Now for the tell. For those of you who read my earlier blog about what to do about a lonely 11 year old cat? I made my decision. For Christmas, I got a new kitten. Her name is Ginger Snap and here’s a picture! A fluff ball with claws! Turns out, Ginger has two modes: psycho and dozing. Not asleep, just dozing. I just had to stop writing because she was going nuts trying to eat my feet. The older cat (named Tali) spent the first 2 weeks hissing at her, but I think last night they actually tried to play. Then again, it might have been that Ginger was playing, Tali was trying to kill. Hard to tell!

And now…the FREE BOOK! Yup, I’m offering the prequel novella to my new Bridal Favors series for free. ENJOY! Go to my website for all the information.  Here’s the back cover copy:

WILD CHILD – Lady Gwendolyn is playing with fire. She has a habit of wandering into illicit places with gentlemen just to see how well they kiss. It’s dangerous, but she can’t seem to stop herself and no one in her family is up to the task either.

THE QUIET ONE – Sir Edward Murray is the man who can tame her. He may be just a country baronet, in town for a spell then gone, but the vivacious Lady Gwen draws him as no other. So he devises a carefully plotted campaign to capture the lady as his own. But he never guesses the depth of the lady’s spirit or the power of her passion.

SECRETS! – Why is Lady Gwen risking herself and her reputation with her scandalous forays? When Edward uncovers the truth, he is caught in his own stratagems. She figures out his deceit and may never forgive him. Can Edward convince her that some things aren’t as wicked as they seem? And that love is the wildest ride of all?

This summer, during an anniversary blog event for Blaze, some of us wrote blog posts that did just that – rewrote some of our favorite TV and movies as Blaze. Unfortunately, a technical glitch kept mine from appearing, so Brenda graciously allowed me to post it now for a regular Blaze post (thanks, Brenda!).

Below is my entry for “It Would Have Been Better As A Blaze” and I’ll pose this question for conversation: which TV show would you like to get your hands on if you had the power to change it? and what would you switch up? Post your answer, and next week I will send out a backlist book and a little prezzie from Florida to one winner. Note: If you have not watched Justified at all, there are Season 1/2 spoilers in the post below.

Have fun!
Sam
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It would have been better as a Blaze… Justified

I feel almost sacrilegious saying Justified could be better in any way whatsoever – the show is amazing — but as a Blaze author, I can’t help taking my favorite TV shows and playing “what if?” especially given some of the recent turns in Season 2 of Justified. One of my favorite parts of Justified in the second season was the bad boy/sorta bad girl attraction between Boyd and Ava, but what about Raylan? His love life in season 2 really needs a Blaze rewrite, in my view.

If I were to rewrite Justified as a Blaze, I would go back to Season 1 and I would definitely NOT have had Raylan sleeping with Winona when he was still (sort of) with Ava, and I most definitely would not have had Winona end up pregnant in Season 2! For me, that’s where our hero, Raylan, takes a turn away from being the sexy hero I want him to be.

To correct this error, I would rewrite the part of season two where Raylan meets the fiery, red-headed bombshell representing Black Pike mining company, Carol Johnson. These two have perfect Blaze chemistry, in my opinion. Raylan doesn’t like her or the company she works for. Still, in my version of the show, he takes her up on her sexy offer to go to bed. For Raylan, it’s an ego-soothing roll in the hay after finding out Ava is now with Boyd. For Carol, it’s just a little fun – or so they both think (classic Blaze!). Carol, with her life in danger from the locals who want the mining company out, is capable of taking care of herself, but doesn’t mind if Raylan sticks very close. Carol is definitely a Blaze heroine.

Of course, their dangerous situation intensifies the hot attraction they share, but they also come from two different worlds. How could they ever be together? Carol would be the last woman Raylan could imagine falling in love with; she’s polished, corporate, professional — and she’s definitely not the kind of woman to live in a place like Harlan. This is clear when he goes to talk to her to tells her how he feels –but she’s already gone. Raylan figures he’ll never see her again –but then, her company decides to make Carol the permanent, on-site mining rep.

