One of the interesting things about the popular fiction market is the way that it changes. Tastes in fiction are fluid, and constantly on the move as people develop interests in new areas, or ideas come into fashion. I think that this dynamism, while it can be frustrating, is also fascinating. And it offers authors the chance to try new things. Many of you will be familiar with the medieval romances that I wrote in the 1990’s. I wrote a lot of them, because I had so much fun. What I liked about writing medievals was the world-building, that challenge of creating a slice of a lost time and place so tangible that readers might feel as if they were standing right there. I loved doing the research, and I really enjoyed weaving myths and legends into the fabric of my fictional worlds. I particularly loved my heroes. My guys were usually wounded or otherwise compromised, and they were always caught between a couple of apparently bad choices. So, when the historical market became less vibrant than once it was, it’s not really surprising that I focussed on the challenge of bringing a fictional world to life on the page,…

AJ Jacobs and Gwen ReyesOriginally uploaded by freshfiction There are a few authors every reader follows as avidly as the film buff follows an actor or director, or the fan buys tickets for no matter the cost to see their band in concert. You know what I mean, it’s the book that comes out on a certain Tuesday and you’re there at the book store, money in hand as soon as possible to pick up it up. If you’re lucky you’ve got the book set aside waiting impatiently for you, with your name on a yellow sticky. You’ll even bribe someone to get there if possible in case the store runs out. I know I have a history of not even making it out of the parking lot before I’ve got most of it read much to my daughter’s dismay and her constant source of tattle tailing over the years. But on Tuesday I had the opportunity to watch her meet one of her writing idols. So the cheek was turned! A.J.Jacobs is a writer for Esquire and has written two books about his experiences trying out “new” things: the first was his year reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from beginning…

Do you believe that people are born either good or bad? That your genes determine whether or not you have a temper, are violent, or lose control? That’s only one of the premises I explore in my Demonborn series. Vincent Valtrez, the hero of book one, INSATIABLE DESIRE, has only faint memories of his traumatic past. Memories which disturb him because he feels a darkness in his soul. Memories and a killer that bring him back to his hometown. A hometown full of secrets and evil. A hometown he swore he’d never return to. A hometown plagued by danger and the girl he left behind. Vincent had no idea what is in store for him. Or that his destiny is calling. Only that his need for sex and darkness have begun to call his name again. But giving in to the dark side could be his downfall and cause him to lose his soul once and for all. Do you have a dark side? If so, can you resist the call? Rita Herron http://ritaherron.com/ Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Have you ever read a really great book and asked yourself, “How’d she come up with that fantastic idea?” I know I have. Which is why I thought it’d be fun to ask myself the same question. Here goes: TAKE ME (in which a full-figured heroine gets the guy in Italy): I had a dream about a woman who had lusted after a guy her whole life, but he’d never noticed her. And then one day, the tables turned completely, and he had to chase her. Once he caught her, while in a very passionate embrace, he said, “You’re mine, all mine.” MINE, ALL MINE was the working title of the book – and the title I sold with. The dream gave me the theme. From there I had to figure out characters and plot. TEMPT ME, TASTE ME, TOUCH ME (three women on a road trip to the Wine Country find love with three local men): I had just finished watching the move “Sideways” with my husband when I turned to him and said, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to flip that movie on its ear and make it a girl’s road trip through the wine country instead?” RED HOT…

When my TBR blog was posted last week I went back and read it. I was so embarrassed to have my name attached to it because of the mistakes I found where I obviously hadn’t gone back and proofread it. This got me to thinking about when I read a book with poor editing, and how it can pull a reader from the story. I recently read a galley of Overnight Sensation by Karen Foley, and I was amazed at the number of mistakes I caught. It pulled me from the story, and truly affected my enjoyment of it. I didn’t mention it in my review, because I’m confident that in the editing process the mistakes were caught, because if I were to be honest I would tell you that for me to notice it has to be blaring, so I’m positive that a professional editor or proofreader would catch the errors and have the author correct them. I have no doubt that the final copies that readers are buying from their local bookseller are perfect, and that readers will thoroughly enjoy Overnight Sensation. I am not trying to single out Ms. Foley’s work by any means, but this is…

