Hi, Jennifer! Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Can you tell us about yourself and your latest Sassy Cat Mystery novel, MIMI LEE READS BETWEEN THE LINES?   Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be on Fresh Fiction today! A little about me: I write multicultural mysteries, and I live in Los Angeles, where I’m constantly on the hunt for all things matcha. In Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines, pet groomer Mimi Lee takes her big sister role to the max by trying to get her young sister off the police’s radar. Mimi Lee owns a pet-grooming business and has a talking cat! Where did you get the idea for this delightful series?   I grew up reading Garfield comics and loved his snarky attitude. Also, I was always drawn to this idea of a pet-owner connection, so I figured a telepathic sassy cat would make a great sleuthing partner–and add to the humor. I love an amateur sleuth! What do you think makes Mimi a great detective? Does she find situations or do the situations find her?  Mimi is a bold sleuth who’s willing to take chances to get to the answer. She really perseveres, especially when loved ones…

Hi, Lyssa Kay! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, CRAZY STUPID BROMANCE: Thank you so much for having me! I’m sitting in my home office in Michigan, where I write full-time with a very spoiled Maltese at my feet (when he’s not sleeping ON MY DESK). He has been at my side through every Bromance book, including this one. I’m so excited for readers to get their hands on Noah and Alexis’s story in CRAZY STUPID BROMANCE. Both are characters that readers have met in previous Bromance books, and now they will really get to know them on a deeper level. Both are very wounded characters from things that happened in their pasts, but they have helped each other heal as friends. But when Alexis is confronted by a woman claiming to be her long-lost sister, her friendship with Noah begins to blossom into something more as she leans on him to navigate this touchy family situation. There is a subplot in the book about a kidney donation among family members, which is very personal to me. My husband donated a kidney to his sister shortly after we got married, and I poured…

Miranda Owen: As somebody who has read and enjoyed your historical romances, I was surprised to find you wrote a contemporary romance. What inspired you to write a contemporary? Is HIRING MR. DARCY part of a series? If so, what is it called? Valerie Bowman: I had the idea for HIRING MR. DARCY for a while and it just wouldn’t leave me alone. I was really nervous to write it and even more nervous to publish it. But I’d always wanted to *try* to write a contemporary rom com. The best part was being able to use any word I wanted without having to look it up to ensure it was in use by the early 1800’s. Ha ha ha HIRING MR. DARCY is part of a trilogy that I’m calling Austen Hunks. (waggles eyebrows) I have two more books planned: KISSING MR. KNIGHTLEY and MARRYING MR. WENTWORTH. As your hero points out (and I totally agree), the heroine is actually much more a “Mr. Darcy” than he is. If anything, I think he’s more of a Henry Tilney (my favorite Austen hero). Is Mr. Darcy your favorite Austen hero? What about your fav hero you’ve written? That you’ve read…

Hi Regina! Thank you for joining us on Fresh Fiction today. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your new book, NOTHING SHORT OF WONDROUS.   Delighted to be here! I’m the author of more than 50 warm and witty historical romances, set from the Regency to the Old West, England to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. I’m excited to have the second book in my American Wonders Collection coming out. NOTHING SHORT OF WONDROUS tells the story of when the U.S. Cavalry rode to the rescue to protect Yellowstone National Park from poachers and vandals. Turns out the Army needed a little help learning how to get around the vast lands, which is where my widowed innkeeper comes in. Kate Tremaine knows Yellowstone like the back of her hand, and she has a personal stake in protecting its wonders. But spending time with Lieutenant Will Prescott makes her question her decision never to marry again. What was something interesting or surprising that you learned while researching this time period in history?  Just the fact that the Army was given control of Yellowstone surprised me. But Yellowstone was our very first national park, and there was no park service….

Hi, Alexa! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, SNAPPED.  Hi! Thank you so much for having me! I’m Alexa, I’m a mom of four adorable and wild children and I’m married to my high school sweetheart. He played in the NFL for 8 years which is what inspired my Playbook Series. SNAPPED is the fourth book in the series and focuses on Elliot and Quinton. Elliot does PR for the Mustangs and when Quinton takes a knee on the field and covers the league’s logo on his jersey, she’s sent in to help manage the media storm. They get off to a rocky start, but eventually, sparks fly as they both work through some pretty big issues they’re both facing. Some of our readers may not know this, but your husband is a retired NFL player. How much of your experiences did you incorporate into the Playbook series?   He is! He was drafted to the NFL my freshman year of college, so I was pretty much a baby when we moved in together. The women that I met during that time really molded me into the woman I am today. It’s why female friendships play…

