Karen Robards and Doug, her husband of 20 something years, have three sons. The family live on a small acreage outside of Louisville, where Robards does her writing in a carriage house behind the family home. Her first writing experience was when she took a creative writing course in law school. The professor asked her to write 50 pages of something publishable, what turned out to be her first book.

Karen speaks about romance writing in this article, Setting the Look of Your Book.

Read a transcript from her chat at Writerspace.

BAIT

It's a business trip that takes attorney Maddie Fitzgerald down to New Orleans, but it's hardly business as usual when a man breaks into her hotel room and tries to kill her. Barely escaping with her life, the sexy, stylish thirty-two-year-old brunette calls the police and finds herself face-to-face with FBI agent Sam McCabe. Unnerved by his questions-and his good looks-Maddie is told she's been targeted by a hired killer, one who has eluded McCabe for years.

Apparently, she's been mistaken for another woman, an FBI informant of the same name who was also staying at the hotel that night. McCabe grills her, and then disappears. Shaken, she finishes her business and returns home to St. Louis.

But days later, Maddie is attacked a second time, and again McCabe returns to question her. He convinces her that the only way she'll ever be safe again is if the killer is caught, and the quickest way to nab him is to use her as bait. Maddie reluctantly agrees, and sparks fly and then ignite as McCabe shadows her. But their unexpected romance throws McCabe off his stride-and puts Maddie in the hands of a killer.

A bewitching combination of pulse-pounding twists and blazing romance, Bait is the remarkable Karen Robards at her best.

But after clandestinely making her drop-off late at night, Christy suspects she is being followed on the moonlit beach—and unwittingly runs into a new kind of terror. Now a witness at the center of a homicide investigation, Christy learns the police are hunting a serial killer they refer to as the "Beachcomber" because beautiful young women—women who in fact resemble her—have disappeared recently while vacationing at nearby beach communities. Christy doesn't know whom to fear more—a serial killer who believes she might be able to identify him, or the DePalma family, whose tentacles she can't seem to escape.

Only when she's with Luke Rand, her big surfer-dude next-door neighbor, does she feel safe. But with Luke's asking so many questions about her ex-fiancéé and his showing up almost too conveniently whenever danger strikes, she can't help but wonder if his interest in her is due to more than sexual attraction. Can she trust this handsome stranger to help her survive a hot and deadly summer?

Suspicion. It burned through every nerve and Þber of Julie Carlson -- the heartbreaking, infuriating suspicion that her husband was having an affair. To the rest of the world, Sid Carlson was a wealthy contractor with friends in highly inþuential places. But to Julie, he was a man who had cheated on their marriage vow -- and she knew she had to take desperate measures. Who can she trust? Heartbroken by her husband, Julie turns to a handsome stranger.

Mac McQuarry knew better than to mix women and work: the private detective had tracked enough cheating spouses to know unbridled desire usually has no good end. And he had enough trouble of his own: the disgraced former cop had been bumped way down to his current status after an explosive shakedown of the Charleston police department. But when Julie Carlson hires him, Mac can't resist. Not only is she drop-dead gorgeous, but her husband, a longtime enemy, was a player in Mac's inglorious downfall -- and he'd love nothing more than to catch the corrupt jerk with his pants down, so to speak.

But what begins as a run-of-the-mill assignment spiced by a Þery þirtation with beautiful Julie suddenly spirals into a harrowing race for survival. Tracking the Carlsons' car down a lonely road one night, Mac witnesses an incredible hit that targeted Julie -- and suddenly Mac and Julie have become the hunted. With the mob and the police in hot pursuit, they can rely only on each other as they crash their way through a maze of buried secrets and deadly deceptions.

"Manna From Heaven"
Danger and desire ignite when Charlotte Bates drives straight into a DEA agent's hot pursuit of a drug smuggler. But when the lawman takes Charlie hostage, an electrifying adventure begins....

Scandalous

England, 1810: When Lady Gabriella Banning receives word that her half-brother, the Earl of Wickham, has died on his tea plantation in Ceylon, she faces the reality that she and her younger sisters, Claire and Elizabeth, are suddenly penniless. The family's riches will pass to the next male heir -- a distant cousin -- and the Banning sisters are doomed unless Gabby thinks fast.

Which she does. Pretending that Marcus is still alive, Gabby arranges beautiful Claire's London season. She'll keep up the pretense just long enough for Claire to marry a fabulously wealthy nobleman. But when a handsome gentleman arrives at the door and claims to be Marcus, Gabby's plan backfires. For if she exposes this mysterious stranger's deceit, she exposes her own. Bound by secrets and lies, Gabby and the roguish adventurer strike sparks off each other -- and soon London society is abuzz over the scandalous pair of "siblings" who appear to be falling in love....

With this beautifully rendered romance, bestselling author Karen Robards begins a sweeping series about three unforgettable sisters poised to take the ton by storm.

The rolling fields of Shelby County are home to some of the finest horseflesh and bluest blood in Kentucky. With its rural beauty and tranquil lifestyle, it is easy to see why the locals call it Paradise County. But beneath the serene exterior lies a dark underside, and an evil that threatens everyone who touches it.

Alexandra Haywood and her younger sister, Neely, have always loved Whistledown, the family's magnificent Shelby County horse farm. After their billionaire father's sudden and tragic death, the devastated Alex returns to Whistledown to try to make peace with her memories -- and to oversee the selling of their gorgeous home. For the family fortune is now a shambles and, like almost everything else the Haywoods own, Whistledown has to go. But Joe Welch, the sexy, handsome farm manager, refuses to cooperate. When Alex fires him, he tells her he has an unbreakable contract and can't be let go.

For years Joe has worked to make Whistledown's stables flourish while he struggled to keep his own dreams alive, and no rich rhymes-with-witch is going to threaten his livelihood -- or his family life. Ever since his wife betrayed him years ago, Joe has raised his three kids alone and did it damn well. Now, his always dependable sixteen-year-old son Eli has become hopelessly infatuated with teenage wild child Neely. Joe refuses to let his boy get caught up with Neely -- a nose stud and penchant for illegal substances among her less desirable traits -- and he tells Alex in no uncertain terms.

Sparks of rage give way to a fiery attraction when Joe and Alex meet head-on. But just as a volatile passion begins flaring between them, the discovery of a shocking murder with ties to the past rocks the county -- and cuts frighteningly close to home when Neely and Eli disappear.

Alex and Joe have only each other to rely on as they search frantically for their loved ones. What they don't know is that they are racing against time, too. Because the evil that lurks beneath the bucolic surface of Paradise County has once again raised its gruesome head -- and now Alex is targeted as the next victim.