Pamela Clare's Blog, page 29

MTM — Gandy is Candy

Happy Monday!

By now your mouth is watering over the tasty treats you see here, but don't worry — this candy won't rot your teeth. David Gandy is the kind of candy women love to think about tasting. He might even be better than chocolate, though we won't go so far as to say that without testing the theory carefully ourselves.

I became aware of him a couple of weeks ago, and then did a quick Google search, which revealed a number of delicious photos, including full frontal nudity.

Bye, now!

I hate to see everyone rush off like that, but I understand. I suppose the only people left reading this blog are Mr. Gandy's publicist and those of you who are sneaking in a bit of MTM at work.



David Gandy is a British underwear model, and we certainly approve of his choice of career. He has a distinct face and a body that's masculine and sexy, but not bulky. You "poet look" lovers should be very happy this week.

His face, especially his eyes, can be very intense, which is clearly one reason he got into the modeling business. The other reason may be that they do not need to put socks in the underwear to make them filled out. (Just a theory, but this one is based on true research. The man is hung. Let me just say it.)



This is a full monty photo minus monty. Some other blogger was nice enough to crop it for me. But feel free to imagine, okay? Not while you're driving, of course, but maybe later, for example, during a meeting when your boss is droning on. Let your mind drift: MTM. David Gandy. Rhymes with candy. Makes me think of licking lollipops...



Here's an example of that intense face I mentioned. I love how this photo shows off those biceps and shoulders.



In this photo, he seems to be getting started without us. We're not sure if we're upset by this or content to watch.


Here he is in a pensive mood, thinking about MTM no doubt, and what an honor it is to be objectified for an audience of romance reading women. This photo offers a nice glimpse of his latissimus dorsi (fancy Latin for side-of-the-back muscle) and his legs.

He's a lean, mean underwear-wearing machine.



You knew you got out of bed for some reason, didn't you? And here it is: the back side of David Gandy. I love how his shoulders taper down to his waist. I love the dimples above his behind. I love his behind, and I'm a pecs/abs woman, not a glutes woman. But, you know, I like to be flexible, too. I'm willing to stare a hot butt in the face when the opportunity arises, as it definitely did here.

Yes, Dandy is candy, and we hope he satisfied your sweet tooth this week on MTM.

Happy Monday!

RomCon & RangerCon

You, too, can stand here at Fort Ticonderoga overlooking Lake Champlain

I just wanted to pop in to update you all on a few things.

Recapping from my last post, Naked Edge is a DA BWAHA finalist in the contemporary category. The winner is determined by reader participation, and the games start on March 13!

RomCon — RomCon is taking place this summer in Denver. Last year was it's first year, and it was a pretty amazing event. This year, some of those minor kinks will be worked out, and it should be tons of fun. It's the only event of its kind — a gathering of romance readers and romance writers. It's not about how to write romance or get published. It exists purely to bring readers and authors together. There are discussions and private chat sessions and a whole host of other events designed to get you close to the authors whose work you enjoy.

I signed up to be a RomCon affiliate this year so that those of you who want to attend can get a small discount. If you look at the right-hand column on my blog, you'll see a little RomCon graphic together with a coupon code. The code is pclare. Just register with that code to get your discount.

A photo from last year's PC Reality Tour. Here we are in
Rocky Mountain National Park.

RomCon is taking place from Aug. 5-7. And though we say it's in Denver, it's actually in Aurora — where Julian Darcangelo hits the streets. Last year, I took an SUV load of friends and readers on a tour of sites in the I-Team books, called the PC Reality Tour. I'm not sure I have that much energy this year. But if there is interest, I might pack a few people into my car and go tooling around Denver/Boulder and perhaps even into the mountains.

Facebook — I started a new fan page at Facebook. I'm not too far from my cap of 5,000 friends on my regular Facebook page and having a fan page allows me to do some things, like host certain events, that I can't do as easily from the regular page. So pop on by and click "Like" to join in the fun. I've uploaded some photos and made a start toward getting the page rolling. I just don't have tons of time. But it will come together. The first event I'll be hosting is a release party for Breaking Point that will involve lots of giveaways, not just from me but from other authors, as well. Stay tuned for more info...

RangerCon — In 2012 — possibly May, possibly September or October — I plan to meet with a group of readers in Fort Edward, NY, to celebrate the MacKinnon's Rangers series and the release of Defiant — and to see the real places in the novels. This includes: Rogers Island (Ranger Island), the town of Fort Edward (Fort Elizabeth), Fort William Henry, Lake George, Fort Carillon/Ticonderoga, Rattlesnake Mountain and other sites in the vicinity. I hope to gather a group of reenactors, history experts, and others whose knowledge of the French & Indian War and the Colonial Rangers is astounding and have them guide us through history. Then I'll read from the books, with the location right there in front of us.

This will be a not-for-profit event, with the cost based solely on the cost of all the things we do, i.e., vehicle rentals, experts fees, etc. I hope to have us all stay at the Historic Inn of Fort Edward, which is where I always stay when I'm there.

