This week, I’m diving into the fictional world created by Amin Ahmad. His new release, A KILLER IN THE FAMILY, explores the hidden, elite world of New York City and what happens when you marry into a wealthy family that keeps secrets. If you’re looking for an intoxicating drama, this book is for you. LIGHTNING ROUND In three words, describe the feeling readers will have when they finish your book.Awaiting the sequel! What’s your favorite writing season: cozy winter, hopeful spring, beachy summer, or reflective fall?Fall and winter, definitely. I can sit at my desk on a cold, gloomy day and dream a story into existence. During the summer I want to be at the beach or outside on a walk! What’s one snack or treat that always appears when you’re deep in writing mode?Dark chocolate! Swiss or Belgian. It’s sweet and has that caffeinated kick. If your main character had a motto, what would it be?Watch out for yourself! What’s one small thing that instantly puts you in a creative mood?I make a playlist for each novel I write. When I hear the opening note, I’m back into the world of the book! It’s Pavlovian, but it works. THE…

I adored digging into vintage music to set the mood for SHIP OF DREAMS, set aboard Titanic. Here are five songs I had on my playlist to help me set the scene: Salut d’AmourThis lovely, lyrical piece by Edward Elgar features violin and piano and if you’ve watched any period dramas set during Victorian times or later, you’ll undoubtedly recognize it. It’s easy to imagine it in the background of a beautifully laid afternoon tea, or perhaps during a delightful dinner with the clinking of silver on fine china and the sparkle of crystal. Bonus points for romance: the composer wrote it as an engagement present to his future wife. Oh, You Beautiful DollSurprisingly, there was no dancefloor on Titanic, but music accompanied dinner in the upper classes and the on-board orchestra entertained passengers. I’ll confess, every time I hear a ragtime ditty I picture the Crawleys dancing to Rose’s phonograph in Downton Abbey. What I love about this particular piece is how spirited and jaunty it is… expressing the gaiety of those in first class, who, for the first days of the journey, didn’t seem to have a care in the world. FascinationAnother tune that is so recognizable! This…

What is the title of your latest release?ANY MEANS NECESSARY What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?ANY MEANS NECESSARY is a spicy dark romance with a confident plus-size main character and the dangerous, tattooed mafia man who becomes obsessed with her. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I needed a major city that’s commonly associated with organized crime. So, as an east-coast girl who was born and raised in New York, picking New York City just felt right. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Absolutely! I wrote my main character to be realistic and relatable with the goal of creating the perfect addition to my friend group. Lexie knows how to have a good time. What are three words that describe your hero?Omniscient, powerful, and complex. What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned so much while writing this book, it was my first experience finishing a story. But the most important thing I learned was that the best thing your can do as an author is stay true to yourself and write the story on your heart. Someone out there needs your story and your readers will find you….

Song 1: Maria – Kerala DustThis song gets first place because it’s kind of the theme of my two main characters, Sadaré and Daesra. I don’t always listen to music when writing, but I played this one over and over again while drafting both EXQUISITE RUIN and DIVINE DESCENT. It’s mysterious, it’s sexy, and it has fantastic lyrics, like: You’re a comma to a question or a point that can’t be raisedAn incident that wakes you to a sun that never cameAn answer to some riddle or a consequential truthBut some might say that’s why I fell for you And that’s just Sadaré and Daesra in a nutshell, with their tangled, magnetic relationship. Song 2: Black Hole – Ben Böhmer, MonolinkI’ve been a huge Monolink fan for a long time (I think I’ve seen him three or four times live?), and his music has always been on my writing playlists, but especially for DIVINE DESCENT. This song, Black Hole, really also evokes the toxicity of Sadaré and Daesra’s relationship, but also the depths to which they both will go for each other. Once there was no distance, no space between us twoOnce I fell, I fell into your black holeOoh,…

“I Hate It Here” by Taylor SwiftThis song is like a thesis statement for WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT. Swift describes a narrator who feels trapped in real life, forcing them to retreat to a secret garden in their mind. This is a perfect description for where Nelle and James are at the beginning of the novel. The line “I’ll get lost on purpose / This place made me feel worthless” especially rings true for Nelle and the environment she endures with Quill. “No mid-sized city hopes and small-town fears” is more in line with James and his dream of having of a life beyond rural Lincoln, Georgia. “Fourth of July” by Sufjan StevensIf WHISPERS OF INK AND STARLIGHT had an introduction theme, it would be this song. The eerie production mixed with Stevens’s soft vocals portrays the tone of the novel, while the lyrics themselves are uncannily applicable to the plot itself. There is a lingering sadness to this song, an undercurrent of dark emotion that is mirrored in James and Nelle’s story. “A Burning Hill” by MitskiI won’t give away spoilers, but this song is the background music to a scene that takes place near the end of…

