FreshFiction...for today's reader

SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAM | Thank You Historians

2010-03-15T00:10:00.000-04:00

One thing that can be said for certain about Edward IV-the king whose secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville sets the events of my novel The Stolen Crown into motion-he knew how to put on a show.

Take, for instance, the welcoming of Louis de Gruthuse to England in 1472, an event recorded by Bluemantle Pursuivant. We know that Gruthuse was led to the chambers of Edward IV’s queen, where the ladies were dancing and playing games; that Edward presented his visitor with costly gifts, including a great gold cup containing a unicorn’s horn, feasted with him, and hunted with him; and that when the long days of pleasure were over, Gruthuse was escorted to a splendid bed of "as good downe as coulde be thought."

Edward got another chance to demonstrate the magnificence of his court in 1478, when his four-year-old son, Richard, Duke of York, married little Anne Mowbray, who at age five was even longer in the tooth than little Richard. We have a detailed description of the wedding festivities and especially of the celebratory jousts, at the conclusion of which the king’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, presented the winners with golden initials studded with a diamond, a ruby, and an emerald.

Historical novelists as well as historians owe a debt of gratitude to the people who thought to record these events-too many medieval ceremonies, such as the funeral of Richard III’s queen, were either never described in detail or described in documents now lost to us. Not only do such contemporary descriptions give a flavor of the times (and provide a welcome reminder that fifteenth-century life was more than just battles and executions), they often can give us a much-needed indication of what lesser known historical figures were doing at a given date.

For instance, references to my hero and heroine, Harry and Kate, are sparse between their marriage in 1465 or 1466 and Harry’s ill-fated rebellion in 1483, but we get a rare glimpse of both of them at the ceremonies described above. Thanks to Bluemantle Pursuivant, we know that Harry danced with little Elizabeth of York during Louis de Gruthuse’s visit and that Harry and Kate dined together at the banquet that followed. Because of the person who recorded the 1478 marriage ceremonies, we know that Harry and the Duke of Gloucester (the future Richard III) led the newlywed Anne Mowbray into her wedding feast and that at the same feast, Kate sat beside the bride’s mother. As a novelist, I put both episodes to work: Kate uses the festivities of the Gruthuse visit to entice her nervous husband into consummating their marriage, and the wedding banquet in 1478 allows Kate the chance to hear a piece of gossip that will have fateful consequences when Harry remembers it years later.

So, lovers of history, let’s give those who recorded these festivities a grateful thanks. And who knows? Maybe five hundred years from now, someone will be poring over our wedding videos, trying to recapture an age gone by.

THE STOLEN CROWN BY SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAM--IN STORES MARCH 2010
On May Day, 1464, six-year-old Katherine Woodville, daughter of a duchess who has married a knight of modest means, awakes to find her gorgeous older sister, Elizabeth, in the midst of a secret marriage to King Edward IV. It changes everything-for Kate and for England.

Then King Edward dies unexpectedly. Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, is named protector of Edward and Elizabeth's two young princes, but Richard's own ambitions for the crown interfere with his duties...
Lancastrians against Yorkists: greed, power, murder, and war. As the story unfolds through the unique perspective of Kate Woodville, it soon becomes apparent that not everyone is wholly evil-or wholly good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Higginbotham is the author of two historical fiction novels. The Traitor’s Wife, her first novel, is the winner of ForeWord Magazine’s 2005 Silver Award for historical fiction and is a Gold Medalist, Historical/Military Fiction, 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. She writes her own historical fiction blog and is a contributor to the blog Yesterday Revisited. Higginbotham has worked as an editor and an attorney, and lives in North Carolina with her family. For more information, please visit Susan's website.

To comment for a chance to win on Thank You Historians please click here.

Fresh Pick | THE BEST REVENGE by Justine Davis

2010-03-15T00:01:00.006-04:00

Redstone, Incorporated

February 2010
On Sale: February 1, 2010
Featuring: St. John; Jessa Hill
224 pages
ISBN: 0373276672
EAN: 9780373276677
Mass Market Paperback
$4.99

Romance Suspense
Buy at Amazon.com

The Best Revenge
by Justine Davis

He wanted his last dead end buried...

Something in St. John's intense blue eyes reminded Jessa Hill of her childhood friend. But Adam Alden was long dead….

The handsome stranger had vowed to help her defeat Adam's father in the mayoral race. Yet St. John's quest for revenge seemed too personal for a casual acquaintance. Could St. John and Adam be the same man…and would he disappear with Jessa's heart a second time?

Dameron St. John returned home with a new identity and a score to settle. But he wasn't prepared for the emotions that surfaced when he reunited with Jessa. Could he let her in once again…and together would they slay his demons once and for all?

Excerpt

"Coward."

St. John looked at himself in the mirror. The scar was less vivid than usual this morning, perhaps because there wasn't much tan to contrast with the thin, long ridge that slashed along the right side of his jaw. That happened when you hid inside most of the time, he told himself.

Coward was definitely the word, he added silently.

He'd been hiding more than usual lately. Not that there had been more problems at Redstone. The opposite in fact; things were going well on all fronts. The Hawk V jet was ready for delivery. The damage done by the snake in their midst at Research and Development was finally under control, losses minimized and security rebuilt. That had inspired their resident inventor to a new round of genius, including a couple of revolutionary concepts Read More...

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Fresh Pick | REVENGE WEARS RUBIES by Renee Bernard

2010-03-14T23:51:00.000-04:00

Jaded Gentlemen #1

March 2010
On Sale: March 2, 2010
Featuring: Haley Moreland; Galen Hawke
336 pages
ISBN: 0425233375
EAN: 9780425233375
Paperback
$7.99

Romance Historical
Buy at Amazon.com

Revenge Wears Rubies
by Renee Bernard

Vengeance doesn't always turn out the way you planned

Vengeance doesn't always turn out the way you planned.

First in a sexy new series of erotic passion set in Victorian London

Galen Hawke desires nothing but revenge against the woman who betrayed his dearly departed friend. Instead of mourning the loss of her fiancé, Miss Haley Moreland is merrily celebrating her upcoming nuptials to another man. Now, Galen has one mission: to seduce Miss Moreland and enslave her heart. And when she is completely his, he will destroy her.

The journey is long for an emotionally crippled man to finally discover the ability to love.

Excerpt

Bengal, 1857

They’d just been voices in the dark to each other in the first few days. The familiarity of English accents and the simple relief at not being alone were stark comforts none of them had ever experienced. In an ancient pitch-black oubliette, unsure of their ultimate fate, they’d observed the rituals of introduction and exchanged names and shaken hands as if they were in the foyer of a music hall in Brighton and not standing ankle deep in muck in an raja’s dungeon in the bowels of his stronghold.

Galen.

Michael.

Josiah.

