Editor’s Note: Our authors are smart cookies whose passions extend farther than just writing great stories!  To prove it, here is Laura Caldwell, former trial lawyer and currently a professor and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She will be appearing on The Dr. Phil Show tomorrow to discuss Life After Innocence.  Check your local listings!

I started the Life After Innocence Project, at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, in 2009. The project is designed to help innocent people like Dean Cage to begin their lives over again after a wrongful conviction (or a not-guilty at the trial level). The idea for the project originated with my representation of a young man who was in jail for nearly 6 years, awaiting trial on murder charges. He had been cuffed to a wall for 2 days at a Chicago police station until he admitted throwing a few punches in the fight which killed a man, not knowing such an admission would lead him to be indicted for death-penalty-murder. My friend, Cathy O’Daniel, took on the case, I joined her, and our client, Jovan Mosley, received a not-guilty verdict. But watching him start over was painful. He had no money, no home, no ID, no support services. I learned the same happens when an innocent person like Dean Cage is exonerated and released from prison, and so began Life After Innocence.

Dean was one of our very first clients. He had done fourteen years for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA evidence exonerated him completely. His amazing fiance, Jewel, stuck by him during all that time and you can read about their journey on CNN.com.

When Dean first appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, he got to meet the woman who mistakenly accused him of rape, sending him to prison for 14 years. CNN.com also did a piece on this story. Dr Phil enjoyed Dean and Loretta so much that he did a follow up show which I was involved in. It was truly profound to watch these 2 people, both victims of the system, come together, forgive each other, and actually heal a lot of deep wounds. I also got to introduce the world to Ron Kitchen, another client of ours, who did eleven years on death row and another ten years in regular population, until his innocence was revealed. I’d love to hear your thoughts after the show airs.

by Laura Caldwell, author of the Izzy McNeil Mysteries series

Congratulations to all of our authors who are on this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

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PAPERBACK:
#9 Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 1)
#12 McKettricks of Texas: Tate by Linda Lael Miller (HQN, week 4)
#15 Angel’s Peak by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 4)
#29 Shift by Rachel Vincent (MIRA, week 1)
#32 The Best is Yet to Come by Diana Palmer (Harlequin, week 1)

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by J.T. Ellison, author of The Cold Room from MIRA books

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It’s that time again.

The release of the fourth book in my Taylor Jackson series is upon us, and I forget just how exciting the debut of a novel can be. As I write this, there’s only one week to go. Tour plans are in place, television and radio spots scheduled, blogs and interviews being written. It’s that moment experienced writers warned me about several years ago, as I was preparing for my actual debut. Enjoy this time, they said, because once the book is out, things change.

Boy, do they change.

One of the biggest challenges I face as a writer is the balance between promotion and creative time. What I didn’t realize until I had a second book coming out was the fact that regardless of release timing, I would be promoting a book, editing a book, and writing a book, all at the same time, for the rest of my natural born writing life. I think this is what the more experienced writers were warning me about, this juggling act we must do.

Writing a series means I’m in constant contact with my characters. I live their hopes, dreams, joys, tragedies and horrors on a daily basis. But I’m always thinking two books ahead of the book I’m promoting, because that’s the book I’m writing. Wrenching my head out of that book to talk about the releasing novel is incredibly hard for me.

But I’ve done it, and here we are.

I’ve always been fascinated by the psychology behind relationships. In The Cold Room, I wanted to throw a few curve balls to my characters, just to see how they would react.

Taylor Jackson is a woman of convictions, of morality, of a code. She’s a hero, flawed but with incalculable focus. She enjoys a challenge, isn’t afraid of much, and has a badge and gun to back her up when times get tough. She’s also very stubborn and enjoys intrigue, and her current case presents a puzzle she’s not seen before. The fact that her fiancée John Baldwin already has a foot in the case is a help too – she has an excuse to work with him again, something she always enjoys.

Taylor also has a few new people in her life, from Detective Renn McKenzie, her new partner she doesn’t entirely trust, to the handsome, moneyed New Scotland Yard detective, James “Memphis” Highsmythe, who also happens to be the Viscount Dulsie. He and Taylor share a background – both drawn to law enforcement despite their privileged upbringing, both searching for something. Plus Taylor’s been unfairly busted back to detective after a run in with the Office of Professional Accountability and is at her most vulnerable…. It’s a hard place for a strong woman to be, and a goldmine for a writer looking to develop her characters.

I hope you enjoy reading The Cold Room as much as I enjoyed creating it. It’s a different book from the previous three, both darker and lighter, with truly frightening serial killers that spooked ME when I was writing them. But it’s more than a story about a killer. It’s an exploration into the ultimate betrayal.

Editor’s Note: Thanks, J.T.! Best of luck juggling all those tasks. I’ve also got great news—Karen, our Digital Marketing Maven, has just told me that the first book in the series, All the Pretty Girls is available for free on our eHarlequin eBooks store until March 31st! It’s a great way to introduce yourself to a spinetingling new (to you!) series.

