Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Hello all! As the title of my blog says, Summer is officially here!  I am a Canuck and this weekend is our long weekend.  On July 1st, we celebrate Canada day and all things Canadian. I thought I'd share a bunch of stuff that I love about my country. 1.  Hockey. It is our national sport and I  LOVE it...and I also love the hockey men!  They play tough and clean up real nice!  Just have a gander at Henrik Lundqvist, goalie for the Rangers! 2. Beer.  Sorry guys but our beer is stronger, has more kick to it and well, really, really, good on a hot summer day. 3. We're funny.  We've got some funny dudes... Martin Short! And we also lay claim to Jim Carrey.  4. We're hot.....  5. We're sexy.... 6. We're musical.... We are Canadian!! WOOT! To celebrate this awesome day in my world, I'm going to award one commentator a copy of the first book in my Bad Boys of Crystal Lake series, T...

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea. --e. e. cummings, "maggie and milly and molly and may" When I was a kid, the family summer vacation consisted of a week or so in Yosemite National Park, a place especially dear to my father. On the day of departure, we'd rise super-early, around 4 or 5 a.m., and be on the road after a hasty breakfast, hoping to avoid the worst extremes of heat in Bakersfield and Fresno as well as reach our final destination by late afternoon.  Most of the time, we succeeded in both objectives, though there were some years when it was a close-run thing (car trouble was usually the culprit there.) Half Dome at Sunset , photo by David Iliff I remember those vacations fondly: the towering redwoods, the white cascade of the Bridal Veil waterfall, the majestic rise of Half-Dome mountain, purplish-grey in the twilight, brooding over the valley.  Mornings strolling through the woods and campsites, a...

One of my wolf packs is from Colorado, Silver Town, a makeshift place partly based on the quaint silver mining town of Telluride where I've skied before. For RomCon, I visited Colorado Springs. I'd wished I'd seen the wolf reserve one hour from there while I was there! Unfortunately, fires were raging in parts of the area. So I managed to take a picture of the mountains in the morning. By afternoon and evening, the smoke is like a thick fog. Two people have died in the fires so they're treating it as homicide. Over a hundred houses destroyed. The wildlife and acres of trees are being lost. No one knows if they're being set on purpose or if it's carelessness or an act of nature. It's devastating for everyone no matter the reasons for the fires. They said the mountains are normally crystal clear, but with the haze of smoke, this is how it looks even in the morning at its best.  Here are the Colorado City Skies at sunset--I thought the cl...

Biker Songs (aka: Where I Seek My Muse) For those of you who've read my books, you know music plays a large part in my life.  I reference it often in the Black Knights Inc. series.  I quote it in my novels - when I'm legally allowed.  And I rely on it to inspire my muse.  So I'm often asked, "What songs do you listen to while you write?"  The answer?  ALL THE SONGS!  I'm an equal-opportunity listener.  Rock, Pop, Alternative, Country, Bluegrass, Blues, Classical, Jazz… You name it; I listen to it.  But when I'm trying to get in the mood to write, I have a "go-to" playlist that inevitably helps me channel those badass biker boys.  Today, I'm sharing it with you.  Enjoy!  I know I always do.  ;-)     Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UWRypqz5-o Long Lonesome Highway - Michael Parks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYKQ3fwNb0c Mid...

I'll admit that I do spin tales of fiction, but there is no way I could possibly make this up. The clan and I recently returned from a family vacation in Colorado Springs, CO. For those of you who have never seen this beautiful state, place it on your bucket list! As our flight traveled from Denver to Colorado Springs, we saw the raging forest fire below that destroyed thousands of acres in the Black Forest. Yep, you guessed it. The fires were in Colorado Springs. Being from Pennsylvania, this type of natural behavior is not something that we're readily accustomed to and frankly, we were more than a little nervous. We said a silent prayer the fire wouldn't impact our vacation and it didn't, but our hearts certainly went out to the five hundred families who lost their homes. We were somewhat surprised that Colorado natives continued to go about their business as if the fires were a common occurrence. I guess they were. I suppose Ca...

