While I was writing my novel, STONE ANGELS, it became painfully clear that I had no idea how to write a love story. Sure, it was an homage to PERSUASION by Jane Austen. And yes, I’d been addicted to those Harlequin romances sold at Woolworth’s for 99 cents when I was a teenager, not to mention Regency romances by Barbara Cartland with titles like “The Ruthless Rake” and “The Elusive Earl.” But my novel was not that. I like to describe STONE ANGELS as “a sort of PACHINKO meets PERSUASION.” It has elements of both – generations of Koreans in the diaspora living under the shadow cast by Japanese colonialism combined with a love story about second chances. I knew how to write about migration and identity, and I’d extensively researched a little-known corner of WWII history about teenage girls forced into sexual slavery. But I had no idea how to write a love story. In somewhat overly dramatic despair, I turned to PERSUASION. Austen scholars believe she wrote it when she was forty, not the seventeen-year-old who probably wrote the first draft of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, not a young woman in the bloom of youth. Yet PERSUASION is the…

Book Title: KISSING THE SKYCharacter Name: Suzannah How would you describe your family or your childhood?Weird. My dad is a strict army colonel, very tough on my brother and me. Despite the fact that I’m a rising sophomore in college, he treats me like I’m a child. He scrutinizes every article of clothing I put on my body and insists I change if he dislikes my outfit. My poor mother can’t make the bed without him criticizing her. If the corners aren’t perfect, she gets yet another “tutorial.” When I was little, he wasn’t quite as bad, but ever since he made my brother, Ron, enlist in Vietnam, he’s become a tyrant. What is your greatest talent?I’d say my singing voice, though my dad restricts me from using it anywhere other than church. I’d rather sing Beatles songs all day – every day – but ever since John told the world The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, I’ve been banned from their music. How embarrassing is that? Everyone I know listens – and dances – to the Beatles. I’m a pretty good dancer, too, but my church calls dancing a sin. I think I’d say music is the most…

What is the title of your latest release?MEET ME UNDER THE LIGHTS What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Former friends turned enemies fall for each other the summer their feuding families compete for ownership of their town’s famed baseball stadium. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I knew it needed to be a small town where everyone is in everyone’s business, and I loved the idea of an entire town rallying around one sport (similar to Varsity Blues but with baseball, of course). It was also important to me that it featured a family of farmers because I wanted an additional conflict / focus to be that of class differences as well. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?100% I would hang out with both of them. Eliza is a theater nerd like me who loves baseball, and like Reed, I love the land and the atmosphere and tension of being in a baseball stadium. What are three words that describe your hero?Eliza Crowley is stubborn, smart, and drivenReed Fulton is loyal, competitive, and steadfast What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned that while subplots can be interesting, they…

Book Title: THE BEST LITTLE MOTEL IN TEXASCharacter Name: Cordelia West How would you describe your family or your childhood?I had what some would call an unconventional childhood. My daddy ran off when I was just a baby, and my momma, bless her heart, loved the bottle just a bit more than she loved me. It was hard trying to blend into the small town of Sarsaparilla Falls when my momma insisted on standing out. But she cleaned up her act and moved us to Dallas, and things settled into a comfortable state of normalcy from there. What was your greatest talent?I’d say I’ve got a real knack for organizing. I think it comes from being raised in chaos. Someone had to make sure the mortgage got paid and the sock patterns matched and the hot sauce didn’t get mixed with the ketchup. I kept the house neat so my momma could focus on her twelve steps. Significant other?I don’t have anyone in my life as of yet, dating is a messy ordeal I’d rather just skip, but the chicks keep telling me Archer Reed-Smythe is looking to hitch his horse to my wagon. Though I have my doubts about…

Welcome to Nova Cambridge, Alabama! I’m your hostess, Savannah Webster. You’ve heard of Gulf Shores and have maybe even vacationed on our powdery white sand beaches, but you might not have taken the time to find our neck of the woods. Nova Cambridge is off the beaten track down winding county roads that meander through tupelo (black gum) and live oak trees. We’re the part of the Gulf Shores area most people never bother to discover. Nova Cambridge has always reminded me of Magnolia Springs. I love the cozy 1920s bungalows interspersed with grander, newer homes. Even better, it’s strategically located next to all the things I love like Page and Palette Bookstore in Fairhope and Jesse’s Restaurant in Magnolia Springs. Just offshore, where Mobile Bay and the Bon Secour Bay kiss and merge, you can access the road to the Sanctuary Animal Refuge over the Kate Norris Bridge. Mobile Bay is on one side and Weeks Bay is on the other. It’s not far from Foley and my beloved library either. I hope you’ll take time to drive out our way and discover the charm of the hidden places like Dinosaurs in the Woods and Bamahenge. They are a…

