I’m Celebrating The New Year with a New Book–Breakfast in Bed is Out!

After a long wait, the third book in my Domestic Gods Series hit the shelves the reviews are rolling in. Here are a few of the reviews and quotes that have come my way:

“A fun and spicy story. Robin Kaye is a fresh new voice in romance fiction.”
~Susan Donovan, New York Times bestselling author of Ain’t Too Proud to Beg

“With snappy dialogue, complex characters, and an intricate web of relationships, Kaye has created an extended family that’s both honest and enjoyable.”
~Whitney Kate Sullivan, Romantic Times Magazine – 4-Star Review

“Robin Kaye’s books are vacations for the soul. Indulge yourself.”
~Maureen Child, USA Today bestselling author of Conquering King’s Heart

“Breakfast in Bed is a fun and sexy romp from beginning to end. The characters are ones you would love to call friend.  Author Robin Kaye has a knack for reaching right into the reader’s heart and giving them a story to match their deepest desires.  Becca and Rich are perfect for each other.  The chemistry leaps off the page whenever they are together. I laughed, I cried, and I cheered them on as they frolicked their way to a happily ever after.  Bravo, Ms Kaye!”
~Lettetia Elsasser,  Affair de Coeur 4 ½  Stars

“If you’re in the mood for a light breezy read with a happy ending, but enough twists and turns to make it interesting, don’t miss this book.”
~Bellas Novella

“Breakfast in Bed is another fascinating look at the Ronaldi family and their friends that provided me with hours of enjoyment. I can’t wait to see who the next god Ms. Kaye decides to grace with their own book.
~Hibiscus, Long and Short Reviews 4 ½ Books

Here’s an excerpt of Breakfast in Bed:

Rich followed her to the kitchen and leaned against the breakfast bar, staring at her as if he could see beneath her clothes. It was unnerving, and she reminded herself of all the reasons she didn’t like him.

“I know you don’t like me much.”

Becca took a cup from the cabinet. Ah, and he was a mind reader too.

“I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t?” Wow, he was good. Not in that way, she reminded herself. And no, she wasn’t even that curious. She poured herself coffee.

He shook his head. “It might be a good thing.”

She looked up from the cup she was filling. “How can my not liking you be a good thing?”

“I need help, and I know it might come as a shock, but most women find me attractive. That would just complicate matters.”

“Color me surprised. Since you know I don’t like you, I suppose I can give up pretending that I do.”

He nodded and smiled a sinfully sexy smile that made her hormones do the cha-cha. She stepped out of the kitchen and picked up the sheets, blanket, and pillow she’d left for him in the living room, and returned them to the closet. Anything to get away from him. The man was a threat to her equilibrium. Unfortunately, he followed. “Okay, so since I don’t have to be nice, and you’re weirdly happy about that, why don’t you just leave?”

“I have a proposition for you.”

“No.”

“No?”

“That’s the answer to your proposition.”

“Don’t you even want to know what it is?”

“Not especially, but I will listen if you promise it will get you out my door sooner.”

He smiled again, and she rolled her eyes. She just wanted to be alone already. When it came down to it, she wasn’t much of a social person. She spent most of her time alone in her studio, and she was happy to do it. She didn’t need a man or company to keep her happy.

“Gina dumped me. She said I wasn’t relationship material because I don’t cook, clean, and do my own laundry. How hard can it be? I just need a trainer.”

“A trainer?”

“Yeah, like a domestic coach. Someone to show me the ropes. So I learn whatever I have to learn to make Gina think I’m not such a bad bet.” He might as well have asked her to streak through Times Square during rush hour.

Rich picks up the gauntlet and mayhem ensues. He soon discovers that he enjoys pissing Becca off, it becomes a hobby. Before long, he’s having so much fun hanging out with Becca, he’s almost forgotten why he started this whole thing in the first place–to get his girlfriend back in time to go to a charity benefit with his boss. When Rich meets with Gina to tell her he’d changed, he realizes that he doesn’t want her in the first place, the only one he wants Becca, who still doesn’t like him. It was a good thing he had a talent for wearing her down.

If you want a sneak peek at the first chapter of Breakfast in Bed, Romeo, Romeo, or Too Hot to Handle, they’re on my website at www.RobinKayeWrites.com along with the Domestic Gods Top Ten List, reviews, and a calendar of my blog tour. I’ll be giving away a copy of Breakfast in Bed to a lucky commenter with this and every blog through the month of January, so stop by and say hi for your chance to win.

