Danielle: Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Amelia! Congrats on the release of the third book in your First Comes Love series, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR EARL. Amelia: Thank you for having me. I’m absolutely delighted to be here.  What do you think brings people back to historical romance?  For me and I assume for most, it’s the intrigue of living in a different era, learning about something that is old but new to us. Because I’m very settled and contented in the life I live in, it’s exciting and entertaining to read about a time when life was unlike what I’m used to. I especially love the pageantry, the clothing, and the manners of the Regency. Zane, the Earl of Blacknight, is a notorious rake and rogue. What did you love about writing him as a character?   Zane was very comfortable being the black sheep of the Blacknight family. When he became the earl and head of the family, he didn’t think he could do it and no one else in the family thought he could either. I loved writing about how he dealt with his meddling uncles and his younger cousin’s dangerous troubles. Most of all I loved how he was…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A COWBOY OF LEGEND 2–What is it about?  Saloon owner Deacon Brannock is fighting to save his business when Grace Legend with the Temperance Society and a bevy of marchers descend determined to shut the Three Deuces down. Grace has seen firsthand the devastating effects of alcohol and doesn’t want to bury another friend. Tempers flare as Grace and Deacon clash. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s set at the turn of the century when the world was changing so fast. The bigger cities had gaslighting on the street, there were trolley cars, reform was happening in many areas, and women were fighting for the right to vote and to have a say in how things were run. The unrest created the perfect storm for Grace Legend and Deacon Brannock. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  Grace Legend is such a strong, determined woman but I expected her to be far more rigid however, she could bend a little when needed. She could also mount a good argument—not that she paid Deacon Brannock’s side a lot of mind. She was too busy saving the world. 5–Why will…

More than meets the eye in A Wolf in Duke’s Clothing, Susanna Allen’s new Regency era Shapeshifter mash up. When I had the idea to combine the Regency Era and Shapeshifter genres, I was looking forward to playing with the clash between the two very different worlds: the manners and mores of the former and the sensuality and instinct of the latter. What I hadn’t bargained for was how much fun I would have coming up with names for my characters. Naming is important and it can be hard. It’s a big commitment and it informs the character’s whole fictional life. When writing contemporary romance, it’s a little easier as, say, the last name of a character would reflect their ethnic background—are they of Irish or Italian descent—and that in turn helped with deciding on the first name, and vice versa. I remember being totally stumped about what to call a secondary male in a work in progress and started scrolling through Nameberry for inspiration, which worked insofar as it planted a bunch of names in my subconscious and three days later my brain offered up the one that fit best.  Authors make great use of the baby-naming sites available…