What is the title of your latest release?MERCY HILL What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?A debut family novel about four sisters growing up on the campus of the underfunded state mental hospital where their strong-willed mother serves as head of psychiatry. A richly moving story of sisterhood, loyalty, and mental health in America. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?The inspiration for MERCY HILL came from lived experience: I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, just about a mile away from Dorthea Dix, North Carolina’s last remaining state psychiatric institution. Like many state-run mental hospitals, it had a long history, vast grounds, and by the time I was a teenager in the early 2000’s, was often in the news as it was in the process of being shut down. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Denise is smart and compassionate – but she’s also a loner. I’d like to hang out with her but I don’t know if she’d deign to hang out with me. What are three words that describe your hero?Observant, conflicted, changing. What’s something you learned while writing this book?Over many rounds of revision, I learned the…

Hi, Fresh Fiction friends! It isn’t quite summer yet, but we can still be in a SUMMER STATE OF MIND with my new novel, releasing May 5! This one is about a NICU nurse named Daisy who flees the big city after a very bad day and heads to Cape Carolina, a tiny coastal town, and its sleepy nursery. But, on her first day at her new “simple” job, an abandoned baby is brought into the hospital that sends shockwaves through the little town and thrusts Daisy into the paths of Mason, an injured former baseball star, and Tilley, the entire town’s eccentric aunt. They all learn that with a lot of love, a little understanding–and a community theater production of Hello, Dolly–sometimes life conspires to bring us exactly where we belong! I hope you’ll read it and that it will fill you with joy this summer. While you’re reading… Check out this playlist. I hope it gives you all the feels of my favorite season and a little more insight into this book and its characters! Thank God for the Summertime by Ben Rector: This book has a lot of ups and downs and emotional scenes, but there are…

Each Friday the Smashwords store reports the bestselling indie fiction titles based on the previous week’s sales. If an author has more than one title eligible for the list, only the highest performing title will be included. This ensures high-performing titles receive the accolades they deserve, while providing up-and-coming authors the visibility they have earned. Don’t miss Monday’s Top 10 Hot Preorders List, where Smashwords will provide a list of the most highly anticipated ebook preorders.

The Busty Bodice Club series features sisters who are proud of their curves. My female character, Lady Penelope Harrington, is the youngest sister and considers herself a bastion of fashion and hats. Why hats? Because they made her look taller. Let’s talk about the concept of beauty. All of us are familiar with historical-romance female characters who look luminous, like a faintly tragic marble statue. How did women incorporate fashion accessories to highlight their beauty and social prominence? Let’s begin at the very top—literally—with hats. No Regency ensemble was complete without a bonnet, and not just any bonnet. These were architectural marvels of fabric and ribbon, designed to frame the face like a flattering portrait. The poke bonnet, one of the most iconic styles, extended forward to shade the face (protecting that precious complexion from the elements) while also creating an air of mystery. You could flirt, observe, and quietly judge your neighbors—all while partially concealed behind a strategically placed brim. Introverts everywhere should be taking notes. A French satire print on the poke bonnet in the 1810’s; “Les Invisibles en Tete-a-Tete”. The bonnets were called “invisibles” in France because the face of the wearer was virtually concealed except from…

We return to myths for the same reason we reread favorite romances. Recognition lets us lean in, surprise keeps us turning the page. Retellings hand us a map we think we know, then redraw the borders around desire, power, and consequence. In romantic fantasy, that remix does something especially electric. It takes stories built on sacrifice and spectacle, then asks how love survives inside those pressures, and what it looks like when agency is no longer a luxury but the point. This wave of mythic romance is not simply Greek pantheons in modern clothes. It is a global refit, a shift in gaze and ethics. Authors are placing familiar archetypes in fresh settings, centering characters who were once sidelined, and writing intimacy with clarity about consent. The effect is a chorus rather than a single voice. These books speak to one another across eras and cultures, and the conversation is about who gets to choose, who gets to live, and who gets to love out loud. Why retellings work in romance The promise of a known spine makes space for deeper character work. When readers already understand the stakes, the story can spend its time on how two people meet…

