It’s that time of year when all the holiday meals, goodies and treats surround us with the aromas and tastes to kill for… at least in fiction. Hopefully in real life, people will stop short of murder and share a bite of their decadent deserts with their loved one sitting at the table next to them. But with food on my brain twenty-four seven, (no, I’m not pregnant, I’m planning the shopping list for my son’s return from college), I found myself drawn to two new releases featuring a quilt shop owner hosting a sleigh ride that makes a stop at every shop in town for a course in the holiday meal, and a food critics adventures at a tropical restaurant enlisting her houseboat up for a lighted boat parade. Remember to take a break through the holidays and pick up a copy of one of these great cozy mysteries. You don’t want to miss these quirky characters, loveable pets, and great settings for a mystery to remember. Look for the added bonuses of tips on how to make an Amish quilted snowman and learn recipes to die for! MURDER, SERVED SIMPLY by Isabella Alan MURDER, SERVED SIMPLY Amish quilt…

You are what you eat, or so the saying goes. As a retired personal chef, I know this all too well. It’s amazing how picky some people can be when it comes to their food. I’d meet with a client to go over their list of likes, dislikes, allergies, and possible menus. One person would love the taste of onions, but didn’t want to see them in their food. The texture made them gag. Another couldn’t abide green peppers, while the next would be a total vegan. Learning to cook around these constraints was a challenge. It made me wonder what is it about our psyche that affects the way we look at and relate to our food. The taste of homemade chicken and dumplings comforts, or the smell of fish or cabbage can remind a person of a bad experience. Food is necessary for life, but it can also be an addiction. It can lead us into judgment of others. I know I’m guilty of watching an obese person eat and wondering why they can’t control their appetites. This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, because I’m overweight, and I’m sure the skinny girl at…

IF THE SHOE KILLS is set in the days just before Thanksgiving. Like Jill Gardner, my amateur sleuth, I stress about the upcoming holidays. Will the turkey be done? Will it be dry? Does Uncle Leo like ham better than turkey? Should we serve both? This year, I’m adding in a medical procedure so I’ll be out of commission for a few days mid-November. Which adds to the stress as I can’t do the cleaning, cooking and shopping I enjoy. But I’ve decided to think of my limitations as a forced take care of Lynn time.  J So let’s chat about strategies to make the holidays a soothing time rather than a stressful time. Add in your favorites too. Here are my top five must do’s – Schedule only the things you want to do. I know, family responsibilities may take you places where you just don’t want to go, but for the other things, do you have to say yes to every invitation? Chose the ones you enjoy, do a few required events, and the rest, politely decline citing prior commitments. They don’t need to know your commitment is a planned evening at home watching the Charlie Brown special….

Hello to everyone at Fresh Fiction! I’m so excited to be here on the launch date of A SPY UNMASKED. It’s the first book in The Crown’s Secret Service series and introduces a master spy and safecracker and the feisty lady inventor who captures his heart. I have always loved romance novels with lots of intrigue. Romances with spies are one of my favorites. I was excited when I came up with the idea for my new historical romance, A SPY UNMASKED, but before I sat down to write the series I thought of all the reasons why spies are so popular. They’re mysterious and dangerous You never know what they’re thinking. Is our hero good or does he side with the villain? Spies blur the lines leaving the reader with an irresistible need to unearth all their secrets and find out the truth. They’re also dangerous and can hold their own in a fight and have training far beyond the average person. They have close calls, narrow escapes, but somehow they always end up escaping. Of course, it helps that they’re athletic and the men are always well-built. I also love when the intrigue surrounding the spying is interwoven with the…

1. I devised one of the best heroes I could conceive to fit the story…(Forget that he’s modeled after Chris Pine) Looks are important, yes, but Jude Lyons needed to be complicated from a psychological perspective—He comes from money but doesn’t have a driving need to pursue it. He’s gentle and loving but suffered extreme emotional abuse as a child and young adult. He’s so intellectual at times that his body needs to remind him of the blessings of living in the physical world—including being married to a stunning nineteen year old Amisch girl. And he’s determined to remain celibate with her but doesn’t count on the simmering desire that mounts against his innate practicality. 2. Mary Lyons, the heroine and bride, is genuinely innocent in an otherwise tricked out world. When she has to leave her beloved home on Ice Mountain to live in Metro-Atlanta, she faces Jude’s devious and manipulating ex-fiancée’ but finds the internal strength to counter the other girl through her faith and plain wanting of her handsome husband. Mary’s gentle tenderness is tinder to Jude’s masculinity and she can turn heads without even giving it a second thought. She longs to love her at-times unlovable…

