Making the Bed – Olivia Rodrigo“Sometimes I feel like I don’t wanna be where I am. Countin’ all of the beautiful things I regret. But it’s me who’s been making the bed.”In Revolve, Sierra’s story takes place after a fall on the ice shatters everything she’s worked for. One second, she and her partner are chasing Olympic gold. The next, she’s disqualified, injured, and forced off the ice. In the skating world, being gone for a year feels like a lifetime, and for Sierra, it’s almost like a death sentence. This song captures the raw, messy part of her after the accident. The version of her that’s drowning in anxiety, bitterness, and fear. Most of all, she hates that she feels like a victim, and that others see her that way now. It begins her anger with feeling stuck in her head and trapped in a body that gave up on her.We learn that these wounds are carried over from before the accident. Sierra has tried everything to keep up her image as the golden skater everyone expects her to be while losing her passion for her sport. As a solo competitor, she felt like she was just pretending, hiding…

Leo Answers:How would you describe your family or your childhood?Hellaciously complicated. it can be a challenge growing up with a name that opens some doors and slams others shut. As a Grimm, my childhood was wealth wrapped in rot — privilege laced with poison … and I learned pretty damn early that family can cut deeper than any enemy. What was your greatest talent?Seeing people. Not just what they want to show, but what they’re hiding. Their weaknesses. Their desires. That’s my second greatest talent. My first is knowing how to use that information. Significant other?There’s only one woman who ever truly mattered to me, and I pushed her away with both hands. She hates me now. But she’s still mine. She always will be. I just need to make sure she knows that, too. Biggest challenge in relationships?Trust. You grow up in my family, you learn trust is just another weapon. Where do you live?I keep an apartment in Grimm Tower. Beyond that, I spend a lot of time in safehouses. Do you have any enemies?Plenty. Some are family. Some…are closer than that. All need to stay on their guard. How do you feel about the place where you…

What is the title of your latest release?THE OTHELLO CLUB What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Six strangers at a divorce therapy group plan to get payback on their cheating exes, but one of them takes it too far. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?Divorce, heartbreak, jealousy and revenge are universal, transcending culture and geography. I could have set this story anywhere, but I chose London. It’s a city I’ve worked in for two decades, and its cultural and economic diversity mirrors my characters’ disparate, and desperate lives. A melting pot on the verge of boiling over. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?I’d love to hang out with Emily. Though only if it doesn’t involve a competitive activity. Like her, I’m a terrible loser. What are three words that describe your hero?Tenacious. Resourceful. Uncompromising. What’s something you learned while writing this book?Having interviewed many divorcees during my research, I learned the only (healthy) way to move past a traumatic breakup is through acceptance and forgiveness. Sadly, not everyone is capable of that. Especially the characters in The Othello Club, who instead choose anger and revenge. Ultimately, a path of…

Excerpt of THE WRITE WAY TO DIE: The grounds of the Hotel had been transformed from peaceful gardens of serenity to a hive of activity and noise. The police officers who had initially arrived quickly called for backup, and now the air was filled with the crackle of their radios. Their voices mingled into background noise as they strung crime scene tape around the area, held onlookers at bay, and took statements from all those they could. It was organized chaos, yet I felt distanced and cold, and in the fading afternoon light, I struggled to pull my thoughts together. At well over six-foot-tall and with more muscles than a front cover of a men’s health magazine, Detective Jacob Tate exuded strength and confidence. But as he looked down at me, his smoke gray eyes were wide. One large hand held a well-loved notebook while the other ran through his short blond hair. A tiny bead of sweat formed on the edge of his manscaped stubble as he hurriedly glanced over his extremely broad shoulder. The movement caused his white cotton shirt to ride up ever so slightly, giving me a glimpse of an abdomen that took a workout seriously….

Excerpt from THE HOUSE OF CAVANAUGH by Polly Dugan Hutch walks out of Julia’s yard, crosses the driveway, opens the gate to Carolyn and Palmer’s yard, shuts it behind him and walks into the house. Inside the back door is a mudroom and through that, the kitchen, connected to a family room off to the side. He finds the soy sauce where Julia said it would be, but instead of leaving, Hutch walks into the dining room. The dining room table is covered with a sewing project: a state-of-the-art machine, folded yards of fabric, cut quilt blocks—some in stacked piles, some already sewn together. From the look of the patterns, pastel blue Winnie-the-Pooh, and white polka dots on a yellow background, Hutch guesses Carolyn is working on a baby quilt. By now he’s almost in the living room. He walks toward the mantel to look at the photographs lined up there. In an ornate silver frame is a photo of Carolyn and Palmer on their wedding day and several pictures of their two sons at various ages in different sized frames. Hutch passes the fireplace to get a better look at the photos at the far end of the mantel….

