The Idea Boutique

Real Vampires Get Lucky by Gerry Bartlett

2008-06-16T15:19:00.000-04:00

When I was looking for ideas for the third book, Real Vampires Get Lucky, in the Glory St. Clair vampire series, I wanted to put her in a really bad situation, so bad that it would take the rest of the book for Glory to work her way out of the jam. Hopefully, this would hook the reader and get her to read on. So I dumped a seriously wounded mortal in Glory’s path and gave her a choice: let someone die or turn him or her vampire.

Glory had always sworn never to make a new vampire because she’s had her own regrets about taking on a pair of fangs. For one thing, she would have lost those ten pounds that have been riding on her hips all these years before she’d let her vampire lover turn her. For another she’d never had a chance to sample chocolate truffles. Enough said. Now, although she’s been a vampire for over four hundred years, Glory doesn’t have a clue about how to turn someone vampire. So here she is, in the alley behind her vintage clothing shop staring at this person who is one breath away from death. This alley is significant because bad things always seem to happen here. At least they did in book one(Real Vampires Have Curves) and two(Real Vampires Live Large) of the series. That’s important because when you’re writing a series, you’re juggling not only a continuing cast of characters, but their memories and the settings they’ve lived in.

Back to that mortal bleeding out. Glory’s stuck. She’s got to turn this person vampire. And Gerry, the writer, has to decide whether it’s going to be a hot guy or a woman. Hmm. Hot guy is competition for the love of Glory’s life. Interesting, but not what I need right now. So it’s a woman lying there. And to motivate Glory further, this woman has an expensive handbag and great boots. Her Gucci wallet is lying a few feet away and Glory’s shape-shifting bodyguard Valdez has a laugh when he reads the name on the driver’s license: Lucky Carver(See where I got my title?). A phone call to Glory’s boyfriend finally gets Glory the information she needs to make Lucky into a vampire. Well, that problem’s solved. But of course there are lots more problems ahead for Glory and a woman who turns out to be a loan shark for paranormals.

Loan shark? Where did that come from? I needed a reason for Lucky to be in an alley in Austin, Texas at two in the morning. Authors are constantly working on a character’s motivation, goals, conflict. Fancy words that mean “Does this make sense?” Lucky was used to collecting debts at night in strange places, but this time that habit almost got her killed. When Glory takes her upstairs and begins her vampire training, our heroine is stuck with a woman who doesn’t know the meaning of “low profile” and who has a very unhappy would-be killer still after her.

Since this is also a romance, I gave Lucky an ex-boyfriend whom she hates. Lucky’s idea of revenge is to turn the rock star into a vampire. Then she dumps him on Glory so our heroine can mentor him. Hmm. Imagine waking up with a naked rock star in your bed. And not just any rocker, but one whose music lights your personal fire. Now Glory’s longtime boyfriend finally has some serious competition. And Glory’s life gets really complicated.

Okay, now you’ve got the set-up for Real Vampires Get Lucky: There’s slightly chubby and always independent vampire, Gloriana St. Clair; her hunky Scottish lover, vampire Jeremy Blade; newly made vampire, Lucky and a hot rock star to resist. Sprinkle in all the continuing characters that readers of the series expect to see like Glory’s best friends and her bodyguard/dog Valdez. Oh, and don’t forget the usual suspects like vampire hunters. See why writing a series is such a challenge?

You can read an excerpt from Real Vampires Get Lucky at gerrybartlett.com. It hit bookstores June 3. Also, come visit Glory’s blog at myspace.com/gerrybartlett.

Hope to see you there!
Gerry Bartlett

Cindy Miles

2008-06-04T10:52:00.000-04:00

First off, thank you Heather, for having me here today! Now, Everyone--close your eyes and imagine....

What if.....

You happened to travel to the Highlands of Scotland? The air is cool and tinged with the sweet, sharp scent of clover, the moors loll and heather sits in big clumps and turns the entire side of hill lavender. White fluffy sheep dot the land, and rising from beside a dark loch is a formidable stone tower. Imagine if you were able to stay in that tower as a guest...and encountered not one but five big warriors from another century living in a supposed haunted towerhouse? That's exactly what Amelia Landry experiences when her best friend and assistant leases her the dark tower for the summer. You see, Amelia has had a serious case of Brain Fade and has three months left to write and turn in her next novel. But her writer's mojo has disappeared and she's been struggling. Hoping to gain inspiration from the creepy, haunted tower, she packs up and leaves Charleston, SC and makes for the Highlands. A big fan of Bram Stoker, Amelia's imagination takes flight as soon as she steps foot into the dark, stone, fourtheenth century keep. But she also encounters a dead-sexy laird wrapped in plaid--along with his kinsmen.

Centuries before, Ethan Munro's bride was found dead--and Ethan, whose dark reputation follows him everywhere--was blamed. After a battle between his bride's kin, a thick mist envelopes Ethan and his brethren and for centuries, they exist on a plane where for one hour a day, they solidify. Neither dead nor alive, they have long awaited for help from SOMEONE. When Amelia shows up, with her nearly fearless self, Ethan gets way more than he bargains for...

Having had the pleasure of visiting Scotland's lush Highlands a few times, the setting for Highland Knight popped right out at me. Every time I visit a crumbling castle ruin, or traipse through the wood, I can imagine the big, fierce warriors and their kin, swords drawn, curses spewing. It's a magical place alive with history, and I love reading and writing about it. I hope you do, as well!

Enjoy!

Cindy

THE ART OF DESIRE by CHERIE FEATHER

2008-06-03T16:37:00.001-04:00

In the old days, I used to get censored by my editors because my love scenes were too graphic, so when the erotica subgenre exploded on the scene, it seemed inevitable that I become part of it. Even my readers kept asking, “When are you going to write an erotica?”

So I did it! The Art of Desire is my first really, really sexy book. No censorship. No holds barred. But in spite of the sensuality, I wanted it to be highly romantic and deeply emotional, too. So I created a contemporary story with a historical twist. The historical portions gave me the opportunity to write a classic romance with tragic elements. The contemporary portions gave me the chance to spread my naughty wings and write in my most erotic voice.

The result has been rewarded. So far, The Art of Desire has garnered exceptional reviews, including a Top Pick from Romantic Times. I couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s truly a book of my heart.

If you’re curious about the RT review, this is what it says:

“This story has it all--hot and varied sex scenes, a hunky hero to die for, a tough-yet-insecure heroine to identify with and a diary that links the characters to a tragic Old West love affair from a hundred years ago. The happy-ever-after ending is icing on the cake! Feather is an excellent writer who knows which details will evoke just the right emotion.” Romantic Times, 4 ½ stars, Top Pick!

Who wouldn’t be happy about that review? Lol. If you want to know more about the plot, here’s the back cover blurb:

Museum director Mandy Cooper has always been obsessed with nineteenth-century artist Catherine Burke—and the artist’s erotically charged relationship with Atacar, her enthralling American Indian lover. But Mandy’s link to the legendary couple runs deeper than she knows. She’s having a heated affair herself—with Jared Cabrillo, Atacar’s perilously handsome great-great nephew. And the consuming passion Atacar once used to seduce Catherine is now being engaged by Jared. He knows precisely what it takes to move a woman…

He’s in possession of Catherine’s wildly explicit journal. He knows every intimate detail of what she wanted and needed. But he also knows how desperately Catherine had loved Atacar and how dangerously he’d loved her. The journal is timeless and tragic, and the secrets contained within its pages can bring Mandy and Jared together, or just as surely destroy them both—desire by shocking desire.

If you’d like to see the book trailer, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls0rwEM29iY&eurl=file://C:%5CA_Websites%5CSheriWhitefeather%5CTMPy9xpmttouo.htm

If you’d like to read an excerpt, click here: http://goodbadandunread.com/2008/04/26/book-alert-the-art-of-desire-by-cherie-feather/

For news, contests and to read my blog, you can visits my websites at: http://www.cheriefeather.com/ and http://www.sheriwhitefeather.com/

Hugs and Happy Reading!

Cherie

Donna MacMeans

2008-06-02T12:10:00.002-04:00

Invisibility can be most revealing.

I remember precisely when I discovered the idea for THE TROUBLE WITH MOONLIGHT. It was the summer of 2006. My husband and I decided to go to the movies and chose My Super Ex-girlfriend (crummy movie, but great scene of the super girlfriend tossing a shark at her boyfriend through a skyscraper window.) I was casting about, looking for a fresh idea and thought – superpowers are hot. Look at the popular TV series – Heroes. Other recent movies: Fantastic Four, Spiderman. Perhaps I could do something with a superhero story.

I had just finished my Victorian novel, The Education of Mrs. Brimley, and had fallen in love with the time period. I figured there aren’t many superheroes in historical settings, other than vampires, so this might be good. Plus I wouldn’t be wasting all that research I did for Mrs. Brimley. So I had my setting – late Victorian England.

Now I needed a power. I thought about flying, but that would be difficult with all those skirts and whatnot. If faced with imminent death or flying, would a proper Victorian woman choose the latter if it meant someone could see up her skirt? Sorry, Mary Poppins, I don’t think so. So flying was out. I considered other powers. One of my favorites is invisibility. Remember how Harry Potter had a cloak of Invisibility – so did Frodo didn’t he? It’s a cool talent – and visual (so to speak J). I could already see the opening scene in my mind. Things floating on air with no obvious explanation.

I don’t know about you, but I hate it when the hero can turn his power on and off like a light bulb. I decided pretty early that I wanted this power to play havoc with my heroine, cause her lots of worry and anxiety about her ability to control it. And she had to be visible sometimes – I mean the hero has to be able to find her. My daughter and I talked it over as we waited at the airport for her plane to Chicago. What normal occurrence could we use that would have been available in Victorian times and would play havoc with my heroine – the moon!

We discussed the problem of clothes. That Susan chick from the Fantastic Four had her genius boyfriend come up with some clothes that could turn invisible. My poor Victorians couldn’t have had that technology. Then I remembered the headless horseman. Do you remember him? He’s really what sealed the deal. I decided he must have been of the same race of people as my heroine (nuclear accidents also were out). He rode his horse in Moonlight and his body turned invisible, giving the illusion that he was headless. Perfect.

Now all I needed was a reason to force my heroine out of her house when the moon was full, and a hero who would fall privy to her secret. The book was born.

In the midst of a moonlit safe-cracking mission, British spy James Locke witnesses a ruby necklace spirited away as if by conjurer’s trick. Following the jewels leads him to Lusinda Havershaw who’s inherited the talent of turning invisible in moonlight – at lest, the parts of her that are unclothed. Locke trains Lusinda in espionage, even while he finds her close proximity bewitchingly distracting. And as their mission to track Russian spies grows treacherous, they’ll find that the heart behaves even more mysteriously than Lusinda in moonlight.

The Trouble with Moonlight will be available June 3rd. ISBN: 978-0-425-22198-3
Read an excerpt at http://www.donnamacmeans.com/

Donna

Ghost Moon by Rebecca York

2008-05-11T11:24:00.001-04:00

GHOST MOON is the seventh book in a werewolf series I never planned.

When I wrote my first Moon book, KILLING MOON, I simply wanted to write a werewolf story, and I thought of the idea of a werewolf detective who uses his wolf senses to solve crimes. Then Berkley asked me for more werewolf books–and I was off and running.

By the time I got to the third book, I realized I needed to add another major theme that would expand the series. So I began writing about heroines who had psychic powers.

I used that in several books. Still, I felt that I needed a bigger canvas, so I introduced an alternate universe, parallel to our own. Only something happened there so that a lot of people suddenly acquired psychic powers, completely disrupting civilization. I’ve had characters from that world come into this one. And I’ve had characters from our world go there.

In GHOST MOON, I’m using that new setting to its full advantage, but I’m also looking for traits that will make each of my werewolf heroes unique and will create conflict between the hero and the heroine. Which is how I came up with the basic idea for the story. Caleb Marshall is the ghost of a werewolf killed 75 years ago by his cousin. And he wants to avenge his own death–which puts him in conflict with the Marshall werewolves my readers know and, hopefully, love. The heroine, Quinn, who comes from my alternate universe, is friends with the Marshalls, so she’s immediately afraid that Caleb will go after them. With my usual twisted glee, I set up a situation where she and Caleb are forced to work with them to defeat a terrorist plot.

As I planned the book, I didn’t want to back myself into a corner with a ghost hero. So I needed a way for Caleb to acquire a body. That’s part of the terrorist plot. But I don’t want to give away any more of the story by telling you more about it. Except to say that I had one more horrible idea. What if the body Caleb acquired couldn’t change to wolf form? What would that do to him?

Rebecca York

There's a Storm on the way in GONE WITH THE WITCH, May 6, 2008

2008-05-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

“Psychic witches with attitude SPELL identical-triplet trouble in spikes!”
In a nutshell this is the story of my Triplet Witch Trilogy:

SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, Harmony’s story, in stores now.
GONE WITH THE WITCH, Storm’s story, due in stores TODAY!
NEVER BEEN WITCHED, coming in February, 2009.

But Today’s blog is about Storm, the Goth rebel with attitude. Storm Cartwright grew up knowing she was the straw that broke the camel's back, that it was her arrival that sent their mother running from the hospital before their father ever came to pick them upl.

Each of the triplets has a psychic gift. Harmony sees the past. Destiny sees the future, but Storm sees the present. What good is that? Everybody sees the present, don't they?

Storm thinks so until Aiden McCloud arrives on the scene:

In his presence she hears a baby crying. Abducting him is the only way to follow the sound and find the child. Her scheme includes his luxury motor coach, seduction . . . and four pairs of fuzzy purple handcuffs.

Neither Aiden nor Storm knows who they really are and it takes a wacky road trip and discoveries of all sorts, including secrets, secrets, secrets, for Storm to spot the real Aiden inside the hermit wanderer, and for Aiden to peel away Storm’s tough outer layers to find the jewel hidden deep inside.

I had a blast writing their story. I fell in love with all of them. GONE WITH THE WITCH is like nothing I've ever written, and I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

So don’t forget: handcuffs and secrets, psychics and sex, the sound of crying babies, dragons and tabloids . . . a bad boy and a bad girl, and all the trouble they can get into.

GONE WITH THE WITCH . . . on sale TODAY.

ps: It’s already hit some bestseller lists!
Click below for:
An excerpt!

The Story of the story
"OMG, what a fantastically fun story! GONE WITH THE WITCH has it all; sensuously personable characters, breath-taking romance and a story line that is amusing and totally unique. Talented Annette Blair continues her triplet witch books with Storm’s story, my favorite of the triplets. GONE WITH THE WITCH, don’t you love that title, is a stand alone book but I bet you won’t be able to resist buying just this one book by Annette Blair; she is addictive! Sultry." Sensual & Erotic Ecataromance

"A spellbinding story that totally knocked my socks off! Once again I find myself in awe over the author's ability to make the characters so memorable...will leave you with a big smile on your face. Author Annette Blair writes priceless romance adventures." Detra Fitch, Huntress Reviews

"GONE WITH THE WITCH is sensual, close to being erotic...a touching emotional tale. I’ve read all the ‘witchy’ tales from Ms. Blair...I recommend them all for your reading pleasure." Carol Carter, Romance Reviews Today

"Great fun! Wonderful characters, a riveting storyline and a sensuous undercurrent...phenomenal... Storm is a hoot! She had me rolling in laughter through the entire story. She’s wild and carefree while Aiden has his own surefire beliefs about everything. The romance that blooms between these two...will have reader’s hearts melting. The adventure Aiden and Storm embark on to find this crying baby will have you riveted to the pages... Annette Blair always has fun with her witch characters...very evident in this story. If you’ve never read her before, please do! I guarantee you’ll be a die-hard fan in no time." ~Amanda Haffery, Romance Junkies

"Annette Blair’s second contribution to her Triplet trilogy should come with oven mitts as it is hot, hot, hot. The ending is just wonderful, with fantastic characters and a strong narrative. If the reader likes her romantic comedies just shy of being classified as erotica, this is definitely the book for you! Believe me when I say, this is one road trip you do not want to miss!" Betty Cox, Reader to Reader

"An emotionally charged story...GONE WITH THE WITCH starts out as somewhat light, bawdy, entertaining fun, which is what I thoroughly enjoy in all of Ms. Blair's books. She can be hysterically outrageous, and I can count on several laugh-out-loud moments. This story tugged at the heart as I was drawn into a tale of two people who've lived on the surface of life, afraid to seek greater depth to their existence for fear of being hurt yet again. Storm and Aiden are made for one another, and their discovery of this fact makes a truly satisfying story. This book is a definite addition to my keeper shelf." Paula Myers, Fresh Fiction

"Again there is plenty of magic and spell casting, as well as lots of hot, sexy situations. There are a number of familiar characters mentioned and some charming new ones, and both main characters develop wonderfully over the course of the story." Susan Mobley, Romantic Times

"Whimsical, witty, and wonderful,
Blair's Witches are a magical bunch that are sure to enchant readers everywhere."
~Madelyn Alt, Author of HEX MARKS THE SPOT

Don’t forget: First in the trilogy: SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, available now.

HAPPY READING!
Annette
www.annetteblair.com
www.myspace.com/annetteblair

H A U N T E D

2008-05-04T11:29:00.001-04:00

Haunted Bookshop Mystery #4: The Ghost and the Femme Fatale

(Alice Kimberly)

"...That booming, masculine voice in my head was either the ghost of P. I. Jack Shepard or a delusion of my half-demented mind. Which was true? Take your pick."

Such are the words of Penelope—single mom, bookstore owner, and star of my nationally best-selling paranormal series The Haunted Bookshop Mysteries. The Ghost and the Femme Fatale is the latest release with more titles on the way in 2009 and 2010.

There were A LOT of ideas and influences behind the opening of my haunted bookshop, starting with the classic "What if" game. "What would happen," I asked myself, "if a street-hardened detective like Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe found himself forced to coexist with a younger version of Agatha Christie's feisty amateur sleuth Miss Marple? And what if that hard-boiled private eye was (you guessed it) a ghost?"

At the start of my series, young widow Penelope McClure moves herself and her seven-year-old son back to her little Rhode Island hometown. Using her late husband's insurance money, Pen breathes new life back into her elderly aunt Sadie's nearly dead bookshop. As she remodels the store's interior, however, Pen brings something else back to life, as well: the spirit of Jack Shepard, a private investigator from New York City who was gunned down on the premises in the 1940s.

City-hardened Jack is less than thrilled to find his spirit marooned in some kind of backwater purgatory. Spending eternity in a bookstore in the godforsaken sticks was not the sort of afterlife he'd imagined. When he encounters auburn-haired Penelope, however, he's a little less cranky (Jack always was a sucker for a redhead). Then Pen gets mixed up in murder, and she realizes that the ghost of a professional P. I. is a pretty handy haunter—even if his off-color wisecracks and arrogant attitude are a real pain in the neck.

As fans of this series can tell you, a major inspiration for me in developing these paranormal mysteries was the novel The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. (As a tribute to Mrs. Muir's late author, Josephine Leslie, who wrote under the pen name R. A. Dick, I always quote a line from her novel at the beginning of my own books.)

Published in Britain in 1945, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir became a bestseller, and it's not hard to see why. This was right after World War II, when far too many women in their prime had become instant widows. Any new widow, still haunted by the memory of her young, vital husband, would have found a great deal of comfort in Josephine Leslie's novel, which tells the story of a young widow who finds companionship with the ghost of a virile sea captain. The tale is chockfull of metaphor and meaning, too—the ghost represents everything from hidden female desires and longings to the latent power of a woman's creativity. (Captain Gregg effectively becomes Mrs. Muir's muse, dictating his adventures as she writes them into a book.)

In my own stories, there are metaphors at work, as well. Sure, my bookshop is inhabited by a real ghost, but it's also haunted by something else: the power of one woman's imagination. Is Jack a real ghost? Or is he a very helpful part of Penelope's own repressed spirit? For me, Jack Shepard is very real indeed. Like Mrs. Muir's salty Captain Gregg, Jack even has his own personal journey: The big city private eye realizes that his purgatory of an afterlife isn't so terrible after all, because he's found a worthy woman to protect and cherish.

Yes, this is a love story as much as a story of haunting and mystery. And even though it features a dead man, it's very much a story about how to live because this is a love story for me, too—the love of a sixty-year-old book and movie (a love that I will continue to have until the day I die). And that's really the very best idea behind my Haunted Bookshop series: When you find a book to love, or a fantastic fictional character that inhabits its pages, you may end up being haunted (happily) for the rest of your days.

To learn more about my Haunted Bookshop Mysteries or the Coffeehouse Mysteries that I write under the pen name Cleo Coyle, visit the Haunted Bookshop page on my virtual coffeehouse website at: http://www.coffeehousemystery.com/ I also have a message board, a newsletter, and a monthly giveaway of free coffee to my newsletter subscribers. Cheers!

Alice Kimberly

Pelham Fell Here: A P.I. Gets a Little Help from His Friends

2008-05-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

Pelham Fell Here is the first book in the P.I. Frank Johnson series (The Dirt-Brown Derby, The Blue Cheer, Troglodytes are the other titles). Pelham tells how Frank comes to decide to work as a private investigator. After Frank finds his cousin and best friend Cody Chapman murdered, he wants to get to the bottom of what happened. Easier said than done, Frank finds.

The further Frank digs into Cody’s life, the more betrayal and chaos he finds. Before long, Frank tangles with a cult of bad guys Cody knew who only understands the bloody way to settle any conflicts.

However, I quickly realized Frank couldn’t do it all as the lonewolf detective. He has to call on his friends for their assistance. Dreema Atkins who works at the Virginia Forensics lab offers her expertise on running the science on the clues Frank discovers. I wanted Frank to enjoy some romance, and Dreema fit that bill quite nicely.

Chet Peyton, fearless but young, helps Frank until reinforcements arrive on the scene to lend a hand. I knew Frank,outnumbered and outgunned, needed a loyal, impact partner to stand with him against such heavy odds. Enter Gerald, bounty hunter extraordinaire. Gerald is a force who levels the playing field for Frank to catch an even break in this murder case.

Law enforcement takes a dim view of Frank’s stirring up loud trouble and arrests him as Cody’s killer. Then I created the rich, smart, and larger-than-life defense attorney Bob Gatlin top lead Frank’s case in the courtroom. Gatlin also happens to also need a P.I. to do some investigative work for him, so Frank gains an employer as well as a lawyer in his corner.

I’m glad I gave Frank all his pals in Pelham Fell Here because it allowed me to create a more interesting mix. So, if you’d like to read a story about a P.I. with a lot of different friends, Frank’s tale in his hometown of Pelham should be just the one for you.

Ed Lynskey

Cleo Coyle’s Brewing Up Murder and Banana Muffins (Recipe Included!)

2008-04-14T21:51:00.005-04:00

My newest Coffeehouse Mystery, French Pressed, just hit every major mass market mystery bestseller list in the country: Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Bookscan (yeah, baby!). If you haven’t yet met my heroine, Clare Cosi, single-mom, barista, and amateur sleuth, then allow me to introduce you...

Clare is the manager of the historic Village Blend coffeehouse in Greenwich Village , New York (where I live and work, too, which is how the idea for this series began). Clare’s daughter, Joy, is in culinary school nearby. Her ex-husband, Matt, is her shop’s globetrotting coffee buyer, and her love interest, Mike Quinn, is the NYPD homicide detective who craves Clare as much as her lattes. Together with a colorful group of younger baristas, Clare runs her shop and always finds herself running into mayhem and murder.

I'm a coffee geek, so I not only love to drink coffee, I love to talk about it with pros in the trade and research and sample exotic kinds from around the world. It's during my research into the coffee and culinary worlds that ideas for Coffeehouse Mystery stories often emerge. If you'd like to read more about French Pressed or the other books in my series, just go to my website, where all the books are described. In the meantime, here's the bonus muffin recipe form my latest newsletter. (FYI: All of my Coffeehouse Mysteries include recipes and coffee-making tips.)

Cleo Coyle's Banana-Walnut Muffins with Sweet Crunchy Tops

These easy-to-make muffins pair very well with my Coffee Pick of the Month: Kenya coffee. To read more about one of the world's finest coffees and the country it comes from, drop by the “virtual” coffeehouse at my website: http://www.coffeehousemystery.com/, where I discuss and give away my favorite coffee finds every month.

Makes 12 muffins

1-1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup oil
3 bananas (well ripened)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2-1/4 cups flour (sifted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. Dump into a bowl: the sugar, oil, 2 of the ripe bananas (just slice into bowl), eggs, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat the assembled ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth, about two minutes. Now add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda to batter. Mix with electric mixer until batter is smooth (don't over mix). Use a large spatula or spoon to fold in chopped nuts and the final ripe banana, which should be mashed up roughly with a fork before adding.

Fill your muffin tins with batter. You can either fill them 3/4 full OR you can fill them all the way to the top (that's what I do). Note, however, that I spray the tops of my muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray. That way, when my muffins bake over the top of my pan, giving me lovely big muffin tops, they won't stick to the top of the pan. Now let the muffin batter sit in the pan, allowing flavors to penetrate while you make the sweet, crunchy topping.

Sweet Crunchy Topping

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons flour
*1 cup Brownulated light brown sugar (I use Domino Brownulated.)

Melt in a saucepan 4 tablespoons butter (I just use salted butter because that’s what I always have on hand). Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, chopped walnuts, flour, and Brownulated light brown sugar. The crunchy topping will be lumpy and that's fine. Spoon topping over the muffin batter in your pans (see photo). Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 35 minutes. Ovens vary so make a note of what works for you. Bake until a knife inserted comes out clean. Enjoy!

(* NOTE: Do not substitute dark brown sugar in this recipe. The Brownulated sugar has less moisture and will give you the perfect crumbly texture, nice and light, letting the muffins rise.)

http://www.coffeehousemystery.com/
where coffee and crime are always brewing...

Sign up for my free newsletter (at my website) and you're automatically entered for my monthly free coffee drawings!

Cheers,
Cleo Coyle

Nicole Byrd Entices....

2008-04-07T08:12:00.002-04:00

Writing Enticing the Earl was both a delight and a bit sad. Sad because it’s the final book in the Applegate Sisters/Sinclair Saga, and it would be the last glimpse at some very beloved characters. These books started several years ago with Lord Gabriel Sinclair and his family feud with his brother John, the marquis of Gillingham. They weren’t meant to become a series, but they offered too many possibilities and the characters were so strong, ideas just kept bubbling up. So the stories kept spinning, most recently with Gabriel’s half sisters, the five Applegate siblings, as irrepressible and unpredictable a set of young ladies as any handsome young man would care to meet. The family secret Gabriel had been searching for was finally revealed in the first Applegate Sisters book, Seducing Sir Oliver.

Their adventures have taken the sisters into a second-rate London theater, up a tree to avoid escaped African cats, on the run from a half-crazed assassin, and most important, into the arms of a wonderful series of beguiling and sexy heros. So I couldn’t wait to see what would befall the final Applegate sister, the middle child, Lauryn, now a young widow, who’d always been proper and sweet, taking care of her extended family and doing all that was proper. Until now.

When her grief-stricken father-in-law gambles away his estate and all his valuables, Lauryn Applegate sees only one daring step to take--offer herself as courtesan to the winner, the handsome and notorious earl of Sutton. She can retrieve the land, and, in the–ah–process, she can trample on every rule. This good girl is ready to be bad!

Read an excerpt at my website, http://www.nicolebyrd.com/ Hope you enjoy her adventures–
Nicole

Enticing the Earl
Berkley, April '08
http://www.nicolebyrd.com/

La Vida Vampire - Nancy Haddock

2008-03-31T08:07:00.003-04:00

Moving from Dallas to St. Augustine, Florida was the culmination of a thirteen-year goal. Little did I know that moving would help fulfill another long-held goal – selling my first book.

It all started with a peanut butter commercial. That’s right, a commercial was the seed for La Vida Vampire. The commercial doesn’t run often now, but it featured two little girls having a sleepover. For one child, it appears to be her first time to spend the night away from home, so her hostess suggests things they can do. Part of the line the hostess says goes something like, “We can play Crazy Eights, or we can watch this Princess Vampire video.”

Say what? Princess Vampire? Little kids, maybe all of age six, are watching something called Princess Vampire?

Okay, so I figured that’s not what the little actress said, but it’s what I heard. Every time I thought about it, I laughed, and I couldn’t get the idea it out of my head.

The next step was to flesh out the main character and her history, and decide what kind of job and interests she might have. Here is where having moved provided further inspiration.

