I think Jane Austen wrote about me. No, I’m not off my meds, and yes, I realize that dear Jane has been dead for almost two hundred years (and no, I’m not that old). Nonetheless, in my narcissistic view, I am Elizabeth Bennet . The wonderful thing about Jane Austen’s characters is that I’m not alone. Millions of women have turned the last page of Pride and Prejudice sighed, and wondered “when will my Darcy come?” I believe that’s more than a wish for the perfect gentleman (and don’t get me started on whether Darcy was actually a gentleman!); I believe it’s an affirmation that the reader has become so enamored of Elizabeth that she sees herself as Elizabeth. Who doesn’t want to believe that they are pretty, witty, and saucy enough to knock the stockings off the hottest catch in town? To read more of Sara’s blog and to comment for a chance to win please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Prequel to THE LAST QUARRY October 2008On Sale: September 30, 2008Featuring: Quarry256 pages ISBN: 0843959657EAN: 9780843959659Mass Market Paperback$6.99 Mystery Hard Boiled Buy at Amazon.com 2009 Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins Killing is a young man’s game… BIG MAN ON CAMPUS Crime fiction readers know Quarry, the ruthless killer-for-hire, from Max Allan Collins’ acclaimed novels—most recently THE LAST QUARRY, which told the story of the assassin’s final assignment (and was the basis for the feature film The Last Lullaby). But where did Quarry’s story start? For the first time ever, the best-selling author of ROAD TO PERDITION takes us back to the beginning, revealing the never-before-told story of Quarry’s first job: infiltrating a college town and eliminating a professor whose affair with one of his beautiful, young students is the least of his sins… Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

March 2009On Sale: March 1, 2009416 pages ISBN: 0060837373EAN: 9780060837372Paperback (reprint)$14.99 Women’s Fiction Buy at Amazon.com Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews After years of hard work, Gina Foxton, chef extraordinaire and former runner-up Miss Teen Vidalia Onion, is hosting her own show, Fresh Start, on Georgia public television. She’s also dating the producer. But when Fresh Start goes bad—and her boyfriend is caught in flagrante delicto with the boss’s wife—Gina decides it’s time to pursue bigger dreams. Namely a gig on national television. Gina knows she’s destined to be the Cooking Channel’s next superstar. But the execs also have their eyes on Tate Moody, Mr. “Kill It and Grill It” himself, host of the hunting, fishing, and cooking show Vittles. The ultimate man’s man, Tate is a tasty side of beef with a large, swooning female fan base. Gina’s loyal devotees consist of her free-spirited college-dropout sister and her mother . . . who calls every single day. When the smoke clears there can be only one TV chef standing, and Gina and Tate are ready for the cook-off of their lives. Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Sarah Langan Win a copy of Sarah Langan’s latest AUDREY’S DOOR. And don’t miss the FREE e-edition of free e-edition of THE KEEPER up at Amazon.com, BN.com and Sony E-Reader Store. Some doors lead to all the wrong places. OrderAUDREY’S DOOR Today On Sale: September 29, 2009 When budding architect Audrey Lucas abandons her live-in boyfriend for a flat in the Breviary, an architectural landmark on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, her newfound freedom comes at a price. Her apartment’s gruesome history includes a deranged mother who drowned her children in the bathroom’s claw-footed tub. Yet ghosts and the strange habits of her eccentric fellow tenants of the building are nothing compared to the horrors she unleashes within herself when, after sleepwalking during torturous dreams, she starts constructing a door in the middle of her living room. Visit Open Audrey’s Door Check out the spooky trailer for AUDERY’S DOOR A big thank you to Avon Books! A spooky, horrorific book trailer… don’t be scared! Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

When I sat down to write this blog I really had no idea what to write about! All I could think of was the zillion and one things I had on my to do list. There were the normal household chores that tend to get put off until the weekend, and I had to remember to hit the vet’s office for my older dog’s medicine so she could jump on the bed more easily, and perhaps not have those nighttime potty accidents as she sleeps. Of course what I really wanted to do was read. I had started the final book in Carly Phillips Corwin Course trilogy, Lucky Break, and was desperate to find out how the series ended. What to do? To read more about what Sandi did please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Candy’s Inside BooksA look at books, authors and movie events There are so many of my friends and favorite authors with books out this month that I’m going to get straight to it! I liked Nikki Duncan’s SOUNDS TO DIE BY, so much that I gave her a cover quote. Rookie FBI Agent Kieralyn Beckett doesn’t want her team to know that the last victim in the kidnapping case they are working was her college roommate. She wants to stay on so that she can find her friend. The only man she can turn to is NSA “listener” Ian Cabrera.  He doesn’t have time to help her until he hears something in the recording she brought him. It just so happens that he hears something that might be a tied to a case he’s working on. Nikki says, “My book comes with a warning: This title contains a blind hero who knows his way around a woman’s body, steamy kitchen sex, verbal sparring, kidnapping evasions, fiery near-death experiences and heart-pounding sensory overload.” When my friend Wendy Lyn Watson was researching her new book I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, she kept making her friends fat. “I included recipes in the book, so…

This weekend the weather has finally cooled in my neck of the woods. It’s the first day in a little over a week without rain, and why I did have an appointment on Saturday afternoon I really had nothing planned. I decided it was a good time to get a start on cleaning and dejunking my home, so that my husband could begin his annual decorating for Halloween. The entryOriginally uploaded by freshfiction In this vein I was able to make several bags of garbage, and to sort my dresser and make not one, but three bags of clothing I haven’t worn in forever for the charity coming next week. I also managed to guilt my husband into making two bags of various items from his stash of treasures. When my youngest came home from bowling I attempted to guilt him into sorting and dejunking as well, but thus far little success there, and my oldest is hopeless, but he wasn’t home this weekend to guilt. To read more about Sandi’s dejunking experience and to comment please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

I’ve been a published author for approximately seven years. Since I started to write, I enjoy writing about subjects that intrigued, puzzled, or upset me.Circles of Love was a book that explored a painful topic. For years I pondered the idea of having no clue to where you came from. The heroine in Circles of Love went in search of her mother after realizing she couldn’t marry the hero until she knew who she was. That story earned me a 4-1/2 Gold review from Romantic Times Book Club. While negotiating my latest contract my editor suggested that I write connected books. I didn’t want to write about another large or extended family so I opted for stories connected by a large company. Living in the Detroit area, my ideas swirled around the automobile companies since Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler Corporations are all located in metro Detroit. I didn’t want to use any of these companies so I created my own. French-owned and operated Gautier’s International Motors was born. I had no idea that the auto industry would stall, fail, or file for bankruptcy protection to stay in business and start new. Chrysler would offer the hand of partnership to…

I know a lot of aspiring writers (and I’ll likely meet a lot more, during the writer-in-residence program at the Toronto Public Library this fall. And every July, after aspiring romance writers attend RWA’s National convention, many of them come home determined to sell their first book by the next annual conference. Selling a book by a specific date sounds like a good goal, but think about it. We say that authors make sales, but who is really is charge of that part of the process? Publishers buy books – specifically editors working for publishers – while authors write books. So, it’s not really up to you when your book is sold. This makes selling a poor goal, as the biggest part of it isn’t in the realm of your influence. That said, there are a lot of awfully good goals that can put on the right path to making that sale, and – good news! – they are all within your powers To read the list of ten things to do please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

A discussion in one of my yahoo groups brought up special holidays in September. I’m sure if we all took a moment and stopped we could think of the more “traditional” holidays that September holds, but I wanted to think of something different. That sent me to Google and what I found was that September is Read A New Book Month. To read more about September being read a book month, and to leave a comment for a chance to win our weekend only contest please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.