I have aphantasia, so I don’t see my stories as I write them. A good playlist helps me hear the beating heart of them, though. For my debut dark academia novel, HIGHER MAGIC, these six songs were on repeat while I drafted and revised. They are, in a very real sense, the pulse of the story. “I Told You That I Was Afraid,” The BethsThis song perfectly encapsulates the anxiety my protagonist, Dorothe Bartleby, lives with, and how it shapes the way she navigates the world. It’s a track about wanting, and reaching out, and pulling back. It’s about coming of age with that weight pressing down on you, holding you in place while everyone around you is exploring and becoming new versions of themselves. But it’s also about learning how to do the scary things anyway. There’s a vital temerity in the lyrics, a stubborn insistence on trying again (and again and again) that feels so critical to my story. “Game to Lose,” I’m With HerI stumbled across this song about two-thirds of the way through my first draft of HIGHER MAGIC, when I was deep in the throes of the story, churning out three or four-thousand words a…

There are two things I’ve always loved about Beauty and the Beast. Number one is obvious: he’s hotter as the beast. And I think it’s pretty clear how that inspired my paranormal romcom monster fucker series. The first book is about a massive werewolf, and the second—the one I’m here to talk about now—is focused on an enormous demon. Though to be fair, I did make sure that he’s huge and hot in both his human form, and his horny form. And as for the other reason I love Beauty and the Beast: The curse! The curse that says he has to make someone fall for him—despite the fact that he’s a huge disaster—or he and everyone he adores will be tormented forever! Oh I love that part so much. I love the idea of someone who is grumpy and horrible and doesn’t know how to inspire love in anyone, being forced to somehow make it happen anyway. Maybe even finding it without even trying, in ways he doesn’t quite understand about himself. It’s always fun when they don’t know they’re wonderful. And THAT was the big inspiration for DEALING WITH A DESPERATE DEMON. Jack is ornery, and uncomfortable expressing…

What is the title of your latest release?THE HONG KONG WIDOW What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?THE HONG KONG WIDOW is about a young woman in 1950s Hong Kong who enters a séance competition at a haunted house, a competition that eventually becomes an urban legend. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I lived for a year in Hong Kong, and had been toying with the idea of setting a book there for ages. I knew I wanted to incorporate some element of my own family history and Chinese heritage, as well, and a significant portion of the novel takes place in Shanghai. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?In the story we encounter my protagonist at three different periods in her life (as a child, as a young woman, and as an elderly grandmother), and by now I feel like I’ve lived her entire lifetime along with her. I adore her. So, yes. What are three words that describe your protagonist?curious, determined, vulnerable. What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned that I could scare myself while writing a spooky scene. Do you edit as you draft or…

You may be thinking, a selfie with a bison? Are you nuts? If we’d been trying to get one, then yes, that would be a crazy thing to do. But it happened quite by accident. Likely you’ve seen news reports where a tourist has tried to get up close with a buffalo or other wild animal in Yellowstone. That often doesn’t turn out well. More humans in Yellowstone National Park are injured by bison than by any other wild animal, including grizzly bears. The T-shirts out west, which read, ‘Don’t pet the fluffy cows,’ are a humorous reminder of a serious subject. American bison are North America’s largest land mammal. Adult bison cows weigh about 1,000 pounds and reach a height of 4-5 feet, while full-grown bulls can weigh twice as much, up to 2,000 pounds, and get 6 feet tall. As large and heavy as they look, you might make the mistake of assuming that they are slow. Bison are extremely agile, and they are fast. They can spin around faster than a horse and jump over high fences. Bison can run up to 35 miles per hour (three times as fast as the average human). Don’t think you…

What happens when you take two spanking-new doctors and drop them into Amish country? That’s the premise behind my latest book, A HIDDEN HOPE, and it’s a recipe for chaos, confusion, and a little comedy. Meet Ruth “Dok” Stoltzfus, a seasoned physician who’s been making house calls to Amish families for years. She knows her patients, understands their culture, and has earned their trust through years of respectful care. But Dok needs help with her bursting-at-the-seams practice, so she brings in two medical school graduates as residents. And here’s where it gets interesting: one graduated at the top of her class, the other at the bottom. Both are completely new to Amish traditions and customs. You can probably guess where this is heading. The idea for this story came from thinking about how much medicine relies on communication and cultural understanding. When you don’t speak the same “language”—whether that’s literal language or cultural expectations—things can go sideways pretty quickly. I loved exploring how book smarts don’t always translate to real-world success, especially when patients live by completely different rules than anything studied in medical school. Charlie King, the resident who struggled academically connects naturally with patients, while star student Wren…