My debut novel, According to Jane (Kensington, October 2009), has been out for just over a month, and I’m sure this will come as no surprise when I say I’ve found the whole process to be quite a learning experience.

There are the obvious things a newly published author encounters for the first time, such as ads/promotions, book signings, being asked to give “meet the author” presentations or writing workshops, and the wild-n-wacky world of book reviews and Amazon.com ratings. But it’s the more subtle, unexpected delights that have sparked the greatest intrigued for me this past month and kept me up way past my bedtime, Googling my name and book title… It’s been a kind of writer’s dessert tray: This opportunity to eavesdrop online (and, occasionally, in person) on discussions about The Author’s Intentions in Writing the Story.

Does anyone remember that scene from the film “Back to School” when Rodney Dangerfield’s character (a businessman/dad who’s trying out the college scene with his teenage son) has to write a paper for a college English class — specifically, on the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.? Being a man with more extensive financial resources than your typical undergrad, Dangerfield soon hires a string of professionals to help him with his schoolwork, and he gets Vonnegut himself (in a hilarious cameo appearance) to do that assignment. But when Dangerfield turns in the essay, his English professor is unimpressed. She fails him on it, knowing he didn’t write the paper, and adds, “I’ll tell you something else, whoever did write it doesn’t know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut!”

I laughed at that scene, but I found myself wondering how often I’d gotten it wrong with authors I’ve read — attributing intentions to them that they never had. I’ve frequently wished for a chance to have a conversation with my favorite author, Jane Austen, so I could ask her about particular passages from her novels and hear the real reasons behind some of her narrative choices. On some of my online loops, there’s been much speculation as to what Jane meant by one sentence or another. Devoted readers have attempted to interpret sections of her novels, and they argue their viewpoints with vigor. But, while we may be amongst Jane’s biggest fans, none of us were privy to her creative process. There remains a delightful veil of mystery surrounding some of her authorial objectives, so scholars will always have much to debate about her work.

But, here’s the really funny thing I learned in the last several weeks: Even if Jane were around today and could tell us in great detail why she used a specific allusion or a certain storytelling motif, there would be some people who wouldn’t believe her!

Since my book has been released, I’ve had the rare thrill of coming upon online book reviews written with passionate responses to elements in my novel. It’s been fascinating to get to read varying points of view on my main character’s motivations, discover what readers think works or doesn’t in my plot structure, see comparisons of my secondary characters to persons real or fictional, and get predicitons about what happens after the novel ends, etc.

Only, sometimes, I find myself credited with having writerly intentions that I, uh…didn’t actually intend. At all. Never was this more apparent than in this recent phone call from Someone:

“You have a very interesting lead character,” Someone told me, “considering she’s insane.”

“What?!” I said, laughing because I was certain Someone was joking.

“Well, Ellie, your heroine — she hears voices, right?”

“Y-Yes…but that’s the twist in the premise. The hook of the story. My book is not a study on insanity. It’s a novel about a woman who has the ghost of Jane Austen in her head giving her dating advice.”

“Exactly,” Someone shot back — and not jokingly. “She’s hearing voices and making life decisions based on the answers. She’s clearly crazy. And I think it’s very brave of you to examine that.”

“Wha– No! I wasn’t being brave, I was being whimsical. This is a playful element in the book, not a literal one. A what-if kind of thing. Readers just need to suspend disbelief on this single point.”

“It’s okay, Marilyn. Relax. I really like the story just the way it is. I’ve already read it twice.”

“I — um, thanks, but listen — you should know my main character does NOT need psychiatric treatment. She’s just a normal young woman with this one little paranormal problem…”

“So, you’re saying she isn’t schizophrenic?”

“Right!”

“Only she is. One of the common symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia is when a patient suffers from hallucinatory voices that threaten or give commands.”

“Okay, but I’m telling you that’s not what I was intending for her when I wrote this…”

While I’ll admit to having been a little freaked out by this conversation (all one-and-a-half hours of it — yes, really), it did drive home the point that what authors write and deliver to the world of literature is not always what’s received. Once a book is “out there,” it no longer belongs just to the writer to interpret. Knowing this, I’m already anticipating the next such conversation with Someone (or Someone’s spouse), which may well focus on the Jane Austen side of the ghost-human relationship:

“So, your book starts out in the fall, just after Halloween, huh?”

“Yeah,” I’d say.

“And there’s a ghost in it. That one dead English author — Austen. Cool how you put those two things together.”

