February 2011 On Sale: February 8, 2011 Featuring: Quigley Johnson; Ann; Zander 256 pages ISBN: 1606841416 EAN: 9781606841419 Paperback $8.99 Add to Wish List Young Adult Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com What’s a girl gotta do for the perfect dress? Will Work For Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris Quigley Johnson has, reluctantly, given up the rest of her last year of high school to take part in her best friend Ann’s Betterment Plan, which will turn them into the best- dressed, most sought-after, most admired girls at their senior formal. Because – hey – who doesn’t want the perfect prom, complete with a dream dress and a devastatingly handsome date? But the prom costs money – lots of money – and even though the girls could easily have Ann’s mom design their dresses (she’s only Victoria Parisi, one of the most famous designers in the world), Ann insists that they pay their own way. And that’s how Quigley gets stuck making artistic topping masterpieces on frozen pizzas canvases, before becoming a live model for Ms. Parisi’s fashion design class, where she meets Zander. He’s cute, and cool, and funny, with a killer design sensibility (even if he can’t sketch). But is…

Since I wrote a mystery novel about a reality show, many people assume that I am a diehard reality show fan. I watch them now and then, but my favorite shows are actually sitcoms. Once in awhile, my husband and I catch a rerun of Wife Swap and find it amusing. There was one episode featuring a mom entrepreneur who was obsessed with preaching about health, vision boards and positive thinking. My husband said, “Wow, she’s you on steroids,” and I was particularly intrigued by that episode. We have also watched Undercover Boss a couple of times. Despite finding the occasional reality show interesting, I don’t watch them regularly, basically because we don’t have enough room on our TiVo. So why did I write SINK OR SWIM, which features a personal trainer who appears on a reality show? Frankly, I find our culture’s fascinating with reality shows an interesting phenomenon and the idea for the book popped into my mind. I wanted to explore what could happen when a normal person becomes thrust into the limelight, and why someone might try out for a reality show in the first place. In the book, ambitious personal trainer Cassidy Novak has always…

Hello, everyone! I’m happy to be here today to talk to you about my new release, A LOT LIKE LOVE. Last week I found out that the book has gone into its second printing after only two weeks (whoo-hoo!)—and I’m thrilled the book is connecting so well with readers. For those of you who’d like to know more about A LOT LIKE LOVE, haven’t read any of my books, or are wondering, “Who is this Julie James person, anyway?”, here’s the scoop: A LOT LIKE LOVE is about a wealthy wine store owner who agrees to pose as the girlfriend of an undercover FBI agent—as part of a sting operation—in exchange for her twin brother’s release from prison. There were two things I knew when beginning to outline the book.  First, that the heroine would not be a lawyer (unlike the heroines in my first three books).  I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I could write something different.  Second, I knew the book would somehow involve wine. The wine idea began fermenting in my mind (yes, pun intended) after my husband and I took a trip to Napa Valley.  Wine and romance seemed, to me, like such…

October 2010 On Sale: September 28, 2010 Featuring: Jenny Cooper; Jane Austen; Thomas Williams 352 pages ISBN: 0385739400 EAN: 9780385739405 Trade Size $17.99  Add to Wish List Jane Austen, Young Adult Buy at Amazon.com All dressed up for the ball I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend by Cora Harrison A Secret Diary When shy Jenny Cooper goes to stay with her cousin Jane Austen, she knows nothing of the world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance that Jane inhabits. At fifteen, Jane is already a sharp observer of the customs of courtship. So when Jenny falls utterly in love with Captain Thomas Williams, who better than Jane to help her win the heart of this dashing man? But is that even possible? After all, Jenny’s been harboring a most desperate secret. Should it become known, it would bring scandal not only to her, but also to the wonderful Austen family. What’s a poor orphan girl to do? In this delicious dance between truth and fiction, Cora Harrison has crafted Jenny’s secret diary by reading everything Jane Austen wrote as a child and an adult, and by researching biographies, critical studies, and family letters. Jenny’s diary makes the past…

Since I’m here at Fresh Fiction, I’d like to talk about fresh heroines. These sorts of female characters are out of the ordinary, unconventional, interesting, spirited, bold, strong, and do things you might not expect. Alana, the heroine of my new Carina Press release, LAIRD OF DARKNESS is just this sort of heroine. She’s also entertaining. The story takes place in late medieval times in a Scotland filled with magic and mythical creatures. But this young noblewoman isn’t a virgin as young ladies of the time were expected to be. She’s not a prostitute, either. She’s simply a girl who had a tryst with a handsome stable lad of her own choosing when they were both teens. Why would I break with convention and create a sexually experienced lady? I wanted Alana to be a bit different from the heroines you normally find in historical romance. I wanted her to have an interesting past and memories she could draw upon when she is tempted by the hot dark Highlander, Duncan, who takes her hostage. It turns out she isn’t as afraid of him as he’s hoping she’ll be. In fact, she sees through his harsh, dark façade to the vulnerability…

