Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
My Mission: Peachy Cozies to Blow You Away
Cozy Corner / January 31, 2017

As a reader, book covers catch my eye. As a writer, titles draw me in. My three features this week were complete head-turners that had me hooked at first sight. From the natural born enemies of MISSION IMPAWSIBLE , to cozy southern charm of WAR AND PEACH, to the wispy fresh breezes of the Oregon shore in BLOWN AWAY, I was completely captivated from cover to cover. Expand your horizons, and get cozy with three winning mysteries. MISSION IMPAWSIBLE by Krista Davis Paws and Claws #4 From the New York Times bestselling author of Murder Most Howl comes the fourth Paws & Claws mystery… In the pet-friendly town of Wagtail, Virginia, there’s no love lost when Holly Miller meets her match in a murderer… Holly and her grandmother, Oma, are working their tails off to prepare the Sugar Maple Inn for an upcoming matchmaking event for pet owners. While Holly has no interest in pairing up, Oma plans on playing Cupid and finding someone to warm her reluctant granddaughter’s heart. Unfortunately, one man Holly does meet is cold—dead cold—and he has a personal letter from Oma in his pocket. As suspicion is cast over the inn’s guests, Holly—with the help…

Lexxie Couper | Real Aussies Don’t Drink Fosters
Author Guest / January 31, 2017

Stereotyping is a technique used often by storytellers as a shortcut. It can come in handy to quickly get across what a character is like. One of the most common Australian stereotypes out there in the world is that of the “Crikey” uttering, beer-loving, thong-wearing (thong in this case being the things worn on the feet, not the butt 🙂 ) bloke who calls all the women he meets “sheila”. Now, I grew up in rural Australia. To this day, I still use terms like “fair dinkum”, “crikey” and “g’day” in general conversation even though I’ve lived in the city for over twenty years. My husband, a city boy, quite often laughs at my country-ness. So yes, I can vouch for the fact the stereotype Australian man does exist…but he’s NOT the norm. So why did I set out to write an Australian businessman sexier than sin and calmly confident in everything he does in THE STUBBORN BILLIONAIRE? Because this kind of Australian man also exists and I want the world to know it. He walks around Sydney and Melbourne, dressed in a killer suit, oozing sexual energy and never ever pulls out a knife to gloat how big it…

Rachel Van Dyken’s first book in The Bachelors of Arizona is now in paperback!
Author Guest / January 31, 2017

THE BACHELOR AUCTION by Rachel Van Dyken (January 31, 2017; Forever Mass Market Paperback; $7.99; The Bachelors of Arizona Book 1) NOW IN PAPERBACK! The first book in an all-new contemporary romance series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken. THE BACHELOR AUCTION by Rachel Van Dyken Bachelors of Arizona #1 Cinderella never had to deal with this crap. Jane isn’t entirely sure that Cinderella got such a raw deal. Sure, she had a rough start, but didn’t she eventually land a prince and a happily-ever-after? Meanwhile, Jane is busy waiting on her demanding, entitled sisters, running her cleaning business, and . . . yep, not a prince in sight. Until a party and a broken shoe incident leave Jane wondering if princes—or at least, a certain deliciously hunky billionaire—maybe do exist. Except Brock Wellington isn’t anyone’s dream guy. Hell, a prince would never agree to be auctioned off in marriage to the highest bidder. Or act like an arrogant jerk—even if it was just a façade. Now, as Brock is waiting for the auction chopping block, he figures it’s karmic retribution that he’s tempted by a sexy, sassy woman he can’t have. But while they can’t…

Catherine Bybee | Top 5 Best Things About Returning Home
Author Guest / January 31, 2017

After being voted Most Likely To Never Leave River Bend, Zoe Brown from STAYING FOR GOOD didn’t just leave, she escaped. Eleven years later she returns to help her BFF plan the perfect wedding. When the man Zoe left behind reminds her of the love they once shared, Zoe is forced to make one of the hardest decisions of her life…confront the demons of her past, or leave River Bend and the man she loves again…this time, for good. Much like Zoe Brown, I left my hometown just days after high school ended. When Fresh Fiction asked that I come up with five of the best things about returning home, channeling my own ideas and Zoe’s were entirely too easy. So here we go! Scents. There is something about the smell of home. I don’t care if it’s in a city, or in a small town like River Bend… From the scent of the seasons, from cut grass to freshly fallen snow… Nothing smells better than home. History. Where we were raised always holds a richer history, even if it’s a past one would like to forget. In between the lines of Zoe’s harsh memories of her life, she manages…

Marina Adair | Inspiration for IT STARTED WITH A KISS
Author Guest / January 31, 2017

My latest release, IT STARTED WITH A KISS, follows Avery, a kidney transplant survivor who is determined to explore every adventure life has to offer, only to find herself falling for a high-octane Search and Rescue hero who lives his life for others. Being married to a real-life Search and Rescue hero, and hearing the amazing rescues he’s been a part of, it was only a matter of time before I based a series around a brotherhood of S&R officers. What is sexier and more compelling than a team of alpha-heroes who put their life on the line to bring families safely back together? A hero in need of a little rescuing. My goal was to find the perfect heroine—and I wanted her to not just be a survivor, but a warrior. Avery Adams not only knows how tenuous life could be, but she is determined to live her life loud. I loved the conflict that came from pairing a strong, survivalist whose tragic past is a daily struggle, with a fragile woman who refuses to let anything hold her back. This story was important to me because it deals with many themes from my personal life. I spent much…

