Imagine the horror of going to your teenager’s bedroom one morning only to find her missing. Her bed hadn’t been slept in and her clothes are gone.

In 2000, that’s what one mother in Florida faced. Her only child had conspired against her and ran away. And worse, she later discovered that her daughter had left the country—without having a passport. From the moment I read this news story, I was hooked and had to know more about how such an atrocity could happen. The teen’s trail might have gone ice cold, but her mother pushed authorities in a direction.

She knew where to start looking.

Only six months earlier, the girl had received a computer for a gift—a thoughtful present from a mother who wanted the best for her child. But this gift soon brought a virtual menace into their home. A charming and anonymous stranger lured the 14-year old girl to Greece—a man she’d met in a teen chat room. We’ve all heard stories like this. But after researching the facts behind this case, I was amazed at the audacity of this Internet predator.

And I wanted to shed light on the shrewd tactics of online predators in my upcoming book—Evil Without A Face (Feb 2009, Avon, $7.99)—the first book in my Sweet Justice series.

The online predator not only manipulated the teenager in Florida, but he also convinced law-abiding adults to cooperate with his schemes. These people thought they were helping an abused kid, but they didn’t know the facts, check with her family or contact local law enforcement. This stranger duped an employee of the local phone company into arranging for a private cell phone to talk to the girl directly. His slick manipulation scored him a purchased airline ticket (without a direct connection to him) and a clandestine ride for the girl to the airport. But after he bribed a child pornographer to acquire an illegal passport for her to leave the United States, the girl was out of the country before her mother knew she was gone.

And the chase to save the girl was on—a mother’s worst fear.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. This happened in 2000, before the added airport security measures were implemented after 9/11 in 2001. The girl would never have been allowed on a plane without proper ID. But after contacting a source in the airline industry, I was shocked to learn how many children travel unaccompanied and without a valid ID on domestic flights these days. So this extraordinary Florida case became the framework for my novel, Evil Without A Face. And I chose to set part of the story in the unique venue of Alaska where I had lived for ten years.

My novels have the feel of being ripped from today’s headlines because real crime inspires me. Who says crime doesn’t pay? Violence is like the ripple effect on the surface of still water. The wake radiates out from the victim and touches many people. In my books, I give a voice to the many victims of crime.

In Evil Without A Face, an illusive web of imposters on the Internet lures a deluded teen from her Alaskan home and launches a chain reaction collision course with an unlikely tangle of heroes. A new kind of criminal organization becomes the faceless enemy behind an insidious global conspiracy. And the life of one young girl and countless others hang in the balance. This is the initial driver to my new series. With an international setting, these thrillers will focus on the lives and loves of three women—a bounty hunter operating outside the law, an ambitious vice cop, and a former international operative with a mysterious past. These women give Lady Justice a whole new reason to wear blinders.

And their brand of justice is anything but sweet.

After researching the case in Florida, I became more concerned for naïve kids socializing in cyberspace—young people like my nieces and nephews. Savvy online criminals lurk in anonymity and carry on without fear of repercussion. I’m an active member of MySpace and Facebook and know how they operate. But these social networks aren’t the problem—the criminals are. And as you’ve seen in the headlines and on TV, the online community has become a real hunting ground for predators.

Why not? It’s easy pickings.

For the most part, the Internet is an invaluable tool. And it breaks down the barriers between countries, allowing many of us to have international friends. But the anonymity of cyberspace attracts all sorts of users with criminal intent. Terrorists have found new high-tech ways to recruit online and they have duped some Internet users into funding their activities or have resorted to outright stealing through subterfuge. And since crimes that cross over jurisdictions and international borders are harder to prosecute, offenders often get away with their schemes. That’s why I wanted to write Evil Without A Face and dole out my brand justice. After all, who couldn’t use a liberal dose of ‘Sweet Justice’ when reality becomes stranger than fiction?

How has your use of the Internet changed over the years? Have you become more suspicious of certain behaviors from online strangers? And if you have children who use online resources, can you share some tips on how you keep them safer?

Let’s forget that it’s Friday the 13th and instead concentrate on the fact that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!

