Abby Gaines: It’s not me, it’s my job

I realized today how much more I enjoy reading – and writing – a novel where the hero’s and/or heroine’s job is big part of the story. Not so big that it overshadows the characters or the romance, but big enough to provide some insight into the character (why did he choose this job, and how does it affect what kind of person he is?), and interesting enough that I’ll absorb some knowledge about a profession of which I might otherwise be ignorant.

This insight came to me partly because I’m reading Tessa Radley’s The Saxon Brides trilogy from Silhouette Desire (Pregnancy Proposal is a December 08 release). The trilogy is based around a winegrowing family, and Tessa Radley gets the level of work-related detail exactly right. Interesting, insightful, but not overpowering.

Earlier today, I was flicking through my January 2009 release from Superromance, The Groom Came Back. It’s a secret wedding story, and the hero is a neurosurgeon who married the heroine eight years ago when she was still a schoolgirl, to rescue her from a custody battle. Then he took off around the world doing important neurosurgeon stuff, and now he’s back wanting a divorce. Well, you can’t always get what you want...

My neurosurgeon hero is a dedicated doctor, but he keeps his distance from his family. That’s partly because of his job – it’s bad enough worrying about his patients, he doesn’t want to worry about family, too. The heroine is a florist – she gets involved in other people’s special occasions, but doesn’t have many of her own.

In the books I write for the Harlequin NASCAR series, the job – the NASCAR world – is an integral part of the story, and that’s what makes those stories fun to write.

I read somewhere a suggestion that readers prefer books where the heroine’s job is not too high-powered. Apparently, readers definitely want the heroine to be good at her job, whether she’s a florist, a homemaker, a teacher, a nurse or whatever. But if she’s too high-powered, she might be...I can’t remember the exact phrase – not likable enough? Too much of a Type A personality to have the softer qualities that readers like?

I’m not so sure about that. I’ve had heroines with the following professions: accountant, homemaker and aspiring novelist, pediatrician, scientist, PR agency owner, sport psychologist, vet, and now a florist. In the pipeline, I have a beauty queen, a counselor and a lawyer. I like to think they all have the mix of both strength and softness that, frankly, most real women have.

When it comes to heroes, I admit I’m partial to very successful businessman...and the occasional neurosurgeon. I’m not that big on cop or firefighter heroes, or military, though obviously lots of readers love them.

What do you think? Do you have any preferences for the kind of job your favorite heroes and heroines have?

Abby Gaines

The staff at NovelTalk wishes
you and yours the
happiest of holidays!

Keta Diablo: All is Calm...

Life is unpredictable . . .

Let's face it, never more than today do these words ring true. In 2008, the stock market crashed, the housing sector spiraled downward, unemployment skyrocketed and political corruption exploded. Our sense of security is a tenuous thing, never more so than today. That's why my message for 2009 to you is "All Is Calm." Our peace must come from within and efforts to improve the world we share must begin with each and every one of us.

Recently I had the great pleasure of viewing Peter Rothstein's play All Is Calm. If it comes to your city or town, I highly recommend you take the time to see it. The Christmas Truce of 1914 depicts events when almost a century ago Allied Forces and German soldiers on the Western Front laid down their arms for a Christmas Day Truce. Suddenly, a young German soldier stepped into the clearing and sang "Still Nacht" (Silent Night). What ensued was a night of music, brotherhood and peace. Among enemies no less.

For me, the play offered a message of hope and led me down a path of deep deliberation. What if the armies in every corner of our world surrendered their weapons and made a silent vow to seek peace and harmony? What if genocide and ethnic cleansing was eradicated? What if children in Darfur no longer went to bed hungry? The list of "what ifs" for me grew and grew.

Then shortly after I attended All Is Calm, Mumbai, India exploded from a terrorist attack. We had only to watch the scene unfold to see the suffering on the faces of the children and remember all over again our vulnerability. I couldn't help but think as I gazed upon this cherubic face that the only thing permanent in his life now is impermanence. And for that, my heart aches.

No, we can't control external events that threaten our safety and our security, but we can and should strive to bring a sense of All Is Calm to our own little worlds. Like the German soldier, we can, just for today, and maybe for tomorrow and the next day, put our fear and anger aside and choose love over hate, patience over intolerance, kindness over resentment.

That's my pledge for the New Year. I hope it will be yours too. Sending each and every one of you hearty blessings, wishes for success, and most of all peace.

May your mantra for 2009 be All Is Calm . . . .
Fondly, Keta Diablo

Keta writes erotica historical and fantasy. Visit her website to learn more.

Pamela Ford: The best season for romance?

After shoveling the five inches of snow we got last night, I sat down at my computer to work on my work-in-progress, and, like any good writer, began to procrastinate. What, I wondered, did readers think about books set in the winter months? With the North wind blowing, snow flying, temperatures dropping, a bottle of red wine, hot chocolate and cuddling by a roaring fire. Is winter the best setting for romance novels?

Or is it Summer, with its hot, sultry nights, Margaritas at an outdoor café, long walks on the beach, sunburned noses, and peeling off clothing to make love beneath the soft breeze of a ceiling fan?

Maybe it's Fall, the season of sweatshirts and jeans, of crisp night air and bonfires, of holding hands and kicking through the leaves, of hot apple cider and clear, dark nights.

Then again, perhaps Spring is the best setting for a romance novel. It is, after all, the only season where, officially, love is in the air. With the sun raising the heat of the day, daffodils and tulips blooming yellow and red, white wine making a comeback, and lovers dashing through the rain sharing an umbrella and a kiss...maybe Spring is the best.

I can't decide! My current release, The Wedding Heiress, is set in early summer; another of my books took place in winter, in Maine!

So what do you like best? What's your favorite season for a romance novel?

Pamela Ford

Jackie Diamond is Keeping Track of Characters

Many readers enjoy characters who continue from book to book. Look at the popularity of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, and many of Debbie Macomber's and Nora Roberts' books, for just a few examples.

As a writer, I enjoy continuing characters, too. Writing my
Harmony Circle miniseries -- published within the Harlequin American Romance line -- lets me enjoy their personalities over a period of years as life throws them curve balls.