Saturday is my day to blog to tell you all about my week’s adventures…well, unfortunately, living in North Texas for the past few days we’ve been consumed by the approach of Ike. So, my attention has been scattered to say the very least. At least we are now very well stocked with lots of gallons of water, ice in the freezer and sandwich meats. If the electricity and gas go out, we’ll be using the grill for cooking. Fortunately, I guess, although I’ve always considered it not a blessing in the past, we don’t live in a low-lying area. No creeks or gulches or ditches near by and our trees are stumpy little things, so the only bad thing is loss of electricity and the possibility of the roof flying off. And no Internet. But I digress… Terry BrooksOriginally uploaded by freshfiction This week in books…we went to see Terry Brooks at the Star-Telegram Evening with an Author event at Casa Manana in Fort Worth. Getting from Dallas to Fort Worth on a week day evening is always an adventure through at least three bad bad traffic areas…and fifty miles. But some authors are worth the trek and our companions…

Any writer, I’m sure, has had the experience of a great idea striking them while engaged in an activity that had nothing to do with writing and nothing to do with whatever plot their minds were currently worrying at—like being at your child’s ballet recital and noticing the teacher’s son, pressed into doubling as the sound engineer, hustling back and forth trying to weed that static out of the speaker precariously mounted stage right…suppose this were a ballet competition and not just a chance for parents to see why they’ve been writing checks all year…a particularly competitive stage parent might get very upset over a break in their kid’s music quality…maybe even kill…. Or you’ll be teaching your daughter to knit, guiding her little fingers over the pointy edge of the needle and you realize what a good murder weapon it would be…knitting isn’t as common as it once was but what if there were a group of knitters, a club…easily concealed, innocuous in a normal setting…untraceable? Do knitting needles have serial numbers? Or just as you are writing the scene where Dudley runs his rival down in the street and wonders how to conceal the damage to his car,…

I have 15 days to go. Fifteen days until my deadline for my next book, Henry’s Sisters. This means that – except for a short jaunt to drop a kid off at school on the east coast – I will spend most of my other days muttering to myself, half-crazed, almost sleepless, and teetering on desperate. I will talk to my characters out loud. They will talk back. They will throw things in my mind and screech and use poor language and make me laugh. I will laugh out loud at inappropriate times at my characters. I will try to avoid this inappropriate laughter during church. It is most likely I will be in pajamas until 4:00. I won’t wash my hair much and I’ll probably smell stale. I will eat too much and gain weight, that is a given. I will be edgy and mentally hyperventilating. This is typical for deadline time and I am almost used to this rollicking insanity. When the book is turned in I will go and drink. No, not bottles of rum, you silly. We’re talkin’ decaffeinated mochas with piled up whip cream. I love to write and I love to read. If my…

In many ways, I view the country house as a silent character in my books. Although its role is often relegated to the background, the country house represents different things to different characters. For Amara Claeg in Tempting the Heiress, the family’s country house, Arras Green was a tragic reminder of Lord Cornley’s violent assault. In A Lady Mischief, Foxenclover was both a prison and sanctuary for young Maddy, while it represented a reclaimed birthright to her brother Tipton. Lady Fayre in Wicked Under the Covers viewed Arianrod simply as her beloved home, whereas in my current release, Scandalous by Night, Lord Everod was banished from Worrington Hall. The house became a symbol of all that he had lost. Once I’ve locked down the plot and characters for a new story, I set to work on creating the various country houses and London town houses that will be featured. This is a great deal of fun for me because it mixes history with my imagination. It also has given me a chance to set up at least a half a dozen dream houses. Most of what I design never makes it into my books. This step is mainly a personal…

Inventing your own country is a lot of fun. If you like hunky Mediterranean men, you can make sure it’s densely populated with them. Naturally all your favorite foods feature prominently in local cuisine. And if you’d like to take a sensuous mental dip in the warm waters lapping against the crystal sands of your imaginary locale—who’s to stop you? I had all this fun and more in creating the nation of Caspia for my new book Prince of Midtown. It’s the third book in Silhouette Desire’s “Park Avenue Scandals.” The editors at Silhouette chose a different Desire author for each book in the series and gave us the plot and characters to make our own. In my case they also gave me a country. I was handed the name Caspia and informed that it was in Europe and “like Venice.” It came complete with handsome prince Sebastian Stone, a spirited playboy in desperate need of reform by the love of a good woman: namely his down-to-earth American assistant Tessa Banks. I’m the kind of writer who likes to know ALL the details, even if they don’t actually end up in the book, so first I had to figure out…