What is the title of your latest release?THE FIX What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Eleven years after surviving a traumatic home-invasion where she loses her mother and sister, a young woman once again finds herself the target of a disturbing and confusing scenario that is almost certainly connected to the original crime. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I decided on Virginia because of its close proximity to DC. There is some content that relates to the political scene and specifically, a family of “fixers,” who help those who have found themselves in political hot water, and so that location was necessary. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Absolutely. Cami is brave and wise, her depth honest and hard-earned. I would love nothing more than to sit over a cup of coffee and have conversations about life and love and finding peace after pain. What are three words that describe your hero?Loyal, strong, introspective. What’s something you learned while writing this book?This book actually took quite a bit of technical research as my hero is a computer specialist who works for the NSA and helps the heroine locate a person…

Excerpted from The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf MADELINE Madeline struggles into a sitting position and looks around. Charred lumber litters the lawn. The canopy over the dining tables has collapsed and is covered in dancing flames that a handful of guests and waitstaff are trying to smother with what- ever is handy: cowboy hats, table linens, an old horse blanket. Other guests are gathered in small, tight clusters, holding on to one another. Some sit in the grass crying, others stand slack- faced, as if in shock. Through the smoke a rodeo clown appears, his brightly colored clothing now blackened with soot and his makeup running down his sweaty face. The clown is helping the photographer, who is bleeding from the head. But it is the old storage barn that Madeline finds herself fixated on. Huge f lames shoot from the hayloft window and the roof. Someone pulls a hose from one of the horse barns, and suddenly buckets and containers of all sizes appear. Others, including Johanna’s husband, Dalton, are running toward the burning barn and tossing water onto the structure. They know that one wayward spark could ignite the house or, worse, the barns filled with her…

Excerpt from OTHERWISE ENGAGED by Susan Mallery: SHANNON VAN HORN pulled into a parking space in front of the construction trailer that was the main office of her boyfriend’s gardening business. She clutched the steering wheel tightly and gave in to the scream that had been building for the better part of the morning. Unfortunately the cry that echoed through her ten-year-old Corolla did little to make her feel better. She was a mess. A total and complete disaster of a person. Sure, she was basically nice, and if she ever used public transportation, she would absolutely give up her seat for someone in need—although this was Los Angeles, and everyone drove, so it was more of a spiritual assessment than a reality, but still. She would do it. But being a nice person didn’t make her any less of a mess, and wasn’t that a kick in the head? She grabbed her bag and the folder she’d brought from work, stomped up the three steps to the trailer and flung open the door. “My life is chaos,” she announced to Aaron, her boyfriend of eleven months. “Why do you date me?” Aaron, a tall, rangy guy with curly brown…

What is the title of your latest release?ON THE EDGE OF TRUST, A Logan Point Novel What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?A decorated but wounded FBI undercover agent is drawn into an investigation with a true crime podcaster to clear her nephew of a murder charge. As the investigation intensifies, they find threats targeted at themselves. They’ll have to combine their skills and rely on their growing relationship to outsmart the killer. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I always wanted to write a follow-up of Scott Sinclair’s story in Shadows of the Past that was set in Logan Point, Mississippi. Scott was the teenage alcoholic and at the end of Shadows of the Past, he’d made a change. It’s not ten years later and he’s an undercover FBI agent who was wounded in the line of duty and is rehabbing in Logan Point. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Definitely! And since I have two, I’ll answer for both: He can play chess…and he has a great sense of humor. And Tori would keep the conversation going—she’s an extrovert who loves people. What are three words that describe your…

What is the title of your latest release?MURDER AT THE CHRISTMAS EMPORIUM What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Seven seeming strangers are trapped in a quaint London shop on Christmas Eve. What looks like an innocent mistake turns deadly when they find a body in Santa’s grotto and realize a killer is among them. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?A while ago, my editor Kelly Smith visited Liberty of London, a famous shop in London’s West End which is built in a mock-Tudor style, all wood panels and creaky floorboards. Liberty is beautiful and not in the slightest bit creepy but got her thinking – then it got me thinking too. So often in Christmas crime stories people are snowed in at remote locations, but I was intrigued by the idea of being trapped in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. Nobody lives in central London any more, and the place is like a ghost town over Christmas so the chance of rescue is actually pretty slim. The Emporium was such a creepy setting, I really enjoyed creating it. Would you hang out with your heroine in real…