Ashe.

John.

Darius.

Rowan.

Sterling.

Eight men of various walks of life, but their paths had led them each to India and now to this… And even without knowing the speaker, their Read More...

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SANDI SHILHANEK | LAUGH OR CRY WHICH DO YOU PREFER

2010-03-14T00:01:00.007-05:00

This week I got news I wasn't expecting and have spent a lot of time crying over it. I know that as the
next few weeks and months go by I'm going to be doing a lot more crying, so I thought what a perfect
time to read a book that makes me cry, because I can just blame my news on why I'm crying, and my
husband and sons won't poke fun of me for crying over a book. On the other hand i'm also going to
need to find things to laugh about, and I know there are books out there with the humor I'm looking
for.

I read and cried over
The You I Never
Knew by Susan Wiggs,
Cloud Nine by
Luanne Rice, and
The Things We Do For Love by
Kristin Hannah just to name a few.

I read and laughed over Big Girls Don't by
Cathie Linz,
Bet Me by
Jennifer Cruise, and
True Confessions by
Rachel Gibson again to just name a few.

So, which do you prefer....to laugh while reading or a good tear jerker? Does it depend on your mood?
What recommendations do you have for me and others this week?

Until next week happy page turning!

To comment on Laugh or Cry Which Do You Prefer? please click here.

Sara Reyes | Off to the Festivals

2010-03-13T16:04:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite sure what I should use as the label for South by South West (SXSW) or "South by." It's a film festival, a music festival and now more than ever an "Interactive" conference / festival. It's the result of what's happening in the "real" world. You know, the convergence of our lives and the stuff we do. Like we listen to music which is now almost all electronically stored on files, played in little devices that make us laugh when we think back to the days of the Sony Walkman, or even, bless me, the LP. We get our movies and shows on our computers and even on our phones which have become handy devices to entertain while we're waiting or bored. We can see what's happening in our worlds, check the weather forecast, listen to music, watch a film and read a book. It's a wonderful gadget and almost every one has one type or another.

So this gathering in Austin, the SXSW experience is amazing. I've met all ages, types, sizes and nationalities of people. From the geeks for tech to the nerds for film, to the secret readers of "trash fiction" (that would be what I read I gathered) to evangelists for change (political, cultural, or other). It's an amazing time filled with much anticipation, energy and innovation.

Why do I go when all I do is "books?" Well, the experience over the years has given flight to my imagination to do things at Fresh Fiction. My doing things pays off for fellow readers and authors. It's all a big circle and it keeps getting larger with all the "new" stuff we can do.

And yeah, I'm seeing people standing in lines reading their Kindle, their Sony, their Nook. Oh, yes, and the old fashioned paper books. It's a people thing. Whatever floats your boat.

If you're curious I invite you to follow our Tweets (@freshfiction through next Saturday. We'll be 'rawking' Austin and the festival!

Until next time...

Get out there and READ a book...

Sara Reyes

DFW Tea Readers Group

Join us at Readers 'n 'ritas November 12-14, 2010! with Sherrilyn Kenyon and more guests

See you on the Twitter (@FreshFiction)

PS comment and you could win signed books from Dakota Cassidy, sponsor of this weekend's blog contest. Two WINNERS!!!

Fresh Pick | WOLF TRAP by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

2010-03-13T00:01:00.005-05:00

Wolf Moon

March 2010
On Sale: March 1, 2010
Featuring: Parker Madison; Chloe Tyler
288 pages
ISBN: 0373618301
EAN: 9780373618309
Mass Market Paperback
$5.25

Romance Paranormal
Buy at Amazon.com

Wolf Trap
by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

Sultry Miami nights are about to get even hotter as Linda Thomas-Sundstrom continues her Wolf Moons series.

A hunt for a rogue werewolf stirs passion in the hearts of two rebels….

When a full moon awakens the beast within Dr. Parker Madison, he is hell-bent on finding explanations for his new Otherworld form and his insatiable lust. On the prowl one night, he discovers a woman in trouble—one who stirs his darker desires and may hold the answers to all that he has searched for.

After a sexy stranger rescues her from a brutal attack, Chloe Tyler can't stop dreaming about him. Especially when something deep inside his electric-blue eyes calls to her, and his touch fills her with the most intense desire she's ever known. But her nightmares are all too real. A rogue werewolf's bite has changed her life forever, and the one who turned her hunts her still. Unless her dream man comes to her rescue yet again, the danger remains….

Excerpt

"Just what am I supposed to be looking at?" Matt Wilson asked, massaging his temples with both hands as he walked. Fairview Hospital was one of his least favorite spots on earth, even if this was just a courtesy visit. Psychiatrics wasn't his job anymore, and he was certainly glad he'd veered from that into regular police detective work, in spite of the similarities.

Hell, the silence in this one corridor alone could drive a person nuts. Although the soundproofing was necessary for the sanity of the staff, who had to contend with these security wards on a daily basis, he was pretty sure that a complete lack of sound could eventually tweak their sanity, as well.

"New case," Jenna James, the supervising doctor of the hospital, said over her shoulder. A shoulder Matt knew intimately well and wished he could be alone with Read More...

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FRAN SHAFF | It's Nothing Without the Conflict

2010-03-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

Conflict

What is conflict? How does it affect story?

In fiction, conflict comes in two forms, internal and external.

Internal conflict happens due to struggles within a character’s heart and mind.

External conflict occurs due to the environment the character lives in or is exposed to.

An example of titanic conflict, both internal and external occurs in the movie The Patriot During the American Revolution Mel Gibson's character is faced with an impossible choice--should he fight for his beloved country’s freedom, or should he stay behind to protect his family?

In choosing to stay with his family, Gibson’s character illustrates massive internal conflict. His choice goes against his sense of patriotism and makes him look cowardly to peers.

External conflict occurs when one of Gibson’s sons, a soldier in the revolution, is captured by the British and another of his sons, a child, is killed by the enemy. This external conflict, which happens in his environment, causes him to leave his duties with his family to fight for his country.

How does a writer effectively incorporate conflict into her story? A key way to find the answer to this question is to ask another question or two while organizing the plot line.

What can go wrong next? Or How can things get worse?

Let’s look at an example of plotting conflict using my contemporary romance Stolen Son.

My idea for the book’s premise was this: suppose a scrupulously honest widower discovered that his five-year-old son was illegally adopted. Conflict: his honesty is challenged by a legal duty to correct the problem. Worsening of conflict: he discovers it was his beloved late wife who kidnapped the baby and set in motion the illegal adoption.

He decides he must try to make things right. He learns the identity of the birth mother and takes a job working for her. Before he reveals his secret, he must know she’s a good woman, not someone who would put his son in danger. Worsening of conflict: as he discovers how wonderful she is, he falls in love with her, and she’s in love with him. Can he tell her the truth? At this point, he has everything to lose.

