Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | NATURAL BORN CHARMER by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Fresh Pick / January 31, 2010

May 2008On Sale: May 1, 2008Featuring: Dean Robillard; Blue Bailey400 pages ISBN: 0060734582EAN: 9780060734589Mass Market Paperback$7.99 Romance Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com It’s Football in the US! Natural Born Charmerby Susan Elizabeth Phillips Chicago Stars quarterback Dean Robillard is the luckiest man in the world: a bona-fide sports superstar and the pride of the NFL with a profitable side career as a buff billboard model for End Zone underwear. But life in the glory lane has started to pale, and Dean has set off on a cross-country trip to figure out what’s gone wrong. When he hits a lonely stretch of Colorado highway, he spies something that will shake up his gilded life in ways he can’t imagine. A young woman . . . dressed in a beaver suit. Blue Bailey is on a mission to murder her ex. Or at least inflict serious damage. As for the beaver suit she’s wearing . . . Is it her fault that life keeps throwing her curveballs? Witness the expensive black sports car pulling up next to her on the highway and the Greek god stepping out of it. Blue’s career as a portrait painter is the perfect job for someone who refuses…

SANDI SHILHANEK | WHAT I READ FOR JANUARY
Guests / January 31, 2010

It’s the end of January and I thought I’d try something new this year-taking a day to recap some of what I read or listened to this month. One of my many yahoo groups has several different reading challenges which will be ongoing throughout the year, and last year I had resolved to participate and started out great, and really petered out, but this year I am again determined to participate. There are three challenges that I chose to attempt for January, and below you will read about my results. To read more of WHAT I READ FOR JANUARY and to make a comment please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Misa Ramirez | How I Learned About My Charcter
Uncategorized / January 29, 2010

I’m so glad to be here at Fresh Fiction, and I’m geared up to celebrate the release of Hasta la Vista, Lola, the second book in my Lola Cruz Mystery Series. The release date is February 2nd, and the book is getting tons of buzz! I thought I’d share a story today about one of the questions I get asked most (and sometimes not asked verbally, but with raised eyebrows) as a writer of a Latina mystery series. Bet you can’t guess what the question is. I’ll give you a hint. I’m not Latina. In fact, I say in my bio that I’m proud to be Latina-by-marriage. So, the question is… drum roll… “Why do you write a Latina character, and how did you manage to make her so authentic?” To read more of HOW I LEARNED ABOUT MY CHARACTER and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Fresh Pick | WAKING THE DEAD by Kylie Brant
Fresh Pick / January 29, 2010

The Mindhunters #3 November 2009On Sale: November 3, 2009Featuring: Caitlin Fleming; Zach Sharper304 pages ISBN: 0425231143EAN: 9780425231142Paperback$7.99 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Waking the Deadby Kylie Brant Former forensic anthropologist Caitlin Fleming knows bones. So the investigator is the first one called when seven sets of skeletal remains are found dumped in a makeshift graveyard in the Oregon wilderness. Each skeleton bears the same distinctive marks. And each is minus a skull. Cait needs ourdoors guide Zach Sharper for one reason only— to help her find her way through the Willamette Forest as she pieces together clues. Despite the attraction that burns between them, nothing will be allowed to shake her focus. Until the killer closes in to terminate the investigation…and the ones on the verge of unmasking him… Get ready for lots of twists and turns with an abundance of suspense in this thrilling romance. Excerpt Chapter One Seven stainless steel gurneys were lined up in the morgue, each occupied by a partially assembled skeleton and a large garbage bag. The bones gleamed under the florescent lights. An eighth gurney was heaped with the stray bones that had been found lying separately. Caitlin Fleming’s first thought was that the…

Melissa Senate | How I Got Inspired To Write The Secret Of Joy
Uncategorized / January 28, 2010

For Rebecca Strand, the 28 year-old main character of my new novel The Secret of Joy, published this past November in trade paperback by Simon & Schuster, the secret begins with her father’s deathbed confession of a long-ago love affair, a baby that he turned his back on, and a stash of unsent letters he’s written every year on the child’s birthday. Shocked to discover she has a half-sister she never knew existed, Rebecca is now the keeper of the secret. What will she do with it? Her overbearing lawyer boyfriend thinks she should excise the secret-a sister!-from her mind, as her father did. “Just forget the women exists-lest she try to get her possibly trashy hands on your father’s fortune,” is his lawyerly advice. But this secret stirs something in Rebecca. Her mother is gone. Her father is now gone. Her boyfriend, is, well, trying to run her life. And her job as a paralegal at a divorce mediation firm, where said boyfriend is a partner, is all about endings. Rebecca needs a beginning. And that beginning is dependent on setting things right, on finding 26 year old Joy Jayhawk in a small coastal town in Maine. In delivering…