Raylan can’t easily forgive her for walking away, but will they be able to resist each other? Probably not. This would be just the beginning of a very hot Justified season that I think would definitely have been better as a Blaze!

Not that my life is always a romance novel.  Thankfully, I’ve already battled my way to my happily-ever-after and I’m fortunate to live it with my husband and three sons.  But the world around me provides ideas constantly.  And if it doesn’t, I tend to kick start things with a vacation or a new adventure that will provide food for thought.

For example, I took a cruise just so that I could write a book set on a cruise ship. (A particularly Machiavellian bit of wifely manipulation, but my husband ended up having a great time.)  The Pleasure Trip was the result.  My yearly trips to the nation’s ballparks wound up in Double Play and Sliding Into Home.  An old trip to the Jersey shore (pre-dating the show by the same name) provided the inspiration for my Wrong Bed, Up All Night.  The months I lived in Miami’s North Beach area gave me tons of material for my Single in South Beach series, starting with Sex and the Single Girl. 

But I don’t always need to travel for inspiration.  Sometimes, I fall in love with a TV character or a great book, and that morphs into an idea.  The summer I read about Boldt Castle in the Thousand Islands area transplanted into Getting Lucky for a fun American Gothic setting.  The year I watched all the Sopranos shows came through in my Night Eyes books, especially Don’t Look Back, where a cop has to deal with a gangster in her past.  Oh, and remember the Gilmore Girls?  Their snappy dialogue really informed my mother/daughter characters in Wild and Willing.

A frequent interview question that I’ve gotten is “Where do you get your ideas?”  It would probably be easier to answer “Where don’t I?” as the list would be much shorter.  Ideas are all around me in the form of character voices, settings, conflicts and happily ever after moments.  I just have to be observant and take it all in. 

***See a book of mine that you’ve missed?  Tell me what stories are missing from your collection and I’ll send one random poster a copy of the book they need!

Or so I thought.

Here’s the problem: I work at home and set my own schedule. No, let me rephrase that. My children and my husband set my schedule and I just write according to the time allotted to me in their days. Except I’m empty nesting now (yeah!). And with my husband gone, I don’t have him waking me up in the morning as he bumps around getting his coffee, showering, etc. I don’t have him coming home and saying, what’s for dinner? Want to order pizza? (Answer: yes!) And even my cats don’t wake me up since we have an automatic feeder. (Yes, I’m THAT lazy).

So with my husband gone, NO ONE sets my schedule. I get up when I feel like it (and I rarely feel like it). I work when the mood strikes–later and later every day. And I forget to stop when I get going. Lunch at 4pm? Okay. Is it midnight already? I think I’ll get a snack.

I’ve gotten a ton of work done this week. (Finished my next Blaze!) But I am so off schedule that I don’t know what time it is, what DAY it is, or even what I’m supposed to be doing when. There is NO schedule at all, and it’s throwing me. I never actually STOP working, and I fear that could build into a problem. Frankly, the whole thing is just weird. I’ve never before been completely on my own with no responsibilities beyond I have a book due in X number of months. It’s freaking me out!

So now it’s your turn. Any advice? Or is the advice: go ahead and enjoy the freedom. And if I’m working at 2 am, then at least I’m working. One lucky commenter will win a copy of my latest blaze, In Good Hands, by Kathy Lyons.

When I think of the hero of my new Blaze, visually represented so perfectly on the cover of TOO HOT TO TOUCH (are the August covers not fantastic or WHAT?) I think the expression applies…though I have to substitute water with sangria, because Alejandro Aguilar is…well, Alejandro Aguilar.  He’s cool…that’s for sure.  He’s intense and powerful and handsome.  He hails from a part of the world that takes things like loyalty and honor very seriously…so much so that after working with my heroine, Lucienne Bonet, for nearly two months, he knows he has to have her.  But she’s his employee!  He can’t cross that line.  There’s only one option open to him…

She flicked her fingers beneath the flap, her gaze trained on Alejandro, who gave nothing away.  She slipped two sheets of paper out and scanned each one with confusion.

The first was a glowing letter of recommendation.  The second, a certified check.

A check with a lot of zeroes.

