Bonnie Vanak | When Romance Authors Cheat On Their Heroes

The heroes of Bonnie Vanak’s Egyptian books stood outside their creator’s house. Jabari of The Falcon & the Dove gave the door a blank look.

“What’s wrong?” asked Graham of The Panther & the Pyramid.

“I do not know what to do,” Jabari admitted. “I live in a tent.”

Kenneth of The Cobra & the Concubine rolled his eyes. “You knock, you bloody fool.”

“Do not call my father a bloody fool,” warned Tarik of The Sword & the Sheath. “You once lived in a tent.”

"Do you think we should formally announce ourselves?” asked Ramses of The Tiger & the Tomb. “After all, she is not writing and may not want to see us.”

The men exchanged glances. “You’re right,” said Thomas of The Scorpion & the Seducer. “We should just walk in and surprise her.”

They went inside, walked down a hallway and entered a bedroom. Bonnie was sorting through laundry. Shock dawned in her eyes. “Not you guys again!”

“We came here to recharge your creativity,” Thomas explained. “You haven’t written since my story was finished. I’m not published until next May, so you have time to write your next Egyptian historical.”

Bonnie laughed. “What time? Come with me. I have been writing.”

She led them to another room. Bonnie opened the door. “Go ahead, look. But watch out. They bite.”

The six romance heroes stepped into the small office. Bonnie pressed a button on the computer. Suddenly two tall, handsome men materialized. They were muscled and looked menacing. They shapeshifted into two sleek wolves.

“You’ve been unfaithful,” Tarik protested as Nicolas and Damian growled at him. “Werewolves? Whatever happened to Egyptian warriors and English noblemen?”

“You guys are for my Dorchester historicals. Nicolas and Damian are for my paranormals for Silhouette’s Nocturne line. The Empath, Nicolas’ book, is out in December. Look, please leave. I need to concentrate on Damian and his internal conflict.”

“A werewolf with internal conflict? Ridiculous,” Thomas declared.

Nicolas and Damian shapeshifted back into human form. “Show respect for my pack leader,” Nicolas warned.

“Bonnie put me in a fierce mating heat and hasn’t allowed me to have sex yet in order to build the sexual tension. Fighting you would relieve some of my frustration.” Damian growled at them.

The six historical romance heroes stared balefully at the two snarling werewolf heroes. Bonnie held up a hand. “Enough! Damian’s book is due in less than two months. I need to think about New Orleans and magic. You guys can come back when the next Egyptian historical is due. Now go!”

She hustled them out of the bedroom, closing the door behind Nicolas and Damian. All six heroes muttered as they left Bonnie’s house.

“Bloody werewolves, think they’re so special,” Thomas grumbled. “Why couldn’t she be happy enough writing about me, an English earl who falls in love with an outcast Egyptian woman? I gave her enough internal conflict!”

Jabari put a hand on Thomas’s shoulder. “I do not know, my friend. Let us hope Bonnie gets through this and returns to her Khamsin warriors of the wind. Perhaps it is a passing phase that will not affect us.”

“I hope so,” Ramses said morosely. “I wouldn’t look good in a fur coat.”

For more information on Bonnie’s historicals and paranormals, check out her website at http://www.bonnievanak.com/

Patrice Michelle - Turning Readers On!

I’ve been an avid reader since I was ten years old. Blame it on the elementary school’s reading program (re: read twenty books in a month and win a prize!). I wanted that prize, so I read the twenty books. Along the way, I discovered…I LOVED reading. Since then, I’ve always had my nose stuck in a book, much to my childhood best friend’s annoyance.

When I was in tenth grade and my older sister was in twelfth, she brought home an assigned reading book. The fiction book sat in the exact same spot she’d dumped it—on the chair next to the stairs—for days. After a week of passing by this book, I picked it up and read the blurb on the back. A mystery to solve and a love story…hmmm, it didn’t sound too bad. I sat down that night and read the entire book and I loved it! I was so excited about the story that I told my sister all about it, hoping I could get her excited enough to read it herself. While I blabbed on and on, my sister nodded and uh huh’d and smiled. The next day she wrote the book report and turned it in. Got a B, too. *rolling eyes* :-) So much for trying to get my sister interested in reading.

