Jen Marie Wiggins Interview - The Good Bride

Photo Content from Jen Marie Wiggins

Jen Marie Wiggins's first book, the gifty nonfiction title Married AF: A Funny Guide for the Newlywed or Bride, was published with Sourcebooks in 2022. She has a background in advertising and public relations, and her writing has appeared in Southern Coastal Weddings, Savannah Magazine, Savannah Homes, and elsewhere. The Good Bride draws much of its inspiration from the devastation and rebuilding struggles of Mexico Beach, Florida, a place near and dear to Jen's heart.

       

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?
I always wanted to be a writer, but was very afraid of the idea. I journaled and wrote stories that I wouldn't show anyone. The itch was always there. Around the time I turned 40, I finally decided that I was going to do the thing. I was going to speak about it, get serious and go all in. Once I did, things started to line up (well maybe not perfectly, ha) but I got my first story published, I found an amazing writing teacher, got in a writing group and from there, my confidence grew. It's been a long twisty journey, but I feel this is what I am supposed to be doing.

Can you tell us when you started THE GOOD BRIDE, how that came about?
I started writing The Good Bride in 2019 after Hurricane Michael hit the small town of Mexico Beach, FL. The coastal town is on the panhandle and is a place where my family had vacationed and owned property for many years. We have so many beautiful memories there and the town was basically decimated by the wind and water surge from the storm, leaving the whole area completely uninhabitable. At that same time, Megan Markel and Prince Harry were getting married and I thought about what it would be like if this small struggling town got that same kind of attention. From there, my imagination took off. . .

What chapter was the most memorable to write and why?
My favorite chapter in the book is the one where my main character, Ruth (the bride) takes her estranged father on a beachwalk the morning of the rehearsal dinner. It's a really visually beautiful scene, yet there's this connection they are both trying to force. They seem to be struggling to make small talk, but each has their own agenda and while one thing is being said, there are many layers to the conversation. The chapter takes place at a point in the book where some nefarious stuff has already happened and later the reader will want to go back and reread that scene again with fresh eyes.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters?
That's a really good question. I knew I wanted to write a suspense novel where the main character was someone the reader could root for. Often in this genre, most of the characters turn out to be just awful. I love that while Ruth is struggling under the weight of the expectations of her sisters and she goes through all this crazy and terrifying journey, she's still able to find her voice and strength while retaining the virtues that make her who she is.

What were your inspirations for the character development?
My characters tend to be a blend of interesting characteristics in many people I know or who I have observed. Characters-like people-aren't all good or bad and it's that moral ambiguity, the moral compass that we all are operating from which makes a person interesting. One of the themes in this novel is good intentions versus the outcome of those intentions. All of the characters in The Good Bride are operating from this place where they believe they are doing "the right thing." It's the collision of those perspectives that creates conflict and makes a good story . . . and makes life interesting.

What was your favorite subject when you were in school? 

English was the only subject I really liked. In 11th grade, I took Advanced English and we read Anna Karina which is the world's thickest book. I was one of the only kids who actually finished it. I really loved the tragedy of it, and for me, it reinforced the power of words.

What is the first job you have had?
The first job I had as a kid was working at an A&W Rootbeer stand. It was the old fashioned kind where people drive up in their car and you put the tray of food on their window. I was 15 and actually wore roller skates to wait on people which is crazy. I made $2.13 plus tips...there is definately a good story in that somewhere.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I would go back to when my kids were babies and toddlers. I have three boys who are all teenagers now and life is a very different kind of crazy. When you are the mom of small children, there is so much worry and it feels overwhelming. (Like that point in your life will never end, but looking back it goes by in a blink.) I would soak up those moments again if I could.

Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?
I would definately choose love with the promise of heartbreak. The older I get, the more I see there is a lesson behind every experience-good or bad. The colors of life are most vivid when you experience the pain, love, heartbreak, everything life has to offer. As writers, those emotions are we mine in our stories.

As seen on People Magazine’s Most Anticipated Books!

The Good Bride is in development for TV!

The Wedding of the Year turns disastrous in this twisty family drama full of lies and betrayals, perfect for fans of Laura Dave, Lucy Foley, and Ruth Ware.