Not enough zeroes to get Daniel out of trouble, but maybe enough to buy his safety until she found Ramon’s ring.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Your commission.  Or at least, an estimate based on your projections for the auction.  Should we take in more, I’ll make sure you get the adjusted amount.”

“And if you make less?”

He shrugged nonchalantly, then braced his hands on the arms of her chair so that his cologne, a warm musk with a hint of tobacco and leather, sizzled through his crisp, white shirt.  “Our business always includes a certain amount of risk.  It will be worth it if it means I’ll have more time with you.”

She tucked the check and the letter back into the envelope, trying to hide how her hands shook.  “I thought you were firing me.”

His dark irises simmered and when his tongue slid slowly across his bottom lip.  “Oh, I am.  But only because I have a very strict policy against seducing my employees.”

Once again, her heartbeat hammered within her chest, hampering her ability to breathe without gulping in air.  Or worse, panting.

He grinned.  “I’ve surprised you.”

She opened her mouth to inhale, but the added awareness of his intoxicating scent only knocked her further into sensory overload.

When he moved even closer, she drew back and said, “No.”

It was a quiet no.  Barely audible.  And yet, Alejandro had instantly complied.

He arched a brow, but moved no more than an inch in retreat.  “Or perhaps you’ve surprised me.”

She flicked her thumbnail on the corner of the envelope. The clicking noise kept pace with her stuttering pulse.  He was so close.  The space of a breath separated his lips from hers.  Until he’d breached the invisible boundary of her personal space, she hadn’t realized just how long it had been since she’d kissed a man—any man, much less one she barely knew and who possessed the scruples to resist toying with an employee.

An employee whose ultimate goal was to rip him off.

She had to reach deep within her Lucienne persona for an adequate reply.  “You didn’t expect me to collapse instantly into your arms, did you?”

His eyes widened with even more surprise.  “I believed our attraction to be mutual.”

She smiled, glad when he backed up a bit, giving her room to inhale deeply.  “Who says it isn’t?”

“You’re not exactly jumping at the chance to—”

“Fall into bed with you?”

The corner of his mouth quirked into a reluctant grin.  “Even I’m not that presumptuous.”

She quirked an eyebrow.  “Then what else did you have in mind?”

“This is San Francisco,” he replied, his voice a warm drizzle of rich, dark chocolate, “a bastion of fine dining and entertainment.  Perhaps we could start with dinner or a concert.  Maybe a stroll the wharf.  I haven’t seen much beyond the walls of this auction house or the lobby of my hotel, but I’d like to see more.  With you.”

Again, his gaze swept over her with such potent scrutiny, she knew that what he truly wished to see more of was her body, preferably naked and supine beneath his.  Instantaneously, her nipples pebbled and chafed against the transparent lace of her bra.  Sweet pressure pulsed between her legs.  He was interested in her—and vice-versa.

Oh?  Did I mention that Lucienne’s name isn’t really Lucienne…and that’s she’s been lying to him for months…and that she’s only working for him so she can steal a valuable ring he inherited from his father, a man he’s hated since he was three years old?  It’s all very tawdry and tragic and conflicted and romantic and … well, it’s the kind of situation a woman might need a whole pitcher of sangria to survive, if you know what I’m saying.

I love writing this kind of hero.  One reviewer compared Alex (the name he goes by with friends) to a Presents hero.  I don’t know if they meant it as a compliment or if they were basing this opinion on ethnicity alone, but Alex does have a lot in common with those powerful men of industry who command those virgin brides in our sister line.  Luckily for Blaze readers, however, Lucienne ain’t no virgin bride.  She’s a woman with a purpose–and a woman with a libido.  Putting them together was a joy and I can’t wait to hear what readers think about it.  The book is available in stores now, as well as online.

And just like all the August Blazes, the 10th Anniversary special edition of  TOO HOT TO TOUCH includes a *free* bonus book!  In my case, it’s a copy of EXPOSED, Blaze #4!  The books are connected in that they’re both set in the same city–San Francisco.

So tell me…what kind of drink describes your favorite kind of hero?

