Have you ever wanted more from a series? Wanted to know more about the characters and how their world came into being or maybe you wanted to visit the setting and walk around a bit, enjoying the literary places you’d visited before. Those thoughts are what lead me to write STAR-CROSSED DRAGONS. It’s a love story about two Dragons from different social classes and clans that fall in love. These Dragons, Sara and Ian, are the main character’s parents from the Going Down In Flames series. In the Going Down In Flames series, I mentioned that Bryn’s parents ran away from a secret society of shape-shifting Dragons to escape arranged marriages. Honestly, I didn’t give much thought to how that happened. When I sat down to write her parents’ story, I realized I needed to reread the whole series to make sure I kept my facts straight. You’d think as the author I’d remember all the details, and I do remember most of what happened to the main character and her friends but remembering the information about the side characters was a bit more difficult. Once I had my ducks or dragons in a row, I wrote characters I really liked…

1–What is the title of your latest release? The Afterlife of the Party, out Feb. 2 with Entangled Teen 2–What is it about? The Afterlife of the Party is the first book in a teen vampire trilogy. Tansy’s life changes  when Tansy goes to a party with her crush/friend Vaughn and her best friend Skyler. Shed ends up on the road with Vaughn, chasing after a vampire band called The Drainers to save Skyler from the lead singer. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s set in sunny Southern California, which is where I live, and I love the idea of vampires having to deal with all that sunshine. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  Tansy surprised me by the lengths she would go to save her friend. And when I started writing the book, I didn’t know that she had a crush on Vaughn, but then again, how could she resist him? 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Vaughn’s a cinnamon roll with a hot bod and musical talent. He’s a good friend, loyal and funny. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  You know that phrase, kill…

Thanks so much for featuring us on Fresh Fiction! We love your blog and are so excited to have the opportunity to talk about our sweet YA romance, IN THE PENALTY BOX! Before we get started on our post, don’t forget to enter the giveaway! Details are at the bottom of the post. Below we’ve shared our top five movies for Brodie and Willow’s characters. Do you have a favorite movie? If so, leave it in a comment below! Brodie’s got quite a list, and as he and Willow get to know each other, he realizes they have a few in common! Which makes her all that more irresistible. 1–Fast and Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious. I mean a sub crashing through the ice? That’s just plain rad. 2–Young Blood: Best hockey movie ever…even if it’s from a hundred years ago. 3–The Avengers – all of them. No way can I choose just one. 4–The Terminator Series: Yep, even the non-Arnold ones. 5–Elf: Who wouldn’t like a movie that has the longest belch ever recorded? Willow loves streaming movies! After tearing her Achilles tendon while figure skating, Willow had loads of rehab time, which meant hours on end…

I set CROWN OF BONES in a fantasy world where Bone Throwers decide every child’s fate, determining if they are savant, those who can raise their phantom, non-savant, those who cannot, or marred, those who are sacrificed to the sea. It’s epic in scope yet written with a contemporary YA voice and feel. In the pages, you will quickly meet the three main characters: Marcus, the troubled Heir to the throne, Ash, his best friend, the non-savant wordsmith, and Kaylin, an enigma I cannot say more of yet. What I can reveal is that I am, in truth, a Bone Thrower, and those fight scenes are authentic as well, choreographed from my experience in Iaido and the insights from my martial arts trained son. I hope you enjoy the danger, romance and adventure! * C is for Contrast, the play of opposites attracting each other, night and day, land and sea, sun and moon, right and wrong… Ash and Kaylin. R is for Rapture. The passion and intensity the characters feel, whether for each other, their goals or a long-awaited first kiss, forms a powerful current the readers will ride from beginning to end. O is for Outspokenness, a quality…

TO WHATEVER END is a contemporary love story with a small paranormal twist: What happens when you’ve found the one only for the future to show he dies in your arms? Quinn Easterly is cursed. With one touch, she can see the end to someone’s life. Everyday deaths, and ones that haunt her in her daydreams. Ones that have always proven impossible to prevent. She has finally learned to go about life as usual until she meets Griffin. With one touch, she sees a death she simply cannot ignore. Not this time. Not when, dying in her arms, he whispers three simple words that change everything. Even if Quinn can’t change the future, can’t save him, she at least has to try. Even if it means taking the bullet meant for him. T is for time: something that is quickly running out for Griffin and Quinn. O is for Ohio: the story is set in Dayton, Ohio. * W is for who: who’s behind Griffin’s fated death? H is for how: how will Quinn break her unbreakable family curse? A is for arrows: on a whimsical outing, Griffin has Quinn draw chalk arrows on the sidewalk, leading to… (You’ll have…