St. Augustine has a long, rich history, more ghosts than you can swing an EMF meter at, and the beach. Ah, yes, ghosts and the beach! In a flash, Cesca became the oldest living citizen of the city, a ghost tour guide, and a part day-walker who learns to surf. And the surfing was only one of her surprises for me.

Am I alert for the next bit of inspiration for Cesca’s series? Oh, yes! After all, my favorite T-shirt reads, WARNING: What you do may appear in my next book!

And my next favorite reads: Write with Passion, Touch Hearts, Scorch Dinner.

The last is never a problem!

La Vida Vampire is the first in a new series from Berkley, being released on April 1, 2008 – no fooling! To read an excerpt of LA VIDA VAMPIRE and play the “Where’s Cesca?” contest, please vist http://www.nancyhaddock.com/

Nancy

For Kicks

2008-03-03T21:42:00.002-05:00

NOTE FROM IDEA BOUTIQUE : "So sorry this post is tardy. The fault lies with Idea Boutique as well as the flu, and NOT with Jenna.

Enjoy!

I’ll admit it, I have residual retail angst. Managing a department store is a hard job, but it does give you tons of material if you decided to quit and write romance novels instead – which I can personally recommend!

In For Kicks, I sent my heroine off on a cross country trip to train employees about a new product. You know those hand held scanners you see everywhere in department stores now? When those came out lots of retail managers were sent on similar whirlwind trips to ensure the staff knew how to use them. Unfortunately, no former soccer stud ever decided to book me into a hotel suite…but that is what fiction is for!

In the story I took the idea of the trip, mixed it with a girl driven to be the youngest store manager in the history of her company, and tripped her up with a hot former soccer stud determined to make sure she stop and watch the sun set, with him. Opposite personalities, a common goal, and shifting priorities all mix together to make their lives implode.

I found some fun ways to keep the characters talking and engaged – tarot, reflexology, goldfish, Derby pie, childhood memories…and phone sex. Talk about writing for kicks!

Read an excerpt of FOR KICKS here

Jenna Bayey-Burke
http://www.jennabayleyburke.com/

Her Cinderella Complex - Jenna Bayley Burke

2008-02-18T10:23:00.001-05:00

The title came first. I have always had an addiction to romance novels, and anything with Cinderella in the title simply does it for me. The title popped into my head, I wron it down, and so began the story of a runaway bride who gets to have her honeymoon anyway.

I refused to plot this story, so when it started I wasn’t sure where it would end. In fact, where the book starts now is two chapters later than it did when I drafted it, but that is for the best. The story begins with Heather coming to work for Curtis, and really sets the tone for the successful boss and his fiesty assistant.

The story was fun to tell, especially peeling back the characters layer by layer. Does it make me a bad person that I enjoyed the emotional agony I put them through? Nah.

I worked everything I love about romance novels into this book – office romance, marriage of convenience, a private island, romantic situations, the quirky heroine, and a swimming pool scene I still get excited about. When I saw that my references to Great Expectations made it past my editor I was in heaven!

Not since the first book have I enjoyed writing so much. Writing Her Cinderella Complex was fun from beginning to end!

Read an excerpt of HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX here:
http://samhainpublishing.com/excerpt/her-cinderella-complex

Jenna Bayey-Burke
http://www.jennabayleyburke.com/

Veronica Wolff ~ Master of the Highlands

2008-02-07T09:18:00.000-05:00

I was a burnt-out and unfulfilled dot-com drone when I began Master of the Highlands. I’m a history buff who has always fantasized about what it would be to travel back in time, experience that world around me, meet those people. Writing time-travel fiction based on real historical figures and events was the closest I could come to escaping my world and being back there myself.

I knew I wanted to write a story set in the Scottish Highlands. I’m a big fan of Scottish history, where such high stakes bred so many stories of great courage and sacrifice. (Okay, and those kilts aren’t so bad either.)

I’d targeted roughly the seventeenth-century as my preferred era. Any later and the Jacobite rebellion would be unavoidable, and Diana Gabaldon has already delved into that so thoroughly and successfully. Much earlier than the 1600s, and I’d predate the technological and cultural developments that most interested me.

I began to research, devouring anything and everything I could find online, and I kept running across Ewen’s name. He never bowed to Cromwell’s redcoat forces. He was a swordsman without equal, who never sustained a wound in his ninety years of life. He’s credited with killing the last wolf in Scotland. Gracious, loyal, wise, tall, noble, imposing, and fearsome are among the many grand words that have been used to describe him. He’s referred to as “Ulysses of the Highlands.” Sir Walter Scott immortalized him in “The Lady of the Lake,” basing a critical fight scene on one of Ewen’s most famous, most brutal battles (which I also recreate!)

Ewen Cameron’s reputation in the history of the Highlands is nothing short of mythic, and yet, I wondered, where were all the movies about him? All the books? And so, as a hero for my first book, Ewen was a no-brainer.Narrowing the timeframe down wasn’t too difficult. The story behind his Battle of Achdalieu held great appeal. Ewen was so young then, leading his men to fight, facing down Cromwell’s forces, defending Cameron lands. The stories of his feats in battle were so outrageously heroic—and his own personal tragedy so shattering—that this 1654 battle quickly became my focal point.

Lily, my heroine, came readily from there, though you’ll forgive this first-time author some overlap (yes, the heroine also happens to be, you guessed it, a disenchanted dot-commer…) Now if only I could figure out how to get my own self back there for real!

Please visit my web site where you can read more about the real history behind Ewen’s story, see photos of Cameron country, and enter a contest to win a gorgeous 10 X 15 photograph from artist Rebecca Cusworth. http://veronicawolff.com/

Veronica

Dakota Cassidy

2008-02-05T08:29:00.000-05:00

The idea for my book The Accidental Werewolf came to me after I attended the RWA conference in Dallas in 2004. I was there meeting my agent for the first time face-to-face and it so happened that we were also sharing the hotel with a Mary Kay Cosmetics convention.

I spent some time talking to the women who were attending, and being a big fan of all things girly, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the colorful suits these women wore to indicate their levels of hierarchy in the company and the tiaras they donned for a big ball they were all attending. I’m an ex-small-time beauty queen, and I have to admit to a little tiara envy J

Almost two and a half years later I’d decided to take what I’d learned from that convention and turn it into a proposal. Now I write paranormal comedies, so it was only natural that when I decided to involve multi-level cosmetic sales in my book, I’d make up my own company and my own rules and really play up the sometimes over the top run to cosmetic greatness. Thus the fictional company Bobbie-Sue Cosemetics was created and my heroine Marty Andrews, a bit of a loner, rabid about her climb to makeup success, and an overall smart-mouth, who’s accidentally bitten by a werewolf, was born.

The Accidental Werewolf is a snarky, fun-filled romp and in part, an homage to all of us girly girls, and I so hope you’ll take a peek and come play in my zany werewolf world!

Dakota Cassidy

VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM by Bronwyn Jameson

2008-01-13T13:36:00.000-05:00

Vows & A Vengeful Groom (Silhouette Desire, Jan 08) is the first book in an author-led continuity series called Diamonds Down Under. The idea for the six-book series came first. Senior editor Melissa Jeglinski wanted a big, juicy, dramatic dynastical tale based around a powerful family in Australia and New Zealand.

We -- the six authors involved -- came up with a family rent apart thirty years ago over ownership of a fabulous diamond amid allegations of theft and betrayal. Our series would see the family feud reignited in the next generation when a tragic plane crash uncovers new secrets and scandals.

So, we started out by building a family tree and we each chose one of the six cousins for our book. This was amazingly civil -- for some reason we'd all "adopted" a different character during the tree-building phase. Next we brainstormed hooks and storylines so each book would be different. We didn't want two marriages of convenience or secret mistresses or reunion romances.

In the early stages there was some shuffling of book order and even of authors involved. MJ requested revisions on a couple of the proposed storylines and this lead to new characters and relationships that upped the stakes for the whole series.

I was given the first book, which meant the inciting incident -- the plane crash and the tragic death of two key characters -- was a big part of my book. My character, Kimberley Blackstone, needed strong links to both sides of the feud and so I decided to make her estranged from her family, the Blackstones, and working for "the enemy", the Hammonds.

My story hook was reunion romance. This worked very well for my prodigal daughter returning home to await news of her father's fate. I decided that her ex, Ric Perrini, would deliver the news and bring her home. By making him a power figure in her father's business -- and making that a key conflict between Ric and Kim -- she would doubt his motives from the very start.

Was he there for Kimberley Blackstone, the woman, or did he need her support in his bid to become the new head of Blackstone Diamonds? My original title of the book, Perrini's Boardroom Bride, summed up this key point of conflict.

VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM is out now. For more information, excerpts, and the chance to win some wonderful prizes including critiques and a diamond pendant, visit the series website http://www.diamonds-downunder.com/

Bron

Bond of Fire - Diane Whiteside

2008-01-04T08:57:00.000-05:00

I always knew my Texas vampires had to represent Texas’s original foundations, one way or another. Surprisingly, a hero has always stepped forward in this saga, bringing his own story to incorporate a key element of Texas’s past. Don Rafael carries Spain’s ancient glories, both glamorous and bittersweet, while Gray Wolf adds Native Americans’ rich wisdom. Ethan Templeton – well, you’ll learn about him in BOND OF DARKNESS.

But other ethnic groups arrived long ago. For example, the flag of France once flew over part of Texas. That’s right: seventeenth-century France, the land of the Sun King, Versailles with its Hall of Mirrors, creator of impregnable fortresses, once set claim to Texas. Being French, they even named their ship La Belle, or The Beautiful One, rather than giving her a more bloodthirsty or religious name. Wonder what LaSalle and his men thought when they arrived on the southeastern coast to find a landscape infested by alligators?

On the other hand, perhaps Frenchmen were the best equipped to cope with alligators. After all, those amphibians are silent killers who lurk in the dark to ambush their prey with razor-sharp blades, dragging them down into the depths never to be seen again. It almost sounded like what the worst sort of gossipmonger or social climber would do at the deadliest court in Europe.

Suddenly Jean-Marie appeared in my head, as if he’d walked out of the Versailles swamp to make a better life in Texas. Silver tongued, handsome survivor of that deadly court. Superb spy and assassin. Haunted eyes and unbelievably loyal to his few friends.

Above all else, always in love with one woman – and only one. No matter how long it took or how many trials, he’d wrestle the Devil himself to win her: Hélène d’Agelet, named for the woman whose face launched a thousand ships and the French astronomer who witnessed a star going nova. The most beautiful woman in his world and the light in his darkness.

BOND OF FIRE explores the silky tensions, knife-edged danger, and bedrock fidelity, found in both French history and today’s Texas. I hope you enjoy its world as much as I do!

You can read excerpts from BOND OF FIRE here.
http://dianewhiteside.com/books/texas-vampires/bond-of-fire/

Diane Whiteside
http://www.dianewhiteside.com/

Caged Wolf by Cynthia Eden

2007-12-17T08:14:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how much I love visiting at The Idea Boutique? Because I sure do love this place. I love finding out just how authors created their stories…

Today, well, I’m going to talk about where I received the inspiration for my latest Red Sage release, “Caged Wolf” in SECRETS, VOLUME 21: PRIMAL HEAT. “Caged Wolf” is actually the last installment in my Call of the Wolf trilogy for Red Sage. As the name implies, “Caged Wolf” is most definitely a werewolf tale, and the inspiration for this story came from the old Beast of Gevaudan tale.

For anyone not familiar with the Beast…in the 1700s, a wolf-like creature terrorized the French countryside—attacking and killing in a blood-thirsty rampage.

When I think of werewolves, I always think of the Beast, so, when I was creating the heroes for my trilogy, I decided the men (werewolves) would hail from France. However, these men wouldn’t be vicious killers like the Beast (because that wouldn’t make them good hero material, now, would it?); instead, they would be strong and brave—and they would police their society of wolves…making certain no rampages occurred.

In “Caged Wolf,” my hero, Alerac La Morte, is used to protecting his pack, but he is caught completely off-guard when he comes face to face with his mate—and realizes that the woman destined to be his actually harbors a deep-rooted hatred for his kind. But, hey, no one ever said love and happy endings were supposed to come easily, right?

Happy Holidays!

Cynthia Eden
http://www.cynthiaeden.com/

Destiny's Warrior ~ Heather Waters

2007-12-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

Ah, my turn at The Idea Boutique again. But honestly, the idea of Destiny's Warrior came to me more as an avalanche than the subtle little wave that brought me Devil's Possession.

Images of strange creatures, some I had to create identities for, some I had to research through mythology, popped into my head at the strangest times. They then had to be sorted into Dark or Light, depending on what side of my war they would fight.

Kingdoms of caves, islands, forests HAD to be written. The problem was, I'd never done anything so detailed before. So...MINE. And that's exactly what Destiny's Warrior is. MINE. At least, while I was writing it, that's how it felt. A fantasy story entwined with romance and adventure. A tale created almost singularly from my own head rather than from the bowels of research....

When a Scottish laird discovers he's the prince of a fae king, he must quickly come to believe in things he's always thought were nonsense. Total fish-out-of-water story that I hope you'll enjoy in time for the Christmas holidays!

Heather

Time for a Switch…

2007-12-01T08:29:00.000-05:00

I love paranormal stories. LOVE them. I’ve been paranormal obsessed ever since I was a kid. And, in the past when I’ve written my tales, well, my paranormal characters were the “good” guys. For example, when I wrote my Call of the Wolf trilogy for Red Sage Publishing (insert hyperlink: http://www.redsagepub.com/), the heroes in my three novellas were werewolves. Sure, they had more than a bit of the beast in them, but they were also honorable men. Dedicated. Strong.

When I wrote “New Year’s Bites” for the A RED HOT NEW YEAR (Avon Red) anthology, I knew I wanted to try something different. So, I switched up the roles of my paranormal characters. The werewolf became the villain of the piece—he’s an obsessive and dangerous character who bites the heroine, Anna Summers, and sets her on a brand new (and scary path) for her life. The hero of my story, Jon York, well, he’s still certainly a “good” guy, but he has more than his share of dark secrets, too.

After Anna is bitten, the fierce instincts of the wolf begin to consume her. Passion, need, savage hunger—she’s nearly overwhelmed by the feelings and desires coursing through her. But Jon isn’t about to leave Anna to face the fury of her transition alone. He sticks by her side, protects her, and convinces Anna that a walk on the wild side, with him, is just what she has been needing…

If you’d like to read an excerpt (insert hyperlink: http://www.cynthiaeden.com/books/new-years-bites/#excerpt) from “New Year’s Bites” please visit my website at http://www.cynthiaeden.com/. I’m also hosting a New Year’s Party Contest in conjunction with the release of A RED HOT NEW YEAR, so, if you’d like the chance to win a New Year’s Party Pack with supplies (party hats, tiaras, noise makers) for 50 people, then stop by my website for your chance to win!

Happy reading!

Cynthia Eden
http://www.cynthiaeden.com/

Charmed, I'm Sure ~ Candace Havens

2007-11-29T08:19:00.000-05:00

It’s difficult for me to believe that I just turned in my fifth book, “The Demon King and I,” in five years, and now “Charmed & Dangerous” is coming out in mass market on Dec. 4. I still remember sitting on my bed at two in the morning, the night before my very first meeting with an editor. Another writer friend told me I needed to have more than one idea to pitch to the editor, and I was frantically trying to make something up.

It was a strange feeling when I finally wrote about a character who had been dancing around in my head for some time. I’d just heard that “Buffy” was going off the air, and I was angry with creator Joss Whedon for not going one more year. In retrospect they ended at the right time, but back then I was mad. What would I do without my weekly dose of “Buffy?”

That night before the meeting I put pen to paper and created a character who had the attitude of Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) but the power of Bad Willow (Alyson Hannigan). She would use that power to protect important people, and to save the world. I can’t remember how I came up with the idea for the prime minister, but I wanted a really powerful, cool leader. So of course I had to make one up. (Smile)

That one-page synopsis became a book just a few months later, and crazy stuff happened along the way. A love triangle between Sam, Bronwyn and Sheik Azir developed out of thin air one day. Azir met the Prime Minister in what was supposed to be an information finding expedition, but as I described Azir, I fell for him. Funny how that happens when we least expect it.

The powerful wizard Garnout came from the need for Bronwyn to have some sort of mentor. I love Garnout. He’s one of my favorite people. I also wanted to create my dream town. A place where magic abounds, but overall people are friendly with one another. And of course, great food can be found on every corner in Sweet, Texas.

Even though I’ve moved on to new characters that crazy witch Bronwyn is still dancing around in my head. I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever run out of stories for her, and I hope to write many more. It still freaks me out a little when I realize these funny stories have turned into very real books. I’m so grateful to Bronwyn and to all the adventures we’ve had together.

Ideas never die...they just get reincarnated

2007-11-05T08:10:00.000-05:00

It took me nearly six years to sell my first book to Harlequin Superromance, which meant I had a lot of unsold manuscripts, beginnings of manuscripts, and scraps of story ideas lying around. I always thought that after I sold my first book, those unsold stories would be snapped up by my editor.
They weren’t.

Not because she read them and didn’t like them, but because I realized they were all deficient in some way—eighteen months later, I still haven’t fixed them up or submitted them. I did sell one of my previous stories, of which another editor at Superromance had already requested a full manuscript, but the rest are still languishing in the bottom drawer.

But I haven’t given up on those stories. They all had some good in them, and I want to use that. I’ve just reworked the synopsis of one of those stories to give it a more “Superromance” feel. If the editor likes it, it’ll mean a substantial rewrite of the book, but at least I’ll get to use all that fun dialogue and those emotional scenes that meant so much to me when I wrote them. Ultimately, I could do the same with all those stories—if I want to.

There’s another alternative, and that’s to take elements of those stories, and reuse them. Karina Bliss’ upcoming Mr. Irresistible (Superromance, Feb. 08), uses the hero from one of her earlier manuscripts. Like Karina, I have characters or starting hooks or individual scenes that I’d like to transplant from my older stories into new ones.

Then there are those scraps of ideas... I was talking to my Superromance editor about a story that would involve a cynical philanthropist who finds an abandoned baby and uses it as a media stunt. The heroine would be the vet who treated the hero’s dog, and didn’t think he was caring enough to look after either a dog or a baby.

My editor didn’t think a vet was the right character, and she’d just bought “a dog story”. So the dog disappeared, the vet became a pediatrician, and the resulting book, The Diaper Diaries, will be out from Superromance in March. Right after I abandoned the vet idea, my editor at Harlequin NASCAR invited me to write a novella for a Christmas anthology. My nimble mind (that’s a joke, my brain usually moves at the pace of semi-dry concrete), immediately thought about using the vet with a NASCAR driver. When my critique partner Tessa Radley (The Desert Bride of Al-Zayed, Silhouette Desire, out now), suggested the driver should run over the dog, thus involving the vet, and I knew the setup was perfect. The resulting novella, The Natural, is out now in the A NASCAR Holiday 2 anthology. Visit http://www.abbygaines.com/ to read an excerpt of The Natural, and see how an idea can transfer seamlessly from one story to another.

So my advice is to hang on to those ideas! You never know when they’ll come to your rescue....

Abby

Heroines Are People Too - Julia London

2007-11-02T09:37:00.000-04:00

The DANGERS of DECEIVING A VISCOUNT, the third book in my Desperate Debutantes series, is about a twenty-two year-old woman in 1822. Her family’s funds have dwindled, she’s gotten herself into a predicament trying to keep up appearances, and ends up posing as a tradeswoman at the estate of a very handsome and virile viscount. Close quarters lead to a growing, mutual attraction and lots of lusty thoughts. My unmarried, virginal heroine is very tempted to give in to those lusty thoughts.

Who wouldn’t be tempted when presented with a handsome man in a mansion?

Historical romances, if they are true to the times and tone of early nineteenth century literature, usually include virginal heroines who are seduced, duped—or do the duping—into marriage. The typical happy-ever-after in an historical is when the heroine lands the handsome wealthy lord and all the attendant perks that go along with that. That’s why we love the books!

The heroines who succeed are clever, and they know how to give as good as they get. But they are conscious of their virtue at all times, for we have come to understand from nineteenth century literature that a woman who lost her virtue lost everything.

On the other hand, there are some lusty and interesting biographies of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century women—Georgianna; Caroline, Princess of Wales; the sisters of George IV, to name a few. These biographies tell another side of the historical heroine. Those documents suggest that women were human and were sometimes brought down by temptation. Adultery and pre-marital sex were not unheard of, and frankly, in some circles, while it was frowned upon, it seems like it was almost expected.

That got me to thinking—a twenty-one year old woman with no prospects and no beaus might view life a little differently than what we’ve come to believe. She might be sorely tempted when opportunity presents itself, because for all she knows, it might be her only opportunity. I’m not suggesting she would throw her virtue away…but I’m suggesting she might. She might at least consider it…especially if she’d assumed a different identity and knew no one would be the wiser. Especially if she’d fallen in love. And it helps knowing that if she gives into her desires, there are a lot of tricks that would make her at least appear to be a virgin if she should ever marry.

That is the romantic premise of THE DANGERS OF DECEIVING A VISCOUNT. My heroine is an unmarried woman who knows what society expects of her, but also knows what her adult body wants and needs. She is human. She is tempted. She’s in love. She weighs the consequences, but in the end, her heart rules, just as it does for every one.

This book was really interesting to write. I threw off all the characteristics I thought an historical heroine should have and built Phoebe from scratch. I hope you like the result.

Julia London

Catherine Spangler

2007-10-11T08:27:00.000-04:00

I have a confession to make. I’m not an organized, methodical writer. I’m also not very observant, except when I see emotional exchanges (emotions ring my chimes). I don’t ask myself (or my characters) deep probing questions, and my story ideas don’t generally come from thought-provoking articles or real-life situations. I tend to drift through life, responding more on an intuitive level rather than from a logical, mental perspective. Okay, so I’m a ditz. I admit it. I’m also a chocolate slut (saw that on a button today), an “Official Kilt Inspector” (thanks to Sandy Blair), and a coffee addict . . . See how much focus I have? I get off topic very easily *g*.

So I don’t consciously create my stories. They come to me in dreams, in thought snippets, in inspirational flashes. And they never fully form until I’m actually writing. I am an organic writer, a true “pantster”. But I know the stories come from my psyche, and they’re the product of everything I’ve ever read or seen (I believe this is true of most writers). I have an extremely active subconscious that is constantly processing information (again, we all do). But since I’m not a very externally focused person, my internal process drives my stories, which is why I can’t tell you exactly how those stories come to be.

One thing is certain about my current Sentinel series, books which are dark, edgy, and sexy paranormal romances that some people are calling “paranormal thrillers”—the underlying premise came from my life-long fascination with the psychic Edgar Cayce and with Atlantis and metaphysical subjects. In the usual, scatterbrained creative process that works for me, the idea just came to me (probably after my subconscious worked feverishly on it for a few years).

Enter the Sentinels, reincarnated Atlantians returning to Earth after thousands of years. Their sole purpose is to track down Belians—evil Atlantian entities who were responsible for the destruction of Atlantis. Reincarnating into the Earth in large numbers, Belians thrive on blood, death, terror and chaos. They have found violent venues as serial killers, drug lords, gang leaders, brutal dictators, any form of incarnate evil. The Sentinels are sworn to stop them. They have one edge—a small group of psychic humans known as conductors. These humans can link psychically with Sentinels and enhance the tracking of Belians. The linking process is called a conduction, and involves the rise of energy through the body’s spiritual chakras, creating a powerful sexual surge. Most conductions involve sex.

In TOUCHED BY FIRE, Marla Reynolds is a conductor, although she doesn’t know it. When she meets ultra-sexy Luke Paxton at a Houston bar, she’s upended by the powerful sexual attraction between them, not realizing it’s the pull of a matched Sentinel and conductor. Luke knows what it is, though, and realizes Marla might be the only person who can help him track a Belian serial bomber.

But Marla is resistant to Luke’s charms. She’s been emotionally frozen since a brutal attack on her sister eleven years ago, and knows Luke is way out of her league. She avoids him, which drives him to a desperate act to get her cooperation—kidnapping. Even then, Marla proves to be one of his biggest challenges and more than a match for him.

I can’t tell you exactly where Luke came from, except he was a minor secondary character in the first Sentinel book, Touched by Darkness, and I have a tendency to get very attached to secondary characters. And Marla . . . well, I have no idea, except I like heroines who aren’t quite perfect, maybe even a little ordinary like the rest of us. Real women who overcome real challenges, with that inner core of strength that women innately possess.

Ultimately, after the story has unfolded and I write “The End”, all I can do is thank my muse for coming through for me. And celebrate with chocolate and maybe a glass of wine . . . while new ideas drift to me.

Please visit me at http://www.catherinespangler.com to read excerpts, check out my contests, and vote for your favorite book video (there are four different ones), or at http://www.myspace.com/catherinespangler.

Happy reading!

~ Catherine

So step into the hidden world of the Sentinels, and surround yourself with the ancient magic of Atlantis, and the suspense of hunting ultimate evil—and of course, the empowerment of love.

Jane Beckenham

2007-10-08T09:26:00.000-04:00

Sometimes as a writer I have this little bird on my shoulder, it’s scathing voice taunting me. “You’ll never find another story, you’ll never do it again.”
Do I listen? Sort of.

For me ideas for a story come in odd moments, mostly when I’m in that half wake/sleep stage. It might be a name, a title for a book, or at times it’s been a full bodied story, the names, situation, who the characters and what there journey will be. With one manuscript, I was virtually silent all weekend as the story unfolded, voices, whole dialogues coming at me 24/7. It was exciting, and scary at the same time. Would I remember it? My family thought I was nuts, and by the Sunday night I had begun to agree.

For my most recent release – He’s The One, the idea came as I saw a scene unfold in my head. A classic car, racing to the church – the old get me to the church on time - thing. There was a woman standing outside. A wedding planner.

I began to ask her questions. Who was she, her name, what she was doing.
And, yes, I will admit, she began to answer! She loved her life, her business, was successful. But there was a problem. Her brides asked her questions about sex.

A problem you ask. Sure is, if your wedding planner is a virgin and has ZIP experience with men. I mean how can she answer questions about multiple orgasms, when she’s never experienced one!

So there was the premise. Get rid of her virginity. Get her business back on track.

Easy as 1-2-3. Well it would be, but she had to find a man happy to do the deed, and walk away.

She needed a love ‘em and leave ‘em kinda guy.

Cade Harper is that man. He’s gorgeous, and in fact I have to admit when I recently did the edits, I absolutely fell in love with this guy all over again. Think bad boy Sawyer from the TV show Lost. Very yummy.

So from here my ideas escalated. So she has sex. So what?

Ah ha… there is the problem. She thought, and he thought once would be enough. Wham bam, thank you ma’am and it’s all over.

Oh, no siree. No way. Once for these two would never ever be enough.

For me ideas come with a word. The other night I had to brainstorm an idea for a competition. A reunion story. Couldn’t think of a thing, then it hit me…Christmas is coming, and hey presto I have my reunion. Santa and Mrs. Santa are going become reacquainted.

One of the best things for me is to allow myself to think of stories. If I feel all ‘blocked’ I will take myself off to bed and lie down and meditate for ½ an hour. Just blank it all out, not something I must admit to being very good at. Then hey presto, back at the computer and it comes along and I’m back writing.
So the morale of my story? Take just one word – one – and make it into a story. It can and does happen, believe me!

Happy writing and reading
Jane Beckenham
http://www.janebeckenham.com/
http://www.lindenbayromance.com/

Jane’s newsletter

Carly Phillips

2007-10-05T10:52:00.000-04:00

How do you judge book … by it’s title? By it’s cover? By it’s author? By it’s back cover copy? My books have run the gamut … fun covers (kisses like THE BACHELOR); cartoon covers (The HOT ZONE series); and now women on the cover of CROSS MY HEART and SEALED WITH A KISS. I admit when I saw my recent covers, I flipped. I love them. I think they’re gorgeous. Readers gave me the feeling they’d prefer men on the covers. This had me scratching my head because I remember the days when clinch covers made people cringe and hide books inside magazines. But it seems we’ve come full circle because covers seem to be returning to the hotter guys or couple covers. As a reader I am fine with this. As a writer I am too. I’m always curious how other people feel.

Back cover copy – I want the copy to tell me what’s in the book. I think the tone should reflect the tone of the book, so I know what I’m getting. As an author, I try to make sure to the extent that I can, that readers aren’t misled. So far, I think, so good.

