Carly Phillips is back at Smexy today to talk about her latest release in her Serendipity series.

Tell us a bit about Karma, book three in your Serendipity series.

Karma is the third book in the Serendipity series – Serendipity is the name of both the series and the fictional small town in upstate New York. The series opens with SERENDIPITY, which introduces readers to the estranged Barron brothers, brought together by a teenage sister they didn’t know they had and family drama they haven’t yet put to rest. SERENDIPITY is the story of Ethan Barron, the "bad boy" oldest brother. DESTINY is Nash Barron’s story. And Karma, of course, is Dare’s turn.

Dare is the happy go lucky younger brother on the outside but inside he’s suffering. He is wrapped up in the past and full of angst.  He needs the right woman and he needs to forgive himself for past mistakes.  Then there’s Liza, who reminds him of his biggest error in judgment, and who he’s always been attracted to.  Once he gets to know her? Attraction becomes secondary to how much he cares.  I adored watching DAre take care of a woman who’s never had anyone look out for her before.  And visa versa.  I hope readers enjoy Dare and Liza and love them as much as I do!

What draws you to small town romances?

I love writing small towns because it’s what I know and relate to.  It’s where “everyone” can live and settle down.  The people, the quirks, it all just works for me.

From the blurb – “Police Officer Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight ever since he was a teenager." This just makes me swoon. Tell me you torture Dare just a little bit before Liza gives in? *grins*

Don’t worry, Dare does NOT have it easy! Liza doesn’t trust because no one has ever truly been there for her before. Like I said above, they really have to work for it and at once point, he almost blows it.

What would Dare’s first tweet be?

Oh this is HARD even for someone who Tweets all day! And I honestly don’t know. You stumped me!

How do you come up with character names? Do you ever find yourself changing names after you’ve started a story?

I love going through Soap Opera magazines for names because it gives me double – the character name and the actors’ real names.  Then I play mix and match with last names and first names until something both sounds right together and feels right for the character.  It’s a fun process, actually!   

In Karma, the character Cara Hartley came to me from the character Cara Castillo played by Lindsay Hartley on All My Children.  When I created Cara as a secondary character in Destiny, Lindsay Hartley was exactly who I envisioned as my character.  Sometimes I’ll switch up the eye color just because I need it for the story, but the overall look of the character and the names are usually Soap related!

I recently changed the name of a secondary character 1/4 way through a book because it I kept thinking of her as another name and felt so much better after I did. Plus she’s a future heroine, so it was even more important to change it.

I have also changed secondary characters later on in the writing in case they ever become future main characters. I have to be able to envision the person correctly, especially if they will have a starring role.

What’s harder to write – sexual tension or the actual sex scenes?

Without a doubt, an intense sexual scene is the most difficult for me to write – the emotions are easier for me – the love scenes – making them unique, appropriate to character, worrying about words for the mechanics of the thing, that’s where I get hung up.  It takes me much longer to write a love scene than any other in a book! Sexual tension used to be more of a challenge earlier in my career. I think I have that down a little better now!

Did you do anything fun for release day?

I live in New York so I went into Manhattan and had lunch with my agents, and stopped by their office for some career talk. And I hung out online because I love Twitter and Facebook and people made me feel so good!

Since I follow you on Twitter, I know you are a big soap opera fan. I think I see a lot of General Hospital tweets coming from you. Has any of the characters or storylines inspired any of your books?

Hmm. Good question. Probably. I know I take in a lot and internalize things I watch and hear … Off the top of my head no, but I pay attention to character and things like that so maybe readers could pick up on something I’ve done!

What’s up next for you?

I’m so happy that I will be continuing the Serendipity series with another Serendipity trilogy – spinning off from Karma – and based on the police officers of Serendipity.  First up, Cara Hartley and Mike Marsden (Sam Marsden in Karma’s brother); then Erin Marsden (sister) and then finally Sam gets his happily ever after!

Perfect Fit – February 2013

Perfect Chance – September 2013

Perfect Together – February 2014

You can find Carly at her website, on Twitter and on Facebook.