Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | MAMA GETS HITCHED by Deborah Sharp
Fresh Pick / August 31, 2010

Mace Bauer Mystery #3 August 2010 On Sale: July 1, 2010 Featuring: Mama 336 pages ISBN: 0738719226 EAN: 9780738719221 Trade Size $14.95 Add to Wish List Mystery Cozy Buy at Amazon.com Mama Gets Hitched by Deborah Sharp According to Mama, a Gone with the Wind-themed wedding— including a ring-bearing Pomeranian—is just fine for her fifth trip down the aisle. But what’s a bridezilla to do when the caterer is murdered? Thanks to the nonstop gossip train in their small Florida town, Mama’s gator-wrestling daughter Mace is getting the dirt on who did it. Prime suspects are two East Coast Yankees: the bridegroom’s cousin C’ndee who’s sorely lacking in Southern charm and her gorgeous nephew Christopher whose family may be linked to the Mafia. Previous Picks

Alyssa Day | Big Big Changes
Author Guest / August 31, 2010

I’m on the cusp of a huge change in my life as ATLANTIS BETRAYED releases September 7th – in a few short weeks I’ll be moving clear across the world from Florida to Japan. In general terms, it’s really an exciting move with wonderful adventures to look forward to. In specific terms? It’s kicking my butt. All the millions of crucial details involved in an overseas move are crushing down on me and I wake up in a cold panic at 4 a.m. every night wondering what I forgot. Being a writer, of course, I’m working this into my fiction. Being a human being, I’d love some help! Please tell me how you de-stress when you’re facing enormous changes in your life. We’ll pick three commenters to win signed copies of ATLANTIS BETRAYED. And since the consensus of my latest poll of readers was that they’d WAY rather hear from characters than authors, here’s a snippet from ATLANTIS BETRAYED, where big, hunky warrior Christophe is facing a huge change of his own—he realizes he has feelings for Lady Fiona that he can’t control: Christophe pulled Fiona into the room and turned left until they were out of the line of…

Fresh Pick | SKETCH ME IF YOU CAN by Sharon Pape
Fresh Pick / August 30, 2010

Portrait of Crime #1 August 2010 On Sale: August 3, 2010 Featuring: Zeke; Rory 304 pages ISBN: 0425236048 EAN: 9780425236048 Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Cozy, Mystery Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Sketch Me If You Can by Sharon Pape She’s a police sketch artist. He’s a dead lawman. Together, they put a face on murder. When her uncle dies, police sketch artist Rory McCain get’s a list of clients from his private detective business and a beautiful, old house with a ghostly inhabitant: Federal Marshal Ezekiel Drummond, aka Zeke. Having a ghost as a housemate is bad enough, but as Rory’s drawn into one of her uncle’s unsolved cases and faces a cold-blooded killer, she may need the marshal’s supernatural help to stay alive. The Old West mingles with modern mystery Excerpt Even as Rory was jumping up from the couch, she was taking aim at the man in the chair. In spite of her trembling hands, she managed to keep him firmly in her sights. How could the shadowy product of her imagination actually exist in the harsh glare of the lamp? The bogey man was never in the closet when you finally built up the courage…

REBECCA YORK | What Happened When the Monsters of My Youth Turned into Heroes
Author Guest / August 30, 2010

I love writing about sexy vampires, werewolves and dragon-shifters. But I wasn’t always so comfortable with the world of dark fantasy creatures. Not when I was a kid with a vivid imagination. At the age of four, I moved with my family to an apartment building with an elevator that broke down periodically, trapping tenants for hours. I was afraid to ride that elevator by myself, so I’d dash up or down five flights of stairs to our apartment. Unfortunately, by the age of six, I’d learned about vampires, and they’d be right behind me in the dark stairwell, their cold breath chilling the back of my neck. To my relief, we moved into a house when I was eight. Where the kid up the street had a gruesome collection of Tales from the Crypt comic books that gave me nightmares. Why didn’t I stop reading them? Probably only a psychoanalyst can give you the answer. I graduated from comic books to scary novels and short stories. Dracula was my next vampire. I read Bram Stoker’s classic when I was 15, and the count scared me spitless. I was so traumatized that I couldn’t sleep in the same room with…

Fresh Pick | A BRUSH WITH DEATH by Elizabeth J. Duncan
Fresh Pick / August 29, 2010

Penny Brannigan #2 July 2010 On Sale: July 20, 2010 Featuring: Penny Brannigan; Gareth Davies 258 pages ISBN: 0312622821 EAN: 9780312622824 Hardcover $24.95 Add to Wish List Mystery Cozy Buy at Amazon.com A Brush With Death by Elizabeth J. Duncan When Penny Brannigan inherits a charming, old-fashioned cottage in the North Wales town of Llanelen, she soon realizes she has come into more than what real estate agents like to describe as a desirable period property: She’s also acquired memories, mystery, and an unsolved, decades-old crime. As Penny sorts through the belongings of her benefactor, a deceased teacher, she comes upon a packet of letters from a promising young Liverpool artist, A. Jones, who was killed in an accident in 1970. An artist herself, Penny sets out to discover who killed this painter, and is helped by a small group of townsfolk, including her business partner, Victoria Hopkirk. While at a retrospective art exhibition in Liverpool, Penny recognizes what she believes to be a watercolor painted by Jones. But it is attributed to another artist, leading her to suspect that art theft was at the heart of the case, and that Jones’s death was no accident. In her eagerly awaited…