By necessity, this will be an intimate group, not a grandiose affair with five hundred people packed into a conference center. I'd like to get some idea of the interest out there. So please let me know if it's something you'd be seriously interested in doing. The cost would involve airfare to Albany, NY, your hotel stay, meals and a registration fee to cover the cost of the events.

I might be able to arrange for us to go to the waterfall where Amalie and Morgan made love for the first time. I might be able to arrange for a mock battle complete with muskets to be fought in our honor. Who knows? I'm willing to try anything.

So please let me know if you're interested. And if you know someone who's a complete MacKinnon's Rangers fan, please pass this to them.

I'm off to dose up on caffeine, and then I'm heading back in time to 1760 to the wilderness west of the Hudson River, where Connor is about to put his life on the line for the niece of the man he loathes most in the world — Wentworth's niece, Lady Sarah Woodville.

Game on! NAKED EDGE a DA BWAHA finalist

I logged in to check my e-mail a few minutes ago and discovered that Naked Edge, voted Favorite Romantic Suspense by AAR readers in their annual poll, is a finalist for the 2011 DA BWAHA contest that's run by Dear Author, Smart Bitches, and The TBR LLC.

Is there something in the drinking water? Or is there something in the book? This is what I ask myself late at night.

If you know anything about DA BWAHA, you know it's modeled after March Madness, an event pertaining to basketball. Call it basketball playoffs if you want. Teams are arranged into brackets and compete until there's a single champion. (Can you tell I'm not a sports reporter?)

Naked Edge is one of eight finalists in the Contemporary category. But unlike basketball teams, novels can't actually face each other down. Imagine the chaos in bookstores if they could! Flapping pages in the aisles, paper flying, broken bindings.

But that's where readers come in, voting on brackets that are sent in and tabulated. Put simply, if you participate enthusiastically and all of you who love Gabe vote for Naked Edge, it just might win. The competition is stiff. The other finalists are wonderful novels written by extremely talented authors. But I believe in you as much as you believe in me!

The cool thing for readers is that this competition is loaded with prizes. Berkley, my publisher, is giving away an ARC of Breaking Point and a number of other novels. There are other cool prizes, as well, not just books. (But what's cooler than books?)

Motivated? Head over to the DA BWAHA website to read more about how to play, to see a list of prizes and finalists — and to get your game on.

Please spread the word among other I-Team fans and Team Gabe members!

So thanks to Dear Author, Smart Bitches and The TBR LLC for choosing Naked Edge as a finalist.

And thank you for your support!

Team Gabe members will want to stick around. Next week, we have our chat about Naked Edge.

I-Team Reading Challenge — Unlawful Contact chat

Welcome back to the I-Team Reading Challenge!

First, let me apologize for Blogger. The colors in my sidebars here are all wrong, and they are unfixable. So if things seem weird looking, they are. It's not you.

Second, I'd love to hear from those of you who are participating in the challenge to hear how far you've come. I know some of you are already done, which is amazing.

Third, thank to all of you for the wonderful birthday wishes! I had a wonderful day yesterday. Ronlyn sent me flowers at work, which helped brighten the day considerably. Beautiful yellow roses and daisies, they are so cheery and lovely! Then last night I went out to dinner with my parents, and my mother surprised me — that is far too mild a word for it really — by giving me my grandmother's wedding ring as a gift.

The ring — antique gold with an antique solitaire diamond — is so delicate and beautiful. My grandmother wore this ring on her finger when my grandfather was off chasing German U-boats in the U.S. Navy during World War II. She had two young children and a baby — my mom — and had to take care of them, plant and harvest the garden, tend the chickens and the goat. She had to wash laundry in a tub and run it through a ringer. Wearing it on my finger makes me feel very close to her and puts me in mind of the lives women used to live.

Needless to say, I got all teary-eyed.

But on to Unlawful Contact! Marc has waited long enough. And now I turn my blog over to Kara... Oh, wait.

I guess I'll share my thoughts about this book first.

As all of you know by now, Unlawful Contact was based on real horrors that occurred in Colorado's prisons. I began covering issues related to women in prison in 1997, when it dawned on me after some high-profile violence in the men's unit at the local lockup that we never heard about women at our county jail. I called the sheriff and asked rather stupidly, "Do we have women in our jail?"

Indeed, we did. But no one was looking at their situation. No one was reporting on issues that were affecting them such as separation from their children or the lack of training programs for women as compared to men or substandard health care for women. So I jumped into the deep end on these issues — quite literally.

I worked with the county jail captain to be arrested on a bogus felony and locked away for 24 hours in the women's unit with the inmates. It was the 24 scariest hours of my journalistic life and, I believe, my finest. During that 24 hours, chronicled in detail in my Goldilocks Goes to Jail diaries, I learned so much about the impact of violence on women's lives. What is the No. 1 thing that most women in prison have in common? Childhood sexual abuse.

I could go on and on and on and on about the things I learned in that precious, terrifying 24 hours. But we're here to talk about Unlawful Contact. It was actually the second book I had planned for the I-Team series, but my editor thought the content was too dark.

