Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Amanda Carmack | Elizabethan Mysteries
Author Guest / February 3, 2015

I love, love, love the Elizabethan period!  The music, the clothes, the houses, the sense of adventure and discovery, the poetry—it’s all so exciting.  Writing the Kate Haywood Mysteries lets me live in the time period for a few hours every day, see it through Kate’s eyes, talk to Queen Elizabeth, sweep around in farthingales and ruffs—and then come back to my own cozy house, with running water and electricity.  The best of both worlds! My love of the Elizabethan era started when I was about ten years old, and found a magical box full of paperbacks at my grandmother’s house one summer.  That box was full of wonders, and started me on a lifelong love of reading and history.  Jane Austen’s Emma; Jane Eyre;  Little Women; 1960s Harlequins set in mysterious places with names like Cornwall, where young, innocent secretaries encountered dark, brooding millionaires; Victoria Holt Gothics with crumbling castles and dark, brooding dukes (who may or may not have killed their wives).  These treasures kept me gloriously busy for weeks. One of the best finds was a Barbara Cartland story called Elizabethan Lover.  I was no newcomer to Cartland novels by then.  My grandmother had an endless supply…

Shana Galen | Covent Garden Street Smarts
Author Guest / February 3, 2015

The heroine of my new historical novel, EARLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN, isn’t your typical Regency heroine. Marlowe is a thief who grew up in the slums of London and runs with a gang called the Covent Garden Cubs. “Cub” is a slang term for a young thief. When she’s suddenly mistaken for the long lost daughter of a marquess, she has a lot to learn in order to fit in with her “betters.” But what Marlowe learns is that sometimes street smarts are good for more than just survival. In fact, those lessons she learned on the street, come in handy when she’s introduced into Society. Lesson #1: Trust no one. Growing up in the rookery of Covent Garden, Marlowe quickly learned not to trust anyone. One false move, and she could end up with a knife in her back. Literally. Even the Bow Street Runners, the police of the era, weren’t above using unsuspecting cubs for financial gain and then abandoning them to face time in prison or hang for their crimes. So when Marlowe meets the Earl of Dane, she doesn’t trust him or anyone in his family. Dane might claim to want to help her,…

Victoria Vane | Capturing the Cowboy Swagger
Author Guest / February 3, 2015

One of the biggest challenges I faced in making the leap from my genteel Georgian set historical romances to the rough and tumble world of rodeo was to find the right voices for my characters. My answer to that dilemma was to spend time with the real deal. I was fortunate to make two extended research trips to Montana and Wyoming for a hefty dose of genuine cowboy where I got my characters’ voices straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. Although ROUGH RIDER is at times raw, gritty and a little coarse, it’s also very realistic in the characters, situations, and dialogue peppered with western witticisms and dry cowboy humor. Excerpt from ROUGH RIDER Grady Garrison leaned over from his perch on the adjoining pen and spat a wad of dip. “Good thing pretty boy scored so high on the broncs cause he sure as shit won’t make the cut on the bulls.” “That so?” Dirk paused in prepping his rope, his ice blue eyes meeting Grady’s for only a second. “Funny, as I recall it just last week in Red Lodge I made the whistle while your ass hit the dirt.” He went back to work, crushing the lump…

Cathy Elliott | 5 Ways Writing a Book is Like Making a Quilt
Author Guest / February 3, 2015

I have been a quilter for many years and enjoyed making an intricate, scrappy beauty more than any other hobby. Until I began to write. Now here was a craft I dearly loved. But wait, I loved quilting, too. In fact, I couldn’t decide which I liked better. Writing or quilting? Quilting or writing? Both of them held me captive. I simply had to quilt. And write. Combining the two crafts in my new book, A Stitch in Crime, I wrote a whodunit set around a quilt show with a no-show judge and a stolen, legacy quilt. And I thought of five ways the two pursuits are very much alike. 1. They have a similar starting point. Writing: I wanted to write a mystery, but what kind? A police procedural? Locked room/puzzle mystery? Hard-boiled detective? I decided on a cozy – which has been defined as “cats & quilts and not a lot of blood.” Now I had the direction I needed to move forward. Quilting: I wanted to make a quilt, but what kind? A bed cover? A wall hanging? A miniature? A table runner or Christmas tree skirt? I decided on a blanket-type, something the family could use…

Join the Scavenger Hunt to Celebrate the Release of Chelsea Fine’s PERFECT KIND OF TROUBLE
Author Guest / February 3, 2015

Want to win a copy of PERFECT KIND OF TROUBLE by Chelsea Fine? Join in our scavenger hunt! Each participating blog will feature a letter in their post—collect all the letters to find out the secret word. If you’re just joining in, be sure to head to Cocktails and Books for the first letter. This post is brought to you by the letter U. Look for the next letter at Vilma’s Book Blog.  Once you’ve got the word, head on over to Chelsea Fine’s website to get your book!* Fresh Fiction wishes you all the best on today’s scavenger hunt! Find out more about PERFECT KIND OF TROUBLE and read the excerpt below, and happy hunting! Excerpt from PERFECT KIND OF TROUBLE I reach Mr. Perkins’s office and quickly park before climbing out of the car in my high heels. The inheritance really could be only twenty dollars—or less—and spending an afternoon chained to Daren Ackwood to find it could be a complete waste of time, not to mention horribly awkward given our romantic encounter last night, but it’s worth a shot. Because if it turns out to be a substantial amount of money, everything could change. Not only could I go…