Internal conflict is monumental in this story. Guilt haunts this honest man as he seems to be doing everything against his own nature. And things don’t get any easier from this point on. Plenty more "goes wrong" and "gets worse”" before the end of this book (which does manage to reach an uplifting conclusion. I promise.). Conflict abounds from the heroine’s point of view too, as I’m sure you can imagine.

In a romance novel internal conflict pulls the hero and heroine together while external conflict keeps them apart.

In a mystery novel, internal conflict would be the force driving the protagonist toward solving the mystery. External conflict comes from forces throwing the hero off course. Suspense and thrillers are similar to mysteries in this way.

The importance of conflict in stories is not limited to the plot line. It is vital to develop rich characters who are bound to rub each other the wrong way in order to heighten conflict.

The greater the conflict, the more monumental the challenge to the characters, the more compelling the story.

In other words, conflict is the essence of story. In fact, conflict is story.

Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
website

To comment on It's Nothing Without The Conflict please click here.

Fresh Pick | LEGEND OF THE WHITE WOLF by Terry Spear

2010-03-12T00:01:00.004-05:00

Wolf #4

February 2010
On Sale: February 1, 2010
Featuring: Faith O'Mallery; Cameron MacPherson
384 pages
ISBN: 1402219059
EAN: 9781402219054
Mass Market Paperback
$6.99

Fantasy Urban, Romance Paranormal, Romance Suspense
Buy at Amazon.com

Legend Of The White Wolf
by Terry Spear

In a world of a snow and ice, their passions blaze...

In this fourth in Spear's series, Private Eye Cameron MacPherson and Faith O'Mallery are both on quests that lead them into the world of magical wolves…

Cameron arrives in the Canadian Arctic to search for his partners in his P.I. business who are late returning from a hunting trip. Faith is there to discover what her father had seen in the same area years earlier that had made him lose touch with reality—man-wolves, he called them.

The two tumble into an icy world of enemies bent on destroying the lupus garou kind. As they turn into lupus garou themselves, and bond with the pack that only they can rescue from destruction, Cameron and Faith find their soul mates in each other.

Excerpt

Once she reached her room, she slid the key card in. Green light. She twisted the handle and pushed. The door didn’t budge. She tried again. Same thing. She hated key cards. Why couldn’t they just use regular old brass keys?

She tried a third time and this time she twisted the handle harder and shoved the door more firmly. And was rewarded. Lights were on in the room and the place was already toasty warm as if the welcoming mat had been set out for her. Perfect. She walked into the room and glanced at the two queen-sized beds, the chartreuse covers pulled back from the pillow of one, a chocolate wrapped in gold foil sitting on the center of it. She smiled and pulled off her parka, peeled off her boots, and reached for the phone to call room service when she saw Read More...

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ELIZABETH CHADWICK | The Soundtrack and the Story

2010-03-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

Ever since writing my first novel (unpublished!) at the age of fifteen, I have had soundtracks to accompany the writing. The music tells the story in song and it evolves alongside the book, sometimes preceding the first draft, sometimes joining in along the way as the work progresses, but always presenting me at the finish with a fully formed musical score precisely fitted to the emotional resonances, major scenes and dramatic moments in the novel.

I don’t listen to music in the background as I write, that would be far too distracting. Instead, I select likely tracks from my extensive PC music library and listen to them while I’m doing mundane tasks around the house, or while I’m cooking and baking, or at the gym. At these times my mind is free to wander and mull. I’ll know a suitable song when I hear it because I will get an immediate rush of adrenalin - a gut feeling that makes me know it’s perfect for a particular scene, moment or character in the novel. I will listen to the song over and over again while it becomes absorbed into my subconscious. When I come to write the scene to which it has relevance, the lyrics and the feel will be there and ready in my head to draw on as part of my creative process.

When I send in the finished manuscript to my agent and editor, they always expect me to send them the soundtrack listings too. I managed to turn my agent into a rabid Meat Loaf fan after she heard the track For Crying Out Loud. It’s the grand finale to my novel Lords of the White Castle. Before that she had never listened to Meat Loaf because she had a preconceived idea that it wasn’t her sort of thing. Instead, it was a life changing moment. She rushed out and bought everything he had ever recorded and even dragged me to one of his concerts at Wembley Stadium - and all because of hearing that song on my novel soundtrack!

As you will have guessed from the above mention, I don’t write to medieval music (or not very often) even though I enjoy it. My tastes are eclectic but generally run towards rock in all its incarnations, edgy pop, and some Folk music. I believe that while mindsets change with the centuries, emotions don’t. If I could go back in time physically with a CD player, I don’t know what William Marshal, his wife and the other characters would think of modern music, but I’d love them to be able to hear it!

Talking about The Scarlet Lion, it’s main story arc is represented by "Holding Out For a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler - which is fairly obvious giving the larger than life man that William Marshal was! The grand finale is shared by two songs which are from the heroine Isabelle’s viewpoint: "Sand and Water" by Beth Nielsen Chapman and "The Miracle of Love" by the Eurythmics. With the novel in full flow, such tracks as "A Matter of Trust" by Billy Joel, and "Avalon" by Brian Ferry and Roxy Music, cover the bond between William and Isabelle. A fabulous guitar track by Thin Lizzy" by the Foo Fighters is a track about the personality of King John. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day covers a difficult time in the life of William’s eldest son. "I Hope You Dance" by Ronan Keating encapsulates the relationship between William and his daughter, Mahelt.

Selecting songs for the soundtrack is one of my favourite peripheral parts of the writing process. You will find the full soundtrack at my website as well as soundtracks for the other novels here. www.elizabethchadwick.com

Does anyone else have "soundtrack" songs to aspects of their life?

THE SCARLET LION BY ELIZABETH CHADWICK-IN STORES MARCH 2010

A page-turning novel of honor, intrigue, treachery, and love, continuing the story of England's greatest knight of the Middle Ages, William Marshal. Bestselling author Elizabeth Chadwick, "an author who makes historical fiction come gloriously alive" (The Times of London), is known as a writer of uncommon historical integrity and accuracy.

By 1197 William Marshal's prowess with a sword and loyalty with his heart have been rewarded by the hand in marriage of Isabelle de Clare-heiress to great estates- and their brood is growing. But their contentment and security is shattered when King Richard dies. Forced down a precarious path by the royal injustices of the vindictive King John, the Marshals teeter on a razor-thin line of honor that threatens to tear apart the very heart of their family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Chadwick (UK) is the author of 17 historical novels, including The Greatest Knight, Lords of the White Castle, Shadows and Strongholds, A Place Beyond Courage, The Winter Mantle, and the Falcons of Montabard, four of which have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Awards. She won a Betty Trask Award for The Wild Hunt, her first novel. For more information please visit http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/,http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/ and follower her on Twitter

To comment for a chance to win The Scarlet Lion please click here.

