When a U.S. Senator is found dead on a golf course in Mexico, it falls to his estranged daughter to find out what really happened. That’s how the story begins in my latest novel Greasing The Piñata, which Library Journal called “a cracking good mystery.” The plot moves between San Francisco landmarks to some beautiful regions of Mexico, but the characters soon discover that even the most tourist-friendly destinations can harbor criminals and reveal dangers never seen on any postcard. As a writer I’ve always been intrigued by what lies beneath the surface, just out of sight. My first novel Stealing The Dragon explored the back alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown, a city within a city that transforms from a bustling tourist destination by day to a world of shadows and secrets by night. The local Tong gangs are never mentioned in any travel guides for the city, and the local gangsters never mentioned in the local papers, and yet they exist in an unseen underworld, unless you’re willing to take a walk down the right (or wrong) alley and have a look. My second novel Beating The Babushka is a satire of the move industry that reveals what really…

Late as always … it’s laughingly (I hope) called “Reyes time” by our reading group and friends, but I blame trying to fit too much in a short period of time. Of course, when I do show up on time, or, gasp, EARLY, I hear it from them too. Some people you can never make happy! Tonight is our monthly book club meeting, and since it’s at my house, I also have to get ready. In this case make sure the menu is on track, the people coming, and, oh, yeah, the book read. But that isn’t usually a problem with me, because I love to read and am fortunate enough to have friends who love to share good books I may have missed. I really believe the sharing of opinions is the best part of a book club. Well, the getting together a couple of times per month is great fun too! I’ll admit to enjoying spending time with fellow readers. Candace Havens signing in HurstOriginally uploaded by freshfiction This past week-end I managed to squeeze in three great reader events: first was a signing with Lisa Jackson and her sister Nancy Bush. They flew in from Oregon for…

Hi. I’m Gwyn Cready, author of Seducing Mr. Darcy and Tumbling Through Time. I write sexy, funny time travel romances—stories that sparkle. I’ve been writing with the intent to publish for eleven years, but it took me forEVER to sell my first book, which just came out earlier this year. I’m deep at work on my third, but Fresh Fiction has kindly offered me the chance to talk to you and, quite frankly, I’m happy to ditch the ol’ manuscript and relax. As Springsteen once said, “I’m sick of sitting ‘round here trying to write this book.” I’m a big movie buff, and I think the inspiration for my stories comes from a cross between my love for time-twisting movies like Back to the Future, Groundhog Day, Sliding Doors, and Kate and Leopold with my absolute addition to any sort of romantic comedy. If it’s gotten more than one star in the last twenty-five years, I’ve dragged my unwilling husband to see it. Tumbling Through Time (Pocket Books, $6.99), my debut, is the story of a woman who tries on a pair of magic sandals at the Nine West store in the Pittsburgh airport and ends up getting transported back…

I’ve been lucky in writing. I’ve been in the game 20 years with twenty seven books on the shelf with my name on them. I’ve had a wonderful time, lots of fun, many dear friends and only a few bumps along the road. My brother says we have Irish Luck in our family. He knew it the month after he came home from Viet Nam wounded. Someone said to him, “Man, are you lucky. You were hit bad enough to send you home but not so bad that you won’t recover.” My brother’s one thought was that if he’d been lucky, he wouldn’t have been hit at all. Sometimes I feel the same way about my writing career. Man, am I lucky. Lucky it only took me four or five years to find an editor. Longer to find an agent. Lucky I picked a field, Historical Romance, about the time it died. Lucky my wonderful editor kept getting pregnant and finally quit. But, remember, I have Irish luck. In all those years of waiting I kept writing so when I did sell, I sold five books in 15 months. Lucky I picked Historical Romance and stayed in until finally as…

