As we speed closer and closer to Boas & Tiaras we decided to give you more insight into our attending authors. We’ll highlight one author in each newsletter with five quick questions. First up, one of our Guests of Honor, Jodi Thomas. Pitch us your newest book in one sentence. MORNINGS ON MAIN is a powerful, heartwarming story about generations of family, their lives, their loves and the ironclad bonds they forge. Nominated last week for the National Readers Choice award. (Congratulations!) What book made you fall in love with the genre(s) you write? I learned to write women’s fiction when I wrote THE WIDOWS OF WICHITA COUNTY, but I fell in love with it writing RANSOM CANYON. Strong Texas men, ranching, and a great love story. Tell us about your favorite character you’ve ever written. Tyler Wright was 42, overweight, balding, hadn’t had a date in two years and was the town funeral director, but he loved people. When he stepped on stage in the first book of the Harmony series he came alive. In fact, for that year he often got more fan mail than I did. What do you do to de-stress when you’re on a writing deadline?…

Like most people in small towns, my daily life is woven between generations. I never remember a time when I said, “I’m not sure what to do or which way to turn.” I’ve always had relatives around, not only giving me advice, but pushing me in what they think is the right direction. So when I began MORNINGS ON MAIN I knew I wanted to show those threads. My main character, Jillian, steps into a town and a world foreign to her. She’s a drifter who doesn’t pack her even memories as she moved from place to place. When Jillian takes a job in Laurel Springs, she finds far more than what she planned. Eugenia Larady, Gram to her family, has owned a quilt shop for fifty years. The quilts lining her walls hold the history of the town and its people. As Gram’s mind slips, Jillian rushes to log all the stories and quilts with the help of Eugenia’s great-granddaughter, Sunny, who is hell bent to make her own wild memories as fast as possible. As the stories of lives in the town come to light, so do secrets and loves that have lasted a lifetime. Jillian is drawn…

Sometimes a story sits in the back of a writer’s head, waiting its turn to come out. INDIGO LAKE was like that. The two main characters came from two different worlds. Blade had no family who cares about him and Dakota was sometimes smothered in her responsibilities. Both were looking for someone, the right person, to fill the longing, but neither would admit it. Blade Hamilton had inherited a house he cared nothing about. After driving all day to look at it, he’d decided to sell it all, land, house and heritage. He hadn’t known about his father and he didn’t need an old crippled house with wild roses growing almost to the roof. Dakota Davis had heard her grandmother’s dark stories about the Hamilton house all her life. When she turned off the county road heading toward home, she thought she was seeing a ghost standing knee-deep in Indigo Lake. As they get to know one another they begin to care and the love they share seems to cut their problems in half. I love writing stories about people who become so real to me that I wake up nights worrying about them. That’s how it was with Blade…

With TEXAS BLUE in April I’m releasing my 31st book and my 24th Historical Romance.(My book video for TEXAS BLUE is out today) I’ve been a National Bestseller since my third book and on the USAToday and NYTimes lists since book 16. I have the Harmony Series going in mainstream fiction and sales are equaling my historical sales already. As a bestseller in two running series, I’m being asked over and over what the secret is and I’ve given it some thought. A few years ago a writer visited Amarillo to give a speech. She said, “I’m excited to be in the hometown of Jodi Thomas for here must be very rare air indeed.”In one way she was right. Writers do develop in rare air, but not pure air. Most people who make their living writing have stumbled, tumbled until they are covered with scars. The bumps they took molded them into what they are as writers far more than simply talent did. First, those who succeed, treat writing as a profession. Writing is only half the game, the business of writing is the other half. A woman asked me if she should take a class. (She didn’t feel she…

On the month that my 30th novel comes out I’d like to talk about dealing with being gifted. Over the years, when beginning writers come to me and say, “Do I have what it takes to be a writer? Am I gifted?” I always remember the night I followed my writing teacher out of class. I’d just read my first chapter of my first novel. Handwritten on yellow legal paper. I knew nothing of plotting, viewpoint, characterization or even manuscript format. I’d just signed up for a community class at the college and had dreams of hitting within months. While we walked to her car, I asked her one question after another. I’m sure she was wondering if I could be some kind of writer/stalker by the time we reached her car. With the door open, I blurted out my last question. “Do you think I can be a writer? I mean a real writer.” She smiled (or at least I think she did for we were standing on a dark parking lot) and said, “If you work really, really hard you’ll make it.” I danced back to my car thinking my writing teacher had seen something in me that…