Hi, Susan! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your latest book, THE PRICE OF VALOR.  My latest release, THE PRICE OF VALOR, is the final book in a trilogy about a man’s search for his wife…and ultimately, a quest to save his nation. The wife of Former Navy Seal, Hamilton Jones has been missing and presumed dead for over a decade. But when Ham discovers that she’s not only alive, but has vital information about the safety of America, he has to find her, get the information, bring her home, and maybe, just maybe, reignite their romance. It takes place in Italy, Minnesota, and finally, Washington D.C. Can you give us an overview of your Global Search and Rescue series? What do you love most about this action-packed world you’ve created?  The G-SAR series is bigger, bolder, and braver than my Montana Rescue series–sort of Rescue on steroids. First, my heroes tackle crazy scenarios–like rescuing a team of women off Denali. Or choosing to ride out a Cat 5 hurricane. Or running from a tsunami. But they also go global– from Alaska to the Florida Keys to Italy. And finally, they not only encounter challenges…

Hi, Olivia! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, SPOILER ALERT.  Hi! I’m Olivia Dade, a lifelong nerd and enthusiastic, pants-averse hag. I’m also a writer, and Spoiler Alert is my print debut. I’m incredibly excited about it, because the story tackles so many topics close to my heart: fandom, fanfiction, fatness, friendship, and family. It also contains a startling number of dirty geology puns, because no one stopped me!  Put briefly, the story is about a himbo actor, Marcus, who is secretly smart and hates how his worldwide-hit TV show has gone off the rails in recent seasons. He pours his frustration into anonymous fanfiction with the help of his online BFF, April–but if anyone found out he’d been criticizing his own show so openly, his career would be over. Which is a problem, especially once he meets April in person and falls in love. . . but can’t tell her they already know one another. Spoiler Alert is a sweet-hot romcom with lots of banter and emotion and nerdery, and if you read it, I hope you absolutely love it. The world of fandom is a relatively recent phenomenon in pop culture….

Hi, Sarah! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, MISTLETOE AND MR. RIGHT. Thanks for having me back! My name’s Sarah Morgenthaler, and I write romantic comedy and contemporary romance. MISTLETOE AND MR. RIGHT is my Alaskan Christmas romcom set in the fictional town of Moose Springs.     This is the second book in the Moose Springs, Alaska series. What do you love about creating this town and its inhabitants?   I’ve had a blast creating Moose Springs. The residents are so quirky and fun to write. They’re very loyal to each other, and even more loyal to the land and to the wildlife in their community. It’s a close-knit place full of love. (They just don’t love all the tourists coming to town!)       What did you do to get into the holiday spirit while writing this novel, even when it wasn’t the holidays?   One of my good writer friends suggested I buy a Christmas-themed candle. Burning that while writing worked great for setting the scene! I also played lots of Christmas music while writing and looked at pictures of winter scenes.     Lana Montgomery has big plans to improve…

Hi, Nancy! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your latest novel, A HEARTFELT CHRISTMAS PROMISE.   Hey there! It’s been a while since we’ve chatted. I’m so excited to be here to share a little about my newest book. Isn’t the cover adorable? I’m a dog lover so I’m crazy about this cover. I know people love reading on their ereaders, but I hope they’ll not only download the digital copy, but also splurge on the purchase of a copy of A Heartfelt Christmas Promise in trade paperback for their bookshelf and include it in their holiday decor. It’s such a fun cover, and so different from all of my other holiday books. PSSST- If you order a print copy and need an autographed bookplate. .  . email me for one with your full address I’d be happy to personalize them for you and your friends! What do you love about writing Christmas romance novels? What do you do to get in the holiday spirit while writing these books?   I love the chance to whisk my readers away from the day-to-day, and what better way to do it with the joy Christmas brings. The smell of…

Hi, Jane! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your new book, TIES THAT TETHER.  I’m a Nigerian-Canadian author, and my debut novel, TIES THAT TETHER, is a contemporary romance about a Nigerian woman who promises her dying father she will marry a Nigerian man even after immigrating to Canada. But when she meets and falls for a man who is Spanish, she’s caught between her family’s wishes and her own. As a result, she tries to reconcile her identity as a Nigerian woman and her identity as an immigrant. This is your debut romance–congratulations! What has your journey into publishing been like?   Like many writers, I’ve had to deal with a lot of rejections before getting to this point. I wrote two books in two different genres–literary fiction and paranormal romance–before moving to contemporary romance. I learned a lot from those two novels that didn’t get published, and in 2016, I started writing my third novel, TIES THAT TETHER. I knew this one was something special, but I knew it wasn’t perfect. In 2018, I entered Pitch Wars, a mentorship program for writers. I was selected to be mentored by someone who completely understood…