One summer when I was about sixteen and out of books to read, I happened across a heavy brown paper bag full of books. I knew they were my mom’s romance novels and that she sat on the sofa reading them every night while the family watched television. Once, when I asked her if they were any good, she told me they were, but that I was too young to read them. With a sigh I’d gone back to reading the teen paperback novels that I constantly swapped with my friends. The problem was, I had read all of the books my friends gave me that summer. I’d also read through all of the books my grandma had on her little shelf, and to make matters worse, the school library was closed and our small rural town didn’t have a public one at that time. I was out of luck, or so it seemed. This was how the school break always went for me, but when I ran out of books that 16th summer, I thought of my mom’s bag of romance novels. I decided for myself that I was old enough to read them. Of course, I wasn’t brave…

  Guess what??? A. Martians have landed in my back yard and they’re pooping gold! B. My 3 year old niece has just created the formula for the cure for cancer in crayon! Or was that cancer in crayons? Not nearly as exciting. C. Her dog Molly insists on putting her nose in my suitcase and slobbering on my clothes. D. I turned in the manuscript for my Nov 2015 book on time!  Er…assuming you add 2 months to my deadline. Answer D!  And honestly a month ago the Martians were more likely. As for C, I managed to close the suitcase so poor doggie is foiled! So after this miracle created thru hard work and coffee was emailed to my editor, I celebrated by… A. Dusting my house from top to bottom. B. I took a shower. Believe me, I needed it. C. I went grocery shopping for something other than chips and chocolate. D. I watched a marathon of a new TV show called Get off your Couch, you fat slob. Answer: B. Yes, needed to bathe desperately. As for dusting? Hahahahahahaha. Grocery shopping? What do you mean? There’s nothing I ever eat except chips, chocolate, and coffee. And I…

Fresh Fiction is proud to participate in the blog tour for BREEDER by K.B. Hoyle. When asked to give one question to Hoyle, Fresh Fiction staff wanted to know: Why did you choose to write a character who transforms from an obedient society member into a rebel? I liked the idea of starting the story of BREEDER in an environment in which everything seems to be perfect, and having my main character, Pria (or B-Seventeen in the early chapters), operating under the assumption that her world is as good as it gets. I thought that moving Pria from a position of security to a position of uncertainty would also take the reader on the same journey, and that it would create great story tension as the world, and all of Pria’s assumptions about it, slowly unravels. The easiest way to do this from a plot perspective was to make her a character who transforms from someone obedient to society to someone who is eventually a rebel. This also allowed me to reveal the world as it really is through Pria’s eyes as she discovers it and changes her perspective on it. About BREEDER Everything about Seventeen’s life is perfect, from…

Photo courtesy of Laurie Durden Photo courtesy of Mary Turner Photo courtesy of Mary Turner Photo credit: Peggy Sirota, Outside Photo credit: Ronni Flannery Photo courtesy of Mary Turner Photo courtesy of Mary Turner

The heroine of my latest release, ROULETTE, is very buttoned-up in some ways and very daring in others. In her work life, Miki Durand is a statistics professor and burgeoning businesswoman. In her free time, she loves ambitious sports, including surfing, rock climbing, and long distance swimming. I’ve done a little bit of all those things, but very briefly and, as Lizzie Bennet would say, very ill. My friend Mary Turner, on the other hand, is the real deal. Mary is the Deputy Editor of Outside magazine and she embodies the adventurous spirit of my plucky romance heroine, come to life. So, rather than dream of what it would be like (which is what I normally do!), I decided to ask Mary to share her favorite (real life!) adventures. Click on the photo links to see the gallery. Fasten your seatbelts…here’s what she had to say: I’m glad you think I’m adventurous. I used to be at least! Now my idea of a good adventure is a nap on my couch watching football 🙂 But here are my top (seven!) adventures: -Biking across the U.S. one summer, 3600 miles, from Seattle to New York City -Trekking in the Himalayas, Nepal’s…