Fresh Pick | WEREWOLF SMACKDOWN by Mario Acevedo

2010-03-11T00:01:00.003-05:00

Felix Gomez #5

March 2010
On Sale: March 9, 2010
Featuring: Felix Gomez
416 pages
ISBN: 0061567183
EAN: 9780061567186
Trade Size
$14.99

Fantasy Urban, Thriller Paranormal - Supernatural
Buy at Amazon.com

Werewolf Smackdown
by Mario Acevedo

Felix Gomez, Latino vampire detective extraordinaire, tackles a dangerous werewolf cabal in the fifth installment in Mario Acevedo's satirical supernatural series

A sure-to-be-bloody civil war is brewing between rival werewolf factions, and P.I . Felix Gomez will do anything he can to make sure it doesn't explode into a vicious battle that engulfs all creatures, living and dead.

Between that, the sudden reappearance of an ex-girlfriend, and a gang of other vampires trying to take off his head, this is one rumble even a fanged detective extraordinaire may not be able to handle.

Twists, turns and double-dealing turn this fast-paced vampire mystery into an excellent adventure.

Excerpt

Chapter One

“Felix, I want him dead.” Eric Bourbon held up a severed head. The head belonged to a Caucasian man in his early thirties. By the musky taint of the cadaver reek, the victim had been more than a man--he was a werewolf in human form. A were.

The eyelids were hooded, the cleanly shaven jaw slack, the pale lips opened slightly, the waxy complexion bleached from the loss of blood. The neck was a ragged stump that had been gnawed off the shoulders. A diamond earring glittered in the left ear lobe.

I said, “He looks pretty dead to me.”

“Not him.” Bourbon dropped the head into a large Tupperware bowl on his desk and wiped his hand with a kerchief. He shuffled photos from a manila file folder and pointed to the top photo. “Him. His Read More...

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Fresh Pick | PLEASURE OF A DARK PRINCE by Kresley Cole

2010-03-10T00:10:00.002-05:00

Immortals After Dark #7

February 2010
On Sale: February 16, 2010
Featuring: Lucia; Garreth MacRieve
448 pages
ISBN: 1416580956
EAN: 9781416580959
Mass Market Paperback
$7.99

Romance Paranormal
Buy at Amazon.com

Pleasure Of A Dark Prince
by Kresley Cole

Can the beast seduce a beauty and make her love him...?

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole enraptures again with this seductive tale of a fierce werewolf prince who will stop at nothing to protect the lovely archer he covets from afar.

A DANGEROUS BEAUTY...
Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her -- and those she loves.
AN UNCONTROLLABLE NEED...
Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own.
THAT LEAD TO A PLEASURE SO WICKED....
From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia's greatest weakness -- her wanton desire for him.

Excerpt

Prologue

Thrymheim Hold, the Northlands
Home of Skathi, goddess of the hunt
In ages long past . . .

Lucia the Maiden cracked open her eyes and found herself atop an altar, staring up at a furious goddess. Somehow her younger sister, Regin the Radiant, had found Skathi's temple and had brought Lucia here.

From one altar to the next, she thought deliriously as her fever raged. Pain roiled inside her broken body. Her fractured limbs . . . never had she imagined such agony.

"You deliver this into my sacred place," Skathi the Huntress of the Great North said to Regin, "and desecrate my altar? You court my wrath, young Valkyrie."

Regin—all of twelve years old, with Lucia's blood covering her glowing Read More...

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Fresh Pick | TAMING THE MOON by Sherrill Quinn

2010-03-09T00:45:00.000-05:00

Moon #3

March 2010
On Sale: March 1, 2010
Featuring: Rory Sullivan; Olivia Felan
320 pages
ISBN: 0758231911
EAN: 9780758231918
Paperback
$14.00

Romance Paranormal
Buy at Amazon.com

Taming The Moon
by Sherrill Quinn

An instinct that won't be denied...

Olivia Felan has a wild side, all right. Even ignoring the fact that she turns furry and feral once a month, her natural style is take-no-prisoners, full-speed-ahead, come-what-may. But when it comes to her little girl, she doesn't take chances.

So when a big bad werewolf alpha steals her daughter, Olivia will do whatever it takes to get her baby back. And in this case, that means killing Rory Sullivan. The trouble is, killing him would mean wasting one sexy beast.

Sully is all man, all cop, and as of late, half wolf. When he meets Olivia, Sully's a little glad he stuck his nose into his friends' business and came out with animal senses - until he gets a whiff of the chaos following her around. Now he has to decide whether he can't take his eyes off Olivia because she's too beautiful - or because she's too dangerous.

Excerpt

Olivia Felan held her daughter close, breathing in the sweet scent of little girl and bubblegum, and tried not to cry. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her tears.

Through the open window she could hear the sounds of New York—horns blaring, tires screeching, sirens. Cool April wind blew into the room.

A shiver rolled down her spine, but it wasn’t the coldness of the air that made her shudder. Thanks to her werewolf metabolism, her internal thermostat ran hot. No, what made her shiver was the thought that she could lose her daughter, that he would take the little girl from her forever. Fear coiled deep in her belly. The sounds of the City That Never Sleeps faded as she let the feel of Zoe in her arms soothe her.

"All right. That’s enough." Brawny hands pulled Read More...

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Miranda Neville | I Wish I Were An Orphan

2010-03-09T00:10:00.001-05:00

In the book I just finished writing, the heroine has two living parents who are loving and functional. Not that she doesn't have her issues with them, but they haven't (a) died and left her in poverty (b) sold her into sexual slavery, or (c) forced her into marriage with a pox-ridden octogenarian to save the family fortune.

It occurred to me how rare it is in romance for a character not to have parent issues of some kind. To have both hero and heroine in possession of two good, living parents is almost unheard of. Off the top of my head, the only one I can think of is Loretta Chase's Not Quite a Lady. (And one of them is a stepmother though not a wicked one). Julia Quinn'sBridgertons are a famous example of a really loving family - I want Violet to be my mom - but even with them, the father is dead and all the Bridgertons fall in love with people who have difficult family backgrounds.

The characters in my current release come from the more common unhappy families. The heroine of The Wild Marquis isn’t even sure who her parents were. The hero had a cruel father (dead) and a neglectful mother (alive). Although they come from very different backgrounds, their lack of family draws them together. In this excerpt Cain has told Juliana how his father tossed him out of the house when he was sixteen.

"My mother is no more anxious for my company than my sire was. I live a life of blissful self-indulgence and ease in the family’s London mansion and she keeps Markley Chase as her province."

He didn’t ask for her compassion but he had it. She knew the pain and loneliness of being exiled from the only home she’d ever known.

