1–What is the title of your latest release? I actually have two books releasing in the month of April. KEEPING THEM SAFE is contemporary for Love Inspired and the other is a single title western historical. I’ll focus on the historical, CLAIMING HER LEGACY. It releases everywhere April 26. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Desperate to earn the bounty that will save her land claim in 1890’s Oklahoma Territory, a tomboy with gumption to spare must convince a flawed guide battling past demons to track her father’s murderer into dangerous outlaw territory. But first she must get him sober. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The idea for the setting, as well as the entire book, came from a photo I saw at the Territorial Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma. A lone woman stood outside a make-shift tent, rifle in hand, to protect her land claim after the Land Rush of 1889. Even as the rest of the country became more genteel and civilized in the late 1800s, Oklahoma was still the wild west. With research opportunities all around me and such a varied and fascinating state history, AND with the many…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A SCOT OF HER OWN – Book One – Once Upon a Scot Series 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When mighty Thorburn MacDougall fells the canniest Norwegian he’s ever battled in close combat, he discovers the adept warrior isn’t a man at all. She’s a blue-eyed beauty with fire in her eyes, fury in her soul, and the determination to escape from her cruel brother no matter the cost—even if it means becoming the prisoner of the most notorious Scottish warlord the isles have ever known. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I didn’t. Adellis and Thorburn came to me and demanded their story be told. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Even though Adellis is a wounded warrior in her own right, her loyalty is steadfast—unless you cross her, of course. She loves as fiercely as she fights and never turns her back on those she cares about. You’d never get mean girl cattiness from Adellis. She might tell you what you don’t want to hear, but she would only do it because you needed to hear…

What made you decide to write series about governesses? JANE EYRE fan? Or just interest in the way women at the time struggled to earn a living? I can’t really recall the reason. The series was written nearly ten years ago, and they were all short stories and were only published for a year. I always knew that that there was much more to their stories and finally revisited them. The books changed so much that I gave them new titles, new covers, and a new series name.   It’s not totally clear to me from the description for TEMPTED BY A GOVERNESS, but how do Katrina and Timothy get thrown together? What’s the dynamic between them like? Katrina had inherited her father’s book shop, but the debts he also left her were too high. She had no choice but to finally sell all the contents and return to her previous vocation as a governess. Timothy tired of his position as a Fellow at Oxford and when he saw the advertisement selling the contents of a bookshop, he decided to quit his job to open a lending library. The romance began in the book shop and discussions over Timothy’s travels….

Rachel Gibson: First let me say Hello to everyone at Fresh Fiction. You all give the best events and parties, and it’s great to chat you again.   Your new book DROP DEAD GORGEOUS involves some body swapping—what appealed to you about that idea? Were you a Freaky Friday fan?  I loved Freaky – “I’m like the Crypt Keeper!” – Friday, but it wasn’t the inspiration for DROP DEAD GORGEOUS. The idea for DDG came from my deep dislike for amnesia plots. I’ve always said that I would never write an amnesia book. However, I am a contrarian which mean that at some point I’m going to twist and bend a plot until it works for me. Every book I’ve written starts with “what if…” What if one woman’s soul jumps into another woman’s body, and she must pretend she has amnesia for the rest of her life?   The thing I like about body swapping or soul swapping stories – depending on how you look at it – is that the characters in the swap often learn more about what makes them unique, and their personality and perspective sometimes evolves. Would you say that’s true of the main characters in DROP…

I’ve always been fascinated by the spectacle of celebrity, particularly as a backdrop for romance stories. The place where the fantasy of fame meets the hard realities of the spotlight is rife with dramatic and comedic possibilities. Plus, there’s that thrill of getting to peek behind the VIP barricade and/or stage door to see how the sausage is made (so to speak). And let’s not forget the tropes! Celebrity romance stories are tailor-made for so many of my favorites—fake relationship, forced proximity, fish out of water, rags to riches, reformed rake, taming the beast, and so many more. Given all that, it’s no surprise I love to read them as much as I love to write them. Below are five of my top five celebrity romances written by some of my favorite authors, plus a brand new one written by me! Act Like It by Lucy Parker This is the first book in Parker’s excellent London Celebrities series, focusing on the West End theater scene. When a stage actor and notorious misanthrope finds himself in need of an image boost, he reluctantly agrees to a faux-mance with a resilient up-and-coming stage actress, leading to two of my favorite romance tropes—grumpy/sunshine…

