I’m actually not kidding. I was trying to write my first romance, but I came to the genre much later than to any other. I discovered action adventure with CALL OF THE WILD and MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY at age eight. I first read science fiction at ten and THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES by the time I was twelve. NARNIA and THE HOBBIT opened up fantasy for me in my teens. I was hot on the trail of Ludlum and Follett from their very early books. Classics consumed much of my twenties. I didn’t read my first romance until attending RWA’s National conference in my mid-thirties. I chewed my way through a dozen of them before I was handed Susan Wiggs’ THE CHARM SCHOOL and Laura Kinsale’s THE PRINCE OF MIDNIGHT. That launched me into Nora’s Born in trilogy and I was gone. I already had written and sold a couple of science fiction and fantasy novels by that point and wanted to try my hand at a romance. But I’d also been dying to tackle a thriller. What I was waiting for was the right idea. I wrote a light-hearted foodie thriller entitled: Swap Out! It has a love…

Why did you decide to write your mystery series in the Hamptons and not a fictional location like many authors do? I love the Hamptons, especially Montauk, because it has it all: celebs, sandy beaches, fabulous restaurants and a rich history. Each book in my Hamptons Home and Garden Mystery series takes place in one specific Hamptons town–or should I say each murder. In book one, BETTER HOMES AND CORPSES, the murder takes place at the fictional Seacliff estate in East Hampton. Book two, HEARSE AND GARDENS, takes place in Montauk. In my third book, the mystery takes place in Sag Harbor. The setting for book four will be either Bridgehampton or Southampton, I can’t decide which. My protagonist, Meg Barrett lives in Montauk. What is it about Montauk that you love? I live on Long Island and Montauk has always been my favorite getaway spot. I may be prejudiced, but I think Montauk is one of the most beautiful spots in America. When I first vacationed in Montauk and climbed to the top of the Montauk Point Lighthouse (commissioned by George Washington) that sits on a rocky cliff next to the Atlantic on easternmost point of Long Island, I…

New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle is a native Californian who worked in television production for many years before turning to writing. It was a lifelong fascination with the art and craft of bookbinding that led her to write the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Visit Kate online at www.KateCarlisle.com. Have you ever browsed through the old books at antique stores or flea markets or estate sales and wondered about the stories those books could tell? Not just the story in the book, but the story of the book. Who owned it? How did they acquire it? What did it mean to them? What sorts of people bought the book and then safeguarded it for 100 years or more? That very intriguing idea is what prompted me to create the Bibliophile Mysteries. At the center of each mystery is a rare book being restored by preeminent bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright. As I craft the plot, I echo the themes of the rare book, but with a modern twist. I think of it as a puzzle within the mystery, a bonus gift to my readers. In RIPPED FROM THE…

I’ve always had a fascination with the paranormal, so it’s really no surprise to me that I started writing witches, psychics, and empaths… My early love of I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, and more recently, my slight addiction to Long Island Medium have all have influenced me. But alas, I’m not a witch. Or a genie. Or a psychic. Instead of writing what I know (a common phrase in fiction writing), I simply write what fascinates me. Beyond pop culture influences, I’ve also had some personal incidents in my life that have made me take note of the paranormal. When my twenty-two-year-old son was three, it was early morning when I heard him talking in the other room, having a full conversation with someone I couldn’t see… When I asked him who he was talking to, he said quite seriously (yet calmly), “The man.” Spooky, right? It was for me too—at first. But my grandfather had died the week before, before he’d had a chance to meet my son… I like to believe that they were getting to know each other. For years, I’ve noticed that when I get into my car, my rearview mirror is tilted. If I run…

First of all, I have to say how much I love Fresh Fiction and how thrilled I am to be here today talking about my June release, LOVEGAME 🙂 LOVEGAME is a little different from my normal books—it’s darker, twistier, more psychological and suspenseful—but from the moment I first had the idea, I knew I had to write it. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it was going to take me three years—and fifteen other novels—before I would actually get it done. And if you want to talk about coming full circle, I actually first had the idea for Veronica and Ian when I was in Dallas at a 2013 Fresh Fiction event—which is why it seems fitting that the first place I talk about the book is here on this blog 🙂 Every writer, at some point in their career, has an idea that scares them. That keeps them up at night. That matters to them so much that they are terrified they’ll never be able to do the idea justice. That—in the writing of it—makes them grow as both a writer and a person. I am lucky (and unlucky, lol) enough to have had two…

