Hi! I’m Alexa Aston, author of the small-town contemporary romance series Sugar Springs. I’m visiting Fresh Fiction today to spotlight the fourth romance in this series, A FRESH START, and eager to share a bit about this love story with you.   Dr. Hope Keller is ready to make a fresh start after two events upend her life. She leaves Houston for the opportunity to live and work in Sugar Springs, a small town in East Texas. Gideon Ross has returned to his hometown to take over as its police chief. Divorced for ten years, he is ready to serve his community. Finding love is the last thing on his mind!   A is for anxious. Hope arrives in Sugar Springs with a secret, having changed her name after being stalked by a man whose dog she helped.   F is for focused. Both Hope and Gideon are focused on their careers. She’s a practicing veterinarian, but she’ll actually own her own clinic now. Gideon will be in charge of the Sugar Springs Police Department, and the responsibility weighs heavily upon him. R is for resilient. Hope has been through an emotional roller coaster, but she is a strong woman, ready to…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LEARNING TO TRUST AGAIN, Book 2 in my small-town contemporary romance series Sugar Springs. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Will Walker and Rory begin life in wedded bliss—or will someone from Rory’s past spell doom for their relationship? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I’m a native Dallasite and have many relatives from East Texas. I set my first contemporary romance series (Hollywood Name Game) in Hollywood because I’m a movie buff. I was inspired by a trip to the Oregon coast to set my second contemporary series there (Maple Cove). For this new series, I created the small town of Sugar Springs. It was a delight to add a Texan flair to my writing as I built this small town from scratch, adding friends and couples. Each of my contemporary series is about creating a chosen family from a group of friends. I think Sugar Springs captures the essence of that idea, along with what life in a small town in East Texas is like. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Definitely! Rory is a high school history…

Readers often ask me what inspires the romances I write. Sometimes, I draw from a certain historical event for my historical romances. Other times, I take things that motivate my characters, weaving in their goals, and that anchors a story’s plot and conflict. For my current Maple Cove small-town contemporary series, I drew inspiration from my trip to the Oregon coast last summer. I stayed in Seaside, where practically everyone in town goes down to the beach each night to watch the spectacular sunsets. We did day trips to nearby coastal towns such as Cannon Beach, where we saw the famous Haystack Rock, and Ecola Beach State Park, where we hiked near the Cape Meares lighthouse. A huge hit was our tour of Tillamook Creamery, where we saw various cheeses being produced and ate grilled cheese sandwiches & ice cream at the end.     I enjoyed the laidback feel and the rugged beauty of the Oregon coast and decided to create my own town there. In my research, I discovered five trees grow well along the coast and surrounding towns, one of them being the Oregon (or bigleaf) maple. I’d also seen several coves as we walked along various…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LEAVE YESTERDAY BEHIND 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A popular actress at a turning point in her career. A professional athlete forging a new path as a fiction writer. And a serial killer interested in seeing both of them dead . . . 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? My heroine is an actress who shoots her TV show in New York City. I wanted a bulk of the action to take place far away from that world, especially since she has gone through a traumatic experience and needs time to heal. I decided to take her back to her childhood home of Aurora, a small town just outside of New Orleans. She would feel safe there, staying with her great-aunt and being around friends she trusts. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? AB-solutely! Callie is fun, feisty, and loyal. She would always tell me the truth and have my back. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? I would say HOT, HOT, HOT—but I’m sure you want something a little more descriptive than that! Let’s go with…

As a former history teacher, I enjoy the research aspect when plotting and writing my Regency, Medieval, & Western historical romances. I have researched topics such as falconry, herbs, archery, the waltz, dime novels, food, and clothing of the various eras I write in. I can tell you the correct way to address a duke and the different positions men rode driving cattle to market. My recent Lawmen of the West series made for uncovering some fascinating facts, though! For Ballad Beauty, I visited the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Museum in Waco, Texas (after a stop at Magnolia Bakery, of course). I viewed different kinds of weapons and uniforms on display and recorded the oath each potential Ranger took. I also researched Irish ballads for this romance, as the heroine was tracking a treasure her Irish father had hidden. He provided clues to its location using songs he sang to her as a child. Blind Faith had me studying bullet wounds and blindness, which my US marshal suffered during a mission to rescue a kidnapped senator and his son, while I delved into 19th-century painting since my heroine was a landscape artist. I like to think she was just…