Hi Barbara! Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us. I am very excited about this opportunity to chat with you today and I know the readers out there are too.


First of all, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I have been married a LONG time and have two grown children, Cassie and Tom, who make me very proud. I have pet allergies, yet we have a cat that will probably outlive me, and 2 dogs. We live in a college town and our house sits on a hill overlooking a lake, which has been the inspiration for more than one story. I collect pottery and have even made some myself. My favorite piece is a large planter made by a 78-year-old woman. That’s going to be me in the years to come.

When did you first try your hands at writing? Was there a certain moment or time that you can remember that you said…’I want to be an author’?

I recently found a story I wrote when I was about 8 or 9. It was called “The Jewel Filled Jar” and was a mystery. I even designed a cover and everything (crayon was the medium of choice at that age!) I told my husband to keep it – it could be worth millions when I die!

When I was about 8, I learned to slalom water ski and since I was left-handed I did it opposite of most people. So I decided to write a book to help other left-handers learn to water ski. Needless to say, it didn’t sell. I have always written poems and stories, but it wasn’t until about 1987 that I began serious novel writing and that was squeezed in between raising the kids and working full time.

How do you like to spend your time when you are not writing? Do these hobbies end up in any of your stories?

I’m a crafty person and have made candles and woven baskets, made pottery and quilts, and my latest craze is creating fused glass pieces. While I haven’t used these things in any books, other parts of my personality show up in my writing. For example, I have an ebook called NEVADA GOLD (time travel romance) coming out from Double Dragon Publishing, and the heroine has a few of my characteristics, which is probably why she gets into trouble! I also swim 5 days a week, and I wrote a whole story (in my head) while doing laps in the pool. The heroine in that story loves to swim, so of course I had to give the hero a pool!

Recently, you had a story entitled Fantasies Delivered released through Whiskey Creek Press Torrid. This story is the beginning of a trilogy following three brothers as they find the one that makes their fantasies come true. In Fantasies Delivered, Gage walks away from everything only to find everything where he least expected. What was your favorite part of this story?

Since Keva is a romance editor, Gage feels the best way to get to her is to pen his own manuscript, so he starts sending her chapters of “Love Slave” by Priscilla McVee. (Of course he has to write under a psudonym.) He then proceeds to make the fantasies he writes about come true for Keva and him. In a way, Fantasies Delivered is a story within a story, and that was fun to write. In fact, “Gage” may very well have to go back and complete “Love Slave” one of these days!

Following Fantasies Delivered release comes the second installment in this trilogy, Fantasy Road, which features Gage’s brother, Chase. This story is also being published through Whiskey Creek Press Torrid and scheduled for release in July 2006. Having just finished reading this story, I can tell you that Chase’s personality is one that readers will love. What is your favorite aspect about Chase and Katie Jo?

I absolutely fell in love with Chase! He is a defender of lost and wounded creatures and has the patience of a saint. That’s why he was so perfect for Katie Jo. She needed someone to understand she had been hurt and to help her learn to trust and find her heart again. Here’s the blurb about Fantasy Road:

Chase McVicker owns fifteen limousine companies and occasionally acts as chauffeur. Katie Jo Hawthorne is hiding out from an ex-husband as she tries to find the reason behind her father's death, and she’s more interested in the previous owner of one particular limo than she is its current driver. That is, until she gets sidetracked when Chase shows her ways to utilize a stretch limo that makes her fantasies come true. But when they discover someone is tracking her movements, it takes more than Chase's driving ability to save them from the bad guys and all of his passion to save Katie from herself.

In both of the first two stories, the youngest brother, Travis, makes an appearance. I can only hope that the last installment is about him. Can you give us a hint or glimpse of what Travis has in store for him? (grin)

Don’t you just love it? These brothers just kept popping up in each others lives, plus they are great about helping each other out. In Travis’ story, called Fantasies Undercover, Gage, Chase and the whole McVicker family show up here and there. When Travis asks his brothers for love advice, it brings out the best qualities of all three men, and their humor, of course! Here’s the cover blurb for Fantasies Undercover:

Travis McVicker, a reporter for a Boston newspaper, focuses most of his attention on undercover exposés of corrupt businesses. Currently, though, he would rather be under the covers with Morgan Gentry, a former classmate who has started to work at the same paper. In the midst of discovering a passion they had felt but never consummated years before, Morgan becomes involved in a dangerous scheme to expose a group of corrupt doctors and it takes every investigative skill Travis has to find her before it’s too late.

Per your website, I see that you also have a story, Madame Bianca’s Diary, coming out in an anthology book entitled Spring Flings. What was it like working with so many other authors to create one book? Do you find it easy to write a short story to add to others in order to create a large story or to write an entire novel as a stand-alone?

