Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | THE MAGE IN BLACK by Jaye Wells
Fresh Pick / October 31, 2011

Sabina Kane #2 April 2010 On Sale: April 1, 2010 Featuring: Sabina Kane 352 pages ISBN: 031603780X EAN: 9780316037808 Mass Market Paperback $7.99  Add to Wish List Fantasy Urban Buy at Amazon.com Halloween flavor The Mage In Black by Jaye Wells Sabina Kane doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to family. After all, her own grandmother, the leader of the vampire race, just tried to kill her. When she arrives in New York to meet the mage side of her family, the reunion takes the fun out of dysfunctional. On top of that, the Hekate Council wants to use her as a pawn in the brewing war against the vampires. Her mission will take her into the bowels of New York’s Black Light district, entangles her in mage politics, and challenges her beliefs about the race she was raised to distrust. And Sabina thought vampires were bloodthirsty. Previous Picks

Rayka Mennen | Meet Jake from ENCHANTED DESTINY
Author Guest / October 31, 2011

Hi everyone, This is Rayka Mennen, and I’m here to talk to you about my new book–ENCHANTED DESTINY from Entangled Publishing. I’m so excited about the great reviews this books is getting. As I make the rounds of blogs and websites, I’ve talked a lot about this book. But it occurred to me that I haven’t done it from the perspective of Jake and Kat – my primary characters. So I contacted Jake Taggert and asked if he would do a quick interview with me. Here’s how it went: RM: Jake, thanks for taking my call. Sounds like you’re pretty busy this week. JT: Sure. Yeah, got another contract with the city. RM: Hey, that’s great news. You’ve gotten quite a few from the City of Chicago recently. Do you think they feel guilty about your almost accident? JT: Could be. I mean I could have gotten killed because some moron didn’t know how to secure storm pipes in a truck. RM <shuddering>: I know, but hey, it all worked out. JT: And thanks for that, Rayka. It was worth it since I met Kat. RM: Anytime. So, I thought our readers might like hear about your journey getting together…

Leanne Banks Celebrates A MAVERICK FOR CHRISTMAS * Drawing for Amazon Gift Certificate
Author Guest / October 30, 2011

I’m so excited to be part of the fabulous Montana Mavericks series.  I love that it’s set in a small town in Montana and the way everyone knows a little bit about everyone.  Not everything, but a little bit.   The heroine in the book, Abigal Cates, is part of a big family.  She has several older sisters and one younger brother.  One of her sisters, Laila is a beauty queen and actually dated Cade Pritchett, the man that Abigal has secretly been in love with for ages. Abigal makes some pretty bold moves and finally gets Cade to look at her as more than everyone’s favorite little sister.  But he realizes he’s not right for Abigal and breaks off their relationship.  This is devastating for poor Abigal and she instinctively turns to her sister Laila, who offers her a place to sleep for the night, a cup of tea with honey and booze, and a lot of sympathy and encouragement. This started me thinking.  Are there people in your life that you stepped up and encouraged when they were down?  How did you do it?  Flip side, are there people in your life that encouraged you when you were down?…

Inara Scott | The Alpha Male, or is Brad Pitt an Alpha or not?
Author Guest / October 30, 2011

My friend and writing partner Susan Sey and I have often discussed the alpha hero. What makes him hot. How to keep him from becoming a jerk. How both of our husbands are alphas, even though they are completely different men. We are romance writers and the sort of people who like to analyze things, so naturally, we can spend a lot of time on this subject. But our conversation often comes down to this: if we’re writing an alpha male, what is his essential characteristic? How do we know when we’ve gotten him right? First, let me debunk a myth: an alpha male doesn’t have to be handsome to be sexy. We have all sorts of great examples of sexy alpha males who aren’t pretty. Take Hugh Laurie — not the prettiest man alive, but I bet you wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crackers. 🙂 His looks are almost immaterial; there’s something about him that makes him sexy, regardless of the breadth of his shoulders or square cut of his jaw. So what is that thing that the sexy alpha hero has got to have? Absolute, unmitigated, and totally-deserved confidence. Alpha men know they are good…

Spotlight on Kat Martin
Author Spotlight / October 28, 2011

Connect with Kat: Visit Kat Martin Become a Facebook Fan of Kat Martin Join Kat’s Mailing List Enter Contest Some women find trouble wherever they go. And some men are their only protection against it. THE STORY (read excerpt) Redheads like Maggie O’Connell are nothing but trouble. But Trace Rawlins, a former army-ranger-turned-private-investigator, takes the case anyway. After all, he knows how to deal with women. Trace can sense that something’s wrong—Maggie isn’t telling him everything. If these menacing calls and messages are real, why won’t the police help her? And if they aren’t real, what is she hiding? As Trace digs deeper to find the source of Maggie’s threats, he discovers a secret that no one was meant to uncover. And the only puzzle left to be solved is whether the danger comes from an unknown stalker…or from the woman he’s trying his hardest not to fall for. Tell us a little about AGAINST THE STORM what inspired you to write the book? Trace Rawlins is an ex-Army Ranger, a friend of Dev Raines who appeared in Against the Law. Trace knows redheads are nothing but trouble but when fiery, red-haired photographer Maggie O’Connell comes to him for help…

