Geri Krotow asks: What’s In a Title?

Looking at my latest release, What Family Means (Harlequin SuperRomance 2/09), I’m at once thrilled to again be published in book-length fiction, in awe of the cover art that depicts the perfect Buffalo, New York snowstorm, and amazed at the title. My working title for this story was “Remember Paris.” While Paris does play an integral part in the romance of my hero and heroine, it isn’t what the book is about. This story is about love against all odds, and just as important, family against all odds. So you see, What Family Means turns out to be the perfect title for this story.

Family means so many different things to all of us. Family of origin, extended family, birth family, adoptive family, step-family, blended family. Then of course the adage that you can choose your friends but not your family. I think of my closest friends as indeed a part of my family. But what really connects us all? What provides the cement, the glue that keeps people, related by birth or choice, together?

I dug deep to try to find at least one answer to this question—the answer that worked for Debra and Will in What Family Means. Debra is from a white, economically-challenged part of Buffalo. Will is African-American and his father a successful doctor. Debra and Will meet as children in the 1950’s, and fall in love with one another through the 1960’s and early 1970’s. I tried to be true to history and honor the struggles couples like Debra and Will faced. But I also honored what kept them together, allowed them to marry, have children, and thrive as a couple. Love.

It’s a thrill for me to blog here at NovelTalk. It’s always been my dream to be a published author and well, here I am—book number two already! I can’t thank all the wonderful folks who read my first book, and have asked “when’s the next one coming out?”

I’ll leave you with my gratitude, and something to mentally chew on. Happy St. Valentine’s Day in advance!

What’s your definition of family? What struggles have you been through to protect and nurture your love?

Geri Krotow

Life can bring you some zany surprises, can't it? Two years ago, right after an unexpected death in the family, I was away from home, picking out a casket on my birthday because the next of kin were too devastated, when I got a call from Marsha Zinberg at Harlequin, asking me to be a part of the upcoming Harlequin NASCAR series.

Her request, while something I told her I was completely unsuited for, was the one bright spot in a very dark day. I didn't tell her what was going on in my life right then, but when she urged me to consider the request and offered to send me more information, I reached for that ray of sunshine and said okay.

Even though, as I'd told her, "Not only do I know nothing about NASCAR, Marsha, it looks like a really dumb sport, cars just driving around in a circle."

Famous last words.

Fast forward a few weeks. I'm back at home, we're all trying to settle back into real life. I get the information and start researching. I find Nascar.com. Discover the Speed channel. Start filling up my DVR with pre-race shows—Trackside Live, coverage of qualifying, of practices, even wading my way through episodes of Performance, where crew chiefs talk about the innards of the cars (my mechanic granddaddy would have been so proud of me!!!) I pore through NASCAR for Dummies. Start absorbing terms like camber and tight and loose and downforce. I watch my first race (Bristol spring race, if anyone's interested.)

And get hooked on the continuing drama that is NASCAR—feuds and friendships, folks to cheer, others to boo, something new each and every week. At last, I understand just how complex the sport is, how much strategy plays a part, right along with skill and cunning and Lady Luck.
And then, I attend my first race, the Bristol night race—called the hottest ticket in NASCAR. And have to inform my indulgent honey, who is endlessly amused at this new fascination (okay, obsession) of mine, "Um...you know how I said all this was just research for a book? Hate to break it to you, darlin', but...I'm pretty sure I'm still going to be following racing even after I finish writing."

Of course, during all this, I have friends and family who think I've lost my mind. Who can't imagine anyone less likely to be a fan and think I'll outgrow it. I also discovered—in all sorts of unexpected places—interesting people who just happen to be race fans. (One in four Americans is a NASCAR fan, and nearly half of those are women, just so you know.)

So here I am, one Christmas novella and one 2008 book later, now unveiling the first of two books in the 2009 series, with two more stories coming in 2010...who knew?!?! The three series all have connected stories and a continuing cast of characters. Black Flag, White Lies, my February release, is about Will Branch, one of the twin driver sons of Maeve Branch, heroine of Extreme Caution, my December 2008 release. And in 2010, I'll be doing the story of Will's twin Bart.

But for those of you who, like I did, think you don't give a hoot about NASCAR, well, hey, that's your choice, for sure. You might turn out, like me, to need to eat a little crow, should you decide to check into it—or you might not. Regardless, rest assured that these book are, first and foremost, romances, so even if you're not a race fan, you'll find the same qualities in these books as my others—powerful emotion and complex characters I hope you'll root for to find love in the end.