A recent reviewer said it best when she described Slow Hand as not your “typical” western romance. “Vane entwined the old west with the new west and gave us a whole new contemporary romance cowboy.” There’s no question that all of the heroes in my hot new contemporary Western series are cowboys, but the word “cowboy” doesn’t define what a man does, it defines who he is. In SLOW HAND, Wade Knowlton is a workaholic lawyer and part time rancher who’s constantly at odds with his brother. Wade only sees the hardships and struggles of modern day ranching and wants to provide a comfortable retirement for his parents, especially after his father’s triple bypass. In his interactions with the heroine, Nikki, however, he is a shameless flirt and a total charmer. Excerpt from SLOW HAND He crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned on the door frame studying her. “Miz Powell, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were undressing me with those pretty blue-green eyes of yours.” A guilty flush infused her face but she refused to give him the advantage. She opted for a strong offense instead. “So what if I was? Weren’t you quite…

Do you ever feel like the whole world is in on the secrets of life, and no one bothered to tell you? Have you ever read a great book, or seen a movie whose entire premise should be completely and totally impossible…but you just can’t stop yourself from wondering if it’s true? What if there really were Jedi Knights out there somewhere? What if vampires were real? Or werewolves? What if our planet really was alive and could speak to us, like the home world in Avatar? What if we really did live in a matrix, and gentlemen like Mr. Smith were out there, watching and waiting to strike down anyone who got too close to the truth? What if wizards and magic were real? What if aliens really did walk among us? What if? What if? What if? I could ask questions like this for hours. Days. If you must know the truth, I have been asking them…for decades. ‘What if?’ is my favorite question. And it’s what inspires me to write. I have notebooks full of wild ideas. In the Timewalker Chronicles, I combine several of my favorites. What if time travel were possible? What if humans were…

One of the many things I enjoy about writing the Library Lover’s Mysteries is that I get to flex my librarian research muscles. As I devised the plot for ON BORROWED TIME, I knew that Lindsey’s brother Jack was going to be a globetrotting economist. But when it came to the business crisis that would cause him to be on the run, I was stumped. This happens frequently during the plotting stages of a novel. I’ll have a kernel of an idea but no idea how to make it pop. There are a variety of methods to try and get a lock on the idea. I walk my dogs a lot. Sometimes inspiration hits during the pooper scoop portion of the walk and sometimes it hits when my girl dog launches herself off the sidewalk in some crazy attempt to take down a passing bread truck. She has issues. If the dog thing doesn’t work, I move on to baking. I will bake myself into a three pies, two rounds of cupcakes, several batches of cookies sugar coma in an attempt to get my ideas to blossom. When that doesn’t work, it’s back to walking the dogs, because by then…

I rarely write blog posts, partly because I spend so much of my time writing my books and well . . . I have to have a life. My life looks something like a typical mom’s life. The laundry is never done, the house is never perfectly in order and there is always some errand to run. But this week was different. I finished a book I had been writing for several months so I rewarded myself with a break. Whenever my focus moves away from writing fiction, I find it impossible not to examine and analyze the state of my life. It’s like the big cozy blanket of make-believe is removed and I say out loud, “Wait, how old am I again? Oh sh$#! Where did that year go?” I came out of the writing cave, went to the juice bar, went to yoga and actually went shopping. I hate shopping but I forced myself to go and look at things that are current for the sake of my own social acceptance. Normally, I don’t care about that stuff, but this week I let myself care so I could feel like a person again. Complacent is how I would…

“My dog senses when my anxiety is high and gently nudges me when I’m about to have a flashback. He brings me back every time.” Iraq Veteran suffering from PTSD In the book EVEN HEROES CRY, I wanted to bring across a hero that is not perfect, but I didn’t plan for him to become so broken. I knew he was going to be a war veteran and intended for him to be someone who suffered from PTSD. I didn’t know the path this would lead us both down. Whoa were my eyes opened. I found a study that frightened me and let me to find information on organizations that help veterans with PTSD. Sadly, twenty-two war veterans commit suicide each day. Foundations such as Pets-For-Vets are unsung heroes that pair specially trained animals with veterans. In the process they save lives two lives. The animals they train as companions are acquired from shelters. The unconditional love they offer as well as training help veterans not medication or counseling can. Although in my book, my hero does not acquire a dog, I did write a small dog into the story and decided to donate a percentage of the books earnings…