Summer has settled in North Texas and along with the heat is a flurry of authors descending to talk up their books. Now, I’m not complaining, I LOVE to read and a new book is always welcome. But sometimes even I, addict that I am, can be overwhelmed. Nah, you say with feigned surprise, Sara? Overwhelmed with books?. Yeah, well, it happens. Once in a blue moon to be true, but it is a sad thing. What to read! Too many choices! The summer blockbusters are arriving: Iris Johansen, Linda Howard, Mariah Stewart, Janet Evanovich, Allison Brennan…what to read! Then the surprise of the summer just sorta sneaks up… an event that escaped my radar. Do I hear another GASP? Yes, it’s sad but true. I almost missed the Harry Potter Symposium — PORTUS 2008. Right down the road so to speak. A gathering of the HP intelligentsia — no kids under 18 allowed. What has the world come to when the fans of a children’s book holds a yearly symposium (aka convention) complete with masquerades, costumed attendees, rock bands, fan fiction, movies and workshops on the hows and whys of “potterdom” and don’t let in the kiddos? At least…

Wood Nymph and WitchOriginally uploaded by freshfiction Last year we were all agog at the idea of Harry Potter 7, coming soon, count downs to release day. Which store to go to for the party. House party plans being made. Authentic Potter menus researched and practiced. Conferences juggled around the release date. Reading schedules worked out. How many copies to buy, would it be just the hard cover or did we need the audio as well? Who doesn’t love Jim Dale, the “voice” of Harry Potter? But this year, as they say, “not so much” to look forward… book wise. The closest book is Stephanie Meyer‘s Breaking Dawn. The book stores are planning midnight parties but unfortunately for the majority of readers — non-female ones particularly — the overwhelming look on the face when asked if they’re going to the store is confusion. That confusion is also felt by most of our book club members as well when asked if we should plan an expedition. And the excuses for not going, well, I guess vampires and werewolves just don’t hold the same universal appeal as does magic and round glasses. Or is it because HP had a series of movies…

We’re participating in the Bloggy Carnival where all you have to do is to post a comment on a blog to be included in the pool for winners for different items. Since we’re FRESH FICTION, what better prize than a signed copy of Linda Francis Lee‘s latest blockbuster — The Ex-Debutante??? The Ex-Debutante When Carlisle Wainwright Cushing left her native Texas to start a new life in Boston, she had no regrets. The former Texas debutante, who never felt at home in her Southern skin, had found liberation–or so she thought. Until the day she gets an urgent call from her mother, reporting that: One, the Symphony Association Debutante Ball, which Carlisle’s family has sponsored for years, is about to be called off; Two, her mother’s divorce has the whole town talking; And three, the family’s good name is at stake and Carlisle is the only one who can fix it all. So Carlisle takes a leave of absence from her law firm and goes to Texas to help. Her fiance, who has no idea she’s an heiress, can’t know that she’s organizing the ball, handling the dramas of the girls involved, settling her mother’s suit–and coming face to face…

January brought a slew of authors to Dallas and I had the opportunity to check them all out! First we began with the visit of Thomas Allen author of UNCOVERED. Thomas has a special connection to books, especially pulp fiction books, He likes to CUT THEM UP! Yes, he takes old paperbacks, cuts out the figures on the covers then poses them in title suggestive ways and photographs them. It’s fascinating, beautiful and to an avid reader and collector, TERRIFYING! Thomas gave a presentation that showed some of his work over the years (not really that long, but he did start with his father’s photography before he was born) including book covers and magazine works. Gwen loved his illustrations for New York her primo magazine of the time. Next up, we went South, to the New South filled with crazy ladies, southern food, barbeque, garden parties … and did I mention crazy women? And Michael Lee West came to town before heading up to be part of The GirlFriends Weekend in Jefferson, a tiara wearing, big-hair celebration of womanhood. She was so comfortable she sat down with the readers and gave us the “story behind the tales” of her amazing…

As usual, I never had as much time as I expected to prepare for the holidays so it doesn’t come as a HUGE surprise I’m still writing a holiday letter — or to be honest, I just gave up on it. Trust me, you would have found it boring. And 11pm on Christmas Eve is a bit late to be creative. I still have presents to wrap. But Faye said I had to blog on Christmas and so I’ll need to come up with something. I gave up on pithy and witty and I’m stuck with mundane. At book club this is the point we go around the room and talk about the best (or worst) book read this month. So I think I’ll just go with books I discovered in the past two months. One of the things I try to do is to read the books by an author who is either coming to town for a signing or is a book club guest. After all it’s really rude to not at least taste a hostess’s cooking. You don’t have to like it, but you better take a bite to be polite. Unfortunately for my book budget (laughing),…

