Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Katherine Fleet | The Night Twitter Exploded
Author Guest / February 22, 2016

Hi, everyone! I’m Katherine Fleet, and I’m so excited to be here on Fresh Fiction today. I’m the debut author of THE SECRET TO LETTING GO from Entangled Teen. It’s a YA contemporary set in a fictional town on the Gulf Coast of Florida during that magical summer after high school graduation where the whole world is out there waiting for you. It’s the story of two teens – Clover, a mysterious girl who shows up in town steeped in secrets and fears, and Daniel, a boy who’s drawn into her troubled world despite his better judgment. Life keeps throwing them together, but their secrets keep them apart. Ultimately, it’s a story about living through tragedy and learning to forgive your self. As it’s “Suspense Day” here on Fresh Fiction, I was asked to write about suspense. My first thoughts were about thrillers and murder mysteries and how these possibly applied to my writing, but then I looked up the definition of suspense. It’s “a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.” Hmmm…I’ve felt this frequently when watching shows like Downton Abbey or reading books like THE HELP. Yet, neither of these has any serial…

Oscar Awards Panel at the Magnolia
News / February 22, 2016

Did your favorite movie of 2015 make the Academy’s list for best picture? Are you still trying to figure out if THE REVENANT is relevant? Want to win some cool prizes and talk about your favorite Oscar Awards picks? Join Gwen as she shares the stage with Candace Havens of KSCS and Preston Barta of Fresh Fiction TV for an Oscar panel at the Magnolia Theater in Uptown Dallas. Not only can you hear about their picks for the big categories, but you can also win prizes from West Village shops like Village Burger Bar and Mi Cocina. The panel is free for everyone, so bring all your friends! More Information    

Monica Ferris | Alias and Murderous Skills
Author Guest / February 22, 2016

I sometimes jest that if ever I get arrested I’m sure to be thought a professional criminal because I have so many aliases: Mary P. Kuhfeld, Mary Monica Pulver, Monica Ferris, Margaret Frazer, Margaret Shaftesbury. I try always to carry some of my bookmarks with me because they list my various names and the names of the books I’ve written under those pseudonyms. Why do authors sometimes have more than one name? Usually it’s because they are writing more than one type of book. I have written police procedurals, medieval mysteries and needlework mysteries. It’s unkind to fool a fan of my sweet needlework cozies into buying something a little harsher set in fifteenth century England. Hence, Monica Ferris and Margaret Frazer. So why do I write different kinds of stories? I suppose it’s like not always eating the same thing for dinner. I like chicken, but sometimes I want ham. Or perhaps it’s because I’ve come across a big chunk of information that gives me a gangbuster idea for a story, but it’s well outside the usual vein I’ve been mining. Or sometimes the vein is exhausted and I’m digging for something new. One way I keep my needlework…

Diane Vallere | Growing Up With Costumes
Author Guest / February 22, 2016

My parents gave me a long brown wig for my seventh birthday. It’s unclear how they knew that this would be an awesome present for a second grader, but I remember being delighted beyond my wildest dreams. One summer day, while my mom and dad were lounging out back of our house, I dressed up in my yellow dance leotard, a yellow, pink, and light blue maxi skirt, the long wig, and my mom’s oversized sunglasses and then went out back to join them. I was surprised by how hard they laughed. Throughout my growing-up years, costumes came and went. Sometimes they were in the form of inherited clothes from a great grandparent that were inappropriate for every day but possible for Halloween (a long, full black skirt with layers of netting underneath—perfect for a witch costume, a pair of baggy men’s pants from the forties—perfect for a hobo). Sometimes they were styles that went out of fashion but were relegated to the box of paint clothes (a pair of denim bell bottoms that were printed with seashells). Sometimes they were items made by my mom (a blue and white checkered dress inspired by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz)….

Sheila Connolly | Ireland’s Smugglers and Pirates
Author Guest / February 22, 2016

West Cork has long been considered one of the most beautiful parts of Ireland, with its rolling hills, prehistoric monuments, herds of grazing cattle and flocks of sheep, and rocky coastline with a scattering of fishing villages. Plenty of people from other countries have bought vacation homes there, to enjoy the peace and quiet. But there are some outsiders who have been attracted by the rambling coastline for centuries: first pirates, and now international smugglers. I would never have known until I introduced myself to a police sergeant in Skibbereen, who was not what I would have expected: not only does he have 35 years of experience at different postings throughout the country, but he’s smart, charming, and funny, and he’s also a genealogist and historian. I couldn’t have found a better advisor for the County Cork mysteries. He was the one who told me about the smuggling. Actually he first told me about one case that happened several years ago, that sounded like a comedy of errors (the smugglers put the wrong kind of fuel in their boat?), but there are other, more recent cases. And we’re talking hundreds of millions of euros in smuggled drugs (and liquor, and…