trueromance

Setting: Sacramento, California
Subgenre: Romantic Suspense
Hero: Zach McKnight
Heroine: Veronica Osborne

One sentence summary: When the 20-year-old bones of a woman’s long-lost brother are discovered in a construction site, ghosts of the past start working hard to hide the truth, while another, more sinister force will do anything to expose it.

Scene you like most and would never cut: The first kiss between my hero and heroine. It happens over a table full of dirty breakfast dishes. They’ve been dancing around it forever and she just goes for it. I loved writing it. It made me want to cheer.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Take care of it yourself.

What is your heroines occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: Emergency Room Nurse and it is EXACTLY what she should be doing

What is your heroes occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Cop and it is EXACTLY what he should be doing

What you think readers will like best about this book: VANISHED IN THE NIGHT is the most psychologically intense book I’ve written to date. I became so engrossed in the characters’ thought processes, particularly the villains’ thought processes, that I ended up creeping myself out.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Elise from HOLD BACK THE DARK. She makes a cameo in VANISHED IN THE NIGHT, also. Everyone (including me) loves her. She’s funny and sassy and smart.

What’s next: I’m very excited about my next project, VEILED INTENTIONS. It’s a much more political and issue oriented book than VANISHED IN THE NIGHT or HOLD BACK THE DARK, but I think it is just as psychologically tense and suspenseful.

One of the characters in VANISHED IN THE NIGHT sees himself as an avenging angel. Have you ever taken revenge against someone? Wanted to and not done it?

About Me:

What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in? I adore stories that revolve around lost letters or diaries. I don’t know what it is about them, but they grab me every time.

What’s the first book you remember reading? It had to be one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I loved the Little House books. My mother used to read to me every night and I know there was a gradual transition from her reading to me, to us taking turns reading to me reading on my own, but I can’t say exactly where that happened. Those books were nightly favorites. We both loved them and still refer to them a lot. In fact, just recently, my sister called and asked me for an urgent favor which I immediately did. My mother asked me why my sister needed the favor and I told her that I was being like Laura and Mary when Ma told them to get out of the barn. They didn’t ask questions and because of that, the bear didn’t eat them. My mother totally understood!

What’s your favorite fairy tale? We had a beautiful illustrated book of fairy tales and I remember being really taken with the tale of Bright, Deardeer and Kit. Looking back, it was terribly grisly, but I adored it. There’s a lot of sacrifice and redemption in it.

What’s your favorite cartoon character? I’m not sure about my favorite, but I can tell you my least favorite. I can’t stand Tigger. I think he’s a total narcissist.

What would your occupation be if you were no longer a writer? I’d love to be a psychologist. I’m fascinated by why people do what they do and what they’re thinking when they do it.

What do you do to unwind and relax? I love to crochet although lately I’ve discovered locker hooking. I pretty much always have a project going. It’s a little repetitive and a little mindless and it really calms me down.

Tea or Coffee? And how do you take it? COFFEE!!!!!!! How do I take it? I’d prefer by IV . . . Seirously, I’m not consistent about my coffee. We have an espresso machine and I make lattes several mornings a week, but I also like regular coffee with a big ole slug of Coffeemate French Vanilla in it. During the summer months, I sometimes make a coffee smoothie with coffee, ice, milk and dash of chocolate syrup.

Which era would you least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? Most? I do not have a figure suited to the twenties. I’m a very curvy girl. I think the forties might have worked well for me, though.

Dog person or cat person? Cats. We have two plus one that’s just spending the summer with us.

BORN TO DIE

When my editor at Kensington Publishing came up with the idea for a new series, I thought he was nuts. His idea was a series about a team of two female cops. I immediately thought of Cagney And Lacey of 1980’s television fame.

Really?

That’s where we were going?

Now you have to understand that John Scognamiglio and I work closely together. We take turns coming up with and sometimes discarding new ideas. Most of my ideas come from something I’ve seen or read about or heard, a germ of a story that I develop into a novel. Honestly I don’t know where John gets his ideas.