And for those of you who were NASCAR fans long before me, well, what can I say? I came late to the party—

But I'm here to stay!
Jean
Visit Jean's website!

John Wayne, John Belushi, and Me - Barbara Bretton

For years I avoided watching The Quiet Man. WPIX played it every St Paddy's Day and by the time Sean Thornton showed up in Innisfree, I was usually heading for the kitchen to clean the oven or do something equally entertaining. I hated John Wayne back then. I hated his movies. I thought he was a lumbering, strange-looking, no-talent actor and that The Quiet Man perfectly showcased all of those qualities.

And then on St. Patrick's Day 1980 I fell in love. I don't know if I'd opened my mind to the movie or to the man, but suddenly The Quiet Man became one of my all-time favorites. I loved the theme, the scenery, the wonderful faces of those character actors in the supporting cast, but mostly I loved John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. I loved seeing strength pitted against strength. I loved the way she gave as good as she got in every situation and hung onto the things she believed defined her as a woman and as a wife. I loved (and still love) the scene in the doorway of the rose-covered cottage with the storm outside and within, the wind tangling both her hair and her emotions. She pulls away from John Wayne but he doesn't let go of her wrist. I see them, caught almost in a dance move of exquisite tension and possibilities, There is between them love and respect and desire that went deeper than reason. It's a lusty, bawdy, funny and touching movie and I almost missed it.

What was it about The Quiet Man that revealed itself to me that day that had eluded me all the times that had come before? You see, I have a theory about how certain movies turn into beloved gotta-buy-the-DVD favorites and it has to do with timing. It's a lot like love at first sight. On another day you might very well have turned away from the love of your life and wandered aimlessly and alone across the romantic horizon for the rest of your life. Same way with movies. (And with books, for that matter.) You need a serendipitous blend of mood and atmosphere and magic to turn an okay movie into one of your personal never-fail favorites.

Don't laugh, but that's how Animal House ended up near the top of my Can't Miss List of Favorites. I was in a rotten PMS mood the night The Husband and I went off to see Animal House during the summer of 1978. And to make it worse, I was retaining water. You could've used me as a buoy in the Great South Bay. After supper (which I skipped in favor of mass quantities of chocolate brownies) The Husband suggested we take in a movie. Animal House was playing at the theatre next to the bowling alley. I said I'd rather be strapped to my seat and forced to watch a Clint Eastwood Festival than go see Animal House but it was a miserably hot and humid night and the thought of air conditioning finally lured me out the door.

So there I was thirty minutes later, slumped down in my seat, determined to hate the movie with every fiber of my being. But to my surprise I didn't hate it. I loved it. I laughed until I cried. I loved Flounder and Bluto and Otter and Boone and Katie and every other idiotic character. I fell out of my seat when they trashed the new applicants to Delta. "Toga! Toga! Toga!" became my mantra. If Belushi had arched his brow in my direction that night I might have run away with him.

I've often thought that the manuscript buying process in publishing is a whole lot like Delta's screening process for pledges. Flash a manuscript page on a screen and watch overworked, underpaid editors throw crushed beer cans in its general direction. First editor to score a direct hit with a crushed can of Coors gets to make the live-or-die pass-or-buy decision.

You have no idea how much I love that image.

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
--Dean Wormer, Animal House

Donnell Ann Bell: Just be professional... It's not that hard

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in my local sheriff's office citizens' academy. After sitting through six weeks of law enforcement demonstration and opinion, I believe the experience brought realism to my writing. Out of all the personnel I met during this time, there was one sergeant who impressed me above anyone else. Her words still resonate with me to this day.

Just be professional, it's not that hard.

Sadly, I can't remember her name, but I took note of her words. She was a beautiful Hispanic woman and when she stood before the class and explained that she worked in the jail -- unarmed -- among male inmates, I thought, Holy cow, this lady won't live long. Silly me. She'd worked among them for years. What's more, she was required to turn her back on this criminal element -- often.

For anyone who's been in a jail, you know there's intense security and surveillance, and the deputies can call upon immediate assistance. But knowing this didn't make me feel better. I kept thinking she could be injured or dead before help could arrive.

Turns out she hadn't made sergeant for nothing and understood the risks. What's more, she carried herself with amazing grace and an even more amazing sense of who she was. She didn't look tough on the outside, but as she called one six-foot naysayer to the front and brought him down with such ease, she filled me with a whole new appreciation and respect for who she was and what she did for a living.

