In ALL NIGHT LONG, the historical puzzle part of the story goes back over 20 years. I was fascinated by the 1832 Black Hawk War, and after years of percolating about in my brain, that kernel of historical fact became the foundation for ALL NIGHT LONG.

Sometimes, I get ideas from playing the "what if" game - like what kind of story would I write if I wanted to pair up a woman who longed for safety and security with a man whose job involved danger? What if she falls in love with him first, then only finds out later that she can't emotionally handle this job he loves so much? What are they going to do? I wrote that book, but so far haven't persuaded Avon to buy it.

The idea for the book that's due to Avon next month came from my surprise at discovering there was an entire maritime community smack in the middle of America's heartland. When I saw my first big ship in Marquette, Michigan, it immediately started the wheels turning. On the way back from RWA in Chicago this summer, we passed through a wild west town in Illinois that gave me an idea. Beautiful places can inspire me, interesting bits of facts, headlines, even my own life experiences.

Donna: Do you work from an outline? Do you already know what your characters are going to do?

Michelle: I work from a broad outline, but the story itself comes from the characters. While I have a good idea of who my characters are, the process of writing reveals them in all their complexity. At a certain point in the writing process, everything "clicks." It's great when this happens, because then the characters "take over" and the writing comes easier. Characters can surprise you. For instance, I had no idea that Julien's biggest problem in ABSOLUTE TROUBLE was that he wanted to punish himself for what had happened to his brother. That realization made his character clearer for me. Rik in ALL NIGHT LONG surprised me at about chapter four or five, and the character of Owen Decker turned out completely different from the character I'd envisioned in the synopsis. He took on a life all his own and I was very happy with the end result. My current hero, Lucas Hall, also threw me for a loop early in the story, by showing me something I should've figured out in the outline stage but didn't. It's a weird process; in many ways, these are real people who live in my head for a year. It can get a bit crowded up there in my brain, and so I am eternally grateful to whoever it was who invented Post-It notes ...

Donna: You took the romance world by storm with a great debut book about a male stripper. How much research went into ABSOLUTE TROUBLE? Any "hands on" experience?

Michelle: Well, I don't know about taking the romance world by storm, LOL! The book did well for a first book, though, and I was very grateful for that!

A lot of research went into ABSOLUTE TROUBLE, but sorry, no "hands on" experience when it came to male strippers. :) I really didn't have the courage to march into a strip joint and grill half-naked men. I'm too shy! What I did, though, was hang out at the newsgroup alt.sex.strippers until I'd identified a couple of male strippers who were regular posters. I emailed them and asked if I could interview them, and they were more than happy to oblige - Polite and friendly, and quite willing to share their stories. I also bought a video produced by a club in Texas called "LaBare If You Dare," and that became the basis for the strip club I used in AT.

Since I'd never met a Cajun and never been to New Orleans, I had a lot of research to do. I bought travel books (the kind with lots of pictures and local anecdotes), I watched travel videos, wrote to the Chamber of Commerce - they always give you lots of free information. I even called the New Orleans Police Department to ask a few questions. When it came to the Cajun elements, I read several books on Cajun history and culture, bought a Cajun dictionary, watched a movie that was about Cajuns (although it was set in the latter part of the 19th century), and I bought Cajun folklore audiotapes that were read by Cajuns, so I could get a feel for the dialect. It was great fun, and I learned a lot.

Donna: Julien Langlois is a wonderfully sexy hero who had us all drooling and lusting after him. Is he based on a real person?

Michelle: He's a composite of a lot of mysterious, sexy men I've been exposed to over the years in movies, books, etc. I like to think there may be a man like Julien out there somewhere, although if I actually met him face-to-face, I'd probably act like a blithering idiot. I did model him a bit after Adrian Paul, though!

Donna: Was it difficult writing a character with a strong Cajun accent?

Michelle: Not really, not after listening to the tapes and reading up on things. It's a little like method acting. You get yourself in the head of that character and, as you write him, you become him. You think like him. Too much dialect can be hard to read, so I tried not to go overboard with it. When I used the Cajun French, I tried to make the meaning plain in the context of the story.

Donna: Dulcie Quinn is an intriguing character. She is so tough-as-nails on the outside, but gentle enough to spend her time making dolls which she loves. Is there any of you in Dulcie?

Michelle: Well, as a single mom for years, I've had to be tough and practical. But you can't be so tough that you get bitter, or forget how to have fun! I've always been a glass-half-filled kind of person, and I tend to avoid people or situations that are overly negative. I think some of that probably rubbed off on Dulcie. She's a strong, sensible woman - she'd have to be, to handle someone like Julien. Although she had some unresolved issues she had to work through in the story, I didn't want to make her bitter or a victim. She loved to make dolls because she enjoyed it, but also because it was therapeutic for her and she recognized that.