“Austen’s role as a ghost in the story doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween or its aftermath.”

“Sure it does! Look, you wrote on the very first page that it was ‘midweek, early November’ when Jane made her first comment. So, she had to have escaped from the Spirit World on All Hallow’s Eve, or on All Saints Day at the very latest. That’s obvious.”

Rubbing my forehead. “Trust me, there’s no connection.”

“No, Marilyn. I think you’re wrong…”

**If you could sit down over dinner/drinks/dessert and have a conversation with an author or two (living or dead) about their work, who would you ask to join you??**

I was working furiously at my desk when my husband decided to join me in my office. He sat down on the couch to read a political magazine and proceeded to comment on every article. I was about to tell him to leave when my cat/office-mate made an appearance.

Raja, my three-legged Bengal talks but at least he’s not annoying. Since we named him Raja meaning King, he took the moniker to heart and treats me and every other biped like lowly servants. He sat outside the gate (meant to keep dogs, kids, and husbands out) in the doorway, which he is more than capable of climbing over, belts out an order, and expects me to serve as doorman while I wait patiently until he sees fit to enter. This, I suppose, makes perfect sense to him. To me–not so much.

As my husband read, Raja took his throne–the couch–and made it known that he wasn’t thrilled with the company. That’s when Stephen, aka DH, asked, “What animal character is in your next book?” Huh? I didn’t have a furry character in my book. No wonder something seemed off. When he saw the look of shock and horror on my face, he quickly backpedaled. “You don’t have to have an animal side-kick in every book. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Yeah, right. It’s fine.

If you read Romeo, Romeo, the first book in my Domestic Gods Series, you probably remember Dave the dog. Dave was the male version of my late dog, Clancy–a 150-pound Black Lab, St. Bernard mix. Clancy was certain all three of my children were her puppies, and she treated them as such. She was known to clean them, scold them, and baby-sit. Dave was such a great character, he was mentioned in almost every review the book received and even receives fan mail. He might have been a dog, but he was a living, breathing, well-rounded character with his own character arc. Yes, you might think it’s insane, but Dave had his own arc and was pivotal to the plot.

Dave was also in Too Hot to Handle. He stayed with the heroine, Annabelle, while his parents, Rosalie and Nick, doggie-proofed the love-nest and honeymooned. Again, he seemed to steal almost every scene he was in.

In Breakfast in Bed, the third book in my Domestic Gods series, which comes out in December 2009, my heroine, Becca, owns a rescued cat she found lying injured on the side of the road. Becca took him to the Vet. He survived, unfortunately, one of his legs didn’t, so she named him Tripod. Okay, so sue me, Tripod is Raja with a name-change. I’ve believed for some time now that Raja was jealous because he didn’t have his own book. He is such a character; I only added one thing while putting him on the page. Tripod loves drinking coffee and Raja doesn’t. Okay, maybe it’s because he’s never been offered any. Everything else about Tripod is true of Raja including the missing leg and his penchant for popcorn, potato chips, and spumoni. Most of his antics were taken out of real life happenings, although I did leave out a few of his tricks like his predilection for flushing the toilet while you’re still on it. Although funny, there no way I want my readers picturing my H/H sitting on the porcelain throne. It’s just not sexy.

After my DH asked me about what animal character I was going to put in my fourth book, I gave myself a head slap. Luckily, it must have stirred something loose and an idea came to mind. Gina, the heroine of As Good as He Gets (working title) grew up knowing she had to be able to fit all her belongings in two suitcases and a backpack because she and her family often found themselves in the unenviable position of having to pack up everything in 10 minutes in the dark in order to skip-out on the rent. Gina has been a character in all three previous books and has finally earned her own Happily Ever After. After much thought, I found the perfect pet for her. Meet Jasmine – She’s a pointer mix I found running down the highway about three years ago and brought home. She was about 9 months old, emaciated, and scared to death. It was the last night of our local Fireman’s Carnival, replete with fireworks and the poor baby was so terrified; she shook like a leaf and shed what little fur she had left. Still to this day, whenever there’s a thunderstorm or fireworks she throws herself on top of me and vibrates with fear.

The thing that gets me about Jasmine is she’s such a little lady. She’s put on about 20 pounds since we adopted her but she’s still so delicate. When she lies down, she crosses her dainty little paws like the proper little lady. Still, when it comes to getting what she wants, she’s not averse to nipping my 120-pound yellow lab in the butt, sending him off crying to me, his mama. She’s a spunky little package of street smarts and naiveté, very much like Gina herself. They are both strays who grew up on the streets taking care of themselves and they have a very hard time trusting and depending upon anyone. I think they’ll make a perfect match. Just like Gina and her hero Ben. It’s going to be a fun ride.

