Hello again Fresh Fiction readers! It’s a pleasure to be back here talking with you today. In my current release, THE LORD OF ILLUSION, England has been conquered by seven mad elven lords, who sundered the barrier between our world and Elfhame. When they opened the doorway, they brought magic with them, and handed down physical attributes to their half-breed human children. They divided the land into seven realms, each altered by their primary magical power linked to their scepters: Firehame: Fire. Dewhame: Sea and Sky. Bladehame: Metal. Dreamhame: Glamour and Illusion. Terrahame: Earth. Verdanthame: Tree and plant. Stonehame: Rock and gemstone. Their half-breed children inherited their other attributes: – Extraordinary strength, grace and speed of movement. – Looks: faceted eyes, glimmering silver sparkling in their hair, pale smooth unblemished complexion, straight even white teeth, beautiful features, tall perfect physiques, long elegant ears with a slight point at the top. – Extraordinary talent in singing, art, dancing, fighting or musical ability (result of first item). – The ability to heal (non-lethal wounds or ailments), or soothe mental stress. – The ability to make plants flourish, or calm a beast. – The ability to find water, lost items, or glimpses into…

Thank you so much to the folks at Fresh Fiction for letting me blog here today. I love paranormal romance because it’s such a great escape from the real world. Not only is it prevalent in romantic fiction, but paranormal elements seem to be infiltrating television too (or maybe it’s just the shows I watch: Supernatural, True Blood, Once Upon a Time, Fringe, Grimm, Ghost Hunters…and many more). For me that’s a great thing! Well, maybe bad too because now that I’ve discovered so many great new shows it gives me an excuse to not work when I should be. Currently I write paranormal romance for Signet Eclipse and Harlequin Nocturne (Cravings). ALPHA INSTINCT (which is releasing in less than a week!) is the first book in my new Moon Shifter series from Signet and I had a lot of fun creating this paranormal world. In the Moon Shifter world shifters and vampires made a unified decision to reveal themselves to humans a couple decades ago (and other paranormal beings just had to get on board). There were a multitude of reasons for their decision, advancement in technology being a big one. The first five years after shifters came out…

Kate Carlisle is the New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mystery series, which launched in 2009 with HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER. The latest Bibliophile Mystery is ONE BOOK IN THE GRAVE (Bibliophile Mystery book 5). The Bibliophile Mystery series follows San Francisco-based book expert Brooklyn Wainwright as she restores classic texts to their former glory, and solves contemporary murders linked to each book. Visit Kate online at www.katecarlisle.com. I can’t imagine not being a reader. Think about it. If you didn’t have books in your life, how would you spend your time? What would you do? When you went to bed… what? You would just lie there, no book in your hand, no story in your head? You have a long wait at an airport with an even longer flight ahead of you and… no book? How do people do that?! Pardon me while I pause to shudder. I do not want to live in that world. One of the things I love best about reading is that, while the actual act of reading is a solitary one (except for story time at the library), reading is a very social activity. When we finish a good book, we pass…

Ugly things happen in the world.  I know this quite well based on my ten years as a criminal prosecutor.  Whether it be coldly calculated or committed in the heat of passion, humans are capable of the worst kinds of atrocities. Yet, I believe they are also capable of good.  That life can be beautiful.  That people can be redeemed.  And that ultimately love is the beginning, middle and end of any sort of goodness to be experienced in life. Romantic suspense melds what is both dark and light about human existence, and exposes it not in grays, but bright, vivid, exhilarating color.  It is both escapist entertainment and a palatable reminder of the decision we face each and every day—whether to step out into the world and live our lives despite the risk that entails.  We risk being hurt, whether by accident or design.  But we take the risk and we endure the mundane along with the struggles because we know the payoff is worth it.  We know that human connection, intimacy and passion, and victory are within our reach.  It’s what all romance readers know, and it’s why I love writing the genre! Virna DePaul is a national…

“No man is an island….” When John Donne wrote that, he did not take into account the needs of literature. Literature in general—and Young Adult literature in specific—makes a habit of forming men, and women, into islands. Indeed, writers go to great lengths to isolate their characters. So common is the trope of isolation that critics and teachers often overlook it when discussing books. Isolation has been used as a structural and thematic tactic in every genre. Hamlet is written as an outsider, a professional student who has been permitted, or urged, to separate himself from his his country, his family, and his inheritance. The Pevensie children have been sent away from their home, parents, and friends. The orphan Oliver has been separated, at birth, from his family, as have fellow orphans Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter. My own Rosi Carol has lost her parents and been uprooted from her hometown and sent to a place that is alien to her. This is no accident. Nor is it a coincidence. The very nature of reading a book requires an element of isolation. Music is often listened to in a group. Plays and movies are intended to be consumed by masses…

