I am of the mindset that there’s nothing better than having a ripe, juicy strawberry on top of my dessert, and I’m beginning to believe the same rule applies to cozy mysteries! CC Dragon’s promotion card caught my eye last fall at a conference in Colorado. There was something about it that was familiar—her cover styles were attractive and appealing—as it turns out, we have the same cover artist! So it makes sense, that I was drawn to her books as much as I am to strawberry topping. I looked for her at the conference, to no avail and ended up stuffing her promotion card in my bag to contact her after I returned home. I hate to say, that swag bag didn’t get emptied until the holidays, but what a great gift it turned out to be! If I’d contacted CC last fall, she would have only had two books out in her series, but as of January, she has three Strawberry Top Mysteries for you to gobble up;) Now that’s a delicious treat! Kym: Please welcome CC Dragon to Fresh Fiction’s Cozy Corner! CC: Hi! Thanks for tracking me down ? Kym: CC can you tell us a…
Our reviewer Monique Daoust is a big fan of Lynsay Sands novels especially the Argeneau Vampires series. She had the chance to ask Lynsay some questions. Please join us as we eavesdrop on their conversation. ““RUNAWAY VAMPIRE feels so fresh and new, it seems like a brand new series!” What a thrill it is to welcome Lynsay Sands to Fresh Fiction today! I am so excited to speak with you today, Lynsay! I have been a fan for a long time of both your historical novels as well as the reason we’re here today: vampires! I read A QUICK BITE, thereafter I got every one of your vampire books; I’ve remained a fan throughout the years for several reasons: your legendary sense of humour, the combination of sweet and sexy, and the originality of the series. Simply reading the blurb for ABOUT A VAMPIRE had me almost salivating. After so many books, how do you keep the stories so fresh? How do you find new ideas? I bore easily, so I have to keep it interesting enough to entertain me. If it isn’t, then the story gets dropped and I start another. (The funny thing is this can also happen…
Juliet Lyman is a senior executive at Yesterday Records. Music is her passion and she’s very good at her job. That’s why her famously philanthropic boss Gideon sends her to Majorca, Spain to work with a very tortured, but talented client. Lionel Harding is one of the best songwriters of the 20th century, the multi-Grammy award-winning lyricist of the third most recorded song in history. But now he’s forty-two and six months overdue on the his latest paid assignment. Juliet is not leaving Majorca without either new lyrics or a very large check. For Juliet, business comes first. Emotions are secondary, and love isn’t even on the menu. But to Lionel, love is everything, and he blames Gideon for his broken heart. He’s determined to show Juliet that nothing is more important than love, but Juliet is just as determined to get Lionel to create the music that made him famous. As her professional and personal lives start to mix for the first time, Juliet is forced to reevaluate her priorities, and open her heart—perhaps for the very first time. Writing a Woman’s Life columnist Yona Zeldis McDonough chats with author Anita Hughes about her delectable new offering. YZM: You…
It’s always an exciting time when Molly McAdams has a new book out, so we were very pleased to be able to talk with her about her latest book: TO THE STARS. So settle back and enjoy our conversation with Molly. Leave your comments below to be eligible to win a copy of TO THE STARS thanks to her publisher. Harlow is a very misunderstood young woman throughout the book. She can sometimes appear, on the surface, to be unsympathetic, but she was always interesting and spunky. How did you find the right balance in creating her and her story? Well there are so many sides of Harlow that we see throughout the book. In the past scenes, we see her growing from a 15-year-old girl, to an 18-year-old young woman. During that time she’s trying to guard herself from the idea that she might not ever get to have what Knox is promising her, while falling in love with him. In the present, we see the broken Harlow that Collin has created: a young woman who has been so beaten down that she’s just living to survive and save her family. It wasn’t so much about finding a balance…
Our reviewer Sandra Wurman, wrote FIND HER “first and foremost I have to say I’ve never been more emotionally invested in a story. FIND HER crept into my heart and consciousness and refused to leave. This book is so well written with obvious attention to details and sequences that the author, Lisa Gardner, deserves plaudits for a job very well done. I’ve read lots of crime novels, but FIND HER is gritty and scarily plausible, and that’s what makes it attention-grabbing.” So now it’s time to talk to the author and find out more about FIND HER (February 2016). I can’t help but wonder – just what or who was your model or inspiration for the character of Flora Dane? Flora had to be one of the most resourceful characters ever written – human to be sure – but so mentally secure in her own way. The mantra she developed was awe inspiring. I developed Flora’s character after interviewing two victim specialists from the FBI’s Office of Victim Assistance. These specialists focus on working with a victim’s family during a crisis as well as developing a post-captivity plan upon recovery. One of the specialists emphasized over and over again that…
Jan Drexler is the descendant of Anabaptists who settled in Pennsylvania in the 1700s and then migrated west. She’s started a new series, Journey to Pleasant Prairie, that is based in part on her own family’s history in migrating west. Join us in a conversation with Jan as she talks about the series and the first book, HANNAH’S CHOICE, which is out now. Your ancestors were Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren. Did this ever cause controversy within your family? I’m sure the controversy was there, but it was before my time. Most of my Amish ancestors moved to the more liberal Amish Mennonite church during the Great Schism in the Amish church in the late 1800’s, and from there to Mennonite and German Baptist Brethren churches. One of the reasons I started writing was to explore that time of division. As I study my family’s genealogy, it is apparent that the schism didn’t only cause churches to split, but divided families. Parents and children, brothers and sisters all found themselves on one side of the divide or the other. My stories came about as I tried to explore how that would affect a family and the close relationships within the community….