"You had some other idea, didn't you?" she asked. "Why don't you write that instead?"

Okay, sure, except that human sex trafficking isn't a light-hearted either. If the sexual abuse of female inmates is too dark, what about the sexual enslavement of teenage girls? Well, I didn't ask that question. Instead, I wrote Hard Evidence, afraid the entire time that she would reject it for being too dark. She didn't. And she let me move on to Unlawful Contact at that point without a single word about how dark the subject matter was. I guess I had convinced her I could handle it and still have a romantic story.

There are so many real things in this story, from prison slang to inmates OD-ing in prison to the sexual abuse of teenage girls by adult male guards to the rape of parolees by a parole officer to the stillbirth of an inmate's baby that resulted from neglect on the part of the guards to the shackling of pregnant inmates during labor.

I lost sleep over these abuses. I lay awake at night thinking about these women, feeling rage and despair that we as a society could take people and treat them like this. It wasn't the fact that they were behind bars. It was the fact that their sentence came with grotesque violations of their human rights. The guards who methodically raped those teenage girls got less time in prison than the girls were serving in juvie. Rape and abuse and the loss of one's baby should never be part of a person's prison sentence.

All of my passion for this topic — women in prison — went in to writing Unlawful Contact. I actually got out my old case files and read up on minute details. The autopsy report I describe in the story is from a real autopsy of an inmate who overdosed. The details of certain acts of violence are straight from my interview notes. (Note to the reader on Goodreads who said that the violence in the book is clearly exaggerated and that the author resorted to hyperbole: In fact, she did not.)

Then at the end of the book I engaged in a fantasy that all the wrongs were corrected, that new laws were passed, that the bad guys were defeated and there was liberty and justice for all who deserved it. But it was a fantasy.

Unlawful Contact came out in 2008. I tried that year to get a senator friend of mine to carry a bill that would outlaw the shackling of inmates during labor and delivery. He was not interested in carrying such a bill. I waited, did other things. And still I was haunted by the idea of women being chained to beds during the hell that is labor.

As most of you know (or maybe not), last year I took up that issue again. I started from the beginning, spending months negotiating my way into the Denver women's prison. I was not honest about why I was there; I told them I wanted to see what kind of prenatal care the women got. What I really wanted to do was get the inside scoop on shackling. Within a month, I had the detailed research I needed to take to lawmakers. I arranged for a meeting with the senate president (a wonderful man from my town). He listened. He was appalled. And thus the ball finally started rolling on what eventually became Senate Bill 193. I wrote the first draft of the bill, was the primary expert who testified on this practice in the House and Senate committee hearings — and the damned bill passed with only one "no" vote (from a lawmaker who is currently hungry for my support of one of his bills). The whole drama of the shackling bill is preserved on this blog for anyone who wants to search for that label.

For me, the bill's passage felt like the culmination of so many years of hard work. More than that, it made it easier for me to sleep at night. And a strange thing had occurred — fact had become fiction had become reality. Is that life imitating art? Not sure. But can you see what it meant to me?

When I think of Unlawful Contact, that's what comes to my mind. Let me put it this way: Extreme Exposure was based on one five-month-long investigation. Hard Evidence grew out of a single cover story and several interviews. But Unlawful Contact was the bringing together of more than a decade's worth of experience covering prison issues.

(Similarly, Naked Edge was more than a decade of reporting on Native issues and close ties and friendships with Navajo people, as well as my own catastrophic climbing accident and a lifetime lived with rock jocks and other crazies. But Gabe has to wait for his own turn...)

In terms of the fiction, writing Marc was pure pleasure, though Julian was such a tough act to follow that I was really off-kilter for a while. Julian kept stealing scenes, and I had to keep cutting him out. The scene in the cabin when Julian finds Sophie... Let's just say no one who loves Julian loves him more than I did in that moment when I wrote that scene.

The tension between Julian and Marc was the beginning of a wonderful bromance that has continued to bring me joy in my writing up through and including Breaking Point. In fact, I think it kind of reaches new heights in Breaking Point.

As for the scene that made some readers hate me: Sophie spat out the morning-after pill. Get over it! I am not a guidance counselor, sex educator, nurse, Planned Parenthood PR person or in any way responsible for ensuring that people use contraception. Sophie loved Marc. She knew she might lose him at any moment. Quite literally any moment. And she let nature take it's course. I would do the same in her shoes. If you don't like that, feel free to throw the book against the nearest wall.

To this day, Unlawful Contact is a very special story for me. I cried so hard when I wrote that scene at the end that made all of you cry. I played "A Time for Us," the love theme from the 1968 Romeo and Juliet over and over again to make myself as sad as I could possibly be, and I wrote my way through an entire box of tissues to make that dark moment seem real.

If I can say one thing about all of my books, it's that I've always felt that romance could be about something. I'm not trying to push a political agenda. I'm not trying to tell anyone how to vote or what to think. I just want to write stories that reflect the world in some way and that resonate back out into the world.

