Laura Caldwell |A New Trilogy

This summer, my publisher, MIRA, put out my new trilogy—Red Hot Lies, Red Blooded Murder, and Red, White & Dead—back to back to back. Meaning, the first one came out in June, the second in July and the third on August 1.

It’s tricky enough to promote one book (in a market where book reviews and articles are declining), so we assumed it would be even trickier to try and promote three. Actually the opposite has been true. My publicist, Tom, is a former newspaper man with a southern drawl that drips over his always-kind words. When a magazine tells him, “Oh, sorry, we won’t be able to cover Red Hot Lies in our July magazine. We already put the issue to bed,” he says in that sweet voice, “Ah, don’t worry about it. We’ve got two more books in the series. I’ll send ‘em out to you.”

Another amazing thing about a quick release trilogy is reader feedback. I get to hear what readers think about the love interests in the book. I get to find out whether they’re satisfied with the ending, what they’d like to see in the next book and the next. And I get to hear if they enjoyed Izzy, my main character, a sassy, redheaded Chicago lawyer. It’s those comments I always cross my fingers for when I read them. I know writers aren’t supposed to do this, but Izzy is rather like me. Don’t get me wrong –her story isn’t. My fiancé’ didn’t disappear weeks before my wedding. I haven’t moonlighted as a private detective. I haven’t sat in the anchor desk of a network news program or been chased by Mafioso. But characteristically, Izzy is a taller, cooler, smarter, younger, prettier me. She’s sort of a superhero version of me, I guess, because she doesn’t get as cranky as I do, she’s much more patient, and although she always talks about sleep she seems to need rather little.

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K. M. Daughters | Real Men Should Read Romance

At the 2008 Romance Writers of America conference, a talented and prolific author entertained and informed attendees as a luncheon keynote speaker. We delighted in her anecdote concerning her husband. Relating that he had never read a single one of her impressive body of published novels, she declared that she always made a point to kill somebody in each of her books with her husband’s first name.

The moral of her story for us is: real men should read romance for their overall health, oh yes, and enjoyment.

Our contention is not as tongue in cheek as it sounds. Men are, of course, half the equation in the yin and yang of traditional romance genres. Our heroes yearn for equal measures of romantic fulfillment and personal happily ever after conclusions as do our heroines. Sensuality, present in varying degrees in romance, isn’t as tantalizing and stimulating to the…imagination…for men?

Our virile husbands are delighted (forced) to read our books. In fact one of our husbands brought our latest release on a men only long weekend in the deep woods. By day, he and his friends blazed trails on ATV’s, fished and threw their catches back in the lake, canoed, hiked, and did rugged, outdoorsy real men things. In the evening he apparently read and finished our romantic suspense novel, sending home a text message: “Just read a great book. I got a ----- (slang word for aroused) and I cried. Who could ask for more?”

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Karen Robards | My First Time

Thanks so much for inviting me to blog! I have to tell you that this is my first time. Yes, (blush), I'm a blog virgin. But I'm so excited about the books I have coming out this month that I jumped at the chance to write about them. First up, on March 24th, is my hardcover romantic thriller, Pursuit, which Booklist said was "tense and erotic" (I love that: erotic!). PW described Pursuit as "exciting...action-packed...and sure to please" and RTBookReviews called it "red-hot." Then, on March 31st, the paperback edition of my previous hardcover, Guilty, which Booklist called "truly a pleasure" hits the bookstores. If you like my books, I think you'll love these. I know I loved writing them. Oh, and I have a great new contest on my web-site. Enter and win a free signed book!

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Allyson Roy | Memories

Have you ever been caught by the scent of something that takes you immediately back to a particular time or place in your memory?

Roasted marshmallows. Zing! You’re ten years old at summer camp. Did you know that baby powder is one of the all-time favorite scents, which is why it’s been made into a perfume? Our sense of smell is the only one of our senses that bypasses the conscious part of our brain and connects directly with our primitive emotional region.

The place where our sexual feelings emerge.

And our sense of danger.

This is a key issue in APHRODISIAC, the first book in our romantic suspense series featuring Brooklyn sex therapist, Saylor Oz. Along with the idea that most people have a deep down secret wish to experience what it is like to be irresistible to the opposite sex.

None of us is perfect, and in a society inundated with super-gorgeous media celebrities, that idea can plague even the most sensible, intelligent men and women (especially if you add in some major disses form high school).

Enter our height-challenged heroine, Saylor Oz, who grew up with the revolting nickname, “the munchkin.” She may be small, but don’t let that fool you. When it comes to nerve and determination, Saylor will stop at nothing to get to the truth. Especially for a friend. In APHRODISIAC, a post mortem message from a childhood pal has her pulling out the stops, while leaving Saylor the target of a killer.

