Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Elizabeth Goddard | 20 Questions: CRITICAL ALLIANCE
Author Guest / July 5, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? CRITICAL ALLIANCE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A cybersecurity expert with a criminal past, teams up with a Diplomatic Security Services special agent to secure exposed assets, close security beaches and save lives. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The easy answer—this was book 3 in a series set in Montana! But in general, I usually start with a nature setting that inspires me. I thought it would be fun to set a tech company in the middle of wild, beautiful Montana. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Oh, I don’t know—she might be too smart for me! Ha! 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Dauntless, adventurous, gorgeous. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? More than I wanted to know about the dark side of a hacker’s mind. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Answer: I usually write a messy rough draft, and then spend the bulk of my allotted time rewriting and editing. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Answer: Cinnamon rolls! (I know, it’s weird. People usually…

Tracey Livesay | 20 Questions: AMERICAN ROYALTY
Author Guest / July 5, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? AMERICAN ROYALTY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? An American rapper crosses the pond to perform in a Royal Tribute concert and turns the palace upside down and the heart of the Prince inside out! 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Once I decided to write a royalty romance, I knew I’d want to set it in a world that was my version of the British royal family. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? OMG, yes! I love Dani! I think she would be incredibly fun! 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Serious, Intellectual, Passionate 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? The customs and protocols for the modern-day aristocracy is vast. You can understand why they’d believe it would be easier to choose to marry someone who grew up in that world, as opposed to someone who hadn’t. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I wait until I’m totally done. I need to get something out on the paper. Revisions are my favorite part of writing. 8–What’s your favorite…

Tracie Peterson | 20 Questions: BEYOND THE DESERT SANDS
Author Guest / July 5, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? BEYOND THE DESERT SANDS by Tracie Peterson 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? It’s impossible to have a future romance when the past is holding the heart captive. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I had previously studied several locations in New Mexico and saw that this area would have all the important geological necessities, as well as be placed along the Santa Fe railroad. There were a lot of little towns in this area of New Mexico that are now long gone, but still interesting for what they offered. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Probably not at the start. She’s spoiled and opinionated and thinks she’s got all the answers. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Loyal, determined, and Godly. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I always learn something, whether it’s some tidbit about how banking in a silver mine company town often enslaved people to a point they could never hope to leave. Or a lesson develops where God is trying to show me something regarding my own faith. 7–Do you edit…

Louise Hare Interview – 1930s Glam and Mystery on the High Seas
Author Guest , Interviews / July 5, 2022

MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS is set in 1936. What made you choose that time period? Originally, I was thinking of setting this book just after WWII, but I changed my mind because I love the glamour of the 1930s so much. I love the music of that era, which felt important since Lena is a jazz singer. Of course, I also really enjoy reading stories set in that period, Amor Towles’ RULES OF CIVILITY, for example. When I started writing the novel, back in 2019, I was also interested in how world politics back then could be compared to what’s been happening more recently.   I like mysteries set on ships or other settings in which the characters are kind of stuck in one place. What made you choose a ship for your setting – specifically the Queen Mary? MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS started off as a short story about a jazz singer who witnesses a murder and then has to leave London. At the end of that story, she is on her way to board a ship to New York, but everyone who read it was more interested in what was going to happen to her on the ship than what…

The Joy of Writing Dialogue by Julia Buckley
Author Guest / July 4, 2022

I’m a writer, and it won’t surprise you to learn that I loved reading from a very young age.. I graduated quickly from children’s books to adolescent fare (Nancy Drew was my first binge-reading experience, though I had to wait weeks or even months until someone gave me a present of the next few books in the series. How poignant was the longing for things, in that age before the Internet and downloadable books! Soon enough, Nancy Drew seemed too adolescent, and I started observing what my mother read. She liked the Gothic romances, and I started borrowing them after she was finished. In these novels, I got my first glimpse of extended and exciting dialogue. Characters would speak to each other—at length—and their conversations were compelling, even addictive. I recall reading a Victoria Holt novel with a dialogue that lasted for five or six pages, with no dialogue tags! She knew that well-written dialogue was enough to draw in a reader. Not only was I able to follow these back and forth, but I was utterly pulled in, as though I were eavesdropping on a real conversation. Holt’s characters were memorable enough that I would think about them long…

