Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

by Amanda Forester Spring has sprung! I love the change of seasons. I enjoy winter, but by the time March rolls around I am very ready for a change. Here in the Northwest, we have enjoyed a mild winter, but I know in some parts of the U.S. folks are still digging themselves out of the snow. I'm sure the coming Spring is a welcome relief! When I think of Spring, showers of flower petals float through my mind. First the purple and white crocuses emerge through the frost, then the bright yellow daffodils, the fluffy, pink cherry blossoms, and finally the tulips. This year our tulips have been hindered by the two bunnies who have moved into our front yard. I occasionally see our new uninvited guests hopping across my lawn. My dogs go insane when they see them frolicking about freely where dogs are not allowed to roam. So wrong! I think bunnies are cute...until I find my tulip stalks nibbled to the ground. A few years ago I went out to the local tulip fields. It was a wond...

At the start of each year my sister and I sit down do our tarot cards for the next twelve months. One card for each month and one for overall—so 13 in total. I don’t know when this ritual started or what we hope to prove but for a few hours, usually with a glass of wine, we shuffle and deal and examine and make guesses. We look back at last year’s and sometimes we can go oh yes, March was 2 of coins and I was juggling a lot of different projects which ties perfectly (hindsight is 20/20). At this time I also like to look back at the good things the year brought: things-that-made-me-smile-in-2011 In December I also like to clear my writing desk and make an attempt to look super organised for January (so far looking good as I can still see my writing desk—my desk at work is a lost cause, A1 plans take up a lot of space). This year I also took down two years’ worth of goblin notes which I’d stuck to the wall behind my desk. I also removed some paint in the process—woops. This wa...

Talk about new beginnings. In my writing world I was doing a nice long line dance where my characters were all dancing together in time with the music ... step forward, kick back, slap your fanny and yell, “Hell, yeah!” Like the line dance, I had all my ducks in a row. One Hot Cowboy , coming out in April…check. Woman’s Fiction book (although we were having trouble with just the right title) coming out in August…check. Mistletoe Cowboy , October…check. Just a Cowboy , December…check. Now slap my fanny and yell, “Hell, yeah!” and get on to the last book in the contract … check. Then the music stopped. The line dance broke up and new beginnings began as the band switched from playing a fanny slapping line dance to a two-step. Uncheck, uncheck, uncheck as I watched the ducks waddle back to the pond in the space of a twenty minute phone call. One Hot Cowboy , still coming out in April …check. But there was a whole new bunch of new beginnings on my dance card. It was time to partner up wit...

Can you keep a secret? Vegas rules, right? I hate writing first drafts. There. I said it. I know, I know. I've heard all the writerly bromides: "First drafts are  supposed to be bad." "You can fix anything but a blank page." But the perfectionist who lives in my head isn't listening. She's singing, "Let it suck, let it suck, let it suck!" - to the tune of "Let It Snow" - at the top of her lungs. Being I'm five chapters into my third manuscript, with a good fifteen chapters yet to go, let's just say she's gonna be singing for awhile. Yeah, I know. La Nora's right. Once the first draft has been written, the words can be fixed - but I've learned that I'm one of those writers who loves revising, and sometimes vapor-locks looking at a blank screen. Some tricks I've learned to goose myself out of the blocks a little faster: Step away from the computer. I pick up a notebook and pen, set ...

As a writer, I deal with change in my stories all of the time. Usually, my hero and heroine are not right for each other at the beginning of a book. They need to change in order to earn their happily-ever-after. But change is difficult, so I have to force them to do so by putting them into difficult situations that will challenge them emotionally—and since I write adventurous fantasy—physically, as well. But I’m pulling all of the strings. In order to have a new beginning, there must be change, and in real life, that’s the toughest thing to do. First, there has to be a realization for the need to change…sometimes just recognizing the need will take you halfway there. There’s an old adage that I love: You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. So. Am I happy? Is my life taking the direction I want it to? Now, realistically, no one can be happy one-hundred-percent of the time. But people should be happy most of the time…life is just too ...