Fresh Pick | HIS AT NIGHT by Sherry Thomas
Fresh Pick / August 28, 2010

June 2010 On Sale: May 25, 2010 Featuring: Lord Vere; Elissande Edgerton 432 pages ISBN: 0553592440 EAN: 9780553592443 Mass Market Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com Fresh Fiction Readers favorite Summer read! His At Night by Sherry Thomas Love is hottest in the darkness before dawn. Elissande Edgerton is a desperate woman, a virtual prisoner in the home of her tyrannical uncle. Only through marriage can she claim the freedom she craves. But how to catch the perfect man? Lord Vere is used to baiting irresistible traps. As a secret agent for the government, he’s tracked down some of the most devious criminals in London, all the while maintaining his cover as one of Society’s most harmless—and idiotic—bachelors. But nothing can prepare him for the scandal of being ensnared by Elissande. Forced into a marriage of convenience, Elissande and Vere are each about to discover that they’re not the only one with a hidden agenda. With seduction their only weapon—and a dark secret from the past endangering both their lives—can they learn to trust each other even as they surrender to a passion that won’t be denied? A who plays an idiot will have to…

15 HOT Contests…Enter before They’re Over
Saturdays with Sara / August 28, 2010

Believe it or not summer is almost over and that means last chance for summer VACATIONS! Okay, maybe just a mini vacation or even a short weekend away from the heat but it’s the state of mind that’s important here, so let Fresh Fiction authors and friends help you! We’ve got the best contests with all kinds of goodies to enable even the worst procrastinators to get ready to end the summer in style! Most of these contests end on August 30th so don’t delay and enter today! Nonstop Maximum Momentum with the Colby Agency Heat up, then cool off with Karen Ranney Win an autographed copy of FORGET ME NOT from Vicki Hinze. Ken Shoulda Been A Viking Cool off this August with BRIGHTON BLING AND A BABY CONTEST from Charlene Sands! Win a copy of Marilyn Brant’s ACCORDING TO JANE and some specialty JANE AUSTEN notecards! Experience Bollywood this Summer Linda Conrad wants you ready for the Dog Days of August by becoming a covert agent! Come Down the Shore and celebrate the upcoming release of STRONGER THAN SIN! Beat the Heat with THE QUICK AND THE THREAD Beat the Heat with Sharon Ashwood’s August Contest Celebrate the…

Fresh Pick | DANGEROUS DESIRES by Dee Davis
Fresh Pick / August 27, 2010

A-Tac #2 July 2010 On Sale: July 1, 2010 Featuring: Madeline Reynard; Drake Flynn 384 pages ISBN: 0446542040 EAN: 9780446542043 Mass Market Paperback $6.99 Add to Wish List Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Fresh Fiction Readers favorite Summer read! Dangerous Desires by Dee Davis Love is a lethal game. A-Tac is an elite CIA unit masquerading as faculty at an Ivy League college. Brilliant, badass, and seemingly bulletproof, the members of A-Tac are assigned to the riskiest missions and the most elusive targets. When the CIA learns that Madeline Reynard, the mistress of international crime-lord Miguel Ramón, can provide the location of a newly developed bio-chemical weapon, they contact A-Tac. And A-Tac survivalist Drake Flynn is given the responsibility of extracting Madeline from Ramón’s compound, finding the weapon, and transporting them both to a secure location. A woman with nothing to lose, Madeline is willing to risk everything to escape her life with Ramón – even a dangerous trek through the jungle with a man who makes no secret of his disdain. Madeline had an impoverished and dangerous childhood, and she makes no apologies for the life she’s led, but despite mutual animosity, she cannot deny her attraction to Drake….

Fresh Pick | DANGEROUS DESIRES by Dee Davis
Guests / August 27, 2010

A-Tac #2 July 2010 On Sale: July 1, 2010 Featuring: Madeline Reynard; Drake Flynn 384 pages ISBN: 0446542040 EAN: 9780446542043 Mass Market Paperback $6.99 Add to Wish List Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Fresh Fiction Readers favorite Summer read! Dangerous Desires by Dee Davis Love is a lethal game. A-Tac is an elite CIA unit masquerading as faculty at an Ivy League college. Brilliant, badass, and seemingly bulletproof, the members of A-Tac are assigned to the riskiest missions and the most elusive targets. When the CIA learns that Madeline Reynard, the mistress of international crime-lord Miguel Ramón, can provide the location of a newly developed bio-chemical weapon, they contact A-Tac. And A-Tac survivalist Drake Flynn is given the responsibility of extracting Madeline from Ramón’s compound, finding the weapon, and transporting them both to a secure location. A woman with nothing to lose, Madeline is willing to risk everything to escape her life with Ramón – even a dangerous trek through the jungle with a man who makes no secret of his disdain. Madeline had an impoverished and dangerous childhood, and she makes no apologies for the life she’s led, but despite mutual animosity, she cannot deny her attraction to Drake….

Alexis Morgan | It’s All About Theme
Author Guest / August 27, 2010

Twenty plus years ago, when I first started out to write a book, I managed to eke out about twenty-five pages before the story came to a screeching halt—as in I was screeching because I couldn’t make it go any farther. After some thought, I decided I’d started in the wrong point in the action. I tossed the original version in the corner and started over. Can you guess what happened? Yep, twenty-five pages later I once again found myself mired in the muck and going nowhere fast. Where had I gone wrong? I had internal conflict. I had external conflict. I had a hot undercover copy for a hero, and a heroine who had a lot of spunk despite finding herself being held captive by the bad guys. At the time, I couldn’t figure it out. And not only had I gone wrong, but I also gave up. I’d tried to write a book. Maybe it just wasn’t in the cards for me. But then, a few months later, another story idea started unfolding in the back of my mind. Hmmm. It was a western—sort of. You see there were these alien warriors who’d been drawn to the U.S….