Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Miranda Liasson | When the Bad Boy’s the Right Boy
Author Guest / July 20, 2016

Have you ever dated the wrong guy for the right reasons? That’s my heroine Samantha Rushford’s problem in my newest lighthearted, sexy small town romance THIS LOVING FEELING. She craves stability, and all she wants is the white-picket-fence dream of a normal home and family life. She’s dating a man who seems to be “Mr. Right”: he’s ivy-league educated, from an old New England family, has ambitious political aspirations… The thing I had the most fun with when I wrote This Loving Feeling was toying with that notion—that the perfect-on-paper guy isn’t at all, and the across-the-tracks, biker, tatted-up auto mechanic who got shuffled from one foster home to another for years is actually the Hero with the Heart of Gold. Here’s why I think Lukas Spikonos (rhymes with the island Mykonos), the “wrong” guy, is really the rightest guy of all for Sam (and I hope you’ll think so too): He’s bold and audacious, which is just what Sam needs, because she’s taken the tame, quiet path in life to make up for her previously unwise choices. At the beginning of the book, Lukas shows up to sing at her high school class’s prom…but then he calls Sam up…

Melissa West | The shift in New Adult
Author Guest / July 20, 2016

The New Adult category began with pretty simple specs: 18-25, college, exploring the theme of girls and boys becoming men and women and the trials that can pop up through that discovery. But where the category might have begun in college—and some are still set there—there has been a gradual shift to post-college storylines or stories less about college and more about people working their way through life…and often finding love along the way. This move has made it easier for contemporary romance readers to take chances on NA romance, because the storylines are not so dissimilar now. A twenty-four-year old finding her way through her first real job could be a NA title or it could be a contemporary romance. But regardless of where it’s slotted, a fan of contemporary romance may grab this book without as much hesitation. There are lighter story options now, with less angst and more humor, something rarely seen five years ago in the NA world. So we have the new professional athlete stories, the first jobs, the first time getting fired, the first time Mom and Dad aren’t there to save them. And perhaps these firsts are as defining to the category as…

DiAnn Mills | Viewing Movies to Plot Your Novel
Author Guest / July 20, 2016

Well-written movies stir my creative juices. I envision sitting around a table with a team of creative writers to pen the best characters (and who’d play the roles), thrilling plot, distinct dialogue, amazing setting, powerful emotive conflict, intriguing symbolism, and everything else that makes a great movie. Then reality hovers over me, and I realize I probably won’t be writing any award-winning movie scripts, but I can write the best romantic suspense novel possible. I use the following questions to measure the quality of movies and learn how to develop my craft in the process. If you’re a fan of Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, you’ll recognize his superior hand in some of these questions. Let me know what you think. Describe the protagonist (s). Describe the antagonist (s). What is the story problem? What makes the story problem or goal an impossibility? How does it grow worse? What happens in the first doorway? What happens in the middle? Where are your sympathies? Is there a betrayal? How is it depicted? Does the plot have unusual twists? Describe. Is there vulnerability? Describe Is there selfishness or greed? Describe Does anyone make a sacrifice? How and who? What character…

Robin Lovett | Top Five Guilty Pleasure Foods
Author Guest / July 20, 2016

Chocolate This one’s a “duh”, right? A lot of people love chocolate, the rich melt in your mouth, ooey goodness. My best orgasmic chocolate experience was a box of Belgium truffles a friend brought me fresh off the plane from Belgium. Oh—My—Gosh—I rationed those things for a week. Each time I put one in my mouth, I seriously had to close my eyes. It was an instinctive response. Of course, watching the look on my husband’s face when he ate one… now, that was fun. Pastries I’m partial to croissants, specifically, you guessed it, the chocolate kind: a warm pain au chocolat where the outside crunches into little flakes but the inside oozes in your mouth. The variety of pastries is endless, the variety of flavors and ingredients even more endless, and my favorite part… you can eat them for breakfast. Ice Cream It’s hard to find ice cream that isn’t good, but the kind of ice cream I’m talking about is one so rich in flavor, it literally blows your taste buds. My ultimate ice cream experience was a vanilla cone in northern France, from a street vendor, no place special and it… oh wow. I’ve had lots of…