Saguaro Romance Writers – thank you for organizing amazing workshops to help me improve as a writer, and giving me support as I edited, revised, and did it over and over and wanted to give up.

My critique groups- thank you for reading my raw work and seeing past the grammar fails to the book underneath. Your encouragement and support were invaluable.

My family and friends for listening to multiple plot and character dramas- many of which never made it into my book and for holding my hand.

Thanks to Lisa Cottrell-Bentley, Roxy Rogers, and Frankie Robertson who did massive amounts of research on self publishing and graciously answered my questions

I do have one person who I owe so much too, Kilian Metcalf. On my first day at RWA she asked me what I was writing and instantly offered her help. Kilian has spent hours reading, editing, and supporting me. She has believed in me from three versions of my book ago and helped me craft Phoenix Child into a novel I am proud of.
Kilian helped me without ever compromising my voice or my vision for my book- even when it meant that I didn’t agree with her. She is an amazing friend and editor, I don’t know how I would have ever felt confident enough to publish my book if I hadn’t had her in my corner cheering me on and smacking me upside the head when I was being stupid.

As an editor Kilian helps not only with those damn commas I have no idea what to do with, but she also supports each author she works with to strengthen their OWN VOICE. What she tells me to do is different then what she would tell anyone else. Never once did I feel like my story, voice or vision was being altered by the changes she suggested. Kilian is gifted, and if you are in need of an editor you can find her here Just remember I’m her favorite client- I come first always!

And because its Monday we need some music, I’ve found a piece with a lot of harps because Kilian also plays the harp!

This is one of those movies that I own. It’s funny, sweet, charming, and has a great ending. Grace’s husband commits suicide, leaving her alone and shockingly horribly in debt, so she does what any normal middle aged house wife would do, she grows pot. Craig Ferguson plays her partner in crime, and as always the small village she lives in is filled with fun quirky characters.

As a reader, my first love was science-fiction and fantasy, but then I discovered the romance genre. Now I enjoy blending the two, writing romantic fiction with an otherworldly twist. With a background in property management, occupational therapy, and paranormal investigation, I bring a diverse experience to my stories. In fact, it was my time as an investigator with the Western Society for Paranormal Research that inspired one of the characters in VEILED MIRROR.

I live with my husband in the desert southwest and we have a back yard that’s regularly visited by hawks, bobcats, lizards, and quail, while the coyotes sing to us from beyond the fence.

How old were you when you fell in love with reading? Can you remember what book/ books it was that inspired you?

I was eight. My aunt sent me a copy of Lewis’s THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE for Christmas. (I still have it.) My mother started out reading it with me, but then said, “If you want to find out what happens, you’ll have to finish it yourself.” I did, and a voracious reader was born.

LOL- what a sneaky mom you have. I loved those books too, I read several in the series more then once.

We all have favorite books, ones we nag our friends to read, buy our loved ones as gifts, and the biggy, the books we read over and over again. What books have you read more than twice?

Lewis’s THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is still one of my favorites. I’ve probably read it, or parts of it, half a dozen times. Having read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy was a qualifying question for my husband. (He’d read it seven times, so he passed.) In romance, Jo Beverley’s HAZARD is one I’ve read four times. And something about Rachel Lee’s IMMANENT THUNDER really works for me. I’ve read it three times.

What is the geekiest thing about you?

I really love watching HGTV. Since I was a kid, I liked to draw houseplans.

We’re all supposed to be eating healthy, but what naughty treat tempts you the most?

Reeces’ Peanut Butter Cups. I debated the relative merits of the full size vs. miniature size cups with with Ozzy Osbourne’s drummer Randy Castillo over dinner at my brother-in-law’s house. We both agreed, the miniatures are best.

Yum! I think I need some now.

What is the best advice you give, but hardly ever follow yourself?

Be patient. Whether you go the traditional or self-publishing route you need to be patient. I have a mug that says, “Take my advice, I’m not using it.”

I need that mug!

Where is the weirdest place you’ve ever written?

The dentist’s waiting room.

I would be too nervous to write there. Even cleanings make me shaky.

Give us a super secret peek into what you’re working on next?

DANGEROUS TALENTS will be coming out this spring. It’s the first book of the Vinlanders’ Saga. It’s a romantic fantasy set in the alternate dimension of Alfheim.

As a 911 operator, Celia Montrose has been trained to deal with any emergency — except being thrust into another world. No amount of crisis management training could possibly prepare her for meeting the descendants of the lost Vinland colony or coping with their strange world. Only her innate courage gives her the strength to face kidnapping, murder, and betrayal, as well as magic and romance.

Lord Dahleven is trying to avert a war when he rescues a strange and beautiful woman from the drylands. Is she in league with his enemy, or will Celia be the key to saving his people?

I can’t wait for this to come out! As I’ve read your other books I know I’ll enjoy it.

Many thanks to Frankie for stopping by and answering my odd questions. I hope you’ll check out her Blog and visit Website for news of upcoming releases.

Jared Price is a Celestial, one of a race of beings often taken for angels. Exiled on earth, he’s offered a chance to return to the Celestial Realm. All he has to do is protect Cassie Lewis from a demonic assassin. A genuine psychic, Cassie can’t resist Jared’s Celestial aura, but she doesn’t trust him. He’s hiding something behind his strong mental barriers and she’s learned the hard way that what you don’t know can hurt you. But when a demon tries to kill her, Cassie has no one else to turn to. Then the stakes are raised even higher, and Jared must decide if Cassie’s love is worth sacrificing a dream he’s held on to for 150 years.

