Hi! I’m so delighted to be here today with an exclusive excerpt from ARCTIC HEAT, my newest release in the Frozen Hearts series set in Alaska. As with the other two books in the series, this one stands alone well–there’s only the briefest of mentions of the prior books’ couples and no spoilers. This is my opposites-attract, odd couple roommates, snowbound romance as a seasoned ranger finds himself paired with a newbie volunteer for the winter season where they’ll be snowed in together at a remote Alaska state park. One thing I loved about writing this one was showing the progression of them from unwilling partners to reluctant roommates to something more. For this excerpt, I wanted to show you a look at the moment when the ranger, Quill, realizes that the winter partnership with Owen, for whom he already had a bit of an awkward encounter with the night before, is inevitable. **** Quill had no hope of this thing working well for anyone, but he’d already done what he could. No sense in upsetting Hattie, who was simply trying to do her job. He saved his ire, heading to the coffee table where Owen was still fussing with…

AJ gave her a head start and slowly made his way behind her. A small amount of traffic offered him some disguise. The fact that the sun had set aided him in his effort to go unnoticed. A lift in his chest filled him with a ray of hope when Sex Kitten stayed on the road leading to Richter. Maybe he should bug off now and follow her again on another night from a different starting point. Memories of his sister’s smile kept him moving forward. AJ peered out at the nearly deserted road and eased off the gas. Sex Kitten didn’t bother with a directional when she turned on one of the last twists in the road that would take her to the school. He should just drive past. Only as the turn drew closer, he knew he couldn’t. He rounded the corner and his heart skipped several beats. No taillights. None. Not hers. Not anyone else’s. There was at least a mile between this point and the turnoff to the school. “Where the hell did you go?” he asked himself as he sped up. He made it four hundred yards before his windshield was flooded by a single…

My debut novel, YOU BELONG WITH ME, is set in the small fictional town of Heritage, Michigan. Over and over, readers have asked why did I choose to place it in a small town? What can I say–I love small towns. And the only thing better than living in a small town is writing about one. Here are my top ten reasons why I love writing about small towns: 10. Community is everywhere. Where I live now, I can go to the store, a restaurant, or to the library and never see a person I know. But when I visit my hometown, I have to plan extra time to stop and talk. 9. The town gossip chain. It may not be fun to live through but it sure is fun to write about. Everyone is in everyone else’s business. All the ‘he said’ and ‘I heard’ moments create fun additions to any story. 8. Full of people who knew your character back when. . . Much like town gossip, older friends can provide insight and sweet memories of our characters before we had the opportunity to know them. 7. Neighbors. Many of the characters in my series live in a…

For good or for ill, we live in a connected, online society. And I’m old enough to remember how nuts it was, clustered around one of the gumdrop-bright iMacs in the physics lab, Sophomore year, watching the Super Bowl commercials someone had put online. They each took about 45 years to download, but we all watched them in awe and amazement. Can you imagine? A place on the computer to watch videos? Crazy! Well, fourteen thousand cat videos later, here we are. Apart from the amusement of vines, memes, and cute kittens, the internet has brought me a very specific experience that I think many of us might share: Being in an online fandom. To me, there’s literally nothing better than finishing a book, walking out of a theater, or waiting on a season finale of a show, then going online and finding Your People. People who love the thing you love, who want to keep talking about it, engaging with it, and theorizing about it. I’ve now been involved in online fandoms and fan communities for a variety of things for over half my life, and although there’s the usual strangeness that happens whenever any group of people comes…

In Dine With Me, award-winning chef, Miller Sykes, sets out on a cross-country culinary tour with unabashed foodie, Clancy Rhodes. When Miller and Clancy first meet, Clancy’s attention is drawn to the intricate tattoos on Miller’s arms. Over the course of their trip, Miller explains that each abstract design hides a recipe of personal significance, both of which also hold significance to me. On Miller’s left arm is the recipe for bechamel sauce. Miller’s first kitchen gig is under a French chef in Martha’s Vineyard, and béchamel is one of the first sauces he learns. He becomes a master at sauces, much to the chagrin of his best friend, a chef who hilariously struggles with them. For me, béchamel is significant because it was a law school friend’s killer béchamel lasagna that spurred me on to cook more. I’d always loved to eat, but that’s when the cooking bug really hit. Bechamel Sauce INGREDIENTS 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 1/4 cups whole milk, heated Salt (to taste) Freshly ground pepper (to taste) *Extra kick: Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg + 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese PREPARATION In a saucepan, warm milk over low heat until just bubbling, then remove…

