What is the title of your latest release?GRACE & JO HAVE NEVER SOLVED A MURDER What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?When artist Garrett Baros is killed, his former assistant and his widow take investigating his murder into their own hands. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?My debut isn’t just the first book I’ve had published, but the first book I’ve ever attempted to write. I wanted to use a setting that I was familiar with without it being the city I lived in, in case I wanted to set a later more personal story in Pittsburgh. Philadelphia made sense because I understood the culture, weather, environment, etc. Plus, for the story to work I needed a city larger than Pittsburgh, but didn’t want to jump to commonly used cities like New York or LA. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Absolutely! She appreciates a good trash TV binge, loves tiramisu, and is never the most athletic woman in a workout class. Plus, she’s incredibly loyal, which is important to me as a person and also as a Taurus. What are three words that describe your hero?Honest, cautious, and witty….

What is the title of your latest release?NARCISSI What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Each of ten women is at a turning point in her life when she meets Cole Burnett, a charismatic Texas novelist who keeps moving on, driven by loneliness and a search for purpose. Confusing love and sex comes easy at midlife and there are consequences. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I’m in love with the Texas landscape and the complicated people who live here. In the 1980s when the novel begins, it was a generally optimistic place to be. A person at midlife, like Cole, could dream about the work he wanted to do. (Novelists, then, were big celebrities.) And the excitement of sexual adventure without consequences (post pill, pre-AIDS) could be overwhelmingly appealing to a person long married, as he had been. The women he meets are struggling with a variety of life issues—each one is at a pivotal stage. The last thing they feel is free, so his idea of freedom would be a foreign language to them. Because Texas allows him to be on the move like this within a consistent cultural framework, it lets us…

Welcome back to Jen’s Jewels, your go-to destination for the hottest new fiction. This week, I’m featuring THE 10:12 by Anna Maloney, a twisty thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page. When nothing is quite what it seems, every revelation raises another question. Read on! LIGHTNING ROUND What’s your favorite way to spend an autumn afternoon?Walking through the remains of one of London’s ancient woodlands, or making marmalade. What’s your go-to fall drink, snack, or sweet treat while writing?Cup of tea and a piece of fruitcake. THE FALL INSPIRATION What was the very first spark that inspired this story?It’s a cliché, but I really did have a dream about a train hijack. Did any character unexpectedly take the story in a direction you hadn’t planned?Isha, the woman with the baby, led me to her ex-partner, Rhind, which helped me put elements of the conspiracy together. Your setting feels like a character in its own right. What inspired you to choose it, and how does it shape the story?Train travel is probably my favorite mode of long-distance transport. It’s possible to move around, experience the passing landscape and people watch. Perhaps it’s all those old movies, but,…

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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Kate Hash! Writes:I write contemporary romance that features thirty- and forty-something leading ladies falling in love and figuring out new stages in life. My books are classic romantic comedies – expect to fall for not just with the love stories, but the supporting characters, settings, and hilarious hijinks, too! Confession: I’ve got a thing for North Carolina and my first two books are both set there. About:I used to bounce around every few years – Washington, D.C., Philly, Louisville, KY, Florence, Italy – but now I’m a homebody based on Chapel Hill, NC. Every year for my birthday I ask for one hour with my husband and kids where we all read by the fire and share a bowl of snacks (my personal heaven). Big fan of lazy weekends watching college sports, weekdays spent writing with the morning light creeping in, and year-round evening walks to appreciate the changing seasons. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match:• Loves a slow burn romance•…

What is the title of your latest release?ODETTE RISING What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?It’s 1896, and on the outskirts of Paris, Odette Huré watches a funeral bier carry her father’s coffin away. She is twenty-one and has not left the house for ten years. With the sudden death of her father, she discovers that she has inherited his fortune and a factory that makes sublime silk stockings for the Parisian elite. With these responsibilities thrust upon her she is forced into society, naïve and alone. What follows is a dark yet glittering tale in which Odette discovers her father’s secrets, the truth about her own identity and – with the help of an unconventional found family – how to live. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?The setting chose me. I saw the window grille from a demolished French house in the V&A museum in London. It was a stunning piece of Art Nouveau architecture -, a castle on the edge of Paris, commissioned by a woman in 1899. I wanted to know who would want such an extraordinary home and why she needed a castle. In my imagination, the owner of…

Each Friday the Smashwords store reports the bestselling indie fiction titles based on the previous week’s sales. If an author has more than one title eligible for the list, only the highest performing title will be included. This ensures high-performing titles receive the accolades they deserve, while providing up-and-coming authors the visibility they have earned. Don’t miss Monday’s Top 10 Hot Preorders List, where Smashwords will provide a list of the most highly anticipated ebook preorders.

