1–What is the title of your latest release? THE MOONLIGHT BLADE   2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?  A cursed girl enters a deadly magical competition to rescue her mother.   3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?  The book is set in a fantasy world, but it draws a lot of inspiration from Vancouver, Canada, where I grew up. If you know the city, you might recognize the mountains, the ocean, the cool summers, and the tree lined streets. Of course, there’s still a lot of imagination layered on top.   4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?  Absolutely! She might not talk very much, but she would be a very good listener.   5–What are three words that describe your hero? Determined, confused, loving.   6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?  I’d drafted a few novels before this point but hadn’t had a lot of experience editing. Editing is a skill on its own, and it took many rounds, for me to figure it out. Now, I actually enjoy the process.   7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I…

Book Title: ADDICTED FOR NOW (Addicted Series) Character Name: Loren Hale   How would you describe your family or your childhood? I had the absolute best childhood in the world. With a father unlike any other. Truly remarkable. He gave me Grade A pep talks every morning. Said how I’m such a little shit and goddamn loser. Yeah, truly the best.   What was your greatest talent? Lying. Not lying down (Lily would want to claim the couch potato talent). I am just a great liar.   Significant other? My best friend. The love of my entire life. Lily Calloway. No one else can have her. She’s mine.   Biggest challenge in relationships? Challenges? What are those? We’re perfect. Of course I’m joking. Lil and I, we’ve faced mountains together—that little thing called “enabling” and the other little thing called “co-dependency” all wrapped into the big thing called “addiction.”   Where do you live? Grew up in Philadelphia. The richest part. Not trying to be a conceited prick. It’s just a fact. Now I’m around the Princeton campus. Sometimes back in Philly. Depends.   Do you have any enemies? The better question is—do I have any friends? Enemies are the…

Book Title: THE WEDDING AT MOONGLOW BAY Character Name: Samantha Ginelli   How would you describe your family or your childhood? I grew up in the foster care system after my parents were killed in a tornado that I survived. Finally, I was adopted by my forever family, the Dellaneys.   What was your greatest talent? I’m good at match.   Significant other? It’s really, really complicated.   Biggest challenge in relationships? Setting boundaries.   Where do you live? Moonglow Cove, Texas.   Do you have any enemies? Yes, an irritating social media influencer named Victor Jorge.   How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place? I love Moonglow Cove—the beach, the sand, the moonglow pears, the people. It speaks to my soul.   Do you have children, pets, both, or neither? I have a seven-year-old daughter named Destiny. She’s the light of my life.   What do you do for a living? I’m an accountant.   Greatest disappointment? That I didn’t meet Luca first.   Greatest source of joy? Destiny.   What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?…

Classic characters never really stay put, do they? Well, who can blame them, a couple hundred years stuck between the same paperback covers might make anyone a little stir crazy, even if you’re hanging out at amazing manor homes like Pemberly, Hartfield or (a pre-burnt-to-the-ground) Thornfield Hall. I think that’s why these classic characters like to stay on the move; they may travel through different ports – traversing the Wide Sargasso Sea to a new bookshelf, or channeling a Beverly Hills teenager on the screen – they may tangle with Zombies, fourth-wall breaks, and evolving modern values, but they find their way into present-day, over and over again, and so many writers are there to help them along, finding new scenes and new forms for them to inhabit.     I didn’t consciously intend to be one those writers, but Jane Eyre had other plans when I spotted her sitting in a cubicle in my office, glancing nervously at Mr. Rochester’s closed door across the hall. Inspiration struck – and exhaustion struck because when you start to see fictional characters walking around and using the photocopy machine maybe it’s time to take a vacation and get out of the office…

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 Lauren Willig!   Writes: Hi!  I write historical fiction about the strong heroines who have been written out of the history books.  I started my career writing about female spies in the Napoleonic Wars (The Secret History of the Pink Carnation!), and then moved on to all sorts of other interesting corners of history, most recently the 1890s (yep, the Gilded Age—but there was so much more than just gilt!). My latest book, based on a true story, follows an 1896 Smith College graduate as she goes to Greece to train as an archaeologist, only to be told that women can’t excavate.  In a fit of pique, she takes a Red Cross nursing class and finds herself swept up in first the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and then the Spanish-American War of 1898, learning her true strength in the battlefields of Cuba with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.  The book is called TWO WARS AND A WEDDING—and I promise, there are actually two wars AND…