Donna: What about Bobby Halloran - is he going to get his own story?

Michelle: I'm asked this question a lot! :) I hope so. Originally, I'd wanted to follow up ABSOLUTE TROUBLE with Bobby's story, but Avon and I couldn't agree on a storyline and they felt the one I had was too dark. I have some ideas in mind, but don't expect his story for a while yet.

Donna: And what about the elusive Chloe Mitsumi? Will you pair her up with Bobby?

Michelle: That was my intent, and that's what Avon didn't like because they felt Chloe was too dark. I think it would be great fun to do a bad girl/good boy story with Chloe and Bobby, but for now, it's on the back burner. I'll tell you this, though - Chloe is misunderstood and she's very good at hiding behind a persona. A little like Bobby tends to hide his determination behind tacky ties and wild shirts.

Donna: Care to tell us a little about ALL NIGHT LONG? Where did the idea for this story come from?

Michelle: ALL NIGHT LONG is definitely an odd couple book, and it's about love, trust, the importance of family, and learning to forgive and move on. Rik and Annie are very different, but they're sort of like the ying-yang concept. They complement each other. I also wanted to write a book that was different from ABSOLUTE TROUBLE and I think I succeeded. :)

As I mentioned above, the foundation of the story goes way, way back. The main story, though, is partly inspired by Anya Seton's GREEN DARKNESS, A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION, and Homer's ILIAD. There are no ghosts or reincarnation elements because I can't write about something I don't feel an affinity for, but I've always been fascinated by the timelessness of human behavior. I hope I can make sense of this ...

When I was 13 or 14, I read the ILIAD. It's not an easy bit of literature to read, and it focuses on a civilization that vanished over three thousand years ago. But there was a scene in the book that made me cry and has stuck with me through the years - the scene where Prince Hector comes to say good-bye to his wife and little son. The baby is frightened by the armor his father is wearing, so the prince takes off his helmet. It's a sweet domestic moment, although husband and wife know he's fated to die soon, and his wife is described as "laughing through her tears." For me, this is an emotion and an image that transcends time and makes even those long-gone people "real" to me. In ALL NIGHT LONG, the events that surrounded Lt. Lewis Hudson's disappearance are closely tied to the unfolding events in the main story line, because human behavior doesn't change much. Maybe it's my strong interest in history, my schooling in archaeology, but writing a story about linking the past with the present appealed to me. Hopefully, it'll appeal to a number of readers, too! :)

Donna: Annie Beckett is another strong heroine. You make her passion for photography come alive in the pages of this book. Do you write from experience here?

Michelle: I think strong heroines resonate with me and that's what I'm drawn to writing about. Just wait until you meet Tessa Jardine ...

As for photography, I know very little about it and take lousy pictures. Cameras hate me. My husband's camera has a bad sense of humor and only works for him. When I try to take pictures, it plays dead. Very annoying. But I've read National Geographic and LIFE since I was a kid and have been moved by the beauty and power of photographs. Having an artsy background helps, not to mention a liberal arts education. Reading about photojournalists also helped me get an idea as to how these people approach their job.

Donna: One of the sexiest scenes in ALL NIGHT LONG takes place with a camera.

Michelle: Yes, it does! And I didn't plan it, either. This is an example of how a scene can come from the characters themselves, and when Rik turns Annie's camera against her ... well, that part all but wrote itself!

Donna: Rurik Magnusson is the type of hero that, when you finish a book, you think to yourself, "I want one of those!" He is very real and so typically male - who, if anyone, was your inspiration for his character?

Michelle: Oh, I loved Rik, too! I wanted to write about an average hero, the sort of man a reader feels she might run into at the supermarket or the bank. I enjoy all those cops and detectives and super alpha guys, too, but sometimes I want to read about a regular guy. The inspiration for Rik is all those men around you - the construction workers, the carpenters, the truck drivers, the farmers, the men who make a living off the land or with their own hands. Plus, I wanted to make him very rooted, so I borrowed a bit from my own family history - the family pretty much stayed in one spot from the mid-1800's until my grandfather sold his farm in the early 1980's. As for Rik's looks, he's sort of a composite of Robert Redford as Sundance from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," country singer Alan Jackson, and actor Sean Bean.

As for being so typically male ... he is, isn't he? He can be a little rough about the edges, but I think that's part of his charm. A man like that makes a woman feel all the more female, I think. Nothing wrong with that!