And that's what I have to say about that book. If anyone has actually read this far, congratulations! And I appreciate it.

So now I yield the floor...

MTM — Wet

I'll admit it — I have a thing for wet men.

That could be because I'm a double water sign — my sun is in Pisces and my rising sign is Cancer. And, yes, I love water even when naked men aren't involved.

But add a naked man to water — a shower, a pool, a the beach — and, well, you've got me. And because today is kind of, sort of not really my birthday — I'm a Leap Day baby — I figured it would be okay to indulge my own appetites.

The man above drew my gaze with that single prominent drop of water that's trickling down his belly toward paradise. There's something about the way water slides over a man's hard muscles, emphasizing how soft a man's skin can be, even when he's hard as iron beneath.

Yes, I said HARD.



This young man seems to need to cool off a bit. He's this week's offering to the "I don't like them so muscular" lobby. Lean with a hard body that looks like it comes from playing lots of healthy living, he looks like he's rinsing he saltwater off his skin after a hard day of fun at the beach.

Anyone want to bring him a nice cold, lemonade or perhaps some southern sweet tea, Natalie's favorite drink.



Scrub-a-hub-hub!

This gentleman comes close to taking No. 1 for me this week. Two words: Wet. Obliques. Wet obliques! Wet freaking obliques! Do you follow me?

Once I managed to pry my eyes of the wet obliques, I realized the rest of him was pretty amazing, too. I'd love to scrub his back... Or whatever. Then I could dry him off with a nice fluffy towel or maybe my hair.

Yeah.

Oh. Sorry.

This gentleman has it all going on — rock hard body, tribal tat, wet skin. He reminds me of the Coppertone advertisement, except that instead of a dog pulling the little girl's bathing suit down, it's him pulling his own bathing suit down.

Well, don't stop on our account, sweetheart.




This fine gentleman got caught in the rain. Naked. Not sure how that happened, but I like the idea and hope to see forecasts in the future that look like this: "An 80 percent chance of showers and naked men for the Denver metro area this afternoon."

Of course, my eyes are drawn to one particular place. Can you guess? I'm trying to see whether I'm seeing a lack of manscaping in a certain place. I sure hope so!

And now we come to my own personal fave. I'll tell you why I love this photo so much. Our hero — and he is a hero — is in some kind of pain. He needs help. There he is, naked on all fours in a river. And who doesn't just want to dive in and help him?

When I first saw this photo, it reminded me of the moment when Bethie is out gathering moss for Belle's diapers and sees Nicholas bathing in the river. I just stare at this photo and think of that. And all is right with the world... even on a Monday!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Come back on Wednesday for a roll call on the I-Team Reading Challenge and to chat about Unlawful Contact. (Paging Team Marc...)

And if you have any wet and wild man photos, it is my birthday... sort of. I thought I had one of Jed Hill wet and in water, but I couldn't find it. Heartbreaking!

Contest Winners!

I want to thank Marie Force for joining us this week and telling us about herself. She's such an interesting person and so much fun to talk with. I'm so grateful to have crossed paths with her here in cyberspace. I bought myself a Kindle for my pseudo-birthday and plan to download her backlist as soon as it arrives.

In the meantime, there are prizes to give away.

HEIDI is the winner of Everyone Loves a hero. Please send your mailing address to Marie.

JUNE wins Fatal Affair. Please send your e-mail address to Marie to collect your prize.

Congratulations!!!

You can contact Marie through her website.

Thanks again to Marie, and thank you to all of you who stopped by.

And thank goodness the weekend is almost over! Can't wait to get to Man-Titty Monday. TGI-MTM!

A Force to be reckoned with / Interview & giveaway

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Every so often, I come across a writer whose life and work intrigue me, and then I just have to have them come pay a visit here on my blog. In the past, you've heard from Christy Reece and Anna Campbell. And today, I'm thrilled to bring you a brief interview with Marie Force.

I met Marie via the Internet and quickly discovered she was a journalist. Also, she and I are very close in age. We're both moms, and we both write romantic fiction. Those are some pretty significant things to have in common.

I've heard so many wonderful things about her books. Just this past week, woman on the RBL Romantica board were chatting up her stories and insisting that everyone needed to read them. I take a recommendation from RBL Romantica quite seriously and am looking forward to reading Marie's books when I'm done with Connor's story. (I never read outside the subgenre I'm writing at the moment because it's too confusing. Right now I'm reading Surrender and Untamed to refresh my poor tired brain on all things MacKinnon.)

Despite Marie's busy schedule, she agreed to answer a few questions, and the ensuing chats between the two of us were a lot of fun. I felt like I've made a new friend. As she said, we went to different high schools together.

Without further ado, I present author Marie Force:

Pamela Clare: First, I have to say that I always feel a sense of kinship with fellow journalists. I read about your background, and I had a visceral reaction to your description of working for a small newspaper. You wrote that it was "the writing equivalent of boot camp. We worked like dogs for almost no money, but we had a lot of fun and learned so much about writing editing and life." And I thought, "OMG!" Nothing more. Just "OMG!" My I-Team series is therapy for my work as a journalist.

