Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Ann Marie Walker | Exclusive Interview: HAPPY SINGLES DAY
Author Guest / January 19, 2021

Hi, Ann Marie! Welcome to Fresh Fiction and congrats on the release of your new book, HAPPY SINGLES DAY. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.   Hi, and thanks for having me! As for a little bit about me, I live in Chicago, have four kids and a Morkie named Chewbacca. I love cocktails that, as my daughter said, taste like Sour Patch Kids and I would pretty much walk through fire for chocolate. Can you set up the Hashtag Holidays series for us? This is such a fun concept!  Basically, it’s a series of standalone novels that all center around those fun hashtag holidays we always see on social media. #SinglesDay, #LeapDay, and #BoyfriendDay are the ones I chose for the first three novels. I love that Paige and Lucas have such niche jobs—she’s a professional organizer and he owns a B&B. What inspired these occupation choices?   For Lucas, his occupation was dictated by the story. I needed a destination for Paige’s Singles Day vacation and what could be better than a beachfront B&B run by a Ryan Reynolds look-a-like? Except he’s become a bit of a slob since his wife passed away, which is how…

Amanda Hocking | Exclusive Interview: THE EVER AFTER
Author Guest / January 7, 2021

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Amanda! Congrats on the release of THE EVER AFTER! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?    I love all kinds of mythologies and stories, and I spend most of my free time reading fantasy and horror. I live in Minnesota, with my family and a bunch of pets, and I love writing books.   For our readers who aren’t caught up with the entire Omte Origins series, can you give us an overview of it and how it fits in with your Trylle trilogy?  The Omte Origins is set in a universe where trolls exist, living hidden among humans, but they aren’t exactly the typical depictions. They have incredible powers, but live in a very structured fantasy world.   The first trilogy Trylle follows Wendy, who discovers she was switched at birth and returns to take her place as the heir to a kingdom. The second trilogy the Kanin Chronicles builds on that, with Bryn – an aspiring guard – who uncovers a plot to overthrow kingdom and does all she can to save it.   The Omte origins is the final trilogy, and it’s led by abandoned orphan Ulla searching for her birth parents and her place in the vast troll world.   Your main…

Victoria Christopher Murray | Exclusive Interview: WRATH
Author Guest / January 5, 2021

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Victoria! We are thrilled to have you here. Please tell us a little bit about yourself!   Out of all the questions I’ve been asked, this is always the hardest for me. I guess I can sum it up by saying, I’m a New York City girl who fell in love with an LA boy. And after we met in graduate school, he encouraged me to pursue my dream of writing. Sixteen years later, he finally convinced me and now thirty books into my career, this is where I am. WRATH is the latest book in your Seven Deadly Sins series. Will you set up the series for readers who may not be familiar with it?   I’m writing this series based on the seven deadly sins. So many people believe that the sins of lust, envy, greed, wrath, pride, gluttony, and sloth are biblical, but they aren’t. They are of course based on Christian principles and what I’ve done is taken each individual sin and created characters who find themselves in the middle of the sin and having to deal with the deadly consequences. WRATH is the story of Chastity Jeffries who meets a man…

Sue Ward Drake | Exclusive Interview: WALKING THE EDGE
Author Guest / December 28, 2020

Hi, Sue! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your new romantic suspense novel, WALKING THE EDGE.   Thank you for the welcome. I’ve written romance a very long time and have always loved mystery and suspense and New Orleans, starting when I attended kindergarten at a historical mansion on the edge of the French Quarter. After college (in New Orleans) and eight months’ reprieve (in Greece) I worked at various, assorted careers until retirement. Finally, I’m able to devote all my time to writing, and it’s heaven.      In WALKING THE EDGE a handsome, ex-army sniper turned bail recovery agent must trust a beautiful ghost tour guide to find his fugitive, the beauty’s younger brother—before the clock strikes midnight on Mardi Gras. Where did the idea for the Danger in the Big Easy series come from? What kind of research did you do for this first book?  I liked the idea of a group of brothers all fighting for justice. As for research, I drew on a lifetime of living and working in New Orleans. I often fantasized about the old houses near Bayou St. John and reworked one to be the hero’s home. When I…

Tessa Wegert | Exclusive Interview: THE DEAD SEASON
Author Guest / December 7, 2020

Hi, Tessa! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and a little bit about your book, THE DEAD SEASON.   Hi everyone! I grew up in Canada and now live with my family in Connecticut. I was a freelance journalist for many years, and while I enjoyed the work, I also craved a creative outlet. That’s what led me to start writing novels. THE DEAD SEASON is the second book in the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, the first of which, DEATH IN THE FAMILY, was released in early 2020. For readers who may not be familiar, can you give a little background on the setup for the Shana Merchant series?   Shana Merchant is a former NYPD detective who narrowly escaped abduction when the serial killer she was hunting turned his focus to her. All the police know about Blake Bram is that he, like Shana, is from Swanton, Vermont. Traumatized by her kidnapping and haunted by the knowledge that she has a personal connection to the killer, she moves with her fiancé to the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York, where she takes a job with the detective branch of the New York State Police and…

