Mary Hughes

2T Repeat Performance - Do You Hear What I Hear

2026-06-09T09:46:00.015-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published February 6, 2014 for Magical Musings

Do You Hear What I Hear

My thanks to Edie Ramer and Magical Musings for having me here today!

Musicians are like cats—we don’t come when we’re called. In just a bit, I’ll tell you why.

We’re also a tad weird, and not only because, as Pat McCurdy sings in “I’m Artistic”, our clothes are blacker than yours. We’re wired differently.

Picture an mp3 player. See the ear buds? Plug them into your ears—and leave them there. Music on. Forever.

Now you know why we don’t always answer when we’re called, and why some of us float around like we’re in a state with legalized marijuana. We have tunage going through our heads 24/7. All radio, all the time.

The good news is, it makes us interesting authors. Smell, touch, taste. Sensory detail snaps a story to life. We put in lots of aural detail because we’re trained listeners. The foosh of the bazooka, the swish of the air going by on a kick are as natural as the word choice to capture the song that is a Welsh accent.

Speech is a marvel of music. Here’s an excerpt from Biting Nixie:

Bo’s words were a symphony of meaning. Detective had a lilt that told of deep affection. Bo said detective the way another man might have said sweetheart or love.

But the word gang had deep, ominous overtones.

One thing musicians and authors have in common—our aim is to give the audience an emotional ride. Ordinary flutist Rocky toots in an average community orchestra. Then conducting superstar Dragan Zajicek mounts the podium. From Downbeat, coming March 4.

Zajicek lifted his baton. An all-embracing sweep of his black gaze gathered our eyes up to him. We waited, our breath and very hearts in his fine hands, ready to leap to our deaths if he bid it.

He gave the downbeat.

Normally we crank out the first note of a rehearsal like a car grumbling to life on a sub-zero morning. We putter along well enough once we get going, melody recognizable, harmonies not so much. […]

Zajicek pulled music from us. We played better than ever before, better than we knew we could, swept along in a tide of almost perfect music.

Magic. That’s the only word that comes close. From our dross he spun emotional gold using only his fine hands. We responded with everything we had, everything we were.

Thanks for listening!

(Written to the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, playing in my head while the cat snoozed in the chair next to me. Edited to “I’m Artistic”, which became an earworm that ate out my brains. Luckily, people expect me to be a tad strange.

Striking the right note could shatter more than their hearts.

After an attack that slaughtered his family, vampire Dragan Zajicek walled off his heart and went on a sixteen-hundred-year rampage with the bad boys of history.

Now a rock star of the concert podium and master freelance spy, he’s taken the baton for a small orchestra near Chicago to investigate rumors of a monstrous, undefeatable vampire dubbed the Soul Stealer.

But it’s the lovely, unassuming Raquel “Rocky” Hrbek who mesmerizes him from the first touch of her luscious lips on her flute.

Rocky, a shy shadow scarred by middle school cruelty, is mystified as to why core-meltingly gorgeous Dragan would notice a mouse like her. As his stolen kisses draw her dangerously close to the edge of her carefully constructed comfort zone, he exposes her secret—she’s investigating the monster herself.

As their quest draws them closer together, the monster zeroes in on the woman Dragan’s rebellious heart tells him is his mate. Now they must find a way to destroy the indestructible before Rocky is utterly consumed. And Chicago is bathed in the blood of innocents.

Warning: Contains a master of seduction and symphonies, an awkward and innocent flutist, small-town humor, heart-stopping action, and an exodus to Iowa. Oh, and the cheese balls are ba-a-ack—and deadlier than ever.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Downbeat:

“May I accompany you, Ms. Hrbek?”

I jumped and nearly tripped. Zajicek caught my wrist to steady me. His fingers were long and slender but amazingly strong—and fiercely warm. Like iron filings to a magnet, my skin aligned instantly to him. Hot sensation juddered through me, knocking me even more off balance. I scrambled to regain my equilibrium, only to have my feet scud into one of the semi-vertical sidewalk stones. My flute bag slipped off my shoulder and nosedived into the crook of my arm, yanking me sideways. I went down.

Powerful arms wrapped around me and saved me from severe pavement burn. The arms were gentle righting me, and I stood in their comforting embrace a moment to get my breath back. A strong heart beat under my cheek. My palms pressed against warm, crisp cotton. The body under the cotton was a solid, cloth-covered cliff, so unlike my own soft limbs. I shivered.

“Are you all right, Ms. Hrbek?” Zajicek’s deep honeyed tones, tinged with amusement, came from somewhere over my head.

“Huh?” Not the snappiest of rejoinders but I was cheek-to-massive-chest with Dragan Zajicek, the posterboy I’d had the hots for half my life.

He was definitely not pasteboard now. The longer I stood there the more I felt. Every ridge of his taut abdomen, the roped muscles of his long thighs, the poke of his belt buckle; they all became alarmingly three-dimensional. His warm breath stirred my hair. Something else stirred too, at hip level…and silent laughter rippled through him.

My brain churned. The intimate way he held me made no sense, but the laughter, well, my clumsiness had lightened the room on more than one occasion.

Then Zajicek’s long fingers slid under my chin, raising my face. His brilliant eyes were shuttered by slumberous lids. I stared in bemusement as his face expanded in my vision…

His lips found mine.

Warm. Smooth. Exciting. “Some Enchanted Evening” sang through my right brain.

My left brain locked up in utter confusion. A man was kissing me. Zajicek was kissing me. The sum of my kissing experience was a slobbery grandmother and a few rushed awkward sexual encounters. I never really saw what the fuss was about. Until Zajicek.

2T Repeat Performance

2026-05-12T09:33:00.001-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published sometime in 2013 for Ali's Bookshelf

Thank you to Ali and Ali’s Bookshelf for having me here today!

Day in the Life of Mary Hughes

Rise and Shine: My husband’s the early riser. I’d sleep until 9 if he let me (before kids that was noon J ). He’s wonderful enough to bring me a cup of coffee (he says it’s in self-defense). The usual shower, etc.

