Because this is a long weekend and my husband is home and I’m keeping my sister’s girls while she and my brother-in-law are vacationing in Mexico, this post is simply going to be an I-hope-you-are-enjoying-the-holiday drive-by greeting.

I’ll send free books from my bookshelf–not necessarily mine –to commenters chosen at random at the end of the day, so be sure to check the comment tail.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

In case you hadn’t been popping by regularly, I have a book out! Yay. As I mentioned in last month’s post, I love having a book out because it means I have reader letters coming my way, and reader letters make my day. Sometimes, they make my week, and if they’re very special, my month.

But I digress. This month, I wanted to talk about taking risks. The heroine in Hot Island Nights – my September Blaze – is what you might call slightly uptight. A real good girl, well behaved, well spoken, polite, deferential to her elders… You get the picture. She’s also more than a little repressed, mostly because the one time she tried to tell her fiance and soon-to-be husband what she wanted in the bedroom department, he got all stuffy and respectful and patronizing on her. Elizabeth was left feeling foolish and a little smutty for wanting what she wanted – which, you know, in the Blaze world was really pretty vanilla.

But things come to a head in Elizabeth’s life when she learns that the man she thought was her father is not her father – he was, in fact, her stepfather. It seems that while she’s believed both her parents have been dead for many years, she still has a living parent out there in the world. This shocking news, and the fact that her fiance has known this secret and colluded with her grandparents to keep this information from her gives Elizabeth the kick in the pants she needs to take charge of her own life.

She calls off her engagement. Then she flies from London to Australia in search of her birth father. She winds up on a small island off the coast of Victoria, Philip Island, but instead of meeting her father at the address she’s been given, she finds Nathan Jones. And he’s wearing nothing but a towel and a hangover and a hell of a lot of grumpy bear attitude.

I don’t think I’m giving too much away by saying that first encounter doesn’t go, shall we say, well. But when they meet again at the local pub that night, things are a little different. Elizabeth is forced to acknowledged that she finds Nathan very, very sexy. And he can’t stop looking at her and thinking about her, even though he knows she’s got “complicated” written all over her, and for his own reasons he’s not up for complicated right now.

Elizabeth is faced with a choice at the end of that evening – let an opportunity to explore other aspects of herself walk out the door (literally) or grab hold of the challenge with both hands and go for it. She takes the plunge, and even though things get rocky before they get good, it’s the best decision of her life.

All of this got me thinking – would I have been as brave as Elizabeth if I was presented with such a big life challenge? I’m not sure I would. I’ve done my share of semi-brave things in my life – moved countries twice, spoken at big public events, launched a new magazine – but I don’t know that I would have the courage to turn my life upside down the way Elizabeth does.

What about you? Are you a risk taker? Or do you prefer to indulge your love of challenge and risk between the pages of a book? Or are you a mixture of both – a sometimes-risk taker who likes to walk on the wildside within the pages of someone else’s story as well? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. And I’ll be giving away 2 copies of Hot Island Nights to 2 random posters, so don’t be shy! I’m really looking forward to your stories and responses on this one.

I’ve always loved September. It just seems so full of…possibility. The weather (at least, up here) is perfect for outdoor adventures. The leaves are turning into a beautiful mosaic of green, gold and orange. And the kids are gearing up for their next adventure – back to school!

Although I’ve been out of school for more years than I’d like to count, I still feel that same anticipation, that urge to try something new. And I couldn’t think of a better place to start than this blog. Luckily, the Blaze authors agreed with me….

Each month, the Blaze authors and I will start up a discussion about one element in the craft of writing. If you’re a romance novelist in the making, this is a great opportunity to learn a few things you might not know. And if you’re happy just reading these wonderful books, well, hopefully, you’ll gain some new insight. It’s always cool to get insider information….

