Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery October 2008On Sale: October 1, 2008Featuring: Brandy Borne; Vivian232 pages ISBN: 0758211953EAN: 9780758211958Hardcover$22.00 Mystery Buy at Amazon.com Antiques Flee Market by Barbara Allan Brandy Borne’s new life in the small Mississippi River town of Serenity is anything but serene. Moving back in with her bipolar Mum, Vivian – an antique herself who treats Brandy like a perpetual five-year old – is challenging enough, but stocking and running their antiques holiday booth at the shopping mall is positively daunting. And as the big Christmas season gets into full swing, they find themselves in the midst of small-town mayhem when an old flame of Vivan’s turns up mysteriously deceased. ‘Tis the season – to be murdered? Brandy and her diva Mum last saw the recently departed dealer, Walter Yeager, at a flea market where Vivian made her usual theatrical scene while saving Walter from under-pricing a valuable first edition of Tarzan and the Apes. The prospective first buyer was furious, and when Walter ends up dead the next day – ‘officially’ of a heart attack – and the book goes missing, Vivian senses a Yuletide homicide. As the season’s first flakes of snow drift lazily down over Serenity,…

“I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett!” I love that classic line delivered by a frantic Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) in the movie Gone With the Wind. Makes me laugh every time and is a humorousquote uttered quite frequently where I work. In our case it is a complete joke since my “real” job is as an RN in the Maternal Child Health field. Specifically I am a 25-year veteran of Neonatal ICU nursing, so I can claim with all sincerity to be an expert in both laboring and delivering mothers and babies. My professional experience coupled with being a mother of two aided me tremendously in writing of Elizabeth Darcy’s pregnancy and delivery as well as those early weeks with a newborn. Ah, the memories! Lizzy’s pregnancy did not proceed exactly like either of mine did, nor was her delivery precisely the same, but lets just say there were definite similarities! And after witnessing and assisting in literally thousands of deliveries over the years, it was very easy to write a realistic scenario. To read more of BIRTHIN’ BABIES and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books…

Witchcraft #1 July 2009On Sale: July 7, 2009Featuring: Max Carmichael; Lily Ivory336 pages ISBN: 045122745XEAN: 9780451227454Paperback$6.99 Paranormal, Mystery Woman Sleuth Buy at Amazon.com Secondhand Spirits by Juliet Blackwell Love the vintage, not the ghosts. Lily Ivory feels that she can finally fit in somewhere and conceal her “witchiness” in San Francisco. It’s there that she opens her vintage clothing shop, outfitting customers both spiritually and stylistically. Just when things seem normal, a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area. Lily has a good idea that some bad phantoms are behind it. Can she keep her identity secret, or will her witchy ways be forced out of the closet as she attempts to stop the phantom? Excerpt Tis the witching hour of night,Or bed is the moon and bright,And the stars they glisten, glisten,Seeming with bright eyes to listenFor what listen they?John Keats (1795–1821)Chapter One Witches recognize their own. So I could tell this customer was . . . different . . . the moment he walked into my store. Not to mention the bell on the door failed to chime. He was gorgeous: golden hair glinting in the light of the amber sconces, eyes the blue of a perfect periwinkle, tanned skin…

After the flurry of the holidays, I had expected January to be a nice, quiet, slow month for books – boy, was I wrong! I have a plethora of brand new cozy mysteries to share with you this month, and each one sounds just as fun and fascinating as the next. And what a perfect month to just stay inside and read! Where I live in North Texas, we are experiencing the coldest, strangest winter I can personally remember. We had 11 inches of snow on Christmas Eve that all but brought the entire region to a standstill and now, in January, we are about to dip down into the ‘teens temperature wise. We Texans aren’t used to this! But I’m not too worried about it – got a load of firewood and a batch of delightful cozy mysteries to keep me busy and warm! I hope you can find something among these titles that will peak your interest as well! DEAD AIR:A Talk Radio Mystery By Mary Kennedy Obsidian Mystery; $6.99 In a brand new series, author Mary Kennedy explores the scenes behind a popular radio talk show with her book, DEAD AIR: A Talk Radio Mystery. Maggie Walsh…

The Daily DoseSmattering of Romance, Paranormal, and General ObservationsHave you ever wondered about the process of world building for a paranormal romance? Most paranormal romances are set in the contemporary world that looks an awful lot like our own with a few exceptions. The twist in most paranormal romances is the presence of the paranormal. That requires a certain amount of world building. Understanding the Rules Readers and writers have one thing in common where new worlds are concerned. They need to understand the rules of that world. In TWILIGHT, for example, vampires are created when one vampire bites a human and injects venom. If the human survives the venom’s effects, they become a vampire. If not, they die. No matter whether they transform or die, the process is excruciating and takes about 48 to 72 hours. This is important information for the audience because it’s a different take on the creation of the vampire. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the blood swap between vampire and victim is necessary and the victim must die. Then you wait to see if they rise again. Apparently, it doesn’t always happen. However, when the victim rises as a vampire, they are not that…

