Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Wendy Etherington | Holiday Decorating–Friend or Foe?
Uncategorized / December 18, 2008

Well, finally, the village is assembled! Is my shopping done? No. How about baking/cooking? Ah, no. Do I have any idea what I’m wearing to the holiday parties this weekend? Definitely not. But the village–the porcelain, hand-painted, Victorian-era, more-expensive-every-year, oversized project is up, so Christmas is officially here. Wendy’s Christmas Village I’m not one of those people who are constantly evaluating and redoing my house. I know those who strive to have every stick of furniture and accessory in place, whose homes are showplaces of decorating magnificence. They’re proud–and have every right to be–of their talents in coordination, cutting-edge style and color. Me? I move in, scatter stuff around and nod. That’ll work for a good decade. So Christmas is the only time I putter and angst over coordinating colors, greenery, ornaments, lights, hiding electrical cords and, ah yes, that crazy, precious village. Like all loyal children, I blame my mother. She started my collection when my husband and I were first married over seventeen years ago. When my kids were little, I let them hang whatever ornaments they wanted on the tree any which way. They shook packages with glee. But touch Mama’s village? That was a line nobody…

Karen E. Olson | SHOT GIRL
Uncategorized / December 17, 2008

My fourth Annie Seymour mystery, SHOT GIRL, came out on Election Day. So far, reviews and comments from readers have been good. All are saying it’s the best in the series. It was the hardest one to write. I decided to do something different with SHOT GIRL. With each book, I embrace a different style. My first book was a traditional mystery, the second is what I call my Mafia book, and the third is much more fast paced and thriller like. In SHOT GIRL, Annie is an unreliable narrator. I had a friend express surprise that I would do this in the fourth — and last — book in the series. Wasn’t it a risk? she asked. Sure it was, but I wanted to see if I could do it, if I could pull it off. When I’d started writing the book, I’d just finished reading Scott Turow‘s PRESUMED INNOCENT, in which he masterfully portrayed an unreliable narrator. Could I do that with Annie? I thought. It was worth a shot. My goal was to have the reader ask throughout the book: Is Annie telling me the truth? What is she keeping secret? I know she’s not telling me…

Christine and Ethan Rose | YA Fantasy: It’s Not Just for Kids
Uncategorized / December 16, 2008

As we tour around the country signing our book, Rowan of the Wood, we are frequently asked this question: “What age group is your book written for?” It’s a very difficult question to answer because we write for young readers of all ages. The content is appropriate for younger readers but it’s enjoyed by young and old, alike. I learned to read at the age of six. A year later, I read Gulliver’s Travels. By the time I was ten I was reading Frank Herbert‘s Dune, and now, at the age of 40, I consider Tove Jansson‘s Moomin books some of the best ever written. I read nearly as many young adult books as anything else. Many of the books I read in childhood were not fully understood by my younger self, but I enjoyed them anyway. They also helped me get a jump start on many difficult subjects that I would have to wrestle later in life. The mind of a child is much more curious and agile than that of an adult, as well as being infinitely more creative. It should be fed to the limit of its capacity. Good stories, well written and enthralling, are a great…

Anne McAllister | Where do you get your ideas?
Uncategorized / December 15, 2008

The most common question writers are asked is: Where do you get your ideas? Generally the people asking it are perplexed because they can’t quite fathom how such ideas come or how they are different from other ideas or what writers can possibly do with them when they do turn up. Usually I say, “Ideas are everywhere.” But that doesn’t really help. So in case you’re wondering how things come together, let me just illustrate with my January Harlequin Presents, Antonides’ Forbidden Wife. It certainly didn’t come as a full-blown story. No IDEA (in capital letters) popped up in my head. In fact, it wasn’t supposed to be a story at all — because PJ Antonides is not what is commonly considered “a Presents hero.” He was a surfer, for heaven’s sake! He made an appearance in an earlier book. As the younger brother of the uptight, determined, severely responsible hero, PJ was by turns annoying, misunderstood, breezy and charming. Pretty much everything his brother was not. He also didn’t own any multi-national corporations on the side. He was also, in that book, called Peter because that’s my husband’s name and I called him that because I wanted a name…

Sandi Shilhanek | The Book Search
Sundays with Sandi / December 14, 2008

This week my friend Yvonne has been visiting from England. One of the things that we try to accomplish when she visits is to see how many bookstores we can peruse in the Dallas area. Often while we are in the bookstore Yvonne’s cell phone will ring, and it will be another friend of ours from Hawaii.The conversation almost always starts with what book are you looking at? Does it look good? Oh, I think I might want a copy of it too. Yvonne being the generous sort is always willing to contribute to someone else’s tbr pile, so we add book upon book to the basket we’re toting, and eventually try to head to the checkout stand. So last spring Yvonne is in Dallas visiting, and the phone call comes. This time it’s slightly different. I’d like a book that I think is red, it might have heart in the title and might have been written by someone named Kane, or is it Cain, is that a first or last name? She had no clue! How in the world did she expect us to find this book? Well, Yvonne is nothing if not determined, and I’m not far behind…

