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