Some of these I have brought into adulthood, especially the campfires, which we have in our outdoor fire pit, and food on the grill, and the State Fair.  Much to my hubby’s disappointment, I am happy to leave camping behind, but love beaches. Last night, I was delighted to see the first lightning bugs of the season flickering outside our living room window. New activities that summer brings for me are gardening, enjoying my flowers, and most recently, digging a new vegetable garden and hopefully having fresh veggies come August and Sept. Of course, then summer will be almost over, but we won’t think about that.

One thing I don’t really care for in summer are the extreme thunder and lightning storms that come with the hot weather, though I do enjoy a rainy summer day. My current book, Mine Until Morning, happens during a severe storm moving up the east coast, and due to the June release and our recent weather, the book was well-timed — so many readers have reported reading it during storms! Hopefully they had someone to cozy up with when the lights were out and the thunder was raging. 

Tell me about what you love about summer, and I’ll send three posters a copy of Mine Until Morning, along with some honey dust and solid perfume custom made to match the book. And enjoy every day of summer, as it is way too short.

I decided my hero, Jonas, had to be in a career that was actually dependent on his vision, so I made him a bodyguard. How can a person be an effective bodyguard without their vision? How did he lose his vision in the first place? What if the heroine, Tessa, was the cause of his blindness? That’s where I started out with this story. When Brenda asked me to write it for the Blackout series, the idea became even more rich for me, since both of my characters would be “in the dark.” A lot can happen in the dark in a Blaze.

I don’t want to give too many bits of the story away, but writing a blind hero was a challenge–if you think you have to check and double-check your manuscript for details with a normal hero and heroine, you have to do that even more closely when one of your characters can’t see a thing. It’s natural for me to refer to things I can see and to describe scenes visually for a reader, so that they can see it, too. I had to be very careful in the book to make sure Jonas never accidentally saw anything or referred to anything in such a way that it would suggest he had use of his eyes.

More than that, I had to make sure he was using his other senses — for everything. This ended up leading me to writing some of the sexier scenes I think I’ve written. It was also kind of poignant for him, since Jonas wanted to see Tessa very much, but could only use his other senses.

It was an interesting writing challenge, putting certain limits on what my character could do, and what I could do as a writer, but also opening up possibilities. His blindness, which was in part the thing that came between him and Tessa at the start of the story, binds them together throughout their blackout adventure, navigating Philadelphia during a bad storm.

I hope you will enjoy meeting Jonas, my blind bodyguard. Post any questions, comments, or thoughts you have, or just come by to say hello, to be entered in a drawing to win a signed copy of Mine Until Morning, along with handmade Mine Until Morning honey-almond soaps, edible honey dust (just like in the book!), and solid perfume all made by Latherati. I will announce the winner on Monday. Have a great weekend!

At least I'm in the same room with the board, right?

There is no doubt that I’m the new girl. At Blaze, I’m nearly positive I’m the latest author to sign, and still I’m a newbie on the writing side of Romancelandia in general. Three years ago I hadn’t yet realized that the movies playing in my head were stories trying to burst from my skull and splatter across my screen, not until July of 2008. But I’m nothing if not eager, and somehow or other I ended up here after a self-designed crash course in fiction writing, and with the help and advice of hundreds of kind strangers (hi, NEC!)

But let’s get one thing straight—I have no clue what I’m doing. I still feel very much like a student of this world, and thank goodness there are so many patient, generous authors and editors who DO know what they’re doing (and how), willing to grab me by the shoulders, turn me a few degrees and give me a gentle push in the right direction.

Often these kind acquaintances explain things to me, such as “What’s a sexy hook?” They very politely don’t question how I managed to sell to Blaze without really grasping this most basic and integral of concepts, they just take a moment to explain it in their own words, and after perhaps thirty translations from thirty different sources, one of them will finally click for me. They explain to my naive butt that there are certain outside industry folks I’d be better off avoiding, lest I step on any toes in my quest to appear engaged and active in the digital RomantiSphere. When I explain a new book idea, they ask questions so obvious I hadn’t pondered them, such as, “So…what’s the conflict then?” With knowing good humor they share their own second-sale struggles (apparently not such a rare hurdle at all). They field my epic-length e-mails fraught with frustration and insecurity with more patience and wisdom than is strictly human (thanks, Samantha!)

