Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your latest book, THE LAST WIDOW. THE LAST WIDOW is a Will Trent and Sara Linton book. But I wrote the story so that you don’t have to have read any of the previous books in order to know what’s the what. The stakes for Will and Sara are higher than ever before, as Sara is in imminent danger and has to do something she’s never done before–hurt people instead of trying to help them.  Which was fun!  The plot is really twisty, turny, sexy, and dark, with some moments of levity. It has some cult stuff. Some domestic terrorism. Some family drama. And a chihuahua. Everything you want in a good thriller. THE LAST WIDOW is the 9th book in your long-running and beloved Will Trent mystery series. How do you keep this series feeling fresh after so many books? Are there any advantages or challenges to writing about characters who are already so established?  Standalone and series novels each have their own challenges. It seems like it would be easier to write a Will Trent book because I’ve known him a long time, and I’ve…

Last fall, the leaves started turning gold and brilliant red. The birds sang as they migrated South, and I was forty-thousand words into creating, The Bewildered Bride. Everything was wonderful. Peace and love seemed to be everywhere. Then, the words stopped.   Nothing. Not a jot. Not even an extended ellipse.   I’m not one to panic, but for a writer to have their characters who had been happily chatting with you to go silent—that’s a Danger-Danger-Will-Robinson moment.   After a long sigh, several hazelnut lattes, prayer, and begging my muse, I closed up my laptop. I shut my eyes and listened. My heroine of The Bewildered Bride, Ruth Croome Wilke, had something to say, and it wasn’t the story on the page.   Her voice, I had suppressed. I’d convinced myself it didn’t matter. She would be happy in the end. When her story became tough and gutting, I stopped listening to her.   I didn’t want to face her truth. I wanted her to bottle up her pain.   I was hypocrite, and why would someone who’s been through so much want to waste her energy on someone who discounted the power of her voice.   Ruth had been…

Deadlines seem far enough away in theory, but in the end, there never seems to be enough time. Days before I have to hit ‘send’ for the next finished book or the latest edits, you’ll find me invisibly tied to a chair in front of my computer. But food can’t come in second or third place behind coffee or the next full can of my favorite energy drink. Here are a few of my favorite go-to foods that keep me from face planting into my keyboard. Pancakes In college, my friends and I would wake up late after a night out and make pancakes. The fluffier the better, and they had to be round or one of my friends wouldn’t eat them. Hey, she was a loveable culinary major with perfectionist issues, but the habit stuck along with enjoying pancakes at any time of the day. One of my favorite Fluffy Pancake recipes can be found at the Taste of Home website. Buddha Bowl I ordered this salad at a local restaurant. I loved it so much, I started making it at home. It’s so easy. Roasted garbanzo beans, hummus, grape or cherry tomatoes, quinoa or couscous with pine nuts,…

1)  Authors (at least this author) loves hearing from readers. The beautiful thing about writing a book is that not only do we get to share a story that’s been consuming us for so long, but we also get to connect with new people.  Shortly after writing my first novel, The Hope of Azure Springs, I received a message from a young woman telling me how the story helped to answer a question that had plagued her for years. I wanted to cry! All the work that had gone into my book felt worth it. 2)  We feel vulnerable sharing our stories with you. Even though we can’t wait for our stories to go out into the wild, we also feel afraid. We know our stories might be ripped apart, trampled on and forgotten and then all that work would equate to what? Even more than feeling vulnerable about sales we feel that a part of ourselves are on display. The fight scene, the kissing scene, the unsavory internal thoughts of our characters are all a product of our imagination and now our imaginations are in print and we worry what you’ll think about us and our writing. 3)  We…

“What is that?” He stepped closer, and the pungent odor of poop hit him like a gust of rancid wind. He gagged, pointing to the baby’s back and trying to speak at the same time. But all that came out was dry heaves. “What?” Aurelia lifted her hand, and the mess was on her forearm, her shirt, and the front of the baby’s legs. “Gross! Help me!” She held the wailing baby away from her body as if it were a ticking time bomb. Ben pulled off his shirt, answering Aurelia’s perplexed expression with, “I’m not getting that on my shirt.” He reached for the baby, holding his breath. She shoved the baby into his hands, and he held her away from his body, trying to get his dry heaves under control. Aurelia tore her shirt over her head–drawing Ben’s attention and immediately remedying his gags. He had a screaming baby in his hands and his eyes were riveted to Aurelia’s breasts, which were practically popping out of a sexy lace bra. “What are you doing, Rels? This isn’t exactly the best time to try to turn me on.” She shot him a death glare, using the shirt to wipe…

