Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS by Jillian Cantor
Author Guest , Interviews , Jen's Jewels / February 11, 2022

Jennifer Vido: How did your admiration for The Great Gatsby inspire your new release, BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS?    Jillian Cantor: I’ve long been a fan of The Great Gatsby as a reader, but I’ve also always felt there was more to the women’s stories beneath the surface. Daisy says in the original that the best thing a girl can be is “a beautiful little fool.” But I always felt certain she was so much more than that! My novel explores Daisy’s story, as well as Jordan’s, Myrtle’s, and Myrtle’s sister, Catherine’s. What happens during the investigation of Jay Gatsby’s death that sends the police in a tailspin? In the original novel, Jay Gatsby is murdered, and George Wilson is found shot dead nearby, and the police wrap up the case as a murder-suicide. In my novel, one detective finds a diamond hairpin in the bushes by Jay Gatsby’s pool, and that leads him to start looking closer at the women in Gatsby’s orbit. Let’s talk about the three suspects, starting with Daisy Buchanan. How is she connected to the murder victim? Well, as we know from the original novel, Daisy and Jay met and dated in 1917 in Louisville, where…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: THE MAGNOLIA PALACE by Fiona Davis
Author Guest / January 28, 2022

Jen Vido: What inspired your new book, THE MAGNOLIA PALACE? Fiona Davis: THE MAGNOLIA PALACE was inspired by the Frick Collection, a museum in New York City that was home to Henry Clay Frick (an industrialist and art collector), and his family. I loved that it was both a residence and a museum, which works well with a dual-timeline novel. Some of the characters are real people – Henry Clay Frick and Helen Frick, his adult daughter, in particular. And some are fictional, like Lillian, who’s inspired by a celebrated artists’ model from the 1910s named Audrey Munson. Audrey posed for the reclining nude figure that’s carved above the entrance to the Frick mansion. In 1919, what happens in Lillian Carter’s life that lands her in the Frick mansion? Lillian has been struggling in her career as an artists’ model since her mother died earlier that year, and then was accused by the police of being part of a sordid love triangle after her landlord killed his wife. (The scandal is drawn directly from Audrey Munson’s real life.) Early in the book, Lillian is staring up at the image of herself in the Frick’s doorway, wondering what’s going to become…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: SOMEBODY’S HOME by Kaira Rouda
Author Guest / January 21, 2022

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, SOMEBODY’S HOME? Kaira Rouda: Actually, although it doesn’t mention the pandemic, the idea was inspired by those lockdown times early in the pandemic where home felt like the only safe place to be. And then I thought, but what if it isn’t. Let’s talk about Julie Jones. What’s happening in her life that sparks a new beginning? Julie realizes her daughter, Jess, is about to leave home for college and she is running out of time to find a real connection between them. Her marriage is a sham, and she is longing for a more genuine life. It’s time for a fresh start: A new home for herself and her daughter. Who is Tom Dean, and what’s his connection to the house Julie and her daughter desire to call home? Tom Dean is a lost twenty-something. He and his father, Doug, are estranged, his father’s wife, his stepmom Sandi, has tried to reach him without success. When Sandi and Doug sell the family home, Tom feels the last connection to his real mom slip away. Tom decides he won’t move from the carriage house in the back, despite the fact the new owners…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE GREEK TOWN by Kate Collins
Author Guest / December 3, 2021

Jennifer Vido: What is the premise behind the Goddess of Greene St. Mystery series? Kate Collins: After a tough divorce, Chicago investigative reporter Athena Spencer returns to her roots in the tourist town of Sequoia, Michigan, to live with her big, noisy Greek family in the rambling family home. Named after the fabled goddess of war and wisdom, Athena takes a job at the family’s garden center on Greene Street, where she encounters a mysterious stranger who entangles her in a murder mystery. Her love of investigating catapults her into danger, and her success at capturing a killer earns her the title of Goddess of Greene Street. The stories have mystery, mayhem, romance, and lots of fun thanks to Athena’s crazy Greek family. Let’s talk about your latest installment, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE GREEKTOWN. Please share with us the inspiration behind this new caper. The murder mystery in this book centers around a photographer who shows up at the town’s art festival on Lake Michigan to take photos for the local newspaper and is found dead on the dunes with his camera missing. My inspiration for this plot came after I attended a fund-raising art fair crowded with shoppers. I…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET by Karen White
Author Guest / November 19, 2021

Jen: THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET is the seventh and final book in the Tradd Street series. How did you arrive at the premise? Karen: The best part of a series is that it’s basically one long book with multiple plot lines that get resolved throughout the series.  Since I knew THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET would be the last, I knew that for the first time that loose ends weren’t a possibility.  Every single unanswered question, mystery, plot, character arc had to come to a complete resolution.  And, of course, the conclusion of the major cliffhanger at the end of the previous book, THE CHRISTMAS SPIRITS ON TRADD STREET.  This gave me the main guide I needed for this book’s premise.  The second, but equally important guide, was the spin-off series that will follow the Tradd Street Series.  Nola Trenholm will be the main protagonist, as will a new character, Beau Ryan, who is introduced in The Attic on Queen Street.  Beau is from New Orleans which is where the new series will be set, and there is a lot of mystery surrounding him and his family.  This is why at the end of the book, Nola is headed…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: DOCTORS AND FRIENDS by Kimmery Martin
Author Guest / November 5, 2021

