Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

I’ve written a few virgin characters over the years, including a few men. I thought in my last blog post here I’d look over a few first times. Dai from Kiss of the Goblin Prince would have to be one of my most tortured heroes. I mean he waited nearly 2000 years to get free of the curse and finally meet someone. And even then he was wary.  More recently there has been Kelly , a roadie who while he’d had girlfriends had his eye on a fellow male roadie—he got the first time nerves all over again with Jasper. Out of Time had a virgin heroine…but she was up for almost anything. I liked her because she was no blushing, giggling girl. She knew what she wanted and she knew which lines she was ready to cross and when.  Writing a virgin character can be a lot of fun. While there is always getting to know you nerves when characters get together, when a character has less experience it winds up the tension that little bit more.  Who are your favourite romance virgi...

bee eating jelly at a party It’s spring in Western Australia! Bees, magpies, snakes and all the other hideous thing that want to kill you are waking up and getting active .  snake spotted when I went for a run It also means flowers and sunshine and cleaning out the pool to get it ready for summer. Inside the house it means it looking at the piles of paper on my desk and thinking about sorting them out. The trouble is while working on a series I like to have all my notes to hand, which means when I’m working on more than one series I end up with lots of paper. Most of it is contained in a note book, but some series end up with an archive box full of old revisions and notes about main characters and minor characters and the world.   Sometimes though I just get lazy and I don’t pack away as often as I should so spring is an ideal reason to sort things out and throw things out. That is what I plan to do over the next month. Then I’ll start making plans for 2016. ...

  will Solitaire ever be home?   Science Fiction romance combines two of my favourite things, romance and sci-fi. While some people will argue that the only real sci-fi is all about the technology, what is the point of technology without considering the impact on human lives? And what is life without a little romance? The ES Siren series is at an end. Ours to Save (book 9!) came out last week (July 23rd). Like any good adventure I took it with friends (Mel Teshco and Denise Rossetti also wrote books in the series). We built our ships and filled them with people and then set off heading toward a new life on the planet Solitaire. When we started writing we had no idea how we were going to pull the world together or how the drama on the ship would unfold. 12 months in space....anything could happen. We had riots, and fighting, splinter groups and micrometeoroid showers. Among all the drama we had a couple of ménages form, a prisoner fell for a soldier, a scie...

The Singer of Death (Court of Annwyn 5) is out now, and still at the first week special price of 99c :) If you haven't read any of the series yet that's okay because each book stands alone, however if you want a little primer on all things Annwyn keep reading. The Outcast Prince saw Caspian, a changeling and Prince Felan's secret son, get caught up in the hunt for the secret doorway to Annwyn while trying to keep Lydia safe from fairies. She wasn't impressed by the chaos but ultimately decided that Caspian couldn't really pick his family. In Lord of the Hunt the Queen's mischief making continued. Verden, lord of the hunt, found himself in hot water and was saved by the lovely Taryn who was only in Annwyn to try and save her father's life. Prince Felan discovered how hard it was going to be for Jacquie To Love a King as he had to fight to claim the throne of Annwyn from his mother's schemes. the secret enemy was revealed. During the battles ...

When readers pick up a book they read it in a few short hours. But behind every finished product there is professional editing, critiquing, the authors polishing, first draft, plotting, daydreaming, researching, hunting down an idea with a club and a machete… The craft when the reader reads should be invisible, and yet if the craft wasn’t there the story wouldn’t hang together. Authors know about themes and motives (even if they aren’t there in the plotting or the first draft they appear gradually). They know about the three act structure and how to increase tension and also release it just a little. They know about end of scene and end of chapters so you turn the page because you have to know what happens even though you have to get up in six hours! Even though I have been writing (as an adult) for a decade I still buy and read craft books. I read novels and try to work out why it worked…or why it didn’t (that is harder because sometimes the voice just wasn’t my thing, it happens ...

I often get asked how I build (and keep untangled) the worlds I create. I have my Fendrake world which included the Bitten Backstage books (vampire rock stars) and Brightwater Blood , in a Bottle , the Shadowlands , Decadent Moon, ES Siren , Annwyn ...and there are a couple of other unpublished sci-fi and paranormal worlds and also a couple of contemporary worlds as well as a few standalones. I have no fancy method. Each book has it's own exercise book--which if it turns into a series becomes the series bible. There are no clever segment, just a whole lot of scribbles, sticky notes and tabs so I can find what I need relatively quickly. In my mind though the two sci-fi worlds of Decadent Moon and ES Siren would never interact, one is all alien and high tech and full of the weird and wonderful while the other is human drama on a spaceship. The paranormal worlds are also quite distinct as the magic is different, the rules are different and the creatures are different. My gobli...