I learned a lot from reading topnotch series, and also from a few I wasn't so crazy about. What bothered me were the cookie-cutter beautiful/handsome best friends and siblings obviously plopped into stories to set up future books. In Harmony Circle, I build heroes and heroines with special qualities, issues and occupations to make them memorable.

For example, in The Family Next Door and Baby in Waiting, a subplot concerns a wealthy young woman named Sherry LaSalle who buys a cottage in the neighborhood to tear down and replace with a mansion. Her haughty attitude antagonizes many of her neighbors, especially auto mechanic Rafe, who lives across the street.

In my January 2009 release, Million-Dollar Nanny (which earned 4 ½ stars from Romantic Times magazine)¸ Sherry has been conned out of all her money. Broke, she's forced to live in the cottage and discovers she can't even land a minimum-wage job. Rafe, who adopted his orphaned niece and nephew, needs a nanny, and Sherry decides the job would be perfect for her. He, on the other hand, doesn't want her anywhere near his kids or his heart. Because I'd developed their antagonism in previous books, their tangles and growing attraction were especially fun to write.

Doctor Daddy, to be published in September 2009, features Dr. Jane McKay, an obstetrician who longs for a baby of her own. Jane was the heroine's best friend in
Baby in Waiting, and now her story will be featured in Harlequin's Men Made in America promotion. Jane harbors a secret passion for heartthrob physician Luke Van Dam, who moves in next door and joins her medical practice. Unlike Jane, he attracts babies and the opposite sex without trying, but hasn't a clue how to find happiness. She's about to enlighten him.

Please watch for reviews and news on my website, Hope you enjoy the short video interviews with me on the home page.

Over the course of creating interlinked novels, keeping track of the characters is a challenge. As I start each new book, I review the characters we've met before and look for ways in which their lives can grow and develop just as real people's do.

But then, to me – and I hope to my readers – they are real. I only wish we all had a guaranteed happy ending!

Barbara Bretton: Past-Life Regression

So let me set the scene for you: it's 8:30 on a cloudy Saturday morning in central Long Island and I'm running across the parking lot of the Hauppauge Ramada Inn toward my very first past-life regression. I am clutching my bed pillow and the belief that something fabulous is going to happen.

Am I excited? How do I answer that question without hurting your ear drums? I am so far beyond excited that it's downright embarrassing. I've already told you about my still-futile ghost hunt but I had high hopes for the past-life regression. I am there with my four favorite writer friends and I'm wide open to anything that might spark a new book idea and maybe open a window to a whole other world of experience.

The whole thing was Bettye's idea. She knew the trance medium (I'm not sure if it's trans-medium or trance medium) and vouched for the woman's integrity. All we had to do was bring our pillows and trust the process.

Hey, I can do that!

After introductions, we are told to lie down on the floor of the conference room and get comfortable. Comfortable? Was she kidding? My heart was thumping so crazily I could barely catch my breath. I felt like I was on the verge of Something Big. Michelle was scared to death. Darlene was skeptical. Connie was silent. Bettye was her usual ebullient, enthusiastic self.

"Okay," said the medium, "now that you're settled, let's do a few relaxation exercises."

Oh, come on. I'm not here to relax. I can relax at home. I can relax in the coffee shop. Let's get moving.

But the exercises worked and suddenly I found myself drifting toward sleep. The medium's voice snapped me back into the moment.

"Now we begin," she said. "We'll start at the bottom . . . your feet . . . see your feet the way they were . . . "

That's more like it. I knew exactly what I was going to see: dainty feet in glass high-heeled slippers. What else? I mean, I knew deep in my heart that there was a beautiful 18^th century English heroine with a score of eager suitors lurking deep inside me waiting to get out.

Imagine my surprise when I saw two enormous work boots instead! I was horrified. Work boots? What in the name of romantic fantasy was going on? Whose past life was this anyway?

The medium was oblivious. "Now we'll see your ankles and calves," she said.

Oh, great. I saw worn and filthy trousers over thick ankles and we all know that no self-respecting heroine ever had thick ankles. What a disaster this was turning out to be. She worked our way up the body and I got more depressed with every part revealed. No dainty ballgown-wearing damsel for me. I was a man. And an ugly one at that! I was a big, rough-hewn, foul-tempered Swedish coal miner.

Believe it or not, things went downhill from there. She told us to age ten years. "Where are you?" she asked. "What are you?"

I was finally getting married. My wife hated me but she had no choice. She was as homely and old as I was. I saw us on our wedding night and I was a rough and uncaring lover who made her cry. I didn't care. I sat by the fireplace and smoked a pipe. Even my dog didn't like me.

"Fast forward another twenty years," the medium instructed and I see myself sitting by the same fireplace, still smoking a pipe. My dog is dead. My wife is dead. I lost a leg in a mining accident. I am bitter, miserable, and alone.

Hey, I want my money back! Where are my ball gown and slippers and handsome suitors? This isn't what I came here for. I don't want to be a one-legged Swedish coalminer with a bad attitude.

When it was over (and not a minute too soon, I might add) the medium asked us to sit in a circle and share our experiences. I knew what was coming. My friends were all Queen Elizabeth I and Marie Antoinette and Madame Pompadour in their past lives and would share a big laugh at my misadventure.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Michelle froze in the middle of her regression and snapped out of the reverie. She was the 19^th century wife of a powerful man who didn't love her and she died in childbirth. (Footnote: one year later Michelle voluntarily had a tubal ligation. She was thirty-three.) Connie was a highly-paid call girl who lived in a penthouse apartment. The walls were white, the furniture was white, her clothes were white. Susan was a World War II fighter pilot. Bettye was a scribe for Queen Hatshepsut. And Darlene? She was nothing. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't come up with a single past life. The more the medium worked with her, the angrier she got and she exploded in rage at the rest of us an hour later in the coffee shop.

What does it all mean? I've spent a lot of time over the years wondering about exactly that. Am I a believer? Well, I'm not a dis-believer but the jury's still out on the experience. I'm one-quarter Swedish. The man who lived next door to us when I was a little girl had a wooden leg. The week before the past-life regression Sixty Minutes ran a story about female coalminers. Were those the triggers that sparked a little other-worldly fiction in this writerly brain or was it a coincidence?

