USA Today bestselling author Christi Caldwell is here today to tell us five things about herself we probably don’t know. Christi published her first Regency romance just a few years ago, and they have quickly gained in popularity. Her most recent release is For Love of the Duke, and just look at this cover!

1) Do you celebrate when you finish a book and what you do? I sleep! As a mom to a really, really energetic six-year old and twin 10-month-old babies, my days are spent between mommying and writing. I reward myself by curling up for a good nap while my hubby steps in to man the house!

2) Where is the strangest place a story idea came to you from? The birth of my latest book, “For Love of the Duke”, may not be the strangest but kinda funny in how it came to be. I live in an old raised ranch in Southern Connecticut; a house that’s freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer. During one particularly awful heat wave, I was climbing into bed around midnight after a day of writing. I was so incredibly hot…I’d recently come across research on the Frost Fair. I just closed my eyes and then bam…my heroine crashed through the Frozen Thames. I climbed out of bed and barely stopped to breathe for the next 3 weeks while I told the story.

3) If you could have only 3 electrical appliances in your house, what would they be and why? Well, having been the unfortunate victim of appliances ganging up and plotting their demise all at once…I can say for certain:

• A dishwasher. Mine recently went giving me a whole new appreciation for the dishwasher. I don’t think I ever want to wash another baby bottle by hand. Make it double with twins and oi vei!
• My washing machine. Really, what did people before washing machines? No, really, what did they do? Mine broke and my house looked like a Shell Silverstein poem with all the clothes lying about.
• My dryer. Because let’s face it, when you try and air dry…ALL your clothes, it’s really not the same. At all.

4) If you were not writing, what job would you have? My other second full-time job would be my career of choice—Stay-at-home Mommy! My journey to motherhood was not an easy one and it gave me an amazing appreciation for the miracle of children…there’s no more beautiful job…but also, no more difficult one, either!

5) If you could choose any 3 people in history to meet, who would they be? Oh, as a former history teacher, this is a fun one! Let’s see, first Marie Antoinette. I’m so fascinated by her tragic, unexpected ascension to the throne…a title, by ranking of her birth she never should have wedded into. One of those twists of fate. Bad Boy Alexander Hamilton. I love the romanticism of the story surrounding his illegitimacy and his heroic role in the American Revolution. And I’m a sucker for golden-blonde hair! 😉 And last, I’d love a sit down with Henry VIII just so I could have the pleasure of telling him how the whole who-decides-a-babies-gender thing to him! Though

, I’m sure ‘blaming’ a king for his lack of sons wouldn’t have earned me any favors! 😉

You can find Christi on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Thanks for stopping by today!

Today I welcome Megan Mulry to the blog! Megan is a USA Today bestselling author of both contemporary and historical romance, her newest book Roulette just out a few weeks ago. She’s come to share with us five things you probably don’t know about her…

1) What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done? The easy answer is probably skydiving, but I think publishing a book feels far more daring and heartstopping. If the chute hadn’t opened, it would have been kind of a one-off; you know what I mean? *splat* But publishing a book—nowadays with e-books especially—it is like being in free-fall, well, FOREVER. That’s why I write fairly quickly and fairly prolifically: if I stop too long to think about all the dangers, I will never jump out of that airplane…or publish the next book. (In related news: Dare to suck.)

2) What’s your strongest/most productive writing habit? I don’t know if it’s a habit or mindset, but something clicked when I first saw this video by Maureen Johnson, aptly titled: DARE TO SUCK. I had always held myself up to these imaginary standards of greatness—which were really nothing more than self-defeating hurdles that stopped me from writing. So every day I write and write and let the words flow and try to silence the inner critic. There is a time and a place for polishing one’s work, don’t get me wrong! As Miranda Neville once told me, “That’s what editors are for.”

3) If you could be a superhero, who would you choose and why? Wonder Woman, duh. The jet. The belt. The rope. The rack. The polyamorous real life creators.She’s a win-win-win-win. Win.

