This is a new feature I'm trying out. When I get questions — about anything — I'm going to try to answer them on Wednesday. :)

So here's this week's question from a lovely fan:

What author and book turned you on to this genre [romance / contemporary romance]?

My first romance novel was Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey. I picked out that book because I was “forced” to read romance on a dare. A high school friend told me romance was great, and I told her it couldn't possibly be any good when all the covers had half-naked men and women in semi-orgasmic states of…whatever.

But since I wanted to be “open-minded” about it (haha…), I went to the local library and browsed the paperback romance section, all the while hoping that nobody who knew me would see me there. (I sort of ducked and hid between the stacks.) I picked Gentle Rogue because had the cheesiest cover of all the romance novels available. I was convinced it'd suck and and I would be proven right–that romance novels were poorly written.

Except…I got totally sucked into it. I read all the Johanna Lindsey romance novels I could find, then went onto read more historical romance novels. I became addicted to Julie Garwood and Judith McNaught's historicals.

It wasn't until a few years later that I read Nora Roberts' Born in Fire, which I thought was good, even though it wasn't historical. (I just had this incredible bias for historical romance novels at that time.) I think I read something like fifty Nora Roberts contemporary romance novels along with Judith McNaught's contemporaries.

Then later I decided to try my hand at writing contemporary romance. I just don't think I'd be any good at writing historicals because I don't have the patience to do the necessary research, and I'm pretty sure I'd mess it up. :)

If have any questions about me, my writing, books, characters or anything else, feel free to drop me a line by leaving me a comment, using the contact form or via Facebook or Twitter. I reserve the right not to answer if the topic happens to be politics or religion. But anything else is more or less fair game. Thanks! :)

Amazon US Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love
Amazon UK Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love
Apple US Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love
Apple UK Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love
Barnes & Noble Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love
Kobo Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love
ARe Reunited in Love :: Redemption in Love

— Also available on all other Amazon and Apple international stores.

Hurry – the deal ends on April 13.

This is too cute not to share. And Jet Li… :heart:

This is a new feature I'm trying out. When I get questions — about anything — I'm going to try to answer them on Wednesday. :)

So here's the third one for the feature from a lovely fan:

How much research do you do per book, if any (by that, I mean location and so on)?

Oh it totally depends. Sometimes I do a lot if some detail is important, but sometimes just a little is enough.

Let's tell you what I mean.

There are a few locations like cafes and parks in Reunited in Love and Redemption in Love. Exactly what chain / brand they are and the precise location aren't particularly important to the plot or character growth / emotions. So I just say it's near so-and-so's place and maybe do some high-level description to set the scene.

Sometimes places I've been to inspire me to set certain parts of the story in that locale. For example, Kerri's old job was in Hong Kong. I went to Hong Kong for a few days to visit some i-banking friends, so I drew on that a bit. (And i-bankers work insane hours…)

And if you're a long-time follower of my blog, you might have noticed that Hero Material and went to Thailand for our honeymoon. Guess where Gavin and Amandine have their second honeymoon? ;) I had to set it there because I absolutely loved Thailand. As a matter of fact, we’re going back next year with The Boy.

But when I was writing an SF thriller with romantic elements (still unfinished, alas), I actually had to figure out how each character would get to certain places and how long it'd take. Why? Because if I want to have the Villain to hatch some evil plot in Location A, I better make sure that the Villain has enough time to get there and set things up. Otherwise I'm going to hear from annoyed readers. And I had to make sure that the science tech I was using was, if not actually possible at the moment, at least somewhat plausible. :)

Oh and for the current book I'm working on (Mark Pryce and Hilary Rosenberg's romance), I had to watch a few videos of girl fights and something else (I can't talk about it because I don't want to spoil the story!). I'm not the most athletic type, and have never gotten into a fight like the one I'm writing, so I headed over to YouTube and watched some women duke it out.

Sometimes if the characters are involved in something finance/ economics-related, I don't have to do a lot of research because that's what I studied in college. They say you should write what you know… I think that's generally good advice and I try to leverage a lot of what I already have in my head.

Also I read a lot of articles and stuff from various newspapers, esp. the Wall Street Journal. One of those articles inspired Natalie's background / adoption story. I won't talk too much about it since that's a big spoiler. :) But if you want to discuss more, you're welcome to contact me privately via email or private FB group.

If have any questions about me, my writing, books, characters or anything else, feel free to drop me a line by leaving me a comment, using the contact form or via Facebook or Twitter. I reserve the right not to answer if the topic happens to be politics or religion. But anything else is more or less fair game. Thanks! :)

This is really beautifully executed. I love the music, her dress, the beautiful and fluid lines she creates with her movements.

I just got done with a very rough draft of Mark Pryce's and Hilary Rosenberg’' (Gavin Lloyd's executive administrative assistant — if I call her a “secretary” Mark's going to get mad lol) story. So while it's marinating, I'm treating myself to two days of taxes (fun!) and another day or two of reading.

(In case you're wondering what I'm planning to read, I downloaded a copy of Alphas After Dark.)

After a careful read-through, Mark & Hilary's story is going to be self-revised, then it's off to my editor. While she's working on the story, I'll be working on Meredith Lloyd's story, where I plan to reveal the whole secret / mystery surrounding her son Eric's paternity, plus pair her up with the super-sexy brother of her best friend. Oh and I'll have Forever in Love (Blaine Davis and Catherine Fairchild's story) proofread and formatted. I'm aiming to have it released on May 12. Don't forget to sign up for my mailing list if you want to get notified when it's available! :)

Several fans have asked me if they'll ever find out who's behind the embezzlement at The Lloyds Development. All that is answered in Forever in Love, I promise. :)