‘Tis the season for family, friends, and fun traditions. If you’re like me, you’ve got some that have lasted since childhood and others that morph every year. This time of year can be frantic and sometimes overwhelming, but I always love it. For me, the season starts at the beginning of December with a newer tradition: high tea surrounded by Christmas lights. Each year, I do it twice: once with a group of friends I’ve (mostly) known since elementary school, then again with my fiancé. Then, the season kicks into high gear with a long-time favorite: holiday shopping for my family. Next up is a newer one: tree and ornament shopping with myfiancé. The way that tradition is going, I’m going to have to buy a bigger tree each year to hold all of the ornaments! Next up are a few traditions that you might expect for a suspense and romantic suspense writer. First is something I do with my critique partner: the annual watching of our favorite holiday movie: DIE HARD (yes, it’s a holiday movie!). Then is a newer tradition – since I sold my first novels in 2012, I’ve either had a book due in December or…

At every new book launch, certain questions pop up again and again: “Where do you get your ideas?” “What’s the process of writing a book?” It’s different for every writer, and while my process has evolved some over the years, fundamentally it’s stayed the same through ten published novels: The Big Idea: For me, every book begins with a big idea, something that gets me excited. Usually, it comes in the form of “What if…” In STALKED, my latest psychological suspense, it was “What if a teenager disappeared, leaving behind a note that said if anyone was reading it, she was already dead?” That first idea bloomed into more questions: “Was she really dead? Why would she leave a note like that instead of trying to get help before she disappeared? Was it really the teenager who left the note, or someone else?” The big idea stage can take a while: I may discard a lot of ideas before I find one that both excites me enough as a hook (something compelling enough to intrigue a reader to want more) and has enough depth and possibility to it to sustain an entire novel (100,000 words!). Once I’ve settled on that…

Many people ask me where I get my ideas for my books. Sometimes, there’s no other answer except that inspiration falls into my lap like a star falls from the sky. For example, on the night that I got “the call” from my agent that my first book, SIMPLE WISHES, would be published, I couldn’t fall asleep. I sat on the couch in my little apartment, and since there was nothing to do, I just turned on the television and vegged out until the wee hours. As I was watching the Discovery channel, a show came on about meteorite hunters—folks who collect and then sell meteorites. It was like I got struck by lightning. I knew then and there that the hero in my next book would be a hunter of meteorites. I’ve always had a thing for nerd guys. The end result was that in my new book, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, which comes out in late October, the hero is a sexy, science geek type. The book is about two sisters who own a wildflower farm in Vermont. Lana Biel longs to leave Vermont so she can travel and see the world. And her sister Karin wants nothing…

I love being a writer. At least, most of the time. But occasionally there are days like today, when the words won’t come and everything I do manage to get on the page sounds like it was produced by an illiterate nine-year-old. Today my love for writing seems very far away. I begin to dream of other occupations. More rewarding ones. I become convinced that there has to be an easier way to make a living. So that train of thought takes over and distracts me from the cursor blinking so accusingly on the nearly blank page. Mentally I run through a list of possible job prospects. Maybe I can be a grocery store clerk. Nothing to think about except ringing up bananas and milk. Then I consider the fact that they’re on their feet all day. I’m stretched out on my chaise lounge with my laptop on my lap and a Diet Coke within reach. Cross grocery store clerk off my list. It might be interesting to run a dress shop, I muse, trying to avoid looking at that cursor. Is it possible for it to look smug? I could work with pretty clothes all day, and those employee…

Some people fear spiders. For others, it takes rats or scorpions or snakes to really rev up the old goose bumps. For me, it’s alligators. American alligators, in particular those big brutes lurking the lakes and bayous near the Texas-Louisiana border. I’m fascinated by the creatures, which seem like something left over from the pre-human prehistoric past (which indeed, they are). While researching my latest romantic thriller, Beneath Bone Lake, I learned some fascinating facts about alligators. For one thing, their eyeballs always orient themselves so the slit-like pupil is vertical, even when the animal is rolling to drown its intended prey. Creepy, huh? In Texas, some are up to 16 feet long, and they more and more frequently wander into the human realm, from golf course ponds to backyard pools (yikes!) But in spite of their reptilian indifference to our charms and their nasty eating habits, I learned that at least in this state (I’m still talking Texas), there has never been a recorded case of human predation by an alligator. (There have been some injuries, many provoked by human idiocy, but basically, if you keep a respectful distance and use your head, you’re off the menu.) Click to…

