It started innocently. I am not a coffee drinker, but when I moved to the Seattle area a decade ago, I discovered that pretty much everyone else is. If I wanted to attend meetings or have a quick chat with friends, it was going to be at a Starbuck’s. The vocabulary at Starbuck’s was like a foreign language to me. Double tall? With room? What are they talking about? I eventually learned the lingo but I swore I wouldn’t be one of those customers with a complicated order. I thought I was doing okay with that vow until the other day. I ordered my Venti extra-hot, non-fat no water Chai tea latte. How did this happen? I used to be a simple Chai! As the barista made my drink, she asked if I wanted cinnamon sprinkles. I said no, even though it sounded kind of good. My drink order was already at ten words and I think I need to cut back, not add more! How complicated is your Starbuck’s order? Enter my One Day Blog contest for a chance to win a signed copy of EX, WHY AND ME. Susanna Carr www.susannacarr.com/ Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books…

Hello to all the Fresh Fiction readers! I’m also an FF fan and have visited many times, commenting on blogs by readers and authors. But this is my first trip here as a blogger and it’s a privilege to be in such great company! Plus, I very much appreciate the opportunity to tell you about a book of mine that’s just been released—and is very dear to my heart, The Private Concierge. Some story ideas are called gifts. Ask any writer of fiction and odds are they’ll tell you they’ve had at least one gift book in their career—and they’ll probably smile wistfully while remembering the experience. With a gift book, the idea comes to you fully formed, almost as if the patron saint of writers had whispered it in your ear. This doesn’t happen often and it always feels like an unexpected blessing. The Private Concierge is one of those stories. Here’s a peek at the original idea: She was a runaway who was forced into the oldest profession at a tender age. He was the vice cop who posed as a customer and put her in juvenile hall. He’s been haunted by her ever since. And she will…

Have you ever attended an event that while you were looking forward to the event you were a bit nervous about what would happen while you were there, and would it be an enjoyable time for all? That’s how I felt going into last weekend and the Readers’n’Ritas event. On Friday as the committee was putting the finishing touches on goodie bags we received a once in a lifetime opportunity. Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love who were in town for both Readers’n’Ritas and another event the same weekend had no dinner plans, and would love to have dinner with the committee. Wow! What an opportunity for true Kenyon/Love fans of which I really wasn’t. Dinner was at a fabulous place near my home, and to which I had never been. Now I’m wondering how I can get my family back there once again, but I digress. Having the chance to sit and chat almost one on one with these two wonderful ladies and hearing their stories of writing success has me thinking zillions of fans can’t be wrong! What am I missing by not having these authors in my collection? The Readers’n’Ritas event gave me the opportunity to not only…

The inaugural Readers ‘n ‘ ritas was a blast. Readers came from all over Texas and Oklahoma and it wasn’t just for the Texas / OU game although their fans were in abundance as well! Authors came from as far as NYC. It’s amazing what a gathering of like minds can do! Cover Creation Checking out cover theories.Originally uploaded by freshfiction From the first panels we knew it was a hit — I mean seriously, when women gather around the speakers table at 9am on a gorgeous Saturday morning and eagerly start discussing book covers along with examples of how a committee designed the cover for ECSTASY or enjoy a bit of show-and-tell with cat litter and dryer sheets you know it’s at least to first base, maybe even second! And by the time the third workshop was over, we were all friends…the kind that talk to each other and even feel comfortable enough to disagree! The best kind of friends. And learning about new authors and books is never a bad thing, even if you have to start early in the morning! Isn’t that why they have hot coffee ready? The Rowdy Table: Jodi Thomas and Dianna LoveOriginally uploaded…

Faye McMichael& Teresa MedeirosOriginally uploaded by freshfiction Moonlight and Magnolias is close to my heart since I am a Georgia girl born and raised. This conference is for writers: published, unpublished and just getting, started. This was my 3rd M&M conference and as always a pleasure to ttend. I want to thank the committee for allowing reshFiction.com to attend and the warm reception I received. I ran into some old friends and new, I don’t want to start mentioning names for fear of leaving someone out. I’m at that age where remembering things is not one of my best traits. Of course my husband says I can remember every one of his screw ups. But I did get as many pictures of authors as possible and we’ve put them up on Flickr.com/freshfiction so be sure to stop by and correct the names of those we got wrong. Faye McMichael& Jenna PetersenFaye is being stalked by Jenna Petersen in Atlantafor the Moonlight and Magnolias conference.Originally uploaded by freshfiction I will say seeing Jess Michaels/Jenna Petersen was a treat as she and I have a running joke about who is stalking who. It was decided since she was in my home town…