One year after a devastating hurricane, bride-to-be Ruth Bancroft is marrying her perfect groom in a quaint fishing village on the Gulf Coast. The weekend is carefully curated, with the displays of pomp and social media magic meant to promote an area still struggling to rebuild as well as bring Ruth’s estranged family back together.

Yet as good intentions often go, this road to wed is hell and paved in complications. With tensions rising between the family and the bridal party, long-buried secrets come to light, and accusations start flying. Things officially spiral out of control when the oceanfront rehearsal dinner is rocked by a series of gunshots, and a high-profile guest goes missing. As the investigation gets underway, it turns out that everyone has something to hide.

Big Little Lies meets The Guest List in this gripping page turner that asks the big questions about messy family liaisons, modern media, and the lies we tell the world.

You can purchase The Good Bride at the following Retailers:

        

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1 Winner will receive a Copy of The Good Bride by Jen Marie Wiggins.

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Ilana Long Interview - Pickleballers

Photo Content from Ilana Long

Ilana Long first heard about pickleball when her sporty friend confessed that she was addicted to a game that was “like ping-pong but standing on the table.” Shortly after, Long joined the pickleball craze despite her utter lack of hand-eye coordination. A stand-up and sketch comedy writer and actor, Long studied improv and performed at The Second City in Chicago. She is the author of Pickleballers, her debut romcom, the picture book, Ziggy’s Big Idea, and her essays appear in multiple books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

      

   

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?
There were a few pivotal moments, the earliest being my first attempt at book writing at the age of nine. I wrote a children’s book called “What am I Missing” about a train in need of a conductor. It had a suspicious similarity to “The Little Train That Could”.

When I was in middle school, my parents took me to the doctor (I found the after-care note recently) because they were concerned I spent “too much time alone in my room reading.” That was around the same time I wrote to my favorite author, Zilpha Keatley Snyder and told her I wanted to be a writer. She replied in a lovely handwritten note, “If you want to be, you will be. You already are.”

I devoted myself to other pursuits for many years. But once my twins were born, I found solace and humor in writing for a monthly twin-mom newsletter. There, I found the funny side of parenting and remembered my fondness for writing.

Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of your genre?
My favorite read is Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” because the characters are theatrical, and the writing is elegant and evocative.

But from a more contemporary standpoint, I really enjoy science fiction, especially anything about AI, time travel, and speculative fiction like Naomi Alderman’s “The Power” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go”.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
I have to say it is finding and feeling a sense of belonging in a community of writers. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I meet up with other writers of all genres for a monthly brunch, and also have gotten to know some of my Berkley cohort of romance writers. It feels good to talk about writing and laugh and commiserate about the process.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?
Be persistent. I sent 143 letters to agencies before receiving a yes. PICKLEBALLERS is my third completed novel, and the first to be published. It is a steep and challenging hill, and I spent many years writing as a hopeful side gig. But it only takes one agent to believe in your work, and one publisher to choose it.

If you could have written one book in history, what book would that be?
Macbeth. It’s fucking brilliant.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
I’m going to cheat here and offer two distractions:
My family. Somone always wants to know where I hid the ketchup. (For god’s sake, it’s on the door of the refrigerator, where we’ve always kept it.)
Pickleball. And... pickleball. And more pickleball.

What chapter was the most memorable to write and why?
I love to write broad, situational comedy—hijinks and slapstick. My favorite scene to write was the sexy seatbelt scene in which Meg Bloomberg struggles to yank open a stuck seatbelt while straddling Ethan’s lap. And perhaps the strip-club wannabe Pickledance scene. I wrote both during the final revisions after I thought the book was complete. But when they came to me, the comedy flowed, and I think they are pretty funny.

Can you tell us when you started PICKLEBALLERS, how that came about?
The YA sci-fi novel I had written, the one about a tragic pandemic, ran into some bad timing when my agent sent it out in the spring of 2020. “I think people need a lift right now,” she had said. And knowing my background in stand-up and improvisational comedy at Second City in Chicago, she suggested, “Why don’t you write something funny about something you love?”

So I thought, What do I love?

