I really love all the characters in this conclusion of my Men of Legend series but I have to say my favorite is Josie Morgan. She’s had a rough life but it’s given her the toughness she needs to survive. Josie grew up above her mother’s saloon so she’s seen the best and worst of humanity. Because of the various types of men who frequent the saloon, Josie’s mother taught her to shoot and she’s developed quite an aptitude for it. That comes in handy. I just love her ability to take what’s thrown at her and make the best of things. As the story opens, she has amnesia. Everything has been stripped from her. I often think of how scary it would be to wake up and not know who I was or where I lived. People in that state have no starting point or nothing to relate anything to. I can’t imagine. But Josie somehow keeps her sense of humor and stays optimistic for the most part. She trusts the outlaw Luke Legend and feels safe with him. As pieces of her life slowly start to emerge, she falls deeper in love with Luke. It’s at that point…

You can’t control them. You can’t guide them. They simply birth their way onto the pages, pulling you in so many directions that you wind up going grey and gaining fifteen pounds by the time you’re done writing the book. (TRUE STORY, by the way.) BUT, every once in a while, these characters do something so freaking fantastic, so swoony, soooo hilarious, that you remember exactly why you wanted to write about them in the first place. This, to me, was my relationship with Maxwell Martinez—the hero in The Right Kind of Reckless. Let me start by saying that in Reckless Hearts, book one, Max was labeled (AND WORE THAT LABEL WELL) as a certifiable douchebag. He was a little chauvinistic, a whole lot degrading, and kind of annoying and immature, if I do say so myself. He’s flawed, bottom line. And I have no regrets writing him the way I did in that book. To me, though, Max is more than just those things I mentioned above. He’s a guy with a broken past. A guy with a whole lot of love to give for a woman he’s wanted for years, but can’t have. He’s goofy and playful and…

Many blue moons ago I had the great pleasure of having High Tea at the Helmsley Palace in New York City. Or so I thought! Much to my surprise, I was mistaken in my assumption that it was called High Tea. In fact, the proper name is: Afternoon Tea. Fascinated with the ritual of “tea time”, I explored the history and found that Afternoon Tea, aka High Tea, originated among the wealthy social classes in England in the 1840s. By the end of the nineteenth century, Afternoon Tea developed into its current form and was observed by both the upper and middle classes. Teatime for the working population was always much later in the day, usually after 6 pm, and accompanied by a pot of good, strong stimulating tea. At the Helmsley Palace, Afternoon Tea consisted of delicate savory cucumber or egg and cress sandwiches, bread and butter, scones with clotted cream and jam, and occasionally cakes and pastries along with a bracing pot of tea. Sandwiches always had the crusts removed, and were cut into small segments, either as triangles or fingers, aka tea sandwiches. The waiters dressed in formal attire, starched collars, black vests and black pressed trousers….

“Are you really interested, or is it a show to get back at the ex-girlfriend?” Tucker asked his brother. “Her name is Irene. And yes, I’m interested.” “You’re sure?” “Did you see her? She’s magnificent.” Tucker agreed. She was magnificent. Her violet-hued eyes had sparkled when she met his gaze, stirring something in him that he hadn’t felt in a long while. He’d almost reached forward to run his fingers through her silky dark hair. “Can’t you feel it?” Tucker asked, but his brother turned away without answering. Sometimes he wondered if he could feel Jace more than his twin could feel him. Even if they were a thousand miles apart, Tucker felt his twin’s turmoil. This is only one example of the connection between the twin brothers, who also happen to be hotter-than-all-get-out cowboys, in KISS ME COWBOY. So, is there really such a thing as a psychological connection between identical twins? According to studies, as many as one in five identical twins claim to share a special psychic connection, but is it coincidence, or is it truly psychic powers? A connection wouldn’t necessarily have to be mysterious. Any two people who know each other very well and who…

In THE DROWNED GIRLS, Detective Angie Pallorino took down a serial killer permanently and, according to her superiors, with excessive force. Now, in THE LULLABY GIRL, Angie is forced back into uniform and she’s been benched on a desk assignment for 12 months. This challenges Angie in every way—if she’s not a detective, who is she? Then a decades-old cold case washes ashore, and Angie is pulled into an investigation she recognizes as deeply, frighteningly, personal. Driven and desperate to solve her case in spite of her probation, Angie goes rogue, risking her relationship with Detective Maddocks, her career, and her very life in pursuit of the answers to her past. But she’ll learn that some truths might be too painful to bear, and some sacrifices include collateral damage. And she’ll have to make some hard choices. Thankfully, unlike Angie, I am not a work-a-holic. Angie has no pets, no plants. No time nor care goes into maintaing her apartment. Because solving cases is her life. Me? I have pets, and a marriage, and children, and an elderly parent … a life. However, a writer does need a certain kind of obstinance to be able to seat oneself in front…

