IT WAS LATE NOVEMBER WHEN HE FOUND THE ENVELOPE. Big Jim Garrett held the letter for a while before opening it. It was from his sister-in-law, Adele, who now lived over in Fort Worth. There was a stack of mail on the kitchen counter, but from what he could tell, it was made up mostly of Christmas cards. He would leave those for the others in his household to open, but this letter was addressed to him personally with no “and family” tacked on. What’s going on with Adele? After Big Jim’s brother had died, Adele had sold their land and moved to Fort Worth, where she had some relatives. Big Jim’s back teeth ground together as he recalled how she had fallen way behind in property taxes and was forced to sell off the property and stock. The woman had always been headstrong and shortsighted, to his way of thinking. No business sense, and she hadn’t come to Big Jim until it was too late. He took a seat at the counter separating the kitchen from the dining area. Tearing the envelope open, he slid out a single sheet of notepaper. Dear Jim, I’m writing to let you know…

Holy crap. . . He’d killed her. Carter dropped to his knees and gently shook her the second Emery collapsed. “Emery? Emery, come on now. . . wake up!” Fear had him by the throat when he realized how rough he’d been with her a moment ago. He had no idea anyone was staying here and thought she was a burglar! How was he supposed to know it was Emery? And for that matter, he was still confused as all get-out why she was here. Giving her another small shake before checking her pulse, he continued to coax her to wakefulness. His hand getting smacked away was kind of a shock. “You still know how to make an entrance, Montgomery,” she murmured, slowly sitting up. Looking around as if still a little dazed, she took her time before letting her eyes land on him. And when they did, they were shooting daggers. “Are you okay?” Hesitantly, he reached out to help her to her feet and once again she moved his hand away. It wasn’t until she was up and steady on her feet that he realized how little she was wearing. “Um. . . Emery?” “What is your deal,…

As a romantic suspense author, I’ve heard and read complaints that romance authors create unrealistic expectations in our heroes. I beg to differ. My female and male heroes very much reflect my experiences in real life. They reflect people I know and love, including my husband. In fact, my perfect hero is much like the people in your everyday life, in all of our lives, struggling to be better and sometimes actually being their best selves. Keeping that in mind, here is my list of 4 perfect hero attributes. Funny–Have a good sense of humor or at least don’t take themselves so seriously. Though I’ve read and enjoyed books in which the blank-faced hero has no sense of humor, I’m a sucker for a funny and light-hearted hero or even a dry and witty hero. My husband has a very dry and witty sense of humor. He delivers his jokes straight, so there is often a processing pause to register the joke and then the burst of uncontrolled laughter. In the second novel of my Black Ops Confidential series, THE PRICE OF GRACE, there is a lot of tension and suspense, but also humor. Starting with Gracie when she’s hidden…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Please tell us a little bit about your new book, ONE DARK WISH, the second book in your Deadly Force Series.  ONE DARK WISH is both complicated and simple. At its core, it’s a basic love story about two people (Nate and Sarah) who should never have met and whose problematic lives mean they can never be together. The book also has an involved National Treasure-type plot where a group of dishonorably discharged ex-Green Berets, desperate to regain their honor, must stop a historian (the heroine Sarah Munro) from solving a 17th-century cipher. If Sarah solves it, one of their men will be killed. If she doesn’t, her father will die. Nate Walker, one of the ex-Green Berets who is struggling to keep his men together as a unit so they figure out how to fix their lives, is tasked with stopping Sarah. Except nothing can stop Sarah. While Nate and his men struggle to figure out this new civilian world they’re living in, why their enemy is throwing around old ciphers, and why they should even care (because it all seems ridiculous to these men of action), Sarah has uncovered a 17th century secret that may…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction! Tell us about yourself and the second book in your Must Love Babies series, I’VE GOT YOU, BABE. Thanks so much for having me here with you today to talk about my new release. I know a mom isn’t supposed to have favorites but…this book really speaks to my heart! I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, New York, Wyoming, Florida, and Georgia and throw a little of each of these places into my writing. Now that I’ve traded teaching for full-time writing, I can truly fall into my books and it’s a wonderful thing. In I’ve Got You, Babe, Tucker Wylder is looking forward to the coming weekend in an isolated cabin, just him and his fishing pole, when his world is sent spinning out of control by a damsel in distress, one who comes with a precocious, three-year-old daughter. Tucker has no desire to play the knight in shining armor. I’ve Got You, Babe is a story about healing and redemption. It’s about hitting rock bottom and struggling to find a handhold. It’s about both the hero and the heroine accepting that, sometimes, a helping hand is exactly what’s needed. Most of all? It’s a journey to…