I rediscovered My Little Ponies in my early twenties. My folks were going through a divorce, and I wasn’t taking it too well. If I had to sit down and do a bit of self-analysis, I guess I could say I it was a subconscious need to reconnect with happier times that drew me to eBay, and that first fateful search for My Little Ponies from the eighties. I proceeded to get into not one, but two bidding wars, the second one a little more dramatic than the first. However, I wasn’t going to let that never-removed-from-box baby sea pony get away. No sir! (Especially not when I hadn’t had one as a kid.) Ah, the thrill of victory! And the start of a habit that has served my writing in the most roundabout fashion. Turns out I’m a tactile, emotional collector, which is a nice way of saying I don’t mind if the item of my affection has a bit of play wear (that’s what Mr Clean Magic Erasers and kiddie shampoo is for), and if it comes in a box, it won’t stay that way. (Unless it’s a Comic-Con collectible. Then it stays mint-in-box, by order of my…

Would it surprise you to know that it’s been 18 years since the birth of the e-book forced the RWA Board of Directors to decide what the organization meant by “book”? You aren’t a published author unless you’ve published a book. As it turns out, not only do writers refuse to be boxed in by paper or even covers, but so do readers. Who knows what a book is anymore, never mind a cover? And a publisher? Can’t anyone be a publisher? One thing the writers at The Story Garden know for sure is that we grow stories. And we’re going to draw readers into our garden, come rock, paper, scissors or android. Writers and readers are all in the throes of change together. Question is, what have you learned so far? Let’s ask Gardeners Judith Arnold, Teresa Hill, and April Kihlstrom before we throw the discussion open to the WWW. What’s your experience with digital publishing? Judith Arnold: I’ve gotten the rights back to a lot of my out-of-print books, and about a year ago, I started reissuing them as independently published e-books. I currently have ten indie-published e-books for sale at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords and other e-book retailers,…

Sky’s talking about sexy loggers and is giving away a copy of DOUBLE DARE, her steamy novella available from Red Sage. I have a thing for loggers. To me they’re kind of like another version of the modern day cowboy, working hard every day from before the sun comes up until dark. All that physical labor guarantees a sexy body rippled with muscles, solid and strong. They are men who know how to work hard and love even harder. My infatuation with the profession started when I worked for a summer for the Forest Service and we would run into loggers, out in the middle of nowhere. They were always so nice to talk to, and did I mention sexy? So I had to write a story about them. And why stop at one logger when you can write about two sexy logging brothers? Ready for a little hot passion in the woods? Read a sexy excerpt from DOUBLE DARE. I “double dare” you to! Hmmm, ready to win your own copy of DOUBLE DARE? I’ll make it easy on you, just use your imagination. To win a copy of DOUBLE DARE leave your comment with the profession you find…

What do the following all have in common? SATIRICAL FUN: The Soulfire Series (HOLD ME IF YOU CAN, Jan 2012): A satirical, outrageously fun paranormal romance series in which a group of delectable warriors have been tortured for 150 years by Death’s grandma in the Den of Womanly pursuits. During their hellacious incarceration, they were tortured into becoming the “perfect” mates: deadly enough to take down a posse of demons while finishing their latest cross-stitching sampler and writing poetry (much to their dismay). EMOTIONAL SUSPENSE: The Alaska Heat series (ICE, Jan 2012): An emotional, high-octane romantic suspense series in which a rugged Alaskan bush pilot with a yen for high octane and a past that still haunts him teams up with a reluctant accountant from Seattle in a dangerous flight through the Alaska wilds to escape a madman. DARK PASSION: The ORDER OF THE BLADE (March 2012): A dark and sexy paranormal romance series in which an elite group of ancient warriors with a mission to save the world from members of their own race when they go rogue. Each Calydon is destined to meet his mate and bond with her, but the moment the bond is complete, both will…

This is our 10th week in a behind-the-scenes look at what’s involved in getting a debut author prepared for publication. My own debut novel, FEVER, releases in a little over a month, so it’s coming up fast. At every stop on the tour, I’ll have a guest NYT bestselling author answering questions about their experience as a debut author and I’ll also be giving away their books! My guest author this week is the fabulous Cindy Gerard, and I have 4 of her books to giveaway and 1 of my own ARCs!  Any comment or question enters you to win!  International! This week we’re talking about setting and reaching goals – apropos for the beginning of a New Year, no? Can you believe we’re already closing in on the end of January?  That means we should all be knee deep in those New Year’s goals; after all, it only takes 21 consecutive days of an activity to create a habit, and here we are on day number 25.  So, all those awesome resolutions we made on January 1 should be cemented in our behavior patterns. Right? *insert crickets chirping* Yeah, me either. In fact, I no longer make resolutions.  Yes,…