In the vanity mirror of her old bathroom, Helena caught sight of her naked torso and wished she hadn’t. She’d known her body looked bad. But it was so much worse than she’d imagined. Water rained from the showerhead, ringing against the old claw-foot tub, a sound that should’ve comforted her for its familiarity, but it didn’t. Not now. Not staring at the disaster that was her body. Her skin bore witness to the brutality she’d suffered at the hands of the Sisters. Thick scars. Jagged scars. Smooth scars. Sunken-in hollows. Disfiguring and ghastly to look upon. The top of her left breast had a fat, puckered mark from one of the Sisters trying to bury a screwdriver in her heart. Dizziness came over her. The world distorted, fading out of focus until the only thing visible was the mess of her flesh. Every damaged piece of skin flamed to life, burning and itching in an I-won’t-ever-let-you-forget of epic proportions. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her back in the mirror. The ability to breathe stopped. Both sides bore dozens, maybe hundreds, of scars from the gang shanking she’d endured. The raised, angry skin looked like a grotesque…

My name is Evangeline Fontenot but everyone calls me Evie except my papá, he calls me ’tit ange. Little angel. I have people in my life who love me, but what I really want is a mother. I’m in the second grade and our class just got a new teacher. Her name is Miz Honeycutt and I decided she’d make a great mom. She’s real pretty, loves kids and she has a big orange cat named Henry. I know because she has a picture of Henry on her desk. I haven’t met Henry yet, but I’m sure he’s real nice too. I’ve been telling Papá about Henry and Miz Honeycutt every night at supper, but he still hasn’t gone to meet her. Bobby, a boy in my class, says he got a bad grade on his spelling test and his mom had to come to talk to Miz Honeycutt. It worked for him so I decided it might work for me. It did, but now I have to make sure Miz Honeycutt doesn’t decide she likes my uncle or anyone else better than my papá. Who knew getting a mom with a cat was this hard! Excerpt from The Sheriff’s…

(This article is dedicated to my sister-in-law, who for the past ten years single-handedly prepared the traditional Seven Fishes of Christmas Eve for her husband and his family, cleaned her house top to bottom, worked full-time and did all the Christmas shopping while being a super mom to her twins. This year, she is going out to eat. Buon Natale, Lisa!) Some people are just so organized. Bless their hearts! I found this out while I was trying to decide what to write about for Fresh Fiction. So many authors write about their books or writing—and that’s fine. But, I’m thinking—it’s close to the holidays! Who’s got time to think about books when there are meals to be prepared and houses to clean and most of all, guests coming to your home? Seriously. Even now, your family may be preparing to descend upon you and yours, like D-Day, only with in-laws and cousins.  The most wonderful time of the year? For who? Apparently, it can be that way for you. Do you know, not everyone is up until 2:00 am the night before Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? (I know! It’s shocking.) There are some things which can be…

I’m a sucker for holiday stories. Movies, books, music…if it tells a story set around the holidays, I want to know more! Being a romance writer who celebrates hope and love with every book she writes, the happier the story the better. So I was thrilled when I was asked to write my first holiday novella back…oh, let’s just say a few years (okay, okay, fifteen years) ago. What could be more fun than getting to tell my very own holiday story? Well, it turns out that while it was a blast getting to dream up a fun little holiday adventure, writing a satisfying story when you only have one hundred pages to tell that holiday tale is a wee bit of a challenge! I’m used to having four times that many pages, and even then, there are always parts that I have to trim down or leave out altogether. How in the world was I going to pull this off?  Suddenly this Christmas present was starting to feel a bit more like a trick from the Grinch. With the help of a few brainstorming author pals and possibly munching my way through far more Christmas cookies than was wise…

Exclusive Interview with Ryan Quinn, the Hero of The Memory of You 1) Greetings Ryan! Thanks for joining us today. We know you have a lot going on–you’re a single father and public defender and you just had a big move back to your hometown. Can you tell us a bit about your day-to-day life? Thanks for having me. At the moment, my day-to-day life is a bit chaotic now that I’ve temporarily moved in with my folks while my divorce is finalized. I’ve started a new job and am trying to get my young daughter to embrace a new school and make new friends. Meanwhile, my meddling mother went and hired my high school sweetheart, Steffi, to remodel her house, so now I have to see Steffi every day, too. Emmy, my daughter, is taking to her, which is a risk because Steffi can’t be trusted to keep her commitments anymore than Emmy’s mom can. But I do love being home on Long Island Sound, and I look forward to getting back out on my old sailboat. 2) Emmy sounds great, but it seems like your divorce has been really hard on her. What has been her reaction to all…