Well. I love Love. And I love...pickleball! It’s like tennis but smaller, or like ping-pong…if you got to stand on the table. My own obsession with the sport actually began during the pandemic, when it was the perfect social and athletic way to play outside while standing 6 feet apart. And there are so many different sorts of folks on the courts, all ages and all walks, and people looking for friendship and companionship and love, and some really kooky behaviors that come out when the adrenaline is running high. So, naturally, it was the obvious choice for a topic, and I got very lucky with the timing, because I think a lot of other folks became pickleball-obsessed during the pandemic for the same reason.

What were your feelings when your first novel was accepted/when you first saw the cover of the finished product?
I remember I was in my classroom in Costa Rica, in between my high school English classes. My agent called with the news that Berkley Publishing had made a two-book offer, and I was so excited I shrieked and jumped up and down, laughing. A student from the classroom next door popped in to check on me because the teacher in the next room was concerned!

Immediately after, I called everybody in my family and shared the news. I could hardly teach the rest of the day, but my students shared in my excitement, and I’m sure they didn’t mind a little brain break!

WRITING BEHIND THE SCENSS
I love to do my meta-writing while swimming; in a swimming pool, or even better, in the still, cool waters of Phantom Lake near my house. Swimming gives me an uninterrupted forty-five minutes or more of thinking-time when I know I will not face disruptions.

During my swims, I like to run a scene forward like I’m watching a play. I have a background in improvisational comedy and in theater, and I studied improv at Second City in Chicago. My biggest take-away from my training and performances was that improvisation is not about acting. It is about reacting.

The same goes for writing. In the dream state of swimming, my mind is free to learn how the characters react naturally to a situation. Sometimes I feel like I’m following them around to see what they’ll do. The only thing is, I have to work hard to remember what came to me during a swim, because it takes some mental repetition of an idea to ensure that I can still recall it by the time I towel off and get to my phone to voice-record my thoughts.

What is the first job you have had?
I’ll tell you about my worst jobs; Two “acting” jobs I took: One as a mascot for a publishing company in which I was inside a very hot furry bear costume for way too many hours, and also as the mascot for Mail Boxes Etc., in which the mail slot was right at chest level.

What is your happiest childhood memory?
Traveling in a motorhome and a rented van with my whole family around the US and Europe. The six of us packed into the tiniest vehicles possible, with my brother, the youngest, sleeping around the gear shift. It was miserable and wonderful, and we saw a lot of the world and I am now bitten by the travel bug.

What was your favorite subject when you were in school and why?
Drama, because I am a total ham.

What is your greatest adventure?
Adventure is a necessary spark in my life, and I try to reach out of my comfort zone as often as I can. One of my recent favorites was hiking in Guatemala to the top of Volcan Acatenango. There, I spent the night in a tent at base camp. All night, I listened to the thundering roar while I watched nearby Volcan Fuego explode in bright red showers. In the morning, we summited to Acatenango’s freezing pinnacle, and shivered, mesmerized by the sunrise over the expansive vista.

What were you doing the last time you really had a good laugh?
Recently my husband Steve and I were checking into a flight, and I was lagging behind. The gate agent said, “Are you two together?”

Of course my incorrigible husband who has no respect for nada says, “I’ve never seen this woman before in my life.”

Well, clearly, we were together as we were wearing matching t-shirts a la Amazing Race, which I wore intentionally to annoy him. Gotta keep a marriage alive somehow.

The gentleman in line behind us said, “If you don’t want her, I’ll take her.”

By now the gate agents were chuckling and my husband said, “Okay, but she has expensive taste. And she can eat a lot,” which were both true statements.

Everybody grinned, happy to have made some light in a long day and we proceeded into the waiting area which was packed with passengers. We lollygagged around until we found two seats miraculously available.

Steve elbowed me and nodded at the guy from the gate agent line, who happened to be sitting across from us. Loudly, Steve said, “She’s right over here if you still want her.”

The guy looked up and made eye contact with us. A bewildered expression crossed his face.

“Honey.” I noted. “That’s not the same guy.”

Oh, how we laughed.

Or, for a more concise response to that same question:
I’m a big board and card game player, and I have a goofy sense of humor. I love to have friends over for drinks or dessert and pull out the silliest, raunchiest games and laugh our heads off.

