Legend of St. Dwynwen #1  November 2011 On Sale: October 25, 2011 Featuring: Thea Bainbridge; Gabriel Morecombe 384 pages ISBN: 1451639503 EAN: 9781451639506 Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Holiday, Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com A historical series begins…with passion at the holidays A Winter Scandal by Candace Camp The perfect season for forbidden passion New York Times bestselling author Candace Camp weaves a heartwarming tale, first in a thrilling new series, of Christmastime love, discovery, and scandal. . . . When plain and proper Thea Bainbridge stumbles upon a baby in the manger of her church’s nativity, she is understandably shocked. Discovering a brooch bearing the insignia of Gabriel, Lord Morecombe, hidden among the child’s clothing, she is certain the dissolute rake is to blame. Incensed, Thea sets out to reproach the arrogant lord—only to find herself utterly swept away. Gabriel is intrigued by the vivacity in Thea’s flashing gray eyes when she accuses him of fathering the orphan, even as he adamantly maintains his innocence. The brooch is one he remembers all too well, however, and Gabriel is determined to find the mother of the missing child. As the mystery around the baby deepens, Gabriel is continually thrown…

This blog was the first thing I had to do today. The very first thing, well right after coffee. Actually, that’s not true. Before I even get coffee, before I get out of bed, I turn on my iPad and check my email. I have a desperate need to make sure that nothing important has come in between the hours of midnight and 7 am…er, 7:59 am. But my alarm goes off at 7. Anyway, without even moving off my pillow, I turn on the iPad, check my email, delete the junk (I get a lot of junk), and deal with anything vitally important. It’s rare, but it does happen. Usually one of my in-college daughters desperately needs me to proof one of their papers. But that didn’t happen today, thank God, and so I then immediately got up, got my coffee, and wrote this blog. Hahahahahaha! Okay, seriously, who actually believed that? No, rather than get out of bed, I go on-line shopping. Shopping is way better than working. Or even getting out of bed! Nothing of interest today 🙁 so then I played an ap game called Sherlock, a Game of Logic. I’m not that logical a person,…

Mrs. Jeffries November 2011 On Sale: November 1, 2011 Featuring: Inspector Witherspoon; Mrs. Jeffries 272 pages ISBN: 0425243575 EAN: 9780425243572 Kindle: B0052RHDS8 Hardcover $23.95  Add to Wish List Mystery Cozy, Holiday Buy at Amazon.com A Victorian mystery for the holiday Mrs. Jeffries And The Mistletoe Mix-Up by Emily Brightwell Ring in the season with another Mrs. Jeffries tale of holiday homicide. Under a bundle of mistletoe, art collector Daniel McCourt lies with his throat slit, a bloody sword next to his body. Inspector Witherspoon is determined to solve the case-preferably before the eggnog is ladled out on Christmas Eve-but of course he will require assistance from the always sharp-witted housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, who has a few of her own theories on why McCourt had to die by the sword. Previous Picks

I sat down to write an article, and I thought…what’s more fun, a serious article about writing or an acrostic that can tell the story all on its own? Well, we’re going for the (extended) acrostic. What does every author strive to do? Hook the readers! And what does it take to hook the readers? Here’s your answer: Always remembering that you write to excite the reader Gladly giving up your “me time” for writing time Read as much as you write, to keep your authoring skills honed Evaluating every word that hits the published page for its merit Actively seeking out new plots and subplots so your readers don’t get bored Talking with readers (hopefully often), to keep abreast of what they want in a story Pushing your creativity beyond the limits as you see them Leaving no plot unturned Opening new worlds for your readers, pushing them past their comfort levels Treating each new manuscript as if it is not worthy of your readers’ eyes until it is refined, polished, and perfect   * * * Melissa Foster is the award-winning author of three International bestselling novels, MEGAN’S WAY, CHASING AMANDA, and COME BACK TO ME. She has…

In this evolving and competitive industry, writers must adapt quickly, as well as continuously search for new ways to reach new readers. So now that I’m releasing LIARS, CHEATERS & THIEVES, a sixth novel featuring Detective Jackson, I’ve decided to re-brand my series. By that I mean, I now list SECRETS TO DIE FOR as the primary book, so that it’s the first title in my list of novels. Why this radical change? The first book on my Jackson list used to be THE SEX CLUB, a title I’ve come to believe turns away as many readers as it draws in. The story has served me well, will always be one of my favorites, and I’ll continue to sell it. When I only had a few books on the market, it was an important part of my work. The Sex Club Detective Jackson #1 October 2007 Secrets To Die For Detective Jackson #2 October 2009 Thrilled to Death Detective Jackson #3 September 2010 Passions Of The Dead Detective Jackson #4 January 2011 Dying For Justice Detective Jackson #5 May 2011 LIARS, CHEATERS & THIEVES Detective Jackson #6 December 2011 But now that I’m about to launch my tenth book, and…