Donna: You use segments of letters as lead-ins for each chapter. Were any of these pieces of real letters written during that time?

Michelle: No, none of these letters were real, although I was inspired by Ken Burns' CIVIL WAR documentary some years back, especially the touching letter Major Sullivan Ballou wrote to his wife, Sarah, shortly before he was killed in battle. Again, it's that timelessness of human emotion. I did read some historical letters to get the "feel" of things, including a very romantic letter from Jefferson Davis to his future wife, Sarah (who would die only months after they were married). The 1830's was a rather romantic period, actually.

The letters used for the epigraphs in the chapters are meant to link the past with the present, and to characterize Lt. Lewis Hudson, who is very much a secondary character, although he's long dead. I wanted readers to sympathize with Annie's desire to clear his name of desertion, even as they know it will complicate her relationship with Rik.

Donna: I love the cover for ALL NIGHT LONG, but they got Rik's coloring all wrong. Don't they even ask for a description of the characters before making a cover?

Michelle: I knew I'd hear this comment. I wasn't happy about the discrepancy, either, but it might help to understand that the art/sales department has a different take on covers than authors and readers do. Every month, hundreds of new romances come out, and it's the job of art/sales to produce a cover that will stand out among the others - enough for the casual reader to walk by and say, "Hmmm, that looks interesting," and then pick it up. Once the book is picked up, chances are it'll be bought. So art/sales wants to make a book attention-getting rather than strictly accurate to what's inside. And in this respect, the cover for ALL NIGHT LONG works. Visually, it's very striking and has gone over well with the folks buying the books. Also, I've been told that blond heroes on covers don't sell well. Blond heroes aren't a problem once the books are bought, but they flop on covers. I'll have to trust the art department to know what they're talking about. As for the suit, Rik DOES wear a tux in the book. :) I wish they'd put him in a denim shirt or something, but I understand they went for the black and gold look. Very strong visual image ... just not the barbarian Viking god look, you know?

Donna: Writing really hot love scenes is something you do very well. Was it hard writing these scenes knowing that you were writing mostly for other women?

Michelle: Thank you! I have a healthy attitude about sexuality, so I'm pretty comfortable writing love scenes. Knowing I'm writing these scenes for other women, who are romance readers, makes it easy, actually. :) It's knowing that my mom and my son's fifth grade teachers are reading them that makes it hard! My son told me the other day that two of his teachers (both male and of my parents' generation - in fact, one of them was MY teacher when I was in fifth grade!) had read ABSOLUTE TROUBLE and asked Jerott to tell me that they enjoyed the book. I about died. I'm not ashamed of what I write by a long shot, but it's weird when someone that I perceive as not part of the romance audience reads the books because, yes, they're pretty explicit!

Donna: Can you give us a hint at what is next?

Michelle: Sure! The next book is tentatively titled THE PERFECT MATE. It'll probably have a title change, though. It's a reunion story, but it's also my own take on those boss/secretary romances. :) This office floats - it's a 360-foot passenger steam ship on the Great Lakes. The "boss" is Captain Lucas Hall, a hotshot ex-Coast Guard officer, and the "secretary" is First Mate Tessa Jardine, a woman working in a male- dominated career. They had a hot summer affair years ago, when Tessa was only 19. Lucas was her first, and she fell in love with him ... and one day he just disappeared out of her life without so much as a good-bye and broke her heart. Ten years later, they find themselves working together and, as you can imagine, it's a wee bit tense, especially since they're both surprised to find the attraction between them still hot and heavy. Several years prior to this, Lucas was nearly killed in a rescue operation. Physically and emotionally, he's on the mend, and captaining the SS TALIESEN is his way of proving himself again. For Tessa, after years of struggling against sexism and working hard to prove herself capable, landing the job of First Mate is a dream come true. To complicate matters further, company policy forbids personal relationships between officers. Of course, a romance ensues, with some very difficult choices that must be made.

There's also a suspense element in this book, because Lucas, who's suffering from a traumatic stress disorder, is going to find himself facing his worst possible nightmare - performing in a crisis situation without losing his cool. It's also a little about what it means to be a woman struggling to strike a balance between career and family. It's something I think many women today can relate to.

Donna: How does the internet affect you as an author?

Michelle: It has put me more in touch with readers and I listen to what they like, what they don't like. I have my own opinions as a reader (and a writer), and discussions about the genre are thought-provoking. I can't say that I'm directly influenced by criticism or praise regarding any specific issue, but it's made me more aware that the characters and the romance are the most important part of the romance novel for readers. I try to keep that in mind as I write, focusing on the emotion, on the romance.