Meet Terri Brisbin … and her sexy Highlanders!

by Anna Sugden

I’m delighted to welcome my good friend, two-time RITA nominee Terri Brisbin - and her Highlanders - to the Lair!

Terri has been writing romance fiction since 1995 and has had 16 historical and time-travel romances published by Berkley-Jove and Harlequin Historicals. When not living the glamorous life of a romance author in the southern NJ suburbs, Terri spends her time being a wife to one, mom to three boys as well as a dental hygienist to hundreds. Active in several RWA local chapters, Terri currently serves on the Board of Directors of Romance Writers of America.

And, on a personal note, I’d like to add that Terri is a great champion and supporter of her fellow romance writers - she keeps us motivated through the best and worst of times!

To find out more about Terri or her fabulous books, please visit her website: http://www.terribrisbin.com/

Welcome Terri

Anna, thanks for that warm welcome and the invitation to visit with the Romance Bandits and readers.

I know we have a number of visitors to the blog who LOVE Scotsmen … a few Banditas too *grin*. Would you introduce us to your Highlanders?

This trilogy of stories (and there may a fourth at some point) is all about the wonderful MacLerie men – Connor, the laird, had the first book (TAMING THE HIGHLANDER), now Rurik, his loyal friend and cousin is featured in this new book, SURRENDER TO THE HIGHLANDER, and the clan tanist and negotiator, Duncan, will be featured in an August release (POSSESSED BY THE HIGHLANDER). They are all very interesting and have their flaws and strengths – Connor has a terrible reputation as a wife-killer and does not like to be questioned, Rurik is half-Scots/half-Norse and is a true prodigal son who wants more, and Duncan places honor and his clan above everything else in his life. Don’t they sound like men in need of a good woman?

Tough heroes need strong heroines. How did you choose the heroines for these three tough men?

Well! A long time ago, a wonderful author (Delia Parr) suggested during a workshop that in order to create strong conflict you should give the hero the absolutely worst kind of woman for him. So Connor, who still carries the terrible secrets of his first wife’s death, is forced to marry someone who is protecting her own secrets. Rurik, who loves women and who loves to do two things in life (both start with “F” and one is fight!) has a heroine who is a nun! (Well, he thinks she is a nun!) Duncan, who lives by his honor, is forced to marry a woman who has none...or so he thinks!

It must be fun researching these books. I know you love to travel. Have you got some interesting tales of your quest for things Scottish?

I have had the chance to travel to Scotland twice and have visited many of the places I write about. On my first trip there in 2002, Sue-Ellen Welfonder took me to Dunstaffnage Castle and I had the chance to stand on the battlements and look out over the Firth of Lorne. This turned into a scene I wrote for THE MAID OF LORNE. Also, eerily, it was also there that I found what looked to be the archway through time I described in my very first romance, A LOVE THROUGH TIME. The strange thing is that I’d never seen pictures of this castle until my visit but it all felt familiar.....

I am going back to Scotland in the spring and can’t wait to visit some places I haven’t seen yet – Stirling Castle, more of Edinburgh, and a side trip to the Highlands.

Unfortunately, my other Scottish quest – to meet Gerard Butler – has not been successful...but I’m still trying!

As lovely as your Highlanders are, you write about Englishmen too (YAY!). And a fascinating time period. Can you tell us a bit about some of the other books you’ve written?

Sigh..... I also love medieval England. I’ve written 4 novels and 2 novellas that are all set in the late 1190’s and early 1200’s and involve the Plantagenet dynasty – Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their sons Richard and John. And talk about different, non-traditional heroines! those stories feature women who were very different from most noble-women of their time—one is the king’s mistress, one is pregnant with another man’s child, one has been held hostage and pretends to not remember all that happened, one is the village harlot, one almost died and has amnesia, and one is on the run after refusing her parents’ choice of a husband.

Next up will be a trilogy set during the Norman invasion in 1066 and I can’t wait to write those! I plan on visiting some of those sites on my spring trip, too.

If you were to travel back in time to one of your favourite time periods, which would it be and what would you miss most about life in 2008?

I think I would love to visit Elizabethan England and see her up close. Elizabeth defied all the odds countless times and became one of England’s strongest rulers. She took a nearly-bankrupted, religiously-divided, politically-threatened kingdom and brought it back from the brink of disaster to make it a world superpower. You gotta’ like a woman who can do that!

Toilet paper! Email! Telephones! On a more mundane and practical level – I would miss medicines and hot water and a good bed and so many other things. I am definitely getting old and crotchety and need my comforts!

Over to the rest of you. Terri would love to answer any questions you have about her books and research trips. And we’d both like to know which time period you’d travel back to, as well as what you would miss most.

Terri will be giving away prizes to two lucky visitors. She’ll pick up something special on her upcoming trip to Scotland for two winners and they’ll get their choice of any of her available backlist books.

How to Hook Bandit Booty?

Well, you need to leave a comment, of course!

And our latest winner is....... Meredith!

Congrats! Aunty's handy dandy random number generator says that YOU are the lucky commenter who will receive an autographed copy of Tina Ferraro's newest release How To Hook A Hottie! Please send your snail mail info to Aunty Cindy at cindymm18 AT gmail DOT com so that we can get Tina's wonderful new book out to you.

If you didn't win this prize, do not despair! We have LOTS of guest bloggers waiting in the wings with more great books and other prizes to give away. But you must leave a comment to win.

Cover Story

by Donna MacMeans

I’m in love… I just received my cover for my second book, The Trouble with Moonlight. It won't be released until June, but just having the cover makes it real. A good cover, I think, is the first step to making a sale. If the cover is intriguing, I'll pick it up, check the back, and decide whether to purchase. I don't always read a few pages inside, especially if I'm familiar with the author. But with a new author - sometimes, but not always.

There's all sorts of covers. Sometimes they're sexy. Check out these from fellow Banditas.





Gotta love those abs! Yum!



Gotta love the seduction!




Sometimes the cover tells a story, like this one from Christine Wells.



And sometimes they are just plain gorgeous.(Okay, I'm biased.)






However, back to The Trouble with Moonlight. There is a slight error in the cover depiction. This is the story of a Victorian heroine who turns invisible in moonlight. She can't help it, it just happens. And it's just her skin, not her clothes. So to be technically correct, with that full moon shining up there over her shoulder, she should be invisible. The beautiful blue ball gown should be standing there up by its lonesome.

I suppose with the period crinolines and corsetry, that's entirely possible, but it wouldn't necessarily make for a sexy or a seductive cover - so I appreciate having the heroine visible. What would really be cool is one of those holographic covers where she would be visable if you look at her one way, then move the cover and she disappears ;-) But I'd have to be a bit further up the food chain for such an expensive cover.


My question for you: What influences your decision to buy a book?

Is it the back cover blurb? A story set in a particular era or exotic setting? Is it the first page? How far do you read? What do you look for? Do you thumb through the book looking for specific scenes? Is the length a factor? Are you miffed when the cover doesn't match the story? Or do you roll with the punches?

Of course there's Bandit booty to be had for a lucky commentor. I'm offering a signed copy of The Education of Mrs. Brimley, and a signed cover flat of The Trouble with Moonlight.

And don't forget to skip on over to RomanceNovel.TV where fellow Banditas KJ Howe and I are talking about extreme research - with extreme prizes offered as well :-)

Tina Ferraro -- "Hooked" on YA

interviewed by Aunty Cindy

A few months ago, my good buddy and red-hot YA author Tina Ferraro was kind enough to be one of our first guest bloggers here in the Lair. Well, it's a brand new year, Tina has a brand new book on the shelves NOW, and we are tickled PINK that she has come back for another guest blogger stint!

AC: Welcome back to the Lair, Tina!

Tina: Thanks, AC and all you Banditas for inviting me. I'm happy to be back!

AC: Please tell us about your latest YA release, How To Hook A Hottie. Where did you get the idea and other inspirations for writing YA?

Tina: Whereas in my previous book, Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress, I had an a-ha moment where the idea struck, How to Hook a Hottie happened through the course of several drafts. It wasn’t until a few pivotal characters started to breathe life that the story took off.

Here’s the plot:

Kate DelVecchio plans to be a millionaire before she's 20. When she agrees to go to a sports banquet with a hotshot baseball player, she stumbles upon a possible cash cow. The rest of the school is amazed that the no-nonsense Kate could hook such a hottie, and one by one approach her for help hooking their own. She doesn't know anything about getting guys, but for $100.00 a pop, she's more than willing to try, including inventing a 6-step-plan on How to Hook a Hottie. And how could that possibly backfire?

AC: How was this book a different writing experience from your first, Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress?

Tina: The main character, Kate, is basically doing her time in high school, feels like she’s on the road to greater things. The heroines of Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress, as well as my next book, The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, are fixated on their present lives, wanting to make the most of them and their high school experiences. I was definitely more the latter--very social and more about my friends than my grades--so writing Kate was a stretch for me. I often had to pull back and analyze my instincts versus what Kate would naturally do, which was not so much of a problem with the other two books.

AC: Any advice to the As Yet Unpublished or Not Yet Published writers here in the Lair? Like things you wish you'd known before your first book came out? Or before your second book came out?

Tina: My advice is to keep doing exactly this--networking. Reading and commenting on writers’ blogs, participating on writing loops and in critique groups, maybe entering contests. I believe that networking was a huge contributor in me getting an agent, making my first sale, and these days, keeping me “in the game.”

AC: With the rave reviews both your books have received, Aunty is sure you'll be "in the game" for a good long time. What new and exciting things are on the horizon for you?

Tina: In the spring of 2009, The ABC’s of Kissing Boys will be released. It’s about a 16 year-old girl who doesn’t get promoted to Varsity soccer with her teammates, and the crazy-but-just-might-work scheme that she concocts to get her coach’s attention, which includes kissing the prom king at the sports’ fair kissing booth. But first she needs to find out everything she can about kissing, and that help comes in the most unlikely of sources--the freshman guy across the street. But will maintaining this secret alliance with a froshie actually become more important than making Varsity?

Right now I’m working on another contracted book, the title of which is still in negotiations, which will involve, among other things, a summer fling. The main character has some of Kate’s seriousness, but some of the playfulness of my other heroines, too, and I’m hopeful that together she and I can pull off this new book!

AC: The ABC's of Kissing Boys sounds like another fun read! And with your talent and abilities, Aunty has no doubt you'll pull off the next book and continue to delight readers for years to come.

Readers, to keep up with all the latest on Tina and her books be sure to check out her website: www.tinaferraro.com.
She also blogs with six other YA authors at Books, Boys and Buzz.

Now Tina and AC have a question for YOU. Tina's girl-entrepreneur extraordinaire, Kate develops and sells a how-to plan for hooking hotties. What kind of how-to book or plan would YOU like to have? Don't be shy, you know anything goes here in the Lair.

One lucky commenter will win an autographed copy of Tina's new release, How To Hook a Hottie. Good luck to all!

Cassondra's Bandit Booty!

Okay, for everyone who's been so patient with me, here, finally , are my winners for not only December, but January blogs. I DO truly apologize. Unexpected 12-hour days at work, almost every day this month, is my lame excuse.

I'm including an extra little bit for each of you because you've had to wait.

The winner of the Romance Bandits coffee mug from the December blog, "Oh the FLAME of it" is.......mshellion!

The winner of the $5 B&N gift card from the January blog, "Last Chicken Roosting," is....... Maureen!

Drop me an email at Cassondra (underscore) M AT Mindspring Dot Com and I'll get your stuff in the mail immediately. (Put Romance Bandits Booty in the subject line so I'll recognize it as good email. ) THANKS EVERYONE!

THE NUMBERS GAME

by Suzanne Welsh

Have you ever read a book and just loved it so much you gave your copy to every person you knew so they could read it too? Well, I used to do that. In fact, I did it so much, I was my own lending library! But then I started writing, hanging out with other writers and learning about the business of publishing from my published author friends.

Guess what I learned? While passing around a book might flatter the author and give our friends a good read, it does little to help the author's sales numbers. Why should we as readers care about the author's sales? Because, unless they're a household name with a regular spot on the NYT bestseller list, each author's next contract depends on the percentage of sale-through their last book had. In other words, if they had a print-run of 30,000 books, they needed to sell a large percentage of those books to get offered another contract. Each time we give that brand new book we just read to someone else whom we know would just love it, we've taken a sale away from that author.

So what do we do? We want to get that author's book to as many people who read as we can. We want to make sure that author has lots of sales so she/he can give us more great stories to read. The answer is simple. Word of mouth.

I no longer hand out my copies of books to people. I show them the cover, give them my glowing verbal review, tell them where they can buy the book. Sometimes I buy them a copy and mail them off. Whenever my critique partner, Sandy Blair, has a new book out, I buy five copies. One for me to read, one for my mom, one for each of my girls and one for my two aunts, (they live in the same house so they share). Recently, Sandy's newest book, A Highlander For Christmas, came out and I was actually a character in the book! Needless to say, I not only bought my five copies, but challenged everyone I work with to buy the book and try to find me. It's been great fun having them not only tell me how much they loved her book, but that "Yep, I found you!"

Last year at National, Anna Campbell's Claiming The Courtesan had just come out a few months before. I'd read it before going to the conference, so when she was in the Avon signing, I took the time to stand a few feet off and recommend to everyone who came in that they needed to get a copy from her. These books didn't give Anna sales, but they did give her lots of new fans, whom are happily reading Untouched and salivating for her next regency noir!

I got Julie Garwood's newest book, Shadow Music, for Christmas. I read it over four days, (stretching it out because I knew it would be a while before I got another new book by her). I loved the story. Have recommended it to everyone on my e-mail list who reads. And today I went to Amazon.com and ordered another copy to send to my mom. She'll love it and it repays her for that copy of Julie's book,The Gift, that I "borrowed" years ago and never returned. It also helps my favorite author's sales numbers! Because I want to read more of her books for years to come.

So here's my list of books I'd like you to buy:
Untouched by Anna Campell
Shadow Music by Julie Garwood
Warrior by Kinley MacGregor
Hot Wheels And High Heels by Jane Graves
The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritson
Does She Dare by Tawny Weber
Just Wicked Enough by Lorraine Heath **the perfect romance novel**
Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward
A Highlander For Christmas by Sandy Blair **let me know if you find me!**
The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans
Scandal's Daughter by Christine Wells
Texas Princess by Jodi Thomas
Touch Of Texas by Tracy Garrett
Every Night I'm Yours by Christie Kelley

If you could give me a book to read to hook me on an author, new or established, what one would it be? Who would you buy books for to hook them on reading romances?
One lucky commenter will receive a signed copy of A Highlander For Christmas!

And they all lived...somehow...ever after

by Susan Seyfarth

So I just saw this movie, Once. It's been getting all kinds of good buzz, & if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. It's about a heartbroken Irish musician whose life is stuck & the woman, an amazing musician in her own right, who gets him unstuck.

I don't think I've ever seen a movie quite like it. The Commitments comes to mind, but only because it's another music movie set in Dublin featuring a cast of more musicians than actors. Once was a lot smaller, more intimate. It was about the way these two lonely, broken people found a way to fit their gifts & their hurts together to make something far larger than the sum of its parts. There was an incandescent chemistry at work, something powerful & special, something beyond the music. It was a visible connection of souls, a meshing of visions, & it was thrilling.

I won't give away the ending, but I will say that while it was completely satisfying, it was also completely unexpected. I was looking for the traditional happy ever after: the boy gets the girl & they ride off into the sunset & make beautiful music together for the rest of their lives. What I got was happy ever after, but with a twist. Nothing worked out the way I thought it would & yet I felt really, really good about it.

It got me thinking about expectations. As romance novelists, we have a contract with our readers: the boy is going to get the girl, there will be a happy ever after. It's why people read romance novels. If we writers violate that contract, the reader is (rightfully) angry, takes out her big black Sharpie & writes our name on her Do Not Buy list. And we'd deserve it.

But is there still room within that contract to surprise? When you know the ending already, where's the tension? Is it in how the hero & heroine overcome insurmountable odds? Is it in leading the reader to expect one sort of happy ending & serving up another? How far can an author stray from the traditional expectations of the romance genre without risking the big black Sharpie?