There was more than one Saint Valentine. According to Wikkipedia, the Catholic church recognized 11 V-Days up until 1969. The one we celebrate is in honor of Valentine of Rome, who was martyred in AD 269. Not a lot is known about him but there are 2 theories as to how he supposedly met his end. One says that he was executed after refusing to convert to Roman paganism and trying to convert Emperor Claudius II to Christianity. The second says that Claudius insisted all army men remain single, in the belief that married men did not make good soldiers (ed. — must have been that pesky reason to live and all that!). Valentine was a priest at the time and he secretly performed marriage ceremonies. For this he was arrested and subsequently put to death. Legend has it that before his execution he penned the first ‘valentine’ to his beloved, reportedly a jailor’s daughter.

Hmm, which explanation is more romantic? I think I have to go with #2.

Valentine’s Day as we know it is, unsurprisingly, widely acknowleged as a Victorian custom. Chaucer might have put the idea in our heads, but things really took off around 1847. Before this many people made their own declarations of adoration and sent them to their beloved. In the US a woman named Esther Howland, of Worcester, Mass sold the first mass produced Valentines in 1847, taking inspiration from an English valentine she herself had received.

Today it’s estimated that there are approximately one billion Valentine’s Day cards sent every year, making it second only to Christmas for card sending. Also, it’s estimated that men spend (on average) twice as much as women on the holiday. Go guys!

So, how do you feel about Valentine’s Day? A time to remember a martyred saint, or a day you can eat as much chocolate as you want and not get fat (it’s been scientifically proven!)? Do you look forward to spending time with your sweetie or do you still wonder what the cute boy in your grade 7 class meant when he gave you the Mickey and Minnie Mouse card and gave everyone else Goofy and Donald? Do you mutter, ‘Bah Humbug’ under your breath when you see the aisles of pink and red in your Walmarts, pharmacies and grocery stores? Or do you smile at the boxes of cheesy paper cut-outs and fight the urge to run home and decorate a paper bag to hang in front of your desk? Do tell! Avon Authors want to know!

Gayle Callen caught up to Susan Elizabeth Phillips to talk about her new book, What I Did For Love–and no, Gayle isn’t stalking her again, although there are some videos on the Avon Books site that are pretty incriminating…

GC: Your new book, WHAT I DID FOR LOVE, deals with celebrities. How famous are you?
SEP: Nothing like starting off the interview with a little sarcasm… Let’s just say that I’m not quite as famous as Bram and Georgie, my hero and heroine. Wait! At our neighborhood bookstore last week, a customer asked me if I was Janet Evanovitch. Does that count?

GC: What’s one thing we’d be surprised to learn about you?
SEP: I’m a terrible speller, I can cry at the drop of a hat, and I have a crush on Tim Gunn from Project Runway. As for my other secrets… Not telling!

GC: Which classic have you always meant to read and never got around to it?
SEP: Any classics I meant to read, I’ve already read. A few I’ve never forgiven myself for opening. MOBY DICK springs to mind.

GC: Do you have any favorite place to write?
SEP: I have a beautiful office. (See photos) But I end up carrying my laptop to our upstairs guest room. Laptop doesn’t connect to Internet. Guest room has a beat up Laz-E-Boy. ‘Nuff said.

GC: What is your favorite word?
SEP: Ice Cream. Oh, wait, that’s two words. Still…

Debut Avon Author Jaime Rush recently took the time out of her busy schedule to have a chat with the lovely and talented Julianne MacLean. Here’s what was said:

JR: You have said that you enjoy the process of making video trailers, and the video for The Mistress Diaries is indeed spectacular. What is it that appeals about both making them and putting them out there for the public?

JM: We’ve had great fun filming those videos, and mostly it’s just for the pure joy of it. My husband is a doctor by day, but filmaking is his creative outlet. He loves making movies, and works on a lot of projects in our local area (Nova Scotia is a popular place for movies. Part of Titanic was filmed here, and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, among many others). My husband also has a wacky sense of humor, and we wanted to something outside the box, which would purely entertain.

JR. Your recent books seem to play with that tantalizing theme of forbidden love. In The Mistress Diaries, for example, she is a noblewoman and he, a mere groomsman. In When a Stranger Loves Me, she is an heiress, and he, a stranger with no memory of his previous life. She must seduce him to have the child she needs to secure her family’s estate. Have you purposely been drawn to this theme…or is it something in your own life that inspires?

