Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Joanna Davidson Politano | 20 Questions: THE LOST MELODY
Author Guest / October 5, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE LOST MELODY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Concert pianist Vivienne Mourdant enters an asylum looking for a patient they claim is not there—and finds unexpected music in a hopeless place. The origins of music therapy combined with Victorian asylums and mental health. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I had a dream once that I woke in a strange stone house of sorts, with no memory of how I’d gotten there, or why they wouldn’t let me leave. The heroine’s journey is not quite the same, but that dream spurred me into researching asylums in Victorian England! 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! We’d play piano duets and talk music! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Musical, compassionate, determined 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Even trapped in awful circumstances, freedom does exist. There’s only so much about a person you can actually lock up. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I edit more than I write, I think. Every few pages, I go back over…

Joanna Davidson Politano | Exclusive Excerpt: A MIDNIGHT DANCE
Author Guest / September 3, 2021

Keeping his gaze on me, he unhooked a wooden bar hanging on long ropes and tossed it over. “Now, let’s start, shall we?” His look was challenging. I gripped the bar and tugged. “You don’t truly expect me to swing through the air on this contraption, do you? How will that help me dance?” “What you’ve done isn’t working, is it? I aim to give you new experiences, push you off a few of your precious safety ledges. Now hold on.” “But I’m afraid of—” “I said, hold on.” . . . heights. A gentle shove against my back and I was hurtling through open space, high over the straw-covered floors. I clutched that awful bar for dear life, digging my fingernails into the wood. I squeezed my eyes shut as I sailed through the air, then I forced one eyelid open. Another platform rose up to meet me, and I scrambled to get my feet onto it, but as my shoes touched wood, my weight pulled me back down. I trembled on the swing back, until I felt solid hands around my waist. Jack hauled me onto the loft and steadied me. “Now you know what it feels like to fly.” “I…

Joanna Davidson Politano | Title Challenge: THE LOVE NOTE
Author Guest / October 23, 2020

T is for truth, the heroine’s strength and downfall as well. In romance, in her medical career, even in prickly family matters, she cannot help but spout out the truth the moment it comes into her head. H is for happy endings, something that nearly everyone at Crestwicke lacks, and only a few will find by the end. E is for epic love story, the sort that has blossomed out of the dry stones of Crestwicke, between two unknown people connected by an old love letter. * L is for lost chances, which happened when a letter admitting to a secret love was dropped—or hidden—in the crack of a desk without ever being opened. When the heroine finds it, she is determined to reunite the secret lovers—if the chance is not already lost completely. O is for obsessed, which the lonely maid at Crestwicke becomes when she stumbles on the letter, believing she now has a secret admirer. V is for Vanish, which is what the letter does over and over, landing in different people’s hands and causing chaos below the surface that will eventually explode out into the open. E is for enduring, which is exactly what our hero…