Danielle: Hi, Roan! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. For readers who might not be familiar, can you give us a little rundown about your Garnet Run series?   Roan:  Totally! The Garnet Run series is what I’d call cozy romance. It’s set in the small town of Garnet Run, Wyoming where (in my head canon, at least) everyone is queer unless explicitly stated. We start with Better Than People, in which Jack, a grouchy and antisocial artist, breaks his leg and can no longer walk his pack of rescue animals. Enter Simon, a super-shy, virgin animal lover who takes over the task. As they get to know each other, Simon falls in love with Jack’s menagerie—and then with Jack himself. Jack, of course, is already smitten. We also meet Jack’s older brother, Charlie, who raised him after their parents died when they were teenagers. The second book, Best Laid Plans, is Charlie’s love story. Forced to grow up at 18, when he had to raise Jack, run the family business, and pay the rent, Charlie missed out on the whole self-discovery part of being young. Now in his thirties, he’s never had a relationship—he doesn’t even know if he has…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE STOLEN LADY: A Novel of WWII & the Mona Lisa  2–What is it about? Two women, separated by 500 years, hide the Mona Lisa—with unintended consequences. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  In a year when no one could leave home, traveling vicariously by writing THE STOLEN LADY truly kept me sane. In my imagination, I whisked myself away to Renaissance Florence, over the Alps to the Louvre, to the breathtaking châteaux of the Loire Valley, and to the hulking medieval abbeys of southern France. What an incredible imaginary journey during the strangest of times! 4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  As a novelist, I have long wanted to explore the mind of someone who threw a treasured possession onto the Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence in February 1497. But building out the mindset and background of such a character (Bellina—a servant in Lisa Gherardini’s house) made me ask so many questions and then rethink them all. 5–Why will readers relate to your characters?  Bellina (at the turn of the 16th-century) and Anne (in the 1940s) are average women facing extraordinary circumstances. I think we’ve…

As a former history teacher, I enjoy the research aspect when plotting and writing my Regency, Medieval, & Western historical romances. I have researched topics such as falconry, herbs, archery, the waltz, dime novels, food, and clothing of the various eras I write in. I can tell you the correct way to address a duke and the different positions men rode driving cattle to market. My recent Lawmen of the West series made for uncovering some fascinating facts, though! For Ballad Beauty, I visited the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Museum in Waco, Texas (after a stop at Magnolia Bakery, of course). I viewed different kinds of weapons and uniforms on display and recorded the oath each potential Ranger took. I also researched Irish ballads for this romance, as the heroine was tracking a treasure her Irish father had hidden. He provided clues to its location using songs he sang to her as a child. Blind Faith had me studying bullet wounds and blindness, which my US marshal suffered during a mission to rescue a kidnapped senator and his son, while I delved into 19th-century painting since my heroine was a landscape artist. I like to think she was just…

The Sheriff and the Cowgirl is the story of a romance that’s been a long time coming. What happens when a tenacious sheriff takes on a determined cowgirl and a champion bull? It’s never easy to make it in a man’s world, and cowgirl Tori Tremayne has chased the same dream most of her life—producing a champion bucking bull on the pro rodeo circuit. With her prize bull Maximus, she’s so close to winning top prize in the finals this year she can taste it. She can’t afford any distractions, especially not the tall, dark and swoony sheriff she’s admired forever. Sheriff Gray Dalton has been in love with Tori since they were kids. He doesn’t want to change Tori or derail her goals, but he does want to combine their dreams—build a life and family with her while she continues to pursue her career and passion. Gray knows he has to shake Tori up so he can step out of the friend zone she’s so determined to keep him in. Can Gray prove to Tori that with him she can have it all—career, love and a family? T – Tori Tremayne, a strong woman working in the man’s world…

1–What is the title of your latest release? ON LOCATION 2–What is it about? It’s a multicultural romcom between Alia and Drew, two crew members on an outdoor TV show. They have a VERY interesting meet-cute which results in them disliking each other, but then they have to work together on a series about the national parks in Utah. The host of the show is a D-list celebrity who is monumentally difficult, so Alia and Drew have to overcome their messy history—and budding attraction—in order to save the show. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  The book takes place in southern Utah, which is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s probably my ultimate hiking destination—I can’t think of a more beautiful landscape with the red rock landscape that goes on for miles and miles. I wrote ON LOCATION during quarantine/pandemic when I was stuck in my house dreaming about escaping to a gorgeous destination. Writing it was such a wonderful escape and gave me all the happy feels. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  I set out to write Alia as a tenacious and hardworking woman in the television industry who’s been through…

Danielle: Hi, Helena! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. Can you give us the quick elevator pitch for your new book, WHEN SPARKS FLY?   Helena:  When Avery has an accident that puts her out of commission for weeks, her best friend and roommate, Declan, steps in to take care of her. As they grow closer, lines blur and they take their friendship to the next level, but Avery’s past and Declan’s relationship baggage threatens to destroy everything. I love the setting of Colorado Springs for this book, as well as the backdrop of an event planning business for your heroine. What made you decide to set your books here and give your character such a high-pressure job?  Back in 2018, I attended a Book Bonanza, a book convention in Colorado. My family attended and afterward we took the opportunity to travel and see more of the state. I discovered that I’m not a fan of driving on the sides of mountains, but I did love the backdrop and wanted to set the story in Colorado. As far as a high-pressure job, when Avery and her sisters took over Spark House it was manageable, but when the backbone of the event hotel—Avery—is confined…

Hi Everyone! I’m TEE O’FALLON, a romantic suspense writer bringing you hunky heroes, feisty heroines, and courageous dogs. It’s great to be here with you today and to share some fun tidbits about my new book, SERVE ’N’ PROTECT, book 5 in the Federal K-9 series. U.S. Secret Service Officer Markus York doesn’t want or need anyone muddling up his life. Until he’s seriously injured and left for dead. The only help around is his way too cheery, way too enticing next door neighbor. If they can stay one step ahead of whoever’s trying to kill him, they just might have a shot at falling in love! Get ready… S is for surly. When Cassidy Morgan first meets Markus York, she thinks he’s the stereotypical surly cop. Until she discovers the warm, caring, and sensitive side of his personality. E is for eventually. No worries here, eventually Cassidy and Markus will find their HEA. R is for recovery. Both Markus and Cassidy are recovering not only from physical injuries but from emotional wounds, as well. V is for villain. This book’s got plenty of villains to keep the hero and heroine busy. E is for evil. The forces after Markus…

COLD FEET – The feeling of uncertainty about moving forward with your wedding In CHAOS AND COLD FEET, Sunny Meadows begins to have cold feet about her wedding. She knows she loves Detective Mitch Stone, but everything that can go wrong does go wrong in planning their wedding. It took forever to pick a wedding date in HAZARD IN THE HOROSCOPE, and Sunny’s horoscope revealed the best time for her and Mitch to get married. When people mention maybe changing their date, Sunny is horrified. She can’t possibly change her date. She starts to panic and begins to look at everything that’s going wrong as signs that maybe she and Mitch weren’t meant to get married. This time around, it’s Mitch convincing Sunny that these mishaps aren’t bad signs. They’re sabotage. Someone is trying to sabotage their wedding, and he won’t stop until he finds out who and why. Saying “I Do” is the easy part. Planning a wedding can be a very stressful time. I have been with my husband since I was eighteen years old and we’ve been married now for thirty-two years. That’s not to say everything was or is perfect, but we’re happy and that’s what…

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…

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…