Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present CARLY PHILLIPS!   Writes: Carly Phillips writes sexy, stand-alone romances, usually about siblings with lots of family drama, fun and heat. Her heroes are alphas – they’ve been called alphalicious, in fact – and make the perfect book boyfriend. Her heroines are strong and smart with flaws and weaknesses we can all relate to. They are never too stupid to live, no matter what situation they find themselves in and in a Carly Phillips book you’ll always find steamy scenes and the happily-ever-after that is a must in romance. JUST ANOTHER SPARK is a stand-alone short story about my rockstar hero, Dash Kingston and his wife, Cassidy. Despite having told their story in JUST ONE SPARK, you can read their short, sexy story and still be able to follow characters and be tempted to go back and read the other books in the series!   About: Carly Phillips is a NY Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author. She has been writing…

It’s that time again, VALENTINE’S DAY!  I’m so honored to once again be Fresh Fiction’s special Valentine’s Blogger.  This year I thought I’d talk about what Valentine’s Day means to me.  Thanks to the commercials on television, on the radio, on the Internet, in our email boxes, you couldn’t forget the holiday if you wanted to!  Forget about the commercialization of the holiday.  Instead I’d like to break it down to it’s most basic premise – LOVE. For me, Valentine’s Day is about telling the people you care about how you feel about them.  Valentine’s Day can be and should be celebrated no matter what your “relationship status” is.  For the last few years, I’ve treated Valentine’s Day as a day about love.  I love my family.  So I go onto Kodak Gallery, pull out a few favorite photos and create a photo card and send to my family – my parents, my kids, my husband, my inlaws, brother and sister in laws, etc.  Occasionally I send to my friends if the mood strikes me.  Why? Because I care about them and I want to share my life and my feelings with them.  I also want to give them a…

I’m so happy to be back at Fresh Fiction for what has become my annual Valentine’s Day blog. This year, after listening to some comments on my Plotmonkeys Blog I realized more people than I would have thought were “done” with Valentine’s Day. From the comments, I gathered much of this “Ugh it’s just another day” theme comes from the commercialization of the holiday. And of the notion that if you’re really in love, you shouldn’t have to make a big show of that love on one stated day a year. To that I say, WHY NOT? Sure, my husband and I say “I love you” many many times during the year, but I confess to being a romantic at heart. Hey, I write Romance. What can I say? I LOVE the idea of being showered by hearts and flowers and cards (even if said cards have become WAY to expensive, but so has everything else in the world!) I like to know I matter! Now that said, I have a hubby who is not Mr. Romantic and as a result I’ve learned to work around this problem. And it’s a problem for all holidays, not just Valentine’s Day. He’ll…

I love to read and write contemporaries. I love to talk to others who read contemporaries and gauge what they have to say about current books and authors. Recently I got to thinking about the books I’ve written. The Hot Zone – Sports HeroesThe Chandler Brothers– Brothers and their mother who wants grandchildrenThe Costas Sisters– polar opposite twin sisters with an Atlantic City con familyTy and Hunter– 3 best friends, separated by a deep dark secretThe many Temptations I’ve written over the yearsTHE LUCKY SERIES – 3 sexy male cousin plagued by a family curse. I don’t want anyone to think the word “curse” means the LUCKY series is a twist on what I write. Let me be clear. The LUCKY Series is NOT a paranormal series. It doesn’t pretend to be. What the Lucky series does, finishing up with LUCKY BREAK in stores tomorrow, is to touch on the notion that a curse can actually be many things from a streak of bad luck to a self fulfilling prophecy-and how an affected family and those who love them suffer in the process. The newest generation of Corwin men want to find love and break the curse&mdash:but they don’t know…