I’ve decided to start with the element I consider the most important–VOICE. Author voice is the reason readers make it a point to get their hands on everything they can by an author they love. Sure, they’re looking for a good story. But more importantly, they’re looking for the way the author tells that story. It comes through in language choice, in dialogue…through the main character’s perspective.

As an editor, voice is the first thing I look for when I’m considering a submission. I’m looking for writing that grabs my attention, that immediately pulls me into the story. This is especially important in the Blaze series. After all, we want our readers to immediately jump into the heroine’s shoes, to join in on the sexual adventure with her, and to experience every sensual thrill along the way. And ultimately, we want our readers to fall as hard for the hero as our heroines do. So, how does an author pull this off? Through fantastic character development…and a voice that encourages you, the reader, to come along for the ride.

I’m going to leave this for now. I’ve asked the Blaze authors to jump in with their views over the next few days, so check often.

In the meantime, let me show you the fantastic books available this month…

First up is Lori Wilde’s first Blaze Encounters–SWEET SURRENDER. In these stories, a group of friends make a bet—a chastity bet! A summer without sex? Luckily, Blaze readers know that a plan like that doesn’t have a hope in, well, you know…

Then Wendy Etherington takes us back to Palmer’s Island, South Carolina, in HER PRIVATE TREASURE. The heroine, an FBI agent, gets more than she bargained for when she starts investigating sexy Carr Hamilton.

Karen Foley launches her new It Takes a Hero miniseries this month with HOT-BLOODED. This book is linked to PACKING HEAT, Karen’s story in the BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY anthology last July, and features another hot military man. However, in this new miniseries, the true heroes aren’t only the guys…

Then Tawny Weber brings you the Forbidden Fantasies book this month. Her heroine’s fantasy? To run off to Mexico and indulge in an anonymous fling with a hot boy toy. RIDING THE WAVES is fun, wickedly sensual and very, very evocative. Back in February, when I was working on this book, I came very close to booking my own plane ticket!

Next up is Patricia Potter’s Blaze debut with THE LAWMAN, our latest Blaze Historical, set in 1876 Colorado. What’s a girl to do when a U.S Marshal comes looking for her adoptive father? Shoot him, of course! Let’s face it, it’s definitely one way to keep a good looking man in bed….

Sarah Mayberry finishes up the month with HOT ISLAND NIGHTS, a steamy ‘opposites-attract ‘tale set in Australia. And nobody knows just how hot it can get Down Under better than Aussie native Sarah…

So now, you’ve got two things to keep you busy – an incredible month of books…and a challenge. How does an author’s voice influence the books you read? Is voice something you consciously look for? How would you describe the voices of your favorite writers? Inquiring minds want to know…

And, as always, we’re giving away a free set of the September books to one lucky reader. To enter, add the phrase ‘I really, really want the September Blaze books’ to the comment field.

Good luck. And be sure to let me know what you think of the new approach we’re taking.

Brenda Chin
Senior Editor
Harlequin Blaze

I can’t believe it’s the end of August–where did the summer go?  It seems as if it just started and now it’s gone.  The past three months have been filled with moving into a new house, writing like a maniac, making new friends in our new neighborhood, writing like a maniac, attending the RWA conference, writing like a maniac…you get the idea. 

 

I’ve always loved summer.  When I was a kid it was all about riding bikes and going to the beach and playing with friends.  Hot sunny days filled with cookouts, nights of catching lightning bugs and playing tag and kick the can (although we always used a ball instead of a can).  I haven’t played tag or kick the can in a long time, but I still love cookouts and lightning bugs.

 

What did you do this summer?  And how did you spend your summer days when you were a kid?

The following program contains content that may be inappropriate for some viewers. Parental discretion is advised..

You have to admire a show about food that contains the previous warning.

Thanks to the magic of Netflix streaming seamlessly to my fabulous MacBook and my lack of a deadline, I’ve been watching a lot of TV episodes with the zeal and power of a network program exec. Sherlock Holmes staring the wonderful late Jeremy Brett. Early seasons of The Tudors and Nip Tuck.

