The first time I glimpsed Los Angeles from a plane window, I wasn’t impressed.  The view through a taxi window on my way to Studio City wasn’t much better. The palm trees were too tall and thin. The roads were too tight and travelled. The people looked tired and troubled. Where was the gold and glitter I’d spent the last twenty-five years dreaming of? This should’ve been my first clue that dreams are fickle things. That January almost seven years ago, I’d flown 2,000 miles for work. As a newly hired editor for the Walt Disney Company, I’d achieved a damn-near impossibility in this industry: a steady, dependable paycheck with full corporate benefits—all while working mostly from home in my pajamas. The words “dream job” seriously applied. For three years, I coordinated, culled, cared for, and curated parenting-focused web content. The job was incredibly progressive and creatively freeing. We were supported by the greatest graphics and technology departments in the world. We took tiny sparks of ideas and blew them into ginormous corporate assets. But I hated waking up each morning, and turning on my laptop made me physically ill. Something was wrong, but it couldn’t be the dream job,…

Welcome again to Fresh Fiction’s Halloween Boo-k Spectacular Costume Party! Some of your favorite authors are sending their characters to this virtual party in style. Enter and be charmed by Will Ransleigh, hero of Julia Justiss‘s THE RAKE TO REDEEM HER. *** What better costume party guest than a charming rogue who’s a master of disguises? Illegitimate son of an earl’s brother, Will Ransleigh spent his early years on the London streets before being reluctantly reclaimed by his aristocratic family. His unusual upbringing enables him to move at ease among peers or paupers. Will’s attending the party in one of his favorite guises–as a traveling peddler. (The better to winkle out information, making idle chat with customers distracted by his shiny wares.) He’ll be garbed as a Regency hero, casual-style, in an open-collared white shirt, tight pantaloons and tall black boots, with a red gypsy sash to add flare. You’ll find the ever-convivial Will on the dance floor, downing rum punch, playing a few hands of cards, or charming the ladies with clever conversation. When not dancing or conversing, he’ll delight the women, finding pearls behind their ears, and amuse the gentlemen, plucking gold coins from their cuffs. At a…