Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

It's not the cost of the gift that counts, it's the thought. And my dear husband knocked it out of the ball park this year. I have some favorite things: most anything sparkly, or sweet (especially chocolate) pink roses, peacocks, hummingbirds, velvet, lace and fairies. My passion for pink roses even made it onto my Christmas tree this year: And I'm working on a light garden right outside my sliding glass door in my bedroom, which includes a hummingbird and fairy: I have a ridiculous amount of peacocks decorating my vanity, and roses are starting to bloom all over my house (although I keep them mostly limited to the bedroom, and just a few other places around the house. I live with two other males, and try not to inundate them with my girlie stuff. I. Really. Do. Try.) I'll do another blog post later about my favorite things, with some more photos. But in the meantime, given that you now know my tastes, can you guess what my husband gave me for Va...

Happy Thursday! We just have to hang in for one more day until the weekend. Today I’m recycling a blog post that I wrote for the blog tour of my book Wicked Little Secrets . Unfortunately, it was never posted, so I’m putting it here. It’s just a listing of fun facts about Wicked Little Secrets . Enjoy! 1. The hero, Lord Dashiell, has a penchant for collecting ancient Greek and Roman goddesses. Dashiell wasn’t concerned with Lily’s threatened throat, but the bust of his precious gray-eyed goddess Athena that Lily held over her head. “Lily, take several deep breaths and think about what you are doing. Three thousand years ago, some craftsman put his soul into creating Athena. The soil of Greece has preserved her all this time. Her history is far greater than this tiny misunderstanding.” “How philosophical of you,” Lily said, a wicked grin spread over her mouth and she dropped Athena, letting the goddess of wisdom shatter on the floor. 2.  The heroine’s name...

By Cheryl Brooks There was a time when saying the "B word" would get me yelled at by my fellow nurses. But I'm not working in a hospital anymore, so perhaps it's safe to say it now. I'm bored.  This condition is undoubtedly due to Seasonal Affective Disorder. I get it every year, but all the freakin' (feel free to substitute a different spelling of that word) snow and ice this winter has compounded the problem with worry about my youngest son as he drives back and forth to work and unholy levels of cabin fever to the point that I, like so many others, am about to lose what's left of my mind. Not that I don't have books to write, but there are only so many hours I can spend at my desk without freezing solidly into that position. Season 3 of Sherlock was MUCH too brief and even Downton Abbey is finished for another year. The Olympics provided a momentary respite, but except for the occasional bobsledder in a skin-tight suit or a graceful lady...

I've written more than a dozen books set during the Regency period, but each book poses different questions. Each book requires a bit of research. Some books require a lot of research. Fortunately, Sapphires Are an Earl's Best Friend didn't require the sort of tedious research some books do. I can't even complain too much because a lot of my research involved looking at sparkly jewels. Like this necklace I sent to the cover designers, hoping they'd use it on the cover. As you can see, I think it did inspire the artists. The one they used is even prettier and more interesting, in my opinion.   At one point, I had to do a bit of research on sapphires themselves. I found out they come in many different colors, including pink!   And then there were the pretty people. Sometimes I like an image of my characters in my head, and I'd had these images of Lily and Darlington in my head from the very first book in the series. This is how I pictured...

Hey there, bibliophiles, I'm in a great mood as I write this. I was just offered a contract for another book in the Flirting with Fangs series! And I thought the series was finished with my March release: Kissing with Fangs. The reviewers have been very kind, and one of the more consistent comments is: "I'm sorry to see this series end." The same comments were made about the Strange Neighbors series. Well, apparently Sourcebooks was listening.  But how do you 'unend' a series? Well, here's what I did with the first one...I made a spin-off series. Fortunately, one of the original heroes had a twin brother. So, I started the new series with werewolf Nick in Flirting Under a Full Moon. I shifted the setting slightly (to keep it fresh) and introduced a whole new cast of characters.   I like to make all my books able to stand alone. I don't know about you, but picking up a book in the middle of a series has always driven me nuts...

Tom's story is here! Are you the baby of the family? A middle child who's just in the middle? The firstborn and in charge? Even if the age differences are only by a few minutes? Tom is the youngest of the triplet Silver brothers and fans have been waiting for his story forever. The question was raised in the first two books, Heart of the Wolf and Destiny of the Wolf, as to which came first: red wolves or gray wolves. And so, I did some research to answer this question. I think that's one of the most fun things I get to do when I'm writing a book--research. It's also fun for me to write about characters based on birth order. In the Heart of the Highland Wolf series, Duncan MacNeill is the baby, so he makes up for this by being a rough and gruff warrior. When he's on a mission, that's all he thinks about. In A Howl for a Highland Wolf, no way does he think a pretty she-wolf, sassy enough to wear a lot of silver, and single, is going to sidetrack him. ...

  by Amanda Forester I  confess.   I'm addicted to the Olympics.   Even as I write this blog I'm watching the ladies' free skate.   Has anyone had that 'wish I was an Olympic figure skater' dream?   Or perhaps its near cousin, 'I wish I looked like an Olympic figure skater' dream! But alas, I will never jump or spin or pull my leg up over my head (so painful even to watch!).   And as for the skin-tight bedazzled outfits, that's just never going to happen.  (Pic: Yuna Kim by David Carmichael) Despite my utter lack of athletic prowess, or perhaps because of it, I find myself glued to the television watching the games.   Lately, I have been fascinated by sports I only watch every four years when the Olympics come around.   From the skeleton to the downhill, ski jumping to freestyle, I am transfixed watching athletes do things that would kill the average mortal.   I have tried to infect my family with Olympics fever, but the...

I don't have nearly enough of these! What are you reading next?

What is a hero? The dictionary definition suggests a hero (or heroine) is a person admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities. By and large, the hero's status is achieved through outward facing actions, capable of being judged by others. In other words, heroes don't always look like this (although it is nice when they do): Heroes abound at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Canadian speed skater Gimore Junio gave up his spot in the 1000 metres to his team mate who had a better chance at winning a medal for the team. Canadian cross-country ski coach, Justin Wadsworth, himself a three-time Olympian, replaced the broken ski of a Russian skier he had never met because, as he put it, "I wanted him to have dignity as he crossed the finish line." US hockey player T.J. Oshie cemented his role as a hero when he modestly said, "The American heroes are wearing camo. That's not me." By contrast, romantic heroes face an inward j...

For the first time, my young daughter (known online as Little Miss R) is old enough to follow and enjoy the Olympics. She has already told me she wants to learn luge, ice hockey, and "fancy skating"--her word for the figure skating and ice dancing. Poor kid; she's got a klutz of a mother who can't identify at all with the desire to zoom down an ice track at 80 miles per hour. But if reading were an Olympic sport--now, that I might have a chance at. Imagine how this could go: Short-track speed reading: when you pull out a book while you’re waiting in line at the post office. Relay reading: loaning a favorite book to a friend. Cross-country reading: taking books on the road. Always the best part of traveling! What other book-related versions of Olympic sports can you think up? To one random commenter, I'll give a signed advance copy of my May historical romance, TO CHARM A NAUGHTY COUNTESS (which doesn’t inc...