What is the title of your latest release? CROSS YOUR HEART AND HOPE HE DIES What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Fierce marketing manager Juliette Winters is trying to save her publisher from ruin by making the book deal of the century – when the author drops dead at the announcement party and the manuscript goes missing. Now she’s got to enlist hot doc Charlie Hawkins to help prove the death was no accident so she can recover the stolen manuscript and save the day. How did you decide where your book was going to take place? CROSS YOUR HEART AND HOPE HE DIES is a standalone companion novel to my debut adult murder mystery rom-com, SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE, so I knew it would be set in the Pacific Northwest same as my first book. But while CLUE took place on an island out in the ocean, I wanted somewhere new and fun and interesting to explore for the next book. And because these books are about the rich behaving badly, I knew it needed to be somewhere lavish and over the top. So of course a luxury yacht belonging to an exclusive country club was…

I always imagined myself as Anne Shirley. Partly because of my name. I’m Anne (with an E) Gallagher. And my hair is red, thanks to a box of Red Hot hair color I found under the bathroom sink. Plus, I grew up on an island—Mackinac Island, Michigan, which has its own tiny school and horse-drawn carriages and streets lined with Victorian houses. Total nostalgic charm vibes. It’s like living in a storybook. Like, literally. Like, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. photo credit rboed, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Honestly, I loved growing up here. They passed some law back in the 1890s banning automobiles, so there are no cars. I rode my bike everywhere. In winter, we rode snowmobiles to school and played hockey in the middle of the frozen Main Street.  When I was a kid, sometimes Dad would take me to the Mustang Lounge after he finished work. I’d suck pop through a straw, my legs dangling from a bar stool, feeling grown-up and special, while he ordered a beer he never finished.  photo credit https://www.mustanglounge.online/gallery The island library’s kind of small, but there’s a long table in the middle where you can read and chairs pulled…

What is the title of your latest release? DEAD FAKE What is the elevator pitch for your new book? A mysterious new website, Swipe to Die, allows people to view their own ‘death’ – an AI-generated version of their final slasher-movie moments. When some of the deepfakes are replicated in real life, Ava Wilson can either catch the killer…or be the next victim. How did you decide where the book was going to take place? As my first horror series, I wanted to ensure the setting was as important as the characters. When I came up with the cursed town of Bleak Haven, I knew it was the perfect place for these terrible things to happen. Would you hang out with your main character in real life? Definitely. Ava is the ideal champion to have in your corner. What are three words that describe your main character? Headstrong, determined, loyal. What’s something you learned while writing this book? I’ve learned that working to shorter word counts can focus the story and ensure stronger pacing throughout. It’s also been great creating the start of a series where I can world-build, having only previously written standalone novels. Do you edit as you…

What is the title of your latest release? THE LIES WE TRADE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Meredith Hansel is Wall Street’s rising star, poised to celebrate her team’s massive success, and yet she struggles to balance the demands of her job with the challenges at home. Her marriage strains under the weight of long hours and unspoken resentments, while her teenage daughter refuses to engage. When a mysterious envelope arrives containing sensitive data and a cryptic note from her former colleague, Betsey. Meredith must decide who she can trust, because the message threatens not just Meredith’s career, but the very foundation of her family. To protect everything and everyone she loves, Meredith must untangle Betsey’s demand before the secrets detonate and blow her life apart. How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I worked in and around Wall Street for over twenty years. I wanted to explore the familiar power imbalances, impossible demands, and dynamic characters for a fresh, new thriller.  Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Meredith may not have a lot of free time, but she sure knows how to throw a party.  What…