4) Where is the strangest place a story idea came to you from? Most recently

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, from Mira Lyn Kelly, author of steamy/snarky contemporaries like Truth or Dare, and a good friend.Not that she is strange lol, but she occasionally makes up strange writing prompts for me. Between big projects, especially when I am awaiting developmental edits and don’t want to get too deep into another story, I like to do little sprints—all I need is a name and an occupation and off I go. One of Mira’s writing prompts was “Jerome the Furrier.” Initially, I pictured a 19th-century American story with a French trapper or something. Then I thought, NO! He is the head of some super high-end haute couture House of Fur in Paris…and he is naughty! (Working title was Venus in Fur, of course).And then I started writing Michaela, his Russian corporate nemesis…and then she became Miki, my half-French/half-Russian heroine. The little seed was planted and I couldn’t stop writing about these two. Slight hiccup when I started researching the fur industry and got grossed out by all the rodent carcasses at the pelt factories—so I switched them to a different industry that would still involve France and Russia and ended up making him a playboy publishing magnate, and her the owner of Russian paper mills and timber holdings… and that became Roulette! Thank you Mira Lin!

5) Did you have a nickname growing up? Meegie-moo. My older sister and my mother still call me that sometimes. (Don’t even think about it.)

Thanks for having me visit your blog, Elizabeth! I’d love to give away a signed copy of Roulette to a commenter who is willing to share an embarrassing nickname or an occasion in which they have dared to suck!

You can find Megan on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

People always say this is one of their favorites–with Felicity Langley being one of my most beloved heroines. Yet her story would not have been told without some help. So on this Throwback Thursday, let me introduce you to some of the books that helped me write Love Letters from a Duke:

The London Encyclopedia

, ed. by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert. This is one of my favorite books to have within reach while I am writing a book set in London.

Names through the Ages, by Teresa Norman. I love the way this book divides names into centuries so you can pick names by generations.

City of Sin, London in Pursuit of Pleasure by Giles Emerson. A detailed book on the various amusements and pursuits of Londoners, including a small section on Frost Fairs.

The A to Z of Regency London. A reprint of Richard Horwood’s maps, it gives you a street by street, property by property look at London. When Felicity goes shopping for thread, I used this map to guide her steps, as well as my own when I toured London while researching this book.

If you haven’t read Love Letters from a Duke, you can take a sneak peek inside here, or order a copy today. Felicity Langley, beloved busybody that she is, would approve.

USA Today bestselling author of smart, sassy Regency romances, Erin Knightley, is joining us on the blog today. She’s here to reveal five things we probably don’t know about her…

1) Did you have a nickname growing up? Believe it or not, my brother used to always call me Bushy-haired Cavewoman. Charming, no? LOL – it wasn’t until high school that I discovered hair product. Hilariously enough, when my sister was tracing our ancestry, we discovered that we are descendants of Captain John Stuart, whose Cherokee name was Bushyhead. Seriously!

2) How do you pick the names of your Heroes/Heroines? Last time

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, it was by committee! Sometimes I go to Facebook and ask my readers for help, other times a name just immediately comes to me, and still other times I rake through the old census data from the 1800s to find the perfect fit.

3) Since romance authors always write about falling in love, when and how did you discover you were in love? My husband and I met when we were sixteen! As high school sweethearts, all my romantic memories are with him, which I love. Although he wasn’t my first kiss, I was his! I’ll never forget sitting in the car in my parent’s driveway during a summer storm, the air warm and humid as Sweet Home Alabama played on the radio in the background. That was the day we both said “I love you!” for the first time. 🙂

4) What are your top three favorite movies? Love Actually (swoon!), Like Water For Chocolate (even with the subtitles), and Apollo 13.

5) What is the most embarrassing song/app on your ipod? I’m the only person I know who doesn’t listen to music! I have a whopping 10 songs on my iPhone – all of which were composed by my brother, Andy McLeroy. Oh! And The Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feelin'” which I used to create the world’s most embarrassing video for the day my first novel debuted. 😉

You can find Erin on her website, Facebook page, or on Twitter!

These are wonderful if you are going to/or having a party and need something that will feed a crowd. These are always what I get asked to bring:

Meatballs:
1 pound of ground beef
2 T finely chopped onions
1/2 C fine bread crumbs
1 T parsley
1 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1/3 C milk

Mix all this together thoroughly and then form into small

, bite sized meatballs. In a pan, over medium heat, melt 1 T butter and 2 T of oil, and add an 1/8 of curry, then brown the meatballs in lots so as not to crowd the pan. When cooked, drain on a paper towel to remove excess fat. Keep warm in a crock pot while you make the sauce.

Sauce:
In a heavy saucepan, mix:
1/2 C pineapple juice (I used the juice drained from the tidbits below)
1/3 C vinegar
1/4 C sugar
1 T cornstarch
1/8 t salt
1 T soy sauce
1 cup pineapple tidbits
1 green pepper, finely chopped

Cook over medium heat until the sauce turns clear and it has thickened. Pour the sauce over the meatballs and allow to simmer a bit on low in the crock pot.

