PROLOGUE London March 1941 The cool, clear night shuddered, then moaned as the fluctuating drone of hundreds of engines eclipsed the silence. A wave of planes like angry hornets slipped through the darkened sky over a city already wearing black in preparation for the inevitable mourning. She tasted dust and burnt embers in the back of her throat as she hurried through a crowd of stragglers running toward a shelter. A man grabbed her arm, as if to correct her movement, but an explosion nearby made him release his hold and hurry after the crowd. She shifted the valise she cradled in her arms, the pressure on her chest making it difficult to breathe. Fatigue and pain battered her body, both eagerly welcomed, as they disguised the bruise of overwhelming grief. She staggered forward, the blood dripping unchecked from her leg and forehead, the acrid stench of explosives mixed with the sharp smell of death. Gingerly, she moved through the darkened high street so familiar in the daylight but foreign to her now. The night sky blossomed with fire and scarlet light as the loud bark of the antiaircraft guns answered the banshee wails of the warning sirens. Pressing herself…
Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Sandra! We are so excited to have you here today. What inspired your new book, WINNER TAKES ALL? First of all, thank you for reaching out to me and requesting the interview. I’m happy to answer any questions that will help readers understand me and my work! WINNER TAKES ALL is actually the first book of a trilogy I proposed to my publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca. The trilogy title is The Millionaires Club. There have been quite a number of books about million/billionaires who use their position and wealth as an aphrodisiac to lure women, or as a tool to seduce or buy their way into getting whatever they want. It’s said that money is only worth what you can do with it. I wanted to go bigger than just the spending ’til you drop thinking. So I came up with an idea that The Millionaires Club, which is founded in WINNER TAKES ALL, is a club where people who’ve come into incredible unearned wealth decide, after indulging their fantasy purchases or whatever, that they could also do a lot of social good with some of their money. The “theme” of using wealth for goodwill follow through…
Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Elizabeth Goddard! Writes: My romantic suspense style of writing includes fast-paced action and a whole lot of adventure. I love to transport my readers to stunning landscapes, which, by the way, make for great adventures. My newest book, PRESENT DANGER, is the first book in my new action-adventure series, Rocky Mountain Courage. Terra Connors is a U.S. Forest Service Special Agent who joins up with her old flame, FBI agent-turned-county-detective, Jack Tanner, to find a killer. Terra is dead set on proving she has the same steel, the same mettle, as her hero mother who died on a SAR mission. And Jack? He just wants to protect Terra from the rising danger because, if he fails this time, it’ll cost much more than their hearts in this tale of deceit made of hidden crimes, open threats, and long-buried family secrets. About: Adventurous, artsy, fun-loving hopeless romantic author desperately seeking readers who want heroes who are real men with honor and courage, and…
Lovestruck Fire Department Captain Jason McBride lingered in the tool aisle of the mom-and-pop hardware store on Main Street, staring blankly ahead at the hammer display. Why had he come in here on the way back to the station from his doctor’s appointment, again? He pressed hard on his temples in an effort to force his careening thoughts back on track. There’d been a reason for this errand. He was certain of it. He just couldn’t remember what it was. Calm down. It wasn’t the worst news. You’re not dying or anything. Everything’s going to be fine. He squeezed his eyes closed and tried not to think about the look of concern on Dr. Martin’s face or the intimidating words printed at the top of the brochure the doctor had handed him. NIHL—Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Accompanied by Tinnitus. It wasn’t a brain tumor, as he’d feared. That was the good news, and Jason was grateful for it. He truly was. But the bad news was indeed bad. NIHL was permanent, as was the tinnitus. How was he supposed to live—and, more importantly, do his job—with a constant roar in his ears? Just yesterday, he’d missed an entire conversation over his…
Jen: What inspired you to write Life’s Too Short? Abby: I wanted to write a true opposites attract love story! Opposites attract is such a challenging trope, because you really have to make the reader think they’re too different from each other for it to work—but then you have to show the reader how they do work and you need to make that believable. It’s a juggling act. Adrian is a straight-laced, workaholic attorney. He plans everything, he doesn’t do spontenaity, he thrives on routine, never has fun. Vanessa’s a free spirit in every sense of the word. Vanessa has a 50% chance of developing ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease that runs in her family, and she’s set on living her potentially short life to the fullest. She goes where the day takes her and she finds joy and excitement where she can. She never makes plans, she never saves anything for later because she doesn’t know if there will be a later. The way I write my heroes is I ask myself who the heroine is, then I write the man she needs. But in this case, they both got exactly who they needed. It was so fun to…
TD sat in a sound booth at the recording studio in Clarkston with walls treated with what looked like egg cartons. He snapped his fingers in front of the long silver microphone with the word Neumann on it. The sound in the room was deader than a doornail. And that microphone looked like it cost more than his tow truck. In front of him sat a clear acrylic stand holding ad copy and he read it through silently. Butch Williams had car dealerships in three states and ran spots on stations in all of those markets. They were looking for an “authentic” voice that stood out. This was TD’s chance. A bearded man in the control room pushed a talkback button and spoke into TD’s headphones. “It’s Titus, right?” “I go by TD.” “All right, TD. Whenever you’re ready. I’m rolling.” TD rubbed his hands on his jeans. His tongue felt thick, his mouth full of cotton. The door opened in the control room and someone stepped in and stood in the dark corner. “If you’re looking for a deal on a new or used car, come see Butch. We’ve got dependable, affordable used cars that won’t break your budget….
So here she was, sitting at her desk among the many other desks, with Dan Cochran’s tantalizing crotch at eye level while he went through last month’s expenses. She’d only known Dan for a couple of months – he’d been brought in by the new owners while she was on leave – but she already liked him a lot, and not just because he was so scorchingly sexy. He was also a really nice person, a listener, almost boy-next-door nice. Before Olivia, that lack of edge, his mildness, would have been a turn-off. Jake didn’t do nice. He was exciting, unpredictable, mercurial and she’d always been drawn to that in a man. It made her feel alive – or at least it used to. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jake now, lying on a portable massage table in the office she’d lovingly decorated. Everybody knew it was the best office in the building: big enough for ten desks, and still with room to spare. The view over the bay was exquisite: you could see for miles along the shoreline and all the way to the woods that topped the nearby cliffs. There was a balcony…