Where is this post going? I actually have no idea. The theme of the past few weeks for me has been Don’t Overthink It, and I may as well apply it to this while I’m at it. I’ve been struggling (sometimes admirably and with dignity, other times buried to the ankles in snotty tissues) to come up with a second winning Blaze premise / concept / hook / idea. It’s been ten months since my first sale, and the overachiever in me says that’s far too long a time to have passed before I’ve made a second. Was it all a fluke, my first sale? It sure felt like a fluke. Will I ever be able to do it again? A roller coaster of self-confidence ensues as I come up with an idea, suspect it’s brilliant, then plan and plot the life from it as I obsessively strive to make the proposal “right”, make it perfect, make a second sale so I can know for sure if I belong here or not.

Oh, trying. The enemy of creation. For me, anyhow. And when I say trying, I mean over-analyzing the idea I’m fixated on, using every trick and technique I can think of to make sure it’s the “right” story. It’s born of wanting something so badly, you squeeze the breath from it lest it has a chance to escape from you. And no wonder my proposals have been missing their marks—by the time this 70% pantser has forced herself to meticulously plot every chapter of her proposal (lest it not be perfect, every possible editorial question pre-addressed) all the mystery has left it, all the what-ifs that usually come to me as I’m tagging along on the hero and heroine’s journey already answered, but answered analytically, not intuitively.

I got to hang out with Brenda (Senior Blaze Editor) at the New England Chapter (mah peeps) of the Romance Writers of America’s annual conference last month, and my GOD was that helpful. My editor Laura had kindly passed along the latest of my over-labored proposals for Brenda to check out, and she rather frankly informed me that reading the synopsis’s latest fourteen-page iteration had been nothing short of painful. Well that did not shock or offend me. Writing it had been at least twice as torturous! I just wanted it be “right” so badly…cue the strangly hands.

She said scrap it, and run with another idea I’d tossed out in an earlier brainstorming session. She explained the Blaze line’s essential “hook” concept in a way that made it click into place for me in a totally new way (nothing short of a Helen Keller “water” moment). Perhaps most importantly, she gave me permission to accept that I write and plot in a certain way, one that may equal a pretty sparse synopsis to start off but yields organic, not contrived, story developments as the chapters are actually typed up. She explained how everyone writes in their own distinct style, and just as there’s no perfectly “right” story, there’s no “right” process either. Only the one that’s right for a given author. Sounds so obvious, right? Well the obvious tends to go fuzzy when you’re clinging white-knuckled to your belief that you’ve got to be perfect.

So, that was just over two weeks ago. I’ve spent the time since strictly NOT overthinking my current proposal. Just two weeks of walking and scheming and not allowing myself to worry too far beyond how the hero and heroine should meet and become tangled up in one another’s lives. I wrote the first three chapters in about a week, simply along for the ride as my characters took over the action. I wrote an eight-page synopsis, feeling I needed to at least guess at what might happen between their meeting and the black moment…then I scrapped it and wrote it in two pages, unanswered questions be damned. Then this morning, after the breathless final spell-check, I hit Send on the sucker.

It may be another miss. It may have potential. It may be a masterpiece of staggering Blaze-y genius! Well, perhaps not. Only my brilliant editor and a week or two of nail-biting will yield the answer to that mystery. But this time at least I handed something over with life still pulsing in it, and even if it gets handed back to me, another miss, I’ll be left with something that felt fun and natural and easy for the first time since my stakes got raised, since this second sale took on life-or-death proportions in my head.

Anyhow, just wanted to share all that. Since fumbling my way into this field, I’ve found it unspeakably helpful when authors are honest and upfront about their own struggles and set-backs. So if there’s somebody out there striving to publish, I hope this post won’t darken your hopes, its message landing with an ugly plop—”Even a published author still struggles to get it right? What hope is there for me?” No no no. Instead take away that our challenges are not so different. We’re not so different. Not so different, in fact, that you might just find yourself in my shoes in a week or a month or a year, a very fortunate new-kid sharing your own pitfalls en route to Publishedopolis. My best advice is: do your homework, and know your line as much as you can…then pack all that away in a cupboard and write a story that excites you. That’s why we all started writing, and I now know that’s the only thing that will keep me writing.

