Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Wendy Roberts!   Writes: I’ve always been drawn to reading multiple genres and when I started writing, it was hard to choose just one – so I didn’t! I write murder mysteries with a healthy dash of paranormal and a sprinkle of romance mixed in for good measure. My stories feature strong heroines with unique gifts. My newest book, BURNING HOPE, is about a young woman named, Red, who is living the vagabond lifestyle in her campervan. She is also a fire seer who finds herself the suspect in a small town murder investigation.   About: Are you someone who loves to travel and doesn’t mind getting lost on an adventure? If so, we just might be the perfect match. When I’m not writing on the road in my campervan, I call Vancouver Canada home. I’m a sucker for sunrises with coffee, sunsets with wine and evenings spent watching true crime documentaries. I’m a fan of all things mysterious but a…

1–What is the title of your latest release? WITCH IN RETROGRADE released January 2022. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? 49-year-old Police Detective and witch, Sarah Jane Prentice, navigates life without her husband as she faces a serial killer in her town, a nosy spirit guide, and the loss of her magic. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Originally, I had the book set in Atlanta, but quickly realized its been more than 25 years since I lived there, and cities change so much. Placing it in California, specifically Silicon Valley gave me a great opportunity to share what I’ve learned living here for the past 10 years. I’ve really grown to love the area and setting is a character unto itself, so I’m excited about presenting it that way. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. I like her a lot. Which is important to me as a writer because I intend to spend a lot of time with her in the future. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Smart, determined, no nonsense and loving. I know, I know that’s four. LOL 6–What’s something you…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Carrie Pulkinen!   Writes: Award-winning paranormal romance that’s snarky, sassy, and just a bit naughty. From shifters to psychics to ghosts, vampires, witches, and demons, you’re sure to find a supernatural being in your favorite flavor. Get lost in exciting worlds full of magic, mischief, and lots of laughs.   About: I’m a USA Today bestselling author who loves anything and everything paranormal. My sense of humor has been called dark and slightly twisted, and I love it when readers laugh out loud at my stories. I’m a wife and a mother to two teens and two dogs, a former high school teacher, a Mardi Gras dancer, and one helluva cook. I love coffee, chocolate, and wine, and yes, I do believe in ghosts.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Readers who love: Nice guys who will move heaven and earth for the women they love Sassy heroines who aren’t afraid to go after what they want Side-splitting laughter Puns…

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…

Danielle: Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Karen! We are so excited to have you here. It’s a bittersweet day, because the last book in the Tradd Street series, THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET, has finally arrived. What has writing this series meant to you? How do you think you’ve changed during the course of writing about Tradd Street?   Karen:   The idea for the series began in 2005—sixteen years ago!  A lot can happen in sixteen years.  My children, then 13 and 11, have gone through high school, college, and grad school (lots of graduations!) and are now launched into adulthood with one wedding on the horizon.  We acquired two dogs, and lost one, remodeled our kitchen, bathrooms, and pretty much everything else, and bought a beach house.  We survived a pandemic and I inherited the care of my elderly parents.  All this while writing all seven books in the series plus nineteen other books and a chapter in an anthology.  I’m not sure I slept very much! I had never written a series before, and when the idea first hit me, I knew immediately it had to be set in a Southern city filled with lots of history, gorgeous architecture and, of course,…

People change.  It’s one of the oldest adages in the book.  And yet, there’s a deeper truth: people RESIST change, even change they ought to embrace (because often change equals opportunity). For example, we moved in December 2020, because the company my husband works for relocated to a different part of North Texas.  I did not want to move, and the re-location was close enough that – in theory – we could have stayed where we were, and Jake would have just had a longer commute.  Much longer, but still doable, especially since he was partly working from home.  So much had already changed during the pandemic.  I had started teaching my continuing education writing classes from home.  I’d even had to have a virtual book launch party. But by wholesale saying no more change, I was missing out on an opportunity.  Jake and I were living in a one-bedroom apartment, which had worked until suddenly we were both working from home – with different work styles.  I have to have noise on in the background.  Jake needs quiet to focus.  We needed a change – just to function.  Once we committed to the move, we found a place that…

