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Sometimes writers have a story or characters that stick with them no matter what. IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR was one of those stories for me. Deke, the hero, turned up about ten years ago or so and showed me what his curse was, but I didn't have a story for him or a heroine. I wrote down one paragraph with the information he gave me and it sat in my idea notebook for years.

Ryne showed up in 2004 while I was pushing to finish THE POWER OF TWO. She started talking and talking about her people and their society. Ryne, you see, is a magic user and she's Gineal. They've kept their presence hidden from humans for hundreds and hundreds of years—it was the only way they could survive.

I didn't know yet that Ryne was Deke's heroine. Heck, I didn't even know her name was Ryne at this point. All I knew was that I had a deadline less than a month away on another book and this story couldn't interfere. And believe it or not, Ryne didn't. She only talked to me when I was driving to work and never said a word while I was working with Jake and Cai.

But the instant I finished TPOT, she pushed me, and although I was exhausted from the deadline I'd just met, I had to write the first four pages of IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR. Then I collapsed. :-)

I knew how the story started, I knew who Ryne was and what she did, but I didn't know who her hero was. That's when Deke spoke up again. The story came together after that.

Ryne is a magical troubleshooter who's been hunting her fomer mentor for the past six years, ever since it became known that Anise had turned to the dark forces. When Ryne finds Deke, she knows he's the key to defeating Anise, but she doesn't know how or why. As the book opens, Ryne has finally figured out how to lift the curse that Anise cast on Deke, but nothing is as easy as she'd hoped.

It took two years from the time I wrote the first four pages until I was able to start the book—I wrote two other books and an anthology story before MIDNIGHT HOUR, but I never could get it out of my head.

Finally, after years of waiting, the book is about to make its debut. The official release date is July 31, 2007 and I'm both excited and anxious.

Ryne is the most kick-ass heroine I've ever written and she's intense. Deke has a smart mouth and he enjoys pushing Ryne's buttons, inciting her—and the attraction between them is explosive. There's action, adventure, sexual tension, romance, and more.