Authors … There are certain authors I buy automatically. Others I’ll try based on word of mouth. I’m still trying to find ways of reaching new readers who haven’t heard of me yet. I’m always open to suggestions on how to do that. I was recently sent a photo of my cover on the Times Square JumboTron. So COOL! Makes me wonder if anyone saw it and said, “I have to go out and buy that book!”

Apparently enough people did buy because after I wrote this blog, I found out that SEALED WITH A KISS hit the New York Times Bestseller List for the week of October 14, 2007. Apparently people liked the women on the cover after all. So what do YOU think? What do YOU want to see on covers?

Carly

Jane Lockwood

2007-10-03T02:11:00.001-04:00

I wrote my erotic historical FORBIDDEN SHORES after reading Adam Hochschild's wonderful book BURY THE CHAINS, the story of the English abolitionist movement. It confirmed my view of the Georgian era as a time of tumult and radicalism as well as elegance and wit and great clothes and all those other props of historicals.

Hochschild points out that it was possibly the first time that people cared passionately enough about a cause--something that would benefit strangers thousands of miles away who they would never meet--to make sacrifices themselves. Ropemakers in Bristol, one of the cities that thrived on the trade, petitioned to end the slave trade, knowing full well that their own livelihood would be threatened. It was also a movement that cut through divisions of class and gender; ordinary housewives boycotted sugar. The abolitionists introduced the tactics of the modern political campaign--investigative journalism, slogans, and powerful visuals. Wedgwood produced a plaque of a kneeling slave in chains, with the caption "Am I not a man and a brother" that was mass produced and appeared on many artifacts such as jewelry and china.

So I had a great cause, and naturally my characters would take different viewpoints. I also wanted to explore the dynamics of a relationship where three people become involved, and each of them is in love with the one who cannot love them back. My editor wanted me to set it in the Caribbean, which at first I resisted; what could be sexier than Quakers collecting petitions in the rain? But I think she was correct, in that it made the stakes greater for the characters even though it presented me with a problem: I had to write about slaves and slaveowners without glossing over the cruelty or idealizing those slaves who appear as secondary characters. One of my main characters (aka hero #2) March, is a sugar plantation owner. My heroine, Clarissa, an abolitionist so ardent she was seduced, ruined, and exiled from her family by a fellow-abolitionist is a survivor whose fervor for the cause has dimmed. And Allen (hero #1) is a lawyer who's a cynical rebel without a cause; a troublemaker and odd one out in his aristocratic family.

However, I was very happy to write a book that begins with a long voyage where the hero and the heroine find some very novel ways of entertaining themselves below decks! And see if you enjoy my favorite chapter, where Allen does his laundry (very uncharacteristic for a Georgian gentleman) and climbs the mast in a fit of phallic symbolism.You can read the beginning of the book on my website, http://www.janelockwood.com/, and also find out where I'm blogging this month.

Jane

The Irish Devil

2007-09-28T10:44:00.000-04:00

Let’s make this perfectly clear: I was a happy, calm (more or less) person until I went to Tombstone, Arizona. I worked full-time as a computer consultant. I was a full-time Ph.D. student. (Yeah, so maybe I should have had my head examined.) I wrote lots and lots and lots of geeky jargon and I read tons – tons, I tell you! – of romance novels in my spare time. I was content.

Then came the family reunion and the trip to Tombstone. For some odd reason, it seemed every second or third tour guide had to tell the story of a specific miner’s widow who’d performed hair-raising deeds sufficiently well enough to escape the town alive. Everybody expressed the strongest admiration for her – but nobody ever said she was happy. In fact, it was pretty clear she’d been pretty miserable. Her big victory had been departure, not joy.

Now, I love visiting historical sites and I’ve heard a lot of true stories. But this one hit me harder than any other one. I didn’t want her to have simply survived – I wanted her to be happy. Unfortunately, the only way to give her a happily ever after was to retell her story myself, as fiction – and I so wasn’t a romance author. Writing prose featuring phrases like “the widget must” and “the widget shall” doesn’t prepare you for plot arcs and love scenes!

That’s when I told her to go away and be happy, having survived in real life.

She didn’t let me forget about her. She nagged me during my homework. She got in between me and my term projects. For two years, I fought her off, desperately reminding her exactly what I wrote during the day job and my total lack of fiction writing skills.

I think it was while I was sitting in traffic waiting to go home from class, that she knocked me over the head again: she announced she needed a man, the worst of bad boys, somebody who no one in polite society would ever accept as an eligible partí. But somebody who could keep the most brutal killer, the most cunning kidnapper away from her no matter how vicious the fight.

I nodded agreement, being much more interested in getting home at something approaching a reasonable hour. (Does anybody else have conversations with their characters in their cars late at night? I seem to do a lot of it.)

She announced, quite triumphantly, that he had to be Irish.

Irish??? Oooh. My brain came alive. Sexy men, smart and tough, accustomed to making a living in a strange country after seeing their own families and homes decimated by a great famine. Music. Horses. Somebody you could call “the devil” with affection.

I wanted to write their love story – because I needed to give him a happily ever after, too.

I started learning how to write fiction. I wound up dropping out of graduate school. (Yup, I left that Ph.D. program behind to write romance.) When the chance came, I pitched this story to the only editor in New York who might publish it – and, yes, I was quaking in my boots! But, lucky for me, Kate Duffy of Brava bought it.

It became The Irish Devil, the first of the four Devil books – The River Devil, The Southern Devil, and The Northern Devil. To my vast delight, I’ve even signed a contract for three more. All because a persistent voice took up residence in my head, back in Tombstone.

Diane Whiteside

Awaiting the Fire – Donna Lea Simpson

2007-09-04T12:51:00.001-04:00

The first two books of my ‘Awaiting’ series – Awaiting the Moon & Awaiting the Night – are set in Germany in 1795, at the gothic castle of the von Wolfram family, the core characters of my paranormal historical romance series. It was great fun writing all the twists and turns of a spooky, ancient castle, but I always knew at a certain point I’d leave the castle, and that time came with Book 3, Awaiting the Fire. And so to England, Cornwall, a lovely, spooky county: pirates and witches and lonely moors… sweet treats for the paranormal writer!

Awaiting the Fire is Charlotte von Wolfram’s story. but it didn’t start out that way. My first proposal for ATF – a couple of years ago now – had Charlotte as a secondary character, while her brother, Christoph, was the hero. But she’s a complex young woman, and put down her foot, pouting and refusing to go on with the show unless she was the star. Some characters are more difficult than others, and Charlotte knew what she wanted. She wanted love, but no ordinary love. She needed a man who would accept her for who she was, Charlotte, headstrong, impulsive, kindhearted, loving but stubborn, not what she was, Countess Charlotte von Wolfram, heiress and descendent of a very old and very wealthy German barony.

So I began with Charlotte, added England, and a husband chosen for her by her uncle (though she didn’t intend to go through with the marriage) and sat back thinking about it. What would this fellow – a man willing to accept a betrothal by mail - be like? And would he be ‘the one’, or would she meet someone else she liked better? It all started to come together as I answered the questions I had.

A free spirit like Charlotte, a little wild and impetuous, needs someone to ground her, and Simeon St. Ange, Earl of Wesmorlyn, was just the man for that. Earnest, moral, anxious to do the right thing, Wes was her opposite, and at first glance, maybe too opposite. She hated him immediately, because with those attributes and the added complication of meeting in a public place for the very first time, he couldn’t help coming off a little stuffy (vast understatement… he really does come off like a humorless prig at first). And Charlotte at the same time meets a man who contrasts so much with her fiancé, a man with mesmerizing green eyes and a hint of lupine charm; Lyulph Randell, a family friend of the earl’s. Charlotte, put off by her fiancé’s behavior, finds Randell desperately attractive.

The rest of the story evolved naturally from that first tumultuous meeting in a crowded, stuffy London ballroom. An illicit kiss shared with another man, a challenge to a duel issued, too many alpha werewolves in one place, a homesick young woman determined to help her younger half-sister find her English mother: it all roiled together to become an intricate and yet compelling plot, taking Charlotte and the others gallivanting across the country from London to Cornwall.

At times I tore my hair out. It was tricky to make sure Charlotte’s actions – I thought them completely natural for a girl of spirit, but feared others might not agree – would not come off to readers as stupid or reckless. Though I saw her as hasty and impetuous, I didn’t want her to become that most dreaded of romance novel stereotypes, the ‘feisty’ or ‘spunky’ heroine. I rewrote vast sections. I agonized over details.

But in the end the magic happened – in more ways than one – and the hero came through in true heroic fashion, and yes, fire is involved. Charlotte found out something surprising about herself, something I didn’t even foresee myself when I first started out to write Awaiting the Fire. That’s the joy of writing sometimes, the surprises along the way. Charlotte is special; I’ll leave readers to find out how. She also discovered the healing power of true love. It was a voyage of discovery for us both, and I hope readers enjoy it.

You can read the first chapter of Awaiting the Fire on my website:
http://donnaleasimpson.tripod.com/AwaitingTheFire.html

Also check out my blog for news about a contest coming!!
http://donnaleasimpson.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much, Heather, for letting me share the creation of Awaiting the Fire!

Donna

No Shrinking Violet

2007-09-01T06:30:00.000-04:00

The summer before I started high school, I spent a week in a cabin in Vermont with my family. The rain kept my cousin and me from entertaining ourselves at the lake or down on the tennis courts. "Let's write books," I suggested. We bought notebooks, ballpoint pens and snacks.

My first book, all handwritten on loose-leaf, was about an overweight 16-year-old who desperately wanted her popular crush to ask her to the prom. It was an unrequited love story.

In college writing classes, I found that I was still focusing on high school love, the most intense emotion I'd ever felt. 22-year-old crushes seemed more practical, more attainable --and somehow not as searing or sweet.

As I began a career writing and editing for magazines, I was again drawn to the teen genre, and I landed at ELLEgirl. I interviewed teenage actors, musicians and real girls who were doing amazing things.

But one group struck me: The models.

What must it be like to walk your first runway show, live in a small apartment with other pin thin girls and compete for jobs, recognition, acclaim and love? There was a rehearsed bunch of answers from models --"I love the travel," "I'm naturally thin," "Clothes are my life" --that didn't quite answer my questions. I wondered about the real girls behind the often-hollow eyes.

That was the seed that started my idea for VIOLET ONTHE RUNWAY. I wanted to put a real girl from a small town, one who had real insecurities and flaws, one who would go into this crazy, dark, beautiful world of fashion unsure of herself and come out having realized her own inner strength.

Melissa C. Walker

VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY will be released September 4, 2007, by Berkley JAM.

Visit Melissa at melissacwalker.com

RETURN TO ME - Julia Templeton

2007-08-25T18:25:00.000-04:00

Like many authors, some of my ideas come from movies, television, research books, magazines, art, music, or just normal everyday things.

In the case of RETURN TO ME, I was flipping through the pages of a GQ magazine when I came across a picture of twin brothers standing side by side, both gorgeous, and yet they were as different as night in day in how they dressed, wore their hair, and overall attitude. That picture sparked my muse and twin brothers Darius and Demetri MacLeod were born. From there, I had an interview with them to see who they were, where they came from, and what single event changed their lives forever. That event happens to be when Darius, a Scottish warrior in Robert the Bruce’s army, is cut down at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and a handsome young man appears offering him immortal life.

It was important for me to write a story about vampires who weren’t necessarily devastated that they were made into creatures of the night. In fact, a few of my characters love their dark gift and wouldn’t trade places with a single mortal being for anything. The only reason my hero struggles with his gift at all, is the single fact that the change in him terrifies his pregnant wife so badly, she ends up dying in a tragic accident while trying to flee from him.

I wanted Darius to find another love, but it couldn’t be just any woman, it had to his wife, reincarnated. When his wife does return, she’s a beautiful woman who resembles his wife in every way, save for now she’s no longer a medieval Scottish woman, but a nineteenth century beauty with the power to read minds, cast spells and heal. Unfortunately, she’s also at her uncle’s mercy, and he basically sells her to an old, lecherous man who has killed each of his previous wives. Knowing this, Gabrielle sets a plan into motion to escape, but that plan is thwarted when she meets the devilishly handsome Darius and feels an attraction and familiarity that confuses her and intrigues her at the same time. No matter how much she yearns to know him, she has no choice but to flee into the night to escape her impending wedding.

Weeks later Darius finds Gabrielle, and swears to protect her from her uncle and betrothed. In the process, Gabrielle falls madly in love with the man who had been her husband centuries before. The fact that he’s a vampire weighs heavy on her mind, but she trusts him completely, even when he whisks her away, back to his home in the Scottish highlands. Unfortunately, trouble follows in the way of her evil betrothed.

As in many of my books, there’s a secondary romance that is played out, and in RETURN TO ME that couple is Demetri, Darius’s twin, and their maker Remont. I remember asking my critique partners and agent just how far I should take the romance with these two men. I received different answers from each, but in the end, I stayed true to my characters and their love for each other. I’ve received great feedback from reviewers and readers about this male/male romance. In fact, I hope to write a sequel, which will delve a bit deeper into their love affair.

Out of all my novels, RETURN TO ME was the most challenging to write, mainly because the characters have lived so many centuries and have unique powers. Despite those challenges, I’m definitely writing more vampire romances, because let’s face it—vampires are just plain sexy.

So that’s how RETURN TO ME was born. Thank you, Heather, for letting me share at The Idea Boutique!

Julia

Sasha White - TROUBLE

2007-08-20T12:56:00.000-04:00

“You’re the right kind of sinner to release my inner fantasies.”

This is one line from Pat Benatar’s long ago hit HEARTBREAKER. I love it. It brings all sorts of story ideas to mind. And it completely sums up Valentine Ward, the hero in my latest release, TROUBLE.

Despite the very edgy cover, this book isn’t a BDSM book or even about fetishes. It’s all about fantasies, and living them out when you can.

The title of the book, TROUBLE describes our heroine Samair. She doesn’t really understand why or how she earned the nickname Trouble, but she’s decided she wants to live up to it. And when Val offers to make her fantasies come true, she see’s no reason not to take him up on it. Samair’s dream of being a lingerie designer came to me when I realized she was a bit overweight. And as someone who is overweight herself - I hate lingerie shopping. I wish I could sew my own. So, I made my heroine able to sew her own. Fun and sexy and lacey stuff that fit, looked good, and made her feel super sexy!

Check out this little bit at the start of the book. Samair, our heroine, has had a bad day,a dn decided it’s time to embrace her wild side, so she goes looking for her old college roommate and best friend. Joey is the friend, and she’s also a cage dancer at a nightclub. This bit is right after Samair does some dancing with her.

Samair lost track of time as they danced with abandon, bumping and grinding against each other, lost in the flashing lights and loud music. The heat of many eyes landed on her, and she enjoyed every minute of it. Joey’s soft and feminine hands floated over her generous curves, and Samair shifted closer as one of those hands slid under the cover of her hair. Joey put her forehead against Samair’s, and the women gazed into each other’s eyes.

“It’s been a long time, Sammie.” Joey’s breath floated over her lips.

“It has,” she replied, trailing her own hands teasingly over Joey’s bare back as she writhed against her. “I’m sorry.”

Both of Joey’s hands cupped her head and she spoke clearly. “You never need to apologize to me. I’m just happy to see you.”

Then she kissed her. A hard kiss on the lips that lingered for just a second.

When they pulled apart, it was to hoots of approval and raucous clapping.

“Welcome back, Trouble.”

They shifted apart, and Joey gave another piercing rebel yell. Samair’s grin was a mile wide as she slipped between the bars of the cage and dropped back to the carpeted floor that edged the dance floor. Her heart was pounding and her breath came in pants, but she couldn’t remember when she’d felt better.

Reaching between the bars she grabbed her backpack from the floor of the cage and snatched up the blouse she’d removed while dancing. After using it to pat her neck and upper chest dry, she reached for the drink she’d set aside earlier. The ice had melted, but it quenched her thirst well enough.

A bead of sweat trickled between her breasts and she thought about reaching down to wipe there, but reconsidered when she felt intent eyes still on her. She might not be shy, but she wasn’t tacky either.

“You’d think they’d never seen a woman in a camisole before,” she said when Joey dropped down to the floor beside her.

“It’s not that. My God, look around you. There’s more bare skin in Risqué than on the beach most of the time.” Joey laughed and threaded her arm around Samair’s. “It’s the fact that your camisole is this virginal white satin and lace thing that looks downright naughty at the same time. It’s one of yours, isn’t it?”
Samair nodded and felt a sting of pride. She’d made the top herself. Her passion for sewing, combined with her curvy and slightly disproportionate body, had her creating clothes, including lingerie, for herself that fit and looked good since she was sixteen.

“You don’t think it might be because you stripped me of my blouse, and then kissed me?”

“Ya think?” Joey giggled and steered her to a booth along the back wall where there was small group of people at a booth. “What can I say? I’m happy to see you.”

I have to admit that ALL of my heroines have something of me in them. It could be my past, my present, my hopes for the future, my fantasies…. But they all have something of me for sure. And the hero’s, they are all versions of my dream man. Basically my ideas jump from my muse to my fingertips, and TROUBLE was no different. I’m pretty sure my brain got involved somewhere along the way, but I’m not sure where. Honestly, I love the magic of not thinking, and just writing. It’s almost as good as reading a good book. I get lost in the story, and don’t want to stop.

And I dearly hope that happens when readers start one of my stories as well.
If you want to take a peek at TROUBLE, you can read the first three chapters on my website here: http://www.sashawhite.net/bookshelf/

Sasha

Psychic Witches with Attitude SPELL Identical-Triplet Trouble . . .

2007-08-17T10:14:00.000-04:00

As a Historical writer, I swore I’d never write a contemporary, but a shop in Salem Massachusetts called The Kitchen Witch changed all that. Magic or destiny, my bewitching romantic comedies became my first National Bestsellers. As Janet Mullany said in her delightful blog, the cosmic joke was on me.

SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH is my fourth contemporary comedy, and the first in my Triplet Witch Trilogy. It hit the B & N Mass Market Romance Bestseller List the week before it came out and now ranks at #12, not to mention #13 at Borders and #21 on BookScan. With four back to back deadlines ahead, and a request for a new trilogy idea, I guess my contemporary comedies are here to stay.

I didn’t go into The Kitchen Witch shop, I saw it across the cobblestone mall, and Melody Seabright’s story was born. She loves of vintage clothes, because that’s what I know, so I gave her a friend who owns The Immortal Classic Vintage Clothing and Curio Shop, and a friend who was a witch. Thank goodness, since they each got their own stories. Talk about an idea that mushroomed.

The triplets, Harmony, Destiny and Storm, were easy to cast. I couldn’t have a conversation with my identical-triplet neighbors—blonds in their late twenties—without mind-casting them in a series. They approved, shared humorous triplet stories, and I was off. Confession: I plot in my sleep. I dreamed the most amazing location, an island castle, between Salem and Marblehead Massachusetts, built by a sea captain in the late 1800’s. Old Nicodemus had an eye for the weird and incredible and filled his castle with all the treasures he brought home from all over the world. In the castle is also a shed with an old steam train that once connected their island to Marblehead. It’s among the most haunted of the goodies at the castle, which is why Diane Whiteside’s blog made me smile—we’re a family of train lovers. The castle dream was so real that it took me a whole day to write down every detail. I dreamed the ghost of the witch who haunted it, a late family member whose goal in life was causing strife, so she could referee. I named her Gussie.

My triplet witches are psychic. Hey, I watch TV. Harmony is psychometric, reads old objects, and brings peace wherever she goes. Harmony sees the past. Destiny sees the future, except her own. Storm, my rebellious Goth witch, sees and hears the present. Storm’s story, GONE WITH THE WITCH, is due out in May of ’08. She hears a baby crying when only when Aiden McCloud is near her but he won’t go with her to find the source, so she kidnaps him. Included in the kidnapping are his motor home and two pairs of fuzzy purple handcuffs.

Story ideas come during movies, TV, conversations, wherever there’s a lot of energy. I sit in a mall and people watch and get ideas. Objects inspire me; I love to go antiquing and come out with more in my head than in my hands. I go to cemeteries and read gravestones. I have two brilliant brainstorming buddies who help take my snippets and turn them like puzzle pieces into scenes or chapters or entire stories. Life is full of ideas. That’s why the Idea Boutique was born. Thank you, Heather, for inviting me.

Annette Blair
http://www.annetteblair.com/

The Romance of the Rails

2007-08-11T02:52:00.000-04:00

When I was growing up, family vacations always consisted of visiting the relatives. Well, that was the official story, anyway. In reality, they were just a thin excuse for my father to meet another one of his great passions – steam trains. We’d drive for hours through high mountain passes, above steep precipices, along tumbling rivers, over narrow logging roads – just to catch a glimpse of one of those beauties, sailing along, her whistle caroling out across the wilderness.

My father always stopped to watch and listen. Oh, he’d talk to the engineer and the fireman, too, about their magnificent example of a bygone era. But he didn’t need to inspect their innards or get his hands on the wheel. He wanted to ride them, wherever they went for as long as possible.

He grew up during the Depression in a boarding house his mother ran for college students. The only man in the family, he faced a lot of hard work, while he listened to the trains passing through the great railroad yards only a few miles away. Never the most articulate of men, his face would light up decades later when he talked about his first long train trip, the one that took him away from that college town and the boarding house.

Other men are probably better at talking to little girls. But some things don’t need words. The first time I stood beside him and heard a steam engine’s whistle, the same thrill of pure joy ran through us both. I looked up at him and smiled. He grinned back at me and took my hand.

I’ve written three western historicals before The Northern Devil and traveling by train was included, as a matter of course. I’d always treated it as matter of factly as we’d discuss driving our cars. But I wanted to do something else, something more intense, more passionate. The feeling got stronger with every book, as if my father’s ghost was pushing me harder and harder. He didn’t want the facts put down on paper – but the sheer delight.

Lucas and Rachel’s story is a marriage of convenience, where marriage pushes them together and intensifies their conflict. I wanted their surroundings to be just as tight and passionate as their relationship but how?

The idea hit me: a stream train in winter. Hot and steamy, capable of burning your skin off if you’re unwary enough to touch it. And how incredibly beautiful a private car’s interior could be, too! But frigid and dangerous, a barren waste of a landscape, like Lucas’s arrogant exterior and the wreck of his family life.
I wrote The Northern Devil’s train scenes for my father. I know his ghost was beside me all the way.

Diane Whiteside
http://www.dianewhiteside.com/

Janet Mullany

2007-08-07T02:44:00.000-04:00

RULES OF GENTILITY

I needed light relief. I'd just written a book (as yet unpublished) where the hero/heroine were angsty and terrified of the implications of their falling in love, and even the weather was bad. An editor (whom I knew slightly) called me up to bark by way of greeting, "Janet, are your hero and heroine always so horrible to each other?" My answer must have included some variant of the word "yes" since I didn't sell it to her.

So I decided to write something for fun, just to clear the palate, and the result was The Rules of Gentility. Wouldn't it be funny, I thought, if someone wrote Bridget Jones's Diary set in the Regency. You couldn't have the calorie,
cigarette, or alcohol counts, but you could have a lot of other fun things taken from other chicklits--a passion for designer shoes could be for bonnets, for example. And it could be written in first person, a device I love (and which some of my favorite writers use--Nick Hornby, Anna Maxted, Jennifer Weiner)--and in a sort of Regency-speak in the voice of a fashionista heiress. Even better, I could lapse into the hero's voice when I found Philomena a bit too breathless and gushing.

Wait, I thought, after a few thousand words and the dim emergence of a plot. This is becoming serious. I like these characters. Plus a cast of secondary characters had emerged: the hero Inigo's terrifying mother and terrified bully of an older brother; Philomena's sisters, a collection of wannabe suitors, her mother who never stops talking (Mrs Bennett of Pride & Prejudice combined with Miss Bates of Emma) and a hymn-singing lady's maid. And there was so much more I could do with them: we'd already had The Kiss at the Ball; still to come were Proposals in Unusual Locations, High Adventures in Low Places, and Big Misunderstandings, all wrapped up in the revered plot device of The Fake Engagement. So, yes, it was an affectionate spoof of just about every Regency plot device.

In a way it was also an experiment, a getting back to basics--the WWJAD (What Would Jane Austen Do?) of romance. I couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to write, or read, heroines who embarked on lofty careers; mine seem to aspire to either become whores or wives. Even Fabienne, the heroine of my first book, Dedication (Signet Regency, 2005) seems about to give up her career as a bohemian patroness of the arts for love and motherhood. What can you do with a heroine who announces upfront that her ambition is to marry well and meanwhile spends her spare time on fashion and rather vague philanthropic pursuits? Quite a lot, I found. I'm convinced, also, that Philomena is a cosmic joke on me, after all that stomping around claiming I'd never write a book with a virginal nineteen-year-old heroine.

I thought it was time, too, for someone to write a really funny historical romance. Anyone who spends any time at all online reading up on romance knows how popular sites are that spoof romance and in particular covers--and these are created and enjoyed by romance writers and readers themselves. You have to know and love the genre to be able to make fun of it. There are lots of brilliant historicals out there with fabulously witty one-liners and repartee, but nothing that made tea come out of my nose. One of my most embarrassing moments was when I met a Big Author and told her, with great enthusiasm, how I had laughed aloud in the scene where ... and as I babbled on, I realized
from the blank expression on her face, that it had not been written that way. So I released my inner comedy beast, the one that snuck out at the most inappropriate moments; the banana skin at Almack's, the whoopee cushion as the hero kneels to propose.

I hope you have as much fun reading The Rules of Gentility as I did writing it.

Janet

Heather Waters

2007-08-05T23:07:00.000-04:00

Well, it's my day to post because YAY The Devil's Possession finally comes out this week (August 7th). Since I already posted how I got the idea for TDP here, I won't repeat it all again. I simply want to send a big thank you to everyone who's given me such great feedback from the advanced copies given out. Your feedback has been much appreciated so keep it coming.

HDW@Heatherwaters.net

Heather

American Diva: Celebrity Tabloid Without the Guilt

2007-08-02T13:39:00.000-04:00

American Diva is the third and final book in my Thrillseekers Anonymous series that centered around the star-studded entertainment industry in Hollywood. I guess that sort of outs me: I am a celebrity news junkie. Want to know the latest on Lindsey Lohan? Call me. Ever wonder if Britney has lost her mind? I can run it all down for you.

You are probably thinking that’s kind of weird, and you are right. I didn’t think women got to be my age and still read all that stuff. But I can’t help it! When I am standing in the check out line, and I see Brangelina on the cover of OK! Magazine, I want to know if it’s true they are splitting up. When I see Lindsey’s mug shot, I think, that poor girl—did she have a mother? When they tease me with a picture of Nicole Ritchie and ask, PREGNANT?, how can I not look? It’s the tabloids’ fault—they lure me in with pictures and sensational headlines.

The idea behind American Diva didn’t come from tabloids, but it did come from watching American Idol. I downloaded a Kelly Clarkson song and thought how wild that must have been for her to go from waiting tables in Burleson, Texas to superstardom seemingly overnight. It gave me the idea to write a book about a woman from Texas who seems to hit it big overnight, and all the trappings of fame that go along with it. Friends who prove to be treacherous and sell her out to tabloids, a family who is trying to suck her dry, and a stalker who has threatened to see her dead. That sort of crowd could make the best of us a diva. And of course, there is only one guy who can see through her diva act and knows she really needs a friend. It helps that he’s a hunk, too.

The best part of writing American Diva is that I got to buy OK! magazine, and STAR, and all the rest of them for legitimate research. The book is sprinkled with tabloid bits about Audrey. I couldn’t have done it without the help of real tabloids, could I?

I hope you enjoy American Diva as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Julia London

Robin D. Owens

2007-07-27T04:24:00.000-04:00

My inspiration is most likely to come from physical objects. The whole Heart series came about because I bought a bloodstone pendulum (I love bloodstone) and thought about divination. T’Ash, my hero, had dice (Divination Dice)
which foretold his future in the opening line of HeartMate. "Today you will meet your HeartMate." So, I had these bloodstone dice being thrown by an ALPHA MALE. I needed a culture where he wouldn’t be thought of as wimpy
because he used the dice and it was okay to believe in the magic of them. I also made T’Ash a man who'd chiseled the stone from the quarry, shaped his Divination Dice and forged swords -- a jeweler and a blacksmith. I actually sat down and started writing, learning all this as I went along. So the "Heart" series was born, and the telepathic cat with attitude who strolled into the book on page 3 was, of course, modeled after my own rough ex-alley cat.