"So you haven’t been home in how many years?"

"Three."

"You are only twenty-four years old then, just a year more than me. I thought you older." Not that Cain’s dissipations had marred his looks, but there was a world-weariness, a certain cynicism in his face when in repose that communicated a wealth of hard experience.

"Thank you for the compliment. My debauchery must be affecting my features. I shall have to speak to my valet about a skin tonic."

She suspected something in his tale affected him far more deeply than he liked to reveal, that his habitual glibness disguised a sorrow she felt the urge to comfort.
Then his expression shuttered for a brief but perceptible instant and he regarded her with a careless grin, the blue eyes as mocking and dangerously suggestive as ever. He’d erected a barrier against trespassers..

Our heroes and heroines need obstacles that must be addressed in the course of the novel. Problematic parents are a great source of angst. No parents at all can be even better. When orphans face difficulties they lack the support we draw from our families. It’s easy for historical writers to kill people off (disease, childbirth, carriage accidents...) but even in contemporaries we see a high rate of parental mortality.

As a child I remember loving books about orphans. I have two parents and four siblings and I found the notion of being alone in the world exciting. Of course I didn’t really want my family to disappear, but it was an appealing fantasy. In the same way, I believe, many kids dream that they are really changeling children of royalty or fairies.

Can you think of examples of books where the heroine and hero have four nice parents between them? What so you think makes orphans appealing?

And if you are interested in finding out more about Juliana and Cain and how they handle their parental issues, The Wild Marquis appears in stores March 9.

To comment on I Wish I were an Orphan please click here.

Susan Wilson | The Challenge of Writing a Compelling Dog!

2010-03-08T00:10:00.015-05:00

First let me say what a pleasure it is to be invited to guest blog on Freshfiction. As I have discovered, the blogosphere is a warm and inviting, if curious, place to be. In my own blog, www.susanwilsonwrites.com, I recently observed what a difference a few years make in how books are publicized and marketed. Where once an author had to buy new clothes, now she can sit, as I am, at her kitchen counter in her pjs and communicate with fans and future fans.

ONE GOOD DOG is my sixth novel and a departure from my usual focus. All of my books: BEAUTY, HAWKE’S COVE, CAMEO LAKE, THE FORTUNE-TELLER’S DAUGHTER, and SUMMER HARBOR have, as the central theme, the relationship between women and men. In ONE GOOD DOG, I explored the relationship between two very disparate species: man and dog. And yet, there were some real similarities to a romance in Adam and Chance’s relationship. They meet ‘cute’ (sort of); they each have to learn to trust the other; they eventually develop a bond that transcends any prior experience of love.

My challenge was to write a compelling, engaging and believable story with a dog as a central character. Good books—and some not so good—have done this before, but I think this may be the first time a dog and a man share the narrative. By playing with POV and tense, I was able to give Chance and Adam distinct voices. Chance, I have to say, actually felt as if he was dictating his story to me, so easily did I slip into the head of a dog. I wonder if that’s a good thing? Woof.

My other challenge was to take a man who is, at the outset, rather despicable, and turn him into a character that readers can cheer on. This was also a fun exercise, and I really got to flex my anti-hero writing skills. But, at the same time, I needed to know what made Adam the way he was. In other words, define him against a backdrop of influences; but, also hold him responsible for his actions.

Not all children who go through the foster system end up as damaged as Adam. Many do. Not all pit bulls end up fighting. Many do. Given a chance, maybe both can be redeemed. I hope that fans of Freshfiction enjoy ONE GOOD DOG.

Leave comments on THE CHALLENGE OF WRITING A COMPLELLING DOG!

Fresh Pick | BRIDE OF THE WOLF by Susan Krinard

2010-03-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

March 2010
On Sale: February 23, 2010
Featuring: Heath Renier; Rachel Lyndon
384 pages
ISBN: 037377477X
EAN: 9780373774777
Mass Market Paperback
$7.99

Romance Historical, Romance Paranormal
Buy at Amazon.com

Bride Of The Wolf
by Susan Krinard

For better or for beast

Rachel Lyndon yearns to escape her scandalous past, but her dreams for a better life seem ruined after she buries her fiancé on the Texas plains.
Heath Renier has been evading the law by the skin of his teeth for years. Now he's found a new identity as Holden Renshaw, foreman of Dog Creek Ranch. But the arrival of his boss's mail-order bride, now a widow, upsets his fragile peace and threatens to expose his deadly secrets.
Rachel knows that the mysterious and savagely handsome Holden is the last man she should trust—especially once she's seen glimpses of his true nature. When he's suspected of killing his employer, she has a terrible choice to make. But the heat of his gaze ignites something seductive and irresistible within her. No matter how dangerous the road ahead, she's determined to give him the one thing he's never truly believed he deserves: her undying love.

Excerpt

Pecos County, Texas, 1881

Jedediah McCarrick was dead.

Heath rode carefully around the body sprawled at the bottom of the draw, gentling Apache with a quiet word. The horse was right to be scared. Jed hadn't been dead more than a few days, and the scent of decay was overwhelming.

An accident. That was the way it looked, anyhow. Half Jed's skull was bashed in, and his legs stuck out at strange angles. The rocks were sharp around here, and plentiful.

But Jed was a damn good rider. You had to be, in the Pecos, so far from civilization. The old man had been on his way home, just as his letter had said. He would have let go the cowboys he'd hired for the drive once it was finished, and he didn't trust many people Read More...

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Fresh Pick | HOWLING AT THE MOON by Karen MacInerney

2010-03-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

Tales of an Urban Werewolf #1

March 2008
On Sale: February 26, 2008
Featuring: Sophie Garou
384 pages
ISBN: 0345496256
EAN: 9780345496256
Paperback
$6.99

Paranormal, Romance Paranormal, Fantasy Urban
Buy at Amazon.com

Howling at the Moon
by Karen MacInerney

Romance is about to get a little hairy.

Sophie Garou seems to have it all: a great job at a prestigious accounting firm, a closet that rivals a Nordstrom showroom, and a terrific boyfriend who isn’t afraid to use the “M” word. There’s just one little itty- bitty problem: Sophie is a werewolf–and her time of month has a whole new meaning.

Needless to say, life among yummy flesh-and-blood humans is no piece of steak . . . er, cake!, but regular doses of wolfsbane tea and a mother who runs a magic shop have helped Sophie keep her paranormal pedigree under wraps. Still, when a sexy, golden-eyed werewolf prowls into town, Sophie finds herself struggling to keep her animal impulses in check–not to mention trying to keep things on track with her super hot (and super human) lawyer boyfriend. What’s more, someone is threatening to expose Sophie for what she really is. And when her mother is accused of selling a poison-laced potion, Sophie must sniff out a culprit before the fur hits the fan.

