Let's try some time travel, Kresley Cole and carrot cake

Today's featured authors: Michele Callahan, author of White Fire; Linsey Hall, author of Braving Fate; and Jennifer Zane, author of Hot Pursuit 3. They're talking writing inspirations, favorite authors and yummy desserts.

Michele Callahan, author of White Fire

We all ask hypothetical questions about things we don't believe have any basis in reality, or any possibility of becoming truth. What if we're wrong? Sci-fi romance authors go deeper down this rabbit hole than most, and it's the main reason I love the entire science-fiction genre. Immortality was once considered impossible, but today's genetic engineers are on the brink of making it a reality. (Google telomeres, if you don't believe me.) Time travel? Possible. Worm holes? Confirmed. Parallel dimensions? Yes. Invisibility? Yes, and it's not even Top Secret.

And that's where the fun begins! So, what inspired me to write the Timewalker Chronicles, and more specifically, White Fire?

• One, I asked myself "what if" there are other dimensions around us … and someone lives there?

• Two, if time travel were a fact, would I change things, despite the ripple effects? (After long thought, my answer was, "Yes.")

• And three, what if we scared, vulnerable humans were more powerful than we could imagine, and everyone in the universe knew it … but us?

Would you change the past if you could? If you had a new superpower, what would you do with it? Could you fall in love with someone different? Someone from another time or place? (You already know my answer.)

Here's the blurb about White Fire (Timewalker Chronicles, book five):

Ajax, The Lost King of the Immortals, sacrificed everything but his memories. After the Time Crux, the loss of his beloved Queen, and a horrifying defeat at the hands of the Triscani horde in the war on Itara, Ajax's loyal crew played a desperate gamble...to go back in time and try to change things. But they trusted the wrong man, and Ajax has spent the last seven hundred years locked in a prison with no key. The battle approaches at long last, yet he remains weak and tortured, a prisoner to his own dark power. He didn't simply lose to the evil Triscani…he became one of them.

The Triscani spent centuries searching for Emma Lawson's soul. Their evil Hunters did everything they could to destroy her family's bloodline before she was ever born. They know who she is, so they hunt her. They know the power she yields, and they fear her. They know The Lost King will do anything to save her, and they would use his love to destroy him.

But Emma is human, not Immortal. She might be dangerously attracted to the newly freed Ajax, but her first priority is saving Earth from two warring Immortal races. Ajax believed himself in love with his Queen, but the woman he remembers no longer exists. This Timewalker will defy destiny, and she's not going to play by anyone's rules but her own.

Find out more at michelecallahan.com.

Linsey Hall, author of Braving Fate

Three of my favorite authors:

• Kresley Cole writes the most fabulous paranormal romances full of kick-butt heroines and seriously swoon-worthy alpha heroes. She doesn't shy away from throwing her characters into some really hot water, but she always manages to pull them out.

• Jude Deveraux is my favorite classic. I've been reading her books since I was 15. I'd sneak her novels into my classes in middle school in my big purse and read them in the bathroom at lunchtime (classy, I know). I fell in love with her Montgomerys and Taggerts long before I ever knew that I'd grow up to write romance novels. I met her at a conference last year and fangirled so hard that I definitely embarrassed myself.

• Debbie Herbert writes exciting paranormal romances featuring mermaids in the Alabama Bayou. I'm a nautical archaeologist, so I can't help but love mermaids, especially on a backdrop of high-stakes adventure. For someone who loves paranormal romances and the sea, her books are a refreshing new take on some really neat themes.

The first three books in my Mythean Arcana paranormal romance series are available now. Book one, Braving Fate, is 99 cents as a release-week special.

Here's the blurb about Braving Fate:

As chaos looms, a warrior queen is reborn

Bookish academic Diana Laughton has been having terrible dreams. Dreams of battle, dreams of blood… dreams so vivid she's living them day and night. When demons invade her quiet life, she wonders if she's going mad. Or if perhaps she's remembering a past life she had no idea existed…

In the midst of betrayal, he must protect her

Mythean Guardian Cadan Trinovante loved and betrayed Britain's warrior queen Boudica two millennia ago. Now he's tasked with protecting mortals whose lives affect the fate of humanity. His latest assignment is Boudica herself, reincarnated as a woman with no idea of her past or her fated future. Though in the irresistible form of Diana Laughton, it's possible Cadan has once again met his match…

To succumb to seduction could prove fatal

Thrown together in a shadowy world that exists alongside our own, Diana and Cadan must fight not only the demonic forces that want Diana dead, but a past and a passion that have lasted centuries. Their desire could be deadly. But as evil from the underworld unites against them, their only hope could be each other.

Find out more at www.linseyhall.com.

Jennifer Zane, author of Hot Pursuit 3

Three of my favorite desserts:

Lemon meringue pie, carrot cake and strawberry rhubarb pie.

• Lemon meringue pie is fabulous with the tartness of the lemon with the sticky sweetness of the meringue — and it's cool and refreshing.

• Carrot cake is only good with amazing (and thickly layered) cream cheese frosting.

• As for strawberry rhubarb pie, no one makes it like my grandmother, with just the right amount of tart and sweet — and a whole lot of love.

Here's the blurb about Hot Pursuit 3:

Anna Scott has given Nick everything. Her heart, her body, and the truth about her past. But every action has consequences, and now, thanks to her, Nick is in more trouble than ever. He's running from his old boss, ignoring his undercover work, and secretly negotiating with the most powerful mafia boss in New York. She knows the only way to free him is to step into the spotlight once more and face her enemies. She is convinced that Nick must stay in the shadows to be safe, but the stubborn man isn't cooperating. Once she learns the truth about him--that he's really Jake Griffin--she realizes that his sense of honor and duty will get him killed. Protecting the man she loves is the only thing that matters to her now, no matter the cost.

Jake Griffin is in love with a woman on the run. The woman he knew and fell in love with was an illusion born of desperation. Anna Scott has powerful enemies and blood in her past, but neither can deny the passion between them. Grif will do whatever it takes to help her, including recruiting a notorious killer to help him. Grif will walk the razor's edge between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and lies, because Anna Scott is everything to him now, and he'll play any game, take any risk to save her from the monsters in her past, and from herself.

Find out more at www.jenniferzane.com.