the town’s golden boy: the local lad who moved to America and became a professional hockey player. Rory promised to return to sweep Erin away to the life of her dreams in New York. But the bright lights and late nights turned his head and he never came back.

Two years later, Rory realizes he’s made the worst mistake of his life. Heading back to Ballycraig, he’s confident that all he needs to do is flash his winning smile and Erin will fall back into his arms. But Erin’s moved on.

Racing the clock, Rory needs to prove to her that the man she fell in love with is still there. But can happy-go-lucky Erin risk it all and give another chance to the man who broke her heart?

Intrigued? Breakaway hits the shelves today, February 7th. I’m also working on the next book in the Blades series. The writing seems to be going pretty well right now, but that’s all I’ll say. I don’t want to jinx things…

To find out more about my New York Blades series as well as The Wild Hart Saga, check out my website.

[Ed. Deirdre is kindly offering up a copy of Breakaway to one very lucky commenter, so be sure to leave a meaningful comment or question for her and we'll toss your name into the hat!]

We’ve got two copies of Sins of the Highlander, thanks to Sourcebooks, to give away today to two lucky commenters out there in romanceland!

And how easy it is to win – just tell us your favorite sin committed by romance heroes or your favorite sinful hero and you’ll be entered. Just like that!

See, told you it was easy.

U.S. and Canada only, please.

Thanks for having me here today.

As you know, Sins of the Highlander, my first collaborative novel with NY Times Bestseller Connie Mason, is on bookstore shelves now. I’m a firm believer in letting readers “try before they buy” but instead of the usual excerpt, I’m offering a “box of chocolates” sampler of the end of chapters in this story. (Warning: I’m known as a “happy hooker.” Writing hooks, of course. What were you thinking?)

SINS OF THE HIGHLANDER Sampler:

Chapter One ~ When he tried to kiss her again, she delivered a ringing slap to his cheek. Reason flooded her mind again. Perhaps he was called “Mad Rob” because he could entice others to insanity.

“Now get away from me,” Elspeth ordered.

He chuckled mirthlessly. “Lass, I’ve killed dozens of men. Do ye really think ye can stop me from whatever I may decide to do with you?”

He took a step toward her, his eyes glittering fiercely in the dark.

Chapter Two ~ She’d forgotten to breathe as he spoke. Now she sucked in a quick breath.

“Shall I pleasure ye, Elspeth?”

Chapter 3 ~ If Rob could seduce Elspeth Stewart into giving herself to him willingly, his enemy would be thoroughly shamed. The name of Lachlan Drummond would become a byword, held up for ridicule by all as the cuckolded bridegroom. Bards would compose songs about it and folk would laugh at him over many a winter fire.

Drummond would be so furious, he’d respond to Rob’s challenge of single combat at last.

And then Rob would send him straight to hell. Even if he had to go through the flaming gate with him.

Chapter 4 ~ “Trust me, lass. By and bye, ye’ll thank me for keeping from becoming Lachlan Drummond’s wife.”

Elspeth curled her toes inside her slipper and managed to wiggle the left one off without his knowledge. It fell under the stallion’s hooves and was pressed into the path, marking their way as clearly as if she’d stopped and drawn an arrow.

Chapter 5 ~ The numbers in the pack dwindled. As the eastern sky lightened to pearl gray, hope rose in Elspeth’s heart.

Then the largest wolf charged and leaped. His flying lunge knocked Rob from Falin’s back. They rolled together, tooth and claw, man and blade, off the path and into the thick underbrush, disappearing in a growling, swearing mass.

Chapter 6 ~ Wolf song reached their ears, distant, but close enough to be worrisome.

“Come, lass. And step lively.”

This time he didn’t have to tell her twice.

Chapter 7 ~ “Unfortunately, of the two of us, it seems only ye have the honor of always being right. There’s no tree big enough to bear your weight nearby,” Rob said as he put her down. He stooped and pulled out his boot knife, handing it to her haft first. “If they get past me, dinna let yourself be taken.”

Chapter 8 ~ Elspeth stood with her back to him, next to the table. She poured water from a kettle into the ewer. Steam rose before she added cold water from the pitcher. She dipped a cloth into a basin, unaware that Rob was watching her.

He prayed that happy state would continue.

She was naked as Eve in glory.

Hope you enjoyed the Sins of the Highlander sampler. If you’d like a traditional excerpt, most of the first chapter is posted on my website. While you’re there, be sure to enter my website contest where the Grand Prize is a NEW KINDLE! The drawing will be held Jan. 30^th.  I love to connect with readers. You can also find me at my Twitter fan page and my Twitter author page. Hope to see you around the web.

I’ll be around checking the comments all day! Leave a question for me or share your favorite snippet from Sins of the Highlander from the sampler above.

My second novel, Try Not to Breathe, was a story that grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go.

I’d been working on something else—a book that I’d been writing for quite a while—and I was planning to take a writing break. But Try Not to Breathe had other plans; it refused to wait. It grew out of a verse-writing exercise that I was playing with one day. The main character, Ryan, did not confine himself to a few poems. He just kept on speaking.

I started with the image of a boy standing under a waterfall, and as I wrote, I learned more and more about him: his suicidal past, his secrets, the crush he had. Then a girl burst onto the scene, with goals and secrets of her own, pushing against the walls Ryan had built around himself. She revealed more about herself with every scene, but I didn’t learn her biggest secret until the second or third draft. Her secret shocked me at first, but it fit. It all made sense, and it brought the story back to where it began—the waterfall.

