My latest adult contemporary romance, HEARTS ON HOLD, features a professor and a librarian who engage in a short affair while working together on a university project. Dr. Victoria Reese isn’t expecting to catch feelings during this three-week trist; she’s looking for a release from the stressors of teaching at a predominantly white university, nosy administrators, and an overbearing mother. Her secret lover, John Donovan, has his own share of stressors: Managing the children’s department of The Farmingdale Library and caring for a cheeky 12-year-old niece. Working with the tightly-wound, schedule-obsessed professor sounds like a challenge for a man who has ADD and tries to live a laidback life. But there’s something about Victoria and her overdue paperback romance that makes John intrigued. He’s always up for a sexy challenge. H is for Hot. These two have amazing chemistry. E is for Earnest. John is there to support A is for Attraction. It’s instant. R is for Rendezvous. They have few of those. T is for Time-management. Victoria loves to schedule S is for Sisterhood. Yay for female friendships!   O is for Overdue. Victoria’s paperback is crazy late N is for Nemisis. Victoria’s boss is a meany.   H…

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Marie! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, THE KISSING GAME! Hi there! I’m a NYT and USA Today bestselling romance author of over 100 books. I write contemporary, paranormal, and romantic suspense, all with a bit of heat and humor. And I live in Central Oregon with two growing teens, a dog and a cat (who thinks he’s a dog). The Kissing Game is a standalone romance centered around Valentine’s Day. It’s also a book I’ve been dying to write for YEARS. The heroine is a romance book lover; the hero is a tall Viking-like hunk who has a big heart but isn’t great at showing it. They are perfect for each other! The story has the hero doing his best to win the heroine by Valentine’s Day with some. . . interesting. . . presents. Tell us more about the heroine of THE KISSING GAME, Rena Jackson. Fans of your books know that she was actually introduced a few years ago. . . what sparked her having a book of her own? Rena Jackson was first introduced as the romance book-loving cousin of the heroine from What to Do with a…

Amara scanned the long list of agencies who participated in the crash investigation. It’d be easier to name who wasn’t involved. The National Transportation Safety Board had coordinated the inquiry, but the FBI and virtually every state and local resource had been active as well. With fewer than ten thousand people in Cotulla’s county, their limited resources meant they needed all the help they could get. Because the bus driver was a veteran, even the Department of Defense had stepped into the fray. When everybody’d had their say, the crash boiled down to one finding: suicide-murder. No charges were filed since the lone culprit was already dead. The Feds promised to do more for PTSD victims. The railroad put up crossing gates at every intersection in the county. The elementary school students planted seventeen trees in memory of their friends. The community grieved. And the Reyeses still mourned. All the families probably did. Amara dragged her finger across the screen and leaned closer. Who’d done the body IDs? She jerked when Sergeant Norwood popped his bubble gum. “Whatcha working today, Alvarez?” “Paperwork on the Leon Valley burglaries mostly.” She shrunk her internet window and grabbed a pen. “Then I’ve got…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Sophie! Please tell us a little bit about yourself and new book, PERFECT LITTLE CHILDREN?  I’ve been writing psychological thrillers since 2006. This includes my Culver Valley police series and several standalone thrillers – Perfect Little Children is one of those. It’s about an ordinary woman, Beth, whose life takes a sudden, sinister turn when she witnesses a totally baffling scene involving her one-time friend, Flora. It’s been 12 years since their friendship ended. Then one day, unexpectedly, Beth sees Flora with her children, Thomas and Emily, who were five and three years old when Beth last knew them. Inexplicably, the children appear not to have aged at all. They are no taller, no older, and they’re even wearing the exact same clothes that Beth last saw them wearing. Why haven’t they grown? Beth, fearing something dangerous and terrible is going on, sets out to investigate… Beth painfully parted ways with her best friend Flora twelve years ago, but when she’s in Flora’s neighborhood, she can’t help but drive by Flora’s house, which leads to a whole host of other strange things. What inspired this setup?  It was inspired by a real-life situation I found myself…

To be honest – it’s that second chance. Initially falling in love has its challenges, depending on the baggage your characters come with. But asking them to fall in love for a second time with someone with whom they already tried to have a relationship with? That’s asking a lot of anyone. When they fall in love or ‘connect’ with someone the first time, there’s hope that ‘this time will be different’.  Sometimes, the characters don’t even see it coming. (That’s one of the best kind—friends/enemies to lovers—another fabulous trope!) But here they are, in love, making promises. Then ‘reality’ hits, and one, or both, of them, has a major freak out of some sort. This usually comes from fear and any one of a multitude of insecurities, leading to termination of that relationship. Things are said, promises are broken, ties are cut. And now, it’s over. Each character will try to heal, to move on, but they KNOW deep down it’ll never be as good as that one true love that didn’t work out. That is exactly what my melty, romantic, heart-eyes, heart loves about Second Chances- they never really stopped loving each other. Love endures and conquers all….

