When I first set out to write this series – Band on the Run – this was not quite the way I had it planned.  It was going to be a trilogy, but unrelated. For those of you who know me, I’m kind of known more for my family sagas, but the chance to write something a little different fed my creativity in a way that nothing had in a while.  So how did we end up here? After much discussion, it was decided that the music trilogy would be an off-shoot of my Shaughnessy Brothers series. Why? Because Riley Shaughnessy is a rock star whose band is on hiatus. 😊 CUE THE INSPIRATION!! And so the series now had it’s players and its foundation and I have to say, I have loved every minute of it. You see, music plays a large part in my life. I’m married to a drummer. My older son was in a band.  Overall, we are a family who LOVES music, so the thought of writing books set in the music world fascinated me. BUT…I was going to take a different approach to writing about a rock band. I wasn’t writing about life on…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Erin Nicholas. Writes:  Playfully sexy, fun and flirty contemporary romance with heroes who are laid-back, dirty-talking charmers, heroines who know exactly how to handle them (and wrap them around their little fingers), and secondary characters that often threaten to steal the scene. Going Down Easy is the first of a hot new series set in New Orleans and will be melting e-readers on August 28th. About: Hopeless romantic who uses naughty words (in her writing and real life) seeking other avid readers who are okay with that and who love a dirty-talking hero with a sexy, southern drawl and a panty-melting grin and who want to see him fall absolutely head over heels for a woman who   …well, also loves all of that but has some pretty high walls for him to bring down before she’ll let him too close. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Someone who finds single dads especially sexy. Someone who has had, or is atleast willing…

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying Dial Emmy for Murder. If you haven’t picked it up yet, I certainly hope you do and give it a read! It’s the perfect summer getaway! I thought that the best subject for me to blog about would be my writing “process”. It’s multi faceted actually because I have a writing partner and we certainly have our own process, and I write about the Soap Opera world and that is another process. And I have my own personal process of getting words down on paper! The first part of my process involves my writing partner, Robert Randisi who lives in Missouri and we write vis a vis email. I have come up with the basic premise for all three books and have written the first few chapters for all three, as well. I’ll email those to Bob and he takes it from there, usually writing the next few chapters and emailing them back to me. I’ll rewrite and/or change whatever he sends me and send them back to him. We usually do this for the entire book until we are finished. One interesting dilemma is Bob doesn’t like to map out the…

I’m thrilled that on Tuesday, March 3, one of my favorite books will re-release in trade paperback: BOUND AND DETERMINED. Let me give you the 411…then a little story to go along with it.Berkley HEATISBN-10: 0425226905ISBN-13: 978-0425226902Genre: Sexy Contemporary RomanceRe-release Date: March 3, 2009 WANTED FOR KIDNAPPING: A bubbly blonde with a penchant for trouble. May be armed (with good intentions) and dangerously seductive…Kerry Sullivan is running out of time-and patience. With her brother wrongfully accused of embezzling millions, she can’t face one more humiliating hang-up from the man she’s begging for help. Rafael Dawson may be one of the top electronic security experts in the country — and the only man who can prove her brother’s innocence — but his phone manners are appalling. Damn Yankee. Too bad kidnapping the man isn’t an option. Or is it? Click here to read the rest. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Excerpt From Invisible: “No TV. Sleep Hagen,” she advised. She felt like she was talking to a five year old. “You tired?” Blond eyebrows raised. Yeah, of listening to you. “If we’re to do this, we’ll need all the extra hours we can get.” There was no use of her going if they didn’t find the deed. That gave him pause. “We have fourteen business days, Maeve.” “Eighteen days in total.” He didn’t understand. “And we’ll need every single hour in those eighteen days.” “Every single hour? You think it’s going to be that tough?” His thick thigh rested against hers. Maeve couldn’t move any further away. “Yeah.” Tough wasn’t the word for it. Birger would have them running. “You’ll be there for the entire time?” Maeve didn’t commit to anything halfway. It was all or nothing. “Yeah.” “You don’t talk much, do you, Maeve?” And he talked way too much. What was his point? “Sleep.” *******Whew, makes me tired simply reading about Maeve and Hagen’s adventures! In my latest contemporary romance, Invisible, Hagen,has fourteen business days to find the deed to his Great-Uncle’s house. If he doesn’t succeed, he loses the estate to his devious cousin. Fourteen business days,…