So tell us: What's your favorite non-traditional romance? Your most beloved anti-hero, your most cherished not-quite-happy ending? Which authors do you come back to again & again because they consistently serve up a fresh take on traditional expectations? Have you ever gotten exactly what you didn't want, only to find it was somehow what you wanted all along?

The Quantum of Bandit Booty!

Thanks to everyone who commented on their favorite heroes and fave James Bond men! The winner of the Amazon.com $20 gift card (chosen scientifically by my very own hero, who valiantly picked a number between 1 and 100) is ...

JENNIFER Y!!!!

Congratulations, Jennifer Y! Please send me your address and I'll send you the gift card right away. I'm at katecarlisle99@yahoo.com.

And don't forget -- the Bandita invasion continues Monday at romancenovel.tv! Come by for more fun and prizes!

Kate

They Were Seriously Woman

by Nancy Northcott

As I started to think of blog topics, I gravitated toward English history. I've loved it since I saw a (highly fictionalized, I now realize) story called "When Knighthood Was in Flower" on The Wonderful World of Disney many years ago. There are a lot of choices, and a lot of attractive time periods. I finally settled, though, on strong women in history, not just English history. In romance, we like to think of "Happily Ever After," or the "HEA" ending. Most of these women didn't ever get that, but they more than fit the image in Helen Reddy's hit, "I Am Woman."

We could start with the Amazons. Loving Greek mythology led me to Wonder Woman comic books and thence to the warrior women of ancient Greece. They were my first clue that women could, as the saying goes, "kick butt and take names." An episode of the PBS program Secrets of the Dead used DNA sampling to trace the Amazons' descendants to the Mongolian steppes. Way cool, what they can do these days, huh? I just wish we knew more about the Amazons' culture.

We do know a little more about their later, British counterpart, Boadicea (or Boudicca), who very nearly kicked the mighty Roman Empire out of Britain. A gorgeous statue honoring her stands on the City side of Westminster Bridge in London. A television movie about her, starring the fabulous Alex Kingston, aired a while back. I've heard debates about the historical accuracy, but it made for interesting TV.

After Boadicea came that greatest of British Tough Babes, Elizabeth I, Glorianna herself. As a young woman, she was savvy enough to walk the fine line of not discouraging Thomas Wyatt's plot to supplant Queen Mary, yet managed not to supply anything that could be used as evidence to send her to the block, something Mary very much seemed to want at times. If I could, I'd ask her how she knew just where that deadly line lay.

Elizabeth managed to hold the throne, keep a council of male advisors from forgetting who actually ruled, and marshall sufficient forces to defeat (with a little help from the weather), the mighty Armada of Spain. At the time, the King of Spain was her former brother-in-law, Phillip II. She sent the first English colony into the New World (right here in North Carolina) and kept religious controversy from tearing her realm apart. I see Queens Anne and Victoria and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as all being cut from Elizabeth I's cloth. Unfortunately, Elizabeth had to choose between her throne and her heart. Which was probably a good thing. I mean--can you see Essex as King of England? Makes me shudder!

If we cross the Atlantic, there's Pocahontas, who helped build a bridge between the Powhatans and the strange people who came from across the ocean. She married an Englishman and went with him to England, only to die there, but she had the courage to step outside her world and explore something completely different. A couple of centuries later, another Native American woman, Sacagawea, left her world to lead Lewis and Clark across the continent. I'd love to ask them why they did it, and to ask the rest of the women in this post how they persevered to accomplish what they did.

One of my greatest childhood heroes was Helen Keller, who had to overcome so many disadvantages and proved that a person could be great without sight or hearing. Anne Sullivan rightly deserves to be called "The Miracle Worker" because her perseverance unlocked Helen's doors, but Helen walked through those doors and became a symbol of hope for so many people.

Without Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Romance Bandits might not be able to vote yet. Rosa Parks's courage became a beacon for people across the nation, and Bessie Coleman proved African American women could take to the sky. Coleman was the first African American, male or female, to earn a pilot's license. She died practicing for a stunt show in the 1920s.

All these women roared, each in her own way and some louder than others. Who are the women in history you most admire? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?

He's Back ... And He's Still My Hero

By Kate

As everyone knows, we here at Romance Bandits constantly strive to keep our busy fingers on the pulse of popular culture. Regular visitors to the Lair have come to depend on our ability to deliver the very latest and most important news of the world and beyond. It's our pledge to you, one we don't make lightly.

So you can imagine my shock and dismay when I stumbled across this MAJOR piece of news literally buried under rows and rows of lesser important headlines about ... oh, whatever ... stock market crash, Britney woes, blah blah blah. Who cares?? Let's talk real news!! Here it is, folks ...

The latest James Bond film -- starring Daniel Craig! -- has begun production and will be released in November!!

Hallelujah!!

(Oh, my. I need a moment.)


Whew.








Okay. So the thing is, they're calling the new movie ... The Quantum of Solace.

I know what you're thinking. The Quantum of Solace. It sounds so ... smart! Right? Like, all technical and space-age-y! Or something. To be honest, I'm not real sure what it means. I had to go to dictionary.com to figure it out. Hey, I never said I was a genius.

And I suppose it beats Octopussy for a title ...

Anyway, back to today's topic. James Bond. Hmm, well, to be honest, that's not exactly the topic I had in mind. But it's close. I'm talking about heroes! The ones in our books. The ones we write about. The ones we fall in love with and hope our readers do, too. The ones we dream about and cherish forever.

I'll bet you can still name your favorite heroes from books you read ten years ago. I know I can. There's Lyon, the Marquis of Lyonwood, from Julie Garwood's The Lion's Lady. And Grayson Thane, from Nora Roberts' Born In Ice. So many more.


And here's the thing. In my mind, those heroes, and the heroes I write about, always look a little like James Bond. Always.

What can I say? I love him. I mean, them. All of them. Especially Daniel Craig. And Pierce Brosnan. And oh-my-God, Sean Connery. But hey, I even loved Timothy Dalton. And David Niven in the first Casino Royale.

I'm a serial James Bond lover.



I first fell in love with James Bond when I was thirteen and discovered a copy of Ian Fleming's Dr. No in my father's sock drawer. Oh sure, I spent part of my reading time giggling about all the bat guano that covered the cave walls of Dr. No's evil lair, but I was well and truly hooked. James Bond was my first crush.

And I love him still. He's the ultimate bad boy hero. A party animal to be sure, but let's face it, when the chips are down, James Bond saves the world every time.

Seriously, ladies. A man who can make a perfect martini and save the world, all in less than two hours? What's not to love about this guy?!


So ... do you have a favorite James Bond? A favorite Bond film?

And heaven forbid, if James isn't your cup of tea, who is? Is there an actor you think of when you dream up a new hero? Johnny Depp, anyone? :-)

Tell me all about your favorite hero! I've got a $20 Amazon.com gift card for one lucky visitor who shares today!

Dreaming of Bandita Booty?

by Anna Sugden


We have a winner!!! Julie Cohen has picked one lucky visitor to receive a copy of her book ONE NIGHT STAND.

Congratulations to Wendy!!!
Please send your details to Julie at julie AT julie-cohen DOT com

Forget about Frogs…Kiss a Coqui!

KJ Howe reporting in from Puerto Rico…and after discerning the Spanish instructions, here we go!
Remember that old adage about kissing a lot of frogs to meet your Prince? Why not increase your chances of meeting the right guy by kissing a unique amphibian? No offence meant to Kermit and other frogs, but hey, a girl has to be choosy!

Some of you might wonder what I’m talking about. A Coqui (ko-kee) is a Puerto Rican tree frog that measures about one inch long (remember ladies, size doesn’t matter). Coquies can be green, brown, yellowish (but never yellow-bellied), because they are translucent. And, like most men, they can be heard from far away. Yes, that’s their distinguishing feature—male coquies sing from dusk to dawn (non-stop!) in a melodious serenade that sounds like ko-kee (hence the name).

When there is light from street lamps or the moon, coquies are less active, so to find copious numbers, head straight for desolated areas and the mountains (think mountain men!). The sad part is that these romantic amphibians are an endangered species due to deforestation. They reproduce all year round, but the active times occur during the wet season—what better way to spend time when the rain is falling???

Okay, have I convinced you to stop kissing frogs and turn to coquies instead? After all, aren’t all romantic heroes coquies in disguise? These males serenade without being asked, they live in a warm climate, they stay up all night, and they are translucent (so you actually know what they are thinking). Isn’t that what it’s all about? Mavericks, renegades, and swashbucklers. Romantic heroes should be unique, men who stand out from the crowd—an endangered species, to be sure!

Have you kissed a lot of frogs? Have you kissed a coqui? If so, any advice on how to tell the difference?

Anne Gracie chooses her winner!

Anne Gracie has chosen her winner at random and that winner is...

MALVINA!!!

Congratulations, Malvina. Please email Anne at anne@annegracie.com with your snail mail details and she'll get your signed copy of THE STOLEN PRINCESS out to you pronto. And huge thanks to everyone who made Anne's visit such a huge party!

Annie Has Two Mommies

by Jo Robertson

Now that I’ve gotten your attention, let me explain what I mean. My baby daughter has been tending my oldest daughter’s children for eight years while Mommy #1 works. Both mommies parent in very similar ways, and the children obey both as if that person were the “real” mommy.
But there are differences.

Mommy #1 is the woman who carried Annie for nine months, suffering a bad back, gas, heartburn, unbelievable pain as Annie claimed squatter's rights on her mom's sciatica for nearly nine months, and untold other pregnancy ailments. Mommy #1 gave birth. She is the disciplinarian, the one who puts Annie to bed at night, who takes her to the doctor (sometimes) and teaches her manners (always).

Mommy #2 is the fun mommy. She romps and rolls on the floor, she plays games, and she teases. Ironically, she also is a disciplinarian and has no trouble putting Annie in the time-out chair. Annie calls Mommy #2 May-May (for Megan) and Mommy #1 Maw-Maw (for Mommy). Sometimes I can’t tell the difference in Annie's pronunciation and neither, I suspect, can Annie.

On occasion when Annie wakes up in the night, cutting teeth or experiencing a tummy ache, she’ll peek around her mother’s arms and ask plaintively, “Where May-May?” I’m sure twenty-two month old Annie knows which Mommy is her birth mommy and which is her surrogate mommy, but she also knows how to play the game. When we’re all in a public place and baby is feeling particularly diva-ish, she will only go to May-May, batting her eyes from beneath amazingly thick lashes as if to let everyone know who’s in charge.

I think Annie's pretty lucky to have two mommies.

We should all be so fortunate.

Most of us have another person in our lives, another BFF to whom we tell secrets, fears, disappointments, perhaps secrets we don’t even tell our significant others.

Undoubtedly, there’s something to that male bonding thing. That alpha-charging into war with your best bud at your back. Or slapping each other on the butt during football practice. My dad told me that you're never as close to anyone as the man you fight beside in a foxhole.

So do women have that kind of bonding?

Absolutely! In spades! And if you haven't hopped over to http://www.romancenovel.tv/. to witness the Bandita Invasion, stop by today and see what I mean! There's fun, wit, and prizes!

Personally, I don’t think I could manage my life without my female friends, my critique partner, and three BFF's who just happen to be my daughters.

As writers, we rely on that other special friend. We call her a critique partner. She’s unflinchingly honest and unfailingly kind. She’s the cheerleader, coach, and critic.

So my question to you is: Who is the BFF you couldn’t live without? An aunt, a sister, a neighbor, a friend, or maybe your critique partner if you’re a writer. What role does he/she play in your life?

Everything's Coming Up . . . Bandita Roses!

Wednesday Tawny and Joan are blogging at RNTV so jump on over to http://www.romancenovel.tv/. and check out the blast we're all having there. They'll be talking about category versus single title, but ya'll know other, uh, topics of great interest are bound to come up!

Christie Kelley's "Every Night I'm Yours" has had several early sightings. Keep an eye out for her wonderful debut book! Wahoooo, Christie!

Donna MacMeans will blog soon right here on Romance Bandits about the cover for her second release, "The Trouble with Moonlight."

Also, don't forget to vote for Trish Milburn in the American Title IV contest!

Dreaming with Julie Cohen

By Anna Sugden

(well, Julie did all the hard work and wrote it - I just posted it and added the pics *grin*)

I'm thrilled to welcome my very dear friend, award-winning author Julie Cohen, back to the Bandita's Lair.

Whether you're published, almost-published, just starting or just dreaming, I know you'll find inspiration in Julie's post ... as well as hunks and humour!

Yo Banditas! Anna asked me to do a post for you about dreams.

See, when I first met the said beautiful and talented Ms. Sugden, I had a whole list of dreams in my pocket. I wanted to have a book published by Harlequin. I wanted to write mainstream single-title romance, too. I wanted to give up the day job as a teacher and become a full-time writer. I wanted to have a baby. I wanted to have a wild passionate affair with Owen Wilson.

It’s five years later. I’ve published six books with Harlequin Mills & Boon, and the one that’s released in the US this February, Harlequin Presents HIS FOR THE TAKING, has been shortlisted for the UK Romantic Novelists’ Association Romance Prize . I’ve published two mainstream single-title romances with Headline’s Little Black Dress imprint. I’ve had a baby, a gorgeous and noisy little boy. And between the little boy and the furious writing, I’ve been able to give up the day job to become a full-time mother and writer.

The only dream I haven’t achieved is the affair with Owen Wilson.

I don’t think I achieved these dreams through any magic. My secret was pretty much that I worked my ass off and I had a lot of sex. (With my husband, not Owen, though I’m not complaining.) I had some real highlights on the way--finalling in the Golden Heart, getting that first Call, my first publisher party, my supportive and wonderful writing friends, my first book signing. The moment, two days before Christmas 2006, when I first held my son.

I’ve also had some real setbacks. Rejection after rejection, of course, even after signing with my agent. Sarky contest feedback. Crap reviews. Days at work so stressful that I couldn’t write. Writing so stressful I couldn’t do my work properly. Interviews where I said appallingly stupid things. Those nights at the computer where I banged my head on the desk, convinced that I suck, I suck, I suck. And I lost three pregnancies to miscarriage, too.

I don’t know about you, but I always thought that when I’d ticked off that list of dreams, I’d be a different person. That somehow I’d be transformed into a Successful Author and magically all my self-doubts would fly out the window and I wouldn’t have to clean any toilets any more.

But it’s not like that. I’m constantly juggling writing and everything else--even more than when I was working full time, because a child is a hell of a lot more difficult than a job. People say that they don’t understand how I can keep motivated when I’m working from home, and for me, actually, the reverse is true: as my work is right there in my house, on the dining room table in fact, I feel that I have to be at it every spare minute I have. It’s more difficult for me to give myself time off.

No matter what my editor and agent and crit partners say, no matter how good the reviews are, no matter how many books I sell, there are still nights when I suck, I suck, I suck. And I want every book to get better, but God does it hurt to make it better, because you have to challenge your comfort zones, give that little bit more, dig that little bit deeper, all on a deadline.

And dude, do I ever have to clean the freakin’ toilet.

Anyway, I have a whole new set of dreams now. I want to make enough money from my writing so that we can move somewhere I can have an office of my own, away from sticky little fingers. I want to write bigger, more complex books. I want my little boy to grow up happy. And I wouldn’t mind having a wild passionate affair with David Tennant.

What (and who) are your dreams? Have you had any come true, and how did you feel about it? I’ll choose a poster from the comments to win a copy of my UK single-title release, ONE NIGHT STAND, about an erotica writer who gets pregnant by mistake.

Don't forget, you can find out about all Julie's books at her website http://www.julie-cohen.com/ and, as always, you can order them through Amazon by clicking on the cover pictures on this blog.

Anne Gracie visits the Banditas!

by Anna Campbell

I'm delighted to welcome multiple RITA finalist, multiple award-winner, esteemed President of Romance Writers of Australia and all-round mover and groover Anne Gracie to the lair! Anne writes wonderful luscious, emotional Regency historicals and if you haven't read them, you're missing out on a treat. Anne, lovely to see you here.

First up, thanks for inviting me, Anna and Banditas -- you seem like a fun crowd to hang with, and I've read so many of your books, I feel as though I know some of you. And I do know some of you ;) waves.

Congratulations on the release of The Stolen Princess, the first book in a new series, The Devil Riders. Can you tell us a little bit about the series and what inspired you to write it?

