28 Writing Fantasy Festivals and Celebrations

Thanks so much for having me back on the auspicious book birthday for Curse of Shadows (Amassia #2)! To mark the celebrations, I’m giving away a signed copy (plus signed bookplates) of the first two books in this YA Fantasy series including (Crown of Bones, book #1 and Curse of Shadows, book #2. If you… Read More

2 Miles and Miles of Adventure

by Jennifer Bonds It’s that time of year when so many of us will be hitting the road to visit loved ones, celebrate the holidays, and make memories with a warm hug and a bright smile! I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved road trips. Give me all the snacks, the loud music,… Read More

1 It’s almost November. So of course, we are heading to northern Minnesota!

Yes—jackets are being packed, LOL.   But I can hardly wait to get up to Lake Superior’s North Shore this week.  There’s nothing quite like the beautiful hiking trails and glittering 10,000 (plus) lakes of summer, the outrageously gorgeous colors of autumn, or the pristine silence of the cross country ski trails of winter in northern… Read More

1 Why I Screamed!

Last month I wrote about my new kitties and the mixup at the animal shelter. If you missed it, you might want to read it here. But I also said that this month I would tell you what we had named the kitties. I named one Lovey because he’s my lapcat and my husband named… Read More

ROAD TRIPS WITH WEREWOLVES by Marlene Perez

Thanks so much for having me back to talk about my latest release A Sucker for You (Afterlife #3)! Who doesn’t love a road trip story? From famous literary road trips like Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to movies like the fan-favorite Vacation, road trips are an essential part of pop culture. Because of where… Read More

1 Coral Cafe’s Vegetarian Supreme Pizza Recipe

In Coral Cafe, the second novel in my Coral Cottage beach series, Marina Moore creates a vegetarian pizza for her new beach cafe. Readers often ask me to include recipes for the dishes I write about. You’ll find some, including this one, in the back of my books, and I’m posting others here on the blog…. Read More

7 Getting to the Holidays

“Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go,” went the old song. Merry, merry. No worries. The horse knows the way, the sleigh is heated. Grandma is perfect and nobody ever gets grumpy. Not so in my world. The grandmas were all lovely and worth visiting. It did seem, however, that… Read More

1 Stories from The Pit

When I showed up for my first full-time shift in the emergency department, the official house of medicine had not yet recognized emergency medicine as a bona fide clinical specialty. Physicians often referred to the ER as “The Pit.” Required to maintain medical staff privileges, all doctors—regardless of training, knowledge, or experience—had to take their… Read More

3 Why I Love Books with Smokin’ Hot Sex

Look, I understand that on-page sex in a romance novel isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And thankfully, there are a plethora of “closed door” romances and every heat-level in between to indulge everyone’s different idea of the perfect romance. But, to me, taking the sex out of a romance novel would be like taking half… Read More

1 CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON

Although set in a secondary fantasy world, many aspects of LAST OF THE TALONS are heavily inspired by Korea. While worldbuilding, I looked to Korean culture to create a world in which a teenage assassin begins a violent game of cat and mouse with a Dokkaebi emperor. Unsurprisingly, one of the most important elements of… Read More

1 The Sublime Joy of the Epistolary Romance by Kilby Blades

Well, here we are in the modern age. Forget Love in the Time of Cholera. Love in the time of Tinder has arrived. Suddenly we have dating profiles; we’re swiping left, and sliding into people’s DM’s. It’s efficient. But is it right? Love was once a drawn-out affair–an endeavor that found us hopeful. It made… Read More

3 Fall—the busiest time of the year?

Growing up in Minnesota, I’ve always loved autumn. The incredible fall colors. The wonderful scent of burning leaves (this memory probably dates me!)  Riding my horse bareback down the road past sparkling streams and deep blue lakes, with most of the pesky flies and mosquitos gone. Such glorious times!  The photo is of Tucker, with… Read More