Sometimes it happens that way. The first time I write a scene, it may surprise me, and I get to have the same sense of discovery with it that a first-time reader will have.

It’s funny how good intentions, routines, and healthy habits seem to fly right out the window when I’m on deadline.  I’d like to blame the sinus infection I was fighting last month when I turned in my latest manuscript; however, I don’t have much of an excuse for the other four books in the Lords of Vice series.  On New Year ’s Eve, I was reflecting on the pattern that always seems to emerge around deadlines.

1)   Slacking off at the gym.  It starts out innocent enough.  I begin to stress about the how much time I have left before I turn in a manuscript.  In those final weeks, every hour counts.  I calculate that I’m spending five hours at the gym a week.  Double that amount to factor in the time it takes me to drive to and from the gym and the shower afterward.  That’s ten hours a week I could be writing!  Forty hours in a month.  I finally convince myself that a brisk walk around the neighborhood a few times a week will suffice, but soon I’ll find a good excuse not even do that.  Last month, I had a pretty good excuse.  I was on antibiotics for two weeks and I had to reduce my exposure to the sun.  Even my husband couldn’t debate me on that one.

2)    Eating healthy is history.  Most of the time, my diet is very healthy.  Lots of fruits and vegetables and lean cuts of meat.  When I’m on deadline, I want carbs.  Bring on the junk food!  Chips, pretzels, sandwiches—anything that’s quick so I can get back to the keyboard.  I also get a weird craving for licorice.  I know I’m close to finishing a book when I have to buy Twizzlers.

3)    Sleep is optional.  When the story is flowing, I begin to cut corners on my necessary eight hours of sleep.  I find myself mentally writing scenes instead of sleeping, and insomnia kicks in because I don’t want to forget all that great dialogue.  I do keep a notebook next to my bed for random inspiration, but if I’m committed to an idea, I usually just get back up and write it.

4)    Pleasure reading.  This one is a difficult one to give up, and it explains why my TBR pile has turned into a small mountain.  When I’m on deadline, the only books I crack open are research-related.

5)    TV and movies.  This sacrifice tends to annoy the family because there are several shows we watch together.  Over the Christmas break, my youngest daughter and I finally made it to the theater to watch Breaking Dawn.  Naturally, when we stopped at the concession stand, the one candy she had to have was—you guessed it—Twizzlers!

Now that I have a little breathing room until my next deadline, I’ve returned to my healthier lifestyle.  I’m back at the gym.  Ugh, that first week was painful.  That should be incentive enough not to slack off again.  These days, I’m eating good carbs.  Twizzlers are off my grocery list.  The insomnia is gone, which is a relief.  I’ve missed my bed.  And over the holiday break, I was able to catch up on some of my pleasure reading and TV shows.

This has all the makings of a New Year’s resolution, doesn’t it?  I’d agree, but I know all my good intentions are going to slip away when that next deadline approaches!

[Ed. Alexandra is giving away two books today - first winner will receive a copy of Sunrise with a Notorious Lord and the second will get their choice of any other Lords of Vice novel - so be sure to leave a meaningful comment or question for her!]

Creating the perfect romantic hero is not as easy as you think, mainly because no such creature has ever inhabited our planet.  So, how—in the odor-free, sweat-free, bodily-function-free realm of romance—does an author create the perfect male hero while still making him at least marginally believable?  Hell if I know.  But I’ve been thinking hard on it, and have come up with some guidelines that might help.

1.  The hero should NEVER indulge in digestive indiscretions of an auditory or olfactory nature.  Or any other nature.  EVER.  I know what you’re thinking.  In Pieces of Sky, a character does just that.  But he’s not the hero and gets killed off later, so it’s okay.  And sure, later in the same book, Brady belches on the heroine, but he does it on purpose to disgust her and run her off.  So that’s okay, too.

2.  The hero is allowed to perspire—odorlessly, of course—but he should have a darn good reason for doing so, such as exertion, nervousness, guilt, etc.  Of late I’ve seen an alarming trend to have the hero work himself into a substantial lather in the bedroom.   I think this is to show how intent he is on his task, and how valiantly he’s struggling to hold back his overwhelming ardor.  But, really.  A little surface glow is acceptable, but if he’s sweating like a farm animal during the love scenes, then maybe something’s wrong.  I know what you’re going to say.  In Open Country, Hank gets sweaty—but he has good reason.  He’s upset, exerting, nervous, and his feelings are hurt, so it’s okay that one time.

3.  Bathing—the hero should do it, even if such wasn’t the normal practice “back then.”   This is a romance, after all, and there’s nothing romantic about a man smelling like a slaughter house.  Granted, it’s not always practical, but even if he has to bathe in used water (like Declan does in Heartbreak Creek) and he comes out smelling like a rose garden, it’s better than the alternative (which in Declan’s case is smelling like rotting meat).  At least he’s clean.

4.  Drunkenness—not very heroic.  But there are times, I suppose, when it’s marginally acceptable, especially for medicinal purposes.  Like Jack in Chasing the Sun when Molly gets out her scalpel, and Ash in Colorado Dawn, when his old injury acts up.  But your characters probably shouldn’t drink to the point of horking.  However, if vomiting is an important plot point, please limit sounds, odors, and visuals.  Granted, in Open Country, the heroine, a reluctant nurse, vomits after surgery.  But who doesn’t?  And near the end of Heartbreak Creek Edwina has to carry a barf bowl around with her, but she had reason.  At least when they hork they’re quiet about it, and never heave hard enough to lift their heels off the floor, and only do it on an empty stomach.  So that’s okay.