This hilarious werewolf tale will keep you laughing -- and begging for more!

Excerpt

I have a secret. A big, fat, hairy secret.

And I’m not talking minor-league stuff, like I once let Joseph Applebaum feel me up behind the seventh-grade stairwell or I got a Brazilian wax after work last Friday or I’m hiding a neon blue vibrator called the Electric Slide in my night table. Which I’m not, by the way. In case you were wondering.

No, this is completely different. And as far as I knew, only two—well, technically one, but we’ll call it two—people in the entire world knew about it.

Until this morning.

Usually, I waltz into my office at Withers and Young with my skinny latte, extra foam, and find nothing but a neat stack of manila folders waiting for me. Today, however, next to the manila folders—labeled with the new Read More...

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SANDI SHILHANEK | Help With Category Recommendations

2010-03-07T00:01:00.002-05:00

Every week when I sit down to write I try to think of what has caught my attention for the week that might catch yours as well. This week I’m going to be a bit selfish and ask for happy thoughts for a close family member. She’s going to be having a major surgery on Tuesday and has a long recuperation period ahead of her.

Unfortunately I live too far away to be of much use during the recovery period, but I can provide her with plenty of material to read, and that’s where all of you come in. She loves category romances. Every month she’s at e-harlequin ordering the Harlequin Presents and the Harlequin Romances. Those are her two favorite series, but she will read other category romances.

My question this week is do you read category romances? If so do you have a favorite line? A favorite book? A favorite author? Remember they can be a bit old as I live in a fairly large metropolitan area and have plenty of used bookstores to scour.

Even if you don’t read category romances, but read shorter books say 300 pages or less I’d love your recommendations. What better thing could I do for mom long distance than to send her a great get well present?

To comment for a chance to win a great prize from Candace Havens please click here.

Gwen Reyes | Conferences, Learning and... PARTIES!

2010-03-06T08:43:00.000-05:00

I love March. It’s a month I spend 11 other months looking forward to, and the reason has nothing to do with my birthday—since my birthday is in September. It’s a month that kicks off everything I love: spring, new OPI nail polish, and conference season! There are few things I love more than traveling across the region and joining fellow book, movie, and creative geeks as they discuss their passions. As you're reading this, Sara is sleeping in the bed next to me because she is presenting a workshop on author marketing for attendees of the Nola Romance Writer’s annual conference in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Next week the Fresh Fiction team is making the trek from our cushy Dallas headquarters to the raucousness of Austin for South By Southwest (SXSW). SXSW is the one festival and conference I look forward to the most. I'm ready, credit card in hand, to purchase my badge for the annual film, music, and interactive festival in August and I spend the remaining months planning my assault on the city of Austin. 2010 will be my sixth year in attendance, and I have never looked forward to a SXSW as much as I do this year’s.

The activities are amazing; SXSW will have over a thousand panels for the Interactive portion alone, and dozens of world, national, and regional film premieres. It’s also one of the major stops for up and coming musicians before they head out for their summer concert tours. I have met so many talented and inspiring designers, creatives (including authors) and filmmakers attending SXSW over the years, and it is one event Fresh Fiction jumps through hoops to attend. All around, SXSW is a little paradise for geeks of all types and means, and it’s a prolific organization that aims to boost the exposure of arts and creativity in the Southwest region. What’s presented here is trending six to eight months later!

SXSW is always a lot of work, but it’s fun and so worth it. The designers and filmmakers we meet, both fresh and established, inspire us to return to HQ with plans to continue Fresh Fiction’s evolution for years to come. It’s a great feeling when you know that what you are doing is special and other people are willing to share their own stories and information to help you out. That’s the camaraderie you feel throughout the festival.

Oh, and I'm going to party for six nights straight, because these people know how to bring it—thank God there is a free coffee bar two blocks from our hotel!

Gwen Reyes

Readers 'n 'ritas

Comment and be entered in this weekend's blog contest

Fresh Pick | DEGREES OF SEPARATION by Sue Henry

2010-03-06T00:01:00.001-05:00

A Jessie Arnold Mystery #12
April 2009
On Sale: April 7, 2009
Featuring: Jessie Arnold; Alex Jensen
288 pages
ISBN: 0451223705
EAN: 9780451223708
Paperback
$6.99
Mystery Woman Sleuth
Buy at Amazon.com

Degrees Of Separation
by Sue Henry

Champion musher Jessie Arnold has been out of racing for a number of years, ever since she incurred a devastating knee injury. Now she's ready to get back into shape for this year's Iditarod. While taking her team on a practice run down a local trail she takes a snowy bump that's never been there before. It turns out to be a snow-shrouded body.

Now, Jessie and her boyfriend, Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen, are back chasing criminals. And the hunt is on for the killer of a supposed earthquake victim—whose death turns out to actually be a murder.

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Mary Margret Daughtridge | Shall we…um…dance?

2010-03-05T00:11:00.009-05:00

For the past week or so I’ve driven around with a brown paper grocery bag stacked with books riding shotgun. I’m taking author’s copies of SEALED WITH A RING my March release, to friends who have aided my research. It’s my version of Christmas. I’m celebrating the birth of a new work by making a present of it to all who have helped to bring it into the world.

Last Tuesday, my rounds took me to a ballroom dance studio.

Several years ago I began work on a third SEAL story in which the hero learns ballroom. My problem was that while I had researched SEALs out the wazoo, I didn’t know beans about ballroom. It was a watershed moment. Reading ten or twenty books wasn’t going to cut it. I needed lessons and they don’t come cheap.

There was no external evidence then that I was an author. I knew how dismal my chances of being published were. How silly would I feel if I poured money and effort into learning how an imaginary person feels, if nothing ever came of it?

My heart pounded and sweat made my fingers slip on the computer keys.

That’s when I realized I wasn’t being honest with myself. It went deeper than taking a chance writing would pay off. I had wanted to learn ballroom for a long time, but stopped because I was afraid a woman my age would look silly.

Sometimes I think fear of looking like a fool is the most handicapping fear there is. No matter how unlikely it is that we’re in danger from snakes, spiders and elevators, they are real. Fear of foolishness protects only the ego but makes us avoid being led by the heart. For years I had let it stop me, but this time I was determined to listen to my heart and my heart was saying, “If not now, when?” Right then, I called and made an appointment for lessons.

As it turned out, I never finished the book. The dancer’s character just wouldn’t jell. However, as it also turned out, I loved ballroom, and my instructor was one of the most positive, supportive people I’ve ever met. I studied for a couple of years. He was the first person I told when I was offered a book contract.

I never wrote that book, but having see how much strength, flexibility, and stamina ballroom dancing builds, I visualized what a SEAL and someone with a dancing hobby could do with, say, a rumba, if fueled by desire and set free by the imagination of an author such as moi. I knew I would write dancing into a book someday.