Every writer expects criticism of his or her work. All of us are warned about this early in our careers. Something I heard years ago has stuck with me, and I think of it when I encounter such criticism: “I cannot expect to be universally loved and respected.” My first one-star review was given to my debut novel, CODE BLUE years ago. And I expect to hear this particular criticism again as reviews appear for my latest novel of medical suspense, MEDICAL JUDGMENT. Certain people will complain because I write “Christian fiction.” I’m prepared to have my writing style criticized. Perhaps the reader doesn’t like medical novels. Maybe I don’t pack my work with enough suspense. It’s possible that the characters are one-dimensional. All these are valid criticisms. But I was surprised and disappointed the first time I had my writing criticized because it was written from a Christian worldview. I’ve noticed lately that the genre in which I write is now labeled “Inspirational” fiction. Perhaps that’s appropriate in our politically correct climate, but it doesn’t fully solve the problem. If we use this label, should we then also use terms like “Smutty fiction” or “Fiction containing lots of cursing?”…

As I drove my daughter to school yesterday, I was distracted (at a stoplight) by a sticker slapped on the bumper of the van waiting in front of us. Where Does a Woman Belong? In the White House. My daughter said, “They must like Hillary.” “Maybe.” Then, trying not to sound like an old codger, I mentioned how grateful I was that messages like this were part of her everyday life. “When I was your age, the response to that question would have been . . . In the Kitchen.” “Wow.” My daughter gave me a compassionate smile. That was then. This is now. Thank God. She turned the music up, and we drove on. I am a pre-Title Nine woman, raised in a community that didn’t take kindly to the likes of Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem. In my world, Billie Jean King’s defeat of Bobby Riggs was greeted with bemusement. When Helen Reddy sang “I Am Woman,” people looked heavenward or changed the radio station. Maybe women were strong, maybe invincible, but they didn’t make a big deal out of it. They didn’t roar. I came to assume that, with a few exceptions from the nineteenth century, women…

What kind of shifter would I write about if I no longer created stories about wolf or jaguar shapeshifters? That’s a hard one to answer because I love creating stories about the wolves and jaguars. I’m writing about cougars and also have one coming out about a polar bear because the first shifter book I ever read was about a man cursed to be a polar bear in EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON, a Norwegian fairy tale. Reading that book as a child, I had my first real experience about shifters and loved the romance between the prince and the maid who married him. The story was a fantasy, a wicked troll queen cursing him to be a polar bear by day and a man at night. But mine will be perfectly plausible. Looking for a hot polar bear to warm your heart? Cougars are really different from jaguars, so it’s fun for me to write about two unique big cats and how different the shifters are in their human form also. Jaguars are mysterious, hard to document, protected. Cougars are hunted and have seasons to thin their numbers. Jaguars are exotic big cats, whereas cougars…

Spring is finally here which, according to some love pundits, means that along with sweet-smelling flowers, fresh, dewy love is just around the corner. All that newly exposed flesh… all those newly liberated hormones! But if you’re in the market for a new man this spring, this author highly recommends that you consider trading up and going for a supernatural boyfriend. Here is a roundup of the top 5 reasons the #SNB is the better man. You’ll never be bored. Ever. One of the biggest failings of any relationship is boredom. This is never a problem with a #SNB. So what if you don’t have much in common? No one said that a vegetarian and the undead couldn’t get along! You may not be a drama queen, but the #SNB simply doesn’t have ordinary problems. Imagine lamenting to your friends over coffee about your new significant other and how he occasionally sprouts fur – and sometimes tears the heads off attackers in an effort to save the world and/or you. They’ll be just as enthralled by the discussion as you are. He’ll get you out of a jam. This is the boyfriend you want in your corner. He won’t leave…

Have you ever searched for books with the word wedding in the title? On Amazon alone, there are over 22,000. Add in bride, and you’ll have a mini-explosion on your screen. We have runaway brides, mail-order brides, princess brides, virgin brides, substitute brides, pretend brides, and, yes, bridezillas! There are right at 29,000 book titles that include the word bride. Groom? Another 2,000. I know. A lot less. Sorry, guys, but it’s best you understand right now that it’s all about the bride. Why so many books about weddings? Because we love to read them! We get to vicariously share that magic moment with the bride and groom, their families and friends. The reader is given a front row seat at the affair…and through all the ups and downs it takes to reach that moment. In Magnolia Brides, my new series, we’re right there when wedding planner Jenni Beth Beaumont (THE BEST LAID WEDDING PLANS) and florist Cricket O’Malley (EVERY BRIDE HAS HER DAY) meet their brides and plan that perfect-for-her event…and smile when, along the way, each finds her own special someone. We love the little pink purses bursting with sweetheart roses, calla lilies, Bells of Ireland, and strands…