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 Lynette Eason! Writes: Romantic Suspense – Romance Writers of America defines romantic suspense as: “Romance novels in which suspense, mystery, or thriller elements constitute an integral part of the plot.” I write more heavy on the suspense, mystery, or thriller element than the romance, but it’s still there for the romance lover. About: Deadline riddled writer seeks fans of mysteries/whodunits/with a touch of romance. Fans must appreciate strong heroines and heroes who will put their lives on the line to keep them safe—and vice versa. Fans must also appreciate strong conflict, twisting plots, and a strong faith element. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: · Loves a happy ending. · Is willing to lose sleep to find that happy ending waiting at the end of the book. · Loves a handsome hero who knows what it means to really love a woman. · Enjoys twists you don’t see coming. · Is willing to put off all housework until…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Megan! Please tell us a little bit about yourself, the Alaska Force Series, and specifically your latest book Sergeant’s Christmas Siege. Hi! I’m the author of about 100 books (ranging from cowboys to bikers to rom coms and more, like my beloved Alaska Force). The only thing I love more than reading romance in all its forms is getting to write it! The Alaska Force series is so much fun. Ex special ops heroes who live on a faraway Alaskan island and only emerge to take down bad guys? Yes, please! Sergeant’s Christmas Siege is particularly fun because it’s set at Christmas—in Alaska! Kate Holiday is a no-nonsense Alaska State Trooper who is sent to the remote island of Grizzly Harbor to look into various disturbances she thinks are the fault of Alaska Force. Templeton Cross is sent as a representative of Alaska Force to handle Kate. But Kate doesn’t like “handling,” Templeton has a way of getting under Kate’s skin, and Christmas is coming. . . Alaska State Trooper Kate Holiday is sent to investigate, disband, and arrest Alaska Force. After a tough childhood, Kate does her best to always go by the book, so…

Francie May 1952 It couldn’t be Margie, because she would cry, and besides, she might bring the children, which would turn the whole thing into a circus. Jimmy hadn’t come out and said it, because he was trying to spare her feelings, but he was playing golf with his father today–the club had called to confirm their tee time. That left Alice. As usual. “Mother, do you want the blue with the feather or the tan?” Alice called from upstairs. She had skipped her painting class this morning to help Francie finish packing and to say goodbye to Vi. Vi’s two boys worked for their father’s publicity firm, and all three of them were currently in the middle of the Mojave Desert getting ready to launch a client’s nuclear tourism business. It was just like Harry to leave his wife to make her shameful departure from an empty house, even when he was the one who’d smashed their sacred vows into smithereens. “Oh, the blue, I suppose,” Francie called. “Though it hardly matters, does it?” “Don’t be glum.” Alice came down the stairs carrying the hat under one arm, leaving the other free to hold on to the handrail. “It’s…

I love worldbuilding. It’s fun, the best kind of neverending logic puzzle, and it’s easy for me to spend days or months layering details onto a burgeoning universe. Nobody wants to read what amounts to a history book about a fictional world, though. No matter how intricate and interesting the worldbuilding is, it’s the people who populate it who are going to be the tethers that pull readers across a landscape. I’m not one of those authors who knows everything about a character down to their blood type before I put words on pages. In fact, often the non-physical truths (i.e. things other than height, age, eye color, etc) I know about a character when I start writing can be listed on one hand. I treat characters like strangers I’m meeting for the first time, and I write partially to unveil the core of an individual. For me, worldbuilding is layering up. Building characters, though, is more a process of stripping down. Everyone has a core of principles, beliefs, motivations, and needs. Sometimes (okay, rarely) these are all in easy alignment and sometimes they’re diametrically opposed, but no matter what, the core of a person is what drives everything they…

The Plot: It never fails that someone asks me where I come up with the story lines for my books, and I’m always happy to talk about it. Sometimes the plots are based loosely on something I investigated in my career. Other times, not so much. Sometimes I am simply inspired by something, or in this case–someone–I encountered on the job. While I was not completely aware of it at the time, the plot behind Dark ’N’ Deadly, the third of my Federal K-9 Series, started marinating in my head more than five years ago while I was assigned to my agency’s Denver office. The Colorado State Patrol Academy hosted a sovereign citizen seminar given by Chief Robert Paudert (ret.) of the West Memphis, Arkansas Police Department. Many Americans are unaware that the FBI considers sovereign citizens to be a growing domestic threat to law enforcement. Until relatively recently, law enforcement agencies were unfamiliar with this threat, and some paid the ultimate price. Chief Paudert’s son and another police officer were killed during an exchange of gunfire with members of a sovereign citizen extremist group. Since then, Chief Paudert has dedicated his life to educating law enforcement officers at all…