Everybody fantasizes about going to Las Vegas and winning big. And certainly, we’ve all seen the “Whatever Happens …” TV commercials and secretly wished we were experiencing the spontaneity and frenzy of Sin City shown in these ads. Excitement and luck run rampant there. Everywhere you turn, someone or something is beckoning to you to try your LUCK! Mike Corwin, the second Corwin cousin heads to the gambling capital for just such an experience, but will the infamous Corwin Curse that has plagued the males in his family for generations follow him? Or will he end up on a lucky streak that lasts a lifetime? This is the premise of my newest novel and the second book in my “Lucky” series, LUCKY STREAK. And sometimes, thankfully, luck pays off for me! I definitely don’t like to presume good things will happen, I like to hope. I’m afraid of jinxing something. Can you really do that? I rarely tempt fate. But it’s an interesting concept, isn’t it? Luck? LUCK is fickle. And yet many of us believe. When I ask myself why, I realize it’s because of HOPE. It’s the possibility that Lady Luck will step in and pick us up…

Today is my favorite day of the year. Forget the hype. Forget the sensationalism. Forget the commercialism and the chocolate, the roses and gifts. Valentine’s Day is special to me because it symbolizes what I write about all year. LOVE. Do you want to know the best thing about LOVE? It’s given freely. It doesn’t cost a penny. Click here to read the rest of the blog. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

I don’t have my own good luck charm, per se, but I do operate on the presumption of superstition in some ways. And sometimes, thankfully, luck pays off for me! I definitely don’t like to presume good things will happen, I like to hope. I’m afraid of jinxing something. Can you really do that? I rarely tempt fate. But it’s an interesting concept, isn’t it? Luck? LUCK is fickle. And yet many of us believe. When I ask myself why, I realize it’s because of HOPE. It’s the possibility that Lady Luck will step in and pick us up that provides a ray of hope. LUCK causes us to play the lottery, pick up a heads up penny, read fortune cookies, and many more crazy, superstitious things. It was the concept of LUCK that drove the idea for my new LUCKY series, starting with LUCKY CHARM. Fortune hasn’t been so kind, however, to the men in the Corwin family. And Derek Corwin is the latest to cross her path. Long ago, as revenge on a Corwin who stole her son’s fiancée, a witch proclaimed an eternal curse that every Corwin male who married for love would be destined to lose…

It’s Valentine’s Day so of course the subject of the day is Romance. What is romance? Is it the perfect gift? The bouquet of flowers? The huge heart shaped box of candy? Or is it the little blue velvet (or whatever) color jewelry box from your favorite store? Seriously sappy cards? Or humorous fun ones? Before I answer or at least give my opinion, I admit to loving all of these things. I’ve been married almost 19 years and my heart still does a little leap when the florist comes. Honestly, my husband isn’t a “true romantic” and that’s okay. As long as there’s a way he remembers important dates, I’m happy.I think too much emphasis is placed on Valentine’s Day and even birthdays etc. A lot of men just aren’t wired to be romantic. Even if you’ve tried to retrain them, they just don’t think that way. Although how they can miss the T.V. commercials and radio ads is beyond me. Still, if they value you and have their own way of showing it, that should be enough. For me, I don’t need the big fancy gift or the flowers (although it’s nice when I get them.) We’re usually…

I started writing family stories. Seriously. I thought I would sell to Silhouette Special Edition and I tried. Boy did I try … but it wasn’t meant to be. Seven years, ten manuscripts, I caught on. Shorter contemporary seemed to be my style. In 1998 I sold to Harlequin Temptation/Heat and in 1999 BRAZEN was published. I wrote category for two years before segueing into single title contemporary with THE BACHELOR, THE PLAYBOY and THE HEARTBREAKER. Since then, all my trilogy or linked books have been light and fun – until CROSS MY HEART and SEALED WITH A KISS. In those books, I took a turn back to family mixed with drama and less lightness … it’s been a good break. A fun break. It seemed right when CROSS MY HEART was in hardcover to try something different. But I listen to my readers and I know they want more of my lighter books, more often. SO A NEW YEAR IS COMING – and in 2008, I’ve decided to return to the light books that my readers love, all in PAPERBACK. I know that for everyone’s wallet, this is a good thing. I know that as a reader, as much…