Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Please tell us a little about yourself and your latest novel, UNSCRIPTED. These past several years have been a time of transition for me.  After writing with Janette Oke for going on a decade, she retired.  I decided this was my last-best opportunity to do what I had always dreamed of ‘someday’ – writing for the screen as well as novels.  So I obtained a degree in screenwriting and got to work. UNSCRIPTED is the outcome of these first experiences within the film world. Both of the main characters are trying to prove something about themselves – Danny, that he wasn’t at fault for what landed him in jail and restart his career, and Megan, to show she can do things on her terms and still be successful. Talk a little bit about what their struggles tell readers about them as people.  There is a saying you often hear in the film world:  ‘Hollywood likes to bury their dead while they are still breathing.’  I think Clark Gable was the first to say this, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, what they mean by this is, many people are looking for an excuse to write you off.  To be…

Jen: What inspired you to write The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street, the 6th book in The Tradd Street series? Karen: My contract!  When I wrote book #4 in the series, RETURN TO TRADD STREET, I knew there were so many stories left to tell, and so much more growth that Melanie had to attain that it seemed there should be more books in the series.  My publisher asked for three more, and I said yes. In order for the story to ring true with readers, how much research was needed? That’s hard to quantify as I’ve been “researching” Charleston for nearly twenty years.  From my first visit, I’ve been intrigued and fascinated by the city–the architecture, history and its natural beauty–and have been eagerly exploring the Holy City ever since as often as I can.  Melanie Trenholm’s relationship with her parents, sister, and husband is in a constant state of motion. In what ways is she evolving in this latest installment?   It’s been a long road for self-sufficient Melanie (and it’s not over) to become more trusting.  Because she was abandoned by her mother at age six, and raised by an alcoholic father, she had to become self-sufficient very…

We started to plan our escape. Exactly what prompted our decision, I wasn’t sure, only we didn’t like that the old black and blues on our bodies didn’t fade completely before new ones were pressed on top of them. We started to fear that if we stayed, our skin would eventually turn a dark purple, an ill-fitting shade for us both. Boyfriends would be nearly impossible then. The beatings, different in the way they were administered and in the reasons why, looked the same on our skin. After having gone out with my soldier, I confirmed to the little girl that our camp wasn’t completely isolated. When we broke out of the camp, we would follow the river upstream to town. There was a market and a shack with a mean boy as a guard. I didn’t think he would let us stay there. We would have to beg or sell lottery tickets until we had enough for a bus pass to the city. Unlike in our usual games, we didn’t think about the what-ifs, the endless ways we could fail. Failure to make it out of the camp: get caught, get lost, or starve. I feared a great number…

It’s the final day of our Fall Slow Cooker Recipe Potluck! We’ve enjoyed following along with all of these great authors, their new books, and delicious slow cooker recipes. Comment below for a chance to win yet another book! And be sure to take a look back at all of the fun we’ve had all week:  Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard  Day 2 with Soraya Lane Day 3 with Laura Lee Guhrke Day 4 with Jenn Burke  *** Autumn: Time for Comfort Food The mornings are crisp now in central Pennsylvania, and the mist hangs in the valleys for an hour or so after the sun makes its way over the mountain ridges. Leaves have begun to turn, orange pumpkins fill the roadside stands, and we bring in the last few tomatoes and winter squash from the garden. At a time like this, with winter not far off, my thoughts turn to comfort food. And for comfort food, what could be better than a slow cooker? Comfort food forms a large part of any collection of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. The farmers, both Amish and English, who settled in these fertile valleys felt the need for plenty of carbohydrates to keep…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Can you please tell us about your new book, HOW RORY THORNE DESTROYED THE MULTIVERSE? RORY is about a princess who has been blessed (and cursed) by fairies and expects to inherit the throne. Then her father is assassinated, her mother marries the Regent of a rival kingdom to keep the political peace, and Rory finds herself betrothed to that kingdom’s prince. (Except the kingdoms are huge interplanetary collections). When Rory gets there, however, she finds out the prince is missing. She decides to find him, rescue him, and restore him to his rightful place. And then, well. Things don’t go to plan. Rory Thorne is a smart and determined young woman who thought she was going to inherit the throne, but her mother gives birth to a son and she suddenly becomes a political pawn. What character trait do you love the most about Rory? She’s fearless. Rory is the firstborn daughter in ten generations, and her birth is marked by esteemed pomp and circumstance, including receiving fairy blessings. She receives a curse from one of the fairies, to “know truth when you hear it, no matter how well concealed.” If you could bestow a…