What is your most memorable travel experience?
I sailed on a small boat around the Galapagos Islands and saw blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, giant tortoises, and had a run-in with a bull sea lion. The latter incident was super scary, but fortunately, a boatload of tourists pulled up behind us in the ocean and clapped and shouted until it backed off.

Any Camp stories you would like to share?
Oh yes. I was a camp counselor and drama specialist for many years, and one year, after the kids left, the camp hosted a nudist camp. The director asked me to take on the position of the boating instructor. With rowboats full of naked people. Need I say more? I plan to use this experience as fodder for my future writing, you can be sure.

A pickleball newbie looking to recover from life’s swings and misses crosses paddles with love in this debut romantic comedy.

Meg Bloomberg is in a pickle. When Meg’s ex turns out to be a total player, she and her bestie take off for a mood-lifting pickleball excursion to Bainbridge Island. It’s supposed to be an easy lob, a way to heal, not the opening serve to a new courtside romance that’s doomed to spin out.

No matter how Meg tries, she can’t shake her feelings for Ethan Fine. A charismatic environmental consultant and Bainbridge local, Ethan seems like the real dill. But when Meg discovers that Ethan is sabotaging her home court, she decides the match is over.

It’s time for Meg to take control of her own game. And maybe, just maybe…love will bounce back.

You can purchase Pickleballers at the following Retailers:

        

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1 Winner will receive a Copy of Pickleballers by Ilana Long.

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Ashley Herring Blake Interview - Make the Season Bright

Photo Credit: Craig Pope

Ashley Herring Blake is an award-winning author. She loves coffee, cats, melancholy songs, and happy books. She is the author of the young adult novels Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish, and Girl Made of Stars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and the middle grade novels Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World and The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James. Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World was a Stonewall Honor Book, as well as a Kirkus, School Library Journal, NYPL, and NPR Best Book of 2018. Her YA novel Girl Made of Stars was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She’s also the author of the adult romance novel Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date, and Make the Season Bright. and a co-editor on the young adult romance anthology Fools in Love.

      

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill? 

I’ve always been a creative person. From an early age, I wrote poems and little stories, and I’ve always been drawn to music. I actually started college as a vocal major! I played music in a group for several years after college, but nothing quite fit until I was a little older and realized I really wanted to write fiction. I just love creating worlds (even those grounded in our own) and complicated characters readers can relate to.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published. 

The most rewarding thing about being published is definitely the readers. I love interacting with them, either online or in person, and hearing their excitement. I’ve written across a few age categories, and it’s been so incredible to see how young readers to old readers need stories that help them see who they are, that they are loved, that they are okay. It’s such a great experience and I’m honored to be part of it.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing? 

I’d say write! To be a writer, that is the only qualification—write. Honing one’s craft is a combination of a few different things, of course, but first and foremost, one must write. Write often, write bad, write, write, write. The other thing I think is important is to have a community of writers around you. I have found all of my writing friends online, and they are invaluable to me as a person in general, but also as a writer. Creatives need other creatives around them who understand the process, can listen, and who they can also offer thoughts and support.

Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes? 

Oh absolutely. I would say the one that sticks out most in my head is FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe. It’s YA thriller I read years and years ago, but it was the first book I ever read with a bisexual main character. Or any bisexual character, really. Reading about that experience really jumpstarted my own queer journey.

Why is storytelling so important for all of us? 

Storytelling is vital to humanity. Full stop. It is how we share our triumphs, our pain, our fears, our hopes. More than that, it is how we learn empathy. I fully believe reading broadly and diversely is a key to truly feeling what other humans experience, to learn compassion and empathy, without which, we’ll never change the world.

What were your inspirations for the character development? 

In MAKE THE SEASON BRIGHT, and honestly, any book I write, I love creating very messy characters. I want disasters. I want to read about someone who has absolutely no clue what they’re doing with their life—even if they think they do—and watch them fall in love, fall apart, and figure out how to love themselves. That is definitely true with Brighton and Charlotte in this book.

