Hi everyone! It’s a real treat to be here at Fresh Fiction. Before I start, I’ve a quick question to ask you: How often do you read authors outside your own gender? Based on my formative reading material, I should by rights be the worst chauvinist author imaginable. I’m not kidding when I say the first time I read a complete book by a female writer was THE LOVELY BONES in 2005. And before that, most of the female literary characters I’d read were either barbarian queens or damsels-in-distress, women locked away in modes of male fantasy inside stories written about men, for men. I know the hero journey inside out, sideways, jutting jaw to bloody hilt. Growing up with the tales of H Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and JRR Tolkien will do that to a boy. And it was wonderful. Wonderful…and incomplete. Then something bizarre happened. Carl Sagan’s rambling but extraordinary novel, CONTACT, introduced me to a larger-than-life heroine in a traditionally (at least in my SF) male pursuit. Ellie Arroway didn’t just dream of becoming an astronomer and discovering the secrets of the universe, she went out and made it happen. She had flaws, deep scars from…

I recently had the chance to combine three of my favorite things: to meet a favorite author of mine, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, be around other avid readers, and have a fancy high tea at the famous Dallas Adolphus Hotel. It was all so nice and a luxury to be there. Some of my friends find it so fun and interesting that we thought of having a book group gathering around high tea. They can also attest to the great excitement I possessed for meeting one of my favorite authors again. We were celebrating the release of Susan’s newest book, CALL ME IRRESISTIBLE. In Susan’s new book, Meg Koranda has to go out in the big bad world and make it on her own, without the help of her famous parents (who were the stars of one of Susan’s previous books, GLITTER BABY), other siblings, or her best friends. And to make it a little harder–she is loathed by an entire town for the perceived break up of Ted Beaudine’s wedding–the town’s beloved son. One of the great things about Susan’s female characters is that they are always women who even though they hit rock bottom, do not let it stop…

We’d all like to think that given the opportunity, we could be heroic. Last spring, I had my moment. I’m sitting in the bleachers at my son’s baseball game, chatting with the grandmother of one his teammates. Betsy and I hit it off from the beginning of the season and always had laughs together watching the games with the other parents. So along comes a line-drive fly ball heading directly at us. I wrapped my arms around that older woman, pushed her head down and protected her from certain injury. Well, that’s what I should’ve done anyway… What I did do was anything but heroic. I ducked behind her and let her shield me from the ball, which then—in a moment of cosmic revenge—smacked into my leg, leaving a gigantic bruise. When I emerged from behind that lovely older woman, I was in a state of shock. All my life I’d waited for my opportunity to prove that I was made of heroic stuff. And when the moment arrived, what did I do? Duck and cover, baby! We laughed ourselves silly over the entire episode that night and many nights thereafter. To this day, Betsy sees me coming and says,…

Karen Harper’s historical novel, THE IRISH PRINCESS, tells the true story of a woman who belonged to the Fitzgerald family of old Ireland, a family known as “The Uncrowned Kings of Ireland.”  Gera Fitzgerald’s story of loss, love, rebellion and reconciliation, set in Ireland and Tudor England, is out in time for St. Patrick’s Day—Erin Go Bragh! And, the author says, the real-life hero is in the tradition of the swashbuckling heroes like Errol Flynn, Russell Crowe and Johnny Depp. In Search of The Irish Princess It’s a special challenge to research and bring to life a woman who actually lived, especially if most of the clues to her character must be found in her relationship with better known figures.  In Gera’s case, my search for her started with a trip I took to Ireland when I didn’t even know about her.  But I fell in love with the Kildare County countryside, the charm of Dublin and the people.  And I wondered how long the Irish love/hate relationship with the English went back. Then, in researching Queen Elizabeth I for another novel, I found that for many years she had an Irish woman in her court, a beautiful redhead, who…

Fonda Raine lives for one thing: killing Eric Aruda for slaying her lover. But she’ll have to be careful–Eric can set fires with his mind. Seconds from plunging a knife into his heart, an assassin tries to take them both out. Now, she must choose: join forces with the man who’s burning through her defenses or go down in flames. I didn’t intend to write a story about two enemies who fall in love, but as my series evolved, I knew that there was no better heroine for my bad boy Eric Aruda than the feisty woman whom he wronged so badly. Not only do these two believe the other is the bad guy, Eric murdered her lover in a most horrendous manner. So how could I possibly, and realistically, bring these two together? It could not be love at first sight, even if their bodies betray them with their reactions to the other’s physicality. Once the idea of these two popped into my head, I loved it. Mostly, I loved the challenge from the writer’s point of view. Of course, it has to happen slowly. On the other hand, they can’t hate each other for a lot of the…

