Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Watch Out, I’m Watching You!
Author Guest / March 27, 2017

That’s right, I’m the little blond lady who’s scrunched in the corner of the coffee shop. I’m watching you carefully and jotting notes. I see what you’re wearing – I like that paisley scarf, by the way – and I’m scrutinizing the way you sip your coffee and nibble your scone. No, I don’t work for the CIA, FBI, or IRS. I’m an author who writes three different mystery series and I get ideas for my characters by watching all the fascinating real-life characters around me. From the folks who cross my path at the driver’s license bureau to the ones who are picking through bins of organic oranges at the grocery store or kicking tires at the local garage. You all fascinate me and give me such wonderful ideas because you’re all real, highly individual, and (this is a good thing) a little bit quirky. You see, creating literary characters is a tricky thing for an author. You want them to be loved, reviled, understood, amusing, or even feared. But characters also need to be larger than life. They need to transcend the pages, worm their way into your hearts and memories, and stick like a proverbial burr. That…

Kris Rafferty | “Outside Looking In”
Author Guest / March 27, 2017

With a show of hands, how many of you felt like an outsider growing up? I suspect most hands are waving in the air right now, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably a bookworm like me, someone who hides in plain sight, escaping into books, written worlds that never judge us. It took me a long time to understand most people feel as if they’re “outside, looking in.” I suspect it’s not so much a human condition, as it is a ‘living’ condition. If you’re alive, you seek to connect with someone, be it pet or partner. Even the lowly amoeba is willing to split in two to find a friend…a place to belong. SEDUCED BY SIN is the third book in my An Unlikely Hero series, and though it’s a standalone book, it completes a series plot arc, as well as continues the theme of being an outsider. In my An Unlikely Hero world, outsiders rule, and they’re convinced being an outsider is why they survive and thrive in a world that has been cruel to them. They’re solitary creatures, hiding who they really are to blend in a world they know they don’t fit in…couldn’t fit in,…