Welcome to Jen’s Jewels, where each week I highlight a story I loved and the author behind the words. Today’s gem is ALL BOOKED UP by Melody Carlson. Let’s kick things off with a quick Lightning Round before digging deeper into the story. LIGHTNING ROUND • In three words, describe the vibe of your book. Quirky, heartfelt, humorous. • What’s your ideal writing fuel: coffee, tea, wine, or chaos? Coffee, which must be good beans, freshly ground, sometimes with a bit of cream, sometimes just black. • Plotter, pantser, or organized mess? Absolutely pantster. And a bit of a mess too. The closest I come to plotting is toward the end of a book when I might use one liners for each of the chapters – just to remind myself it’s time to wind this thing down. • If your book had a theme song, what would it be? Maybe I’d steal the theme song from the old Golden Girls sitcom – Thank You for Being a Friend. THE DEEP DIVE • Every book has an origin story. What was the “lightning strike” moment that made you say, “I have to write this”? I was sitting with a friend in…

What is the title of your latest release?UNDER AN AFRICAN SKY What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?In 1989, South Africa is a deeply divided country standing on the brink of democracy but unrest is never far away. The country’s struggle is reflected in the lives of two ordinary women from different backgrounds who become caught in the crosscurrents of extraordinary times. This turmoil threatens not only their friendship but also the future each has imagined for her children. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I didn’t decide. The story itself decided. In a way, South Africa became not only the setting for the story, but also the character who wouldn’t leave me alone. This land is embedded in my heart because it’s where I was born. After I left my birthplace, the country began to live in my imagination like a character in its own right. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Absolutely, yes. And in fact, because I use a dual narrative, the novel has two heroines: Sofia, a wealthy Greek-Cypriot immigrant living in South Africa, her second homeland, and Grace, South African by birth and Sofia’s loyal housekeeper….

What is the title of your latest release?STRANGE GIRLS What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?STRANGE GIRLS is about Aliya and Ava. At university, they meet and fall deeply into their own world, teaching each other how to be women and how to be writers, how to live in the world. They become everything to each other. But can it sustain? Years later, they meet again at a friend’s hen party to confront what happened between them. What happens to a love story with nowhere to go? And who has the right to tell a story that happens between two people? How did you decide where your book was going to take place?The book takes place mostly in and around London, which is now both my home and muse. Aliya and Ava are both strangers to England, as I was once. I wanted to write about it through the eyes of two people who are discovering it for the first time. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Both of them would be fun lunch company though maybe not that at the same time! I’d feel like a third wheel. Martinis with Ava, dinner with Aliya. What…

Each Friday the Smashwords store reports the bestselling indie fiction titles based on the previous week’s sales. If an author has more than one title eligible for the list, only the highest performing title will be included. This ensures high-performing titles receive the accolades they deserve, while providing up-and-coming authors the visibility they have earned. Don’t miss Monday’s Top 10 Hot Preorders List, where Smashwords will provide a list of the most highly anticipated ebook preorders.

There is a particular electricity when an ordinary woman steps into a room that was not built for her. No claws, no wings, no old magic in the blood. Just a quick mind, a steady pulse, and the knowledge that the rules were written by someone who expected her to fail. Mortal heroines survive by noticing things. They map the room, listen for the quiet truths under the loud ones, and turn limits into leverage. In supernatural romance, that is not a downgrade. It is a dare. Monsters and immortals often meet the world with force. Humans answer with inventions like trust, language, and timing. Soft power looks like a tactful apology at the exact right moment or a question that exposes a hidden hinge in the plot. When a love story unfolds across that difference, every choice feels sharper. Pain still hurts, time still passes, and promises have weight because a mortal cannot outlive the consequence. Human limits make the victory real. Why mortals raise the stakes A mortal heroine enters a court or a lair with no safety net. She cannot simply shapeshift or cast a shield when a conversation turns dangerous. This concentrates the drama around wit,…