Commute: Down the hallway to the office. Hug husband, who goes downstairs while I boot the computer. Husband, having gathered lunch and coat, appears at foot of stairs with “I love you”, to which I reply “I love you too! Drive safe.” I have to add the Drive Safe because he tends to use his knee to steer and has a following distance of three postage stamps. He leaves. I go into office and rattle the doorknob. Clingy cat runs in last minute and I shut the door and get on with my day.

Work: Email and online tasks. Then close all browsers—very important because Internets is Shiny—and write. The occasional game of Spider Solitaire clears my brain. Practice flute.

After work: Glass of wine or juice with dinner unless it’s Thursday, which is beer & pizza night. Relax with television, which is also a great way to experience visuals for writing stories. Brush both cats (if they let us).

What's on your Bookshelf

Fiction

Elizabeth Peters

Janet Evanovich

J.D. Robb

Rex Stout

David Eddings

Charles Stross

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Nonfiction

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Writing books enough to make the shelves sag.

3T Writing Tidbit - lucking fuvely wordplay

2026-05-09T08:30:00.001-05:00

April showers bring may flowers, and Mayflowers bring pilgrims.

As writers, we each have our own ways of expressing ourselves. In other words, though we all tell stories, we each have our own styles.

Still, there are some common tools in our tool kits. One is wordplay.

Wordplay is the thing that allows you to take the sentence, "I had a dog and his name was Blue," and morph it to, "I had a dog and he sang the blues," or "I had a frog and he croaked the blues," or...

Wordplay creates a phrase like "lucking fuvely" from an -ahem- less pristine saying.

It takes the stock (and therefore probably boring) idiom, "Create a dissent among the ranks," and spins it into the Sopranos bit of fun, "Create a little dysentery among the ranks."

AI enumerates several different types of wordplay, puns, double entendres, Spoonerisms, malapropisms, alliterations and portmanteaus (my social media creation, TwitFace, falls into this camp). But in the end, it's all about playing with language in order to tickle the reader.

I write action/humor romance, so it's a tool I find easier to fit in with my style. What about you? How can you use wordplay to enliven your prose and delight your reader?

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

3T Writing Tidbit - Synopsis in a Snap

2026-04-21T09:49:00.005-05:00

I have probably posted this before, but I came across it while going through the blog tours I've done (2013, if anyone's counting) and it bears repeating.

Synopsis in a Snap

You’ve just spend weeks (or months or years) writing, honing, and polishing your story. But to sell it, you need to write a full synopsis. Condense your 30-120K down to 500 words or less. Does your heart pound and your mouth? Does your whole being rebel against the thought?

Well, of course. A synopsis is like putting your story on an X-treme diet. Who likes diets, especially ones that reduce to a bare 1% of the total?

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can ease the stress and write a synopsis in a snap by flipping your thinking around.

Build the synopsis from the ground up.

You simply have to know the traditional five turning points of your story: the catalyst, the big event, the pinch, the crisis, and the climax. (This technique is for the synopsis, complete with ending, that you send an editor, publisher, or agent. The teaser synopsis or blurb is another animal.)

Let’s build a synopsis using these five points from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you’ll still be able to follow along.

Here are the turning points. If you don’t understand the story from the raw points, that’s okay. It’ll become clearer as we go.

Catalyst: Dorothy Gale’s dog Toto is seized by her wicked neighbor. When Toto escapes, Dorothy and Toto run away from home.

Big Event: A cyclone hits, sweeping Dorothy’s house, Toto and Dorothy away.

Pinch: Dorothy and her friends reach the Wizard, only to be told she must destroy the Wicked Witch (or bring him her broomstick in the film).

Crisis: The Witch captures Dorothy and her friends, and imprisons her away from her friends.

Climax: The hot air balloon takes off without Dorothy. She must rely on herself to get back home.

Note that the book jumps right to the Big Event, but that’s a normal difference between books and movies. Authors are taught to get right into the story. Screenplays include a setup that’s usually ten percent of the finished film.

Now we write our synopsis. Add a sentence or two before the point to orient the reader, and between the points to transition smoothly between. You can also add in one or two points of color. In this case, I’ll expand “Dorothy’s friends” to include their very lively names, and add the yellow brick road. Another addition is the theme, which I’ll added at the end.

Dorothy Gale is a young girl living with her aunt and uncle on a small, old, and gray farm; only her dog Toto makes her laugh. Then Toto is seized by her wicked neighbor, so when Dorothy recovers Toto, the pair runs away from home.

Dorothy meets a carnival man who convinces her to go home. But when she gets there a cyclone hits. Before Dorothy can hide, the wind sweeps away Dorothy’s house with Toto and Dorothy in it.

The house lands in a colorful countryside—on top of a Wicked Witch, killing her. A good witch appears and tells Dorothy only the great wizard Oz can send her home. She gives Dorothy the dead witch’s Silver Shoes (ruby slippers in the movie). Dorothy follows a road of yellow brick to Oz’s city, and along the way rescues three friends: the Scarecrow; the Tin Woodman; and the Cowardly Lion. But when Dorothy and her friends reach the Wizard, he will only help her if she destroys another witch, the Wicked Witch of the West.

But the Wicked Witch sees them coming and sends the Winged Monkeys at them. The Monkeys capture Dorothy and Toto (and the Lion in the book) and take her to the Witch, who incarcerates her (enslaves her in the book). Dorothy is alone and friendless.

But when the Witch tries to steal Dorothy’s lovely slippers, Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her in anger, which melts the Witch. Dorothy is freed. She collects her friends and returns to the Wizard to claim her reward.

The Wizard tries to get out of his promise, and when Dorothy and her friends confront him, is proven to be merely a man. But he has a hot air balloon and take Dorothy back to Kansas in it.

Then the day of the launch, the hot air balloon takes off without Dorothy. She must rely on herself to get back home. The good witch tells Dorothy the Silver Shoes (ruby slippers) will take her and Toto home. She’s had the power all along but without her adventure she wouldn’t have known that there truly is no place like home.