THE HIGHLAND DRAGON’S LADY, in retrospect, involves just a vast amount of people running around in the middle of the night. On occasion they change it up and sneak around, but still: everyone sensible is sleeping, and Reggie or Colin will be wandering down roads or climbing up trees and getting into trouble. When I was writing, I didn’t quite realize how often that happened, but I’m not really surprised to find it as I look back. My previous couple novels didn’t really allow for that kind of thing, the settings being what they were—and, middle age and its unfortunate need for sleep aside, I have always loved that kind of thing. When I was a kid, we’d generally start our family vacations before dawn—I’m not sure whether this had to do with traffic or whether my parents just hoped that my sister and I would fall asleep for most of the journey—and it was the coolest thing ever: getting up when everything was still dark and going on a trip, especially a trip away from school and normal life and rules. (Half of those trips were for Christmas, which was the other big get-up-before-reasonable-hours event. I still remember hearing…

What is it about Italy? I’ve been lucky to have visited the nation of la dolce vita three times in my life-Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice. Italian was also my minor in college. When I’m in Italy, I feel beautiful, both inside and out. Just being in Italy is food for the soul. For these reasons, I chose Italy as one of the settings in my Davison & Allegra series, starting with Venice and Naples in BREATHLESS FOR HIM and Milan and Lake Como in DEVOTED TO HIM, as well as making my heroine, Allegra Orsini, of Italian heritage. To me, all of Italy is romantic, so choosing the Top 5 Romantic Escapes in Italy proved to be quite the task, except for choosing the #1 destination. I should also state that I’ve only been to my #1 choice, and the rest are on my bucket list, though I imagine I’m there whenever I watch the movies that I mention for each to-die-for area (Capri, alas, has not been featured in any film as far I know). 1)    Venice-I first visited Italy as a junior in college when I did the Eurailpass trip college kids do with two of my…

So there I was. Staring at the computer screen around 4:30 am and wondering who would be the heroine of my next book. I already had a wonderful (hawt!) hero, who was a secondary character in my debut release, THE SMUGGLER WORE SILK.  I knew this hero, this spy named Angel. I also knew his family history, the way he looked, what occurred during his tenure as a spy, and the tortured musician in his soul. I needed a strong heroine…but I knew no woman who could match him. Until I started reading about women during the Napoleonic wars. Some British women followed the drum, a.k.a. followed their soldier husbands across the English Channel, over mountains and plains on the Continent, through bitterly cold winters and hot summers. The rigors of soldiering cost many men and women their lives—and even their children’s lives. It was a struggle to survive every single day. I admire those women and their hardships, and every step they took on the dusty and snowy roads is something to celebrate. I read an account of a Spanish lady who, when an artillery sergeant was killed, took the lighted match from his hand and fired a twenty-four…

We all love him. You know the one – the hero who likes to whisper things that make both the reader and the heroine melt. He always knows the right thing to say to set panties aflame, and he’s doesn’t hesitate to go the extra mile to take you there. The man should really walk around with a warning attached to him, because his heroine isn’t going to stand a chance once he starts talking. Up until this point, I’ve only ogled him from afar in other authors’ books. I was so sure I could never pull off that kind of thing without my hero sounding like a fool. And then I met the hero of MISTAKEN BY FATE, Garrett Reaver. He’s big and has a striking resemblance to a certain Norse god, and he’s got a whole lot to say—most of it X-rated. Really, really X-rated. I’d be sitting there, writing, and suddenly things would start coming out of his mouth that had me looking to open a window and get some cold air circulating. I’ve always kind of laughed it off when people ask me how a character I created can surprise me, but Garrett did. The man…

“I once stared down a bull that got free of its rope in a crowded souk. I’ve climbed a banyan tree— barefoot in a monsoon— to rescue a litter of stranded kittens, and I helped a lady give birth in a flood-trapped barouche while the men around me flew into hysteria….I don’t like too many bows on my bonnets or sugar in my tea, and roses bring me out in a rash…So that’s me for you. Now might we proceed? I’m in rather a hurry if you don’t mind. I’ve got a pair of abandoned breeches to rescue from a stray bathing machine.” ~ Miss Rebecca Boudicca Sherringham introduces herself to Colonel Luke Wainwright. In SINFULLY EVER AFTER Rebecca Sherringham has lived a busy life traveling with her father— a major in the Army— and rescuing both him, and her rakish brother Nathaniel, from various scrapes. By the grand age of twenty two, she’s had quite enough adventure. Now her father is retired, she’s delighted to settle with him in the quiet village of Hawcombe Prior, where she can finally make lasting friendships and take a well-earned rest from all the excitement. But despite her desire for a tranquil life,…