He'd waited for this day--this woman--for forever it seemed. Harry Ballantine had been a prisoner of Fernhaven forest and now he found the key to his salvation in Jenna Dante. But would she surrender to him before she left the hidden hamlet?

With an angry ex on her tail and rain pouring, the last thing Jenna Dante needed was car trouble and a cranky child. Her only option was to seek refuge in the desolate hotel on the hill in Fernhaven. But the restored walls seemed to hold more than memories. For Jenna they vibrated with life and an all-male seduction she could only see and feel in her mind. But when danger came to call, she would need flesh-and-blood protection--and maybe something more lethal...like transcending love. 

Investigating a bunker filled with explosives in the Malaysian jungle, secret soldier Brian Welkins was killed on his first mission, his body blown to pieces.  Or so everybody thinks.

Nobody on his old team suspects that fate spared him. Badly hurt, he was captured by guerrillas who kept him as their prisoner in a tiger cage for the past four years.  He spent every minute of these years to strengthen himself in body and mind, learn the members of the group, their habits and weaknesses. Now there is an opportunity to escape, and he is strong enough to take it.

But before he could make his move, the guerrillas take another captive-- an American woman.

See no evil - The house was impossible to stay away from, but he couldn't tell the beautiful woman inside why. For P.I. Joe Lopez didn't remember why.... 

Hear no evil - Then the memories came flooding back, and if not for professor Emma Jensen Reese, Joe would have walked away...forever. 

Speak no evil - But once the shots rang out, connecting him and Emma in life and nearly in death, Joe was determined to learn what really happened in that house more than twenty years ago. Even as someone else was hell-bent on keeping the past buried...

"My name isn't Alec Martin," he'd said. Laura thought she'd married a salesman and that their unborn baby would have the idyllic childhood she'd never had. But suddenly her ordinary husband knew how to do extraordinary things, like fire guns and hot-wire cars. A nd thanks to a witness, the mob had been brought to their doorstep with every intention of bringing Laura's "husband," Nikolai Stanislov, and his future offspring, back into the family fold.

Now Laura's only option was to go on the run with a man she barely knew. A man who was proving, time and again, that he wouldn't go down without a fight. Or let her go without one.  She'd never loved him more. Or trusted him less. 

B J Daniels: 
In the aftermath of Katrina, we all feel helpless. We do what we can to help financially. When it comes to writing though, I prefer not to write about that kind of real-life horror. I've found from fan letters that readers often pick up a book when they are going through something difficult in their lives. They read to escape. 

As a reader, I know there is nothing more wonderful than losing myself in a book and forgetting everything else for a while. I love to read stories that are uplifting, that steal me away for hours at a time into another world where there is hope. I think that is one reason why stories about strong independent women are so popular. Our heroines overcome everything and find happiness in the end. Isn't that what we all want. And isn't that why we read romances. We want to believe in happy endings and I think we give others that hope as well. 

I was already working on a single title romantic suspense novel for HQN that was set in New Orleans before Katrina hit. That tragedy made me question elements in my story (Killer Confessions Oct 06).  I was so moved, touched and upset over Katrina, that I almost changed the setting. But after talking with my editors, we decided I wouldn' t change the setting, but that I would include a Dear Reader letter in the front. I also decided to mention a hurricane but not name it because that would date the story, and I'm incorporating the theme of rebuilding, and surviving terrible tragedies, etc.,  to show that the heart, soul and history of New Orleans survived as well as the family in my story 

In my upcoming November Intrigue anthology, Epiphany (Nov 05), my plot line evolves around a universal story--a child witnesses his mother's murder, then the killer comes after the child. This story line has definitely been covered in the news, yet I make it my own through my characters--the little boy is traumatized and refuses to talk afterwards.  I also used the Christmas holidays (a special time for families)  to add another emotional layer to the story. 

In my upcoming novella, "Merry's Christmas," in the anthology Epiphany (Nov 05), with Rita Herron and Debra Webb, the story is set in an ice storm in Atlanta on Christmas Eve. I don't know for certain that there's ever been such a storm on that day in Atlanta, but it happens in my book! 

I have a friend whose family lives in Louisiana, and Katrina has changed their lives. Our church has collected clothes to be distributed at schools in her hometown. But she told me that the best way anyone can help is to donate to a reputable organization such as the Red Cross, the Humane Society or the Salvation Army--and to pray for strength and hope. 

I live near Washington, D. C., and when I got page proofs of Killing Moon, one of my Berkley single titles, I knew I had to put in a reference to the recent sniper case that had been so prominent in the news.  Particularly since my bad guy was a security guard at a local mall--and that was a reason for the mall to put on extra guards.  I wrote in a reference to "The D. C. area sniper."  Unfortunately, I have horrible handwriting.  So when I got the galleys, the editorial assistant had written it as "The Dr. Sierra sniper."  I blanched when I read the mangled sentence. Luckily for me, I was able to fix it before the book came out. 

• Nov 12
•  2:35 p.m., Sylvie Kurtz will be moderating a panel on Romantic Suspense, followed by a booksigning at the 2005 New England Crime Bake--The Many Faces of Mystery, Doubletree Riverfront Hotel, Lowell, MA.

 

Dana Marton: To celebrate her current release The Sheik's Safety, Dana announces a reader contest for a $50 amazon.com gift certificate. For details, visit her website. Contest ends Oct 10. 

Julie Miller:  Don't let the October 14 deadline pass you by for a chance to win a signed copy of my November release, Forbidden Captor.  Go to my website and check the contest page for details.

Rebecca York: An autographed copy of the Harlequin edition of Rebecca's Peregrine Connection novel, In Search of the Dove, will be sent to the winner of a drawing on November 1.