Amazon reviews–sigh! Who can guess what’s going to push readers’ buttons? I think my male readers are frustrated that the books are more romantic than they want? I don’t care because I’m not going to change. And some people wanted me to wrap it up in book 3 because they don’t want to invest that much time in more books! I want to email back and tell them to look up the word “SERIES.” And some readers are furious because Wesley is acting so badly, and I want to scream, “He’s 19 years old! His parents abandoned him! He’s going to make a lot of mistakes!”

I finally stopped reading reviews–if they stop buying the books, they’re going to miss some good stuff! But frankly, I don’t think they’ll stop buying the books. Evanovich gets lousy reader reviews and her books go like gangbusters…it’s just a few people blowing off steam. It’s like if you watch a TV series, but you don’t like one episode, are you goign to stop watching? Probably not. I strive to make each book a different reading experience; I don’t expect every book will be everyone’s favorite, but I hope that book will speak to someone that my previous books didn’t. On some level I’m surprised that readers are so invested in the series that things the characters do make them “furious.” I want to say, “Gee, folks–this is fiction!”

The BODY MOVERS series is really about a sister-brother due who move bodies. Carlotta is the main character, and after sacrifing her 20s to raise her younger brother Wesley after their parents abandoned them (her father committed a white collar crime and skipped town), she now has 3 men in her life: the cop who arrested her brother for hacking into the city computer and who reopens her parents’ case, her brother’s body-moving boss (when Carlotta gave her brother the ulitmatum to get a job, she didn’t dream it would be moving bodies for the morgue), and her first love who dumped her ten years ago when her family scandal broke, but is back in her life trying to make amends.

You’ll get mostly Carlotta’s point of view, with a little of her brother Wesley’s only because I think it’s important we see her through someone’s eyes. And Wesley has his own problems!

Each BODY MOVERS book deals with the same characters–the romance hasn’t yet been resolved.

Actually, I see Body Movers as one big long romance…but since the romance isn’t resolved at the end of the book, the publisher can’t put romance on the spine!

I hope you’ll check them out, Karen! Enjoy!

I used to dictate into a small tape recorder when I had a corporate job and a long commute–it helped me get out extra pages when I got home. But now that I’m never in a car (we moved to Midtown Atlanta and I don’t drive–hurray!) I haven’t dictated in ages. And I don’t write long-hand unless I’m on a plane making notes. I really think faster when my hands on are a keyboard!

The big difference in Temptation and Blaze is that the Blazes have to have an inherently sexy premise–sexual awakening, one-night stand, seduction, etc.–whereas Temptation could be about anything, with a little sex thrown in. The Temptation line actually offered more flexibility for story lines, but when the Blaze mini-series within Temptation was introduced, sales skyrocketed for those books. So Harlequin was smart to introduce the Blaze line to match the demand…they just didn’t realize that Blaze would cannibalize the sales of Temptation. And authors were happy to have more pages to explore storylines and subplots in Blaze, but that’s disappeared with the cut in wordcount…now Blazes are exactly the same size that Temptations were!

Thanks for asking what’s in store for BODY MOVERS! Books 4-6 that will come out back to back this spring will introduce a serial killer called The Charmed KIller who leaves a charm in the mouth of each of his victims. There’s a contained mystery in each book, but the serial killer mystery arcs over all 3 books–and there’s still the overall storylines of where are the fugitive parents? And which guy will Carlotta choose to be with? Of course Wesley manages to get himself im more trouble, too. There’s a LOT going on in these 3 books! (I don’t mind admitting they were difficult to write.)

Love the idea of you using your eBook reader on the treadmill! I’m getting ready to go read on the stationery bike!

I’m so glad to hear a Temptation author agree with me. I can only take so much sex in a book! ROFL! I like more all the way around. But then I often do read the sexier books when I’m looking for the more sex, less talk. Okay, so I’m not really a confused reader, but if a book is good, it’s good. I don’t mind what line. I just wonder if some of the Blaze books couldn’t be more balanced. Then again, it wouldn’t be the “sexy” line of Harlequin, then, would it?

Anyway, the kiddies are getting there and I’ve finally gotten caught up on some blog moderation items. Hence the posts that just pushed through and posted today.

Talk to you again soon! And thank you for visiting with us!

Heather R.