Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Maxine Sullivan | THE LONG JOURNEY
Romance / February 27, 2009

If anyone had told me in the early 1980s that it would take me over 20 years to be published, I probably wouldn’t have kept on writing. Perhaps. Back then the world was much smaller, and living in Australia it was smaller still and very isolated. There was no internet, no romance writer organisations, it took two weeks for a letter to get to a publisher before waiting months for a reply, and it took me weeks to type up a manuscript on a typewriter from longhand. Patience was something you had to have. And that was a good training ground for the next twenty years as I tried hard to get published. In the early 1990s the fledgling internet began to trickle information through. Luckily I knew a computer guru who set me up with an internal modem with a speed that is laughable now but was sheer heaven back then, and I started to learn that there was a growing network of writers out there. It was fantastic. The world was coming into my home and suddenly Down Under wasn’t so far away. Click here to the rest and enter Maxine’s one day blog contest. Visit FreshFiction.com to…

Diane Whiteside | Once Upon A Time in A Place Far, Far Away
Romance / February 26, 2009

Historical authors always write about someplace that can’t be seen or felt by their reader. For KISSES LIKE A DEVIL (just published in February 2009 by Brava), I always knew Brian, William and Viola Donovan’s second son, would find his true love in turn-of the-century Europe. But I wanted it to happen in a fictional country, not someplace well-known where I’d have to walk the straight and narrow path of rigid locations and dates set down in an almanac. No, I wanted the fun of making up a country’s map and history all on my own, just like I would for a fantasy. Yes! I decided to call it Eisengau, or “Iron Mountain” in German. Quite suitable for someplace that made topnotch guns and cannons, then sold them to the rest of the world at big time prices. Click here to read the rest of Diane’s blog. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Amanda Scott | Legends
Uncategorized / February 25, 2009

Border Wedding, Border Lass, and Border Moonlight all began with a legend from Scott family history…the legend of Muckle-Mouth Meg. Meg was Meg Murray, who was supposedly one of the homeliest women in the Borders. Legend perpetuated by Sir Walter Scott the poet, among others, was that the son of famous reiver Wat Scott of Harden was trying to steal cattle from one Jagan Murray, a neighbor, when he got caught. Murray supposedly gave Will Scott the choice of hanging or marrying Meg. So, that’s where I started. But the first thing I discovered in my research was that the man involved was not Will Scott of Harden. Negotiations for Will’s marriage to his wife Agnes are well documented as being long and amiable. Click here to read the rest of Amanda’s blog. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Natale Stenzel | Between a Rock and a Heart Place
Romance / February 24, 2009

First of all, thank you, thank you to Fresh Fiction for hosting me here today. I love visiting this site for scoop on all the latest romance novels by my favorite authors, so I’m thrilled to be blogging here on the release day for BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HEART PLACE, the third book in my series of funny paranormal romances.As you’d guess almost immediately upon reading the back cover blurb for this story, my heroine Daphne Forbes receives a truly unwelcome gift: renegade puca powers. Oh. Well, that explains everything. Or maybe not? A puca is actually a fantastical character derived from Celtic and British mythologies. In some traditions, the puca is a shape-shifting trickster who preys on travelers; half faery and half human, the creature has a distinctly mischievous, even malicious bent. Does my version of the puca accurately reflect all the mythological accounts? Some of them. Others I cheerfully warped and expanded to suit my own needs. The pucas in my stories have three specific powers: mindspeak (mind-to-mind communication), glamour (creating illusion/molding the thoughts of humans), and shape-shifting. Click to read the rest and enter Natale’s blog contest. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Jaime Rush/Tina Wainscott | What’s Paranormal, Anyway?
Uncategorized / February 23, 2009

I’ve always been drawn to the paranormal. Not necessarily monsters, though those occasional reports of the chuppacabra, Big Foot, and the Everglades’ Skunk ape are interesting. I like the weird stuff, like people for no apparent reason going up in flames, weird nature, and all things psychic. The appeal for me is that there’s some truth in it. It could be real…maybe. Possibly. I think we’re all psychic. Most people have had feelings about things, that gut instinct, hunches, call it what you will. Some people are more in tune to that ability and have real psychic abilities, some have vague abilities, and others are, of course, downright shams. That’s true of all things, like those video clips of the guy in the monkey suit trudging through the forest. Hooked? Read the rest…. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Sandi Shilhanek | Great Technological Advances for This Reader
Sundays with Sandi / February 22, 2009

