Thanks so much to Marisa and the RNTV gang for having me here! To celebrate the release of my first novel Can’t Stand the Heat, I’ve got a very cool culinary-themed gift package to give away. There’s a CStH apron, a set of red rubber spatulas, and a cookbook featuring some of my recipes alongside recipes from today’s top chefs! I’m trying to get excited about the end of summer, so to enter the drawing, leave your favorite fall recipe in a comment below. Good luck!

When I tell people I write contemporary romance, I usually get a slightly surprised “Oh! Well, good for you!” kind of reaction. In some cases, this is clearly a (scandalized? titillated? intrigued?) reaction to the word “romance.”  But amongst romance readers and writers, that same…

Thanks for having me as a guest at RNTV!  In honor of this month’s awesome theme, I’m going to introduce some of my own secondary characters.  Both Crash Into Me and Set the Dark on Fire feature teen romance subplots.

Hurts so good

I like to write about teenagers because I love angst.  Seriously, I can’t get enough of it.  There’s nothing more cathartic than a good tearjerker.  I want to cry along with the characters, and laugh with them, too.  In a romance novel, I feel more satisfied when a boatload of heartache comes before the happily ever after.

As an awkward adolescent and a rebellious teenager, I experienced my share of angst.  This time period stands out in my mind as an intensely difficult one.  I did a lot of stupid, dangerous…

Well, actually, I was masquerading at the “Con” as a Paranormal Thriller writer. So the experience was less Alice In Wonderland than it sounds. Though I did see the Mad Hatter while I was there…

And there was this great group of kids rocking a Harry Potter theme. They’d vamped it up with a Gossip Girl flair. How cool is that! Tons of fans were showing their Star Wars luv, wearing awesome costumes. I even saw an killer R2D2 replica. There were so many amazing characters and aliens and creatures of the night. People roaming the halls and ballrooms and lobbies in full makeup and costume 24/7. It was a non-stop spectacle that I can’t describe in words. So, here are a few pics to get you in the mood ;o)…

If you ask my husband or anyone in my family, they’ll tell you I’m a major pain in the butt to watch a movie with. I can’t help it. I’m a writer—and I therefore think like one, always plotting. I’m also an avid reader, with suspense/horror/thrillers being among my favorite books. Finally, I’m also very competitive…I like being challenged,  playing a mental game against the movie makers to see if I can figure things out before they want me to.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t figure everything out. Heaven help me if the kids aren’t home and I try to figure out how to set the TV and DVD player so I can actually watch and hear a movie at the same time. But once that movie’s on, I am…

There’s been much discussion about what constitutes an urban fantasy book. We asked bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu, who writes both romance (the Dirk & Steele novels) and urban fantasy (the Hunter Kiss novels) to give us her definition.

See video below and let us know what you think urban fantasy is. We’ll be giving away an urban fantasy book to a random poster (you must live in the United States to qualify).

Welcome to RELEASE DAY and to the Strangely Beautiful Haunted London Blog Tour! Thank you RNTV for hosting me on this very, very special day. I appreciate all you do for our industry, Maria, Marisa, the reviewers and readers, it’s such an honor to be here.

For those of you just joining us, the purpose of this Haunted tour is to celebrate the release of my Gothic Victorian Fantasy Romance debut, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, first in the Strangely Beautiful series. This Tour will introduce you to some of the real, documented London haunts who “ghost-star” in my book. When Professor Alexi Rychman and his Guard of spectral police make their rounds, it is to any number of London phantasms. Since these characters are familiar to The Guard, I don’t get to tell their full story in the book. But here I can give them their due and show how they’ve inspired parts of the book. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win a signed copy!