My most recent obsession is Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. He’s testy, sardonic, likes a good drink (or four) and loves food.

I identify with his witty writing style (demonstrated in the series through voice-overs) and find myself fascinated by the variety of places he visits.

From Japan to Chicago, Venice to Russia. He goes, sees, eats and experiences it all–as long as there’s no tourist shop nearby. He wants to know about the locals, their customs and history.

The Miami episode connected with me as a lifetime Southerner. Why are people who live or were raised above Virginia or west of Tennessee so fascinated with alligators?

If you have ever lived in or spent considerable time in the coastal South, you would be aware that gators are not something you hope to see, or something interesting to point and stare at. They’re something you run from. Fast. While dialing on your cell phone and hoping to reach a big, brave guy named Zeke who’ll come with his even bigger shotgun and shoot the thing.

In fact, the true southerner litmus test is a negative answer to the following question…Have you ever paid to see a gator?

Bourdain, a staunch New Yorker, does–at least indirectly. Though he has the sense to go frog hunting instead of gator hunting. (Brave of him–not just because of the gators lurking in the glades–since the fishing on his show seems to always, hilariously go badly.)

He rolls with it, as he does everything. I’ve seen him eat everything from guinea pigs and raw baby seal eyeball (two separate dishes) to perfectly made baguettes, freshly picked fruit, filet mignon and caviar, plus a few frogs in between. (Oh, did I mention the frog hunting in Miami went so well, they deep fried several dozen?)

As horrified as you might be by the icky (sorry, no other word comes to mind), he reminds his viewers that these proteins are what people around the world have lived on for centuries. What they have to eat to survive. For many of them the supermarket is a concept as foreign and unlikely as Darth Vader sitting down next to you at your local Applebee’s.

What what I really take away from the series is that as different as we are in background, we’re–oddly enough–in the same profession, with the same struggles and obstacles.

While in Vegas–his first, somewhat reluctant trip–Tony’s looking for his Muse as intently as any fiction author ever has. He stares morosely at the computer screen. Types a sentence, leans back, sips beer (I prefer Diet Coke, but to each his own), types another few words, then sighs. Nothing. He picks up his cell phone, hoping somebody, anybody will call and distract him.

Later he’s sitting on the floor, surrounded by sheets of yellow legal paper and notes scribbled on the hotel pads. With nothing apparently making sense and deadline looming, he orders room service–the ENTIRE, freakin’ menu, mind you! (Apparently writing about food provides you with an unlimited food budget.) Full, he’s still struggling when, like a perfectly roasted pig falling out of the sky, a friend calls with a distraction–let’s go out. Tony’s out of that room like a shot from a pistol, and I thought, This guy is a WRITER.

He’s part of the exclusive club that includes people who use words to entertain and the people who like to read–where would any writer be without an audience, after all? I like that he’s somehow merged the medium of TV with the power of clever words, and I like that he distracts me from my own deadlines, even while he reminds me I have the best job in the world. That Muse is a flighty chick sometimes, but when she’s captured she really can make magic.

Summer will inevitably come to an end. Not today. Today the temperature in unpstate New York will rise to 89. And we will have more of that kind of weather heading our way. But classes begin Mondays at our local universities and a couple of days after labor day, the secondary and elementary schools will also start up again. Summer will end, no matter what the weather is like.

The last tomotoes and flowers will be picked, the grass won’t have to be mowed as often, and the days will continue to grow shorter. Something always tugs at my heart when the seasons change. Maybe it’s the fact that they remind me time is passing and I’d like to hold it still for a while. But for me, summer is my hardest season to let go of.

In order to hold onto summer, I try to cram in all the things that I haven’t yet done. First, I try out the recipes that I promised myself I would get to. I love to cook. That’s probably why characters in my books usually have some talent for cooking. Reese Brightman, the heroine of my August Blaze, “Twice the Temptation,” is a five star gourmet cook who just got her own TV show and is working on her second cookbook. (Reese may be who I want to be when I grow up! And when I factor in the hero of that story I think I definitely want to be Reese).

