QUESTION: Alton, you walked away from an abusive, poverty-stricken home and spent years as a foster child and at a boys ranch. The name of your debut YA nonfiction book is The Boy Who Carried Bricks. What do you mean by “carrying bricks”? ALTON: Part of it is literal—one of the punishments at the boys… Read More
I have the best daughter. When she was a toddler, she was adorably curious and nearly always cheery. If she awoke in her little bed before we came to get her, she would call out, “Can I get out of bed now?” Her school grades have always been excellent, and she never got a speeding… Read More
By Robin Bielman I love to eat. I mean, who doesn’t? Food is at the center of so much of what we do. Meet-ups often revolve around food. TV watching, too. Celebrations and date nights. And for me, food is also a part of my writing. Yep, you’ll catch me snacking on Swedish fish or… Read More
By Joya Ryan I’ve been asked a few times about my writing process. Truth is…it’s a mess. Yes, there are a few key things I do with every book to help map out what I’m writing. I do love me some color-coded charts and spreadsheets after all, not to mention a healthy To-Do list. But… Read More
One of the things I really love about being a writer is doing research for a new book series. Writing always starts with a basic idea and the constant question of “what if?” After a short time I generally have a pretty good idea of who my main characters are, a little bit of their… Read More
Do you believe in love at first sight? Edward Harper doesn’t. He’s a practical veterinarian, with both feet firmly planted on the ground and zero interest in starting up anything new right now. Z-E-R-O. That is…until he sees a woman stranded on the side of the road leading to his small hometown, Journey’s End, in… Read More
If the seasons all have their own unique calling cards—snow and toddies and roaring fires for winter, flowers and showers for spring, foliage tours and pumpkins for fall—wouldn’t it stand to reason that what we read would change with the seasons, too. And that got me thinking . . . If summer is all about… Read More
Finding Just the Right Match When I come up with a story idea, one of the most import aspects and sometimes the most difficult, is to find the right romantic match. The right hero for the right heroine, two people who, by the end of the novel, will fit perfectly together. Since AGAINST THE TIDE… Read More
by Susan Wiggs They say you never, ever forget your first time. It’s one of those “aha” moments when the world shifts, and afterwards, nothing is quite the same. You keep this moment in your heart forever, and it’s still vivid even decades later, it’s still as vivid as the rose that just opened in… Read More
What could be better than a June wedding, save for maybe New York Times Best-selling Author Linda Lael Miller’s take on the summer matrimony tradition. This month sees Book 3 in Miller’s The Brides of Bliss County Series debuted May 26. The Marriage Season finds two of three best friends—Hadleigh, Melody and Bex—happily wed after… Read More
by Dani Collins Seduced Into The Greek’s World Let’s talk love affairs. Not the cheating kind, but the classic, romantic, springtime in Paris, black-and-white movie kind. The kind where no one gets hurt except the two people drawn together by wild attraction who part with only a few wistful sighs, not true heartbreak. That’s the… Read More
By Jenny Holiday Are you a Belieber? Perhaps your tween daughter is? (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t fret: you’re totally normal. Beliebers are obsessive fans of Justin Bieber.) I myself am not a Belieber, but I have fallen under the spell of one or two massive celebrity crushes in my… Read More
Besides love? More book clubs! When I first came up with my idea for THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB, I thought I was being so original, so clever. A book about a book club – yes! And then, after I’d surfaced from my writing cave back into the sunlight, I blinked and saw… all kinds… Read More
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