Math and I have never been what you might say, good friends. Reluctant acquaintances is more apt. However, it has long been proven to me that for as long as there have been romances, math has played a part in it.

So get out your calculators and rulers, we’re revisiting 8^th grade math (hey, we were dumb in my school; we did this stuff later than everywhere else.)

Geometry

The triangle: we’re always trying to figure out the angle of the thing, and there is nothing like a simple, uniform triangle to sufficiently tangle your story for a good 300 pages. Love, as the saying goes, comes when you least expect it. You’re not looking for it; or you’re least not looking for it with him. In fact, he’s the last person you were thinking of. Your thoughts and energies instead were focused on Mr. Ideal. The third point of the triangle.

Writers enjoy employing triangles as a writing device because they’re simply complicated, or complicatedly simple. Whichever. You’re not bogging the reader with a slew of unnecessary characters to remember, but you’re sufficiently raising the emotional stakes and tension until we’re all screaming, “Kiss him already, no, not him, the other guy!”

Sometimes writers like to do a diamond sort of thing, a triangle and a triangle, with the short line connecting our hero and heroine at the middle. Each has their own Mr. or Ms. Ideal, but are still drawn to each other. This is trickier to do, because there is a sort of timing to it. If they’re both with their ideals, or pursuing their ideals at the same time, it’s hard to keep them together and aware of each other. There is almost a choreography on ice with a diamond (get it? Ice and diamond? Right.) and one triangle is completed just after the second one takes up, so both characters suffer sufficiently. Writers who do diamonds well make you feel as tense and engaged as if you’re watching Dean and Torvill at the 1984 Olympics.

Warning: if you’re not careful, you’ll end up with the multi-triangled approach of Bhartrihari:

She who is always in my thoughts prefers
Another man, and does not think of me.
Yet he seeks for another’s love, not hers;
And some poor girl is grieving for my sake.
Why then, the devil take
Both her and him; and love; and her; and me.

It’s probably more accurate in the long run, but this is only going to work if you want to write your own Gone with the Wind. And you’ll notice Bhartrihari and Scarlett did not have happily ever afters. If you want a happily ever after, keep your writing and your geometric proof simple: go for the triangle. Then when you’re ready for the Olympics, try a diamond.

Algebra

Because I am a hopelessly simple English major, I’m going to keep this little math analogy as hopelessly simple as possible: we’re always solving for X.

My high school math teacher kept assuring me I would use algebra in everyday life, and I kept saying she was on crack; but it turns out on the most basic, simplistic level (not that complicated calculus she was assuring me about later), we are always using algebra (and geometry). X + Y = Z. I usually solve for X, trying to figure out how many miles to the gallon I got on this particular tank of gas. I’m pretty sure I’m doing it wrong since it’s rarely the same mileage twice. I’m sure it’s why I’m not good at solving for X in my writing too.

I think the X in a lot of fiction books is the dead body. Everyone loves a good mystery: who killed the dead guy, what happened to Aunt Meredith’s diamond and ruby necklace, just what exactly is the hero hiding about his past anyway? We’re all curious about the X and want to find the source of it. X is backstory. After all, what is a dead body at the beginning of a novel but backstory that hasn’t been revealed yet?

So for me, my writing equation to solve for X is: X + H = C. If you could remove a hero from his backstory, you’d have a much less complex creature. But add your backstory and your hero? COMPLICATED. Neurosis City.

And much like all those math classes, where I spent my time, beating my forehead on my desk, saying, “I can’t solve for X because it doesn’t make any sense!”, you can’t really have a hero without backstory, can you? If you have a hero without backstory, you have an infant, fresh from the womb, untested, untried, and unriddled with all the little slings and arrows life saddles you with. But it amuses me to see a lot of writing books where they want you define your character first, then write the backstory separate. It just seems so wrong. It’s like scrambling two eggs in a bowl, then being told to turn them back into unbroken, unscrambled eggs again. Right. That can happen.

Plus, you’ve been to character interviews, haven’t you? You’ve set your smoldering-eyed, gypsy man in a chair and start firing questions at him like you’re Barbara Walters, calm but no nonsense. For no explicable reason, your character clams up like he’s being tried by Joseph McCarthy instead. He has no answers for you. He doesn’t know. He shrugs. You don’t know. And it’s very irritating because you made him up. You’ll even offer him answers, and he continues to shrug as if that is a very nice answer but he can’t be bothered to give confirmation either way if you’re right. Bastard.

