To be honest, release day itself is somewhat stressful. It’s typically a day full of chaos, phone calls, blog interviews, Facebook parties, and emailing all the people out there that are helping to spread the word about the new book. Then there’s that horrible thing known as the SALES RANKINGS. Like pretty much every other author out there, I peek at my sales rankings—Amazon and Barnes and Noble mostly—the moment I get up, agonizing over what the total number is and what category I’m ranking in. “Oh goodie, I’m ranking number five overall in the category of romantic/suspense/wolf shifters/who are right-handed/and part their hair on the right!!!” “Yikes, is that good enough? What if I never get up to number four in that most sought-after category?” My publisher and agent tell me stop looking at the numbers and that my books are selling fine. I agree with them, then immediately check to see if my ranking has changed in the last three minutes! Fortunately, release day is only twenty-four hours long, though it can seem longer. After it’s over is when I really celebrate. For me, that celebration usually means a good movie (preferred an animated one…Disney if possible) and…

  Hey all! I’m happy to be here at Fresh Fiction. I’m still celebrating my newest release, MY TEMPTING HIGHLANDER. It’s the third book in my Highland Hearts series, Mairi Sinclair and Ronan Sutherland’s story. If you’ve been following the exploits of the time-traveling Sinclair family, you know that Mairi’s one of the last two Sinclair sisters still residing in the twenty-first century. She’s also determined to stay in that century but matchmaking Granny and cursed but wolfishly sexy (as in shifter type hotness) Highland Chieftain Ronan decide otherwise. Even when writing romances with such fantastical elements as time-travel, magic, and shape-shifting, research has to be done to make sure the story is just right. That’s why I’m so thankful for the internet and online writer groups these days. “Sensitive” inquiries can be tossed about without any drop-jawed stares or threats to call security. When I first started writing, some thirty odd years ago, the bulk of data hunting had to be done at libraries. Here’s a few questions that I’m glad I didn’t have to ask my local librarian. Could you direct me to the section on poisons or would you happen to know if arsenic has enough smell…

Today we’re featuring an exclusive excerpt from ACROSS THE HALL by Kylie Walker. About ACROSS THE HALL Jude Falken has just been released from prison on good behavior. He’s hot as hell, owns one of the largest fashion empires & has women coming and going day and night. A delivery girl that shows up at his loft leaves him intrigued. She’s gorgeous, shy & totally off limits. She’s his best friends little sister. Jude knows better, he swore he wouldn’t go there. After returning from a year long internship in Paris, Jillian Warren is back in her hometown of Manhattan and steering clear of men. Her new neighbor has her curious, wanting to know more. Her roommate & brother keeps telling her stay away but she can’t. As their worlds collide, Jillian soon finds out there is a darker side to Jude and she will soon be fighting her own emotions and memories of the one man she left in Paris. Her past will soon catch up with her. She will be forced to decide. Big brother’s best friend or the hurtful memories of her past in Paris. AUTHOR NOTE: Full length Brother’s Best Friend Romance Standalone Novel with HEA!…

My husband posed that question to me. Well, he didn’t POSE it, per se. He downright accused me of being a crazy cat lady. Let me point out that I only have ONE cat! Her name is Cinnamon and here’s a picture of her as a kitten. Yes, she is in a bag of toilet paper and she is adorable. But since I only have one cat, I cannot be a crazy cat lady. However, the following list of facts might indeed suggest otherwise. You decide. The picture of Cinnamon in the toilet paper bag is the background on my phone. I have more pictures of my various cats than I do of my children. But in all fairness, cell phones hadn’t been invented when my kids were at home.Since the bulk of my pictures are on my phone which I got long after the kids had moved out, I would say that’s just natural selection. I take pictures of what’s around me and my kids aren’t. Not as much as my cat. (My husband points out that he lives with me too, but I have a zillion more pictures of my cat than of him. I say when he…

My name is Janice, and I’m a travel junkie. It’s true! If I had unlimited time and money, I think I would hit the road and not look back for at least six months. I have a sister who yearns for home and hearth and gets homesick if she’s away for more than a couple of nights. Me on the other hand? I love waking up on a trip and having a whole day of brand new adventures ahead. Not that I’m about to sign up for the Amazing Race. I do like my creature comforts. J Still, I rarely get homesick when I’m away, except of course for missing loved ones who aren’t with me. For a lot of years when our girls were growing up, there was neither the time nor the money for exotic vacations. We loved national parks. Road trips were usually punctuated by overnight stays at two-star Day’s Inns or a bare-bones Motel Six. Looking back, those are some of our best family memories. Eventually, we began to have a bit more in the way of savings, and we began planning a very special trip every two or three years. That’s how I came to…