There are three more Annwyn books out this year (yay!) And while the covers look very pretty they hide something darker as these three books look more closely at the banished fairies living in our world. Darklings, kelpies and changelings with magic to die for. After spending the first three books following the drama in Annwyn it was nice to bring the focus back to our world, especially after the plagues at the end of To Love a King. So there is a bit of a dystopian feel as the world recovers. The best thing is if you haven’t read the first three books, you can jump in now and I have a free short story available to give you a taste of Annywn and my fairies. The Tenth Life of Vicki Torres A Court of Annwyn short story Is he saving the cat or is the cat saving him? Seth expected the world to end in wars and bombings, not in a plague. When he obeys his dying father and heads for their secret cabin in the mountains as arranged, he gets lonely so fast that he's willing to s...

Christmas is over and we’re three days into the New Year. How many resolutions have already been broken? I tend not to make resolutions. I like goals. I like to be able to check things off my to do list.  Some goals aren’t as easy as others to put on paper and achieve. Some are more abstract like be a better person. But there are ways of making that tangible. What could you do to quantify that? Donate to the animal shelter, volunteer your time? The promise to get the credit card cleared is another common promise…but again a plan of attack is needed to make it happen. Exercise is another resolution that often gets ditched early because people make huge promises and are discouraged early. So start simple with small goals. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to run 5km, I built up to it. Fitness goals are much healthier to achieve than the elusive ‘beach body’ (What is that any way? Seriously if you have a body it is beach ready). A fitness goal is easily quantifiable, te...

Some of my favourite TV shows are sci-fi. I grew up watching Doctor Who and Star Trek, moved on to Farscape, returned to the rebooted Doctor Who, and loved the rebooted Battlestar Galactica (I never saw the original). There is something about sci-fi that I love. Maybe it's tech or the cool aliens (Farscape did aliens so well)...or simply the human drama of being in space and trapped on a ship with limited supplies where danger is never far away. Farscape and BSG also threw in some romance which I loved:)  Who didn't want John Crichton and Aeryn Sun to get together? It was only a matter of time before I started writing sci-fi romance. The ES Siren series has no aliens but plenty of human drama as the ship makes it's way to the new colony. What's extra fun about this series is that Mel Teshco and Denise Rossetti also write books in the world so on release day the publisher puts out 3 books...yep 3 at a time so there's no waiting around to see how the mini cri...

Mt Hutt...it wasn't very snowy this year Snow and fairies! Only a couple of days until To Love a King comes out! You can pre-order print and ebook now, and add to your TBR pile on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17969495-to-love-a-king With Annwyn in winter and the mortal world in trouble I thought I’d share some snowy pics from my New Zealand holiday and an excerpt from To Love a King :) More Mt Hutt. The skiing was awesome and I even managed to get sunburnt :) Excerpt: The air shimmered and an icy breeze hit her skin. She was sure she felt snow, but when she looked, there was nothing in front of her except the cemetery. She took a last look at Verden, surrounded by death, then Dylis gave her arm a tug and Jacqui took a step forward. The cemetery vanished, replaced by bare trees and snow. She’d expected a jolt or something to delineate the mortal world from Annwyn, but there was nothing. One step she was in Charleston, the next she was here. Snow...

In August I had an excellent holiday in New Zealand (I also attended the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference). As an Australian New Zealand is like some kind of haven from creatures that want to kill you (everything in Australia wants to kill you from the smallest tick to the largest croc). It’s spoken about in hallowed tones. a bubbling mud pool Imagine a place with no poisonous snakes or spiders where it rains gumdrops and snows marshmallows (maybe not the gumdrop and marshmallows…). Then I went to Auckland zoo and read about the wasp problem. So while you can research a place on the internet nothing beats going there in person. Here are a few things that also weren't in the brochures. Rotorua smells. Famous for its hot springs and spas nowhere was the rotten egg smell mentioned. It seeped into the hotel room and clung to the car like day old fart even after we’d left. But the museum and history were fascinating and it is well worth a visit, but be prepared. ...

At the moment I’m in New Zealand. It’s probably really cold…actually I know it will be really cold as I’m going to spend a few days skiing which I’ve never done before. I think you’ve guessed that I pre-wrote this blog and scheduled it before I went on holiday, I promise there will be pics next month.  In the lead up to going on holiday I made a detailed schedule of all the things I needed to get done before we went away. I had Annwyn #4 1st draft to finish the next ES Siren to polish and the next In A Bottle story to get to my editor. I did have several other jobs pencilled in but it quickly became apparent they weren’t going to happen. I don’t write on holiday, but I do plot. So I packed an idea for the last In a Bottle story (there are only so many ways to free a genie…you can check out 2 in Boyfriend in a Bottle and Temptation in a Bottle ) The other thing I had to do was get new puzzle/coloring in books and reading books for the kids. Youngest is a fussy reader, but ...

Over the last 12 months I had the opportunity to work on two continuities. One I was invited to join (and which I can’t say more about until the big announcement…but it is contemporary). The other I kind of started because I had an idea for a sci-fi romance series that would be fun to write with other people. Both were totally different experiences as for the first there was a story bible, and for the second— ES Siren series —we had to make it up as we went along.  Both were (or in the case of Siren which is ongoing, are) lots of fun and something different to sitting there at the computer plugging away at a novel in your own world.  The ES Siren series is set in the reasonably near future, yet far enough in the future that humans have established a research base on another habitable planet. This is a good thing as big business ended up winning/bribing their way into power and the Earth is heavily polluted.  Those couple of sentences took many, many emails to wo...