How do you feel being a journalist has influenced your life as a fiction writer?

Marie Force: Thanks so much for having me today, Pamela! I am a HUGE fan of your I-Team series, and I can't wait for the next installment. Being a journalist really opens your eyes to the larger world around you. I don't know about you, but I notice everything. I remember everything. Unlike my husband who tells a story in which every, single detail is wrong. I just sigh and say, no, it was a Tuesday in the winter and our son was not there. LOL! He can't help it! Of course, it drives him crazy that I remember everything with such precision, but I was trained to do that.

Those skills have come in handy as a fiction writer. Being a skilled eavesdropper led me to the plot for my book Love at First Flight. A quick interaction between an arriving pilot and a woman in an airport led me to Everyone Loves a Hero. A handsome man in a Mercedes convertible led to The Fall. It only takes a second for an idea to present itself that can turn into a book! The secret is to allow those ideas in and think about them in a way most people never would. One of my favorite questions is "What if?"

PC: I found your "path to publishing" story quite touching, particularly in that your mother was able to read some of your work before she died of pancreatic cancer. You seem to be very close to your family. How has the faith that your parents and husband have in you as writer helped you deal with the challenges of writing fiction?

MF: I was very close to my mom, and we talked almost every day, even when I moved overseas for three years with my new husband (19 years later, he still doesn't know about the all the hideous phone bills my parents paid when we lived in Spain—shhhh, don't tell). Losing her was a terrible blow, but I do like to think she has been my fairy godmother in making good things happen for my writing career AND my brother, and I fully believe she is responsible for the Red Sox finally winning the World Series in 2004, two months after she died without ever seeing them win. We picture her up there giving Babe Ruth the what-for about the hex he supposedly placed on the Sox.

I still talk to my dad every day. In fact, he says I am more of a nag than his wife ever was. LOL! Thank you very much! Years before I ever wrote my first book, my parents were after me to get going on it. I dedicated my debut novel, Line of Scrimmage, to my parents who always said I could, and to my husband and kids who supported me while I did. Just last night, I went with my husband and kids to "visit" Everyone Loves a Hero on the bookshelves. It's still a thrill for all of us, even the third time around.

PC: Was there ever a time when you wanted to give up, or was the agony of those untold stories too much of a motivation for you to consider throwing in the towel?

MF: Soooooo many times! But I never seriously came close to giving up. My mantra before I was published is still my mantra today because it's just as important "after the call" as it was before: The only thing I know for sure is that if I give up, it will never happen. No one else will ever love your book or champion it the way you will, so the minute you give up, it's over. I was always acutely aware of that and kept my nose down and my fingers on the keys.

I wrote seven books before I sold one. I've had major ups and downs, thanks in large part to the economy tanking just as I "arrived" and due to the fact that I don't write about vampires or wolves or shape-shifters. I hear contemporary is "making a comeback," and that pleases me greatly! At the end of the day, we can let "the business" defeat us or we can choose to persevere and keep writing and hoping that someday it will all click.

Ironically, the click for me seems to have happened just this month when one of my books hit No. 11 on the Amazon Kindle bestseller list and four of my books are in the Top 100 for contemporary romance (one of them at No. 2). It only took seven years! And boy am I glad now that I never gave up!

PC: Some writing experiences are universal for novelists. Your anecdote about discovering novel notes you'd made long ago and laughing until you cried because they were so awful probably resonates with anyone who's attempted to write books. I filled a notebook up with love scenes when I was in junior high, and if you were to read them you'd think they were written by helper monkeys who'd never actually had sex. Yes, celibate helper monkeys.

So tell us about your first idea for a novel. And then tell us about the idea that became your first novel. What was the difference between them?

MF: That's a great question, and LOL on the helper monkeys! My first idea for a novel actually became my first book, Treading Water. The very first character who presented himself to me as a living, breathing person was a handsome architect named Jack Harrington. His book, Treading Water, the book of my heart, was finished in 2005—after many stops and starts that were, truly, AWFUL.

This was the book my mom got to read the beginning of before she passed away. She said it made her cry, which gave me the fortitude to keep going. For a number of reasons, mostly involving timing, that book has never been shopped. My ONLY writing goal for 2011 is to sell Treading Water. It's with my agent now, and she's enjoying it. So fingers crossed for TW and the two sequels I wrote before I knew you weren't supposed to write sequels before you sold the initial book.

Thank GOD I didn't know that! LOL! Those three books are my absolute favorites of all my books, and I so hope to get them out to readers before too much longer. With contemporary making that big comeback, the time feels right now for Treading Water. I wrote about "The House That Jack Built," the metaphor for my writing career, on my website at www.mariesullivanforce.com/writing.php. It's really quite a story that I sometimes can't believe actually happened to me!

PC: You've had a very modern path to publishing. Some of your titles you published yourself through Amazon. Your Fatal series is published by Harlequin's Carina Press. How does your experience of working with Harlequin compare to self-publishing?

