When you first sell a book, did you dream about going on tour? Did you imagine yourself putting on grown-up clothes, lipstick and new shoes to sally forth to meet your adoring public? Maybe you pictured yourself with a slick-looking Moonsus business tote slung jauntily over your shoulder, dashing from one bookstore to the next, leaving a trail of avid readers in your wake. Then one day-be careful what you wish for-you find yourself on a book tour. You’re going to bookstores and big-box stores, doing signing after signing. And grim reality sets in-the inhuman hour you have to get up to get to the airport in time for your flight. The soul-sucking lines and security measures at the airport. The dearth of media coverage, forcing you to confront the reality that no, the publication of a novel about a woman’s emotional journey to self-actualization is not exactly the news hook the papers have been looking for. Then there are the events themselves-the frighteningly empty seats at the readings, the painful absence of book-buying fans. The oh-shit expression on the bookseller’s face when she realizes no one is coming to buy a book. You’re asked where the bathrooms are, where…

When at a party where there are people I don’t know, I am in an element that instigates my imagination.  What to say becomes the direct pay-off of how people I meet make me feel or the situation of the moment.  It can be like an improv class.  Of course it is appropriate but unexpected by most.  But does it start out that way?  Nope!  I sit back and study the group.  I ask myself questions.  Why are those two together?  What is she wearing beneath that dress… what could she  possibly be wearing… it is too sheer… could she be… naked?  She has to be naked.  I know I could tell if she hadn’t bikini waxed. I see a couple.  I figure that they are young and in love.  So what is the truth of their youth?  What does he smell like?  What does she?  How long did they spend getting ready?  What does she taste like when they kiss?  Does she taste different in public then in private?  Who is alpha?  Would she ask?  Beg?  Take?  Would he?  Have they ever danced nude… at night… and in the rain… why… why not?  Does he naturally take her hand…

Dragon #3 November 2008On Sale: November 4, 2008Featuring: Seth; Carol Juan304 pages ISBN: 0425224716EAN: 9780425224717Mass Market Paperback$6.99 Paranormal, Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com The Dragon Masterby Allyson James The power is aroused. The passion burns. He’s big, hot, and not of this world. The third in this erotic paranormal series. A Fire Dragon summoned here by a dangerous mage inflames the passion in the human female he has chosen to become his mate. Will the Fire Dragon find his human mate in time to thwart an evil mage who’s after his powers? Excerpt Chapter One He didn’t know where he was, or who he was, or why he was. He stood upright in a naked human body in a dark, cold place that smelled metallic, damp, and oily. The only light came from a crude lamp set high on a wall, a flickering orb surrounded by insects craving brightness. He didn’t blame them. A few moments ago, his world had been one of heat and light and now he stood in terrifying cold and darkness. The dim light showed dirty walls and hard stones with letters scrawled beside a solid door. For some reason he could read the letters, though…

Caruthers Sisters #2July 2009On Sale: July 7, 2009Featuring: Alex Caruthers; Ginjin; Jake304 pages ISBN: 0425227804EAN: 9780425227800Trade Size$14.00 Fantasy Urban, Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Dragons Prefer Blondesby Candace Havens Fighting evil in four-inch Pradas… Second in the paranormal series featuring the Caruthers sisters, party girls who save the world—between cocktails. Alex Caruthers is a sassy socialite who knows when it’s time to turn in her dancing shoes and kick some serious dragon booty. But when Ginjin—the dragon warrior who’s tried to kill her numerous times—chooses her as his mate, Alex finds herself in a situation that’s too hot to handle. For help she turns to Jake, head of Caruthers security—and a total hottie in a suit—and asks him to pose as her boyfriend. Their relationship might be fake, but Alex can’t deny that one touch from Jake makes her burn hotter than any dragon could. Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Saturday 19th September 11.30 a.m Shhhh….my month old baby boy, Freddie, is asleep. As blissful as it is to see him snoozing, content after a feed, this poses something of a problem for me. All the experts agree that when your new baby sleeps you should sleep, but as delightful as the prospect of a few snatched minutes of dreamless oblivion seems, were I to doze off now then all the million things that need to be done – a mountain of baby clothes laundry, a month’s worth of house work, a guest blog for Fresh Fiction and not to mention the beginings of a new novel – will not get done. Again. And the sun will set on another day when I consider myself a high achiever for having got myself dressed in time to get my eight year old daughter to school and back again whilst remembering to brush my hair – a consideration that is probably not that accurate now that the world now seems to be entirely populated by women (Yummy Mummies, as they are known in the UK) who emerge half an hour after childbirth, with a washboard stomach, hair perfect, on trend outfit color…