I saw a statistic somewhere recently that said 55% of young adult book readers are adults. I’m not surprised, because I’m an adult who loves to read YA, and especially YA romance. In no particular order, these are my top five reasons adults should read YA: It will remind you of all of your firsts. Your first crush. Your first date. Your first kiss. Okay, I started early. My first crush was in second grade. His name was Tommy and I liked him so much I gave him my pencil sharpener. But after that auspicious beginning, my love life slowed to a crawl. I didn’t have my first real date until I was a junior in high school, and I didn’t have my first kiss until my freshman year of college. But I remember everything about all of those interactions, and whenever I read a YA romance, they all come shooting back to me as I wait for the hero and heroine of the story I’m reading to finally get together. You’ll Have All. The. Feels. When I read a YA romance, it plunges me right back into my middle and high school years, back when I could go through…

Christine Warren, author of HARD BREAKER, chatted with Fresh Fiction about her latest book, where she sees the series going, and whether or not she plans to write more books in The Guardian series. Fresh Fiction: Now that the major battle between the Guardians and the demons has been fought, will you be continuing the story line and taking it a new direction? The Guardians series was always intended to have a fixed start and end point. I wanted to try something different after the Others and see if I could carry a single story thread across multiple books. With my previous work, stories were more loosely connected by characters. For me, the Guardians have done what they set out to do, and now they get to enjoy their retirement with their mates! Fresh Fiction: What was your inspiration for the Guardians and their wardens? Is it based on any folklore? It’s not really based on any one specific story or myth. I simply liked the idea of an epic Good vs. Evil struggle and the idea of heroes who look scarier than the things they’re saving the world from. That was enough to get my imagination firing. Fresh Fiction:…

Always read the book before you see the movie. That’s my rule for any movie that’s been adapted from a novel, because 99% of the time, I enjoy the book more. Maybe that’s because it’s hard to distill a 100,000 word novel down to 60 or 100 pages of screen time. Inevitably, subplots come out, plots get simplified, characters are merged. But sometimes, the movies stand up to the books and even add something. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order: SILENCE OF THE LAMBS – When this classic psychological suspense by Thomas Harris was made into a movie, Anthony Hopkins brought nuanced life to incarcerated killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. When I re-read the book, it’s Hopkins – in that famous mask – I picture as Lecter leads New Agent in Training Starling to serial killer Buffalo Bill. GONE GIRL – The book by Gillian Flynn that kicked off so many trends popular in suspense novels right now was a twisted glimpse into troubled minds, and Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike were perfectly cast. On screen, just as in the book, you can believe Nick Dunne might have murdered his wife, and it’s just as easy to…

What do you wish for most this holiday season? Leigh Greenwood: I’m seventy-five so a year with no health issues would be wonderful. Rosanne Bittner: What I wish for most this season is health and happiness for my entire family. Linda Broday: For me—good health and the ability to keep writing all the stories that are in my head. For the world, I wish for peace and precious harmony. People need to learn how to get along and treat each other with respect and dignity. There are so many homeless people and children in orphanages and foster care who need a warm smile—to know they matter to someone. Margaret Brownley: I wish a Christmas miracle for every person who suffered a loss during the hurricanes. Anna Schmidt: Peace and genuine kindness to all…so very weary of the in-fighting and need to win at any cost. Amy Sandas: This holiday, my biggest wish would be to spend time with my sister and her family. She lives across the country from me and we rarely have an opportunity to get together at all let alone to celebrate the holidays. It would be pretty great if we could find a way to bring…

My YA fantasy novel, THE UNCROSSING, is a retelling of Rapunzel, set in a mafia-like underworld of magic. Of course, retellings can cover a wide swath of storytelling methods, from point-by-point reworkings of a plot to brand-new stories filled with winking references. Retelling a fairy tale, specifically, requires a lot of new twists. They’re often short and don’t have much plot—but they’re also deeply allegorical and can reveal meaningful new facets in all kinds of settings. So, while the Rapunzel story gave me a premise and a few big turning points to work with, I also had a lot of room to have fun with it. I created a new magical system in an amplified, action-movie version of the contemporary world. I threw in every fairy tale reference—classic to Disney and everything in between—that I could think of. Finally, I shook it all up with my favorite romantic tropes and lots of kissing. To me, this is the true magic of supernatural stories. Fantasy isn’t just make-believe—it’s us, but more. More extreme, more monstrous, more dreamlike. These stories, especially the ones we tell over and over in new ways, make perfect mirrors. About Melissa Eastlake Melissa Eastlake’s debut novel, The…