My Recent Comments

Phew, been ages since I've popped in.

Finishing a book does that to a gal ;)

Congrats to everyone who has finalled in awards!

Will try and catch up over the next little while...

Jane,

the beauty of the Romance series is the wide scope of stories, which includes different ages of the characters.

My recent release, Executive Mother-To-Be, had a 35 year old successful businesswoman falling pregnant, my oldest heroine to date in this series.  Personally, I love reading older heroines so will look out for Jessica's book.

Jane, we have the lovely Robyn Grady writing for both series so I'll co-erce her into popping in to answer your question   She'll be able to give a much more concise answer than I ever could.

 As to how writing makes me feel...in a word, liberated!  My days are jam packed running around after 2 little boys so come 8.30pm, sitting down to write is like my relaxation!  Sounds strange but it's the only 'me' time I get these days.  I love the freedom to create, to let my imagination run wild.  It's great fun!

'It's just fun to stick a man and a woman together that doesn't want to be together.  That's always when the sparks fly!'

Jane, that's exactly what I do for all my books.  May sound crazy, but I've never sat down and thought about a specific hook plot, just written the book and discovered the hook later.  Me, weird?

With the Modern Heat books, every one I've read has been very different.  Kelly Hunter's RITA nomination is set in Penang in a grand old hotel, while Heidi Rice's RITA nomination The Mile High Club is jet-set.

With these MH books, I enjoy the freedom to create more alpha heroes (my Romance guys tend to be a tad more on the beta side?) but my property developer, Navy SEAL and archaeologist have all been take charge! 

And speaking of alphas (who fascinate me) do you find you match the heroine to the hero?  eg. the more alpha the guy, the more feisty the heroine to match him in every way?

Hi Lee,

I think I can explain the Extra label thing.  The classic Presents authors you mentioned who have recently been under the Presents Extra label have actually been writing for the new Harlequin Modern Heat series (which have been released as Presents Extra in the US), authors like Lucy Monroe and Susan Napier.

From May, when the Presents series expands to 12 titles a month, the 2 ModHeat titles will be under the Presents banner in the first 8 books released in the month, with the 4 Presents Extra books being pure classic Presents.

Confusing, huh?

Liz, I was just going to ask the same thing!

Very time consuming, for someone who has about 2 seconds anyway to read posts and respond, to trawl through to the new ones. 

Thanks for this!

Hi AnneGe, everyone is welcome  

Yes, we really do need SOME people to out themselves here with their RITA nominations!

Otherwise, we just might have to start naming names

Jane, I find this absolutely fascinating.  I love hearing how other authors write.

Now, I'm going to ask another question (surprise, surprise )  When you write a whole lot of different scenes, do you find you still write them in linear fashion or do you prefer to jump around then thread them all together?

I'm very much a linear writer.  I used to be an absolute plotter but that has changed the more I write.

These days, I have a basic outline of 2 pages (know who my hero/heroine/rough plot is) then go from there, pretty much pantsing it.

I write sequentially, can't jump around.  Though I've never tried it...could be fun!

Brilliant news, Natasha, for a brilliant book

Congrats!

Nic

Jane,

thanks for that great list of research tools for settings.

I would never have thought of cookbooks but you're so right, they can really give a flavour to a country and add to the layering process (watch me delve into my bookshelf now...tend to cook faves so some of those lovely books are barely thumbed )

Interesting to hear how you write.

I'm an auditory writer for sure.  Have tried to collage for visual stuff and while it helps get the creative juices flowing for me at the start, once I start writing the actual story, I'm all ears!

Do you use any pre-writing techniques?  Are you a plotter?