My new historical romance, TO TAME A SCANDALOUS LADY, is set at a horse stud farm in the rolling hills of Suffolk. The heroine, Lady Flora Campbell, disguises herself as a young man to work as a horse trainer at the famed stables of the Marquess of Amstead. After a devastating fire killed his father and destroyed the paddocks at Amstead Gardens, along with the entire racing stock, Christian, the marquess, is determined to rebuild not only the stables but his family’s horse racing legacy. If the public discovered an unmarried lady is working in his stables, the scandal could alienate all the investors he has managed to court. But Flora is willing to sacrifice her reputation, and possibly even Christian’s, to see her dream of training racehorses become a reality. The majority of the action in the book revolves around Flora and Christian training the equine occupants of the stables at Amstead Gardens, but primarily Christian’s prize Egyptian-bred stallion, Asad. When I first came up with the idea for Flora and Christian’s story, I was painfully aware of one important truth: I don’t know much about horses. I could count on one hand the number of times I have…

For readers who are new to Christine Feehan and your amazing world, would you please give a little background on you and your latest release, LEOPARD’S WRATH? I have written most of my life. My first novel, Dark Prince, was published in 1999 and my first Leopard series book was published in 2002. I’ve written 7 different series and several single title books. I’m a #1 New York Times bestselling author several times over, for which I am deeply grateful to my readers. I have many children and even more grandchildren and have two great-grandchildren children as well. I love spending time with my big family. I have two huge Black Russian Terriers and live on the Northern California coast. Leopard’s Wrath is the 12th book in my Leopard series. Mitya Amurov is the hero and has been in some of the previous books. His love interest in Ania Dover, a thrill-seeker and transporter. These are suspense shapeshifter books and are my most erotic books. Where do the ideas in your stories come from? I’m especially interested in how you came up with the Carpathians? Are they pure imagination, a case of what if… with research to follow, family, or…

The Reluctant Rake – excerpt Sir Richard Beckwith emerged from his elegant town house on a chilly spring evening wearing a black silk domino over his dark gray pantaloons and long-tailed coat of dark blue superfine. Any one of his friends would have been astonished to see him in this guise, still more to see him out of evening dress at nine o’clock. Had they known that a pocket of the domino held a black mask, they would have been dumbfounded. None of Sir Richard’s exclusive circle was likely to see him tonight, however. When he hailed a hackney cab and climbed in, he directed it to a part of London little frequented by the haut ton. If certain of its men from time to time made their way through these unsavory streets, they did not mention such excursions in polite society. A cold mist rose from the greasy cobblestones, enlivened here and there by hoarse laughter and singing as the hack rattled past some gin mill or bawdy house. One victim of blue ruin went so far as to grab for the cab, hoping to jerk its occupant into an alleyway and fleece him. He missed his target, however,…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Kate! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and your new book, THIS EARL OF MINE? Hello and thank you for having me! I write historical romance as both Kate Bateman and K.C. Bateman. I’m originally from England, but now live in the USA, and I’m a complete history geek! Before I started writing romance, I spent fifteen years as a fine art & antiques appraiser in the UK, running my own auction house, and I still have a not-so-secret double life as a TV antiques expert/appraiser on several British antiques TV shows. In 2011 my husband’s job moved us to the USA and I decided to try my hand at writing historical romance, (I was already an avid reader.) Now I get my history fix by sneaking real historical facts into my plots. My latest release, This Earl Of Mine, is a marriage-of-convenience with a twist. It features my favorite kind of independent-minded heroine and a sexy, snarky, Bow Street Runner who turns out to be her nemesis/perfect match. There’s lots of flirty banter, unresolved sexual tension, and a true historical plot to rescue Napoleon from exile on the island of St Helena…

I write Romance with main characters that are male/female, so a believable heroine is vitally important to every story. She must be someone the reader can identify with. . . or at the very least, someone they’d want to be friends with. These are my tips for writing realistic and believable heroines. 1. Create a character outline or overview. I realize not all writers feel the need to do this, but for me, it’s necessary. I must know my characters inside and out before I start writing them into a plotline. A good character overview is invaluable when it comes to maintaining consistency in behavior, attitude, perspective, etc. The tools I most often use are The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines by Tami Cowden, Caro LeFever and Sue Viders, online personality tests (such as Myers-Briggs), and detailed horoscopes. Once I have an idea of her natural tendencies, flaws, passions, strengths, and fears, I can better ensure that my heroine responds consistently to any scene or situation. 2. She needs goals and aspirations. Though love is the focus of all romance, no heroine should exist solely for the love of her hero. A realistic heroine will have personal dreams…