November 2011 On Sale: October 25, 2011 208 pages ISBN: 0312594496 EAN: 9780312594497 Hardcover $14.99  Add to Wish List Women’s Fiction Contemporary, Holiday Buy at Amazon.com The Nine Lives Of Christmas by Sheila Roberts Two people are about to discover that when it comes to finding love, sometimes Christmas magic isn’t enough…sometimes it takes a pesky orange cat named Ambrose. When a guy is in trouble, he starts making deals with his Creator…and Ambrose the cat is no exception. In danger of losing his ninth and final life, Ambrose makes a desperate plea to the universe. He’ll do anything—anything!—if he can just survive and enjoy a nice long, final life.His prayer is answered when a stranger comes along and saves him—and now it looks like he has to hold up his end of the bargain. The stranger turns out to be a firefighter named Zach, who’s in need of some serious romantic help. If Ambrose can just bring Zach together with Merilee,the nice lady who works at Pet Palace, it’s bound to earn him a healthy ninth life. Unfortunately for Ambrose, his mission is a lot harder than he ever thought. Merriliee is way too shy to make the first…

Thank you Fresh Fiction for hosting me today! I’m so excited to be here with you, celebrating the release of my Carina novella, LADY SEDUCTRESS’S BALL—an erotic Regency romance. But let’s talk cookies first… This weekend we went to a cookie exchange party… Oh, boy! Let me just first start by saying I will be spending two hours at the gym this morning. This is the second cookie party I’ve been to, (went to one last year too), and it was a blast!  You spend a few days prior to the event cooking up dozens of delicious confections. I of course can never figure out which cookies to make, so I made five different types. In the end I chose to only bring three different types—and I was supposed to bring only one. You bring four dozen of your cookies and put them on display for everyone to see—all while ogling the many other delicious confections. You snack on cookies, share camaraderie with friends, then you take you tin back up to the table and collect some cookies to come home. (Which my family and I each took one bite of every cookie in our tin on the drive home—reason…

A Joe Grey Mystery #17  December 2011 On Sale: November 22, 2011 Featuring: Debbie Kraft; Joe Grey 352 pages ISBN: 0061806927 EAN: 9780061806926 Kindle: B0053JOL5I Hardcover $19.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Pet Lovers, Mystery Cozy, Holiday Buy at Amazon.com A holiday mystery Cat Telling Tales by Shirley Rousseau Murphy Even the bright seaside village of Molena Point has been hit hard by the economic downturn, bringing a rash of foreclosures in which many residents are abandoning their family pets. While feline P. I. Joe Grey’s human friends join together to care for the starving cats, a fire leaves a twelve-year-old boy homeless. The body of his alcoholic guardian is discovered in the smoldering ruins, causing Joe to wonder if escape was really impossible for the elderly woman or if something more sinister occurred. Meanwhile, Debbie Kraft descends uninvited on the Damens’ home with her two children, claiming that her ex-husband has left her with no money and nowhere else to go. But when Joe learns that the victim of the fire was Debbie’s estranged mother and that Debbie is not broke at all but carrying plenty of cash, his fur is on end with suspicion. As Debbie’s abandoned tomcat…

I hate having my picture taken, something I blame equally on my mother and her closest friend, mother of my childhood buddies Bill and Stephen. Both moms had old Brownie box cameras, and they were forever posing us in front of something—a bush, a fence, someone’s car—reminding us, “Say cheese,” and then spending the next several minutes squeezing us closer together and wiping dirt from our faces with mommy spit, while our smiles hardened into something resembling the rictus of a death mask. Then when the photos were developed, someone—usually me—was missing the top of his or her head. See what I mean? (You’ll notice the boys are nowhere to be seen, but I do have all my head in this one.) Over the years I’ve had some good photos taken and some not so good ones, like the time I tried to duplicate the crisp, white-shirted look of one of my favorite writers, Tess Gerritsen. With my fair skin I ended up looking more like Robert Pattinson in the Twilight movies. Even if you squinted, I didn’t look like Tess. Recently, I heard from the very nice publicist who works for one of my equally nice publishers. Did I…

December 2011 On Sale: November 29, 2011 Featuring: Rory Wallace; Shannon Raleigh 256 pages ISBN: 0373177690 EAN: 9780373177691 Kindle: B005WJ8I8A Paperback $4.99  Add to Wish List Romance Series, Holiday Buy at Amazon.com A sweet romance for the holidays Kisses On Her Christmas List by Susan Meier Shannon’s Christmas Wish List 1. A gorgeous billionaire to buy her store…enter Rory Wallace—swoon! 2. The magic of Christmas…Rory and his little girl need to know that it still exists. 3. Willpower…because kissing Rory under the mistletoe would be a Very Bad Idea. Shannon Raleigh can’t believe that both Rory Wallace and his little girl dislike Christmas so much and she’s determined to make her favorite season as magical as possible! But working with handsome Rory every day proves challenging, because Shannon finds herself longing for Christmas kisses with the man she can never have…. Excerpt Shannon Raleigh turned to get a look at herself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom of her executive office suite and gaped in horror. The tall black boots and short red velvet dress she wore exposed most of her legs and the white fur-trimmed U at the bodice revealed a sizable strip of cleavage. “I can’t go…