One of the recipes that I’m going to make for Labor Day is one that I haven’t made in several years. (It’s not even in Reese’s cookbook–though it should be). It’s a great salad to take to a family gathering. I first experienced it (and experienced is the right word) at a pot luck dinner and I had to have the recipe. Almost everyone present took the recipe home, so I thought I’d share it with you.

I head Napa cabbage sliced
5 green onions sliced

Topping:
2 packages Ramen noodles crushed (omit seasoning)
1 small package slivered almonds
1 small package sesame seeds
1/4-1/2 cup butter
Place topping ingredients in large pan and saute until brown.

Dressing:
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup soy suace
Mix dressing ingredients in a jar.
In a large bowl, toss cabbage and onions. Add topping and pour dressing over. Then toss again.

This salad tastes better than the sum of its ingredients–really yummy–and it’s a great way to hold onto summer for a little longer.

The other thing that I’m going to do to hold onto the waning days of my favorite season is to finally read the books I haven’t gotten to yet. One of those will be a book that has been highly recommended to me by both a colleague I teach with and by my optician. He was raving about it while he fitted me for a new pair of glasses. The book is Stieg Larrson’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo,” and it’s part of a trilogy. My copy is on the way from Barnes and Noble. Have any of you read it? I also intend to fit in Nora Roberts’ “The Search.” The nurse at one of my doctor’s offices said she stayed up all night reading it.

I tried to think of the last time I stayed up all night reading a book. Both Bronte sisters’ books did that to me when I was 14 or 15. “Gone With the Wind” and “Rebecca” also kept me up reading into the wee hours. “Silence of the Lambs” made me miss the whole first day of a vacation in Hawaii. And Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” made me miss most of a weekend I spent visiting friends. I simply couldn’t put those down. And in Stephen King’s case I couldn’t sleep with a window open for about two years!

Oh, and the last thing I’m going to do to hang onto summer is to walk everday. It’s a habit that I’ve tried to build up over the summer and I’m not going to let it go. Even if I eventually have to do it on my treadmill.

Do you have some things you’re still going to fit in before summer ends? Do you have a favorite summer resipe or a book that’s going to keep me up all night (before I have to get serious about getting enough sleep to teach the next day). Let me know.

And most of all, enjoy the last days of summer.

I’m so excited to have Jayne Hoogenberk, one of the amazing gals from eHarlequin here to visit with us today. Like so many of the Blaze authors, I started my writing journey on eHQ –its a fabulous place!! If you haven’t checked it out, you really need to. But first, check out Jayne’s visit
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For those readers who don’t know me, my name is Jayne Hoogenberk and I manage the online community at eHarlequin.com and help facilitate the conversations between our authors and readers in a series of spotlight discussions on books and authors in our Forums, on our Blogs and in our scheduled online chats. In fact we have over 200 authors in our social blogging network there! In addition I’m responsible for all of our social media properties on the web AND I produce a number of book trailers for selected Harlequin series and single title books. You’ll find us on pages at Shelfari, Facebook, YouTube, GoodReads, LibraryThing amongst others in addition to our Twitter account, @HarlequinBooks. As we at Harlequin like to say, ”Wherever women are.”

Harlequin has a longstanding tradition of being where women are beyond the traditional bookstore, and we recently celebrated 60 years of providing outstanding reading entertainment for women. We have a selection of FREE downloads at www.tryharlequin.com where you’ll find a taste of everything we offer including Leslie Kelly’s fabulous BLAZE title Slow Hands which earned a 4 1/2 stars from Romantic Times. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you take this opportunity to nab it, but be prepared for an unputdownable read. You may have to cancel your afternoon plans!