5.  Cowardice—not a trait usually attributed to heroes.  I know.  In Heartbreak Creek, Declan was a basket case, but he still did what he had to do to save the day, so it was okay.  Besides, phobias aren’t exactly fears.  Not really.  And who can blame Brady, in Pieces of Sky, for being afraid of crying women?  We can be pretty scary.  Or his brother, Jack, for getting lightheaded at the sight of blood—especially his own?  These things happen.  So in those cases, it was okay to be a little afraid.

6.  And finally, using the bathroom.   This is another situation to avoid if possible.  We all know it happens—even to heroes—but we don’t need to see it, do we?  Yeah, yeah, I know.  In Open Country, there’s an entire scene when nurse Molly tries to help the injured hero relieve himself and they get into a wrestling match over a chamber pot (he wins, just so you know).  But neither the heroine nor the reader is required to be on hand (so to speak) when the deed is accomplished, so it’s okay.  As for any other potty situations, don’t even go there.  Ever.

So there you have it.  A few ideas for creating the perfect romantic hero while still staying within the bounds of quasi-reality.  Got any ideas of your own you’d like to share?

We enjoyed having Melissa Mayhue with us to remind us how important holiday memories are. Thank you, too, to those of you who stopped by for the day.

Without further ado, our winner for a copy of Melissa’s latest book in her Warrior series, Warrior’s Redemption, is:

#1 – Tammy VanScoy

Congrats, Tammy! Please send your snail mail addy to lighthousetagger at gmail dot com and we’ll let Melissa know to have your book on its way to you!

A huge thanks to Catherine Mann for spending the day with us recently to chat about how important memories are to us. And thanks to those of you who shared yours with us.

And now to our winners, who will receive a copy of Catherine’s latest in her Elite Force series, Hot Zone.

#9 – Kristy

and

#11 – Maureen

Congratulations, ladies! Please send your snail mail addresses to lighthousetagger at gmail dot com and your books will be on their way to you!

I’ve been visiting blogs all over the place these past few weeks, preparing for the December 27 release of my latest book, Warrior’s Redemption.  [Yes, please go look at it!  Yes, please go buy it!!] And, because we’re in the holiday season, many people have asked me the same sort of question – “What’s your favorite holiday memory?” or some variation of what the holidays mean to me.

And though I’ve come up with a variety of answers, nothing made the REAL answer so clear to me as when I did something totally unrelated to writing or talking about my new book today.

Let me backtrack for just a moment…

In October my youngest son got married.   After the wedding, one of the first things he asked me to do for him was to make copies of recipes for some of his favorite dishes.  Once I recovered from the shock of his list (What?  Twenty-one years and you can only think of six things I’ve made for you that you like???), I decided to put together a small family recipe book as a Christmas gift for him.  Nothing fancy, no publishing and binding, just typed up recipes that have been in the family for a while, along with a few notes about where and who they came from.

I was so proud of myself.  What an easy gift idea! Make a few copies, put them in sheet protectors in a three-ring binder, voila!  Done.

Um…not so fast.

I should have known better.  Food, its taste, its smell, has always been a potent invoker of memories for me.  I spent the better part of the day pulling out old recipe files and cookbooks.  Yes, there was the challenge of finding the specific ones my son wanted – some of these things I’ve made so often over the years I don’t even use the recipe anymore – but what really slowed me down was flipping through recipes I haven’t even thought of for years.

I remember that!  I loved that as a kid!  I loved that as a grownup!  Why haven’t I made that in the last ten years?!?  Many of the recipes that I found myself lingering over were the ones that brought back the best memories.

The sweet pickled veggies my mother would can every summer… the ones I made only once because, wow, that was a LOT of work!

The Mexican Chocolate Cake recipe I must have made a thousand times after I was first married… but haven’t even thought of for fifteen years.

The Peanut Butter Fudge recipe I spent at least five years begging my aunt to share with me.  I always looked forward to driving out to the country to visit her because I knew she’d have a big plate of that fudge waiting for me.  Just reading over the recipe, it’s like I’m back there in her kitchen, feeling that pit-of-the-stomach excitement of the day she finally relented to my years of pestering.  If I shut my eyes, I can see her round wooden table, polished to a shine.  I can hear her voice… smell the food cooking.  I loved that fudge… and I loved my aunt.

So many beautiful memories of special moments and special people.  And that’s really the most important part of the holidays, isn’t it?  Those special moments we’re making.  The special people we get to spend time with now and the ones we’ll always remember.

What about you?  Is there some special dish you haven’t made or tasted in years that takes you back to a wonderful memory of someone or something special?

Oh!  And while I’ve got you answering questions, are you a Recipe Sharer or a Recipe Secret-Keeper?

Leave a comment and Sandy will pick one lucky person to receive a copy of that book I’m supposed to be here talking about. 

If you’d like to know more about Warrior’s Redemption, please stop by my website, where you can (if the web-gods have been kind) read an excerpt!

Wishing you all the Merriest Christmas ever, the happiest of holidays – and the best food memories ever!!!

Thanks to Heather Killough-Walden for joining us for a guest blog recently. A better day has not been had talking about angels and heros!

And now it’s time for our winner, who will receive a copy of Heather’s Avenger’s Angel, the first book in her Lost Angels series.

And that is…

#5 – Jeannine Klimt

Congratulations, Jeannine! Please send your snail mail address to lighthousetagger at gmail dot com and I’ll get your book out to you!