Clearly algebra is still the bane of my existence, even in writing; but geometry, which I always seemed to do well in (I loved doing proofs), seems to be something I feel a bit more equipped to do.

I generally find that people can do one math or the other, but not both particularly well. Which one were you better at? Which one are you better at in the scope of your novel—triangles or X’s? If you’re a reader, what has been your favorite triangle in a novel, or your favorite X-backstory? What triangles are you sick of and what would you like to see more of?

*Math masterminds do not need to point out Hellion’s tenuous grasp on mathematical concepts. She is already aware her checkbook doesn’t balance; and this is called literary license.

This weekend I’m attending a writer’s retreat with my local RWA chapter.  For fun, it was suggested that we try to write an 850 word piece in a genre in which we would never write.  That meant I could write Inspirational or Paranormal.  I chose Paranormal.

First I have to say I have nothing against Paranormal.  It’s a huge seller right now and offers lots of great stuff for readers.  But my practical streak together with my lack of ability to suspend disbelief has always made it difficult for me to enjoy it.  Which is why I was so surprised to find myself enjoying the writing.

It turns out, when you create your own world and you put it in the Paranormal realm, you can do anything you want.  Who knew?!  It’s like when you become a parent and finally get to use the answer, “Because I said so.”  It’s so cool.  I created demons that can blend in with humans, but unlike humans don’t need food, water or sleep.  And if someone asks why, I can say, “Because I said so.”  I am LOVING this. 

So, bad guys are done.  Now I needed an Alpha hero (something I’ve never done), a kick ass heroine (something I’ve never done), and darkness (something I’ve never done).  No problem.  My hero was inspired by a Breaking Benjamin song called Evil Angel.  Here’s his description.

Eyes the deep blue of lapis lazuli stared into my soul.  Hair the color of blackest night fell in waves around his shoulders and made the fairness of his skin and the luster of his eyes all the more pronounced for it’s darkness.  He wasn’t the largest man I’d ever seen, but he had to be close.  Power poured off him like radiation, and a voice in the back of my mind warned he was likely twice as deadly.

The story is written in first person from the heroine’s POV which limited much description of her, but we do learn she works on the Termination Team, a group that battles the demons, and she does get to kick one of the bad guys in the nuts.  Other than putting her in leather, that’s as kick ass as I managed to make her.  But if there were more words, she’d kick lots more ass.

Now I needed darkness.  That was going to be the tough part.  You see, my voice calls for sarcasm and humor.  Unless I make a concerted effort, sarcastic lines show up in my stuff with little or no effort on my part.  After much struggle and at least one rewrite, here’s the opening that sets the scene.

Evil permeated the air.  It lingered around the dumpsters, lurked in the shadows, and oozed in the scattered pools of water like an oil slick.  A bulb at the end of the alley flickered dimly every few seconds, providing little light to battle back the dark.  The sliver of moon over head provided no light at all.

This may never grow into any more than 850 words, but doing this exercise has taught me several things.  The most important being that I can write in a genre that I never believed I could.  And enjoy doing it.  Again, who knew?

If you’re a writer, is there a genre in which you truly don’t believe you could write?  If so, what genre would that be and why?  If you’re a reader, is there a genre you’ve never tried because you don’t think it’s your thing?  If so, what is that genre and what would make you change your mind and give it a try?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen the subject of Last of the Mohicans brought up several times.  Mostly ladies extolling the lovely attributes of one Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal of Hawkeye.  I admit I’ve never watched this movie all the way through. *ducks banana peels*  And I probably couldn’t recognize the soundtrack music if I had to either. *ducks whole banana*  Well, I might recognize it as something I should know but couldn’t put my finger on it.

Anyway, since there seems to be some fantastic scene under a waterfall or something, I figure I’d better add it to my Netflix so I can join the DDL fan club.  Consider it done.  Now, with all this swooning over the movie, I figured it must be a sign.  It’s high time we add a Mohican of our own to the crew.  I give you……Hawk. 

What do you think?  LOL!  Can we keep him, huh, can we keep him?  I’ll keep him real busy so you won’t even know he’s here.  Well, there might be some *noise* coming from my cabin from time to time, but y’all should be used to that by now.

Moving on.  This weekend marks the official first day of summer which means yes, we’ve had heat waves, wide-spread tornadoes, incredible flooding and numerous wild fires and it wasn’t even summer yet.  Doesn’t that leave you excited about what might be in store from here? 