Easier than whittling down a hundred or so pages, right? Only items which are essential to making the plot points make sense are added, such as the slippers which trigger Dorothy’s anger (melting the Witch) and get her home. Only the main characters or those who infuse extreme color are named.

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you’ll note I haven’t included the friends’ stories. That’s why this is such a great tool. The Scarecrow’s brain, the Tin Woodsman’s heart, and the Cowardly Lion’s courage are important, but they’re not critical to the plot points, so I know I can safely exclude them.

Need more? If you’re asked for a longer synopsis, you can simply list the five plot points for any secondary stories and weave them in. This also works for romance, where you have plot points for hero and heroine each.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance

2026-04-14T09:32:00.001-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published September 6, 2013 for Guilty Pleasures

The Future of the Biting Love Series

Thank you to DiDi and Guilty Pleasures for having me back!

Picture a rainbow, or better yet, the St. Louis Gateway Arch. The Biting Love series is a set of blocks fitting together to make an overall arc.

Each block is a hot romance between a strong vampire and the human woman who claims him, and each can stand alone.

Put them together, though, and they form a story of good versus evil, the Alliance versus the Coterie. Granted, at the start of the series, the bad guys are more bumbling and inept than a bunch of storm troopers. But hey, the books also have humor. By the end we’ll see something a little more like a boss.

The first several books laid the foundations of quirky little Meiers Corners and dealt with local problems, only hinting at wider issues.

The newly released Beauty Bites, Biting Love Book 6, takes us outside the small town and broadens the conflict by introducing two unaligned vampires, Ric Holiday and Aiden Blackthorne, who don’t want to bow to either master. It also has a heart-rending scene which deepens our understanding of vampires.

I’m very excited that the next book, Downbeat, Biting Love Book 7, is scheduled for March 2014. Downbeat is about halfway through the series. It’s Rocky’s story, and I actually started it in 2008 before the first Biting Love book was even released, but its place in the series arc meant I didn’t get to finish it until this year. I’m glad it was delayed though, because this story is near to my heart, and my readers, editors, and the writing community has made me a better writer and the story benefits from that.

I’m in the planning stages for Book 8, Aiden’s story. Aiden was a character who leaped out of my psyche onto the page and demanded his own story. Frankly that one will be a hoot because it pairs the sexy, smooth assassin with an inept but loveable Ruffles.

The final book? The faceoff between the boss villain and the head of the Alliance, naturally.

If everything goes as planned, that is. Since Murphy sees all and FUBARs all, things may change. Stay tuned :) .

3T Writing Tidbit - Planning the Villain

2026-03-17T10:19:00.002-05:00

Plotting with Goal Conflict Disaster is primarily from the protagonist's point of view and keeps the hero front and center.

But let's zoom in on the conflict. What stands in the protagonist's way? It's usually the bad guy/gal (or their minions).

Now, a good baddy will have their own character arc that puts them organically in opposition to the hero. But let's zoom in another level and think about how that opposition manifests.

What's in your villain's character? Are they a ninja and do things by stealth? Gun enthusiast and will meet the hero at high noon? Maybe they're a planner like Moriarty. Or is fisticuffs or dueling more their style? Perhaps they just chuck the minions at the hero and run under cover of the brawl. (Throw in pies if you're writing a comedy :) .) There's nothing like good, old-fashioned bullying and intimidation, but the hero has to have a good reason to back down -- maybe the baddy is bullying those around the hero instead.

Each one gives us a different slant on the baddy, showing, not telling, a bit of their character.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance

2026-03-10T09:28:00.001-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published September 5, 2013 for Ali's Bookshelf

Thank you to Ali and Ali’s Bookshelf for having me here today!

What's on your Bookshelf

We have several sets of shelves, two in the front room, one in each bedroom (two in ours), and a set in the basement. That’s after giving away over half our books when we moved a few years ago :). Here’s a sample.

Fiction

Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody Egyptian archeology mystery series

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series (fun)

J.D. Robb’s Eve Dallas mystery series

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolf mystery series (great lines, tightly paced)

David Eddings’s The Belgariad high fantasy series

Charles Stross’s The Laundry Files series (witty and action-filled—hero is in the government office of computational demonology)

Many romances including books by Lara Adrian, J.R. Ward, Johanna Lindsey, Jayne Castle, Dixie Browning, Lynn Viehl, Laura Kinsale.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley (vampire)

Nonfiction

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Enough writing books to make the shelves sag.

College music books. Math and computer books. Books on philosophy, religion and science.

Many comic strip compilations including Garfield, Zits, Fox Trot, Dilbert, User Friendly and Calvin and Hobbes.

3T Writing Tidbit - An Easy Way to Create More Interesting Characters

2026-02-17T09:14:00.001-06:00

We're told to hook the reader with the protagonist within 5 pages by showing them as likeable, or doing something heroic, or being funny, or one of a number of other things.

Which is fine, but what do we do with the character for the other 295 pages?

Here's an idea which also has some personality analysis behind it.

There's this thing called Myers-Briggs® Personality Type which authors sometimes use to give their characters a constellation of related traits.

But did you know that, when that personality feels threatened or frustrated, the Opposing Role -- the exact opposite -- can show up as a defender? Makes us more interesting as people (and a little scary) -- and it can do the same for your character!

Give them a set of related characteristics, but also give them one or two exact opposites. Now you not only have the nut on the guitar, you have the bridge and can have fun with the string between! (In other words, it gives your character depth and resonance.)

Example: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is extremely smart and driven. Yet he's dumb about his cocaine use and suffers bouts of ennui, the exact opposite.

The cool thing about this technique is you can also use it to pep up your character's physical description. My vampire lawyer Julian is tall, dark, and handsome - and graceful. But instead of having the expected slim, artistic hands, his are square and competent (which draws the heroine Nixie in spite of his stuffy lawyerliness). The contrast can draw in the reader, too!

