How many times have you put something off because you’re not ready, you need more time, or you don’t feel comfortable doing it?  I’ve completed 10 Ironman Triathlons and over 40 10-day non-stop Eco-Challenge Adventure Races through the most remote places on earth, and here’s a secret:  I didn’t feel ‘ready’ for any of them.  There was always more I could have done to train, something I needed more time to prepare, or I wished I could delay the start until I felt stronger.  I would most likely never have undertaken those “risks” if there wasn’t a specific date on the calendar and someone with a megaphone saying “go!” But I wouldn’t give back those experiences for anything on earth,  because it is in those moments, when we are forced to rise to a challenge, that we add another brick to the foundation of our character, confidence and strength. So how do you stop “wishing” you had more guts and inspire yourself to ditch the vanilla life for a big, satisfying scoop of Rocky Road less Traveled?

Step Into Character

Nobody knows what’s going on inside your head but you.  Try to see yourself the way your colleagues, friends, and family see you–confident, smart, beautiful, talented–and be that person.  I’m a huge introvert, and I’m a speaker for a living. How? Right before I go on stage, I think about the person that everyone in the audience is expecting to meet (vs little scared me!), and the moment they invite me onto the stage, I become her.

Do It Anyway

How you feel is far less important than what you do.  Feeling scared, nervous and uncomfortable when you’re rapelling off that symbolic cliff is just a given.  The only difference between you and the woman who is living her dream is that she felt the fear and ‘did it anyway’.   In fact, I’ve come to embrace fear as the vigilant guardian and trusted friend that gives me a “heads up” to be at my best.

Focus on How It Will Feel to Succeed

When you’re driving your car or riding your bike, where is your focus? On where you want to go, right? Where we get into the most trouble is when we start focusing on where we don’t want to go (the ditch, the puddle, the loose gravel, etc)–because that’s inevitably where we will end up! So why, when we’re analyzing our risks, do we get so obsessed with what we don’t want to have happen instead of envisioning what success will look like? Top athletes are masters of visualization.  They envision themselves winning and suffuse the feeling of that success into their mind and heart with the hope of achieving peak performance.  You can do that, too! What will it look like, feel like, smell like, and who will be there cheering when you achieve that goal? Use that image to guide you on your mission as well as inspire you through the rough patches along the way.

I see you at that finish line, victorious! Don’t you?  The beautiful, talented, smart, driven woman who lets fear whisper in her ear but lets courage rule her heart?  Yep.  That’s you!

Robyn Benincasa has made an art form of extreme performance by competing and winning at the highest levels of sport and business. In her fifteen-year career as a professional adventure racer, she has biked through jungles in Borneo, climbed Himalayan giants in Nepal, trekked across lava fields in Fiji, rafted rapids in Chile—and racked up multiple world championship titles along the way. In her spare time, she is a firefighter and a sought-after keynote speaker on the subject of teamwork and leadership. Visit her website or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

When I was little, cemetery exploration was a favorite pastime.  My house was situated between two graveyards and I spent many a Sunday afternoon wandering through the maze of headstones and statuary.  One of the cemeteries was abandoned and I wasn’t allowed to visit there alone.  Naturally, it became a favorite escape.  Nestled in a deep forest and shrouded by shade, the forgotten graveyard was a place of enchantment, a mysterious necropolis of sunken graves, crumbling headstones and fallen angels. The burials were old—pre-Civil war—and the symbols carved into the headstones intrigued me.  I could daydream there for hours.

There’s a term for graveyard fascination—taphophilia.  From the Greek words taphos, meaning tomb and philia, meaning love or obsession.  A love of tombstones and cemeteries.

When I decided to write a paranormal series, I knew I wanted the protagonist to have an unusual skill or occupation.  So I did an Internet search for strange jobs and up popped cemetery restorer—the perfect vocation for a character that would share my passion for graveyards.  She would be Southern (also like me) and a loner because her ability to see ghosts had isolated her from human companionship.  Her first name would be Amelia because it’s Southern and old-fashioned, and her surname would be Gray to symbolize the twilight world of ghosts.