Thanks. I needed to come up with a new series, as I'd run out of sisters in my previous one. ;) and I had these guys in my head -- guys who'd been at war for years and now they were back in peacetime England, but no way were they settled down. Also I wanted to do a "friends" story rather than another family one. My editor suggested I make them all second or third sons, so they have to make their own way in life, as well, and that's been interesting. So, there are four ex-soldiers, all gorgeous, all horse-mad and still a little bit haunted by their years at war: Gabe Renfrew, his half brother Harry Morant, the elegant Rafe Ramsey, and Luke Ripton, the fallen angel of the group.

Can you tell us about The Stolen Princess?

It's about Callie, a princess whose child is in mortal danger, and Gabe, a man who makes it his purpose in life to protect them. He comes into the story as a protective warrior (and something of a flirt) and discovers he has much more to offer than he believed. And both Callie and Gabe learn that unconditional love transforms life. It's a convenient marriage story -- one of my favorite story hooks -- and the Princess isn't happy about it. She'd planned never to be under any man's thumb again... but as Gabriel pointed out, it's not his thumb she should worry about... ;) There's an extract here: http://www.annegracie.com/books/Princess.html

What's next in the series?

The book I'm finishing up now is about Harry Morant, Gabe's half- brother, the result of an affair between the earl and a maidservant. Harry and Gabe were raised separately from the rest of the family (long story). Harry is building a horse racing stud, and plans a convenient, bloodless, unemotional marriage with a woman of unimpeachable virtue. He meets Lady Helen Freymore, Nell, destitute daughter of the late Earl of Denton, a woman who wants nothing to do with him. Harry won't accept that, and in the end, his actions force them to get married. But Nell is on a secret, heartbreaking quest. Of course, Harry, being a hero, joins her on the quest and they both discover love on the way.

You're a writer whose work breathes Regency atmosphere. Can you tell us what attracted you to this period?

Thanks, Anna, she says cautiously, hoping that "Regency Atmosphere" doesn't mean BO overlaid with perfume. Please note, my characters wash, often. There are bath scenes to prove it. ;)

What attracted me? For a start, I've been reading and rereading Georgette Heyer since I was 11, so the Regency (or Heyer's regency) is a place I'm both familiar with and fond of. When I started writing romance I had no idea it was a popular period -- I had very little idea of anything then. LOL

There are heaps of things I like about the period - there's glamour, and exclusivity, and ritual, and there's also hardship, and poverty lurking very close by. There's foreign travel, there's a war, there's an industrial revolution, there's societal change where people are moving up--and down-- in the world. Women were married for property, for bloodlines, for connections, and occasionally for love. So it's a period where can place my characters on the fine line between happiness and disaster and let them negotiate it.

Do you have any hints on research? Are there any books or resources you find particularly helpful when you're writing?

I have a pretty good feel for the era, I think, but I have to research particular things for different books in the same way a contemporary writer has to. I have stacks of books -- my local library used to have a fabulous research section, but they had an appalling clear out a few years back and a lot of my favorite references disappeared. I've had to chase them up on bookfinder.com I often chase up footnotes and, where possible, get my trusty research librarian to help me find a copy of the original source -- a diary or book of letters. Librarians are wonderful people. I also use the web a lot -- and I bookmark all useful sites while I'm using them. Afterward I'll put them onto the links page on my site. I have a stack of good reference links there, though it probably needs a clean up. Soon, I promise.

Can you give us an insight into Anne Gracie's working day? Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you have a set routine or do you move as the muse moves you?

I *never* use the word pantser. The word gives me a vision of my grandma's bloomers flapping in the wind, and no way do I want to be associated with them! shuddershuddershudder! I am an organic writer. That's a term that the fabulous Robyn Donald taught me. In my case it means I generally don't have a clue what I'm doing until I'm nearly half way through a book. By then the plot is firmly in the grip of the characters, and I have a deadline looming and am in a panic.

And I plot obsessively, sometimes right up until final revisions.

So that's me, calm, organized, totally in control of my process... Organic and bloomer-free.

My day: I usually start off the day with email. I used to fight this, but I have no will power, and besides, my editor or agent might have contacted me in the night and it would be rude to ignore them. The only times I don't do this is when I'm in a Dorothea Brande phase, where the first thing I do every morning is write for fifteen minutes by hand, but after a few weeks the creativity is flowing and I forget why I'm doing Dorothea and email sneaks back in. I work every day, but as soon as I've finished this current book, I plan to structure my working week so I have more structured time off. Refill the well. I try to write a thousand words a day or three handwritten pages, but towards the end of the book when it's all flowing (and a deadline is looming) I write a lot more.

I've gone back to doing bits in handwriting - I think it frees up my writing. If I'm not sure what to write next or how to approach whatever scene I'm on, I go and lie on my bed and dream it up. When it's good, it's like tapping into a continuously rolling movie in my head. So I write scenes and notes and snatches of conversations or thoughts by hand and then go and type them up.

If I've had an unproductive day, I'll take the dog for a late walk and come back and write again. When I was working full time I used to write a lot at night, starting around 10pm, and that's what I pretend to my brain I'm doing.

You're a master at writing emotion. I rarely finish one of your books where I haven't both laughed and cried. Do you have any specific techniques to help you achieve this depth of emotion in your writing?

Thanks, Anna. I dunno about being a master, (scuffs foot in pleasure at the compliment) but I do try. Actually it's Charles Dickens's fault. When I first started writing, the only piece of writing advice that I'd heard of was "Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait." I hope you waited, too. ;)

I think to achieve emotion in your writing you have to try to climb into your character's head and heart and the deep dark places in their souls. Work out where they're coming from, what they're feeling, what they fear, what they secretly dream of... and when you go there, go deep and let it unfold in detail, don't rush it, take the reader through it with the character. I figure if the scene touches me, it will touch readers.

What do you hope 2008 will bring?

A holiday. I'm really hoping to go to the US and UK and maybe some of Europe. I haven't done any real traveling for ages -- recently it's always for conferences, but in 2008 I want to go play in the world.

Anne has brought booty to the lair! She will pick one commenter at random to win a signed copy of her wonderful new release The Stolen Princess. She wants to know your favorite story hook: eg convenient marriage, Cinderella story, bad boy/spinster, etc, and what do you love about it?

Jennifer Donnelly's Booty!!

Okay, that didn't sound right did it? teehee.

Anyway...the winner of their choice of either The Tea Rose or The Winter Rose, signed by fabulous and award-winning author Jennifer Donnelly is....

principessa!!

Please send your snail mail address and choice of books to Kirsten at:

kirstenscott33 @ gmail.com

Thanks everyone for making Jennifer's visit such a special one.

Prizes Galore!

P226!! You've won a signed copy of Christine Wells' SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER and a postcard from her Holiday from Hell for your hilarious account of your worst holiday experience.



And from the lovely Kim Castillo at RNTV, Terrio has won a decadent box of chocolates from the Nut Shoppe!

Please contact Christine through her website with your snail mail details to collect your prizes.


Congratulations and thank you for visiting the lair!

Resolutions That Should've Been

by Beth Andrews

I'm not much for making resolutions (although I do love to set goals - two different things to my brain *g*) but here we are, almost three weeks into the new year and although I'm checking things off my goal list left and right, I can't help but wonder if I should've added a few resolutions. Just to make sure all the bases are covered. So, here is my list of resolutions I would've made, had I made resolutions.

#1 - watch more basketball. Hey! I'm already doing this - I must be on the right track *g* With three kids playing in two different leagues, I go to at least 3 basketball games a week. Yes, I have a severe case of Bleacher Butt, but at least I've kept the first resolution.

#2 - Watch more movies. I just watched Pirates of the Carribean, At World's End (or as my son calls it, POC, AWE) Just watched it - and it came out in May of last year! I am soooo far behind I am on my movies. More trips to the video store!

#3 - Catch up on all the television programs I've missed. Like Heroes. Ugly Betty. Supernatural (although I've caught a few episodes of this season) Project Runway. Rome. Deadwood. Lost. Okay, this list could seriously go on and on and on and...well...you get the idea. Suffice it to say, if I kept this resolution, I'd never write again.

#4 - Stop pressing down on the imaginary brake when my son is driving. No matter how hard I press, the car never even slows down, let alone stops. So unless my foot goes through the floorboard ala Fred Flintstone to drag on the road, I'm probably wasting my time.

#5 - Get my husband to stop shouting, "We're going to die. We're going to DIE!!" when son is driving the car. This is the reason no one likes backseat drivers.

#6 - Stop being so mean and strict! Oh, sorry. That one is my older daughter's resolution for me. Can you tell she's a teenager?

#7 - Take more mental health days. Really, after reading the above, is this one a surprise?

#8 - Have fewer negative thoughts. This one is a bit more serious but I've read that we have 60,000 thoughts a day and that for most people, 80% of those thoughts are negative. Yikes! So I'm going to work on getting that percentage way down. After all, negative thoughts sure as heck never did me any good.

#9 - Stop eating celery. Eating celery has never done me any good either. I think I'll just skip it from now on.

#10 - Embrace new opportunities. Like the wonderful opportunity all the Bandits have to take over at Romance Novel TV! We kick off our invasion tomorrow with the witty and wonderful Anna Campbell and Caren Crane and The Haiku Challenge. *g*

What about you? Any resolutions you should've made? For those who made resolutions, how it's going? Are you sticking with them or have they fallen a bit by the wayside?

And don't forget to check out the Bandits at Romance Novel TV during the next two weeks :-)

Kim Castillo from RNTV is in the Lair!

Having survived her mystery author stint over at Romance Novel TV more or less intact, Christine Wells caught up with RNTV’s fabulous production manager, Kim Castillo for a chat.

Hi Kim, and welcome to the lair!

First, let me give a big hullo to all the Banditas! Its so wonderful to be here. The Lair is so lush and beautiful. I didn't know you kept Tim Tams back here! *squeals with delight and sneaks a few*

Haha, you have taken the Tim Tam truth syrum. You are in my power... We Aussies are taking over the world, one Tim Tam at a time bwahaha!

OK, down to business. Kim, can you explain for the uninitiated what Romance Novel TV is and how it all started?

Romance Novel TV is the brainchild of Maria and Marisa, twin sisters who love romance novels and wanted to bring them to the world in a new and innovative way. They both have a background in TV production so on-camera interviews were a natural choice for them. Their theory is not everything is revealed on the page and that's so true. There are so many great stories behind authors and the books they create. Its Maria and Marisa's vision to bring that to romance readers everywhere. I was lucky enough to be introduced to The M's through Eloisa James and was brought on board for the launch. Its such fun to work with this team. We have a great time together.

The Romance Novel TV site is quite extensive and ever changing. We have a thriving message board where we play Mystery Author, Banditas Donna and Christine being our most recent tricksters! We also host a Guest Author each week and since I love to give away books, there's always a contest or two going on. We've recently added a Review page where you'll find opinions on upcoming romances and old favorites. Bandita Anna C is going to be our resident reviewer and share her thoughts each month!

What is your role at RNTV? You seem to put in a LOT of hours moderating the boards along with all the other things you do. How do you stay fresh and on top of things?

Well, my title is production manager *g*. I do put in a lot of time and effort into the message board (thank you for noticing!) I do most of the author scheduling and contest fullfillment along with various other things. My role is ever changing and evolving. One fun and exciting thing I got to do was interview Kim Harrison on-camera at last year's RWA. I can't tell you what a thrill it was for me. For one day I got to be Katie Couric.

Keeping fresh? A constant supply of peanut M&M's and great romance novels, of course! Truly, what keeps me fresh is that I love what I do. After years and years of being miserable in my job now that I found something I'm good at everyday is like a blessing and that makes it easy. Also, I work with some of the best people in the world. The M's, the members of our community and all the great authors make my days fly by in a flurry of eutopia. Finding this happiness is something that I give thanks for everyday.

What do you hope readers find when they come to RNTV?

Entertainment and a place where they can come everyday to talk about romance. We strive to make each day something special on our site. I hope they find new authors and expand their reading choices. Most of all, I hope they find a place in our community.

What plans do you have for the future on the site?

Valentines Day will be our first anniversary! Our plans for our second year are so exciting. We plan on bringing new and innovative programming and exploring new ways to bring romance novels to readers. The three of us feel that the sky's the limit and we're ever changing and always open to new ideas. There is always a new author and a new story to talk about, we don't see that ever slowing down. Romance Novel TV changes and grows to bring this to our viewers in an entertaining and fun way. As long as there are authors writing romance novels RNTV will be there to cover it.

And finally, tell us 5 quirky things about you, that perhaps your readers don’t know about.

Only 5? LOL
1. I have very strict rules about The Care and Handling of Books. You must never ever write in a book, turn down the page or break the spine. Those are just the most urgent ones. I have about 378 rules.

2. Literally everyday I can eat sweet and sour chicken from Memories of China. I never get sick of it, sadly, my poor husband does.

3. My sense of humor is that of a teen-age boy. I love gutter humor. Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith and Dane Cook are my idols!

4. I'm a self-taught cook. Up until about 10 years ago I couldn't even boil water. Now there's nothing I can't make including New York Cheesecake, pies and all sorts of goodies.

5. To Dance With Kings by Rosalind Laker kicked off a lifelong obsession with Marie Antoinette and a burning desire to see Versailles. NO, she did not say it (Let them eat cake) and YES, one day I will dance with my very own love in the Hall of Mirrors to candlelight *G*

Wow, remind me never to borrow a book from you, my dear! Eek, you'd have me hung drawn and quartered!

Thank you for joining us in the lair, Kim. And now, have another Tim Tam, I have a few more interesting questions for you in private... *g*

Thanks so much to the Banditas for having me! I can't wait till they take over the RNTV blog next week. Its going to be an invasion to rival the Beatles.

And now I'd like to ask your readers a question--I found my dream job at RNTV. What job would you love to have? Addendum--Christine forgot to add that Kim has very generously offered to give one lucky commenter a box of chocolates from her favourite chocolatier, The Nut Shoppe! Thanks so much, Kim!

The Bandita Invasion of RNTV!

by Anna Campbell

Ahoy, my hearties! All right, all right, I'm channeling my inner pirate not my inner Bandita, but I hope the photos make up for the wooden leg and the parrot and the bad teeth. Bandits need good teeth so they can flash a sexy grin beneath the black mask!

The Bandits are going on tour for the next two weeks (and thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we'll be holding the fort here too so you get double Bandit blast for your money!).

The fine crew who steer the good ship Romance Novel TV have invited us to invade from Monday, 21st January, to Friday, 1st February. Avast, ye landlubbers! So from Mondays to Fridays over that fabulous fortnight, two Banditas will take charge of the blog over there and bring the mayhem that rules our blog to a new audience.

We're hoping our friends and honorary Banditas will take ship with us, rowing over in dinghies or, if really desperate, swimming. We'll save you from the sharks and crocodiles!

The party kicks off on Monday with the fabulous Caren Crane challenging me to a haiku duel. You don't have to comment in haikus. As you know, we love anybody who will talk back to us however they want to do it!

But if you do display your poetic skills, you may win fabulous Bandita Booty (some things don't change, even if we are playing away). Our favorite haiku wins a signed copy of Untouched and a $15 voucher from Amazon.

Worth stretching yourself to writing a poem of five syllables, seven syllables and five syllables, methinks!

After that there will be two Bandits a day on duty to keep the party going. Please come over and play. We promise cold cyber champagne, hot cyber men, prizes galore and lots of laughs. Hey, bet that's the best offer you've had post-New Year's Eve!

So as we're about to enter new fields and conquer new territory and beat any cliches we find into a pulp, I thought I'd ask a perennial question of all you experts on Internet interaction. What do you look for in a blog? What appeals to you? What doesn't? What brings you back to a blog day after day or even on a semi-regular basis?

And don't forget to come and say hello on Romance Novel TV from Monday!

Last Chicken Roosting

By Cassondra Murray

This is Ickey the rooster with my husband, Steve.

Sorry, but this is the only picture of grown-up Ickey that I could find. It’s cropped from a family picture we took at Christmas a few years back.

Take a close look at Ickey's feet and you’ll notice that he has long spurs on his chicken heels. For you who don’t know, those are a bit sharp. Not like a blade or anything, but still, that’s the part you have to watch out for. The spurs. You’ll hear more about those later.

