If vampires and Christmas seems like an odd match-up–and I think it does. Then vampires and Christmas cookies has to be even stranger, right? Well, put me down for #TeamStrange, then because my vampires hit the cookies in the very first scene. I don’t know why. Authors are rarely in control of their characters–and that […]
I love Christmas cookies. I almost always manage to bake at least a few every season, but some seasons I go a little overboard. This year, I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve made ginger cookies, shortbread cookies, date bars, cranberry bars, and my husband’s favorite anise biscotti. I’ve been baking nearly every day since before […]
As I mentioned earlier, Winter World of Love is a sequel to This Winter Heart. BUT it is also a prequel to the Winter Heart series: four books that explore the lives of Ophelia’s “siblings.” The first book, Lightning in a Bottle, is in the works and will (hopefully) be released in 2021. The titles […]
I’ve mentioned that This Winter Heart was released as a Christmas story, and that the main criticism I received was that it wasn’t Christmasy enough…being as I’m one of those people who think Die Hard is a Christmas movie, it should come as no surprise that I disagree with the critics. Still, here I am […]
This Winter Heart was my very first steampunk story. I was ecstatic when it was selected for the Clockwork Christmas anthology. Critics complained there wasn’t enough Christmas in the story, which is kind of true. And is probably the reason why I followed it up with a free short prequel that was more Christmasy–and which […]
Just a head’s up. Several of my holiday-themed romances are on sale for only .99 between now and the end of the year. IRON Nineteenth century Ireland. Blacksmith Gavin O’Malley is a bitter man, with a heart as hard as the iron he forges. He wants his life back–the one that was stolen from him […]
A very bright and beautiful Winter Solstice morning to you all! Since today is the Winter Solstice (and quite a day it is, what with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurring today, our very own “Christmas Star”) I have to start out with an excerpt from OAK, my personal take on the Oak King/Holly King legend…and a […]
Speaking of Christmas cookies, I have a free short story (a prequel to my steampunk Christmas story, This Winter Heart) that involves cookies. You can download This Winter Night: HERE In the meantime, here’s a peek at This Winter Heart. Eight years ago, Ophelia Leonides’s husband cast her off when he discovered she was not the […]
I love making Christmas cookies. I suppose that’s why they always seem to find their way into so many of my books! I have vampires baking chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles, runaways making gingerbread, and steampunk cooks making biscochitos…which, by the way is one cookie that never comes out for me. I know, of course, […]
Oak, the second book in my Celtic Legends series, is my take on the Oak King/Holly King legend. Originally published as The Oak King, this is the story of two demi-gods and the mortal woman who loves them. Here’s the blurb: Twice each year, Aine Murphy ventures into the woods to hold ceremonies to honor […]
Tonight I’ll be posting a couple of excerpts from the first two books in my Celtic Legend series. Both Iron (book one) and Oak (book two) are tied to the Solstices, with much of the action taking place at the winter solstice. Iron tells the story of a human blacksmith who falls in love with […]
I don’t always remember the exact moment an idea for a story first popped into my head, but that’s not the case with Finders Keepers. The fact is, I dreamed the story up–literally dreamed it, I mean. I woke up with the most of the story in my head, especially this scene between Aldo and […]
`Edge of Heaven is the first book in my Angels in the Afterlife series. These m/m (or m/m/m) stories are set in limbo and feature angels who are all just a little bit fallen. 😉 Book two–Angel Mine–is in the works. I hope to release it, and book three, Feels Like Heaven, in 2019. […]
I’m very excited to announce that my futuristic SFR menage story, Finders Keepers, is being re-released and is currently available for pre-order at Amazon. Here’s the blurb and a brief excerpt. Sometimes finding what you want is the easy part. Caleb is a bionic soldier with little-to-no memory of his past. Aldo’s an undercover cop […]
I love writing about food. I didn’t realize how much until I started writing characters who didn’t eat very much–vampires, angels, tree-shifters. You know, the usual. lol! I think that might be why so many of my vampires became obsessed with cookies. But that’s another story. Today I’d like to share an excerpt from In […]
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my original plan for the Children of Night series was to create a sort of cozy mystery series—with vampire PIs. I’ve been trying to write cozy mysteries for years now, and it never works out. This was no different. Which is not to suggest I’m unhappy with the […]
I was thrilled when my publisher announced they were putting In the Dark on sale, just in time for Halloween. Several books in the series take place (at least in part) at this time of year, so it seems especially fitting. However, a few of my vampires harbor a dislike for the holiday. They find […]
In the Dark was definitely one of my favorite books to write. Usually, I know where I’m going when I sit down to write. Not this time. Instead, the characters took over and completely rewrote the story to suit themselves. When I started writing, I thought this was going to be a fairly straight-forward mystery–the […]
Are you a fan of serials? Ever since my first book came out, I’ve had reviewers comment that my books would make great serial reads. Unfortunately, there hasn’t always been a viable market for stories that are released one episode at a time. Now, thanks to Radish Fiction, that seems to be changing. I currently […]
I’ve always been something of a dendrophile—that’s a lover of trees, in case you’re wondering. I come by it honestly. When my parents were building the house in which I grew up, my mother was adamant that as few trees as possible be cut down. In addition, there was a vacant lot next to our […]
I love telling the story of how I first came up with the idea for my book IRON. I was taking part in an online chat when the question was posed: “What’s the most unlikely pairing you can imagine for a hero/heroine?” At the time, I’d been researching wrought iron for a character who had […]
Wouldn’t you know it? It seems that most of my Irish and/or St Patrick’s Day themed stories are currently unavailable as yet another of my publishers gets ready to go out of business. Luckily, however, we still have the Walsh Clan cousins at the Wild Geese Inn–although these stories will be going away too, at […]
January 1, 2001 Julie pulled the string on another party popper. Confetti shot across the living room, accompanied by a faint smell of gunpowder. Marc sighed wearily. “C’mon, Jules. Don’t you think that’s enough now?” “It’s New Year’s Eve,” Julie replied, stubbornly setting off another one. Tangled strings of paper floated lightly to earth, and […]
December 31, 1999 New Year’s Eve Damian leaned against the railing of the second-floor balcony and cast a jaded eye over the crowded ballroom below. The decorations were a tad overdone, in his opinion. Gaudy gold-and-silver Mylar festooned every surface—the bar, the tables, even the walls. The glare all but blinded him. Overhead, a billowing […]
New Year’s Eve, 1981 Try as he might, Conrad could not decide which aspect of tonight’s event was the most aggravating. The lights had been an early contender. They glared blindingly at him from nearly every wall, every surface, every fixture in his house, making him yearn for the past, for those halcyon centuries long […]