But we provided a little backup for her -- roommate and best bud, Benita “Binnie The Bitch” Morales. A former professional boxer, Benita’s always good for that much needed scene where it’s nice to see a beautiful woman deck a big, mean, disgusting dude who’s putting the hurt on somebody.

Guess it was kind of inevitable that friendship would be a theme that runs through our series because, in addition to being a husband and wife, we also happen to be best friends. And as debut authors, it’s great to have a chance to talk to readers about APHRODISIAC.

If you like sassy, sexy suspense, come read the first chapter here.

Allyson Roy
(Alice & Roy)
http://allysonroy.com/
www.myspace.com/allysonroy

Beverly Barton | COLD HEARTED

I’m delighted to be a guest on the Fresh Fiction blog today and appreciate the chance to tell y’all about my latest romantic suspense novel from Zebra. COLD HEARTED, which hits the shelves tomorrow, actually began with a comment my editor made. “Have you ever thought about writing a book with a black widow heroine?” No, I hadn’t; but the idea intrigued me so much that I could think of little else. However, Jordan Price is no ordinary black widow. Her late husband’s brother hires a private detective, Rick Carson, to prove Senator Dan Price did not commit suicide. Rick immediately assumes Jordan is a cold hearted bitch who is capable of murder; but he soon realizes that those who know her best think of her as a saint.

Rick, who works for the Powell Agency, headed by Nic and Griff Powell (THE MURDER GAME), is torn between his physical attraction to the lovely, young widow and his suspicion that she is a clever, ruthless murderer. The deeper he digs into Jordan’s past, the more dead bodies show up – a first husband, a former fiancé, and an old boss, to name a few. Jordan had profited handsomely from each man’s death. But did she kill them or is she, too, an innocent victim?

Among Jordan’s family and friends, many either emotionally or financially dependent upon her, you’ll find enough possible suspects to make your head spin. There’s Jordan’s best friend since childhood, who was the late Senator Dan Price’s assistant, a man who obviously adores Jordan. Are he and Jordan secret lovers? Did they plot the senator’s murder together? But what about Jordan’s stepmother, who would do anything for Jordan --even kill? And then there is the mentally unbalanced stepsister who idolizes Jordan, the worthless stepbrother who has the hots for Jordan, her former fiancé’s mother who is totally devoted to her, and her assistant who both loves and envies Jordan.

Naturally, this story is set in the South, this particular book in Georgia. Those of you who are familiar with my romantic suspense novels know I always use my South, the South that I find utterly fascinating, as the setting for these romantic thrillers. And those of you who have read past books that featured Griffin Powell as either a secondary character or the hero will be glad to know that Griff and Nic show up in this book in minor roles. You can expect to see more of Griff and Nic in upcoming books, including my next Zebra novel set for release in September 2009.

I hope you enjoy getting to know Rick and Jordan and discovering along with Rick if the woman he finds himself falling in love with is truly a black widow.

Beverly Barton

COLD HEARTED, Zebra Romantic Suspense
Release date: August 26, 2008

Lisa Jackson | The Real Dirt on LEFT TO DIE

People ask me why I decided to set a new series in Montana. After all, I've pretty much settled into New Orleans. Well, the truth of the matter was that I wanted a new, fresh extremely different locale for LEFT TO DIE and the books that follow in the series. I figured a small podunk fictional town like Grizzly Falls was nearly a one-eighty in atmosphere from the French Quarter or Garden District of the Crescent City. I wanted away from the southern bayous and into the mountains of the west.

What I didn't expect was the new characters and how I'd come to love them. I'm a small town girl at heart--born and raised in a tiny timber town in Oregon--and so the back-woodsy rural part was natural. But the characters, wow. First of all the heroine, Jillian Rivers is on the warpath, trying to find out if her first husband, the one whom she thought died in the jungles of South American, the jerk who left her holding the bag when he disappeared and owed tons of investors money, might be alive. Then there's the hero, Zane MacGregor, a loner's loner, sexy as hell and once charged with murder, who has no interest in any woman. My killer's a true psycho, the kind I love to write about, the kind of serial killer who leaves cryptic notes for the police. Finally there is a pair of female homicide detectives whom I adore.

My editor originally suggested two female cops and I resisted the idea; they just never came to mind. But when I started writing LEFT TO DIE, twice-married, wild single mother Regan Pescoli entered my head and she pulled her partner, tightly-wound, secretive Selena Alvarez with her. They are partners in the Pinewood County Sheriff's Department. Those two hard-headed women just wouldn't go of me. Together with the main characters of the story and the crazies that inhabit Grizzly Falls, Montana, I became lost in my story.

Currently, I'm creating myspace pages for Regan and Pescoli---I know, kinda weird--but I really do love them both and they are with some of the more interesting townspeople in a character gallery and map I'm putting up on my web site at lisajackson.com. Come and visit, see if they match your vision of the town. Let me tell you, Pinewood County is where it's happening!

I loved writing it. No kidding.

Lisa Jackson