We authors tend to have varied backgrounds and degrees.  And it just so happens, I have an MA in Theater from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as well as an undergrad degree in Fine Arts: Theater from the College of Charleston.

Lately, interviewers have been asking about my background in theater and how it influences my writing.  So I decided perhaps it’s time to delve into that deeper, devoting an entire blog to the subject of how acting classes affect the way I build characters in a novel.

In the early twentieth century, acting styles were revolutionized by a Russian actor and theater director named Constantin Stanislavski.  He stressed the importance of accessing a memory that would evoke/relay an emotion on stage.  (That’s vastly oversimplifying his work, but I don’t want to put you all to sleep!  So hang with me here.)

I particularly enjoy digging deeply into the childhoods of my characters to find those memories that defined who they became.  Tapping into those memories can make them vulnerable and more emotionally accessible to the reader, even when they are keeping themselves closed off from the other characters in the story.

For example, in Hot Zone, our big, bad ass, invulnerable hero Hugh is an Air Force pararescueman.  He has crawled between layers of collapsed concrete to save earthquake survivors, in particular our heroine Amelia and her one-year-old nephew Joshua.  Hugh is superhero material to the nth degree.

But what makes him accessible?  Vulnerable?  Heart tugging?

Here’s a brief excerpt where Hugh is trying to calm Amelia by keeping her talking:

“Hugh, what makes you do something like this for a living? I can’t imagine anybody willingly coming down here.”

“What can I say?” He settled onto his side, stowing his gear. “I was the kid who climbed trees to rescue stranded cats.”

“No kidding?” She grasped at the piece of normalcy.

“When I was seven, the neighbor’s Siamese got stuck in a big old oak. The family called the fire department, but it was going to take a while for them to get there because of a three-alarm blaze on the other side of town.”

His smooth-as-bourbon smooth bass voice filled the cave with an intoxicating calm. “The neighbor girl was bawling her eyes out. So I figured, why wait? I’d climbed that tree a hundred times.”

His story wrapped around her, sinking into her pores and transporting her to the world beyond this murky gray hell, a world with leafy green trees and fuzzy kittens.

“I’ll bet the neighbor girl was glad to have her pet back.”

“Oh, I didn’t save her Siamese. The cat climbed down on its own.” He chuckled softly. “I got stuck when my jacket snagged on a branch and the fire department had to rescue me.”

She laughed with him—how could she not?—until her eyes stung with tears and she choked on the thick air. “You’re making that up to distract me.”

“Not a chance. I was scared to death up there. Cried like a baby, when I got to solid ground again.” A half smile dug a crease into the dirt on his rugged face. “The little kid had her cat back and looked at the firefighter like he was a god.”

“Ahhh,” she smiled, realizing…. “You had a crush on the neighbor girl.”

He didn’t answer right away.  The dull throb of distant engines filled the void.

“Yeah.” His voice went flat, the smooth bourbon tones turning gravelly.

The kicker here?  This memory is about the woman the hero eventually married, but now the hero’s wife and daughter are dead.  From that memory he shared to try and calm the heroine, we (the readers) have accessed a lot of information and vulnerability from a hero who keeps himself closed off from the world.

And so, that concludes my Memories 101 blog for today!  Thanks for hanging out with me here.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from readers and other writers.

The holidays in particular bring back memories for many people.  What’s one of your favorite holiday memories?

[Ed. Be sure to leave a meaningful comment for Catherine today - two copies of Hot Zone are up for grabs! US and Canada only, please.]

My dream writing space is on the deck of an 80-foot sailboat designed by my friend, Kevin Dibley, called the Knight Commander. I fell in love with this boat when I was working on my first writing project. I emailed Kevin—a total stranger—and asked if I could use his boat in my book. He emailed me back from New Zealand saying, “Well, that’s not one I’ve heard before.” He also offered to check my sailing sequences for me, and we’ve been great friends ever since. One of my goals in life is to own one of Kevin’s boats. He’s one of the most talented Marine Architects in the business and a really great guy.

In a perfect world, I’d do most of my writing on the deck of my sailboat while sailing the South Pacific with a full crew—like the guys who raced the Hugo Boss Boat in the Rolex Sidney-to-Hobart race a few years ago. The Hugo Boss crew sailed out of Sydney Harbor dressed in black Hugo Boss suits and shades.

They were very hot, literally and figuratively. (grin) Kevin told me they’ve since repainted the boat white because the black hull absorbed so much heat everyone below decks practically roasted.

Unfortunately, my true writing space is at one of two Starbucks. There is one a mile from my house, which I’ve been frequenting lately, but my favorite place to write is at the Carlisle Crossing Starbucks in Carlisle, PA—90-miles away. My daughter used to study ballet in Carlisle dancing with The Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet—one of the best pre-professional ballet schools in the country. For two years I home schooled her, drove to Carlisle where she danced 40+ hours a week, dropped her off at dance, and then headed to Starbucks to write. I spent more time there than most of the baristas. She eventually moved to Carlisle and lived with a host family (the mother of one of the regular customers I got to know at Starbucks) so she could attend high school and dance, but I still made the trip a few times a week. I’ve written four books at the Carlisle Crossing Starbucks and everyone from the district manager to the regular customers have become some of my dearest friends. I always thank them in every one of my acknowledgements. They’re the absolute best and have kept me in coffee and laughter for four years. No other Starbucks could compare. Since my daughter stopped dancing due to injury, I’ve really missed them. It’s time to make another trip to get my Carlisle Starbucks fix.

