Here’s an exclusive excerpt of Maggie Shayne’s FIONA: ORIGINS FMI: https://MaggieShayne.com/fionaorigins     When I came home after a night of partying with my friends that beautiful spring morn, the last thing I expected to see was my parents lying on the floor of our cottage. I ran to my father first, as he was the nearer. But he was cool to the touch, chalk white, eyes closed, still in his nightclothes. Dead. My da was dead. “No!” I fell to my knees beside him, pressed my fingers to his neck in search of his pulse, but instead I felt, and then saw, two small dark wounds. I gasped and drew my hand away, but my gaze stuck fast. The punctures were swollen and red; there was not a drop of blood to be found, not even on his skin. We’d argued the night before. My last words to him had been unkind. “Oh, Da,” I whispered, “I’m sorry. If you want to move away, we’ll move away. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Da. I’m sorry.” “Fiona,” Ma whispered. “Ma?” She was alive! I scuttled to her side. She lay faceup on the floor, still wearing her nightgown and her soft…

Chapter One   The most familiar eleven notes of Chopin’s Funeral March droned from the programmable doorbell’s hidden speakers. Kiley probably should have taken that as a sign. She was snuggling with Jack on the sofa, watching their favorite TV show, and making fun of the phony ghost hunters’ manufactured fear of static sounds on their digital recorders. She wasn’t sure how life could be as good as it currently was, but it was damn near perfect. Their ghost busting business was providing the whole gang a steady income, the house was amazing, Lady El was minding her own beeswax (mostly,) and she and Jack were damn near perfect. Hush, sister. You wanna jinx it?           The house ghost’s face superimposed itself over the TV show, translucent, like a reflection. Tonight, Lady El wore a gold turban, her lashes were a jungle, and her jowls were a little bit saggy. “Someone’s at the door,” Jack said. “Yeah, I guessed that by the doorbell. And who added the Funeral March to the repertoire?” That was me. Lady El, puffed her cigarette, and blew lavender-scented and non-carcinogenic (she promised) smoke at her. Kiley was usually the only one who could smell it,…

When I was in second grade, and it was my turn to choose the book from which our teacher would read aloud, I chose The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. And when she started to read it, I recited the opening lines aloud, along with her. Mom got a note. I’ve never been anybody’s definition of normal and my love for the macabre is family legend. But I have been around for a while. Nobody was publishing vampire romances when I started writing Twilight Phantasies (currently FREE in E.) Anne Rice was publishing her lush, vivid, passionate Vampire Chronicles outside the romance genre, and I was devouring them, but there was nothing within. The newborn genre of paranormal romance hadn’t even been named yet. Yet here I was, writing something that had very little hope of being published. I took my novel’s title from Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats by Percy Bysshe Shelley. That’s why phantasies is spelled with a ph as it was in the piece’s thirteenth stanza, which is, I think, the most beautiful. There were no vampire novels with “twilight” in the title at that time. In fact, I had published ten…

1–What is the title of your latest release? FATAL FAMILY SECRETS – April 19th, 2022 A rom-com ghost mystery with a Scooby gang you’ll want to join! 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When a boy’s guardian angels turn deadly, he needs help only the gang from Spook Central can provide. But his pretty older sister throws a twist into the budding romance between Johnny Redhawk, who’s developed a new and game-changing power, and the gang’s resident witch Maya, who thinks they should cool things off. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Years ago, for a book signing, I drove a couple of hours east to a small town near Saratoga Springs New York called Burnt Hills and fell in love. There was a new & used bookstore, The Ballston Book House in Ballston Spa, just a stone’s throw from there, in a converted and happily haunted Victorian house. That’s the setting. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? For sure, because I am my heroines in real life. Every one of them has a multitude of my own traits in varying combinations and levels. Some have my potty…

It’s June and the Texas heat has settled in for the summer. If I’m not out the door by 6:45am, we skip the trip to the dog park because it’s just too hot. So, fun means indoor and air-conditioned activities. Movies, television, shopping, and going to the gym are all on the list. Of course, my favorite activity is curling-up in bed with a good book. Now that I have a new mattress (what took me so long?), napping and reading are my two favorite ways to relax. This month, there are some great choices in romantic suspense to keep you entertained while you stay cool. FADE TO MIDNIGHT McCloud Shannon McKenna Kensington; $20.95 I can’t wait to read McKenna’s latest addition to the McCloud series which answers the question—What happened to Kevin? Davy, Connor, and Sean mourned the loss of their brother, Kevin, in Edge of Midnight, Out of Control, and Standing in the Shadows. When the McCloud brothers discover Kev is alive, they won’t rest until they find him. Beaten and tortured almost to death, Kev Larsen was found eighteen years earlier in a warehouse alley. He survived his brutal ordeal, but his memories before that night were…

There are many things I like about reviewing, but the thing I think I like the best is being able to get books ahead of the publication date. It’s really rather funny because it’s also the thing I hate most about being a reviewer, because it seems like I read those books, and then have an even longer wait for the author to release another new title. Recently I’ve been able to read books by Sharon Sala and Maggie Shayne who will both be having trilogies release this summer. In the case of Ms. Sala, her first title BLOWN AWAY is in bookstores. I loved this book, and could hardly set it aside when I read it. The first book in the Shayne trilogy isn’t due until the end of June and is titled, KILLING ME SOFTLY. AGAIN, another read I could hardly set aside! I just love trilogies! They’re the right amount of books to get me fully interested in the characters, and the continuing story lines, but not as many books as the popular J. D. Robb series, so that I can easily collect them, read them 1, 2, 3, and be done. That however poses the question…when…

Thanks to the wonderful people here at Fresh Fiction for having me over. Nice place you have here. I hope you’ll check out my group blog, www.storybroads.com/. Meanwhile, let’s chat. I have a lot of friends who are going through one of two problems. About a third are depressed, a third are fighting weight issues, and a third are battling with both. (There’s a tiny percentage in there of people who follow the same philosophy I do, who take everything in stride and are actually doing very nicely. But it’s probably less than one percent of my pals. Sadly. I’m trying to spread it around, though.) At any rate, I thought since these two problems are two I know well, have been through, and conquered, they would be my topic today. And interestingly, the same techniques are effective at fighting both depression and weight. Of course, the first one is exercise. You know I used to think I couldn’t “run” even if I wanted to. And I never really wanted to. I was one of those, yeah; I’ll run if someone’s chasing me with a knife. But a friend of mine inspired me, and so I decided to try. I…