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance

2026-02-10T09:26:00.004-06:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published September 4, 2013 for Deal Sharing Aunt

Thank you to Deal Sharing Aunt for having me here today!

Who are your three favorite vampires?

Rhage from J.R. Ward’s Lover Eternal, not because of who he starts out as, but because of who he becomes when he meets the woman who is the love of his life.

Julian Luna from Kindred: The Embraced, an eight-show television series from 1996. He was hard yet fair, flawed yet trying to overcome those flaws. Sexy as anything. And in love with smart, hardworking, ethical human reporter Caitlin, which made him vulnerable and all the more wonderful.

Angel or Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Dracula from the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. I’m not sure which of these television or novel über vampires should get the nod. Angel for who he was, Spike for who he became. Dracula because just the cover scared me as a kid and the story still makes me shiver.

3T Writing Tidbit - What's your point of view?

2026-01-20T09:00:00.001-06:00

I wrote a story a while back where the couple was a woman of 26 (25 being the average age of a woman's first marriage at the time) and an ageless (looks around 28) vampire. There were other characters in the story but most of them were about the same age, except for one retirement aged man and two older women.

Now, one of the older women had moments of quite broad humor. But most of the characters in this story were quirky. And I myself am an older woman, so I didn't see any problem.

I was surprised therefore when a reader wrote with how offended she was with how I treated older women in the story.

Here's why. We all read stories through a point-of-view character. When we really get into a story, a lot of times we'll see ourselves as that character. Think Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes literature.

What I didn't get at the time was this: not everyone's point-of-view character is the heroine (or hero if the reader's male).

Here's what I figured out. An older woman might not see herself in the main female character - she might see herself in the older female characters.

So be careful writing your characters. If you have an evil character, make sure you have a balancing character - one of the same characteristics who is good. Because you never know which character the reader will identify with.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance

2026-01-13T09:20:00.005-06:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published September 3, 2013 for Rachel Brimble Romance

Thank you to Rachel and Rachel Brimble Romance for having me here today!

1. What do you wish men understood about women?

So many things J. Sometimes we don’t want them to fix things, we just want them to listen. Active listening is supportive, and encourages—mmhmm and uh-huh are perfectly fine and helpful.

2. Do you only work on one book at a time?

I used to. But there are tons of awesome authors out there producing five or ten (or more) wonderful books a year. Which is great—it encourages me to always look for ways to write more, and write better. I still usually do one thing at a time, for example, write new material on one book in the morning and edit another in the afternoon. Some parts of the process need time to simmer, or time off between passes, and I try to take advantage of that. In August, I’m doing pre-edits on Downbeat (Biting Love Book 7, coming March 2014) during weeks two and four, and working on a new proposal during weeks one and three.

3. Who is your favorite fictional couple?

Francis Crawford of Lymond and Philippa Somerville, from Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles (books). Then in no special order it’s Holmes and Watson from Sherlock Holmes (books/television); Bones and Booth from Bones (television); Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy from the Dresden Files (books/television); Rhage and Mary from Lover Eternal (book) and Ramses Emerson and Nefret Forth from the Amelia Peabody series (books).

3T Writing Tidbit - Writing the Holidays

2025-12-16T10:31:00.053-06:00

If you google "Writing the Holidays" (I'm writing this the last day of 2024, so I'm assuming people are still googling, but who knows what evolution AI will have effected) you'll get everything from writing holiday stories to writing despite the holidays to writing to stay sane through the holidays.

I have a short but different take. Be aware of the holidays and use that awareness to write better stories (holiday or not).

In the northern hemisphere, days leading up to December 21 are getting darker and darker. Not only do days themselves shorten, but the daylight itself becomes thin, like nightmare lighting. The effect is more marked the farther north you go.

In the southern hemisphere, this happens in June, but they deal with it the same way northerners do.

GIVE ME MORE LIGHT

Sydney hosts the largest festival of lights. In my subdivision, December sees us rivaling small countries in use of electricity.

Here's the writer's take on it. Check out these two images (made with Stencil).

The first really pops! Lots of things going on, lots of color and light.

The second is much more sedate. Only a few people, and there's only two colors of light, blue and pale yellow.

But here's the twist. Look at the text. In which picture does it stand out more?

Well, right. The second. So does that mean we should always go for the more singular, subdued light?

Sure -- if you want the text to stand out. But if you're writing a mystery, the best way to hide a clue is in plain sight -- with a whole passel of color and light and bustle going on around it.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - Series Inspiration

2025-12-09T09:00:00.001-06:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published September 2, 2013 for Blackraven's Erotic Cafe

Thank you to Blackraven and Blackraven’s Erotic Cafe for having me back!

How does the inspiration come to you for the next book in this series?

Short answer? There are a bunch of alpha males and quirky females running around in my head jostling to get out :)

Longer answer, the series has a broad arc of three stories per villain, each bad guy more cunning and harder to beat. The final book as planned will be the boss villain against Kai Elias, the leader of the Iowa Alliance.

So then it’s a matter of fitting each hero/heroine into their best place in the arc. For example, one of my heroines had to be a doctor, to help reveal information on my vampires’ physiology. I also needed to establish the setting of the north woods cabin for a future story. So I created Synnove.

Then I had to pick a romantic interest. Since I love to crash opposites into each other, and Synnove is substance over style, that meant creating mega-style adman Ric. As a boy, Ric was turned by vampire villain Nosferatu, so I got to reveal some cool background about him and Elias.

The thing that sold Synnove for me is that her cousin is Twyla Tafel, whose story was started in The Bite of Silence. Twyla’s Happily Ever After was waiting for her in those north woods. Better yet, the event triggers Synnove’s HEA. When the pieces fit, I have the start of a story. When they resonate into something more, it’s worth writing.

I have to admit, though—it’s not all planning. Sometimes a character will simply leap out of my psyche and take over the pages. Logan and Twyla were both like that. And Aiden, deadly assassin and Ric’s sidekick, whom you’ll meet in Beauty Bites, grabbed Book 8.

When do you decide that it's time to close a series? What are the signs you look for?