So tell me, what are your favorite three or four-legged characters from books or movies?

I freely confess:  I’m addicted to secondary characters!  And I love to read them as much as I love to write them.

I adore Jane Austen for many reasons, but it’s true that I love her secondaries as much as I do her fabulous main characters.  Yes, of course I do swoon over Mr. Darcy, along with most other women on the planet, but I adore Mr. Collins, his pre-planned compliments and his single-minded reverence for Lady Catherine just as much.  Do you remember the scene in the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson film version of Sense and Sensibility, where Mrs. Jennings runs through the streets of London, dodging people and leaping refuse just so she can get home to impart the latest gossip?  I laugh with joy every time.

Now that I think about it, this obsession began with my childhood reading, when I couldn’t wait to laugh along with Gurgi and his “crunchings and munchings” in Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series or when I longed for every glimpse of Piemur in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders Of Pern books.

And the obsession continues today, in my love of historical romance.  I think secondary characters can add so much to a book, especially when they are recurring characters throughout a series or over several books.  Some of my favorites are Loretta Chase’s bumbling Bertie Trent and my own cp Liz Carlyle’s Kemble.

One of my favorite conventions is when an author uses a real life figure from history as a secondary character.  I love to see Beau Brummel, Wellington, even Prinny show up on the page to help a romance along.  I’ve done this a couple of times.  In An Improper Aristocrat I made my Historical Figure Man Crush, Giovanni Batistta Belzoni, a secondary.  In my new release, Her Cinderella Season–out now!–I couldn’t resist a tiny appearance by William Wilberforce, the Evangelical and the force behind so many years of battle to end slavery in England.

You see, my heroine Lily was born into English society but spent the last seven years in an Evangelical household.   While she’s enjoyed the charitable and political works she’s contributed to, she’s in no way willing to accept her mother’s choice for her husband.  Neither is she quite ready to give up on the idea of  a life filled with music, joy and love.  She faces the difficulty of blending her two worlds, of helping the scholarly Mr. Jack Alden chase down a villainous slaver, and of course, the greatest challenge of all–winning the elusive Mr. Alden’s heart!

You can find out more about Her Cinderella Season, read an article on the Evangelicals and enter to win a Hardcover version of HCS at my website, www.DebMarlowe.com

But first, tell me–do you like historical figures in novels?  Do you love secondary characters as much as I do?  Who are some of your favorites?

I love romance novels. I’ve always been a keen reader, and I read across a range of genres, including literary fiction. But it’s romance I often come back to, and when I started to write I knew that I wanted to write romantic fiction; the relationships between people fascinate me, and it’s primarily those stories I want to tell.

However, like probably all of you, I’ve experienced many, many times the less-than-enthusiastic reactions to romance – the raised eyebrow, the snickering laugh, the belittling comment about romance novels. Since I’m also researching the genre as part of my PhD research at a very traditional university, I’ve also experienced the sneer and seen in some people’s eyes the estimation of my intelligence rapidly drop by at least 20 points. (Although not, I hasten to add, from every academic – especially not those involved in researching the genre.) I’ve also done a number of radio interviews, where sometimes the interviewers, while polite, clearly aren’t sure how to discuss the genre, other than references to Mills and Boon and Barbara Cartland.

Now, one of the things I’ve noticed in the romance community is that we often deal with the negative perception of our reading choices by making some comment about it being ‘escapist’ or ‘fantasy’ reading for us. What worries me about this response is that we very rarely use it for other genres, and I suspect that, although we don’t mean it that way, it perhaps reinforces the assumptions that the genre is ‘fluff’. And I confess, I do this in a way myself – when people ask me about my books, and what gritty romantic suspense is, I sometimes respond, ‘Dead bodies and kissy bits. But not at the same time.” Yes, it often gets a grin – but I’m not sure it gives anyone a true picture of the kinds of books that I write.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, because love is rarely talked about in any depth in our contemporary society, we don’t have a lot of frameworks for discussing books about love – which is why we fall back on the ‘escapist’ and ‘fantasy’ notions, or simple responses such as that we enjoy them (which should be perfectly fine, but unfortunately isn’t enough most times to challenge those pesky assumptions). And while I love laughing about mantitty and alpha-heroes and sharing the in-jokes with other readers, these don’t usually go down as well when we’re talking with non-romance-readers – especially those without a sense of humour!

