As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2018, our Meet the Author interviews help you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 9-11. Read on to get acquainted with USA Today bestselling author Donna Kauffman, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. A bar fight after a Christmas Day wedding leads to an unexpected romance. (CHRISTMAS IN BLUE HOLLOW FALLS, part of the A SEASON TO CELEBRATE anthology, on sale October 30th.) If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? So many to choose from! But I think Ford Maddox, from SANDPIPER ISLAND. I want to hang out in his treehouse home and help him rescue puffins on his remote island off the coast of Maine. Sigh… What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? For me it’s driving and hiking. I live in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, right off the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trial. Depending on the day/weather/mood, a drive down the Parkway or a hike on the…
As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2018, our Meet the Author interviews help you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 9-11. Read on to get acquainted with C.A. Szarek, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. HIGHLAND OATH: The doctor’s oath versus the Highlander’s vow. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? Oh Gosh, this is like picking your favorite kid! I feel like all of my characters draw me in some way, since they came to me in my head (they don’t like when I say I made them up, LOL) so I guess I couldn’t pick just one. I would love to meet them all and talk to them. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? I guess just throwing things out there to see if they stick. This is super fun in a group of authors, when everyone has ideas, and we all just toss them out to see what sounds good. And you can play off…
As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2018, our Meet the Author interviews help you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 9-11. Read on to get acquainted with Nicola Cameron, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. BEHIND THE IRON CROSS (coming soon): In 1925 Berlin, an American heiress, a frustrated songwriter, and a German army officer will have their lives changed when they meet at a decadent nightclub. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? I’d probably want to hang out with Lily Nayar from TO MY MUSE because she’s hilarious and we could trade tech writing nightmare stories over Starbucks. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? Any sort of crafting helps me with brainstorming a new story—making sterling silver jewelry has actually become part of my writing process. Which part of Readers & ‘ritas are you most excited about? Meeting and having a ball with all the attendees—I can’t pick just one event! We’re all romantics here, so…
As part of our countdown to Readers & ‘ritas 2018, our Meet the Author interviews help you get to know the authors joining us in Texas on November 9-11. Read on to get acquainted with Jess Bryant, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. A Modern Day M/M Cinderella Story. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? I’d like to meet Zoey from UNBREAKABLE BOND. I want to hear in her own words what it was like growing up knowing about the supernatural but not being supernatural. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? Time alone. Once I get to thinking, I can’t shut my brain off, but being in a large group of people is impossible. I need to shut myself away and just bask in it. Which part of Readers & ‘ritas are you most excited about? Getting to meet readers! I can’t wait to host a lunch or dinner table and give away all the goodies I have in store. We’re all romantics here, so…
Angie Thomas – THE HATE U GIVE is probably the best YA written in the last ten years. First, let me say straight up, I’m a white woman who’s never experienced racism. I’ve experienced sexism. But the closest I’ve come to experiencing real racism was listening to someone call Italians “dirty” while at a book fair. No one has ever called the police on me for sitting in a Starbucks or working out a gym. My first response to “Black lives matter” was “All lives matter.” Then I read this book and it changed my mind. It opened my eyes to the kind of fear people of color face on a daily basis. I’ve never feared the police. They’re heroes, right? But sometimes, they get it wrong. And when they get it wrong, people die. Only nobody punishes them. Nobody stops it or does anything to prevent it from happening again. Instead, they put blame on the dead. They shouldn’t have been where they were, worn what they wore, said what they said. Angie does an incredible job of presenting all the ugly sides to racism in this novel. Main character Star has a cop in her family – in…