My new book is called How to Cross a Marquess. Five years ago, Roger Berwick and Fenella Fairclough rebelled when their fathers tried to marry them off. They would not be ordered about! A whole lot has happened since then. They’ve both changed, and now a fiery attraction has flared between them. It’s just too ironic. Circumstances have brought these former enemies much closer than they ever could have anticipated. But various people don’t like that idea at all. The path to a happy future is convoluted. So for these two: H is for history. Theirs is complicated. O is for oh! Neither expected the passion that has flared between them. So surprising with someone you’ve known for most of your life. But people change. W is for the worrisome anonymous letters spreading rumors about them through the neighborhood. How do you fight an invisible adversary? T is for time. There seemed to be so much, and now there’s nearly none. O is for opponent. But who is it? C is for choleric. Roger finds his temper sweetened by his lovely neighbor. R is for reminiscence. Roger’s mother has much to recall. O is for overset, as circumstances spiral out…

The sight that met Evan’s eyes had him staring, unsure of what to do. Though he owned part of his and his cousins’ local moving company, he’d only been doing the grunt work of actually moving people for the past two weeks. With one of his cousins temporarily out due to an injury, Evan had willingly stepped in to take up the slack. At first, being able to get out from behind a desk, away from a past life of accounting, had seemed a blessing. Sure, he was still sore, taxing his muscles on a daily basis doing manual labor, but he considered the physical exertion to be just the thing to kick-start his new life. No one had mentioned what to do when the client got into a free-for-all in the middle of the living room. The client, Rachel Kim, a petite Korean woman with a soft demeanor and a cute dimple, was wrapped around a tall, statuesque black woman. Rachel had her in a headlock, clinging to her like a koala on a tree. “I’m taking it!” she shrieked and refused to let go. “It’s a memory, and it’s mine!” “Idiot, it’s not yours,” the other woman managed,…

For the last few weeks, I’ve been hard at work, plugging away on my romantic thriller series, the Final Hour. It’s nice to take a break to share some of my current favorites. Time to write: 1 a.m., yes, I know it’s crazy early. My kids are out of school and at home all day for the summer. They wake up at six in the morning, so my most productive hours are before they open their precious, little eyes and start making demands. The funny thing is, I don’t even set an alarm. My brain just wakes me up. Morning beverage: Black coffee. Fun thing to do with the kids: Dance party. We dress up in crazy outfits, take turns picking songs, and dance around the entire house. It’s a blast, I get to burn a few calories, and it’s free. Date with hubby: In the summer, the kids take a three-hour art class on Saturdays. That’s our time to grab lunch together, watch a movie, or take a walk in the park. Simple, kid-free time to connect. Snack: Gala apple with a tablespoon of cashew butter. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s satisfying, the perfect mix of…

Scotland’s held a special place in my heart for a long time. My mom put me in Highland Dancing when I was little, and I can remember standing on a chair in our dining room for hours as she struggled to make my kilt–pinning and repining the pleats and making sure it sat perfectly on my hips. She also made me a fitted, velvet vest to wear over my lacey blouse. The final product was beautiful but heavy (all those deep pleats!), making the dances even harder to perform. Not surprisingly, when I grew out of my costume a few years later and needed a new one, she paid someone else to make it. We were both happier that she left it to the professionals! So years later, when I was on a University exchange in England for six months, the first trip I took during spring break was all the way north through Scotland to the Orkney Islands, off the northeast coast. To get there I stopped in Edinburgh, Inverness, and other places along the way. Scotland was a magical place to me with its history, castles, green valleys, craggy mountains, and wild seas. And brawny Scots in kilts,…

As a born and raised Montana rancher and rodeo cowgirl, I am immersed in my subject matter—often literally in the case of mud, manure, and bovine amniotic fluid. Yeah, I see that face you’re making. I do occasionally get a little too real and my editor has to explain that not only is she baffled when I say a horse ‘broke in two’, but the visual is extremely disturbing. (For the record, it is a synonym for suddenly starting to buck, also known as ‘bogged his head’ and ‘blew up’.) Beyond the language and the technical details, though, I find a writer is most likely to miss the mark by failing to understand that this is a culture unto itself. Regular folks tend to find our values and priorities a tad difficult to comprehend. First, and most awesome, is the way in which women tend to be perceived. Imagine a world where you are routinely praised for being strong, aggressive, independent, and competitive. Where on a day to day basis you are valued for what you can do versus how you look and complimented for kicking ass. Imagine being in a relationship with a man who is utterly baffled if…