Storytelling is all about motivation. How do I motivate the reader to finish the book? A fast start helps. In my new novel, Loot the Moon, the reader joins a carjacking in progress on Page 1. A little danger grabs the attention, but to provide lasting motivation, the characters and their relationships must quickly shine. Finding the motivation to write is similar. Nothing jump-starts my motivation like the danger of a deadline, but to tackle a large project I need more. To read the rest of Mark’s blog, and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

January 2009On Sale: December 30, 2008Featuring: Mary Bennet352 pages ISBN: 1416596488EAN: 9781416596486Hardcover$26.00 Historical Buy at Amazon.com The Independence Of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen’s classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate with The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen’s novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many would call a woman of Mary’s age a spinster, she has blossomed into a beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighborhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a…

This week I had trouble coming up with a topic for discussion. Then I finally thought of something, and realized I couldn’t’ post it because of some technical difficulties…such as I wrote it at work, and forgot to put it on my memory stick so I could bring it home, and get it edited and posted. OOPS! Look for that idea next week. So, I had to start fresh and as I was chatting with an online friend she told me about the great books she was pre-ordering. That chat sent me to Amazon to see what I thought would be a good title to pre-order or to place on my wish list. I was amazed at the plethora of titles that I had no clue were coming! I’m now blaming this friend for my wish list exploding, and in the future my bank balance going out faster than it’s coming in! To see what is on Sandi’s wishlist and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

October 2009On Sale: October 1, 2009Featuring: Caroline Bingley; Robert Darcy368 pages ISBN: 140222513XEAN: 9781402225130Paperback$14.99 Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairview Did You Know Mr. Darcy Had An American Cousin? In this highly original Pride and Prejudice sequel by British author Monica Fairview, Caroline Bingley is our heroine. Caroline is sincerely broken-hearted when Mr. Darcy marries Lizzy Bennet— that is, until she meets his charming and sympathetic American cousin… Mr. Robert Darcy is as charming as Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is proud, and he is stunned to find the beautiful Caroline weeping at his cousin’s wedding. Such depth of love, he thinks, is rare and precious. For him, it’s nearly love at first sight. But these British can be so haughty and off- putting. How can he let the young lady, who was understandably mortified to be discovered in such a vulnerable moment, know how much he feels for and sympathizes with her? Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

I was reading Janet Evanovich’s Finger Lickin’ Fifteen– and after the gut retching laughter- I realized that even though I have never been to New Jersey, Janet’s descriptions make me feel like it is a place I have been to many times before. It also made me reflect on how much detail I need when it comes to location in the book I am reading. I am not normally cognizant of the locations- or even the background description in general- when I am reading a book I really enjoy. When the author does a really good job of pulling me into the story, my mind tends to fill in any detail that isn’t readily there, such a location, or even the general skin and eye description of the main characters. Those things I tend to pull from experience and fill in automatically. And I realize that for most authors there is not enough time, or money, to go to every place a book is set. But I realize that for some readers not having this information may be frustrating. To read more of Sara’s blog about location details please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

October 2008On Sale: October 7, 2008368 pages ISBN: 0441016332EAN: 9780441016334Hardcover$24.95 Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com 2009 Anthony Award Nominee “The Night Things Changed” by Dana Cameron for Best Short Story Wolfsbane and Mistletoe by Kat Richardson, Carrie Vaughn, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, Charlaine Harris The editors of Many Bloody Returns deliver the perfect howl-iday gift, with new tales from Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, and many more. New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, and Carrie Vaughn—along with eleven other masters of the genre—offer all-new stories on werewolves and the holidays, a fresh variation on the concept that worked so well with birthdays and vampires in Many Bloody Returns. The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone. They are particularly hard for lycanthropes. Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have harvested the scariest, funniest and saddest werewolf tales by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of a full moon with a silver bullet close at hand. Whether wolfing down a holiday feast (use your imagination) or craving some hair of the dog on New Year’s morning, the werewolves in these frighteningly original stories will surprise, delight, amuse, and scare the pants off…

On what must have been an ordinary day in my life, I woke up with a strange idea. I ignored it, got on with my usual routine, and hoped it would go away. But it didn’t. So on that perfectly ordinary day, I made a fateful decision: I was going to write about Caroline Bingley. Yes, Caroline Bingley, the woman in Pride and Prejudice that everyone loves to hate. Surely not? I really had someone rather different in my mind for my next novel. I’d finished An Improper Suitor, a regency romance, and I’d had such a wonderful time writing it that I was all geared up to continue with one of the characters. But Caroline had wormed herself into my mind, and she refused to go away. The thing is, I was probably one of the few people on the planet that didn’t really dislike her. Which is probably why she’d come to me to plead her case. To read more about the conversation between Ms. Fairview and Ms. Bingley please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

May 2009On Sale: May 12, 2009352 pages ISBN: 0375846980EAN: 9780375846984Paperback$6.99 Young Adult, Mystery Buy at Amazon.com 2009 Anthony Award Nominee for Best Childrens/Young Adult Novel The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein “A rip-roaring ghost story.”—Booklist, Starred Zack, his dad, and new stepmother have just moved back to his father’s hometown, not knowing that their new house has a dark history. Fifty years ago, a crazed killer caused an accident at the nearby crossroads that took 40 innocent lives. He died when his car hit a tree in a fiery crash, and his malevolent spirit has inhabited the tree ever since. During a huge storm, lightning hits the tree, releasing the spirit, who decides his evil spree isn’t over . . . and Zack is directly in his sights. Award-winning thriller author Chris Grabenstein fills his first book for younger readers with the same humorous and spine-tingling storytelling that has made him a fast favorite with adults. Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

I think Jane Austen wrote about me. No, I’m not off my meds, and yes, I realize that dear Jane has been dead for almost two hundred years (and no, I’m not that old). Nonetheless, in my narcissistic view, I am Elizabeth Bennet . The wonderful thing about Jane Austen’s characters is that I’m not alone. Millions of women have turned the last page of Pride and Prejudice sighed, and wondered “when will my Darcy come?” I believe that’s more than a wish for the perfect gentleman (and don’t get me started on whether Darcy was actually a gentleman!); I believe it’s an affirmation that the reader has become so enamored of Elizabeth that she sees herself as Elizabeth. Who doesn’t want to believe that they are pretty, witty, and saucy enough to knock the stockings off the hottest catch in town? To read more of Sara’s blog and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Lydia Chin/Bill Smith February 2009On Sale: February 3, 2009Featuring: Lydia Chin; BIll Smith384 pages ISBN: 0312245564EAN: 9780312245566Hardcover$24.95 Mystery Private Eye Buy at Amazon.com Bouchercon 2009 Toastmaster author S.J. Rozan The Shanghai Moon by S. J. Rozan With The Shanghai Moon, S. J. Rozan returns to her award-winning, critically acclaimed, and much-loved characters Lydia Chin and Bill Smith in the first new novel in the series in seven years. Estranged for months from fellow P.I. Bill Smith, Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin is brought in by colleague and former mentor Joel Pilarsky to help with a case that crosses continents, cultures, and decades. In Shanghai, excavation has unearthed a cache of European jewelry dating back to World War II, when Shanghai was an open city providing safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees. The jewelry, identifed as having belonged to one such refugee – Rosalie Gilder – was immediately stolen by a Chinese official who fled to New York City. Hired by a lawyer specializing in the recovery of Holocaust assets, Chin and Pilarsky are to find any and all leads to the missing jewels. However, Lydia soon learns that there is much more to the story than they’ve been told:…