Well, let’s see… you get to meet other readers and talk about books,..and husbands, children, pets, ghosts, vampires and zombies. Uh, haven’t you noticed that your conversations range off the “normal” pattern when you get involved with readers? Michele BardsleyOriginally uploaded by freshfiction Signings are when you meet your local celebrities. Yes, it’s an easy way to be the local prez hilton or gawker. “Celebrities” write books and what they love the best is to sign them. So, go hang out at a signing and you’ll get to shake the hands of someone you normally see on television or even in the movies. This week it was Martha Stewart, but we’ve met football stars, actors, soap opera stars, celebrity chefs, television personalities and more. It’s always a kick to shake Alan Alda’s hand on Sunday and see him live on the Today show on Tuesday. I mean, seriously, you get to be a fan stalker and not considered too weird. After all, it’s literary, right? Plus, they all come with books. And since the majority are held in a book store, if you get bored, there is always another book around the shelves. Isaac MizrahiOriginally uploaded by freshfiction Small plug…a…

It’s time for a confession. For years now, I’ve harbored a secret addiction. I’m not talking about my addiction to books. For writers, a book fetish simply goes with the territory. Right now, my nightstand is piled so high with books that if the stack toppled and fell on my foot, I’d end up with several broken toes. You understand what I’m talking about. Probably your nightstand is in the same condition. If not, you wouldn’t spend your time reading Fresh Fiction blogs, would you? No, the addiction I’m talking about is much more personal and insidious. Until recently, I’ve been in denial but the time has come to face the truth. I’m addicted – to fabric. I’m a quilter, Dear Reader, and I’ve got it bad. My home in New England is loaded with quilt shops and I can’t bypass any of them. There is a particular store in the wilds of New Hampshire that I been known to drive three hours out of my way to visit. Not three hours round trip – I’m talking three hours each way! Imagine how that went over with my kids, who thought they were just taking a little drive to see…

Thanks to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to guest blog today. November isn’t usually the prettiest month here in the Midwest, but it’s still a favorite of mine. I’ve always loved the Thanksgiving holiday and our first child was born in November. Although our daughter’s original due date was November 13, as babies will, she came a little later. Even with little sleep and the extra pounds I could have done without, we put our firstborn at the top of our “thankful for” list that Thanksgiving. And there she’s remained, joined by her younger sister and down the road, their husbands and our four grandchildren. Family means a great deal to me. Perhaps that’s why I was fascinated the first time I heard about the orphan train and decided to use this slice of history in a book. Before writing my novel, I researched the orphan train phenomena. Between the years of 1853-1929, over 250,000 children were sent by train to new homes in the Midwest and beyond. The idea to place out orphans originated with Methodist minister Charles Loring Brace, founder of The Children’s Aid Society. At the time Brace came up with the plan, immigrants were pouring into…

As I write each novel in The Lords of Satyr series, I always have an idea of what the hero looks like in my head. And pinned on my wall. Since my pin-up guys are cut from magazines, they’re usually actors, musicians, models–someone I consider lustworthy. He has to have the right hair, eyes, and muscles. But most importantly, my pin-up guy(s) must capture the mood of my hero. It’s the mood that inspires me and reminds me who my guy is, inside and out, lest I forget over the months it takes me to write a novel. For The Lords of Satyr series, which is historical paranormal erotic romance, I found at least some of my inspiration in a single statue I saw on a trip to Europe a few years ago. I was writing about half-satyr half-human males. Imagine how thrilled I was when I stumbled on this life-size statue of a satyr male in the Louvre! I took so many photos of it, I’m pretty sure I worried the hovering guard. I explained to her that I was writing romances about satyr brothers in Tuscany and showed her bookmarks. She was intrigued—or maybe that was bafflement I…

When I sat down to write A Christmas Wedding, I had a lot of different things in my head that I wanted to get across to my readers. I wanted to create a super-strong female character who wasn’t afraid to take on the establishment—and win. I wanted to tell a story about horseracing and the world of thoroughbreds. And I wanted to tell a story of love—with all its ups and downs, a story that showed how difficult marriage can be sometimes, but also how worthwhile. But as I was writing the book, something else worked its way into the pages, and it became not just the story of a relationship between a man and a woman, but the story of that woman’s—of Desiree’s—relationship with her father and husband and children and the very male-dominated world in which she lives. It became a story of old and new, of borrowed and blue. Of hanging on to old traditions and making new ones—something I think is particularly apropos to the holiday season beginning to unfold around us. For Desiree, keeping old traditions and making new ones was often a matter of necessity—playing hardball in a man’s world often requires a blending…