Hi, Elia! Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Please introduce yourself and tell us about your new book, HAIRPIN CURVES. Thanks for having me! HAIRPIN CURVES is a frenemies-to-lovers road trip romance. Megan and Scarlett used to be best friends, but a falling-out after high school has kept them apart for the last seven years, and now they’re headed to Quebec on a road trip for a mutual friend’s wedding. Along the way, they of course discover a lot about each other and themselves.  There’s something so fun about a road trip romance! Have you ever gone on an epic road trip like Megan and Scarlett? Definitely. I grew up doing road trips, because my family had moved to Florida and left most of our extended family in Massachusetts. My parents didn’t fly, so we drove. We did more than the FL-to-MA trip, too: Jonesborough, Tennessee for the National Storytelling Festival; Parris Island, South Carolina for my brother’s Marine Corps graduation; St. Louis, Missouri to visit my sister, etc. As an adult, I’ve continued the road trip tradition, although I don’t have any aversion to flying (when it’s not a pandemic). My husband and I have driven to Quebec a number of…

Like many writers, I’ve always been a reader. There’s a special place in my heart for literature, whether classic or modern: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, the list goes on. I’m pursuing a Master’s degree in Literature; I teach high school English; I’ve loaded my ereader with every classic available from Project Gutenberg. Many people are surprised, then, to learn that I write erotic romance. When I tell them, there’s a moment of hesitation, a slow blink, maybe a stammer. How can I, a well-educated lover of literature and a professional in my field, read and write those kind of books? It’s difficult for them to reconcile their conflicting stereotypes. To be honest, I love that reaction. I love catching people off-guard and making them question all their preconceived notions about who reads and writes romance, especially erotic romance. Most of all, I love my genre. Erotic romance combines the best of two categories. Erotica has all the hot sex a person could want, described in toe-curling titillating detail. Romance has the guaranteed happy ending; those two characters are going to fall in love. Putting them together creates erotic romance: a character’s sexual journey leading…