I’m not quite sure what I should use as the label for South by South West (SXSW) or “South by.” It’s a film festival, a music festival and now more than ever an “Interactive” conference / festival. It’s the result of what’s happening in the “real” world. You know, the convergence of our lives and the stuff we do. Like we listen to music which is now almost all electronically stored on files, played in little devices that make us laugh when we think back to the days of the Sony Walkman, or even, bless me, the LP. We get our movies and shows on our computers and even on our phones which have become handy devices to entertain while we’re waiting or bored. We can see what’s happening in our worlds, check the weather forecast, listen to music, watch a film and read a book. It’s a wonderful gadget and almost every one has one type or another. So this gathering in Austin, the SXSW experience is amazing. I’ve met all ages, types, sizes and nationalities of people. From the geeks for tech to the nerds for film, to the secret readers of “trash fiction” (that would be what…

Wolf Moon March 2010On Sale: March 1, 2010Featuring: Parker Madison; Chloe Tyler288 pages ISBN: 0373618301EAN: 9780373618309Mass Market Paperback$5.25 Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Wolf Trapby Linda Thomas-Sundstrom Sultry Miami nights are about to get even hotter as Linda Thomas-Sundstrom continues her Wolf Moons series. A hunt for a rogue werewolf stirs passion in the hearts of two rebels…. When a full moon awakens the beast within Dr. Parker Madison, he is hell-bent on finding explanations for his new Otherworld form and his insatiable lust. On the prowl one night, he discovers a woman in trouble—one who stirs his darker desires and may hold the answers to all that he has searched for. After a sexy stranger rescues her from a brutal attack, Chloe Tyler can’t stop dreaming about him. Especially when something deep inside his electric-blue eyes calls to her, and his touch fills her with the most intense desire she’s ever known. But her nightmares are all too real. A rogue werewolf’s bite has changed her life forever, and the one who turned her hunts her still. Unless her dream man comes to her rescue yet again, the danger remains…. Excerpt “Just what am I supposed to be looking…

Conflict What is conflict? How does it affect story? In fiction, conflict comes in two forms, internal and external. Internal conflict happens due to struggles within a character’s heart and mind. External conflict occurs due to the environment the character lives in or is exposed to. An example of titanic conflict, both internal and external occurs in the movie The Patriot During the American Revolution Mel Gibson’s character is faced with an impossible choice–should he fight for his beloved country’s freedom, or should he stay behind to protect his family? In choosing to stay with his family, Gibson’s character illustrates massive internal conflict. His choice goes against his sense of patriotism and makes him look cowardly to peers. External conflict occurs when one of Gibson’s sons, a soldier in the revolution, is captured by the British and another of his sons, a child, is killed by the enemy. This external conflict, which happens in his environment, causes him to leave his duties with his family to fight for his country. How does a writer effectively incorporate conflict into her story? A key way to find the answer to this question is to ask another question or two while organizing the…

Wolf #4 February 2010On Sale: February 1, 2010Featuring: Faith O’Mallery; Cameron MacPherson384 pages ISBN: 1402219059EAN: 9781402219054Mass Market Paperback$6.99 Fantasy Urban, Romance Paranormal, Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Legend Of The White Wolfby Terry Spear In a world of a snow and ice, their passions blaze… In this fourth in Spear’s series, Private Eye Cameron MacPherson and Faith O’Mallery are both on quests that lead them into the world of magical wolves… Cameron arrives in the Canadian Arctic to search for his partners in his P.I. business who are late returning from a hunting trip. Faith is there to discover what her father had seen in the same area years earlier that had made him lose touch with reality—man-wolves, he called them. The two tumble into an icy world of enemies bent on destroying the lupus garou kind. As they turn into lupus garou themselves, and bond with the pack that only they can rescue from destruction, Cameron and Faith find their soul mates in each other. Excerpt Once she reached her room, she slid the key card in. Green light. She twisted the handle and pushed. The door didn’t budge. She tried again. Same thing. She hated key cards. Why…

Ever since writing my first novel (unpublished!) at the age of fifteen, I have had soundtracks to accompany the writing. The music tells the story in song and it evolves alongside the book, sometimes preceding the first draft, sometimes joining in along the way as the work progresses, but always presenting me at the finish with a fully formed musical score precisely fitted to the emotional resonances, major scenes and dramatic moments in the novel. I don’t listen to music in the background as I write, that would be far too distracting. Instead, I select likely tracks from my extensive PC music library and listen to them while I’m doing mundane tasks around the house, or while I’m cooking and baking, or at the gym. At these times my mind is free to wander and mull. I’ll know a suitable song when I hear it because I will get an immediate rush of adrenalin – a gut feeling that makes me know it’s perfect for a particular scene, moment or character in the novel. I will listen to the song over and over again while it becomes absorbed into my subconscious. When I come to write the scene to which…