WHEN BLOOD LIES is the 17th in your Sebastian St. Cyr series. What keeps this character inspiring for you? Sebastian St. Cyr is such a complex, dynamic character: he’s clever and passionate and honorable, although he’s also willing to step over a few lines when necessary. I find that if I’m away from Sebastian and Hero and the others for too long, I miss them and get impatient to start the next book. A part of that is probably because there is an important personal story arc that runs through this series, plus several overarching mysteries that make this series unusual, and I suspect help keep it fresh for me. Before I started the series I had only written standalones. It’s fascinating for me as an author to be given the opportunity to follow a set of characters through years of their lives, exploring the ways they grow and change because of various life events and experiences. And of course, the period is fascinating. We tend to think of the Regency in terms of balls and carriages and duels at dawn, but there was so much more to it than that. This was the age of Napoleon and Goethe, Byron…

How much historical research is involved with your books? It depends on each book. Sometimes the particular subject matter or slice of historical time in which the book is set requires a great deal of research, and sometimes it’s not quite so intensive. And of course, that is on top of the vast amount of background research about all the particulars of the time period and my characters’ backgrounds that I conducted before ever beginning to write the series. Plus, I’m often reading general and social histories during my free time, simply trying to always be increasing my knowledge and search out interesting plot ideas.   In A PERILOUS PERSPECTIVE there is a forgery and a murder. Do you normally have different criminal elements along with murder? Sometimes. Though, not always. I was inspired to explore the art forgery aspect for this book because Lady Darby is a gifted portrait artist, and I hadn’t utilized that trait fully with any of my recent plots. It was an absolutely fascinating subject to research, and then try to figure out how much my heroine could have feasibly known and been able to detect in 1832 versus all the tools we now have…

I’ve always been fascinated by mysteries and thrillers set in small towns. I’m sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up in a small university town in rural Quebec. My town seemed quite enough – but that was only because my parents did a good job of keeping its rumors and scandals under wraps. Like every other small town, it harbored its share of secrets, and by the time I was a teenager, I’d come to understand that you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.   In DEAD WIND, the third mystery in my Shana Merchant series, Senior Investigator Shana Merchant pulls back the veil on the Thousand Islands of upstate New York and Ontario, and discovers that her new community is concealing secrets and grudges that some people think are worth killing for. If you love a small-town mystery, here are four crime fiction series to watch, all of which have a similar vibe to DEAD WIND. Shetland   Based on the excellent crime fiction series by British mystery writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland isn’t just set in a small town, but on small islands. The series follows Detective Inspector Jimmy…

1–What is the title of your latest release? FATAL FAMILY SECRETS – April 19th, 2022 A rom-com ghost mystery with a Scooby gang you’ll want to join! 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When a boy’s guardian angels turn deadly, he needs help only the gang from Spook Central can provide. But his pretty older sister throws a twist into the budding romance between Johnny Redhawk, who’s developed a new and game-changing power, and the gang’s resident witch Maya, who thinks they should cool things off. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Years ago, for a book signing, I drove a couple of hours east to a small town near Saratoga Springs New York called Burnt Hills and fell in love. There was a new & used bookstore, The Ballston Book House in Ballston Spa, just a stone’s throw from there, in a converted and happily haunted Victorian house. That’s the setting. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? For sure, because I am my heroines in real life. Every one of them has a multitude of my own traits in varying combinations and levels. Some have my potty…

Your new book THE FORGOTTEN DEAD has two things I love – psychic abilities and a seemingly haunted house. What attracts you as a writer to these themes? I’ve loved spooky stories since I was a kid, even though I was deeply terrified for ghosts for most of my childhood. I still love creepy stories, whether they be something like M.R. James’s “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” or a contemporary action-driven series like J.L. Bryan’s “Ellie Jordan, Ghost-Trapper” books. I think the thing that draws me to ghostly stories is the concept that they tend to center some past injustice, a psychic wound that reaches through time, crying out for resolution. It’s hard to go wrong with a set-up like that!   Can you describe the dynamic between Nigel and Oscar? Do you alternate between perspectives throughout the book? Oscar is a big guy with a big heart. He’s a former college football player turned accountant, who leads a ghost-hunting team on the side. He’s the one who’s always trying to look out for other people, make sure they have what they need, that they’re comfortable. He’s also been seeing ghosts since childhood but is in…