All of which is how it came about that the other day I dashed into Fred Astaire of North Greensboro: “The friendliest place in town,” with an inscribed author’s copy of SEALED WITH A RING to present to Alyosha Anatolly. (Many ballroom dance instructors are Russian, and Alyosha would tell you all the best ones are.)

Instructors crowded around to look over Alyosha’s shoulder. “Is this the book about the dancer?”

“Yes and no. It’s about a Navy SEAL who only wants to get his life back and a woman who needs to get a life period. Her only outlet is ballroom.”

“And do they dance?” they persisted.

“Oh yes. He seduces her with a rumba—” Heads nodded wisely. Unlike the flirty, playful cha-cha, the rumba openly celebrates the body language of sexual interest. “When they…um…dance, it is—” I paused for effect and grinned.“—HOT!”

SEALED WITH A RING
by MARY MARGRET DAUGHTRIDGE—IN STORES MARCH 2010

She’s got it all…except the one thing she needs most

Smart, successful businesswoman JJ Caruthers has a year to land a husband or lose the empire she’s worked so hard to build. With time running out, romance is not an option, and a military husband who is always on the road begins to look like the perfect solution…

He’s a wounded hero with an agenda of his own

Even with the scars of battle, Navy SEAL medic Davy Graziano is gorgeous enough to land any woman he wants, and he’s never wanted to be tied down. Now Davy has ulterior motives for accepting JJ’s outrageous proposal of marriage, but he only has so long to figure out what JJ doesn’t want him to know…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MARY MARGRET DAUGHTRIDGE has been a grade school teacher, speech therapist, family educator, biofeedback therapist, and Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. She is a member of Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Romance Writers of America, and Romancing the Military Soul, and is a sought-after judge in writing contests. She resides in Greensboro, North Carolina. For more information, please visit http://marymargretdaughtridge.com/.

Leave a comment to be entered into our one day blog contest sponsored by MARY MARGRET DAUGHTRIDGE and Sourcebooks! Two winners!

Fresh Pick | WHERE HEAVEN BEGINS by Rosanne Bittner

2010-03-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

April 2007
On Sale: April 1, 2007
Featuring: Elizabeth Breckenridge; Clint Brady

384 pages
ISBN: 037378595X
EAN: 9780373785957
Paperback
$6.99

Religious Fiction Romance, Religious Fiction Historical
Buy at Amazon.com

Where Heaven Begins

by Rosanne Bittner

With rough miners for shipmates, Elizabeth Breckenridge
sets sail to search for her brother in Alaska, wild with the 1890s gold rush. When she falls overboard midjourney, she is rescued by a man very unlike her minister brother— Clint Brady, a cynical bounty hunter who shoots to kill.

Together, this unlikely couple struggles to survive the rugged dangers of the beautiful Alaskan frontier. Unexpectedly, Clint comes to love her, and proposes.
Elizabeth returns his love, but unless she can help Clint see that heaven is no abstraction in the sky, the grip of the past could cost them a future together….

Excerpt

Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause;
And deceive not with thy lips.
—Proverbs 24:28
San Francisco, August 4, 1898
"We've taken a vote, Elizabeth. We understand you will need to find a job and a place to live, and we are ready to help you there, but you will have to leave Reverend Selby's residence."

Elizabeth Breckenridge felt as though the blood was leaving her body, beginning with her head and draining down toward her feet. She had no doubt what had caused this meeting of church deacons who sat circled around her with looks of condemnation on their faces.

"May I have an explanation?, she asked, fighting not to cry. Elizabeth always cried when Read More...

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Jennie Bentley | History Mystery : Truth or Fiction?

2010-03-04T00:10:00.001-05:00

It’s the kind of coincidence that, if I’d put it into a book, nobody would believe.

Picture this: it’s sometime in late 2008, and I’m sitting in front of my computer, getting ready to start writing the third book in my Do-It-Yourself mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime, featuring textile-designer-turned-home-renovator Avery Baker and her boyfriend, hunky handyman Derek Ellis. (Remember those names. There’ll be a quiz later.)

Each book in the series details the renovation of a decrepit house, and each book includes a few fresh murders and some sort of history mystery. In book 1,
Fatal Fixer-Upper Avery inherited her Aunt Inga’s Second Empire Victorian cottage and hooked up with Derek, the handyman she hired to help her renovate it. In book 2,Spackled and Spooked the two of them bought and renovated their first project together: a low-slung mid-century brick ranch, rumored to be haunted because of a tragedy that took place some seventeen or eighteen years ago.

I had already decided that in book 3, Avery and Derek would be taking on the renovation of an old carriage house at the back of their friend Kate McGillicutty’s property. They’re broke, since they haven’t sold the house from book 2 yet, and turning Kate’s carriage house from decrepit garden shed into romantic retreat for two in time for Kate’s New Year’s Eve wedding to the man of her dreams, police chief Wayne Rasmussen, would be just the thing to tie them over. I knew who the murder victim would be--someone from Kate’s past--I knew who killed him and why, and all that was left was to figure out the historical connection.

Kate’s house, the Waterfield Inn, is a big 1896 Queen Anne, with turrets and towers and every Victorian excess imaginable. World War One was looming on the horizon at that time, and I thought a war story might make for an interesting tie-in. I hadn’t done one yet, and the timing was right. The quaint and fictitious town of Waterfield is located on the coast of Maine, and there used to be a navy base at Elliott, just up the road apiece. And that’s how I came to be scanning lists of navy casualties during The Great War.

9.7 million military personnel died in WWI. 116,708 of those were Americans. Quite a few were enlisted in the navy. The names went on forever, and it wasn’t long before my eyes glazed over as my finger got heavier and heavier on the mouse and the scroll bar slid down at breakneck speed. Until something jumped out at me and jerked me out of my stupor.

Yes, it sounds crazy, but it’s the only way I can explain it. Some sort of almost-subliminal message that my brain picked up, that went by too fast for my eyes to see clearly. I had to backtrack to look for what I thought I’d seen, just to be sure I’d really seen it.

And lo, there it was: the kind of coincidence that nobody would believe if it happened in a book or a movie. I’m not sure I would have believed it myself, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Yet there was no doubt. On the list of the fallen was a young fireman third class, from a small town called Chandler, Texas, by the name of William Avery Ellis.

(You remember those names I told you to remember earlier, don’t you? If not, go back and read them again.)

If that wasn’t coincidence enough, William had joined the navy on June 3rd 1917. He died three days later, still on the navy base in Dallas. From strychnine poisoning.

It’s enough to make any crime writer’s heart beat faster. And I hope I’m not the only one getting chills.

