I’m not sure anything beats a cool, air-conditioned library on a hot summer day. The silence, the relief of a chilling breeze, the scent of dusty books. When I was younger, I’d walk a six or seven blocks to my local library, where I’d dive into a book of fantasy or science fiction, a craft book for kids, or an historical novel that would take me away from the steamy southern temperatures outside. I don’t have much time to read right now, but here are a few suggestions for your summer library or bookstore visits! 1. Check out the crafts: In addition to being fun to flip through, you never know when you might find a project to keep you cool and indoors on an otherwise roasting summer day. Check out the Big Ass Book of Crafts, the Journal Junkies Workshop or Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts for a little summertime inspiration. 2. Travelogues: The best way to escape a hot summer day if often to pretend you’re somewhere else. I love travelogues–books that transport me to another time and place. And they don’t even have to take place all that far away to be intriguing. I want a travelogue…

Hello, my deliciously fresh fictionites! I’m delighted to see you here among all the other fabulosity that fills this page. And I’m quite pleased to be here! When I was asked to do a blog post, my initial response was, “Sure! … Um, about what?” To which the response — to wit: “Anything!” — left me flailing for a while for subject matter. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that being a writer for a living, I could manage to come up with something, huh? Good fortune! I happen to have something to address, right in this very blog. So, without further ado: Hi! I’m Karina Cooper. I write paranormal romance, and I’d like to talk to you about witches. Because I love witches. No, really, I absolutely do! As I traveled through the United States, spending a few months to a few years in various locales, I really got to meet a whole gamut of people. Somehow, no matter where I went, I always made the acquaintance of at least one witch. Some were the stereotypical type dressed in black, wearing enough silver to choke a werewolf, with names that remind one of goddesses or constellations. Some were gentler on fashion,…

On June 6th, my 51st published work, WHEN TONY MET ADAM, an e-short-story about characters from my Troubleshooters series, was released.  It features Navy SEAL Tony Vlachic and movie actor Adam Wyndham, who also happens to be my most popular character Jules Cassidy’s ex-boyfriend.  I wrote this story in part to celebrate the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and in part to show readers what happened during the months between the end of ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (TS #12), where Tony and Adam have a chance meeting, and HOT PURSUIT (TS #15), where it’s made clear that the two men have been romantically involved for quite some time. But June 6th was also a special day for me for another reason entirely.  It was Day One of shooting for THE PERFECT WEDDING, a SAG ultra-low budget feature-length movie that I co-wrote and that I’m producing this summer. A quick description of the movie:  The Perfect Wedding is the story of two gay men, Paul (Eric Aragon) and Gavin (Jason T. Gaffney), who fall in love when they spend a holiday weekend at Paul’s parents’ house, where they gather to help plan Paul’s sister Alana’s (Apolonia Davalos) wedding.  The question…

Everybody knows what their own flaws are.  Ask any woman for her biggest flaw and she’s not going to need a minute to think it over.  Short legs.  Small boobs.  No waist.  Yellow teeth.  Dimply thighs.  The list is endless, but more to the point, it’s prompt.  We spend a fortune trying to fix these things.  We are not unaware. Writers are no different.  We throw our books out there with a kiss and a prayer but we’re fully aware of their fatal flaws.  We know what our weaknesses as writers are.  We know where our books fall short.  Believe me, we’d fix it if we could but since we can’t we just have to hope that whatever it is people like about our books is done well enough (this time) that they’ll forgive us our shortcomings.   And in each book, we try harder. For me, it’s setting.  I’m dismal at setting.  My characters have fabulous conversations.  It’s snappy patter and witty dialogue at every turn.  Unfortunately, they have their conversations in space because I’ve neglected to give the reader even the barest sketch of a setting.  Which is totally my fault because I’m a dialogue junkie and when I…

I currently write the Dragonfire series of paranormal romances, a series which features dragon shape shifter heroes called the Pyr. Each book focuses on the firestorm of one dragon dude, which occurs when he meets the one woman who can be his mate. Although the firestorm is about breeding — making more Pyr! — the romantic relationship ends up being a lot more complicated than that, and generally involves the dragon dude of choice learning or choosing to make a permanent relationship. I have a lot of fun with these guys and their preconceptions — as well as those of the women who win their hearts. I also like the action of these plots — since bad dragons are also attracted to the heat of the firestorm, and the best way to defeat the good dragons is to eliminate their mates and their chances for procreation, there are generally a lot of dragon fight scenes in these books too. In May, DARKFIRE KISS, # 6 in the series was released. What I want to talk about today, though, is organically spinning off a second series from a first one. My June release, FLYING BLIND, is the first book in a…

