Of Ink and Quille

    I can imagine writing a hot story about a Thai chef who seasons his dishes with lots of spice. Curries, Thai peppers, lemongrass, garlic. All those good things. The pans would literally sizzle in the kitchen. Yeah, I can see that. But what about their breath? I mean, do you want a kiss so hot your lips burn and make you reach for a glass of milk to cool it off? Probably not! With pastry, though, you don’t have that problem. Light fluffy pastry dough. Sensuous whipped cream filling. Sweet raspberry sauce drizzled over the top. Mmmm. I’ll admit there are dangers to pastry though. Frosting can get everywhere… like all over your sexy black dress – the one you wore to seduce the chef in. Syrupy sauces can also present problems. What if your lips get stuck together? Or other parts? Good grief. The only way to save the day might be to lick your way out! You can’t do that with hot peppers. Just ain’t gonna happen. No sir. I mean you can try it… but I’m just go...

As a historical romance author I strive to be as accurate on my details as I possibly can be. This isn't always easy, considering there are blank spots in history where I have to say what happened here? Still, half the fun is the research. So I thought I'd send out a question for you: What's your favorite tidpit from history? Do you have a bit of trivia that you'd like to share? Or perhaps you have a question you've always wanted to ask but didn't know where to look for the answer? I'm not an expert on every aspect of history - but I do have some pretty cool research under my belt and I'll be happy to help out. For now here's a couple tidbits for you to think of: In Ireland it was considered to be a social blunder NOT to offer a guest a bath. Cetlci women wore makeup - just like the Egyptians. Roman women sugared themselves to rid their bodies of hair.

As an author, especially in todays industry, you do have to have some ideas for marketing yourself, your books, your very brand. Something I hear all the time is to have a backlist of books, and I do. Currently I  have thirteen books out under my name and another seven under my pen name. Some of these books are doing well, others seem to have fallen off the reader's radar. In the hope that I can generate new interest, and thus improve my connection to my readers I'm going to try something different. Too often we forget what has come before, I can tell you what titles I have, what genres, even a bit about each of my books...but if a reader doesn't know about them what good will that do? I write for the love of it. Its part of me. But, I also have to be honest when I say the royalties are also a big reason why I continue to do this. So, each week I'm going to feature my backlist - tidbits, trivia, and more to refresh these stories in my fans' minds. This week we...