When Lord of the Hunt finished Annwyn was in a terrible way. The Prince needed to find wife, his mother was imprisoned for treason and his father was dying…to find out what happens to Felan you’ll have to wait for To Love a King in October…I know that’s ages away! The good news is you can get some more fairy mischief on June 3 with The Changeling Soldier ! So what hotter than a regular soldier…why one’s half fairy and psychic of course :) Here’s the blurb: Her time in the mortal world is running out… After fleeing Annwyn three centuries ago, Ella built a life in the mortal world making gowns for European royalty and playing in mortal intrigues. Now those Courts are long gone, and she dresses Hollywood starlets. Mortals come and go, but Ella always ends up alone. She longs for the home she left behind. He’s been dreaming of the coming battle all his life… Isaac Norton is a returned soldier. Now home, he’s restless and his recurring dream is becoming more frequen...

I take my research seriously. And while I can never interview a vampire, a goblin or a fairy I do read up on the mythology. Sometimes research is more practical. I've been doing martial arts since I was ten and have done several different styles to get a feel for different techniques. I've done archery and the Tough Mudder (because you never know when a character will need to get over a 9 foot high wall--it’s not easy, nor is moving quickly over rocky/muddy/steep terrain for 20km). My latest bit of research involved knitting. I know, you’re all thinking I've gone soft all of a sudden, but how else was my hero going to make socks? There are no department stores on the new colony of Solitaire*. My Nana taught me to knit and over the years I've knitted bits and pieces but I have always shied away from socks, I mean there’s a toe and a heel and they look tricky. Reading the pattern makes them seem even trickier! So in the name of research I bought wool and some ...

It's winning Wednesday! Check out some of the fabulous books and prizes you can win right now! Just click on the author's name. Shana Galen Stop by her website to win a red "Authors Are My Rock Stars" t-shirt (size XL) featuring Jane Austen, a Jane Austen air freshener, and a Mr. Darcy writing pad. It's a Jane Austen extravaganza!  Shona Husk is giving away a copy of SEX WITH STRINGS on Goodreads. Theresa Romain Stop by the contest page of her website to win a duo of springtime historical romances from Amanda Forester and Lisa Kleypas. Open internationally until March 31! More Theresa Romain And every Wednesday in April, Theresa will give away a prize to a randomly chosen newsletter subscriber. The first giveaway is coming up next week--someone will win this rainbow of historical romances by Theresa, Julie Anne Long, Meredith Duran, Erin Knightley, Anna Campbell, Kieran Kramer, and Grace Burrowes. All newsletter subscribers ar...

Right now my to do list is an ever mutating but never shrinking creature. Now that I’m a full time author I thought I’d be able to get on top of it and keep it nice and neat, maybe to just three things. Instead I’m finding that I’m working on more things and they generate more points that need to be actioned. At the moment I have three lots of edits, a blog post to write, a novel to plot, a novella to plot and a continuity to tie up (I’d love to say more about this project but the two other authors I’m working with and I agreed we wouldn’t say anything until the contracts were signed…just thrashing out the details). My life isn’t less busy without the day job, in fact I sometimes wonder how I squeezed it in. Then I remember I used to write at night or whenever I could. Not writing at night is nice plus I am rediscovering hobbies which had sat in a corner for to many years. Not having a day job means I’ve finally had the time to branch out and try new projects (like the cont...

In interviews I often get asked about my favourite scene. You’d think this would be easy to answer, but it’s not. Some scenes I love because of the drama, or they were easy to write and nothing beats a first kiss…or even the first time the characters get together (an ancient ruined temple makes for a rather grand date). Other times my favourite scene is something really small that I really enjoyed writing. Verden the hero of Lord of the Hunt is very much a Court fairy. While Taryn is out of her depth for most of the book as she navigates the Court to save her father the few times Verden is forced to interact with mortals (us) in our world show a very different side of him. Here is a little bit of their trip to Ireland and their quest to buy alcohol in place where fairy lore is still very alive. ~~~ “What do you want to drink?” Taryn pulled him toward a counter made of polished wood. Behind on shelves were bottles of liquid. “I don’t know.” Verden hadn’t realized there...

As I write this I have been a full time author for one week. It’s also now the long summer school holidays in Australia, so I’m also a full time mum. Lots of authors dream of that day when they can resign from the day job. For some it is harder than others. Hubby and I had agreed on the amount I needed to be making to quit after I sold the Shadowlands trilogy. However making the jump was still scary. What if I never get another contract? The idea has crossed my mind more than once. Paranormal romance isn’t as hot as it was. Contemporary is the new favorite. What if I run out of ideas? Probably unlikely but what if the pressure of staying home and writing causes crippling writers block? While ‘what if’ is usually very useful, if not essential to the writer, when it comes to big decisions it can create fear. Lots of fear. However I did it. I handed in my notice and crossed my fingers. As soon as I’d done it I felt so relived and excited to be on a new path. Then something happen...