After she dropped my classmate to his knees, she modestly helped him up and shook his hand. Then she turned to the class and said, "Just be professional, it's not that hard."

She also went on to explain that as a Hispanic female charged with watching over incarcerated inmates, it oftentimes presented problems. Particularly, when many of those inmates were Hispanic and grew up in households in which men did not take orders from women. So not only did the sergeant face an authority issue, she encountered a cultural barrier.
How did she handle it? By treating everyone with respect. "Those men don't know me," she said. "Their slurs and insults can't reach me. When my shift ends I go home to my family whose opinions do count."

So why do I tell you this story? Because today I'm seeing exactly what she talked about -- a reduction in professionalism. Worse, we are not inmates. I'm seeing dry wit replaced by so-called snarkiness (I have another term for it). What's more, this type of behavior is applauded. In an on-line society, where we are faceless individuals behind a computer screen, it's so easy to react and push send and forget there's a real live, flesh and blood human being on the other side.

I recently listened to a radio ad in which two actors portrayed school-aged girls, one of whom said the most horrible things to her peer. I sat back stunned, thinking what on earth? Then at the end of the message, the voice over said, "You wouldn't say it to their face, why would you say it on line?"

I don't know about you, but for anyone to even feel the need to air such a public service announcement made me incredibly sad. As for me, I think I'll follow the sergeant's example. I'll take her words to heart. I’ll strive for professionalism. I learned from the very best that it's not that hard.

Natalie Dunbar: Musings From An Edited Author

When a reader purchases an author's book, the credit or the blame for the quality of the reading experience usually goes to the author, whose name is on the book. Many readers do not understand that prior to the book getting on the shelf it goes through an editing process that the author usually participates in, but often has less than optimal control. As a multi-published author I have been edited many times. Sometimes the experience has been gratifying such as when an editor has shown me ways to make the work better as in ways of tightening a plot or character focus, removing or changing words I use too often, suggesting more effective words in some areas of the work, suggesting additional scenes to heighten the focus or impact.... The list can go on.

The relationship can be difficult, such as when you find yourself trying to reach a lofty goal of perfection that only the editor knows when it has been obtained, or when large portions of the work are summarily deleted to save paper or meet a specific word count, leaving a short and Spartan echo of the original, or new errors are somehow introduced in the editing process, or your editor is a repressed writer who really wants to write your book. In the non vanity publishing houses an editor makes the decision to buy an author's work and once it is purchased, that editor works with the author to make it the best it can be.

The relationship between an editor and the author of the work is really a partnership and when it is good, an author can flourish and grow, and when it is bad, it can stifle author creativity and turn away readers. What can an author do? Making sure that author approval is required for the final manuscript version by contract helps, but nobody introduces mistakes to a manuscript on purpose and I've seen and heard of this instance and previous manuscript versions ending up on the bookshelves in error. It should also be noted that when you are a new author you generally have little power to dictate what happens to your book. If you want your work to be published and you don't want to be self published, you don't usually get to choose your editor. They choose you by making the decision to buy your book.

This blog is not intended to bash editors. They're just doing their job. I've had some very good ones and some not so good ones. As the occasional recipient of sometimes pointy fan criticism for books with errors, books that were too short, or elements that were too much, I wanted to say that a writer can keep their work as it is for their personal use and enjoyment, but if they want to sell it and have it published, the work will most likely be edited and changed in some way, hopefully for the better and hopefully with author agreement.

What are your thoughts on the editing process? Have you been burned? Or is your editor a dream to work with?

Natalie Dunbar

Vegas Bites Three of A Kind, Parker Publishing

Jessica Andersen: OF MAYA MYTHS AND HOT MEN

As I talk to people about Dawnkeepers, one question that comes up repeatedly is one of inspiration, and how I came to take pieces of ancient Mayan mythology and bring them into a modern day paranormal romantic thriller. Given that I'm a scientist by training and have spent the last bunch of years writing medical romantic suspense, it might seem a little off-topic
for me to be writing about Maya mythology. But really it isn't. . . it goes back to being a little kid and visiting a big pyramid. This was back when Cancun was just starting to become Americanized. My parents and I stayed at small local hotels and took rattling bus tours to Mayan ruins across the Yucatan.