I went to a wedding last weekend. The ceremony was lovely, the bride and groom, Dan and Lindsay, a striking couple very much in love, the reception elegant, the atmosphere festive. But, I got to wondering…if people could go back and do their wedding all over again, what would they change? Soon, I was asking the question out loud. Leaving out the jokester who replied, “I’d change the groom,” here are some of the answers I got. Katie, who married three years ago, wishes she had videotaped the ceremony so she could see everything she missed as she waited in the back room and as she walked down the aisle, too filled with excitement to notice much. Don, who married 55 years ago at the Carmel Mission in California, would go back and hire a professional photographer because the friend who took their pictures set the camera on the wrong speed and every picture was blurred. Teri, married 17 years ago, wishes she’d bought a wedding dress off the rack instead of having hers made. The seamstress kept insisting the dress was almost done and when she finally let Teri try it on the day before the wedding, not only…

I was barely halfway through writing 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover when I knew a second book had to follow and I could see her haunted by horrific nightmares, Fluff and Puff, her mischievous bunny slippers would be in big time trouble and while she and Nick are making things work between them, there were still some outside forces threatening their peace. Oh, did I mention that Irma was demanding an updated wardrobe? No? Well, that too. Just how much multi-tasking can one witch do when she’s seriously sleep deprived? But we are talking about Jazz who can eliminate a curse with a few words, work up a flick of a finger to banish a headache – even if she still can’t cure the common cold – and deal with Dweezil’s problems with a business rival without breaking a nail. It’s just too bad she can’t figure out who, or what, is causing the nightmares that plague her and Nick where he tears out her throat and since witch’s blood is deadly to a vampire, not a good option, and Nick dreaming of Jazz having the perfect soccer mom lifestyle while he hides in the shadows. Or why Fluff…

Is there ever enough of it? It seems our lives fairly leap from one moment to the next, barely allowing the time to savor the moment, sometimes even “taste” it! Parenthood, careers, schedules, social lives, volunteer work—it wraps us up so tight sometimes that we long to stand alone on a mountaintop and scream to release the stress! (Okay, that may be “my” vision and yours may be different.) REALITY ALERT: (not for the faint of heart) But in reality, I have to ask myself would I want it any other way? Here is a glimpse of my past week—Deadline of a novella, football game (away) Band contest (45 minutes drive each way) -parent-sponsored/served lunch, transporting grandmas to and from contest parade and field contest-sitting all afternoon waiting for your band to perform, drive home, launder kids clothes, pack to leave Sunday morning-them going to a two day choral festival, us to see oldest son on opposite side of the state. Pick up another son next day, and transport him back home to participate in a football game-where we sat most of the game watching him play in the pouring rain. (They won, that made it all worthwhile) Pick up…

I wasn’t thinking about Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale when I first started to write MISTAKEN MISTRESS. But when I conceive of a story one of the first things that I have to decide is where to set the book. For me, the atmosphere of the setting will permeate the entire story. The Saxon Brides is about a family who run a vineyard, Saxon’s Folly. So I knew I wanted the homestead to have a sense of family history and go back at least a couple of generations. I had a great deal of fun researching the locations where I could possibly set the books. My first thought was of the Napa Valley. I’d read about it, but because I like to be able to visualize the place where the story takes place my big stumbling block was I’d never visited the Napa and I wasn’t going to have time to go stake it out. Next, I considered the Barossa in Australia. It’s awesome. Named for the Battle of Barrosa which Colonel Light, Surveyor General of the day, fought in during 1811, it boasts some of the oldest existing Shiraz vines in the world. And then of course there is…

I don’t have my own good luck charm, per se, but I do operate on the presumption of superstition in some ways. And sometimes, thankfully, luck pays off for me! I definitely don’t like to presume good things will happen, I like to hope. I’m afraid of jinxing something. Can you really do that? I rarely tempt fate. But it’s an interesting concept, isn’t it? Luck? LUCK is fickle. And yet many of us believe. When I ask myself why, I realize it’s because of HOPE. It’s the possibility that Lady Luck will step in and pick us up that provides a ray of hope. LUCK causes us to play the lottery, pick up a heads up penny, read fortune cookies, and many more crazy, superstitious things. It was the concept of LUCK that drove the idea for my new LUCKY series, starting with LUCKY CHARM. Fortune hasn’t been so kind, however, to the men in the Corwin family. And Derek Corwin is the latest to cross her path. Long ago, as revenge on a Corwin who stole her son’s fiancée, a witch proclaimed an eternal curse that every Corwin male who married for love would be destined to lose…