So you’re probably wondering what we do online to engage and connect with our readers in all these online spaces where women are? Well for one thing, consider this an early invitation to SAVE THE DATE for December 15th. That’s the date for our annual Holiday Party in our online community at eHarlequin.com. We invite as many authors as we can stuff into your computer, to raise a glass of virtual eggnog and hobnob with our readers in a series of discussions throughout the day (to accommodate the time zones of our international readers) and the highlight is a 3 hour live chat in the evening. I do hope you consider joining us for the fun, and prizes galore and to share holiday cheer with your favorite authors, and yes our BLAZE ladies will be there as always. How often do you get to chat with them in REAL time??

If you need the occasional kick in the pants to get reading after a slump or having trouble deciding which book to pull from your TO-BE-READ pile, I highly recommend our Reading Challenges. Pick one of our fun mini-challenges, countdown, theme or TBR games to gear up your reading and get you turning the pages, and while you’re at it, why not create a community profile and start reviewing the books you’ve read so you have a record of your reading adventures in our community? You just might meet some new friends and find some book recommendations you haven’t thought to try!

Have you ever tried one of our online stories? We publish weekly and daily online stories at eHarlequin.com and you can read and discuss them with the authors as each chapter is published in our companion discussions. We even have a FREE library of stories there so you can sample one from every line we publish . Our online read discussions are lots of fun and are a great way to share your thoughts on how you feel after reading each chapter and where you think the story is going and how it’s going to end. Right now we’re talking with B.J. Daniels in her discussion of A Forever Love and Wendy Warren about Daniel’s Gift, why not join us?

Check out our Forums for discussions on our Series books and Single Titles and if you have a hankering to write one of your own then you really should join the aspiring authors on our Write Stuff board. Did you know that over 50 of our Community members have sold to Harlequin and Silhouette through the years we’ve been hosting writing related discussions? We host live editor chats as well where an acquiring editor joins us to share just what exactly she/he’s looking for in the PERFECT book for their lines, so do check our schedule often. In fact this November we’ll be hosting our own Harlequin version of the popular NANOWRIMO contest where aspiring authors are challenged to write an entire novel through the month of November with encouragement and advice from our authors, so do check us out!

So please FRIEND us on Facebook to keep tabs on what we’re up to on a daily basis, and follow us on Twitter for up to the minute news and information, and if you’re a member of any of the major social networking sites I noted above please stop by and say hello and catch up with us there, and if we’ve missed one you think we should be on, by ALL means let me know. We’ll be waiting for you!

Happy Reading!
Jayne

Well, the kids went back to school this week. I remember when I used to be just like Kathleen O’ Reilly (Aug 19th) I’d get the last little rug rat out the door and then go open a bottle of champagne and do the happy dance around the empty, quiet living room while throwing confetti and blowing a party horn.
But this year it’s different. I guess it has to do with my oldest being a senior. I feel the era of having little ones at home slipping away. In the spring my firstborn will graduate, and by this time next year she’ll be gone to college.
My baby girl. How fast the past eighteen years have gone. It seems like only yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital wrapped in her pretty pink blanket her Mimi crocheted, and rocking her against my shoulder in the middle of the night.
In the blink of an eye she was holding my hand as I walked her into her classroom on the first day of Kindergarten.
Maybe it’s because I had another baby 17 months after she was born, and then another 5 years after that. But I feel like I turned around and my firstborn was suddenly a moody teen. As much as I tried to soak in every moment—and I have the pictures of Disney princess and Barbie Ballerina birthday parties to prove she had one—it feels like her childhood was over practically before it began.
So, even though I still have a fifth grader, and a son whose rock band likes to practice in our garage, I feel the silence in our house this week quite keenly. On the one hand, I have two deadlines and the quiet time while they’re in school enables me to get those 5 pages a day written. But on the other, the lack of noise screams at me: “Only a few more years and they’ll all be gone.”
And I’ll be entering a new era of my life. One where I’m not the center of my kids’ worlds. Where they are adults with their own lives and I’m just an afterthought or somewhere to bring dirty laundry. Hopefully, they’ll still need my advice and want my company every once in a while. But it will be different.
So, this is my last year with my daughter. My firstborn. My baby girl.
Was I ready for school to start? No way. I guess I better soak up every minute with her while I can.