January 2011 On Sale: January 1, 2011 Featuring: Penny Bloom 304 pages ISBN: 0545140323 EAN: 9780545140324 Paperback (reprint) $8.99  Add to Wish List Young Adult Buy at Amazon.com Even the president of The Lonely Hearts Club needs a prom date The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg I, Penny Lane Bloom, do solemnly swear to never date another boy for as long as I shall live. All right, maybe I’ll reconsider it in ten years or so when I’m no longer living in Parkview, Illinois, or attending McKinley High School, but for now I’m done with guys. They’re all lying, cheating scum of the earth.Yes, every last one of them. Pure evil. Sure, there are some that seem nice, but the second they get what they want, they’ll dump you and move onto their next target. So I’m done. No more dating. The end. Love is all you need…or is it? Penny is sick of boys and sick of dating, so she vows: No more. She’s had one too many bad dates, and has been hurt by one too many bad boys. It’s a personal choice…and soon everybody wants to know about it. It seems that Penny’s not the only…

Dear Readers, I’m giving birth to a new baby today.  Its name is HUMMINGBIRD LAKE it is the second book of my new Eternity Springs series.  This baby was conceived around fire pit with some writer friends over two years ago, and I carried it for six long months.  Now, with older sibling  ANGEL’S REST a month old, it’s time for the new offspring to join the family. Right now I’m in the transition stage of labor.  The hard stage.  The one that makes a girl want to glare at her keyboard and declare “I’m never touching you again!” That’s because now it’s time for me to talk about the book. I’m supposed to engage readers’ interest so they will go out and buy it.  The problem is that I find this part of the job more painful than watching my beloved Texas Aggies lose in the first round of this year’s March Madness.  They tell us to come up with a one sentence sales pitch, a high concept, an elevator sales pitch.  Yeah, right.  I spent 400 manuscript pages telling this story, and I’m supposed to condense it down to a sentence?  Aargh! Sage watched a tall man dressed…

EVERY CHILD HAS A GIFT and A PASSION The great thing about being a kid is that you have to learn when to NOT go for something, because we come out of the womb ready to jump at any chance life throws out.   Like every child, I was born with a gift, but I was fortunate to also have a passion for using that gift and found encouragement along the way in the moments that counted. The only downside?  My gift was the ability to draw and paint photo-realistic portraits of anything I saw.  Why was that a downside?  Because art was never considered a viable way to make a living when I was growing up.  If you’ve read any articles about my past, you know that I lost my mom when I was 17 and that I moved out on my own right after that. What you may not know is that I give a lot of the credit for my art and writing success to my mom. My mom, like many moms, spent hours helping her five children with homework and class projects, but she and my father differed on one point.  My mom appreciated my gift of…

August 2010 On Sale: July 27, 2010 Featuring: AJ Ashe 288 pages ISBN: 0061430994 EAN: 9780061430992 Hardcover $8.99  Add to Wish List Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Save the world and plan the prom! Love Sucks! by Melissa Francis AJ Ashe may have gotten rid of her vampire stalker and her evil ex-teacher, but things are hardly back to normal. For one thing, she still has to maintain a strict look-but-don’t-touch policy with Ryan, her hot ex-boyfriend-turned-stepbrother. For another, she has to learn to control her vampire superpowers—which means more than a few dates with Lex, mind-reading professional vampire trainer and too-sexy-for-his-own-good bad boy. And as if that’s not enough, she happens to be the key to her father’s plans to take over the world . . . and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. All this and she’s still got to plan the prom. Being a teenager is tough, but being a teenage vampire just flat out sucks! Teen angst complicated with paranormal abilities provides lots of surprises and tension. Previous Picks

Without a doubt it was the taming of Quinton Cameron. Oops…sorry, had to duck and run there because that big, highland earl didn’t take too kindly to me announcing that he’d been tamed. Now Deirdre found it rather amusing. The curse of being a writer is that your characters are always with you and not always at the end of their story. HIGHLAND HEAT was a fun book to write. But it was also stressful. Both Deidre and Quinton were hard nuts to crack. They’d both loved and lost, through bitter betrayal. The sort which leaves a painful scar across the heart. More importantly, neither wanted to trust their tender affections to another again. Those are points I often find myself pondering when I write a historical—trust and affection. These people lived vastly different lives than we do today. Marriage was a business first. A matter for level headed consideration and not because women were chattel. That was certainly part of it, but think about it for a moment… You have a daughter and the average life span is less than fifty. There are few good employment professions for women so that leaves you knowing you will not be around…