Faye, Jayne Ann Krentz, Mindy Originally uploaded by freshfiction. January 2007 will bring several new hardcover releases from favorite authors. January 2nd will be THE HUNTERS (Putnam) when W.E.B. Griffin brings back Delta Force Major Charley Castillo for a third adventure. Slated to go on sale January 16 is DEEP STORM (Doubleday), a stand-alone novel for Lincoln Child, (known for his bestselling collaborations with Douglas Preston), which is set 12,000 feet below the North Atlantic ocean. It’s about an archeological discovery that could prove to be one of the most terrifying in history. Also set for release on January 16 is Jayne Anne Krentz‘s newest Arcane Society novel, WHITE LIES (Putnam). The heroine is a Level Ten para-sensitive and considered a human lie detector, which gives her problems when it comes to any types of relationships, especially when she finds herself in an investigation with an unusual man. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Roxanne St. Clair Originally uploaded by freshfiction. Fans of Roxanne St. Claire‘s will be happy to know that she’s signed a new deal with Pocket to write a trilogy connected to her popular bodyguard series, the Bullet Catchers. Roxanne tells me, “This time all three will be linked by more than just the high-end security and investigation firm. All three books, which will all be released in 2008, will share a connected story arc. Although they will each stand alone, the stories will include an overarching mystery that deepens with every book and is solved at the very end.” Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

So ironic…last year a group of Fresh Fiction staff attended the SXSW Interactive…for the uninitiated that’s the South by Southwest conference held in Austin during the famous music and film festival. All the digit heads, an old term probably shows MY age, meet to discuss new and cool stuff relating to technology and media / entertainment. I got sucked in because G has been attending the Film and Music parts for a couple of years and I’ve usually spent the week with her in Austin, but I’d get bored with nothing to do. So, I dragged a few other FF members in 2006 to check out the Interactive part of the conference. AND WOW, what an eye-opener! But there were two outstanding presentations we continue to talk about… the emergence of Second Life and Threadless. We’re not going to discuss Threadless because they still piss me off…long story told best in a bar over a couple of drinks…but the Second Life is just ironic. M and D attended that one and couldn’t really get it. I said jokingly they should open a bookstore in the virtual world or at least publish some books there. So what do you know? Someone…

DFW Tea Ladies Originally uploaded by freshfiction. I’m in the middle of a duh phase…for all of you subscribed to our newsletters I got a bit mixed up at midnight on Sunday and switched a list. But on a bright note, some of you got to see what the daily Fresh Press newsletter looks like. And while it wasn’t a high brow weekend, there were some interesting authors and books on the media. But as usual, I digress, and since I haven’t had coffee yet, the digression may be even MORE pronounced than usual. Doing catchup on work since the “Buns and Roses” is over except for the debrief, but it was a grand success and hopefully we made lots of new friends and introduced new readers to the romance genre and romance readers to new authors! If you want to see — inquiring minds are always curious — what you missed, check it out. As for today, this is about it. I’ve read nothing worth blabbing about in the past three days — Time and Newsweek and the thumb nailed CSS manual don’t count. So, please feel free to tell us what you’ve been reading! Oh, plug for Lori…

Lori Wilde’s Table Originally uploaded by freshfiction. Okay, so the “Buns and Roses Romance Tea for Literacy” in Richardson was the butt of the Dallas Observer’s comments, but it was a grand showing on Sunday (and why I did NOT blog — I was exhausted!) I’m not sure the exact count, but I know it was over 180 guests for the tea at The Richardson Hotel. We were entertained royally by our emcee Candace Havens — the witty entertainment reporter on the Dorsey Gang — and inspired by Elizabeth Boyle. We had two tables: DFW Tea Readers group had Lori Wilde as our hostess and PatCat Books had Judy Christenberry as theirs. A HUGE thanks to Pat Richardson for her contributions on Sunday and for racing from work to make it! Over 22 romances authors, locally and from across the country, were the table hostesses for the tea which benefited the literacy programs of Richardson. The authors included: Lorraine Heath, Gena Showalter, Shanna Swendson, Arlene James, Lori Wilde, Kathleen Baldwin, Sandy Blair, Celya Bowers, Victoria Chancellor, Judy Christenberry, Gretchen Craig, Jana DeLeon, Shana Galen, Kristi Gold, Jane Graves, Jackie Ivie, Kara Lennox, Janis Susan May, Jill Monroe, and Catherine Spangler….