But that author had hooked me and I went on to read her entire backlist. I told other friends about her books, turning them onto this author’s work. To this day, I believe the best advertising an author can do is write the best story she can. Give her readers a great plot with interesting twists, main characters to empathize and fall in love with, and deeply emotional, heart-wrenching moments that will pull the reader into the story, making them feel like a participant as the tale unfolds.

When I sit down to write my own books, I keep in mind all the things about the books that I adored. From suspenseful plots to stories that make your heart twist, I try my best to create heroes and heroines who readers consider their friends. My goal is always to create a compelling story with engaging characters. If the readers close the book with a smile and wonder what’ll happen next in the main characters’ lives, then that’s the highest compliment in my mind, because that’s the standard I use as a reader that “hooks” me on books.

Do you remember what books/authors have hooked you such that you had to go out and tell everyone, from family to friends to YES, even strangers you meet in line at the bookstore, “You HAVE to read these books? They’re fantastic!” What was it about those books that really drew you in?

Patrice Michelle currently has three series available in print:

1) Scions (vampire, werewolf, paranormal)– Coming January 2008

2) Kendrian (vampire) – Available now

3) Bad in Boots (contemporary western)

– Available now For excerpts, blurbs and reviews of all Patrice's books, visit her website at http://www.patricemichelle.net/.

Jamie Leigh Hansen - To Dream a Hot Dream

I can’t be the only one. I hope. Are writers the only people who occasionally wake up with this scene in their head, like they were watching a movie while they slept? I do that quite often. I think it’s the best part of being a writer. I can lie in bed and slowly wake up from that dream that has my heart pounding and honestly, with complete sincerity, say I AM WORKING.

So, this one summer night, I had a dream. I was in the past, way back like a medieval, and there was this warrior and his bride. She didn’t know him, was very afraid of him – not that I knew why at the time. It was a dream. All I knew was right there, sometime that night, they had to consummate the wedding.

Now, for some reason, my brain tends to skip to the good stuff. So I pictured the warm skin and the closeness, his scarred muscles and her fear. There was caressing and gentleness and lots of invasion of private space. Then I went back. Like rewind. I do that.

I wanted to know, now that I’d seen these two people together, who were they and why was she afraid? And so the words started to flow. I don’t just watch it like a movie, I read text. And if I don’t think the text is doing it right, I edit. In my sleep. I so want one of those brain wave machines that scribble down all the thoughts a person has in their sleep. Have they invented one yet? I could get so much done!

So, I went over and over picturing and writing this tall, dark warrior in chain mail. And this delicate heroine who was full of this unreasoning, bone deep terror. And they were supposed to get naked. Yeah, okay.

The dream continued and he reached out to her, moving slow, talking low, being gentle. She helped him off with his armor and he brought her closer to the fire where it was warmer. He held her close and slowly she relaxed, but when it came time to do anything, she ran away. Well, my tall warrior hero who wanted to soothe his new bride did the only thing he could do.

He stripped down, tied his wrists and ankles to a chair and left the rest in her hands.

After working for several years to learn how to nail down a story, I was in the process of making up short stories. I wanted to get the format set in my head and slowly expand to longer stories. That didn’t work. Holding no hopes that the dream would stay with me for long, I got up and wrote it down. For several days. Then stopped and thought about it for a few months. Then I wrote a whole draft. Then thought about it for a year, slowly evaluating all the parts and working on research.

After much thought, prayer and work, I found out why the heroine was so afraid. And I learned that one night could fuel a passion that lasted centuries. That one woman could take a journey from abject terror to strength and courage. She can save her husband and break a tragic curse and even learn to love him all over again.

