Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

by M. L. Buchman The Night Stalkers universe has just grown one more size. It all started with Emily Beale, Mark Henderson, and The Night Is Mine. Then it grew! There have now been six (6) primary novels released by Sourcebooks in the Night Stalkers world (with more to come, I promise).  But the world was so rich, so deep, and I loved these characters so much, that I added more to the sides. Then short stories came into being! And there are a whole bunch of them. (Visit my website or your favorite retailer for more information about those. Here's the latest one, Emily Beale's backstory.) There was a spin-off that gave birth to my on-the-edge (and sometimes a little over) wildland firefighters (Firehawks Hot Point is coming in August). They in turn had a smoke jumper series spin-off (the "Wildfire" books) and even more short stories. But it still felt as if there was a story untold. So, on April Fools Day (but I really did it...

by M.L. Buchman Click here for more It's funny when you first write a memorable character, you have no idea that you were doing it; at least I didn't. Colonel Michael Gibson appeared in Night Stalkers #1 The Night Is Mine  as a small character intended to tell us that the heroine Emily Beale was really good at what she did. No other character, other than Emily herself, has elicited as much fan mail, not across a dozen titles! So here, at long last, is Michael Gibson's story of his path to true love. Michael, of course, does nothing the way anyone else would. He can't even do a meet-cute like anyone else, but then neither can helicopter pilot Claudia Jean Casperson. ----- The landing zone was a total shit-storm, about like a typical training scenario except this time the bad guys were trying to kill the good guys with live rounds. The air was a thick with the hail of small arms fire as Claudia swung her helo wide to clear the streamers of fire that p...

by M. L. Buchman I have to admit, I love release day for a new work. I remember in 1997 holding my first novel in my shaking hands. I can tell you exactly how my wife and I were standing when we held my first indie release in 2010 and my first Night Stalkers novel in 2012. Thirty novels and over a dozen short stories later, the feeling hasn't flagged in the slightest. I've tried to describe this moment to non-writer's many times. The best I've ever come up with was the day I bought my first house. It was old (1911), run-down (it had been a rental for 20+ years), and I was totally enamored of it. (The fact that it took me 7 years to fix the beastie up to look like this a whole  different story that starts with an amazing view from the 2nd story...back before I added the second story.) The feeling though, at that moment when the door swung open, before I crossed the threshold, was a moment of such joy and anticipation and hope and fear that I never expected to f...

by M.L. Buchman I've been discovering one of the great joys of the Christmas season that comes with being a writer. Throughout the year I work at my craft, I develop my novels, I consider where I want my series to go. And, because I'm a research hound, I plunge off into the world of research to learn about attitudes, practices, equipment, world events, etc. etc. etc. And then comes Christmas! Christmas comes early for a writer. In July or August, we start to consider what story we want to tell. What character wishes for a cheery holiday season. Which one wants to just cut loose and find a holiday romance. Will everyone else (at least north of the equator) is sweating it out, writers wander off to far cooler climes. Through August, September, even October (and occasionally November because after all we're writers and schedules can be a severe challenge when a book takes far longer than you planned), we delve away on Christmas tales. It is a splendidly merry time of ...

by M.L. Buchman I'm still busy recovering from the release of Light Up the Night . Trisha O'Malley had been kicking her heels in frustration at not getting her own story and she's damn glad that she finally did. (No! No! Shhhh! Don't get her started or we're all in trouble.) She wandered aboard in Book #1 The Night is Mine  and kept showing up in subsequent books. She fought beside Emily Beale, was interviewed by Connie Davis, and did her best to seduce Tim Maloney. And she did all of this despite my best efforts, she's a little pushy that way. Just like the helicopter she flies. The MH-6M Little Bird attack version, small, feisty, and dangerous. MH-6M Little Bird and 75th Rangers visit NASCAR It's only when she is faced with SEAL Lieutenant Bill Bruce, who she immediately tags as "Billy the SEAL," that she meets her match. And she does her absolute best to resist him...right until a moment aboard "Old Ironsides." I fin...