Fresh Pick | WAKING THE DEAD by Kylie Brant
Fresh Pick / January 28, 2010

The Mindhunters #3 November 2009On Sale: November 3, 2009Featuring: Caitlin Fleming; Zach Sharper304 pages ISBN: 0425231143EAN: 9780425231142Paperback$7.99 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Waking the Deadby Kylie Brant Former forensic anthropologist Caitlin Fleming knows bones. So the investigator is the first one called when seven sets of skeletal remains are found dumped in a makeshift graveyard in the Oregon wilderness. Each skeleton bears the same distinctive marks. And each is minus a skull. Cait needs ourdoors guide Zach Sharper for one reason only— to help her find her way through the Willamette Forest as she pieces together clues. Despite the attraction that burns between them, nothing will be allowed to shake her focus. Until the killer closes in to terminate the investigation…and the ones on the verge of unmasking him… Get ready for lots of twists and turns with an abundance of suspense in this thrilling romance. Excerpt Chapter One Seven stainless steel gurneys were lined up in the morgue, each occupied by a partially assembled skeleton and a large garbage bag. The bones gleamed under the florescent lights. An eighth gurney was heaped with the stray bones that had been found lying separately. Caitlin Fleming’s first thought was that the…

Fresh Pick | THE GATEKEEPER by Michelle Gagnon
Fresh Pick / January 27, 2010

Kelly Jones #3 November 2009On Sale: November 1, 2009Featuring: Kelly Jones; Jake Riley400 pages ISBN: 0778326721EAN: 9780778326724Mass Market Paperback$7.99 Thriller Police Procedural, Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com The Gatekeeperby Michelle Gagnon We are our own worst enemy… Drugged then kidnapped, a young girl wakes up to a nightmare… From the moment sixteen-year-old Madison Grant is abducted, an unthinkable terrorist plot is set in motion— pitting Special Agent Kelly Jones against her most powerful adversary yet. The kidnapper’s ransom demands aren’t monetary…they come at a cost that no American can afford to pay. As Kelly’s fiancé, Jake Riley, races to find Madison, Kelly is assigned to another disturbing case: the murder and dismemberment of a senator. At first the two cases don’t appear to be related. But as Kelly navigates her way through the darkest communities of America—from skinheads to biker gangs to border militias—she discovers a horrible truth. A shadowy figure who calls himself The Gatekeeper is uniting hate groups, opening the door to the worst homegrown attack in American history. Ripped from the headlines, this chilling tale of hate groups in America is shocking and believable. Excerpt Madison Grant leaned over the sink, careful not to get her jeans…

Opal Carew | The Confessions of an Erotic Romance Author Or How I Research my Erotic Romance Books
Uncategorized / January 27, 2010

Do I do all those things I describe in my books? As an erotic romance author, I find that people seem to be fascinated with how I research my novels. It is the most frequent question people ask me — usually with a wink and a grin. At a recent signing at a show called Sexapalooza in my home city of Ottawa, Canada, many people asked if it’s personal experience. I glanced around at the piles of books (6 different novels) and winked, telling them I’ve been a very busy lady. (My husband of over 25 years just chuckled! Um, yeah, I was about 2 when I got married!) So how do I do my research? Well, I’ve found that there is an unexpected wealth of information all around us. At a family gathering, my niece, who has studied hypnotherapy, told me about an intriguing concept called erotic hypnosis. That inspired me to write a scene where one of my heroines (Hanna in BLUSH) enjoyed a very hot erotic fantasy with a plethora of sexy, leather-clad bikers. What I loved most was that I could really push the limits because it was a guided flight of imagination. To read more…

Stephanie Tyler | Look It Up!
Uncategorized / January 26, 2010

Hey Everyone! Great to be invited back to the Fresh Fiction blog. I was always an avid reader – in school, for pleasure, the backs of cereal boxes if nothing else was available, I would read anything and everything I could get my hands on. This included a biography of Linda Lovelace that I was much to young to read – and thankfully, to comprehend – plus many historical romances that had quite a number of sex scenes. Oh, and the VC Andrews books, which I really think are a rite of passage. But I digress. Anyway, whenever I’d get to a point in a book where there was a word I couldn’t figure out in context, I’d ask my mother, what does this mean? Inevitably, she would say, look it up To read the rest of LOOK IT UP! and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Fresh Pick | COLD RIVER by Carla Neggers
Fresh Pick / January 26, 2010

December 2009On Sale: November 24, 2009Featuring: Sean Cameron; Hannah Shay384 pages ISBN: 0778326551EAN: 9780778326557Mass Market Paperback$7.99 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Cold Riverby Carla Neggers A past she wants to forget collides with a cold-blooded murder he is determined to solve… Hannah Shay has finally shown the town of Black Falls what she’s worth. Her Three Sisters Café is a success and she’s soon to become a prosecutor. When the café becomes an epicenter for investigators trying to pierce a violent crime ring that’s leaving bloody trails in nearby Cameron Mountain, Hannah suspects a man from her past is involved. Sean Cameron returns to the snowy cold of his Vermont hometown to unmask his father’s killer. Sean has the skills and resources to mount his own search, but he must convince the resistant Hannah to cooperate—because the killer is ready to strike again…and closer than anyone ever imagined. The twists and turns awaiting them will take them closer to the explosive truth…and into the sights of a killer. Excerpt March 26—nine months ago—Black Falls, Vermont The Cameron brothers were in town that night. Hannah Shay watched them enter O’Rourke’s from her perch on a high stool at the rough-wood bar….