Betrayed is due out January 2, 2008. It’s a Tor Paranormal Romance. I can’t wait to share it with everyone. So, anyone impatient like me, the prologue and first chapter are on my website: http://www.jamieleighhansen.com/

Now, I would love to know about some of your most memorable dreams…

Jame Leigh Hansen

Sandy Blair | Forever Love is definitely alive and well.

This weekend in Clearwater, Florida our confirmed bachelor friend Dave Dion married his beautiful Cheryl and a happier couple I’ve yet to see. That our happily married daughter and son-in-law were also in attendance made the event that much more perfect.

The intimate wedding chapel Dave and Cheryl chose was nestled in a small town just north of Clearwater, the place where they’d met and fallen head over heels. The golden aura from cream-colored candles enhanced the bride’s petite blonde beauty and beaded candlelight gown. The father of the bride did an admirable job of holding himself together as he gave his only daughter away. Good thing, because the rest of us were already blubbering by the time he managed to croak, “Her mother and I do.” Dave did an admirable job of holding back all but one tear as he said his vows. The bride, not nearly as fortunate, was thankfully wearing waterproof mascara.

The highlight of their beautiful reception--for me, at least--was the “married couples dance,” when all the married couples are invited to dance and the MC says after a few minutes, “Will those who’ve been married less than 5 years please leave the dance floor,” etc. Scott and I happened to be celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary this weekend, so we hung in there for awhile but by the end only one couple remained. On the dance floor, their love for each other apparent, danced Dave’s aunt and uncle. Grinning like newly weds, their once strong but now fragile hands entwined between them, their foreheads touching, these octogenarians had just celebrated their sixty-third wedding anniversary.

Yes, forever love is still alive and well for those who believe and work toward it. I hope you enjoy A Highlander For Christmas. If you enjoyed the movie “Kate and Leopold,” you’re sure to fall in love with Claire and Sir Cameron MacLeod.

Sandy Blair

www.sandyblair.net

Sherryl Woods | Just Between Friends

When you've lived as long as I have and in as many different places, maintaining friendships takes a lot more time and energy than it did when I was a kid and my best friends lived right upstairs and next door in the same apartment building. Or even when I reached my teens and so many of my friends were at school or in the same youth group at church or just a few houses away in the town where I spent my summers. These days they're in Denver and Ohio, in California and Vermont and even in Egypt. Email makes staying in touch easier, but there's nothing like sitting in the same room with a cup of tea or a margarita and talking over old times or current problems, laughing about whatever strikes us as funny (trust me, the number of things that qualify for laughter increases as the margaritas flow).

At any rate, friendships matter. They make our lives richer, provide much-needed comfort and support in times of tragedy and hours of shared laughter through the years.

Given how I feel about all this, it's not surprising that I wanted to deal with the deep friendship shared by two women -- neighbors for ten years -- in my latest book Mending Fences, in stores now. Marcie Carter and Emily Dobbs have shared joy and heartache over the years, their kids are underfoot in each other's homes. When Marcie's son, Evan, is accused of date rape, it sends repercussions reverberating through both families.

Emily's growing attraction to the detective intent on convicting Evan complicates their lives. And as the story unfolds and it appears that Emily's daughter Dani might have been one of Evan's victims, this deep friendship is tested in ways neither woman could ever have imagined.

And yet, somehow, friendship triumphs. Marcie and Emily are survivors. They are strong, as are their children. And forgiveness is at the core of who they are.

As I wrote this story, I thought of how many times women might face a tragedy or even a small personal crisis without the support of a good friend, without someone who can share advice or provide a shoulder to cry on. And that led to the creation of a new blog, www.justbetweenfriendsblog.com/. You can go to it directly or by going to my website, www.sherrylwoods.com/. There we'll be talking about issues -- big and small -- that matter to you. If you have a topic you especially want to discuss, you'll be able to bring it to our attention. Or you can chime in on any of the topics already posted. This is a blog for you . . . and your friends -- the ones next-door and the ones you're only just meeting online. Join us at our virtual backyard fence and tell us what's on your mind.

Sherryl Woods