My new book, Quick Fall, is set solely in the timeframe between Labor Day weekend and mid-November.  I was settling in with some recently downloaded books on my Kindle last week and I kept scrolling past thrillers and deep dramas looking for something a bit lighter, something with a guaranteed happily-ever-after.  It made me realize just how much I love reading romance in the Fall season … here are five reasons I think you should too! 5. In the real world, Fall is a very serious season.  Escape – in the form of a romance book – is a healthy mental choice!  If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time reading the news and hearing about world events on social media.  It’s hard on your mental health to constantly absorb the problems and negativity that are everywhere.  But reading a romance can give you a few hours’ breather! You can enter a world where the main concern is that your characters find a true emotional connection … and possibly, some amazing sex!  🙂  4. The holidays!  I love it when romance books have Halloween trick-or-treating or Thanksgiving dinner scenes.  It makes me look forward to those events in…

Dear Reader, As an author with more than twenty titles under my belt, I know I’m kind of supposed to have the whole “words” thing down by now… but there ARE NO WORDS to convey just how stoked I am to finally have Sean & Molly’s story out in the world!! YAY!!! JUST THIS ONCE hit the shelves on October 2nd, and believe me when I tell you we couldn’t wait a second longer!! LOL!! These smack talking, trouble making friends-to-lovers have been whispering naughty line-budging ideas in my head since the Wedding Date series was first conceived. They were NOT into being the third book in the series and kept pushing their love story to the forefront of my mind… begging for just a few more lines in each book, another hint, maybe just one really hot, eyes lingering, breathless anticipation, sizzling off the page scene… But tough as it was, I managed to wrestle them back, knowing their story would be worth the wait. And it SO was. Writing Sean and Molly was one of the most fun experiences of my career. They couldn’t wait to hit the page, and wouldn’t stop whispering to me until THE END was typed……

One of the early reviews of THE ARROWS OF THE HEART notes that the heroine, Karyn—while appearing to have been the meek and obedient daughter—has actually always been a square peg in a round hole. When I asked my fan group on Facebook (Jeffe’s Closet) what they’d like me to talk about, one reader suggested Karyn’s unconventional upbringing. It’s true that, in my fantasy world society known for its oppressive conventions, especially regarding the role of women, Karyn af Hardie has grown up in an unusual way. On the surface—especially when she appears in earlier books in the series—Karyn has always seemed like a conventional Dasnarian woman. Her rank in the Dasnarian Empire is very important to her. She clings to her arranged marriage with tenacity because, for a Dasnarian woman, her husband is everything. Since women in this culture cannot handle money, and usually aren’t taught to read or count, having a husband, or father or brothers, to protect and care for them is critical. It’s a matter of survival. Also, like all women of her station and upbringing, Karyn has been carefully taught to defer to men in every way. Defiance is not an option. See again: a…

Hi there! Thanks for having me. There are so many beloved tropes in romance, sometimes it’s hard to choose which ones will fit a particular story. When I’m starting a new book, I always begin with my characters: who they are, what they want most, and how they plan to get it. With COULDN’T ASK FOR MORE, Bryan, the hero, came to me first. A wealthy textiles executive, he’s handsome and successful. Yet, he still feels the need to prove himself to his father by making sure the family business remains prosperous, and he’s willing to do the work to make that happen. When my heroine, Alexis, stepped onto the page, I saw her as a young, driven fashion designer. She has big plans to shake things up inside the fashion industry, but she is savvy enough to know she’ll have to work her way there. She’s not one to pass up a golden opportunity, and the upcoming Carolina Music and Fashion Festival is just that. The small, regional festival will be the perfect launching point for her new fashion line, Krystal Kouture One. Bryan and Alexis have something of a mutual goal—they are both seeking success in their careers, in…

TUNES Excerpt Copyright © 2018 KC Enders Gavin Gracyn’s gone. She fucking left me in the middle of the night, buck-ass naked and in her bed. I waited more than an hour for her to come back from wherever she’d scampered off to, almost certain that she’d just gone out to grab us some breakfast. Took a shower and threw on my clothes from last night. Well, my board shorts because my favorite fucking shirt was gone, too. No Gracyn. No note. No shirt. Nothing. The sun blazes down on my bare shoulders as I walk back to my shitty motel. It’s petty and stupid, but I’m too pissed off to put on a different T-shirt. It’s the principle. My fist connects with Ian’s door with three solid thumps. The last thing I want to do is walk in on him getting ass when my chick had taken her fill and bailed on me. No fucking way I feel like dealing with his shit over this. I don’t want to hear it. “Dude, you good?” I call as I hit the door again. “S’open,” Nate yells. “Hey, didn’t think we’d see you today. She leaves tomorrow, right? That chick you’ve…