Jen: What inspired you to start writing DOCTORS AND FRIENDS in early 2019? Kimmery: You know what they say about fiction: write what you know. I’m a former ER doctor so it was natural for me to write medical fiction. In 2018 I wrote a column about my desire to base a novel around an infectious disease doctor who would embody some of the characteristics of my late father: somebody innovative and scientific and data-driven and quirky. Initially, I envisioned the novel as a cautionary tale. We hadn’t experienced a major pandemic in a long time and since it was inevitable that one was going to occur at some point, I thought it would be interesting to explore how that might play out in the era of modern medicine. In 1918, when a highly virulent form of superflu decimated large chunks of the population, things were very different than they are now. (Or so I thought! It turns out we repeated many of our same mistakes … but that will undoubtedly be the subject of much nonfiction analysis.) The main protagonist of DOCTORS AND FRIENDS is an ID doctor at the CDC, and when a new viral outbreak occurs, she…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: ONCE UPON A WARDROBE by Patti Callahan
Author Guest / October 22, 2021

Jennifer Vido : What inspired you to write Once Upon a Wardrobe? Patti Callahan: It’s so hard to answer what inspired me for this novel and yet that very fact is what inspired me to write this book! I often wonder what inspired some of my favorite tales, and when I interview other authors for Friends and Fiction, I ask other authors, “What is the origin story of your story?” And even I am often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” And the answer changes with time because we might look back and see where a story originated in hindsight. So this novel, Once Upon a Wardrobe, is a story that grew out of many other stories. When I was writing the novel Becoming Mrs. Lewis, I realized that the year that C. S. Lewis and Joy Davidman met through letters was the same year that The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was released. During research, I would often see small crumbs of Narnia in C. S. Lewis’ young and middle life. Those crumbs stayed with me and I wanted to show them in a story. I wondered — What made Lewis start and then stop and then…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR by Tara Laskowski
Author Guest / October 8, 2021

Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR? Tara Laskowski: I’ve been in several mom groups on Facebook or other places, and I’ve seen so much inner sniping and judging in those groups—along with a fierce protectiveness and defending as well. That, coupled with the strong community that forms with the parents in various schools, really got me thinking about how competitive and cliquish parents can be, especially when it comes to their kids. I think that was maybe the kernel of the story, and the rest of it fell out from there. Let’s talk about Theresa Pressley. How does she feel about moving to the idyllic suburban cul-de-sac Ivy Woods Drive? She thinks it’s a dream come true for her. I used to love driving by people’s houses at night and catching glimpses of families inside and wondering what their lives were like. When I was in grad school, I used to drive past this one house in my apartment’s neighborhood, and I loved that house. I always thought it would be a great house to live in. This is how Theresa feels. She used to look at Ivy Woods as the place that she’d live…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: OTHER PEOPLE’S THINGS by Kerry Anne King
Author Guest / September 24, 2021

Jen: What inspired you to write OTHER PEOPLE’S THINGS? Kerry: Get ready for a two-part answer! The first hit of inspiration is thanks to the wonderful people who come in and clean my house every other week. I hate cleaning, so this is a little gift I give myself. The Viking and I go out for breakfast, and when we come home it’s like the magical elves have been there. Anyway. This one morning as I was putting my key in the lock and thinking about the cleaners, this little blip of an idea flitted through my brain: What if there was a cleaning person who could read the energy on objects in a person’s house that let her know things about the people who lived there? So I sort of filed that away somewhere in my brain. Much later, I was ready to start writing a new book but didn’t really have any good ideas. So I sat down, opened my journal, and wrote on a blank page: Auditioning for New Ideas. And then I started scribbling and Nickle, the main character in OTHER PEOPLE’S THINGS, showed up and started talking to me. Not that she told me much…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: PAPER DOLL LINA by Robyn Lucas
Author Guest / September 10, 2021

Jen: What inspired you to write PAPER DOLL LINA? Robyn: After Charlottesville in 2017, I pulled back from social media and the news because it was such a horrible event to witness. I had a difficult time reconciling the fact that something like that was happening in 2017 vs 1950. In unplugging, I turned to writing and quickly discovered these characters. I didn’t realize what I was writing about until I was well into revisions. Please describe Lina Henry and the life she leads. Lina Henry is a forty-something at-home mom who lives a Pinterest-perfect life. To the outside world, she and her family are #familygoals. When we meet Lina in the first chapter, she feels one-dimensional and likens herself to a paper doll— something to be dressed up and seen, not heard. Lina spends the novel learning how to breathe life into her paper doll existence to where she is a multi-dimensional, fully formed person who thrives. What happens to Lina that causes her to take matters into her own hands? Lina’s children develop a website that goes viral. Through their handwork and determination, Lina begins to fight for them and eventually for herself. She also reconnects with her…