Unfortunately, those tidbits are all I ever managed to learn about William. He lived, he died, and that’s all I know. I don’t know who killed him, or why, or if whoever did it was caught and punished. I don’t think it was an accident, because other accidental deaths on the same list were noted as such, while this wasn’t. I’m pretty sure someone killed poor William, but as for why, I have no idea.

In lieu of having the facts, I came up with my own story, rife with adultery, illegitimacy, murder, betrayal and a bunch of other things. I changed William’s middle name from Avery to Aaron--the coincidence of Avery Ellis was just too much, even for me; plus, no one would have believed it--but I used whatever other details I could. Instead of Chandler, Texas, my William lived on Chandler Street in Waterfield, and just like the real William, his mother’s name was Mallessa. I turned him into a relative of Derek’s a few generations back, and carved his initials in a heart inside Kate’s carriage house. And then I set Avery on the trail, and sat back to see what she’d find out.

The result is Plaster and Poison, book 3 in the Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries. It was released on March 2nd. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, please check it out. And if by chance you know anything about William Avery Ellis of Chandler, Texas, I’d love to hear from you. You can find me here: www.jenniebentley.com

To comment on History Mystery: Truth or Fiction please click here.

Fresh Pick | BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE by Cindi Myers, Jennifer Greene, Merline Lovelace

2010-03-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

January 2010
On Sale: January 12, 2010
320 pages
ISBN: 0373837399
EAN: 9780373837397
Mass Market Paperback
$7.99

Romance Anthology
Buy at Amazon.com

Baby, It's Cold Outside
by Cindi Myers, Jennifer Greene, Merline Lovelace

The best way to keep warm…when the weather turns cold:

1) Seek shelter

Opting to spend the holidays in solitude, Emilie Bartlett has found the perfect place: a hunting lodge in Alaska! But when a hunky stranger comes seeking shelter during a blizzard, Emilie wonders if maybe isolation is overrated, after all….

2) Build a cozy fire

Nothing ruins an adventure to Antarctica like being stranded on a lifeboat! But when a hot Air Force pilot rescues Mia Harrelson, she wonders if she's escaped the danger of freezing only to lose herself in the sexy fire of his eyes….

3) Curl up with a nice, hot male…

She is a consummate professional. Until Stacy Bristol finds herself working on a series of photo shoots with a gorgeous Viking—er, Olympic skier. But the minute his shirt comes off, Stacy is torn between icy professional resolve…and her melting knees!

MELTING POINT by Cindi Myers
Kristjan Gunnarson is Iceland's first ever Olympic medalist. Coloradoan Stacy Bristol thinks he'll be the perfect model for her new advertising campaign, but she isn't prepared for the impact handsome Kristjan has on her. As she supervises filming around Iceland, Stacy fights her attraction to Kristjan. Can a down-to-business American and a footloose Icelander find love in the land of ice and fire?

Excerpt

When Emilie Bartlett heard the battering thuds below—it sounded as if someone's fist was pounding on the front door—she burrowed under the heap of blankets without bothering to open her eyes.

She wasn't sleeping.

She hadn't slept since she could remember.

But there was no one at the front door. There couldn't be. When the seaplane brought her in two days before, the blizzard had been predicted. The pilot had argued and protested about leaving her, but Emilie knew what she was getting into.

She hadn't spent time in her family's Alaskan lodge in years, but the week before Christmas, the weather was predictable. The snow had started yesterday, silent and soft. Then the wind began—tufty and capricious at first.

By midyesterday, the view from Read More...

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Fresh Pick | CHILL by Stephanie Rowe

2010-03-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

Alaskan Pilots #2

December 2009
On Sale: November 24, 2009
Featuring: Isabella Kpoas; Luke Webber
336 pages
ISBN: 0505527766
EAN: 9780505527769
Mass Market Paperback
$7.99

Romance Suspense
Buy at Amazon.com

Chill
by Stephanie Rowe

A MAN WITH NO PAST

Luke Webber thinks he’s erased his entire history. New name, new life, no paper trail. He thinks that up in the wilds of Alaska no one will find him. He’s wrong.

A WOMAN WITH NO FUTURE

When Isabella shows up on his doorstep, she’s got a bullet in her shoulder and all that Luke’s been trying to avoid is hot on her trail. Without his help, she’ll die. But helping her will mean surrendering everything—his body, his heart...and quite possibly his life.

A fast-paced tale of adventure, suspense and romance set in the Alaska wilderness.

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Heather Webber | Do You Believe In Love at First Sight?

2010-03-03T00:10:00.001-05:00

Years ago when my daughter was born, a family friend sent a congratulatory card. It had the image of a sweet-faced baby wrapped in a pink blanket nestled in a tiny cradle. Underneath it read Who says there’s no such thing as love at first sight?

It was a card that resonated with me so much that I framed it and hung it in her room. And now, almost fifteen years later, it’s still in there. Love at first sight is never truer than when you meet your child for the first time. It’s an instant kind of love, rather shocking with its fierceness. Kind of a slap upside the head—and the heart. There is no preparing for it, and there is no going back. It is a forever kind of love. It makes even the most hardened cynic realize true love does exist... At least between a parent and child.

But what about romantic love? Do you believe in love at first sight? Is there such a thing as soul mates? Underneath the humor, the murder, and the family secrets, these questions are at the heart of TRULY, MADLY, the first of my Lucy Valentine novels. Lucy is the black sheep of her psychic family who is forced into taking over her father’s matchmaking business when he leaves town after a scandal. Thanks to an electrical surge, Lucy can no longer see the auras that make finding true love for clients so easy for her father. And thanks to a family curse, Lucy doesn’t believe she’ll ever be able to find true love for herself. So when she meets Sean Donahue, a private eye who has his own secrets, and feels that slap upside her head and her heart, she’s thrown for quite a loop. Not only must she figure if one of her clients is guilty of murder, or if she can use her unique psychic abilities to find a lost little boy, but also why she keeps having visions of her and Sean together… Can she can put her fears aside and trust that love at first sight might just be real?

I met my husband on a summer night a bit over twenty years ago. It was a first date that included a walk on a beach and a long talk while sitting on a jetty with gentle waves slapping at the rocks beneath us. As we sat and talked and laughed, I looked at him and I knew he was the man I was going to marry.

It didn’t matter one bit that I was only sixteen years old.

There was no preparing for it, and there was no going back. And it still is a forever kind of love. So yes, I believe in love at first sight. Do you?

~Heather

Heather Webber is a former Agatha Award nominee and author of three historical romances and five mystery novels. She learned early on that she had trouble keeping mystery out of her romances and romance out of her mysteries, so decided not to fight it anymore. Enter the Lucy Valentine novels— romantic, paranormal mysteries. The first book in the series, TRULY, MADLY debuted in February and the second, DEEPLY, DESPERATELY, will be released in August 2010 from St. Martin's Press. For more info, check www.heatherwebber.com

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