So when John suggested the two female cop thing, I wasn’t completely on board. Then out of the blue, his germ of an idea blossomed. In my mind’s eye I saw the first cop–a struggling, twice-married single mother of teenagers, and not necessarily A students at that. No, those kids didn’t appreciate her. She had red hair to match her temperament. I’d name her Regan–-yeah, Regan Pescoli, once married to Luke “Lucky” Pescoli. Yeah! She’d have a daughter and a son by different fathers, neither of which were supportive. Hot-tempered, willing to bend the rules every which way, Regan would be teamed with a emotionally distant, never-been-married woman who was smart as a whip and played everything by the rules. Selena Alvarez began to form in my mind and she came to me with a dark, deeply-imbedded secret.

And they weren’t city cops. Oh. No. These women were detectives with a county sheriff’s department. Far away from New Orleans where my Bentz/Montoya series is set, I came up with the town of Grizzly Falls, Montana set right in the heart of the Bitterroot Mountains.

I’d deal with craggy mountains and a small town perched on an icy river rather than the sultry, big-city feel of New Orleans.
I saw the town and peppered it with the characters that came into my mind. A sexy, guilt-riddled sheriff, a loner who is convinced he was once abducted by aliens and a women who talks to ghosts are a few of the citizens.

Recently I wrote BORN TO DIE, the third book and it’s available in August 2011. Detectives Pescoli and Alvarez are on the scene again and this time they discover the victims have an eerie resemblance to each other. No one is more aware of this disturbing fact than Dr. Kacey Lambert, who, herself, bears an uncanny likeness to the victims.

From a B level actress in Hollywood, to a teacher in the local elementary school, the victims are near mirror-images to Kacey. It only makes matters worse when she learns that the sexy rancher she’s confided in has been involved with several of the dead women.

And it scares her to death.

All in good old Grizzly Falls, Montana around Christmas time! Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-Ti-Dah!

Question: What really has had you so frightened you could feel your heart skip a beat?

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Short Contemporary Romance

Setting: Whedon, PA
Subgenre: Contemporary Romance
Hero: Liam Franklin
Heroine: Anna Chapel

One sentence summary: “A Special Kind of Different.”

A Special Kind of Different—that was my working title for A One-of-a-Kind Family. The book was certainly a different kind of romance for me. The story is Anna and Liam’s romance, but neither the story, nor their romance would have worked without Liam’s special needs brother, Colm, who became a major character in the story.

I love working with secondary characters, and many of my older ones have their own following…they get their own letters from readers. Pearly Gates and Nana Vancy are two reader favorites, but Colm’s catching up. He’s truly all heart…and his heart and courage are what brings my hero and heroine together, and ultimately keeps them together.

What’s next?
A One-of-a-Kind Family is the second book in my Whedon, PA series for SuperRomance. The first book, Unexpected Gifts, was a Readers’ Crown finalist last year, the third book was last year’s Homecoming Day. The final book, A Father’s Name, is my next release this September. I love working on a series of stories that allows me to bring past characters back so readers can catch up on what’s going on with them. The heroine of A Father’s Name, Tucker, has appeared in all the books in the series and a number of readers had asked for her story. I’m thrilled to be able to bring it to them!

About Me:

What’s my favorite fairy tale? When I was little, we walked to school and went home for lunch. On rainy days, I walked across the street from the school and had lunch with Annabelle (I named a character after her in my Everything But…series). Annabelle was one of my grandmother’s best friends, and after we ate, she’d let me pick two books to read before going back to school. I always, always chose Snow White and Rose Red as one of them. I think what appealed to me most about the story was that Snow White and Rose Red were sisters. I have brothers. Lots and lots of brothers. I always dreamed of having a sister. I think that longing is why I write a little of a fictional sister into each of my heroines.

What’s my favorite cartoon character? One of my early Duets was How to Catch a Groom. The hero, a scientist, named his cat Schrodinger which gave me untold glee! Now, for you non-science geeks, Schrodinger was a physicist who had a theory known as Schrodinger’s Cat. I thought that the fact my hero named his cat Schrodinger showed he had a geeky sense of humor! I was beyond thrilled when the book was turned into Manga in Japan. I had to order a copy because they didn’t send me one. It involved going to the Japanese Amazon site, translating it, and paying a huge shipping fee, but more than forty dollars later, I finally got a copy and the first thing I looked for was Schrodinger…and he was there!

So, my long answer to a short question–my favorite cartoon character is and was Schrodinger!