Robin Kaye | The Domestic God
Uncategorized / December 12, 2008

Romeo, Romeo is about an independent businesswoman without a domestic bone in her body. Her life would be perfect if she could just figure out how to keep her nosy, pushy, Italian family from trying to marry her off. Nick Romeo, Brooklyn’s Donald Trump (without the comb-over), thinks independent women are an urban myth, until he meets Rosalie and realizes they’re no myth, just a pain the ass. He’s finally met a woman who is looking for the same thing he is–a commitment free relationship– and is shocked to discover that all he wants to do is take care of her. Before too long, he’s moved in, cleaned her apartment, stocked her refrigerator and adopted her dog. Romeo, Romeo is the first book in my Domestic Gods series. I think there’s nothing sexier than a man cleaning. I find it sad that many women think this is a myth. We live in a world where women are expected to work outside the home and still do the lion’s share of the childcare and housework. Men certainly are doing more housework now than they used to. According to the CNN Article, “Housework and sex: What’s the connection?” In 2005 men did…

Karen Harper | RESEARCHING THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
Uncategorized / December 11, 2008

No, I don’t write vampire novels, but I do write both contemporary and historical fiction. For the last ten years of my twenty-five-year writing career, I have written one romantic suspense novel and then one historical novel—back and forth. I have a writer’s split personality since it takes different skills and research techniques to do both. I love reading and writing in two genres and in two times, but it does have its challenges as well as its rewards. For my contemporary romantic suspense novels, I can visit the settings for my story and interview people who live there or have the same careers as my hero and heroine. For THE HIDING PLACE (Nov. 2008), I spent a week in the Rocky Mountains outside Denver. I was able to interview men with dogs trained as trackers. I took two classes to learn about how my female P.I. would work, one class from a tracer who looks for lost people, and one from a female private investigator. When I write my Elizabethan novels (most recently, THE LAST BOLEYN and MISTRESS SHAKESPEARE), I can, at least, still visit my settings. Nothing like a research trip to England! The Tower of London, Hampton…

Steve Berry | The Mystery of Charlemagne
Uncategorized / December 10, 2008

Charlemagne is a historical figure you don’t see a lot of in thrillers. Katherine Neville is the only writer I can recall who’s made good use of him. But he’s fascinating. He ruled for 47 years, and lived to be 74, at a time when kings rarely reigned more than 5 years, and people died long before age 40. He unified a continent, laid the groundwork for the formation, centuries later, of a modern Europe, and many of his policies and practices became proven models for western civilization. He was a visionary who surrounded himself with smart people and, for the first time, placed the needs of his subjects before royal ambition. He was so progressive that it begs the question—did he have help? Was he privy to special knowledge? Both questions spurred my imagination. Within The Charlemagne Pursuit I utilized an actual artifact known as the Voynich Manuscript. It’s preserved in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University . Supposedly created sometime in the 15th or 16th centuries, its folios are penned in a language that no one has ever been able to decipher. In addition, there are a multitude of colorful, odd drawings. By general…

Beth Kery | Do You Believe in the Magic of Romance?
Romance / December 9, 2008

Does true romance really exist? Or is it just the stuff and nonsense of romance novels? I do believe in romance, or I wouldn’t write romance novels. Having said that, I have to admit there are a few qualifications that go along with that attestation. A romance is a story where people connect in a way that’s beyond that of the common-place and casual. I think we dream about making that profound connection with another person. It brings us out of ourselves; let’s us see the world in a whole new way. It seems to me that’s what readers want in a romance—to vicariously experience that moment of intense connection, to feel alive, to see oneself as unique and beautiful through the eyes of another. But is romance escapism? Wouldn’t it be better to see the world for what it is—a place where war and famine exists, where people daily take advantage, lie and steal from one another? As a child, we slowly learn the lesson that ‘life isn’t fair.’ What’s more, life can be ugly, cold and harsh. By the time we’re adults, we’re wary about being seen as a pushover…someone who’s foolish enough to believe in dreams. We…

Tessa Radley | My Christmas Resolution
Uncategorized / December 8, 2008

I loved reading Lisa Plumley’s Christmas Confessions a couple of days ago…so much of what Lisa said is exactly what I’ve vowed to do for my Christmas this year. Downscale. Make sure the things that really matter remain priorities. So often the rush up to Christmas is the final push up a loooong hill after a year of Busy Busy Busy. Only last week I realized that it’s been several months since I’ve spoken to several great friends. Sure we sometimes email jokes and inspirational sayings around (and that hasn’t been as often as usual because I spent a chunk of this year with NO email…grrr). But email isn’t the same as TALKING to each other and connecting. One of these friends lives in Africa, another in Australia and a third—wait for it—lives in the next road! No excuse for that! Available 12/9 As all our lives have grown busier—our kids take precedence—our work takes over—traffic congestion erodes into precious free minutes. Time passes until it’s a shock to realize how long it’s been since I last connected with those fabulous friends. For me this Christmas will be about celebrating joy with my family and also about catching up with…