I have written short stories (about 8,000 words) and full length (100,000 words). It’s definitely harder writing a short story because you have to really pack the pages full of characterization and action – you can’t use three pages to describe a dinner. In the past, I haven’t written a length manuscript because of the market. I write the story and it ends when it’s finished, so some of my novels are 45,000 and some are 125,000 words!

The great thing about writing short stories for Whiskey Creek Press Torrid was that it taught me to make every word count. I found I could actually say something in four words instead of taking twenty to do it.

All the anthologies that I have been fortunate enough to be part of for Whiskey Creek are ten individual stories rather than a continuity story. The theme for each of the WCP Torrids is a season – Winter Wishes (available now), Spring Flings (available now), Summer Sizzlers (out in July) and Fall Fires (out in October). So all the stories are based during that season, but each of us have very different story lines. Some are contemporary, some historical, and the sensuality levels vary, too. Anthologies of short stories are so wonderful because it allows our readers to sample our writing, and they can read an entire story if they only have a little time between tasks.

Can you give a brief overview of Madame Bianca’s Diary? I see it is set in New Orleans. Have you visited New Orleans?

I have visited New Orleans on several occasions and love the town and the people! In this story, stuffy New York business tycoon Peter A Myerson, IV, comes to New Orleans to claim his inheritance and finds instead a sultry contractor named CJ who has just enough voodoo background to know he wants more than the house she is remodeling. When they find his great-aunt’s diary, they are caught up in an explosive passion triggered from another era and Peter finds he is willing to trade all the stock in his portfolio for a lifetime of love with CJ in the hot Louisiana bayou.

To date, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your writing?

There’s no bigger thrill than to see you name on the cover of a book, but even before that, I think it’s personally rewarding to know that I actually accomplished that! It’s similar to when I put all the pieces of glass together for a fused glass plate and see the end result. Another rewarding aspect is when a reader says “wow, I really loved your story.”

Do you have any special routine or ritual when you write?

I drink lots of coffee! Many authors will tell you that to be good you have to write every day. Unfortunately, I can’t always do that. Some days I don’t write at all, and others I’ll write 50 pages without stopping. My story notes may be on everything from a dinner napkin to a wedding invitation, but when I actually write the story, it’s strictly on the computer.

If you could visit any location, where would you go and who would you want to take with you?

We visited Scotland for a week in September, so that was the place for that month! I love to travel and am fortunate that I get to, although not as often as I would like. Husband, me, son and wife, and daughter and fiancée just decided that’s where we wanted to go, and did it. I have come to the conclusion that life is too short not to go where you want and see the world. Notice I didn’t say ‘if you have the time’ because you just have to make the time. When our kids were younger, they hated family vacations. My daughter said that changed when they turned 21 and could drink!

In speaking with other authors, I have learned that most authors are avid readers. Do you have a favorite author, someone on your ‘buy immediate list’?

Gosh, where to start with the list? I love Julie Garwood, Catherine Coulter and Amanda Quick. Basically I’m an historical romance fan.

Can you tell your fans something about you they would never guess?

I can shoot a black powder gun, throw a tomahawk and start a fire with flint and steel. If I was ever thrown back into the 1840’s, I’d probably have a decent chance of surviving until I found a hero who would take care of me, of course.

Can we get a teaser for what else you are working on right now? (grin)

I loved writing contemporary romance, but I also love the slower paced historical period. I have an historical submitted now to WCP with a feisty heroine and a macho sheriff where the sparks are constantly flying.

Then, for probably the last ten years, I’ve had a fascination for the Steamboat Arabia, a sunken riverboat that was found and unearthed near Kansas City. They have a wonderful museum and are restoring all the cargo they found. From the beginning, I thought it would make the perfect setting for a time travel, don’t you?

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

When I ‘met’ Gage McVicker, he had five brothers – Gordon, John & Michael (twins), Chase and Travis. Gordon is a lawyer and Mike’s a doctor, and both are older and married with lots of kids. John seems to be the loner, and I haven’t seen much of him. He tried the marriage thing and it didn’t work out, and I sometimes wonder if there’s more to him than I know. If I can’t find out from one of the other brothers, I may have to go pound on his door and shake up his world.

Thank you so much for stopping by Barbara. It has been a pleasure chatting with you.

Thanks, Jessica, and Fallen Angel Reviews for giving me the chance to visit with readers. If I’m not writing stories, I love talking writing!

Readers if you have not had the opportunity to read any of Barbara’s remarkable romances; be sure to visit her website to see what you are missing. I look forward to reading your next story, Barbara.

Interviewed by: Jessica