What would my occupation be if I were no longer a writer? A year ago, I started basketweaving. Like writing, it’s a very creative process. If a weaver gets good enough, a basket can be art. I’m a novice, so my baskets are sort of the fingerpainting of basket-art. But if I ever gave up writing, I’d seriously consider making baskets fulltime.

Tea or Coffee? My Facebook and Twitter friends know I’m a coffee addict, but I’m also a fan of tea! I tend to kick-start my day with coffee, and switch to tea in the afternoon and frequently tweet my glee over both. I also tweet a lot of glee over Mondays. They’re my favorite day of the week, which seems to boggle a lot of friends, but seriously, after a weekend of chaos when no one in my family has to leave for school or work, Mondays are blessedly quiet and peaceful. As I sit with my steaming cup of coffee in the utter silence…well, what’s not to love?

What does love mean to me? Rather than answer about me, I’d rather answer for Anna, the heroine in A One-of-a-Kind Family. When she first visits Liam and Colm’s home, she notices the front porch.

“…Anna was promptly struck by a serious a case of porch-envy.

Some people dreamed about picket fences, or tons of acreage, or living in the right, fashionable neighborhood.

Anna dreamed about porches.

Porches like this one.

…Of course, it was a bit barren looking. Only two old folding lawn-chairs sat on it, and the paint had long since started fading and peeling. But with a little elbow grease…

Someday.

Someday she’d move out of her apartment and buy her own house with a huge front porch. Then she’d paint it some merry color–maybe green–and furnish it with big white wicker furniture that had overstuffed cushions. In the mornings she’d go out on it, have a cup of coffee and read her paper before going into work. Then in the evenings, she’d come home and after dinner, she’d sit on her porch and watch the day turn to dusk and maybe smile at neighbors who walked by.”

I wrote that description early in the book and it wasn’t something that I really thought a lot about. Towards the end of the book, Anna’s porch-envy became a pivotal part of resolving her problems with the hero. For me (and Anna) defining love was easy…Love is a front porch.

Dog person or cat person? Dog…well, dogs. I have two, Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald, plus I frequently babysit my daughter’s two dogs, Booger Monster (seriously, that child’s mind works in mysterious ways) and Cosmo. So, I’m a dog person in a big way. I walk all four, and they keep me company as I work.

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Sci-fi/Futuristic/Time-Travel Romance

Some ideas are simply before their time. Shortly after I sold my first books, I was invited to be part of a novella. My shapeshifters were born in the hundred or so pages I whipped up for it. These shapeshifters had no home of their own, no identity, no sanctuary, and faced certain extinction. They were stranded on Earth, a world that didn’t understand or want them. In turn, they were forced to become us to survive. I knew them. I understood them. I cried and cheered for them. I loved them. They deserved a book.

Unfortunately for them, the novella never took off and my shapeshifters were relegated to CD backups. I sat on that story for seven years, writing other books, fulfilling other contracts, and watching the world and the market change. To my wondrous ears, readers spoke—more paranormals, darker, edgier, grittier, and sexier. The time was finally right for my shapeshifters to make their début, and I was lucky enough to find a publisher and editor who believed in them as much as I did.

In this series, I bring alien shapeshifters into this crazy, chaotic, complex, treacherous, and sometimes fragile fabric of life we’ve woven. Their problems are real, and the issues they present are difficult, as complicated and challenging as any we face today. How can they be accepted here? How will they survive? Who will believe in them? These are the hard questions faced by my shapeshifters and the humans they fall in love with. Poised on opposite sides of the fence, they clash, they grow, and they come to understand that hope never dies and love transcends all. Even for those who aren’t quite human.

I would be happy to give away one copy of Body Master to one lucky commenter.

For more, visit www.cjbarry.com

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Romantic Novella

Heroines Rule!

What do a racetrack gofer and a seed biologist have in common? They’re the heroines of my last two books, and at first glance they’re as different as two women can be. Jennifer Ashby, heroine of NO ORDINARY MAN, is 22, high-school educated, the granddaughter of a chicken farmer. She struggles to help her granddad out while putting herself through night classes and gofering by day. Sadie Beecham, heroine of HER BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING is 29, a genius (her mom’s convinced she’ll win a Nobel Prize) who studied at Princeton on a full scholarship, and now works as a seed biologist, developing new crops that will feed the world.