Amelia became so real to me that I knew I had to create a worthy love interest, someone dark and mysterious and charismatic to lure her from the safety of her graveyard kingdom and tempt her into breaking one of her father’s cardinal rules: never associate with those who are haunted.

Papa’s rules are broken in The Restorer; the past is revealed in The Kingdom; and the future is foreshadowed in The Prophet.  Set against the withering backdrop of abandoned and forgotten cemeteries, The Graveyard Queen series offers peeks into the lush dreamscape of restless souls, deranged killers and doomed lovers.

I’ve just been given the go-ahead for three more books in the series and I would like to invite you along on Amelia’s journey as her graveyard kingdom becomes ever darker and more mysterious.

Visit author Amanda Stevens at her blog or follow her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out the new book trailer for The Graveyard Queen series below!

Harlequin Intrigue has long been the home to USA Today bestselling authors Delores Fossen and Cassie Miles and will publish the 50th case in Debra Webb’s award winning COLBY AGENCY series this July. Ms. Webb has opened up a new branch in Texas. Fortunately for the Colby staff the Lone Star state has tons of rugged cowboy P.I. applicants. As well Harlequin Intrigue has launched the careers of reader favorites Paula Graves, Carol Ericson and more recently Golden Heart winner Robin Perini. Amanda Stevens wrote more than thirty Harlequin Intrigue books before creating her critically acclaimed GRAVEYARD QUEEN series for MIRA.

In 2012 we have a great line up of new and ongoing miniseries like Julie Miller’s THE PRECINCT, Joanna Wayne’s BIG “D” DADS and Rita Herron’s BUCKING BRONC LODGE. Harlequin Intrigue will publish the long awaited sequel to CRIME SCENE AT CARDWELL RANCH by USA Today bestselling author BJ Daniels this October.

You can always expect an edge-of-your-seat read from all of the Harlequin Intrigue books. Stalkers, killers, kidnappers—we have them all. But none of them are any match for the heroes of Harlequin Intrigue. These go-to guys know how to take on any enemy and always get their girl in the end.

But we’d love to hear from you. What are your favorite stories of romantic suspense—whodunits, psychological thrillers, crime drama? Let us know.

By Kristan Higgins, author of Somebody to Love (HQN Books)

The other day, my 13-year-old son was trying to convince me he’d only had one cookie. “No,” I replied calmly. “You’ve had three.”

“I have not!” he cried, outraged at the utter injustice of the accusation. I stared. He wavered. “Okay, yes, now I remember. I had two.”

“You had three. Confess and be saved.”

He stared at me from those big brown eyes for a second, then broke. “It’s like you’re inside my head! Yes! Fine! I had three!”

I smiled. “I am in your head, honey, and don’t you forget it.”

There’s a psychic connection between mothers and their children, don’t you think?

Parker, the heroine of SOMEBODY TO LOVE, is a single mom whose first priority is, of course, her son. I’d never before written a single mom, and it brought up a whole bunch of issues that I hadn’t wrestled with before. Priorities. Time. Setting examples. The need to take care of your child outweighing all else.

And yes, the psychic connection.

There’s a moment in the book when Parker’s son is missing. It’s the moment all of us dread—that sickening black hole of horrible possibilities. But like so many mothers, Parker doesn’t give into those possibilities. Instead, she calls on that bond between mother and child, the strongest connection in nature, and that bond doesn’t fail her. In the hero’s words, And then she found him. All by herself, she figured out what the entire fire and police department and twenty-five volunteers couldn’t.

Of course she did. She’s the mom.

To all you mothers out there, and grandmothers and great-grandmothers, pat yourselves on the back for all those times you knew what no one else knew, and your kid’s life was better for it.

In the “Return to Red Rock” books, I looked into the world of firefighters with Darr Fortune in Valentine’s Fortune. (Can’t think of many red-blooded women who wouldn’t like that!)

In the “Lost and Found” books, I was able to have the girl next door (in this case, the office assistant) get her handsome boss, Drew Fortune, who wasn’t so far out of reach after all.