By Macy Beckett Happy Saturday, fellow romance lovers! I'm Macy Beckett, author of the Sultry Springs series, and I'm here today to offer you a once-in-a-lifetime collector's item: a mutant ARC of my third book, SURRENDER TO SULTRY. What's a mutant ARC? I'm glad you asked! It's an advance copy that left the printer looking a little...well, let's say "special." The book was accidentally cut into the shape of a coffin--wide at the top, narrow at the bottom--instead of rectangular. Additionally, the cover image (which has changed since the ARC was printed) is noticibly crooked. Here's a picture of how SURRENDER TO SULTRY will look on bookstore shelves: Pretty in Pink! And here's a picture of the mutant ARC: A face only a mother could love. Trust me when I say photos don't do the mutant ARC justice. You'll have to hold it in your hands to appreciate it's...uniqueness. And not to worry--the text is cropped too ...

I was just thinking about this today for some reason, I've lived a lot of my life in one-road towns. When I was a little kid in Lexington Massachusetts, our street went on forever (it was just a mile long according to Google Maps, but I swear, it went on for-ev-er!). My girlfriend (I fell in love with an older woman, I was five, she was six -any wonder that I write romance) lived way far away, about 3/4 of a mile on the same street. It was the only road I knew or cared about. When I was six, we moved to a town that was literally a crossroads (had to leave my first love behind -though we are still in touch despite the decades [really no surprise that I write romance]). Cow towns in upstate New York are often defined by where two roads meet. I moved around a lot for a while, but one-road towns kept cropping up. Kingston, Washington (where I met and married the love of my life) has only one thru-street.(on which the one a big ferry boat poops out cars on every forty-five minutes s...

That’s right, it’s time for more Steam Punk romance. I always get a little giddy as one of my books nears its release date. It’s almost like a rediscovery because I worked on the book so many months ago. But it’s coming closer now, A Captain and a Corset, released on June 4. I get a lot of people asking what Steam Punk is. In a nutshell, it’s Victorian science fiction. The roots of this sub-gene go back to 20,000 leagues Under the Sea. One of my personal favorites is ‘The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen’. I love writing historical and Steam Punk allows me to play, just a bit with that magical element of ‘What if…’. I think the element I enjoy most is evening the playing field between men and women. Let’s face it, our sisters from eras gone by had fewer rights. When I created the Illuminists, I wanted to give those Victorian gals a chance to have equality and all the beautiful bustle gowns. Just my way of pleasing both my inner little girl princess…got to have the dress….and...

Not all parts of a book a created equal. Some fly off the fingers, other bits have to be dragged out or coaxed with chocolate and bribes. And not all tricky bits are the same for all people. First page fear (or the horror of the blank document) doesn’t bother me as I plot and I know the start. I know the turning points. That pivotal bit in the middle is no drama, the black moment holds no terrors and I love the rush to the end. I get stuck in the second quarter. That bit that happens sometime after the story has started and the characters have met and the stage has been set and before the big thing in the middle. Something has to happen for 20,000 words in there…. This is the bit of the story where I also get the wobbles (my characters suck, this story is awful. What was I thinking there’s not enough to make a novel!). I get the second quarter blues on every story regardless of length. You’d think in a 30,000 word novella it wouldn’t be a drama, but it is. I have however discovered...

When writing a series, I think one of the most challenging things is to keep it fresh. There are several series I've read that I thoroughly enjoyed, but after awhile the books can seem repetitive. So what's an author to do? I want to stay engaged with my readers and give them something fresh. However, there's still the desire to give them a hint of familiarity.  Then it hit me...a spin off series! Why not introduce new characters and a new layer to the Amoveo world and then give these characters their own series? So that's exactly what I've done. In UNDONE , the fourth Amoveo Legend novel, readers get to meet my vampires in NYC. Olivia Hollingsworth is a three century old vampire who owns a nightclub called The Coven. She runs the joint out of an old church in Greenwich Village and is also the head of an all female vampire coven.  Readers will get a peek at Olivia and her sexy little coven in UNDONE but then my vamps will be getting their own series---Dea...