But Jenn and Sadie do share some traits. For example, they both know that they want in a man…and what they don’t want. Jenn wants an ordinary guy, which puts Eli Ward, a hot-shot NASCAR driver who thinks home is a dirty word, out of the running. And Sadie’s met the man of her dreams, the perfect Dr. Daniel.

But…and here’s something else they have in common…though both these women think they have their lives mapped out, their plans get overturned. Jenn finds herself posing as Eli Ward’s girlfriend to earn ten thousand dollars that could change her life…only her life is changing in ways she never anticipated or wanted. And Dr. Daniel gets engaged to Sadie’s best friend, leaving her no choice but to “stop the wedding.” If only the bride’s brother, the infuriating Trey Kincaid, would stop interfering in her schemes!

Turns out these women have one more, very important thing in common. They’re both capable of bringing a gorgeously difficult man to his knees! And that’s what I love about being a writer: I get to explore the different ways that different kinds of women end up with a guy who’s definitely not perfect, but he’s perfect for them.

If you’d like to see how these two very different women achieve the same result, leave a comment. One commenter will win copies of both NO ORDINARY MAN and HER BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING. To read excerpts from both books, visit www.abbygaines.com

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Mainstream Women’s Fiction

Real Life Romance

I’m so grateful and honored that SLEEP NO MORE this year’s Readers Crown choice for Mainstream Women’s Fiction. As always, readers come first with me and the fact that they chose SLEEP NO MORE to be first with them, well, that’s just better than a steady diet of chocolate. (A nod here to Cindy Gerard’s previous blog discussing a study of the benefits of chocolate … and admitting I’m using it as justification for a daily dose of those yummy cocoa roasted almonds—a personally conducted non-scientific study, of course).

My thanks go not only to readers, but also to Borders and their steadfast support of romance and women’s fiction. We romance authors love you guys!

SLEEP NO MORE is the story of Abby Whitman, a woman whose sleepwalking has led to tragedy, isolation and opened the door to a danger she never saw coming. Psychologist Jason Coble is her salvation in more ways than she’d dreamed. An excerpt is waiting for you at http://www.susancrandall.net/sleep-no-more-novel-excerpt.shtml

This book has a full cast of secondary characters, including my favorite, Maggie, a teen with an indomitable spirit, sharp-eyed realism and Down Syndrome. Maggie led me to a wonderful group of people in real life, Best Buddies organization. In fact, I used my book launch signing as a fundraiser for the Indiana chapter. Best Buddies devotes itself to assisting those with intellectual challenges in developing one-on-one friendships, social integration, leadership development and integrated employment. This is particularly valuable to school age and young adults who often spend their time alone. There is a video interview of two of my favorite Indiana Best Buddies on my website homepage.

Writing strong women characters conquering the trials life throws at them and coming out stronger for it, and of course, finding love along the way, is the greatest job in the world. My days are filled with family drama, emotional journeys, a dash of mystery, a touch of danger and discovering true love—and lately not just my work day. My daughter is getting married in two weeks and all of those things have stepped out of my fiction world and into reality.

I love the way my daughter’s fiancé tells of their road to true love and happiness, he says my daughter “dated and dated and he waited and waited.” Just goes to show, there are many paths that lead you to your soul mate. For those of you out there who are frustrated with dating, and those who are tired of waiting, take heart, love will strike when the time is right. I believe that so heartily that I write about it every day!

Do any of you have stories to share of finding your true love? I never tire of hearing them!

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Long Historical Romance

Stories That Keep Bringing You Back For More

Last Friday night I was channel surfing and came across a movie on the Donner Party. My husband groaned, knowing what was going to happen: I was going to insist on watching it. He knows me too well.

It’s not that he doesn’t like stories about the Donner Party, he just doesn’t like them twenty times over. But for some reason it’s one of those stories that fascinates me—like stories about the Titanic, Princess Diana, Anastasia, etc. I can watch endless programs and read numerous books on the subjects, but I’m almost always eager for more (although when Princess Diana died I wished the media would leave her in peace).

