Shanna’s Road Journal Shanna Swendson’s Observations … On Line and On the Road It’s 2010, do you have your e-reader yet? The iPad has made its appearance, joining the Kindle, the Sony e-reader, the Nook and a variety of other reading devices. While I’m far from a luddite, I don’t have an e-reader yet, for a variety of reasons. One is price. I don’t generally spend hundreds of dollars easily for much of anything. The other is that I have the kind of luck with technology that means that whatever I buy will turn out to be the equivalent of the Betamax, and it will be discontinued after I have about five books on it. I will likely wait for the next generation of devices to see how things shake out — or until I write a bestseller and can buy lots of fun toys. I generally think about e-readers when I’m packing to go on a trip, as I am today. I can’t travel without at least one book, and for quick trips, I like to pack as little as possible. That means I have to pick just the right book to bring with me, something that will last…

I’ve been in love with heroes my whole life. Show me a romance fan who hasn’t. We want to believe in the hero in all of us, and most especially in the hunky leading men that Harlequin and Silhouette bring to life on their covers every month, right? But how exactly does a novel like The Fireman’s Secret Baby get dreamed into being??? My Atlanta Heroes series started as a challenge to myself to find a way to write action and suspense into my “home and family” Superromance stories–because I’ve also fallen in love with suspense and intrigue as I write more and more novels. Plus, I wanted to write about everyday heroes that a reader might see in her own life. Lawyers and nurses and doctors and public defenders who put so much on the line to help others, but don’t always get their share of the drool-worthy romance novel covers. I’ve had a blast hearing from readers who’ve fallen hard for my “manly” Atlanta men and their feisty heroines. It’s been a great three years–including winning last year’s Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Book 2 of Atlanta Heroes, To Protect the Child. Along the way, my series…

April 2010On Sale: April 6, 2010Featuring: Byron Hawthorne; Lacey Richards304 pagesISBN: 0451229258EAN: 9780451229250Paperback$15.00 Romance Erotica SensualBuy at Amazon.com Tease Meby Tracy Wolff You can look but you can’t touch The “edgy and erotic” (Shannon McKenna, New York Times bestselling author of Tasting Fear) author of Tie Me Down and Full exposure offers another steamy novel of sex, lies, and sultry games. Burned once too often, true crime writer Lacey Richards has sworn off love. Instead, she explores her deepest desires through her anonymous- and very provocative-blog. Anonymous, that is, until her dark and ultrasexy neighbor discovers her dirty secret. Stockbrocker-turned-carpenter Byron Hawthorne gave up life in the fast lane, hoping to start over in a new city. When he learns his alluring neighbor is the one writing the sizzling blog that keeps him up all night, he can’t resist offering to fulfill her fantasies in the flesh. But Byron isn’t the only man provoked by Lacey’s writing. Now Lacey doesn’t know who she can trust-and who she can dare to tease. Drama, action, seduction, intrigue, romance and sexy hot scenes make this a great read. Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to look into the mind of a killer? What would you do if a killer were hunting you? What if you’re child was the target? What if the killer was someone you knew? To quote Friedrich Nietzsche: He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. In SILENT WITNESS, my Cerridwen Press release, the killer was someone who loved the story’s heroine, Faith McKenzie obsessively, and was willing to do anything to make her his, even if it meant killing her to keep her from belonging to anyone else. Ask any author who writes dark romantic suspense and they’ll tell you, it ain’t no walk in the park at times. I think even for writers who create fictitious killers it’s still disturbing to consider that there are really such depraved people living in the world amongst us. To make a believable killer you have to do your homework. For me, I love to watch Forensic Files and 48 Hours Mystery on TV. You can gain a great deal of knowledge simply…

Hollywood Headlines #1 November 2009On Sale: October 27, 2009Featuring: Calvin Dean; Felix Dunn; Tina Bender320 pages ISBN: 0505528053EAN: 9780505528056Mass Market Paperback$6.99 Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Romance Suspense, Mystery Woman Sleuth Buy at Amazon.com Scandal Sheetby Gemma Halliday The L.A. Informer is Los Angeles’s premier tabloid magazine, reporting on all the latest celebrity gossip, scandals and dirt. They’re not above a little sensational exaggeration and have even been known, on occasion, to bend the law in pursuit of a hot story. Their ace reporter, Felix Dunn, has just been promoted to managing editor. Now, he’s got his work cut out for him keeping the magazine running smoothly while keeping his staff in line… Tina Bender is the Informer’s gossip columnist extraordinaire. She knows everything about everyone who’s anyone. And she’s not afraid to print it. That is, until she receives a threatening note, promising, “If you don’t stop writing about me, you’re dead.” Teaming with a built bodyguard, a bubbly blonde, and an alcoholic obituary writer, Tina sets out to uncover just which juicy piece of Hollywood gossip is worth killing over. From gossip to murder — this writer is not afraid to print news that may get her killed. The first…