I also have a beautiful home office with a TreadDesk. My TreadDesk is a desk with a treadmill beneath the hydraulic desktop. The desktop will go from sitting height to standing height with the push of a button. But after having written for so long at a Starbucks, I’ve found it almost impossible to write at home. Go figure. Still, I do a lot of my email and busy work at home while walking 1.4 miles per hour, and then I head over to Starbucks to write my books. I’ve found that at home, I can’t turn off my Mommy Ears. It’s much easier to go to Starbucks and tune out people I’m not related to. I get a whole lot more done – plus, the coffee is much better!

Readers sometimes come to me, utterly head-over-heels in love with one or more of my heroes and wanting to know why they are suddenly obsessed when they’ve never been obsessed with anyone else’s characters before. “It’s only a story!” they tell me. “Why can’t I get him out of my head?”

I’ve got a good idea as to why this is.

I’ve never written a hero who strictly follows the rules. I’ve never breathed life into a character who was afraid to break the speed limit if he felt he had to or get into a fight to defend what was important to him. The men in my stories are the kinds of men I sometimes wish every male on the planet was: smart, strong, kind, deep-down good, tough as nails, empathic, and sexy as hell.

The world is not colored inside the lines. It was created in chaos, and entropy more or less rules. It takes a constant, exhausting kind of vigilance to carve out any kind of meaningful existence on this planet. It takes someone willing to go the distance – someone who will never give up, no matter how tough the going gets. Women are really intelligent. We know that for a romance to survive, it will take a man capable of carrying his own weight and sometimes carrying ours as well. Hell, life gets hard.

So when my readers crack the spine of one of my books (or power up their Ereaders, as the case may be) and find themselves learning about tall, physically strong men with a high tolerance for pain but an empathy for the pain in others, they are understandably intrigued. They continue reading to learn that these men are fast on their feet, quick-thinking, capable, and dependable. Reading further… the men smell good – like leather and aftershave. They never have bad breath. They notice the little things and realize how important they are. But best of all – and this is the kicker – these heroes, these good guys, are willing to be bad.

They’re rule breakers, hell raisers, and “fallen angels.” They’re three-dimensional, fathomless personalities with detailed histories, bone-deep desires, and individual tastes that speak to our own hearts. They feel strongly about what is important to them – and for these men, who are all about inner strength and power to the core – that sometimes means pushing the envelope, breaking boundaries, and doing what needs to be done. Rules be damned.

That’s why my men are so attractive. That’s why we get hot chills when their eyes burn into the women they love. It’s why we fan ourselves when one of them grabs his girl’s wrist, walks her to his bike, and tells her to get on and hold tight. It’s why our breath catches when he fists his hand in his soul mate’s hair to expose the pale column of her throat. No one likes a goody-two-shoes. There’s no place in this world – or our hearts – for men who are wimps. Our heroes must move through the night, silent and deadly. They need to strike fast and bite deep. The men we lust over are wicked warriors.

And our good guys always wear black.

[Ed. I have a copy of Avenger's Angel for someone who leaves a meaningful comment or question for Heather today!]

Like all authors, I love creating characters. In my particular case and with my previous novels, the main characters were created by Jane Austen. Of course, I expanded on most of those characters and tweaked their personalities as time passed, so they are quite altered in many respects from how Jane originally wrote them.

Certainly this is true for Georgiana Darcy, she being the Darcy who is the subject of Miss Darcy Falls in Love. As I thought about Georgiana and characters in a general sense, I decided it would be entertaining to write a character study for some of the unique persons who inhabit the pages of my latest novel. Just to make it really fun, I am going to start with the contributing players first and lead up to the stars.

Zoë and Yvette de Valday: 19-year-old identical twin daughters of the Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Valday of Lyon, France. Zoë and Yvette befriend Georgiana while she visits their home, the friendships lasting for their lifetimes.

Frédéric de Valday: 17-year-old brother to Zoë and Yvette. He too will befriend Georgiana and remain a lifelong friend.

An excerpt is best to describe the three de Valdays. This is how they are introduced to readers in Chapter 1:

A clamor in French from the hallway broke her reverie, seconds later the door bursting open and three figures tumbling into the parlor.

“Dearest Georgiana, finally! Hiding away already, are you? Frédéric insisted that we hunt you down and rescue from your solitary daydreams!”

The speaker was a young woman of nineteen. She was short, barely reaching Georgiana’s shoulders, with a voluptuous figure finely accentuated by an exquisitely tailored gown of purple velvet. Her lavender-tinted eyes blazed vibrantly amid a round face. Mischief and impertinence were etched upon her entire countenance from the tiny tapping foot to the mass of tightly coiled ebony curls audaciously escaping jeweled pins. She was in all ways a vision of supreme, sensual loveliness that could wrest the breath away from everyone who beheld her, male or female. Her name was Zoë, and her lush beauty was so ineffable that it was impossible to imagine that another could match it.

Yet the woman standing near her was indeed a match.

Her twin, Yvette, was nearly a duplicate. It was only the small mole located just to the right of her upper lip that easily revealed her unique identity. The combined essence of these two extraordinary creatures was a captivating assault upon one’s senses. The blessing from the Maker in allowing the creation of two entrancing offspring would presumably then exhaust any hope of further divine favor upon their parents, but this was not the case.

