Nicole: Hoo-boy. You know, this is always the toughest question! I guess the most interesting thing about me is that I'm an Army brat. Since my father is an Army dentist, I grew up moving around. I've lived in eight states, plus spent six years in Germany and graduated from a Department of Defense high school there. I still have a permanent travel bug, so I go to Europe whenever I can catch a cheap flight.

Otherwise, I'm a fifth generation Coloradoan, currently transplanted to Massachusetts. I play softball in my local women's league, I like to garden, and I'm a neat freak. That's me in a nutshell.

Joey: What made you start writing? And why romance?

Nicole: I've always wanted to writen - I've always had a knack for it, and enjoy it immensely. I just never thought I could make a living at it (and I still have days where I wonder ...). When I was in junior high school, I won our school's Law Day essay contest. Betcha didn't know that President Eisenhower established Law Day, did you? Anyway, little factoids like that helped me win - and it was pretty cool, since it was one of those 'required' contests. Required, as in everyone in the entire school had to write an essay as part of our English classes or risk getting a big fat F. Dumb me, though, I took winning that contest as a sign I should be a lawyer. Took me another fifteen years to figure out it meant I should be a writer! Of course, this was after I'd gone through law school and practiced law for a while. Some of us are clearly slow learners.

As for romance, well, when I sat down to write my first book, that's what came out.

Joey: Okay, now your first two books (and your new one) are all about royalty, a topic I love to read about. Royalty books are very popular right now. What sparked the idea for you?

Nicole: Thanks for the compliment! GOING TO THE CASTLE came to me while watching the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones on television. I kept flipping to CNN during the commercials, and they were showing footage of refugee camps in Kosovo. I kept wondering what it would be like if someone with a royal background visited one of those camps. Would it just be a quickie publicity thing? Or could something - or someone - they met at that camp revolutionize their thinking? And could people from such disparate backgrounds - say, a prince and a refugee camp worker - really make a relationship work without either of them compromising their own goals in life?

As for the subsequent royalty books I've written, it was easy for me to write about Prince Antony's (the hero of GOING TO THE CASTLE) brothers and sister. I'd already created a fictional world for them, and it seemed a shame not to dig deeper. Plus my editor wanted to know what happened to Antony's siblings! It was important to me to make the books very different from each other, though - I always feel ripped off when I read connected books that seem pretty much the same. Who wants to read the same basic story four times? So that was my one caveat when my editor asked me if I could write about the rest of the family. And, of course, I wanted each book to stand completely alone.

Joey: Thus far, both your books have included slightly uppity, slightly spoiled men who end up in love with VERY down-to-earth women. Is this a theme? *smile* Seriously, is there a certain type of man you like (in novels) and therefore you write that type? Or do you enjoy seeing these princes brought down a notch?

Nicole: You know, I've never thought about it. (Pause while I do some on-the spot psychoanalysis ...) I think, with Antony and Stefano, I wrote them as being somewhat arrogant because, face it, if you were a prince, how would you be treated by everyone around you? What kind of personality might that cause you to develop? What kind of walls would you have built to protect yourself? Neither Antony nor Stefano is shallow - not by any shot - and neither of them completely believes their own PR. But they each yearn for something that they can only achieve with a woman who's willing to look them in the eye and say, "Hey, you're human too." A relationship with a woman like that makes them more balanced as leaders and as men. Of course, a relationship like that is very difficult for someone with their backgrounds to find.

Joey: The first two books were the brothers' stories, Antony and Stefano. In May 2003, you are giving us the sister's story, Isabella's book. Can you tell us about it? What can we expect from her hero?

Nicole: THE KNIGHT'S KISS is Isabella's book. It's a paranormal romance, believe it or not! Isabella made a promise to complete her late mother's work revitalizing the country's national museum. To that end, she tracks down a reclusive expert on the country's art to catalogue the massive collection of art and artifacts stored beneath the palace. Little does she know, the reason Nick Black knows so much about those artifacts is because he's as old as they are. He was cursed to immortality during the Third Crusade when he put his own ambitions ahead of a human life. So Nick's an uppity hero who's already been knocked down a peg - and he's spent 800 years trying to make up for his wrongs. He's truly a tortured hero.

Joey: After that, what is next on your plate for new releases? Do you plan to continue to write category/series romance or do you have any thoughts about moving to single title books?

Nicole: I do plan to continue with series books, but I also have other projects in the works. With series books, I have one more book about the diTalora royal family already written. PRINCE PERFECT, about Prince Federico, is scheduled for April 2004. I've also been invited to write the wrap-up book for Silhouette Romance's "Marrying the Boss's Daughter" continuity series. My book, ONE BACHELOR TO GO, will be out in February 2004.

In exciting news, I also recently signed a multi-book contract with Simon & Schuster. ROYALLY JACKED, which will be out in Spring 2004, will be the launch title for their new young adult romance program. I'll be writing at least two books about fifteen year-old Valerie Winslow, who's as sarcastic as they come. As you might guess, it's been a total blast writing from the point of view of a high school sophomore!

I'm also working on a single title romance - but that's in the early stages. I have plenty keeping me busy right now, which is good! (Back to that earning a living at writing thing, you know!)

Joey: The last question we like to ask our authors is for the benefit of unpublished writers we have here at RBL. Is there any advice you would give to those women still trying to write their stories and get their books published?

Nicole: My number one piece of advice is to join the Romance Writers of America, and absorb every bit of information you can. Between the workshops they have available, and their monthly magazine, "The Romance Writers' Report", you can learn a lot. And you don't have to fork over the money to attend conferences if you can't afford it. You can get a lot of tapes of their workshops online, through their website. RWA also provides a way to network with other writers, and there's so much you can learn from them.

Another piece of advice - become an active reader. If a book works for you, figure out why. Is it the plotting? The characters? A smooth writing style? What about those elements made the book memorable? And if a book doesn't work for you, why? I learn a lot from reading, and I read every single night before I go to bed. I consider it education as well as something entertaining and fun. Reading great books will push you to become a better writer. Not by imitating what's already out there, but because as you study others' work, you'll start to unconsciously incorporate those skills into your own writing, and make those elements that go into a great book come alive with your own voice to tell the story you want to tell.