Jennifer Hawkins | 20 Questions: A COLD NOSE FOR MURDER
Author Guest / July 4, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? A COLD NOSE FOR MURDER.  It’s the third book in my Chatty Corgi mystery series.   2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A banker turned baker and her charming corgi sidekick solve crime and bake cake in a Cornish seaside village.   3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I’d visited Cornwall while researching another project and had a wonderful time.  So, I based my village of Trevena on the village I’d stayed in.   4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely.  She’d bring cake and make tea.   5–What are three words that describe your hero? Since my hero’s a corgi, I’ll have to say sweet, furry and zoomy.   6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Since one of my point of view characters is a dog, I had to learn a lot about dog behavior and how dogs experience the world.   7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I always edit as I draft.  It helps keep me grounded in the details of the story.   8–What’s your favorite foodie…

Barbara Graham Interview – Spooky Psychological Suspense
Author Guest , Interviews / July 4, 2022

Although I often read psychological suspense or thrillers, I love films like that. What drew you to writing that type of story? Is it challenging keeping the tension up throughout an entire book? I believe that one of the challenges of being a writer is finding the best possible form for each story you want to tell, and it was clear to me from the moment I conceived What Jonah Knew that it could only be a psychological thriller. Maintaining tension throughout is essential, but it’s also crucial to provide enough backstory and character development to enrich the story with depth and meaning. In writing the book, I found keeping the tension up while exploring the minds of the characters was a balancing act. If a novel is too plot heavy, it reads like a treatment for a screenplay. If it’s too character driven at the expense of plot, it can become plodding. Finding the balance between the two was key.   In your newest book, WHAT JONAH KNEW, there is a disappearance that is a huge part of the plot. From the book description, I’m reminded of the classic film Don’t Look Now starring Donald Sutherland. It was a…

Laura Bradford | Author-Reader Match: A PERILOUS PAL
Author Guest / July 4, 2022

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 Laura Bradford! Writes: Cozy mysteries and women’s fiction about people that could easily be you or me.   About: While spending a rainy afternoon at a friend’s house when I was a kid, I absolutely fell in love with writing over a stack of blank paper, a box of crayons, and a freshly sharpened number-two pencil. From that moment forward, I only wanted to be two things, a mom and a writer. Today, I’m the USA Today bestselling author of several mystery series including the Amish Mysteries, the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, the Tobi Tobias Mysteries, the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries (written as Elizabeth Lynn Casey), and now the new A Friend for Hire Mysteries. A PERILOUS PAL, book # 2 in the series, releases July 5th. To learn more about me and/or my books, visit my website at  laurabradford.com.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Someone who likes to laugh. Someone who likes to feel all the feels and doesn’t apologize for doing so. Someone who loves…

Jennifer J. Chow | 20 Questions: DEATH BY BUBBLE TEA
Author Guest / July 4, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? DEATH BY BUBBLE TEA 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Two cousins with opposite personalities, forced to run a food stall together at a local night market, get a serving of murder. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I love night markets and live in Los Angeles, so I combined the two for the fictional Eastwood Village Night Market setting. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? For sure! I’d hang out with both cousins…although maybe not when they stumble over dead bodies. I’d certainly tag along on their outings to visit hidden Los Angeles attractions, though. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Yale Yee: filial, bookish, and curious 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That there was a California lawsuit against silver dragées (those metallic balls used for decorating cakes and cookies). 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Apart from minor word choices, I wait until I’m totally done—and then a lot of revising happens! 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Hawaiian chocolate dobash cake: a chocolate chiffon cake with…

Holly Newman | 20 Questions: AN ARTFUL DECEIT
Author Guest / July 1, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? AN ARTFUL DECEIT –  book 1 of a new 5 (or maybe 6) book series “The Art of Love” 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? What happens at a house party when a Duke is mistaken for a Viscount? Add two Michelangelo sketches, hidden passages, vanishing and reappearing art, threatening messages, conniving art collectors, arrogant academicians, a Bow Street agent, a lovelorn couple, and an elderly prankster. It’s enough to give a Duke a headache. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I wanted to take my hero “out of his element” to shake him up a bit. Plopped him down in a house party he couldn’t simply ride away from. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Yes! She is the embodiment of the phrase “still waters run deep”. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Creative, polite, determined. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Trust my unconscious mind. I practiced telling my unconscious mind to work on the next scene for me. I had ideas suddenly come to me while in the shower, folding clothes, pushing a…