When I first started writing Bound by Danger, the story started out as a flirty rom-com about a flight attendant who hurries off the plane to meet a blind date. She rushed to the restaurant only to discover the man she’s meeting had been on her flight, and she’d forced him from the bathroom with a woman he was on the verge of joining the mile-high club with. Enter the weak excuse, add a desperate man needing a date for a wedding, and the first half of the book was complete. But something was off. My hero had engaged in very unheroic behavior. How could I give him a plausible reason for his actions at the beginning of the book and still make him worthy of my heroine? Turns out I couldn’t. I could, however, give him a reason for being on that same plane. Instead of him chasing after a girl, he could chase a bad guy who tried to take over the plane. Then he and my heroine could meet under fast-paced, exciting circumstances that throw them together…leaving both a little shell-shocked and dripping with attraction. Wait a minute, I write sweet contemporary romance. Not fast-paced, sexy suspense…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present TRACY BROGAN! Writes: I write fun, funny, relatable stories about ordinary people finding extraordinary love. My latest release, MY KIND OF FOREVER, is the second book in the Trillium Bay series set on a small island in Northern Michigan. It’s all about love, family, and finding your perfect place in the world. About: Now that I’m a single mom of two teen girls, snark is our primary language. Fortunately, I believe the solution to most problems starts with finding the funny side. A good sense of humor is essential to happiness because if you can’t laugh at life and its foibles, you’re going to be in a lousy mood most of the time. Lately, our family motto has become “It’s all part of the adventure.” I love writing stories with a similar tone, with not-quite-together heroines and not-so-perfect heroes because it’s our imperfections that make us unique. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: – You love to laugh as…

I’ll just admit it. I have a thing for a man in uniform. Having spent several years in the U.S. Marine Corps, I have a slight bias for Marines in general. And I love putting that service spin on my characters. In the Movin’ On series, the heroes (and a heroine!) are veterans. And not just Marines, which made the story even more fun. There’s something magical that happens when you group together people from different armed services—they talk a lot of smack. At the gym, Reid and his brother, Cash, are getting help from a fellow Marine and trainer (Gavin): “Reid, that’s pathetic,” Gavin said. “Lift like you got a pair, man. Or do you want people to think you were in the Air Force?” Next to them, an older man frowned. “Hey.” “Sorry. I meant the Army.” “What’s the difference?” Cash muttered, and Gavin did his best to calm a different older man down. When writing The Whole Package, I had the Marine Corps stuff pretty much nailed down. The other services I had to research, and I learned some interesting facts. Military Police (MPs) are called different things in the different services. The Marines and Army have…

Sometimes what you think is going to be a great idea for a novel turns out to be a whole lot of work!  That’s what happens when you realize the idea you are now in the middle of isn’t going to work the way you thought it would. In THE CONSPIRACY, I got the idea for a book that started in Texas, moved to the Caribbean, and ended up in Venezuela.  With all the trouble country is having, I thought it would be a great setting for a Romantic Thriller. Unfortunately, after I was well into the book and started doing the necessary research for that segment of the story, I realized the geography I needed and the rural setting didn’t exist in Venezuela.  I I spent days digging around in South America, looking for a rainforest that could be reasonably reached from the Caribbean island of Aruba.  Nothing worked. Finally, I realized there actually was spot that exactly fit the image in my head.  (This happens to writers all the time. No one knows why.) The spot was in Colombia, a place I had no desire to write about, but fit the story exactly.   So I went to…

I grew up reading romances. In fact, the first adult novels I remember reading were Victoria Holt’s gothic romances. Full of windswept moors, isolated castles, danger, mystery, suspense, and of course, heart-thumping romances, these books seeped into my bloodstream and I’ve been hooked ever since. My newest book, How to Blackmail a Highlander, book 3 in my MacGregor Lairds series, combines quite a few of my favorite romance-book elements to create a funny, thrilling, and utterly romantic romp through the highlands. These are ten things (in no particular order) that I love in a romance: 1. A good believable conflict – there is always a reason the main couple can’t get together right away, but it drives me nuts if the reason is a simple misunderstanding that a two-second conversation would clear up (though even these can work if done well). I prefer a good, solid “someone will die if we get together” or an “I love you but I’m supposed to hate you” type conflict. A reason to stay apart that has some teeth to it 🙂 2. A flawed heroine – I really love a girl that has some weird quirk…maybe she’s klutzy, or always has her nose…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Lori Handeland! Lori: Most readers know me as an author of paranormal, contemporary and historical romance, but my most recent novel, JUST ONCE, is a contemporary women’s fiction novel.  Women’s fiction deals women’s relationships-sisters, friends, children, parents, lovers – and may or may not contain a romance. AUTHOR-READER MATCH Fifty-something romance author seeks readers for an exploration of the relationship between two women who love the same man and how they come together when he needs them the most. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: – Free time is often spent chatting with friends about their lives and problems – Favorite books and movies are best read and viewed with a box of Kleenex nearby – Believes in true and forever love – Recent book favorites include The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and Before We Were Yours – LOVED the movie The Notebook What to expect if we’re compatible: – A journey through four decades with three characters…

Set in the fictional college town of Deaton, Montana, The Wolf Tone centers around an unlikely friendship between two drastically different women. Margot Fickett is the middle-aged principal cellist for the Deaton Symphony Orchestra. Eva Baker is a twenty-year-old single mother who claims that her three-year-old boy is Margot’s grandson. Convinced of her son’s innocence, Margot insists on a paternity test. Before she complies, Eva leads Margot to her boyfriend’s burgeoning medical marijuana business, the reason she wants her child support money in the first place. Over the course of a tumultuous Montana spring, Margot and Eva witness one another’s difficult, often poorly thought-out decisions. As they approach real disaster, the women begin to see that what they want is not so different.   I hope you enjoy this peek at chapter one! Chapter One Spring took its time. March in Deaton, Montana, was winter’s final exhale. Robins had been spotted and the creeks were beginning to melt, but the surrounding mountain ranges still slumbered under blankets of white. The night of her accident, a new moon held the canyon in complete dark and Margot Fickett couldn’t sleep. Earlier her cello group played at the cider house, seventy minutes of…

Happy New Year, Fresh Fiction folks! Thank you so much for inviting me to join you today and for helping celebrate the release of my tenth historical novel, A Bound Heart, with a three-book giveaway! When I’m not writing and traveling, I’m at home in the kitchen baking. As an author, I enjoy reading about as well as including culinary details in my own historical novels. Doing so lends a richness and authenticity to the story. My characters are historical foodies, for sure! And so, I’m delighted to share this Scottish shortbread recipe from my heroine, Lark MacDougall’s, humble hearth on the Isle of Kerrera in Scotland. This shortbread pairs deliciously with a steaming cup of tea or even coffee. Sláinte! Classic Scottish Shortbread 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar or superfine sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup oats, traditional or quick 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8″ round cake pan. 2. Grind the oats in a blender or food processor. If you don’t have a blender or food processor, use quick oats, rather than traditional. Combine the oats with the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix…

She leaned across the table and held his gaze. “I heard they found a murdered body not too far away.” Her voice was appropriately quiet, but fascination burned in her eyes. Alarms rang in Ollie’s head. “Do you know if that’s true?” Tabitha asked. “Or are people making stuff up?” “It’s true,” he admitted. Her eyes widened. “Oh! How scary … Did they catch who did it?” “It happened a long time ago,” Ollie informed her, feeling a little guilty for talking about the dead. “It wasn’t really a body … Just a skeleton was left.” An image of the skull’s bullet hole flashed in his mind. “Do they know who it was? Or how long ago it happened?” She took another bite, her gaze never leaving his as she hung on every word. Melted soft serve dripped on the table. “Well … don’t tell anyone, but they think it’s related to a big robbery that happened in Portland a long time ago.” “You’re not talking about the Gamble-Helmet Heist, are you?” Ollie froze. “How’d you know?” “Everyone knows about it.” She shrugged and looked at her parfait as she scooped up fudge and peanuts. “If it’s related to that,…

I always look forward to a new Lorraine Heath book and her newest novel, TEXAS LEGACY, is something very special. The hero in TEXAS LEGACY is a character who was a boy in Lorraine Heath’s Texas Trilogy, which she wrote quite a few years ago. Lorraine Heath’s new book got me thinking about all the wonderful supporting characters I’ve read about over the years. Sometimes, as with TEXAS LEGACY, an author will give the character a book of his own and other times the reader is just left to forever wonder “what if.” Love’s a silver bullet That blows your world apart I wanna be remembered as an outlaw The boy who stole your heart I wanna be the guy who wears the white hat Then rides across the plain I’m gonna be your enigmatic stranger Honey, you are looking at your Shane – “Cowboy Dreams,” Prefab Sprout Rawley Cooper first appeared in Lorraine Heath’s Texas Trilogy series as a boy who knew what it was to suffer. Now, in TEXAS LEGACY, Rawley is a grown man coming back home and reuniting with the girl he left behind. In the earlier series, Rawley’s story made readers shed a few tears,…