Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Deborah Grace Staley | Pieces of Me
Author Guest / November 21, 2012

Patrick sighed. Blame it on the alcohol. “Have you never done anything that you regretted, Frannie?” he asked. “Something for which you didn’t deserve forgiveness, but wished for it anyway? Not to ease the guilt you feel, because trust me, the guilt is a demon that won’t leave me alone. The forgiveness is so you know that the person giving it has gotten past what you did.”  Frannie focused on the intensity in his eyes, giving what he’d said some thought. She almost wished she could say she had done something that needed forgiving. The sad truth was that because she’d been gravely ill and survived, she’d taken care to stay safe and do what was expected of her. Any time she’d ventured to do anything out of character or something that involved taking risks, she’d regretted it, including the one time she’d kissed a stranger in a bar. That was something she regretted—that and the fact she’d wasted the years since her illness playing it safe. In both instances, the only person she had to blame was herself. She didn’t want to be afraid to live her life, but fear had been her constant companion for many, many years….

Ophelia London | Picture Speak A Thousand Words
Author Guest / November 20, 2012

A picture speaks a thousand words. Never did this statement ring truer in my life than when my nine-year-old self was wandering around the house on a Sunday afternoon in early 1982. Because of the celebratory whooping, my wanderings drew me into the family room where my three older brothers and older sister were huddled around the TV. As I drew closer, I saw an image on the screen that froze me in place. At the tender age of nine, I suddenly understood the term “total hunk.” I was looking at a man in a red football uniform, shoulder pads and all, helmet off, being interviewed. He had blond hair (curling a bit around his ears from sweat), striking blue eyes and an almost blindingly-gleaming smile. “Who is that?” I asked my sister, pointing at the screen. “That,” she said, “is Joe Montana.” And so it began. Seeing the 49ers’ starting quarterback being interviews post their victory over the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI, started my love affair with quarterbacks. Of course I realize now that is rather cliché, but at nine years old, I only knew beauty. After Montana betrayed us all and went the Chiefs, I had little…

Spotlight on Jennifer Bernard
Author Spotlight / November 18, 2012

Jennifer Bernard offers a smokin’ hot read, all for a good cause Jennifer Bernard blazed onto the romance scene with back-to-back publications of the first two books in Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series earlier this year, with Publishers Weekly calling book one, THE FIREMAN WHO LOVED ME, “solid, sexy, and funny.” While readers wait for the next full-length story from the Bachelor Firemen, Bernard has a sizzling prequel for them with ONE FINE FIREMAN, an e-original novella from Avon Impulse on sale November 13, 2012 (e-ISBN 9780062257956; $1.99). Not only will readers get a story with lots of heat, they will also be contributing to a good cause with their purchase of ONE FINE FIREMAN. Bernard has pledged to contribute a portion of her earnings from every book sold for the lifetime of the book to the Firefighters Cancer Support Network, an organization she heard about while researching her novels. According to its website, the mission of the Firefighters Cancer Support Network “is to provide timely assistance to all fire service members and their families in the event of cancer diagnosis…[and to provide] awareness to fire service members and their families about the importance of cancer prevention and screening…

Roberta Gately | Inspiration
Author Guest / November 18, 2012

Inspiration – that elusive gem, that idea that transforms our thoughts and our ideas into the essential essence  of our stories. But, from what magical place does that indefinable pearl emerge? For me, as a nurse and humanitarian aid worker, I find inspiration everywhere. I stand in line at the bank and watch as a woman peers into a glass shelf, and seeing her own reflection, preens with undisguised admiration. I write furiously. I want to capture the set of her eyes, the slight grin as she realizes how intrigued she is by her own reflection.  On the crowded commute to work, I watch as harried drivers, sometimes wild-eyed,  thump their horns, and shout at other drivers.   Everywhere I look there is inspiration and, eager to record it all, I am never without a pen and paper. My aid work has taken me to a variety of places – from Africa to Afghanistan – and when I took my tentative first steps in the world beyond our own, I knew at once that everything there was inspirational, not just the people, but the rugged landscape, the steaming green tea, all of it sustenance for this writer’s soul. Afghanistan, like Africa…

Elizabeth Lynn Casey | A New Spin on the Hectic Holiday
Author Guest / November 18, 2012

In my brand new release, LET IT SEW, the holidays are fast approaching and the members of the Sweet Briar Ladies’ Society Sewing Circle have much to do to get ready. There are the usual things of course—baking cookies, making homemade stockings, and the like. But there’s also a few not so usual things that threaten to wreak havoc on their preparations. You know, things like a real live Grinch who has set her sights on Margaret Louise’s decades-long role as head of the town’s decorating committee… And a little boy whose fondest Christmas memories are being destroyed out of jealousy and meanness… Oh, and did I mention the dead body? The one Tori Sinclair unearths on the grounds of the library during a late night dig with Leona and Margaret Louise? The one with ties to the sewing circle’s very existence? Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry Christmas, huh? Well don’t despair. We are talking about the Sweet Briar Ladies’ Society Sewing Circle, aren’t we? These ladies, while equal parts gentle and ornery, know right from wrong. And standing by while the town’s Christmas traditions are turned inside out and backwards isn’t in their DNA. Nor is the idea of looking…