Reminder that coming up in July we have not one, not two but THREE terrific guest bloggers coming your way. Historical author Kimberly Killion’s interview with Captain Jack pulls into port on the 2^nd.  Erotica author (and CP extraordinaire) Dee S. Knight hops aboard on the 8^th, and Harlequin American Romance author Megan Kelly joins the crew on the 15^th.  And don’t forget Santa O’Byrne and I will be reporting back from the RWA National Convention in San Francisco the first week of August.

Plus, in the months ahead we have more fantastic authors such as Leslie Langtry, Teresa Medeiros, and the team of Christie Craig and Faye Hughes.  I’m telling you, this ship just gets better and better!  Now, be honest, can Hawk stay?

I started reading Harlequins in middle school.  Don’t hate on my mom, she took me to the library and let me rent books, even bought me some.  I just always read through them faster than she could keep me in them.   And when there was nothing else in the house, I reached for my mom’s Harlequins.  It was that or stereo instructions.  I’m sure you agree that Harlequins are a much better option.

Around the end of eighth grade, I picked up my first long historical.  And though I’d been reading romance for a while, I’ll still always remember this as my “first romance” because it’s the first one I can remember clearly.

It was The Gift by Julie Garwood. 

First of all, if you’ve never read Garwood, you should.  She’s witty and light but still has the emotional weight I love in my romances. 

Instead of getting into the details of the plot, as that’s not the real purpose of this post, I wanted to talk more about the experience of reading it. 

I remember laughing repeatedly; Garwood is the master of the one liner.  I remember there were pirates; even then I loved the adventure and suspense of pirating, but as it was longer than anything else I’d read, I really had a feel for the details.  I remember that the heroine, the very spunky Sara, was doing her best to make everyone love her, despite a knack for creating mayhem.  And I remember, as it was the longest one I’d ever read, feeling like I really cared about the characters so much that I didn’t want to leave them.  It was a grand, sweeping story and I knew I was smitten with romance on the spot.

From there, I started grilling my mother for other authors like Garwood.  I read Garwood’s entire backlist and then moved onto other big leaguers; Deveraux, Woodiwiss, Gabaldon, and fell in love with Judith McNaught. 

But, that first long historical is the novel that really got me into reading romance and therefore, it holds a special place in my heart.

How about you?  What romance novel was your “first,” the one to get you into reading romance voraciously, and why do you remember it so clearly?  Or, is there a novel that introduced you to a new subgenre? 

Today is all about giving awards.  We start off with the winner of the Bailey’s Irish Crème filled chocolates from Loucinda McGary.  Thanks to everyone who came by last Friday to give Loucinda a warm welcome.  And congratulations to Tina Ferraro on winning the much coveted chocolates! Tina, send your information to Loucinda here and she’ll get those chocolates out to you.

Now onto the Excellent Blog Awards.  Back in May, the lovely ladies over at The Romance Roundtable awarded us Pirates the Excellent Blog Award which originated here.  I know what you’re thinking.  Believe me, we were as shocked as you are.  But once we got over the shock and finished a couple kasks of rum, we got down to figuring out to whom we were going to forward the Excellence.  I give you, in no particular order, the blogs we feel deserve this award.

Pamela Clare

Killer Fiction

Erotic Muses

Vauxhall Vixens

First Edition: A Place for Originals

Romance Bandits

Maggie Robinson Means Romance

Manuscript Mavens

Word Wenches

The Book Bitches

We thank the Romance Roundtable for this award and we won’t even ask what they were smoking when they put us on their list.  If you haven’t heard of any of the blogs above, we encourage you to take the time to check them out.  But first, let us know what awards or prizes you’ve won lately.  I know Ely over at the Vixens blog recently finaled in the Fool for Love contest so big CONGRATS to Ely!  Who else deserves some kudos today?

A special HUZZAH! of thanks goes out to my fellow pirates for stepping in this week and really helping me out.  As my friend J would say, Love Your Guts, Ladies!

There is a debate about how much research is too much. Write what you love and write what you know—then just wing the rest of it. Fake, fake, fake. Sure. But that’s not always fun, and really I think writing should be as fun as possible. The more fun you’re having, the fresher your writing will be.