MF: I love everything about working with Carina and Harlequin. It's been so great to be a part of Carina from the debut month and to learn from the forward-thinking women who are running the show there. I couldn't be more excited to see a series that was once "on the shelf" heading into a fourth book with hopefully many more to come. The books I published myself to Amazon were sitting on my computer collecting dust. I like to say that no one was interested in them except my readers. And wow, were they ever interested! They are selling in staggering numbers, which is so very exciting since all I did to promote them was stick them on my Amazon author page. It's a great time to be an author with some extra books sitting on the computer and readers asking for more (as well as asking for more of particular characters they've met in earlier books). I plan to post several more books to Amazon/B&N this year, but I do hope to continue to work with publishers, too.

PC: Tell us about your Fatal series. Rumor is there's a wedding on tap that might blow Will and Kate's nuptials out of the water.

MF: Will and Kate have nothing on my Sam and Nick! LOL! Theirs will be the Wedding of the Year in Washington, D.C. I'm actually just finishing up Fatal Destiny, the novella featuring the wedding of the main characters in the Fatal Series: Sam Holland, a D.C. homicide detective, and her U.S. Senator Nick Cappuano. Readers planned the wedding on my blog, right down to the rings, cake, dresses, honeymoon destination, etc. That was really fun for all of us! I am having the TIME OF MY LIFE writing their story.

The series mixes romance with politics and murder and includes a rich cast of secondary characters who are prominently featured. I was once told you absolutely cannot write a romance series featuring the same couple in every book. Well, um, yes I can! And yes, I did! The readers seem to be really embracing Sam and Nick, which is absolutely thrilling. (Read more about the series, including my "Oh Yes I Can" post/rant at www.mariesullivanforce.com/TheFatalSeries.php.)

PC: How is it different writing about the same couple from book to book as compared to having a different couple for each book? Do you ever worry that you'll grow bored with the characters or that the story will grow stale?

MF: Another great question! Are you a reporter or something? ;-) I've written three books in this series and the wedding novella, and have yet to be even sort of bored by these characters. Knowing I was hoping for a long-running series with them, I made sure to set them up with interesting jobs in a fascinating city with tons of conflict built into their relationship from the get-go. They both have complex back stories with lots of issues and challenges that will be ever-present in their life together.

In addition, I'm featuring at least one secondary character prominently in every book. Sam's Bible-thumping, virginal partner Freddie Cruz has on ongoing story that I have big plans for in Book 4. Sam's colleague Detective Tommy "Gonzo" Gonzales is dating Nick's chief of staff Christina Billings, which is an interesting thing to write from Sam's point of view. She hates having her personal and professional lives bumping up against each other, so at first she is furious about Gonzo dating Nick's top staffer.

There's also an overarching storyline that features Sam's quest to find the person who shot her father and left him a quadriplegic. And even though Skip Holland is confined to a wheelchair, he still finds romance, too. I have a blockbuster story in mind for him in an upcoming book that I can't wait to write. So no, boredom is not an issue—at least not yet.

I give Nora Roberts credit for sharing the secret to writing a long-running series that features the same couple. When I was first contemplating this series, I worked up the nerve to ask her how she keeps Eve and Roarke's romance hot after so many books when I attended her chat at RWA National. Her answer was simple and has stayed with me ever since: "They're young, they're hot, they're hot for each other." In other words, keep it hot and you'll keep it going. Words to live by!

PC: As I mentioned above, your books have been catching some buzz on RBL Romantica, where readers love hot stories. How would you rate the sensuality of your own books?

MF: My books are pretty hot. They're not as hot as some, but there's plenty of sexy scenes in every book. In fact, when I was reading the galleys for Everyone Loves a Hero, I wondered what I'd been smoking when I wrote that book because it is, well, smoking! LOL! I write under my REAL name, so sometimes I worry about that, but whatever. People have sex. Big whoop, right? I'm just glad readers are enjoying them. I do have an erotica that's out on submission right now that I'd probably write under a pen name if it sells. We'll see!

PC: What do you have planned after the conclusion of the Fatal series?

MF: I'm not much of a planner, so I have no idea. I do hope to write the Fatal books for some time to come—at least for as long as they're still fun for me to write and readers still enjoy them. My other plans include some sequels to my earlier contemporaries, Line of Scrimmage and Love at First Flight, which readers have repeatedly requested. I'm all about giving the people what they want!

Thanks so much for the great questions, Pamela! I really enjoyed answering them.

PC: And I enjoyed getting to know you. I love it when readers bring writers together, which is more or less what happened here. I know you're on deadline now, so happy writing, and thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to chat with us!

And now let's open it up to a discussion—and prizes! Marie will be giving away one copy of Everyone Loves a Hero and one copy of Fatal Affair to two people who post comments.

I apologize to Marie for any typos. My celibate helper monkeys have the day off...

Coming up soon:

I-Team Reading Challenge: Unlawful Contact discussion

I-Team trivia (and it's going to be brutal this time)

And there are four I-Team heroes who might be persuaded to make a visit...