We’re back with another stop on our Fall Slow Cooker Recipe Potluck! Don’t forget to comment below for a chance to win an eBook copy of today’s featured book. And be sure to check back at all of the other great posts this week: Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10267   Day 2 with Soraya Lane: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10269 Day 3 with Laura Lee Guhrke: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10270  *** In the Not Dead Yet series, Wes Cooper and Hudson Rojas have the chance to rekindle the romance they abandoned thirty-three years before–thanks to Wes being a sort-of-but-not-quite ghost and Hudson being a vampire. The paranormal side of Toronto seems to be invested in making them work for their happily-ever-after, though. In the third book in the series, Graveyard Shift, Wes and Hudson have shared all of their secrets and are solidly a team, all-in with each other, their found family, and their business as private investigators. But Toronto’s not done messing with them. Someone’s out there, poisoning shifters with specially made street drugs. There are newbie vampires running amok. And a threat from Hudson’s past might steal his and Wes’s happily ever after for good. Both Wes and Hudson are cooks, but not cooks, if you get my meaning….

We all have different pieces of our personality we share with different people. We are one person at work, another at home, and yet another when we are alone. I’m basically an introvert. But when I’m with the people I love and feel comfortable and safe with, I’m a gregarious extrovert. It’s the duality of human nature. Ellie, the main character in my latest novel, Blood Creek, takes this duality to another level. Actually, she brazenly struts into the realm of duplicity. Ellie is a master manipulator, and she uses every relationship, every event, every circumstance for her own benefit. She’s a woman we love to hate and hate to love. When we first enter Ellie’s world, we assume many things about her, and rightfully so. But all is not as it appears. Ellie struggles with the restraints placed on her by society and the culture of the early 1900s. What woman wouldn’t? How many of them just went along to get along? Afraid to break out of the societal confines placed on them. In 1912, women were limited in their movement, their livelihood, pretty much every aspect of their lives. They couldn’t vote or even own property outright in…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Can you tell us a little bit about your new historical mystery, THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE? Someone recently described THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE as a gothic rom-com and I think that’s absolutely perfect. It’s about a scandalous widow, Alva Webster, who badly needs a fresh start. After her (terrible) husband is murdered in Europe, she returns to New York, buys a decrepit mansion, and decides to use its renovation as the basis for a home decorating book. Unfortunately, it may be haunted. Enter Professor Samuel Moore, scientist and inventor extraordinaire, who is fascinated both by the possible ghosts and by Alva herself. It’s a love story, a ghost story, and a story about learning to laugh again. Alva Webster is a determined woman with a scandalous past that both hinders her and works to her advantage. She buys the supposedly haunted Liefdehuis mansion and brokers a publishing deal to write a book about restoring it and giving interior design tips. But New York society – including her own parents – won’t speak to her or invite her back into polite company. So, on the one hand, Alva wants to be welcomed home, but she also…

Fall is the perfect time to break out your slow cooker and let something simmer all day long, especially when you have a great book to occupy your time! As always, comment below for a chance to win a copy of today’s featured book, HEIRESS GONE WILD by Laura Lee Guhrke. Check back tomorrow for more fun!  Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10267   Day 2 with Soraya Lane: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10269 *** When Jonathan Deverill promised a dying friend he’d be guardian to the other man’s “little girl,” he’d imagined her to be a sweet little thing in pinafores and pigtails, not a fully-grown, devastatingly beautiful woman with a talent for trouble. Nonetheless, a promise is a promise. Besides, he’d been living in the rough and tumble of Idaho’s mining towns, so he’s pretty sure he can keep one young lady in line. And when Marjorie McGann found out her new guardian was a British gentleman on his way home to London, she thought he’d be the perfect person to help her find a titled husband so she can spend her Yankee millions in style. Both of them turn out to be wrong. And when shady suitors and countess con-artists arrive on the…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Adriana! Please tell us about yourself and your latest novel, AMERICAN LOVE STORY. I am an Afro-Dominicana author writing contemporary romance. I like to say that I write romance full of people who look and sound like my people. American Love Story is the third installment in the Dreamers series and it’s a story about love, racial justice, activism, privilege and navigating a world that sometimes feels like it wants to pull us all apart. Patrice Denis is an ivy-league professor and a Black Lives Matter activist and Easton Archer is a prosecutor who is everything he wants in a lover, but represents some of the things that he’s actively fighting against. Patrice Denis is an interesting character – he works tirelessly both in his job as a professor and in his work as an activist, but this intense work ethic denies him a personal life. What does Patrice’s need for perfection in all aspects of his life, aside from personal relationships, show readers about his personality? With this series I wanted to render the immigrant experience, as I understand it. As a black man and an immigrant Patrice is a man that has a lot…