Can’t get enough of Downton Abbey fiction? Here’s a new lineup of contenders for your English upstairs-downstairs addiction. CAVENDON HALL CAVENDON HALL Historical fiction fave Barbara Taylor Bradford enters the lists with CAVENDON HALL. An Edwardian epic set at the Yorkshire manor of the title, the novel follows the lives of the Inghams, the Earl of Mowbray and his family, and the Swanns, who have lived nearby and served the earls for centuries. The story begins just before World War I, as Charles Ingham, the sixth Earl, and his wife Felicity are about to present their daughter Lady Daphne at court. Their efforts are assisted by the earl’s valet, Walter Swann, and his wife Alice, dressmaker to the countess and her daughters. Devastating secrets, love, honor, loyalty and betrayal unleashed in this time of uncertainty will change the both families and their interactions forever. RUTHERFORD PARK RUTHERFORD PARK Elizabeth Cooke offers a two-book tale, beginning with RUTHERFORD PARK. In 1913, Lady Octavia Cavendish lives in the Yorkshire estate of the title’s name with her husband William and their children. Although all appears well on the surface, the attempted suicide of a housemaid will reveal secrets about her husband and her…

My amateur sleuth grew up much like I did, in a family of food-loving Italian Americans. By the age of eight, I was learning to cook at the elbow of my dear Aunt Mary, an experience I’ve treasured so much that I’ve lent it to the main character in my long-running series of culinary mysteries. Clare Cosi may have been raised in her grandmother’s little Italian grocery, but she’s come a long way from making espressos in her nonna’s battered stovetop pot. Now a master coffee roaster, Clare not only works with one of the best bean hunters in the business, she manages a century-old coffeehouse in one of New York’s most picturesque neighborhoods. In many ways, Clare’s life is rich, unfortunately her bank account isn’t. At the start of BILLIONAIRE BLEND—just released in its brand new mass market paperback edition—Clare is trying to find the funds to overhaul her Greenwich Village shop’s aging façade when a car bomb explodes on the street outside. Amid the fire and chaos, Clare comes to the aid of an anonymous customer, an intense young man who turns out to be billionaire tech whiz Eric Thorner. Eric is so grateful to Clare for saving…

I am often considered a nerd. It happens to be true. I’ve read a wonderful essay about the history of manhole covers and another about garum, a fermented fish sauce Romans used quite liberally to season their food. I troll Game of Thrones forums and read everything involving dragons. I sometimes think I’m addicted to letters. If I see print, I have to read it. Watching subtitled movies is a nightmare because I only see the words. Whatever it is I’m compelled to read, I always find something to spark my imagination, and this week I read a fascinating article about the Mongol Derby which took place between August 2 and the 15. The Mongol Derby is considered the longest and toughest horse race in the world. At 1,000 km (621.371 miles), the Derby follows the route of Genghis Khan’s rather ingenious postal system that spanned the entire Mongol Empire. Implemented around 1200 B.C.E., way before the Pony Express, the postal service delivered important news and information across the vast empire in an efficient and timely manner. The Mongol Derby gives 30 riders a chance to sleep under the stars, camp with herders, and survive the arduous track and brutal…

I checked my Facebook feed earlier this week and was confronted with a bitter reality. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are on their way back to Starbucks. I walked out of Baskin Robbins today and a sign on the door told me September’s flavor of the month is going to be Pumpkin Cheesecake. I even saw someone post one of those digital cards the other day, declaring the imminent start to Everything Pumpkin Season. We must be getting close to Fall. Here in North Texas, school starts next week, but aside from that and those Starbucks lattes, there aren’t many other hints of the season. Temperatures are still hovering around the century mark. You’re far more likely to find me doing the backstroke in my backyard pool than looking for my leaf rake. It’s funny to me how much excitement there was around the notice of the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. I remember the same excitement not too long ago for sunny days and trips to the beach with family. Now that we’ve got the warm weather and sunshine, it seems like people are looking for something else. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all sit for a moment…

I’ve spent years enjoying every and any chance to speak at schools, focusing on the importance of story as a way to motivate literacy. My points to students are simple. One, great stories are like great songs; great stories and great songs grab our emotions. Two, we love to mess with other people through their emotions. Three, reading and writing is a delivery system for story. Conclusion? Use this amazing delivery system to enjoy a story in a book, or to write a story and have fun messing with your teacher’s emotions, as long as the words and content of the story are appropriate for your audience. In short, telling story is one of the best ways to connect with people. To tell story is what makes us human, and to be human is to tell story. Then came the day when I learned something that totally shifted my foundational view about story, without diminishing my understanding of the importance of story. My friend, an orthodontist, told me that if he has an emotional bond with his young patients, they are much more likely to follow his advice in the weeks between appointments. He said he connects by doing what…