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT MAKE THE SEASON BRIGHT

• 1) Charlotte’s gray hair is one hundred percent based on my own.
• 2) Brighton’s singer/songwriter experience in Nashville is about fifty percent based on my own. I never had a band kick me out and then go viral, but I did give being a musician in Nashville a go once upon a time, and I also play guitar.
• 3) There’s a scene that includes Brighton’s fear of horses, which is also based on my own. Never been on a horse, never will.
• 4) I wanted everyone in this book to be queer—and they are!
• 5) As I created scenes, I really thought of my favorite holiday activities, and then worked the cast into those activities.
• 6) There are original song lyrics in the book, but I only included a few lyrics here and there, as I always feel like it sounds so strange when I try to put a whole song in a book that should be set to music. So I take shortcuts lol.
• 7) I made up the town name, as I always do—Winter River. But apparently, that is also the name of the town in Beetlejuice. Oops!
• 8) I set Brighton and Charlotte’s hometown in Grand Haven, MI right on Lake Michigan, because I have a writer friend whose mom has a house there and we’ve gone there for writing retreats. Very inspirational!
• 9) Two Turtledoves is the name of a series of holiday-themed singles events that take place in the book, and I think that name might be one of my greatest literary achievements lol.
• 10) Initially, my publisher wanted to change up the artist for the cover to set this book apart from my Bright Falls series, but in the end, decided to stay with the brilliant Leni Kauffman—best decision ever!

What is the first job you have had? 

I was a hostess in a local restaurant when I was fifteen.

What was your favorite subject when you were in school and why? 

English/writing. I loved reading and writing. Go figure!

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go? 

I’d go back to college. I had a good experience, but looking back, if I knew then what I know now, as the saying goes, I’d do a lot differently.

What event in your life would make a good movie? 

Honestly, the last few years probably. I’ve gone through a lot of personal changes, all of them good, and had some adventures I think would make a fabulous biopic lol.

It's been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, and she’s doing more than okay. Sure, her single mother never checks in, but she has her strings ensemble, the Rosalind Quartet, and her life in New York is a dream come true. As the holidays draw near, her ensemble mate Sloane persuades Charlotte and the rest of the quartet to spend Christmas with her family in Colorado—it is much cozier and quieter than Manhattan, and it would guarantee more practice time for the quartet’s upcoming tour. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that Sloane’s sister Adele also brought a friend home—and that friend is none other than her ex, Brighton.

All Brighton Fairbrook wanted was to have the holliest, jolliest Christmas—and try to forget that her band kicked her out. But instead, she’s stuck pretending like she and her ex are strangers—which proves to be difficult when Sloane and Adele’s mom signs them all up for a series of Christmas dating events. Charlotte and Brighton are soon entrenched in horseback riding and cookie decorating, but Charlotte still won’t talk to her. Brighton can hardly blame her after what she did.

After a few days, however, things start to slip through. Memories. Music. The way they used to play together—Brighton on guitar, Charlotte on her violin—and it all feels painfully familiar. But it’s all in the past and nothing can melt the ice in their hearts...right?

You can purchase Make the Season Bright at the following Retailers:

        

1 Winner will receive a Copy of Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake.

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Sariah Wilson Interview - A Tribute of Fire

Photo Content from Sariah Wilson

USA Today Bestselling author Sariah Wilson has never jumped out of an airplane, never climbed Mt. Everest, and is not a former CIA operative. She has, however, been madly, passionately in love with her soulmate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She grew up in southern California, graduated from Brigham Young University (go Cougars!) with a semi-useless degree in history, and is the oldest of nine (yes, nine) children. She currently lives with the aforementioned soulmate and their children in Utah, along with cats named Pixel, Callie, and Belle who do not get along. (The cats, not the children. Although the children sometimes have their issues, too.)

Sariah's book ROYAL DATE was selected as one of the first winners in Amazon's Kindle Scout program. Her novella ROYAL DESIGN helped launch Amazon Publishing's Kindle in Motion technology, and she had her own Kindle World for THE ROYALS OF MONTERRA. Her books THE FRIEND ZONE and ROOMMAID were selected by Amazon as one of the Best Romances of 2019 and 2020, respectively. She has repeatedly hit Amazon's overall Top 100 (both in and outside the USA) and been a #1 bestseller on Amazon category lists multiple times. Her book ROOMMAID was the most read book from Amazon's website in September 2020.