And most recently, in the “Whirlwind Romance” books, Emily Fortune realizes that life is about a whole lot more than just a hard-won career. Like all of the Fortunes, Emily, too, finds out that love is what makes it all worthwhile. Personally, being able to share that very message–through firefighters or career-girls—is what makes being a writer entirely worthwhile.

–Allison Leigh

“I’ve heard grown men practically whisper her name at parties. The rumor is she slept her way to her first book deal.”

“She hasn’t slept her way to this one. Unfortunately,” J.P. said with a playful grin.

“I read on Rachel Bell’s blog that she never leaves the house in any other color than red. She said Sutherlin’s got a sixteen-year-old boy working as her personal assistant.”

J.P. smiled at him. “I believe she prefers ‘intern’ to ‘personal assistant.’ I need you to do this for me. You and no one else,” J.P. said.

“Why am I the only one who can handle her?”

“Handle her?” J.P. practically chortled the words before turning suddenly serious.  “Listen to me—no one handles Nora Sutherlin…”

The land of Romance is a strange place. It’s populated with pirates and princes, Vikings and viscounts, lords and lairds. In Romance Land, the men aren’t just males. They’re Alpha Males. They lay claim to their women and defeat all adversaries with their swords and swagger. And as feisty and spunky as the ladies are, at no point do they ever out Alpha the men.

But Nora Sutherlin doesn’t live in the land of Romance. Welcome to the Dark, Dangerous World of Erotica. In the World of Erotica, the story doesn’t end on page four hundred with a teary confession, a marriage proposal, and a ride off into the sunset with her future hubby and their unborn two-point-five children. Nora’s a little too busy to settle down. She’s got two jobs—erotica writer by day, Dominatrix by night. She’s got a nymphomaniac Frenchman for a boss, a gorgeous but stuffy Brit for a book editor, an All-American college boy as a roommate, and a client list as long as her red riding crop. Men kiss her feet. Fans kiss her ass. And she kisses any one she wants.

And there’s only one man in the world who can handle her…

Welcome to the world of The Original Sinners—The Siren, The Angel, and The Prince.

Fair warning to gentle readers. This ain’t your momma’s Thorn Birds.

About The Siren:

In the world of kink authors, she’s the top.

Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different-more serious, more personal-and she’s sure it’ll be her breakout book…if it ever sees the light of day.

Zachary Easton holds Nora’s fate in his well-manicured hands. The demanding British editor agrees to handle the book on one condition: he wants complete control. Nora must rewrite the entire novel to his exacting standards-in six weeks-or it’s no deal.

Nora’s grueling writing sessions with Zach are draining…and shockingly arousing. And a dangerous former lover has her wondering which is more torturous-staying away from him…or returning to his bed?

Nora thought she knew everything about being pushed to your limits. But in a world where passion is pain, nothing is ever that simple.

The Siren is available NOW in ebook format and will be available in trade paperback on July 24, 2012. You can follow Tiffany on Twitter @tiffanyreisz

Curious? Explore Harlequin’s  “Curious Reader’s Guide to Erotic Romance”

We writers have voices in our heads. It’s just a fact of life. The voices speak to us, we write their words on the page, and people read the stories and are captivated, drawn into a land of make believe.

All right. Let’s be honest and call this what it really is. Controlled psychosis.

You laugh, but think about it. Where else in the world are you allowed to let the little voices in your head control your thoughts, your words, and your deeds? Hmmm?

Most writers are loners, happily spinning yarns with their imaginary friends day in and day out. There are a few of us who are extroverts, who don’t like being alone, who thrive on connection, and communication with the real world. The rest of us are completely happy left to our own devices. We’re the ones who would survive solitary confinement – there would be so much time to create, to allow characters to develop and ripen into the kind of people we are fascinated with. Whores and heroes, cowboys and queens and teachers, private investigators and cops, and of course, no story in the crime genre would be complete without a medical examiner.

