Here is the November question:
Who comes first for you when you're creating your story--the hero? Heroine? Or villain?
Talk about your experience creating characters for your current or upcoming Intrigue.

B.J. Daniels:
When I brainstorm new book ideas, I usually dream up my hero first. Who is this guy and what kind of trouble has he gotten himself into? That, of course, always leads to a woman--my heroine. She has to have her own trouble and her own amazing strengths. As soon as I can see them both, then the fun begins. In my November book,  The Mystery Man of Whitehorse, (the third in the Whitehorse, Montana series) my heroine initially drags the hero into her trouble. While at her best friend's wedding, my heroine sees a look the groom gives the bride at the reception. My heroine is convinced the groom will kill her best friend on their honeymoon. The hero has a few secrets of his own -- including his connection to the groom. 

The villain comes to me later because I don't like knowing who the bad guy  is until the end -- even if my characters are convinced they already know. I like being surprised. It makes the writing all the more fun.   Shadow Lake, my October single title release, began with the heroine. I didn't know the hero -- or the villain. All I knew was that my heroine was in terrible trouble. Sometimes that's more than enough.

Delores Fossen
For each book the process is a little different, but I normally get the situation or the plot first. I see a scene or scenes unfolding, and the details come in a flash. Usually at that point, I'm writing frantically just to get as much down as I can. Then, the hero normally makes himself known. Often, he's the one who introduces me to everyone else.  In my current Intrigue, The Christmas Clue, the hero is definitely the initial force who brought the story together. Basically, he's an alpha James Bond type, in the vein of Daniel Craig, and he has to rescue a six month old baby girl on Christmas day. He's far more comfortable with the in-your-face danger than holding that baby, but the heroine and he come through in the end.

Rita Herron
Sometimes I think of the hero first, sometimes the heroine. That usually depends on the premise of the story. For my December Intrigue, Up In Flames, I knew the story was going to be about a firestarter and arson cases, also a study in paranormal behavior at the Nighthawk Island research park. Using that premise, I wanted a cop with arson experience to investigate the crimes, so needed to pit a heroine against him that was involved in the experiment. From there, I developed the heroine to make her the opposite of him, a believer in the supernatural who owns a small New Age shop that featured books, potions, and items on voodoo, witchcraft, etc. She also has some secrets of her own to hide....

Elle James
In my upcoming book, Alaskan Fantasy, my heroine came first. Kat Sikes was a secondary character in my Sep 07 book Blown Away. Her husband was killed in a bombing in that book and I wanted her to find love again. So I sent her home to Alaska. I knew I wanted to place this book on the Iditarod Dogsled race so my hero had to be one of the competitors and he had to be the one the bad guy was after. Actually, I was about a third into the book before I realized who exactly the bad guy was. I had others I thought were the bad guys, but it didn’t gel until I was well into the book. Sometimes I know who the villain is before I know my hero and heroine, but most of the time I know my hero and heroine first.

Mallory Kane
Oh my! This is the easiest question ever for me. The hero comes first, always! My first thoughts about a new book concept are of the hero doing something, experiencing something or being hurt somehow. Yep, I do like to torture my heroes. Often, a movie character or book character will start an idea smoldering. The hero for Silent Guardian, my January 08 Intrigue, which is the first book in Harlequin's Ultimate Heroes series, is based on the Phantom of the Opera. After his wife killed herself, shooting him when he tried to interfere, former police detective Geoffrey Archer buried himself in his underground indoor firing range. All he wants is to regain the use of his gun hand and find the monster who caused his wife's death. But a lovely, mysterious woman begs him to teach her how to shoot a gun. When she's thrust into danger because of him, he's forced out of his self-imposed exile and back to life. And here's something even more exciting about Silent Guardian. The cover model is Jude Rutland, one of Harlequins Real Heroes. He's a firefighter from Canada. And wow! My cover is unbelievable-the best cover I've ever had!

Dana Marton
In my January release, Sheik Seduction, I had the hero first.  As the son of a king, he'd survived several assassination attempts in his childhood, then was sent overseas by his mother to save his life. He grew up without his family, away from his people. So now that he is back in his country, he feels like an outsider. He is not readily accepted, although he is fighting for his people, trying to make their lives better. He is a complex man, one who does not trust easily. He is also an honorable man. When an attempt on his life nearly kills an American woman, he swears to protect her. Little does he know that she will end up challenging not only everything he believed about himself, but also his heart.

Julie Miller
For me, it's almost always the hero who comes first when I'm brainstorming story ideas and creating characters. A great hero--the guy I magically fall in love with in each story--is the main reason I read a romance. So that love translates into my writing, too. In my 2008 Intrigue mini-series, Brotherhood of the Badge, the whole idea for the series came about when my editor told me that stories with brothers do really well. Readers had enjoyed my Taylor Clan books, could I come up with another set of brothers? In two previous Precinct Intrigues, I had a supporting character who was a veteran cop with sons who were also cops. Those nebulous sons became four brothers--Edward, Sawyer, Atticus and Holden Kincaid. I used literary inspiration to come up with their names, added a dash of favorite storylines with archetypal heroes--an adrenaline-loving charmer, a professorial protector, a gentle giant turned warrior and a tortured soul who believes he's past redemption. I made them all cops with different specialties, and voila--my series was born. Once the heroes were in place, I matched them with heroines, added some twisty mystery and suspense elements to challenge their strengths and weaknesses, and created a whole slew of bad guys. The first book, Protective Instincts, will be out in June 2008.

Ann Voss Peterson
My stories never truly come together until I get to know my villain.  The villain defines the hero and heroine for me and fuels the plot.  My heroes and heroines always end up being stronger and smarter and more heroic when they are pushed past the breaking point by a great villain.  I've even gone as far as basing an entire series on a villain from a previous book (Dryden Kane in the Wedding Mission series, June, July, Aug., 2006). 

My March Intrigue, Wyoming Manhunt, is a good example of how pivotal a villain is for my stories.  The book is about an accountant who goes on her company's big game hunting trip believing it will lead to a promotion, but instead her boss starts hunting her!  Since the heroine doesn't know why this is happening, the villain truly defines the entire story.  Even though I never go into his point-of-view, it was important I knew who he was so I could figure out what he'd do and why at nearly every step in the book. 

Patricia Rosemoor
I always start with the hero or heroine, sometimes with both. Wolf Moon is a return to The McKenna Legacy, so I had to start with the heroine Aileen, since she is the McKenna and I needed to figure out her "gift" and how I could use it.  I wanted to make this story more paranormal than the previous McKenna books, which all played off of different psychic powers.  Aileen receives dreams which she needs to interpret to get to the truth.  The fourth book in the series, Never Cry Wolf, was about Aileen's half-brother Donovan, a wolf man.  I love writing about wolves and wanted to do a different type of werewolf tale.  So I thought what if Aileen is a wolf woman of sorts, Rhys Lindgren is a wolf man, and in her pursuit of wolves she runs into werewolves and begins to suspect him....

Dani Sinclair
For me what comes first when I’m creating is generally a scene rather than a specific individual. I see and or hear the scene in my head. Once I capture that on page, I have a starting place. Generally the scene involves the hero or the heroine or both. In the case of my current work in progress, Bodyguard to the Bride, my editor wanted a hero driven book. We’d discussed the general concept so the opening scene that came to me involved both of them at the moment when their lives would forever change. I learned a great deal about both the hero and heroine in that opening scene and it set the tone for the rest of the story.