Regarding my Luna "Summoning Series" I don't recall where that idea came from, probably childhood reading of Edgar Rice Burrough’s "John Carter of
Mars" series.. Before I began seriously writing, I'd tell myself stories before I went to sleep at night. They were usually fantasy with a touch of romance. I was in England when my agent contacted me with news that a new fantasy imprint was opening up. From her description, some of those stories I told myself swept back into my head, were firmed up and became the
Summoning Series: Average American women are Summoned by magical warriors to another dimension to fight invading evil...

And the physical object ideas continue: on the bookcase headboard of my bed, I have a small box with a bit of very fragrant amber resin in it. I love that scent and when I had to come up with a fragrance for the flying horses in the Summoning series, I used amber resin.

Then I mold the world to the characters. Celta got the 70 minute septhour
because T’Ash was making a sword in HeartMate and despite magic, it HAD to
take a certain amount of time, but I also wanted it to be done in a day. The
only solution I could see was to stretch the hour. As a regular worker, I
always wanted a three day weekend, so I made a week with one.

Right now I have rules I can’t break and can hardly bend, so they will stay
solid. But if something new comes up – like experimenting with time in Heart
Dance – I get to play with more world building (actually figuring out the
rules of time slowed the writing of the book considerably and made my head
hurt).

So original ideas come mostly from physical objects, then the characters
reveal the world to me while I write.

Thank you for the invitation to blog here, Heather, and for everyone: May
you enjoy your own creativity, whatever that may be, today.

Robin

Allyson James aka Jennifer Ashley

2007-07-10T12:14:00.000-04:00

Because I talked about specific ideas for specific books in an earlier post, I thought I’d talk about where a writer’s ideas come from in general.

I know writers who get annoyed when asked where they get their ideas. I think that’s because we’re not always sure—ideas come when you least expect it, and they rarely come fully formed. Pieces add up and become stories, and we can’t always remember what was the initial spark.

I’m not always irritated by this question because I think it’s an intriguing one. Where do ideas come from? What sticks in the imagination and causes our brain to build them into stories?

Ideas come from everywhere. A good writer is an observer, one who views every single thing he or she does as food for a story. Riding a bus, watching other people, listening to what they talk about. You don’t have to travel to other countries to find substance for stories; they’re happening on your street in your city every day.

Reading newspapers, not just the dire news on the front page, but any stories in all the sections. News of a missing person might spark a story told from the perspective of the missing person. News of people reuniting might spark a novel about long-lost sisters finding each other and what happens after that.

I write historicals, and research often gives me good ideas either for a main story or for secondary characters. People in the past did amazing things—they weren’t much different than we are now. I remember one story about an eighteenth-century couple who’d courted each other for forty years and finally decided to get married in their sixties. Reading about real people, or reading their diaries and letters or magazine articles can give you stories with amazing depth.

Writers should keep themselves open all the time to ideas. Ideas are everywhere, pouring through the universe. Conversations with friends, a game (either played or observed), hands-on classes, family reunions, and so forth are all food for novels. People you meet randomly, something unusual happening to you or a friend, a move to a different city—all food for novels.

I’ll repeat how I got the idea for my current Berkley release, Dragon Heat, by Allyson James. I was staying in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. I was by myself, so I only used one bedroom, and it suddenly occurred to me that it would be very cool if I opened the door and found a dragon lurking behind it. He’d be in a fold in reality between his world and mine, and he’d funny and snarky and like to watch television.

My imagination started to go. I wondered what a person would do who found a dragon in their apartment, and what their ensuing relationship would be. Because I liked romance, I imagined the snarky dragon stepping through the door and shifting into a gorgeous human male. All that from looking at a bedroom door in a New York apartment.

That’s just a taste of where ideas come from. If you’re a writer looking for ideas, stop everything, look around, observe, and then let your imagination run wild!

Jennifer

WHAT YOU WISH FOR by Saskia Walker

2007-07-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

My most common source of inspiration is a sense of place. July sees the publication of my novella, WHAT YOU WISH FOR, in SECRETS volume 19. WHAT YOU WISH FOR is a perfect example of this inspiration at work, because the story grew out of an entrancing, romantic and mystical place. Set on the Cornish peninsula in England, the novella is a paranormal time travel. When I set out to write it I wanted the place to be as important as the characters —I wanted to capture a little bit of somewhere that is very special to me.

Cornwall is a beautiful part of the country, the very tiptoe of England. Dramatic landscape, rugged coastline, and untouched, cosy villages abound, and the history of the county is evident everywhere. The people have a whimsical attitude, and they play into the myths and legends of their locality. This makes it a popular place for tourists, and settlers who seek a more bohemian, timeless environment to live in. Not only that, but when you visit Cornwall you have the sense that anything is possible. There is a magical quality to the county, and that is what I have tried to capture in my story.

WHAT YOU WISH FOR features a London web designer who has moved to Cornwall to restore a cottage and intends to run her business from her home. As Lucy restores the cottage she becomes intrigued by its history, and the date of its build. She jokes that she will find out, even if she has to go back in time to get the answer. The local nurse has befriended Lucy, and unbeknownst to Lucy the local nurse is also the local white witch.

In the story, Lucy not only gets the chance to visit the house two hundred years earlier and find out when it was built, her life also collides with Cullen Thaine, a handsome visitor to the cottage who feels as much attached to Cornwall as she is, but who is about to leave. The conjunction of their lives in time and the attraction between them leads to passion, romance, and more. Someone must give up a part of themselves to be with the other, but who will it be?

The images here feature the harbour at Newquay, where the story is set, and the Bedruthan Steps, the treacherous, rocky coastline where many ships have floundered throughout history - an important location in my story.

SECRETS Volume 19 features four erotic romances, and has the subtitle “timeless passions.” I hope that readers of my novella will get a sense of the beautiful landscape in Cornwall, and through my two characters — who are both bound to the place in their own ways — experience the magical, romantic quality of life there.

Saskia
http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk/

To read more about Cornwall go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall

Laugh with Sandra Hill....

2007-07-03T13:47:00.000-04:00

It's a funny thing about humor.

When I first started writing, I thought I was going to be immersed in straight historical or contemporary romance. Back then, I was never funny; my family still thinks I haven't a clue when it comes to humor. And I certainly had no idea of the impact that humor could have on readers. Sure, serious-themed books affect people, like Judith Arnold's BAREFOOT IN THE GRASS(a cancer victim) or Kathleen Korbel's (a Down Syndrome child). But believe me when I tell you, thousands of readers have written to tell me how important a laugh is in lives burdened by family trauma, everyday stress, and life in post 9/11 America. Who knew? In truth, I've come to believe that everybody needs a smile in their reading on occasion.

Some extreme examples: the lady who took my books into the hospital during the vigil for her terminally ill child, the freshman class at an ivy league school that compared one of my Viking stories to a serious literary novel (turns out it was a joke pulled on the incoming class), the woman dying of cancer who asked that one of my books be placed in her coffin face out during the viewing so that visitors would get a final laugh with her, all the women on an aircraft carrier who passed my books around to take their minds off some harrowing duties, the pilot in Iraq whose wife sent him one of my Cajun novels so he could read it and think of her in place of the heroine (imagine the teasing he got from his men, ), the women's centers, the husband and wife who role-played my stories, etc.

So now, when I start a new book, it is clearly humor I have in mind. Doesn't matter if they are historical, contemporary, or time travel. Doesn't matter if they are Vikings, Cajuns or NavySEALs. Romance first, but humor a clear second.

Having said that, when I started my second treasure hunting book in the Jinx series, PEARL JINX, July, 2007, I knew that Caleb Peachey, ex-Amish Navy SEAL, had to be the hero. You can see the humor right off the bat with that oxymoron. Then, I knew from Caleb having been a secondary character in PINK JINX that he had a fierce aversion to snakes; so, of course I had to put a huge snake in there...a snake named Sparky. Of course, Caleb needed to come back to Central Pennsylvania where he would confront his Amish family who had been shunning him for seventeen years...more humor (mixed in with the tears). But what kind of treasure could there be here in the boonies. Well, we have lots of deep caverns here. Hmmm. How about cave pearls? Need I mention how funny it is to see a big ol' Navy SEAL crawling over a huge snake, slipping in bat guano, diving into black water filled with ancient stalactites? And most important, Caleb needed a woman who could put him in his place...a woman who claimed he took himself far too seriously. That would be Dr. Claire Cassidy, historical archaeologist and the biggest pain in Caleb's very fine...behind. She is better known as "Crazy Claire."

If you'd like to know more about PEARL JINX, or watch its funny book video, or just hang around, come to my website: http://www.sandrahill.net/. And smile, for heaven's sake!

Sandra

Carly Phillips Returns........

2007-07-02T12:30:00.000-04:00

Sophisticated, Sexy Fun Contemporary Romance. That’s what I love to read and so that is what I love to write. I consider myself fortunate to be able to write what I love. I’ve always been a huge reader but I didn’t realize there was a romance section of the bookstore when I was younger, so I’d read books and even if I loved a book all the way through, if the end disappointed me, I hated the story. Then one day I discovered that I could read romance and ALWAYS HAVE THE HAPPY ENDING.

What a concept! Writing was an even bigger concept and it took me seven years and ten manuscripts to sell. Somehow I thought selling was the hard part but in the eight years since my first published book and in the 15 years since I’ve been writing, I discovered that the writing itself is STILL hard. Every book presents its own challenges.

CROSS MY HEART and its sequel SEALED WITH A KISS were doubly hard because not only was I writing (a challenge in itself) but I was adding a little more suspense than I usually had in my books. Why? Because both books were originally scheduled to come out in hardcover and I wanted to try something different for my hardcover readers. Now I’m happy to say that both books are being released in paperback – SEALED WITH A KISS for the first time – which my readers have really responded well to. So back to the challenges of adding mystery/suspense.

Just like when I started writing, I learned a lot of lessons along the way, writing these stories and I hope my readers enjoy them. As for me, after these two books, I’m going back to writing lighter, sexier books because after a lot of thought, sophisticated, sexy fun contemporary romance is what I love best. But I hope you’ll like CROSS MY HEART and SEALED WITH A KISS too.

So what kind of romance do you love to read?

For a sneak peek at CROSS MY HEART, visit http://www.carlyphillips.com/ and check out the video trailer and remember to click on the Free Reader Giveaway at the top of the page – and see what I have in store for readers who purchase CROSS MY HEART!

Carly

The Pauline Sokol Mystery Series - Lori Avocato

2007-06-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

The Pauline Sokol Series is a “Thirty-something House meets Scrubs” series. Each novel is a wonderful medical-world story enlivened by an exceptionally fun and sassy voice about a burned out registered nurse who becomes a medical insurance fraud investigator only to be yanked back into the nursing field by an experienced hunk of an investigator who she just can’t say no to--until she keeps stumbling upon dead bodies. Humor, suspense, mystery and sex abound!

I started the series after reading a humorous mystery and deciding I wanted to read more like it. After looking in the bookstores to no avail, I decided I would have to write my own. But, what to write about? Well, I was an ex-nurse. Hm. Good heroine. Smart, organized, logical. Made sense. But where to set the series. If I used a hospital, how many dead bodies could be found before they shut the place down! There'd go my series. So, I had to think more. Living near Hartford, CT helped. Hartford is "the insurance capital" so it made sense to use that. Medical insurance fraud came to mind. After researching the topic, plot after plot was clearly set before me.

A Dose of Murder was written in which the burned out nurse, Pauline Sokol, was born. She hated nursing and wanted nothing to do with it. So when the hunk gets her assignment after assignment in medicine, she's about ready to commit murder--of him! Oh, that hunk is the mysterious Jagger, who surfaces in all the books of the series. Yum!

I followed up with The Stiff and the Dead, about Viagra fraud and the senior citizens. Then, One Dead Under the Cuckoo's Nest about mental health fraud where Jagger shanghais Pauline into a locked institution. She finally gets a little vacation on the high seas in Deep Sea Dead, but there are those pesky dead bodies discovered along with more medical insurance fraud. In Nip, Tuck, Dead, Pauline gets her best friend Goldie involved in a plastic surgery fraud ring--but his proboscis escapes unscathed.

So, when it was time to plot out book #6 of the series, I met a great contact. A real-life, burned out paramedic named ER Dano. ER became a character, Pauline has a new love interest and air and land ambulance fraud runs rampant in Dead On Arrival. The research, listening to ER Dano share some of his experiences, was a hoot and gave me some fantastic jumping off points for her book, which is a July 1, 2007 release.

Lori Avocato------http://www.loriavocato.com

A DOSE OF MURDER -- Oct. 2004THE STIFF AND THE DEAD-- July 2005ONE DEAD UNDER THE CUCKOO'S NEST-- Oct. 2005DEEP SEA DEAD--April 2006NIP TUCK DEAD--Nov 2006DEAD ON ARRIVAL--July 2007

ORINOCO - James A Ciullo

2007-06-18T02:02:00.000-04:00

Idealism clashes with greed and opportunism

“The cover design is very nice, but what is ‘Orinoco’?” Many have asked me. It is understandable that many people are not that familiar with South American Geography, so I explain that the Orinoco is the major river in Venezuela. Its mysterious brown waters twist and turn in a northeasterly direction from Venezuela’s southern tip before filtering through Delta Amacuro out to the Atlantic.

From 1969 through 1971, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an Orinoco River port city that was rapidly establishing itself as a commercial center. It is where the idea for my novel was born, some 36 years before publication. One night, several of my fellow volunteers and I were sitting around a cold case of Venezuela’s renowned Polar beer lamenting what might happen to our projects without carryover funding once we concluded our service.

Enter our middle-aged friend from the international business world, an American with a flair for adventure. He had just returned from a trip to Caracas where he had been in a meeting with some bankers. Popping his first cold one, he proceeded to explain that he was now privy to the location of $6 million worth of copper smuggled from Germany by the Nazi underground after WWII. He said that it was in a lightly guarded storage yard and that he could get his hands on the trucks necessary to steal it and take it away.

Fueled by the Polar beers, we began to speculate about how we could get away with it, where we could hide it, and how we might liquidate it to cash. Since it would entail stealing from ex-Nazis, there was no downside from a moral standpoint. But there was some discussion of potential reprisal. Needless to say, the next day’s sobriety brought with it a restoration of reason and we never pursued the heist.

Nevertheless, the “what-if” speculation took root in my imagination for the next 30 years. For the copper, I substituted looted WWII art—a subject that has received some due attention on the international stage. In my novel, the Peace Corps Volunteers indeed pursue the heist. They view it as a win-win situation. But the main story line, which takes place in 1998, puts that premise into question when Joe LaCarta decides to run for the US Senate in Vermont as an Independent. The mystery, suspense, and a taste of romance unfold from there.

In the flashback portion of the novel, I afforded myself the opportunity to re-live some of the laughs, good times, and lessons about life. The actual experience was a nice starting point from which to roll out the fictional scenario.
---Jim Ciullo, Author

Published by Five Star Mystery www.gale.com/fivestar/

(Release Date—late June 2007)

Renee Russell

2007-06-10T01:19:00.000-04:00

KATE’S PRIDE is my debut novel. A lot of people have asked me where the idea for the story came from and how I came to write it.

KATE’S PRIDE is actually based very loosely on one of my great great grandmothers. I’d been bitten by the genealogy bug years earlier, but when I was researching the branch of my family that descended from Kate, I came to a screeching halt with her. All I could find out beyond public record information was that she’d had two illegitimate children and been disowned by her family not long after the end of the Civil War. I couldn’t find out who that family was. I still haven’t found out – even though I continue to take a stab at it occasionally.

Before I began writing KATE’S PRIDE I’d find myself up at 3AM poring over genealogy sites and all the paper documentation I’d managed to locate trying to find that elusive piece that would give me the names of Kate’s parents. It had to be there somewhere. I knew if I kept trying I’d eventually find it. Didn’t happen. My life became frustration station with regard to Kate and it drove me up the wall. The less I could find, the more I wanted to know. The more I had to know. Can you say obsession?

Eventually, my husband suggested I write a book about Kate. I sniffed. What did he know about writing a book? Didn’t he know if it was easy everybody would do it? And I was surprised because I’d never told him my secret dream had always been to be an author. I’d never shown him the poems and short stories I’d written over the years.

His suggestion sat there in the back of my mind. Whispering in my ear. Here’s your chance. You can give yourself some closure on Kate AND take a shot at your dream.

I think the scariest part was worrying about what my family would think of the story I was telling. Kate’s story isn’t a happy one. How could it be? She’d been left to raise two children with no one to lean on. In a world that had been turned upside down by war and a world where women had no value or rights outside their own family.

I pushed aside those worries about what the family would say and wrote the story I thought could be true based on the time and place and circumstances. Is KATE’S PRIDE the real story? No. I can never know that because her real story is lost in the mists of time. But I wrote the truest story I could think of. The story of a woman who took the worst life handed her and made a place for herself and her children.

Last Sunday was Decoration at the church where Kate is buried. When I placed my flowers on her grave, I impulsively pulled a bookmark from my purse, put it among the flowers and, silently, said to her. “I hope you approve.”

I hope you’ll want to read Kate’s story and find out how she made that life for herself.

Stop by and visit me at www.reneerussell.com to find out more about me, Kate and my next book release this fall. A romantic suspense under the pen name Darcy McKenna. You can also friend me at http://www.myspace.com/reneerussellauthor

I look forward to hearing from you!

Renee

Tessa Radley - Rich Man's Revenge

2007-06-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

When Passion And Danger Collide

When I started writing RICH MAN'S REVENGE, my June 2007 release from Silhouette Desire, I wrote it for myself. I often find that the seeds of an idea come from the book that goes before. The manuscript I had completed before I started writing Rich Man's Revenge had been a romantic suspense. 90 000 words. Complicated. Exhausting. I wanted to write something short, intense, with lots of spark between the hero and heroine…but I wanted that edginess that a hint of danger brings to passion. And I wanted to write a revenge story…I've always loved reading Harlequin Presents novels with a revenge plot…so my hero, Rico D'Alessio had to be an Italian. No one does revenge better than a gorgeous Italian hero.

Danielle Sinclair is a bit of a modern day fairy princess. I drew a little on fairy tale mythology. Rapunzel in her tower perhaps. Even Sleeping Beauty a little. Danielle is a good girl. She's been given everything she's ever wanted in life…except freedom. She's as trapped as the ancient fairytale princesses. Rico D'Alessio lies on the other side of the scale. He's worldly, powerful, a widower…and a man who returns with a mission. Revenge. That's what he wants more than anything in the world.

Because of what happened to him at the hands of the Sinclair family Rico became an exile. He roamed the world and set up a successful business as a kidnap retrieval expert. He's dark and more than a little damaged by the time he comes back into Danielle's world, a dark angel of death and dishonor. His arrival is well-timed, because Danielle is in danger. His solution? A marriage of convenience. But Danielle is no passive, perfect princess…she makes choices which are sometimes flawed and have consequences that both she and Rico have to face.

While RICH MAN'S REVENGE is not a romantic suspense—there's no space for a complex suspense plot in such a short book, but the backdrop against which they fall in love is a world full of bodyguards and threats, double cross and betrayals…and a fake wedding. I had such a blast writing it. And I was so sorry to let these characters go that I think my next proposal to my editor may have to be a story linked to RICH MAN'S REVENGE.

Tessa Radley's debut Silhouette Desire BLACK WIDOW BRIDE hit the shelves in March this year, and her second book is a June 2007 release. She loves the magic of creating characters who fall in love…despite the odds stacked against them.

Curveball - Kate Angell

2007-05-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Writing relaxes me. I can live through a day when most everything goes wrong, yet when I sit before my computer and escape into my characters’ lives, all is right with the world once again.

I love sports, especially baseball. I’m not athletic, but I make a terrific fan. There are no athletes as sexy as the Boys of Summer. I was fortunate my editor, Alicia Condon, allowed me to create the Richmond Rogues, a champion caliber team, where the members play as hard on the field as they do off.

In the earliest creation of any book, the characters must walk into my life and demand their story. I like them that visible. I often don’t have a plot in mind when I sit down to write. I do, however, know my characters inside and out. They are fully fleshed out in my mind, all flawed and conflicted and ready for me to fix them.

CURVEBALL combines three romances. Readers will meet the Bat Pack - Cody ‘Psycho’ McMillan, Jesse ‘Romeo’ Bellisaro, and Chase ‘Chaser’ Tallan – three major league power hitters.

On defense, Psycho plays right field. He’s loosely modeled after Johnny Damon of the New York Yankees. Damon plays all-out, all the time. He’s hit the outfield wall so many times, his teammates drew a chalk outline on the wall, similar to the ones drawn around a dead body.

That’s how I envisioned Psycho, a dedicated wild man who could jump like a super hero and snatch a fly ball from a greedy fan’s hands.

Then there's Romeo Bellisaro, the sexiest man in Major League Baseball. He can charm the Hanky Panky panties off any woman. Until he meets Emerson Kent, a Sports reporter for the Virginia Banner. Romeo accidentally roughs her up during a team brawl, only to have this sassy and intelligent woman bring him to his knees.

Chaser Tallan’s neighbor, Jen Reid, has been his best friend from playpens to the big league. Not until he accidentally kisses her does he realize he wants this woman in his bed for the rest of his life.

I hope you enjoy the Bat Pack. CURVEBALL was a fun book to write. I’m certain that Psycho, Romeo, and Chaser will make cameo appearances in the remaining books in this series.

Happy summer! Happy reading!
Kate Angell

LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION

2007-05-28T11:41:00.000-04:00

Many authors mention in their bios that they always wanted to be a writer. Not me. I wanted to be an astronaut. Didn’t happen due to a right brain that quakes at the sight of anything requiring math skills, not to mention a body prone to motion sickness. Oh well…some dreams just aren’t meant to be.

I got the urge to write well into my adulthood. While on a business trip, I was attacked by a rabid dream. That dream eventually became LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION, a romantic suspense that officially releases tomorrow from Dorchester Love Spell.

LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION is a story about secrets and revenge and the steps some people will go to in order to protect the former and achieve the latter. I’ve always been fascinated by both secrets and revenge. Who among us doesn’t have secrets? Who among us hasn’t harbored revenge fantasies? Is it possible to get through junior high school without a hefty dose of both? I doubt it.

Years ago I knew a woman who went to great lengths to project the ideal marriage. She constantly bragged about how much her husband loved her and what a perfect marriage they had. Then I learned the secrets behind the lies. She was carrying on an affair that he discovered by tapping his own phone. Mr. and Mrs. Perfect were anything but. Although LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION isn’t about that marriage, it got me thinking about public persona versus private reality.

I’m also fascinated by the way the “common” folk act around celebrities. In SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION the playwright John Guare called it “star f*cking,” that annoying, name-dropping habit of those who need to brag about their connection to someone famous, no matter how tenuous the link: They once shared a plane with George Clooney, or they went to the same high school as Brad Pitt, or they played tennis with Pierce Brosnan’s third cousin’s wife’s uncle’s accountant. Of course, they fail to mention that George was sitting in First Class while they were stuck in Coach or Brad graduated a decade after they attended the school. And let’s just forget about Pierce and the accountant. That’s really taking six degrees of separation a bit far, don’t you agree? However, for many people being able to show some relationship between themselves and a celebrity makes them more important, if only in their own eyes.

In LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION Logan Crawford is initially attracted to Emma Wadsworth because she doesn’t give a damn who he is. At first he’s not even sure she recognizes him, and he can’t imagine how that could be possible. After all, he was recently named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine. Everyone recognizes Logan Crawford, whether he wants them to or not. He’s used to a fawning public, but Emma doesn’t fawn. And that makes her both intriguing and irresistible in Logan’s eyes.

However, Emma’s the one with all the secrets. And she’s also the target of someone’s revenge. Make that two someones. In the blink of an eye she goes from being Philadelphia’s most beloved citizen to the city’s most notorious criminal. Think scandal. Think long buried secrets. Think murder. And it all starts with a spilled latte.

I hope you’ll pick up a copy of LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION and fall in love with Emma and Logan the way I did. I had a blast bringing their story to life. You can read an excerpt at my website, www.loiswinston.com . And if you hurry, you can still enter the contest I’m running to celebrate the release of LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION. Today is the last day to enter. I’ll be drawing a winner tomorrow, the official release date of the book. All you have to do is read the excerpt and answer the question on the CONTEST page < http://www.loiswinston.com/indexcontests.html > One lucky person will win a coffee themed basket, including a LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION coffee mug, gourmet coffees, chocolate, and other assorted goodies.

And if you like watching book videos, check mine out on my homepage or at YouTube < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-EAejc7OC8 > On my website you’ll also find information about my other books, reviews, interesting links, articles on writing, and more. So grab a cup of your beverage of choice, stop by, and stay awhile.

Happy reading!
Lois
http://www.loiswinston.com/

THE SPECIALISTS: Model Spy

2007-05-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

It was early one Saturday morning. My friend Britta and I were having a yard sale. A couple of hours and many cups of coffee into the yard sale we were kicking back in our lawn chairs staring at all the junk that no one had bought. We were silent, and in fact hadn’t muttered a word in probably thirty minutes. She was most likely thinking the same thing as me, Let’s just haul this off to Goodwill and hit the beach.

So this is how the conversation went:

Britta: Wouldn’t it be cool to be a spy?
Me: Yeah.
Britta: Just like Sydney Bristow we could travel around the world under aliases.
Me: Yeah.

Silence.

Britta: So what’s your next book about?
Me: I dunno. Something teen, definitely.
Britta: (long pause)How ‘bout teen spies?
Me: Hmmm...

Slowly, I sat up, ideas starting to ping pong around in my head. Teen spies...that really was a cool idea. Then I ran and got a notepad, and here’s the conversation continued:

Me: Oooh, oooh, we cold totally have like...
Britta: And, and, oh my God, what about...
Me: Wait a minute. I have a better idea...
Britta: No that sucks. You need to do this.
Me: Hey, who’s writing this anyway?

Hours went by. Literally. And when we got done, we looked up and saw all of our junk was gone. And this was how the conversation went:

Britta: Where’s all are stuff?
B’s husband: Some lady came, offered fifty bucks for it all, and loaded it up.
Britta: Cool.
Me: Cool. (long pause)So what now?
Britta: Hello? Go write the freaking series.
Me: (sigh)

Shannon

Jennifer Ashley

2007-05-06T00:07:00.000-04:00

I know a few authors who get annoyed when someone asks them where they get their ideas. I like the question, personally, because it’s fascinating to try to figure out how stories evolve—how we go from nothing to a complete world inside a book.

I think authors are thrown off by this question because usually the answer is “I don’t know.” It’s difficult to remember the germ of an idea after it’s been fleshed out and given life as a complete book.

I’ve written twenty-three books now (five more will be published this year), and several novellas, and I’ve lost track of what inspired them all. Ideas stream to me constantly, from dreams, random thoughts, incidents I observe, current events, historical events, a word, a phrase . . .

Here are a few inspirations I remember:

Perils of the Heart (my first published novel). I read a legend of a woman pirate commandeering a merchant ship to rescue her pirate lover from prison in Havana. So what if I put an innocent governess on this ship, and suddenly she’s forced to participate in pirate plots? And what if the handsome captain of the ship assumes she’s a pirate? The potential for fun and heat was too much to resist!

The Pirate Next Door. I was desperately trying to come up with a plot for another historical. I had plenty of ideas, all of them “blah.” I looked out my window at my neighbor, who is a biker. I thought “If I was writing a contemporary, I’d call it The Biker Next Door. But I’m doing a historical—so—ah, The Pirate Next Door.” And the entire story popped almost fully formed into my head.

The Captain Lacey mystery series (written as Ashley Gardner at Berkley): I wanted to write a series with a Regency dandy as a sleuth. However, several authors had already done that, so I thought—what would be the opposite of a Regency dandy? A forty-year old cavalry captain, gentleman-born but his fortune lost, with nothing to do after the Napoleonic wars and no money. He would live in the “bad” part of town and have street girls for neighbors, and be getting over a broken heart. Captain Gabriel Lacey was born. I’ve written six books in this award-winning series so far. I did get my Regency dandy though—he’s the hero’s best friend. :)

Tales of the Shareem (written as Allyson James). In the past in England, lower-class village men sometimes auctioned off their wives as a quickie (though technically illegal) divorce. I thought, how unfair—why shouldn’t the men be auctioned off, too?

And then I thought—why not? How about a scifi story in which a factory creates men to be sexually enhanced and sold as pleasure slaves to women? And to make it more interesting, the factory has shut down, the Shareem (the slaves) are outlawed and barely allowed to live. What would these men do to survive, and what would women do to have access to the forbidden Shareem? I’ve written four of these books now and more are on their way.