My medical examiner has existed for several years. Dr. Samantha Owens was first written as the foil to my main character, homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson. In her very first foray onto the page, many books ago, she scrapes something off a dead body into an evidence collection bag and promptly takes a deep long whiff. I knew immediately this wasn’t a weak woman. As her character evolved, she became more than a foil – she was the conscience of the Jackson series. It was inevitable that I’d write a book with her at the center, she’s got too much spark to ignore, or resist.

Thankfully, my agent and the fine folks at Mira agreed, and off I went into Samantha’s world, whistling a happy tune.

But Sam’s story was about to take a turn for the worse. Any time you have a spin off series, it’s good to give the lead character some space from their previous role. In my case, I went to the extreme, and killed off her husband and children. Clean slate. Clean break.

Heartbreaking, though. And very hard for me. I’d grown attached to the characters, was living vicariously through Sam’s mothering of her children. I have none of my own, despite years of trying, and it was fun to have a set of twins on the page to play with. And Simon, her husband, had been a fixture in the series since the first unpublished manuscript, earnest and supportive and smart.

I’ve learned that sacrifices must be made to be true to your art. They do say to murder your darlings. In this case, with a spin-off, set in Washington, D.C. instead of Nashville, that sacrifice had to be Sam’s family.

The loss changes her. Instead of the strong woman from the Jackson novels, this Samantha Owens is delicate. Almost as if she were burned over 80% of her body, and the flesh has grown back a translucent pink; no longer her armor, but simply a sheet covering her pain, one that can be ripped off at a moment’s notice. Her scars may be internal, but she must overcome them daily just to function.

This decision also gave me a chance to have a clear reference to the huge losses Nashville experienced during the 2010 floods. It is a fortuitous sign that the book releases on the second anniversary weekend. We’ve rebuilt, but so many lost so much, and I wanted to have a tribute, a shout out, to my city.

I hope you enjoy the kinder, gentler version of Samantha. She’s still a tough cookie, but now she’s every woman, every man, who’s experienced a loss. Someone to identify with, and to root for. Someone who shows us that hope springs eternal, and you can survive even the worst of experiences.

I hope you enjoy this bonus scene from my book THE HOMESTEADER’S SWEETHEART, coming in May.

This scene happens just after the hero and heroine have shared their first kiss. The hero, Jonas White, is a homesteader with seven adopted sons and a daughter. The heroine, Penny Castlerock, is the daughter of a wealthy banker and after helping out on the homestead for weeks is finding out that maybe there’s more to life than money…

Enjoy!

“Ssh.”

“Don’t shush me,” Davy White grunted, dropping on the straw tick mattress with three other boys.

“Sshh!” This time a chorus of voices shushed him.

“The little kids ‘re asleep, and we don’t want to wake Pa,” Maxwell, the family peacemaker, cautioned from his place on the second bed taking up space in the small room.

“What’s going on?” Davy asked, this time in a whisper. He shoved Ricky’s knee out of his back and received a mostly-friendly tap on the noggin from Matty, who both jostled him on the mattress while Edgar perched precariously on the opposite edge.

With too many boys on the thin mattress, Davy elected to slide to the floor. Maxwell got a whole bed to himself, but he sorta deserved it cause of the broken leg and all. Oscar, the oldest, stood guard near the door.

“We need a plan,” put in Oscar. “And you’re always good with plans. So we need you in on this.”

“What kind of plan?” Davy asked suspiciously.

“Pa needs a wife,” Matty chimed in.

“And Penny’ll do just fine,” Ricky said.

Davy thought about the kiss they’d all witnessed earlier by the creek. One minute they’d all been horsing around. Davy had hoped his Pa was going to dunk the prim and proper Miss Penny—served her right after she’d played a sneaky trick on Davy—but instead she’d smacked a good one right on Pa’s lips and he’d set her right down on the bank.

It wasn’t fair. He’d really wanted Pa to dunk her.

“We all saw that kiss today,” Oscar said, and it was obvious the other brothers were thinking about it, too. “And we all know Pa’s not going to do anything about it—his feelings for Penny.”

“He’s too bashful.” Maxwell shifted on the other bed, adjusting his casted leg.

“And he doesn’t know much about women,” Ricky piped in again.