Many families find the holidays, especially Thanksgiving, very stressful. But we’ve come up with our own way of de stressing the whole thing. After years of analysis of the holiday we’ve come up with the plan — work to people’s strengths. It sounds cynical, but it works. First, have the dinner at my house. (Yes, I hear you snickering but until the kids get married, I’m pretty safe. We’ll deal with that disaster down the road or encourage them to match up with orphans.) And give each member of the family, aka chefs, their own space and time in the kitchen. Second, everyone has to make their own specialty. In the husband’s case that means oatmeal in the morning and carving the turkey. Not too hard and he’s a whiz at the carving and critiquing the “doneness” of said turkey. And after the year of living dangerously — the deep frying of turkey *shudder* — it’s probably the safest thing for all of us. The son makes the turkey. Each year he researches the proper brine, proper cooking hardware, roasting times, and each year the bird is delicious. I think this year he discovered a cheesecloth blanket for basting to…

Every few years, a dance/theater production, “Theatre of the Vampires,” is staged in Boulder, Colorado (where I live), in a spooky, old theater. Happily, the show was performed this past Halloween and, since THE VAMPIRE SHRINK — my first book in a series about a Denver psychologist who becomes involved in the vampire underworld — had just been released, the producers asked me to appear. Hundreds of people passed my table — many stopping to claim a postcard, examine a copy of my book or ask a question. A wonderful time was had by all, and I sold every copy of the book I brought. (Many thanks to my publisher for the gorgeous, full-page ad they ran on the back page of the playbill!)Boulder is a strange place. Unlike the questions I’ve answered at my other book signing events, the one people asked most frequently here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains was: “Is this nonfiction?” They were uniformly disappointed when I said the book was fiction. There’s definitely a different mindset here! These folks wanted to believe in the existence of vampires! But, in general, people ask three questions: How do you identify yourself as a writer? What…

I started out writing romantic suspense, murders, serial killers, little things like that. Maybe I was watching too many forensics shows or something. Then a bit of paranormal slipped in there. You know, ghosts, psychics, big hunky, sexy detectives (yes, my Max Series by JB Skully from LiquidSilverBooks.com). After that came the humor. It just sort of slipped in there with Ladybird Long (my hunky, sexy detective’s mom from my Max series), then went off the charts with my first Jennifer Skully book, Sex and the Serial Killer. Finally, there was the really spicy stuff. And Jasmine Haynes was born (the pseudonym, not the real Jasmine). My mom asked me why I couldn’t write children’s books. I said that generally speaking people didn’t get murdered by vile methods in children’s books, and, really, there wasn’t supposed to be any S-E-X either. So, ever since, I’ve been leading a sort of double life. Actually, make that a triple life. Eventually, however, I had to come out of the closet. To my family. My neighbors. My accounting coworkers! My boss!!!! Here’s just a few of the things people said to me. 10) I imagine your husband needs Viagra. (I’m not quite sure…

Michael Connelly Originally uploaded by freshfiction Oh, shucks, we missed Harry Bosch! He couldn’t come to the Texas Book Festival — but Michael DConnelly — yup under those shades — was able to read, take questions and sign his books.!! Woo Hoo we got one for Fresh Fiction. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Here’s a little secret that not a lot of non-writers realize: Authors are not always in control of their characters. Some of us are rarely in control, which makes for the occasional difficult conversation with our editors. For example: Me: Um, about that synopsis. It doesn’t actually bear any resemblance to the finished book. You’re good with that, right? Editor: (long-suffering sigh) Well, I’m kind of used to that with you . . . I can’t help it. It’s not like I consciously set out to drive my poor editor nuts. It’s just that I’m happily writing along, following my lovely plotted-out outline (yes, I plot, I love to plot, I outline, I describe scenes, sometimes I even include snippets of what I think at the time is wickedly brilliant dialogue), and then when I start to write . . . Most of it ends up in the recycling bin. When I was writing ATLANTIS AWAKENING (coming to stores near you November 6th!), I had an especially tough time with this. You see, I fell victim to one of the other problems that can strike unsuspecting authors, usually with no warning: The “I know too much about my characters” syndrome….