Drakon #4 April 2009On Sale: March 24, 2009Featuring: Lord Rhys Langford; Zoe Cyprienne Lane320 pages ISBN: 0553806858EAN: 9780553806854Hardcover$22.00 Fantasy, Romance Paranormal, Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com The Treasure Keeperby Shana Abe Theirs was a legacy of power and sensuality beyond imagining With such novels as Queen of Dragons and The Dream Thief, Shana Abé has created a unique and vividly imagined world that exists side by side with our own—a realm populated by a race of supersensual men and women whose power to change shape permits them unlimited acts of pleasure…and ever-present danger. Now the survival of the drákon rests in the hands of a young woman with untried and unexpected powers—and the powerful Alpha male she must break every drákon law to save. The drákon are at war, surrounded by an enemy they have every reason to fear. The sanf inimicus are no ordinary human beings but the most dangerous of hunters. They’ve sworn to exterminate the shape-shifters whose presence they now can detect, and they’ve already claimed a prize prisoner: Lord Rhys Langford. It’s a blow the drákon clans feel from Darkfrith, England, all the way to the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. But it strikes no one harder…

Dragons #2 April 2009On Sale: April 1, 2009Featuring: Sabina336 pages ISBN: 0843960477EAN: 9780843960471Mass Market Paperback$7.99 Romance Paranormal, Fantasy Buy at Amazon.com Dragonboundby Jade Lee Horrific are a dragon’s claws, its fiery breath and buffeting wings. Potent is its body, fraught with magic down to the very last glistening scale. But most fearsome of all is a dragon’s cunning —- and the soul that allows it to bond with humans. Sabina was the one girl of her generation chosen as Dragonmaid, friend and caregiver to the copper dragon of her nation’s tyrant king. There she witnessed the greed, lust and rage such a beast could incite—and acquired her own very dark secret. Excerpt The Negotiation Now Dragon fire burned people alive. It boiled the skin, seared the bones, and left nothing behind but a charred smear of hot grease. But if Sabina stood away from the plume, just three handspans aside, then all her clothes were burned away, her skin took on a rosy blush, and she would end up flushed and naked before the most exquisite creature in the world. Sabina stared at the fire in the inn’s hearth and remembered her past. She recalled the scorched smell of burning…

Merry Christmas! Ok, ok, it’s early, but today at FreshFiction we have the authors from the upcoming holiday anthology A Christmas Ball. USA Today Bestselling Jennifer Ashley,Emily Bryan and Alissa Johnson got together over a cup of wassail to talk about celebrating Christmas. To read the questions and the answers and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Oscar Wilde’s graveOriginally uploaded by Andifeelfine The other Sunday I made a pilgrimage to the Père Lachaise cemetery, in the northeast of Paris, France, to pay my respects to the shade of Oscar Wilde. I found I was not alone. The great man’s grave was surrounded by quite a crowd, including a party of Japanese students, a family of Germans (the father was wearing lederhosen) and an assortment of young people in their twenties: French, Italian, British and American. As I arrived, one of the young women was planting a kiss on the huge Jacob Epstein angel that surmounts the poet’s grave. She was kissing the marble deliberately, to leave the lipstick impression of her mouth on the monument. "Why did you do that?" I asked. "Because I love him," she replied. "We all do," added another of the girls (she was from Baltimore). "He’s one of us." Wilde, it seems, is our contemporary. He died in Paris 109 years ago, a near-friendless exile, impoverished, shunned, disgraced. Today, he is world-famous and universally admired. There are 1,000 lipstick impressions on his tomb. He would not have quarrelled with the attention: he was a pioneer of celebrity culture. "If you wish…

This weekend the weather has finally cooled in my neck of the woods. It’s the first day in a little over a week without rain, and why I did have an appointment on Saturday afternoon I really had nothing planned. I decided it was a good time to get a start on cleaning and dejunking my home, so that my husband could begin his annual decorating for Halloween. The entryOriginally uploaded by freshfiction In this vein I was able to make several bags of garbage, and to sort my dresser and make not one, but three bags of clothing I haven’t worn in forever for the charity coming next week. I also managed to guilt my husband into making two bags of various items from his stash of treasures. When my youngest came home from bowling I attempted to guilt him into sorting and dejunking as well, but thus far little success there, and my oldest is hopeless, but he wasn’t home this weekend to guilt. To read more about Sandi’s dejunking experience and to comment please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.