Hello, my name is Celia Applebaum and my sisters and I inherited our father’s Arcadia Rare Bookshop here on Book Row. Book Row is really several blocks between Union Square and Astor Place in Manhattan. You wouldn’t recognize it today, but here in 1915, it’s famous throughout the world and attracts every kind of book lover from international dealers to street urchins with sticky fingers. Right now I’m just coming out of Cooper Union, which is at the south end of the Row. It’s the first free college in the states and I’ve just finished listening to a talk by Margaret Sanger. I’m running late – I seem to always be running late – so I have to hurry, but I want to show you all the wonderful things and people of Book Row. Across the street from Astor Place is Bible House, a large building which prints huge amounts of bibles as well as other liturgical books. Half way across the Avenue is an island that is an entrance to the subway. It’s still there for you to see today. But you won’t have seen Wanamaker’s Department store. Oh, it is grand. And so big it takes up two…

What is the title of your latest release?A GHASTLY CATASTROPHE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Veronica and Stoker, a pair of intrepid Victorian natural scientists, return for their tenth adventure as they investigate a villain who may or may not be undead. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?Most of the Veronica Speedwell books take place in London and it was a natural choice for this adventure, but I did get them out of the city for a few little diversions. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Only if she were tipsy. A sober Veronica would be A LOT. What are three words that describe your hero?Loyal, resourceful, irresistible. What’s something you learned while writing this book?That in some parts of the world, people are still very much afraid of vampires. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?Generally, I wait until the draft is finished. I only rework a section in progress if it’s going to have a significant impact on the scenes to come. What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?A full English breakfast. Describe your writing space/office!I work on the top floor of the…

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 Emma Hamm! Writes:Princess Jessamine and her powerful lover Elric, God of Death, join forces to save her plague-stricken kingdom. Murdered at her own wedding, Princess Jessamine never expected a mysterious god to ressurect her, a favor she would soon repay. Back in the flesh, the pair leads a coven of witches to challenge the usurper who stole her throne. Fraught with evil and traitors around every corner, Jessamine’s world is in turmoil. Jessamine and Elric must prepare their coven to meet the kingdom’s forces in battle – before her bloodthirsty ex-fiance learns to harness the power of the gods. The only thing is, Jessamine may have to accept that fighting for her kingdom might mean fighting against it… Toggling between the point-of-view of the strong-willed princess and her dark-hearted lover, Jessamine’s quest for revenge must go on… and her love is about to be tested. The twisted pair are joined by a found family of magical characters all bent on worshipping their god and…

While I was writing my novel, STONE ANGELS, it became painfully clear that I had no idea how to write a love story. Sure, it was an homage to PERSUASION by Jane Austen. And yes, I’d been addicted to those Harlequin romances sold at Woolworth’s for 99 cents when I was a teenager, not to mention Regency romances by Barbara Cartland with titles like “The Ruthless Rake” and “The Elusive Earl.” But my novel was not that. I like to describe STONE ANGELS as “a sort of PACHINKO meets PERSUASION.” It has elements of both – generations of Koreans in the diaspora living under the shadow cast by Japanese colonialism combined with a love story about second chances. I knew how to write about migration and identity, and I’d extensively researched a little-known corner of WWII history about teenage girls forced into sexual slavery. But I had no idea how to write a love story. In somewhat overly dramatic despair, I turned to PERSUASION. Austen scholars believe she wrote it when she was forty, not the seventeen-year-old who probably wrote the first draft of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, not a young woman in the bloom of youth. Yet PERSUASION is the…

Book Title: KISSING THE SKYCharacter Name: Suzannah How would you describe your family or your childhood?Weird. My dad is a strict army colonel, very tough on my brother and me. Despite the fact that I’m a rising sophomore in college, he treats me like I’m a child. He scrutinizes every article of clothing I put on my body and insists I change if he dislikes my outfit. My poor mother can’t make the bed without him criticizing her. If the corners aren’t perfect, she gets yet another “tutorial.” When I was little, he wasn’t quite as bad, but ever since he made my brother, Ron, enlist in Vietnam, he’s become a tyrant. What is your greatest talent?I’d say my singing voice, though my dad restricts me from using it anywhere other than church. I’d rather sing Beatles songs all day – every day – but ever since John told the world The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, I’ve been banned from their music. How embarrassing is that? Everyone I know listens – and dances – to the Beatles. I’m a pretty good dancer, too, but my church calls dancing a sin. I think I’d say music is the most…