Frédéric, nearly eighteen, was as stunning and forceful a presence as his elder sisters. With his curls styled foppishly about his face, his enormous deep-blue eyes, and his plump mouth, he had a slight feminine air to his look that was aided by his shorter stature and stout fleshiness. But this was only at first glance. As soon as he moved or spoke a word, the effeminate vision was swept away by a personality, voice, and bearing that exuded confident masculinity. The three de Valdays were bewitching and somewhat exhausting, but Georgiana adored them already.

Aren’t they fascinating? Wait until you get to know them. Magnifiqué! I tend to veer toward writing flamboyant characters. What that says about me I refuse to acknowledge! And speaking of flamboyant, or more like eccentric, allow me to introduce you to….

The Marchioness of Warrow: Born Beryl Darcy, Lady Warrow is the sister of James Darcy, Sr., the grandfather of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, and therefore Georgiana Darcy’s great-aunt. Thrice married and widowed, her second husband was the Earl of Essenton. Their son is the current Earl of Essenton and Mr. Sebastian Butler’s father. Are you with me so far? This means that there is a familial connection between Georgiana and Sebastian (the hero of this novel), although the cousins never met until adults. Lady Warrow’s third husband was a marquis, obscenely wealthy, childless, and so enamored with his wife that he ensured his possessions passed to her and that she held her title suo jure, or in her own right. Lady Warrow is elderly but spry, captivating, lushly beautiful, charming, sensuous, and more than a little naughty! She is on intimate terms with everyone from the Prince Regent and Archbishop of Canterbury to dignitaries in many European countries. Widely traveled, morally challenged, fiery, and fiercely loyal to her family, she is a woman to be admired and adored, but never to be crossed!

Baron Caxton: The man who vies for Georgiana’s affections is the quintessential alpha male taken to extremes. Nephew to the Duke of Grafton, Baron Caxton is rich and highly esteemed amongst the English elite. A graduate of Oxford, his choice to teach violin at his alma mater and then the famed Conservatoire of Music in Paris is purely out of a desire to travel and share his mastery with other great musicians. Morally upright, decent, honest, and severely straight laced, the baron has a pristine reputation. He is also rawly male, supremely handsome, and blessed with a charisma that is overwhelmingly sexual and mesmerizing. Women – all women – fall instantly under his spell. Yet until Georgiana Darcy he has never wanted a woman enough to tap into his magnetic power. How can she resist?

Here is another brief excerpt to convey what I mean:

Georgiana was bemused. Yes, she thought, that is the word for it: bemused. Or maybe bedazzled was an apt description for how she felt. The lights seemed brighter, the music especially melodious, the dancing more enjoyable, and the food ambrosial. Everything was exquisite as never before. The air surrounding her sparkled magically and tingles bounced over her skin.

Yet there was an unreal quality to the sensations within and perceptions without. It was not disturbing exactly. It was merely strange. Strange and wonderful, she amended as her silk-clad hands brushed over the baron’s gloved palms, his thumb miraculously managing to squeeze and caress her knuckles in the seconds before the steps of the quadrille pulled them apart. Flawlessly, he sidestepped to engage the lady next in line, executing a fluid chassé while never looking away from Georgiana. She could not claim to be an adept judge of a man’s behavior nor did she possess the vanity to assume men were instantly attracted to her; nevertheless, if asked, she would be forced to blushingly agree that Lord Caxton appeared to be as bemused as she.

This was their second dance together since arriving at the ball. The first, a waltz, had left her breathless and dazed. A portion of that response may have been a result of lively dancing on a crowded floor with lights blazing overhead. Undoubtedly the steady stream of conversation and questions while twirling at a fast pace augmented the breathlessness. Lord Caxton appeared relentless in his pursuit to learn as much about her as possible. This was quite flattering, of course, as was the intensity of the dark eyes that rarely left her face unless it was to scan over her figure—a fact she pretended not to notice even as heat flooded her skin—and the way he drew her closer to his body than was strictly necessary for a proper waltz. The latter greatly shattered her typical composure, and it was with some relief that she greeted the dance’s conclusion.

Now you have been introduced to a handful of the more colorful characters in Miss Darcy Falls in Love. There are a host of characters equally marvelous, but Sandy may balk at the length of this post if I talked about all of them! So, I am going to continue the analysis on other blogspots in the days to follow. Tomorrow I will be at Reviews By Molly talking about Georgiana Darcy, among others. Visit my website for the details and to learn more about all my novels.

Thanks for having me today, Sandy. I will be checking back for any comments and to say hi. One lucky commenter will receive a copy of Miss Darcy Falls in Love. (U.S. and Canada only, please) Good luck in the giveaway!

We’d like to thank Lisa Renee Jones for joining us recently, instigating a good discussion about book covers, an important issue in the process of publishing a book and buying one. Thanks for a fun day, Lisa!

And now to our winner, who will receive a goodie bag filled with books, some bath and body works Vampire Blood that Lisa swears you will love and any one of her backlist books she currently has in stock.

Mairee (#4) …. come on down!

Congrats! Send your snail mail address to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll pass it on to Lisa for you.

The hero of The Ruby Kiss is a nightstalker. In my Magic Knot fairy world, this means he is a black, human-sized fairy with wings, and a vampire! He has been a major secondary character in the first two books in the series, and he’s had a tough ride, so it was time I gave him his own happy ending.

When I wrote The Magic Knot, the first in my fairy series, I never intended Nightshade to play such a major part in the books. He started life as the villain’s sidekick, but as soon as he appeared on the page, he took on a life of his own. This scary winged man, who I’d intended to simply be a threat to the heroine, turned out to be far more than that. His tragic past gradually came out. He ended up changing sides and working with the hero and heroine to make up for the bad things he had done.