Exclusive Excerpt  (Beginning of Chapter 8) In the Wake of Golgotha by Daniel Grace: Oh frick . . . Poor Henry Clay Frick. Priceless masterpieces by Monet, Degas, Rembrandt, Goya, and Renoir, even Vermeer’s borrowed Girl with the Pearl Earring couldn’t keep the schoolkids from giggling and messing around in his former Upper East Side mansion instead of marveling at his legacy. But what the hell, what’s in a name? Jude, feeling alone, decided to go to see some old friends. Art, more recently (since the Renaissance), and paintings in particular, had always calmed him. Still moments of character and landscape caught in eternal color on soft canvas. Art had proved to be breadcrumbs through history for him. Some of it personal, other pieces painful. None of it nostalgic. Judas had once stood in the cold, damp, echoing refectory of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie a century or two after Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned by the Duke of Milan to decorate the back wall of the dining hall in 1498 with his controversial Il Cenacolo. Gazing up at the masterpiece, he’d been struck by several strangely specific, creatively deceptive details in The Last Supper. Leonardo’s frescoed…

What is the title of your latest release?SING DOWN THE MOON What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Sixteen-year-old Leontyne Skye is bound by blood and legacy to Damascus, an ancient fig tree that grows on the Georgia island of Good Hope, a tree that feeds the dead and devours the living. As her mother disintegrates before her very eyes Leontyne must confront a birthright that will take everything from her as it has her mother – teeth, hair, and bone. Leontyne has already lost parts of herself – a hand, and her memory, in a happening two years prior known as Tribulation Day. When a mysterious stranger arrives on Good Hope, Leontyne’s memories slowly resurface, and with those memories, the discovery of a chilling truth. Rejecting her legacy will shatter the fragile balance between the living and the dead, forcing Leontyne to choose: save the island and those she loves, or save herself. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I believe that I will always write stories about the American South, so from the get-go, placing it in the region was a given. Setting it on a remote Georgia coastal barrier island gave the…

Excerpt from HOW SIMI GOT HER GROOM BACK by Sonali Dev: Chapter 4 – RUMI The bus jerks to a stop with a giant mechanical sigh of relief, and I jolt awake. The first thing that strikes me is the missing weight of my backpack on my chest. I sit up and search the seat next to me, then bend over and look under my seat. No! The world stops. Everything stops. My heart hammers in my ears. This can’t be happening. The bus is completely, eerily empty. Not another soul on board, except for the driver. I jump up and grab the overhead luggage rack with both hands and pull myself up, getting a foothold on the seat. My eyes search up and down the empty racks. Rising panic makes it impossible to process what I’m seeing. Emptiness. Nothing but emptiness on either side. Shit shit shit. Over the past year, I’ve slept on a lot of public transport. After I left LA, I spent six months going from place to place on trains and buses before I found my way to Chicago. I also grew up in Mumbai. Clutching my belongings for dear life is coded into my…

What is the title of your latest release?THE SECRET LIVES OF MURDERERS’ WIVES What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Beverley, Elsie and Margot are three friends with a shared secret – they are all ex-wives of serial killers. When a string of murders hits their pretty, white-picket-fence neighborhood, the three get to work, because who better to catch a murderer than those who have shared a bed, and a life, with one? How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I’m a Brit but I knew this story wasn’t going to take place in the grey, rainy UK. I wanted a murder story you could read by the pool – so sun-smattered LA was the perfect setting. California is a very large state, obviously, so there’s the geographical plausibility of multiple serial killers operating at any particular time. Oh, and the Hollywood connections were irresistible. I wouldn’t have wanted to set it anywhere else! Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?I think anyone who’s been through what these women have been through is incredible. I would be proud to sip on a margarita by the pool with them. What are three words that…

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 Dana Mentink! Writes:Dana Mentink writes both romantic suspense and cozy mystery. She delivers stories that stir your soul, keep you at the edge of your seat, and leave you feeling a bit better about the world. No spice or profanity in her novels, but you’ll find warmth for your soul and tingles for your spine. Want laughs, small town hijinks, and a fun mystery to solve? Check out her cozies. Enjoy running for your life stories that will keep you awake at night? Her suspense delivers. About:Dana Mentink is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller as well as a two-time American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award winner, and the recipient of a Holt Medallion for excellence in mystery/suspense. She was honored to receive the Author of the Year award from West Coast Christian Writers. A California native, she’s written over fifty titles for the general and Christian markets in the suspense, and mystery genres. She is pleased to write for Harlequin’s Love…