Any ideas?

Barbara Bretton

We follow the mystics. They know where they are going. They, too, go astray, but when they go astray they do so in a way that is mystical, dark, and mysterious.

Ryszard Kapuscinsk

Susan's Six: Six Things Susan Vaughan Loves About December

1. Well, of course, Christmas is coming. I love the holiday but not all the stress involved in the days running up to Christmas Day, which involves more cooking than this kitchen-challenged woman prefers.
2. Primal Obsession is ready for orders! The ebook has been released this month from The Wild Rose Press. The idea for Primal Obsession grew out of a six-day canoe trip the DH and I took a few years ago in northern Maine. In the three canoes were four other people, including a Maine Guide. He taught us the skills we needed for our excursion, like paddling techniques and navigating with a compass. We paddled ten or more miles a day to various campsites, where we slept in our tents and shared cooking duties. We used compasses to find our way in a "bushwhack" as in the book, and we did paddle white water, but not as difficult as Sam and Annie face in the book. Happily, we had no vengeful killer along for the ride. Here on the right is a picture of the dh and me in our canoe. I hope you'll check out the excerpt of Primal Obsession at my website on the Newest Release page.
3. E-books. I'm thrilled that Primal Obsession is available in more than one format, to reach a wider audience. E-book, what's that, you say? The printed book is in a pdf file that can be downloaded or ordered on a CD-Rom from the publisher's or a vendor's website. You can save it on your computer, PDA, or on a hand-held e-reader, such as the Sony or the Amazon Kindle. Best of all, you can change the font size to suit your eyesight comfort. If you're not into e-books, wit until March when Primal Obsession will be released again as a trade paperback (ISBN 1-60154-390-5) available everywhere online and in bookstores.
4. Christmas food. A friend here, the hostess supreme, has a cookie party. Everyone brings two dozen cookies, which we will share after refreshments--my friend's famous ice cream roll with fudge sauce. The cookies are all displayed on the breakfast bar, and we go around with a plate and select one from here and another from there--snickerdoodles, Swedish tea cookies, fudge, etc.--until we each have two dozen cookies to take home. The DH can't wait every year for the cookie party. And neither can I.
5. Christmas decorations. In Maine, people begin putting up wreaths and lights the day after Thanksgiving. Some people already have their trees decorated by December 1. I love seeing the twinkling white and colored lights on houses and public buildings. I love the carols, the Living Christmas Tree concert given at the Baptist Church here. And decorating our own tree and enjoying the finished product afterward over a glass of wine.
6. And did I say I love Christmas? This year we're doing presents a different way. So many people are hurting in this downturned economy that the Vaughan family decided to give our Christmas funds to the charity of our choice in other people's names. The dh and I chose The Heifer Project. They give an animal--a heifer, a sheep, chickens, bees, rabbits--to impoverished people around the world so they can make a living for themselves. Check it out.

Mallory Kane say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

And say hello to my holiday kitty, Tweedy. This is Tweedy's 16th Christmas. Isn't she pretty!

This year, my family is changing some of our Christmas traditions. This year is also the first Christmas since my mother died. Some of the changes are because she's no longer directing Christmas dinner, not that I don't wish she were!

For instance, we aren't going to get out the fine crystal glasses for Christmas this year. Almost every year one of them is chipped or broken. We decided the remaining glasses will be divided among the children and grandchildren. Mine is displayed in my china cabinet.

Each time I go by the cabinet and see that glass, I can see my mother's beautiful hands holding it up and saying. "Look how the Christmas lights shine through the crystal."

To me, that's much more meaningful than using it to drink iced tea.

Other changes are coincident with the current economy. We're not drawing names among the adults this year, for the first time in over 25 years. This was a tradition that may have worked back in our salad days, when it seemed to make sense as a way to save money by not giving gifts to every single person. But over the years it morphed and changed, and got more commercial, until we were essentially saying "Here's the catalog, here's the page and here's the item number. Order it and wrap it for me." ICK!!! How un-Christmas-like can you get?

This year we will buy gifts for the little ones, and have fun watching them. Then eat until we can't move! As my brother said, "Your presence is my present."

Whether we're enjoying long-cherished traditions, changing them, or making new ones, I think the important thing to remember is that this time of year is about love and family and peace.

My Christmas present to me this year is a December book from Harlequin Intrigue. High School Reunion goes on shelves on December 9, 2008. It's not a Christmas story, but it's definitely a story of hope, love, family, change, and since it's an Intrigue, even peace--eventually! You can find out more about it at my website

I love the cover. It looks like a fantasy or a dream to me, with her sparkling white dress and the 'disco ball' and all the balloons. The scene is right out of the book--my hero and heroine dancing at the high school reunion where they reconnect after ten years.

But I did not request the black and white balloons, and I've spent some time puzzling over what the art department may have had in mind when they used hundreds of them. No--the high school's colors weren't mentioned, so that's not it. The only thing I can imagine is that the black is supposed to be sinister and the white is supposed to represent innocence.

If any of you want to speculate on why black and white balloons at a high school reunion, please respond. I'd love to hear your theory.

Whether you're cooking, eating, shopping, visiting, or snuggling up with a good book... please be good to yourself this holiday season.

Happy holidays to you all!

Mallory Kane
Edgy, emotional,evocative romantic suspense 
Watch for the Black Hills Brotherhood in 2009    

Teri Thackson asks: What's in a Name?

In preparation for the holidays we were talking desserts and my husband offered to take care of that part of the meal this year. Of course everyone has their favorite so everything from Lemon Chiffon Pie to Angel food Cake to Cherry's Jubilee was suggested. Hubby wanted to know why desserts always have such "feminine" names. How about some "manly" desserts?

We started asking around and found a few. Like Mincemeat Pie—what the heck is it anyway? In its original form it did contain meats like beef liver. Mmmm. Yummy... Nowadays most recipes leave off the meat and call for various dried fruits like raisins, currants, cherries and apricots plus spices like cinnamon and some kind of alcohol. Okay, that sounds kind of tasty, if you like dried fruit. He wasn't up for that.