Saturday, so it’s really a busy day, combining family time, social responsibilities, oh, yes, a business to run. When I took on this challenge to actually blog for a week I forgot to ask if I’d get off the weekends, so here goes, just in case I’ve got to blog 7/365. Yesterday was a strange day — filled with worked and uncooperative email systems — but I was excited when I saw the new book at 11pm. Woo Hoo! Another one I got to vote for. Yes, occasionally I am asked to vote on a Fresh Pick, I figure it’s only when they really need a tie-breaker, or geez, it could I’m like Cheney ::shudder:: But I digress…you may notice I do that too much in this blogging thing. Saturday’s pick is ALREADY DEAD by Charlie Huston! Oh, man, oh, man. I loved AD when I read it last year. It was the first Huston book I’d ever read but I had to go out and get everything else he’d written — The Harry Thompson trilogy which were not as good as ALREADY DEAD. And, yes, for those of you sighing, it’s another vampire book. Oh. well. But you know,…

I’m tired — I was up until 4:45am working and got up at 8am to start again, so I’m just filling in space. But a resolution is a resolution. And this is one of the reasons I’m not so fond of blogging, there are so many out there that just don’t say anything, or are at a loss of topic that farting in a gym becomes an entire blog entry. Sorry, it’s just not in me to discuss my bodily functions with world. HOWEVER, I did discuss books on my morning ramble through what felt like North Texas. Look, when you’re operating on less than 4 hours of sleep with gritty contact lenses and driving in Dallas traffic, holding a decent conversation is totally amazing. G has this goal of reading one book a month. Well, one book a month she can discuss in book club. Trust me that is a real goal for her. She’s our expert on shall we say the “spicy” side of literature. Those she reads MUCH faster but there are not always book club discussion options. Especially in public places. Anyway, she started THE ALLELUIA FILES by Sharon Shinn. She’s had it for years, but…

Great title, isn’t it? And a book to chill you to your bones. CLOSE ENOUGH TO KILL is our book club’s October pick. And we also talked to the author, Beverly Barton, on the phone during our meeting. Apparently we were noisy and having a “good time” scaring the men off to various other corners of the house during our A Tasty Trip to Sergio and Raoul’s Villa evening. To be totally honest, the evening’s theme is based on the menu and not the book or author chosen. Barton is a delightful woman to have as a guest — even via the telephone — and she answered all our burning questions with ease. You know, the usual mundane but must ask the author questions — what does she read when she’s not writing, how does she do her research, what television shows does she like to watch, plus our queries book centered — how is the book related to other books, does she know a serial killer personally, etc. Okay, I don’t think we actually had drunk enough wine to ask that one, but she handled the rest very well. She watched Medium, loves Lost, and Jericho and we advised…

The Fresh Pick committee works from a theme. This is an FYI for those not in the know or who haven’t figured it out to this point, and the committee mastermind, who shall remain nameless, always comes up with a theme of the week; it might be a movie opening, a national holiday, a honorific, or sometimes, I think, just her mood 🙂 Personally, I get a kick out of trying to figure out what the theme is before I have to give in and ask, which I must admit pisses her off sometimes, because, you know, it’s so OBVIOUS! Amazing other people roll their eyes as well. So, the theme for this week is obviously spooky, but not quite Halloween spooky, I know she’s got something truly exotic in mind for that week. It’s definitely evil, and I think I’ve got it now! THE DEVIL! When I saw today’s book pick — WORKING FOR THE DEVIL by Lilith Saintcrow — I went ooooh, that was one I voted for cause I fell in love with the kick-ass heroine. She’s like this bounty hunter in hell type. Yeah, yeah, another bounty hunter, it’s like there’s a bounty hunter, vampire hunter…

Last night I was rather tired … still recuperating I think… so I definitely needed a bedtime reading that was short, light, and not too thought provoking. It would be nice if it wasn’t too heavy to hold as well, so that left out an assortment of ARCs, hardcovers and other miscellany waiting for me to read as “homework.” Ah, when did my reading turn from purely pleasure to “homework.” A dreaded term, isn’t’ it? So I settled for a light weight, at least in heft, book. One I’ve been urged relentlessly to read for months now. I’ll be honest, his first book took me FOREVER to get through and I really didn’t understand it at all. Figured it was my age, but from the moment I read the first paragraph of THE WORTHY by Will Clarke, I was hooked. Yes, I’ll admit I have a skewed sense of humor, not exactly sophomoric, never did get into those slapstick comedy bits, but the humor in THE WORTHY was subtle and invigorating and appealed to me. I stayed up way past my assigned bedtime, past the third ridiculous episode of Dexter to finish every last word of THE WORTHY and to…