I think it depends on the series. Some, like J.D. Robb’s Eve Dallas or Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe are open-ended. Some have a natural end, like a trilogy with three friends, each of whom finds their love. Some have a scripted end, where the last hero meets the biggest villain. Some jump the shark, where, in an effort to make the stakes larger or the twist unexpected, a story reaches outside itself for inspiration. It’s important to expand the story first, then bring in the shark :).

Did you think the series would go as long as it has?

In my head it always has J. I’ve had to learn better ways of creating new situations and increasing the stakes without jumping the shark. As many writers do, I have themes that resonate strongly for me, and those will show up again and again. But I feel very fortunate to have great editors, writers, readers and the whole community of people who love stories whose support and encouragement keeps my writing fresh.

3T Writing Tidbit - What's in a Name?

2025-11-18T09:41:00.053-06:00

I recently wrote a ~~rant~~ post on repetition, how over-repetition drives me nuts, and techniques to avoid that. Avoid over-repetition, not driving me nuts.

Here is one place to break that rule. When first establishing a character, do repeat the character's name several times.

Back when they had TV intros, several took advantage of this. Whatever you think of the set tensions, I can still remember "Who am I? I'm Rick Castle Castle Castle" and "Every writer needs inspiration and I've found mine Detective Kate Beckett Beckett Beckett".

Now, this doesn't have to be a straight repeat like Nixie Nixie Nixie (or Beetlejuice... nope, not saying that one 3 times). You can change up how you get your character's name in the reader's mental ear. Make it part of the title (Biting Nixie) or have established characters talking about her before or after she shows up. Make it explicit by having her introduce herself or make it implicit by weaving it into the scenery (a lawyer or banker on a billboard; a singer's song streaming in the background).

Mix these approaches up to make sure your character's name stays with the reader.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - Style...And More

2025-11-11T09:00:00.018-06:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 29, 2013 for What's on the Bookshelf

Thank you to Jen and What’s on the Bookshelf for having me here today!

1. What is your favorite line from BEAUTY BITES?

I love banter, and many of my favorite lines are quick back-and-forth. Here’s an exchange between Synnove (“I”) who has done a favor for her cousin Twyla, asking sexy ad man Ric Holiday to handle Twyla’s ad campaign. But Ric has said no. Synnove and Twyla review over a glass of wine.

“This is more than wine can handle.” I set my glass down. “Where’s your chocolate?”

“S’mores?”

“No. Straight up.”

“You’re going to do it.” [Twyla] smiled. “You’re going back.”

“Don’t sound so happy. You’re going to owe me so bad you’ll be my Favors [B**ch] for the rest of your life.” I rummaged around in the cupboards, caught the sting of cacao and found the giant extra-dark bars between a box of graham crackers and a bag of marshmallows. I cracked one in half without opening it, tore the paper in two and handed one to Twyla.

“Favors [B**ch]?” She took her half, unwrapped a corner and bit into it appreciatively. “Aren’t you forgetting the time I bailed you out of the principal’s office after you greased Anna Versnobt’s ‘back’ vibrator with heat rub?”

2. Describe Synnove in three words or less.

Substance over style.

3. Describe Ric in three words or less.

Style…and more.

4. What was the hardest thing about writing BEAUTY BITES?

The near-tragedy that sets the end in motion. I write my stories with a very light emotional touch for sensitive readers. But this scene needed to be gut-wrenching to honor what happens in it. Synnove does warn the reader so that she can skip ahead to the next chapter if she needs to.

5. Can you tell us what's up next?

I’m very excited that Downbeat, Biting Love Book 7 is releasing in March 2014. It’s Rocky’s story, and I actually started it before the first Biting Love book was even published. But its place in the series arc meant I didn’t get to finish it until this year. I’m glad it was delayed though, because it’s one of my favorite projects, and my readers, editors, and the writing community has made me a better writer and the story benefits from that.

I’m also in the planning stages for Book 8, Aiden’s story, and frankly that one will be a hoot because it pairs the sleek, smooth assassin with an inept but loveable Ruffles.

3T Writing Tidbit - writing update

2025-10-21T10:39:00.002-05:00

I haven’t been writing much lately. In 2018, my life took a sharp and unexpected turn after the loss of my older brother and a beloved uncle-in-law, along with a serious health crisis in our family. At the same time, financial realities made it necessary for me to return to the regular workforce. It was a season of change that pulled my focus elsewhere, even though writing has always mattered deeply to me.

So I went back to school and freshened up my credentials for application development or as we used to call it, computer programming. Fast forward two years, I got a day job just as COVID reached its peak and my home writing office was repurposed as a home app development office. Fast forward five more years and it's now.

And I've been mentally working on Soul Mates all along.

There's a blog or two or three out there about the troubles I've been having with the final book in the Pull of the Moon series. I didn't like the hero. The heroine was boring. The plot was disjointed. The villain had one-dimensional motivation.

One by one, over the years, I've been working these out.

I'm still not writing, but I'm a lot closer than I've been. I'm actually getting exciting about the hero, the heroine, the plot -- even the villain.

If you're one of my readers waiting for the finale to Pull of the Moon, don't lose heart. It's coming.

2T Repeat Performance - Beauty Bites

2025-10-14T09:00:00.001-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 29, 2013 for Readers' Roundtable

Thank you to Sydney and the Reader’s Roundtable for having me here today!

Mary, tell us a little about yourself and your upcoming release.

I’m a reader, writer and flutist with a skewed sense of humor and a smattering of engineering genes (yay, details!!).

Beauty Bites is the sixth story in the Biting Love series of hot paranormal action layered with romance and quirked up with characters.

It’s the story of Dr. Synnove Byornsson, a plain girl who grew up to be a great beauty but still favors substance over style, and Ric Holiday, adman extraordinaire who’d be all about style if he weren’t hiding a few things—like that he’s a two hundred year old vampire.

Synnove owes a favor to her cousin Twyla from The Bite of Silence—the cousins have been trading pranks since the cat and water balloon incident. Twyla’s the city admin for the little town of Meiers Corners, and she wants Synnove to ask Ric to take the city on as a client.