Beth Hart is alive and well and hunting for her killer. When her brother-in-law Chris and her twin sister Ellie die in suspicious accidents, Beth impulsively switches identities with Ellie to lure the murderer into revealing himself. Beth can’t rest until she finds the killer, and neither can the real Ellie who haunts Beth’s dreams, sometimes providing clues. FBI fraud investigator Jason Blackforth fell hard for Beth at Chris and Ellie’s wedding, but he left her as quickly as he found her—undercover work and relationships don’t mix. Now, grieving and believing Beth is dead, Jason is appalled to find himself fantasizing about the widow of his best friend. He wants to help “Ellie” through this difficult time, but she reminds him so much of Beth. Something just doesn’t add up. Can he discover what secrets the widow is hiding and find the killer before they both end up dead?

Elise Craft is a well-bred Victorian lady who would rather study the flora and fauna of England than play the social games of the ton. Then she makes an exotic, and erotic, discovery on the border between everyday England and Faerie.

You can find Frankie’s books here.

I love learning about how they would eat, address each other, or get themselves to work. What was important, what morals and values did the author feel were important to show. Men in romance stories didn’t have rippling abs, they had money, manners, and status. Woman didn’t have big boobs and the abilities to deep throat; they had grace, modesty, and charm that could make a man forget himself *swoons*. Not that I don’t enjoy smut, because abs and deep throating are great things, but sometimes it’s fun to go back and read about a time when even the raciest book would be rated PG by today’s standards.

I also miss the innocence of children that is found in older books. I just finished reading Tom Sawyer. In one passage he and two other boys are down by the river. They run around naked and swim and wrestle, and it’s fine, because they are children. The general population would never have thought of it as sexual at all, because they are children and they didn’t equate children with sex. Yes, there were monsters back then as they are now, but the general population, the healthy people, wouldn’t have thought anything of it.

Old books tend to have a slow cadence to them that modern books don’t have. It’s not bad that new books don’t have it, I don’t think my book has it, but I enjoy reading something with a good rhythm to it.

One other thing I love about older books is the words. Whenever I switch from a book written fifty or more years ago to today I’m saddened by the words we’ve lost and how simple our words are today. Some of the words I miss that I’m going to try and sneak into my work include: vexed, ponder, spectacles, diligence, crossly, gaily, queer, and my favorite – presently.

I found this video via another writer- it’s amazing. Let’s celebrate old books!

Do you read older books? What do you love about them, other then the old book smell? BTW someone needs to make old book smell air freshener for those of us with Kindles and no room for new books.

For years I’ve been attempting to lose weight and get in shape. Last year I joined a gym with a friend who signed up for personal training then “forgot” to cancel it when we realized we couldn’t afford it.

So anyway our trainer is evil, as all trainers apparently have to be, and as one can tell by my years of trying and failing to get into shape I’m not good at sticking to things especially when they are uncomfortable or down-right painful.

So how am I getting through this? I think if it as zombie apocalypse training. Because you know escaping zombies is a bit more urgent then fitting into a smaller size of jeans. I think of squats as building leg muscles to run and kick with, push ups for climbing and carrying, and the evil abs exercises for building core strength for swinging axes, machetes, and cricket bats. It’s easier to force myself to do one more of the damn things when I think of protecting myself from hungry rotting zombies.

Hyperbole and a Half Zombie Killer

How do you get through things you don’t like to do? And yes once I am a vision of buff-ness I will be on your zombie killing team.

This is a beautifully animated movie from Ireland. The art is so amazing you could turn the sound off and be completely captivated for the full length of the movie. But don’t do that because the story is a great one. I rarely give plot synopsis because I suck at them and it sounds all fake and stupid. I will say this movie makes me think, as I struggle to protect myself and my family for the dangers in life, am I forgetting any of the important things? Am I so caught up in my worries and fears that like the Abbot I have forgotten the beauty and joy in life I’m trying to protect?

The Secret of Kells has everything you want in a childrens/ family movie; a great story, fun characters, history, and a lesson without being preachy.

Okay this trailer highlights the more suspenseful parts of the movie, but there is also a lot of humor and fun.

So what kind of badass things do I like to see my men do?

Okay, so being able to handle a weapon is hot. Not necessarily a gun, unless you’re doing something seriously badass, but swords, knives, or staffs, those are cool.

Climbing a rope. This is a mad skill. It’s not easy to climb a rope, and if you can do it without using your legs . . . OMG that is hotness.

But my newest measurement of badassness is handstand push-ups. Dude. Seriously. They are way hot. There is something very sexy about a man who can do handstand push-ups.

So how do you measure badassness? What does your alpha male or female need to have?

I made the work kids ramen the other night for dinner – just the cheap packaged stuff – nothing to get excited about. Anyway, after all the noodles were gone the kids wanted to know if there was any juice left.

Shudder.

For whatever reason that totally grosses me out. It’s not juice it’s broth. When I told them this, they all looked at me blankly as if no one had ever called the liquid part of soup broth before. What are they teaching in schools these days?

I didn’t correct them again but every time they called it juice my stomach rolled, so gross.

Why this bothers me out so much I have no idea.

Is there something innocent people say that makes you shudder? Do you call it broth or juice?

Today’s Music Monday song is by Ivi Adamou ‘La La Love’ it’s Cyprus’ entry tot he 2012 Eurovison Song Contest.