October 1846 A few times a week, my sister Charlotte and I walk past the Anglican church where our father is priest and through the gates by the Black Bull tavern with its shouts of men drinking away their wages. And then we are on Main Street in our village of Haworth with its broken cobbles descending steeply to the thick clusters of old stone houses blackened by smoke from coal fires and the murky air of the textile factories outside of the village. It is mostly children who hold those factory jobs, ragged children working fourteen hours a day. “A strange uncivilized little place,” Charlotte calls Haworth. There are five thousand mostly uneducated souls, many living in near poverty, including the farmers in the fields outside the village as far as you can see. It has changed since we were little. As you carefully descend the street, you don’t see as many women spinning before their door or hear the clank of weaver’s looms from inside as you once did.  The factories have replaced the old workers in what some call the Industrial Revolution. My father loathes it. We walk on, carrying our baskets, holding up our full skirts…

I took on this assignment to come to the Rocky Road Ranch to keep a young blogger from spreading any crazy stories. We’d already heard that Dr. Silver Collins had someone special in her life, so I knew I needed to be the one to interview the man called Layne Dawson, of Dawson Cave fame. Silver’s fans were ripe with rumors, and I planned to set the record straight. She deserved that. First, I have to tell you, I’m surprised I still have teeth in my head after that bone-jarring ride along the mile long dirt driveaway, but I made it. I just heard Layne Dawson, the ranch foreman, is going to be our welcome guide. Talk about luck. We all gather in the dirt parking area in front of an adobe ranch house. When I say “we,” I mean all the new guests for a week-long vacation on this newly opened Dude Ranch. “Howdy everyone.” Immediately, we all turn toward the voice. I’m in the front, so I get a close-up view of the man who spoke. He’s carrying a hay bale on his shoulder which he promptly drops on the ground and then steps on it. I’m not…

What is the title of your latest release?THE HEARTBREAK HOTEL What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?THE HEARTBREAK HOTEL is a love story between Louisa, a therapist opening a bed-and-breakfast for the brokenhearted in the Colorado mountains, and Henry, her landlord, who hates that she’s doing this in his house because he has a hidden heartbreak of his own. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?THE HEARTBREAK HOTEL takes place in Estes Park, Colorado—a beautiful mountain town best known as the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. This book’s setting (both the town and the house) is a character in and of itself, because it’s really Louisa’s happy place: the first place she’s ever felt like she truly belongs. Since it holds so much weight thematically, I wanted to make sure the setting had some magic to it—and I don’t think there’s anything more magical than the Colorado mountains in the fall. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Absolutely! Lou’s a great friend, a girls’ girl, and courageously open-hearted. What are three words that describe your hero?Henry is wounded, but also deeply compassionate and—importantly for Lou—dependable. What’s something you learned while…

Book Title: YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMASCharacter Name: Nick King How would you describe your family or your childhood?I spent a lot of my time outside of my home—playing with friends and my little sister. We played street hockey, man tracker in the park by our house and generally just doing what we could to avoid time at home. My mom wasn’t the greatest but that made my sister and I closer. She’s fantastic and the best mom to my nephew, Asher who is the best kid around. What was your greatest talent?Going on the defense to get the puck and get it in the net. Significant other?Yeah (somewhat goofy smile on his face). I have one of those. She’s unbelievable. Gorgeous and talented and the sweetest, funniest, toughest person I know. Biggest challenge in relationships?Sharing your feelings without feeling weak. Where do you live?We spend most of our time in Seattle. Do you have any enemies?Sure. But only on the ice. How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?I’m happy. And, as weird as this sounds, free. I wake up…

I leaned on my heavy walking stick as the river’s current tugged at my legs, clad in rented waterproof boots and dry bib. At fifty-something years old, with psoriatic arthritis and a body more built for bookstore browsing than river trekking, I had to wonder how I ended up in this unusual situation. When I began planning our trip to Zion National Park, I spent an absurd amount of time online learning everything I could. All the young Instagrammers and YouTubers gushed about a trail called “The Narrows”, insisting that no visit to Zion would be complete without it. I showed my husband, Steve, the epic photos of the canyon, and we added it to our list. Only, this trail doesn’t follow a simple dirt path. It leads straight into the Virgin River, where towering Navajo sandstone cliffs soar hundreds of feet overhead, narrowing to just a few dozen feet in places. Unlike many of the other hikers on the watery route, I’d come for more than just the thrill and the inevitable splashes of cold water. I came as an author, wanting to feel the drag of the current, hear the hush of the canyon, and stumble across the…