Ric is attracted to Synnove, but doesn’t want to go near Chicago. That’s the home of the mafia-like vampire who turned Ric as a child. Ric escaped with the aid of his assassin friend Aiden (in between fights, the duo exchanges guy-digs and quips).

So Ric turns Synnove’s proposal down. Then a sly temptress with a counterproposal forces his hand. The two women are scheduled for a face-off, with Ric as the prize.

Here’s the warning: Contains a doctor with a bod for sin, an ad exec with a chip on his shoulder, sarcasm, sex, and a cabin full of annoying friends. Secrets are revealed. One heart-stopping, horrific moment leads to the ultimate of happily-ever-afters.

What inspired this fantastic series and how do you keep coming up with fresh, innovative material with each installment?

Thanks for your kind words! <3 One way to keep things fresh is making each heroine a bit different, which puts a different spin on the kind of humor in the story. Liese loves puns; Nixie sees the world through punk glasses; Elena’s all cop; and Junior loves music jokes. Even characters who are similar, like musicians Nixie and Junior, have a different background, so while Nixie’s punk, sassy and rebellious, Junior’s all business.

It also helps that the series stakes are rising. Each story reveals a little more about vampires, takes us closer to the heart of the Iowa Alliance (the good guys), and gives us a badder bad guy with a little more mayhem.

But one of the best ways to keep writing fresh is taking part in communities of readers and writers. People who love stories are the support and encouragement to learn new and better storytelling.

What other books do you have in the works?

I’m very excited that Downbeat, Biting Love Book 7, releases March 2014. It’s Rocky’s story, and I actually started it in 2008 before the first Biting Love book was even published. But its place in the series arc meant I didn’t get to finish it until this year. I’m glad it was delayed though, because this one is near to my heart, and my readers, editors, and the writing community has made me a better writer and the story benefits from that.

I’m in the planning stages for Book 8, Aiden’s story, and frankly that one will be a hoot because it pairs the sexy, smooth assassin with an inept but loveable Ruffles.

What are 5 things that you'd like your readers to know about Mary Hughes and/or the Biting Love series?

The Biting Love series came about after years of rejections. I put everything that had gotten great feedback into a story...and it got published. Keep writing. Write from the heart (and the gut :).

Aids to Meiers Corners. Nixie’s slang guide: http://maryhughesbooks.com/Nixie%20Slang.htm; the Biting Love series reading order: http://maryhughesbooks.com/Reading_Order.htm.

The stories have fun elements, and I’m careful to keep the emotional touch light. However, there is one stark scene in Beauty Bites, and highly sensitive readers are urged to follow Synnove’s caution and skip ahead to the next chapter.

Downbeat has a scene I’ve been waiting five years to write J

I love it when the series is discovered by new readers. I’m also hugely grateful to dedicated long-time readers. I love to hear from both!

3T Writing Tidbit - A Brief Rant

2025-09-16T08:42:00.100-05:00

As I was sorting through my cards (I jot down ideas on writing on index cards and have, at this point, an inch and a half pile) looking for things I haven't written a tidbit on, I came across one on scene planning.

While overall it's the usual: Goal, Conflict, Disaster, there's a difference. It suggests color-coding the scene based on twists, shifts, and repetition. It's this last that I want to address.

I'm climbing up on my soapbox here. This is a pet peeve, and if you don't want to hear a diatribe, don't go any farther.

You've been warned, lol.

Repetition can be good. It's a basic tenet of musical composition. State your theme. Repeat it, to get it in your listener's ear. Then start to repeat it - but vary it just enough to make something new. Think the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Da-da-da-duhhhh. Da-da-da-duhhhh. Da-da-da-duh, da-da-da-duh, da-da-da-duh (and we're off!)

Repeating the scene's goal or the protagonist's goal can be good. If it's been 100 pages since it's been mentioned and she's about to face her deepest fear, by all means, give the reader a reminder.

But for the love of all that's holy please please please do not repeat it twice a page. Don't even repeat it more than twice a scene unless you're going to vary it enough to make it new.

Don't you trust your reader to remember it?

I have a favorite PNR author I had to stop buying because she repeats the heroine's goals and/or fears at least a dozen times per chapter. Without variation or adding anything to the plot, character, or even deepening those goals/fears.

Deep breath. Thanks, I feel better now.

So what can we do about this authorly tic?

Trust your reader to remember the goal (it's strong enough to remember, isn't it?).
If you must put in a reminder, vary it somehow from the last time you brought it up.
Better yet, make it add to the plot, or character development, or deepen (or twist!) the goal somehow.
Reread the whole scene. It'll take hours to days to write a scene, and we may be repeating the goal because we can't remember it from yesterday. Read it as the reader will experience it to catch that annoying tic.

(See what I did there? I repeated the information in the paragraph 2 above this, but varied it to make it stand out differently.)

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - Small Town, Big Romance

2025-09-09T09:00:00.016-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 27, 2013 for My Odd Little World

Thank you to Nancy and My Odd Little World for having me back!

Why a small town for the setting, instead of a major city?

New Orleans, Chicago, and New York give an urban fantasy or paranormal romance that gritty urban flavor. My vampire romances are set in the small German-immigrant settled city (pop. 7000) of Meiers Corners, a town outside Chicago, for several reasons.

The contrast is funnier.

Come on. Opie with fangs? Instant hoot.

(Don’t worry. The heroes are all big bad alpha males. No wimpy neck-sippers in the Biting Love romances.)

The writerly answer is that setting is another character. In this case, it’s really true, because Meiers Corners has a lot of personality. It’s a self-contained community, settled in the 1800s, where everyone is still related to some degree, even the newcomers—the genes rub off. It’s like an extended family. Everyone knows the rules. Arrive twenty minutes early for everything; the instant the lawn gets longer than one-point-five inches the mowers come out. Meiers Corners makes a great contrast to characters like Nixie, a punk rocker who spells authority G-e-t-M-e-O-u-t-t-a-H-e-r-e.