Felix Gomez #5 March 2010On Sale: March 9, 2010Featuring: Felix Gomez416 pages ISBN: 0061567183EAN: 9780061567186Trade Size$14.99 Fantasy Urban, Thriller Paranormal – Supernatural Buy at Amazon.com Werewolf Smackdownby Mario Acevedo Felix Gomez, Latino vampire detective extraordinaire, tackles a dangerous werewolf cabal in the fifth installment in Mario Acevedo’s satirical supernatural series A sure-to-be-bloody civil war is brewing between rival werewolf factions, and P.I . Felix Gomez will do anything he can to make sure it doesn’t explode into a vicious battle that engulfs all creatures, living and dead. Between that, the sudden reappearance of an ex-girlfriend, and a gang of other vampires trying to take off his head, this is one rumble even a fanged detective extraordinaire may not be able to handle. Twists, turns and double-dealing turn this fast-paced vampire mystery into an excellent adventure. Excerpt Chapter One “Felix, I want him dead.” Eric Bourbon held up a severed head. The head belonged to a Caucasian man in his early thirties. By the musky taint of the cadaver reek, the victim had been more than a man–he was a werewolf in human form. A were. The eyelids were hooded, the cleanly shaven jaw slack, the pale lips opened slightly, the…

Immortals After Dark #7 February 2010On Sale: February 16, 2010Featuring: Lucia; Garreth MacRieve448 pages ISBN: 1416580956EAN: 9781416580959Mass Market Paperback$7.99 Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Pleasure Of A Dark Princeby Kresley Cole Can the beast seduce a beauty and make her love him…? #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole enraptures again with this seductive tale of a fierce werewolf prince who will stop at nothing to protect the lovely archer he covets from afar. A DANGEROUS BEAUTY… Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her — and those she loves. AN UNCONTROLLABLE NEED… Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own. THAT LEAD TO A PLEASURE SO WICKED…. From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia’s greatest weakness — her wanton desire for him. Excerpt Prologue Thrymheim Hold, the NorthlandsHome of Skathi, goddess of the huntIn ages long past . . . Lucia the Maiden…

Moon #3 March 2010On Sale: March 1, 2010Featuring: Rory Sullivan; Olivia Felan320 pages ISBN: 0758231911EAN: 9780758231918Paperback$14.00 Romance Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Taming The Moonby Sherrill Quinn An instinct that won’t be denied… Olivia Felan has a wild side, all right. Even ignoring the fact that she turns furry and feral once a month, her natural style is take-no-prisoners, full-speed-ahead, come-what-may. But when it comes to her little girl, she doesn’t take chances. So when a big bad werewolf alpha steals her daughter, Olivia will do whatever it takes to get her baby back. And in this case, that means killing Rory Sullivan. The trouble is, killing him would mean wasting one sexy beast. Sully is all man, all cop, and as of late, half wolf. When he meets Olivia, Sully’s a little glad he stuck his nose into his friends’ business and came out with animal senses – until he gets a whiff of the chaos following her around. Now he has to decide whether he can’t take his eyes off Olivia because she’s too beautiful – or because she’s too dangerous. Excerpt Olivia Felan held her daughter close, breathing in the sweet scent of little girl and bubblegum, and…

In the book I just finished writing, the heroine has two living parents who are loving and functional. Not that she doesn’t have her issues with them, but they haven’t (a) died and left her in poverty (b) sold her into sexual slavery, or (c) forced her into marriage with a pox-ridden octogenarian to save the family fortune. It occurred to me how rare it is in romance for a character not to have parent issues of some kind. To have both hero and heroine in possession of two good, living parents is almost unheard of. Off the top of my head, the only one I can think of is Loretta Chase’s Not Quite a Lady. (And one of them is a stepmother though not a wicked one). Julia Quinn’sBridgertons are a famous example of a really loving family – I want Violet to be my mom – but even with them, the father is dead and all the Bridgertons fall in love with people who have difficult family backgrounds. The characters in my current release come from the more common unhappy families. The heroine of The Wild Marquis isn’t even sure who her parents were. The hero had a…

First let me say what a pleasure it is to be invited to guest blog on Freshfiction.  As I have discovered, the blogosphere is a warm and inviting, if curious, place to be.  In my own blog, www.susanwilsonwrites.com, I recently observed what a difference a few years make in how books are publicized and marketed.  Where once an author had to buy new clothes, now she can sit, as I am, at her kitchen counter in her pjs and communicate with fans and future fans. ONE GOOD DOG is my sixth novel and a departure from my usual focus.  All of my books:  BEAUTY, HAWKE’S COVE, CAMEO LAKE, THE FORTUNE-TELLER’S DAUGHTER, and  SUMMER HARBOR have, as the central theme, the relationship between women and men.  In ONE GOOD DOG, I explored the relationship between two very disparate species:  man and dog.  And yet, there were some real similarities to a romance in Adam and Chance’s relationship.  They meet ‘cute’ (sort of); they each have to learn to trust the other; they eventually develop a bond that transcends any prior experience of love.  My challenge was to write a compelling, engaging and believable story with a dog as a central character. …