Now I don’t have a lot of skills (mainly, just drinking, napping, flirting), but the one talent I’ve had pretty much since birth is: I love to research. Sorta. I know a ton of better researchers, but among my friends, I’m generally the researcher. I love to flip through books, listen to stories, and watch the History channel (well, before it went to pot.) I’m a font of useless trivia that others could really give a crap about. That sounds like I’m screwing around but really it’s amazing where those little factoids show up.

I’m always collecting research books: My Lady Scandalous, about 1700s courtesans; and What the Butler Saw, an invaluable resource about what happened below stairs in those English manors. Our Tempestuous Day, a Regency primer, if you will; and I have some books on England and Scotland. I have books on the Puritans, Colonials, and the Wild West. Astrology books (Love Signs is recommended by Debra Dixon, and I do too), and of course, writing books. I even have a book on sexual positions. Granted sex scenes are about emotion rather than what went where, but what if I did want to write about something other than missionary or doggie? I need to know where the hands are…among other things. I don’t exactly have lab assistants I can ask, and frankly if I did, I’d definitely never get any writing done.

But sometimes…sometimes, if I really want to be in character, I’ll research something about the character unfamiliar to me. I mean, not all my heroines can be secretaries who go to Weight Watchers and sew costumes at Halloween and eat Ben & Jerry’s like hedonists. No one is going to buy that book more than once.

So.

I need to learn a new skill. One of my characters is a stripper. No, I’m not moonlighting as a stripper, but there is an exercise class called cardiostrip. A sort of research-lite. Get in touch with my inner vamp and understand a bit more about my character. Plus it’ll really tone my abs they assure me…so really, it’s a win-win all the way around.

And maybe one day I’ll reconstruct a house or go on a cattle drive like my other characters, or maybe I’ll just watch This Old House and City Slickers again. Whatever. There are different ways to immerse yourself in research. There is also a cruise vacation you can take on a sailboat where you learn how to sail it. You’re part of the crew. That would be fun!

What are your favorite ways to research? What are you an expert on? What would you like to learn?

Or what I like to call pantsing it when you have no idea what’s going on.

Inspired by a Sunday morning impromptu dance off, I come to you live from my living room where Mattycakes is busting a move. I’m filling in for the Bo’sun today and you will have to bear with my crazy weekend antics. This is why they don’t let me blog Mondays.

We like to dance. Every Sunday morning, Mattycakes and I schedule a little dancing time. It’s our way of spending time with one another since we don’t see much of each other on the weekdays. I stay up extremely late on Saturday nights to write and then get up all goofified from lack of sleep. This is when the dancing gets wild.

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking up specialty moves that are unique to us. We turn on the radio in the kitchen and bust a move. We have something we call the lawn mower and the row boat with a little of the offset arm action to compliment each other. Then we go our own ways. Usually this is the moonwalk from me and the booty shake from Mattycakes before we move back to do a little of the freak boy made popular mostly by Too Short in the ‘90’s. You know, where the girl does the freak against the boy and the boy’s got his hand in the air like he’s a pimp or maybe that’s more popular now since the Lil Jon era. Anyways, then we go straight into interpretive dance. I call this my pantsing. This gets my brain warmed up. I love to dance. I’m not exactly the most graceful person in the room.

Mattycakes is good at the pansting. He’s actually quite creative. Today’s dance off was inspired by “So You Think You Can Dance”. I make Mattycakes suffer through this two hour affair every Wednesday night. What he calls his interpretive dance number is mostly moves he’s seen in movies. Which to watch a man who’s every bit of 6’4” and looks like a tank, try to move like a dancer is hilarious. But we have a different kind of humor here. Mostly us just jumping around like ballerinas and twiggy cheerleaders. Not a pretty sight.

I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with writing. I know Hellion is sitting on her treasure chest, chewing on the end of her dagger and trying to rationalize throwing it at me.

Just so you know, daggers hurt, babe. That’s why we’ve got a life size poster of Capt’n Jack. That’s supposed to be for target practice not me.

I went to the school of pantsing. Well, I did until I got tired of going and made up excuses not to go. For me, knowing the story before it unfolds on the page is boring. I like to go in several different directions when I write and if I’m set to one thing, it’s certain I’ll go another. The road less traveled is the one I enjoy the most.

Mattycakes and the dancing have really taught me a lot about writing. And no that’s not the lack of sleep talking.

I get an idea in my mind and I go somewhere with it. Just when I think I know what’s going to happen next, I throw a screwball in there and change it up. Dancing is just like that. You have to anticipate your partner’s moves and think up your next one.  It flows together even when you had no idea what was coming next. And if it doesn’t you move forward and interpret what to do next.