JM: (Tracy – the hero in The Mistress Diaries is the son of a duke (not sure where the groomsman comes from, LOL!) – but it was still forbidden because he was engaged to another woman.)
Yes, I’ve always been drawn to this theme of forbidden love, because it makes the obstacles intense and emotional. Wanting someone when you can’t have them can drive a person to the point of obsession. Also, a love scene where both characters are trying to resist “going all the way” is very exciting to write. It adds an element of danger and conflict and inner turmoil to the scene. In WHEN A STRANGER LOVES ME, there’s also the possibility that the hero might have a wife, but he can’t remember because he has amnesia. It made their decision to make love so much more complex. I also love it when passions threaten to override common sense. I’m sure we’ve all been in the position of knowing in our heads that something is not prudent, yet we still want to do it. The lure of the forbidden – it’s a universal theme as old as Adam and Eve.

JR: Amnesia has been used many times in novels. What makes this fascinating situation different in When a Stranger Loves Me?

JM: It’s funny, it is a classic theme, but I haven’t read that many historicals lately that have used it. For a while there were a ton of contemporaries with the world “amnesia” in the title, and I’d certainly heard many editors over the years say that “amnesia sells.” So people obviously like it.

I wanted to do one for a while, but I also wanted to make sure that it was not so much an external plot device, but more of a characterization issue. I wanted the lost memory to be a great sense of torment for my character, and cause him inner pain and confusion and sorrow. I think I accomplished that with Blake. He had to rediscover his identity, not just in an external sense (to learn that he was the son of a duke who needed a wife) – but also internally. He didn’t know if he was a scoundrel deep down, or a decent, responsible man, because he had no history in which to recall his previous actions in life. He felt torn between both traits sometimes.

JR: What is the best thing about being a romance writer?

JM: Reliving the experience of first love, over and over again.

JR: What is the most indulgent thing that you do for yourself?

JM: I insist on private time when I need it – whether it’s to read a book or watch a movie by myself. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who is an amazing Dad and loves to do fun things with our daughter, so I never feel guilty about it.

Kathryn Smith recently had a chance to chat with bestselling Avon Author Stephanie Laurens. Here’s what was said:

KS: When you were six years old, what was your life’s ambition?

SL: I’m not sure I had a “life ambition” at that age – I was very much in a “living in the moment” stage then. I do, however, know I used to write stories at that age. Not for anyone, not thinking I would be a writer, but just because. I never intended them for anyone else to read, I just used to have fun thinking up and writing stories.

KS: Who was your first ‘famous’ crush and what do you think of him now?

SL: First “famous” crush…I think it was the guy who played Illya Kuryakin in The Man from Uncle. David…was it Davil Ireland? I can still see him clearly in my mind, but clearly I have no memory for names! Not sure he’d make my top 10 list today – times, and the eye of the beholder–and the competition–have changed.

KS: When did you decide you wanted to become an author?

SL: I think it was after I had my 5th book published. Prior to that, I was just playing, doing something I enjoyed, and incidentally someone was paying me for it. Then, for completely unconnected reasons, I decided to “retire” from my scientific career, and so had lots of time on my hands and felt compelled to fill it in some way, so I thought I might as well put more focus on my stories and writing, and my writing career really expanded after that. I suppose the true answer to your question is never. I never “decided”–I just became one.

KS: What is your favorite scene in your latest book?

SL: In most of my books, the first scene when the hero and heroine meet is the one where things get “ooh! interesting…” Those scenes are my favorite to write, because there’s always a lot of promise, and an element of humor inherent in the set-up – so in WHERE THE HEART LEADS, it would be the opening scene of the book, in which Penelope Ashford talks Barnaby Adair into helping her find missing ophan boys, and in the new Cynster novel, TEMPTATION AND SURRENDER, it’s the scene where Emily goes to Jonas’s home, and gets him to hire her as manager of the local inn.

KS: If you were a single Regency miss and you could capture the attention of any of your heroes, who would you most want to have pursue you?

SL: That’s an easy question – Royce, Duke of Wolverstone, aka Dalziel – the hero in my August (late July!) release, the very last Bastion Club novel, MASTERED BY LOVE.