Dragon Heat (forthcoming by Allyson James from Berkley). I was staying in a NY apartment for a weekend and thought—what if a young woman opened the spare bedroom door and found a dragon behind it? What if time and space had bent to allow a sixty-foot dragon to occupy a ten by ten space? (My brain can go in odd directions sometimes.) And what would happen if the dragon was allowed to cross over and become human? I changed the location to San Francisco, because I knew it much better than Manhattan, and Dragon Heat was born.

The Immortals series. This one came to me on one of those sleepless nights—what if a group of men existed through time to help people in trouble? One would be Adrian, the leader with a dark past. One would be Tain, red-haired and Celtic. One would be Hunter, compensating for a broken heart. And so many more possibilities! When there was danger, the Immortals could be called via a spell or ritual, and would appear to help.

I kicked that idea around in my head for a long time, thinking about plots for each character. I didn’t have the chance to pitch it, having plenty of books to write and deadlines to meet, until my editor at Dorchester told me she’d welcome new ideas for a continuity series if I had them. The Immortals seemed to fit right in, and I quickly wrote a synopsis…. And here we are.

The first book of the Immortals: The Calling hit shelves on May 1. This is Adrian’s story, with The Darkening by Robin Popp (June 2007) telling Darius’s story; The Awakening (August 2007) by Joy Nash telling Kalen’s story, and The Gathering (Sept. 2007) telling Hunter’s story plus bringing the series arc to a close. But wait, there’s more! Tain’s story will also be told in a followup book, pub date TBA.

I did an interview with Adrian of The Calling on Dorchester’s website at http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/SpecialFeatures.cfm?Special_ID=2264

Read about the books that come from my wild brain at http://www.jennifersromances.com/; http://www.allysonjames.com/; and http://www.gardnermysteries.com/

After all these books, have I run out of ideas? No way! New ideas come every day. If only I had time to write them all down….

Best,

Jennifer Ashley
(and her other personas)

Coming Home

2007-05-04T08:30:00.000-04:00

Are you a member of my generation? No, not Generation-X. I mean Generation-OTD (Older Than Dirt). If so, the Vietnam War was a definitive event in your life. The news bombarded you with it each night, you heard it debated in classrooms and saw anti-war protests—or maybe participated in them. I grew up in a military family, so I had a perspective of the war and politics that many of my friends in school didn’t, but the war infected my life, just the same. You couldn’t have lived in the US during the 1960s and 70s without that being the case.

In the last couple of years, I’ve written two stories with Vietnam as the backdrop. One is a novel and the other is this story, Coming Home. Neither are statements on the war itself, just on how it affected families, careers and lives.

Coming Home is a fictional account of a young man’s leave during his tour of duty. Tom Stabler goes back to his home, a Nebraska farm, and the world has shifted. His soul is troubled; he’s seen things and done things he doesn’t know how to process. His parents seem older, the house smaller. Then he is reunited with the girl he left behind, and with her he finds peace.

I’ve grounded Coming Home in Vietnam, but Tom Stabler’s story is not unique, though it is more intense. On a smaller scale, remember the first time you went back to your childhood home after being away at college? Didn’t everything seem different? Lives changed, neighbors came or went, and you weren’t there to experience it. You felt out of place, slightly disoriented. Now you understand Tom and the idea behind Coming Home.

What do you think? Have you ever had this feeling?

I hope you enjoy Coming Home! Please visit my website http://deesknight.com) to find Coming Home and my other works, excerpts, contests, and news.

Thanks for being with me!
Dee S. Knight

Castle of the Wolf

2007-05-02T09:20:00.000-04:00

CASTLE OF THE WOLF is the story of a young woman, Cissy Fussell, who finds out after her father’s death that she has inherited a castle in the Black Forest – but only on one condition: in order to keep the castle, she has to marry the son of her father’s old friend. Unfortunately, said son turns out to be a beast rather than Prince Charming.

Two people are to blame for the existence of CASTLE OF THE WOLF (apart from myself, that is). The first is Gaelen Foley, who, incidentally, also gave me the cover quote for the book (and I'm really glad she liked the story she unwittingly inspired!). When I first got to know her, we talked a little about settings, and this e-mail conversation gave me the idea to choose Germany as the setting for some future novel. But that was not all: after she had read THE LILY BRAND, my debut novel, Gaelen told me, “You do know, Sandy, don’t you, that now you have to continue writing dark and kinky?” Ha! I thought. I can do kinky, so dark shouldn’t be a problem either. (Ha, indeed, for this was before erotic romance exploded all over the place and put a whole new definition on “kinky”.) Now, if you mix “dark” and “Germany” and “early nineteenth century,” you end up with “gothic novel.” And the Black Forest, with its deep, dark woods and old castles seemed the perfect setting for such a book. Besides, I spent the early years of my childhood there, thus writing CASTLE OF THE WOLF allowed me to revisit my childhood memories and dig through old family pictures. It was simply wonderful! (That the novel didn’t turn out too dark or too gothic is entirely the fault of the lady with the sturdy boots. Never give your characters sturdy boots, I tell you! They’ll only stomp all the gothicness to dust. Literally.) So, I now had my general premise and my setting: I was going to write a gothic romance set in the Black Forest. But what I was still missing was some idea where and how to start my story. And this is where my former folklore prof comes in.

The last the seminar I took with Professor Simon was about death and mourning rituals (very uplifting, indeed!). For this course I wrote a paper on death, mourning, and femininity in Victorian Britain, for which my major source was Pat Jalland’s DEATH IN THE VICTORIAN FAMILY. In an aside she mentions that people didn’t only dye their clothes black, but that they also dyed horses for the funeral procession.

Horses? But what ...

What if they used cheap dye, and it started to rain?

And into my mind sprang the picture of an old gig, rumbling across a muddy country lane, and thus I had found the beginning of my story: “Water poured from the skies and shrouded the world in grey. Raindrops drummed on the fold-back roof of the old gig, wormed their way through the ancient material and dripped onto the hats of the three passengers. Wetness glinted on the back of the shaggy mare, and dye ran down her sides, leaving black oily puddles on the muddy country lane.”

~*~

All the best,
Sandy

For more information on Sandra and her books please visit www.sandraschwab.com.

Spirited Away with Cindy Miles

2007-04-30T08:25:00.000-04:00

Being that Spirited Away is my debut novel, I've had numerous people ask, "What inspired you to write it?" Most authors, I imagine, have inspirations for the setting and characters of their books. Some may use that particular inspiration just once, and others use it multiple times, in various and somewhat altered forms. I have a few inspirations, but by far, the one dearest to me is Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven, Scotland, on the wild North Sea coast. I can only vaguely describe the feeling I experienced when, while driving along the narrow, winding lane hugging the coast, this awesome sight came into view. Even having viewed loads of photos of it, I wasn't prepared for the raw beauty of it. NOTHING compares to the sight of it in "real life". I had to pull over, stop the car and literally catch my breath. My insides were tense and as corn-doggie as it sounds, tears came to my eyes. I knew, at that moment, that I'd found not only the setting for the book of my heart, but of the hero, who stole my breath away just as easily as the majestic ruins. The two went hand-in-hand. And so Tristan de Barre and his Dreadmoor Castle came to life.

I hadn't started writing SPIRITED AWAY when I first laid eyes on Dunnottar, but ideas swamped me as I sat in that car, staring at a fortress built by strong medieval hands more than 800 years before. Strangely enough, I didn't know the history of the castle until much later. I later learned the Caledonians controlled an original ancient fortress on the site in 84AD, and in 1296, William Wallace and his men reclaimed the present Dunnottar keep from the English-but I didn't know any of that at the time I visited-and I'm glad. I wanted to create my own garrison, my own knights, and my own history and circumstances, without being led by actual historical events or figures. And so I did.

While staying at the Dunnottar Mains Farm B&B, which sits directly across the cliffs from the castle, I set my clock for 5:45 A.M., pulled on warm clothes (it was October and CHILL-LEE!) and walked to the fortress. It was quite a trekk, as the gatehouse is more at ground level, and the castle is on the ancient shelf of rock. No, the castle grounds aren't open that early in the morning--I hopped the gate. I didn't walk amidst the buildings, as the gatehouse WAS locked (I did later that day, though!). But I found a particularly special spot to sit and ABSORB. It was cold, windy, the gulls were deafening, the air fabulous and salty, and as I sat, completely alone, watching the sun rise over the North Sea, with the sky turning brilliant shades of red and purple and orange, and Dunnottar in the foreground, I saw Tristan, striding briskly across the bailey, helm tucked under his arm, sword slapping his thigh, chain mail creaking with each step. I half-expected to be sucked back in time--and more than half wanted to be. I stayed there for a couple of hours, envisioning scenes, people, daily chores, horses, knights training, the clang of swords, swearing, and hearty laughter. And I thought of a modern gal being thrown in the mix of all that medieval stuff, and loving every single minute of it. My heroine, Andi, was born.
I'd had a time-travel in mind at first, but soon the idea of Tristan suffering an unfair death and worse, a curse, came to mind. But I knew the kind of guy Tristan was-powerful and so full of himself, even death couldn't snuff his pride, chivalry, nor his fierce honor. So even as a ghost, Tristan continued to be the way he always had been in life. Strong. Loyal. And up to his ears in chivalry--rusty perhaps, but still there in all its glory.

I started the original draft of SPIRITED AWAY as soon as I got home, and that was in the fall of 2000. Several things in the book changed from then to the book it is now; revisions, new ideas, etc, but one thing has ALWAYS remained the same: Tristan. His character is as strong to me as if he were a real person. Maybe because I've "known" him for so long now, but, well...you'll see when you (hopefully!) read the book.

Dreadmoor, though, is not in Scotland. I sort of slid Dunnottar/Dreadmoor down the coast a ways, and settled it in northern England. While Tristan's mother is Scottish, his father is French-Norman/Scottish, so I wanted a sort of "neutral" area for Dreadmoor-and chose the north of England.

Spirited Away officially releases May 1st. I invite you to meet my ghostly hero,Tristan de Barre, and his charming, loyal garrison of knights...and Dr. Andrea Monroe, the woman who proudly and quite sneakily steals all of their hearts-especially Tristan's.

I'd love for you to visit me at http://www.cindy-miles.com/

Cindy

SPIRITED AWAY

NAL Eclipse

MAY 2007

www.cindy-miles.com

The Perils of Pursuing a Prince

2007-04-16T08:30:00.000-04:00

People often ask me where I come up with the ideas for my books, but it is a big mystery to me. There is no conscious forming of an idea—they just come to me. Some come from reading or watching movies. Some come from nothing more than seeing someone walk down a street. Sometimes, on the treadmill, because I despise exercise, and I have to think of something to make myself do it, I play a “what if” game. For example, what if I had a character—a man—who hadn’t had sex in six years? Why would that be? And how would he remedy the situation without being a total dog about it?

Okay, I don’t actually have a character like that, but it’s sort of fun to ponder.

I am not exactly sure how I came up with the prince in the Perils of Pursuing a Prince. I already had Greer Fairchild, the heroine, as she had appeared in the first book of the Desperate Debutante series, The Hazards of Hunting a Duke. I already knew that she was going to go in search of an inheritance she might have—might being the operative word—but that was it, all of the idea for this book that I had.

And one day I saw a picture of a remote castle somewhere in Wales. It looked gloomy and wet and cold, and I instantly thought Greer needed to go to that castle—it just seemed fitting somehow for a woman to go off on some rabbit hunt and end up there.

Once I decided on the gloomy castle, the prince of Powys leapt into being. The ideas started to flow—who better to occupy that castle than a dark and brooding man with secrets? I hadn’t done a hero like him in ages, not since The Dangerous Gentleman way back in 2000. I thought of a million things I could do with him, too. Doesn’t it seem like dark and brooding men make the best lovers? And if they fell in love, who would know it? Certainly not a bright and determined heroine who thinks the dark and brooding guy is some kind of ogre.

What if he held her prisoner, too? She’d be worried about him taking advantage of her…or maybe even hoping for it, because he is kind of sexy in a brooding way. And he would be worried about touching her and being too rough, because women are delicate little flowers and don’t need to be manhandled. Right?

Oh, so wrong. She isn’t delicate and he, well…he may be the brooding type, but he knows his way around a bedroom. This is how the Prince of Powys was born. A dark, brooding man who lives in solitude in a huge castle on a crag, away from society, away from delicate flowers. And when Greer Fairchild enters his life unexpectedly, the prince is smitten. His gruff, distant, and rough exterior begins to erode with his uncharacteristic feelings and desires—and he becomes the perfect foil to my heroine.

And oh yeah…he becomes an expert lover, too.
I hope you enjoy The Perils of Pursuing a Prince. Be sure and check out my special sweepstakes at http://www.julialondon.com/contest.html .

You can also read an excerpt and see a book trailer at http://www.julialondon.com/perils_of_pursuing_a_prince.html.

Julia London

Back from Hiatus - Sorta

2007-04-14T22:19:00.000-04:00

OK, so I know The Idea Boutique has been eerily quiet this month, but I've had alot going on. But we're back! I'm scheduling authors now for the rest of April and into May. If you are an author and would like to participate, email me!

If you're a reader with an author you'd love to hear from, email me, too. I'll see what I can do! (No promises!)

Now, since I have your attention, I'm going to post my new cover and announce that my second book, Destiny's Warrior, will be released this December (following my debut, The Devil's Possession, which comes out in August). Look for both and make me smile!

Heather

Enticed - Kathleen Dante

2007-03-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

I really can’t claim responsibility for the genesis of Enticed. Sure, the seeds were all there—an article I’d read about a blind painter, a cat I’d met on a wine-tasting jaunt in Oregon . . . and Dillon, who’d first appeared in Entangled—but I hadn’t put them together.

You see, it’s all my crit partner’s fault. Yup, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. =)

It started a day or so after I finished Entangled, my first novel. I was at loose ends, wondering what to do next and toying with the nebulous idea of committing sequel, with Dillon as the hero. When I mentioned it to my crit partner, she immediately responded with “I hope you make him work for it” or maybe she used “crawl”; after two years, I don’t quite remember the exact phrasing and the original e-mail has since vanished from the archives. Anyway, she wrote something to that effect.

Those words electrified my imagination. I hadn’t had a plot in mind, but once I read those words, my muse began throwing ideas at me.

Here’s a cool, black ops agent who’s dedicated to his job. What if he’s forced to take a vacation? What if he’s intrigued by a woman who’s seems blind to his appeal—literally? (That blind painter I’d read about immediately came to mind. Reliance on the remaining senses, particularly touch, held promise for an erotic romance, which is the kind I prefer to write.) But why would she resist such a great guy? As a corollary to that, how to introduce tension from his black ops background when she’s a not-so-worldly-wise artist? Since the first book was set in a magical world, the answer that popped up was: What if she’s clairvoyant and picks up on secret info?

The above was more than enough for a first scene, but my muse wasn’t done yet. She had to ask: Wouldn’t it be cool if she had a cat to run interference? O.o! (Apparently, the hind brain wanted to see if it could develop a pet into a major character.) Since I hadn’t sold a book yet at the time and didn’t have any idea who my audience was, I figured, why not?

That’s how Enticed came to be. Sometimes you need a catalyst to pull everything together and transform the grist of a writer’s mill into a story. Without it, you just have several disparate ideas that don’t hang together. That’s why I can’t take responsibility for the genesis of Enticed; if it hadn’t been for my crit partner’s timely comment, who knows what might have happened?

Kathleen Dante

2007-03-06T10:22:00.000-05:00

Date bait has been the subject of hot debate lately in the online dating world. It’s also Lucy Ladelle’s latest chosen profession in my newest comedic women’s fiction novel, The Quest for the Holy Veil. Lucy’s been hired by a matchmaking service to act as a perfect date to lure men into signing up for this high-priced service. But on her first official date, she’s caught "on tape" by a new reality TV show that has set up a sting operation to expose this questionable practice. Unfortunately, the one drop-dead, hunk of he-man that Lucy lusts after turns out to be producer of the dang show ("I don’t care how gorgeous Lance Booker is! The guy’s evil! No matter how much I want him."). Talk about your love-hate relationship.

Lucy has her reasons for getting herself into this mess. Despite this, she must take steps to clean up her act if she’s to ever to make it to the Broadway stage. She also finds herself embarking on new adventures and working for a larger-than-life woman only known as Queendah. All the while, Lucy must deal with her mixed-up feelings for Lance-the-Safari Guy who insists on ‘tracking" her like an animal for the TV show. ("Must he ‘track’ me all the time? He can’t just call 411? And tacking a "love note" to my front door with a blow dart is the last straw!")

Despite all this, one thing’s for sure. Lucy must learn the lesson that you’ve got to let go of past regrets before you can move onto your future success.

The release date for The Quest for the Holy Veil is March 6. Feel free to visit my web site at www.kimberlyllewellyn.com.

Kimberly

Blood Moon

2007-03-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

You might say that my inspiration was multi-faceted, when I wrote my February 27th Dorchester Love Spell release, BLOOD MOON. I grew up in a home where both parents had wonderful libraries. My father’s bookshelves were filled with Zane Grey novels and wonderful mysteries. My mother’s shelves were filled with romance. She loved two things when it came to books and movies: romance fiction, which ranged from the confessions magazines to the works of the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and Daphne du Maurier to name but a few, and classic horror—anything spooky—with werewolves and zombies and vampires heading the list. I had access to both my parents’ libraries at a very young age, and while I loved the Zane Grey westerns, I knew one day I would have to write romantic tales. They captured my heart…but so did the dark, mysterious allure of the vampire.

In those days, “Horror” (which is what werewolf and vampire tales were called back then), and tales of “Romance” were two entirely different genre. It wasn’t until much later, after the Gothic craze, that the Paranormal Romance was born. My mother, who has passed away, particularly loved the vampire flicks, so in the back of my mind there has always been a nagging prod to write a book she would have loved.

So you might say my mother was my inspiration to write BLOOD MOON.

Her favorite was the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula, and we would watch it every time it aired on TV. This was the purist form of vampire fiction brought to life on the screen—one that all who write chilling vampire tales begin with and one vampire purists demand.

So, you might say the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula was my inspiration.

My favorite vampire image was the sensuality that Frank Langella brought to the role. In my opinion, his was the most sensuous adaptation, paving the way for Paranormal Romance as we know it today, closely followed by Bram Stoker’s version. All at once it wasn’t simply “horror” any more. It was hot and sexy and dangerously romantic.

So, you might say that these two versions were my inspiration.

Then, there was Saberhagen’s take on the vampire legend—enough of the old to satisfy the purists, but with a twist. Some vampires could now be abroad in daylight, and some no longer were repelled by sacred objects, mirrors, garlic and the like. These concepts gave we who write such tales much more leeway in crafting out stories. Acceptance was good. Suspension of disbelief was eased a bit because these changes humanized the vampire a little for us, and we turned a major page in the process of crafting them.

So, you might say Saberhagen was my inspiration.

It wasn’t so much what he wrote, but the courage and the talent it took to take the most thrilling legend of all time and put his own stamp on it to make it his triumph and our legacy.

THAT was my inspiration—and a little bit of all the above. I wanted to write the book that would have delighted my mother. I wanted the pure essence of the original Dracula, but I wanted a different image than the billowing caped Lugosi adaptation. I wanted a different plot. I also wanted something so fresh and new it would delight both the vampire purists and the new kids on the block, as well. So I put all the ingredients in the pot, stirred it, and BLOOD MOON was born—a vampire tale with a fresh new twist.

If you’re looking for a cape-swirling vampire of Lugosi’s stamp, you won’t find him here. As gruesome as my villain Sebastian Valentin is, he is a slave to fashion, dressing in the clothes of the day, though they fit him poorly. Once a man of the cloth himself, limited to clerical attire before he was corrupted, he now delights in the elegancy of Regency costumes, when he isn’t taking other forms.

My hero and heroine, Jon and Cassandra, are everyday people, a young couple about to be married and begin their life together. Jon, the second son of an earl, has taken Holy Orders, and plans to settle with his bride on the living provided him in his home parish in Cumberland, when he and Cassandra are bitten by the four-hundred-year-old vampire.

Having no idea what is happening to them or what to expect sets them on a desperate journey to find help in the Vampire’s homeland, a remote village in the Romanian Carpathians. There they meet the enigmatic centuries old Gypsy vampire/vampire hunter, Milosh. Handsome still after four hundred years, Milosh tries to save them from Sebastian, and from each other, when the madness of the blood and the passions of the heart collide, and the secret ritual of the BLOOD MOON that could free them, or kill them all, becomes their last hope.

But it doesn’t end there. My inspiration for BLOOD MOON spawned two others. THE BROTHERHOOD, the second in the BLOOD MOON series, will be released in September, followed by THE RAVENING in March of 2008. More are planned.

A little tip…keep your eye on Milosh, he appears in all three books as a central character. His romance is the subject of book three, THE RAVENING, where you will see a hero like no other. All three books are dark, sensual and riveting, like nothing you’ve seen before. I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Dawn Thompson
http://www.dawnthompson.com/

Sophie Jordan on TOO WICKED TO TAME

2007-03-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

Several things inspired my writing of TOO WICKED TO TAME. For one thing, I was determined to write a story about Portia, a secondary character in my debut novel, ONCE UPON A WEDDING NIGHT. I just needed to come up with a story that “fit” the precocious, young girl from ONCE UPON WEDDING NIGHT. She had a lot of things going for her that marked her as a “star” leading lady – she’s a bluestocking, outspoken and independent with goals of her own that have nothing to do with marriage. Only seventeen in ONCE UPON A WEDDING NIGHT, I had to give her a few years to grow up, but at twenty-two, she meets her match in TOO WICKED TO TAME.

Other influences on TOO WICKED TO TAME include the works of the Bronte sisters. Gotta love those sweeping love stories full of such dark, raging emotions! Ah, the sweet agony! Call me a Bronte girl, because I’m definitely the kind of writer that prefers making readers cry rather than laugh.

The Bronte sisters wrote novels set in Yorkshire. The wild Yorkshire moors of JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS whisper to my romantic soul to this day. Can there be any better backdrop for a tumultuous love story? I had a great deal of fun researching Yorkshire and hope I managed to convey some of that exotic setting in TOO WICKED TO TAME.

JANE EYRE is my favorite work of the Bronte sisters. And I think readers might see some of it echoed in TOO WICKED TO TAME. Yes, there’s a curse of madness and a dark, brooding hero … and my heroine, like Jane Eyre, is no traditional beauty. She definitely invades both the hero’s desolate Yorkshire estate as well as his peace of mind with her arrival.

Feel free to check out my website for more information on TOO WICKED TO TAME, my newest release … especially if you want to get swept away!

Best,
Sophie
www.sophiejordan.net

“Love @ First Site” in DREAMS & DESIRES

2007-02-27T08:29:00.000-05:00

When my first published piece, a short story eBook called SHE’S GOT LEGS, came out last July from Freya’s Bower, I realized that it was difficult to promote an eBook from a company that very few people had ever heard of. FB had only opened its doors a few months earlier, and while it was slowly building a reputation for quality, there had been such an explosion of e-publishers in the last couple of years that it was difficult to stand out from the crowd.

I was chatting with the editor-in-chief and managing editor and tossed out the idea about how wouldn’t it be great to do something really big, like an anthology where we invited some bigger names and all proceeds went to charity. The idea just literally burst out of my mouth before I’d had a chance to even really think about it, but once I did, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Fortunately, Marci Baun and Faith Bicknell-Brown, the editor-in-chief and managing editor respectively, were both intrigued by the idea, as well.

Within a few days, not only did we have a plan, but we also had a charity. Two Freya’s Bower editors are domestic violence survivors, so helping women was an obvious choice. Through Marci’s research, we selected a shelter in Florida (safety and privacy concerns for the residents preclude us from publicly disclosing the name or exact location) to become the recipient of the funds.

We agreed that nobody involved with the project (authors, editors, publisher, cover artist) would receive any compensation whatsoever, and that we would rely mostly upon word of mouth for advertising, so that we wouldn’t cut into the profit for the shelter. Once the contracts were drawn up, the fun began—recruiting authors.

We sent out the first invitations a week before RWA Nationals and approached some authors in Atlanta, as well. I must admit that I felt like a little kid in a candy store, having the opportunity to choose anyone I wanted, and inviting some of my favorite authors to contribute. Fortunately, the cause was so strong that most authors readily agreed.

To be honest, when I conceived of this plan, it never occurred to me that I might get to contribute a story. But about a month before the first draft deadline, Marci asked if I had a story to tell.

My contribution is entitled “Love @ First Site” and it’s the story of Julie Antonelli, a DC lawyer who has trouble meeting guys she’d like to take home to her mom, so she enrolls in an Internet dating site. I’m married, but most of my girlfriends here in DC are single and doing the eHarmony or Match.com thing. I took some of the stories they’ve told me and played “what if.”

I hope you enjoy what I came up with, and I hope you enjoy all the stories in the collection. And know that with every purchase of DREAMS & DESIRES, you support women who need an extra helping hand to allow their own dreams and desires to come true.
~ Amanda Brice
http://www.amandabrice.com/

Lady of Scandal - Nicole Byrd

2007-02-23T08:31:00.000-05:00

While doing research for another Regency set book, I came across a reference to a gentleman in the government whose mother, when widowed, had supported her children by becoming an actress. This was a surprise since the general perception is that no lady could go on stage and keep her social status. I immediately wanted to put a lady of quality onto the stage, as I saw lots of wonderful story possibilities. So Ophelia Applegate, one of the Applegate twins, suddenly had a long held ambition to tread the boards, although she knew her family would refuse to allow her to do any such thing. And since no reader imbued in Regency lore was going to believe that this was possible, despite the fact that I found a few more references to it happening, I went ahead with the idea that it would cause a scandal, (and I'm sure it would have) hence the title, and played with the whole double standard, which in the end made the plotline both suspenseful and fun. Can the twins maintain their stage aliases and come out into Society at the same time? Quite a balancing act to pull off!

I also had fun with the relationship between the twins-- Cordelia who is more responsible, Ophelia who is the dreamer, apt to leap before she looks. I have some of those in my own family. (No, it’s not Michelle!) And they tend to be charming, and–despite their lack of planning–very apt to come out all right in the end, strangely enough. Yet the twins are also close to each other, and when they fall in love with two sexy and handsome heros, it makes a difference to the twins’ bond–which I also thought should be addressed, so the relationships depicted have some extra levels. And there’s a mystery, as usual, adventure, touches of humor, and lots of passionate romance. I hope you have fun with it!

Wishing you all good reading, as always–

Nicole

http://www.nicolebyrd.com/

Candace Havens - The Velvet Mask

2007-02-21T09:15:00.000-05:00

The Velvet Mask

When I was contacted about participating in the “Dreams and Desires: A Collection of Romance and Erotic Tales” anthology, I said yes instantly. The proceeds go to a great cause, helping a battered woman’s shelter, and I immediately had an idea for a story.

I don’t know exactly why, but the name Scheherazade popped in my head. I knew something about the story, but did a little research. For those of you who don’t know, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the king in his chambers. He was murdering a virgin a day because his wife betrayed him. (Men! Sigh.) Scheherazade woos him with her stories and he can’t get enough. So night after night he calls upon her to entertain him and she does.

I thought it would be fun if my character became her for one night. Then came the idea for the masquerade Valentine’s Day singles party. My heroine is based on a couple of different people I know who have made major changes in their lives and found an inner power they never knew existed.

Candace

MEOW IS FOR MURDER

2007-02-19T08:54:00.000-05:00

Poor Kendra Ballantyne. I always try to give her plenty of problems in her stories, the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from BerkleyPrime Crime. In her latest story, MEOW IS FOR MURDER, she’s forced to clear her worst enemy of an accusationof murder.

Where did the idea come from? Well, it was several books in the making. Kendra met her main love interest, Jeff Hubbard, in her first story, SIT, STAY,SLAY. But unlike the romance genre, in which I also write, mysteries don’t always have a happy ending when it comes to relationships. That was why, in the second book, NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FERRETS, I introducedAmanda, Jeff’s ex-wife, who stayed in his life and is therefore a thorn in Kendra’s side.

But there’s only so much Amanda either of them can take. And so, I had to come up with a way to get her to agree to stay away from Jeff. Hence, the idea for MEOW. What occurrence in Amanda’s life would be dire enough to get her to back off? I could kill her, of course, since the stories are murder mysteries, but they are cozies. And if she was a killing victim, I’ve made Jeff a nice enough guy that he might mourn deeply for her, which wouldn’t bode well for his relationship with Kendra.

