Book Title: AN ETHICAL GUIDE TO MURDER Character Name: Thea Greaves How would you describe your family or your childhood? Not ideal. Dead parents. Deep seated need for revenge—Opps, I mean justice. Raised by a granddad who thinks ‘How are you?’ is a personal question. What was your greatest talent? Most people would say it’s my ability to tell when people are going to die just by touching them and redistribute that life from one person to another. But I’d say it’s my extensive chorological knowledge of Busted and S Club 7. Significant other? Sam, my partner in life, death and murder. He doesn’t want to put a label on it though. It’s cool, I’m very chill about it. Biggest challenge in relationships? I can’t think of anything. As I said I’m just a very chill person. Why, did someone say I wasn’t? Give me their name. Where do you live? In Clapham with my real significant other, best friend of seventeen years, Ruth. She gives me subsidized rent and I steal her food. To be fair, I did save her life. Sure, I killed someone else in the process, but it was an accident, to begin with… Do you…

Good morning!  It’s early because that’s when I saddle my horse Jake, and ready myself to deliver the mail across the rugged North Oregon Coast. My name is Mary Gerritse and I’m the first woman to carry mail bags along the beach, wary of the tides and careful on the treacherous trails over the mountain. I didn’t always have this job but that’s another story. I’d like to introduce you to a town on the Crying Sands Beach – known by some as Cannon Beach – but no town existed there when my story begins. So I can’t tell you about the salt water taffy shoppe or the boarding house because they came later. Instead I’ll introduce you to some of the landscape features that affected my life. An Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, who lived before me, wrote once that “I describe myself as a landscape, studied at length and in detail.” Every day on my route, I have the privilege of studying this remarkable landscape where tall timber marches down to the sea and the Pacific rolls in to surround the rocks. I’ve learned about myself through the challenges of navigating those rocks and ridges. And through homesteading…

Creating a playlist for each book I write is a key part of my process. Honestly, I don’t think I could write without music driving me along! So here are five songs that I listened to on repeat while writing and that fit the vibes of RIDE WITH ME, a Formula 1 romance that kicks off with an accidental Las Vegas wedding, perfectly. Marry You – Bruno Mars “It’s a beautiful night, we’re lookin’ for somethin’ dumb to do Hey, baby, I think I wanna marry you” When it comes to upbeat anthems about getting married on a whim, this has to be the go-to. Considering our main characters, Stella and Thomas, put very little (drunken) thought into their decision, this is definitely fitting! Married in Vegas – The Vamps “Under the neon lights I think we might get married in Vegas” How could I have a book about getting married in Vegas without the song “Married in Vegas”? This one from The Vamps is such a bop and has plenty of nods to taking a gamble on someone, which is exactly what Stella and Thomas do for each other—and it certainly pays off in the end. Olivia Rodrigo –…

1–What is the title of your latest release? RULES FOR RUIN (Crinoline Academy, book 1) 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Great Expectations meets Peaky Blinders, with a dark academia vibe. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The Victorian era is my favorite period in history. I love the grit and the atmosphere, and the social and political dynamics at play. It was a period of great change, when people had to either learn to adapt or be left behind. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. Effie Flite is witty, loyal, and possessed of a keen sense of fashion. All qualities I admire! She’s also a girl’s girl, with a strong sense of sisterhood. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her friends. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Clever, courageous, determined. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? During the course of my research, I learned just how revolutionary it was for mid-Victorian women to be thoroughly educated, and to be taught things like basic self-defense. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I edit as I draft….