Savannah, Relient KAn irrepressible smiley-face of a song about the most beautiful city in Georgia, which is the setting for A SPELL FOR SAINTS AND SINNERS. Savannah is the town where Ingrid White was born and raised, the only place she’s ever lived, and a place she clings to. It’s interchangeable with her grandmother who has passed away and given left Ingrid her psychic shop. Ingrid loves the sultry weather, sea winds, and the Georgia sun all around her, but even as she revels in these things, she worries that things are changing in her home city. The Prophecy, Taylor SwiftIngrid believes in what all the signs of the universe seem to be pointing to – that she’s destined to rise from her financial struggles to be a part of the Loeffler family, best friends with Sailor and true love of Cas. But she also fights the feeling that she is destined to be an outcast, like she was as a young girl, and like her grandmother seemed to be. But Ingrid holds on to the hope that she will finally be respected and loved, accepted by the family she’s always wanted. Sunshine on My Shoulders, John DenverAn oldie but…

What is the title of your latest release?HOW TO KILL A GUY IN TEN DATES What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?A cinephile gets caught in the middle of a murder spree at a speed-dating event and must use her encyclopedic knowledge of the rom-com and horror genres to make it as a real-life Final Girl. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?The club – “Serendipity” – gave me the opportunity to keep the characters contained so the slasher elements could play out. Also, New York is such a classic rom-com setting. It feels like a character in those kinds of films, so it was a no-brainer! Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Hell yeah. What are three words that describe your hero?Witty, Passionate, Determined What’s something you learned while writing this book?Draw the map BEFORE you write. It’s very hard to do the other way around. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?It’s VERY difficult, but I try to wait until I’m done unless there’s something really not working, and then I’ll take an “editing break” to fix what needs to be fixed. Then…

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 Rob Phillips! Writes:I’m an Emmy-winning sportswriter-turned-mystery-author, and my debut STAKEOUTS AND STROLLERS won the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Award. It’s about a new girl dad/unemployed crime reporter who tries his hand as a PI and watches his first case spiral from mundane to deadly when he agrees to track down a teenage girl’s rotten missing father. About:Like my protagonist Charlie Shaw, my car is a relic with a worn-out CD player, and I prefer tea to coffee when I need a caffeine punch. My happy places are audiobook walks and football-on-the-couch Sundays after working in the National Football League for nearly twenty years. My wife and I live in Dallas with our young daughter, the inspiration for this book. Readers can connect with me at my website, robphillipswrites.com, and on Instagram and Facebook. My ideal reader:• loves an amateur detective story that’s equal parts mystery, thriller, comedy• enjoys a cozy with a little edge to it• appreciates snappy dialogue from…

What is the title of your latest release?STORYBOOK ENDING What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Short version: It’s a romantic triangle that no member of the trio realizes they’re in. Slightly longer version: STORYBOOK ENDING is a contemporary comedy of manners in which a lonely remote worker, intrigued by the handsome staffer at her neighborhood bookstore, decides to leave him a note in a book inviting him to correspond. However, the wrong person finds it . . . How did you decide where your book was going to take place?The idea came to me during one of my many visits to my neighborhood bookstore (Ravenna Third Place Books, in Seattle), so clearly the novel needed to take place in a fictional version of the store. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?There are two of them, but yes, absolutely! I kind of feel like I did hang out with them; while I was writing the book, it was as if they walked around with me, suggesting what I should wear and what I should read. What are three words that describe your hero?Introverted, bookish, distracted What’s something you learned while writing this book?When writing fiction, keep…

Book Title: ASCENDANTSCharacter Name: Maya Teller How would you describe your family or your childhood?I love my sister. Hannah is sweet, innocent. Oddly quiet at times, which is nice compared to my mother, who won’t get off my back. I’m not going to talk about my dad. You’ll have to grill my mother on that one. My childhood? At first, I was as ignorant as everyone else. But then those kids and teachers at Jacobs Academy showed me what the real world is like. Cruel. Cold. Callous. They kicked me out and tease my sister mercilessly. Then the Bombing. I was thirteen. I can still see it when I close my eyes. The fires. The people falling. They haunt me still, and I deserve it. What was your greatest talent?I can survive, no matter what. Throw me into a room full of Breeders or Institute cronies and I’ll show them hell. Most people crumble the moment the system turns on them. Not me. I taught myself to restore a .38 revolver using nail files and a week of patience. I hacked my first slate before I was fifteen. When you’re a Biomass in a world built for Ascendants, you learn…