So, how else can we talk about the genre? What can we say next time someone raises an eyebrow at our reading choices? I’ve given it some thought, and the following are ten honest, constructive and positive responses I could give as to why I read romance:

1. I enjoy reading books with women as central, complex characters, rather than sidelined to a secondary role – or almost absent.
2. I enjoy reading about strong, multifaceted women and men dealing with the demands of life – whether contemporary, historical, or in some imagined world.
3. I love books that have a positive view on life, while at the same time acknowledging and portraying the challenges.
4. I’m interested in people, and romance novels focus on characterization, character development, and stories about those people.
5. Romance novels are predominantly written by women, for women. These are our voices, our narrative styles, and our storytelling modes.
6. It’s a rich and diverse genre, with a huge range of choice – from gritty, complex and emotionally demanding stories through to gentler reads; from realistic contemporary settings through to the fantasies of imagined worlds. There’s something for everyone, and every mood.
7. Romance novels follow a journey towards emotional intimacy; that journey is a captivating story, and it’s different for every character.
8. Love is important. It is not easy, or all lightness and flowers, but it is integral to us as individuals and as a community. Romance novels affirm the importance of love and emotional courage in our lives, and, through the protagonists’ journeys, acknowledge and portray that complexity.
9. Most romance novels are well-written, well-crafted, and engaging novels.
10. I enjoy the emotional and intellectual processes in reading a romance novel; empathising with the characters’ emotional struggles, and trying to work out how they might overcome the challenges and barriers facing them – because I know that they will.

I’m interested in how others respond – or wish you could respond – when someone raises an eyebrow at your reading choices. Have you come up with – or heard – any good, witty, or concise come-back lines?

Because we 007 ladies enjoy giveaways , each commenter on today’s post will go into the draw to win a signed copy of ‘Dark Country’, my new romantic suspense novel, released in Australia yesterday. (Because time-differences are confusing, I won’t draw it before 9am, 3^rd September, western US time.)

And if you’re particularly interested in gritty romantic suspense set in one of Australia’s wild places  you might want to hop over to my blog, where I’m in a celebratory mood, and giving away two more copies of ‘Dark Country’ in a contest that closes tomorrow.

Why I Like Romantic Adventure

Ever since ROMANCING THE STONE, I’ve loved romantic adventure. To me, the genre is slightly different than romantic suspense because the focus isn’t on finding the bad guy. Many times romantic adventures are a quest, and if there’s a bad guy, he’s the competition, the time table the hero and heroine have to beat. Here are my top reasons for loving romantic adventure:

1. Forced proximity. I love when the hero and heroine HAVE to be together. He’s her bodyguard, he’s responsible for her, she’s stuck there because of a storm. They learn more about each other when they deal with each other every part of the day.
2. The quest. More often than not, I’ll buy a book BECAUSE of what the characters are looking for, a map, a treasure, an item of historical importance. If it’s a real object, I’ll enjoy the bits of history. If it’s fictional, I’ll marvel at the author’s imagination.
3. Remote locations. Because, let’s face it, treasures are hardly ever in the middle of the city. I love jungle-set stories in particular. Must be because of all those years of watching Tarzan movies on Saturday afternoons.
4. Fast pace. One problem after another keeps me turning pages.
5. Quick wit. I love when the characters get in seemingly insurmountable trouble and have to get out of it.

Some of my favorite adventure movies include romance, though some end badly. Still, I find these movies inspiring.

1. Indiana Jones (1 and 3 in particular.)
2. Romancing the Stone. Duh.
3. The Librarian movies on TNT, with Noah Wyle from ER.
4. Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life
5. National Treasure

Do you enjoy romantic adventure? What are some of your favorites?

My new romantic adventure, Beneath the Surface, is out today from Samhain Publishing.

In retrospect, perhaps archaeologist Mallory Reeves shouldn’t have delivered the divorce papers to her estranged husband mere weeks before her marriage to another man. She knew seeing Adrian again would stir up memories, but she didn’t expect so many of them to be good, not after the mess they both made three years ago. She also didn’t expect to want to stay at the dig site on the Yucatan Peninsula. But the lure of the ancient ship and, yes, her sexy ex provide more of a draw than the white picket fence she thought she wanted. Marine archaeologist Adrian Reeves has good reason to trust no one. His former partner—and former best friend—made off with his last archaeological find. And his wife left him, frustrated by his obsession for professional revenge. Now both Mallory and his nemesis have returned, and it can’t be an accident that they’ve turned up in the middle of the most important excavation of his career. Seeing her again unearths old pain—and rekindles never-forgotten desire. Now he has to decide if he can trust Mallory again. More importantly, if he can trust himself with her.

