Book Title: TOGETHER WE ROT Character Name: Wilhelmina “Wil” Greene   Tell me, Wilhelmina. What’s your family like? What about your childhood? Just Wil please. (Kicking shoes onto the desk, arms crossed) And I don’t know…things used to be fine. Better than fine, actually. Back when Mom was around, she had a way of making the world feel alive around her—we’d spend summer picking dandelions and drinking lemonade, sprucing up the walls of our family motel with painted handprints. For a hot second in my life, I’d actually say I was happy. Things went right to hell the moment she went missing. Now the paint is peeling, the lights are flickering, and the motel is a vacant eye sore off the road. Don’t even get me started on my father. The man’s in his room day in and day out drinking until he passes out. That’s all he knows how to do anymore. I’m the only one keeping anything glued together and I’m doing a godawful job at it.   (Noticing the interviewer staring at the muddy imprints of her sneakers) What? No shoes on your desk? Fine.   So, what does the name “Elwood Clarke” mean to you? I…

1–What is the title of your latest release? FRENEMIES WITH BENEFITS   2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? What happens when a virgin secretly hooks up with her frenemy to learn all about sex during the summer after graduating high school?   3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The story is set in Trinity, Pennsylvania. It’s not like this for all stories I write, but for this one in particular, the setting didn’t have to be anything more specific than “a suburb in the Midwest” so I just made one up. I’m familiar with Pittsburgh, the big city that Trinity is a suburb of, and maybe that’s why it came to mind. I didn’t think “this place has to be near Pittsburgh” that’s just what happened to come up when I started writing, and it worked, so I kept it.   4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. I love her. We’d have so much fun together.   5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Shy. Snarky. Brave.   6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? While writing, I wasn’t thinking that deeply about it. It…

1–What is the title of your latest release? ALWAYS ISN’T FOREVER 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Soul mates are parted by an untimely death and against all universal rules and odds must find a way back to each other, but how much can a heart break before it shatters? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The very first scene I saw in my mind was two young lovers on a sailboat at night so I knew this book would be set near the sea. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes, yes, a million times yes. Hart has a sweet innocence that makes you want to hug him, and his positive attitude is highly contagious. And Ruby? Let’s just say that I aspire to her adventurous spirit! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Hart: tenacious, generous, devoted. Ruby: adventurous, fearless, determined 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That grief comes in all shapes and sizes. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I edit as I go along and then dive into a deeper edit once the…

Hey there! Lynn Rush, here. It’s nice to meet you all. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a YA paranormal and contemporary romance author and currently have twelve books published with nine more on the way. I love running trails out here in the desert despite having to hop a rattlesnake or scorpion every so often. Come find me on social media and you’ll get to see some epic sunrises from the desert trails I spend most of my time on.   Hi! Kelly Anne Blount a.k.a. Lynn Rush’s co-author checking in! Lynn and I have written six books together, including our latest release, CROSSING THE LINE. When I’m not writing with Lynn or working on my solo YA romance and dark thriller novels, you can find me snuggled up watching my favorite movies, reading, or hanging out with my sweet family and friends! You can find me everywhere (links at the end of this post)!   C is for Courageous Characters R is for Remembering Loved Ones O is for Open Minded S is for Strong Female Lead S is for Second Chances I is for Independent Women N is for New Beginnings G is for…

1–What is the title of your latest release? FATAL FAMILY SECRETS – April 19th, 2022 A rom-com ghost mystery with a Scooby gang you’ll want to join! 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When a boy’s guardian angels turn deadly, he needs help only the gang from Spook Central can provide. But his pretty older sister throws a twist into the budding romance between Johnny Redhawk, who’s developed a new and game-changing power, and the gang’s resident witch Maya, who thinks they should cool things off. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Years ago, for a book signing, I drove a couple of hours east to a small town near Saratoga Springs New York called Burnt Hills and fell in love. There was a new & used bookstore, The Ballston Book House in Ballston Spa, just a stone’s throw from there, in a converted and happily haunted Victorian house. That’s the setting. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? For sure, because I am my heroines in real life. Every one of them has a multitude of my own traits in varying combinations and levels. Some have my potty…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author- Reader Match Up” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Annie Rains!     About: USA Today Bestselling Author Annie Rains writes heartfelt stories that will make you laugh, cry, and continue turning pages well past your bedtime. When Annie isn’t writing, she’s reading from her huge TBR pile or spending time with her husband, three kids, naughty foster dog, and feisty cat.   Writes:  Annie writes heartwarming romance for both adults and young adults. Annie’s young adult debut THE MATCHBREAKER SUMMER hits shelves on April 5th! In her fellow matchbreaker, has she found the perfect match?  There’s nothing Paisley Manning loves more than her family’s summer camp—the glittering lake, the firefly trail, the time-honored traditions. But this is her last year to make memories, thanks to her mom’s new boyfriend, who has plans to whisk them away to Wyoming.  Enter Hayden Bennett. Paisley and Hayden are like oil and water. She follows the rules, and he lives to break them. But when fate sticks them together and Hayden hears about Paisley’s…