Ever since, I've been fascinated with the Maya. I can still close my eyes and feel the damp chill of the narrow stone stairway inside the great pyramid at Chichen Itza, or remember the squirrelly quiver at the pit of my stomach as I stood at the edge of the Cenote Sacrada. It's those images, those memories of history and grandeur and a deep sense of otherness, that came back to me, grabbed me by the throat and dragged me along for the ride then I stumbled over a reference to the endpoint of the ancient Mayan calendar, and how it aligns with scientific concerns about a stellar conjunction set to occur on that very day. . . December 21, 2012.

I mean, how cool is that?

So I started working on the concept for the Novels of the Final Prophecy. But the stories that I love to read and write aren't about a place, or a situation. . . they're about the people in those places and situations. In
Dawnkeepers, ex-lovers Nate and Alexis are forced to work together to recover seven lost Maya artifacts that are critical to the end-time war. In the process, they're forced to deal with their pasts and each other, and things heat up fast! But really, it all goes back to a rattling bus tour and a guide who'd never seen snow before (that really blew my kidlet brain).

. . and a bit of inspiration.

So tell me… what inspires you?

Jessica Andersen

Linda O. Johnston's Obsessions 2009!

This is the time of year we usually are obsessed with our New Year's resolutions. Did we make any? Can we keep them? If so, how long--all year?

My resolutions are combined with my obsessions, as usual. What obsessions are those? Well, I'm obsessed by writing, and I'm obsessed with animals--most especially my adorable two dogs, Lexie and Mystie, both Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

I combine the two obsessions by writing as much as possible about animals. In fact, my three (or possibly four) books to be published this year, as well as my e-novella, all feature animals.

They all star some very interesting characters, too, who are all animal lovers. Some of them are animals as well as humans--shapeshifters. My characters tend to be very diverse. Part of the fun of the writing process is to take people and put them into different situations and see what they do. Do you think writers control their characters? Not always...

My first book this year, available now, is Alpha Wolf, a Silhouette Nocturne. My first Nocturne, in fact. It's about Alpha Force, a new super-secret military force I've created that will appear in other stories as well. Many of its members are shapeshifters.

In Alpha Wolf, the hero is a werewolf who's helped to develop an elixir that allows Alpha Force members to shapeshift at will, and also enhances their human cognitive abilities while in shifted form. The heroine is a veterinarian who helps him--while not, at first, believing werewolves exist. Conflict? Sure! It's a fun, romantic, dark and sexy story.

Also available in January is my Nocturne Bites Claws of the Lynx. It's an e-novella, and its heroine is a member of Alpha Force who shapeshifts into--what else?-- a lynx. Her mission is to retrieve something stolen by a shady journalist... and the guy assigned to help her is her lost love who couldn't accept that she is a shapeshifter. Conflict again!

With less (although some!) romantic conflict but more mystery is my next Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery, Never Say Sty, an April release from Berkley Prime Crime. It involves potbellied pigs, dogs, and other kinds of animals, including some who participate in a TV reality show. There's a murder, of course. Kendra, to her chagrin, is a murder magnet. And her romantic interest also loves animals.

My next Silhouette Nocturne, Back to Life, will be a June 2009 release. It's not an Alpha Force story. Instead, the heroine has Valkyrie powers over life and death. She can bring back the dying in some circumstances... and those circumstances include saving the hero's life when he's closer to death than anyone else she has ever saved. Uh-oh. No animals here? Hah! My heroine is also a K-9 cop! And, yes, as a Nocturne, this is another dark but fun paranormal romance.

I'm also working on another Alpha Force sequel that will be published in late 2009 or early 2010. The hero's a werewolf whose cover is being a sled dog musher in Alaska, and the heroine is a nature writer.

Okay, as I said, my obsessions intertwine. They're also involved with my New Year's resolutions.

What are those resolutions? Write, write and write some more! And get organized. I expect to fulfill the first one. The second is more problematic, and I'll only take the time for it that won't eat into my ability to take excellent care of my pups, and to write, write and write. Oh, and yes, I'm still a lawyer, between jobs and projects right now, but I also hope to change that sometime soon.

Please come visit me anytime at my website. I also blog weekly at KillerHobbies.blogspot.com And what do I mostly blog about there? Pets (although I consider them family more than hobbies)! I'd love to hear about your New Year's resolutions and obsessions, and if they're in any way connected.

And have a wonderful, prosperous, healthy--and obsessive--New Year!

Linda O.

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

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    

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