This week I conquered one of the technological challenges that has had me frustrated for months. I couldn’t be more proud of myself, and thought what better way to celebrate than to share that achievement with those of you who read my blog. In case you don’t know I’m a bookaholic! It’s an addiction that I really don’t want to find a recovery program for. I always have a book going that is either print or on my Kindle, plus an audio book either on my IPOD or my MP3 player. Why you might ask do you need both an IPOD and an MP3 player? The answer is somewhat simple. When I got introduced to audio books I thought I could put everything on my IPOD, then I discovered downloading books from my local library, and discovered they weren’t compatible with the IPOD. Therefore I had to find an inexpensive MP3 player. I did that quite well, and was happy until I ran out of memory. Was discussing that with my husband, and he showed me that my MP3 player had a memory card slot. So I gladly inserted said memory card into said slot, but have been unable to…

Brendan McNally | Twenty-five random things about GERMANIA and the Flensburg Reich
Uncategorized / February 21, 2009

Brendan McNally want people to know 25 things they may not have about the Flensburg Reich — the three weeks after the death of Hitler, a forgotten part of 20th century history. Did you know: at the start of the Flensburg Reich, the Reich territories consisted of Norway, Denmark, pieces of Holland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Russia, Czechoslovakia and Crete. There were THREE surrenders The last German aircraft to fly out of Berlin was flown by a woman pilot named Beate Uhse. She landed in Flensburg and founded a sex toy industry which is still based there. She died in 1999. There’s MORE!!!! Don’t stop here… Click here to read more and be entered in a contest to win a signed copy of GERMANIA Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Darlene Gardner | Secondary Romances
Uncategorized / February 20, 2009

Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley. Willow and Oz. Betty and Barney Rubble. You’ve probably figured out by now what the couples from the book Pride and Prejudice, the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the cartoon The Flintstones have in common: They’re involved in secondary romances. Now here’s my shameless confession: I adore secondary romances, often considerably more than the main event. In THE HERO’S SIN, my February release from Superromance that starts a new series, the secondary hero relentlessly — and, I hope, charmingly — pursues his ex-wife. Part of the reason their marriage broke up was because his favorite pasttime was getting drunk with his buddies. I wouldn’t give the primary hero that flaw unless there was a deep, dark reason he was drinking. Click here to read the rest… Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Sharon Ashwood | When Your Brand New Book Leaves Home …
Uncategorized / February 19, 2009

Launching a book is a peculiar business. First, the concept of “launch” is a bit different from the writer’s end. She’s already sent the manuscript away over and over again – to the editor, to the copy editor, for page proofs, and on and on. And yet the darned thing keeps coming back like a pesky cat and, sadly, editors are about as easy to ignore as a yowling Siamese hanging from the screen door. What began as infatuation with one’s literary child quickly morphs to irritation. That’s a sure sign Baby Book has hit the difficult toddler stage. But books grow up too fast. When it finally launches, the author doesn’t actually have much of a role to play anymore. Sure, a party is nice, but all the stuff that matters is all beyond her control, subject to grand and incomprehensible market forces. Baby Book is all grown up, out in the cold, cruel world and about to encounter fast cars and loose readers. Will the universe be kind? Click here to read the rest and enter Sharon’s one day blog contest. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Kimber Chin | Invisible – A Race Against Time
Romance / February 18, 2009

Excerpt From Invisible: “No TV. Sleep Hagen,” she advised. She felt like she was talking to a five year old. “You tired?” Blond eyebrows raised. Yeah, of listening to you. “If we’re to do this, we’ll need all the extra hours we can get.” There was no use of her going if they didn’t find the deed. That gave him pause. “We have fourteen business days, Maeve.” “Eighteen days in total.” He didn’t understand. “And we’ll need every single hour in those eighteen days.” “Every single hour? You think it’s going to be that tough?” His thick thigh rested against hers. Maeve couldn’t move any further away. “Yeah.” Tough wasn’t the word for it. Birger would have them running. “You’ll be there for the entire time?” Maeve didn’t commit to anything halfway. It was all or nothing. “Yeah.” “You don’t talk much, do you, Maeve?” And he talked way too much. What was his point? “Sleep.” *******Whew, makes me tired simply reading about Maeve and Hagen’s adventures! In my latest contemporary romance, Invisible, Hagen,has fourteen business days to find the deed to his Great-Uncle’s house. If he doesn’t succeed, he loses the estate to his devious cousin. Fourteen business days,…