I received more emails from readers asking about Nightshade than about any of the other characters. His popularity surprised me!

He still had some issues to deal with in book two, The Phoenix Charm (he was in love with the hero!). But by the end of that story, he was ready to move on and find a heroine of his own.

When I first started dreaming up a heroine for Nightshade, I knew she had to be an unusual woman, a strong woman. He has always been attracted to strength and power, which is why he went after men. So Ruby is not your normal heroine. She is stubborn and feisty, and although she’s not your classic, kick-ass heroine, she is not afraid to stand up to the villains and tell them what she thinks of them and try to outwit them.

Ruby is Scottish, and in this installment of the series, the couple spends most of their time in the Scottish Unseelie fairy court. They get tangled up with the Seelie/Unseelie fairy court politics, and Ruby’s unrealized power makes her a desirable asset. This puts her right in the middle of the power struggle.

I had a lot of fun creating the Scottish fairy courts and the characters who populate them. The book draws on both Celtic and Norse mythology with a touch of Arabian in there as one of the main secondary characters is a djinn, who first appeared in The Phoenix Charm.

In The Ruby Kiss, Nightshade finally lays his demons to rest and realizes what it is he really needs to make him happy—and that is Ruby!

I love reading about all types of mythology, and I’ve drawn on Celtic and Norse mainly for The Ruby Kiss. That said, my favorite mythology to read about is that of India. The Hindu gods and the stories that surround them always fascinate me. I have pictures of Krishna over my desk for inspiration! Do you have a favorite mythology that always makes you pick up a book?

Leave Helen a meaningful comment or question and one lucky commenter will win a print or e-copy of The Ruby Kiss.

We have a special treat for you today – Grace Burrowes is here!

If you’ve not read any of Grace’s Windham family series yet, you really are missing some fun, emotional, and romantic reads. Her newest book in the series is The Virtuoso, and this is her most emotional book yet. These Windham brothers are very special, indeed.

Grace is a practicing attorney specializing in family law and lives in a restored log cabin in western Maryland without a TV, DVD or radio because she’s too busy working on her next books. Thank goodness, say her readers!

Two copies of The Virtuoso are being given away today, so be sure to leave a meaningful comment or question for Grace. US and Canada only, please.

Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Welcome, Grace! Thank you for joining us today. Let’s start off quirky. What’s the one thing even your most hard-core fans don’t know about you?

GRACE BURROWES: Thanks for inviting me! I’m always happy to talk about my books. As a kid I was afraid of nightcrawlers—hysterically, lock myself in the bathroom, afraid. My four brothers will note I use the past tense.

DC: If you could retire any interview question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

GB: “Where do you get your ideas?” is a tough one, because I don’t know the answer. Stuff occurs to me, usually three months after I needed it or three months before I realize what I ought to do with it. I read as widely as I can in the time periods I write about, and I’ve traveled to the UK when budget permits. Long drives (DC to San Diego and back) are good for pondering material in a sort of “screen saver” mode, and short walks help occasionally too.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

GB: Every time I pull up my WIP and set my fingers to the keyboard, I’m hoping to be surprised. If I’m surprised, the reader might be as well, and that helps keep the pages turning.

DC: What is it that initially drew you to write historical romance?

GB: I’ve been reading romance, mostly historical romance, for almost forty years. It has been my guilty pleasure, my greatest consolation, my refuge. Historical romance has made me happy as a reader. It makes sense it would make me happy as a writer too—and it has!

DC: In moseying around your website, I discovered you went to law school and opened your own office for a while. What type of law did you go into? Do you still practice?

GB: I am in private practice in rural Maryland. While I do some family mediation, and the occasional custody case, the bulk of my practice is representing children in abuse and neglect proceedings, and indigent adults in public guardianship proceedings. It’s a wonderful way to be a lawyer, since much of the work is “problem-solving law.”

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

GB: I would not dare argue with them. I’m usually too busy begging them to tell me what their almighty external conflicts are, and why those conflicts are supposed to be ideal for getting us to the Happily Ever After. One of the Windham sisters has been holding out on me now for six months.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

GB: I blush to admit it, but the day job can feel like a distraction. I’ll spend most of the weekend, from sometime Friday until Monday mid-morning writing, writing, writing, and I would be happy to stay at it. Once I get to work I’m okay, but changing gears from Regency England or the Victorian Highlands to child welfare proceedings is hard.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over the course of your series so far? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you first started?

GB: When I first started writing, my editor told me I was a hero-centric writer. This struck me as dead on, to the point that when it came time to write about the Windham sisters, I was a little daunted. If I’m less interested in the heroine’s journey, how can I be sure my readers won’t find the results boring?

But then I started on the sisters’ books, and they turned out to be more personal to me than the brothers’. The sisters’ issues resonate very strongly with me, and their books are turning out to be very sound efforts as a result.

DC: Would you tell our readers about your series, The Duke’s Obsession, and the Windham family in general and also let us know about how the series began, if it’s evolved as you originally envisioned, have there been any major changes along the way?