As I was finishing the last few pages of my upcoming novel, THE DECEPTION, Hawk Maddox and Kate Gallagher’s story, I got an interesting phone call.  I’m fortunate to be represented by a literary agency in New York as well as an agency in Hollywood. Since I love movies, I’ve always wanted to see one of my books made into a feature film.  The Hollywood agency phoned about my novel, BEYOND REASON.  The story is set in Texas and is an action-adventure that revolves around the rivalry between Carly Drake, who inherits her grandfather’s failing trucking firm, and powerful multimillionaire Lincoln Cain, her number one competitor. Worse yet, Carly needs Linc’s help to find the men who are willing to kill to keep her from making Drake Trucking successful again. Big money is involved.  And very big danger. The transaction involving the rights was exciting from beginning to end, with David Haring at TinRes Entertainment making the offer, several agents negotiating the terms, and me–thrilled to have a chance to see one of my books made into a film.  Most likely, the story will be a made-for-TV movie, but it is also optioned with the possibility of a major motion…

Hello Fresh Fiction fans! I’m thrilled to be here today celebrating my latest release The Nanny Rules! Tropes come and go, but there are a few favorites that are timeless. Who doesn’t love a hot and steamy forbidden romance? In one way or another, aren’t we all guilty of wanting what we can’t have? This makes our characters relatable and real, and readers desperately hungry to turn the next page. Romance feeds our soul and the forbidden sparks that secret desire inside of us to be just a little bit naughty. Rules. . . We all live by them–societal and self-imposed. But sometimes we’re the greatest obstacle standing in the way of our happiness? Screw the rules. . .  The Nanny Rules delves into the challenges of wanting what we can’t have while letting go of the past and learning to love again. This was one of my bucket-list books and I’m so excited to finally see it come to fruition. I’m an avid reader of category romance and over the years I’ve read and enjoyed many Brazen titles. I was super excited when my agent contacted me about an opportunity to write a book for the Brazen line. I…

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Ann Aguirre!  Writes: Science fiction, romance, and thrillers. My latest book is a thriller, entitled THE THIRD MRS. DURST, and it’s a standalone story, an edge-of-your-seat read, releasing on August 8, 2019. About: Forty-something multi-genre author seeks readers for a dark and twisty thriller with a cunning, ruthless heroine determined to get revenge on the monster she married, who gets away with everything. Even murder. If you like revenge stories, this one is a must-read. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: They devour books and they’re not afraid to take a walk on the wild side… Dark stories call to them, and they enjoy seeing bad people receive comeuppance Not too squeamish Prefers heroines who aren’t particularly “nice”, but who are smart as hell, loyal, cunning, and ruthless, committed to achieving their goals Enjoy varied settings, visiting locales like Frankfurt and Prague Is always trying to figure out that final twist (but I hope they can’t this time!) They…

What inspired you to write The Chelsea Girls? I met an actress in her nineties who started telling me what it was like in the New York City theater world during the McCarthy era, and I realized this was a story that very few knew. As I dug into the research of that period, I was struck by how many actors and directors had had their lives destroyed by a misguided witchhunt, many of them at the very cusp of their careers, which means we don’t know the plays or performances that were lost because of McCarthyism. I wanted to tell that story. The Chelsea Girls takes place during the 1940s to 1960s. What is the most fascinating thing you learned while researching this time period? The book takes place at the Chelsea Hotel, and I was surprised at how many famous people had stayed there over the years. The poet Dylan Thomas drank himself to death there, and artists like Jackson Pollock and John Sloan called it home. Then you have all the rockers: Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious. Playwright Arthur Miller sought refuge there after his divorce from Marilyn Monroe. The list goes on an on, and…

Lady Georgie has certainly come a long way since I met her in that first book called HER ROYAL SPYNESS, ten years ago. Then she was a naïve, unsophisticated person, unsure of herself and her future. She was brave enough to make the decision to flee from the family castle and come alone to London where she had to learn the most basic of skills: from making tea to lighting a fire. For the first few books, she tried various ways of earning money, from cleaning houses, to running an escort service, to modeling clothes–all disastrous. But the one good thing that happened to her was that she met Darcy. And in spite of the fact that she was not the sort of sophisticated girl-about-town he normally associated with, he fell for her.  She certainly played hard to get, didn’t she?  It took twelve books before he got her into bed and then it was after they married. Now we come to the thirteenth book in the series, called LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS. You’ll guess from the title that it might take place in Africa. The book starts exactly where the last one left off, with Georgie and…