I’m sure my interest in the Donner Party stems from the fact that my family had a ski cabin a few miles away from Donner Lake, but I don’t think that’s all of it. There are just some stories that are so gripping, so horrible, so interesting or mysterious, that they continue to fascinate. I’m always looking for that little nugget, that new insight, or the next theory that might help explain a mystery or something that seems inexplicable. I guess I’m looking for an answer even though I know there isn’t one.

To a certain extent, I think this same personality quirk is why I’m so fascinated by history—and Scottish history in particular, which seems to have so many fact-is-stranger-than-fiction type stories. I gravitate toward these incredible tidbits and find a way to give them a happy ending (in my mind at least). My very first book, Highlander Untamed, spun off a clan feud between the MacLeods and MacDonalds known as “The War of the One-Eyed Woman.” With a title like that, how could I not be intrigued? My third book, Highlander Unchained, included a story about a clan chief who tried to kill his wife by tying her to a rock and waiting for the tide to come in. He was rather surprised when she showed up for dinner later. You can find “Lady’s Rock” on Ordnance Survey maps today. My next book, The Viper (OCT 2011), the fourth book in my Highland Guard Series, involves a woman who was hung in a cage by Edward I of England for her part in Robert the Bruce’s coronation. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up!

Are you like me, do you have certain stories that are sure to draw you in? If not, are there any romances you always go back to? I have a couple: the Chicago Stars series by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and any of Julie Garwood’s Scottish Medievals.

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Long Paranormal Romance

First of all, I’d like to say thank you to Borders and to Ellen in particular for inviting me to be here today to chat about A Highlander’s Destiny. I’d also like to say a HUGE thank you to all the Reader Judges of the RomCon Reader’s Crown Contest for naming this book the Best Long Paranormal of 2011. It’s doubly exciting for me to have this book win since it was the beginning of a mini-series within the whole series, stretching through the next two books that follow, A Highlander’s Homecoming [which itself was a RITA finalist this year!] and Healing the Highlander.

So, without further ado, here’s the scoop on A Highlander’s Destiny:

Setting: Current Day – Stretches from Virginia to Colorado to Sedona, Arizona before ending up in Scotland – with a quick detour to the Faerie homeworld, Wyddecol.

Subgenre: While the Daughters of the Glen series as a whole is time-travel, this particular book borders on paranormal romantic suspense, building the world of the Fae and introducing new characters.

Hero: JESSE CORYELL is a man adrift in life, searching for his destiny. He’s tried to lose himself in his work, taking on the worst mankind has to offer, but as a Fae descendent, what he really needs to find is his true love. When he sets out to help a mysterious woman locate her sister, what he gets is much more than he bargained for, battling an undeniable attraction to his sexy new client while fighting an ancient evil to keep her safe and rescue the missing girl.

Heroine: DESTINY NOBLE, abandoned by everyone she’s ever loved, will stop at nothing in her desperate quest to find her sister. Authorities have declared Leah a runaway, but Destiny knows better. Her prophetic dream visions have shown her the frightening truth. They’ve also shown her Jesse. But finding her Soulmate could result in the most painful loss of all when she’s forced to choose between loving Jesse and saving Leah.

One Sentence Summary: Jesse and Destiny race against time to save an innocent girl from an ancient evil but with true love as their most powerful weapon, they each risk sacrificing their own destiny in the process.

Scene you like most and would never cut: My favorite scene is in the helicopter. I can’t really say more about it except that the reason it’s my favorite is because I love surprises and poetic justice!

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: “I do believe in Faeries!” At least not until she has absolutely no other choice.

Tell us one quirky thing about your hero: Jesse sees himself as a modern-day Highland warrior. The only thing that keeps him from wanting to transport back to the middle ages is the fact that he’s unwilling to give up his fast bikes and modern conveniences!

Your heroine’s occupation: Destiny is working at a Renaissance Faire telling fortunes.

Your hero’s occupation: Jesse works for the family company, Coryell Enterprises, specializing in international covert rescue operations.

What do you think readers will like best about this book: The last opportunity readers had to spend time with the evil Nuadians was in Highland Guardian. In A Highlander’s Destiny, they get to catch up on what’s happened to the exiles from the Faerie Realm as the Nuadians introduce a whole new level of danger. A Highlander’s Destiny and the two books that follow it are more closely linked than others in the series and I think it will be fun for readers to be able to see what happens to some of the secondary characters in, A Highlander’s Homecoming and Healing the Highlander.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Interestingly enough, in the time since this book was released, one of the top requested character stories is for Chase [Destiny’s brother].

