Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Michelle Diener | Working on Worldbuilding
Author Guest / October 29, 2020

The best feeling in the world for me is when I am reading a book and fall so completely into the story that I feel like I’m there. That feeling of being transported is why I wanted to be an author from a young age. I loved that sensation and want to create it for others. I work hard to suck my readers in, and some of the best compliments I receive about my books is readers telling me they didn’t want to leave the world I’ve created, or that the book can’t be long enough for their liking. Or that they read through the night and ended up going to work in zombie mode. Winning! 🙂 I started out writing historical fiction, and while the times and places I wrote about really existed, as we don’t (yet) have the ability to travel back in time, it is still a foreign landscape. The world-building was just as intricate and challenging for my historicals as the worlds I create for my fantasy and science fiction romance novels. I think that’s why I was able to move from historicals into fantasy and science fiction so easily. The world-building skill-set was the same….

Elizabeth Bear | Q&A: MACHINE
Author Guest / October 29, 2020

What are you currently reading, watching, listening to? Well, along with the rest of the world, I just rediscovered Fleetwood Mac and I’ve been listening to their live album rather a lot. On audiobook, I just finished Jeff Guinn’s THE LAST GUNFIGHT, which is a pretty clear-eyed look at The Matter of Tombstone, often referred to as “The gunfight at the OK Corral,” but really a two-year trainwreck of patronage, black market cattle operations, and opportunism. I’m reading C.L.Polk’s THE MIDNIGHT BARGAIN, which is just as enjoyable as I expect, and Carlos Hernandez’s SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE, a very fun romp. (I totally read kid’s books and I think every writer should. Kids don’t have patience for a lot of nonsense.) My spouse and I have been watching LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, which just finished as I write this, and catching up on SCOOBY DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED. I am incredibly impressed by LOVECRAFT COUNTRY in general, though I did feel the ending was rushed and missed several opportunities for character development in preference for gotcha moments. They could have used a 90 minute finale. And of course we’re watching the current season of THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF, because we live…

Abigail Owen | 20 Questions: TRY AS I SMITE
Author Guest / October 29, 2020

1–What’s the name of your latest release? Try As I Smite 2–What is it about?  In a paranormal retelling of A Christmas Carol, two people usually at odds with each other have to learn from the past, present, and future in order to stop a demon uprising. Sometimes it pays to have a little devil in you. . .  3–What word best describes your heroine?  In charge 4–What makes your hero irresistible?  He’s incredibly powerful, but hasn’t been corrupted by it. His intentions, even when he’s being an ass, are about using his power, both as a mage and as a leader, to help. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Each other, oddly, given how against each other they start out. Delilah turns to her mother (which may or may not be a mistake) but her relationship with both parents is a little…unusual. Alasdair’s only family is his sister. He calls on the Convens Syndicate of magical leaders, of whom she is a part. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book?  The book is set primarily in the northern California mountains near Yosemite which is gorgeous and one of my…