Denise Williams | Exclusive Interview: HOW TO FAIL AT FLIRTING
Author Guest / December 1, 2020

Hi, Denise! Welcome to Fresh Fiction and congrats on your debut novel! Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about HOW TO FAIL AT FLIRTING.   Thank you for having me! I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, but it’s a dream to see my debut novel out in the world. I grew up in the military which meant friends coming and going often, but I always had books and writing. I turned to academic writing while earning my PhD in education, but shortly after my son was born, I wanted the escape of writing fiction and here we are. How to Fail at Flirting is about a professor healing from the trauma inflicted by an abusive ex and ready to reclaim her life. She makes a to-do list that includes a one-night stand and taking some risks. The first doesn’t work out, but the second leads to meeting Jake, flirting with professional ruin, and ultimately falling in love.  HOW TO FAIL AT FLIRTING is told completely from Naya’s point of view. How did you decide to use a single-POV narrator? What do you love the most about Naya’s story?   I love dual POV romance…

Opal Carew | Exclusive Interview: STROKE OF LUCK
Author Guest / November 30, 2020

Hi, Opal! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your latest book, STROKE OF LUCK.  Hi. Thank you for inviting me! It’s always a pleasure! I’m Opal Carew and I’ve been writing erotic romance for over 20 years. I’m a cat-loving, artistic, romantic sort, but I spent most of my career as a high-tech professional. I dyed my hair pink (or purple or blue) 30 years ago before it was popular. I don’t like to live in a box or colour within the lines. Well, I do the latter when I’m actually colouring, but I like to draw my own lines. 😉 April, the heroine of Stroke of Luck, has always tried to stay within the lines and do what is expected of her, and it got her into a big mess. To get her life back on track, she needs to do something unexpected and a little crazy so that she can take back the control she’s lost. April starts out down on her luck–she thinks she’s going to Vegas to get married, but gets cheated on, left, and has to foot the hotel bill. What do you think readers will love about April?      I…

Donna Hill | Exclusive Interview: CONFESSIONS IN B-FLAT
Author Guest / November 24, 2020

Hi, Donna! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. We are thrilled to have you here. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your new book, CONFESSIONS IN B-FLAT.   Thank you for having me! Well, I was born and bred in Brooklyn, NY. I have three adult children (most of the time) and four fabulous grands. My sister and her family along with my brother and my two eldest daughters all want me to move to New Jersey, but in the infamous words of Effie in Dreamgirls “I ain’t going!” LOL. As for my writing life, writing has always been my first love and I can say that I began on the road to becoming a “paid” writer when, in grammar school, I would write love letters for my girlfriends to give to their boyfriends! They were verses from songs and song titles strung together–very creatively I might add. And my friends would pay me in lunch money and candy. It wasn’t until many years later that I officially tried my hand at writing when I penned short stories for the Confession Magazines. My first confession story was published in 1987, “The Long Walk,” which I did for several years until…

Julie Ann Walker | Exclusive Interview: RIDE THE TIDE
Author Guest / November 23, 2020

Hi, Julie Ann! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, RIDE THE TIDE.  Holla Fresh Fictioners! It’s so good to be back! My name is Julie Ann Walker, I’m the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of steamy, sexy romantic suspense novels and epic love stories that will melt your heart. (Or at least that’s what I TRY to write. Ha! I guess I’ll leave it up to you guys to determine whether or not I hit my mark.) I have a mutt named Conan who suffers from allergies, howls at sirens, and would love to FINALLY catch a squirrel. And I’ve travelled to over 50 countries because I suffer from more than my fair share of wanderlust. For readers who aren’t familiar with the Deep Six series, can you catch us up to speed on what’s been going on?  Deep Six is a romantic suspense and adventure series set on a fictional island in the Gulf of Mexico. It follows six “retired” Navy SEALs as they hunt for the lost treasure of the world’s holy grail of sunken shipwrecks, the Santa Cristina. The series tagline is: Six men. One sunken Spanish galleon….

Nicola Marsh | Exclusive Interview: THE BOY TOY
Author Guest / November 13, 2020

Hi, Nicola! We’re so glad to have you hear on Fresh Fiction today. Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your new book, THE BOY TOY?   Hi, thanks so much for having me! I’m a USA Today bestselling and multi-award winning author of 70 books. I write contemporary romance, women’s fiction and domestic thrillers for a variety of publishers and I’m hugely excited about my new book, THE BOY TOY. It’s a multicultural, interracial contemporary romance set in my home city of Melbourne, featuring a biracial heroine who’s half Indian, half American, an Aussie stuntman with a stutter who’s a decade younger, and a cast of interfering friends and relatives! While it’s a romance, it tackles a few deeper issues like infertility, divorce, cultural assimilation, family expectations and speech impediment. You write across a variety of different genres and have had quite a few new books come out over the last year (and in the coming months)! What do you like about writing in different genres? Do you find it difficult to switch between them so often?   Writing in different genres allows me to flex my creative muscle. It’s not difficult to switch between them because it…