Some authors are like old friends

You don't see them all the time. You don't necessarily read everything they write, and you might go a long time between their books. But when you run into them again, you sigh and sit back, prepared to enjoy the experience because they've never let you down before and you know they won't this time, either.

Lynn Viehl is that kind of author for me. I can't recall how I found her; I think it was the cover of Dark Need -- that cover model is quite hot. I'd never read the Darkyn series but I fell in love with it through this book, and Lucan is still one of my favorite romance heroes ever -- and as PG Forte will tell you, I'm not a huge vampire romance fan (I don't like dead things.) I like my vamps alive -- like PG's, JR Ward's, and Viehl's.

I stumbled upon Dark Need about the time I started writing seriously, with an eye to publication. And when I went looking for Lynn's blog to learn more about her and her books, I discovered a site full of resources and advice for newbie and not-so-newbie authors. Now, that's not the principal reason for Paperback Writer's existence--it's mainly her personal blog, with some promotion and information about her books. But she's collected a hellaton of useful links for writing and researching, and she writes a lot about writing -- the creative process, the problems and frustrations, how to handle difficulties with publishers or agents.

When she got the ARCs of one of her Darkyn books (Locksley's, I believe), the cover model's eyes were pink. Robin of Locksley, in the Darkyn universe at least, does not have pink eyes. She could've written a post ranting about cover art disasters, but instead she wrote a hilarious (free) short story in which Robin receives ARCs of a book about himself--he's quite proud and excited that someone wrote about him and he's been talking about nothing else. A bunch of his Darkyn buddies are with him when he opens the box of ARCs, and their reactions to the pink eyes are hysterical. I think Lucan offers to kill the people in the art department responsible for the travesty.

I like reading her take on writing and the romance genre in particular. She is not a big fan of RWA or traditional romance, to put it very mildly. She takes a certain amount of pleasure in expressing opinions others in the genre might find offensive. I've often thought if the romance industry were high school, RWA would be the student council. Lynn would be the bad girl who sits in the back, with the stoners and the goths and other bad boys, and she'd never take notes and she'd smoke dope and cut class, but she'd always end up with A's.

She's written more than romance -- she's done science fiction and I think she's even been published in Guideposts, the venerable Christian magazine. (If you've ever read some of her sex scenes, you'll know how weird that sounds.)

Anyway. I recently discovered she has a new steam punk romance series out - Disenchanted & Co. They're kind of short, which is great because they're only $2.99. Very fast paced, almost pot-boilerly, and I mean no insult. It's the cliff hanger/rollicking type of pot boiler -- Indiana Jones steampunk, if you will. I finished Her Ladyship's Curse last night and I'm starting His Lordship Possessed as soon as I post this (click the covers to go to the Amazon page.)

So, if you're looking for someone new to read, and you like hot sex across genres, you might give Lynn a try. If you're a writer, you'll want to check out her links. I'm headed over there for...no. Never mind. If Sky finds out I'm chasing plot bunnies she'll kill me.