In North America July is the time of celebration, not only has summer truly arrived with the thunderstorms, rain, heat, tornadoes or in general nature’s fireworks, but we also celebrate Canada Day and the US Independence Day. Both holidays include lots of fireworks. Did I mention fireworks? This year, I’m spending the holiday in my home county of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And we’ve had the rain, the heat and the fireworks. Except these fireworks are the small little twinkling lights of fireflies. Living in Texas where fireflies are more or less extinct, I truly forgot how beautiful the little twinkles at dusk made by the fireflies are enchanting. Out from the city in the Amish Mennonite farming communities it’s very very dark but the little twinkles provide a show that is magical. If you’re curious to know more about fireflies, check out this article from National Geographic and enjoy your summer adventures. How Do Fireflies Glow? Mystery Solved After 60 Years Scientists have sussed out the chemical secret of these bright summertime beetles—and it may someday improve human health, a new study says.

What a great day! It’s Monday and in the northern hemisphere according to the television weather maps we have spring-like weather in most parts. When you’re shopping, spring flowers are everywhere, and most people are thinking about their gardens. Well, I think and plan a garden each year but not so competent in execution. I usually settle for some potted vegetables that wither before I actually get them in the garden area. And it’s also CONVENTION season. Actually, ours has already started. In March we had SXSW and North Texas Two Step, in April we visited the London Book Fair, So our spring so far has been productive and busy! In May we have RT in New Orleans followed closely by Book Expo America, then Lori Foster’s, then our big Boas & Tiaras, then off to LA for Television Critics previews and then we split: off to San Diego Comic Con and San Antonio for RWA convention. I’m tired just typing all this much less thinking about it! But the bottom line is we get to meet in person our readers and authors. And truly isn’t that what makes our life so wonderful. Oh, I forgot the one next week,…

It’s always said we read more in the summer, but it didn’t used to be true for me. As a mother, summers were when I worked and figured out how to occupy my children’s time which became more than a full time job. I did send them off to the “country” to stay with their grandparents for a couple of weeks, and some day camps, but the majority of the time they got bored with themselves and me. Also, we didn’t do many family vacations during the summer, it was always the busy time at work for my husband and me, so our family vacations were in the fall and spring. So, I was very happy when they got older and started working during the summers because that meant I had more time to read. So, why bring this up? Well, I’ve been reading more this year than in recent years and very excited about my prospects. Perhaps it’s because the turn of a century happened just eleven short years ago, but I’ve been fascinated by stories set in times of change. For me it’s the late 1900s as people tumbled into the United States, countries were changed and formed…

Hello, my friends. It’s been a long time since I chatted with you here. Did you miss me? Laughing, probably not since we’ve had many many authors stop by and be our guest at Fresh Fiction, more interesting than what I usually rambled about. And so, here we are and I’m not quite sure what to say. Well, today is book club tea day in Texas. It’s a late one because the tea room holds it at 3:30pm to 5:00pm. That’s the strange thing about teas I’ve found over the years, the ‘proper’ time ranges from noon to 6pm. Each venue has their own idea of what is right. Most believe that a tea was a snack between luncheon and dinner so the ladies wouldn’t faint. I guess I’ve always thought of it as similar to feeding your kids when they came home from school before the family dinner. Give them a quick sandwich or snack and they won’t tear the kitchen apart rummaging for food. But whenever tea is held there is always someone who expresses that it’s too early, too late but never just right. Ah, well, life goes on. From experience I am certain the Chocolate Angel…

As I write this 2011 has already been spotted for some of our friends in the Pacific Rim and is slowly methodically working its way across the planet. So Happy New Year to all! At the end of the year, I usually reflect on the good things of the past year and look forward to even better opportunities and life ahead. What’s past is past and the future is bright and shiny, a silver ball. Yesterday I spent looking at some of my books, because I’ve also decided I really need to be honest and clean out some of the ones I’ll never read again or that have no specific meaning in my life. Not being cruel just realistic that even with more bookcases I am NOT going to be able to keep every book. It’s a sad decision but one that had to be made. However in my throes of feeling strong about eliminating “clutter” I came across some of my collection of Georgette Heyer books. Not the popular ones that are reissued over and over but the medieval ones like THE CONQUEROR and SIMON THE COLDHEARTED. Wow, these were old ex-library books I’d collected, printed over 50 years…