Hints: I usually double this recipe, but then again I’m usually feeding a CROWD. Also, if you are pressed for time, pre-made frozen meatballs (like Costcos) are a great time saver. When you cook them, don’t forget to add the curry. You can also make the meatballs ahead of time and freeze them.

And now that you’ve got your appetizer ready, about a little something sweet: Lenora Bell’s Candy Cane Cookies. Enjoy these and the rest of the recipes in the Avon Holiday Recipe Loop.

Have you met Avon Addict Merle yet? She’s come by today to share five things about herself that we probably don’t know! Welcome, Merle…

1) What is the very first romance novel that you read? I’m actually relatively new to romance — I only started reading it a year ago! My very first romance was Courtney Milan’s Unclaimed. I adored it so much I went out and bought all of her books immediately afterward.

2) Favorite place to find new books? There’s a large used bookstore here in my city called Gardner’s

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, and I LOVE wandering through their large romance section to find all sorts of goodies.

3) Who are your must-buy authors? Courtney Milan, of course; Tessa Dare; Theresa Romain; Simone St. James for her utterly perfect Gothic ghost stories; Elizabeth Loupas, who writes stunning historical novels; and N.K. Jemisin, for truly unique and exciting fantasy books.

4) Do you immediately start another book once you finished one? Typically, yes! I’ve got so much to read that if I take too long a break in between books, I’ll never get anything done. I don’t usually have a problem with it, either; I can separate the two in my head.

5) What are your top three favorite movies? Toughie! Right now I’d have to say that my favorite movie is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The first Thor movie holds a special place in my heart as well, and I’ll always adore Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Katharine Ashe is the award winning author of adventurous, bestselling Regency romances from Avon! But her newest novella, in the anthology At the Billionaire’s Wedding, is a romp in contemporary romance. Here, she shares with us five things you probably didn’t know about her.

1) Did you have a nickname growing up? “Katie, Katie, the Paper Cup Lady”. One day in 1st grade I was innocently sitting cross-legged on my fuzzy blue Cookie Monster mat at snack time

, when my teacher asked me to pass out the paper cups for juice. Someone called me that name, and it stuck, swiftly morphing into “Katie, Katie, the Big Fat Lady”, and so on. I’m proud to say that (after decades of therapy) I have finally gotten over this trauma. But if I could remember which nasty kid made up the name, I’d hunt him down and…

2) Do you celebrate when you finish a book and what you do? I drink champagne and dance in my living room to really loud music.

3) Where do you go for inspiration when the creativity well is running a little dry? The romantic core of my creative imagination never runs dry; there are always couples in my imagination eager for me to tell their love stories. But when I’m pondering plot ideas, I go to history books. History is so rich and complex and astonishingly unreal. I’ve found my best — and often my most outrageous — plots in the pages of history books.

4) What is the very first romance novel that you read? Once More, Miranda by Jennifer Wilde (who was a man). Full of action and delicious sensuality, with a strong heroine and excellent hero, I fell in love with it. I remember little of it now, but thirty years ago it changed my life.

5) What are your top three favorite movies? Moonstruck, The Cutting Edge, and The Hunt for Red October. Romance, comedy, strong heroines, alpha heroes, fabulous acting, perfect settings, action, conflict, noble deeds, and heart-swelling happily ever afters. And, of course, they’re infinitely quotable.

Ronnie: “I’m a wolf? You run to the wolf in me, that don’t make you no lamb.”

Kate: “Toe pick!”

Ramius: “‘And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep doth dream of home.” Christopher Columbus.”

Ryan: “Welcome to the New World, sir.”
[cue the swelling Russian choir music]

Thanks for having me visit, Elizabeth!!

You can find Katharine on Facebook, Twitter, and her website.

Welcome, Avon Addict Veronica Arellano. If you don’t know Veronica, the questions she answered below for us should get you started…

1) Where is the most beautiful/romantic place you’ve ever been? Hands-down: Buzios, Brazil. It’s a tiny resort town made famous by Brigitte Bardot vacationing there in the 1960s. There’s even a saucy statue of her on the town’s main drag! The beaches are beautiful, the food is amazing, the music is lovely and I swear the sunsets are the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen. As soon as my vacation was over, I was homesick for Buzious. I just felt at home and at peace there, which made it the most romantic place on earth.