What’s next: My next release is scheduled for December 27, 2011. Warrior’s Redemption will feature a new style of cover and, while continuing in the world of Daughters with some of the characters readers have already met there, will be a spin-off of the series featuring a whole new level of magic. For readers of the series or readers who just love time travel, highlanders, and medieval historicals with a paranormal twist, this book should be on their watch list!

Since Borders is kindly featuring all the winners of the Reader’s Crown contest here on the True Romance Blog throughout July, here’s a question for your readers: Are you more inclined to give a book a try when it’s made the finals or won a contest? Or does that have no influence on your decision in choosing new authors to try?

Comment for a chance to win a gift pack which includes an autographed copy of each of the three books in the mini-series-within-the-series mentioned here: A Highlander’s Destiny, A Highlander’s Homecoming, and Healing the Highlander! (Valid only in USA)

About Me:

What’s my favorite movie of all time: This changes depending on my mood! I can share a few of those I watch over and over again – An American President, The Thirteenth Warrior, The Fifth Element, The Quiet Man, and Lord of the Rings [the whole trilogy] are examples of my favorites. The one thing they pretty much all have in common is they reflect my need for a Happy Ever After!

What’s my favorite kind of story to get lost in: Again, depending on my mood — but always needing that Happy Ever After – something with romance and fantasy

What’s the first book I remember reading: The little readers in school about Dick and Jane and Spot. I think one of my first regular books was one of The Bobbsey Twins stories, followed by Pippi Longstocking [loved those!] and I vividly remember adoring my Nancy Drew Mysteries! [Which I still have packed away since I had all boys who weren’t interested in reading them – waiting for a granddaughter to share them with!]

What’s my favorite fairy tale: Cinderella [though I would have liked her to be more assertive by the end of the story!]

What’s my favorite cartoon character: Bullwinkle - I loved how he always got all the good lines.

What’s something I’d like to tell your readers: How very much I appreciate them! And how much I love to hear from them!

What would my occupation be if I were no longer a writer: I think I’d enjoy being a genealogist. I love research and digging into my own family tree [even though it’s frustrating as all get out!]

What do I do to unwind and relax: Spend time with family, read, work in my garden, play on the internet [Hello, my name is Melissa and I am a Farmville-acholic].

Tea or Coffee? Both!!! And how do I take it: Coffee in the morning with hazelnut creamer and tea in the afternoon with sugar, thank you.

Which era would I least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? I’m sure I would have detested having to wear corsets and hoop skirts. Or bustles. Most? Fashion-wise I have to go with our own era because of the freedom we have to dress as we please.

What name have I been dying to use as a lead character, but haven’t found the right fit yet: Thorn. But I think he might be coming soon….

Dog person or cat person: Dog. Specifically, Boston Terriers. Though I adore our cat, too. Basically, I’m a soft touch for just about any pet out there – except snakes. My oldest son had a snake. Totally NOT a fan.

Hi everyone! Let me start by saying how thrilled I am that Something About You won the Readers’ Crown award for Best Long Contemporary romance! Many, many thanks to all the readers who voted for the book—I’m truly honored.

Writing Something About You was an interesting experience for me. Those of you who’ve read the book know that I dedicated it “To the jokers in the room next to me at the JW Marriott.” I came up with the idea for the story while at the RWA conference in San Francisco. Earlier that evening, I’d pitched to my editor a different idea for my third book—something about a female screenwriter and a male film director not getting along while working on a movie together. Then I went to bed that night and—
quickly realized there would be no sleep for me.

See, the people in the hotel room next to me decided to have a party. All night long. And their guests were coming and going from the room, repeatedly SLAMMING the door next to mine. All night long.

At some point there was shouting outside my room, and being nosy—I’ll admit it—I ran to my peephole to sneak a peek at whatever was going on. And I remember this distinctly: while I was watching the people out in the hallway, one of the guys turned and stared right at my door—as if he knew I was watching. It was this freaky, Alfred Hitchcock-esque moment: me, pressed against the door in my pajamas, watching someone who was watching me right back. Then the man turned and walked away, and I had one thought.