What are you guys thinking about the new season of “True Blood?” I like that executive producer and creator Alan Ball takes liberties with the story. And what did you think of “Eclipse?” I’m a fan of the film franchise and the series of books. I feel like director David Slade did a great job with pacing in the film. There’s angsty romance, but it’s mixed with some stellar action. He took the best elements of the books made some twists here and there, and created what may be my favorite of three films. In fact, I liked the film better than the book. There are several other books made into films this summer including BEEZUS AND RAMONA BEASTLY, EAT, PRAY, LOVE, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD and “The Switch”. It’s always interesting to see how the adaptations work. Out of all the films coming out this summer, I’m most looking forward to “Eat, Pray, Love.” I really hope they don’t screw it up. One series I wish they would turn into movies or a television show is Annette Blair’s Vintage Magic. The third installment is DEATH BY DIAMONDS. “I was having a discussion about my second mystery with my…

Today is the day REWRITING MONDAY hits the stands. For a writer it’s kind of like the birth of a child, without all the pain of course. This is my 28th book and still I love going into the bookstores and just holding a copy in my hands. For my first ten books my husband and I made a habit of driving all over town and seeing the books on the shelves in every store. Sometimes I’ll buy three or four of my own book that first day. One kid checking me out late one night asked, “Are you aware all three of these are the same book?” I laughed and said, “Yes, but I just love to read it over and over.” This one will make you laugh and hopefully, you’ll fall in love with the characters. Now finish the blog by clicking here and comment to win your own copy… Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

I’ve been lucky in writing. I’ve been in the game 20 years with twenty seven books on the shelf with my name on them. I’ve had a wonderful time, lots of fun, many dear friends and only a few bumps along the road. My brother says we have Irish Luck in our family. He knew it the month after he came home from Viet Nam wounded. Someone said to him, “Man, are you lucky. You were hit bad enough to send you home but not so bad that you won’t recover.” My brother’s one thought was that if he’d been lucky, he wouldn’t have been hit at all. Sometimes I feel the same way about my writing career. Man, am I lucky. Lucky it only took me four or five years to find an editor. Longer to find an agent. Lucky I picked a field, Historical Romance, about the time it died. Lucky my wonderful editor kept getting pregnant and finally quit. But, remember, I have Irish luck. In all those years of waiting I kept writing so when I did sell, I sold five books in 15 months. Lucky I picked Historical Romance and stayed in until finally as…

The decorations at our back!Originally uploaded by freshfiction Yikes, it’s Saturday and I’m supposed to blog if I can’t find a fill-in. So, okay, an eventful week to recap! First we had our annual Scary Spaghetti Book Club at the Shilhanek house in Garland. LET ME TELL YOU, you needed to be brave to sit and EAT in this decorated to the gills house! Mike S. took his passion for scary stuff and over the years has a collection that is UNBELIEVABLE. Plus it moves, moans, walks, talks and is generally extremely frightening. Even going to the bathroom takes courage! TMI I’m sure, you’ll have to meet us in person to get all the “gory” bathroom details! THE ACCIDENTAL DEMON SLAYER by Angie FoxOriginally uploaded by freshfiction So, if you don’t believe me, check out our photos on Flickr…even my son was impressed! And you know it takes allot to impress guys when talking spooky stuff! BTW, the food was as always amazing and very fattening! The wine helped too *grin* Well, we had the scary atmosphere and our call-in guest was Angie Fox author of THE ACCIDENTAL DEMON SLAYER But the best for the week is my glomming of…

When considering a topic, I’ve decided to go with one few writers talk about–How do we get back up when we fall. In my writing career of nearly twenty years, like most writers I’ve had my ups and downs. Once, just after my fifth book came out, my numbers were so bad my editor assured me I wouldn’t be writing another book for them, except for the fact I’d signed a two book contract. I was down and almost went back to teaching. I’d already written book six, so I decided to try one more time. I won a RITA with that sixth book. Since then I’ve learned to take the ups with the downs. I love the ups—the awards, the lists, the money—but I think it’s been the downs I’ve had that have taught me the most in this game of writing. Sometimes I’ve learned to try harder. Sometimes I’ve learned to trust myself. This year I decided to take another chance. With my next Historical Romance, TEXAS PRINCESS coming out in November, I’m hard at work on something different. In April I’ll have a book of a different kind released. TWISTED CREEK, I can only hope my readers…