Writes: Plot-driven historical fiction chock full of flawed characters yearning to be saved. Picture a complicated, brooding widower, a poverty-stricken teenager, an overly-entitled heiress, and a strong-willed runaway slave. Each is somehow able to bring light into the lives of others in ways that also help them to find their own redemption. About Me: Forty-year-old attorney-turned-author seeking readers for historical fiction about a heroic abolitionist in the antebellum South. Characters in this tale attempt to navigate the complicated social hierarchy of Charleston, South Carolina twenty years before the Civil War. When a young woman arrives in Charleston from England, destitute but relieved to be free from the troubles she left behind on the other side of the Atlantic, the reader will be treated to a fresh look at American society. Readers must be in the market for accessible prose and page-turning plot twists, surprising moments of love, deception, caution, and hope. Those uninterested in corsets and old-fashioned Southern balls need not apply. What I am looking for in my ideal reader Match: You are, above all, interested in a riveting story that will keep you turning pages. Your favorite books cross many genres but would include books along the lines…
Ever hear of Rejection Therapy? Guess what it is: You eat lots of weird foods to find out what your body rejects most violently. You say “no” to at least one person a day. You go through your own closet and “reject” clothing by throwing it out. At least 28 pieces a day. Once there’s nothing left in your closet, you start on your things. It’s a quick way to a minimalist lifestyle. You do something daily where you know you’ll get turned down. Eventually getting told “no” won’t scare you, and you can start living life boldly. Answer: D – It is indeed a way to make yourself casual with being told “no.” The whole closet thing is a different technique where you discard 28 things a day for 10 days. It’s actually quite liberating, but that’s not where the idea for this book came from. In Sliding Home by Kathy Lyons—August 13, 2018 Brazen release—my good girl heroine is putting herself through rejection therapy as a way to get bolder. She realized she’s become too timid in her life and this is her way of forcing herself to embrace life. Of course, she expects to get rejected by…
Desperate Girls is here! I’m so thrilled by the book reviews coming in, including a starred review in Publishers Weekly. “Intensely suspenseful…. Griffin pulls out all the stops in a phenomenal twist ending that will leave readers stunned.” — Publishers Weekly, STARRED review “DESPERATE GIRLS by Laura Griffin is a keeper; I know because I carried it everywhere with me until I’d finished it. It has chills, thrills, action, and romance.” — New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard Desperate Girls is the first book in my new Wolfe Security series. It is a spinoff off my Tracers series, so longtime readers will see some familiar faces. I had so much fun writing Brynn & Erik’s story, and I hope you’ll enjoy it! To celebrate Desperate Girls, I’m giving away a $50 Amazon gift card, so please drop by my contest page to enter: http://lauragriffin.com/contest/ Happy reading! Laura Buy DESPERATE GIRLS: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | iTunes/iBooks | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Ripped Bodice | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR From DESPERATE GIRLS Defense attorney Brynn Holloran is right at home among cops, criminals,…
MY OXFORD YEAR, by JULIE WHELAN If you’re a poetry fan Why I loved it: The novel starts off going right down the old troupe: young student, Ella, sleeps with handsome professor, Jamie, both want to keep it casual since Ella is going back to the united states at the end of one year to pursue her life-long dream of working in politics. But as the novel progresses, Ella starts falling for Jamie and things are revealed that takes the novel in a new direction. It’s smart, fun, romantic, and poetry and humor are sprinkled throughout the novel. Fun fact: Ella, just like Megan in Love, Across the Divide, is faced with a seemingly impossible decision: turn her back on the man she’s falling in love with to follow her political dreams or choose love. ONE PLUS ONE, by JOJO MOYES What if your knight-in-shining-armor was a geek in a BMW? Why I loved it: This contemporary opposite attract story is the perfect trifecta of hilarious, sad and sweet. I loved the messy lives of the main characters, Jesse is a single mom struggling financially to survive and raise her two children, Ed is a wealthy tech geek who’s life…
I love a book filled with adventure, passion, and humor—with a mandatory HEA, of course. Add a medieval setting—preferably in the Highlands of Scotland—and I’ll stay up way too late finishing the story!! But I can only imagine how tough it must have been to actually live there in the 1450s: danger from brigands and other clans, blustery cold in the winter months, the very real possibility of starvation, not to mention plague and pestilence. And if that wasn’t bad enough, women and infants had a much higher mortality rate during childbirth than they do now—some estimates are as high as 4% (and that sounds conservative to me). So Highlanders had to be a hearty bunch to survive, which got me thinking…what are some of the essentials all Highlanders need to not only survive, but to thrive? Here are my top five! A warm plaid to snuggle under—with a brawny Highland Laird, of course! A strong clan to call your own, and a warm castle to live in—preferably as Lady to that Highlander! A sturdy horse to flee your enemy, while sharing a saddle with your hot Scot. A sharp wit to outmaneuver other clans and the hated, bluidy Grit…