How about Dirt Cups? Chocolate pudding and crushed chocolate cookies…and Gummy Worms. Mmmm. Don't think we want to serve that to Grandma after Christmas dinner.

We found lots of Halloween inspired desserts with manly names. Goblin Toes or Spider Muffins anyone? Thanks but I don't think "icky" is the theme we're going for at Christmas this year.

So what are some other manly desserts that would be appropriate for the upcoming holiday season? Something a manly guy would proudly confess to concocting. Rocky Road ice cream sounds kind of manly and it comes in a carton—what could be easier? But hubby wants to actually prepare something. Of course there's our traditional family dessert: Boiled Cookies. (Hey, I saw that face you made. Well try out the recipe below and then we'll see if you turn up your nose.)

So how about it all you creative writers and readers? Do any of you have a traditional family dessert with a manly name?

Email me with your manly recipe name by midnight on December 12 and I'll draw one name to receive a print copy of my book Perilous Passions. In the meantime, if you want to take a look at my books, here's the link.

And now please enjoy my family's time-proven ugly-named cookie recipe:

Boiled Cookies

1 stick butter
2 tbsp cocoa
2 cups sugar
½ cup milk
3 cups uncooked "quick" oatmeal
½ cup crunchy peanut butter
½ tsp vanilla

In a boiler or non-stick Dutch oven, mix the margarine, cocoa, sugar and milk. Bring to a boil. Boil hard for one minute. Remove mixture from heat. Pour in peanut butter and oatmeal and vanilla. Stir until well mixed and then drop by teaspoon on waxed paper. Once cool, enjoy!

Teri Thackston
Because every passion needs a little peril...
Scent of Lavender now available at Cerridwen Press

Cindy Keen Reynders: Mellow After All These Years

As a kid, I couldn't wait to grow up and get away from home. I thought my brothers and sisters were annoying. I thought my parents were straight from the Stone Age. After high school, I went to college, got married, then I was off and running. I lived in Texas, Japan, South Dakota, Colorado, moved back to Japan, then back to Colorado. Finally, twenty-two years later, I moved home to Cheyenne, Wyo. which is full of my relatives.

After all those years and all those places, you'd think I'd sit down and write a book about my travels. Somehow I became fascinated by the dynamics of the home folks; the ups, the downs—everything. So I wrote a book about an off-the-wall family in the small, fictional town of Moose Creek Wyoming. I focused particularly on sisters Lexie Lightfoot and Lucy Parnell.

In my book, The Saucy Lucy Murders and its sequel, Paws-itively Guilty, Lexie has moved back home after a divorce. She finds that with age, she and Lucy have mellowed. Nevertheless, the sisters still manage to backslide into the roles of bossy, older sibling and younger, rebellious sibling. After several mysterious murders occur in town, Lexie decides the local law officers aren't doing their jobs, and she feels the need to intervene. It's only natural that she would call upon her sister for help. Lucy, misguided as she is, lends her church-going spirit and humorously rigid outlook on life to all the cases the sisters decide to sleuth.

So if you like mysteries, if you like sisters and perhaps have one, and if you like laugh-out-loud adventure, try reading my stories. I promise, by the time you're finished, you'll have gained a new appreciation for family.

Cindy Keen Reynders

Saralee Etter: Holiday Traditions

Ahh, the holidays! Every year at this time, we travel several hours for an extended-family potluck dinner. It's great to see the kids growing up, and catch up on everybody's lives. Someone brings a turkey or ham; Aunt Joan makes her famous deviled eggs, and there are lots of side-dishes. I like to bring dessert—my chocolate cream pie usually gets rave reviews, which is nice to hear, but there are never any leftovers to take home.

So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Traditional Regency romances are light and sweet, just perfect for curling up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea or cocoa by your side.

My traditional Regency romance, A Limited Engagement, begins at a dinner table. Not a holiday meal, just a family-style dinner at home. In a few hours, Miranda Luce will make her debut on stage, and she's a little bit nervous. Little does she know that she will soon meet a man who will change the direction of her life!

Miranda joined her brother-in-law Edward's acting troupe when her father's death left her penniless. She is ready to embark upon her new life as an actress. But after her stage debut, Edward is taken to debtor's prison. Miranda and her sister Mary have to find a way to pay his debt, or the theater will be closed down and they will lose everything.

Lord Justin Devereux needs a fiancée right away, so his uncle will give him access to his inheritance. But he doesn't want to get married, especially not to his aunt's protégée, a predatory little beauty named
Lettice Tenley.

So he hires Miranda to play the role of his betrothed. They have it all worked out: After her one-night appearance, his "fiancee" will be conveniently called to a distant sickbed, never to be seen again. Miranda will be able to pay her brother-in-law's debt, and Devereux will be free to carry out his dream of buying land far away from the brittle, unsatisfying London social scene. But when Justin hired Miranda, neither of them expected to fall in love….

I hope you enjoy reading Justin and Miranda's story as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I hope your holidays are full of all the love and laughter that make the season memorable.

I've heard so many good holiday stories from my friends. One woman made her "special recipe" every year for twenty years, even though it was a nuisance to make and she didn't really like to eat it, either. Finally, she told her sister-in-law the awful truth.

Shocked, her sis-in-law replied, "But we only asked for it because we thought you liked it!"

What traditions do you enjoy in your family? What are your most memorable recipes and events of the season?

Saralee Etter

Stories so charming and disarming, it's alarming!

A Limited Engagement
Cerridwen Press - Cotillion Regency romance
ISBN 978-1419911590

Karina Bliss: Kids and Romance?

Kids and romance...do they mix?

When I began writing romance I swore I’d never put kids in one of my books. Kids and romance – oil and water.

Two things reinforced this view:

1. Motherhood (but isn’t the baby’s supposed to fit around our lifestyle?)

2. Reading books that shoehorned a kid into the story to show how caring the heroine or hero was without the hero or heroine actually having to do any work.

My son was three months old when I threw a book against the wall because the heroine had twin babies who went down like angels at six p.m. and slept twelve hours. After which she dressed in pre-baby clothes, served her new love – the hero – a three-course dinner by candlelight and engaged in passionate all-night sex. Yeah right!