As I said on Facebook, Zach is tied up right now, so he won't be able to join us, but Reece, Julian, Marc and Gabe might.

EXTRA: For Julian fans and those who love Hard Evidence, here's a link to an old interview that I did when the book was released. I dredged it up because a reader on Facebook asked about the Darcangelo mentioned in the acknowledgments. Well, the namesake for Julian is the man who did the interview. There's a bit of deep trivia for you... Click here to read that interview. The interview is rated R for strong language, feminist deconstruction of sexuality and cynicism.

MTM — The Chest Hair Edition (UPDATED with NEWS)

Happy Monday!

Every once in a while, I get tired of manscaping. Not that I like super-hairy guys. I don't want to worry about getting my lover's chest hair stuck in my teeth. But seeing men with chests that look as smooth as baby's behinds... It gets old after a while.

After all, one of the differences between men and women is body hair. A man with a well-toned body and a nice amount of chest hair is delight to hold and touch. Of course, each woman has her idea of what that nice amount of chest hair is.

Still, we at MTM decided to take the risk and put up some photos that we think fall within the bounds of sexy, featuring man-titty that is not only nice and cut, but also natural.

Above, is one example — a man with great pecs and abs and with natural hair that covers just his pecs and upper chest. The hair isn't so thick you could braid it, but it's good and truly there, just the same.



This is one of my personal faves. I shared him way back at the beginning of MTM. He was something of an inspiration for Gabe because, well, he's hanging.

I'm not sure what I see that makes me so crazy for this photo. Nice hair on his chest and lower belly. Nice hair in his armpits. Definitely masculine and well muscled.

I just wish I could touch! Could Apple get working on a real TOUCH screen soon, please?


We try each week to offer a man with a less ripped body for those of you who like the poet look. This fine fellow, who appears about to drop his towel (oh, please?) is both lean and has his natural body hair from his well defined pecs to his... towel.

Yum!



Here's a man with a perfect body who also has the perfect amount of hair on his chest and down below. We only get a glimpse of hair at his unbuttoned fly, but it's enough to make me want to see more. Now. Yes, now would be fine.



For those of you who like a bit more muscle and a bit more hair, here's a gentleman who is ripped and masculine, with a lot of dark hair on his chest and lower belly. One does not look at his chest and think, "I wonder if he waxes?" One looks and thinks of running one's fingers through his chest hair. (Or maybe some of you are wishing he would wax.)


Here's a sexy gentleman. I had to crop it because the original photo shows everything. And every inch of him is as luscious as what you're seeing here. This guy is pretty much perfect in my book — masculine with defined muscles and the purrfect amount of chest hair. He looks like he could be a real man and not someone who spends his life in the gym.

Follow that groove in his abdomen down to that thatch of dark hair... Yes, that's what I had to cut out. You can see, however, that I did let the view go as far south as I safely could.

And, as a bonus this week, two celebs with chest hair...



Hugh Jackman, baby. Chest hair. Muscles. Man. What woman doesn't want to get wild with Wolverine?

And...

Gerard Butler, every woman's favorite Scotsman.

Now, can there be any doubt that a bit of hair on a sexy chest is a good thing?

And here's my big news: Naked Edge was voted Best Romantic Suspense of 2010 in All About Romance's annual reader poll. This is a first for me, and I cannot tell you how amazed and stunned and honored I am. Thanks to all of you who voted! Go check out the results and read author responses, as well as AAR's commentary.

In the meantime, I hope your ovaries are warmed up and cheerful. This even made me feel better. I got nailed by a bad migraine yesterday that won't give up. So I'm headed back to bed.

Happy Monday, everyone!

MTM — The Chest Hair Edition

Happy Monday!

Every once in a while, I get tired of manscaping. Not that I like super-hairy guys. I don't want to worry about getting my lover's chest hair stuck in my teeth. But seeing men with chests that look as smooth as baby's behinds... It gets old after a while.

After all, one of the differences between men and women is body hair. A man with a well-toned body and a nice amount of chest hair is delight to hold and touch. Of course, each woman has her idea of what that nice amount of chest hair is.

Still, we at MTM decided to take the risk and put up some photos that we think fall within the bounds of sexy, featuring man-titty that is not only nice and cut but also natural.

Above, is one example — a man with great pecs and abs and with natural hair that covers just his pecs and upper chest. The hair isn't so think you could braid it, but it's good and truly there, just the same.



This is one of my personal faves. I shared him way back at the beginning of MTM. He was something of an inspiration for Gabe because, well, he's hanging.

I'm not sure what I see that makes me so crazy for this photo. Nice hair on his chest and lower belly. Nice hair in his armpits. Definitely masculine and well muscled.

I just wish I could touch! Could Apple get working on a real TOUCH screen soon, please?


We tray each week to offer a man with a less ripped body for those of you who like the poet look. This fine fellow, who appears about to drop his towel (oh, please?) is both lean and has his natural body hair from his well defined pecs to his... towel.

Yum!