People often ask writers, “Where do you get your ideas?” Neil Gaiman said, “I make them up… Out of my head.” Robertson Davies said, “I don’t get them; they get me.” Some authors say something visual – a news clip on TV or a magazine article—might spark an idea. Some say their ideas come from other people, other industries, the act of writing, or God. Confession: my ideas come from nowhere. Yup, they just appear. Out of nowhere. Well, okay. Maybe the idea rises from some misty spot in my subconscious mind—the unknown world where anything is possible, where I’m still a child bursting with wonder and a sense of possibility, asking “What if…?” or “I just want to see if there’s another world over that hill…” When I was a child growing up in Canada, we often visited a family friend, an eye surgeon who lived in a palatial mansion full of spiral staircases and hidden rooms. I loved getting lost in that old house—I often expected to tumble through a door into Narnia. But I didn’t need to explore a mansion to find magic. The forest trail right behind our house led me to a giant, spongy moss…

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t have interesting things happen here in Virgin River. Hi, I’m Jack Sheridan, owner of Jack’s Bar, and sooner or later I manage to find myself in the middle of what ever’s going on. Not so long ago Pastor Noah Kincaid had to hitch a ride into town after his truck slid off the road and down a hill. He was avoiding a deer, but we’ve had trouble with that stretch of road before—narrow, winding roads, no guardrails. So I rounded up a few people to help tow him up the hill and while we were working on that an interesting fellow stopped by to see what was up. He asked if we needed a hand, but we had it covered. Clay Tahoma was on his way to Nathaniel Jensen’s Large Animal Veterinary Clinic. Turns out the man is a Vet Tech and farrier and will be working with Nate. It also didn’t escape my notice that he’s Native American: bronze skin, high cheekbones, hair down past his waist. Nate dropped by the bar on his way home from a house call at a ranch nearby and gave me the skinny—turns out Clay…

Every year, the power goes out here in snowy, rainy, windy New England. Hundreds of thousands of homes lose electricity, ours being one of them. I learned something during the ice storm that crippled our area for over a week. My mother-in-law lives a couple of towns away…alone. So we had her come over right away. My daughter and her boyfriend called to say they were at his mother’s house, so they were safe! But as soon as they heard that we had ENTERTAINMENT, they came right over. It was fun to have everyone “camping” in our home. I have a gas stove, so I was able to cook. We have a gas fireplace, so there was ambiance and some heat to one room. The generator provided heat and hot water to the rest of the house. It’s funny what you decide you value when you have to pick and choose what to turn on and what to live without. We have an electricity cleaner. (The “dirty electricity” coming from the generator can’t power electronics which are too apt to be damaged by energy with surges.) So, we had to decide on one electronic item to use with the electricity…

Hi. I’m thrilled to be here at Fresh Fiction, even if it does mean I have to leave Torvald unrequited for a little longer. He’s the hero of the book I’m working on at the moment, the fourth in the Immortal Brotherhood series, and he so owns my heart right now. But it’s Gunnar’s turn to shine this month.IMMORTAL CHAMPION, on the shelves now, is the story of Gunnar’s struggle to find love and break the curse laid on him back in the 9thcentury, nearly 600 years before the time of the story. The decades around 1400 are some of the most troubled in English history: a king overthrown and murdered, the man who stole the throne desperately ill, rebellion after rebellion among the nobles, ongoing threats from Scotland and France, the Hundred Years War. None of that would make any difference to the cursed warriors of the Immortal Brotherhood, who spend most of their time hiding in the woods as they shift between man and beast—except that in middle of these trying times, a winter unlike any other comes crushing down on the countryside, driving them to seek shelter from the bitter cold. Gunnar manages to find a warm…

Hi, everyone (waving madly). I’m thrilled to be here. Thanks for inviting me, Fresh Fiction. I was trying to come up with something deep and meaningful to discuss today, but since nothing came to mind, I decided to go with shallow and fun. So I hope you’re ready to dive into my favorite subject—heroes. I love creating alpha heroes. They’re usually tortured men who prowl both sides of the line that separates good from evil. They might not be the kind of men I’d settle down with in real life, but it’s always fun to explore possibilities. My most recent hero, Utah from ETERNAL PREY, is a man with the soul of a Utahraptor. You don’t get much more dark and dangerous than that. He’s the scourge of Portland, Oregon’s vampire population. A vampire killed his brother, and now he’s returning the favor. No vampire is safe from his revenge. Too bad he has to team up with Lia, a vampire wannabe who is currently leading the Northeast Vampires. But saving humanity comes before personal hatreds. Can an ancient predator and a soon-to-be vampire find lasting love? You bet. Edge is the hero of my work in progress, WICKED EDGE,…