ARROW is by far one of my top five shows these days. Season 2 is probably still the best, but Season 5 is fast becoming a close second … and depending on how things work out, might surpass Season 2. Season 3 was somewhat of a dud … Season 4 had some amazing ups and disappointing downs. (I loved Damien Darhk as a villain … but too much magic and woo-woo got old real quick.) ARROW is by far one of the best choreographed television shows ever made. Great for a writer to choreograph their own fight scenes … and cast… Read More

I mark the sign of my favorite shows as those I not only look forward to every week, but those I dread the season finale not only because I’ll miss the show, but because I know something is going to happen and it’s going to be devastating to the characters and — more importantly! — to me. Using that criteria, the two shows that I now mark as my favorites are ARROW and WALKING DEAD. If you want to catch up on ARROW, Lavinia Kent and I publish an article every Friday evening over at the HEA blog. This week’s… Read More

Historical romance author Lavinia Kent and I write an article every Friday for the USA Today HEA Blog about ARROW, one of our all-time favorite television shows. We re-cap that week’s episode but focus on the story and how well it’s told. ARROW is one of the best television shows out there for writers to watch, plus it’s just an all-around fun show! Both Lavinia and I enjoyed Season 3, which ended last May, but not as much as the first two seasons. The finale in particularly left us feeling … disappointed. But GREAT news! Season 4 is off to… Read More

Those of you who know me know I’m a TV addict. I always have been. Yet, when I was working full time in the State Capitol and started seriously writing, I gave up television for THREE YEARS. It was difficult, but I love writing and books more than television, so it was worth it. Once writing became my full-time job, I added television back into my schedule. With kids, it’s even more fun … though because of my deadlines I often have numerous shows recorded and have to play catch up. Here are the premieres I’ve put on my calendar… Read More

Historical romance author Lavinia Kent and I wrote a series of weekly articles on the television series ARROW for USA Today’s “Happily Ever After” blog. (You can read them through the USA Today archive.) We started in the middle of season three, and plan to continue for season four. (As a side note, I’ll most likely also be writing about iZombie, my new favorite show!) The weak season 3 finale notwithstanding, I really love ARROW and it’s one of my favorite shows. This was really driven home to me this summer as I watched seasons 1 and 2 again with… Read More

There are some television shows that are as good — and in some ways better — the second time around. For example, I just finished watching all three Seasons of PERSON OF INTEREST with my 13 year old son. I’d already seen them, but was happy to watch them again. The second time around so many little things came clear, reminding me that the creators and writers of that series are damn brilliant. Whether they had it all planned or not, I have no idea. Any details that I might pull out for later in the series, I don’t realize… Read More

I love a good action movie, and more than just for the adrenaline rush. I use action movies as guides to choreograph action scenes in my books. For example, ARROW. Okay, backtrack a minute … ARROW is one of those shows I really didn’t like when I started watching it, but I was compelled to watch. It’s really a rather simple show on the surface — billionaire presumed dead returns home after five years a changed man. He becomes a vigilante to avenge his father’s murder and rescue his city from the clutches of evil. It’s a quasi-super hero show,… Read More

Wow. Just wow. There are so many great shows on television today that I can’t possibly talk about them all, but I wanted to share my thoughts on some of the season finales and how they worked … and didn’t work. Warning: there are spoilers. Do not read if you don’t want spoilers. Got it? Or skip around … I identified each show in the heading, so skip those you don’t want spoiled.

One more week and COLD SNAP will be done. It’ll need revisions and copyedits, but the story will all be there — if all goes well. Last night, I wrote a new prologue. I had one already drafted, but it nagged me … I just didn’t like it. It didn’t show my heroine, Elle Santana, the way I wanted. She has a very strong motivation for doing what she’s doing, and the original prologue didn’t show that. The new one does — a teenager she’s been helping dies in her arms of a drug overdose after being thrown from a… Read More

What is it about vigilantes, rogue cops, and superheroes that keep us captivated? This trend is nothing new, though over the last few years the vigilante-as-hero has been on the rise. I look back to Westerns as the rise of vigilante justice. When America was a new country and there wasn’t any real system in place to keep people safe. People were responsible for each other–families for their own, neighbors for their neighbors, towns for their towns. Someone comes onto your land to steal your cattle, shoot them. Someone rapes your wife, shoot him. Someone robs the bank? Hunt them… Read More