Ickey and my husband, Steve, were buddies. Ickey came to us in a box of 12 fluffy, day-old yellow chicks, and we’d raised them mostly as pets because I like chickens. I think it’s the sounds they make when they’re content. They’re soothing.

Ickey and I didn’t always get along, but Steve and Ickey....well, they bonded early on.

On this particular portrait day, we’d finished all the serious pics, and were about to disperse when Steve yelled, “WAIT,” ran to the henhouse and returned with Icky under his arm. He wanted a family portrait with Ickey in it. Now I’m glad because I’ve learned a bunch from Ickey.


Our rooster got his name from Ickey Woods, a football player for the Cincinnati Bengals in the late 80s- early 90s. Don’t ask me what position he played, as I know nothing about football, but I remember Ickey Woods because of the funky little sideways dance he did in the end zone when he scored a touchdown. They called it the Ickey shuffle.


You see, when a rooster reaches chicken puberty, he goes, like most of us, through a series of changes, both physical and mental. I can’t actually say whether he goes through emotional changes, as I understand only rudimentary chicken language. I can translate “I just laid an egg.” I can usually make out, “Something’s after me I need help hurry!”, and I clearly understand, “Get your hand out from under me, that egg is MINE.” But the finer points of chicken emotions…I’m not that fluent yet.

A rooster at puberty does begin paying close attention to the lady chickens and like young men around young women, his behavior gets a bit odd. He starts picking up bits of food, but not eating them. He drops them near the hens to get attention. He holds his head and neck way back to make his chest look bigger, he struts around a lot, and oh yes, he starts crowing.

But the most interesting change is that he starts to get a bit…well…territorial. If you go into the chicken coop, he gets between you and the hens. First he makes a show of force by crowing, then he drops one wing like a shield and dances at you sort of sideways in this funky little shuffle…the Ickey shuffle. ( Is it making sense now, the whole Ickey Woods connection? Okay good.) That's Ickey Woods up there on the left, actually doing the Ickey shuffle.

If you’re not careful, as your rooster grows older and gets stronger, you’ll end up flat on your back on the wrong end of those spurs. I learned as a little girl to take a stick with me into the chicken yard, and I know the precise, rapid splat-splat-splat-splat sound of rooster feet running full speed toward you down a dirt path. (Never let ‘em catch you with your back turned. They watch for that.)

Who You Callin’ a Chicken?

Now that picture of Ickey the rooster was taken December 2003, and in Summer of 2004 I was away for the weekend when Steve came home after a Saturday morning outing and found...well, it was bad. He had to call to tell me. It broke our hearts, and it surprised even me, and I’ve been around chickens all my life.


Our henhouse has two doors. A people-sized door on the front, and a chicken-size door on the side, opening into the chicken yard. It stays open most of the time, so the chickens can come and go on their own. Chickens come in at night, and “roost” a few feet off the ground, and the hens were doing this as usual, but for a few months, Ickey had been refusing to roost. He’d been sleeping right in the chicken doorway, face out toward the chicken yard.

You know, I’m not entirely sure how our culture came to call a person “chicken” when he’s afraid of something. Our culture is dead wrong.

This blog is about misperceptions, you see.

That summer night in 2004, Ickey served his purpose. He fulfilled his calling.

He faced down, and killed, a bobcat.

Now granted, Ickey was a big rooster, but do you know what a bobcat is? It’s a wildcat. They’re native to Kentucky but there aren’t any in this part of the state really. I’ve spent half my life traipsing through the woods and I’ve never seen one running loose. I’ve heard one only once, in Western Kentucky on a game preserve. The scream in the night will curdle your blood. They’re the size of a border collie but a lot stronger. Claws as long as your little finger and as vicious as a tiger when they fight.

We found the cat tracks in the mud the next day. This bobcat had climbed onto a dog crate we’d set beside the henhouse and gone over the five-foot wire fence into the chicken yard. That bobcat approached our henhouse thinking he’d found himself an easy dinner. Instead he met a real chicken and died. We found the cat a few feet into the field, ripped up and soaked with blood. We’re not sure which killed him, the puncture wound in his jugular, the one through his head, or the one through his lung from Ickey’s spurs.

Ickey was alive when Steve got home, but barely. He was staggering around on his feet, but his face and half his head were gone. He had almost no feathers left on half of his body. Blood everywhere. He’d fought for hours. Fended off attack after attack, and finally killed that bobcat through sheer force of will.

Not one feather on one hen was out of place. That cat never got to them. Because of a chicken.


The hardest part was that Ickey wasn’t going to die quickly and easily. Steve had to kill him. My husband is 5’3” tall. That’s taller than me but not by much. A bit short for a man. Throughout his lifetime a number of unfortunate folks have assumed they could push him around. He’s a martial artist, deadly with his hands and feet and with any kind of weapon. Former Special Ops.

Who would think that the fragile, fluffy little bird in this picture would grow up to kill a wildcat and save his flock? He had feathers on the outside, but when it was his time, Ickey proved what he was made of.

Steve still swallows hard when he looks at that family portrait with Ickey. I understand, now, why they bonded.

Steve and his buddy, Ickey—in spirit, they were alike.


So tell me, Bandita friends, do you have an Ickey in your life? Let's hear about your misperceptions. What have you thought was obviously one way, but found it to be another?

Any preconceived notions or misperceptions you’ve had knocked out from under you?

Our characters tend to assume things about one another, just like we do.

Sometimes as writers we depend on those notions in the reader. If we name our character Juan Hernandez, what a surprise when he’s Jewish. What happens when Ian McTavish rides a Harley through the Hollywood hills instead of a horse through the highlands?

The most common misperceptions are often by men about women, and vice-versa. For a romance writer, those come in very handy indeed and we use them often. Isn’t it extra nice when we find, right along with our heroine, that our hero appeared to be one thing, but in fact was another?

So tell me. What have you thought was one thing, but it turned out to be something entirely different? There’s a $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble up for grabs to one random commenter.

AND since I was completely brain dead through the holidays and did NOT give away the Romance Bandits mug from my December blog (over a month ago! The shame of it. I know, I know, I should be smitten.)I’ll be drawing for it at the same time. Watch this weekend for the winners.

Kathy Love is in the Lair

by Christie Kelley

It is my pleasure to introduce USA Today Best Selling Author, Kathy Love to the lair. Kathy is a dear friend of mine and one of my critique partners. She published her first contemporary romance in 2004, Getting What You Want. She has since moved into paranormal romance. This month, her fifth paranormal romance Any Way You Want It hits the shelves. So welcome, Kathy!


CITY OF MUSES

I had never been to New Orleans until a year ago. Oh, it was a place I'd always wanted to go, but the opportunity just never arose. Not until I was asked to attend Heather Graham's Writers for New Orleans conference in September of 2006. The timing of the conference still wasn't great. I had just bought a new house, which I'd only been in for less than two weeks (picture boxes everywhere). My daughter was starting preschool. And I was on deadline. But even with all those stress, I couldn't let this chance pass me by.


And thank goodness I didn't.

I went to New Orleans for only a long weekend, but that was more than enough time to fall in love with the city. But not only did I fall in love with the Big Easy, I was inspired. Truly inspired. From that one trip, I got the idea for a new series. The first book of that series, Any Way You Want It, was just released this month from Kensington Brava. And I got at least five more ideas for stories from my brief time spent there.

But another wonderful thing developed from that trip. Erin McCarthy, who attended the conference with me, and I came up with the idea for The Impalers (http://www.vampireband.com/). The Impalers are our fictional vampire band, who is made up of real musicians from Bourbon Street. We befriend several of the musicians there and then approached them about participating in this fun, if somewhat crazy, idea. Surprisingly, they agreed. So now Erin and I have our very own "undead" band.

We have created a vampire world that you can actually see and hear and meet in real life. What reader can't enjoy that? The Impalers made their first official appearance at Heather Graham's conference this past September. And they will be playing two of the balls at The Romantic Times conference this April. As well as having an encore performance at Heather's this fall.

So to celebrate finding a city that fed my muse, both in my writing and in my promotion, I'm posting an excerpt of Any Way You Want It. And please head over to The Impalers website to meet, Ren, the hero of this particular book and the other undead boys.

"Where are we going?" Maggie asked, doubling her steps to catch them.

"Bourbon Street," both her friends said in unison, then they dissolved into tipsy laughter.

Maggie smiled too, but then she shook her head. "Why don't you two go on? I'm kind of tired."

Which wasn't untrue. Their flight had left Dulles Airport at 6 am, and they had only dropped off their luggage at the hotel and went right into tourist mode. Not to mention, they were staying right off Bourbon Street. She'd be fine to walk back to their room alone. But she suspected Erika and Jo weren't going to let that happen.

But she really did need to rest. Even now, this newly-sensed energy was swirling around her, making the air thick and her head a little woozy. The wine wasn't helping, but she didn't really believe it was the alcohol--not solely.

"No way," Jo said, catching Maggie's elbow, pulling her along. "You are not sneaking off to read or listen to classical music or whatever boring thing you normally do."

"Right," Erika agreed.

Maggie laughed, but she did try to get her arm out of Jo's grasp. Jo wasn't letting go--not without a fight, it appeared.

"Those things aren't boring," Maggie argued. After all, Jo read twice as much as Maggie did. And she had a healthy knowledge of classical music. They'd attended many symphonies together.

"Okay, they aren't," Jo agreed. "But they aren't what you do on vacation. Especially a vacation in New Orleans. Hotel rooms are for sleeping only."

"Well," Erika said, slowly, "and other things."

Jo thought about that, then nodded. "Right, but that usually ends in sleeping."

Maggie frowned for a moment, losing track of what they were talking about--briefly, then she understood.

She shook her head. "I don't remember you two being quite so sex obsessed."

"And you aren't sex obsessed enough," Jo informed her. "Now come on, you can't come to New Orleans and miss Bourbon Street."

"I'm here for ten days," Maggie pointed out. "We could wait a night. I am honestly tired."

"No," Erika and Jo said--speaking again at the same time. A habit that was actually getting a little irritating, Maggie decided as Erika caught her other elbow, and both of her friends pulled her down the sidewalk. Although she did give in, allowing them to lead the way.

"Erika and I are only here for five nights. And we need them all," Jo said.

Maggie sighed. That was true. Her friends were leaving her early. A fact she was not happy about. What would she do in a city like this alone? She'd already noted this was a place filled with couples and groups.

She supposed she'd better take advantage of having both her pals here. Her pace picked up.

Even unfamiliar with the layout of the city and muzzy from the wine, Maggie didn't need to be told when they reached Bourbon Street. She blinked around her. The flashing lights, the loud slightly distorted bass of bands singing party favorites, the distinct smell of trash, beer and...

Was that vomit?

Add to that neon signs with words like "live sex acts" and "full nudity." Holy cow.

"This is...something," she managed, peering around, not sure where to look at next.

Even Jo and Erika, who were definitely worldlier when it came to bars and partying, gawked around themselves in awe.

"This is pretty amazing," Erika finally said, after they'd all stood mesmerized by a pair of female mannequin legs in black stilettos, kicking in and out of a club's windows.

"You definitely don't see that every day, do you?" Jo said.

Maggie almost added that she'd never seen that before, period, when her attention was seized by a distinct strain of music, somehow reaching out to her over the warring chords of Jessie's Girl, Living On A Prayer and Summer of '69.

Without thinking, she took a step toward the sound. Then another--until she'd zigzagged through the crowds of revelers to a bar on the corner of Bourbon and some cross street. She stopped on the sidewalk, staring at the building. The place was shabby, paint peeling from the wood, the sidewalk around it crumbling and layered in filthy. But from her spot on the street, she could see the stage through huge opened windows where a band was setting up. And she could clearly hear that distinct melody. Piano notes swirling through the air, a sound as out of place in this world as she felt.

Again, her feet moved until she found herself in the bar, standing in front of the stage, peering up at the person playing the music. Music that no one else should know.

Well, no one but her and possibly a few other authenticators. And the person who wrote it, of course. But that person was long since dead.

"Wow," Jo said from beside her, dragging Maggie's attention away from the music. "Good eye. That guy's pretty darn hot."

Maggie blinked back at the stage, for the first time noticing the man actually playing the music. He was tall with long hair in a shade somewhere between chestnut brown and dark mahogany, cascading over his broad shoulders.

He was looking down at the keyboards, his hair falling forward, shrouding most of his features, so that Maggie wondered how Jo could tell whether he was hot or not.

Then the thought quickly vanished as she watched his long fingers travel over the keys, playing a particularly difficult combination of chords. That combination exactly what she'd been studying so closely before she'd left. A fusion of notes that seemed to be a signature of sorts.
If Maggie's belief was correct, a signature of a composer that she was will to bet this man playing, a guy in a cover band on Bourbon street no less, had never even heard of. Much less could play.

Yet, here he was, playing it. Playing a piece that no one knew. An undiscovered composition probably by a lesser known composer.

Then two things happened at once, the beautiful, haunting tune abruptly switched into the intro to the classic 80's rock ballad, Sister Christian, and Maggie realized that the musician was staring directly at her. And she was staring back.

"Ah, man, he has a lazy eye," Erika said with a disappointed sigh.

Maggie heard her friend's words and regret, but somehow they didn't seem to quite reach her as if they echoed from a distance or through a somnolent haze. She just kept staring at the man, unable to look away, even though everything in her told her to do just that.

"There is something up with his eye, but I don't think it's lazy." Maggie heard Jo say.

Maggie wanted to speak, to say there wasn't anything wrong with his eyes, but the words in her head couldn't fumble their way her lips.

All she could manage was to focus on him. On the eyes in question. Eyes that seemed to match the music he'd been playing, complicated, intense, haunted. And just as the music held her entranced, so did his gaze.


And to also celebrate my newest book, I will pick one of the people who comment today to receive a copy of Any Way You Want It and an Impalers CD.

Finally, what are some of the best promotional ideas you've seen authors use? And what city have you fallen in love with?

Bandit Booty - Janice Lynn's Winners!

by Anna Sugden

Many congratulations to the following ladies, who have each won a copy of one of Janice's books!

Jane - A copy of Jane Millionaire

Anne - A copy of The Doctor's Pregnancy Bombshell

Nathalie - A copy of The Heart Surgeon's Secret Son

Please send an email to Janice at Janice AT Janicelynn DOT net.

Jennifer Donnelly Visits the Lair!

Interview by Kirsten Scott

Friends, I am just tickled to welcome the amazingly talented Jennifer Donnelly to the Lair! Jennifer’s first novel, The Tea Rose, an epic historical novel set in London and New York in the late 19th century, was called “exquisite” by Booklist, “so much fun” by the Washington Post, a “guilty pleasure” by People and was named a Top Pick by the Romantic Times. Her second novel, A Northern Light, won the Carnegie Medal, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Borders Original Voices Award, and was named a Printz Honor book. Jennifer is currently celebrating the release of The Winter Rose, a sequel to The Tea Rose, and a book we should all be watching for on the NYT bestseller list!

So, onto the interview!!

Jennifer, I inhaled...er, read The Tea Rose and can't wait to dive into The Winter Rose, which has just been released in hardcover by Hyperion Books. Can you tell us a little about these books?

I'd love to! Both books are big fat sweeping historicals, very much in the style of books I loved as a kid. Books like A Woman of Substance and The Thornbirds. Books that kept me up all night, reading under the covers with a flashlight. I first read A Woman of Substance when I was thirteen. I found it on my Aunt Grace’s bookshelf, along with about a hundred big fat 70’s blockbusters, and I was blown away. Emma was ladylike, elegant, determined, and tough as nails – a total Edwardian badass. She got knocked down, but she got right back up, put on her black dress and pearls, and proceeded to take over the world.

I loved those books too! They did a few things right in the 70s, didn't they? :-) You obviously take the setting of your novels very seriously, to the point that it becomes a key character in the story. What's your research process, and how in the world do you get all those details right? In particular, I loved all the vernacular you used in The Tea Rose, and the way the different characters truly had different voices. Where on earth did you find that sort of information?