There are so many things to watch on TV, it’s hard to choose between them. But some shows have take-aways that viewers can use in their personal lives. I like shows that have positive energy and people who face tough challenges and overcome them. It leaves me feeling good, and it’s something I try to put in my writing. One of my favorite shows is America’s Got Talent. The contestants and their talents are very diverse. Many have gone through hard times, and their particular talent is often the thing that got them through adversity. The judges and audiences usually take them to their hearts and cheer them on whether they advance or get sent home. Another favorite is Dancing with the Stars. The stars face physical and emotional challenges and many–including some athletes–say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever done.  A strong camaraderie develops among the stars and their partners, and their dancing is often amazing. A third favorite is Survivor, which also tests players in many ways– their ingenuity and stamina, their survival and social skills to name a few. It’s definitely a game involving strategy and forming alliances, and players learn a lot about themselves. My fourth…

Hello there, and thanks for having me on the blog today! I’m just coming off the release week of my latest title from Entangled Teen, STUCK WITH YOU, and I’m thrilled, but exhausted. No, I’m not traveling the globe on a fantabulous book tour—in fact, I, like most authors when their books launch, spent the week doing a bit of celebrating, working my day job, and posting my butt off on social media. Almost as good as a book tour! LOL. Resting author face at the end of release week. Cropped out of the picture is a giant glass of wine. Anyway, this week got me thinking about book titles. I wonder if readers know just how many different titles a book has from the very first draft to publication? Maybe y’all do know–maybe I’m just naïve, but I always thought a book title was a book title and always the author’s choice–until my books started to get published. For example, my first YA novel, which came out in 2011, was a book about a teenaged cake decorator. The entire time I was writing that sucker, even when it sold to my publisher, it was called THE ICING ON THE…

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present NOMI SUMMERS! Writes: Sweet Contemporary Romance About the Author: Nomi Summers is a clean contemporary romance author with a flair for taming bad boy heroes readers swoon over. When she’s not dreaming up her next small-town romance, you’ll find her at the beach devouring the latest new release on her Kindle. Her other guilty pleasures include getting lost in mindless reality TV and spending far too much time talking to her dogs, as she’s convinced they understand every other word! Nomi’s living her own “happily ever after” with her loving husband and their two fur babies in Tampa Bay, Florida. However, a piece of her heart will always belong in Michigan where she’s originally from–the inspiration behind the settings in her novels. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader: Seeking lovers of small town romance, bad boy heroes, and second chances. What to expect if compatible: Swoon-worthy clean reads with hot heroes and strong heroines set in picturesque small towns you’ll…

I’ve truly enjoyed writing baseball romance. I love the combination of sports and love in any medium. This is likely why some of my favorite movies are of the sports variety. For Love of the Game, in case you hadn’t picked up on that yet, is the inspiration for my series name. As this is the third baseball romance I’ve written, I’ve spent some time researching and Googling the lingo. There are a surprising number of metaphors and idioms within baseball language that are a very recognizable part of our regular speech. For those of us who don’t actually watch baseball or pay close attention to it, it’s interesting how common some of these phrases are. Here’s a list of the top ten I feel like we use (as speakers, readers, and writers) frequently. I’ve put an asterisk next to the ones I think can be of specific use for romantic moments in a book. Grand slam* Sweet spot* Hit it out of the park Play ball Raincheck* Step up to the plate* Homerun* Play hardball First/Second/Third base* Grandstanding What do you think? Did I miss any others that are a regular part of conversations? Any you think make a…

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction! Can you tell us a little bit about your latest release, THE WONDER OF NOW?  Thanks for having me! It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the end of the Sanctuary Sound series. I’ve really enjoyed writing about these three childhood friends, the traumas they’ve survived, and the betrayals they’ve overcome. This final book was the most difficult to write because Peyton–a privileged, self-centered woman who ran off with her friend’s boyfriend–had the Mt. Everest of mountains to climb in terms of earning her redemption. But ultimately I fell in love with her story, and am extremely pleased with early reader reaction. I also think readers will enjoy traveling around Europe with her on her book tour.  Something I’ve admired in the books in the Sanctuary Sound series is each of the heroines has survived difficult hardships. THE WONDER OF NOW features Peyton Prescott, who recently survived breast cancer, but is reliving every moment of her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery promoting a memoir she really didn’t want to write in the first place. What went into creating a character readers see at her most vulnerable?  Writing the excerpts from her memoir was the most difficult…