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 author Cooper McKenzie, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. DAYDREAMS AND FANTASIES is a hot, sexy short story collection of six stories that include fantasies, daydreams, and dirty thoughts of hot, sexy men. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? Currently, I would love to meet Ramsey “Ram” Beckett, the hero of How to Romance a Writer, my current WIP (work in progress). I’d like to have him take me on a motorcycle ride, and like Eden Hall, help me overcome my fear of big motorcycles, and their riders. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? Waiting…whether it be at an appointment, getting my car serviced, before a first matinee at the movie theater, nothing seems to get my juices flowing better than being alone, away from home, with paper and pens….

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 author and voice actor Kylie Stewart, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. A girl with broken wings, a boy who longs to heal her, and the unconditional love between them. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? I would have to bring Arthur/Avalon from my Legend Series to life, because he’s THE king and I could ask him all of the history questions … and then some. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? My Pandora station – usually Enya station or Epic Orchestra remakes of popular songs. Which part of Readers & ‘ritas are you most excited about?  I’m so excited about the panels and speakers. I love learning all that I can from people in the industry and hearing their journey. We’re all romantics here, so we need to know—what is…

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 #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. LEOPARD’S RUN is an erotic shapeshifter, action/adventure thriller. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? It would be Ivory from DARK SLAYER. I would love to ask her where she gets her strength and discuss her love of animals. I would talk to her about the beautiful home she made from nothing. She is strong in so many ways, which intrigues me. I think she’d be interesting to meet in person. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? Though anything might encourage my creativity, I think that just sitting still, thinking about the character, and getting to know their past, their conflict, and the way they think and feel inspires me the most. Once I know the character, I…

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 Mika Jolie, and purchase your ticket to meet her in person at Readers & ‘ritas! Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. LAYLA’S CHANCE which is appearing in the Reckless anthology, releasing on November 8, is a May December Fling-to-Forever steamy novel between a lawyer and a hot bearded rock star. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would you choose and what would you do? This isn’t a fair question. LOL. I’d have to say Chance from LAYLA’S CHANCE. I’d love to sit down with him and just vibe. Dean is a close second. I think he and I would laugh all day. What gets your creative juices flowing when you’re brainstorming a new story? Music for sure. Usually there’s a song that resonates with the WIP I’m working on. Typically, I’ll put that song on repeat. Which part of Readers & ‘ritas are you most excited about?  Last year was such an awesome experience. My favorite part…

In the vanity mirror of her old bathroom, Helena caught sight of her naked torso and wished she hadn’t. She’d known her body looked bad. But it was so much worse than she’d imagined. Water rained from the showerhead, ringing against the old claw-foot tub, a sound that should’ve comforted her for its familiarity, but it didn’t. Not now. Not staring at the disaster that was her body. Her skin bore witness to the brutality she’d suffered at the hands of the Sisters. Thick scars. Jagged scars. Smooth scars. Sunken-in hollows. Disfiguring and ghastly to look upon. The top of her left breast had a fat, puckered mark from one of the Sisters trying to bury a screwdriver in her heart. Dizziness came over her. The world distorted, fading out of focus until the only thing visible was the mess of her flesh. Every damaged piece of skin flamed to life, burning and itching in an I-won’t-ever-let-you-forget of epic proportions. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her back in the mirror. The ability to breathe stopped. Both sides bore dozens, maybe hundreds, of scars from the gang shanking she’d endured. The raised, angry skin looked like a grotesque…

One question I get asked the most is, “Why of all the genres did you choose to write a fantasy series?” I have always loved the fantastical. Epic adventures captured my imagination. Impossible magic enthralled me. Dragons, mermaids, fairies, and monsters thrilled every time I met them. One of my earliest book-specific memories is my father reading The Hobbit to me and my younger sister chapter by chapter every night, beginning to end. Twice. My first favorite author—at least the first I discovered for myself—was Tamora Pierce who gave children of the 80s and 90s female knights, demigods, and heroes, and from her, I branched deeper into the science fiction and fantasy section of the library and the bookstore. It was basically a given that when I committed myself to write a book, I wanted to create a fantasy world. It took me about fifteen years between the first attempt and first published fantasy novel. It took me a little longer than that to truly understand all the reasons why writing the book was so hard as well as why I loved fantasy for far more than the layer of magic on its surface. Speculative fiction—which includes fantasy, science fiction,…