Book Title: TWO’S A CHARM Character Name: Bonnie Chalmers / Effie Chalmers How would you describe your family or your childhood?Bonnie: Pretty great! Friends, sleepovers, pranking Effie – what a blast! And Mom was my hero. Still is.Effie: Like a big hug. Our mom was the best – she was everything to us, and made everything special. We grew up in the ramshackle house that Bonnie and I still live in, and every room is filled with memories of board games, arts and crafts, and baking. It’s been hard this past year, but we’re doing our best to heal. What was your greatest talent?Bonnie: Just one? Um, I’m a people person. Like, really a people person. And I look good in anything. Also magic.Effie: Being able to find any book in the library just like that. Also magic. Significant other?Bonnie: Oh, I don’t do relationships. Even though…no, not going there.Effie: My best friend Tess, who’s always been there for me. Although…maybe I have my eye on someone. Biggest challenge in relationships?Bonnie: Ugh, relationships. They’re so overrated, don’t you think? Besides, I’m plenty busy renovating the Silver Slipper and making sure my posse of BFFs behave themselves. Oh, unless you mean…

What is the title of your latest release?HOW THE STORY GOES What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Whit Longacre is an author of mystery novels and the widower of a famous children’s fantasy novelist, Helen Albright Longacre. Merritt Pryor is a down-on-her-luck MFA dropout whose horrible ex has just published a novel that is almost certainly about her. She also happens to be a superfan of the late Helen’s series, the completion of which has been left to Whit. Finishing the final book in the series feels like an impossible task for Whit, so he and Merritt come up with a plan to tackle the book together—until a buried secret about Helen’s final wishes raises questions about the work they’ve done and the tender, inescapable partnership they’ve forged along the way. I hope it’s a long elevator. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I think if you’re writing a book that is at least partially about grief and loss, and you don’t want it to feel like a slog, then you have to offer your reader (and yourself!) some warmth and joy. I mean, Whit has already lost his wife; we don’t need to…

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 Sarah Loudin Thomas! Writes: I write Appalachian historical fiction, building stories around little known tidbits of history. While my novels aren’t usually categorized as romance, there’s almost always a romantic thread. THESE EMPTY PLACES includes TWO second-chance romances. One for a husband and wife who must rediscover their love after losing everything in the stock market crash and the second for a more “mature” character who’s unexpectedly wooed by a younger man. That one was SUCH fun to write! About: I’m an Appalachian mountain girl who loves writing stories inspired by real events. I’m an old soul who prefers my great-grandmother’s quilts and my great aunt’s paintings to anything new I can buy. In my free time you’ll find me thrifting for other people’s sentimental knick-knacks. I’m bonkers for dogs and have stopped writing to go outside because I spot a pup going past my window. My husband won’t let me have more than one. Which is wise but disappointing. My dog is named…

Excerpt from THE SUPPER CLUB SAINTS by Claire Swinarski: Hilary and Nathan had been divorced for four years. The first few times she’d had to meet him at the Kwik Trip parking lot to hand off Fiona, Wyatt, and Levi, she’d felt like she was going to throw up. But now, it was just another task on her never-ending to-do list two Saturdays a month. It was strange, the things you could get used to. Nathan had to take Breathalyzers on his phone before Hilary dropped off the kids. On his phone—it felt like something out of a video game, the little app the court made him download. But it worked. Hilary usually didn’t even ask to see them anymore. He’d been sober for a couple of years, at this point. And as complicated as it made her feel, the boys were always overjoyed to go to his house. Fiona, on the other hand, usually did what she was doing that particular Saturday afternoon.that particular Saturday afternoon. “You’re going to have fun,” Hilary reminded her sniffling daughter. “You’re going to have something cheesy and delicious that comes in a take-out bag for dinner, and then you’re going to play Mario…

Book Title: PAYBACKCharacter Name: Ayse How would you describe your family or your childhood?My father and I emigrated from Istanbul when I was 4. We’ve lived in the same West Hollywood ever since. Sounds cramped. That’s so American to need a whole wing to yourself. We have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. That’s more than enough. Plus our apartment is on the 3rd floor, at the exact height of the jacaranda flowers, so it feels like a treehouse. If you link to my address though, I will sue you. How do you pronounce your name?EYE-sha. Significant other?I prefer to have a few situationships. Who has time for a relationship? An interrogation where you end up naked? Oof. No. Biggest challenge in relationships?People say I am secretive. I have no idea where they got that idea because I definitely didn’t tell them anything. Do you have any enemies?Maybe. Depends on who you ask. 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?Well, I am in jail with a bunch of hysterical idiots, so I would say I feel extreme levels of murderous irritation. Do…