As a romantic suspense author, I’ve heard and read complaints that romance authors create unrealistic expectations in our heroes. I beg to differ. My female and male heroes very much reflect my experiences in real life. They reflect people I know and love, including my husband. In fact, my perfect hero is much like the people in your everyday life, in all of our lives, struggling to be better and sometimes actually being their best selves. Keeping that in mind, here is my list of 4 perfect hero attributes. Funny–Have a good sense of humor or at least don’t take themselves so seriously. Though I’ve read and enjoyed books in which the blank-faced hero has no sense of humor, I’m a sucker for a funny and light-hearted hero or even a dry and witty hero. My husband has a very dry and witty sense of humor. He delivers his jokes straight, so there is often a processing pause to register the joke and then the burst of uncontrolled laughter. In the second novel of my Black Ops Confidential series, THE PRICE OF GRACE, there is a lot of tension and suspense, but also humor. Starting with Gracie when she’s hidden…

No matter the season, there’s alway a perfect hat, especially if it’s designed Sandra Bretting’s Missy DuBois. This super sleuth knows how to solve a mystery in style and her latest caper definitely takes a bite out of crime down South in Louisiana. This is Ms. Bretting’s fifth mystery in the series and it’s one of my favorites. (Although I’m not a fan of alligators–yikes!) ALL HATS ON DECK by Sandra Bretting A Missy DuBois Mystery #5 No Southern wedding is complete without a special veil designed by Louisiana hat maker Missy DuBois. But it’s hats off to Missy DuBois when she tries to save her town from a bayou killer . . .    When Ruby Oubre asks Missy to advise her grandson on a business idea, the successful owner of Crowning Glory is happy to oblige. After a quick jaunt down the river, Missy meets with eighteen-year-old Hollis about the viability of opening an alligator farm for tourists. But it isn’t an alligator Missy finds floating at the mossy bottom of the Atchafalaya River. It’s Ruby, and her death wasn’t caused by accidental drowning. It seems everyone from local tour boat operators to the chief of police and…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Please tell us a little bit about your new book, ONE DARK WISH, the second book in your Deadly Force Series.  ONE DARK WISH is both complicated and simple. At its core, it’s a basic love story about two people (Nate and Sarah) who should never have met and whose problematic lives mean they can never be together. The book also has an involved National Treasure-type plot where a group of dishonorably discharged ex-Green Berets, desperate to regain their honor, must stop a historian (the heroine Sarah Munro) from solving a 17th-century cipher. If Sarah solves it, one of their men will be killed. If she doesn’t, her father will die. Nate Walker, one of the ex-Green Berets who is struggling to keep his men together as a unit so they figure out how to fix their lives, is tasked with stopping Sarah. Except nothing can stop Sarah. While Nate and his men struggle to figure out this new civilian world they’re living in, why their enemy is throwing around old ciphers, and why they should even care (because it all seems ridiculous to these men of action), Sarah has uncovered a 17th century secret that may…

CHAPTER 1 “You look amazing, Allie,” Frances said to me. “Like the scariest of the walking dead.” I laughed. I could feel the makeup cracking, and so I tried really hard to get it together. “At least I don’t look like a real dead person. I’ve got skin flapping off my cheek.” I pushed on the latex flap that concealed the gory makeup underneath. “Thankfully, zombies aren’t real.” “I love the idea of the zombie walk,” Frances said. “The fact that the profits all go to the Red Dress Foundation is fantastic.” “I like the idea that all the bars and restaurants pitched in to supply food for the hungry masses,” I said. “Fudge isn’t exactly food,” she pointed out. “I bet there are a lot of people who would argue with you on that,” I teased. Frances was my hotel manager. She’d worked at the Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop since before she retired from teaching. Thankfully, she had stayed as an employee after my papa Liam McMurphy died and I inherited the family business. At this very moment, I was putting the finishing touches on my zombie pinup girl costume. I didn’t usually participate in late night…