Excerpt – ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE BOURNE REVENGE by Brian Freeman: Bourne sat behind the wheel of the Camry and waited. Four o’clock passed. Then five. Then five thirty. The after-work drinkers began to arrive. At six o’clock, he spotted a white F-150 pickup pulling into the lot near the rear of the building. The man who climbed down from the truck was short and stocky, with an almost completely round face. His hair had thinned to a black crown at the back of his head, and he kept a bushy salt-and-pepper mustache. His large wire-rimmed glasses would have been in style back in the 1970s. Despite the Miami heat, he wore a weathered leather bomber jacket over worn blue jeans. He was smoking a cigarette, which he crushed on the pavement before disappearing into the bar. Bourne checked the area for other surveillance and saw none. He left the shadows of the overpass and crossed the street. Inside the bar, most of the tables were already full, and a stage was being set up for evening music. He spotted Kodak sitting by himself at the counter, pawing at a bowl of mixed nuts and chatting up the attractive bartender, who…

Each Monday the Smashwords store lists the top ten most highly anticipated indie fiction ebooks based on the previous week’s preorder accumulations. Each title on the list is scheduled to release within the next week. To help the talented authors on this list accumulate even more preorders, click the title of the book. The hyperlink will bring you to a Books2Read page where you can order from your preferred ebook retailer. If the preorder is part of a series, click the hyperlinked series title to learn about the other books in the series. Be sure to check back Friday for a list of the Top 25 Bestselling Indie Ebooks.

Welcome to Jen’s Jewels, where each week I highlight a story I loved and the author behind the words. Today, I’m featuring TRACK OF COURAGE by Susan May Warren. Let’s kick things off with a quick Lightning Round before digging deeper into the story. LIGHTNING ROUND 1. In three words, describe the vibe of your book. Redemptive. Suspenseful. Hope-filled. 2. What’s your ideal writing fuel: coffee, tea, wine, or chaos? Coffee—and lots of it! Especially when I’m deep in a blizzard scene or working out a rescue sequence with my husband (he was a mechanic, so he gets all my “how would you sabotage a snowmobile?” questions). 3. If your book had a theme song, what would it be? Something that captures both vulnerability and courage—maybe “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle. It speaks to that moment when you realize you can’t save yourself, and someone shows up exactly when you need them most. THE DEEP DIVE 4. Every book has an origin story. What was the “lightning strike” moment that made you say, “I have to write this”? My editor Andrea Doering asked me, “Why don’t you write a book about dogs?” And suddenly everything clicked. I’d been wanting to explore…

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.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been over here at Fresh Fiction. Some of you might even remember my name. Once upon a time I wrote historical romance full-time. It was and remains to be my first love when it comes to romance subgenres. But I’ve been living a secret life.  In 2020 my whole world changed, much like everyone else’s. The day before the world shut down my mother passed away. If you knew me back then, you would remember she was my constant companion at writing conferences and booksignings. She was my number one fan and my greatest supporter. Losing a parent is never easy, but grieving in the midst of a global pandemic was weird.  My concentration was gone. I’m still not sure if it was mostly the grief or if it was having my entire family home with me negating any of my usual alone time. As an introvert, I need the quiet, calm time with just myself. Well, I’m sure y’all remember, there wasn’t much of that to be found during the lock-down.  Like many authors, during that time, my writing suffered. Well, at least my writing of historical romance suffered. Not only that,…

Lilac Wine – Nina Simone In INTO THE MIDNIGHT WOOD, differing music tastes are a point of contention between David and Meredith, with Meredith disparaging David’s “French ladies” such as Edith Piaf, and David scoffing at Meredith’s somewhat eclectic postpunk record collection. However, the two of them do find some common ground when they share a tender moment dancing to Nina Simone’s cover of “Lilac Wine.” Though there are many versions of the song, I chose this one since David names Nina Simone as his favorite singer. The narrator pines for an absent lover, while the imagery of a “cool damp night” and “misty light” evoke the Midnight Wood, and the narrator preparing lilac wine parallels Meredith’s ongoing quest to gather the sweet woodruff plant needed for making May wine.  (I Want to Be an) Anglepoise Lamp – The Soft Boys This song is also directly referenced in the story as the one that Meredith regularly attempts to get bands at the local music venue to play. They don’t, of course, because it’s a decades-old non-album single from a short-lived UK band that recorded only two albums. With its surreal imagery and delightful gender anarchy, it seemed especially appropriate to…