Leave the overthinking and all its headaches to the reviewers, and just write.

I take a cottage garden approach to writing - a little of everything

That was never me. Don’t get me wrong, I could fake it sometimes. I got great grades. Pursued the degree I set out to earn and dove straight into the career field I envisioned for myself. But all along, I wondered, what if I’d chosen a different path?

That’s still me to this day. Not that I second guess writing. That was a career I found later in life and I’ve never thought for a second that writing books was a bad idea. I love this job and I’m so grateful to have the chance to do something I enjoy. But I still can’t choose a favorite genre, favorite sub genre or favorite anything else associated with writing. And sometimes, as I look back at the wide and varied assortment of stories I’ve written over the years – dark, angsty cop stories, frothy fun sexy stories, time travel, medieval, suspense, a few heartwarming tales – I wonder if I’ve shot myself in the foot being one of those people who likes to take the wide-angle lens view of life.

I mean, would it have made more sense to choose one thing and learned to do it really well? Some authors have such a great vision for their voice and their careers, and they deliver just what their readers want each time out of the gate. For me, that’s kind of like choosing the chocolate cake every time at the desert counter. I’m more of a “I’ll have one of everything” desert eater. Or, at very least, I need to try something new each time until I’ve savored each and every offering.

So I keep writing a little something different each time and hope my readers will forgive me for the story leap frog. This month, I’m really excited to revisit the Uniformly Hot! Miniseries, something that was new for me back when I wrote Always Ready. It was so much fun I thought I’d delve back into the military world for Highly Charged. And, I’ve already got the follow up in mind for 2012, so I’ll be sure to return to that miniseries next year. But, being me, I can’t wait to share with you a couple of fun and sexy Wrong Bed stories first. Maybe a hot medieval. Definitely a sports hero or two.

Perhaps it’s a failing of mine. But I prefer to look at my varied story offerings as the cottage garden approach to writing. There are less boundaries and more overlap, colors of every kind. To the untrained eye, maybe it’s a hodgepodge. But the marigolds protect the tomatoes from the deer and the first round of spring blooms help ready the soil for the summer flowers, so that it all works together. One thing strengthens the other. My fun Wrong Beds are more deeply emotional in the end for having written those angsty cops. My military guys have greater depth because I’ve allowed creative time to percolate in between their stories.

It all works together. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

***Were you one of those people born knowing exactly where you wanted to go? Have you meandered a bit on the way or circled around a few times before you felt sure of your direction? Or heck, tell me if you order your favorite desert every time or if you feel the need to try new things! There’s no right answer on my boards because I think variety is the spice of life. Just chat with me today and one random poster will win my new Uniformly Hot!, Highly Charged.

Anyway, some of you may know Cindy Dees.  She doesn’t write for Blaze, but she’s in a lot of the other category lines.  She does incredible work.  A lot in military romance (aka Suzanne Brockmann before she went single title) but also a bunch of other stuff.  She even won a Rita last year!  Here’s her latest book, btw.

She and I were talking about RT, and she has decided not to go this year.  There were many factors (time, family, deadline, etc) but we started talking about whether RT was the best conference for category readers.  Certainly there have been times when I’ve thought that RT was dominated by the small press.  Other times I thought the major presses were everywhere!  I’ve been going for ten+ years, so I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years.  Ten years ago, I hadn’t even heard of Ellora’s Cave!

But RT has always (as far as I can remember) had a few workshops on category books.  Carina Press (Harlequin’s e-imprint) was launched at RT.  This year will include “Lights, Camera, Action, the Series Romance Way.”  And let’s not forget that I will be there as Kathy Lyons (not just Jade Lee).

So now here’s my question to you: are you going to RT?  (If you are, make sure to find me!  I have kitch for anyone who tells me they love my work!  And even for those who say they can’t wait to read my work!)  And do you think RT does enough to support us category readers/writers?  One lucky commenter will get a copy of my latest IN GOOD HANDS, by Kathy Lyons.