What is the title of your latest release?MEET ME UNDER THE LIGHTS What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Former friends turned enemies fall for each other the summer their feuding families compete for ownership of their town’s famed baseball stadium. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I knew it needed to be a small town where everyone is in everyone’s business, and I loved the idea of an entire town rallying around one sport (similar to Varsity Blues but with baseball, of course). It was also important to me that it featured a family of farmers because I wanted an additional conflict / focus to be that of class differences as well. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?100% I would hang out with both of them. Eliza is a theater nerd like me who loves baseball, and like Reed, I love the land and the atmosphere and tension of being in a baseball stadium. What are three words that describe your hero?Eliza Crowley is stubborn, smart, and drivenReed Fulton is loyal, competitive, and steadfast What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned that while subplots can be interesting, they…

Book Title: THE BEST LITTLE MOTEL IN TEXASCharacter Name: Cordelia West How would you describe your family or your childhood?I had what some would call an unconventional childhood. My daddy ran off when I was just a baby, and my momma, bless her heart, loved the bottle just a bit more than she loved me. It was hard trying to blend into the small town of Sarsaparilla Falls when my momma insisted on standing out. But she cleaned up her act and moved us to Dallas, and things settled into a comfortable state of normalcy from there. What was your greatest talent?I’d say I’ve got a real knack for organizing. I think it comes from being raised in chaos. Someone had to make sure the mortgage got paid and the sock patterns matched and the hot sauce didn’t get mixed with the ketchup. I kept the house neat so my momma could focus on her twelve steps. Significant other?I don’t have anyone in my life as of yet, dating is a messy ordeal I’d rather just skip, but the chicks keep telling me Archer Reed-Smythe is looking to hitch his horse to my wagon. Though I have my doubts about…

Welcome to Nova Cambridge, Alabama! I’m your hostess, Savannah Webster. You’ve heard of Gulf Shores and have maybe even vacationed on our powdery white sand beaches, but you might not have taken the time to find our neck of the woods. Nova Cambridge is off the beaten track down winding county roads that meander through tupelo (black gum) and live oak trees. We’re the part of the Gulf Shores area most people never bother to discover. Nova Cambridge has always reminded me of Magnolia Springs. I love the cozy 1920s bungalows interspersed with grander, newer homes. Even better, it’s strategically located next to all the things I love like Page and Palette Bookstore in Fairhope and Jesse’s Restaurant in Magnolia Springs. Just offshore, where Mobile Bay and the Bon Secour Bay kiss and merge, you can access the road to the Sanctuary Animal Refuge over the Kate Norris Bridge. Mobile Bay is on one side and Weeks Bay is on the other. It’s not far from Foley and my beloved library either. I hope you’ll take time to drive out our way and discover the charm of the hidden places like Dinosaurs in the Woods and Bamahenge. They are a…

Exclusive Excerpt  (Beginning of Chapter 8) In the Wake of Golgotha by Daniel Grace: Oh frick . . . Poor Henry Clay Frick. Priceless masterpieces by Monet, Degas, Rembrandt, Goya, and Renoir, even Vermeer’s borrowed Girl with the Pearl Earring couldn’t keep the schoolkids from giggling and messing around in his former Upper East Side mansion instead of marveling at his legacy. But what the hell, what’s in a name? Jude, feeling alone, decided to go to see some old friends. Art, more recently (since the Renaissance), and paintings in particular, had always calmed him. Still moments of character and landscape caught in eternal color on soft canvas. Art had proved to be breadcrumbs through history for him. Some of it personal, other pieces painful. None of it nostalgic. Judas had once stood in the cold, damp, echoing refectory of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie a century or two after Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned by the Duke of Milan to decorate the back wall of the dining hall in 1498 with his controversial Il Cenacolo. Gazing up at the masterpiece, he’d been struck by several strangely specific, creatively deceptive details in The Last Supper. Leonardo’s frescoed…

What is the title of your latest release?SING DOWN THE MOON What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Sixteen-year-old Leontyne Skye is bound by blood and legacy to Damascus, an ancient fig tree that grows on the Georgia island of Good Hope, a tree that feeds the dead and devours the living. As her mother disintegrates before her very eyes Leontyne must confront a birthright that will take everything from her as it has her mother – teeth, hair, and bone. Leontyne has already lost parts of herself – a hand, and her memory, in a happening two years prior known as Tribulation Day. When a mysterious stranger arrives on Good Hope, Leontyne’s memories slowly resurface, and with those memories, the discovery of a chilling truth. Rejecting her legacy will shatter the fragile balance between the living and the dead, forcing Leontyne to choose: save the island and those she loves, or save herself. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I believe that I will always write stories about the American South, so from the get-go, placing it in the region was a given. Setting it on a remote Georgia coastal barrier island gave the…