Michelle Marcos | The Absence of Beauty
Author Guest / November 18, 2012

Anyone who’s read my historical novels up to now knows that I don’t write about handsome dukes or gorgeous duchesses. I am not wealthy, or beautiful, or even well-mannered; consequently, I find it challenging to relate to characters like that. In fact, with the exception of one book, my heroines have been plump, poor, or plain. Those qualities I can relate to. Perhaps that’s why I loved the Broadway musical, The Phantom of the Opera. I felt so sorry for that poor man with his blighted face and unrequited love. I was angry and disappointed with Christine Daaé, who chose the handsome and rich Raoul de Chagny over the artistic and longsuffering Erik. OK, so he killed a few people. Nobody’s perfect. Even after viewing the play seven times, reading the book by Gaston Leroux, and watching the film starring Gerard Butler, I found myself wishing for a different ending. I kept hoping that Erik would finally find the love he sought. Needless to say, the tragic ending was always the same. But through the magic of storytelling, we’re now able to glance into a world of might-have-been. Long after Erik was abandoned by the beauteous Christine, UNMASKED begins to…

Kassy Tayler | The birth of a book ~ Comment to Win
Author Guest / November 17, 2012

A lot of authors are asked, where do you get your ideas? My answer is a lot of little things contribute and come together to make a story. But then again, sometimes the story surprises you. ASHES OF TWILIGHT certainly surprised me. The decision to write steampunk came about naturally. I write historicals as Cindy Holby and sci/fi as Colby Hodge so combining the two made a lot of sense when I was searching for a way to break back into the market place. The dome came from an old Star Trek episode that stayed with me all these years. “For The World is Hollow and I have Touched The Sky” is the name of the episode, and the line that haunted me. From this memory, came Wren, my heroine, and a vision of her lying on her back, staring up at a glass sky and wondering what was beyond it. But it wasn’t enough for Wren to be trapped in the dome; I took it a step further and made her part of a people who are trapped underground. She became a coal miner that provided fuel for the dome. This idea came from my history. Both of my…

CH Admirand, From Pleasure, TX to Apple Grove, OH…why the leap?
Author Guest / November 16, 2012

I’m a huge fan of cowboys and a broad-shouldered man with calluses on his hands…that being said, why am I making the leap from Pleasure, Texas and those gorgeous cowboys (my series, The Secret Life of Cowboys finished up this past summer: TYLER, DYLAN and JESSE)? It’s simple, my editor asked if I’d be interested in writing a small town series for Sourcebooks. Why not take a change to spread my wings and test the waters that has an element that I grew up with: Small Town. The interesting thing about small towns is that one can grow up in an isolated neighborhood that seems like a town all by itself—which is exactly what my hometown, Cedar Hill, was…a group of 25 or so homes on dead-end streets… If you didn’t leave there, why go there? We always knew when someone didn’t belong, we knew our friends’ parents cars and that of the other residents. I’ve spent the last thirty years living in Lindy’s Lake a small lake community in New Jersey. We bought our first house here and have raised our family here. When we first moved in there were long-time residents and newbies, like ourselves. Five of us…

KC Klein | I’d Like My Romance on a Stick, Please.
Author Guest / November 14, 2012

Whoo Hoo! I am so excited to be on Fresh Fiction. (I kinda feel like I’ve just gotten a party invite from the cool kids at school.) So before I go on, I have to thank Fresh Fiction so so much for having me here. J I want to tell everyone about the big thing that is going on in my life, which is…drumroll…the release of my first book in the Texas Fever series, TEXAS WIDE OPEN. I really am excited about this story because it is totally different from what I’ve written in the past. I like my romances dark and gritty, the more torture the better. This story started out as an escape, a little side action, from what I really wanted to focus on. This was supposed to be my cotton candy romance. You know the one that’s easy to whip up and goes down just as quick. In the end, writing my romance-on-a-stick became a lot more complicated than just adding sugar and food coloring, but, oh, it sure was fun. Katie is the young girl next door who has loved her cowboy neighbor for, like, ever. What I love about Katie was how easy she…

Annie Seaton | Research is my Passion
Author Guest / November 13, 2012

Ever since I can remember, I would pick up anything that had words on it and read. Whether it was the newspaper, a flyer, an advertisement, a billboard, a book or a magazine…I would read it. A thirst for knowledge, a desire to know what was happening in the world and the opportunity to experience other worlds, lives, and times was available to me through the written word. Move forward to the second decade of the twenty-first century and the internet is at my fingertips. Oh, what a delight for an author. To be able to research exotic places far away, to be able to verify facts and dates and to look at images of exotic settings. Stuck for a character’s name? Log on and research names. Stuck for a physical description? Log on and look at the millions of images available to you. Is this love of research a trait common to all writers? I’m not sure… My love of reading and research melded into a highly satisfying career when I left school and studied to be a librarian. During my twenty-year career with books and the written word… I worked in a variety of library settings. A university…