What inspired you to write this story? It kind of hit me in one of those “bolt of lightning” moments. I realized I probably had more in common with Mary Bennet than Lizzy. Not super into formal balls? Yup. Awkward about new people? Definitely. Once I started looking closer at Mary, I saw someone who was desperately trying to figure out her place and just totally unsure of how to go about that. I mean, same, girl. My Mary – Marnie Barnes – came sidling into my brain fully formed, and I had to write her story.   Is it difficult to balance making a character realistically flawed while still making them the hero of their own story? I’ve read books or watched films in which the writer clearly wanted to make the main character very “real”, but never let them catch a break. For a lot of people life is a series of minor tragedies and victories. Ha! Yes, it is! The fact is, I was starting with who Mary was in P&P as my jumping off point. She couldn’t be too charming or confident or warm at the beginning or she wouldn’t be Mary. Marnie makes a ton…

As a reader, I was never really interested in reading YA stories until a few years ago. I find them very compelling since the main characters are usually dealing with transition and emotional upheaval. What inspires you to write YA fiction? To me, they’re compelling because there’s so much our characters to deal with in such a short time and they’re not always ready for them. I love putting myself in the shoes of my heroines and seeing how they act/react. Life is suddenly very complicated. You’ve got your first love, first heartbreak, school, family, friends, the pressure cooker that is social media. When you’re a teenager, everything feels like a life-or-death situation. At least, that’s how I saw things back then! On top of all that, there’s the bewildering physical changes. And that’s just contemporary YA. Imagine what happens when you’ve got vampires, witches, ghosts, and/or aliens lurking around. Imagine if *you* are a teen witch and struggling to find your place in the world. It’s funny—I started writing YA fiction when I was about 13-15 and literally haven’t stopped. Like a lot of kids, I went through a turbulent time back then. The library was like a safe…

Body Positive is a term I’ve been hearing a lot lately. That could be because I just wrote my first-ever #OwnVoices YA romance. It’s called CUPCAKE, and it features a teen girl named Ariel who is an amazing baker, movie addict, and a reluctant princess when she is nominated onto her high school’s Homecoming Court. She also just happens to be plus-size. That ‘just happens to be’ is actually very important to the book. When I was growing up, there weren’t a lot of stories—either in film or literature—that had characters who are plus-size, let alone ones that were happy in their own skin. Ariel (aka Cupcake) loves herself as she is. She loves her body. She’s a healthy teenager with a healthy relationship to food. That self-love, though it may waiver slightly, is the beginning and end of everything. When I sat down to write this list, I knew that there still wasn’t a lot of representation of plus-size characters—especially in YA. But I also realized that several of my favorite movies/books on this list may be body positive—but they typically feature main characters who struggle with their weight for most (if not all) of the story and are…

Danielle: Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Lynn and Kelly Anne! Can you tell us about how you two started writing together? Lynn & Kelly Anne: It almost resembles a prom-posal. We met on our Seymour Agency loop when Kelly joined the agency. After becoming critique partners one day Kelly said something to the effects of, “Hey, we should write a book together.” And heck yeah, I said yes!   We talked over iMessage and on the phone, going over potential ideas until we settled on a sports romance, IN THE PENALTY BOX, which released in January 2021. Once we started writing IN THE PENALTY BOX, it led to the sequel, CROSSING THE LINE. It didn’t stop there, though, either. The 12-book concept of Twin River High a.k.a. Sweet Valley High meets Gossip Girl was born. In 2020, we wrote six books together through Google Docs, countless hours on the phone, and lots of texting. It’s been awesome! We are a great team and love creating new series, storylines, and characters for you to fall in love with! I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but how do you decide who writes what? Do you have any tips for…