Book Title: SPECULATIONS IN SIN – Below Stairs Mysteries, Book 7 Character Name: Kat Holloway   How would you describe your family or your childhood? I had a marvelous childhood, though I did not know it at the time. My mum was loving and kind and did everything she could to keep me safe. My fondest memory is of her coming home from her long day of scrubbing floors and holding me tight. Though she must have been exhausted, she always had time to fix me bit of supper, or we’d take a walk and nibble on the buns she’d purchase with her earnings at a bake shop. My mum was the most wonderful woman on Earth, I think. Alas that she was taken from me too soon. My life hasn’t been quite the same since.   What was your greatest talent? I am a cook, and if I do say so myself, an excellent one. My skill is why I can command a decent wage and a day and a half out each week, without fail. I am good at both plain and honest fare and some of the more complicated and exotic dishes, though I don’t often see…

Only Love Can Hurt Like This – Paloma Faith I love how desperate this song is. It sums up the dark side of love, highlighting how passion can be corrosive. And Paloma Faith’s low gutsy voice fits it perfectly. In TOXXIC, Tony is living in a sterile facility to protect him from the poisonous moths and lamenting his lost lover Logan, who was infected. Every time Tony gazes outside, every time he places his hand on the glass that separates him from the world, I imagine this song playing and Tony crying quietly to himself, missing the only man who made living in the facility, bearable. When he is eventually released, into a world that has no place for him, he begins to understand the extent to which he has been lied to by those who have power over him.   You’ll Never Walk Alone – Gerry and the Pacemakers This musical classic and Liverpool FC anthem is played at the funeral of a well-loved character. It was played (and sung in throaty unison) at my own father’s funeral and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The soaring chords and hope-filled lyrics, courtesy of Rodgers and Hammerstein, are…

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 Rosanna Leo!   Writes: Hello! I write contemporary and paranormal romances, many of which are set in my hometown of Toronto, Canada. My latest paranormal romance is DARKE HOMECOMING, the final book in my Darke Paranormal Investigations series. The series features three badass sisters who are paranormal investigators. Edwina is the techie, Susannah is the historian, and Adelaide is a psychic medium. As they investigate haunted Canadian locations, they each find themselves struggling with another challenge: falling in love. In DARKE HOMECOMING, Adelaide must not only help the lost souls in her own neighborhood, she must also rid her love interest Will of an unwanted spirit attachment. Because she’s not the only one interested in the handsome curator…and the “other woman” just happens to be dead!   About: I’m from Toronto, Canada, and have spent most of my life riding its subways, dreaming in its museums, and exploring its cemeteries. My husband and I now live west of the city in the suburbs, but…

1–What is the title of your latest release? BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? The inspiring journey of Frances Perkins, the most important woman in American history, from her early days in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen to the corridors of power in the White House where she served as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant, reshaping America during its darkest hour. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I went where Frances went. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I would die of happiness to get to sit in a room with Frances for just five minutes! I would also have a million questions I would probably be too shy to ask. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Trailblazing, Tenacious and Principled 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I had no idea that Frances Perkins really disliked Franklin Roosevelt when they first met. Theirs is a delicious enemies-to-lovers story but in a political sense. And it was so much fun to write about them sparring. They changed each other, and together they changed the nation. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until…

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 Markus Harwood-Jones!   Writes: Romance novels rich with queer, trans, and non-binary characters that are unafraid to break away from “the normal” for a chance at something extraordinary.   About: Author, artist, and academic – Markus Harwood-Jones (he/they) is always up to something! The author of The Haunting of Adrian Yates and Confessions of a Teenage Drag King is taking a break from writing YA fiction to deliver a steamy yet sweet polyamorous romance titled Really Cute People. Published with Harlequin imprint, Carina Adores, Really Cute People follows the story of Charlie—a burnt out, non-binary thirty-something who unexpectedly finds themselves snowed-in (and tangled-up) with a charming couple, Buffy and Hayden. Markus lives in Toronto with his husband, their platonic co-parent, and their beloved toddler. He can be found on TikTok and Instagram, or via his website.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: I’m looking for someone who wants to be swept away into an effortlessly queer world, where trans and…

1–What is the title of your latest release? PRIDE AND JOY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A birthday celebration on Good Friday may turn into a funeral—if it doesn’t turn into a resurrection first. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I base all my stories in and around the Toronto area because that’s where I’m from! I love writing about home. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I would hang out with Joy, but I have a feeling I’d quickly get tired of her. We’re alike in many ways, but the ways in which we’re not alike would send me into a spiral. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Loyal, resourceful, diligent 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That family, culture, and faith coexist in so many interesting ways, and that to try and streamline that into one neatly packaged box simply can’t work. There’s so much nuance! 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Nowadays I wait til I’m completely done, but before my very first book came out, I used to edit as I drafted….