Each Monday the Smashwords store lists the top ten most highly anticipated indie fiction ebooks based on the previous week’s preorder accumulations. Each title on the list is scheduled to release within the next week. To help the talented authors on this list accumulate even more preorders, click the title of the book. The hyperlink will bring you to a Books2Read page where you can order from your preferred ebook retailer. If the preorder is part of a series, click the hyperlinked series title to learn about the other books in the series. Be sure to check back Friday for a list of the Top 25 Bestselling Indie Ebooks.

Excerpt from The Whistler by Nick Medina His eyes snap open and all he knows is fear. Whether the distress Henry feels manifested before he woke in response to a nightmare he can’t remember or if it only flooded his body the instant his eyelids went up isn’t clear, nor is it important for him to figure out. What is important is how he’ll escape. If he ever can. His jaw flexes and a scream that would bring Pawpaw Mac and Mawmaw Tilly running from their room at the end of the hall wants to tear out, but it doesn’t. He can barely take a breath deep enough to feel like he’s not on the verge of suffocating. Somehow since going to bed, the blanket has moved up around his neck, like a snake constricting tighter by the second. He tries to move his arms, but they’re buried beneath the blanket, a thousand pounds heavier than when he went to bed, pinning his arms to his sides. Even if he could move them, they’d do little good because his legs aren’t moving either and without them, he’s stuck, as if the mattress were made of quicksand, as if the sheet beneath…

What is the title of your latest release?GIRL LOST – The King Legacy #1 What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Two law enforcement agents, forced to confront the wreckage of their failed teenage romance, must team up to track down a killer, find their missing daughter, and save the mentor who holds the secrets they need to heal. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I’m a sucker for small towns with secrets and a salty breeze. The beach adds the perfect backdrop of beauty and danger, plus… I write better when I’m mentally barefoot. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Absolutely. But Luna’s so intense. We’d need our mutual friend, Tori Crew, there to keep things from turning into a stakeout or a deep therapy session. What are three words that describe your protagonist?Intense. Tenacious. Emotionally armored. She’s like a tactical SWAT vest wrapped around a very bruised heart. What’s something you learned while writing this book?More than I ever expected about MMA fighting. If you need to get out of a chokehold or land the perfect eye-gouge… I can help. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you…

Cast of characters:Author: Jerome Charyn“Maria”: Eden Riegel, star of All My Children, narrator of MARIA LA DIVINA audiobook (and Jerome Charyn’s very own stepdaughter.)Eden Riegel as herself Here is a photo of Maria Callas and Jerome Charyn when they were both 43 years old Author: it seems we are both holding a cigarette in this photo – do you smoke? I only held the cigarette for this particular photo – you can see I do it awkwardly, although it is one of my favorite photographs (taken by Anne Billson).“Maria”: I started smoking with Ari and just kept it up – it cannot have helped my singing but all I cared about was to be with Ari. Author: What do you say to those who called you difficult, temperamental and unreliable?“Maria”: They don’t really understand all the preparation that goes into a single aria. They think I stand on stage and sing, as if I had a magic whistle in my throat. I don’t. I sing full voice at every rehearsal. I am always there in spirit – after a while, it wears you down. Author: You died so very young. Would you wish to have lived longer?“Maria”: I had little…

I’m not an author who listens to music while writing; I require complete, near monastic levels of silence. I love creating themed playlists, however, and when I’m in the heat of a project, it feeds my creative energy to go for a run or a walk while listening to music that’s in conversation with my work. For THE BELLES playlist, I set two rules for myself: (1) every song must have a direct tie to a character or plot point and (2) the lead vocal for every song had to be a woman. You can listen to the complete playlist here, ideally with a 10-12 second crossfade for maximum vibes. “Just a Girl” by No DoubtA tongue-in-cheek punk-pop anthem from No Doubt’s self-titled debut album, Gwen Stefani opens this banger with the line “take this pink ribbon off my eyes”—and all hell breaks loose from there. The song references both women’s lack of agency and our apparent need of protection while also being at the receiving end of unwanted attention and being forced to conform to an idealized performance of femininity for the male gaze. Like the young women in my novel THE BELLES, who are being shaped by mid-century…