By Cheryl Brooks Tarq smelled her before he ever laid eyes on her--a glorious, delectable aroma that curled through his head and shot straight into his bloodstream. Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply as the effect of her fragrance hit him with the force of a pulse blast, obliterating every thought with the instantaneous ecstasy of an erection so hard it made his head swim. He glanced away from his menu, taking in the shape of her legs out of the corner of his eye--what he could see of them, that is. Her baggy trousers and apron concealed everything about her legs except the fact that she had two of them. "Hi, my name is Lucy, and I'll be your server," she said. "Do you already know what you'd like, or do you need more time? Tarq smiled to himself as he shook his head. No, he didn't need more time. He knew exactly what he wanted. "You," he replied. "I'd like a full order of you ."     Those are the opening paragraphs of my upcom...

by Olivia Cunning Recently, I finished the final book in my Sinners on Tour series. It will be a while before it's released to the public, but besides the editing process, the series is done. Finished. Complete. I know who falls for who and how all obstacles are overcome. I know how it ends. I've finished books in the past, but I've never finished a series. I've never had to say good-bye to characters I've loved though over 700,000 words (not all good words. I cut a lot of them). But now that it's over, I'm not sure what to do with myself. No more hanging out with those five sexy men on the tour bus. No more standing in the wings watching them perform concerts. No more inventing their antics and humorous comebacks and chuckling over their guy vernacular. No more delving into the innermost recesses of their psyche and figuring out what it would take to make them fall in love. No more sexy times. No more good times. No more bad. No more epiphanies as to ...

By Robin Kaye When I was a kid, I did a lot of skiing—my family had a place in Sun Valley, Idaho and we’d usually spend three weeks a year there skiing. Like most other skiers, every night before I went to bed wearing my pajamas inside out and backward—a signal to the snow gods that I was ready for fresh powder—I’d pray for snow. I prayed, not only because the skiing on fresh powder would be great, no, I had another reason—I longed to ski virgin snow. I’d wake up extra early after a snow and arrive on the mountain well before the lifts opened with a backpack full of bribes for the lift operators—warm scones and hot coffee worked the best. They’d be bundled up against the early morning chill, sweeping the snow from the chair lifts and sometimes, if I got very lucky, they’d let me ride up before the mountain officially opened so I could be the first skier down. There’s nothing like skiing virgin snow—the only sound you hear is the wind whispering through the trees, the swish of your own ...

When I think of a new beginning, I think of the movie Groundhog Day . I know, wrong month. Wrong holiday. How strange ! Here's the movie in a nutshell: A blizzard strands a narcissistic newscaster in the small town where he's covering the annual Groundhog Day festival, featuring Punxsutawny Phil, a cute little groundhog who should have his driver’s license revoked. The newscaster and crew, including a lovely and perpetually optimistic producer named Rita, are forced to stay another night. Much to the newscaster’s confusion, he wakes the next morning and it's Groundhog Day again. And again. And again. At first, Phil uses this strange phenomenon to gather information he can use to his advantage. He figures out the exact moment he can steal money from an armored car. He tries to seduce Rita by pretending to like the same things she likes. He even tricks a woman into having sex with him by asking her to marry him. He’s a DAWG!!! But as with all good heroes, Phil has a transform...

There's a sign on my fridge that my wife put up there, a misquote from an early novel of mine she read while we were still dating, "Violet is level six, start where you stand." It's become one of our house mottoes. When life is really being nuts or unpredictable we acknowledge that whatever ridiculous circumstance we've arrived in, and we've landed in many, We start here! Look forward! So here we are at the New Year, January the 1th. For me this is always a time of thinking and planning and wondering. Wondering at what the last year brought: 4 books written (2 joyfully and merrily for Casablanca) and a new job in a new city (that was a serious "Violet is level six" type of experience as it all occurred on 9 days notice, but that's a different story). Also, being January the 1th, I spend a lot of time wondering what the next year will bring: the launch of my "The Night Stalkers" romantic suspense series, 4 more books (including more f...

