Robin McKenna is the heroine of my February 08 book. This book still doesn’t have a title, but at least my characters have names! (Fortunately, I don’t need a title to write it . . . I’m calling it BREAKOUT, but I don’t think that’s going to stick. But I DO need character names.) I had narrowed the list down to Emma, Jenna and Robin. I put all three names in a scene I wrote where she learns that the man who killed her roommate, Theodore Glenn, escaped from San Quentin. Robin just totally fit with her personality, her reaction,… Read More

First, my novella from hell is done. I love it, I really hope my agent and editor like it, but I’m just glad it’s over. It’s 36,000 words and I know I need to trim a few things, but I also realized after I sent it to my agent I never mentioned, not even a hint, of the hero’s backstory. Urgh. But I’m going to revise it over the weekend anyway. I want it to be over. But I’ve started writing book #1 of the next trilogy. (Yep, no titles, I sent a list to my editor and they’re going… Read More

I have this post filed under “We Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” but the truth is–we can. And did. I read a report last night titled, “Police: Teen raped by man met on MySpace.” While there are a lot of questions raised about whether they really had sex (i.e. intercourse) or something else, whether it was consensual (statutory rape) or not, this situation highlights the fact that girls are being stupid about their safety. This 13 year old kid snuck out of her house to meet the 20 year old guy. I’ll admit, when I was a teenager I did… Read More

I’m in New York. This is so cool. Seriously, I had planned to blog about why I think THE KILL finaled in the Ritas over my other two books (basically–alpha male on a motorcycle plus an emotionally driven story), but everything I was going to say fell out of my brain. All I can think about is New York, New York, New York. I’ve never been here before. If I were Jennifer Apodaca, I’d have something fun and humorous to report. If I were Natalie, something weird would have already happened to me. If I were Deborah, I’d have a… Read More

The Novella From Hell. My paranormal novella, “Deliver Us From Evil” in the upcoming WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE, is giving me fits. It so wants to be a bigger book. I’m cutting and cutting as I go because every turning point is opening up a huge can of worms. So what did I do? I had my characters have sex. Halfway through the story. I never do that. But it actually seemed to work. I hope. I actually went back and changed a scene where they simply kissed, to a full-blown love scene. But this novella is HARD WORK! How… Read More

I’m thrilled to announce that I sold six books to Ballantine. The first three are a trilogy similar to what I’ve been writing. They won’t be published back-to-back, but it looks like they’ll be published close together in 2008. I’m calling it my Prison Break trilogy–the premise? An earthquake under San Quentin facilitates the escape of several death row inmates. The first book of the trilogy, which should be out in spring of 08, has Detective Will Hooper (Carina’s partner from SPEAK NO EVIL) as the hero. I’ve just started to piece together the story and with Karin’s brainstorming help… Read More

I’ll be down in Jennifer Apodaca’s neck of the woods this weekend speaking to the Orange County Romance Writers of America about Breaking Rules. One of my favorite subjects! I can see hints of my rule breaking future in my past. While I was pretty much a good kid, a straight-A student, I usually found the easiest way to do anything. For example, I really didn’t like to do homework, especially at home. Because I was smart, I usually finished my homework in class while the teacher was talking. Surreptitiously. Or five minutes before class I’d whip out the 20… Read More

Late last night my family and I stumbled in from Disneyland. Needless to say, today has been slow to get moving. The kids were all late to school, I was late to a doctor’s appointment, and I just sat down at the computer and realized–yikes! It’s Thursday! It’s after one and where did the day go? I am SO sorry I wasn’t around for our two American Title finalist guest blogs! Both entries are fabulous, they had stiff competition. I think all ten finalists are wonderful writers and I’m sending Tink over with some fairy dust that their manuscript finds… Read More

I forgot it was Thursday. We’re going on vacation in two days. All of us, hubby and five kids. Road trip. Should be . . . interesting. So needless to say, I have a gazillion things to do to prepare: *Finish inputting my 2006 receipts into QuickBooks. *Get the house sitter squared away with pets and house quirks. *Talk to kids’ teachers for make-up work *Pack for me and three of the kids. *Shop for necessaries. Juice, snacks, napkins (lots of them), music, car games, ear plugs (for me so I don’t have to hear “Are we there yet?” or… Read More

I’m officially a New York Times bestselling author! SPEAK NO EVIL hit #14 on the NYT list. I had hoped we’d make it, but I didn’t want to jinx it. While the competition is tough this month, next month the competition is even worse (or better, depending on what you read–I know there’s a lot of books released in March that I’m excited about!) I felt that if I was going to make it with this trilogy, this month was my best shot. If not now, I feared I’d have to wait another year. So I’m both excited and relieved…. Read More