I need to use this in a book!

So I grabbed my notepad and the ideas began pouring from my pen. The book opens with a woman in a hotel room, who is kept awake all night when her next door neighbors are. . . having a loud sex marathon! Except this is no ordinary sex marathon, the sex ends in. . . a murder! And the woman, being nosy and staring out her peephole, is the one person who saw the murderer leave the hotel room. . .

Since I was writing a romance, I quickly thought next about who the main characters would be. In the book, the heroine is an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and the hero is an FBI agent assigned to the murder investigation. The two have a bad history together—and don’t get along at all—which makes things extra-tricky when the murderer comes after the heroine and the hero is assigned to protect her. . .

And there you have it—the backstory on how Something About You came to fruition. I have much for which to thank those jokers in the room next to me, because Something About You was the first book in which I used the Chicago FBI and U.S. Attorney’s offices, elements that I continued in both my fourth book, A Lot Like Love, and my next release, About That Night.

But how about you guys? Let’s hear from you! Anyone else have a seemingly “bad” experience that turned out to be a blessing in disguise? Any other good examples of “wrong place, wrong time” stories—books, movies, or TV—that you can think of? Or maybe you just have a comment or question for me. . .

Three randomly-selected people who leave a comment below will win a copy of Something About You.

For more information about Julie’s books, or to read an excerpt of Something About You, visit www.juliejames.com.

Readers’ Crown Award Winner, Best First Romance

Setting: On tour with the rock band Sinners
Subgenre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Hero: Brian Sinclair
Heroine: Myrna Evans

One sentence summary: The lead guitarist of Sinners, Brian Sinclair, never expected to find his muse and the love of his life in college professor, Myrna Evans, but one weekend of passion fuels his desire to make her his forever.

Scene you like most and would never cut: The scene where Brian first discovers his muse while making love to Myrna. He writes a guitar solo on her skin. So sensual.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Myrna would never say, “I wish I had a man to take care of me.”

Tell us one quirky thing about your hero? He really, really, REALLY wants to get married (I know that’s not quirky in most instances, but he’s a ROCK STAR. That’s quirky for a rock star.)

Heroine: She drives her grandparents’ car. A fully restored 57 Thunderbird, pink convertible.

What is your heroine’s occupation: Human Sexuality professor, currently studying the behavior of band groupies

What is your hero’s occupation: Lead guitarist of the rock band Sinners

What you think readers will like best about this book: The camaraderie between the band members and the inventive sex scenes

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Dare Mills, lead guitarist of the band Exodus End and Trey’s older brother (Trey is the rhythm guitarist of Sinners and Brian’s best friend)

What’s next: The next book in the series, Rock Hard, is about the lead singer and has already been released. Each member of the band will have his own book.

Question – Who is your favorite star (musician or otherwise)? How do you think you’d respond if you met them?

About Me:

What’s my favorite movie of all time? Aliens – I love tough-as-nails heroines, Michael Bien and James Cameron – it has all three

What’s my favorite kind of story to get lost in? A book with interesting, 3-dimensional characters

What’s the first book I remember reading? Pokey Little Puppy (I was 3)

What’s my favorite fairy tale? Are there any fairy tales where the woman isn’t saved by a man? Girl power! I do like Beauty and the Beast.

What’s my favorite cartoon character? Wile E Coyote (I identify with him a little too much, unfortunately)

What’s something I’d like to tell my readers? You rock!

What would my occupation be if I were no longer a writer? I’d keep teaching college science classes, not that I ever stopped

What do I do to unwind and relax? Rock concerts and roller coasters. Those are relaxing, right?

Tea or Coffee? And how do I take it? Hot tea with sugar and milk

What does love mean to me? Compromise and making someone else’s happiness a priority.

Which era would I least like to have lived in, fashion-wise and why? Most? I’d hate to live in any era where a woman was expected to wear corsets, petticoats and huge dresses. Hot and uncomfortable. The era of yoga pants and T-shirts is best. That would probably be now. I’m not into fashion at all. Comfort is much more important to me. I do like jeans and my leather jacket, too.

What name have I been dying to use as a lead character, but haven’t found the right fit yet? Sergio/Serge

Dog person or cat person? Both. I’m mostly a cat person, but I’m very attached to my own dog.