Book Title: WHITE RABBITCharacter Name: Penelope Willows Interviewer: How would you describe your family or your childhood?I live with my mother who is named Louie. She has brown hair and brown eyes and works at Pete’s Place on Tuesday and Thursday and at Benjamin Franklin’s on the weekends. She likes to take pictures of the ocean and smokes cigarettes when she’s feeling sad. I find them in the toilet when she forgets to flush. I have an aunt named Sharon who lives in West Virginia. Everyone calls her Apple because her hair is very red. She took me to Minnesota once. I ate chicken nuggets from McDonalds for the first time. Interviewer: What about your dad? What’s he like?I do not want to talk about him. Interviewer: What is your greatest talent?I can spell all the words on the even pages of the Webster Dictionary. Not many people know how to do that. Interviewer: You’re eleven years old. Do you have a best friend?My best friend is the ghost of Sylvia Plath. She once lived in the same house I live in now. Interviewer: What do you like to do together?We like to sit on the rocks beside the ocean…

Each Monday the Smashwords store lists the top ten most highly anticipated indie fiction ebooks based on the previous week’s preorder accumulations. Each title on the list is scheduled to release within the next week. To help the talented authors on this list accumulate even more preorders, click the title of the book. The hyperlink will bring you to a Books2Read page where you can order from your preferred ebook retailer. If the preorder is part of a series, click the hyperlinked series title to learn about the other books in the series. Be sure to check back Friday for a list of the Top 25 Bestselling Indie Ebooks.

I was always a bit of a weird kid.  I don’t say that in a disparaging way. I kind of love that I was weird. Maybe more now than back then, sure, but still. Most kids did not have my fascination with crime and solving mysteries, even if they did read some Nancy Drew. Mine was way beyond that, and I couldn’t get enough of reading, watching and trying to solve mysteries.  As I got older, I delighted in scaring my parents a little bit with my obsession. My dad couldn’t understand why I had a poster of Freddy Krueger had the prime real estate on my wall, right next to one of Johnny Depp from his 21 Jump Street days. My very first true crime book was about the serial killer Ted Bundy. And my first real research report was about Charles Stuart, the infamous Boston murderer from my own backyard. My fascination with a life of crime stemmed from my grandfather, who was a detective. He retired the year I was born, but he had stories for years to come. All G-rated, of course. But I LOVED them. My grandfather could really tell a story. I could listen…

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Jackie McMahon! Writes:My debut novel, THE CLOAK AND DAGGER CLUB, is a Golden Age-style, fair play mystery, set in London, 1930. The idea came from a real-life group called the Detection Club, a crime writing club that still exists today. It’s the first in a new series, with a sequel coming next year. THE CLOAK AND DAGGER CLUB follows Lucy, a debut novelist who is invited to the titular, exclusive mystery writers’ group. She accepts the invitation, even though Frank – a rising literary star and her ex-fiancé – is also a member of the club. When the club’s tyrannical president is murdered, Frank becomes the police’s prime suspect, and Lucy believes he’s innocent. The two crime writing exes team up to find the real killer, while fighting their lingering attraction. About:Historical mystery author seeks historical mystery readers. I’ve been a voracious reader since childhood and posted about books on Instagram and YouTube long before I became an author myself. In…

What is the title of your latest release?THE MAN What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Judith Stanley, a 1960s New Jersey housewife and talented amateur photographer, begins taking self-portraits in shop windows. When she prints the film, she sees the shadowy figure of a man in the background of every picture and begins to believe a past assailant has come back to stalk her. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?Like my main character, I live in the New Jersey suburbs. I love them for their beauty and convenient location but also for their quiet, dark nights, which partly inspired THE MAN. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Yes. She fascinates me, and I’d love to talk to her about her art, her life, her relationships, and her past. She’s very reserved, though, so I doubt she’d be fully honest with me. What are three words that describe your hero?Vulnerable, gifted, private/secretive What’s something you learned while writing this book?The laborious process of developing and printing photographs in a home darkroom. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?I wait until I’m totally done. I write…

What is the title of your latest release?JOVE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Ron Eldon answers a call telling him one of his agents is dead, jumped from Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Ron is a semi-retired MI5 agent, the news hits hard, because this time the agent was his daughter. How his daughter died is somehow wrapped up in a meeting Ron had with a Russian agent twenty years ago. Who hated her enough to kill her, or did her investigations lead her to a tragic end? How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I read an obituary of a dead English traitor who spied for the Russians and died over there and thought how a Security Officer reading that would have no regret. And then, the bridge! Clifton Suspension Bridge is in Bristol, my hometown, it seemed a fitting place for a suicide, which happens all the time. The bodies do float down to Avonmouth Docks where my dad used to collect them, he was a police officer at the docks. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?The heroine is Yolanda, and yes, I would, she’s a tough but…

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.

What is the title of your latest release?THE UNEXPECTED CALLER What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Just when a forty-something Amish widow decides she has no choice but to marry again, a mysterious caller opens up a whole new world – a secret club for Amish widows. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I created a fictional town in the middle of Ohio’s Amish country. I wanted to create a place where just about anything was possible. The town of Alliance became that place. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Absolutely, because Leanna has faced a lot of difficult life experiences but has remained sweet and hopeful. What are three words that describe your hero?Evan Keim is persistent, patient and passionate What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned to accept that my vision for this book had to be fine-tuned in order for the heroine’s story to be told well. I also learned to give myself permission to miss a deadline. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?I usually write about 2/3 of a book, then start revising and editing while I complete…

Excerpt from SUMMER OF LOVE by Kerri Maher: In this excerpt, Winnie Hartley and her sister Miranda and friend Rachel are at the Magic Mountain Festival, a major outdoor concert given in Marin County, CA, in June of 1967, the Summer of Love. Winnie has just gotten some food to share, and is heading back to her sister: Once I’d loaded up a plate, I headed back, chewing on a piece of curry-soaked naan, inhaling the smoke billowing from hundreds of pipes and bongs and joints, letting the sound of laughter and talk and guitars and drums from all around fill my ears and vibrate through my body.  There was a treat for every one of the senses, and the vibe was so good, so full of generosity and goodwill, I almost cried with overwhelming happiness.  One of every three blankets had some kind of sign atop a stake in the ground: “Bring the troupes home” and “Hell No, Nobody Goes,” amid an absolute wildflower field of peace signs, some of which had been made of bright orange paper poppies, since the real ones had died off by the end of May. And the concert hadn’t even started yet. I…

Excerpt from THE EXQUISITE TORMENT OF LOVING YOUR ENEMY by Brigitte Knightley: Osric Tall and stark stood the fortress of Swanstone. Its steep battlements, overtopped with moss and seaside centaury, tumbled towards the shore. Beyond the ramparts shivered an agitated sea. White waves crested like knife-cuts before collapsing into black water. The tide was rising. Outside the tallest window of the tallest tower sat Osric Mordaunt. Bastard by birth, Fyren by profession, scoundrel by inclination. Inside the tallest window of the tallest tower sat Aurienne Fairhrim. Respected Haelan, preeminent scholar, and champion of moral good. Once upon a time, Osric had regarded Fairhrim as purely functional, as a Means to an End whose sole merit was that she was the only one who could heal his disease. He had considered her haughty and cold, insufferably high-handed, and-most damning of all-pretty at best. He had thought he hated her. He had been wrong. He had been wrong about many things. Fairhrim asked, “Is something the matter?” Osric shook his head, but it was a lie. Something was the matter. He was falling for her. Thrilling. Sickening. He held the truth unspoken. He tasted it on his tongue. The sun rose like a lover,…