Teresa: I pick up historical reference books wherever I go. Since I have a short attention span and like to swap out time periods with every book, I have a very eclectic reference library. When I'm writing, I usually keep a stack of books at my elbow because I never know exactly which detail I'm going to need until I get to that scene. It's always the obscure questions that drive you crazy - Did they use buttons or frogs to fastten their cloaks? Would they have eaten that with a fork or a knife? The privy or the chamber pot?

Bee: Tell us a little about your first novel, LADY OF CONQUEST. Very early Irish history can be a difficult and violent time period.

Teresa: It's also a very obscure time period! The easy thing about writing that book was that there were so few reference books available so I could really focus on my story. My chief reference was THE STORY OF THE IRISH RACE by Seumas MacManus, which is a delicious combination of myth and history. I started LADY when I was twenty-one so I was too na�ve to realize that it might be difficult to market an Irish historical set in 123 A.D. with a Xena-like heroine who had the nasty habit of chopping off the heads of the hero's knights! There's nothing like your first book - I totally lived that story and was so in love with Conn of the Hundred Battles that I actually ached when I finished the book. The book was originally published as a historical novel as opposed to a historical romance, but when Bantam reprinted it in 1998, they reprinted it as a romance. It may not be as technically proficient as some of my later books, but I certainly poured all of my passion into it.

Bee: Do market demands drive your selection of time settings, or do you develop the story first and then decide the time details?

Teresa: I try not to let market demand drive anything I do although I suspect my subconscious makes some of those adjustments by itself. This is how a story usually comes to me - the characters' names, the characters themselves, and the plot - then I decide which time period and setting would best serve as a frame for that plot. My next hardcover, A KISS TO REMEMBER (July 2001, is set in the Regency time period, which is very popular right now, but I chose it because it best fit the story and the language that the story demanded.

Bee: You bring humor into your novels (for which I am eternally grateful). Do you find this difficult? Do you build a scene around the humor or adapt as it hits you?

Teresa: Although I certainly enjoy slapstick, I've been told that most of my humor is character-driven, so it comes naturally when those particular characters are put into certain situations. If you put a cynical billionaire and a card-carrying, broom-toting witch in the same room, as in BREATH OF MAGIC, funny situations are bound to result. I truly believe that life is a mixture of laughter and tears, and my work tends to reflect that belief. People are usually at their funniest when they don't realize they're being funny.

Bee: In reading about you on the Web, I noticed that you thought the best historical romance, and possibly the best book ever written, was THE WINDFLOWER by Tom and Sharon Curtis (writing as Laura London). THE WINDFLOWER has been at the top of my Best Ever Books since the first time I was able to read it, and I find that your books draw me the same way. What are the elements that make THE WINDFLOWER so excellent?

Teresa: I just went back and re-read THE WINDFLOWER for the gazillionth time last year and was completely enchanted. While it's more lush and detailed than what many current historical readers may expect, every word is a feast for the senses. The humor is divine, the characters incredibly multi-layered, and the sensual tension is exquisite. There is sub-text beneath almost every conversation, especially the ones involving everyone's favorite pirate boy, Cat, and his mentor, Rand Morgan. As far as I'm concerned, everything Tom and Sharon Curtis ever wrote was a classic. I have all of their Regencies and the handful of category novels that they did. You mentioned LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase in your post. That's another book that swept me away and should definitely be considered a classic of the genre.

Bee: Do you cry when you write?

Teresa: Of course I do. Especially when I'm really far behind on my deadline. *g* No, but seriously, I'm a Method Actor kind of writer so I'm feeling every emotion my characters are feeling. (In THIEF OF HEARTS, I actually used to sneeze every time one of the characters sneezed!) Almost all of my major scenes also have theme music, and it's that music that evokes so much emotion in me. By the end of the book, I'm just like Kathleen Turner in ROMANCING THE STONE, fumbling to find a Kleenex or a roll of toilet paper through a fog of tears.

Bee: Tell us about your upcoming book, A KISS TO REMEMBER. I read the ARC you kindly sent and I must say, it is an excellent read. I particularly like heroes who are human, and Sterling is definitely flawed but appealing.

Teresa: I'm sure I'll take a few knocks because A KISS TO REMEMBER is an amnesia story, but hey, I've never done amnesia before so it was new to me. Besides, I think every author with a long-term career deserves at least one amnesia story and one evil twin story. *g* KISS is about a prim rector's daughter who needs a husband if she is to keep a roof over her family's head. So when she finds a gorgeous stranger sleeping in the forest with no memory of his name or his past, she decides to keep him. She convinces him that he's her fianc�, not realizing that he is actually the devilish duke who was coming to evict them. Some people may wonder how she could do such a naughty thing, but at the beginning of the book, Sterling probably deserves it! He has some lessons to learn, and Laura and her dotty family are definitely the ones to teach him.

Bee: What are you working on now?

Teresa: A book about an evil twin. Okay, just kidding! Right now I'm still in that blissful state known as "between books." Which means I get to read all I want and daydream about what I'd like to write next. I am getting a little antsy and am definitely looking forward to getting back to the keyboard. I'm just waiting for that lightning bolt of inspiration to strike.

Bee: How many "Kitty-Kids" do you have? Have you ever had your cats appear as characters in your books?

Teresa: We currently have two wonderful cats - Shadow and Queenie. Cats (and dogs) are frequently featured in my books. Sebastian-Cat in HEATHER AND VELVET was the reason Prudence and Sebastian met. We lost our precious thirteen-year-old cat Pumpkin last September. In A KISS TO REMEMBER, Sterling cherishes fond memories of his boyhood cat, Nellie, who plays a pivotal role in his coming to terms with his past. Nellie most definitely represented my Pumpkin and having to learn how to say goodbye to her. I even dedicated the book to her.

Bee: Your first official book was LADY OF CONQUEST. A lot of authors have "orphan children books," from very early in their careers, tucked away in a box. Do you have any of those?

Teresa: I first met Kristin Hannah before she was even published and she told me that LADY OF CONQUEST read like it was my tenth book. I told her that it was my first book, but I'd rewritten it ten times! (Actually, it was more like a hundred.) So I don't have any completed manuscripts tucked away in drawers. I just practiced on that one, which can give you some idea of the power of revisions. I'm sure the first draft would give any aspiring writer hope!