My husband and I have had plenty of ups and down, and we always try to put the pain, joy, and absurd humor of our daily lives into our novels. It’s one of the reasons readers tell us they’ve formed deep connections with our characters, especially our amateur sleuth, single mom and coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi, whose quirky adventures and complicated love life have helped us sell more than one million books in our Coffeehouse Mystery series. With Clare now on a path to be married to her longtime boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, my husband and I began our Brewed Awakening story development with a conversation over (no surprise) coffee. After everything Marc and I have gone through as a couple, we wondered: What if our years together were suddenly wiped from our memories? Would we be drawn to each other again? If so, how exactly does “like” deepen into something more? When does love begin? To tell this story, we agreed that Clare would have to suffer from a traumatic memory loss. Her damaged memory ends up wiping away years of experiences, including every single memory of Detective Mike Quinn, the man she’s grown to love over our…

As I write this blog my flower beds are in bloom. My irises are gorgeous, my daisies are abundant, and my carnations are fragrant. It’s too bad something dark and sinister is creeping into the shadows. That’s right, a murderer is on the loose in my garden and an APB won’t do my beauties any good. Because tonight they will face one of the worst killers known to their kind—Jack Frost. Their death by his hand (or heroic saving by mine) might lead to some nail-biting moments on my part, but I have a feeling I’m the only one who’s truly invested or interested in their next chapter. I mean it’s not like the New York Times will write about their premature death or my valiant attempt to save their lives. But I have dug up some truly newsworthy mysteries Jack Frost can’t touch. The covers caught my eye like the blossoms in my yard, the plots are much better formed than my best buds and the characters charmed me with their style and wit. Yes, the mysteries are in bloom, and all we have to do to catch the culprits is keep turning the page. Wicked Honeymoon  An Ivy…

Have you ever planned something so perfectly, only to have it be a complete flop? On the other hand, have you had something randomly brilliant happen that came at the right time because you were in the right place? TheBook Magic Mysteries, for me, is that bit of random brilliance. The beginning of the Book Magic Mysteries started about three years ago with a neighborhood walk. I was with my good friend and fellow mystery writer, Wendy Lyn Watson. On this walk, she had been musing about a book idea featuring a bibliomancer. Being a book lover, I was immediately hooked by the idea. I insisted that she write this book, but adulting got in the way (in the form of other book contracts and Wendy’s day job as a professor). Fast forward to 2020. Wendy and I were talking from afar (I moved to North Carolina, and Wendy is still in North Texas) and the bibliomancy series came up during our conversation. One thing led to another, and pretty soon we were plotting an epic series that spans two coasts, features cousins Cora Lane and Pippin Lane Hawthorne, and centers around the Lane women’s gift (or curse) of bibliomancy….

Top 5 Reasons to Read A SPRINKLING OF MURDER, the first Fairy Garden Mystery Have you heard of the Fairy Garden Mysteries? They’re new. The first, A Sprinkling of Murder, is just out. It’s set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and features Courtney Kelly, a former landscaper who has taken a leap of faith and created her own fairy garden shop called Open Your Imagination. Courtney believes in inviting magic into one’s life, but when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she’ll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . . There are a lot of reasons that readers are falling in love with the Fairy Garden Mysteries, but here are the top five. Fiona, the righteous fairy. Fiona is a fairy-in-training. She should be a full-fledged fairy by now, but imp that she is, she did one too many pranks in fairy school, so the queen fairy has booted her out and subjected her to probation, during which time Fiona must get serious. By helping a human solve problems–that’s what righteous fairies are good at–she could earn her way back into the ranks. Fiona is fun, whimsical, and earnest. A powerful combo. Courtney Kelly, fairy garden…