I’m a little behind the eight ball in putting the cart before the horse here (ahem) because I couldn’t wait for my blog to catch up to my progress! I’m in the last stages of getting my new book, Close Up Magic, ready for readers, and I’m super excited about this one. It’s not that it’s deep or has anything to do with anything real in my life. In fact, it’s a pretty superficial, straightforward romance. And it’s set in Las Vegas, not North Carolina!

Every book I’ve published so far is a story that wanted to be written. I often feel like I have very little to do with them other than fixing a word or two here and there. I hear other writers talk about the “craft” of writing, and I try to relate it to the process I go through. I don’t create story arcs. I create the characters and they tell me their stories. I’ve found that the further I delve into what makes my characters tick, the easier their stories are to tell.

I may be digressing, but that’s what I went through for Close Up Magic, so I’m going to leave it. The moment I decided to write a romance with a magician hero, Andre Hawke began to form in my mind. Because of my lifelong crush on David Copperfield, he started out looking like a young David, but before I knew it, his eyes changed color, he gained weight, got brawnier…all good stuff, no insult intended to Mr. Copperfield, who remains the epitome of a magician in my mind. I gave Andre quite a colorful family background (and yes, he hails from North Carolina. I had to get that little tribute to my home state in!), and of course, nothing can bring on trouble and controversy quite like family!

Bring on brassy, sexy, hard-boiled reporter Stacey Matthewson. She’s the type of reporter I always wished I could be, but I was too timid and accommodating to do manage it. Stacey knows what it takes to get her story, and she’s willing to do it, even when it comes to exposing her own idol’s darkest secrets. Stacey hasn’t had much reason to believe in magic in her lifetime. She’s got family problems of her own, a career that may be going down the wrong path and one last chance to redeem herself. But then Andre Hawke, the only man who’s ever persuaded her to believe in magic, offers her a chance to go another way, and she finds she’d rather help him than get another story. And that’s just the beginning of their story.

For the next couple months, I’ll be writing and thinking and breathing magic around here, and I’ll probably be posting a couple of excerpts from Close Up Magic, too, but if you can’t wait, click on the cover picture and you’ll be magically transported to a preview, featuring the first half of the first chapter of Close Up Magic.