Q: What can you tell readers about your new book, SMOLDER? Will we see the wedding? For me, I’m less anxious about Anita’s wedding and more so about some character going all Maleficent and being miffed on an epic scale about not being invited or jockeying for position over table placement! A: No, the wedding has to wait. First, we need to deal with Anita’s family who hate that she’s marrying a vampire, a new hate group that is killing vampires across the country, and vampire politics that threaten everything that Jean-Claude, Anita, and everyone they love have built. I really want the wedding to go over well, so trying to clear out all the things that might disrupt it first.   Q: I’m always super excited for a new Anita book. Without giving too much away, Richard makes an appearance in SMOLDER. I realize how polarizing a character Richard is. My husband is, I think, in the minority because Richard was always one of his favorite characters. I think it’s because he loves relationships with a little angst, and he likes flawed characters who are often their own worst enemy. I never connected as well with Richard but found…

1–What is the title of your latest release? HOW I’LL KILL YOU 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? For six years, Sissy (not her real name) has been running the cleanup to protect her serial killer sisters from getting caught each time they murder their boyfriends and skip town. Now, to test her loyalty, her sisters have demanded that Sissy also picks a lover to kill. But when she sets her sights on a charming young widower named Edison, she commits the greatest sin of all: falling in love and wanting to protect him from her sisters, and from herself. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The story opens with Sissy trying to pick out her first mark as a serial killer. When I imagined her would-be mark entering the diner she’d been staking out, a picture emerged of a man standing against the desert backdrop. There’s something really clean and pretty about an empty desert. In a remote town where people leave their doors unlocked and everyone knows each other, and nothing ever happens, nobody would suspect that polite newcomer to be a serial killer. 4–Would you hang out with your…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A TEMPEST AT SEA, Lady Sherlock book 7 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Like Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, except on the high seas. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I wanted my characters to go away somewhere for a bit and the idea came that perhaps they could be on a steamer, on an ocean voyage. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? With Charlotte Holmes, Lady Sherlock? I would. We can just eat cake and each do our own thing side by side. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Gender-bent Sherlock Holmes. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned that on a London-Bombay voyage in the 1880s, one typically stopped only in these following places along the way: Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, and Aden. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I edit as I draft, but not daily, only when I think I’ve gone as far in a particular draft as possible, then I start another draft. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Ooh, probably loaded…

1–What is the title of your latest release? OUR BEST INTENTIONS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Our Best Intentions follows an Indian-American working class father and daughter who get caught up in a crime in their affluent New York suburb and must confront uncomfortable and searing issues of race, class, belonging, and understanding the ones we love. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The setting of the novel is integral to the plot: the book is about what happens in the wake of a crime in an affluent suburb; how truths become obscured, and relationships fractured under the weight of often subtle, but pernicious, classism and privilege. Having grown up in the suburbs of the Northeast, it felt natural for the story take place in a tristate suburb. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! I’d hang out with both Babur and Angie. I think Babur would be amusing as a chatterbox driver bragging about his daughter, the prodigal swimmer. I’d also find his commitment to being a good parent is endearing. Angie, while quieter, has impressive inner tenacity and focus. I could also use a swimming…

1–What is the title of your latest release? My newest book is SECOND CHANCE AT THE WATER JUMP 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Second Chance at the Water Jump is a contemporary, sweet with heat romance featuring an equestrian theme. It is equal parts romance and horse story. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I created Pine Mountain Horse Park based off of several horse show venues I have been to, pulling the best parts from each one and setting it in southern New Hampshire so that as the anthology series progresses, I can take full advantage of the beautiful New England season and the horse community I am familiar with. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes, with both of them! Savannah is cool and dedicated to her sport and her horse Tucker. I would love to go riding with them and gallop across the hills between jumps. I also love photography so even if I couldn’t be riding with Savannah, I’d love to hang out on the sidelines behind the camera with Evan snapping away all the action shots. 5–What are three words that describe…