I'm so glad you said that! I really do want things like history and setting to be characters in their own right in my books. My research process is more an art than a science. I read everything I can get my hands on -- big historical surveys of the period to start, then I try to get hold of any and all primary sources. Things like memoirs, oral histories, letters, newspaper articles, studies. Also diaries and photo albums. I prowl museums to view clothing from the time period in which I'm working, household items, and in the case of The Winter Rose -- obstetrical tools from the late 19th century. (Seeing them made me very happy I live in the 21st!) I also immerse myself as much as possible in the setting. Obviously I can't go back to 19th century London, but I could go back to the docklands, and I could spend a great deal of time in East London, at markets, at pubs, at caffs -- listening to the language of East Enders, absorbing the inflections, the vernacular. Taking in the faces, the gestures, the body language. Just generally being a big sponge -- soaking up sounds and sights and smells. The research goes on before I start writing, and during and even after -- during the fact checking and copyediting stages. It informs my work, and it inspires it. There's nothing more exciting than history to me. I totally groove to it.

I think you'll find a lot of people around here who feel the same way! Now, the Romance Bandits write in lots of different romance sub-genres -- historical, contemporary, paranormal, suspense, young adult -- but we're united in our love of romance and a happily ever after. The Tea Rose is a huge historical epic, but at its core it is very much a love story. Are you a romantic at heart? Do you imagine your hero and heroine find their HEA?

Fiona and Joe did in The Tea Rose, and I hope that Sid and India do in The Winter Rose. I myself am very much a romantic at heart. But a nitty-gritty, mean streets kind of romantic. I don't believe love is all hearts and flowers and gloopy rhymes. I believe the HEA takes work and sacrifice and selflessness. Anyone can send you a nice Valentine's Day card -- but will he be there for you when you get your tenth rejection letter from the publisher? When you've been in labour for twenty-odd hours? When the toilet blows up? Will you be there for him in difficult circumstances? That's love, to me. That's the HEA.

I grow a bit faint when I look at the sheer size of your books and imagine the research they require. You obviously had to dedicate a lot of time and energy to your writing without having any guarantee it would see the light of day. Can you tell us a little about your journey to publication? Did you ever consider quitting along the way?

That's funny…my publishers faint, too, when they see the sheer size of my books!

I fell in love with East London -- the inspiration behind my first novel, The Tea Rose, when I was in my twenties. And I started writing the book a few years later. I worked fulltime, so I wrote mornings from 4:30 to 7:00 am, and then I went to work. I wrote on weekends. Instead of taking vacations. I wrote pages upon pages upon pages. Draft upon draft. I worked hard, but it didn’t matter. The story didn’t work. It didn’t flow. It bogged down in description. It meandered. So I ripped up what I had and started again. And again. A year passed. Two. Five. Eight. I watched my friends got ahead in their chosen fields while I cobbled together a living from part time jobs, temp jobs, freelance jobs. I watched others get agents, get editors, get contracts, get published. Frustration set in. A sense of futility. Depression. Despair. But I kept on writing. I knew that nothing and no one could guarantee I’d ever get published, but I myself would guarantee that I didn’t if I stopped.

Eventually I had what I thought was a finished manuscript, so then all I needed was an agent. In my typical fashion, I got a guide to agents and wrote to every single one who sounded nice. Luckily, a good one wrote back -- Simon Lipskar from Writers House. He told me I could write, but said I still had a lot of work to do on things like narrative drive, point of view, and pacing. So I started revising. It took me another year to get the manuscript right. Another year of frustration. Of going back and forth with Simon, page by page. Of tears and doubt and worry. Finally, it was done. Again. It was polished and perfect and I thought we’d sell it immediately. I was so wrong. The manuscript was rejected from every publishing house in New York, and a few outside of it. Simon tried hard to sell it for over a year. And then I got a call. Not The Call, not by a long shot. It was Simon, and he was calling to tell me we he’d tried everything and everywhere and he couldn’t sell it. At least, not yet. We had to take a break. Put it on a shelf.

I was so down, I can’t even describe it. Ten years of my life. All that work. All that sacrifice. Such a labor of love. And no one wanted it. Weeks passed. And then one dreary, cold, gray afteroon, as I was sitting at my desk at Saks Fifth Avenue, writing ad copy, the phone rang. It was Simon. There was excitement in his voice, I could hear it. My heart started thumping. My hands went cold. And sure enough, he said the words I’d been waiting to hear for a decade: “I have an offer for The Tea Rose.” There was an editor a St. Martin’s – a new hire – and she liked it. The offer wasn't riches, not even close. But it didn’t need to be. To me, it was priceless.

That's an incredible story, and so inspiring for anyone striving to reach a seemingly impossible goal. Any last piece of advice you'd like to give to our readers who are aspiring writers themselves?

The most important piece of advice I can give to aspiring writers is this: Keep writing. Don't stop. Don't say the big fat awful NO to yourself. Trust me, the whole world is ready and willing to do that to you. Don't do it to yourself.

Thanks so much for the fabulous interview! Now, I know you're all going to run out and find Jennifer's books and add them to your TBR piles, but you're going to have to put them next in the queue, because they are a bit...ahem...weighty. ;-) So to get you started, we're sending one lucky commenter a copy of either The Tea Rose (if you're new to Jennifer) or The Winter Rose (if you're already a fan!). So, friends and fellow Banditas, say hello to Jennifer!

I miss the red carpet

by Trish Milburn

A few days ago, Jo blogged about her love of television and how the writers' strike has upset her and her TV viewing. I have to say I'm in agreement, especially after the strike's latest casualty -- the Golden Globes broadcast. I've heard all the arguments against the big awards shows -- they're long, they're self-congratulatory, blah, blah, blah -- but I don't care. I love them, particularly the Golden Globes and the Oscars. I love the glitter of Hollywood and the magic of seeing films on the big screen. And I love watching the red-carpet arrivals, seeing which actresses have the most fabulous -- and most atrocious -- dresses. I mean, who among us hasn't seen an A-list actress arrive at the Globes or Oscars and wonder if Bjork picked her dress and Edward Scissorhands did her hair? By the way, I think Keira Knightley looks lovely in this past Globes photo even if she didn't get a red-carpet moment this year despite being a Best Actress nominee.

I'm not saying the writers shouldn't be striking, but at the same time I feel as if this year's crop of Golden Globe nominees got a raw deal. The winners' accomplishments didn't get all the pomp and circumstance as past winners. It's kind of like Olympic athletes who train for years to compete only to have their country boycott the Games the year they're slated to compete. You understand why, but the timing still stinks.

I think it's been my lifelong love of these awards shows that makes me really enjoy the RITA/Golden Heart ceremony at the RWA National Conference each year. RWA really goes all out to honor the nominees for these top awards. I may never get on stage to give an Oscar speech, but I have to say giving a Golden Heart speech and getting all spiffied up in evening attire is pretty darn cool. And perhaps for writers it's an even bigger deal because so much of our work is solitary, behind the scenes so to speak. To walk the red carpet, be interviewed by Romance Novel TV, and have your name, book title and picture flashed on the big screen is our own Oscar moment. We might even have "You like me, you really like me" flash through our minds. That's me in the blue below with good friend Mary Fechter (aka MJ Fredrick) at the ceremony in Atlanta in 2006.

But since the RITA/Golden Heart ceremony is still six months away, I'm hopeful that the writers' strike will end soon and I'll at least get to enjoy the glitter of the Oscars.

By the way, if you missed the list of Golden Globe winners, including Atonement as best picture, you can see it here.

Do you have any favorite red-carpet fashions from past Golden Globe or Oscar ceremonies? Are you a fan of awards shows?

That Inner Truth

by Tawny Weber

I attended an RWA chapter meeting recently that featured three published authors, sharing their journey. Not so much their journey TO publication, although that was included, but their journey AFTER publication. The three are all awesome writers, I've been lucky enough to have books by them all. But they, their writing, and their journeys couldn't be more different.


And yet... the core message each of them shared was the same. Its all about being true to ourselves and our writing. What a fabulous message (and yes, one we've all heard before, but it hit home so hard for me that I'm sharing anyway *g*). I'm using writing as the general comparison here, but I really believe this message can apply to anything you do.

I remember how important it was, when I was starting out, to learn to weed through the masses of information to find what worked for me. Oh sure, some stuff is general. Grammar isn't fluid, and manuscript formatting is... well, formatting. But the important things like voice, style, the message I bring to my work... I had to find those and, once I did, make sure I was true to them.

Of course, as the ladies at the meeting pointed out, there are always people who want to refocus us. Before we're published, it could be contest judges (nobody is buying THAT or I hate this kind of story, you'd do better if you learned to write XYZ, etc) or critique partners (similar feedback as contest judges, but we actually TRUST the CPs) or even editors and agents we're submitting to. After we sell, it doesn't change much. Except now we've got reviewers and readers with suggestions, and the stakes and fears get a little higher. There is, as one Christine blogged about the other day, the question of writing the same thing or changing it up. There is the pressure of writing to the market or writing, as Kirsten said in her comment to Christine, writing the story that's inside you.

How do you sift through it all and come out feeling like you made the right choices? Thats what I learned in this talk -simply be true to yourself and your writing. Always (here's where that general non-writing specific stuff comes in *g*) know, when you're done with the book, job, task, that you did your best. That you're proud of it and know, if a fifty foot flashing billboard proclaimed this was YOU and your work, you'd be proud. That way, no matter what happens as a result (for instance, it took me six manuscripts before I sold...but I'd gladly share any one of the earlier ones with pride) would you know you did your best.

And if you're lucky, along the way you find people who get you. Who want to support you being yourself and keeping your writing true. Like, hmm, say the Romance Bandits? I'm sure none of us thought we had much in common when we all got those calls in March of 2006. And yet, here we are... Twenty diverse, empowered and strong writers, all heading in different directions, but going down the same path. Together.

So... nothing new here, I realize, but it was my first big OOOoooooohhhh moment of the year and I wanted to share it!

How about you? If someone took out that huge bilboard to highlight one of your recent accomplishments, which one would make you beam with pride?

New Year's Eve Booty

The winner of the New Year's Eve booty is Carol Burge! Congratulations, Carol, and apologies for taking so long to post this. The start of the year got away from me. Email your contact information to nancyATnancynorthcottDOTcom, and I'll send along your Borders card.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by to see the year out with the banditas!

It Started as A Quick Trip

by Joan Kayse

It was just going to be a quick trip across town to the Borders Book Store. I had the day off, a gift card from Christmas and a burning need to buy the entire backlist of a new author (for me anyway) JR Ward.

It turned into an obsessive quest.

I know, I know. How could I not have read the Black Dagger Brotherhood series already? Naturally backward, I guess. You're talking to the woman who had never read Nora Roberts until 2002 when on at her first RWA conference in New Orleans she was pointed out to her with reverent awe. "That's Nora Roberts," my friend said and I swear she bowed like an acolyte in her direction.

"That's nice," I remember thinking and noting she was wearing a T-shirt that said "Walking in a Wiccan Wonderland." Hmm. Must write about witches?

Then I read "Tears of the Moon" and bam....I was hooked. It took me all of maybe six months to catch up on her backlist. Haven't missed a new release since. And I discreetly bow in her direction at the conferences.

But back to my trip today. My critique partner gave me a copy of "Lover Eternal." It's got great characterization, she assured me. I knew it had to be impressive because my CP is typically not into vampires or paranormal books. So I began to read about Rhage and his brothers.

Characterization? In spades. Add in plot and suspense and soul deep description and no small amount of sensusal tension and you've got a brand new fan.

You know an author is brilliant when you can't stop reading even though it is 1 am and your eyeballs are falling out of your head. When you do force yourself to go to bed but keep wondering what happens in chapter twenty seven.

When you go to 3 different bookstores to get the backlist and actually growl at the manager of one who had NO COPIES OF HER BACKLIST.

I was tired. I had things to do. But I was not leaving the end of town that has all the bookstores until I got what I came for! Heck, JR even lives here in my hometown and I briefly wondered if she had any in her basement :-)

This type of author is the kind I learn from. This is the type of story/series that I want to write. Now if you'll excuse me there is, ahem, a "Dark Lover" waiting for me!

So are there any authors you've discovered by accident that caused you to go wild until you read her backlist?

Bronwyn's Booty Haul!

Thank you to everyone who made Bronwyn Jameson's visit to the lair such fun. Bronwyn has now picked her winner randomly from all the commenters and the winner is...

Laura J!

Laura, please email Bronwyn at bronwyn@bronwynjameson.com with your snail mail details and she'll get your prize out to you. Congratulations! You've won the fabulous Aussie prize pack, VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM by Bronwyn, THE PRINCE'S OUTBACK BRIDE by Marion Lennox, CONTRACTED: WIFE FOR HIS BED by Carol Marinelli and of course, the PINK TIM TAMS!! Enjoy!

Writers' Strike and Viewers' Withdrawal

by Jo Robertson

Am I the only person who’s terribly upset that the WGA strike hasn’t been resolved? I love television. I adore television. I watch far more of it than any one person should ever admit to.

But I no longer apologize for it.

You see, all those shows are fodder for my imagination as a writer. So it’s a business expense, right?

Currently, I’m disgruntled that the networks don’t validate the work of writers because, after all, where would the shows be without the brilliance of an Aaron Sorkin or Joss Whedon?

So in support of the brilliant WRITERS of television shows, I’m listing five of my favorite shows, based on the writing alone. If I based the list on the characters or the acting, the list might be different.

1. West Wing: I know. It’s now defunct and seriously went downhill after the amazingly smexy Jimmy Smits joined the team, but come all, no one can write snappy dialogue and non-sentimental emotion like Aaron Sorkin.

2. Seinfeld: Ah, the scintillation of the show about nothing! Who would’ve thought the ordinary and quaint meanderings of a bunch of friends could be so witty? Of course, this was a show that was definitely an acquired taste, and some people never got on the bandwagon.

3. Friends: No better comedy ever! Flat out. We always wanted to know who Rachael would end up with. Now this was a show that knew how not to jump the shark!

4. Rome: I’m sorry, but do you know how hard it is to write an historical show that has the epic quality of the old Biblical movies of the fifties and sixties and yet appeals to the modern viewer? One word for this show: yummy!

5. Sex and the City: Okay, this is my dirty little secret and certainly not a show I’d ever let my own children watch, but it’s so outrageously funny that I had to put it on the list.

Okay, readers, your turn. What are your top five favorite TV shows? It’s okay if you go back to I LOVE LUCY or RAWHIDE or even THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW! Let’s hear from you.

Great Expectations, or, the Holiday from Hell

posted by Christine Wells
Hallooo everyone!!! I'm SO glad to be back in the lair, you have NO idea!

I missed all the banditas and honorary banditas like crazy, but that's not the only reason I'm glad to be back. Sorry to say that the last few weeks have been the holiday from hell. And no, it's not just because I was forced to leave my laptop behind.

Despite the week at the beach when it rained non-stop and the proposed holiday to an island off the coast of Australia (above, left) where our flight was delayed 6 times over 4 days due to gale force winds, my husband and I were moderately optimistic when we flew down to Victoria (a southern state of Australia), to travel the Great Ocean Road (right).

The sunshine was a good start, as was the lovely country town of Port Fairy (below left and right) and the wineries at Coonawarra (right).

A few dozen bottles of wine later...

We thought we'd left our troubles behind us, but the straw that broke the camel's back was yet to come. We'd booked (as we thought) a charming cottage in a semi-rural setting, where the boys could play outside and see cows and sheep and we could fossick around wineries and olive groves and sight-see at will. When we called the owner to ask about checking in, she said we had to stay at a different property from the one we'd booked.

It was after 7pm, we'd been on the road for around 9 hours and our boys were screaming tired. We thought it a bit strange to be told to go to a different location when we'd spoken to the owner only days before and confirmed the booking, but when she said someone else was already staying in the charming cottage, we had no choice but to drive to the address we'd been given.

Nothing rural or charming about this place. It was a suburban house near a bay but with no view of the water and the only garden it had was a gravel yard with a tin shed out the back.

When we complained, we were told the property had been given the same starred rating as the rural cottage we'd expected, so we shouldn't be upset about the change. But we were upset, and when we tried to explain why, we realized it was because we'd been expecting one thing--looking forward to it very much, in fact--and received something altogether different. Item for item, the facilities in these two places were the same, but the experience each would give us would be poles apart.