In my January release, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER, Book 6 in the Broken Heart series, single mother, vampire, and demon hunter Phoebe Allen makes an itty bitty mistake. Okay. A big mistake. She lets lust get in the way of her common sense and gets horizontal with sexy Scottish fairy Connor Ballard. Except he’s only half fairy … and you know, half-demon. Now, instead of just indulging in a delicious encounter with a yummy Scotsman, she ends up married for a hundred years to the very kind of creature she’s usually fighting. To read more of DEMONS ARE A HEROINE’S BEST FRIEND and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

January 2010On Sale: January 1, 2010Featuring: Athena Smith; Drew Clayworth384 pages ISBN: 0446618594EAN: 9780446618595Mass Market Paperback$6.99 Romance Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com A Black Tie Affair by Sherrill Bodine SUITED FOR SEDUCTION Fashion curator Athena Smith will do anything to get her perfectly manicured hands on the Clayworth family’s celebrated couture collection for her exhibit. So when she’s called in to make sure the gowns are the real deal, she’s ecstatic… until a dress she’s examining turns out to be loaded with toxins (talk about killer threads!) and Athena faints, only to wake up face-to-face with the One That Got Away, notorious Chicago bachelor Drew Clayworth. Drew still believes Athena betrayed him all those years ago, and he’s sure he can’t trust her. But when the priceless gowns go missing, she offers to help track them down. Reluctantly allied in the quest, Drew and Athena are soon stunned by the barely restrained passion still sizzling between them… and memories both bitter and sweet. Is their new partnership just a business arrangement? Or is this something more than… A BLACK TIE AFFAIR Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Vintage Magic Mystery #2 August 2009On Sale: August 4, 2009Featuring: Madeira Cutler304 pages ISBN: 0425229114EAN: 9780425229118Paperback$7.99 Mystery Woman Sleuth Buy at Amazon.com Larceny And Lace by Annette Blair Maddie Cutler has it all in the bag: fashion, magic–and murder! If that dress could talk… Madeira Cutler is busy opening her new vintage clothing store in what was once the town’s morgue when she discovers an intruder snooping around a bunch of bones in a body drawer. Now, she’ll have to dig up more than the past to solve a crime. Excerpt “I find that it is vital to have at least one handbag for each of the ten types of social occasion: Very Formal, Not So Formal, Just a Teensy Bit Formal, Informal but Not That Informal, Every Day, Every Other Day, Day Travel, Night Travel, Theater, and Fling.”  —Miss Piggy Chapter One If I hadn’t asked my New York cronies to mention my grand opening in their national fashion magazines, I might be able to breathe as if I weren’t wearing Scarlett O’Hara’s corset. Thirteen days before Halloween. Thirteen days to open Vintage Magic, my dress shop for timeless classics and designer originals. What was I doing to make…

Hi there! This is Cheryl Brooks, author of the Cat Star Chronicles series of erotic sci-fi romance. I decided to do a character interview for Fresh Fiction, but since I’m such a lousy interviewer, I thought I’d have my old friend Marla Elkhorn do the honors to introduce you to a few of the characters in my new book, Fugitive (in stores now!). Well-known throughout the galaxy as the Barbara Walters of her time, she’s not above asking the tough questions, but sometimes she gets in over her head… click here to read the interview and learn how to win… Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Fresh Takes from the Teen ShelvesAll the news, updates and gossip for the Young Adult — books, authors, movies and more! Happy New Year!  Lot’s of great books coming out this year, and some of the nicest people I know are kicking things off in January. I’ve been looking forward to some of these books for awhile, so it’s great to get to tell you about them. Leading things off is Stacey Jay’s UNDEAD MUCH?, the follow up to the awesomely titled YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME. Stacey Jay:  It’s winter break in Carol, Arkansas and Zombie Settler, Megan Berry, finally has everything she ever wanted–a place on the pom squad, peace among the undead, and the boyfriend of her dreams. But life in Zombie-ville never stay drama-free for long. Soon a cheerleader uprising threatens to ruin half time forever, an undead psychic hottie makes Megan question her commitment to Ethan, and super strong zombies that are immune to Settler magic land Megan and her Settler friends in a huge mess of trouble. Even worse, Megan herself is the prime evil-zombie-raising suspect and on the verge of being thrown in jail for working forbidden magic. Now Megan and her…