Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Elizabeth de Veer | On Ghosts…
Author Guest / September 17, 2021

My debut novel, THE OCEAN IN WINTER, was published by Blackstone Publishing this past July. It’s a story about three adult sisters whose mother died by suicide when they were children. It’s a story about loss and grief, but it’s also a story about ghosts. My first impulse in writing this book was, I wanted to create a ghost story where the ghosts reveal something important about the characters, where the ghosts have some meaning. Here’s the thing: I love a good ghost story. I love them told around campfires or unfolding – even reenacted! – on television, I love it (LOVE IT!) when people tell me about creepy things happening in their houses. I have never actually seen a ghost myself, but I have had a few experiences of inanimate things moving in strange ways at strange times. (Ask me about that later.) Side note: My ten-year-old daughter is obsessed with ghost stories. She’s too young for horror movies, but we have brought her to several places purported to be haunted, like, very haunted. I am sad to report that unlike a New England whale watch, when, if you don’t see a whale, they give you a voucher to…

Christina Hovland | Exclusive Excerpt: THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MOLLY
Author Guest / September 17, 2021

Chapter One “The very fact that you worry about being a good mom means that you already are one.” —Jodi Picoult Molly Of all the things Molly Princeton understood for certain, there was one thing in particular she had no doubts about—a woman was only as confident as her underwear. For real, she’d ask anyone to hear her out on this point. A girl could always spit shine the outside, but it was what lay underneath that told the true story. This was the reason she generally wore lace. Lace, unfortunately, that no one but herself ever saw. She sighed, a disappointed sigh that came from deep within the soul. Today, however, her life theory was thrown into a bit of a pickle, seeing as she wore no underwear at all. The no undies thing? Not her fault. Well, maybe a little her fault. She was the one who had forgotten to pack undies that wouldn’t show through the silk sheath dress her bestie Rachel had picked out for her as the maid of honor at her wedding. A wedding in the total boonies where there was no Nordstrom’s or even a Walmart to grab something that wouldn’t leave a…

Evelyn Sola | FIVE THINGS THAT MAKE ME FALL IN LOVE WITH A BOOK BOYFRIEND
Author Guest / September 17, 2021

I think it’s safe to say that a swoon-worthy hero, the ever-elusive book boyfriend, is what makes a good book great.  As a reader, I’m always chasing this man. To me, he’s like the unicorn of the contemporary romance world. They come in many forms. We have the nice guys, alpaholes, daddies, and Dominants, mob bosses, to name just a few. What’s swoon-worthy for one reader might not cut it for another. For example, I tend to prefer the nice guy to the alphahole, but nice guys and alphaholes can share many things in common. All the heroes in every single book I’ve written are different, but they each possess some of the same attributes that make me swoon. I’ve been reading romance way before I started writing, and it’s all about the hero for me. Yes, I love a strong, feisty heroine, but I read to find a book boyfriend, and now that I’m a writer, I can mold and shape my hero to meet my book boyfriend criteria. Here are the five things that make me fall in love with a fictional character, whether a nice guy or not. POSSESSIVENESS – A hero who knows what he wants…