You’ve heard it before, but let me scream it again: “So many books … so little time!” And I’m yelling not just about any old books but about great reads that will appeal to story lovers everywhere. First off, the always brilliant Emily Henry delivers a wonderfully captivating and engrossing tale in her new novel, GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE. Her previous romantic titles served as descriptors for her various enamored couples, but the “life” embedded in this title refers not to Alice or Hayden—two journalists competing to author a biography—but to an aging former celebrity who’s been missing from public view for decades. Margaret Ives’s story, as she meters it out in imprecise drips and drabs, does, indeed, describe a “big” life, but just how “beautiful” it was puzzles Alice and Hayden as they simultaneously struggle to decipher the disingenuous octogenarian’s stories and manage the growing passion they feel for each other. I’ve enjoyed many of Ms. Henry’s books, but I truly loved this newest offering, as much a fine and rewarding mystery as a satisfying romance. Kennedy Ryan has a new book out, and I was lucky to get an early copy of the astounding CAN’T GET ENOUGH. As…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LOVE LETTERS TO A SERIAL KILLER 2–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and recently moved back after living in Alabama for 11 years. I always like to take the opportunity to set books in the Midwest and South, places that don’t normally get a ton of coverage. 3–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? We would absolutely watch reality shows together. I think she would be obsessed with the Craig Conover and Paige DeSorbo break up. 4–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Driven, paranoid, and lonely. 5–What’s something you learned while writing this book? There are a lot more psychopaths than I thought, and the traits weren’t always what I expected. For instance, I didn’t realize that impulsiveness is associated with psychopathy. 6–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I wait until I’m totally done. I’m more of big, structural reviser than someone who fixates on line edits. I’m very grateful for what copy editors do! 7–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? I eat breakfast sandwiches nearly every day….

1–What is the title of your latest release? SOMETIMES YOU STAY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When digital content creator and professional traveler Cretia Martin accidentally loses the tools of her trade on Prince Edward Island, she’s forced to stay put until she can replace them. But the longer she stays, the more she discovers that her life on the road can’t provide true friendship—and love. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I was so excited to return to the Red Door Inn on PEI’s fabled north shore. North Rustico is one of my favorite places in the world, and I loved getting to write another book set there and visit some old (fictional) friends. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Definitely! Cretia has a wealth of stories from her trips around the world, and I’d love to hear those and compare hilarious travel stories. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Nomadic. Adventurous. Hopeful. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I would personally make a very terrible travel content creator, especially one who can pack everything she owns into a carry-on. I’m a…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MARGUERITE BY THE LAKE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? An atmospheric, tense novel about the death of a glamorous garden designer, a widower trying to keep his secrets buried, and the beautiful young gardener who finds herself entangled in their lives. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I had a conversation with a friend that stuck in my mind. She told me about an argument with a family member; she described being so upset one night that she left her house at midnight and walked by herself in the dark around the lake near her house. That stayed with me—the image of a woman walking on a dark, deserted lakeside road in the middle of the night. And that was the very first scene I wrote. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I would hang out with her because I was intrigued by her, but I wouldn’t become friends with her. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? resourceful, disciplined and desperate 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I took a gardening class early in the…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A LESSON IN PROPRIETY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? With her father dead, her fortune stolen, and her fiancé casting her aside, Miss Drusilla Merriweather’s privileged life has been upended. She is left with only one option: to provide for her family by opening a finishing school in the allegedly haunted castle she’s inherited from her eccentric aunt. However, her plan is immediately threatened by unscrupulous developers keen on claiming the coveted estate for themselves by any means necessary. Mr. Rhenick Wittenbecker, a dashing architect with a tendency to charm his way out of trouble, is convinced he can protect Drusilla but is challenged by her fierce independence. Yet when strange occurrences–walking suits of armor and unexpected ghostly visitors–arise within the castle’s grounds, Drusilla must decide whether to risk her family’s safety and her school on the gallant architect who seems to have found his way into her heart. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I needed a place where a member of the upper echelons of New York high society would shudder at the mere thought of living, so – Chicago it…

Although SLIPSTREAM is a book about a documentarian and the Formula 1 driver starring in her film, music is a pretty big part of the book, too! The heroine, Lilah Graywood, is a major britpop fan, and often wears old band T-shirts while running around the F1 circuits with her camera. And well before any of the big love confessions, our hero Arthur admits that he’s looking up the bands on her shirts. So here are four of the songs I imagined they’d both listen to in the book, based on Lilah’s wardrobe! When The Sun Hits by Slowdive Slowdive is the first T-shirt of the book, and one of my all-time favorite shoegaze bands, so I had to work them in somehow. I can totally imagine this song playing during the rooftop scene. Arthur is an F1 driver and has to travel the world. Once Lilah stops making the documentary about him, they won’t be around each other. At all. Slowdive puts it so simply in this song: “It matters where you are.” Linger by The Cranberries The second T-shirt of the novel! This song is about being so tenderly annoyed by having feelings for someone, an emotion that…