Excerpt from THE FERRYMAN’S DAUGHTER by Yasmin Angoe: Sanaa Sanaa adjusted her cardigan, tapping the tip of her pen against her planner as she scanned for the next item on the agenda for this month’s science department meeting in an attempt to protect herself from the murkiness that her thoughts were trying to draw her into. The normalcy of her daily routine and being at school among seven hundred other people kept her anchored to the present and not languishing in the call of the past. There had only been the one body, Dani Cho, nothing really to connect to Sanaa’s father . . . or her. No one even knew who her father was, what he’d done. It was her cross to bear. Her darkest secret. They would continue to think he was a quiet academic, a prolific psychologist on the verge of groundbreaking studies on trauma health and support who suddenly disappeared during a trip nearly two decades ago and was presumed dead. They didn’t know about the hidden bunker on their lakefront property. The quiet graves. The boxed-up patient notes and case files on his tedious work that she should have come back when she was old…

Book Title: WRITER IN RESIDENCECharacter Name: Alexandra Chambers What do you do for a living?I’m a romance novelist. Or at least I was until Book Thirty decided it didn’t want to be written. Now I’m serving as a writer-in-residence, mentoring young writers while trying to remember why I fell in love with writing in the first place. You’re a writer. What are the themes in your personal story, and what tropes are you living right now?Family secrets, identity, purpose, heritage, community. Tropes? Possibly grumpy sunshine. (Hint: I’m not the sunny one.) Second chances mixed with a little slow burn. What do you have to be so grump about?Two world-shifting emails. One is from my new editor. She doesn’t want the book I’ve written, and the other is from Ancestry with a DNA match that should not be. My family has been turned inside out. How would you describe your family before the email and what about your childhood?My family…complicated. I grew up in a loving home with a single mother who always did the best she could, but there were always questions no one wanted to answer. I didn’t realize until much later that silence can become part of a…

What is the title of your latest release?DAUGHTERS OF THE WRECKAGE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?DAUGHTERS OF THE WRECKAGE tells the intertwined stories of Tess and Saskia, two women separated across four centuries, bound by the Batavia shipwreck and the secrets its wreckage holds. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?Well, the historical timeline determined that for me! The Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Australia, is certainly a setting like no other. I loved writing about the islands – in both timelines. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?I would definitely hang out with Saskia, my 17th century heroine. She is smart, brave and compassionate – and a true survivor. What are three words that describe your hero?Observant. Intelligent. Principled. What’s something you learned while writing this book?Oh, so many things. It’s going to be hard to narrow it down to one. But I’m going to say I learned that the joy you feel when you write the story you love is the most important and wonderful thing about writing. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?I can’t help myself and…

After the 2021 big 109-day road trip in our diesel pusher motorhome, and other travels, we needed a way to fund future trips. We opted to try workamping—working while camping in exchange for a site, utilities, and wages. We chose one of the highest-paying: guarding oil rig gates in Texas, which paid between $175 and $200 a day in 2023. The Texas Department of Public Safety requires private security guards to be licensed. We completed training for Level II non-armed licenses while parking our motorhome in our security company’s backyard. They scheduled us to be fingerprinted, and we waited just one night for our first assignment. The next day, our supervisor led us down dusty, GPS-unlisted ranch roads in Carrizo Springs where cell service vanished entirely. The security company provided a big generator to power our coach, an outdoor security light, a full water tank, and an empty holding tank. Because 24/7 coverage is mandatory, my husband took the day shift and I took the night shift, meeting our natural roles as a morning person and a night owl. Living remotely logistics were a challenge. Groceries were 20 miles away and gas was 19 miles, turning supply runs into four-hour…