Then I started writing and a kid sneaked into my first book, forcing my hero to stop being cool and urbane and demonstrate a little ineptness, a little uncertainty. Dragged my hero (and me) out of our comfort zone.

In my next romance, my hero was very good with kids. In fact he had such a special bond with his former girlfriend’s child (wait a minute, what’s a kid doing in this book?) that it really hurt him to do the right thing and encourage the boy’s relationship with his real father. The heroine fell in love with him. So did I.

Determined to stop the tide I pulled back on the kid thing in the third book - after all, it was a very sexy premise - but somehow a smart baby and a sharp-tongued delinquent sneaked in anyway.

This book I stopped fighting my destiny and wrote Second-Chance Family (Superromance November 08) - A guy inherits custody of three kids with his ex wife. Yep, three. You can read an excerpt on my website.

And I made the kids real (in fact I stole some of my son’s, nieces and nephews quirks and best lines). And I made the kids sad and funny and needy in a way that forced my hero and heroine to dig deeper, hurt more, love more and make sacrifices. Be heroic in a very real and powerful way. Pretty much like good parents do all the time. I made these two really earned their happy-ever-after.

So now I’m begrudgingly admitting that sometimes kids can work in a romance.

What’s your view?

Karina Bliss

Melissa MacNeal: Beach Lover

Put me on a deserted stretch of beach, and I don't have to die to go to heaven. Most likely, it'll be daybreak–or, as in this photo taken at Hug Point, north of Manzanita, or we pulled over to take in the view and loved it so much we decided to look at homes here.

Meanwhile, I was already conjuring an idea that became a series proposal: the Oregon shore became the setting for a whole cast of characters who augment their psychic/spiritual gifts by living in a fictional town near the sea.

Atmosphere–the way a place makes you feel–can influence your life and writing in big ways!

This isn't the first time I've been so affected by a sense of place. Back when we vacationed in Colorado a lot, it was a chance drive along the winding, unpaved Phantom Canyon road that inspired my very first published novel. Even then, in the late '80's, I realized that "working vacations" were my best inspiration for stories: touring historic homes in Hannibal inspired a book, and digging around in local museum bookstores everywhere I go has provided more fascinating research than I'll ever be able to use in my writing lifetime.

But it's being there that starts the story rolling in my mind. It was wandering the side streets the French Quarter in New Orleans, musing about what went on in those third-story apartments over the dilapidated buildings, that led me to write one of my Black Lace books.

Sitting in the bow of a fishing boat, off the map in Canada on a river so clear we could see the fish all the way to the bottom, while eagles soared over the cliffs around us, I suddenly knew this was where the hero of my WIP had to go to escape the U.S. marshals who were tailing him. Changed the whole last half of the book–but it was the right thing to do!

Several of my contemporary erotic novels take place on cruise ships or exotic islands, inspired by those vacations–and by private tours of the ships' jails, morgues and captains' quarters, where I was invited as an honored guest because I was a writer! Talk about a good feeling!

It occurs to me that I've lived in mid-Missouri for more than twenty years and have yet to set a book anywhere near home…so I guess I'll keep traveling for my story inspiration! We leave for the Oregon coast in a week. Already I hear the steady undercurrent of the waves and feel the damp mist of those forests on my face, and I'm eagerly anticipating the new images and sensations that will lead me to more stories! Maybe to a second home!

Tough job, but someone's gotta do it.
Melissa MacNeal

Julie Miller says "Happy Holidays!"

In all my years as an author--and I just finished #36, so I've been doing this for a while--I've never written a Christmas story before. But I finally got that opportunity with this month's release, Kansas City Christmas. It's the fourth and final book in my bestselling Precinct: Brotherhood of the Badge miniseries for Harlequin Intrigue. I've always wanted to do a story set in Kansas City at Christmas time because it's such a beautiful city at that time of year--let me tell you, the folks down on the Plaza have known for decades about how to decorate up a fancy party for the holidays.

I'm sharing some pictures from the Plaza area, just south of downtown Kansas City. The J.C. Nichols Plaza was one of the very first shopping "mall" districts in the U.S., if not the first. It is designed with striking Mediterranean style architecture, and bears a resemblance to Paris, France with its many public fountains, bridges, walkways, sculptures and works of art. You'll find many nationally and internationally famous stores there, as well as some classy boutiques and specialty shops. Plus, it's a
Mecca for entertainment, playing home to theaters and a wide variety of restaurants from top notch elegance to eat with your fingers casual dining--including, imho, the best barbecue place on the planet!

While it's truly a beautiful city any time of the year, come the holidays, Kansas City does it up right. With well over a million lights, the Plaza is lit up every year on Thanksgiving evening, giving the place an ethereal holidy glow. Every rooftop and and building is lit up with a string of lights (that stay up year round--whew! maintenance is time-consuming enough--can you imagine that project of taking down and putting up that many lights every year?). The lights then are on every night throughout the holidays. Stores stay open late and, of course, you can enjoy the nightlife of entertainment, or take carriage rides (they even have a Cinderella pumpkin carriage for the most romantic of you). You can enjoy it simply by bundling up and walking the wide sidewalks and checking out the amazing store window displays, then step inside for a hot toddy or cup of cocoa. Yum.

So, like I said, Kansas City Christmas is my first Christmas themed novel of romantic suspense. And, because the Plaza and the lights are so much a part of what I associate with the season, I made a point of having my characters, Det. Edward Rochester Kincaid and M.E. Dr. Holly Masterson, stop down on the Plaza. Edward has a real thing against Christmas because of traumatic events in his life--he's a dark and tortured hero if you like the type. Holly, on the other hand, sees Christmas as a way to celebrate life and honor her family (she's endured some trauma, too). This isn't just a story about finally catching the bad guys and healing a wounded family, it's about discovering the power of love and the strength it sometimes takes to love again.