Book Title: A THOUSAND LI: THE FIRST STEPCharacter Name: Long Wu Ying How would you describe your family or your childhood?Blessed, for the most part, if harsh. There were no major droughts, no wars that affected us in a major way and our teacher was blessed in his knowledge of the rigors of immortal cultivation. Training with my father before we worked the fields every morning and in the evening was hard, and I could – would – wish for more, but I am not blind to the privileges our family received because my father was a reliable guard against bandits and demonic beasts. What is your greatest talent?I often feel like a frog looking up the well, not understanding how wide the sky truly is. In my village, before we left, I would have said my martial talent. Outside of my father, I was the most gifted in martial matters. Then, I came to the Verdant Green Waters sect to study the path of cultivation to become an immortal being and realized, that compared to many here, my martial talent was nothing. If anything, I would say that I am willing to work hard, beyond most of the nobles…

Killers Killing Other Killers “We’re not normal people. We are monsters. But if we’re monsters, we’ll thrive in the dark. Together.” BUTCHER & BLACKBIRD, Brynne Weaver BUTCHER & BLACKBIRD, the first book in Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love Trilogy, was my introduction to romances featuring killers killing other killers. I am thrilled that this romance subgenre has exploded. Sloane and Rowan are killers – serial killers who kill very bad people. There is an instant chemistry, and they start as friends who appreciate each other’s murderous artistry and skill set. They meet every so often and compete for different baddies to kill. This book is sophisticated, charming, and scary. I love the shout homages to other fiction killers/films – like Norman Bates, Hannibal, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s like somebody said, “let’s take scenes from those films and weave a romance happening around them and have the couple interact with this psychos and do their own damage. Hooray! For me, the romance works because the author puts so much care into crafting the main characters. I definitely always keep an eye out for this author’s next book. After BUTCHER & BLACKBIRD, I stumbled across SINNERS RETREAT (what would end up being…

Travel Guide to the Tallest Trees in Northern California There are places in the world that make you feel small in the best possible way. For me, one of those places was Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park on California’s northern coast. After a long stretch of travel, winding through misty coastal roads and towering evergreens, I arrived at a forest that felt almost timeless. The air was cool and damp, the scent of earth and cedar drifting through the trees. Then I saw them. Redwoods. Not just tall trees – but giants. These ancient coast redwoods rise hundreds of feet into the sky, their trunks so wide it can take several people holding hands to circle one. Standing beneath them, I found myself instinctively looking up…and up…and up. A Rare and Protected Forest The towering trees at Jedediah Smith are part of one of the rarest ecosystems on Earth. Naturally growing coast redwoods exist only in a narrow strip along the Pacific coastline – from central California to southern Oregon. This park protects nearly 10,000 acres of old-growth forest, preserving some of the last primeval redwood groves remaining anywhere in the world. As I walked deeper along the trails, the…

Excerpt from SERVED HIM RIGHT by Lisa Unger: This is a mistake. One of many, if you want to know the truth. Still, I pull my car into the nearly empty parking lot and come to a stop, tires crunching on gravel. A blue neon sign that has seen better days flickers and buzzes over the roadside bar. Gina’s, the sign reads in aspirational cursive when all the letters light at the same time. A tilted martini glass glows green, until it goes dark and stays that way a while before stuttering to life again. The sun is sinking hot pink beyond the stand of pines that reach to the horizon line. Sunset is always beautiful, isn’t it? Even in the parking lot of a dump like this, the kind of place that’s always empty until it isn’t. Where truckers stop for the night, or maybe biker gangs gather for a rowdy afternoon. This evening, there’s only a smattering of other cars parked. And I wonder why he chose this place. Forty minutes from anywhere, anything. I should probably go, right? This is a bad idea. Instead, I kill the engine and look at his picture on my phone, then…

How would you describe your family or your childhood?My early childhood was almost idyllic. I grew up on Cane Ridge Plantation just south of Charleston, South Carolina. I had a horse, dogs, and the freedom to roam the old rice fields and swamps of the low-country. When I was ten, my mother passed away, so my dad and I moved to Charleston proper where he was a practicing attorney. What was your greatest talent?Even as a kid I loved solving mysteries. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and watching TV crime drama and was always trying to balance real clues versus red herrings so I could solve whatever baffling mystery came my way. What do you do for a living?A half dozen years ago, I quit my crazy 24/7 marketing job and opened the Indigo Tea Shop on Charleston’s famed Church Street. Along with Drayton Connelley, my tea sommelier, and Haley Parker, my baker, we serve tea, scones, and light lunches. Much to my delight we were instantly popular and have expanded to catering tea parties and hosting special event teas. Along the way Drayton has developed a line of proprietary tea blends and I’ve created a line of Church…