So, what else? And then I figured it out. Make Amanda a murder suspect who has to beg for murder magnet Kendra’s help. Amanda’s stalker is murdered, and of course she’s at the head of the suspect list. She knows Kendra solves murders, and she promises Kendra she’ll stay out of Jeff’s life if Kendra clears her.

What animals would be of assistance? Kendra’s a pet-sitter, and the pets around her always seem to help her find the killer. I’d already featured dogs(Kendra and I are both owned by loving tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniels named Lexie, and Kendra’s Lexie is always there to help), ferrets, macaws and even a ball python. I needed an idea here, which happened to be kind of obvious: cats. Beautiful cats. Intelligent cats. Bengal cats, who, like their owner, don’t like Kendra much.

And, yes, they’re highly involved in solving the mystery. What’s next for Kendra and her Lexie? Watch for THE FRIGHT OF THE IGUANA in October 2007.

Linda O Johnston

THE STRANGELING by Saskia Walker

2007-02-15T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Strangeling is the story where I delve into my interests and respect for neo-druidism and all things pagan. The idea seed for this novel was planted many years ago, when I first became interested in paganism. It’s hard to pinpoint when it was exactly, but I think it might have been when I was about 8 or 9, and my parents first took me to visit Stonehenge, seen here.

My dad told me the theories that existed about the history of the stone circle, and I could scarcely believe the massive stones had been moved from Wales to this spot, and placed here for worship of the sun and moon. At that time, you could walk in and around the stones and really experience them. I became fascinated by the idea that stone circles functioned as some sort of calendar for nature, and that pagans rejected a material world in favour of a deeper connection with nature and the spiritual world. I began to read around the subject and it became a deeply rooted interest, part of me.

The Strangeling is a mini explosion of all my fascinations with paganism onto the page! In a fantasy setting, I delved into the notion that nature is the ultimate power — a power that should be revered, and one that can be sourced. In the diagram seen here, the cycles of nature — or nature’s calendar — are represented. In the novel, I explore the idea that the ebb and flow of the seasons are more than what we experience on an everyday level, and light or dark energy can be channelled through them. I also explored the idea that physical and emotional love between two people can manifest healing power beyond them.

Bron, the hero of the story, is an “elder” — a type of Druid, as it were, loosely based on what we know, but not strictly — and he leads the heroine, Maerose, to an understanding of her magical powers as a daughter of Beltane, aligning her with the moon goddess and arousing the spirit of Beltane that she carries inside her. The physical and emotional love between them creates “sexmagick” a power they can use to drive back a curse manifesting on their homeland. Research has also shown that some Celts believed in human sacrifice, often for scrying, and I adopted this notion in creating my antagonist character, Veldor, who seeks to pervert Bron and Maerose's cause.

The Strangeling is set in a fantasy world I would like to delve into again. I’d love to go deeper into those long held fascinations, and maybe even redeem my bad guy, Veldor. Who knows, I’d like to hear what readers think on that point! If you pick up the book, I hope you enjoy the story.

Saskia
http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk/

SOME LINKS FOR FURTHER READING

About Stonehenge http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/about.htm

Neo-Druidism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Druidism

Neo-paganism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-paganism

Back in Fortune's Bed

2007-02-10T10:04:00.000-05:00

When my editor called with an invitation to write a book in the Dakota Fortunes continuity series I hesitated for, oh, three seconds before accepting. The Fortunes of Texas is one of the longer and most popular of the Silhouette mini-series, you see, and the first that I'd glommed as a devoted Desire reader. Be part of the Fortunes saga? Absolutely, I said.

At that stage all I knew was the title of my book—Back in Fortune's Bed--that my hero was one of the Australian Fortunes, and this would be a reunion of past-lovers. Oh, and the book would be set in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. My immediate research, therefore, covered two areas. First up, I needed to find out what had already been written about Max Fortune's family background in Australia. The series editor found me a copy of the series "bible" that explained how these Fortune cousins ended up in Australia, where they lived, how they'd made their fortune (excuse the pun.)

I also managed to find a copy of Karen Rose Smith's "Marry in Haste", which featured Max's brother and his family backstory. Next, I researched Sioux Falls and the February weather in South Dakota. Thank heavens for the internet and the friends I have made in the mid-west who helped me beyond the statistics to what heavy snowfalls and icestorms and airport and road closures meant to those who lived through them. This was my first mid-winter book and I have to say I enjoyed using the bleak weather as an extra external element on the romance development between Max and Diana.

The other big--and fun--part of any continuity series is working with the other authors. In this case I found myself working most closely with charlene Sands (Fortune's Vengeful Groom, Mch) and Jan Colley (Expecting A Fortune, May.) Charlene's heroine Eliza and my heroine Diana were sorority sisters at Wellesley, and it was through Eliza Fortune that Diana came to meet Max...both the first and second times. Eliza has a significant role in Back In Fortune's Bed, and likewise my Diana plays a part in Charlene's book.Jan and I worked even more closely as our heroes are best friends and business partners. They came to South Dakota on business, to inspect horse stud farms and purchase stock for their joint venture into breeding thoroughbred racehorses. Max's cousin, Skylar Fortune, runs a small but successful stud farm on the Fortune estate outside Sioux Falls and she helps introduce them to the right people in the industry. Jan and I had a lot of fun researching the horse industry and coming up with the layout of Sky's barn and the horses therein, as well as looking further afield.

When you think of horse breeding, horse racing, thoroughbred horses, horses of any kind, you think of Kentucky and the blue-grass county. A significant portion of Back In Fortune's Bed is set in Lexington, and as a horselover with a yen to visit this part of America I had a ball both researching and writing those chapters. I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

Bron

Dead Giveaway - Brenda Novak

2007-02-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

Is it ever okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason? That’s one of the themes I wanted to explore when I wrote DEAD GIVEAWAY. Clay Montgomery has certainly walked on the wrong side of the law—is still walking on the wrong side of the law. Which makes it pretty tough to get together with a police officer. But faced with the same set of circumstances in which he found himself nineteen years ago, he’d do it all again. That’s what I love about him. He’s uncompromising in his determination to protect those he loves regardless of the personal sacrifice. I don’t know that I’ve ever created a character with such a strong sense of responsibility, or so much courage.

Because DEAD GIVEAWAY is the second book in a trilogy, the basic plot idea was already in place. I developed it before I wrote DEAD SILENCE, Book #1, but there was still a lot of brainstorming that needed to be done. I had to figure out how to make the conflict change and grow and challenge my characters in different ways. I also had to figure out how to make the nineteen-year-old murder upon which all three stories are based fresh and interesting from this new angle (from the perspective of Clay, the hero, and how it has affected his life). I did this by revealing more than the reader knew before, and showing that what happened twenty years ago was more complex than everyone believed. I offered a new challenge, in the form of Allie, the cold-case detective who comes home to solve the mystery that has been troubling her small town for so long, which created the ideal conflict. Clay has something to hide, and Allie’s out to expose it.

Next up is DEAD RIGHT, out in August 2007!

Dead Giveaway, On Sale Now!
Check out my on-line auction for diabetes research beginning May 1st at www.brendanovak.com!

SEX, LIES, AND BONDAGE TAPE

2007-02-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

The theme for the KINK anthology came from fellow author Sasha White. Sasha invited me to submit a joint erotic romance proposal with her, and she came up with the theme and title. I loved the idea, and it set all sorts of interesting ideas in motion.

When I think of “kink” and “kinky” sexuality, the associated words for me are: naughty, fun, liberating, romp, deviant and decadent. My imagination immediately went to an environment where this kind of starting point might be possible.

I have to confess that my novella, SEX, LIES, AND BONDAGE TAPE, was somewhat self-indulgent. Set in the rock world, it draws on my experiences of being a live music photographer for small-scale concerts, and that of having friends who are musicians and in the music promotion business. Live music performance can be incredibly energizing, and after-concert socializing can feed off that effervescent energy. I’ve had the privilege of being backstage after performances and of being able to enjoy the buzz that often transpires. I’ve often wanted to capture that on the page, and this seemed like it might be a good setting for my naughty, kinky story.

The novella opens with Kelly, my heroine, sneaking backstage to get an autograph for a friend, at the end of a rock concert. When she gets backstage she finds it isn’t as easy to locate the room she is looking for as she might have thought. Being backstage at a concert is kind of like being a generic hotel chain — there’s a similarity to what you might except to find, but nothing is quite where you expect it to be. I drew on that to set up the crazy shenanigans of my heroine finding herself in the wrong place, witnessing a secret she shouldn’t know about, and subsequently being faux-punished by Tommy, a sexy security guy who she takes an instant shine to.

With the energy of the rock-concert setting, coupled with the agenda of a kinky relationship unfolding into a deeper emotional attachment, I had all I needed. The characters and the story took off from there, resulting in a cat-and-mouse kiss chase back and forth across London. I had a lot of fun writing this novella!

Saskia

Michael Laimo

2007-02-02T00:48:00.000-05:00

What if?

That’s really how it always begins. You ask yourself, “What if…” and then you fill in the blank…a blank that can take about 400 pages, or a year, to complete.

Prior to starting my new novel Dead Souls, there were two ‘what ifs’ nagging to be explored. The first idea echoed back to my childhood years, and the ever-spooky ambience that gave me the willies when I went to church. I was raised a catholic and was made by my parents to attend religion classes and church. As one who’s always looked at life from a very scientific point-of-view, I saw the stories told in church about Jesus rising from the dead to be rather, uh, horrific. And frankly, let it be known: I still think it’s all rather scary. Think about it--you have millions of people worshipping a man who presumably come back from the dead.

With this in mind, I figured there has to be a ‘reason’ behind this amazing event other than just writing it all off as a miracle.

So then…what if Jesus’s rise from the dead wasn’t a simple miracle? What if there had been a darker explanation for this rather unearthly occurrence?

After considering this, I found myself going back to the “What if…” again, and looked at my second idea: what if people rose from the dead for a reason completely different other than those described by the slew of classic and modern-day zombie originators? I’d had the idea in my head of having zombies walking the earth by means other than exploding satellites, nuclear activity, or germs. What if…(and there’s that omnipresent question again) my zombies actually had souls in them…the souls of those caught in a web of black magic, who in order to escape their spell, must return to earth in the bodies of their recently deceased ancestors.

Hrmm…and what if, just what if, Jesus’s rise from the dead was due to similar circumstances? This really set the wheels turning, and in a couple weeks time, I’d had an outline for a book that contained not only zombies, black magic, and a study of the ‘real’ reason behind Jesus’s rise from the dead, but there was also a lot more of what I love in a horror novel…what I love to put in my horror novels: murders, monsters, blood, guts, and a lingering sense of dread that makes a reader squirm in their seat.

It was quite a cocktail I had brewing, one that took quite a long time to ferment…but man, was it worth the wait. I say this because I feel that Dead Souls is my very best book. It took a lot out of me. But it was worth all the blood I sweated. And it will always make me search for an even grander way to answer that haunting question that will never leave me for as long as I live.

What if…?
Dead Souls--coming from Leisure Books, February 2007

www.myspace.com/michaellaimo

http://www.laimo.com/

Lois Winston: Dreams & Desires

2007-02-01T08:22:00.000-05:00

Dreams. Desires. We all have them. What are yours? Ever think what you’d wish for if someone handed you a magic lantern and a genie popped out? I have.

Wish No. 1 -- To Rule the World.
If I ruled the world, there would be no hate, no wars, no poverty, no violence or crime of any kind. But the chances of me getting elected Queen of the Universe are pretty slim.

Wish No. 2 -- To Have Lots of Money.
Bill Gates or Warren Buffet type money. Not because I want a yacht or lots of bling or a penthouse in Manhattan (okay, being a diehard city girl, I’d really like a penthouse in Manhattan but there’s no way that’s ever going to happen given the price of NY real estate!) No, I want lots of money so I can give it away to people in need. Unfortunately, very few of us authors make enough money to quit our day jobs, let alone have discretionary income to donate anything substantial to worthy causes.

Wish No. 3 -- To Make a Difference.
Which brings me to the reason for this blog. When I come across something I can do that doesn’t involve writing a check so small my contribution seems meaningless, I jump at the chance. Such was the case when I was asked to contribute to Dreams & Desires: A Collection of Romance and Erotic Tales.

Dreams & Desires is a compilation of nineteen stories by nineteen authors. The stories range from sweet to spicy to sizzling and cover a variety of romance sub-genres. Not only did all the authors contribute their stories to this anthology but all the editing and cover art were also donated. All of the net proceeds -- that’s 100% of the profit -- from the sales of the anthology will go directly to a battered woman’s shelter in Florida.

Did you know that 95% of abuse victims are women? Every year four million women are assaulted by their spouses or partners. When Freya’s Bower, the publisher of Dreams & Desires invited me to participate in this anthology, I jumped at the chance to add my voice to a cause that will help break the cycle of abuse. By doing something I do all the time -- writing -- I can MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Wish No. 3 can come true. I know it’s a small step, but no goal is reached without taking that first step. Maybe the money raised will only help one person break the cycle of abuse, but that will be one less abused person, and that’s a huge achievement.

Wouldn’t you like to make a difference, too? You can by purchasing a copy of Dreams & Desires. And as an added bonus to contributing to such a worthy cause, you’ll be rewarded with 19 great short stories by some of today’s rising authors. Freya’s Bower has made it easy with a price to fit all pocketbooks, whether yours comes from Wal-Mart or Fendi. Dreams & Desires is available as an eBook for $7.99 (ISBN: 1-934069-36-1), a paperback (ISBN: 1-934069-22-1) for $19.95, and a hard cover (ISBN: 1-934069- 23-X) for $29.95. The paperback and hardcover are available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ . The eBook is available through Freya’s Bower at http://www.freyasbower.com/ .

My contribution to the anthology is The Reluctant Bridesmaid, a humorous contemporary story set in New Jersey. Here’s a short blurb:

It was bad enough when Paige’s cousin Tara stole her boyfriend. Now Tara and the creep are getting married, and Paige is stuck wearing a bridesmaid’s gown that makes her look like a jaundiced Holstein -- make that a jaundiced, dateless Holstein.

I hope the story makes you laugh out loud.

And that completes my PSA (Public Service Announcement.) Now for a bit of BSP (Blatant Self-Promotion.) I’d love for you all to click over to my website at http://www.loiswinston.com/ where you can read excerpts from my current release, Talk Gertie To Me and my next release, Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, due out May 29th. For those of you who write, I have lots of articles on the subject on my website and links to other sites of interest. And if you like to win cool stuff, sign up for my newsletter while you’re there.

Thanks for stopping by and may you all have your own dreams and desires fulfilled in 2007.

Lois

Apologies

2007-01-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

January was a very slow month here at The Idea Boutique. The author who contributed were fabulous, but I know the empty slots were many. Let's just say we are all still recovering from the holidays, and that meant, I, too, needed a little break. But we're back now and February is just around the corner.

To those of you who always check back on dates with scheduled posts, I apologize for yesterday's missing one. I can't always control everything, and I simply wasn't able to get the post.

Just One Spark - Jenna Bayley-Burke

2007-01-07T06:53:00.000-05:00

A fire fighter fit for a calendar caught me in the grocery store checkout line, two tantrum-prone toddlers ready to bolt. The man was a dream, both because of how he looked and because he stopped his day to talk with my boys, giving them stickers and a distraction so I could pay for seven gallons of milk. These are big toddlers, people.

Safely securing my beasts into the only thing that can hold them down – a five point harness car seat – I turned the radio up and headed for home, thinking that maybe that fire fighter should play a role in the novel I was starting the next day as part of my first NaNoWriMo, if only he hadn’t had a ring on his finger. No matter, I work in fiction and I had almost twelve hours to come up with a reason for the ring. Quite proud of myself I turned the radio up, Mindy McCready’s Maybe, Maybe Not coming across the front speakers (don’t want to damage the delicate eardrums of the screachers in the back) of my compact sedan.

What if … Mr. Hunk-of-the-Month had to explain the ring to a woman sitting on a washing machine in a Laundromat? Instantly, I was dying to write the scene. I stayed up until midnight (unheard of when you have a child who routinely wakes at four-twenty to begin his day) just to get the scene out. I didn't care about what came next, didn't plot a character arc or layer in symbolism. The story unfolded as I imagined what I would want to read if I picked the book up at the store and shelled out the change from my last trip through the Coffee People drive-thru.

The way I wrote False Alarm, my NaNo 2004 ‘winner’ that vaguely resembles Just One Spark, the book of the same characters now published by Mills & Boon, defies everything I’ve learned about novel writing since. If I’d known you never sell your first book, character motivation is the driving force of any story, and this is a hard business to break into, I never would have tried. Thank goodness for naivete.

Jenna Bayley-Burke

Catherine Spangler ~ Touched by Darkness

2007-01-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

After reading Susan Mallery’s great post, I’ve got to ask, “How in the heck do you find easy books to write, Susan? Please—puh-leez—tell me.” I know there are authors for whom the words just flow, hot and heavy. I know there are authors who can produce forty pages a day. I do not fall into this category. I’m a tooth-pulling author, as my good friend and critique sister, Linda Castillo, likes to say: “Writing is like having a tooth pulled . . . slowly . . . and without anesthetic.” Yep that’s me, the toothless wonder, slugging back wine and chocolate to ease the pain.

Ah, but when all the frustration and struggle pays off with characters who have somehow come to life and a story that flows well, I tend to block out the pain and suffering. It’s kind of like having a baby. In a moment of weakness, you forget about the difficult labor and decide to have another one. Of course, by the time labor rolls around again, it’s too late for regrets .

When I sit down to pull a tooth—uh, I mean to write—the stories that spring forth reach all the way back to childhood. I’ve always loved fairy tales. Those are the first stories I remember having read to me when I was a child. And they were the ones I picked when I got to choose. My favorites were those where the princess and her prince overcame great odds and lived happily ever after. Well, gee, maybe that’s why I write romances. I want to explore the relationship between the P/P (that’s old speak for prince/princess, AKA hero/heroine), and I definitely want that happy ending.

Back to the childhood—I went from Cinderella to a fascination with the paranormal and metaphysical. I discovered Edgar Cayce when I was eleven and became obsessed (I think it was soul recognition—his readings resonated for me). I read everything I could about him and his psychic readings. With Cayce, I discovered Atlantis. I went on to read everything I could find about Atlantis. I even became somewhat an expert in Cayce circles, giving a detailed talk on Cayce’s Atlantian readings at a conference. That talk is on my webpage at http://www.catherinespangler.com/. I believe my fascination with Cayce and Atlantis are where the seeds for Touched by Darkness, the first book in my Sentinel series, were sown.

My first two books, which were SF romances, were based on Atlantis. They never sold, and I abandoned the Atlantian theme. My third book, Shielder, did sell, and I wrote a five-book SF romance series. All the while, Atlantis continued to simmer in my psyche. When I was ready to switch gears with a new publisher and move away from SFR, the idea for reincarnated Atlantian souls immediately surfaced. It was still a tooth pull, but a pretty quick one.

The premise for the series: The Sentinels are good reincarnated Atlantians who are coming to Earth (in physical bodies) to track down Belians—who are the bad Atlantians also returning to Earth, and who are causing death and destruction (think serial killers, gang lords, mafia types). The old battle of good versus evil that destroyed Atlantis thousands of years ago has resumed. Both sides are evenly matched and both are in mortal bodies, and can be killed. But the Sentinels have a weapon to aid in the battle: human conductors who have psychic abilities that enable them to enhance the Sentinels’ tracking powers. Sentinels and conductors are always opposite sex and the conduction raises sexual energies, which makes things interesting—and very sensual.

In Touched by Darkness, Dr. Kara Cantrell is a conductor who saw her Sentinel lover murdered seven years ago. She fled to the small town of Zorro, Texas, pregnant from that union. She’s tried to put the past behind her and raise her son like a normal child—except he’s not. He’s a Sentinel, with growing powers. An evil Belian begins stalking the citizens of Zorro. Their only hope is Damien Morgan, a tall, dark and dangerous Sentinel who is determined to get Kara to conduct for him, as well as mentor her child. Kara resists until she realizes she has no choice, if she wants her son Alex safe. Then she finds she faces an even greater threat: the mutual attraction between her and Damien. Her challenge becomes saving her son without losing herself—and discovering if she can overcome the pain of the past to love again.

Hmmm. I really didn’t need that tooth. And I think Touched by Darkness has all the elements I love in stories—mysticism, paranormal elements, hunky prince, spunky princess, romance, emotion, steamy sex, *and* Atlantis.

I hope you’ll check it out. During the month of January, I’m giving away a pink quartz crystal Sentinel pendant. It’s wire-wrapped in sterling silver, and designed like the pendants worn by the Sentinels. Please drop by my site and sign up for the contest. There are also excerpts from Touched by Darkness and other upcoming projects.

Book two of the series, Touched by Fire, will be published in October 2007. I also have a novella, Street Corners & Halos coming out in the Demon’s Delight anthology in March 2007. That’s a story about a vampire who also happens to be a prostitute, and the angel sent to save her. There go two more teeth . . . .

Wishing you a fabulous 2007!

~ Catherine

Susan Mallery ... Sizzling

2007-01-03T01:02:00.000-05:00

After writing nearly ::gasp:: a hundred books, I have discovered there are far more ideas out there than I will ever have time to write. They seem to come to me in two distinct forms. Easy and hard.

Easy books arrive in my brain almost fully formed with a great opening, characters I can instantly relate to and a plot that makes me whimper with excitement. Hard books often arrived with next to nothing.

So why bother with hard books, you may ask. It’s an excellent question. There are a couple of reasons. First, I don’t get that many easy books—maybe two a year and I write close to six books a year. Second, there is something satisfying about creating a story from nothing. I love taking different pieces of ideas and fitting them together. Turning them over, working them around and around until I start to have a book, then ripping it apart and putting it together a different way.

My current book—Sizzling—is an interesting hybrid of easy and hard. Reid, my hero, arrived to me fully formed. I knew everything about him from the moment he entered my brain. But his story took an interesting journey.

Sizzling was supposed to be the second book in a four book series about a family who owns restaurants in Seattle. But while I was writing the first book I realized that Reid wasn’t ready to be a hero and that his brother, Walker, wouldn’t wait. So I flipped them. Walked went second in Irresistible and Reid had to grow up a little.

Reid is a former professional baseball player and a playboy. His idea of taking responsibility is thinking ahead far enough to order pizza before the game, so he doesn’t miss a minute. My first thought for his heroine was a marine biologist. Don’t ask me why. Then some former homeless girl who had been rescued by a teacher and was now a social worker. Then while I was writing Irresistible Reid happened to meet a home health care nurse named Lori and she really didn’t like him.

Irresponsible, playboy heroes have a lot of growing-up to do and Lori seemed just the woman to take on the job. She was smart and had a lot of attitude, at least on the surface. So I let go of the marine biologist thing and my heroine was created.

There was only one other major element missing. The catalyst. If Reid was going to grow up and be a hero any still-breathing woman would be desperate to adore, something had to motivate him to change. So what is the worst thing that could happen to a guy like him?

I put in calls to my writer friends and we brainstormed and talked and laughed. At the end, I had a list of horrible things that could drop-kick Reid to the worst moment of his life. One of them stood out as the most interesting, most compelling, most fun for me, as the writer. A newspaper article talking about how poor Reid wasn’t “all that” in bed. Yup—I was gonna hit him where it would hurt the most.

At that moment, Sizzling went from hard to easy. I loved torturing Reid. Then he grew up and became the kind of man who deserves to be a hero. But not without a few twists and turns along the way.

Happy New Year. May you find happiness, healthy and plenty of fabulous reading in 2007!

Susan

The Rest Falls Away~ The Gardella Vampire Chronicles

2007-01-01T10:31:00.000-05:00

About three years ago, I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I’ve never been a big fan of vampires or horror movies, and I’ve never (still to this day!) read Dracula, but on the eve of Thanksgiving 2003, when I was cooking my fanny off in my kitchen in prep for the next day’s dinner, I brought my laptop in to keep me company. I’d borrowed my friend Brian’s first season of Buffy and I popped a DVD in just for something to watch while I was cooking.

I got hooked. I watched the whole first season that weekend, in between cooking and visiting and all the other stuff we do over the holidays. But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about that show.

In the mean time, I’d been writing novels for years, trying to get published. I’d written contemporary stories, but my real delight was in writing in historical settings. Plus, I loved authors like Jane Austen, Liz Carlyle, Julia Quinn, and others who set their stories in Regency England.

As the months went by and I was trying to figure out what my next writing project should be, I noticed that there were a lot of books being published—and sold—with vampires in them. Many of them didn’t appeal to me, because I don’t find the undead romantic. To me, vampires were the bloodsuckers I’d seen on Buffy, and in the movies; but to me they weren’t romantic heroes or heroines. My concept and opinion of the undead was not a sympathetic one.

So I didn’t consider writing about vampires, even though I knew the market was hot for stories about them.

…Until I happened to watch a Buffy episode in which Angel/Angelus (a male vampire) has a flashback to a scene that takes place in 19th century Paris.

And then the following night, I was watching the Disney version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella with my daughters.

And I started thinking…what if Angelus was at the ball with Cinderella?

Then I thought…well, what if Buffy was there too?

Or, better yet…what if Cinderella was a vampire slayer herself?

Whoa.

That was the germ of the idea that blossomed into the Gardella Vampire Chronicles.

I ultimately decided to set the first books of the series in Regency-era England, which is arguably the most popular setting for historical romance novels. I realized I was taking two very hot ideas: vampires and Regency England and putting them together.

The thing that makes The Rest Falls Away different from a lot of the vampire books is that the vampires are the villains, through and through. There aren’t any tortured vampires without a soul. There aren’t any predestined soulmates. The main characters of the series are mortals, not vampires.

The story isn’t about a vampire culture or society in Regency England. It’s about a woman who learns that she’s a superheroine during a time when women are supposed to do little but stand around and look pretty until they find a husband…then to wed, bed, and breed.

She learns that she has a task to do, one that is a family tradition (which makes her different from Buffy), but like Buffy, she has to learn how to balance the two sides of her life.

So…what about you? Do you think vampires are romantic? Or would you prefer to stay far, far away from them?

Thanks for stopping by the Idea Boutique…and I wish you a joyous New Year!
Colleen Gleason
http://www.colleengleason.com

Secrets Vol 18 - PT 2:Flesh To Fantasy by Larissa Ione

2006-12-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

“Never Do Anything You Wouldn’t Want To Explain To The Paramedics…”

When I first sat down and thought about the initial idea behind Flesh to Fantasy, a million things ran through my mind.

Like some of the crazy things paramedics have to deal with.

I’d always been fascinated by emergency medicine and the people who save lives, so much so that I became an EMT simply because I wanted to write my medical heroes accurately. But this particular tale became more than just a medical story. I had a hero who saved lives for terrible pay even though he didn’t need the money, because let’s face it, anyone who does the job is NOT doing it for the pay. It takes a special kind of person to expose themselves to danger, abuse, and infectious disease for little return.

So what I needed was a heroine who couldn’t grasp the idea of exposing herself to such misery. And I wanted her to be as opposite as the hero as possible.

All I had to think about was how I sometimes feel.

There are times when I want to escape from the real world. When I can’t stand to turn on the TV and see images of war, drive-by shootings, cruelty to animals. I don’t want to go outside for fear that I’ll see a car accident, a car-struck animal on the side of the road. I don’t want to see the elderly man trip and fall at the curb by the grocery store. I just want to lock myself away and pretend that nothing exists.

And so Kelsa was born.

Kelsa grew up in isolation, in a cult so far removed from reality that she’s never truly known what the real world is all about. Nor does she want to. She sits inside her apartment and tests video games for a living (RPG games, which just happen to be my passion!)

So basically, I took a man whose life is grounded in the real world, a place where, in his past, fun got him into trouble so he avoids too much fantasy, and a woman who can’t handle anything but fantasy, and threw them together to see what would happen.

What about you? Do you ever allow completely shut yourself away from reality, even for just a couple of days in order to get away from the real world? Or are you more comfortable in the real world where you feel like you aren’t wasting your life away?

I know I can spend DAYS playing video games, reading, or watching movies…what about you?

Larissa

Cynthia Eden

2006-12-29T09:53:00.000-05:00

I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal. I’ll admit it—I’m a monster addict. Give me werewolves, vampires, mummies—give them to me, and you’ll have a very happy woman on your hands.

The Wolf’s Mate is my latest paranormal erotic romance release. It appears in Secrets, Volume 18: Dark Passions. This novella is actually the second tale in my “Wolf’s Call” trilogy.