And it occurred to me today how similar our disappointment was to the disappointment some readers express about romance novels when an established author tries something different. Readers come to expect a particular experience from a particular author. If that author fails to deliver that experience each time, devoted fans might well end up feeling cheated, even if, judged objectively, the book is just as good as other books by that author. It's not that readers want the same story over and over, it's the similar feeling of triumph over adversity, or light, flippant entertainment or dark, angsty emotion that you want each time you pick up that author's books.

So what do we, the writers, do about that? In some ways, there's no escaping your own voice. If it's a strong one, it shows through no matter what you write and your readers might well follow you up hill and down dale just to get more of your unique voice. Jenny Crusie could probably write a computer manual and I'd read it. But on the whole, I'd say that kind of following is pretty rare. As authors, do we have a duty to write the same but different every time, or should we be free to wander where the muse (or the girls in the basement) takes us?

I'm not sure I know the answer to this question, but after our holiday, I can certainly see both points of view.

What do you think? If you're a reader, do you want your favorite authors to write similar (but different) books each time? If you're a writer, do you feel constrained by this perceived expectation? And anyone else, what's your worst holiday story? One reader will win a copy of SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER and a postcard from my ill-fated holiday!

Anna Campbell Interviews Bronwyn Jameson

I am delighted to introduce fabulous writer, wonderful person and 2006 TRIPLE RITA finalist Bronwyn Jameson to the lair. In 2000, Bron was the first Aussie bought for Harlequin's Silhouette Desire line and she's been a shining star there ever since, regularly appearing on the Waldenbooks bestseller lists. If you haven't read her romances, you're missing out on a real treat. They're beautifully written, sensual, sexy, passionate and feature breathtaking heroes. What's not to like?

Bron, lovely to have you here. First of all, can we go back to basics? Can you please tell us something about your journey as a writer?

Thanks for inviting me, Anna. It's a pleasure and a privilege. How did I get here? Courtesy of a mid-life crisis of sorts. I was approaching a landmark birthday, and the "I'm going to write a book someday" started to niggle away at me. I thought if I didn't start soon, I might never finish that one book. As with most things I do, I procrastinated for months. I read how-tos, joined Romance Writers of Australia, read and read and read. Luckily I didn't have internet to glom or I might never have started. But I did and I fell in love from day one. Writing romance, where had you been all my life? Five years later I received the call from Leslie Wainger at Silhouette books. I'd never actually submitted anything to Silhouette Desire but fell into the right place courtesy of a contest final.

Your new book VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM sounds great, really passionate and dramatic. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

This is the part where I whimper because I'm so BAD at blurbing my own book. You’d best cut me off if I can’t condense it into “a little bit”. VOWS -- my working title was "Perrini's Boardroom Bride" -- is a reunion romance about workplace colleagues, and secret lovers, who married too quickly and for the wrong reasons. Ten years later Ric Perrini and Kimberley Blackstone are reunited after a tragic plane crash sends shock waves through the diamond company where they met. Kim had sworn never to return while her father was alive. Now he's dead and Perrini wants her back, at Blackstone's and in his bed. But can she trust his motives? Does he want her, the woman, or does he want the power she wields as the Blackstone heiress? So, there's passion, drama, intense emotion, a struggle for power in the boardroom, a family feud, and rumours of a scandalous affair that's about to rip this family even further apart.

You've worked on a couple of continuity series for Harlequin where a number of authors come together to write linked books. Can you tell us some of the rewards and challenges of working this way? Can you give us some insight into how you go about creating a continuity series?

This is the fourth continuity series I've worked on and the most challenging by far. The first three were editor-led -- the editors came up with the series concepts and storylines and invited the authors to participate. The editors wrote the series bible.

This series, DIAMONDS DOWN UNDER, is author-led. We came up with the concept, the characters, the storylines, and put together a proposal which Melissa Jeglinski, the Desire senior editor, loved. We wrote the (lengthy) bible, which is the source document to ensure we get all the details right from book to book. It contains character sketches, family tree, backstory, settings, locations, company structure, contents of a will, plane crash logistics, timelines, and detailed synopses of the six stories. In other words, this was a lot of work which makes the reward of finishing a series we’re proud of all the more sweet.

The series sounds fantastic! Can you give us some insight into how you put a book together? Are you a pantser or a plotter? How does your working day pan out?

I am most definitely a plotter. Before I start writing, I've already written a detailed synopsis which I expand into an outline. I spend A LOT of time pre-writing and jotting down scene ideas and snippets of dialogue. When I write it's pretty much a final draft. I'm not saying I write one-time perfect; I edit as I go. I guess my outline with all those snippets and scene ideas incorporated is something of a first draft.

As for my working day: I'm a slow starter. I do email and home stuff first thing while I'm still waking up. I try to start writing mid-morning but often it's more like midday. I work through to dinner. If I have to, I'll do some more at night but usually 6-8 hours is enough to finish my brain off for the day. A glass of wine at dinner completes the job.

You write the most marvelous sensual tension. Honestly, it's edge of the seat (and steaming up windows) stuff. A lot of people who visit the Banditas are writers. Can you give us any hints as to how you build the heat between your couple?

Gosh, thank you. That's just the loveliest compliment coming from you! So, this is the part I don't plan, but I guess it’s a direct result of my own love of the intense, delicious, seething underbelly of sex ten. My best tutors, I think, were historical romance authors who aren't afraid of lush, evocative, sensual language.

It has to be there from first meeting, in the eye contact, the impact of first touch, the snap of dialogue, but in a covert and intriguing way. It's not all T&A. From there it needs to build scene by scene, a function of the pull of primal attraction versus the push of whatever conflict prevents them acting on it. I think the secret is in the build. If you go all-out from the start, where is there to go? Something you do so well, Ms. Campbell.

Why, thank you, Ms. Jameson! Something that's struck me is that Australians seem to do really well internationally in the romance industry. Why do you think this is?

Interesting question. Hmm. think many of us start out independently (not as part of a chapter or critique group) and so we develop a strong voice -- or don't lose our strong voice -- by being told "you can't do this" or "you can't write like that". We're probably a bit fearless in the storylines we tackle, for the same reason. Also, I'm told we do the alpha male particularly well; I'm not sure why that is, but I do know that it stands us in good stead with editors everywhere.

What are you working on now?

A new series for 2009 which starts with an unintentional sister swap, a case of mistaken identity with two brothers, and miscellaneous twists involving identity, which (needless to say) is the overall theme. A large part is set in England and so I get to include a society wedding, a country house party, polo, Bond Street shopping, a weekend in Paris, and all manner of things that I find quintessentially British. Including a titled hero with a delicious James-Bond voice. It's definitely not as intense as my last two books. I'm able to have some fun with these characters and situations. I'm having a ball.

Bron, sounds like the usual delicious romance you dish up to your ever-hungry readers! Particularly love the idea of the James Bond voice. Sort of you had me at hello!

Bron has really reached into her treasure chest and put together a fabulous Aussie prize pack. One lucky commenter will win not only VOWS & A VENGEFUL GROOM, but also THE PRINCE'S OUTBACK BRIDE by Marion Lennox, CONTRACTED: WIFE FOR HIS BED by Carol Marinelli and PINK TIM TAMS!!! Seriously, this is booty worth celebrating. Get commenting, people! Good luck!

Better Late than Never...

by Jeanne Adams

Well, I had a whole other post ready for today and it's gone. Yep. Gone. The cyber-gremlins ate it. Which is why it wasn't posted at midnight like it was supposed to be. Sigh.

But it made me think about what happens when we lose something, whether it's text on the page or an earring, or a friend. Sometimes it's a devastating loss, as with the latter case of losing a friend. Sometimes, that seeming loss opens up a door we would never have known was there if we didn't "lose" the text for that scene from our new book. Recreating it, rewriting it sometimes leads to the invention of a whole new character or a more tension-raising scenario that makes the book SO much better. Suddenly, the book takes on a faster pacing, a new, edgier life, all because we lost half a chapter due to a power blip on the grid.

Hmmmm. So, is it a loss? Or a gain? Going back to that friend thing, I've lost a friend or two, sometimes through my own stupidity or neglect. Thankfully, I've usually been able to make up for my boneheadedness and reclaim the friendship, or at least smooth the water. I've finally learned to not regret it, but to be sure never to do "that" - whatever pushed the friend away - again. Then again, I've also had a time or two when I thought the world was ending because I had lost or upset a friend, only to discover that the "loss" was not only liberating, it was the best thing that had happened to me in years. In one case, it opened up the dialogue within the friendship to allow us to be more ourselves - less what we used to be as girls, more what we were becoming as we grew older.

In another, I quickly came to realize how much the so-called friend had brought me down, emotionally, and how much time I had spent listening to endless complaints which never seemed to have resolutions. I'm not sure that person actually wanted resolution, just a sounding board for griping. Wow. How could I have not seen that?

It took a loss. There's a kid's movie, made by Disney, called Meet the Robinsons. For those of you with older kids, or none at all, you've probably not seen this one. It's smart and funny on several levels. Like most of the Disney movies for the last few years, it has an adult level humor that the kids don't "get" and a kid level humor that isn't too annoying. I mention it, because one of the theme of this movie is to not give up on your dreams, to keep moving forward, refining as you go. As writers, we're called upon to do that all the time, with every critique, with every rejection letter, pretty much every time we sit down to write. At one point, in the Robinsons movie, a secondary character, in talking about failure says to Lewis, the hero, something that sticks out to me every time I see the movie. (BTW, I see this movie a LOT, since my three year old is on a Robinson's kick) Anyway, the Aunt Billie character is trying to boost Lewis's spirits after a particularly spectacular failure. She says, "From failure, you learn. From success? Not so much."

In Ninjitsu, it's said that you learn the most by being "uke" which is the demonstration partner. (The one who gets thrown around.) Ha!

What have you learned from a particularly spectacular failure?

What has failure taught you that you might not have learned any other way? Where has so-called-failure actually been or led to a roaring success? One of today's posters will win a cool Barnes and Noble bookmark and a Starbucks card, so let 'er rip!

The Wonders of Modern Technology

by Anna Sugden

My new mobile phone arrived a few days ago. The one that has a camera, an MP3 player, a video device, internet capability and, almost as an after-thought, the ability to make and receive calls. If only it could iron, vacuum and clean the bathroom.

It got me thinking about modern technology. And reminded me of my time as a teacher when I used to read one of my favourite children’s stories, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, to the class. (They loved it too). To help them understand just what life for Charlie would have been like, I would always spend time talking to them about when the book was written. They couldn’t imagine a time without CD’s and DVD’s, the internet, colour TV and yes, mobile phones. Understandable when it’s all they’ve known in their short lives.

But what about me … although I lived through those ‘ancient times’ (hmm a topic for another blog post perhaps), there are a few things I can’t imagine life without either. So, here are five things I wouldn’t want to be without:

The internet - preferably wireless and broadband. You’re all here, so you get what I’m saying *grin*. Almost instant access to whatever you need to know, see, hear and buy is truly a miracle. Internet shopping saved my sanity over the holidays - no malls, no traffic, no rude people. One of the things I can’t wait to get home to, in the UK, is internet grocery shopping! But, it’s also a great way to communicate. The art of letter-writing may be dead … but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing when you can bash out an email! How else can you converse with friends thousands of miles apart, even on different continents at the click of a mouse? And how else can you check the hockey scores, see pics of your fave players, catch highlights and learn the latest scoop before a game?

My laptop. These days, my handwriting is considerably slower than my typing. I may not be a trained touch-typist, but I can hold my own! Having my own computer that I can tote about with me (did I mention wireless internet access? *grin*), and which has all the tools I need, is perfect. I’d be lost without it. Not just for my writing and surfing, but for all the other programs too; I can play music, watch films, catalogue my books and autographs and play around with photos. Oh, and let’s not forget the adventure games. Wonderland anyone?

My iPod. What’s not to love? With all the innovations Apple has made, this is a dream device. Especially for all the travelling we do. Aside from podcasts and music, I use mine to listen to writing workshops and to catch up on the TV series I’ve missed. Now that you can surf the internet too … I’m in heaven. Is there a theme here?

A microwave. While I do enjoy cooking with a real stove or oven, there are times when convenience is the key … and a microwave is the perfect answer. Whether it’s zapping baked potatoes, a quick defrost of the left-overs I forgot to take out of the freezer or steaming veggies, I wouldn’t like to do without a microwave!

A telephone. At the end of the day, nothing beats speaking to a person. Especially when one of these lovely devices is not doing what it’s supposed to!

The next item of modern technology on my ‘to buy’ list is Tivo. Most of the shows I like to watch are on too late or clash with other things.

One modern device I doubt I will ever get is an e-reader. I love books … just as they are!

So, what are you favourite modern devices? What’s on your to-buy list? And which device are you unlikely to use?

Take the Pulse of Romance ... with Medical Romance's Newest Star!!

by Anna Sugden

I’m thrilled to welcome one of my dearest friends, the super-talented, award-winning author Janice Lynn.

For as long as she can remember, Janice Lynn has dreamed of writing romance novels for Harlequin. Unfortunately, she didn't start pursuing that dream until 2002 when she penned her first novel since high school. A 2003 Golden Heart finalist, Janice's work has won numerous contests including the very first American Title, run by Romantic Times. JANE MILLIONAIRE was published by Dorchester in 2005. In 2006, Janice achieved her dream when she sold her first medical romance to Harlequin.

A nurse practitioner, Janice lives in Tennesse with her husband, their four children, their Jack Russell - appropriately named Trouble - and a lot of unnamed dust bunnies that have moved in since she started her writing career. She keeps her muse happy with lots of Matthew McConnaughey photos.

For more information, check out Janice's website and blog:
http://www.janicelynn.net/

http://www.janicelynn.blogspot.com/

Welcome, Janice.

What an awesome intro! Thanks, Anna. Very glad to be here.

Many people will remember you as the first American title winner, with your fabulous book JANE MILLIONAIRE. Can you tell us how that contest changed your life and what you learned from it?

Do you have all day? No? Okay, I’ll be brief. The American Title contest was an amazing journey to publication that was filled with a lot of ups and downs. From the moment I found out Jane had been chosen as one of the ten finalists, my life got sucked into a big whirlwind that was filled with a lot of fingernail biting, developing ulcers, and pulling out my hair.

Fortunately, meeting the other finalists, getting to know the fabulous folks from Romantic Times magazine, learning how wonderful and loving my friends really are (they actually still talked to me after the contest and months of begging them to vote, along with all their family and friends, of course. ;) ), doing multiple media stints, and seeing the pride and excitement in my children’s eyes when they’d heard I’d advanced another round, made it all worthwhile. That, and the publishing contract that came along with the win.

The one thing I’d say the contest taught me most though is to push myself one step further than I thought I could go. I stuck with it, gave it my best, got a LOT of help from friends, and in the end all the hard work paid off.

Your latest book, THE DOCTOR’S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL is a Medical Romance. What made you decide to switch to writing medicals?

I submitted a Modern Extra to the London office. The editor didn’t purchase the book, but said she really liked my voice, and oh by the way had I ever considered writing medicals? I hadn’t for the simple reason I was afraid it would be too much like my real life and I wouldn’t enjoy it. I work as a nurse practitioner and use writing as my stress relief. I had visions of my stress reliever becoming part of my stress. But I decided to give it a try, wrote a proposal, sent it to her, she asked for a full, then revisions, and unbelievably bought that book and my next one in a two book deal.

Although I love the fun, quirky books like Jane Millionaire I have enjoyed writing Medicals as well. It’s kind of nice to have the power to actually make patients get well and to give happily-ever-afters.

Can you tell us a bit about THE DOCTOR'S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL?

Without really meaning to, I poured a lot of my heart--a lot of me--into the first book. Nothing literally, but I have a lot of me buried in the layers. Early on in my career, I really struggled with knowing that it’s okay to have a life of my own and at times felt guilty for being happy when so many around me were sick, miserable, or dying. Medicine/caring for people can be very soul-consuming.

THE DOCTOR'S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL is about a doctor who struggles to find balance in her life. She’s torn between the patients who need her and the man who loves her. My hero feels neglected because of the heroine’s commitment to her career. He plans to jar her into realizing how she always puts him last in her life. Only his plan backfires when she tells him she’s pregnant. He’s a tortured soul who feels responsible for the death of an infant and after which decided he never wanted kids. Together they learn the true meaning of love and the sacrifices/compromises that go along with the emotion.