The personal answer is that I was born in a big city and grew up in a bedroom community but raised my kids in a small town, and it was a new experience for me. In some ways we were like Oscar and Felix in the Odd Couple, but my little town rubbed off on me just like Meiers Corners does. I’ve moved since then and at our new place we have the best-clipped lawn in the neighborhood!

3T Writing Tidbit - Body Language

2025-08-19T08:26:00.039-05:00

As writers, we're told constantly "show, not tell". While I'm not behind this statement more than 70% (cuz really, how boring would be having to live through all the character's moments in a day?), I do think we need to be good at it in order for the reader to become truly immersed in the story.

So here's an easy way to show not tell, one we use in real life: body language. The proof's even in the description! It's not talking language. It's the language of movement, of showing a story through intimate personal dance.

Keep an eye out for ways people in your life (or just people-watching) signal emotions. Do they lift an eyebrow in disbelief, or do they wince? Maybe when they're puzzled, they scrunch up their face or just rub their nose.

Once you have a list of ways an emotion can be shown through body language, go back and consider them against your character. Would Superman, if he was puzzled, be a face scruncher or a nost rubber? Would Sherlock Holmes, if he was disbelieving, be a wincer or eyebrow lifter?

Pick your body language and have fun showing!

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - 5 Reasons Alpha Males Are Like Chocolate

2025-08-12T09:00:00.018-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 26, 2013 for Reading Between the Wines

Thank you to Crystal and Reading Between the Wines for having me here today!

Quirky pairings are fun. Example: five-zero punk musician Nixie and six-plus lawyer Julian = Nitro? Meet glycerin.... In honor of Beauty Bites’ alpha male Ric Holiday and Dr. Synnove Byornsson’s affection for chocolate, I ask: How are alpha males like chocolate?

Five reasons alpha males are like chocolate.

5. Both give delight when enjoyed with morning coffee or evening liqueurs.

4. Some can be bitter and overpowering. But add in a touch of sweetness and you have a powerbar of energy that keeps you going and going. (And going... :).

3. They’re both awesome between thin sheets...hey, I mean graham crackers and marshmallows ;)

2. Photos of either in the unwrapped state may cause drool.

1. You can lick or nibble.

Three reasons alpha males aren’t like chocolate.

3. Chocolate can’t make you breakfast.

2. Chocolate can’t be an ad tycoon, rock star, genius tech, or bad boy biker. It can be a bunny, though.

1. While both can comfort, chocolate can’t hug you.

Four reasons Beauty Bites’ alpha male Ric Holiday is like chocolate.

4. Like chocolate, Ric has a bite.

3. Both are soooo smooth.

2. When beauty Synnove is around, Ric can be very hard.

1. A childhood trauma sectioned his life into pieces.

Three reasons Ric Holiday isn’t like chocolate.

3. Chocolate doesn’t have blond spiky hair and a killer bod.

2. Chocolate doesn’t have fangs.

1. When Ric and Synnove turn up the heat, he doesn’t melt. (But she does.)

3T Writing Tidbit - Sharpen your first-draft lump of clay

2025-07-15T09:00:00.083-05:00

When I first write something, it resembles a lump of clay. It's vaguely vase-shaped, but it's thick and lumpy and has no color.

One of the things I do when editing is to sharpen up the details.

Character: Lean into their quirks. Are they a snobby lawyer? Get out your thesaurus and upgrade their dialog from talky to loquacious. Pick a word of one or two syllables in each sentence and trade it in for a spiffy new word of four or five. Lean into obfuscation!

Setting: Make all descriptions specific. Don't just say there's a rank odor - is it burnt hair or bubbling sulfur or the rasp of spores from moldy bread?

Plot: Have a bang-up scene ender? Go back to the beginning of the scene and have the protagonist expect the total opposite. Have a couple twists in the book? Figure out how to add one more -- both you and the reader will be pleasantly surprised with how much that adds. Look for scenes that add nothing to character or plot development -- and cut them.

Sequels: the bits where the protagonist ruminates over what's happened and plots their next goal usually start out all in her head. Sharpen these by adding solid resonances. Is she planning violence? Have her pick up a knife or bazooka. Is she totally fed up with work? Have her throw her computer mouse across the room or glaring at a customer considering coming in her empty check-out line at one minute after closing or shutting her eyes as her manager stomps toward her or... you get the idea.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - Synopsis in a Snap

2025-07-08T09:00:00.007-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 2, 2013 for Savvy Authors

You’ve just spend weeks (or months or years) writing, honing, and polishing your story. But to sell it, you need to write a full synopsis. Imagine condensing your novel or novella down to 500 words or less. Does your heart pound in your throat? Does your whole being rebel against the thought?

Well, of course. A synopsis is like putting your story on an X-treme diet. Who likes diets—especially ones that reduce your baby to a bare 1% of the total?

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can ease the stress of writing a synopsis by flipping your thinking around.

Build the synopsis from the ground up.

How? You simply have to know the traditional five turning points of your story: the catalyst, the big event, the pinch, the crisis, and the climax. These go by other names, so my definition of each is at the end. (Please note that this technique is for the one or two page synopsis, complete with ending, that you send an editor, publisher, or agent. The teaser synopsis, or blurb, is another animal entirely.)

Let’s build a synopsis using this technique from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you’ll still be able to follow along.

Here are the turning points. If you don’t understand the story from the raw points, that’s okay. It’ll become clearer as we go.

Catalyst: Dorothy’s dog Toto is seized by her wicked neighbor. Dorothy retrieves Toto and the two run away from home.

Big Event: A cyclone hits, sweeping Dorothy’s house, Toto, and Dorothy away.

Pinch: Dorothy and her friends reach the Wizard, only to be told she must destroy the Wicked Witch (or bring him her broomstick in the movie).

Crisis: The Witch captures Dorothy and imprisons her.

Climax: The Wizard’s hot air balloon takes off without Dorothy. She must rely on herself to return home.