What is the title of your latest release?NOT TODAY, SATAN What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?The devil’s daughter risks everything to get a falsely condemned boy out of hell and ends up confronting all she thought she knew about her power and her future. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I read Dante’s Inferno as a freshman in high school and was fascinated by the world Dante created, where the punishment fit the crime. I always knew I wanted to write my own re-telling. Then I decided I also wanted to write a fun YA rom-com and thought, “okay but what if I combine the two ideas?” Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?I think I’d want to hang with her, but I’d be intimidated by her. She’s a lot more outspoken than I am. What are three words that describe your hero?Stubborn, Kind, Sarcastic What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned a lot about my own insecurities and how much of my life I spend trying to please other people. But I also learned that’s not always a weakness. Do you edit as you draft or wait…

Have you ever sat down with a couple friends who really click together and feed off of the other in such a brilliant way, that you don’t feel like a third wheel? Instead of feeling left out, you find yourself mesmerized by their thought patterns and the way they just seem to click on a cylinder the rest of us miss altogether. That’s what happened to me when I took on the dynamic duo (think modern day Bat and Robin) of Kat Hillis and Rosie Thor and their recent release of DEAD & BREAKFAST which is a perfect example of how good their chemistry is. Kym: Welcome to The Cozy Corner on Fresh Fiction, Kat and Rosiee!Kat: Hi Kym! It’s lovely to be here! Kym: I must confess, this is my first interview with a duo author format. What made you decide to write a series together?Rosiee: This series really started as a series of jokes back when I first came up with the idea. It was just a title and a basic concept for a while, a few silly puns etc. but it didn’t start to feel like a real story until Kat came along. When we talked about…

As told by the inimitable Polly Pepper, actress, sleuth, and reluctant expert in English murder rates. Welcome, dear readers, to Abbots Clover—a jewel of the English countryside, where every cobblestone has a story, and most of them end in murder. (The stories, not the cobblestones.)I left Hollywood for the UK after a devoted fan—one I’d never actually met—bequeathed his castle to me. I expected Buckingham Palace. Or at least Balmoral. What I got was Thistlethorne Lodge—a shabby pile where even the gargoyles look nervous. Still, it’s mine—and one does learn to live with damp. And despair. THISTLETHORNE LODGE Thistlethorne Lodge is my home, my fortress, and, in winter, my personal freezer. It perches atop a hill overlooking Abbots Clover with the boldness of a monarch—and the plumbing of a Dickens orphanage. But it’s perfect for reading, reflection, and as fate would have it, attracting dead bodies. BOUND TO READ Bookstore/Coffee Shop The nerve center of village life—and, frankly, better equipped for interrogation than most police stations. Bound to Read is where I can find a good book and gather intelligence. My confidante, Tiara, is of the opinion that every mystery can be solved over a cup of tea and a…

Book Title: THE KIDNAPPING OF ALICE INGOLDCharacter Name: Catherine Newhouse Ingold How would you describe your family or your childhood?Fortunate is the most accurate term to describe my childhood. That’s somewhat due to the derivation of the word itself. Fortunate comes from the Latin fortunatus, meaning prospered or lucky. Generations earlier, my family had prospered and the rest of us were lucky to be the beneficiaries of their success. I grew up aware that the adult role for which I was being groomed wasn’t to employ my talents or pursue my personal idea of happiness but to identify people who would return the investment of my time and assets. I was a hedge fund of one, charged with correctly identifying an individual whose addition to our family would augment its status. Given my main directive, I capitalized on my purpose quite well. And that made me feel valuable—if not exactly loved or fortunate. What was your greatest talent?I once thought of myself as a writer, but I never gave the craft the necessary attention needed to succeed with it. I’m adept at what some might consider soft skills though they’re among the hardest to acquire. Forgiveness, I’m an expert. I’ve…

Each Monday the Smashwords store lists the top ten most highly anticipated indie fiction ebooks based on the previous week’s preorder accumulations. Each title on the list is scheduled to release within the next week. To help the talented authors on this list accumulate even more preorders, click the title of the book. The hyperlink will bring you to a Books2Read page where you can order from your preferred ebook retailer. If the preorder is part of a series, click the hyperlinked series title to learn about the other books in the series. Be sure to check back Friday for a list of the Top 25 Bestselling Indie Ebooks.