I actually cry every time I read this book. Bawled like Joan Wilder while writing one particular scene. It’s an emotional read—at least, I think so. There is a bit of humor laced in, but overall, TDPB is a very different kind of book from Jane Millionaire. Much more intense, deeper characters, more serious conflicts/settings.

I know a number of our visitors will be keen to get their hands on a copy of THE DOCTOR’S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL, but it isn’t available at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. (though you can get copies from Amazon.co.uk) If they don’t manage to snag one of your prizes, how can they purchase it?

eHarlequin.com is the easiest place to purchase a copy in the US. It’s actually on sale right now. Yea!!! Janice's book on eharlequin.com

Your first Medical Romance sold out in the UK - Congratulations!!! Can you tell us about your next books and when they will be available?

I’m in love with the hero from my second Medical Romance, THE HEART SURGEON'S SECRET SON. He’s a dedicated 35 year old heart surgeon, who is developing a new pacemaker—exciting, I know. My heroine works for the company who is going to market the pacemaker and has to spend time training with him in the OR. A really cool thing about this book is that my hero has blond hair on the cover and apparently that is a rarity! His name is Daniel and in my mind I saw Daniel Craig—yes, that *might* be why I adore him. The guy on the cover is a bit too young, but he is blond!

The heroine is loosely named after a dear friend. She has a thing for “Dr. Travis” from ABC’s The Bachelor from a couple of years ago. Did I mention that Daniel’s last name is…drum roll please…Travis, making him “Dr. Travis”. That’s a secret first revealed here, btw.

You mention that you used Daniel Craig as a model for Daniel Travis. Is that how you come up with your characters - by basing them on a star?

Normally a character comes to mind in my head and I see him clearly without using photos or the such of stars. In Jane Millionaire, I used Benjamin Bratt as a loose basis for Rob. In others, I've used Goran V and Jude Law. Considering I’ve written 20 books, that works out to about a quarter of them being connected to a star in some way.

For those who don’t know you, tell us about your Matthew obsession!

Matthew? Matthew who???? Okay, I confess. Despite my infatuation with Daniel Craig and David Beckham, I am madly in love with Matthew McConaughey and were I not happily married, I’d be plotting ways to sign my checks as Mrs. McConaughey. Unfortunately, his taste tends to run to gorgeous, dark, exotic foreigners—Anna, I think you have a better chance with him than I do.

I fell for Matthew in A TIME TO KILL, the John Grisham thriller. He gave a powerful performance in that movie and I was hooked. By the time he did HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, I was a total goner. That is my all time favourite movie. He and Kate Hudson rocked. I hope their new movie captures that same great chemistry.

My husband is very tolerant of my Matthew obsession. For some reason, he isn’t too worried about Matthew actually showing up on our doorstep to whisk me away. Pity.

And, yes, I am very aware of the fact there is no hero based on my darling Matthew. Honestly, I’ve not come up with a story big enough. When I do, there will most definitely be a Matthew book. I’ve been teased that when I write that one it’ll be my all time best seller.

So, Janice - if Matthew showed up on your doorstep, what would you say to him?

I'd just ask him to play doctor with me!

Over to the rest of you, if the hunk/hotty of your dreams (no husbands/wives allowed) appeared on your doorstep, what would you say to him/her?

Three lucky visitors can win prizes!! Janice is giving away a copy of JANE MILLIONAIRE, THE DOCTOR'S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL and THE HEART SURGEON'S SECRET SON.

I Love Paris... But Why?

posted by Aunty Cindy

Have you ever visited a place, and quite inexplicably you just loved it? I don't mean like Disney World, or the Indy 500, or even the county fair. Of course you LOVE those, but that's why you went there. I'm talking about an affinity for a place, usually a city, that's like a strong sense of connection.

A feeling of belonging.

A bond.

I've heard this phenomena referred to as "genetic memory." Something in ye olde DNA is sparked somehow. Now much as I like this theory, I can't quite buy it. At least not in my case, but I'll explain why in a moment.

The first time I ever got this feeling was in my late teens, and it was my very first visit to San Francisco. Chalk it up to youthful enthusiasm, but The City By The Bay remains one of my favorite places in the world. The only other American city I've felt so strongly attracted to was New York City. And I have yet to connect like this with any place in Asia. But Europe is that WHOLE NOTHER STORY...

The first time I went to Italy, I had about a dozen people tell me how much I was going to love Florence! In short, I didn't. However, the minute I walked out of the Termini train station in Rome...Badda Bing, Badda BOOM! Love at first sight! And every time I've set foot in Rome since, I've had the SAME FEELING! So much for that genetic memory theory, because as far as I know, I don't have one drop of Italian blood in me. And no other place in Italy has affected me that strongly.

So far, the only other city that has stirred this unconditional love-fest in me is Paris. This is doubly strange because not only am I not even a miniscule bit French, but I was prepared to NOT like the place. Let's face it, Parisiennes are not known for their friendly hospitality, and that first visit for me was a month after Princess Diana died there. My head was not in a 'good place' about The City of Light, but it didn't matter. Paris instantly stole my heart!

Now I'm about to see if that love is true. This time next week, your old Aunty will be jetting off to see London and Paris for a few days. I'll let you know if I still LOVE PARIS!

Have you ever felt that instant attraction to a city or place? Please TELL us all about it! Also, since Aunty hasn't been to London in over 20 years, pretend you are stowing away in my luggage. What do you recommend we not miss in good old London town?

A Bit More Bandita Booty

The winner of the autographed copy of Sara Reinke's "Dark Thirst" is crystalgb!!

Congratulations! Crystal, please send your snail mail address to saraATsarareinkeDOTcom

Fantasies

By Kirsten Scott

My dear readers, I invite you to light some candles, pour a hot bubble bath, grab a spoon and a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and cuddle up with your favorite semi-automatic weapon. (Okay, that last bit was for p226.) Ready? Comfy? Now, I want you to tell me your fantasies.

No, not THOSE fantasies. Goodness, this is a family blog, you know! I mean, those fantasies are important, and they are a crucial part of our genre. But I'm looking for something a little...er...cleaner.

I want to know your favorite romance novel fantasy.

The way I see it, we romance writers are trying to do one thing, and do it well--create a fantasy world into which our readers are longing to dive. We have a few basic elements that stay pretty static. We've got goregous men, strong, independent heroines, and true love.

The rest is really up to you.

We know some of our readers' fantasies. There's the heroine who gets kidnapped by pirates fantasy, the ever-popular Cinderella fantasy, and the ugly duckling who turns into a swan fantasy. My favorite fantasies involve kick-ass heroines who are themselves pirates, bounty hunters, and spies. We write variations on these themes, but the fantasy is the same.

This isn't just true in romance. All genres have their fantasies. I write young adult novels as well as adult romance, and I think it's remarkable how many young adult books center around the same fantasy: the orphaned child who turns out to be the chosen one. Think about it. How many books have you read and loved with this basic theme?

I don't have much stomach for horror and mystery, but I'm sure there's a common fantasy there as well. How about the hard-on-his-luck detective who solves the crime that has eluded all others? I've been seeing a new fantasy lately emerge on tv shows where the nerdy guy becomes an action hero. That's a great one.

We all need fantasies. We need somewhere for our imagination to go when our mundane worlds of desk jobs, cubicles, baby food, diapers, and traffic get to us. We need to go back to our childhoods, when we really believed we might turn out to be the adopted child who was destined to save the world, or the princess in disguise, or the kid who solved the crime.

So tell me...what's your favorite fantasy? Is there a romance novel you can't pass up? The bluestocking who captures the rake's heart? The best friends who realize they've been in love all their lives? The kidnapped woman given to a madman who turns out not to be mad at all but a damn good lover? :-) Tell me your fantasies, gentle readers, and maybe they'll end up in my next book!

Linda and Jean's Bandita Booty!

Congratulations to Jennifer Y and Maureen who each won a copy of The Valentine Gift during Linda and Jean's visit. Please sendyour snail mail details to anna@annacampbell.info and I'll contact Linda and Jean about getting your books to you. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic day of blogging!

Kensington Author Sara Reinke

by Joan Kayse

Sara Reinke lives with her husband and children in Kentucky. When she's not writing books or dreaming up strange new worlds in her mind, she's dutifully employed as a travel writer and editor. She's a proud member of Louisville Romance Writers chapter of Romance Writers of America as well as the Wild & Wicked Authors and Dark Muse Society. A rabid fan of actor Orlando Bloom, she can also link herself to Kevin Bacon in six degrees or less.

Sara, welcome to the Romance Bandits!

Thanks, Joan. It's a pleasure to be here!

Congratulations on your first paranormal book. Tell us about “Dark Thirst”

"Dark Thirst" is the first in a new series from Kensington's Zebra imprint, about Brandon Noble, one of an ancient clan of ruthless vampires known as the Brethren. Horrified by his birthright, Brandon shuns the ritual of the first kill, earning his family's lasting wrath. When he finds love with a human named Angelina -- forbidden among the Brethren -- his fate is sealed. Can Brandon protect Angelina from his enemies -- and his own dark thirst?

"Dark Thirst" is unique in its approach to the vampire world. Where did you find your inspiration?

I found inspiration from different places at different points in my life. The idea for the story has been in my head for a long time, probably more than 10 years. When I was growing up in Frankfort, I can remember seeing the enormous Thoroughbred horse farms lining either side of US 60 on the way to Lexington. I always wondered about who lived there, what kind of lives they led, because it occurred to me that someone could theoretically hide away from the rest of the world there, tucked back among the bluegrass fields. So that's where the original idea of the Brethren as a race evolved from; that speculation in my youth.

As far as the Brethren themselves, I wanted to approach vampirism from a logical perspective, so to speak. I wanted to find a way to make vampires seem plausible, their existence actually possible, and not just something fun or entertaining in a story. Presenting them as "undead," unable to walk in sunlight, warded off by garlic and all of that makes for creepy fun as far as fiction goes, maybe, but I thought there could be a different way, a more reasoned way to present them. Call it my inner Scully compromising with my inner Mulder, a la "The X-Files," I guess, LOL. I like writing paranormal, but I like the challenge of finding some plausible basis in reality for the stories, something that makes them more real. Making the Brethren more akin to a wolf pack was my solution. To me, the Brethren are like wolves, and humans are like dogs -- we're similar in many key ways, but intrinsically different in others as well.

Your heroes face some physical challenges. Was it difficult to get into their POV? What as been the readers reactions?

Brandon is deaf and mute, and from even the most primitive incarnations of this story in my mind, he's been that way, so I don't know that it was necessarily a challenge to write him, or difficult to get into his head-space, so to speak. I don't know why exactly I decided to make him deaf, but I like the paradox that he doesn't consider this to be a disability to him as much as being a vampire is. I wanted Brandon to be an underdog, but someone with the courage, determination and strength of character to stand up for himself and those he loves when the time was right.

Readers have really embraced Brandon. While he's definitely not your stereotypical alpha-male hero, he's also definitely not a wimp. He's young and sort of naive about the world beyond the safe perimeter of the Brethren farms, where he's spent his entire life, but he's also trained in martial arts and capable of handling himself. I certainly fell in love with him while writing the book. I always figure if I can't fall in love with my hero, I can't expect my readers too, either.

What’s next?

I just wrapped up "Dark Hunger," the sequel to "Dark Thirst," which will hit bookstore shelves in July, 2008. Now I need to get cracking on revisions for another project, a paranormal romance called "Resurrection," so my agent can begin marketing it. Somewhere in there, I try to fit in eating, sleeping and picking Play-Do out of my hair after playing with my toddler.

What one piece of writing advice can you give to our aspiring authors?

Never give up, no matter how discouraged you may become. While it's true that it takes talent to elevate your work to the top of a slush pile, from there, it's all a matter of luck -- of getting the right manuscript in front of the right person at just the right moment. And you'll never do that if you let rejections get to you, if you give up. Set realistic goals for yourself and your writing career and work hard to attain them. Never stop learning how to improve your craft. Above all else, have fun. Write what you love and love what you write and eventually, everything else will fall into place.

Thank you, Sara for joining us in the lair. Now I'd like to ask our readers what they like best about vampire romances? Sara is giving away a signed copy of "Dark Thirst" to one of our lucky readers.

Bandit Booty

The winner of a copy of Double Dare and Does She Dare is...

Flchen1! Congratulations!! Please send me an email at bethandrews91@gmail.com (that's bethandrews91 AT gmail DOT com) with your mailing information.

And thanks to everyone who commented about dares *g*

The Valentine Gift

Last year (seems strange to be saying that!), I did my first literacy signing at RWA Nationals in Dallas. I was nervous and excited, as you can imagine, but I ended up having a whale of a time. Part of that whale of a time was because I sat next to another debut author, Linda Cardillo, whose photo is at the head of this blog. Linda's first book, Dancing on Sunday Afternoons, had just come out from Harlequin Everlasting Love. I've since read her book and she's an amazing writer, emotive, sincere, passionate. During our long evening together, I talked about inviting Linda to blog on the Banditas. I'm now delighted to introduce her to Banditas and friends. And as an extra bonus, she's brought along her friend Jean Brashear. Linda and Jean are contributors to a new Harlequin SuperRomance anthology The Valentine Gift which is out now.

Can you tell us a little bit about your stories in your new anthology The Valentine Gift? Are the stories linked? Did you have to collaborate on elements of the stories?

LINDA: Several years ago, my fingers wrinkled and numb from several hours of harvesting grapes on a rain-soaked hillside overlooking the Rhine river, I said to myself, “Someday I’ll write about this and it will all seem worth my aching, cold bones.” I had readily agreed to help a friend bring in her harvest my first autumn living in Germany, grateful for the assistance she’d offered me as a new arrival. It turned out to be much more than I had anticipated—physically exhausting but a challenging and exhilarating adventure. The Berlin Wall fell the following year, and I got caught up in what it meant for the people of both Eastern and Western Europe. When my editor at Harlequin called to invite me to participate in The Valentine Gift anthology, it seemed the perfect experience from which to craft “The Hand That Gives the Rose,” a love story set in a vineyard and challenged by duty, geography and political upheaval.

The stories in the anthology are linked simply by the element of Valentine’s Day. We didn’t collaborate, and I found it fascinating how each of us wove the meaning of a Valentine’s gift into our stories in such diverse ways.

We all love to hear about a writer's development. Could you please give us some background of your individual writing journeys and your path to publication?

LINDA: I have been making up stories since I could speak, it seems. I was one of those firstborn children who had an imaginary friend to entertain me when all around me were only boring adults. I began to write seriously in high school and was inspired and nurtured in college by one of my English professors. In my adult life, I filled notebooks with ideas as I made a living, first as an editor of college textbooks (psychology, engineering!! and history), then as an author of business texts in marketing and corporate policy. I took workshops and courses in creative writing, and after a few years, began teaching those workshops. Throughout this “apprenticeship” I continued to write and hold onto the goal of one day publishing fiction. I finished my first novel, Dancing on Sunday Afternoons, in the spring of 2000. I developed a very thick skin and an unwillingness to be defeated by “No” over the four years and twenty-five rejections it took me to find an agent who believed in me and loved my work. It took her another year and twenty-two rejections to find an editor who wanted to publish my book. I had once read that the difference between published and unpublished writers is persistence, and I stubbornly refused to give up.

JEAN: I was never one of those writers who knew from childhood that she wanted to be one. I was sorta in the slow class when it came to figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. ;-) I've always been an avid reader--okay, book junkie. It wasn't until my youngest was about to graduate from high school and my beloved and I were having one of those "so what do we do with the rest of our lives?" conversations that I made a casual remark about how amazing it would be to see my name on the spine of a book...and, bless him, he challenged me to go for it. Went way beyond that, really, to be my staunchest advocate to this day.

Why do you write romance?

LINDA: I think I fell in love with romance as a teenager buried under the covers with a flashlight reading Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I’m a sucker for darkly troubled heroes who are healed by the steadfast love of strong, spirited women—like Tomas and Marielle in “The Hand That Gives the Rose.”

JEAN: With the above statement about the man I've been married to since I was twenty-one, need I say more?

What's coming up next for each of you?

LINDA: I am about to complete another Everlasting Love novel, set in Boston’s Little Italy, the North End, and narrated by three women for whom food is love, change, defiance and salvation. After that, I’ll be working on another novella for a Mother’s Day anthology.