by M. L. Buchman So there I was, happily flying along in my Night Stalkers series: And then, right in the middle of Take Over at Midnight something happened. Something wholly unexpected! (Shocked the be-jeebees out of me, I can tell you.) I mean I've been flying along happily writing love story after love story, when Emily Beale decided that was insufficient and turned up pregnant. Well, it made sense once it had happened, these were all loving couples and someone had to reproduce, but did it have to be the mother figure of the Night Stalkers? Okay, I guess I just answered that question. (Sigh. Emily? Really?) Now I had to puzzle out what to do about it. She's not going to keep flying dangerous military missions in her attack helicopter. But neither can she quit because flying is such a part of her soul. While her "delicate" condition provided exciting and pivotal scenes in Take Over at Midnight, Emily was far from satisfied. And if you've read a...

by M. L. Buchman I think in series. I have friends who think in short stories. They write these charming little encapsulations of a moment, so polished and precious and refined that each is a joyous nibble. (Almost every short story I used to submit to workshops or anthologies was returned with a simple note: "This isn't a short story, it's the synopsis for a novel. Now go write it.") For a while, I thought in single novels. One growing arc following a character, and those around her (I write predominantly from the woman's point of view -don't know why, always have). Even in my fantasy and science fiction, there is usually a love interest along for the ride, but it is then just that couple's journey. Then a strange thing began happening. Short stories that I submitted to workshops or had friends read started coming back with a new note on the rejections: "This isn't a short story, it's a synopsis for a series. I want to read this series...

My parents and I went to visit my older sister when she was in college, I was about 15. Shortly after my arrival, she noticed my preoccupation with my new wrist watch. It even had one of those outer timing dials you could turn for purposes that were never quite clear, but I was deeply enamored of it. It also had that cool little AM/PM window where the "3" was supposed to be (the date window didn't come along until later). (And, yes, this was even before LED and other digital watches, waaaayyy before portable phones.) This is about the right age. (Cool shirt hunh?) So, the first thing my sister did after my parents weren't in the room was grab my watch and set it some random amount ahead (or way behind). "There!" She handed it back to me, quite pleased with herself. "That's Matthew time. You aren't allowed to calibrate it to real time, or anyone else's. Or explain what's going on for the duration of your entire visit." I soon le...

What would be the most common question I receive as a writer? No, it's not, "I have this great idea for a book, if you'd help me finish it I could share some of my royalties with you." That is the most common, but it usually comes as a statement not a question. So that doesn't count, even when paired up with, "I have this book I've been working on for 'xxx' decades, would you mind looking it over?" This, while it is an interrogative, has its total diluted by the statement form of the same thought. No, the most common question I receive is the dreaded, "Where do you get your ideas?" This is especially prevalent whenever I release a new book. In the next week or so, book #2 of my contemporary Angelo's Hearth series will be out. (#1 Where Dreams Are Born [note the post title above], #2 Where Dreams Reside). So, right now, I'm hearing this question a lot. Now, I've heard some great answers to that one. "I keep th...

Some books just make you smile, and this one does that to me every time. I love my "Night Stalker" series. The first four books have been a challenge and an education (This is #3 and #4 is in final editing and coming later in the year). Two more have been contracted after that. But Wait Until Dark just makes me smile. Let's see if I can figure out why. "What? You don't already know?" Nope, I don't! That's one of the puzzles of being a writer. When you're in the creative space, the whole "What am I writing?" or even "Is this any good?" sort of goes away. I mean, sure, I think those questions, but when the writing is going well I sure don't care about those questions, I just care about the next problem, puzzle, challenge, scene, paragraph, sentence, word... Even when I know all the broad strokes of the book, the "writing" space is about what goes next on the blank page and nothing much else. Sure it has to fit...