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 Jerri Chisholm! ESCAPING ELEVEN: Eve Hamilton has learned to survive the cruelty of Compound Eleven life by becoming a fighter. But her latest match is different. Her opponent is a mysterious boy from an elite section of the compound. And there’s something about him that says he could be her salvation…or her undoing. Because she’s no longer content to just survive in Eleven. She’s ready to fight for her freedom, and this boy may just be the edge she’s been waiting on. About: Fitness-loving badass with a keen sense of justice looking for readers with a similar passion for upending the status quo, pursuing freedom, and—yeah—punching things. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Must have an innate sense of right and wrong Must be willing to break rules Must believe in equality Adrenalin-junkies preferred What to expect if we’re compatible: High stakes and a fast-moving plot Forbidden romance that gives you all the feelings An emotional rollercoaster – buckle-up! An author that loves to interact…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? SEND ME THEIR SOULS! 2–What is it about? Zera, a Heartless who can’t die, races to save the world from an incursion of mythical wyrms with her love Prince Lucien and her friends by her side. 3–What word best describes your heroine? Sassy, for sure. 4–What makes your hero irresistible? Lucien is kind, caring, and fiercely devoted to protecting those he loves! 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? Zera really hates asking for help, but in this book she’s finally learned to accept it from Lucien and her friends. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book? Arathess is just such a cool fantasy world – floating witch-cities, subterranean cities made of gems, a library made out of a hollowed-out volcano! 7–Are you a plotter (follow an outline) or a pantster (write by the seat of your pants)? I’m absolutely a pantser! Plotting bores me and makes me feel like I’ve already written the book – a dangerous pitfall! 8–What is an ideal writing day for you? A quiet one, with lots of tea and pastries. 9–Do you listen to music while you write,…

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 Pintip Dunn!  Writes: DATING MAKES PERFECT is an #ownvoices Thai YA rom-com that includes heartwarming family dynamics, fake dating, and an enemies-to-lovers romance. The Tech girls have never been allowed to date in high school. But when Winnie’s college-aged sisters declare that they won’t marry for 30 years –not until they’ve had lots of practice dating, their parents decide that their youngest daughter, Winnie, must date in high school in order to gain the necessary relationship skills. They’ll pick the boy and design the dates around classic rom-com movies. The only problem is… their first candidate is Winnie’s sworn enemy. About: First-generation Thai-American author seeks devoted reader who loves to laugh and swoon. From small-town Kansas to Harvard University and Yale Law School, I’ve lived in lots of places and have had many diverse experiences. Maybe that’s why I love writing within different genres of the YA category. I’m proud of my accomplishments (NYT bestselling author, two-time RITA® Award winner), but even prouder of my stories….

The idea of ROARING was very simple at first. I wanted to write a book in the 1920s and I had it in my head that I wanted the main character to be a singer in a speakeasy. But what gave it that special twist? What made it fantastical and not just historical? Then came the idea of using one of my favorite things ever–mythology. What if she was a siren? That monster in greek myths that lured sailors to their deaths. That’s when I realized I had a book… . . a siren in a speakeasy! Her siren song could lure patrons to her bar and keep them coming back, which is, of course, good for business. From there, I knew I wanted to weave in more monsters and create a historical world rife with the paranormal. I had ideas to use monsters like dragons, werewolves, minotaurs, krakens, gorgons, and the like. But they weren’t all from Greek mythology and I knew I needed something that tied this paranormal world together. I had to answer questions like…why were all these monsters running around in the world? What was their purpose? The more research I put into learning about these…

A question I get a lot, and I’m certain most authors and writers do, is ‘how do you manage to write novels?’. Growing up and getting into books relatively late compared to my peers, I used to ask myself that very same question. While I could imagine how people wrote movies, considering they are usually somewhere between ninety and a hundred and twenty minutes long, I couldn’t figure out how people wrote books. How did they fill hundreds of pages with words and somehow also make all of it interesting, especially to new readers, by which I don’t necessarily mean kids but rather anyone who picks up a book for the first time properly in general or after a long break? After working on my writing for a little over eight years I think I have an idea of what it takes to write a novel-length story and the four most important building blocks you’ll need. Of course, there is a lot of other smaller factors, but these are the basics. Inspiration + Creativity + Skill + Determination/Endurance Without some kind of inspiration, no skill or determination or even creativity will be quite able to help you fill out fifty…