Another new year, another round of resolutions. I'm not even going to list them because, if history predicts the future, chances are good that I won't keep them for more than about five months. *sighs* Temptation--to eat that sweet, to nap instead of hitting the gym, to watch TV instead of purging...
Blog
Romance 2.0
I’m feeling whimsical today. Maybe it’s because of the perfectly sunny fall day. Or maybe it’s thanks to that last Tate’s chocolate chip and walnut cookie I just ate. Or maybe the upcoming release of Accidentally Hers has me focusing on romance. I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. The point is...
Investing in Relationships
The old adage "you get what you give" can be applied to many things, but most especially to relationships. It's usually pretty easy to identify when you feel like someone has let you down or isn't giving you enough attention and support. But how often do you step back and ask how you might be...
Mother’s Day…Still A Daughter
A son is a son 'til he marries his wife, a daughter's a daughter for the rest of her life. I don't know where that saying originated, by it's something my parents repeated often throughout the years. When I survey my close friends about which of their siblings tend to "check in" and devote time...
Do Romance Novels Hurt Society?
As a romance writer, I’m constantly creating tales of “predestined” love. In other words, I’m propagating a romantic fantasy time and again with the goal of entertaining (and sometimes arousing) others. But after reading Great Expectations: The Soul Mate Quest, I have to wonder whether my genre...
Favorite TV Couples
Given my “day” job, it’s no surprise I spend a lot of time thinking about heroes, heroines, and the chemistry that makes a couple work for a reader. To some degree, that’s a subjective call. If you like a tough, snarky heroine, you might not be too excited about the hero falling for a more shy,...
Ethos and Relationships
Take the high road. It’s far less crowded.~ Charlie Munger I’ve got a love-hate relationship with this quote. I love the message, but hate the fact that it’s true. The high road is less crowded, and that doesn’t speak well for the future of our society. I don’t want to get priggish or preachy...
Sex and Emotional Intimacy
As someone with a passion for psychology, one of my favorite aspects of writing fiction is doing the research for new characters. For example, in my upcoming debut, my hero’s mother abandoned him when he was nine. Having no personal experience with that situation, I read many articles about the...