All his brothers, minus Seb who was asleep next door, looked at Davy expectantly. Probably because he was the best at making plans, although usually his plans involved playing pranks on his brothers or classmates.

“Well, what’re you looking at me for?” Davy asked. “I don’t know anything about fillies, either.”

“Miss Penny told me when you’re wooing a gal you should give her compliments and gifts.” Oscar paced in the confined space between the door and the end of the bed.

“Pa ain’t got enough money to get a gift nice enough for the likes of Miss Fancy Pants Castlerock,” Edgar said, a bit of belligerence in his tone. For the first time, Davy realized his brother was sitting silently, with arms crossed. He hadn’t seemed to take to Miss Penny, not like the rest of the brothers.

“I saw Miss Penny looking at wildflowers with Breanna the other day,” Matty put in, almost shyly.

“And maybe we can tell her some things, like how she looks pretty, and make it sound like Pa said ‘em.” Ricky bounced on the straw mattress, rolling into Matty, who shoved him and they dissolved into a wrestling match, punching each other and grunting, “Ssh!”

“Don’t you want Pa to be happy?” Maxwell asked Edgar softly.

“Yeah,” the younger boy grunted. “But I sure don’t think Penny’s goin’ to stick around.”

“We have to do something,” Oscar said, breaking up the boys with a meaty hand on each shoulder.

Davy again found all eyes on him. He shrugged. “We can sneak out early in the morning and pick some flowers to take to Miss Penny.”

“I’ve got a pretty ribbon we can tie it with.” Ricky jumped off the bed and snuck out of the room, rushing back in moments with a wilted ribbon.

“Where’d you get that?” Maxwell asked suspiciously.

“Stole it off Priscilla at school a few weeks ago,” Ricky declared proudly. “She squealed so loud I thought my ears would burst, but the teacher didn’t whup me or nuthin’.”

“Maybe I should whup you,” Matty growled, lunging at his brother.

This time when Oscar went to break up the tussle, he got an elbow to the ribs and he joined in with a hiss. Davy looked at Edgar over the backs of his brothers, now spilling off the bed and onto the floor. Edgar shrugged.

They both joined in too.

There’d be time for flowers later.

***
THIS MISSING SCENE TAKES PLACE BETWEEN PAGES 212-213 IN THE PAPERBACK EDITION.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

“Generous heroes, an unabashedly evil villain, and an odd collection of charmingly unschooled ragamuffins in need of a mother’s love inhabit Williams’s optimistic Wyoming Territory romance. Williams wraps pure sweetness in a very readable package, perfect for those who like their romance gentle, G-rated, and family-style.”
-Publisher’s Weekly on 03/12/2012

“Williams pens a delightful story with a hero who finds love in the least likely place — with the rich girl next door. 4.5 stars.”
-RT Book Reviews

A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR YOU:

In honor of her upcoming milestone birthday (the big 3-0), Lacy Williams wants to give her readers something fun. Find details on the MEGA MAY BIRTHDAY BASH at www.megamaybirthdaybash.com.

by Marguerite Kaye, author of the upcoming FREE Harlequin Online Read, Titanic: A Date with Destiny and Rake with the Frozen Heart (Harlequin Historical, May 2012)

The sinking of RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage is one of those rare iconic events that resonates with everyone. It’s a tragic story that is also heroic, heart-warming and symbolic. The loss of that glamorous liner was a harbinger of change heralding the end of the Edwardian age. The story of the Titanic, her passengers and crew still fascinates us, appals us and enthrals us a hundred years later. It has a mystique all of its own, to which the film starring Kate and Leo added that vital ingredient, romance.

When I was asked by Harlequin to write a story to commemorate the Titanic’s centenary, I was thrilled. Then I thought about it, and I have to admit that I was pretty daunted. To come up with something that was true to the spirit of the event, was going to be a real challenge. And as if that wasn’t enough, I had to make sure my romance didn’t bear any resemblance to the one in THAT film which, shockingly, I’d never seen!