Thank you so much to Sara and all the gang at Fresh Fiction for inviting me back to visit about ONE TEXAS COWBOY TOO MANY. It is always a delight to prop up my boots and talk to all y’all about my newest release. ONE TEXAS COWBOY TOO MANY is the third book in the Burnt Boot series. A COWBOY CHRISTMAS MIRACLE will be out in September and finish the series. I absolutely loved writing this whole series but having Rhett O’Donnell and Leah Brennan in my head for all those weeks was so much fun that I sure hated to write THE END when the story ended. To all you folks who have read the first two books, ONE TEXAS COWBOY TOO MANY“>COWBOY BOOTS FOR CHRISTMAS (COWBOY NOT INCLUDED) and THE TROUBLE WITH TEXAS COWBOYS, you already know there is a big feud going on in Burnt Boot. It started almost a hundred years ago during Prohibition Days and the Gallaghers and Brennans have kept it going strong. Rhett is a cowboy from the bone marrow out to his tough cowboy hide but he rides a tricked out motorcycle with steer horns mounted to the front and he has…

I have a confession to make: I don’t always live in the here and now. Ever catch yourself daydreaming of a life in a different time and place? Would you be comfortable roaming about an estate in Regency England, or dancing in a ballroom under the glow of candlelight, or walking the hills of nineteenth century Scotland? If you do, we share something in common. For as long as I can remember I have indulged my imagination in flights of fancy. After thirteen novels and three short stories I won the Quill Award and was inducted into the Writer’s Hall of Fame. Although I write contemporary, paranormal, and historical romantic fiction, I admit I love to travel to the past. My favorite destination is Regency England or Scotland, when people were a bit wild under their mannerly façades. A reader I met at a book signing a few years ago told me I was an old soul and I had lived centuries earlier. I suppose that could be the reason I enjoy traveling to different places and times. I also share a birthday with Jane Austen, who I admire greatly. Is sharing her birthday and becoming an author a coincidence?…

I’m an Anglophile. I adore all things British. So having a British hero felt natural. Plopping him in the middle of Las Vegas felt inspired. HIS TO KEEP is the third book in the Beauty and the Brit series. Iain Chapman is a far cry from my other heroes. Hailing from Manchester, Iain comes from a gritty, working class background, and it shows. So why would a Manc choose to settle in Vegas? Well, Iain has his reasons for living in Sin City, but I’ll give you my top five list of why I love Vegas. I’m not much of a gambler, but when I’m out on the casino floor, the energy and noise are infectious. I love to watch the tables. I’m too cheap to play myself—I’m more of a slot person, but observing the blackjack tables, soaking up the atmosphere, is one of my favorite ways to kill a couple of hours. It may be 3 a.m. or 3 p.m. There are no clocks, no windows—the casino is its own world. The Strip. Watching the craziness on The Strip is awesome. It’s a different show every night. Street performers, card slappers, and superheroes mingle with the drunks. With…

The best plot in the world. The most thrilling story of the century. A tale so compelling it changes the lives of millions. None of them work if the characters don’t ring true. You might think it’s easy for a female writer to create believable, convincing female characters. It isn’t. Nothing about the writing process is ‘easy’. Having said that, I’ve discovered a way to flesh my women out, make them life-like and three dimensional. But it wasn’t always that way. The essential male / female split Before I was published, I wrote three novels. None have seen the light of day, and they never will, because they weren’t ready. I had to learn the craft of fiction. To wit, in one of those novels, two male police officers were the protagonists. One of them walked into a house to question a witness, and the first thing he noticed were the curtains in the window. “Um… no,” said my writing group. A solid, beefy cop would NOT notice curtains when he walked into a house. “You need to learn the difference between a man and a woman’s point of view”, they said. Looking back, it seems obvious now. But at…

I am of the mindset that there’s nothing better than having a ripe, juicy strawberry on top of my dessert, and I’m beginning to believe the same rule applies to cozy mysteries! CC Dragon’s promotion card caught my eye last fall at a conference in Colorado. There was something about it that was familiar—her cover styles were attractive and appealing—as it turns out, we have the same cover artist! So it makes sense, that I was drawn to her books as much as I am to strawberry topping. I looked for her at the conference, to no avail and ended up stuffing her promotion card in my bag to contact her after I returned home. I hate to say, that swag bag didn’t get emptied until the holidays, but what a great gift it turned out to be! If I’d contacted CC last fall, she would have only had two books out in her series, but as of January, she has three Strawberry Top Mysteries for you to gobble up;) Now that’s a delicious treat! Kym: Please welcome CC Dragon to Fresh Fiction’s Cozy Corner! CC: Hi! Thanks for tracking me down ? Kym: CC can you tell us a…