The Wolf’s Mate features a French hero who isn’t your average male—Michael Morlet is a werewolf. The inspiration for Michael (and the other two heroes in my trilogy) actually comes from a very old tale. As the story goes, there was once a fearsome creature that terrorized the French countryside in the 1760s. This wolf-like beast killed dozens (some say hundreds) of people before it was killed. And just how do you think this beastie was killed? Hmmm? An infamous hunter, Jean Chastel, supposedly shot the animal with two silver bullets. This monstrous creature came to be known as the Beast of Gevaudan (Gevaudin).

When I decided to write a trilogy about werewolves, I thought instantly of the Beast, and I realized I wanted to write about heroes who hailed from the same land as this creature. Unlike the Beast, my heroes aren’t evil—they don’t go on killing rampages. They’re good, strong, dependable. Not raving animals.

In my creation, werewolves maintain their humanity when they change. They can be evil—just as humans can—but they can also be good. The Beast might have been a vicious killer, but my werewolves, well, they’re the good guys. And Michael, in particular, is the pack protector. His job is to hunt down those werewolves who turn on humans. Perhaps someone like Michael would have hunted the Beast…

In The Wolf’s Mate, Michael’s nemesis isn’t another werewolf—his enemy is a dangerous human who is trying to kill Michael’s mate, Kat Hardy. With danger stalking them at every turn, Michael must convince Kat that she can trust him with her life and that when werewolves mate, it’s forever.

Thanks for reading my entry, and I wish you a wonderful New Year filled with many good stories and happy times!

Cynthia Eden
http://www.cynthiaeden.com/
“The Wolf’s Mate” available in Secrets, Volume 18: Dark Passions
Release Date: December 2006
Red Sage Publishing
ISBN: 0975451685

Susan Crandall on Oysters and Pearls

2006-12-28T10:40:00.000-05:00

What on earth do oysters and pearls have to do with ideas and writing? It’s really simple. I’m an oyster. Some days as I sit at my desk, feeling sluggish and slimy, wondering if I’ll ever find my way thought the muck of a particular story, it almost becomes more than a metaphor.

I am an oyster. The written word -- stories, novels, poetry, song lyrics -- are true pearls; wondrous, beautiful things created almost magically by the dull, ugly oyster. Not to say that all writers are dull and ugly … but it’s a fact that all books are beautiful in their own way, luminous and precious, just like a pearl.

Every writer approaches their story development in a different manner. For me, the oyster, here’s how it goes. It starts with a tiny grain of sand, a speck of an idea, a flash of an image, a familial relationship that strikes a chord. I may not even notice it when it first lodges in my mind. But soon, I realize it’s there, rubbing my imagination until it gains my full attention. For example, my first published novel, BACK ROADS, began with this image I had in my head of a car abandoned in the middle of a dark country road with the driver’s door open, lights on and radio playing. It was constantly there, rubbing, irritating, until I finally asked myself why that car was sitting there in the road and what had happened to the driver. The possibilities were endless.

So, to narrow those possibilities to a manageable few hundred, I looked at it from another angle, the story building angle. I began to create a heroine whose life could be impacted by this abandoned car. Sheriff Leigh Mitchell, a woman feeling restless and utterly unfeminine, was born -- and the story, the pearl of my imagination, began. Add a stranger who reminds Leigh what it is to be a woman and a missing teenager, and the layers began to thicken.

Each book has developed in a similar fashion. Now that my sixth novel, A KISS IN WINTER, is coming out, I’ve decided that process was no fluke, this is how I work. I am an oyster.

The sand in the case of A KISS IN WINTER was my daughter’s photography. She has this way of framing a picture that gives a unique perspective to the subject matter. I loved looking at the world through her eyes. Then I started thinking about how photography allows someone else a glimpse of a photographer’s exclusive and personal view of the world. That really got the ball rolling. I ended up with a story in which the villain vandalizes the subjects of a calendar published by photographer Caroline Rogers. He’s careful and methodical. He wants her to know he’s coming. He wants her to anticipate the moment when he comes after the subject of her December photograph, her sister.

In order to decipher who could possibly have cause to embark on such a vendetta, Caroline turns to psychiatrist, Mick Larsen; a man whose professional experiences have filled him with self-doubt, a man whose choices have left disaster in their wake. Mick is reluctantly drawn into this mystery, as his feelings for Caroline grow. He has a very good idea that the ultimate target is not Caroline’s sister, but Caroline herself. Of course, it takes both Caroline and Mick to uncover the truth … but will they do it in time?

I’m very proud of my most recent pearl. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed following Mick and Caroline through the emotional and dangerous minefields that lay between them and true happiness.

Now I’m off to bury myself in the low-tide muck and see what lodges in my imagination to produce the next luminous pearl.

Susan

TRIPLE, TRIPLE TOIL AND TROUBLE …

2006-12-20T06:28:00.000-05:00

Psychic Witches with Attitude … SPELL Identical-triplet trouble in spikes …

The first book in my upcoming Triplet Witch Trilogy, SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, will be released in August of 2007. Where did I get the idea for triplet witches? I didn’t have to go far. The three figments of my inspiration live next door. They were about ten when we moved here, and they’re about twenty-three now. Identical. The first time they came to sell me Girl Scout Cookies, I thought I was hallucinating.

Story ideas are everywhere. My witches are psychic because my muses, Kate, Sarah, and Meghan—not to be confused with my psychic witches, Harmony, Destiny, and Storm—have a personal telepathic communication system upon which I elaborated. Let me be clear, however: I’m not writing about Kate, Sarah and Meghan. They inspired me and shared wonderfully fun triplet secrets with me, and there the resemblance ends. Oh, except for the fact that my neighbors are every bit as beautiful as my witches.

I introduce the triplets in THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. They’re spunky fighters who practically ‘raised each other’ after being abandoned at birth by their mother. They know that being strong is the only way to survive. Like Vickie, in THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, the triplets are heredity Pictish witches, but unlike Vickie, they’ve always known, and embraced, their heritage, so there’s a great deal of the free spirit in all of them.

The oldest is Harmony. Everyone with whom she comes in contact feels a great sense of peace. Harmony is a psychometric. She gets vibes from objects, about the objects and the people who owned them. She also gets vibes from people and spirits, strongest if she touches the person or object. Harmony hates going into her sister’s vintage clothing and curio shop because she’s bombarded with warring vibes, both positive and negative. Harmony is the shop’s buyer. She’s blunt, bossy, used to having her way, instinctively protective, and a born mediator/peacemaker. Her psychic skill is strongest when divining/involving the past.

Destiny is a true middle child. Since her mother couldn’t name a new baby Panic, she called her Destiny, certain if she hung around to raise a set of twins, panic would be her destiny. Destiny is the best friend, a spunky kid who takes lemons and makes lemonade. She’ll go out of her way to avoid conflict, but she’ll fight hard if pushed too far. Destiny gets premonitions, incomplete flashes that are like looking at a scene through a pinhole. Her psychic skill is strongest when divining/involving the future.

Storm, the “unexpected twin,” caused her mother a storm of emotions that made her “run” before the triplets’ father came to take them home from the hospital. As children, Storm’s sisters teased her about being the straw that broke the camel’s back and scared their mother away. Storm is the bad girl seductress with a nurturer crying to be set free. A rebel with frustration and anger to overcome, she hides behind her Goth trappings. She can be charming when she’s not a brat. She’s tenacious and a natural salesperson, but she’s the most insecure of the three. Storm uses her psychic insight to see and hear events not present to the senses. Storm’s psychic skill is strongest when divining/involving the present.

Harmony, Destiny, and Storm are at their most powerful when using the power of three as one. You’ll meet them in THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. Look for Harmony’s story, SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, in August.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, Vickie and Rory’s story, as much as I enjoyed writing it. I really love that sexy son of a Scot in a kilt.

If you have any twin or triplet stories, I’d love to hear them. At any rate, I’m giving away a copy of MY FAVORITE WITCH and will choose a winner after Christmas from among those of you who respond to my blog.

Peace, Joy, happy endings, and long hours of reading pleasure.

Merry, Merry,

Annette
www.annetteblair.com

Deborah MacGillivray

2006-12-14T08:55:00.000-05:00

In January 2005, my agent informed me Dorchester Publishing was interested in my Contemporary Paranormal Romance novel, The Invasion of Falgannon Isle. Chris Keesler wanted the book―if I could get the length down. Well, I did and sent it back to him in early March. Then, there was nothing to do but wait. Hurry up and wait―a writer’s life. Due to another editor leaving, the publisher coming down with the flu, the Romantic Times convention and the Romance Writers of America convention, I had a long spell before going to contract in September 2005.

Instead of sitting and waiting for word, I spent my time doing shorts stories for ideas I might later turn into full novels. I get a LOT of ideas, and often fear losing that freshness of the muse. I do a quick short version, then I have the story safely tucked up for later. Constant writing also keeps the wordsmithing sharp. I never really intended to see them published as short stories. However, when it was decided that Highland Press would do two holiday anthologies, I knew I wanted to use two of the stories I’d done while waiting to go to contract on my novels.
I think Christmas always holds vivid memories for us. Of late, it seems harder to catch the purity of the holiday. Too commercial. I wanted to conjure that specialness of when Christmas wishes were for simple things. The charm that seems to be missing now. That childlike magic was the starting point of my two stories.

My novella in Christmas Wishes is All I want for Christmas is a Hula-hoop…and a Mother. Inspiration, as it often does for me, came from music. The soundtrack of my life, as they say. One of the most enduring memories of Christmas for me is the old Chipmunk song “Christmas Don’t Be Late”. In it, Alvin the Chipmunk keeps telling how he wants a Hula-hoop for Christmas. Ah, a much more innocent time.

I wanted to capture that feeling of a little girl dreaming of simple gifts, not any of the expensive, high-tech stuff kids would ask for today. Allison Challenger wants a Hula-hoop…and a mother. And maybe a pony and kitty, too. The precious five-year-old thinks her ballet teacher, Leslie Seaforth, is just perfect for her new mum. Determined, she sets out to give Santa a helping-hand by playing matchmaker for her sexy daddy, Keon. When a snowstorm strands Keon and Allison at the river home of Leslie―who just happens to have Alvin the Cat and Edward the Pony―Keon knows all he has to do is come up with a Hula-hoop.

For me, Christmas also brings back memories of ballet recitals and all the preparation, so I wanted to tap into that special excitement. In Holiday in the Heart, my inspiration came from music once again. This time Elvis’ “Blue Christmas”. I was not a big Elvis fan growing up, though my mum was. However, Leanne Burroughs, owner of Highland Press, is. So is our proofreader Monika Wolmarans. Naming the cat in the story Elvis is my gentle nod to their passion for the King.

I tend to have cats in my stories, so when I thought of Blue Christmas, I thought of a British Blue cat. Thus Elvis the cat was born. Blue Christmas Cat is a sequel to All I Want Is a Hula-hoop…and a Mother. Dara Seaforth, sister to Leslie, has been snowbound in a remote Scottish cabin for the Holidays. Elvis the Cat turns up on her door step on a snowy Christmas Eve, and with him brings Rhys St. John, and the possibility that love never dies―and on a Blue Christmas all things are possible.

I was raised with part of my life in Kentucky, part in England and Scotland, so both stories reflect that. One set on each side of the Pond, they drew on my love of cats, of the endless enchantment of love and all the beautiful times of Christmases Past. A wonderful two-book project, eleven stories and one novella in each, I was honoured to share this special gift of the heart with twenty-one other wonderful and talented ladies.

Deborah

Angel's Choice - Lauren Baratz-Logsted

2006-12-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

The Gossip Girls. The A-List. The Clique.

You’ve seen the books. You’ve seen the covers. They all look like and are taken to be the Young Adult (YA) version of chick-lit even though, if you actually read the books, you find them to be more like satire; and if you talk to the teens who read them, you realize that the teens, unlike alarmist adults, are smart enough to take them as such.

Last year an unusual thing happened. A prominent YA editor, familiar with the books I’d published up to that point, contacted me asking if I’d consider writing a YA book for her. She wanted it to be like The Gossip Girls – certainly, she wanted the sales of The Gossip Girls – but not, meaning she was hoping for something with the same spunk but a little more substance.

Being the kind of author who is always surprised when anyone, particularly someone in publishing, knows who I am and knows my work, I was, quite naturally, flattered. And, since I’m always eager to learn a new writing trick and YA was not a field I’d delved into before, I jumped in, reading examples of the more prominent commercial series as well as more thoughtful volumes. I read a lot about shoes and vampires and angst.

And then I started writing.

The book – a-misfit-at-private-school seriocomic piece plus mystery – was going along fine when it was interrupted by a visit from The Idea Fairy. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, The Idea Fairy pays a visit to my brain a few times a year, depositing compelling plots there as well as commanding characters who simply will not shut up. In this instance, The Idea Fairy showed up with an idea for a more serious book than I had intended, destined to derail any plans I had of successfully penning the next best-selling Au Pairs or other frothy offering. The Idea Fairy wanted me to write the least funny book I would ever set out to write, a book with a dead-serious theme, and, since The Idea Fairy was kind enough to arrive with the plot nearly fully developed, I shut up and listened.

The book that came out of all of that is called Angel’s Choice, an earnest novel for older teens about the eponymous Angel Hansen, a smart girl on track for Yale who, on the eve of her senior year, does a very stupid thing. She goes to an end-of-summer party where she sees Danny Stanton, the boy she’s been in love with forever. She tells herself, as she has often told herself, that this is the night Danny will see her clearly and realize he is in love with her too. But when Danny goes off with someone else, Angel gets drunk and in turn goes off with another guy. She winds up having sex for the first time in her life, in an act she’s too drunk even to recall clearly later, an act that has a consequential result: she becomes pregnant. What will she do? Will she follow in the footsteps of her best friend, who had an abortion six months earlier when she got pregnant? Or will she do what no one, including her parents and guidance counselor, want her to do: have the baby, thereby complicating if not destroying the perfect life she was destined to lead? Everything that follows is Angel’s Choice.

It is, perhaps, foolish, or at least counterintuitive, to publish such a serious issues-oriented book in a publishing climate where publishers are constantly looking out for the next hot young teen chick fix. And yet that is exactly what I’m doing, supported by an editor – a different editor than the one who initially approached me about writing YA – who refers to the book as being “important,” an adjective I’d never, not in a million years, imagined anyone attaching to one of my books.

Will anyone be interested in my quiet, thoughtful novel? Who is to say? I do think that the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice camps will have something to say about it and can readily envision both camps holding it up as supporting their stances or reviling it as going against their beliefs, or even one of each, all depending on what side of the bed people get up on that day.

Reviewers and critics talk about listening to the silences in individual works. I think the same can be true of publishing in general and when I go into the YA sections of bookstores there is a cacophony of fashionable books that are to literature what Dynasty and Dallas were to more serious TV and film in the ‘80s. I have no objection to the plethora of party books, but I do think there’s enough room on the shelves for one book about a girl who wants to make an important choice, choosing not for the rest of the world, but merely for herself.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted, in addition to being the author of Angel’s Choice has written four Chick-Lit novels: The Thin Pink Line, Crossing the Line, A Little Change of Face, and How Nancy Drew Saved My Life, and the literary suspense novel Vertigo. She’s also editor of and contributor to This Is Chick-Lit. You can read more about her work at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com.

Lauren

Unleashed Anthology - BOND OF SILVER

2006-12-05T08:53:00.000-05:00

By Rebecca York

"Bond of Silver" is my novella in this anthology. Sue Kearney and I wanted to do an anthology featuring heroes with super powers. We explored a number of ideas and finally came up with the idea of New Atlantis–an island in the Caribbean. It was settled by the people of Atlantis who fled their original home when they were persecuted because of their paranormal powers. They hide their new home with a force field generated by the minds of their inhabitants. Since there are not enough of them to keep the shield active, they send out their young people–first in a dream and then in real life–to bring back a mate with latent paranormal powers who can help them keep the island hidden.My hero, Alexander, is an expert in telekinesis. But that’s not going to save him from the problems he encounters when he meets Claire and finds out she’s the daughter of a bitter woman who refused to return to New Atlantis with her lover.But Alexander gets to use his telekinesis to save Claire’s life–and also to make love to her. And there’s a nice surprise for the two of them at the end of the story.

Rebecca York

Cooking Up a Storm

2006-12-03T07:48:00.000-05:00

Available now from Mills & Boon.

Dieting does it to me every time. I was starving. Famished. Ravenous. I couldn’t stuff my face with decadent delectables, so I decided to write about them instead. Only I read cookbooks like they are novels, so I needed more than tasty treats. Sensual fun, or course. I mean, what else do I write? Combining the two I found some suggestive vegetable photos, and had another element. Then the woman who could embody all of these things came to me, the owner of Come For Dinner catering, Lauren Brody. Smart, confident, and willing to try anything once, she’d need someone strong and determined to match her.

I spend hours just daydreaming about my characters, usually while the babes run screaming around a playground. I can ‘work’ and keep both eyes on them. Not to shabby. Lauren grew in my mind, her backstory blossoming, but it wasn’t until I read an article about biotechnology investing that Cameron started to sprout. Cameron was intense, walled off, but he left a door open through his music, and a music in his responsible approach to being a venture capitalist.

With a to-die-for menu mapped out, I set them onto the page. They sparked from their first meeting. With the backdrop of the holiday season and a few naughty treats, Lauren and Cameron blended together beautifully. I had a grand time waltzing them through mouth-watering dinners, stylish restaurants, and tantalizing deserts. For me, the book came together fluidly, the characters leading the way to a delicious finale.

Here’s what the reviewers have had to say:
Marilyn's Romance Reviews says Cooking Up A Storm is "a real winner" and "absolutely delicious and delectable, full of passion, romance and humour"
Of Cooking Up A Storm, Contemporary Romance Writers says "Sincere thanks to Jenna for this incredible sizzling and entertaining story."
Coffee Time Romance says Cooking Up A Storm is "an intense and steamy romance that will have you on the edge of your seat!"
“You feel the chemistry between Cam and Lauren immediately” says Pink Heart Society Reviews.

Jenna Bayley-Burke

Cindy Holby

2006-12-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

Creating a character

People often ask me where I get my ideas for characters. I have found that some of my characters take on traits of people I know without my meaning too. I look back on them and say, wow. he's exactly like my oldest son or my husband or my son's friend. And a lot of my characters are inspired my people I actually know.

The main character in Shooting Star, Ruben, came to life one day when I was helping out at my former job over Christmas. I was in the process of writing Stargazer, the first book in my star series. I had no plans for Ruben, other than the fact that I needed to get Shaun and Lilly off the swamp planet. But Dan, a college student that I worked with changed all that. We were cutting up and Dan walked out of the back and did this funky little dance move. I just shook my head and said "Someday I'm going to put you in a book." and he said. "Can I be a smuggler pilot type? And have this really cool knife?" And a character was born.

But the best part was watching Ruben grow. Not only was he convenient for advancing the story line but his personality took on a life of its own. I loved the part in Stargazer when the Circe drugged him and he thought he was going to have to seduce all of them. But then I started thinking about where Ruben came from. What made him the man he was? Did he have secrets? And what could I do to a man who was used to having what ever he wanted whenever he wanted. And thus came the story for Shooting Star. Ruben is a man with a secret past and those secrets finally catch up with him. Then I put him on a primitive planet with a beautiful slave woman who has a young son and things start to happen. Which led to the birth of another character named Boone. His story comes next. If I ever get it finished that is.

Cindy Holby

Marjorie M Liu - Eye of Heaven

2006-11-29T07:11:00.000-05:00

I was in the middle of writing THE RED HEART OF JADE, and -- as happens quite often -- I began thinking about the next book, EYE OF HEAVEN. Specifically, the character who I knew would be the focus of the story: Blue Perrineau. Quiet, competent, deeply protective of his friends -- the guy everyone turns to when there is a problem -- and the one person no one ever thinks about as having his own difficulties. Probably because he never talks about them.

That kind of stoicism is what drove me as I wrote about Blue, and ultimately, his counterpart: Iris McGillis, shape-shifter and circus performer. Opposites, and yet the same down to the core. Both isolated by their parents and the circumstances of their lives -- and both unbearably lonely.

The rest fell into place. The villain took shape as I thought about what it would mean for Iris -- an extremely private woman -- to have a stalker, and what it would mean if that stalker knew her secrets. Profit or pleasure -- that was the question -- and the villain became a man of both, an expert at procuring other humans for the modern slave trade. And what better prize than a woman who is part magic, and can change her shape from human to animal?

That's all I had as I started writing EYE OF HEAVEN -- which is typical of the way I work. I almost never have a plan as I write. No outline, just people -- and the characters in my stories are always my inspiration. I let them do the talking -- I go where they take me -- and it feels good to work that way, like the book is a natural evolution of hearts and minds. And in this case, Blue and Iris were a joy to write, though their circumstances -- family betrayal, human slavery, the black market trade in organs -- were significantly less so. Trial by fire, that's what I like to put my characters through.

Anyway, I hope very much that you enjoy EYE OF HEAVEN! After you're done, please visit the Dirk & Steele site (http://www.dirkandsteele.com/), narrated by the agency's foul-mouthed boss, for some additional insights into the characters and the series.

THE INVASION OF FALGANNON ISLE

2006-11-27T08:52:00.000-05:00

In December of 2003, I was preparing to market my novel, A Restless Knight. At the time, several author-friends said the market for Historical Romances was slow and was especially over-saturated with Scottish Historicals; I should try writing something else that would stand a higher chance of selling. Well, that’s a fine how do you do! A Scot, one with a strong background in medieval history, and couldn’t sell a Scottish Historical? Well, fudge!

One who offered me sage advice was NY Times bestselling author Lynsay Sands. Lynsay suggested I try for a lighter romance, one laced with a wee dram of my quirky Scots humour. She thought my voice would come alive with that style. This is Lynsay’s area--she’s the Queen of Hysterical Romances. When she gave good advice I would’ve been silly not to listen.

She asked me what else I was working on. I told her about a series of books I originally thought to target Silhouette Intimate Moments-- seven books about seven sisters, in their thirties and finding love better the second time around. As I worked with the novels, I knew they deserved single title treatment. Each book was just so special.

The idea for the series hit me one summer while sunbathing in Scotland! No, I hadn’t had a wee dram too much. It was a hot summer, into the high 80s some days, very unusual, so my sisters and I were taking advantage and actually getting a tan. I realized each of us were into a ‘second love’ in our thirties. We’d lost loves through divorce or death. Now we were starting over, facing love on a stronger footing. We’d grown enough to be comfortable with who we are and what we wanted in life, and brought that ‘woman in bloom’ to our relationships. We each agreed our love was so much stronger, more vital because we were better equipped to handle it, treasure it, and were mature enough to put aside our own egos and really work for a fulfilling partnership. Being a writer―translation: all life experiences are fodder for our imaginations―I hit on the idea of doing stories of seven women coming into their own, dealing with finding their place in life, and discovering that romance was, indeed, better the second time around.

I had finished one sister and started working on four others--all written as straight romances--no paranormal elements, not going for humour. When Lynsay asked what WIPs I had going that weren’t historical, I showed her the first one that was a rough draft finished, but also told her about The Invasion of Falgannon Isle. Originally, I had set it up as book three in the series. Only, she loved the premise and said she’d like to see more. That night I wrote the first three chapters. Much to my delight, she adored it and pushed me to finish the book and submit. I took her advice and haven’t looked back.

I recall a friend coming over to Scotland for a vacation that summer and being very disappointed. I guess she expected everyone to live in castles, paint their faces with blue woad and all the men run around in kilts. Scotland is so much more, but she failed to look past the Hollywood image with which she was familiar. Hollywood offered you quasi-history in Braveheart and Rob Roy, which were sweeping, majestic, but missed so much of what is special about the country. Two of my favourite movies, yes, despite their glaring faults―only Scotland, as I told my friend, is so much more.

It’s that more I wanted to tap into, that out-of-step with the world, far from the beaten path, the slower pace of days, the small community feel with the oddball, gentle humour that seems to laugh at life. These were things I wanted to imbibe into my loving prose. As I was on a boat going past Skye in the Hebrides, inspiration rose within me. Skye was often called the Isle of Women. Suddenly, the story seemed to write itself, taking on a life of its own. An Isle of Men. With it came the quirkiness and a touch of Highland mist, blending in a Brigadoon-ish, paranormal theme of an island of men wanting brides, but cursed to unhappiness until their Lady of the Isle found her one true love.

As for The Cat Dudley―inspiration for him came from three cats my grandfather has―The Cat Basil, The Cat Nigel and The Cat Cyril. They tend to run his office and seem to boss everyone about. Dudley’s character is a blend of the three orange tabbies. He is an excellent character, but also a ‘device’. His immediate acceptance and unconditional love clues up the reader from the start that Des is a person worth loving―even when Des doesn’t know it himself. The Cat Dudley shows the reader this by adoring Des from the very first.

So take seven sisters, romance, a mythical isle of men and one arrogant tabby cat and you have the formula for The Invasion of Falgannon Isle.

Deborah

Annette Blair - The Scot, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

2006-11-17T06:01:00.000-05:00

Available everywhere December 5th

Where do we get our ideas for our stories? Each has a different beginning, of course. When I wrote my first witch book, I had only THE KITCHEN WITCH in mind, but I thought it might be smart for Melody to have a couple of friends, in case. Turns out, that was a brilliant move. Kira got her story in MY FAVORITE WITCH, and because she was a fundraiser, she fit a story idea I had about a consortium of Newport, Rhode Island mansions. Giving her a hockey player hero was a natural for me. I worked in the prep school that holds the national record for the most consecutive state hockey titles, and I’d watched several young men work their way from the 7th grade to the NHL. That book became a National Bestseller.

Then came the real challenge. I had to find a worthy story, and hero, for Vickie. One thing I had going for me was that Vickie owned the Immortal Classic, a Vintage Clothing and Curio Shop, so she was into antiques. Also, she never claimed to be any kind of witch—a clue. She’s a witch in denial. Of course. Now, how to reveal her true gift, her inherited gift for witchcraft? Put a witch in her family tree . . . and an antique with a spell on it.

I love the stories behind the antiques on The Antiques Roadshow. I watch it all the time, whether it takes place in England or the U.S. and I’ve often thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to have a story that started with an antique that could change somebody’s life?” I figured that if I watched the British version of the Roadshow, then a Scot could very well be watching the American version. I love romances about Scots—I’m married to a Scot.

Did you ever see the movie Possession? If you haven’t, you should. I loved the notion that a century old love could inspire a contemporary love story. So Vickie’s ancestor, the witch, had a lover, a Scottish lover. He carved carousel figures. Yes, I happen to adore carousels. Now, how to make the carousel piece the Scot is looking for so unique that when one appears on the Roadshow, he has to come to Salem to see if it’s the one his ancestor carved?

We don’t get all of our ideas in a vacuum. My brainstorming buddies helped me with this one. Put the signs of the zodiac on the figures. Twelve figures, twelve signs and they’re all horses except for the Aquarius unicorn, which Vickie finds in her locked family wardrobe . . . because she’s the first direct female descendant who can turn the inherited key in the lock. The key never worked for anyone else. This does not, however, prove to her that she’s a witch. She’s still got a lot of lessons to learn, and some of them are hot.

Now here’s where the amazing part comes in. This is all floating around in my head, and I’ve started to plot the story, and I’m chatting about it with a few writer friends in the car on the way to a writers’ conference, and one of them says something that gives me a vision. It’s a picture, so vivid, I could smell the flowers and see the sun going down on the embracing couple. That vision became a recurring theme in the story, a dream that our hero and heroine share before they meet. And it’s only after Rory MacKenzie comes to Salem—to see if Victoria’s Aquarius unicorn has the hidden compartment his ancestor carved in his Aquarius unicorn—that the dreams escalate, become explicit, erotic, and they realize they’re dreaming about each other.

The way THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE came together seems, to me, more like a gift than an idea. I hope you think so too. Here’s what the reviewers have to say:

"...sassy dialogue, rich sexual tension and plenty of laughs make this an immensely satisfying return to Blair's world of witchcraft." Publishers Weekly

“Enchanting.” Hot. Romantic Times

“Sexy, witty and utterly delightful.” Affaire de Coeur

“Outstanding! Actually made me believe in magic.” Huntress Reviews

Enter my new contest at www.annetteblair.com/contest.htm and don’t forget to looks for THE SCOT, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE in bookstores on December 5th.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Annette Blair
www.annetteblair.com

Today's Post

2006-11-15T08:37:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, Kathleen Eagle's post today has been canceled. But there are still plenty of great authors coming up for the rest of November.