I’ve written about Highlanders in medieval times, vampire Highlanders even, so why not Highland werewolves, too? In truth, I have a whole lot of Highland roots,—the daughter of the duke of Argyle who married the commoner MacNeill and ended up in Prince Edward Island—and many more Scots like the famous and infamous Playfairs and my Hawthorns who were in Ireland first, so it seems only logical that I would set a Highland romance involving werewolves there, too. The only problem being is that though Highlanders are still in abundance, real wolves are not. The problem with that? What if a non-werewolf type Highlander see wolves running across the moor? Right. So it can be a bit of a problem. And there’s still clan conflict going on. So I enjoyed showing clan disputes in the form of werewolf clan troubles! Have I been to the Highlands? Ah yes, last year in October, the most beautiful time of year for me. To my surprise, castle gardens were full of flowers and though the Scots everywhere were nice enough to apologize for their overcast weather, I loved it. In Central Texas, where it was still hot and sunny, I was glad to get…

Imagine meeting someone who was young, handsome, protective, and handy when it came to fixing a leaky tap or taking out the villains. He’s the go-to guy in the community for problem solving and leadership. Everybody likes him. He oozes competence and has a great sense of humour. Unfortunately, he’s not only from the wrong side of the tracks, but is the wrong species entirely. Just to complicate things, this alpha male with the Ruger Blackhawk is the only person standing between you and an unknown killer who just beheaded your roommate. This is what happens to Talia Rostova, the fugitive vampire in FROSTBOUND, the latest in my Dark Forgotten series. When she meets Lore, the hellhound Alpha, the first thing he does is chain her to his bed for safekeeping. It makes perfect sense to him—even if she does a lot of yelling—until he stops thinking of Talia as simply a vampire and a murder suspect wanted by the cops. FROSTBOUND is an adventure story, but it’s also a very sensual tale about forbidden love and personal choices. For those who haven’t been following the series, it’s a stand-alone book. For those who have, you’ll recognize a lot of…

Thanks to everyone at Fresh Fiction for having me here today! I’m Kaylea Cross, and I write romantic suspense featuring deliciously alpha male military heroes. Why? Because they’re hot, and because I admire the hell out of people serving in the military. Specifically, I write mostly about Special Ops heroes. For me, there’s just something about a covert warrior that makes me all gooey inside. Obviously they’re dedicated and brave, disciplined and smart. They don’t give in easily, and they’re pretty much guaranteed never to give up on anything they’ve dedicated themselves to. When they apply that kind of skill set and tenacity to pursuing a woman in a romantic relationship…whoa. Makes my toes curl every time. Well that, and knowing that no matter what crisis occurs, they can and will handle it. It’s that very “I got this” attitude that makes them such amazing characters to write about. I read Special Ops non-fiction books all the time, and I’m an admitted war and military documentary junkie. If it involves SEALs, Special Forces (not the same thing as Special Ops, by the way–people get them confused all the time), Delta Force, Air Force Combat Controllers and Pararescue Jumpers, I’m so…

Operation Neptune Spear seems an appropriate name for the raid that ended Osama Bin Laden’s life.  In Roman mythology, Neptune is the god of water and the sea.  It’s common knowledge that SEAL Team 6 of the United States Navy conducted the raid.  The Navy SEAL emblem contains a trident, Neptune’s preferred hunting weapon. So who are Navy SEALs?  SEAL teams are the primary special forces of the Naval Special Warfare Command.  The SEALs were officially established during the Kennedy Administration, but their roots can be traced back to WWII.  The acronym is derived from Sea, Air, and Land.  Although Navy SEAL teams comprise the maritime component of the United States Special Operations Command, they’re often used for land based missions. The term “special forces” has evolved to encompass military and civilian units that are deployed for use in high risk missions that standard units aren’t equipped to handle.  Although technically not special forces in the military sense, the FBI, ATF, DEA, and other federal law enforcement agencies employ domestic SRTs (Special Response Teams) in much the same way as the military uses its special forces overseas.  It’s not my intent to make any kind of comparison between civilian SRTs…

Over the past several years, I’ve had the amazingly good fortune of working closely with the FBI.  I’ve consulted with the Bureau’s Crimes Against Children Unit, the Asian Criminal Enterprise Task Force, the Crisis Negotiation Unit, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (a la “Criminal Minds”), members of various Evidence Response Teams (the Federal equivalent of “CSI”), the Art Crime Team, and more.  I’ve visited several field offices and resident agencies (smaller, local offices), and I’ve toured FBI Headquarters in Washington DC.  I’ve learned how to shoot a Glock, how to handle a hostage negotiation, and how to speak FBI (hundreds of acronyms!). And then there’s Quantico.  I’ve made more than one trip down there—I even did a book signing at the FBI Academy bookstore.  It’s a world unto itself, with extensive training grounds, an impressive shooting range, and the legendary Hogan’s Alley—a man-made town that feels as real as your home town, except that it’s populated by FBI agents, new agents in training, and actors who are hired to bring simulated crime scenes to life. Last fall, I was asked by the Newark Field Office (they’re responsible for the entire state of New Jersey) to be their celebrity keynote speaker at…