Just like dancing with a partner, you have to know your characters in order to pants. I’ve always thought pantsing is more of a character driven way of writing. You let the characters tell you what direction to head in next. Let them tell the story the way it was meant to be told. Sometimes, they aren’t sure either but that’s when you throw the screwball in, the kidnapping attempt. The phone threat. The stalker. The ex-girlfriend. The baby. Whatever.

Do what’s best for your story and you’re the only one who knows that. Learn to rely on instinct. It’s like an adrenaline rush each time you open a new page.

So today let’s discuss methods of writing. What crazy thing do you do to get into the mood to write? And if you’re a reader, do you have a method to your wicked reading ways?

Well, the Bo’sun left me in charge of hotties this week and as I don’t have her interviewing skills *ahem* I figured I would focus in on the theme of the day:  Dad.  So, I thought we could check in on some of our favorite celebrity daddies.

  Here’s Ben Cohen with his daughter.  I love chubby babies, don’t you?  What, that isn’t what you were looking at?

And here’s Jude Law with his kids.  It’s good to practice the basic safety rules, like holding hands when you cross the street.  Oh, that’s not what you noticed?  Truly, though, teaching safety starts at home, no matter how hot you are. 

  I hope these two are wearing sunscreen.  Did you know that more than 1 million Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer this year?  Use your Banana Boat, people.  Hugh Jackman has decided to sport the beard as a UV blocking device.  Smart man.  What, you weren’t looking at the beard?

Patrick Dempsey’s twins are incredibly sweet, but I do hope that they don’t sleep in this fashion very often.  Though, my son had to sleep elevated for the first 8 months of his life (acid reflux), I can’t imagine it is comfortable.  You didn’t even notice there were babies in this picture, did you?  Seriously…. 

 And our crew’s favorite papa, the Captain, with his daughter Lily-Rose.  I am certain there is more than one wench on the boat who would play peak-a-boo with Captain Jack.  Though, I would advise against offering.  Our Hellion can be, well, a hellion when it comes to sharing her darling.

So, to all the hottie dads out there, including my favorite hubby, Happy Father’s Day!!

Kimberly Killion will be joining us on July 1st to hype up her debut, the historical novel, Her One Desire.  We have an escaped Scottish warrior, an executioner’s daughter out to clear her father’s name, and bad guys to make you bite your nails to the quick. We’ll be interviewing her and she’ll be letting us in on how it feels to finally be published!  Don’t miss it!

The Romance Writer’s Revenge presents another fantastic guest blogger.   With her debut novel, The Wild Sight, hitting shelves October 2008, it’s only a matter of time before this author’s career shoots straight to the stars.  Loucinda McGary, a.k.a. Aunty Cindy on the Romance Bandits blog, blends suspense and magic while still delivering a satisfying love story.  She was generous (read: brave) enough to agree to an interview so without further ado, I give you my chat with Loucinda McGary.

Loucinda, welcome aboard and thank you for blogging with us today.  We can’t offer the cabana boys you ladies keep in the Bandita Lair, but we do have a rather generous crew of Hotties.  Feel free to flag any of them down should you need a drink.  Or a foot rub maybe. Or you just want to, you know, try one on.

Why thank you, Bo’sun! As you know, Aunty likes her hotties tall and lean (a la Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana, and Paul Bettany) and a foot massage is almost The Best Thing Ever! What’s not to love about having a hottie at your feet?

Having one on his knees. J But lets get down to business. Your debut release, The Wild Sight, hits shelves October 1.  I’m stealing a page from the Bandita book and asking if you could share with us your *call* story?

Actually, I never get tired of telling this story, because truth really is stranger than fiction. And the truth is that I met my editor in an elevator at RWA’s National conference in Atlanta. My room was on the 20^th floor and there were already two people in the elevator when my roomie and I got on, headed to breakfast. One introduced herself as an editor, and when she saw my Golden Heart finalist ribbon on my name badge, she asked me about it. I told her I was a finalist in romantic suspense and she said, “I’d really love to read your book.” And gave me her business card. Her name was Deb Werksman and she was acquiring for a new romance line for Sourcebooks.

