Secrets of an Accidental Duchess (43 page)

I fell in love with classic movies at an early age. While other kids were watching MTV, I was sighing over Cary Grant or laughing at the antics of William Powell and Myrna Loy.

There was a fairytale aspect about these films—from the impeccable clothes and elegant manners to the gorgeous décor—that took me out of my own world and into a place of dreams. Much like a good romance novel, if you think about it.

Watching old Fred Astaire movies had me dreaming of living in New York City in an apartment done up in elegant shades of white.
It Happened One Night
had me yearning for a road caper with a handsome stranger. I coveted Marilyn Monroe’s pink satin dress in
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
… all right, her diamonds too! But hands down, my favorite aspect of classic movies was the dialogue.

Back in the 1930s and 40s, the tight rein of censorship turned scriptwriters into masters of innuendo. Dialogue back then wasn’t merely conversation; it was banter, the double entendre, a back-and-forth duel of words and wit. It was foreplay.

Therefore, it wasn’t any surprise to me that when I started writing my own stories, dialogue would play a key part in my characters’ relationships. Before the touches, there are the words.

In my novel FIRELIGHT, the verbal foreplay between my hero, Lord Benjamin Archer, and my heroine, Miranda Ellis, is particularly important. Archer hides his appearance behind masks, determined not to let Miranda see what lies beneath. In turn, Miranda hides her true nature behind the mask of her beauty. With so much hidden, they must rely on verbal communication to slip past their physical walls.

And so we have a dance of words. Words that say one thing but mean another. Words that test and tease. Words that make the sexual tension between Archer and Miranda burn hotter and hotter, until it can do nothing less than combust.

Hope you enjoy the heat,

Among the things I love best about small, rural towns are the events they hold. Some of these events commemorate national holidays, others celebrate civic pride. And still others, like festivals and county fairs, seem to be mostly about having a real good time.

You can find small-town events everywhere. Even in the suburban landscape around Washington, DC, small towns maintain their sense of identity through their festivals, fairs, and special days. Alexandria, Virginia, where I currently live, throws an annual birthday party for its hometown hero, George Washington. Imagine parading through the streets in the February cold and snow. Seems strange, but it’s a big annual event. It’s fun. And my kids have fond memories of marching in that parade as members of their scout troops.

So it should come as no surprise that, when creating the world of Last Chance, I made sure to give it a festival complete with a parade, a barbecue, dancing, games of chance, and carnival rides. What better place to turn the matchmaking church ladies of Last Chance loose? The fact that they set up a kissing booth to raise money for a good cause should come as no surprise to anyone. Of course, I couldn’t let the women have all the fun, so I also gave the local men a demolition derby where they could wreck cars to their hearts’ content.

It was a lot of fun to send a member of the British aristocracy off to attend Last Chance’s Watermelon Festival. Since my hero comes from a small village in the UK where they light bonfires on Samhain, Lord Woolham surprises the locals by taking to my county fair like a duck to water.

His Lordship enjoys his visit to Last Chance so much that he decides to stay. I hope you enjoy your visit too.

I have been a fan of the paranormal since I was a kid. My teenaged years were spent watching re-runs of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in those wonderful Hammer horror films. When Frank Langella played Dracula and later on Gerard Butler… whoa! Tall, dark, and sexy won the day, except… those Draculas were evil. While I don’t mind an evil vampire every now and again (they keep us on our toes, right?), I highly prefer them to be one of the good guys. Or at least a reforming bad guy who’s struggling against his inner big bad.

When I first came up with the concept of an interdimensional rift being the origin of Earth’s creatures of lore, excitement at the wonder and unlimited potential of such a world made me giddy. And it takes a lot to make me giddy. But a lonely, hot-bodied vampire named Tobias was my first indication that my gleefulness wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

Add a feisty heroine who’s part demon, part human, and full-on furious with this yummy vamp, and you have all sorts of fun as each of them fights their feelings for the other, determined to keep their relationship on a professional level while they investigate a string of murders.

Yeah. Like that ever works—in fiction, at least. We want our characters to be heroic, but flawed. And you can’t get much more flawed than when you fall in love and completely complicate your life.

My website has some extras from KISS OF THE VAMPIRE: a deleted scene, a map showing where the bodies were found as well as an X-marks-the-spot where the final battle took place, a page of Nix’s investigative notes, and a brief interview with Tobias Caine.

Look for Dante and Tori’s story in my upcoming
Secret of the Wolf
.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Happy Reading!