Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Susan Meissner | The Lives of Two Women Converge at the Height of the Eugenics Movement
Author Guest / March 8, 2024

1–What is the title of your latest release? ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? The lives of two women—a teenaged orphan with a rare sensory anomaly and an American expat working as a nanny to a disabled child in Nazi-occupied Vienna—converge at the height of the eugenics movement. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? One of the primary locations, idyllic wine country in northern California in the late 1930s, was a natural choice; not just because California is my home state but because a staggering number of state-authorized sterilizations—without a person’s knowledge or consent—took place at a certain institution in Sonoma County. California led the way, sadly, with more forced sterilizations during the eugenics movement than any other state in the US. The second location, Vienna, Austria, was also an apropos setting as once Austria had been annexed to Germany at the beginning of World War 2, everything that was happening in Germany was now happening in Austria, including the “euthanizing” of disabled children—one of the first acts of the Third Reich in its unimaginably cruel scheme to create a master race. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist…

Susan Meissner | Reaffirms the Inherent Value of Every Human Life
Author Guest / April 21, 2023

1–What is the title of your latest release? ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? For readers of historical fiction who love stories of personal triumph, ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL is a book about two women impacted by the all-but-forgotten eugenics movement. Set in pre-and post WW2 California and Nazi-occupied Vienna, the novel explores the role ruling society has had in defining individual human worth – specifically within this “race betterment” crusade, and how dangerous it is when those in power impose standards of perceived perfection upon everyone else. ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL reaffirms the inherent value of every human life – a timely tale for these days of ours. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I chose California’s wine country for the majority of the setting because of all the states California sterilized more people without their consent and knowledge inside its institutions than any other, and a good portion of these procedures took place at a state-run residential facility in Sonoma County. I also chose Vienna after Adolf Hitler annexed Austria because of the pervasiveness of the Nazi scheme there to reshape the gene pool through not just the same…

Susan Meissner | Exclusive Interview: THE NATURE OF SMALL THINGS
Author Guest / February 3, 2021

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Susan! We are so happy to have you here today. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your new book, THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS. I am a historical fiction novelist and native Californian who has lived in other states and abroad, but California is where I have spent the majority of my life and is probably the reason why I chose to set my newest novel around the time of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I’ve experienced many tremblors; they are fairly common here, but none of the magnitude of that historic one. It reshaped San Francisco in many ways. Anytime you have a major event where ordinary people are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, you also have a backdrop for a story to be told. Sophie answers an ad to be a mail-order bride. An Irish immigrant in New York, she then travels across the country to marry a man she’s never met and take care of his daughter. Where did the idea for Sophie come from? What research did you do into mail-order brides, and did you learn anything truly surprising?  I wanted Sophie to have good reasons for wanting to…

Fresh Fiction Favorite Historical Fiction of 2018
Author Guest / December 19, 2018

Every day from now through the end of the year, we’ll be sharing our reviewers’ favorite reads of 2018. A different genre will be featured every day! We’ll share why these books were some of our favorites and what made them so special. We hope you’ll share yours in the comments, too! Today, we are discussing our favorite historical fiction novels of the year. What were some of yours? CARNEGIE’S MAID by Marie Benedict Reviewer: Clare O’Beara Carnegie’s Maid contrasts the Irish people who come to America with the Scots who came one generation earlier and are now wealthy industrialists, so lots to see. We find out how Carnegie got his love of libraries. Women’s Fiction Historical [Sourcebooks, On Sale: January 16, 2018, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781492646617 / ] A self-made man takes lessons from his Irish maid A TOUCH OF DOWNTOWN ABBEY AND AN AMERICAN DYNASTY Buy CARNEGIE’S MAID: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Ripped Bodice | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR *** NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA by Chanel Cleeton Reviewer: Danielle This book captured the spirit and turmoil of Cuba during a major…