Back at RWA nationals in Orlando, our keynote speaker Jayne Ann Krentz told us to know what our core story is. In other words, what is the story that always seems to appeal to you. It took me a while, but I realized that I just love giving my heroine the choice between two good but very different men. As in, would you choose security with a man who loves you or passion with the man who doesn’t? An easier life as a respectable woman or an exciting life of topsy turvy adrenaline in the moment?

I think it all harks back to my college romance where I had two guys, um…men, who were interested in me. The first was Simon who was a fellow extrovert. Being with him was exciting, passionate, and a huge roller coaster ride of exhausting fun/pain. The other was David who was like coming home to hot chocolate cookies and settling in for a nice night of good television. He was warm and accepting, and I was never more peaceful than when I was with him. In the end, I picked David and have never regretted the choice. But sometimes I wonder if Simon and I could have sustained something lasting. I think not. We were too hot as it was, and after just a couple months the lows were getting bad. Still, it’s fun to remember those hot college nights!

The heroine of my new historical WICKED SURRENDER has just that choice. Respectable marriage with a sweet man. (Well, in his case, he’s really more of a boy). And passion with someone who loves her with a kind of madness, whose touch excites her, and who is not offering marriage.

So tell me what you think! Have you ever faced a choice like this? One lucky commentor will get a Jade Lee book!

In lines like Blaze, you might expect to find glamorous models and rich playboys who have nothing to do but party all night and spend all day in bed, but one of my favorite things about our line is the vast expanse of professions and work that our characters do for a living. You find everything here, from characters who work to start their own retail shops, to those who run corporations. I have written dog trainers, lawyers, computer experts and hackers, shop owners, restaurant reviewers, Texas Rangers (and a host of other law enforcement officials), and when I pick up a Blaze, one of the first things I look for is what the characters do for a living. For me, that is part of the fun of the book, and it all serves to make our characters more real.

In my books this year, I have had a tabloid reporter, a heroine who runs a bakery and her hero who is a professor and scientific consultant, and upcoming in my Christmas book, the hero is a race car driver, and the heroine runs a vineyard (here in Central New York, actually — my first locally set book). After that, I have a soap shop owner and a bodyguard (June 2011), and a line up of other interesting heroes and heroines with their unique ways of making a living.

Part of the fun for me is choosing my character’s profession, and in many cases, researching it, as I am not a professional in all of these areas, obviously. I do research in a number of ways, both on the internet, reading, and contacting people who can answer questions or explain to me the finer points of what they do.

For instance, I have never been to a professional car race, so I had to do a lot of research there, reading a lot on the internet, but also asking friends, family, and a lot of folks on FaceBook and Twitter specific questions. Television can even help (Dirty Jobs had a great episode on Coopers, barrel-makers, that was very helpful in my Christmas book.)

I learn a lot! A year ago, I had no idea even what the difference was between NASCAR and F1, but now I know enough that I was able to hold a conversation about it on vacation with someone we met at our inn. For my soap shop heroine, I employed the expertise of a woman who makes her own soaps and lotions here in CNY, and she has been so helpful in sharing her love for her work, which really helped me show how much my heroine loves what she does, as well. I have to admit, I enjoy writing and researching law enforcement officers; any excuse to talk to them is a rush for me.

In general, I have always found people to be very generous when asked to share their expertise so that I can make my characters’ worlds as real as possible. For that, I am very thankful.

What are some professions we don’t see in Blaze, or other romances? Are some more preferred than others? Why, do you think? What are some of your favorites?