Each year the Romance Writers of America hold their annual conference in July, usually late July. This year due to flooding in Nashville in late spring, it’s been moved to the Dolphin and Swan Conference Center in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Right, Walt Disney World. What a tease! Because for the Fresh Fiction team, a conference is packed hours of meeting, greeting, learning and not really time to be a tourist. And where is one of the best tourist places? Why, WDW, of course! A tease! So noses to the grindstone we’ll cover all the happenings, for you dear friends, from our Dallas, Texas departure at 7AM, yes, bright and early, Sunday, July 25th through our return sometime the first week of August *grin* Ah, we plan to meander across the south on the way back. We’ll be hitting bookstores aplenty! There are six adventurers and two cars so we have PLENTY of room to stock up on books! And great company to talk endlessly about authors, books, trends, heroes, heroines, mysteries and all the other stuff readers chat about when they gather together. Our first stop is Atlanta, Georgia to pick up the irreplaceable Faye and then on to…

Saturday I should have stayed home and cleaned my house especially since I’m leaving next Sunday for my first RWA (need I say how excited I am about this?). Did I play good domestic goddess and see to the needs of my family, no I didn’t! What did I do instead? I attended a book signing for Tess Gerritsen and Lisa Gardner. I arrived at the bookstore a tad later than I had really wanted to, and was worried about parking and how long the lines would be. I was pleasantly surprised to find easy parking, and shocked to see that the crowd was nowhere near what I had anticipated. Good for me, but what would the authors think? Both Tess and Lisa gave short speeches about their books in general and then their newest releases specifically. I don’t know about the other people in attendance, but it made me want to run home and read right away! I’m sure I say this a lot but both authors were really entertaining, and personable, and if I wasn’t already a fan I would be just from listening to them speak! After the signing those of us in attendance from the DFW…

Who are the dark forgotten? No, it’s not the contents of the sock drawer. My stories are set in present-day Fairview, a university town in the Pacific Northwest. It’s like any other North American city, but things are changing fast. The supernatural beings among us have been out in the open since the year 2000, which has created both fascination and fear among the human population. But that’s just half the story. Long, long ago, all the various supernatural species lived side-by-side with humans. Then, nine sorcerers got together and built a supernatural prison dimension called the Castle.  They desired to be the most powerful beings on earth, so they put all other magical creatures into the Castle dungeon.  This included were-beasts, vampires, hellhounds, demons, dragons, unicorns—you name it.  It really didn’t matter if the other species were hostile to humans or not; they were killed or imprisoned for the crime of having magic. Of course, a few monsters got away and survived in the shadows, and they became the modern vampires and werebeasts that “came out” in Y2K. They’ve just made peace with the humans and are starting to get a slice of the good life:  credit cards, cell…

I’m sending a great big hello to all the romance readers from hot and sunny Oklahoma. The weather here is something of a mirror to my brand-new Stormfront trilogy. The first book, BLOWN AWAY, a June release, came out just as Oklahoma was being hit by a series of terrible tornadoes. I sat in the cellar in our home with my 90 year old Mother, wondering if my world was going to blow away, just as part of the town of Bordelaise was blown away in my book. The tornado that came through here missed my home by mere blocks, then ripped through the area points East, destroying neighborhoods, injuring more than twenty, and killing a young mother of three. Tragedy echoed in real life. And such is life. The stories we write are often mirrored by the events in which we live. TORN APART, the second book in the Stormfront trilogy is a July release, but should be out by the end of June. This story tracks the tale of a terrible crime that almost goes unpunished because of the tornado. For days, the heroine in that story is under the false impression that her little boy was a…

Beach and Vacations at Fresh Fiction! Today (June 14th) is the LAST DAY to enter the summer’s hottest contests. Lots of great prizes await you. Click here for Pack Your Beach Tote Contests Add your own vacation story and be entered in our special “vacation planner” drawing to win a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate. Just tell us your vacation plans, summer reading list, recipes or whatever you’re doing this summer. Click here to add your own bit: reading list, vacations plans, food, whatever.

Each summer we have books that are definitely *MUST READS* and one of the first books most romance readers agree is ANYTHING by Julia Quinn. So let’s start off our summer season by focusing on the latest from Julia — just in time to kick off our Pack your Beach Tote extravaganza! Plus we’re helping to bring Julia’s fans a little closer. On May 26th we’ll be bringing coverage of Avon’s launch of the live/virtual book signing, powered by VivoLive. Julia Quinn will be reading, answering questions, and signing copies for anyone who attends her event at Powell’s Books: in-person (Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, Oregon 97005) or buy online here at FreshFiction.com. “We often remark, within the romance community, that our readers are notoriously ‘shy,’” quips Avon publicity director Pam Jaffee. “They may not flock to live author appearances, but will raid the stores the next day for the signed copies…and they love to interact with their favorite authors online. So,” she continues, “we think this type of virtual/live event will engage and appeal to romance fans.” Be sure to come by Julia’s Virtual Signing on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010. 7:00pm PST…

What would it take for you to go into the WITSEC program? We see this on television and read about it in books, but the idea of disappearing from our real lives is so foreign most people can’t even consider the possibility. I had a conversation with someone who knows a person in the WITSEC program and it’s a very scary situation. Notice how vague I kept that. Even though I don’t know this person’s name and there’s no chance of me being involved with this person I wouldn’t want to so much as hint at anything regarding them. But have you ever thought – “What if I saw something that would guarantee my death if I didn’t hide?” Most of us are pretty stressed when life throws a curve our way with a serious family issue that forces us to drop what we’re doing and leave town for a few days, but to walk away from everything within less than an hour? Many WITSEC members have had to do just that. Law enforcement in charge of the program say they have never lost one person who followed the rules, but that includes absolutely no contact with anyone from the…

What do a ‘Busa, a Softail and a Beemer have in common? You either think I’m speaking in tongues or you’re a two-wheel enthusiast who figured out those are all motorcycles, but that’s where the similarities end. I started riding motorcycles at 18 when a bunch of us raced motocross. Not the acrobat motocross you see now, but full bore racing on a rutted and curved dirt track full of choppy hills.  Honda created great off road bikes and plenty of street bikes. Years later they produced a sexy ride called a Blackbird, the fastest street bike running.  Then later on Suzuki turned out one called a Hayabusa (known in two-wheel circles as a ‘Busa) which became THE fastest street bike. A Hayabusa is Japanese for a bird of prey, their main prey being blackbirds…a not so subtle jab at Honda. Softail® is a Harley Davidson touring motorcycle with saddlebags and beautiful lines. I know because I had one of the classic designs known as a Heritage Softail® for several years, and I rode it all over the country. I even took that bike through the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap, a route through North Carolina and Tennessee’s…