JEAN: An Everlasting Love full-length novel, The Way Home, in July, then two NASCAR projects in November, a novella in the Harlequin NASCAR Christmas '08 anthology (A Family for Christmas) and a book in the 2008 NASCAR continuity, Secrets and Legends. My book is called Go With the Flow. (And how I got involved with NASCAR is a whole other story!)

What would be your ideal Valentine gift and why?

LINDA: The gifts I cherish the most from my husband are the words written in his own hand expressing his feelings for me and his appreciation for our life together. These gifts fill my soul.

JEAN: I don't need diamonds or chocolate or roses--what I treasure is time away from the world with the man I love.

Lovely answers, Jean and Linda. And Happy New Year to you both. Linda and Jean have generously donated TWO signed copies of The Valentine Gift to lucky commenters. So tell us, the Banditas want to know, what would be your ideal Valentine Gift?

And the Western Historical Winners Are . . .

Jennifer y, congratulations! You've won an autographed copy of Stacey Kayne's new release MAVERICK WILD.

Hrdwrkmom, aka, Dianna, you've also won -- an autographed copy of BRIDE OF SHADOW CANYON.

Please email Stacey at stacey at staceykayne dot com with your snail addies.

Thanks, everyone, for participating in Stacey's interview in the Lair!

Resolved: Get Organized

by Susan Seyfarth

My first blog of the new year & I forgot it. Or spaced it. Or just wrote it wrong on my calendar. Who knows? I sure don't. If I were more organized, however, it might be a different story. Unfortunately, being organized does not crack my top ten list of things that must be resolved for this new year. Frankly, it does not crack the top five.

Oh come on. Let's be honest. I don't have five resolutions. I can't even keep track of three. I have two. Two little things that, if I can manage them, will satisfy my puny little will for self-improvement. And here, with all the appropriate fanfare, there are.

1. I will write twenty pages per week.

That's four pages a day, five days a week. I try to write every day while my kids are ostensibly sleeping and/or observing quiet (HA!) time. Whether or not this hallowed time occurs on any given day is not necessarily under my control, which is why I'm going for the weekly rather than a daily page count. This gives me evenings & weekends for make up. It's a humane schedule, & one that will put me on track to finish a 400 page book by June. Assuming my weekly pages are more or less salvagable, this will allow me to pitch a new book at the RWA conference in July.

Doubtful, but hey, a goal's a goal, right?

2. I will have a date with my husband at least once a month.

This involves lining up a babysitter & convincing my skeptical 1 year old that the world will not come to a shattering end should I occasionally absent myself from the bedtime routine. It's a hard sell, but one I'm willing to make. We spent Christmas with my husband's family, & they (wonderful, fabulous people) took it upon themselves not once but twice to deal with said 1 year old's convictions that armageddeon was upon us so my husband & I could go out to a matinee one afternoon & out to dinner one evening.

It was revolutionary. We spoke like adults. We cut only the food on our own plates & stayed seated during an entire meal. We had wine. I curled my hair & wore a dress that I absolutely couldn't nurse in. I looked great, & he appreciated it. And I appreciated that he appreciated it. I'd almost forgotten we could do that. And now I'm addicted. So if anybody knows a good babbysitter in the upper Midwest, give me a shout. I'd like that number.

So how about you? Any new year's resolutions out there you want to go on record with? Or do you hate resolutions & refuse to make them on principle? What was the best one you ever made? The worst? Let's share!

Interview with Author Stacey Kayne

by Jo Robertson

Hi, readers and fellow Bandidas, give a big, warm Bandit Lair welcome to our guest Stacey Kayne, four-time Golden Heart finalist and author of amazing western historicals. Her debut novel Mustang Wild - which currently is a contender for Best Western Romance of 2007 at Love Western Romance - sold to Harlequin Historical in July 2006, followed shortly by Bride of Shadow Canyon. Stacey resides on two blogs; you can catch her on Petticoats & Pistols, a western blog, and Writers At Play.

Stacey is a fellow chapter mate of mine, and for those who don’t know her, she’s one of the kindest, most generous persons you’ll ever meet. Learn more about her at www.staceykayne.com.

Stacey, thanks so much for joining us in the Lair!

Happy New Year’s, All! Thank you Jo and Banditas for inviting me over. Wishing y’all a wildly fun and successful 2008!! The release of Maverick Wild is a fun way to start the New Year. With any luck, I’ll see the completion of my Wild Trilogy by the end of '08.

Stacey, we love call stories here in the Bandit Lair. Would you mind sharing yours with us?

It comes when you least expect it. It was two days before I had to board a plane to RWA National in 2006…and I was at an all-time low. I had promised my hubby I wouldn’t attend National unless I’d sold a book – I hadn’t, but I was a double Golden Heart finalist — I HAD to go.

Guilt was running high and funds were running low as I slogged out of bed and dropped into the chair in front of my computer. I hit my email and thought to myself, “You are such a pathetic loser.” And then I saw it. The subject MUSTANG WILD, the sender a Harlequin editor I’d sent two westerns to just a few weeks before.

(A friend/contest-rival of mine, Lyn Randal, had just sold to Harlequin Historical and mentioned to her editor that she had a friend who wrote westerns. Her editor asked if she could look at them, and I thought, "Why not?" They weren’t doing anything but gathering dust. I hadn’t looked at the files in nearly two years — I didn’t even open them, I just attached them to the email and hit send.)

My next thought on this suddenly-eventful morning was, "No way!" I read the first line. "We’re interested in MUSTANG WILD and have contacted your agent. We would like to discuss this with you before you leave for National…." I ran down the hall, glanced at my hubby who’d just poured his morning coffee and shouted, "Holy shit!" Then I turned and ran back to the computer with him chasing after me shouting, "Holy shit, what?"

LOL. Sounds like the kind of language and excitement that run amok in the Lair!

I emailed back that I was home and awake, pulled the phone cord from my computer and my phone rang — that fast! I answered and heard the words I’d waited nearly five years to hear while my hubby sniffled behind me. Of course he wasn’t crying *wink, wink*.

Packing my suitcase was a lot more fun after that phone call and National was a blast. A couple weeks later I sold Bride of Shadow Canyon.

Oh my gosh, Stacey, chills run down my spine just hearing your call story. I remember how ecstatic you were at National that year! And it just keeps getting better! You’ve sold the second books in each of the above-mentioned western series. Tell us about Maverick Wild, just released, and The Gunslinger's Untamed Bride, due July 2008.

Maverick Wild is the second book in my WILD Trilogy and is out TODAY! YAY!!! It’s been two years since the Morgans arrived in Wyoming, and Chance Morgan, Tucker Morgan's straight-faced twin brother, is our hero this time around. Chance is doing all he can to avoid the snares of marriage-minded women looking to capture a husband.

When a woman from his past arrives at his ranch, his resolve to stay single is weakened. Cora Mae Tindale owns a foothold into the emotions he’s kept under tight rein for most his life. A distracting array of curls and curves, she hardly resembles the mischievous spitfire from his youth, but her eyes hold the shadows of a painful past, and a passion she struggles to conceal. When Chance gives in to his own desires, he discovers something he’s never faced—she doesn’t want him.

Cora Mae’s indifference entices Chance in a way blatant flirtation never could. He yearns to discover the truth she hides, and as their pasts catch up to them, rekindled love becomes their greatest protection.

Sounds great! There's nothing like an alpha-male turned on his ear to pique my interest!

The Gunslinger's Untamed Bride, second in my BRIDE series, will be out in July, and features the young gunfighter adopted by Jed and Rachell at the end of Bride Of Shadow Canyon. I’m really excited about this book — it was a blast to write. The plot and characters were conducive to the amount of action I like to experience in a western.

Juniper Barns has grown into a hunky man who’s having a hard time shedding the violence of his past. She vows to kill him....he'll risk everything protect her!

Lily Carrington sees the name of an infamous killer on the payroll of her new lumber company and leaves her cushy San Francisco office to journey into the untamed wilderness and avenge her father’s death. Unprepared for the turmoil of a lumber camp torn apart by financial strain, Lily finds herself at the mercy of lumberjacks willing to do anything to get their pay. A handsome stranger determined to keep the peace becomes her sole protector—the very man she’s sworn to kill.

Juniper Barns has sought out a secluded life to escape the ghosts of his past, men seeking revenge for those he'd killed during his youth as a gunfighter. Realizing his new pretty boss has come with vengeful intentions, Juniper knows his troubles have just begun. As they work together to bring the lumber camp under control, their mutual desire becomes a new threat.

Can they overcome a past built on vengeance to find love in their future?

I hear you have some exciting news about a four-book contract! Give us the 411 on that.

I dropped into bed after finishing GUNSLINGER, relieved to finally be deadline free for the first time in over a year. I figured I'd take a little break before working up any new western proposals...sometime before Christmas maybe...*g* Well, I woke up six hours later to a message from my agent - my editors at Harlequin sent us an offer for FOUR more westerns — no proposals or anything =:-O I was stunned, and excited to say the least. After some pleasant negotiations and working out deadlines that didn't give me chest pain *g*, we accepted the offer :)

The first of the four will be the third book in my Wild series, where Garret Daines gets his shot at love — during the Wyoming blizzard of 1886. I’ll be taking part in a Spring Bride Anthology with Jillian Hart and Judith Stacy, due out in June ’09 — and two more full-length westerns will fall somewhere in between.

You’re the mother of two teenaged boys, which is a huge challenge all by itself. How do you manage such a prolific writing career with parenting teenagers?

I rely on my laptop and spend a lot of time writing in my truck. We live nearly ten miles from town, so once I leave my casa, it’s not time or gas effective to go home until all activities are done. Every weekday from 2:30 – 5:30 I’m sitting in the parking lot of the school or the tutor, writing on my laptop. Over the summer my boys had drum camp and water polo practice, and the heat drove me to the local library, where I searched out a quiet corner to keep cool and pump out pages in between events ;-) .

The great thing about having teens is they can work a microwave, dig through the laundry pile and be understanding when mom needs to get caught up on her page count after driving them to and fro.

The Banditas were just talking about keeping risqué clench covers away from inquiring young eyes and minds. What do your boys think of your writing? Do they read your books? Do you get teased by their friends?

When a new cover comes in, it’s quite the excitement in my house. It usually starts with a squeal when I see the attachment in the inbox and the family gathers round to watch my dial-up deliver the jpeg in tiny increments. My boys (hubby included) prefer the cowgirl on MUSTANG WILD over the cowboy on MAVERICK WILD.

My hubby’s first comment about MAVERICK was, "Hey, they forgot to button his shirt!" My fourteen year old said, "What’s that guy going to do, challenge a cowboy to a posing contest?" Me, I just grinned *g*. The men in my life are very supportive of my writing.

I don’t allow my sons to read my books because of the love scenes, but they tell me quite a few of their junior high friends have read their parents’ copies, certain chapters at any rate — which embarrassed me, but surprisingly made my boys all the more proud. I’ve had young readers attend my book signing with their parents who’ve told me all of them are reading my series — and that’s pretty neat. Considering I was nearly thirty when I read my first romance, I still blush.

You also write romantic suspense, which was a surprise to me. That’s a genre near to my heart. Tell us about your romantic suspense books. I know you believe in stock-piling completed manuscripts. Are those books part of your stockpile LOL?

I do have a few contemporary manuscripts in my stockpile. You can’t fight the market. That’s just fact. The 2002 RWA conference was my first, and the big buzz around conference that year was WESTERNS ARE DEAD. Not exactly what a budding western writer wants to hear. But I stuck to my guns, finished a few more westerns--had a few bites from editors. After two years of NEARLY selling westerns my agent told me I had two options…wait out the market or try something new. I’m not so good at the waiting thing, so I decided to try my hand at a contemporary western with a splash of suspense—before I knew it I had another pile of manuscripts and contests wins.

My RS manuscripts have been waiting patiently on the backburner while I settle into my western digs, and hopefully will find their own home in the next year or so. Trying to keep it fresh, I’m currently working on a hit man series, which I’m anxious to get in front of editors.

Which did you start writing first – romantic suspense or western historicals – and why did you become so prolific with the westerns? How much research do you do for them?

I started with western historicals. I finished my first western the day before the 2002 Golden Heart deadline, dropped a hundred bucks to overnight Bride Of Shadow Canyon to RWA, then mailed it to an agent, who signed me three weeks later. Characters are always talking to me, and I was in the midst of writing two more westerns when, to my sheer astonishment, BRIDE finaled in the Golden Heart. I wrote five westerns before I made the jump to Contemporaries in 2004.

I love researching a new historical. I have a fetish for old maps and love reading pioneer journals and pouring over history books. My first few westerns started with old maps and plotting a course I wanted my characters to take, and then I figured out the catalyst for getting them from point A to point B and all the calamity they’d find along the way.

While writing Bride Of Shadow Canyon I was taking American History night classes, which helped to fuel the backstory of my characters. My personal library is now bursting with books and encyclopedias on the old west, Native Americans, railroads, horses, logging camps, western slang, trade and trappers, cooking and housekeeping in the 1800’s—lots of interesting tidbits!

I know you’re something of a contest diva (in the Lair, we usually say Contest Ho). Tell us how you’ve run the contest gamut and your feelings about contests.

*LOL* Uh, yeah. I’ve entered a few contests. *g* For me, contesting was a wonderful motivator to keep plugging on, to start the next book and make those next contest deadlines. I also met some of my very best friends on the contest circuit. Writers At Play is a new blog founded by all my partners in crime (including a few Banditas), a group of unpublished contest divas who banded together to make the journey to publication a lot more fun!

When I decided to write a book, it wasn’t about craft or a love of words or writing (I’d never written anything beyond a term paper) or even being a reader (I’d read two romance novels ever) — I was a mother of two boys who’d just started school and I was looking for a job.

A daydream spawned in an American History night class during a documentary on Sitting Bull was the start of my first manuscript — it’s where Jed Doulan was born *g*. When I sat down at my computer that night, the characters just poured out of me and I had a hundred pages by sunup. But I didn’t know what to do with it. I tend to be a tad obsessive compulsive, and over the next month or so I read about 200 romance novels. I weeded out my favorite authors and tried to figure out their rhythm between prose and dialogue.

A few months later I figured I needed to test the waters, to see if I really had a shot at writing, because if not, I’d have to keep my daydreams in my head instead of on paper and put all my focus on getting my teaching credentials. An Internet search yielded writing contests, and I entered the first chapters of two different stories (I write in pairs; a quirk of having a short attention span *g*). I entered them in three contests. I didn’t final, but I ranked in the top ten, and for me that was huge - it gave me some validation that as a total beginner who didn’t know her GMC from her POV, I had promise.

I pored over those pages with every ounce of standard formatting information I could gather, finished the first book about six months later—sent out my first submission, and signed with an agent (proof that it DOESN’T take contest finals to snag an agent), and just a couple weeks later I began to final in contests consistently…and so started my slo-o-ow journey to publication *g*. Further proof that a truckload of contest wins isn’t a guaranteed sale. Sometimes it just takes TIME to hit that right combo of the right editor in the right mood on the right day, in the right house…persistence is the key.

My advice to contest entrants is to always enter in groups of three. I listened to people who liked my work, connected with my characters and gave positive feedback along with suggestions. For those who didn’t like my stuff—and there were many; some even called my heroes names, in red ink!—I figured they were prejudice against cowboys, and tossed them in the trash. Personally, I don’t regret a single contest entry—but they were merely one of many tools at a writer’s disposal.

Who is your favorite hero in your historical westerns? I must confess to being partial to Jed in Bride Of Shadow Canyon.

Thanks, Jo! Jed was great fun to write. I really enjoyed the complexity of his backstory, and the strength of his integrity. He has a few cameos in my upcoming BRIDE books. I love each new hero—every one is interesting in his own way and has something new to teach me about writing and relationships.

I have many more questions, but I’ll leave some for our readers. Now’s YOUR turn, readers, to ask Stacey anything you’d like, from juggling deadlines to how she crafts her stories and characters. Check out Stacey's website at www.staceykayne.com/ for more information about upcoming releases.

We’ll have random drawings for TWO lucky winners: The first will win an autographed copy of Stacey's newest western Maverick Wild, and (my favorite) the second will receive Bride Of Shadow Canyon. Be sure to post a comment even if you don’t have a question!