The book actually jumps right to the Big Event, but that’s a normal difference between books and movies. Authors are taught to get right into the story. Screenplays include a setup that’s usually ten percent of the finished film.

Now we write our synopsis. Take these five points and add to them like this: add a sentence or two before each point to orient the reader, remembering to include the setting; insert those specific details between the points that are necessary to transition smoothly. Bonus Tip: You can add in hints of what makes your writing special (like a touch of humor), and one or two tidbits of color. In this case, I’ll expand “Dorothy’s friends” to include their very lively names, and also add the yellow brick road to contrast with Dorothy’s old gray farm. Bonus Tip: The theme often makes a good wrap up.

The Synopsis:

Dorothy is a young girl living with her aunt and uncle on a small, gray farm; only her dog Toto brings her joy. Then Toto is seized by her wicked neighbor. Dorothy recovers Toto and runs away from home.

She meets a carnival man who convinces her to go home. But when she gets to her house, a cyclone hits. Before Dorothy can reach the storm shelter, the wind sweeps away Dorothy’s house with Toto and Dorothy in it.

The house lands in a colorful countryside—on top of a bad witch, killing her. A good witch appears and tells Dorothy that the great wizard Oz can send her home. She gives Dorothy the dead witch’s Silver Shoes (ruby slippers in the movie). Dorothy follows a road of yellow brick to Oz’s city, and along the way rescues three friends: the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. But when Dorothy and her friends reach the Wizard, he will only help her if she destroys another bad witch, the Wicked Witch of the West.

But the Wicked Witch sees them coming and sends winged monkeys to capture Dorothy and Toto (and the Lion in the book). The Wicked Witch incarcerates Dorothy (enslaves her in the book). Dorothy is alone and friendless.

But when the Witch tries to steal Dorothy’s silver shoes, Dorothy, in anger, throws a bucket of water on the Witch. The water melts her. Dorothy is freed. She collects her friends and returns to the Wizard to claim her reward.

The Wizard, though, tries to get out of his promise. Dorothy and her friends confront him, and the Wizard is proven to be merely a man. But he is a man with a hot air balloon and offers to use it to take Dorothy home.

Then, the day of the launch, the balloon takes off without Dorothy. She must rely on herself to get back home. She finds the good witch, who says the silver shoes will take Dorothy and Toto back. She’s had the power all along, but without her adventure, she wouldn’t have discovered that there truly is no place like home.

Easier than whittling down a hundred or so pages, right? Only items which are essential to making the plot points make sense are added, such as the silver shoes, which both trigger Dorothy’s anger (melting the witch) and get her home. Only the main characters and those who infuse extreme color are named.

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you’ll note I haven’t included the friends’ stories. That’s why this is such a great tool. The Scarecrow’s brain, the Tin Woodman’s heart, and the Cowardly Lion’s courage are important, but they’re not critical to understanding the plot points, so I know I can safely exclude them.

Need more? If you’re asked for a longer synopsis, you can simply list the five plot points for the secondary stories and weave them in. This also works for romance, where you have story arcs for both hero and heroine, or paranormal romance, where you have the hero, heroine and story arcs.

The five plot points defined. These definitions are my own. You can find other names for these points and fuller explanations with a simple web search. If these definitions don’t match yours, the technique will still work using your own understanding of the major story turning points.

The catalyst: The protagonist is going about her daily life when something changes.

The big event: Takes the protagonist in a new direction. The problem is worse than she first thought.

The pinch: Either the point of no return or a low point when the protagonist fails utterly. Usually starts her on the right path to the final solution.

The crisis: Locks the protagonist in and leads directly to the climax. Can be where the protagonist tries for a final solution and fails.

The climax: Final showdown. Can be where the protagonist tries for a final solution and either tragically fails completely with no more options, or succeeds.

3T Writing Tidbit - I hate selling, but without sales I'll starve

2025-06-17T09:00:00.024-05:00

The creativity to write books doesn't always exist alongside another very important talent needed by authors to be successful -- selling.

Basic fact is, if you want to be a successful author, you have to sell books.

Now, I do not like selling. Didn't like it even as a child. Frankly, most of the band candy I sold was to myself.

You may be like me and wonder how you'll be successful. Well, here's a small thought to help you.

It's not about what I need. It's about what I can contribute.

Readers are actively looking for good books. Your book is good, right? So why not just let them know about your book?

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - Vampires, Volvos and Time Travel

2025-06-11T09:00:00.009-05:00

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published June 1, 2013 for the Samhain Blog

Back when I was the Volvo Goddess (I ran an automotive marketing database and let me tell you, I could make that data sit up and beg) I found myself doing a strange thing every September.

I started dating my checks with the next year.

The problem is, car models jump the gun, year-wise. 2013’s cars were on sale in 2012 and 2014’s will be on sale soon. You can bet marketing firms are already gearing up ads for 2014’s shiny new models, and 2013 isn’t even half done.

I learned from that experience that if you work in next year long enough, you start believing it’s already here.

That first timewarp was beaten, hands down, by being an author. As I’m writing this (on May 24), I have just finished the first draft of Downbeat, Biting Love Book 7, which is scheduled to go on sale March 2014.

Problem? Biting Love Book 6, Beauty Bites, hasn’t even been released. I’m deep in a story that takes place after a book that only a handful of people have read so far. What makes it worse is that my editor loved the Beauty Bites hero’s sidekick so much she suggested—strongly—I make him the hero of his own story. Soon. So Book 8 is already rolling around in my mind.

Now when I start talking about my stories I yak about characters nobody has met, and even my bestest reader friends look at me funny and suggest we change the conversational channel. It’s enough to drive a sane person nuts.

No wonder us poor authors are a little west of weird. J

Mark your calendars! Beauty Bites, Biting Love Book 6, is coming August 27.

Downbeat, Biting Love Book 7, releases early 2014

Biting Love Book 8, Aiden’s story, will release soon after that if Christa has her way J

Hugs!
Mary

Strong men. Stronger women.
http://maryhughesbooks.com