I’m just learning the ropes, so bare with me since I’m new to blogging and a debut author. My first thriller, SECRETARIAT REBORN, came out last Oct. My first fantasy, FLIGHT OF THE GOLDEN HARPY, was released in June, and my second thriller, SHARK FIN SOUP, hits bookstores this August. It’s been one heck of a rollercoaster ride with two publishers bringing out three novels in two different genres within the last ten months. Although my novels are in the thriller and fantasy genre, they have also been called romances. So much so that before Tor Books bought the fantasy, my agent suggested selling it to Harlequin, saying it was really a love story. Since my novels are multi-genre, let’s talk about it and if romance should play a part in other genres. First off, all my novels have one thing in common. The protagonist is always mid-twenty and a lanky, gorgeous man or in the case of the fantasy, a male harpy. Sorry, but I can’t write a word and get interested in a story unless my juices are flowing, and I’m in love with him. I’ve tried writing other books without a hot guy. Even with a great…

One of the most common questions asked of a writer, and one almost guaranteed to trigger that deer in the headlights look, is where she gets her ideas from. Some authors can give specific answers to that question. “I was watching a disaster movie and thought, what if those two were trapped, thinking they’d die and had sex without ever knowing each other’s names and she got pregnant.” Others use humor to deflect. “I find them on the clearance rack at the department store”. I fall into that group of authors who draw a blank and wish there was an easy answer. I don’t want to say I don’t know because I like to pretend I have a little control over what’s going on my head, at least. But I really don’t. Sometimes a snippet of dialogue will pop in my head. Or an opening scene. Maybe the character. There’s neither rhyme nor reason and all I can do is keep hoping if there’s a Story Idea Fairy, that she doesn’t stop coming around. But with NO PLACE TO HIDE, I had a head start. Jack Donovan and Isabelle Arceneau were introduced in the third book in the series, NO…

Hello, Fresh Fiction Readers! It’s a pleasure to be here. I thought I’d tell you a little about my erotic romance, HIS EVERY NEED. It’s the first book in the Beauty and the Brit series. As a girl, I loved fairy tales, especially Beauty and the Beast. There was something so redeeming about that story and the transformative power of love. How the beast changed from a demanding brute into a caring hero. For me, HIS EVERY NEED is a sexy twist on that familiar tale. Trevor’s not a beast, not exactly, but he’s selfish and isolated. He’s emotionally cut off and when Allie Campbell blows into his life, he isn’t sure what to make of her. But he doesn’t want to let her go. Allie is no damsel in distress. She’s a strong, capable woman whose family is in chaos after the death of her mother. It’s Allie’s job to take care of them. She made a promise, after all. And if it means becoming a mistress to Trevor Blake, so be it. Trevor wasn’t seriously offering Allie the position. He was only joking. Americans don’t always understand his British sense of humor. But he won’t back down, and neither…

The perfect love story in a Barnes and Noble? That’s what happened to me and it’s my love story. It’s also a story heavily on my mind as book 4 NO IN BETWEEN is released on 8-19, since the love of my life helped inspire me to write the Inside Out series, which is now in development for cable TV. So this is how it all began…. Long before my career took off, I was in a Barnes and Noble at the New Release rack, dreaming of the day my books might be there, when my now husband, also a book addict, approach me. From there, love bloomed, and the story gets even better. Diego was a physical therapist, laid off when the office had financial troubles and I was a starving artist. We began auction hunting AKA Storage Wars before Storage Wars existed. During that time, Diego found a journal and started reading. I often jokes he was such a chick reading it. Someone is dead next door! She’s pregnant again! WHAT is she thinking? He decided right then I needed to write a story where someone finds a journal in a storage unit and either someone dies or…

From the moment I began writing the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime in 2009, Tori Sinclair, Rose Winters, Margaret Louise Davis, Leona Elkin, and the rest of the gang became my friends. They made me laugh, they made me cry, and they made me feel like I was one of them. When I was between books, they still popped in for a visit once in a while, whispering story ideas in my ear. Sometimes those whispers came in the shower, sometimes the car, sometimes on walks. So it wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary to hear one of those whispers while eating lunch with my youngest daughter. But this time, instead of Leona elbowing her way to the foreground in the hopes of claiming a book all to herself, this particular whisper involved all of them…in New York City, no less. Suddenly, I could see Margaret Louise white-knuckling it in the back seat of a New York City Cab, Leona flirting with the doorman at her hotel, and Beatrice Tharrington snapping photographs of each and every landmark with her beloved Kenny Rogers bobble head in tow. And as each new image played in front of my eyes,…