I immersed myself (if you’ll forgive the pun) in all things Titanic. I plundered my local library and trawled through hundreds of on-line sites in a mad frenzy of fact-finding. And as my research began to take shape, I realised that the ship itself wasn’t just a setting, but a character, and one that I had to portray as accurately as I could, first class through to third, right down to the food served in the restaurants.

It’s often said that the Titanic was a floating microcosm of society, ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’, carrying as disparate a collection of people as you can imagine from the old world to the new. I wanted to show that too, which made it obvious that my hero and heroine had to represent these different worlds. I already had my hero Max, a self-made American, fixed in my mind. It was thanks to my Facebook friends that I learned about the Titanic’s stewardesses, and immediately saw an ideal opportunity to make Jennifer, my heroine, one of them. I love social media. Big thanks are due to another Facebook friend, Alison, for finding Jennifer such beautiful clothes to wear.

I took a strategic decision not to watch the Kate and Leo film, but my sister, who’s seen it a zillion times, very kindly briefed me on the story so I could avoid obvious comparisons. I did watch the documentary-style movie, A Night to Remember, and completely spoilt it for my poor long-suffering other half by providing a non-stop commentary over the whole thing. By that time, I could probably bore for Scotland on the subject of the Titanic!

The next challenge hit me when I sat down to outline my plot. The story of the Titanic is above all else tragic. I was writing a romance, which above all else has to have a happy ending. Somehow I had to find a way to reconcile the two, to bring my hero and heroine together in a way that didn’t trivialise the dreadful combination of events and circumstances which lead to the loss of over fifteen hundred lives.

I hope that I’ve managed it. I’d like to think I’ve written a story that is both romantic and true to the spirit of the ship and her passengers. Whether or not I’ve succeeded – that’s up to you to decide.

One of the best things about an online read is that I can share your thoughts and reactions as the story unfolds, chapter by chapter. Please join me from April 23^rd. I’m looking forward to it.

Editor’s Note: Stop by Harlequin.com on April 23 to start reading Titanic: A Date with Destiny!

Born and educated in Scotland, Marguerite Kaye originally qualified as a lawyer but chose not to practice. Instead, she carved out a career in IT and studied history part-time, gaining a first-class honours and a master’s degree. A few decades after winning a children’s national poetry competition, she decided to pursue her lifelong ambition to write, and submitted her first historical romance to Mills & Boon. They accepted it, and she’s been writing ever since.

You can visit Marguerite Kaye at her Web site, or on Twitter and Facebook. You can also pre-order Marguerite’s next Harlequin Historical Rake with the Frozen Heart (May 2012).

Welcome to Special Edition’s 30th anniversary celebration! We decided that in addition to offering some of the best of our authors and top miniseries this month, a special gift was in order. So start digging into books by USA TODAY bestselling authors RaeAnne Thayne, Christine Rimmer, Susan Crosby and Christyne Butler, as well as beloved SE contributors Gina Wilkins and Cindy Kirk. By all means enjoy another in RaeAnne’s heartwarming miniseries, The Cowboys of Cold Creek; a spinoff of Christine Rimmer’s beloved Bravo Family Ties, mixed with royalty this time, called The Bravo Royales; the next installment in SE’s uber-popular continuity, The Fortunes of Texas: Whirlwind Romance; and one more in Christyne Butler’s raucous and romantic Welcome to Destiny miniseries, for starters.

But as I’ve said before, what is a celebration without presents? So our present to you, our readers, is our bonus novella. The Anniversary Party is collaboratively written by each of our six featured authors—RaeAnne Thayne; Christine Rimmer; Susan Crosby; Christyne Butler; Gina Wilkins; and Cindy Kirk, and you will get a copy of the novella in each and every April Special Edition you buy!

And we have all kinds of special treats throughout the rest of 2012—more from RaeAnne Thayne and Christine Rimmer; more in USA TODAY bestselling author Marie Ferrarella’s Matchmaking Mamas miniseries; Allison Leigh’s continuing miniseries, Return to the Double C; the launch of twice RITA-winning author Karen Templeton’s exciting new project, Summer Sisters; and the beginning of USA TODAY author Leanne Banks’ Royal Babies.