I’m a sensory person. Writing reels me in when it’s rooted in taste, touch, sound, sight, and smell. When writing my contemporary young adult novel, JUST ANOTHER EPIC LOVE POEM, I wanted to deliver to readers the Iranian American cultural experiences of the protagonist, Mitra, through the tastes and smells and textures of her family’s Iranian recipes. In an Iranian household, food isn’t just sustenance–it’s sacred. Meals like ghormeh sabzi and fesenjan take all day to prepare; rice is soaked, rinsed, washed, and rinsed again; vibrant saffron threads are folded into fragrant stews. Hospitality is at the heart of Persian cooking. The Farsi equivalent of bon appetit–nooshe jaan–literally translates to “may your soul be nourished.” In Just Another Epic Love Poem, Iranian food weaves through Mitra’s life as its own character, an entity with which she exists in complex relationship. Ever since her family’s separation, caused by her mother Jaleh’s addiction, Mitra has lost connection to certain dishes she used to share with her mom. Ash-e reshteh, the earthy, herb-infused noodle soup served on Iranian holidays, no longer symbolizes good luck and the possibility of life’s different paths for Mitra; now it serves up grief. As her mother attempts to…

Book Title:  THE FORGER AND THE DUKE Character Name: Amaranthe Illingworth   Amaranthe, the heroine of THE FORGER AND THE DUKE, is being interviewed by Derwa, the young child of her maid, Eyde. Eyde and Amaranthe left Cornwall six years before this conversation taking place in Amaranthe’s home in George Court, London, 1776.   So we begin. How would you describe your childhood? Idyllic, though I didn’t know it at the time. My father was the vicar of St. Cleer, a small, ancient village in Cornwall. I never heard him raise his voice, not even in the heights of a sermon. My mother was the daughter of a lens maker, a respectable trade. Her family came from Portugal; they were conversos, Jews who converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition in order to keep their home and their lives. You’ve met Joseph, who is older than I by four years. He tormented me but lightly, as I helped him with his studies, and he would not have been accepted into Oxford without me. The only time my mother scolded us was that winter Joseph dared me to walk out on the ice over the pond near our home, and I did….

1–What is the title of your latest release? A GRAVE ROBBERY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Victorian sleuth Veronica Speedwell and her handsome sidekick Stoker are at it again! But when the wax figure they find turns out to be an actual corpse, they end up facing their deadliest foe yet. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I had just taken my characters into the country, so it was time to go back to London for a proper city adventure. I needed access to laboratories, private clubs, cemeteries, and gaslit streets. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? For a short period of time only. I adore Veronica, but I’m quite certain we would butt heads and I think she could take me in a fight. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Intrepid, resourceful, outrageous. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That no matter how hard I try to get my little ducks in a row, they will always choose chaos. I work extremely well under pressure; unfortunately, I seem to only be able to work under pressure, so if I have loads of…

1–What is the title of your latest release? ‘BOUT TO DYE IN BIRMINGHAM, A Cousins Cozy Mystery- Book One 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Pair comedienne Leeann Morgan’s southern drawl with actor Leslie Jordan’s bowtie charm and you have Maggie and Francis, first cousins and best friends solving hometown murders in Birmingham, Alabama. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I lived in Birmingham at the time and wanted to use its distinct Deep South flavor in a series featuring local areas. Also, with my job, I’d probably driven on every road in the county, which gave me so many story ideas. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I may have taken “write what you know” a little too far in this case. I hang out with her all day, every day in my own head. I originally started writing this out of boredom during Covid, and I didn’t limit myself from worrying if it seemed too much like me because I never thought anyone else would read it. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Optimistic, loyal, and an over-thinker 6–What’s something you learned while writing…