GB: When I started writing, I just started writing, no thought to whether I’d finish a book, a series, or ever get published. A few years later I had a personal slush pile of about twenty manuscripts, all of them related, like shoots from a common spider plant. My dear editor, Deb Werksman at Sourcebooks, had the challenge of selecting where to start and how to position the books. The Windham brothers (The Heir, The Soldier, The Virtuoso) had done well in contests, and The Heir read fairly well in draft, so we started there. Deb gave me the choice of trying to finish the family series by writing the sisters’ books or moving on to some of the prequels and spinoffs. We came up with Lady Sophie’s Christmas Wish (Deb gets big props for shaping the plot and for having faith in me), and that went well enough that we steered in the direction of completing the family series.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

GB: I’ve never done anything paranormal, though I’m a die-hard JR Ward fan, and I’ve never done an inspirational. All romance ought to be inspiring, but that’s not the same thing, is it?

DC: Which fictional character would you like to hang out with?

GB: WHAT a hard question! Do I want the pleasure of some pulchritudinous, gallant masculine company when I know his deepest affections are elsewhere engaged (because I wrote him an HEA), or should I go for some girl bonding, because those Windham sisters are such first rate ladies? Or maybe tea with Their Graces, just to bask in the presence of a true love that has matured for more than thirty years?

I’d choose to spend time with Lady Genevieve Windham. She’s the last Windham sibling to marry, the one everybody calls “sweet,” and she’s hiding some enormous problem from me that I must know if I’m to write her the happy ending she deserves with her artistic swain.

DC: The Virtuoso is now on bookstore shelves everywhere. Would you tell us about Val and Ellen and their story?

GB: Suzanne Brockmann, among many others (my editor), advises that the way to a wonderful book is to torture the hero without mercy. I knew Valentine Windham had found consolation, purpose and identity in his music. He believed it was the best of him, the thing that gave him value in the eyes of others…. So I took it from him. That was hard for me.

Ellen absolutely broke my heart, though. She sought solitude because it was the only way she could regain her sanity, and her courage was tremendous. I wasn’t sure where this book would go, but it ended up being a very satisfying story to write.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

GB: Hooboy! Cherish yourself.

DC: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

GB: I don’t google myself. The internet is real, but it isn’t reality. It can become like Harry Potter’s mirror, an endlessly fascinating obsession, and I don’t need or want that.

DC: What book would you like to read again for the first time?

GB: The one I have in revisions right now: Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight. It’s hard to see with a fresh eye something that absorbed me for weeks on end.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

GB: I dunno…. A cross between Great Expectations and Warrior Sheep.

DC: What would your “voice’s” tagline be?

GB: Beautiful love stores, beautifully written.

DC: We’ve been mentioning the ladies of this series, The Duke’s Daughters. Can you give us a look into this series and its characters and what readers can expect over the next year or so?

GB: These are the five daughters of Their Graces, the Duke and Duchess of Moreland. Their tales start with Lady Sophie’s Christmas Wish, which is on shelves now. In May, we have Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal, and for next year’s holiday season, we’ll have, Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight. Stories for Lady Eve and Lady Jenny are slated to come out in 2013… assuming Jenny will tell me what her perishing benighted problem is.

DC: What romance book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run?

GB: If you can wait until November first, and you’ve already ordered your copy of The Virtuoso, pick up a copy of Joanna Bourne’s The Black Hawk. ANYTHING she writes is pure, sparkling gold. While you’re there pick up Kieran Kramer’s If You Give a Girl a Viscount. It’s a wonderful Regency read that will make you smile and reach for the tissues.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

GB: Reading If You Give a Girl a Viscount, or heckling Julie Ann Long, Meredith Duran, Loretta Chase, Mary Balogh and Jennifer Ashley (among others) to write faster. I can’t pick on Carolyn Jewel because she’s pretty quick for a single mom with a full time job.

DC: What’s on the horizon for Grace Burrowes?

GB: We’ll launch a trilogy of Scottish Victorians next summer, and oh, the pleasure of researching those books! If readers enjoy reading them half as much as I enjoy writing them, they will be quite, quite well received.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?   -  dark

- smooth or chunky peanut butter?    – depends

- heels or flats?    – barefeet or my fave thick organic wool Maggie Moo socks

- coffee or tea?    -  Jasmine green tea with cream and agave nectar

- summer or winter?   – fall

- mountains or beach?     -  mountains

- mustard or mayonnaise?    – mustard (and butter)

- flowers or candy?     -  flowers… unless there’s really good German dark chocolate marzipan involved

- pockets or purse?    – pockets and um, décolletage

- Pepsi or Coke?    – can’t do the ‘feine so I’m stuck with weasel pee aka caffeine free diet colas

- ebook or print?    – both
And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?    – today my favorite word is parlous, which means perilous. One can have a financially parlous existence (according to the Earl of Westhaven) if the ducal finances remain in the ducal mitts.

2. What is your least favorite word?     – whatever

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – love and solitude, which ought not to make sense, but to me it does, abundant thinking

4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – spending too much time around people, even people I love; close mindedness; scarcity thinking

5. What sound or noise do you love?    – So many… the stream by my house on a summer night, crickets, the wind in the pines, horses chewing hay on a winter night, my bull mastiff drinking out of the potty, men singing in close harmony unaccompanied, Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini,” my family and friends calling to say hi…

6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – The silence of those entitled to cry their hearts out

7. What is your favorite curse word?     -  I’m in a “perishing bloody benighted” phase at present.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?     – I’d like to work for Penhaligon’s making scents in the UK.

9. What profession would you not like to do?    – Accounting. Just do not have the gene for it!

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    – “Welcome home, and congratulations on a long life honorably lived. Your family is waiting to greet you, but first, may I introduce you to Their Graces, the Duke and Duchess of Moreland, and their entire family?”

DC: Thank you so much for being with us today, Grace! It was an absolute pleasure.