1–What is the title of your latest release? MIDNIGHT DUET 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Midnight Duet Is my modern romantic comedy retelling of Phantom of the Opera, featuring a disgraced Broadway diva, Erika Greene, as the Phantom, and a German hair metal rock star as Christof Daae, the vocalist with whom she falls in love when she agrees to let his band, Nachtmusik, rent her dilapidated opera house to record their first English-language album. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I wanted this book to pay tribute to the over-the-top glamour and melodrama of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and there’s only one place in our modern world that truly fits the bill: Las Vegas. Or in this case, “Paris,” a fictional French-inspired tourist trap an hour outside of Vegas. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Erika Greene would never be caught dead in such pedestrian company. But I think I’d get along with some of the supporting cast–especially Sibylle, Nachtmusik’s macabre-obsessed bassist, who was inspired by one of my best friends in real life. Sibylle loves a ghostly murder mystery, and she spends most of…

Danielle Jackson: Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Jen! We are so glad to have you hear and chat about your new book, THE ASTRONAUT AND THE STAR. What are three words/phrases you think best describe your book?   Jen Comfort:  funny, nerdy, and “horny” (the latter is according to the starred Library Journal review, and I am very proud she got away with that description in the official tagline!)   First things first, I love a grumpy sunshine pairing. But what I love more is when the female main character is the grump, and the male main character is the sunshine! Reggie and Jon are this to a T! What appealed to you about this grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract setup?   Jen:  The original premise for this book was that it was a gender-flipped take on I Dream of Jeannie, which I watched a lot of growing up (I was just a very indoor child without many cool hobbies). In the show, there’s this grumpy, workaholic astronaut named Tony who gets saddled with the cheerful, chaos-causing magic Jeannie—a character who could be the blueprint for the “manic pixie dream girls” of our time. Since my absolute favorite thing to do is play,…