Hoping to escape the mother-­daughter conflict that was about to escalate to a new level, Emma hurried outside. Pausing on the snow-­covered path to the driveway, she allowed fat snowflakes to fall on her, even catching a couple with her tongue. Snow couldn’t hurt you. She looked all around, taking in the other large homes, beautifully blanketed in snow, and the mountains behind them. This place was truly magical! As she walked up the driveway, she spotted what looked like a caretaker’s cottage and slowly approached it. Hopefully the ol’ grump wasn’t as bad as Gillian had described. Holding her breath, she tentatively knocked on the door, expecting a gray, grisly old man to answer. To her surprise, a younger man opened the door. Dressed in jeans and a plaid flannel shirt, he stared at her with a puzzled expression. She suddenly wondered if she’d knocked on the wrong door. She smiled stiffly. “Sorry to bother you. I—I was looking for the caretaker, and I thought this was the right—” “Yeah, yeah.” He studied her with a furrowed brow. “This is, uh, the caretaker’s cottage.” She blinked. “Oh, so . . . are you the caretaker?” For some reason this guy didn’t…

I write inspirational Amish fiction laced with humor and romance. My newest book, Amish Christmas Miracles, is a collection of 14 Amish Christmas romances by 14 of your favorite Amish romance authors. It’s available for only 99¢ until November 15! To celebrate, I’m giving away three copies of The Amish Christmas Candle to three random commenters below. As you can probably guess, writing Amish romantic fiction requires a lot of research, but you might be surprised at some of the research I’ve done to make my books more authentic. Here are my top five most memorable research adventures. 1. Buying an Amish quilt (or two), an Amish doll, and an Amish-built table. My research trips have taken me to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana in search of Amish communities. I love Amish-made furniture, quilts, and handicrafts. Probably my favorite purchase is the kitchen table I bought in Indiana. I ordered the table, the Amish built it, and a few weeks later, a driver (ex-Amish) delivered it to my home and put it together. 2. Baking huckleberry pie, asparagus casserole, and yummasetti. Food plays an important role in Amish life and most definitely in my books. In Huckleberry Hill, the first…

Ethan was staring at the moon. He sat up, gasping and choking. He rolled off the padding and clawed at the raw planks of the floor. Then he heard the water. A soft summer breeze blew up tiny waves. They splashed like cymbals against the pilings that rose to either side of where he lay. He gripped the nearest strut and forced himself to his feet. The night was utterly dark. He was dressed in a pair of raggedy cutoffs and a T-shirt. On his feet were leather sandals curled and cracked by salt and hard days. He was completely alone. Ethan cried out, a choking sound wrenched from the terror and confusion that filled him. He knew where he was. What was more, he knew when. The summer before his final year at the university, when he and his best friend had wrangled jobs at the Holiday Marina. The long pier ran back to the shore, every plank in place, the pilings straight as arrows. The marina’s unmistakable form was silhouetted by yellow streetlights. Four A-frames housed the sailing classes, the repair shop, the store, and the stockrooms. An old canvas inflatable raft lay on the pier, with a…

If you travel to north Louisiana and listen carefully, whispers on the cypress-laden air will tell you legendary tales of a young woman who repeatedly tried to make lemon bars. The trees shield their eyes from the tragic tale of utter failure, while the bayous draw their waters up tight in sympathy and shame. . . Well, okay, that might be exaggerated, but not by far. Confession: I don’t bake. If you say the word “lemon bar” around my mom, she turns ghostly pale from blocked memories of my attempts to make those pesky little yellow desserts all through high school. Never got it right. I’m convinced they’re my nemesis. Now, don’t get me wrong–I can make a mean batch of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies. You know, the kind where you cut open the package and place the already perfectly circular bits of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes? I’ve got that down! In fact, I make them a little on the “not quite done” side, and people rave. Everyone always wants me to bring those to parties, like I did something spectacular. (and when I remember the lemon bars, I’m convinced I did) My mother…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  The Edge of Belonging 2–What is it about? The Edge of Belonging is a dual timeline story about a homeless man who finds an abandoned newborn. His greatest desire is to protect her from the experiences he had in foster care.  Twenty-four years later, Ivy goes back to her hometown to manage her grandmother’s estate sale and finds out that her grandmother left behind a way for her to learn about Ivy’s adoption. But, a key piece to the mystery is missing. 3–What word best describes your main character(s)? Harvey: Extreme Independence. Life has taught him that people aren’t to be trusted. But when he finds an abandoned newborn, it completely overturns his hermit’s way of life, and he starts to reevaluate if he really is incapable of being loved. Ivy: Searching. She suddenly becomes aware of just how fragile the life she was building for herself was. She finds herself going back to her roots to rediscover her sense of identity, but in the process discovers there’s a lot she doesn’t know about the people who raised her. 4–What makes your story relatable?  I think most of us can relate to craving…

Through Me, the Way Lightning struck and I flinched. The rain came down in hard pellets, but I kept watching Abe and Miho as they drifted away. I waited until they disappeared into town before I walked inside my house, dripping wet. The sound of the storm was a steady roar on the cedar shingles above me, but the stone walls, silent and still, filled me with a sense of safety. I didn’t light any lamps, and the gray afternoon filtered in through the windows. There was a small open area inside the front door of my house. To the left, a fireplace along the outside wall. To the right was a rather long, galley-style kitchen, and at the end of it a narrow space where I ate and wrote and spent time thinking. The wide double doors that faced out the back were open, but they were sheltered by the eaves of the house so the water wasn’t coming in. I stared at the plains sweeping away in a graceful downhill for a long, long way, covered in a dense curtain of rain that hit the ground before rising in a ghostly mist. I went into my bedroom, the…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Susie! Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your new book, STORIES THAT BIND US. Thanks for having me! Oh, where to start. I live in West Michigan with my husband and our three super cool kids (not to mention the cat, Flannery). I am so excited for readers to get their hands on Stories That Bind Us! It’s a novel about Betty Sweet and her nephew Hugo and how story brings them together.  Set in the 1960s in the Midwest, STORIES THAT BIND US offers a unique perspective about a changing society. What made you want to explore this time period in American history? What do you think will surprise readers about this setting and time? I’ve always been fascinated by the 1960s. I think, in part, it’s because that was the decade in which my parents came of age. They’ve always shared stories of what it was like for them and, as I researched for this book and All Manner of Things (set in 1967) it was really great to connect with them even more about their teen years.   I think it might surprise readers to know that in the 1960s…

The cottage appeared to be abandoned, but something about it took hold of Peyton. The tall flight of steps leading up into the trees was worn but solid, taking him onto a deep porch that encircled it, framed with gingerbread bannisters. Between the water and the edge of the yard, if you could call it that, was a stand of mangroves so thick and tall that they would likely block the water view eventually, but for now they just made the house feel protected. He could hear Finn advising him: If there ain’t no other shelter, why, head for the mangroves. They’ll hold back the tide. Walking the circumference of the cottage, Peyton could see that it was more porch than house. On the porch ceiling, he spotted two sturdy hooks about five feet apart. They likely had held a swing or a hammock at one time—long gone now. The whole structure from floor to ceiling was built of cypress. Its tall windows were all shuttered. Peyton unfastened the shutters covering one of them and peered inside. The place looked empty. He tried the front door, which immediately creaked open into a large room with a little kitchen built into…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  On a Coastal Breeze, book 2 in the Three Sisters Island series 2–What is it about?  The overall storyline of the series is about a dad who realizes his young adult daughters are growing estranged, and takes a bold step to unite the family. He purchases a nearly bankrupt island off the coast of Maine. His three daughters think he’s lost his mind. Each daughter takes a turn as the main character. Madison Grayson, the middle daughter, is the lead in On a Coastal Breeze. Newly certified as a Marriage & Family Therapist, opening a practice, Maddie is also gaining the upper hand on her tendency toward high anxiety…until her worst-case scenario comes true. The one person in the world she never wants to see again, Rick O’Shea, arrives by parachute onto Three Sisters Island. And he’s there to stay. 3–What word best describes your heroine, Maddie Grayson?  Earnest. (And anxious.) 4–What makes your hero irresistible, Rick O’Shea?  He’s a risk-taker. Rick O’Shea’s skydive onto Three Sisters Island is both literal and figurative. His main objective is to pastor the island’s start-up church, but he’s also arrived to mend his relationship with Maddie…

For those of you who’ve been yearning to return to my little seaside Oregon town of Hope Harbor—the wait is over! If you haven’t visited, I hope you’ll stop by. Starfish Pier is Book 6, but every story stands alone. So please drop in! In my latest novel you’ll meet Holly Miller, who’s new in town. Moving to Hope Harbor was a big step for her for several reasons, but she’s settling in as a first-grade teacher. Life is good…but a little romance wouldn’t hurt. Enter Steven Roark, who’s left the military behind and now runs fishing charters. He’s in town on a mission—a personal one this time—but his take-charge manner isn’t helping him achieve his goal. And he definitely isn’t looking for romance. Funny how that works, though. Sometimes when you least expect it Ms. Right can show up—even if she’s nothing like the kind of woman you thought you’d fall for! So let’s see where this game takes us. S is for Starfish. Matchmakers don’t always have to be human. 🙂 T is for traumatic. Holly and Steven have both had their share of tough times. A is for antagonistic. Which captures the mood of their first meeting….