Here's a man with a perfect body who also has the perfect amount of hair on his chest and down below. We only get a glimpse of hair at his unbuttoned fly, but it's enough to make me want to see more. Now. Yes, now would be fine.



For those of you who like a bit more muscle and a bit more hair, here's a gentleman who is ripped and masculine, with a lot of dark hair on his chest and lower belly. One does not look at his chest and think, "I wonder if he waxes?" One looks and thinks of running one's fingers through his chest hair. (Or maybe some of you are wishing he would wax.)


Here's a sexy gentleman. I had to crop it because the original photo shows everything. And every inch of him is as luscious as what you're seeing here. This guy is pretty much perfect in my book — masculine with defined muscles and the purrfect amount of chest hair. He looks like he could be a real man and not someone who spends his life in the gym.

Follow that groove in his abdomen down to that thatch of dark hair... Yes, that's what I had to cut out. You can see, however, that I did let the view go as far south as I safely could.

And, as a bonus this week, two celebs with chest hair...



Hugh Jackman, baby. Chest hair. Muscles. Man. What woman doesn't want to get wild with Wolverine?

And...

Gerard Butler, every woman's favorite Scotsman.

Now, can there be any doubt that a bit of hair on a sexy chest is a good thing?

I hope your ovaries are warmed up ad cheerful. Happy Monday, everyone!

And watch for my big news later today! You might hear buzz about it elsewhere on the 'net... But I'll be back before too long to share the word. I've kept it a secret for a week!

I-Team Reading Challenge — Hard Evidence chat

So how many of you have made it through Hard Evidence either for the first or second time?

Before we go on, just let me warn you that there are spoilers here. Reader beware!

This was my second attempt to write romantic suspense. The story grew out of a cover story that I wrote about the hideous, dark topic of sex trafficking and sex slavery. It was a really distressing article to write. But what stood out for me when I worked on it was that the men and women who worked to combat this crime sometimes have to pose as the monsters they're trying to bring down. I knew it was dangerous work. But what concerned me most was the damage it would do to a human being's soul.

And with that realization, Julian Darcangelo came into my mind. Like Nicholas Kenleigh from Ride the Fire, he stepped into my imagination more or less fully developed. I knew who he was, what he'd been through, how it affected him. Just like Nicholas, the dark emotion underpinning his story felt like very rich emotional material for me.

I'm not sure why I find inspiration in my characters' misery, but there you have it. When I do workshops, I always tell people that I know I have my characters down when I understand their pain.

Thinking in retrospect, some of Julian's über-alpha personality might be a result of my reaction to readers' and reviewers' responses to Reece. "A politician hero? You're kidding! How stupid!" Never having read romantic suspense before I wrote Extreme Exposure, that novel was probably my most pure, un-influenced notion of what I thought romantic suspense was. But mostly it was just Julian being Julian.

He had to be beyond tough to endure the life he'd lived and to have succeeded at his career. But he was also very emotionally wounded, and we had a discussion not too long ago about where that led him — to a scene that one reader-reviewer on Amazon called rape. I thought some of you made some really amazing comments — things I hadn't considered or put into words quite that way. (Have I told you lately that I love you?)

While reactions to Tessa were mixed, most readers went into heat over Julian. So what was it? His swagger? The five rounds to the vest? The sucky-swirly thing? The reaction took me by surprise. I just wrote what was in my head, and then I got e-mails full of drool. (Not that it bothered me, mind you. I just check e-mail with a sponge nowadays...)

Scenes I loved writing... Anything having to do with Julian's background. The scene in the stairwell where he kisses Tessa for real. When he arrests her. The shooting range when she freaks out and he carries her to the break room. ("Coke or Pepsi?" he asks. "Okay," she says.) The sex scenes. Tessa's scenes with her mother.

Speaking of which... I was working on the reunion scene between Tessa and her mother in a coffee shop. Tessa wakes up, sees her mom and... I started bawling. In a coffee house! I made a couple trips to the bathroom to staunch my tears and yell at myself in the mirror. But then I realized it was hopeless. I'm not sure why that scene affected me like that, but the idea of these two women, both of them strong in their own way, both victims of an unspeakable crime and other violence finally connecting...

So what were your favorite scenes and quotes? For those of you who are on your 5th time through the story, are there aspects of the story that strike you differently as you re-read it? And for you members of Team Julian, what is it that you love so much about him?

And what specifically does the sucky-swirly thing entail, Ronlyn? You said you asked Julian. Let's hear what he said. Or maybe I can get him in here to tell us himself. And, yes, this is something you'll want to try at home.


Help promote Breaking Point: If you want to run an ad like the one to your right (scroll up a bit) for Breaking Point on your blog or website, please let me know. Anyone who runs the ad on her blog will be entered into a separate and exclusive drawing for a signed copy of the book. The ad, which I think is super-sexy, was designed by Jennifer of Sapphire Dreams, and we'll be happy to provide it and directions on how to upload to to anyone. Feel free to share with friends and help word about the book to go viral! The more friends who share it, the more chance you have to win.

Also, watch this blog for big news next week. No, no hints.