And looking for more info on J.T.? Check out her Web site where she has tour info or hop over to Murderati where she recently wrote about The Cold Room as well.

Congratulations to all of our authors who are on this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

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#12 Angel’s Peak by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 3)
#18 McKettricks of Texas: Tate by Linda Lael Miller (HQN, week 3)
#34 Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter (HQN, week 3)

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Congratulations to all of our authors who are in this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

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#3 McKettricks of Texas: Tate by Linda Lael Miller (HQN, week 2)
#11 Angel’s Peak by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 2)
#31 Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter (HQN, week 2)

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Congratulations to all of our authors who are in this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

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#24 Duets by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, week 4)
#30 Midnight Sons Vol. 3 by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 1)

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#5 McKettricks of Texas: Tate by Linda Lael Miller (HQN, week 1)
#7 Angel’s Peak by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 1)
#20 Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter (HQN, week 1)

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Maria V. Snyder’s Glass Trilogy is a series filled with magic and intrigue, and the lovely people at MIRA in the United Kingdom wanted to create an online widget to introduce it to new readers.

What’s a widget, you ask? Well, it’s a whatchamacalit! Or a doodad…or more technically: a digital content box that updates in real-time (so you don’t have to do anything to it! Just let it do its thing!) Widgets contain neatly organized (and shiny) applications and content chosen by the user to share with others.

Want to see what I mean?

Now that is a good-looking widget. It’s packed with information: character synopses, an author bio, pictures, videos and upcoming news! You can share it on Facebook, MySpace, through email and lots of other online social media outlets.

Kudos, MIRA UK!

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Congratulations to all of our authors who are in this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

Trade:

#28 Duets by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, week 4)

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#15 The Man You’ll Marry by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 4)
#23 Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 4)
#24 Shattered by Joan Johnston (MIRA, week 3)

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by Robyn Carr author of the Virgin River series from MIRA books.

I’ve received thousands of letters over the past couple of years from readers who ask me, Where is the real Virgin River? Readers want to go there, move there, because the people in this little town are supportive of each other.  It disappoints me to  have to explain that Virgin River exists only in our hearts and minds.  I know some of the reasons my readers love it there—most of the characters have such integrity and honor; they’re stand-up folks who aren’t afraid to get involved when help is needed.  But it’s a fictional town nestled into a factual setting; the people are only real when we make them so by our own intentions and deeds.

Of course I get to live there every day; I’m working on the 12th, 13th & 14th Virgin River novels right now, scheduled to be released in January, February and March of 2010, with more to follow.  I’ve come to know the kind of person the readers love and want to be close to, the characters who will be drawn to Virgin River.  I have learned what kind of character will be drawn to the little town and want to make a home there.

I usually have to tell my readers to unpack those boxes, they’ll never find the place—it’s buried deep in my imagination.

Not this time.  Now it’s time to offer my readers a chance to live in Virgin River!  Harlequin has created a contest in which the grand prize is becoming a character in one of the 2011 Virgin River novels!  So—pack your bags!  All you have to do is tell us why you should live there.

Head to BeInVirginRiver.com to enter the contest to become a character in Robyn’s next Virgin River novel! You can also read the first chapter of Robyn’s latest novel in the series, Forbidden Falls.

by P.D. Martin, author of the Sophie Anderson thrillers

A few weeks ago I started a new project that probably verges on madness – certainly that’s what many fellow authors are saying!

Coming Home is a mystery/thriller with one key difference…each week readers vote for how they want the next chapter to unfold, and six days later their plot choices come to life on the screen. Every Sunday night I post the most recent chapter and the questions for the following chapter. Then, at the end of the short voting period, majority rules and I write that chapter.

The next round of voting is this Sunday (Chapter 9). Anyone and everyone can vote – you don’t need to have read my previous books and you can ‘catch up’ by simply reading chapters 1-8 online (for free). At the end of the process I’ll have a Sophie novella, which will be available for free on my website as a PDF file (after some editing and formatting). You can also subscribe to my website to receive a weekly email reminder to vote.

This project is extremely exciting and scary for me. It gives me a chance to write a Sophie story I’ve longed to write – the tale of Sophie’s brother’s murder 28 years ago – while also challenging me creatively with the voting system. After all, I’m curious to find out what I have to write next!

P.D. Martin – Phillipa Deanne Martin – is an Australian author with a background in psychology. She has written five novels featuring Aussie FBI profiler Sophie Anderson — Body Count, The Murderers’ Club, Fan Mail, The Killing Hands and Kiss of Death (not yet available). Phillipa’s books are page-turners with lots of forensics and profiling and have been described by The Sydney Morning Herald as: “The Silence of the Lambs meets Medium, with a passing nod to Cornwell.”

You can view book trailers of her current and upcoming novels on YouTube and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Check out the trailer for P.D.’s latest release in the Sophie Anderson series, The Killing Hands here: