Welcome to Fresh Fiction! We’ve been featuring the books you’ve worked on for so long, and we are so excited to learn more about the editors behind the books, as well as How to Write a Romance! Can you introduce yourselves, tell us how long you’ve worked at Avon, and your all-time favorite romance novel? Erika Tsang (ET): I’m Erika Tsang, editorial director of Avon Books. I just celebrated my 17th year here. My all-time favorite romance novel is… a very difficult question to answer. Jude Deveraux’s A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR because I discuss that ending quite a bit. Then there’s Johanna Lindsey’s WARRIOR’S WOMAN, Julie Garwood’s THE LION’S LADY, Jill Barnet’s IMAGINE (there’s a genie!)…my list goes on and on. Nicole Fischer (NF): My name is Nicole and I started at Avon Books about 6.5 years ago. My favorite romance is… ok, that’s an impossible question for a romance editor! I don’t have 1 favorite of all time, I have top picks in each subgenre. But if I had to name one, the first title that pops into my head right this moment is IT HAPPENED ONE AUTUMN by Lisa Kleypas because I love sassy, feisty heroines who…

Thanks for stopping by Fresh Fiction! Can you tell us a bit about The Bookish Life of Nina Hill? TBLONH is about a millennial girl who works in a bookstore, loves her cat, her planner and her trivia team, and whose life is ticking along nicely until suddenly it all gets complicated. Nina Hill is wonderfully nerdy, and as the title suggests, bookish! We’re big fans of bookish people – real and fictional. What made you decide to make Nina so ensconced in books? Did this make her easier or harder to develop?  Nina was inspired by all the lovely young bookstore women I met while touring bookstores to promote my last book, Other People’s Houses. They were all incredibly well-read, super smart and slightly quirky. I wanted to make them the hero for a change. After Nina’s estranged father dies and includes her in his will, Nina finds herself with this new family of very outgoing, very eager people who want to get to know her. After spending most of her upbringing with her live-in nanny while her photographer mother was on assignments around the world, this is a huge and unexpected adjustment. How does this newfound family change her perspective…

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction! Can you catch us all up to speed with the Crown of Shards series and a little bit about PROTECT THE PRINCE?  Thanks for hosting me. I appreciate it. 🙂  PROTECT THE PRINCE picks up a few months after the events of KILL THE QUEEN, book #1 in my Crown of Shards epic fantasy series. Everleigh “Evie” Blair might be the new gladiator queen of Bellona, but her problems are far from over, something she realizes when someone tries to assassinate her in her own throne room. Magic, political intrigue, a steady stream of assassination attempts, oh and a will they-won’t they romance… PROTECT THE PRINCE has it all! In fantasy series, I’m always impressed by the amount of worldbuilding that goes into, well, everything! Was there anything in particular that inspired the “realm” in Crown of Shards?  Thanks! I appreciate that. When I was first coming up with the series, I knew that I wanted to write about gladiators, so I decided to use Roman and other mythologies for some of the place and character names. For example, Bellona, my gladiator kingdom, is named after a Roman war goddess. I thought the Roman mythology…

A list of my top ten heroes. Some of them are book heroes, some of them are real live people, some from movies, but they are all swoon-worthy to me. Either because of looks, strength of character, personality, alpha-ness, and how they treat women. They are not in any particular order. 1. Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Either Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyn, or the character as you imagine him from the book. 2. Rhett Butler. Definitely as I imagined him from the book, because although most women love Clark Gable, I could never see him in that role. 3. Indiana Jones. Love how Harrison Ford played that character in all the movies. 4. The Duke of Manchester from my book, The Duke’s Quandary. You’ll have to read the ending of that book to know why I love him as a hero. 5. Will Smith. Aside from being a really nice guy—from those who know—he plays great heroes in his movies. And looks pretty good, too. 6. Shrek… I know, but it’s my list. 7. Superman. Need I say more? 8. Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird. A true hero for his time. 9. Jon Snow from Game of Thrones…

Although the drama in my novel PLASTIC centers around a disfigured pop star and the plastic surgeon who is brought in ostensibly to restore her looks, yet realizes he’s there to erase evidence of a crime, it’s easy to forget that PLASTIC is also about a marriage on the rocks. You say, what? My intention had always been to make my high-flying Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Harold Previn hit bottom after his wife Helen Burke, decides he isn’t the man she fell in love with and walks out on him. This to me was the ultimate sign of how “lost” Previn is as the novel begins. I wanted to pose the question, could he redeem himself in Helen’s eyes? That to me was the ultimate measure of the journey he was on. But many readers come to a Hollywood conspiracy story like mine expecting just that, a by the numbers crime drama. So how to amplify the marital crisis without losing the reader? That was the challenge. And while it might be argued that subplots reinforce the main plot, it’s always a delicate balance. The crime genre has its particular demands. I’m reminded about how in his day John…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Can you tell us a little bit about CRASHING THE A-LIST and what inspired it? So…I had this mild heart attack a few years back. (Don’t all books start like this or…?) Anyway, I was lying in the hospital, hooked up to a million machines, and I had this sort of drug-induced fever dream about Benedict Cumberbatch and storage units, and when I woke up I thought it was weird enough to write down on my phone so I wouldn’t forget it. Then I was like, “Could this be a book????” and within an hour I had an entire synopsis and half the outline done. Clara is so awesome – I loved her sarcastic wit! Even though she’s going through a rough time after losing her job, Clara ultimately decides not to sell the info she has on super famous Caspian. How does this decision change the course of her life? For most of the book, that decision doesn’t have a single silver lining for her. Clara is more of a Netflix and jammies gal, not so much a celebrity espionage one. She tried to do the right thing and then gets stomped on from every…

Y’all, I’m a sucker for an accent. Big time. I’m especially fond of the Irish and Scottish ones. The way the men almost purr when they speak. About two years ago, I discovered why I might have an affinity for the Irish voices. My DNA says I’m 67 percent Irish. I had no idea. Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to that accent, or maybe, it’s just because that accent is sexy. In BET ME TO STAY, I made my new hero Liam Irish. He owns a pub in Boston, and it just felt right. Cassie was looking for a strong man, who wasn’t afraid of an intelligent woman.  And when she hears that deep, velvety, accent of his: she’s a goner. I might have also made him have an appreciation for plus-sized women, and he can cook. Who doesn’t want a man who can cook? That’s the great thing about fiction: we can create worlds that are realistic and, at the same time, take our fantasies for a ride. I fell for Liam as I wrote this. And it’s funny, so many people have commented that he’s their favorite book boyfriend. He’s far from perfect, but I love that…

You can read more about Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen and her reviews here! “But sometimes, the things you wanted most were the things that would destroy you.” Cynthia Eden, BOUND IN SIN In general, I’m a cozy mystery kind of a girl. I don’t usually go for movies or books that promise “high suspense.” That’s usually a turn-off for me. If a book has dog tags or a pistol on the cover the odds are that it’s probably not for me. Likewise, a film trailer or poster with some intense music or describing how the hero/heroine has a limited amount of time to defuse a bomb, rescue so-and-so, or recover the lost jewel of blah blah blah does nothing for me. I like scary movies, but usually with the violence that is cheesy and obviously fake rather than what I think of as “torture porn” – gratuitous torture scenes that don’t further the story or have us learn anything new about the baddies and generally just stick in my head like some toxic sludge that resurfaces even years later. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. I do read some mysteries and some romances with a few…

All right, he’s always been a bit weird. But a serial killer? Actually, several children have faced this question about their fathers. Fred West and his wife killed at least twelve people. His daughter suspected something was up. So did the daughter of Edward Wayne Edwards, who killed five people. Here are six things you should you do, and two things you shouldn’t, if you think your father secretly kills people. Look into his childhood history. Sixty percent of serial killers wet the bed beyond the age of twelve. Many were abused as children. Others were peeping Toms and voyeurs who also had violent fantasies and were fascinated by fires. Jeffrey Dahmer and David Berkowitcz tortured animals. But it’s not like your father’s going to talk about his aberrant history. You should investigate with his siblings or cousins. You may find he didn’t do any of this. That doesn’t mean he’s innocent. Dennis Rader, the BTK killer who murdered ten people, had a perfectly normal childhood.  Analyze his abnormal behavior around you. Maybe he once inexplicably erupted in violence as Dennis Rader did when he lunged at his son and tried to choke him. Or maybe he goes out wandering…

The detective first took me to her Captain’s office.  A long-time veteran of the force, the man was older than my escort, his once dark hair bleached silver by some combination of years and stress. He considered the detective the way a grandfather might look at a particularly studious kid, his eyes betraying admiration with a touch of amusement. She was a hard-working investigator and she was being interviewed by an author. He’d known her as a beat cop. Detective Shonah Maldonado, for her part, regarded her boss with a mix of respect and gratitude. He’d believed in her when few on the force had thought the junior female officers would rise much further than patrol. Her appreciation, however, was about more than his giving her a shot. The man was smart. He’d correctly identified a need for more female detectives to handle the kinds of crimes that were all too frequently crossing his desk: domestic abuse, sexual assaults, and child endangerment. Some female victims—and perpetrators—only opened up to women. And Maldonado, with her empathetic smile and patient demeanor, was just the kind of cop who could get folks talking. That day, though, I was at the station to get…