Believe it or not summer is upon us and that means VACATIONS! Okay, maybe just a mini vacation or even a short weekend away from work 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 hit the beach or run off to a summer vacation! Most of these contests end on June 14th so don’t delay and enter today! More Vacation Planning Do you have BIG plans for this summer? Or maybe a series of little mini-vacations? Or are you using the time to “redo” your life? Share with us and someone will win a $25 Amazon gift certificate to help ya! Tell us your favorite summer recipe, or perhaps your vacation plans, or even memories of school rattling in head what you did last summer! And help your fellow readers, tell us your reading list for the summer! We’re all curious. Beach and Vacation Totes contestsVacation Stories and Reading Lists Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

The Heroes of Touch a Dark Wolf, Lure of the Wolf, Kiss of Darkness, and Bride of the Wolf by Jennifer St. Giles. Looking over the four scowling, muscled men surrounding me at the picnic-style table, it seemed to me that their drop-dead sex appeal sucked all of the air from the ranger camp’s dining hall. I fought for a deep breath, started the recorder, and delved right into the interview. The sooner they realized I wasn’t here to steal something sacred from them like their sword or the TV remote, the better off I would be. Provided I could lie that well. The truth was I would have stolen any moment I could in a dark corner. It was my first assignment for Cosmos PQ and I’d felt like a lamb coming into a den of lions when I walked in the door, but now that I’d met them…well that was changing. Jared and Navarre were warriors from the spirit world and Sheriff Sam Sheridan along with Deputy Nick Sinclair were humans from Twilight’s Sheriff’s Department. Before today my closest encounter with the paranormal was hot romance novels, but I had an open mind and always believed where there…

I’d imagine that I’m like a lot of readers in that I love the way that fiction transports me to different times and places…to different worlds where the laws of physics and nature need not apply or where the laws of “good society” do. Regency England and the Scottish Highlands. Sunnydale and Salem. Hogwarts, Narnia, and Middle Earth… When I began the Southern Witch series, I knew that I wanted a small town setting with eccentric, charming characters, but I also realized that since the series contains magic, I could incorporate other elements. Here’s a brief exchange from Book 1 between Tammy Jo Trask, small-town girl and Would-Be Witch, with the family ghost, Edie: * * * Click here to read the rest of the blog and enter for a chance to win a copy of WOULD-BE WITCH. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

First of all, thank you, thank you to Fresh Fiction for hosting me here today. I love visiting this site for scoop on all the latest romance novels by my favorite authors, so I’m thrilled to be blogging here on the release day for BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HEART PLACE, the third book in my series of funny paranormal romances.As you’d guess almost immediately upon reading the back cover blurb for this story, my heroine Daphne Forbes receives a truly unwelcome gift: renegade puca powers. Oh. Well, that explains everything. Or maybe not? A puca is actually a fantastical character derived from Celtic and British mythologies. In some traditions, the puca is a shape-shifting trickster who preys on travelers; half faery and half human, the creature has a distinctly mischievous, even malicious bent. Does my version of the puca accurately reflect all the mythological accounts? Some of them. Others I cheerfully warped and expanded to suit my own needs. The pucas in my stories have three specific powers: mindspeak (mind-to-mind communication), glamour (creating illusion/molding the thoughts of humans), and shape-shifting. Click to read the rest and enter Natale’s blog contest. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

“The decision to become a courtesan is not to be made lightly. A woman must be willing to make her own choices . . . and pay for them.” “–from the memoirs of Mlle. Blanche La Tour Thanks for the chance to guest blog here at FreshFiction. For those of you who’ve been following my blog tour, I hope you’ll bookmark this site. FreshFiction is fabulous. When I started writing VEXING THE VISCOUNT, I wanted to play with the idea of my heroine masquerading as a courtesan. But I knew Daisy Drake wouldn’t be convincing unless she had some inside information, so I allowed her to discover the memoirs of Blanche La Tour, a French “woman of pleasure.” Which meant I needed to research the life of an 18th century courtesan. Here’s a little of what I discovered: Move over, Britney! Eat your heart out, Paris! Courtesans were the original prey of the paparazzi. These darlings of the London tabloids provided the cartoonists of their day with juicy on dits and outrageous exploits to lampoon. Top-tier ‘birds of paradise’ demanded and received generous stipends, clothing allowances, jewels, houses, a box at the opera and endless diversions from their well-placed protectors….