Holiday season always makes me think about the best times I had, the memories last, hopefully for a lifetime. I surely don’t remember very many toys I received as a child, maybe I didn’t get any? Except the game of Life from my uncle when I really wanted a Barbie doll. I never did get Barbie but I did play Life for many years through my teens. Maybe my uncle made the best choice. I remember my mother was so sad that as the oldest I let my disappointment show. It did teach me something, to never expect something as a gift, that being a role model had its downside, and to always accept graciously. I think I was about 10 that Christmas, and both my mother and uncle have passed on, but their Christmas memory lingers as long as I live and can tell the story. This year my family decided to forgo presents at Christmas but instead go on a family vacation together. It is our first family vacation in eight years and I blame Harry Potter. The opening of the Harry Potter park in Orlando pushed each of us, except my husband who is not a HP…

I went to a busy birthday party last night and found myself surrounded by the book people. Or in other words friends I know from one or another book related events who sorta knew each other in passing. We gathered at a couple of tables, talked about our lives and then the conversation turned to authors and books we’re reading. Not every one present read the same genre but we all did share one thing: we love to read. Most of us mourned the lack of time we have to read because there is some much out there we feel we’re missing, but we all had something to contribute. So what did we talk about? We talked about the upcoming FenCon next weekend. FenCon is a speculative fiction literary conference in Addison. They have guest authors, artists and musicians along with writing instructors, gather for a weekend of learning and fun. I go for the fun part, others go to hone their writing skills and others go for costuming or the musical performances. A group of us will get rooms in the hotel even though it’s local and spend a weekend of intensive fun — being away from our jobs…

Believe it or not summer is almost over and that means last chance for summer VACATIONS! Okay, maybe just a mini vacation or even a short weekend away from the heat but it’s the state of mind that’s important here, so let Fresh Fiction authors and friends help you! We’ve got the best contests with all kinds of goodies to enable even the worst procrastinators to get ready to end the summer in style! Most of these contests end on August 30th so don’t delay and enter today! Nonstop Maximum Momentum with the Colby Agency Heat up, then cool off with Karen Ranney Win an autographed copy of FORGET ME NOT from Vicki Hinze. Ken Shoulda Been A Viking Cool off this August with BRIGHTON BLING AND A BABY CONTEST from Charlene Sands! Win a copy of Marilyn Brant’s ACCORDING TO JANE and some specialty JANE AUSTEN notecards! Experience Bollywood this Summer Linda Conrad wants you ready for the Dog Days of August by becoming a covert agent! Come Down the Shore and celebrate the upcoming release of STRONGER THAN SIN! Beat the Heat with THE QUICK AND THE THREAD Beat the Heat with Sharon Ashwood’s August Contest Celebrate the…

Geez, it’s August in Texas and in our part it’s been over 100 degrees since sometime in July. If I was feeling crazy, I’d actually track it, but trust me on this one, I’d prefer not to know how long it’s been this hot! And the news keeps coming…migraines go up some kind of percent for every degree over 100° like that is information I wasn’t already aware of! So, the bottom line is, it’s hot, stay out of the mid day sun, do the best you can to stay civilized. Well, for me that means, catch up on a little reading. I got two great books this week: THE RED QUEEN by Philippa Gregory and NEMESIS by Lindsey Davis. A little secret, I know you love those, but I feel in love with Falco when I saw an old Saturday movie with Bryan Brown. I know Ms. Davis loathes that movie, apparently took lots of liberties with her books but it introduced me to Marcus Didius Falco and I went out and bought EVERY SINGLE book I could find in the series, even spent an obscene amount of money on out-of-print editions and then bought them from the UK…

We submitted a panel suggestion for the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) where over 20,000 people gather to discuss the latest in Film and Interactive (the music part is a few thousand more). This gathering helps to fuel what you’ll see on your smartphones, web browsers and other devices in the coming year. So it’s a GOOD thing to attend the festival and even better to be in the program! And so, I proposed “Book Blogs, Better Than NYT Books Reviews” a panel of top book bloggers along with Fresh Fiction to discuss the changes in where we find book reviews. And they accepted it. Now, here’s how it works. The public (that would be YOU) gets to vote on the panel. So even if you have NO intention of going to SXSW, your voice can be heard. VOTE FOR PANEL Yes, it’s part popularity contest, but it’s also geared to show the appeal of the panel, so here’s the scoop… I need thousands of votes, even if you don’t ever plan on going to South by Southwest, or care about it, or are totally confused, you can still vote for Fresh Fiction. It’s easy to do, just…