Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | PLAYING FOR KEEPS by LuAnn McLane
Fresh Pick / October 13, 2011

Cricket Creek #1 March 2011 On Sale: March 1, 2011 Featuring: Noah Falcon; Olivia Lawson 304 pages ISBN: 0451232763 EAN: 9780451232762 Kindle: B004H4XDAY Mass Market Paperback $6.99  Add to Wish List Romance Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com Small town, baseball and love… Playing For Keeps by LuAnn McLane Olivia Lawson is peeved when ex-ace pitcher turned soap opera star Noah Falcon roars back into Cricket Creek, Kentucky, after all these years, to take the lead opposite her in the community theater\’s summer play. Noah\’s beloved hometown is having major financial woes and needs his status to turn this small-town play into a big-time hit. But Noah has bigger plans for this small town. And this time he\’s determined to show Olivia he\’s not just playing around-he\’s playing for keeps. You’ll be cheering for these characters just like Cricket Creek cheers for its baseball team. Excerpt CHAPTER ONE Sweet Southern Comfort “Welcome to Cricket Creek, Kentucky, birthplace of Noah Falcon,” Noah read as he drove his red Corvette convertible past the city limits sign. He had won several awards as a major league relief pitcher but this little bit of hometown pride never failed to bring a smile to his face. Of…

L.J. McDonald | The Best Villains Turn Into Heroes
Author Guest / October 13, 2011

In writing fantasy, you always need to have a villain. If there isn’t one, who does the hero or heroine have to struggle against? If they don’t have anything to make their life interesting, then nothing happens and the reader has no investment in the characters or what happens to them. You can have just about anything as a foil to your heroes; a corrupt government or religious system, a spreading fungus that consumes all it infects, a stampeding herd of polka-dotted dragons. Whatever works. However, the traditional enemy for the fantasy hero has always been the good old villain. The bad guy. Some villains are just utter right bastards. I read one book recently that had a villain in that I loathed. He was evil, he was sadistic, he was vindictive. I’ve rarely written anyone that blatantly nasty.  I wanted to see that guy go down so badly that I couldn’t stop reading the book until I was finished (check out THE KINSHIELD LEGACY by K.C. May). I hated him, but he still had depth to his character. Even villains need more than their villainy to give them shape. I find that the best villains are as deeply complex…