My name is Janice, and I’m a travel junkie. It’s true! If I had unlimited time and money, I think I would hit the road and not look back for at least six months. I have a sister who yearns for home and hearth and gets homesick if she’s away for more than a couple of nights. Me on the other hand? I love waking up on a trip and having a whole day of brand new adventures ahead. Not that I’m about to sign up for the Amazing Race. I do like my creature comforts. J Still, I rarely get homesick when I’m away, except of course for missing loved ones who aren’t with me. For a lot of years when our girls were growing up, there was neither the time nor the money for exotic vacations. We loved national parks. Road trips were usually punctuated by overnight stays at two-star Day’s Inns or a bare-bones Motel Six. Looking back, those are some of our best family memories. Eventually, we began to have a bit more in the way of savings, and we began planning a very special trip every two or three years. That’s how I came to…

Thank you so much to Sara and all the gang at Fresh Fiction for inviting me back to visit about ONE TEXAS COWBOY TOO MANY. It is always a delight to prop up my boots and talk to all y’all about my newest release. ONE TEXAS COWBOY TOO MANY is the third book in the Burnt Boot series. A COWBOY CHRISTMAS MIRACLE will be out in September and finish the series. I absolutely loved writing this whole series but having Rhett O’Donnell and Leah Brennan in my head for all those weeks was so much fun that I sure hated to write THE END when the story ended. To all you folks who have read the first two books, ONE TEXAS COWBOY TOO MANY“>COWBOY BOOTS FOR CHRISTMAS (COWBOY NOT INCLUDED) and THE TROUBLE WITH TEXAS COWBOYS, you already know there is a big feud going on in Burnt Boot. It started almost a hundred years ago during Prohibition Days and the Gallaghers and Brennans have kept it going strong. Rhett is a cowboy from the bone marrow out to his tough cowboy hide but he rides a tricked out motorcycle with steer horns mounted to the front and he has…

I have a confession to make: I don’t always live in the here and now. Ever catch yourself daydreaming of a life in a different time and place? Would you be comfortable roaming about an estate in Regency England, or dancing in a ballroom under the glow of candlelight, or walking the hills of nineteenth century Scotland? If you do, we share something in common. For as long as I can remember I have indulged my imagination in flights of fancy. After thirteen novels and three short stories I won the Quill Award and was inducted into the Writer’s Hall of Fame. Although I write contemporary, paranormal, and historical romantic fiction, I admit I love to travel to the past. My favorite destination is Regency England or Scotland, when people were a bit wild under their mannerly façades. A reader I met at a book signing a few years ago told me I was an old soul and I had lived centuries earlier. I suppose that could be the reason I enjoy traveling to different places and times. I also share a birthday with Jane Austen, who I admire greatly. Is sharing her birthday and becoming an author a coincidence?…

I’m an Anglophile. I adore all things British. So having a British hero felt natural. Plopping him in the middle of Las Vegas felt inspired. HIS TO KEEP is the third book in the Beauty and the Brit series. Iain Chapman is a far cry from my other heroes. Hailing from Manchester, Iain comes from a gritty, working class background, and it shows. So why would a Manc choose to settle in Vegas? Well, Iain has his reasons for living in Sin City, but I’ll give you my top five list of why I love Vegas. I’m not much of a gambler, but when I’m out on the casino floor, the energy and noise are infectious. I love to watch the tables. I’m too cheap to play myself—I’m more of a slot person, but observing the blackjack tables, soaking up the atmosphere, is one of my favorite ways to kill a couple of hours. It may be 3 a.m. or 3 p.m. There are no clocks, no windows—the casino is its own world. The Strip. Watching the craziness on The Strip is awesome. It’s a different show every night. Street performers, card slappers, and superheroes mingle with the drunks. With…

The best plot in the world. The most thrilling story of the century. A tale so compelling it changes the lives of millions. None of them work if the characters don’t ring true. You might think it’s easy for a female writer to create believable, convincing female characters. It isn’t. Nothing about the writing process is ‘easy’. Having said that, I’ve discovered a way to flesh my women out, make them life-like and three dimensional. But it wasn’t always that way. The essential male / female split Before I was published, I wrote three novels. None have seen the light of day, and they never will, because they weren’t ready. I had to learn the craft of fiction. To wit, in one of those novels, two male police officers were the protagonists. One of them walked into a house to question a witness, and the first thing he noticed were the curtains in the window. “Um… no,” said my writing group. A solid, beefy cop would NOT notice curtains when he walked into a house. “You need to learn the difference between a man and a woman’s point of view”, they said. Looking back, it seems obvious now. But at…