In my family, besides the Plaza, Christmas decorations are a big deal. My mother has a Santa Claus room, decorated for Christmas year round with just about every type of Santa and Christmas ornament--including some rare antiques and handmade ones from kids and grandkids. My hubby has a Star Trek tree. As long as we've been married, his November birthday has been easy to buy for--he wants whatever Star Trek ornament Hallmark is releasing that year. Now we've gotten so many space ships and Tribbles and captains, that we had to get him a tree of his own. Growing up, too, I was allergic to pines and other Christmas trees, so my dad built a Scandinavian cross-bar tree with hooks for all the ornaments. My mom and brothers and I decorated it with paint and ribbon, and over the years it has truly become a work of art. It stays up in the Santa Claus room year-round, too. It'd be sort of like taking down all those Plaza lights if we tried to change it.

So what do holiday decorations mean to you? Autumn colors at Thanksgiving? Lights at Hanukkah? Colorful presents under the tree? A special collection of ornaments? A neighborhood competition to see who can use the most wattage and electricity? A special town or neighborhood?

I hope you enjoy Kansas City Christmas and the rest of my Brotherhood of the Badge books from Harlequin. And I hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday season, decorated just the way you like it!

Best wishes,
Julie Miller

Coming soon:
Out of Control, Harlequin Blaze, April 2009

Christmas--in 3-Part Harmony- Justiss, Burrows and Brisbin

My Favorite Christmas Carol by Terri Brisbin

I tend to like the old traditional carols best. “Silent Night” sung during Midnight Mass always gives me the chills. “O Holy Night” does the same thing. I can even remember standing on stage, in the third row (because I was tall for my age), in my berry-red skirt and white blouse during the fifth grade Christmas play singing harmony in “O Holy Night” and just feeling the excitement and splendor of the Season.

I still love that carol, especially Josh Groban’s version of it, but. . . a little confession here….I also like the South Park version of it! Yes!! It’s terrible but I laugh all the way through it as Cartman tries to sing the right words and his ‘friends’ shock him when he doesn’t. I also like “A Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses, “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo”, “Wish Liszt” and “Wizards in Winter” by TransSiberian Orchestra. And pretty much anything on a Wyndham Hill Christmas collection, especially music by Nightnoise.

So, yes, I’m torn between traditional and modern. But one place and event when those two come together is in Walt Disney World at Christmastime. Every year, they present the “Candlelight Procession” in Epcot and it includes professional singers and musicians as well as high school and college choirs. The process onto the stage and are led through the story of the Nativity by a celebrity narrator and the show includes all the best traditional carols as well as a few modern ones, too. The most rousing song in the show is an old song called “Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy” and it was made even better when I watched the sign language interpreter expressing the song in wonderful gestures and smiles.

If you want to take a peek, here’s a link to a video of it on YouTube. What’s your favorite Christmas or Holiday song? Traditional or modern?

No matter which, I hope you enjoy it as you celebrate this coming Holiday Season!

Terri Brisbin

Christmas--in 3-Part Harmony- Justiss, Burrows and Brisbin

Julia Justiss: Thoughts on a Carol

The theme of my Christmas story is miracles—the original title was “Merry’s Christmas Miracle”—though this refers not so much to supernatural happenings as to having something wondrous occur long past the time when one has given up all hope of it. Meredyth Wellingford, who lost her chance to wed when her fiancé was killed in India, believes it impossible to find again a love like the one she once knew. But as all true romantics know, miracles do happen—especially at Christmastime!

I have to admit, the real reason my favorite carol is my favorite is because it has beautiful harmony and a wonderful alto line. Having sung in choirs since I was six years old (and thus probably holding the world record for the number of “d”s sung in a lifetime—fellow altos, you know the note I mean) I was thrilled to discover the interwoven melodies in the old German carol, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.”

Incidentally, the song just happens to feature miracles, beginning with a “floweret bright” blooming “amid the cold of winter.” (Yes, I’m a passionate gardener too.) Even non-gardeners know roses do not bloom in the snow, yet the lyricist has us believe that God’s love allowed the rose, Mary—a virgin no less, another miracle--to bear a midwinter child who would “from Sin and Death now save us/and share our every load.”

I find unison melodies boring, preferring the complexity of interwoven chords. Which probably explains why secondary characters are so important in my stories; I like my heroes and heroines to reveal themselves not just in relationship to each other, but by interacting with a range of people who add richness and depth to their character.

Love, human as well as divine, truly is a miracle that can help us bear all our burdens, illuminate our lives with joy and spur us to acts of unselfish heroism of which we would never have believed ourselves capable. May you find and cherish such miracles at Christmas and always!

Julia Justiss

Christmas--in 3-Part Harmony- Justiss, Burrows and Brisbin

Annie Burrows's Favourite Christmas Carol

One of the things I like best about Christmas is singing all the seasonal hymns of celebration that you just don’t get to hear at any other time of the year.

I love ones that evoke the weather, such as “In the Bleak Midwinter”, even though I suspect it is a highly inaccurate depiction of the nativity. Do they have snow in winter in Bethlehem?

I love the slightly bizarre tale of “Good King Wenceslas” and his hapless little page boy, being dragged out in all that snow to deliver food and wine to “yonder peasant”. At the church I used to go to when I was little, the congregation always used to split into parts, with the men taking the words of Wenceslas, and the ladies and children the little page boy.
But my all time favourite is “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!” John and Charles Wesley, who headed a great revival in England, made sure that they encapsulated the full gospel in the words of that hymn. I sometimes wonder why it is never sung at any other time of the year, but is, inexorably associated with Christmas time.

The tune itself is stirring, particularly when you get to the verse where you can have a go at singing the descant part. (In my case, to the detriment of anyone’s ears in the near vicinity.) And so it was, that when I was asked to write a story to go into a Christmas themed anthology, I found myself wandering round the house, singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” with great gusto. Well, while everyone else was out, anyway, so that they could not complain.

And the line that particularly inspired me was, “God and sinners reconciled.” I soon found myself wanting to write a story about reconciliation, and second chances.

That, to me, is what is at the heart of what people truly celebrate at Christmas, be it in a cottage in Regency England, or now, in the glitzy twenty-first century.

Annie Burrows

Bonnie Vanak: Oh those uber Alpha weres...