By Anita Clenney It's a brand new year and I'm looking for a brand new me. This past year was wonderful with so many firsts. First sale, first edits with my editor, first copy edits. I survived it all, and I enjoyed it, but now I'm looking for ways to make myself more productive, work smarter - not harder, have a better attitude, and get my priorities straight. At the moment, they're slightly askew. I'm starting book three in this series and it got me thinking about how a story starts. I love new stories because I'm like a kid with crayons and a blank sheet of paper. I can go any direction, use any color, any shapes. But I have to have an idea to start, and if it's a series, the new book has to be great on it's own, but make sense within the series as well. I love plotting and brainstorming. I think it's my favorite part of writing. I usually mull over a story for a few days, plotting as I drive or as I'm falling asleep. I build it in my head, th...

We are counting down our month of celebrating motherhood and exploring the new beginnings in our lives. Next up are the fabulous launch parties for Lydia Dare (Again girls? You must be exhausted!), Shana Galen, and Ashlyn Chase. After that we will spend the entire glorious month of June delving into SUMMERTIME!! I know I am ready for summer and all the fun to be had. But for now I am forced to write about new beginnings. LOL! Ok, only joking as it is a wonderful topic and the blogs have been enlightening, encouraging, and entertaining. Yet I have to say that I have been scratching my head over what to talk about. Writing wise I am finishing up my fifth novel – tentative title The Trouble with Mr. Darcy due for release in April 2011 in case you were curious about that, hehehe…. Actually, it is done, although I haven’t typed The End as yet because I have to go over the whole thing at least one more time before I will feel it is truly DONE, ya know? My next project is already half way...

Spring is definitely the time for new beginnings, perhaps even more so than the coming of the new year because in the dead of winter, the promise of new life seems so remote. But now, in late May, things are popping out all over the place. My roses are blooming, and just yesterday, one of the lilies I planted last fall burst into flower. Peaches isn't a little puppy anymore, but she is so full of exuberant life, she makes me feel young just watching her enjoy her first springtime as only a dog who was near death in December can do. And last, but certainly not least, my son Michael graduated from Purdue this month and has been accepted into graduate school. Now, that's a new beginning! I planted my garden on Tuesday--a bit later than I usually do, but what with deadlines and an over-abundance of rain, I simply hadn't gotten to it yet. As soon as I finished planting, a little thundershower passed over to give those seeds a good head start on growth. And we could all use a li...

The theme for the end of May is new beginnings, but instead of a new beginning, what about going back to a beginning? Back to where where life was just beginning. I had a family emergency over the weekend and couldn't do my scheduled Saturday blog post. Many many thanks to my Casa sisters for jumping in and taking over for me. The emergency was over on Saturday and that brings me to my "back to a beginning." After the emergency, I had a lot of emotions, a lot of things to deal with. And I had concert tickets for an Air Supply concert. The question was whether or not I was going to go. After what had happened, actually, going was the best thing I could have done. My best friend since high school had gotten the tickets. She and I were huge Air Supply fans in high school. We had every album, knew every song in order on those albums, knew the words to every song. We'd seen them numerous times in concert as seventeen and eighteen-year-olds, so when she saw they were coming...

You'd think something as important as a new career would start with a bang--but my writing career started with a whimper. I've worked in bookstores all my life, and I love my work. Not only do I get to spend all day, every day playing with books and talking to readers, but I'm able to put ideas into people's hands and encourage them to buy the books I love. But working in retail means you're on your feet all day, every day, and after twenty years, it had taken its toll. My feet were permanently fixed in a high-heel slant, like Barbie doll feet. And they hurt. Whimper. I needed a sit-down job. I decided to try medical transcription. I type fast, I'm a good speller, and I love using big words like desquamation and borborygmi , so it seemed like a great fit . Unfortunately, doctors drone. And desquamation and borborygmi aren't nearly as entertaining when you realize they're happening to real people. But I dutifully tapped away at the keyboard, transcribin...