I am of the mindset that there’s nothing better than having a ripe, juicy strawberry on top of my dessert, and I’m beginning to believe the same rule applies to cozy mysteries! CC Dragon’s promotion card caught my eye last fall at a conference in Colorado. There was something about it that was familiar—her cover styles were attractive and appealing—as it turns out, we have the same cover artist! So it makes sense, that I was drawn to her books as much as I am to strawberry topping. I looked for her at the conference, to no avail and ended up stuffing her promotion card in my bag to contact her after I returned home. I hate to say, that swag bag didn’t get emptied until the holidays, but what a great gift it turned out to be! If I’d contacted CC last fall, she would have only had two books out in her series, but as of January, she has three Strawberry Top Mysteries for you to gobble up;) Now that’s a delicious treat! Kym: Please welcome CC Dragon to Fresh Fiction’s Cozy Corner! CC: Hi! Thanks for tracking me down ? Kym: CC can you tell us a…

When I heard I’d be writing a guest post for Fresh Fiction on their weekly Suspense Day, I was immediately filled with, you guessed it, SUSPENSE! What was I going to write about??? I was excited, but also a little nervous, and totally stumped for ideas. So, I did what I usually do when I’m stumped. I headed over to my local Novel Solutions store to see if they could help me out. I was relieved to see my buddy Carl behind the counter. “Ms. Held, what can I help you with today?” Carl asked. “You look a little…tense?” “Yeah,” I said. “I need to write this guest post for Fresh Fiction and I’m kind of stumped. I want to write something about suspense, but—” “I’ve got exactly what you need,” Carl said, and he reached under the counter and pulled out a battered wooden box. “What’s that?” I asked. “It’s a MacGuffin.” “A MacWhat?” I reached for the lid. “Don’t!” Carl batted my hand away. “You must not open the box under any circumstances.” “Um, I don’t want to doubt you, Carl, but how exactly is this supposed to help me with my blog post?” I asked. “A MacGuffin…

THIRTY NIGHTS is the story of Elisa Snow and Aiden Hale—two direct opposites with similar tortured pasts. She is an orphan who lost both her parents on the same day and immigrated to the U.S. to start a new life. He is a U.S. Marine with total recall who cannot escape the horrific memories of Iraq. Between them is every reason why they should be together, not the least of which is the mighty U.S. government. But when they allow themselves one night together, they realize that the only way to fight their pasts is to surrender to the present. A blistering exploration of desire, sacrifice, and redemption, THIRTY NIGHTS is a story about love’s power to equalize us in ways laws cannot. And Aiden Hale has a some strong opinions about it Ani Keating: (plopped on a beanie bag at an undisclosed location, wearing flannel pajamas.) Hey Aiden, thank you for coming here today. Aiden Hale: (sitting in a winged armchair, ankle over his knee, wearing torn up jeans instead of the customary charcoal suit, and glaring at Ani with wrathful eyes.) I didn’t do it for you. I’m doing it for your readers. AK: I know, I know—you’re…

When I had the opportunity to write a novella for AN AMISH MARKET, I jumped at the chance. I live near Middlefield, OH and visit there often. One of the prime attractions is the Middlefield Market. Each Monday they hold a large flea market which includes clothing, fruits and vegetables, Amish baked goods, and in the spring and summer, vegetable plants and flower baskets. I wrote about the Middlefield Market briefly in my novella “Flowers for Rachael” (in the anthology AN AMISH GARDEN) and I was excited to revisit it in this novella collection. In “A Bid for Love”, a fictionalized version of the DCC Benefit Auction is featured. A series of misunderstandings at the quilt portion of the auction leads Hannah Lynne and Ezra to sort out their feelings for each other. Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend the DCC Benefit Auction. This is a yearly auction that supports the DCC Clinic for Special Needs Children located in Middlefield. There are several auctions held throughout the year that support the DCC Clinic and the Clinic for Special Needs Children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I knew this would be a special auction, but it far exceeded my expectations….

“You’ve got to come down here,” my granddaughter, Savannah, said over the phone. “We have the perfect dog for you.” “Who’s we?” I asked. “Celeste, Emily, and I. It’s a rescue dog. Hurry.” Well, they are my teenage grandchildren, so I decided to accommodate them, all the while feeling that I wasn’t sure I wanted another dog. The last one I had was a 50-pound black chow with a purple tongue who decided to bite a lab and took me for runs when I was only trying to walk him. He wasn’t the cuddly type! The only thing he apparently feared was going up and down stairs. When there was a tornado alert and we retired to the basement, he stayed upstairs, braving the storm. He wouldn’t do the stairs even when it was sunshiny, nor when offered a treat. So, after he “retired,” I’d made it clear my next dog would be calm, love me, and let me be the boss. Reminding myself that these were the grandchildren who “made” me get a cat at a time I was more a “dog” person, I nevertheless met them outside the store where there were cages filled with pleading, rescued dogs….