My November Nocturne, Enemy Lover, is true shifter book. It shifted so many times while writing it that some days I felt like a werewolf clawing at the keyboard. Or a floating fairy flying the story to a new stratosphere. You see, I started out creating Jamie, the heroine, as a flying fairy. I wanted her to be pixy-like, a kind of Super Fairy. That didn't work out. So instead Iendowed her with superpowers she doesn't know she has until halfway through the book. She can teleport, play "floater basketball," and has the power of telekinesis. In one scene in the French Quarter, she physically hurls Damian, the hero, and a rival werewolf into the air to prevent them from killing each other.

Flying werewolves! It fit, and seemed cooler than flying monkeys. Enemy Lover pairs an old-fashioned, powerful Alpha Draicon werewolf with a young, hip woman who is his very reluctant destined mate, Damian is a protective, aggressive Alpha who would give his life for his pack and especially for Jamie, his mate. He's sexy and dynamic, but as overpowering as he is, she is equally strong. Jamie tried killing Damian with a poison kiss because she believes he murdered her brother. She also happens to be a computer geek who is into World of Warcraft and she's dying of a spell turning her into stone. Damian is faced with searching through New Orleans to find an ancient book of magick to save her life, figuring out what Jamie means when she calls him an "uber Alpha" and fighting the Morphs, the enemy that want them both dead. Then he finds out she's got a whole boatload full of psi powers he's never before encountered. What's an Alpha to do, let alone an "uber" Alpha?

When I created the Draicon werewolves for my first Nocturne, The Empath, I decided to have them search for their destined mates, who contained the missing half of their magick. They needed an enemy to fight, so I invented the Morphs, former Draicon who turned evil by killing a relative to gain power. Morphs can shapeshift into any animal or insect form. In Enemy Lover, they shift into a swarm of hornets to attack Jamie and Damian.

But for Enemy Lover, I wanted the Draicon to have a more powerful weapon in the Morph war. Jamie possesses the ability to become that weapon, which is ironic because she regards all Draicon as her enemy, especially Damian. Damian must convince her to trust him, and gently coax her into becoming his lover and his mate. It's a challenge he never anticipated, especially when he discovers she can turn him into a flying werewolf. Jamie gradually turns to him, enlisting his help in harnessing the magick she's longed for all her life. Yet the use of her new powers expedites the stone spell, changing Jamie's internal organs into granite and turning her hair and nails gray. Damian and Jamie must race against time to find the magick book before Jamie is forever turned into stone.

Each of my Nocturne books can be read alone, even though they are connected.

I hope you enjoy Damian and Jamie's story of courage, strength and how two strong-willed individuals learn to set aside the past to forge new beginnings formed from love and understanding. You can read an excerpt of Enemy Lover on my website.

Happy reading!

P.S. An interesting bit of trivia — part of Enemy Lover was written on location in the French Quarter at the Hotel Provincial. The hotel, a former Confederate hospital, was recently named one of the top ten best haunted hotels by AOL Travel. Maids have reported seeing bloodstained sheets appear and vanish. I didn't see any ghosts, bloodstained sheets, or even flying werewolves while staying there. However, I did have a great view of the Ursuline Convent from the bathroom window. The convent is rumored to be haunted as well. That particular ghost story inspired a funny scene in Enemy Lover.

Kathleen Long: The Power of Hope

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the idea of hope. Perhaps it's the recent election and the atmosphere of change hanging in the air, perhaps it's the way I look toward each day with a big smile thanks to my toddler daughter and her views on the world. To her, every day is full of new and wonderful experiences. Every day is full of hope.

Perhaps I've been thinking about hope because I write romance and let's face it, romance is full of hope. And not just the promise of hope, but the promise of a happily ever after.

After all, what other genre guarantees that at the end of each book the reader will walk away with a sigh, a smile and the knowledge that true love conquers all?

As a writer, hope is the theme that carries through whatever I'm working on, be that straight romance, romantic suspense or romantic comedy. Hope lights my creative writing fires and keeps me coming back to my stories again and again. As a reader, hope keeps me turning page after page, often into the early morning hours.

No matter how scarred, how desperate or how wounded a character might be, there's hope things will get better, mysteries will be solved and hearts will be healed. There's hope love will conquer all, and even the most stubborn of heroes or heroines will find redemption and wholeness in loving another.

We may differ in the things that ignite our hopes and keep our hopes alive, but I'd venture to say we all agree that hope is one of the things—if not the main thing—that drives us forward. Hope is the thing that leads and inspires our thoughts, our actions and our dreams.

One of my favorite quotes follows:

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer." –Albert Camus

People often ask me when I started writing and why. The short answer is that I started writing when I was in second grade and never stopped. Yet, I didn't get serious about my writing until the summer of 2001. It was then that I knew I had to write.

My transforming moment came several months after our first daughter died. I picked up a book—a romance—by Barbara Delinsky. For the first time in a very long time, I was transported away from my broken heart. My grief fell away. I lost myself in the pages of that book and found a wonderful, safe escape.

I found hope.

I vowed then and there that if my writing might someday provide a similar escape for a reader, I had to try. Hope, after all, is an incredible thing to find between the covers of a book.

These days I can point to a spot in each of my books where a character realizes there's hope, be it hope for the future, hope for survival or hope for true love. In my newest release, Christmas Confessions, hope pervades every aspect of story and characterization.

My heroine, Abby Conroy, hopes she can find a way to ease her guilt through her work at her confession site, Don't Say a Word. Yet when a killer uses her site to confess his crimes, her hope becomes focused on uncovering the truth, on trusting the hero, on surviving.

Abby realized her only hope of survival now was a Christmas miracle…named Jack.

(Christmas Confessions, Harlequin Intrigue, November 2008)

For my hero, Jack Grant, hope died years earlier with the brutal murder of his sister and the killer's acquittal. Now, with the anonymously-made confessions, Jack has hope of finding justice and closure, not just for himself but also for the families of four other victims. Yet as the story progresses, Jack's hope shifts from the past to the present, narrowing to the hope of saving Abby, no matter the cost.

He was a brother who had lost a sister, a detective who wanted justice, and a man who wanted the woman he loved to live to see the years of life ahead of her.

For them both, the hope of love and trust and healing hovers at the edge of every move they make, every look they share, every moment they spend together.