Of course, I sent her my manuscript as soon as I got home. No, she did not buy it, though it took her six months to reject it. L However, at the urging of my CP and fellow Bandita Jo Robertson, I sent Deb a query for my work in progress. Three months later, she asked to see the partial. Then, on July 27, 2007 she called my house to ask me to submit the entire manuscript. I was out to lunch with three of my best friends and when I got home, my DH started babbling incoherently and shoved a piece of paper at me. He had answered the phone and when he realized it was an editor, he wrote down every single word she said, because he knew “…Cindy will kill me if I screw this up!” (And he was correct, I would have! J)

I emailed her the whole thing and promptly convinced myself that there was no way a manuscript ever sold to the very first editor who read it. Happily, I was wrong! On the morning of September 14, 2007 my ringing phone awakened me from a dead sleep. I am not a morning person, and everyone who knows me knows better than to call before 9 a.m. Expecting some dire emergency, I answered only to have Deb Werksman identify herself and say she wanted to buy my “beautiful book!” After I screamed “Oh my God!” in her ear about nineteen times, she told me she wanted to release the book in the fall of 2008. I believe it is the first romantic suspense in the Sourcebooks Casablanca line. 

So there you have it – I sold my manuscript to the very first editor who read it, and I met her in an elevator. Truth really is stranger than fiction!

I love *call* stories. They always give me goose bumps.  Someday…someday. Where was I?  Oh yes, tell us about The Wild Sight.  Especially Donovan O’Shea. If that isn’t the perfect name for an Irish hero, I don’t know what is.

Faith and begorra, Bo’Sun! Like so many of my characters, Donovan arrived with his name intact, first, middle and last. But I did use some Irish census data (broken down by county) to come up with authentic names for many of the characters in the book.

The Wild Sight is actually my third romantic suspense manuscript. The previous two were set in Italy, and since nobody was exactly beating my door down to buy them, I decided that I would set my third book in Ireland. The DH and I are both of Irish lineage. In fact, his maternal grandmother emigrated from Ireland to America and he still has relatives who live there. However, they live in Northern Ireland, not the Republic. This is the Ireland I’m most familiar with and the one I chose to write about, even though I’ve never seen another contemporary romance novel set there.

Makes sense. But The Wild Sight is more than a contemporary romantic suspense, isn’t it?

Yes, all of my romantic suspense tales have what I call paranormal elements. In my first book, the hero and heroine may or may not be reincarnated 15^th century lovers. The heroine of my second book receives “messages” from her recently deceased aunt in her dreams. I have always been fascinated with the Celtic notion of second sight, and decided to use it in my third book. Most of the time, female characters seem to be the ones who have this ability, so I started thinking, “…what if a man had it?” And that is when Donovan Joseph O’Shea appeared. J Here’s a bit of the back cover copy to whet your appetite:

He was cursed with a “gift”

Born with the clairvoyance known to the Irish as “The Sight,” Donovan O’Shea fled to America to escape his visions. On a return trip to Ireland to see his ailing father, staggering family secrets threaten to turn his world upside down. And then beautiful, sensual Rylie Powell shows up, claiming to be his half-sister . . .

Was it difficult to convince an editor a book that starts with the hero and heroine thinking they are brother and sister would sell? 

*ahem * Technically, the hero never believes she is his sister… But, I will say that I had several people who read the opening chapter or heard the idea react with, “EWWW!” One went so far as to tell me I’d never sell the book (Never say never!). I knew it would probably be a “make it or break it” issue. However, my critique partners were very supportive and said they couldn’t wait to see how I got my characters over this huge stumbling block. You’ll have to let me know how I did after you read the book.

As for my editor, the possible half-siblings turned out to be one of the things she loved about the book! Have I mentioned how much I LURVE my editor?

Can you tell us what’s up next?  What are you working on now?  Sequels maybe?

As a matter of fact, I am working on a sequel. When my editor told me she wanted to buy The Wild Sight, she said in a rather off-hand way, “You did intend for this to be a series, didn’t you?” And I said, “Sure!” even though I’ve never before written a sequel. GAH!

But did I mention how much I LURVE my editor? Plus, she’s a very smart woman, so if she wants a series, then I’ll write one.

Here’s hoping she likes my latest ideas and decides to buy the sequel!

I think you’ll find big fans of series here on the ship.  What about it Wenches?  Since Ms. Loucinda here is just starting on her whirlwind promotional tour, and we are honored she included us in her itinerary, how about everyone give her a little info on what makes you pick up a book?  What makes you buy it?  And what makes you tell all your friends about it?

Yes please! I’d love to know, and I’ll give away some Bailey’s Irish Crème filled chocolates to one lucky commenter.