1–How much my series would change because of readers. A lot of authors will tell you not to read reviews. Dental surgery and spinal taps are more preferable than risking the maelstrom of reader opinions on Amazon or Goodreads. And that makes sense, to a degree. Nothing has ever been published that everyone loves. You’re going to get negative reviews, and some of those negative reviewers are going to tell you what they hated with zest & passion. Me? I’ve read every word people wrote about THE LAST SUN. And the thing that amazes me? How much insight there was in those reviews. How many fair criticism were filled with support, but also guidance for immediate course correction. For instance: many readers who really, really liked my book also faulted it for having few positive female characters. (I’ve written about this before – it’s part of my Journey as a writer, learning that having a book filled with gay white men isn’t as diverse as I’d once imagined it to be.) And so in THE HANGED MAN, you have Lady Death. And Anna Dawncreek. I am so excited where these new characters will take me. I am half in love…

At the 2008 Romance Writers of America conference, a talented and prolific author entertained and informed attendees as a luncheon keynote speaker. We delighted in her anecdote concerning her husband. Relating that he had never read a single one of her impressive body of published novels, she declared that she always made a point to kill somebody in each of her books with her husband’s first name. The moral of her story for us is: real men should read romance for their overall health, oh yes, and enjoyment. Our contention is not as tongue in cheek as it sounds. Men are, of course, half the equation in the yin and yang of traditional romance genres. Our heroes yearn for equal measures of romantic fulfillment and personal happily ever after conclusions as do our heroines. Sensuality, present in varying degrees in romance, isn’t as tantalizing and stimulating to the…imagination…for men? Our virile husbands are delighted (forced) to read our books. In fact one of our husbands brought our latest release on a men only long weekend in the deep woods. By day, he and his friends blazed trails on ATV’s, fished and threw their catches back in the lake, canoed, hiked,…

I’d like to first thank Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog on their wonderful site – Thanks so much! I’m so lucky to have such great support from the various book websites and review sites throughout the Internet. It has been one of many unexpected surprises when I became a published author. Another happy and unexpected result has been reader emails. Now some of you may be thinking, of course you’d get emails. But I had been so focused on getting my story published; that I hadn’t really considered what would happen once the book hit the shelves. Click to read the rest of Maria’s blog and to comment. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Every day Fresh Fiction has a new “Fresh Pick,” a book recommended by readers not necessarily reviewers although I think there are a few reviewers opinions sought during the process. But the cool thing–does that age me — is a group of readers sit down and come up with the best books for a theme. The books are usually fiction but sometimes a cook book or self-help will creep in. I’ve heard the arguments that most self-help and cookbooks are works of fiction anyway. Could be the non-cooks complaining and I won’t even touch the bit about the self-help since I’m rather fond of those myself. Anyway, for the past few months the looming days around the end-of-year holidays is always a hot topic. Like what are the books you read to get into the mood, when do you start reading, is Halloween too early? What do you like to read, something uplifting to raise spirits, something fluffy to get away from all the stress? And gifts. What do you give someone — gasp — who doesn’t read? Or someone who only reads a certain genre. Everyone knows someone so prejudiced, you buy them a contemporary when they only read…

Over the last weeks the Olympics have been what quite a few of my friends have been discussing. Mostly they’re talking about Michael Phelps and his phenomenal performance in not only winning eight gold medals, but in the process also setting seven world records. It has been about thirty-six years since Mark Spitz set the record that Michael Phelps has broken. So all this hoopla that has so rightly surrounded this year’s Olympics has gotten me to thinking about how many books people are able to read in a year and how that might translate into an Olympic medal. From my surfing around the net I have discovered that some people have amazing reading speed. eharlequin has challenged their members to read and blog one hundred thousand books this year and they will donate books to The National Center for Family Literacy. Yes, I do my best to contribute to this worthy cause and post my books there, but so far this year I’ve only read or listened to eighty-one books, while one member has read five hundred eighty! She would surely be a contender for a gold medal. I on the other hand can only wish to be in…