From Chapter 3 of  AN EVERYDAY HERO  Greer pumped the brakes as she approached the narrow lane that led off the main road to Emmett Lawson’s cabin. A gate blocked the entrance and a fence stretched to either side. As if that wasn’t enough to deter visitors, a No Trespassing sign swung in the slight breeze from the rusty top rail of the gate. She tapped her thumbs on the steering wheel to the beat of the music on her radio, a catchy pop song with inane lyrics involving booty shaking. Without guilt, she could turn around and claim she couldn’t reach Emmett. Except Amelia’s offer of double hours was too much to resist. A summer stroll through the woods would net her at least an hour. She parked on the side of the two-lane country road, half blocking one lane. Not that she was worried about causing a traffic jam. She looked in either direction. Nothing but bees traveled across the road. Greer fanned herself with her straw cowboy hat and pulled at the lock and chain on the gate, hoping they were just for show, but the chain had been looped twice and the lock was heavy duty….

I can’t exactly remember when and where my fascination with dogs started–but it wasn’t because I grew up with dogs. My mother’s dad raised Border Collies that he trained to herd sheep–they weren’t pets, and she had no desire to have the stinky dirty beasts in the house. And then my little brother developed allergies to dogs (and cats, and chocolate, and just about everything else you can imagine), so the first pet I was allowed to own was a turtle that I named Paddlefoot. My love of dogs must have started with books and movies. The first dog I remember knowing about was Lassie, the transgender wonder dog (you might remember that Lassie was always played by a male dog. Anybody know why?). But she/he was a little too perfect to be my first dog crush. That flowing coat, though. She/he was totally the Fabio of dogs, wasn’t she/he? I really fell in love with dogs from reading The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. Yes, it was an actual book before ‘ol Walt made it into a movie. I read and re-read the book almost as often as I read Charlotte’s Web (but I didn’t cry since…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Prosper’s Demon 2–What is it about?  A man called Prosper and his demon. 3–What words best describe your protagonists?  The protagonists are (a) the hero (b) Prosper of Schanz (Leonardo da Vinci thinly disguised as a fictional character) (c) a demon. The hero; the last, best hope of the human race, but not very nice (b) Prosper; an idiot (c) the demon; hard done by 4–What side character steals every scene he or she is in?  There are no side characters. The book is practically spherical. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Using the notation above; (a) nobody (b) his own ego (c) the Lord of the Flies 6–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s warm and sort of Austrian, and if you leave the book by way of the top of the spine and turn left, there’s a really nice pavement café where you can get excellent strudel 7–Are you a plotter (follow an outline) or a pantster (write by the seat of your pants)? Pantster. Pantster till I die. 8–What is an ideal writing day for you?   It starts around…

“I may look like a monster, but I’m not going to hurt you.” Her reluctance offended him more than he cared to admit. His reputation painted him in a grim light–and for good reason–and he knew that side of his face was hideous, deformed, but he’d just risked his life for her, saved her. . . and with them alone in his room like this, the thought of when he’d kissed her inside that godforsaken closet haunted him. He’d kissed her so thoroughly that the feel of her against him was forever seared into him. And then he’d told her it meant nothing to him. What a load of horseshit. “It’s not that. I was afraid I’ll hurt you.” She reached for him again. This time, she didn’t shy away. With gentle movements, she cupped his cheek and used a handkerchief to wipe away the fresh blood. Her touch was gentle, tender. Some of the nerve endings on that side were damaged, making it less sensitive, yet he was aware of her every movement. Rogue could count the number of times someone had touched him there on less than one hand. The stroking movements of her palm and handkerchief as…

(1) I enjoy following characters over time. I’ve always loved reading series and writing series because I get to see what happens to the people in the future. (Conversely, with HER SCANDALOUS PURSUIT, it was fun figuring out what happened in the past!) (2) I’m able to develop my characters in fuller detail. Over the course of writing a book, I come to understand my characters more. As I write dialogue and have them interact, I get a better ‘feel’ for what they would do or say. This process works even better when they appear in several books. With the twins’ stories, HIS SINFUL TOUCH and HIS WICKED CHARM, I saw them grow up throughout the four books, and they became the most ‘real’ and beloved characters to me. (3) I find other characters in the series that I want to write about. People pop up that I hadn’t planned on or a side character develops in a way that makes me really interested in him or her. I had intended the Mad Morelands series to be only the original four books. But I loved the twins so much (and fortunately, so did readers) that I had to write stories…