She still held on to hope Jack might show up on her doorstep one day. For Abby, Jack Grant had unlocked far more than a case. He'd unlocked her heart.

That's the beauty of romance. The power of hope. The promise of a happy ending.

Just for fun, share what you're reading now. What genre gives you your favorite escape? And what hopes keep you turning the pages late into the night?

Until next time, happy reading!

Kathleen Long
Christmas Confessions
"...a first-class mystery with a wickedly surprising ending."
-RTBookReviews

Laura Hayden: I'm not Maggie Shayne

Nope, not in my wildest dreams am I Maggie Shayne, no matter how much I might like to be. Maggie had a slight scheduling problem so I'm stepping in to say that we'll be rescheduling her blog shortly.

In the meanwhile, hey, how about those politics? How about that Presidential election? Heady stuff, eh? That's about as political as I'll get because I don't do politics.

Well, actually I do. I do fictional politics. My "America the Beautiful" series kicked off in March 2008 with the titular book, America The Beautiful. What if a woman was running for President? No, not her. The candidate I'm talking about is Emily Benton.

Emily's been groomed for the office since birth, raised in a powerful political family. She's served in a series of positions, escalating in power and the Presidency is the next natural step. Her rise in power is chronicled by her best friend, campaign director and eventual White House Chief of Staff, Kathryn "Kate" Rosen.

Kate's biggest problem is that she and Emily, although great friends and allies, have differing values. Kate is a woman of faith and Emily? She believes in herself and that's pretty much all. In the first book, when the campaign takes a soiled turn, Kate has to determine just how far will she go to help put her friend in office. How far is too far?

The next book in the series, Red, White and Blue, will come out this next March and continues the saga of Emily Benton's bid for the Presidency, picking up on election night and continuing for the first 100 days of office.

It's interesting, writing a book about an election during an election year. Each book covers a period of political time that currently exists. In the first book, the bulk of the book took place during the primaries, the national conventions and then the head-to-head race for the office. To be true to the process, I had to do extensive research and literally create a Presidential campaign from the ground floor up. The upcoming book covers the election, the flurry of pre-inauguration work, and the first few months in office as America and the world learns more about their President. In this book, I had to create the political machinery around a newly installed President.

All of this forms the framework I used to examine the relationship of friendship, faith and family and how they intersect.

I'm running a contest on my website. Read the excerpt and answer the question. As an added bonus, if you add a comment here, I'll include you in the contest twice and double your chances of winning.

Maggie Jagger's Regency Debut

Every Midnight is my first book. I knew this book was odd, strange, to say the least. It shows the Regency world as it really was, with a syphilis epidemic raging.

Dare I say it is comedic in tone? Surely not! Who would dare write funny things about that? The humor is in the voice and the attitudes of the characters--or only in the mind of the author. Lizzie is afraid of catching syphilis because her mother died of the disease. She will do anything to make sure the man she is being forced to marry does not do wicked things with harlots and return to infect her. She insists on making a pact with him. Her offer of sex once a month is soundly rejected.

Lizzie held her head high and lied like a Felmont. “I shall never marry you if you insist on a mistress. As for your appetite for sin, I might consent to endure it occasionally. Once a month is all I offer. Surely you can live with that--it isn’t as if you find me the least bit attractive.”

Lizzie saw him try to quell his laughter as he signaled his refusal of her offer.

She slid into her chair before she spoke again. “Then once a week, if you are going to insist on being depraved.”

Poor Lizzie has to settle for every midnight, and she must pretend to love him during the day. Every midnight came back to haunt me as I wrote the book. Like Lizzie, I would cry, it can’t be midnight again! I began to wish she had insisted on once a year. The only person happy was the hero, who appeared behind my chair as I typed to remind me it was almost midnight. It made me very conscious that every day had to be filled with action and seduction, and some strange funny bits, before the next midnight loomed.

To my surprise, Every Midnight became a fictionwise.com bestseller. My publisher, New Concepts Publishing brought it out in print in October. I am thrilled to find my odd story about syphilis has been bought by so many readers. I hope they enjoyed it and didn’t just buy it to find out how weird I am.

My next book is a medieval called, Perfect Obedience. It will be a December release from New Concepts Publishing. I can only hope that the artist took no notice of any of my suggestions for the cover. To reassure the nervous reader, there is absolutely no mention of syphilis in Perfect Obedience. I am sure a little mild bondage is perfectly acceptable, isn’t it?

I return to the Regency for a few more books, with some characters from Every Midnight having stories of their own. If you have read Every Midnight--yes, I am writing about Angel and how he falls in love, and if he manages to lose his virginity.

Happy Reading, Maggie

Mallory Kane says: Reunions can be deadly.

I have a book coming out in December from Harlequin Intrigue called High School Reunion. Since it's an Intrigue, the tag line reads, naturally, Reunions can be deadly.

That tag line has also been my attitude about reunions. I swore years ago that I'd never attend my high school reunion. My recollections of high school are of embarrassment, tears, longings, frustrations...you get the idea. I was the geek, the bespectacled bookworm, the gawky late-bloomer.

Oddly enough, so was Laurel, my heroine in High School Reunion. Laurel became a forensic specialist with the FBI. An old friend tries to talk her into returning to her home town for her tenth year reunion. She refuses--until a snapshot from graduation night makes her think a student who supposedly committed suicide that night was actually murdered.

Laurel goes to the reunion, figures out what really happened, nearly gets herself killed in the process, and finds happily ever after with her high school crush, who's now the Police Chief.

I went to my reunion, had a much better time than I ever thought I would, renewed some friendships, and for a brief moment, was a celebrity, because I write books. Oh, and didn't solve a single murder.

My friends are all over the map on their opinions of reunions. I have friends who were the cheerleaders, who dated the football captain, were class favorites. And I have friends who were more painfully shy than I was, and that's saying something. But at my reunion, I discovered that I had a lot more friends in high school than I remembered having.

It was hard for me to go to that reunion, but I'm glad I did. Who out there gets hives at the very mention of revisiting high school days? And who thought high school was the best time ever?

Mallory Kane  (Visit her MySpace page.)
     Available now: Solving The Mysterious Stranger
     Coming in December: High School Reunion