  Calling all bakers!!  Help!  

I love cherries!!  And most of all I love cherry pie.  I even write about pies in my books.  Where the Wind Blows, which released on Tuesday of this week, and is my Lonesome Dove meets Little House on the Prairie story, has a page or two devoted to Jessie at work baking an apple pie for a bent-out-of-shape, Chase.  And, Cassie, heroine of my wip, Sourdough Creek, also has her very own pie-baking scene where the hero saves the day-and the pie!!!  Love that guy!  So, you see, these delectable pastries have captivated not only my pallet, but also my muse.  Coincidentally, I’m very lucky because I have one of the best producing cherry trees this side of the Mississippi. 
 
Just look at the abundance.   It took me several days to clear its branches – or actually, until I quit from exhaustion.   The birds, nuisances that they are, were totally happy I got tired and finally gave up leaving them many juicy morsels that were too high for me to reach. 

After the hot sticky job of picking, I washed and then pitted.  I measured my bounty into four-cup portions and put them in freezer bags to keep for later.  It’s wonderful now that all the hard work is done.  All I have to do when the urge strikes is mix my flour, sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch together and pull out a sack of already measured, washed and pitted cherries.  It’s fast and easy. 

So, why the call for help you ask?  My problem is I don’t have a recipe that is consistent.  Sometimes my pies come out fabulous, a delight to any taste bud and at other times they are runny like water-and a huge disappointment.  Confused, I keep switching back and forth between recipes that use cornstarch, tapioca or flour for thickening.  I’ve heard several women swear by the tapioca, but I can’t seem to make that work.  I’m sure there must be a good number of bakers out there with a fabulous, fail-safe family recipe that you wouldn’t mind sharing.  I’d love to hear your ideas……

BTW: I always seem to have a pit or two hiding in every pie I bake no matter how diligent I work at extracting them all.  I have to warn everyone before they try a slice.   What is the best way of pitting?  Advice anyone?

In celebration of my debut novel I’m giving away a copy of, Where The Wind Blows, to a person who leaves me a comment.  Also, if you want to enter my Under The Western Sky Contest that’s running August 1^st  to December 1^st., all you need to do is watch my Book Preview on my website, and write your version of the last line of the story.  Anything goes so don’t be shy.  We’re looking to have fun.  Grand prize is a night stay in an ol’ western bunkhouse under the stars.  Check the details at www.carolinefyffe.com 

I enjoy my female prerogatives. I like having a man around to do the heavy lifting, kill spiders, and check the dark basement for scary sounds. But part of me has always wanted to be assertive. Testosterone-laced. Or at least a little more self-sufficient.

Maybe that’s why the heroine of my latest release DANGEROUS AS SIN is uber-assertive. Morgan Bligh is the woman I sometimes wish I was. Tough. Battle-hardened. A woman who isn’t afraid to flex her muscles–both physical and magical–as she tackles the hardest missions for the Amhas-draoi, a brotherhood of Other devoted to holding the line between the Fey and Mortal worlds. She’s not only one of the boys. She’s better than most. And on a full-out mission to prove it.

Morgan was my female power fantasy. A woman who exudes confidence from every pore. Who cusses, fights, and swaggers as well as any man. And yet can turn on the jaw-dropping elegance when she has to.

However, then as now, a strong, capable woman is sometimes seen as unnatural. And Morgan has to fight Society’s expectations as well as her own insecurities.

I admire and envy those women who can lead armies, run corporations, and solve the world’s problems. Nevertheless I confess that I remain in love with the fact that I have someone to fix the plumbing, mend the roof, cut the grass, and all those chores that to me are the epitome of yuck but to my husband–the eternal putterer–are his lifeblood.

Part of the fun of being a writer is that I can entertain my occasional yen to be one of the boys. A female take-no-prisoners bad-ass. And yet when something creaks in the middle of the night, I can still nudge my husband and send him downstairs.

Morgan would be appalled.

To celebrate the July release of DANGEROUS AS SIN (Kensington), I’ll be giving away a copy to one poster. Drop me a note, and I’ll announce the winner tonight at 9pm.