In Year of the Dog , Mari discovers a moldy tote bag in chapter 18. She describes it a bit more in chapter 21. I actually bought fabric specifically to make the bag, although I haven’t yet hired anyone to make it yet. Here it is! The fabric is Golden Garden - Teal from Alexander Henry Fabrics Indochine collection. Isn’t it pretty? I saw it on Etsy and simply fell in love. I specifically wanted wooden zipper pulls for the bag, so I bought these hibiscus earrings made out of koa wood (from Etsy), and I’ll attach them to the zippers once I have the bag made for me.   The hibiscus will be significant for the story, as will the koa wood. When I get the bag made, I’ll be sure to post pictures!  

This is the new cover for Year of the Dog! While I loved the old cover, since I’m rewriting Year of the Dog  with more suspense, I thought I should make a cover that’s more suspense-y, but still looks a bit fun and tropical (hence the pink title and purple palm trees). My graphic designer is slammed with work right now, so I decided to make the cover myself. What do you think? I’ll have my graphic designer tweak the cover later (when she’s got more time) but it shouldn’t change too much since I used the cover for Sushi and Suspicions  that she made for me as a general template to make this cover. I’m also making a logo for the new series which will go in the top right corner of the cover, but I want to wait until my graphic designer can look at it first.

In chapter 1 of my humorous romantic suspense novel, Protection for Hire , the setting is Wings domestic abuse shelter. My heroine, Tessa, is driven to champion women, and I naturally wanted her to work with women who needed her help. I didn’t want to use a real San Francisco shelter for my book for various reasons, so I created Wings but based it loosely off of a real women’s shelter in San Jose called Heritage Home. Heritage Home is a shelter for pregnant women run by CityTeam Ministries, and they provide shelter, training, and spiritual encouragement for homeless pregnant women. They’re run out of a glorious Victorian house in downtown San Jose, which is maintained by volunteers and donations, and which provides a real atmosphere of “home” for women who are at some of the darkest points in their lives. I’ve donated to Heritage Home and also taken a tour, meeting some of the staff and some of the women. Their stories and their courage were the seeds that made me write about Tessa, he...

In chapter one of Protection for Hire , Elizabeth St. Amant is wearing some droolworthy gold shoes. I imagined them looking a bit like this—elegant, expensive, and completely out of place in a women’s shelter. The shoes are a reflection of Elizabeth herself—sheltered, from a wealthy family, but thrust into a new life and feeling out of place when she takes her infant son and runs away from her abusive husband. Elizabeth hires my heroine, Tessa, to protect her. But Charles, the lawyer who comes to their aid, happens to be the man who helped put Tessa in prison years ago. Tessa and Charles get caught up in a romantic suspense story with humor, danger, and faith. If you’re a fan of stories with sassy heroines, edge-of-your-seat action, and laugh-out-loud moments, you’ll love the world of Protection for Hire . It’s like your favorite rom-com collided with a high-stakes thriller—and those gold shoes are just the beginning. I love beautiful shoes but can’t wear them because I have flat...

The dessert from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Vol 4: Betrayer I hadn’t really intended to have so many meal scenes in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer . However, at the time I was writing it, I was suffering from my IBS issues, and my diet had been (and still is) terribly bland, so I put every kind of delicious thing into the book that I could. There was a scene later in the book when Laura kind of forces Sol to eat. He’s come to see her looking rather haggard, after he’s been dealing with some enemies trying to undermine him. I didn’t intend to do it, but I ended up having them eat a full meal (rather than just tea and sweets). And since there’s something kind of cute about a manly-man enjoying a sweet dessert, I wrote a Floating Island dessert into the scene. The Floating Island recipe was one I’d seen a few weeks earlier when I was looking through the PDF scans of some old cookbooks from the Regency era. The Floating Island stuck out to me because it was nothing like th...

a.k.a. Camy’s diabolical treasonous organization I mentioned earlier that the symbol of the Citadel in the series is actually my family crest. Bianca’s silver seal is also found in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 4: Betrayer. What I did was order a custom-made seal of the Citadel—or rather, my family crest. 😄 I thought the company who made the seal did a good job. Bianca’s seal is silver and mine is brass, but it was neat to hold it and feel the weight of it and press a few wax seals (I’ll post pics of those later). I felt almost like a member of a diabolical treasonous organization sending super-secret messages and trying to help Napoleon take over Europe. 😝 What do you think? Curious how it all begins? Click below to read the beginning of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer for free and step into a world of Regency intrigue, danger, and slow-burn romance. 👉 Read the excerpt now Reference Footer This post relates to Camille Elliot’s Lady Wynwood’s Spies , a Christ...

Here’s a couple Easter Eggs for you in the Lady Wynwood’s Spies series: There are two trainers in the Ramparts who are mentioned in the books, Mr. Alex Armstrong and Mr. Levi Ackerman. From Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 4: Betrayer : Mr. Drydale had been taking Miss Sauber and Miss Gardinier to the Ramparts in the mornings to be privately trained by Mr. Alex Armstrong, who trained agents for both the Alien Office and the Foreign Office. A giant of a man, with muscles the size of headstones and a very impressive blond mustache, he often flashed his gleaming white teeth in a ready smile, which was nearly as blinding as the light reflecting from his balding pate. He was cheerfully relentless in training the two women in the many methods by which they could incapacitate an opponent using only their fists or weapons of opportunity. From Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 7: Spinster : So Lena told stories about her training under the swordmaster at the Ramparts, Mr. Levi Ackerman, but...