Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Donna VanLiere | Exclusive Excerpt: THE CHRISTMAS TABLE
Author Guest / October 9, 2020

From The Christmas Table by Donna VanLiere Chapter Two Lauren Mabrey stands on the sidewalk at the entrance to Glory’s Place, welcoming children as they arrive for the after-school program. She finished her shift in the floral department at Clauson’s Supermarket an hour ago. Clauson’s has given her the morning shift so she can be at Glory’s Place each day by three to help. In November the twenty-three-year-old will mark two years of volunteering here and less than a year as a married woman. Just five months ago, in December, she stood in the gazebo in the heart of Grandon, surrounded by the townspeople who had adopted her as one of their own, and became Mrs. Travis Mabrey. She stumbled upon Grandon just a year and a half ago by accident, a literal crash. She was a witness to a car crash while driving through Grandon one day, was called back to town to identify the man involved in the hit-and-run, and never left. After years in foster families and with no family of her own to return to, she became a volunteer at Glory’s Place, fell in love with the children at Glory’s Place, with Grandon itself, and then…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: MILLICENT GLENN’S LAST WISH by Tori Whitaker
Author Guest / October 9, 2020

Jen: What inspired you to write Millicent Glenn’s Last Wish? Tori: When I was around five years old, I was at a big family reunion and overheard some older, distant cousins allude to the tragedy that I’ve fictionalized here. That mental vision of what happened stayed with me throughout my life. Years after the woman who was involved had already passed, I asked three people close to her if she’d ever spoken about it. They each said they’d had but one conversation in all the time they’d known he–—and they each had a different detail to share with me. I took those few details and built a whole story around them. The novel is set in two time periods. How much research was needed in order for the story to ring true with readers? I began with a sweeping search for information about the late-WWII years and early 1950s. Besides learning about fashion, media, foods and so forth, I discovered things like the need for prefabricated houses for growing families, and I wove that into my story. I read accounts written from women of the period, too–some of whom felt confined in their suburban homes and by a society that…

Susan May Warren | Exclusive Interview: THE PRICE OF VALOR
Author Guest / October 9, 2020

Hi, Susan! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your latest book, THE PRICE OF VALOR.  My latest release, THE PRICE OF VALOR, is the final book in a trilogy about a man’s search for his wife…and ultimately, a quest to save his nation. The wife of Former Navy Seal, Hamilton Jones has been missing and presumed dead for over a decade. But when Ham discovers that she’s not only alive, but has vital information about the safety of America, he has to find her, get the information, bring her home, and maybe, just maybe, reignite their romance. It takes place in Italy, Minnesota, and finally, Washington D.C. Can you give us an overview of your Global Search and Rescue series? What do you love most about this action-packed world you’ve created?  The G-SAR series is bigger, bolder, and braver than my Montana Rescue series–sort of Rescue on steroids. First, my heroes tackle crazy scenarios–like rescuing a team of women off Denali. Or choosing to ride out a Cat 5 hurricane. Or running from a tsunami. But they also go global– from Alaska to the Florida Keys to Italy. And finally, they not only encounter challenges…

Olivia Dade | Exclusive Interview: SPOILER ALERT
Author Guest / October 9, 2020

Hi, Olivia! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, SPOILER ALERT.  Hi! I’m Olivia Dade, a lifelong nerd and enthusiastic, pants-averse hag. I’m also a writer, and Spoiler Alert is my print debut. I’m incredibly excited about it, because the story tackles so many topics close to my heart: fandom, fanfiction, fatness, friendship, and family. It also contains a startling number of dirty geology puns, because no one stopped me!  Put briefly, the story is about a himbo actor, Marcus, who is secretly smart and hates how his worldwide-hit TV show has gone off the rails in recent seasons. He pours his frustration into anonymous fanfiction with the help of his online BFF, April–but if anyone found out he’d been criticizing his own show so openly, his career would be over. Which is a problem, especially once he meets April in person and falls in love. . . but can’t tell her they already know one another. Spoiler Alert is a sweet-hot romcom with lots of banter and emotion and nerdery, and if you read it, I hope you absolutely love it. The world of fandom is a relatively recent phenomenon in pop culture….