ANNETTE BLAIR - Nov. 17

DOLORES J WILSON - Nov. 22

DEBORAH MACGILLIVRAY - Nov 27

MARJORIE M LIU - Nov 29

Write From April

2006-11-12T21:32:00.000-05:00

When I’m doing my most intense, creative work, my husband usually comments, “Shouldn’t you be writing?”

Some of my best ideas, characters, and plot lines have come through the art of daydreaming—brainstorming with all my thoughts. The real version of me hard at work is lying on the floor looking at the ceiling or lying on the grass and staring up at the sky. Hoping—and trusting—that in the emptiness of the ceiling, the wall, the vast openness of the sky above, life will suddenly take form like the first primitive organisms in the empty prehistoric sea. And the awesome thing is, it usually does. Vague, not quite visual shapes, not quite heard lines of dialogue, random motions of people and places that will select themselves into a story line pop into my mind.

TROPICAL WARNINGS began to take root in my mind lying on a lounge chair at the pool of the campground I was managing. All the guests there assumed I was sleeping—sun-bathing, when in fact I was listening to conversations, watching out of the corner of my eyes. Characters began to take shape, plots began to form. I was again, hard at work.

We have stored in our brain every article we've read, every experience we've had, and every image that has passed before our eyes. It is all there. The challenge -- one of the keys to constant creative inspiration -- is to retrieve this information deliberately. All this information is the corridor to a writers creativity. Recognize and realize that your mind is more powerful than any computer. It holds far more information than the Internet and is a database for whatever it is you choose to write. Take the first step through the corridor of creativity by opening the door to your mind—a mental atlas filled with scenes, characters, plots, conflicts…all the ingredients for blockbusting novels, short stories, poetry. To enter through this door you must first free your mind of all other distractions and those inner critics who speak loudly and negatively in an attempt of keeping you from this first step. Spend a few moments quieting yourself through meditation. It will help you stay focused and remain creative.

April Star

http://www.authoraprilstar.com/

BEST NEW PARANORMAL ROMANCE - Rebecca York

2006-11-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

"Hero’s Welcome," my entry in this anthology, tells the story of Ben Linkman, who formerly belonged to the underclass on the planet Thindar. His people have won a war of rebellion, and he’s come back from a military hospital to claim the estate the new government awarded him. An amputee and in pain, Link finds a surprise waiting for him when he arrives–Kasimanda, the woman he loves. She was once the daughter of a noble and on the other side in the conflict. Raped by soldiers in Link’s army, she’s as wounded as he. Together they must heal each other–and defend Link’s estate from the deserters bent on killing them and stealing the property.

When I first wrote this story, I was thinking about how war damages people and how they might heal. And because I write romance, I was thinking about how love could be an important part of the healing process. I was also glad of the opportunity to write about how two groups of people can hate each other--just because of their ethnic background. But what happens when a man from one group and a woman from the other group fall in love? I've never written a Romeo and Juliet story. I want my people to end up happy, not dead.

Rebecca York

Mary Kennedy - Secrets of a South Beach Princess

2006-11-09T09:37:00.000-05:00

A lot of people ask me if I really go to all the exciting places that I mention in my books. And the answer is yes! I go to South Beach, Florida as often as I can--that's the location of my new Berkley release. Secrets of a South Beach Princess. I have to really develop a feel for the city and make it my own. When I first visited South Beach and saw all those pastel-colored hotels, the color reminded me of salt water taffy, so I jotted that down! And of course, I made a note about the beautiful palms, the salty tang in the air, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.

There's something wonderful and magical about really being "on the scene." For example, I knew I needed a place for my characters to sit and relax as they talked about their lives. I found a cute little cafe with green umbrella tables on Collins Avenue, so I sat outdoors and ordered a skim milk latte, just as my characters would do. I watched the South Beach crowd strolling by, tanned, beautiful and hip, as the sunshine was casting a golden glow over the whole scene. Life doesn't get any better than this.

Here's a true story. When I was sitting at a cafe in South Beach, looking at the string of fabulous hotels, I thought: "what would it be like to live in the penthouse of one of those places? What if you actually owned the hotel? Or your family did? What if you could schmooze with celebrity guests, while you were learning the hotel business?" Then I spotted a tall, beautiful blonde girl walking into a famous hotel, greeting the doorman by name and handing him all her shopping bags. She looked like she didn't have a care in the world--she was young, gorgeous and living in South Beach. And that's how I created Amber Fielding, the main character in SECRETS OF A SOUTH BEACH PRINCESS.

Mary

www.marykennedy.net

SECRETS OF A SOUTH BEACH PRINCESS, (Berkley Trade, November 10, 2006)

The Bargain - Julia Templeton

2006-11-06T10:43:00.000-05:00

The idea for my erotic historical romance THE BARGAIN came about after visiting a medieval castle in England. I walked up the steep tower steps, touching the dark stone as I went, all the while envisioning the men, women and children who had walked those same steps before me. When I finally reached the ramparts, I stood looking out at the rolling hills and lush meadows that seemed untouched by time and wondered again at the people who had lived there all those years ago.

I could imagine the day-to-day existence of these people. The servants bustling about, the soldiers hard at practice, the women watching from above or perhaps from windows of these huge fortresses. And what must it have been like to stand on the ramparts, looking out at an enemy, knowing at any moment your life could be over?

That is exactly where THE BARGAIN begins. Aleysia Cawdor is a young Saxon princess who has lost much to war. She is standing on the ramparts of Braemere Castle, looking out at the black sky, compliments of the Norman army that has burned much of Northern England to the ground in order to stop the Saxon rebellion. She knows Renaud de Wulf, King William’s merciless knight is on his way to Braemere. Without a moment to lose, she says goodbye to Braemere, when the horn of de Wulf sounds.

Adelstan is caught by de Wulf’s men and imprisoned. Though Aleysia is terrified, she begs Renaud to spare her brother. When he refuses she offers him a bargain—her body for her brother’s life. To her surprise, the love-starved knight agrees. Aleysia finds herself in hot water more than once in her quest to free her brother from his tower prison…and to free herself from the hold Renaud has over her in the bedroom. She enjoys the moments they spend together, especially the fire he ignites in her body, and yet she cannot give him her heart when her brother’s life hangs in the balance.

Although the story deals with the realities of war, there is also a lot of humor to be had, and I especially enjoyed exploring a secondary love affair that features an older woman and a younger man.

So there you have it. The inspiration that led to THE BARGAIN! I suggest any history lover make the trip to England (or Scotland) at least once. You’ll never regret it. Until then, you could always visit medieval England by reading THE BARGAIN.

Warm wishes,

Julia

Karen Fenech

2006-11-02T08:43:00.000-05:00

A secret. A man she betrayed but has never stopped loving. An enemy who wants them dead.

That's the premise for BETRAYAL. The idea sprang from a situation I’d heard of. A bride-to-be called off her wedding just days before when her future husband confessed something he'd been keeping from her.

How sad, I remember thinking. Here this woman was, all set to start a new life with the man she loves and then finds out it just isn't going to happen. I never learned what the something he'd confessed was, but that event got me thinking about keeping secrets.

Most people, I think, who have a secret they don't want their significant other to know about keep quiet to hang onto the one they love.

I mulled that over. What if a woman had a secret? And . . what if keeping her secret would have the opposite result to what I just described. What if keeping her secret meant she would lose the man she loves?

I tried that again. Keeping, not revealing her secret would cost her the man she loves. . .

That concept stayed with me. I became so intrigued by it that I knew I'd just found the next story I was going to write.

That one idea became two, thank goodness : -) and each idea sparked another. On and on until I typed "The End". I've found it isn't just one idea that's needed to write a book. It takes one to get started, and many more to finish.

I had a lot of fun writing BETRAYAL. I hope you'll want to read it.

Regards,
Karen

To read Chapter One of BETRAYAL, and to enter Karen's current contest, visit her website at: http://www.karenfenech.com/

Julia Ross - Clandestine

2006-10-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

Other than that burning, but mysteriously vague, new idea that underlies each story -- and I haven’t a clue where that comes from! -- people and places always inspire me. My characters seem to step into my consciousness fully formed, just as if I’d just met some truly fascinating strangers in real life. I can’t wait to uncover all their mysteries and secrets to find out who they really are.

As the third book in the Wyldshay trilogy, Clandestine of course belonged to Guy Devoran. Guy had enthralled me ever since the moment I first met him bending over that sailor’s dead body in Night of Sin, when he glanced up at me with those dark brown eyes. When he turned up again in Games of Pleasure -- once again without hesitation abandoning his own life to help his cousins -- there was no question that Guy was destined to be a great hero. He was a powerful duke’s nephew. He was handsome, chivalrous and clever. But what were those private affairs that Guy never explained? What were his secrets? I knew all about Wyldshay Castle, but what about Guy’s own family? There was some great mystery about him that I was going to have to uncover, so a great big chunk of my inspiration for Clandestine began right there.

Meanwhile, surely his heroine had to be Rachel Wren, the beautiful, mysterious blonde who had spent a day with Guy in Night of Sin? Instead, the moment I sat down to write Clandestine, Rachel’s cousin, Sarah Callaway -- a forthright, redheaded widow -- stepped in to take over. Since Rachel had mysteriously disappeared, Sarah feared that some unknown villain had abducted her. It was such an interesting and unexpected complication, that I knew I was going to have an exciting time with this one!

I go home to England almost every year to follow my nose into all kinds of interesting places. This time, it began in a thatched cottage in a tiny village on the south coast of Devon. Centuries-old smugglers’ paths led down to unspoiled, hidden coves. Wild ponies scattered into the mist when I hiked up onto Dartmoor. I drove along a labyrinth of twisting country lanes to visit fabulous stately homes, many of them preserved almost exactly as they’d been in the Regency. Now that’s inspiration! And almost all of it worked its way into Clandestine. (See my photo gallery at http://www.juliaross.net/)

Another theme surprised me by simply appearing as I wrote, as clearly as an image in a dream, when Sarah attends a ball and finds herself looking for Guy in a hothouse filled with orchids. Why orchids? I knew almost nothing about orchids! Yet I soon discovered that orchid collecting was a serious craze in late Regency England. These fabulous flowers were among the most exotic, exclusive, and expensive possessions any gentleman could own. Since the blooms are also incredibly sensual, they soon haunted the entire book, as if driving Guy and Sarah into an irresistible passion. Meanwhile, even as their love started scorching the pages, all those secrets were turning out to be darker and more compelling than I’d ever expected.

All these apparently disparate threads soon began to weave together, almost as if they’d been planned that way. Yet the truth is that I start each of my novels as if I were plunging without a map into an unknown country, desperately hoping that I’ll reach some magic city at the end. Fortunately, Guy and Sarah were so honorable and compassionate, and so much fun to be with, that I was determined to see them through to a grand happy ending, whatever the odds! That probably sounds pretty chaotic and it is, but it makes every day’s writing truly exciting for me, and I guess it’s been working: Clandestine just earned my eighth consecutive “Top Pick” review from Romantic Times.

Julia Ross
CLANDESTINE
Berkley, ISBN 978-0425-21197-7 (or 0-425-21197-5)
Regency Historical (1829)

Ed Lynskey

2006-10-28T09:14:00.000-04:00

PI Frank Johnson is a divorced thirty-something who in his firstadventure, The Dirt-Brown Derby (Mundania Press, August 2006),solved the murder of a girl allegedly killed in a horse-ridingaccident.Weary of his hometown of Pelham, Virginia, Frank has moved tothe West Virginia mountains. Amid all this alpine slendor, hehas grown lax and carefree, but that's about to change.While Frank is fixing dinner, he hears a bizarre hum flying over his cabin. He races outside and gapes up as a Stinger rocketblasts something out of the twilight sky. His hopes for a new,tranquil life go up with the explosion’s smoke and fire.

Frank telephones Old Man Maddox, a retiree neighbor with a CIAbackground, for aid and they go report the incident to theincredulous sheriff’s department in nearby Scarab, WestVirginia. Prickly and persistent, Frank relies on his criminalinvestigative skills and soon catches wind of a hate cultcalling themselves “The Blue Cheer”. The Blue Cheer hastargeted Frank for knowing about the Stinger rocket. After theapathetic sheriff blows him off, Frank opts to act on his ownand go after The Blue Cheer.A subplot is Frank’s cousin Rod Bellwether on death row atBitterroot Prison in Virginia reaching out for Frank’s help. Time runs short for Rod but his claims of innocence for nothaving slain his wife seem credible enough. Frank drives downto visit Rod and reluctantly agrees to assist him.

However,once in his mountain retreat, Frank would rather forget aboutRod’s problems. Rod soon breaks out of prison and comes lookingfor Frank. Keep an eye on Rod. Of course Frank doesn't have to go it alone. He calls in helpfrom Gerald Peyton, a bail bond enforcer from his hometown.Events soon heat up in this backwoods romp and in a suprisingtwist the climax comes on dark, cold mountaintop. The Blue Cheer is written in a stylish, modern hardboiled voice.Its topical interest is based on my own professional expertise.

For 18 years I wrote the technical manuals for building theStinger rockets. My research includes interviews with the WestVirginia Chief Medical Examiner, West Virginia State Police,West Virginia Clerk of Court, a forensic pathologist, and anautopsy assistant.Frank also has time to engage in other pursuits like gunsmithingand reading the Old Pulp masters like Charles Williams and EdLacy. A third PI Frank Johnson title, Pelham Fell Here is due out in2007 and a fourth book, Troglodytes, will appear in 2008. TheBlue Cheer was edited by 2006 EDGAR-nominee Al Guthrie.

A fewdustjacket blurbs appear below.

“It isn’t often that a genuinely new ‘voice’ enters crimefiction, but that compliment definitely captures Frank Johnson,the hero of The Blue Cheer. Author Ed Lynskey chooses a WestVirginia setting for this debut in novel-length format, and itproves a resounding success.” --Shamus Award-winner Jeremiah Healy, author of PI John FrancisCuddy mysteries

"This is a New Wave Gold Medal novel, intricate, harrowing, richin people good and bad, ripe with nasty surprise. Something newin New Wave. A fine, fine debut." --Ellery Queen and Shamus Award-winner Ed Gorman, author of TheDay the Music Died, Wake Up Little Susie, and Will You Love MeTomorrow?

“Fast-paced and gripping, with well-drawn characters and avividly described background, The Blue Cheer is a strong noirdebut reminiscent of the work of Philip Atlee and others in thegolden stable of Gold Medal writers. I look forward to EdLynskey's next.” -- Macavity and Shamus Award-winner Bill Pronzini, author ofNameless Detective mysteries

“The Blue Cheer is as well-written and well-plotted an exampleof the new Appalachian noir. An excellent debut!”--Anthony and Shamus-nominee John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of The Second Chair, The Hearing, and TheOath.

“This pure sheer first rate mystery, the reason why we read thegenre, and as long as we have such stunninggrab-you-by-the-collar-and-not-let-go narrative, the future ofmystery is not only assured, it’s damn essential.” --Macavity and Shamus-winner Ken Bruen, author of Jack Taylorseries and White Trilogy

Coming up.........

2006-10-26T12:59:00.000-04:00

To finish off October, Ed Lynsky will be stopping by the boutique on October 28 and Julia Ross will be here on October 30.

Moving The Idea Boutique into November, look for Karen Fenech on the 2nd, Mary Kennedy on the 9th, Kathleen Eagle on the 15th, Annette Blair on the the 17th, Dolores J Wilson on the 22nd, Deborah MacGillivray on the 27th, and Marjorie M Liu on the 29th.

And don't forget, as always, you can visit past entries from authors at the Idea Boutique homepage.

SANDY BLAIR

2006-10-25T17:56:00.000-04:00

My first novel, A Man In A Kilt, came to life while I sat on a cliff overlooking my husband’s paternal ancestral home, Stalker Castle in Appin, Scotland and wondered what it might be like to inherit and then live in an island bound fortress. Would the “romance” be short-lived if I had to get into a boat every time I needed a quart of milk? No. For mullion windows and an ocean view, I’d deal with it. But what if it came with a ghost? Hmm…

A Rogue In A Kilt was a natural extension of the first book, but writing progressive, connected novels has prove more daunting than one might expect.

THE ADVANTAGES:
1.) You can pluck a compelling secondary character from one book and put him/her front and center in the next.

The Thief of Hearts, Ian MacKay, is such a secondary character. His regent’s ears and eyes about Scotland, Ian first came to life in A Rogue In A Kilt. Sensing he was trying to take over the story, I sent him off on a long errand, but knew to my bones that he’d be back in all his golden glory. Readers, apparently sensing this as well, sent letters requesting his story. Thus A THIEF IN A KILT was born.

2.) You’ve already done the research and know the period details, which keeps your muse wondering, “What if…?”

I had an impending civil war and a Scottish king growing up in the Tower of London. How did his captivity affect the politics of the time and the man he would become? What effect did his eventual release have on Scotland and on my new hero specifically? Ta da, my external plot.

THE DIFFICULTIES:
1.) Meeting reader expectations. Some are already enamored with the hero.
2.) Although related to previous books, making this novel fresh and unique unto itself
3.) Hold previous reader interest while bringing new readers--who are clueless as to what went on before--up to speed.
4.) Crafting a worthy love interest

My new heroine proved the greatest challenge. What would attract my randy, highly intelligent hero determined to see his country safe and his rightful king ransomed? I already knew what he liked: good horse flesh, good wine and pretty, petite brunettes. And what he loathed: the English and women with secret agendas. Okay. I craft a pretty, petite, brunette English spy who wants to keep a very low profile around my hero and still the story just wouldn’t gel in my heart. Two pretty people get together…Big whoop-dee-doo. Who cares? Happens all the time. Augh!

Then I received a letter from a reader who told me that she lived vicariously through Romances; that she was very tall and thus rarely dated. Hmm…I could make Kate a very tall, plush, quick-witted, brunette spy. Despite her best efforts, she wouldn’t be able to avoid Ian’s notice. The average woman of the period stood less than 5 feet tall. Too, she’d be the last “type” he’d expect to find himself attracted to, yet she poses a challenge, her mind is as quick as his, and what of that first kiss? Oh! What would go through Ian’s mind the first time he didn’t have to fold nearly in half to kiss a woman? When he pulled her into his arms and all those plush, womanly curves came into perfect alignment with his 6 foot 5 inch, muscular frame? When hips pressed hips, breasts met chest? Oh, ya…Here we go...

Thank you, dear Reader!!

Sandy

From Reality to Fiction ... Trish Wylie

2006-10-13T07:11:00.000-04:00

For me, the ideas for a book are often several small things that suddenly mesh together. With O'Reilly's Bride it started in real life and grew.

It was the second time in my writing career that I had drawn from the things that were happening around me. With a previous book, I had been a third of the way through when a friend was involved in a car accident that led to memory loss, and the book took on an entirely new direction, and was then dedicated to that friends bravery for fighting through when so many in the medical profession said he wouldn't make it! This time it was a real life event that had been happening before my eyes for years, thankfully with a happy conclusion, and thankfully to good friends who didn't mind me asking them loads of questions about their experiences...

I had known one of them for years, had been there when he met his wife-to-be and fell in love. And with a common bond of a love for horses, I soon became friends with his wife too. Everything seemed perfect - they had a beautiful wedding, bought a gorgeous house, were both in well paid jobs... and then they tried for a family. Only to have to fight for years to eventually get there. It was a tough few years for them, fraught with hopes that were constantly dashed, tests of the strength of their relationship, doubts over whether or not to put themselves through it that one more time and it tested their love to the limits. But they came through. They got their family. And are so happy now that when they look back on it they know it was worth all the trauma. Which is a real life testimony to love and the bond between two people that carried them through adversity. How could I not find that inspiring?

But then I wondered how it would have been if they hadn't been married? What if one of them had known beforehand the trouble and heartache that would lie in trying for a family? And what if one of them had already been through so much that the other felt to deny them a full version of happily ever after would just be too cruel?

And therein lay my conflict.

With that in place I did what I always do, and went seeking pictures I could use as examples of how I pictured my hero and heroine. To me these pictures are a starting point, a visual image that can so often give me even more inspiration. This time the picture I found for my heroine was one of a beautiful, confident woman - the kind of woman who everyone would look at and believe that looking the way she did she couldn't possibly have any problems! My hero needed to be many things for her to love him so much she would try to give him up. He needed to have devastating good looks of course! But he also needed to have a vulnerability in his eyes, a warmth...

So, with pictures to use as a starting point my characters took shape.

Then I moved onto setting and back-story. Every one of my books has been set in Ireland, the island I call home, so that was an easy choice for me. Write what you know they tell you. So, I've never strayed far from that adage when it comes to setting... But the back-story was one that I tripped across, inspired in one of those momentary flashes of inspiration all writers get at some point or another. This time it was watching a Robert Redford/Michelle Pfeiffer movie about two journalists who fell in love - a film shown on TV that was broken halfway through with the news, ironically enough. And in the news there were reports from the middle east and from home, where a fishing village had a boat and crew missing. The combination of the film and the news reports gave me the part of the puzzle I was missing. And that light bulb moment. Suddenly Sean O'Reilly became a news cameraman who had seen the worst things in the world, and had come home to Ireland when he couldn't watch anymore - to try and build a life for himself, with family, with friends - and with love. How could Maggie Sullivan, the heroine who became the local news reporter he filmed every day, not fall for him? And how, when she found out she couldn't give him the family he so obviously needed, could she not try to set him free to find that with someone else?

And a story was born.

Nearly every book I have written has been borne from a chain of events. One small idea that gets added to and added to, until I have enough to begin writing. And then the characters take me where they will...

So, when you're looking for that next story, don't ignore those momentary flights of imagination and don't ignore the love stories that surround you in real life. You just never know what you might get when you put them all together!

H's & K'sTrish Wylie

VERTIGO - Lauren Baratz-Logsted

2006-10-11T08:47:00.000-04:00

In fall of 2000, I was visiting my in-laws down in Florida, my infant daughter in tow, when I got the idea for VERTIGO. Don’t ask me what it was about staying with relatives that put the notion in my head to write a book about a woman who ultimately decides to kill her husband, but there you have it.

As I was walking one day in the heat, the basic plot came to me, complete with opening and closing lines. My character, Emma Smith, would be a good, even exemplary wife, as she informs readers at the beginning of the book. She would vow one New Year’s Eve to become “a better person” and her husband, a novelist, would set her up writing letters to a prisoner in jail for murdering his own wife. The correspondence, the idea that he was in there and would never be out here, would ultimately free Emma to become her real self for the first time. And then, when he’s ultimately released…

As soon as I returned home to Connecticut, I began to write. Immediately, I could hear Emma’s voice clearly in my head. And, also immediately, I knew her story would need to be set in a previous time period, because otherwise readers would say, “Why doesn’t she just leave her husband, if she’s become so unhappy?” Emma needed to be a victim of her time as much as anything else and so I cast her story in the Victorian era.

The next fifty-five days, the amount of time it took to write the first draft, became a torrid whirlwind of writing, unlike any I’d experienced before. My previous novel-writing efforts had mostly been some form of comedy or satire, but VERTIGO tapped a different area in me: it was a walk on the dark side. For fifty-five days, I wrote in the early hours of the morning, wrote while my daughter breastfed or napped, the soundtrack for The Piano playing almost constantly in the background as I did crude ballet moves around the room during chapter breaks.

When I was finished, I was atypically pleased with my creation, but my agent at the time, Agent 2, was not. Agent 2 was busily trying to sell an earlier work and said that VERTIGO was wonderful but that Agent 2 didn’t know any editors who did books set in other time periods, nor did it help any when I provided a list.

By the following fall, I was with a new agent. Agent 3 had fallen in love with VERTIGO on first reading, said it could be a blockbuster book and film if only I would change this…and this…and this. So I started making changes, revision after revision. In the beginning the changes were all good, but then they started to stop making sense. Around the time I was getting revision fatigue, I sold, all on my own, another novel, a satire called The Thin Pink Line, and that caused VERTIGO to be put on hold once again.

One of the ways Agent 4 wooed me was with passion for VERTIGO. But, again, it was a case of, “If only you’ll change this…and this…and this…” Agent 4 had me add approximately one hundred pages of background and scenery to the book.

A year later, Agent 5 had me take nearly all of those changes out and then do further changes.
By the time I signed with Agent 6, I not only had manuscript fatigue, I also had agent fatigue. I promised myself that the next time I made changes, it would be because an editor was requesting them and there was money on the table.

And that’s exactly what happened. Not two months after signing with Agent 6, but almost five years after I initially put pen to paper to write VERTIGO, it sold at auction.

Then more changes were made, fantastic changes at the suggestion of my brilliant editor.

Of all the novels I’ve ever written, and there have been more than you might think, more time and effort and passion has gone into VERTIGO than any other book.

Here is the thing, though: Even as it goes out into the world, I know changes could yet be made. Oh, not necessarily changes to make it better; if I saw the need for those sorts of changes, I’d have made them. I mean lateral changes, the kind of changes where someone might say, “If you did this…,” and then we’d have a different story; not better, just different. VERTIGO, it turns out, is my chameleon book.

And here is the other thing: Despite everything the book has cost me, I do not resent even a second I have invested in it. VERTIGO is like that child you have that amazes you every day, causing you to ask, “How did you get here?”

Every time I look at the brilliant cover Bantam created, and glance at random at the pages within, I think to myself, “How did you get here?”

_____________________________________
Lauren Baratz-Logsted, in addition to Vertigo, has written four Chick-Lit novels: The Thin Pink Line, Crossing the Line, A Little Change of Face, and How Nancy Drew Saved My Life. She is also the editor of and contributor to the anthology This Is Chick-Lit and the author of the forthcoming serious Young Adult novel Angelâ's Choice. You can read more about her work at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com.

Double Dare - Saskia Walker

2006-10-09T08:20:00.000-04:00

The central plot idea for my novel, Double Dare, stemmed from a conversation I had with a close and dear friend a few years ago. Kate is a practising psychologist and we were talking about the fact that her job often intimidated men. Over a couple of glasses of wine, we started joking about the fact it could be worse, and we came up with some other jobs that might send men running to the hills, brain surgeon, artificial inseminator, that kind of thing. Even though the wine was leading us astray somewhat, we had to face the fact that it's hard to avoid the job topic altogether when you meet someone casually.

But what about a little white lie, we considered, just to begin with?

After another few sips of vino, it seemed like an option. Then we realised the problem: if the conversation developed and she liked the guy, she would then have to sort it out.

I am happy to report that shortly after Kate met the love of her life and is now happily married with a gorgeous little girl! The idea of the little white lie that has to be undone stayed with me, though, and my heroine in Double Dare became the woman who gets herself into that very muddle, because she fibs on the spur of the moment, thinks it's just a fling, and falls in love.

Abby is a high-powered finance manager, but often finds her job intimidates men. When she bumps into a gorgeous courier the sexual chemistry between them is electric. She tells him she's a receptionist because she doesn't want to scare off this attractive, compelling guy.

Abby is an independent, sexually confident woman who goes after what she wants, daring herself to take that extra step in life, for the adventure. Meanwhile, Zac is delivering papers, but he's not just a courier. His family own the financial investments that Abby is currently managing, so he has to work out if she's trying to work some angle on him, lying and getting close to him. As a result, he goes along with her little façade while he runs his own investigations on her, which sucks him into the subterfuge and makes him even more of a dark horse than her. He is communicating with her daily about investments, whilst also "managing" the intense sexual attraction between them.

Barely.

Ahem.

When I write contemporary erotic romance I aim to create confident, three-dimensional, and realistic characters who are put in situations that are unfamiliar, to see how they cope, because I think we can all relate to that. I confess that what I loved most about writing Double Dare was the trauma my poor hero went through. Zac is a very sexy, confident and powerful man — the ideal man for Abby. As he falls in love with Abby, he has to deal with his own trust issues, and take responsibility for his heritage, whilst also deciding when to tell her that he knows who she really is. How will she react? Does he know her well enough to gauge that? This poor man goes through the ringer deciding what is best for her, because he loves her and doesn't want to mess up. Meanwhile, Abby knows this is more than a fling, and she has work out when to make her little confession, hoping that isn't the very thing that might send Zac to the hills. Let's just say the fact they can't keep their hands of each other complicates matters even more. Neither of them want to take that risk, but both know they have to, in order to make something more lasting possible. I hope readers have as much fun reading about it as I had writing it!

Saskia
http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk/

Cancellation

2006-10-06T12:17:00.000-04:00

Today's post has been canceled. Sorry folks! Be sure to check back on the 9th when Saskia Walker will be the guest blogger!