Ashley March | Romancing the Baby
Author Guest / October 28, 2011

Thanks so much to Fresh Fiction for hosting me today as I continue the celebration of my latest release, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS! I have a confession to make: I never thought I was going to finish this book. You see, when I was first approved to write the story, I was a little over 5 months pregnant. The original due date (for the book) was when I would have been 8 months pregnant. Some women are happy-go-lucky everything-is-swell when pregnant. I. Am. Not. At 28 weeks, I went into the hospital with early contractions. Fortunately, they didn’t go anywhere. This continued off and on until I was about 34 weeks, with several hospital visits. When I’m pregnant, my joints ache. I am…well, let’s just say…unwieldy. =) It’s hard to get up. It’s hard to sit down. In fact, I could hardly bear to write because all I wanted to do–and I mean ALL I wanted to do was to lie in bed. Sitting at a desk (even if it was a very comfortable chair) was excruciating on my body and exhausting for my body. Truly, it was pathetic. We won’t even start in with the blood pressure issues. And–here you’re…

Fresh Pick | MUST LOVE LYCANS by Michele Bardsley
Fresh Pick / October 27, 2011

September 2011 On Sale: September 6, 2011 Featuring: Kelsey Morningstone; Damien 320 pages ISBN: 0451234502 EAN: 9780451234506 Paperback $7.99  Add to Wish List Paranormal – Supernatural, Paranormal Romance Buy at Amazon.com More best of Readers & ‘ritas authors Must Love Lycans by Michele Bardsley A Broken Heart Since the moment Damien showed up-gloriously naked-Kelsey Morningstone has been having a hard time keeping her relationship with the clinic’s latest amnesiac patient strictly professional. Even with her empathy abilities Kelsey’s not sure she can get past Damien’s anger to find the cause of his delusions. After all, falling for a patient is bad enough, but falling for a patient who thinks he’s a werewolf is a whole other kind of crazy… Can an amnesiac mental patient convince his therapist he’s not crazy and really is a werewolf? Previous Picks

Gabrielle Kimm | Glimpse into a Writer’s World
Author Guest / October 27, 2011

Thank you so much for inviting me onto your blog! I thought I’d give you a glimpse of my typical writing day, here in my Sussex village. I always write at my computer, which sits on a chaotically untidy desk, in what was once a small spare bedroom. In this room is also a filing cabinet on which stands my printer, a dear little occasional table and a shabby old antique chair, upholstered in old-rose velvet. There are piles of paper, and books everywhere. The window looks out over my quiet village street, which is great, because I’m very nosy, and like to keep an eye on what the neighbours are doing. This room is peaceful, which I find absolutely essential to getting any writing done at all. I simply can’t work in noise. (I’m struggling at the moment because one neighbour has just acquired a very vocal rooster, and it’s driving me bonkers!) I have a dog — a dear old Lakeland Terrier – who spends much of each day curled up like a cushion at my feet. He’s very calm and quiet, and a good companion for a writer — it’s also very good for me to have…

Pamela Palmer | Where Do You Come Up With This Stuff?
Author Guest / October 26, 2011

All fiction writers have imaginations, big imaginations, or we’d never come up with the stories we do. We’re the ones walking around with the voices in our heads. But these big imaginations can take different forms. I think all novelists love the question ‘what if?’ But not every writer looks at a plane in the sky and wonders, “What if it exploded?” or “What if it just disappeared or morphed into an alien spacecraft?” I believe that those of us who write speculative fiction (paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy) tend to have brains that serve up the strangest what-if questions. What if that dude in front of me in the check-out line were to suddenly shift into a hawk and fly through the window of the store? Or to sprout claws and fangs and start growling as if he wanted to tear someone apart? What if that teenaged girl was really an immortal over a hundred years old? What if shape-shifters and demons and mages fought battles for dominance of the earth all around us as we remained happily clueless? These are the types of questions that came to me at one point or another in the creation of my Feral Warriors shape-shifter series,…

Fresh Pick | AFTERMATH by Ann Aguirre
Author Guest , Fresh Pick / October 26, 2011

Sirantha Jax #5 September 2011 On Sale: August 30, 2011 Featuring: Sirantha Jax ISBN: 044102078X EAN: 9780441020782 Paperback $7.99  Add to Wish List Science Fiction Buy at Amazon.com Getting ready for Readers & ‘ritas 2011 Aftermath by Ann Aguirre DEAD HEROES GET MONUMENTS. LIVE ONES GET TRIALS. Sirantha Jax has the right genes—ones that enable her to “jump” faster-than-light ships through grimspace. But it’s also in her genetic makeup to go it alone. It’s a character trait that has gotten her into—and out of—hot water time and time again, but now she’s caused one of the most horrific events in military history… During the war against murderous, flesh-eating aliens, Sirantha went AWOL and shifted grimspace beacons to keep the enemy from invading humanity’s homeworld. The cost of her actions: the destruction of modern interstellar travel—and the lives of six hundred Conglomerate soldiers. Accused of dereliction of duty, desertion, mass murder, and high treason, Sirantha is on trial for her life. And only time will tell if she’s one of the Conglomerate’s greatest heroes—or most infamous criminals… Previous Picks