2) Favorite name for a hero or heroine. DECLAN. I can’t get enough of that name. Sophie Jordan uses it for her hero in A Good Debutante’s Guide to Ruin, and it is so sexy.

3) What new to you authors are you crazy about? I have a total reader’s crush on Theresa Romain and Carolyn Jewel. They’re so different–Jewel’s writing is angsty and dark and Romain’s novels are fantastically witty and smart–but they both know how to write these great off-kilter heroes that I find really appealing.

4) What is the most embarrassing song/app on your ipod? The song has to be Gato Astronauta by !Fantastico! (That’s right, there are double Spanish language exclamation points in the band name). It’s about a cat astronaut who travels to outer space. In my defense, it’s a track off of a Spanish-language kid’s CD I picked up for my son!

5) Name three books on your keeper shelf and why.

• Romance: A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
  It’s a total feel-good romance. No angst. No drama. Just two people falling in love on the road. I read it whenever I need a pick-me-up.
• Fantasy: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  The Mists of Avalon is a great feminist re-telling of the classic Arthurian legend. It’s a welcome respite from the off-handed misogyny that you often find in fantasy and sci-fi.
• Epic: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
  I am a huge sucker for epic family sagas

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  , and this is one with a twist! The protagonist is an inter-sexed individual named Calliope/Cal, and through Cal’s amazing voice you’ll travel from Greece to Detroit to San Francisco.

I don’t know how many people told me NOT to write Brazen Angel. An editor at a conference. More than one agent. Critic partners. Contest judges. Every single one of them said that any story set around the French Revolution wasn’t romantic, would never sell. One of my critique partners joked that it was the tale of springtime in Paris with Robespierre. Yeah, very funny.

I wrote it anyway. And look what happened. It won the Dell Diamond Debut–which came with a publishing contract. It was nominated for two RITAs, Best First Book and Best Long Historical. It won for Best First Book. Brazen Angel, the book I wouldn’t have written if I had listened to everyone else, ending up being the story that launched my career. The one everyone told me not to waste my time on.

This is why you, if you believe in a story with all your heart, and you know it is THE story you have to tell, then you must tell it. Write it from the heart and tell it. I wrote this book on fire–the story would not leave me alone. I Had. To. Tell. It. And it was mine to tell.

So is your story.

Now

, 18 years later, I still write–every day because I can’t not write. And always, I stick to crafting the stories that intrigue me, the characters who won’t leave me alone, the plot that leaves me breathless.

Haven’t read my first book? You’ll find an excerpt from Brazen Angel here, or order your copy here.

Cynthia Sax writes contemporary erotic romance for Avon Impulse, and came to the blog to share a few things about herself and her writing. Here are 5 things you might not know about Cynthia…

1) Where is the most beautiful/romantic place you’ve ever been? My favorite tropical paradise is Bali (the combination of beaches, art and the spiritual is wonderful). My favorite city is Istanbul (a combination of so many different cultures). The city I’d most like to live in is Chicago (the setting of Sinful Rewards).

2) How do you pick the names of your Heroes/Heroines? In Sinful Rewards, the heroine, Bee/Belinda is torn between Nicolas, a billionaire with a dark past and Hawke, a tattooed bad boy biker. As the men see two different sides of our heroine, I wanted them to call her by two different names. The man we believe is more casual calls her by the very formal Belinda. The man we believe is more formal calls her Bee. Yes, everyone in Sinful Rewards has secrets. (grins) Bee is also appropriate because she believes she’s always second best, the B choice.

3) Since romance authors always write about falling in love, when and how did you discover you were in love? I fell in love with my dear wonderful hubby at first sight. Yes, I didn’t believe in it either. I didn’t really believe in romantic love at all. I thought some people were lucky to feel passion for their friends. Then the hubby walked into a room and bam, both of us fell in love. I told a friend that very day that he was the man I’d marry. We’re from different races, different religions. He’s younger than I am. 20 plus years later, however, we remain very much in love.

4) Who are your must-buy authors? I love Shelly Bell, N.J. Walters, Laurann Dohner, Eve Langlais, Opal Carew, Naima Simone, all erotic romance. I LOVE the hot reads.

5) Print or ebook? eBook, definitely. I read, on average, one erotic romance a day (I speed read). Print would be a nightmare. I love being able to take thousands of books on vacation with me, being able to adjust the font size, being able to delete the stories I didn’t like.

You can find Cynthia at her website

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, on Facebook, her blog, Twitter, or sign up for her Release Day Newsletter here!