Mayan lore and modern science warn that 12/21/2012 could bring a global cataclysm … a threat that is far more real than we imagine. Dark forces stand poised to overrun the earth and crush humanity beneath a vicious rule of terror and blood sacrifice. Our only hope rests with a group of saviors living in secret among us: modern magic-wielding warriors called the Nightkeepers. Now, in the last few years before the 2012 doomsday, these magi must find and win their destined mates in order to protect the barrier of psi energy that forms humanity’s last line of defense against an ancient and powerful enemy. Greetings, Fresh Fictioners! I’m often asked, “Who is your favorite hero so far in the Nightkeeper books?” And when I’m asked that, I usually do a lost sort of guppy-gaping routine while I try to come up with a witty answer. But really, there’s only one answer to that question for me: I love each of them for different reasons. Every time I sit down to write, I fall in love with my hero and heroine, and get to watch them fall in love with each other. The first book in the series, Nightkeepers, introduces…

previously published as INTIMACIES August 2005Featuring: Cassidy Buchanan; Brig McKenzie496 pages ISBN: 0821777122Paperback (reprint)$7.99 Romance Suspense, Mystery, Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Now available in Kindle format. Final Screamby Lisa Jackson The sound every killer waits for… When there’s no escape from a cold-blooded killer, scream, scream as loud as you can…or it might be the last sound you ever make . . . . As white-hot flames sear the dark night, a killer waits in the trees, watching the mill burn, listening for the screams—the only proof that justice has finally begun for the sins of long-ago. For journalist Cassidy Buchanan, this inferno is a living nightmare: a reminder of the horrible, mysterious fire that destroyed her wealthy family seventeen years ago—and of Brig McKenzie, the handsome hellraiser accused of setting the blaze. That tragic crime has never been solved, and already the whispers have begun in Prosperity, Oregon: Another fire, more deaths, and one common denominator—Cassidy herself. Cassidy came home to Prosperity to put the past behind her, but it seems the past isn’t finished with Cassidy. Someone doesn’t want her to uncover the chilling truth…someone who has killed before and will kill again…a cold-blooded psychopath who is only…

January 2010On Sale: December 29, 2009Featuring: Jack MacAlister; Sophie Rose400 pages ISBN: 0345500768EAN: 9780345500762Mass Market Paperback (reprint)$7.99 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Fire and Iceby Julie Garwood Sophie Rose is a crime reporter at a major Chicago newspaper and the daughter of Bobby Rose, a charming gentleman and big-time thief. When asked to write an exposé about her notorious father, Sophie quits and goes to work at a small newspaper, covering local personalities such as William Harrington, the 5K runner whose trademark is red socks. Those socks—with Sophie’s business card tucked inside—are practically all that’s found after Harrington is killed near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, seemingly in a brutal polar bear attack. Sophie heads north to investigate, but danger follows in her wake. After one attempt on her life, she’s assigned brash but sexy Jack MacAlister as a bodyguard. But Sophie and Jack will soon be fighting more than their growing passion for each other. Powerful forces will stop at nothing to prevent the exposure of the sinister conspiracy Sophie and Jack are about to uncover. A fast-paced romantic suspense filled with lots of excitement, thrills and chills. Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

That’s the tagline for Dead Head, my latest suburban noir novel (Minotaur April 2010). I started asking that question two years ago when a middle class mother of two in southern California was taken away in handcuffs after authorities learned she was a fugitive from the law. Ripped from the headlines is hardly a new concept – writers as varied as William Shakespeare and Dominick Dunne have looked to news reports for inspiration, so that puts me in good company! Almost every day there’s a news item that has the fledgling writer as well as the more experienced one thinking “that would make a good story.” Most writers I know have idea files – mine is six inches thick and filled with clippings and printed articles ranging from the story of a Chicago woman who poisoned the trees in a public park because they were obstructing her view to last year’s much more serious violent chimp attack, which took place five minutes from my home in Connecticut. (Yes, I had met the chimp once.) But this woman’s story really resonated for me. I’ve lived in cities and suburbs and it’s so easy not to know the person next door. We…

Even with the dividing lines between authors and readers blurring in this age of social media, there is still a misconception that authors aren’t normal people. Granted, some of our behavior–especially when alcohol is involved–makes this assumption somewhat fair. But the truth is most authors started out a lot like you. By this I mean, before we ever put pen to page, we were avid readers. For me, it started very young. My mother managed a bookstore and my grandmother owned a used book store, so I spent a great portion of my young surrounded by thousands of glorious books. To this day, the mysterious scent of old paper makes me smile. I won’t mince words: I was a nerdy kid. I was awkward and found it difficult to make friends at school. Instead, my friends were the kids from Narnia, Nancy Drew, the girls from the Babysitters’ Club, the subjects of Shell Silverstein’s poems. Even as I grew older and the social awkwardness gave way to finding my own tribes, I continued to read for pleasure. My favorite Sunday activity was to stay in bed all day and consume books by Anne Rice, Judith McNaught, Johanna Lindsey and Jude…