Writers are readers, first and foremost, and I know a lot of my romance-writing pals read romance for pleasure. I used to read romance for pleasure, but when you write romance all day, it can be sort of a stretch to try and relax with one. That’s not to say I never read it—of course I do—but I don’t read it like I used to. For BOOK OF SCANDAL, my latest release (in stores now), I read a couple of riveting biographies. You would think it really dry reading, but if you are into the regency period like I am, sometimes those books can read like the People Magazine of its time. There was some down and dirty goings-on! The first book I read, The Princesses, by Flora Fraser, was about the six daughters of King George III. I didn’t even know he had six daughters. They were strictly monitored and kept close to the king and queen so as not to gain reputations—while their seven brothers were out gallivanting around and being accused of all sorts of things: adultery, secret marriages, incest, and even murder. Moreover, the king and queen were pretty picky about who they would marry their…

Hello, everyone. My name is Jessica Barksdale Inclan, and I’m the author of a few novels, the latest BEING WITH HIM, a paranormal romance from Kensington. I am so happy to be here today at Freshfiction.com. I blog daily at www.redrom.com/, but it’s nice to have a new place to meet people. As I was thinking about what to write about to you today, I realized I didn’t want to talk about writing but reading. Writers usually are always readers first. And as that is the case with me, I relate most with being a reader. That’s what I do. That’s what I am. Reading saved me. It has always saved me. From before I could read myself, my mother’s daily and nightly reading to me saved me, kept me from thinking my own thoughts sometimes, giving me new thoughts to think about. Reading put me into worlds I had never been, worlds I wanted to go to. Reading was something I could do when all else failed. In fourth grade, I was tested at 12th grade reading level and a 2nd grade math level. Things have changed relatively little in that regard, the wide disparity still there. But then…

Book clubs are HOT HOT HOT now and I know why! If you find a good one, it’s more than just a time to discuss books and find reading “soul mates.” It can be a time just for “me” when I can rattle on about a loved book, rant about the waste of paper for another, or marvel over the world created by a talented author’s imagination and skill. Being part of a “club” gives me companions to go to a book signing or just the reassurance a series will continue. The power of group thought outweighs all those other publishing business strategies. My favorite part about being a member of a book club is when we can all get together–over a great cocktail–and talk about what our favorite books of the past month have been. We do our book club a little bit differently than your usual Oprah book club. Instead of everyone being assigned a mandatory book, we each read what we like and “swap” books over tea or dinner. Doing it this way allows everyone to learn about a hot new author, or even rediscover an old friend. Either way, everyone always leaves our meetings with arms…

I stumbled upon Fresh Fiction from the recommendation of a friend who loves the site. As I began surfing, I thought to myself, “Wow, we have come so far as authors and readers.” It hasn’t been too long since the only places you could find good books were in the bookstores and in the libraries. That meant that a lot of great books could never be found or read by readers. Why? Simply because of the limited resources needed to make the books available. Can you imagine walking into a bookstore and having to walk through a small sky scraper in order to browse every book available? Neither time nor money exist for something like that. Besides, there is something cozy about visiting a library or bookstore with a cup of coffee or tea in hand to browse through your favorite genre for a couple of hours. Can you imagine having to schedule your two-week vacation to do just that if every book ever written was available to you in a bookstore? But the internet has broken through the barriers to make that happen. It has become “The Great Equalizer”. As readers, we have access to books that would never…

I have a confession to make: Most of my friends don’t read romances. For one reason or another, they simply…don’t read romances. Period. Either they’re worried about being judged by the racy covers, or they think all that romance stuff is “a fairy tale,” or they prefer to read exclusively about serial killers, or they’ve tried one (just one!) romance–possibly a decade ago, or more–and have decided the whole genre just isn’t for them. That’s okay with me. I mean, there are occasionally awkward moments between us, I’ll admit that. Because I’m passionate about reading and writing romances! I think they’re awesome. I like to celebrate the power of love, the thrill of attraction, and all the wonderful differences between men and women. At the same time, I’m a live-and-let-live kind of person. I don’t think it’s up to me to try to “convert” anyone to my favorite genre. I wouldn’t like it if someone tried to force me to take up lawn bowling or sushi eating or PlayStation playing (it would be futile; I’m a Nintendo Wii gal). Our dissimilarities make us uniquely interesting, and the world would be a boring place if everyone liked the same things. That…