Tawny Weber | Inspiration for CALL to Honor’s Hot Heroes
Author Guest / January 31, 2017

I read romances to fall in love with falling in love, and what’s better than a hot hero to make the journey into love a little more interesting? I write romances for the same reason, plus I love getting to spend a looooooong time with these heroes. While writing CALL to Honor, I alternated between my music playlist and playing the same handful of movies in the background. I knew that, unlike shorter books, these HQNs would be long stories in and of themselves, and since the three books, CALL TO HONOR, CALL TO ENGAGE and CALL TO REDEMPTION are all tied closely together, that I’d want to keep the same background theme going for the writing of all of them. So I chose a movie selection that was long enough and varied enough to last through a few writing sessions and watched the same movies in the same order multiple times because after a while, they become background rather than distraction. At least, the movie and storylines became background noise. The hot sexy guys? They were always distracting. Ready to be distracted? These are the top five hotties that inspired me during the writing of CALL To Honor… Chris…

Kat Martin | My Favorite Places
Author Guest / January 30, 2017

Since I’m about to make my annual trek from the snow country to my house at the beach, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of my favorite places. Personally, I hate hot weather. Among my personal favorites are the ski slopes of Aspen and the chalet at the top of California’s Mammoth Mountain. Montana has some of my favorite places. Recently we visited Yellowstone National Park, which I’ve been to numerous times and never grow tired of. Just about anywhere in Big Sky Country is a favorite place to be. A day on the ocean off the coast of Santa Barbara is hard to beat when the sun is shining. Sailboat or powerboat, just being out on the water makes me feel completely carefree. Seattle is another one of my favorite places, which is the reason I chose the city for my BOSS, INC. trilogy. Book #3, INTO THE FIRESTORM, Luke Brodie’s story, is about to be released. Luke is a bounty hunter. A fat $600,000 is the 20% bail enforcement fee he’ll collect if he brings in international criminal, Rudy Vance. Emma Sullivan is also hunting Vance. It’s been almost a year since she arrived…

Oberon Wonch| Things I Love About Medieval Knights
Author Guest / January 28, 2017

They follow a code of honor. As early as antiquity, a warrior would sacrifice his own needs and desires, even his life, for something bigger than he was (such as a king, a city, a god.) During the Middle Ages in Western Europe, the chivalric code was formalized, directing a knight to place his liege, God, or the Church above himself. A knight was obliged to be always courageous, courteous to everyone, and to succor those weaker or less fortunate than he. They’re physically fit and agile. And how! That heavy chain mail they wore and the weapons they wielded served as the barbells and weight machines of the Middle Ages. Riding powerful horses into battle, sparring daily with fellow knights, and eating a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, and proteins with little fat and no refined sugar helped build a marvelous specimen of a man. They know how to do stuff, like make weapons out of what’s at hand and tan leather for clothing. Just by the virtue of living in the pre-industrial age, knights had to make things that we would run out to the store for. Generally speaking, a man living in 11th century England would…

It’s a speed date with Victoria Blue and Angel Payne!
Author Guest / January 27, 2017

Thanks to everyone at Fresh Fiction for inviting us to come share and chat with you all! We are so thrilled that the world is falling in love the Stone Family and their friends, in our spicy romance series, The Secrets of Stone. We love falling in love, over and over again, which is why we chose romance as the genre we write in. We thought we’d incorporate the more fun side of that idea, and take you along on a speed date we’ve staged…with each other! We both came up with some fun “speed date questions” for each other…and here are the answers. These were fun for us because even though we’ve been friends for several years, these are some things we didn’t even know about each other! Enjoy! Victoria’s First Date Questions for Angel… Last supper—eating what, where and with who? All my favorite, fattening French foods, as well as a bottle of excellent French wine. And if it’s my last, I’m somewhere on the French Riviera or on the Greek Isles, with my husband, my kid, and my doggie. If you could be a flavor that defines you completely, what would that be? Probably Skittles—LOL! They’re colorful,…

Jodi Thomas | Whisperers and Yellers … Characters
Author Guest / January 25, 2017

While I was traveling around signing copies of SUNRISE CROSSING, a story I dearly loved, characters were lining up in my brain for the next book. Some wait patiently, whispering their story, while others start yelling from the back of the line. The whisperer was Sheriff Dan Brigman. He’d waited his turn. He’d been in other books. Always a good guy. Always a good father and friend, but he never took center stage. He never got his love story. Now, in his forties, he’d given up until he found a fancy boot in the road one night. He took on the mission to find the lady that the boot might belong to. She had to be something special to step out in knee high rhinestone boots. And she was…every fantasy he’d ever allowed himself to have. The character yelling for his story was Cody Winslow, my ex Texas Ranger. He’d lived after his best friend died and he was riding full out along the edge of Ransom Canyon not caring much if he lived or died. When he tumbled into the canyon breaking bones, he prayed for a quiet death but fate sent him Tess Adams. A bossy, no make-up…