It’s that time of year! Well, technically it started eight months ago when all the politicians started clogging up the news channels, social media and late night talk shows. It seems they seek to entertain us on every outlet. **sigh** I don’t know about you, but I personally, prefer to let the pros entertain me with fictional political scheming—it’s far more interesting and direct. And the race for the White House kitchen is a much better recipe for intrigue! Like in Julie Hyzy’s FOREIGN ECLAIRS, A White House Chef Mystery. This is Ms. Hyzy’s ninth White House Chef Mystery, but don’t worry, if you haven’t read any of the previous novels, you can safely start with Foreign Eclairs—I did and thoroughly enjoyed it. What’s not to love about food, the Secret Service, and a special young visitor to the kitchen who just happens to be the leader of the free world’s young son? Ms. Hyzy has surrounded her White House Executive Chef, Ollie Paras, with an interesting cast of characters that will draw you into the day-to-day operation of the most influential kitchen of the world. Ms. Hyzy didn’t stop there. No, she added a level of credibility to her…
Bestselling author Irene Hannon has written more than 50 romantic suspense and contemporary romance/women’s fiction novels. She is a seven-time finalist and three-time winner of the RITA Award and a member of Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Hannon launched her Men of Valor series in April of 2015 with BURIED SECRETS, which New York Journal of Books called “one of those addictive books that, once started, compels you to shut out the world till you reach the very last page.” In January 2016, she will release the anticipated second book of the series, THIN ICE. In THIN ICE, she pulls her readers back into the lives of the high-octane McGregor brothers. As a former Delta Force operator and newly appointed FBI special agent, Lance McGregor is called to reopen a case when Christy Reed receives a letter in her dead sister’s handwriting. But he comes up with more questions than answers. Is Christy a pawn in a twisted cat-and-mouse game—or the target of a sinister plot? As he digs deeper, one thing becomes clear: someone in the shadows has a deadly agenda. You started off writing in the romance genre. What prompted you to transition into suspense? To…
Thank you for joining us today at Fresh Fiction. I’m a real fan of military romance and suspense and loved your Shadow Warriors series. This new Delos Series brings us characters that are just as strong and dynamic and has some very scintillating plots. Viki: After reading the first four books in your new Delos Series, it is proving to be as fabulous as your other series. Who or what was your inspiration for the Delos Series? Lindsay: : Thanks for asking, Viki. Since Morgan’s Mercenaries, my first family saga that I created in 1980’s, was successful, I wanted to try it again. The Delos Series is my second family saga-series. Only this time, I wanted to create it based upon our world as it is today, in 2015, onward. We are a global community held together by a spider web-like digital age that makes connects all of us whether we like it or not. When you are no longer isolated, but communication, videos and other digital media, such as the social side (Facebook, among many others), we become ONE. Also, because of global travel, people are free to fall in love with one another, regardless of whether they come…
The best part of writing for the Cozy Corner is finding new mysteries and meeting new authors. Some of the series I’ve followed from book one, others I’ve picked up at book nine, or fifteen—wondering at each turn of the page, how I could have possibly missed such a fabulous series! Yet I know I can’t possible read them all, and maybe that’s a good thing. Because when I round the corner, there’s still that anticipation of what I’ll see next. What mystery is left for me to figure out. 2016 has an awesome line-up of mysteries in store for us, but maybe you’ve missed a book you shouldn’t have this year. Maybe the author, who will reach out and touch you in a way no other could, has already visited the Cozy Corner. Maybe it’s time to review our list of mysteries that don’t belong on anyone’s cold case list yet;) To end the year, I thought I’d reflect on the interviews that warmed my heart, made me laugh, and allowed me to meet my hero. I hope you’ll enjoy my best moments of 2015. In January, 2015 I interviewed two authors who like to visit the past, but…