Hi! I’m Christie Ridgway, the author of Unravel Me, a sexy contemporary romance (find info and an excerpt at www.christieridgway.com) and tireless reader of romance novels. I was reading a delicious historical last week and in it the hero and heroine were forced by rain to seek a room at an inn. Guess just how many rooms were available? You know, right? It was one. Just the one room which forced these two who are battling their attraction into even closer proximity. Sure it was a convenient tool for the author. A contrivance. At best we could say it was a coincidence that the stars of the book just happened upon this particular inn that only had a single room to rent. But I didn’t care! As a lover of romance novels, I understand that every turn of fortune like this serves to make the tension tighter, the characters’ emotions more turbulent, the reader-enjoyment just that much deeper. One room at the inn, I read, and then I smiled to myself and wiggled into my comfy chair, prepared to be entertained by what all that means. It’s not so different from a football game, I’m realizing (I say this as…

It’s time for a confession. For years now, I’ve harbored a secret addiction. I’m not talking about my addiction to books. For writers, a book fetish simply goes with the territory. Right now, my nightstand is piled so high with books that if the stack toppled and fell on my foot, I’d end up with several broken toes. You understand what I’m talking about. Probably your nightstand is in the same condition. If not, you wouldn’t spend your time reading Fresh Fiction blogs, would you? No, the addiction I’m talking about is much more personal and insidious. Until recently, I’ve been in denial but the time has come to face the truth. I’m addicted – to fabric. I’m a quilter, Dear Reader, and I’ve got it bad. My home in New England is loaded with quilt shops and I can’t bypass any of them. There is a particular store in the wilds of New Hampshire that I been known to drive three hours out of my way to visit. Not three hours round trip – I’m talking three hours each way! Imagine how that went over with my kids, who thought they were just taking a little drive to see…

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…

Whenever I give readings, the first question I am always asked is, “Where do you get your inspiration?” I think this is a wonderful question, and when I interview artists across all mediums, for the various magazine articles I write, I always ask them the very same thing. The truth is, at least to me, and to those many artists I’ve questioned, is that inspiration comes in so many ways—some very simple, some more complex and obtuse—and that what ‘does it’ for one, doesn’t necessarily ‘do it’ for all. Inspiration can come to us through travel, through a newspaper article, via a particularly intriguing conversation, or even through sitting in the yard, watching the sun go down. To me, the individual’s ability to uniquely filter these experiences, and filter them into something beautiful, rich, something only their imagination can run wild with, and turning that into a living, breathing work of fiction, a painting, or even a piece of furniture, is truly magic. So, here I reveal some of the inspirations behind my own books. I’d love to hear about what inspires you. I’d like to start in the most general sense, with music. I listen to music constantly, especially…

Have you ever read a really great book and asked yourself, “How’d she come up with that fantastic idea?” I know I have. Which is why I thought it’d be fun to ask myself the same question. Here goes: TAKE ME (in which a full-figured heroine gets the guy in Italy): I had a dream about a woman who had lusted after a guy her whole life, but he’d never noticed her. And then one day, the tables turned completely, and he had to chase her. Once he caught her, while in a very passionate embrace, he said, “You’re mine, all mine.” MINE, ALL MINE was the working title of the book – and the title I sold with. The dream gave me the theme. From there I had to figure out characters and plot. TEMPT ME, TASTE ME, TOUCH ME (three women on a road trip to the Wine Country find love with three local men): I had just finished watching the move “Sideways” with my husband when I turned to him and said, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to flip that movie on its ear and make it a girl’s road trip through the wine country instead?” RED HOT…