       

What fiction most influenced your childhood, and what effect did those stories have on A TRIBUTE OF FIRE?
Romance and fantasy, because that’s what I grew up with. My mom devoured romance—she used to get those Harlequin subscriptions by the truckload—and my dad loved fantasy. We were pretty poor growing up but there were always books in our home. And after I’d read through everything from the library, I would read my parents’ books, and it gave me a deep love for romance and fantasy.
I knew when I started writing that I would write romance as that was the thing that interested me the most in books, and I had found it very lacking in fantasy. So when authors like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros started combining the two, I was very, very excited. My time had come to combine my two favorite genres!

What’s one thing that readers would be surprised to find out about you?
I skipped a grade and it’s kind of a family tradition now—my dad skipped a grade and my youngest son skipped a grade.

TEN RANDOM  FACTS ABOUT A TRIBUTE OF FIRE

• It is based on a real life but obscure event—the Locrian maidens.
• Enemies to lovers is my absolute favorite trope, and this book has it!
• This story is set in an alternate universe of ancient Greece and I could have made everything up, but because I have a degree in history I spent months researching and speaking to professors of classical antiquity to get the details right. (And then I made stuff up anyways, LOL.)
• This book was definitely inspired by Reylo and Reylo fans will see Easter eggs that other readers will miss entirely.
• I wrote this book (156,000 words or about 520 pages) in 39 days.
• Spartans are among some of my favorite ancient warriors, so you’ll see them represented here through the Daemonians.
• This was the easiest writing experience I’ve ever had—it just poured out of me. I edit as I go, but what you’ve got in your hands is what I turned into my publisher. There weren’t very many changes!
• The cover artist for this book is the same one who did “Fourth Wing.”
• The audio is being done by Therese Plummer. I don’t usually listen to audiobooks very often but people who do gasp when I tell them that fact!
• Some readers have been confused by the name "Jason" in the book—but that is an ancient Greek name! (In Greek mythology Jason led the Argonauts, a collection of heroes (and one heroine!) who went to retrieve the Golden Fleece.)

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?
Do the work. Read, read, read in the genre you want to write. Understand the conventions and tropes and expectations. Read craft books. Join a writing organization that is dedicated to teaching aspiring authors. Search on Google for how to get published (authors are a very giving bunch—all the information you need is out there!).

Are there authors that you’re excited to engage/work with?
I actually feel like I’ve already had this opportunity—I was invited to do a collection with Amazon Original Stories called “The Improbable Meet-Cute collection” with some other authors you might have heard of—Christina Lauren, Abby Jimenz, Jasmine Guillory, Ashley Poston, Sally Thorne. I felt a little like that song on Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others.” But that was a really, really amazing opportunity to work with some of the biggest names in rom-coms!

Which character have you enjoyed getting to know while writing A TRIBUTE OF FIRE?
All of them? It’s true. I have a great love for each and every character in this book, even the ones that don’t get very much page time. They all have their unique quirks and weaknesses and strengths and it was a lot of fun exploring that!

The fate of a cursed nation depends on a princess who must outwit a mortal enemy and outlast the trials of a death-defying ritual in a thrilling adventure by USA Today bestselling author Sariah Wilson.

Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess—one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted.

An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia’s beloved but untrained sister Quynh has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren’t significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.

The tribute game is on. It’s up to Lia to lift the goddess’s curse, restore Locris to its former glory, and change the fate of every young woman destined to follow in her path.

You can purchase A Tribute of Fire at the following Retailers:

        

1 Winner will receive a Copy of A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson.

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Allison Winn Scotch Guest Post - Take Two, Birdie Maxwell

Photo Credit: Kat Tuohy Rosenberg

Allison Winn Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, In Twenty Years and Time of My Life. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and their two rescue dogs, Hugo and Mr. Peanut.

     

YOUR FAVORITE QUOTES/SCENES FROM TAKE TWO, BIRDIE MAXWELL
There’s a scene early on in the book after Birdie, one of the most famous actresses on the planet who has recently been cancelled, slips into her best friend’s bar in her quiet, small hometown that she has slunk back to in order to escape her real life and the bad press. This was definitely one of my very favorites to write and remains one of my very favorites to read. For a lot of reasons! The bar is teeming with old high school friends, none of whom Birdie remembers very fondly but now she’s famous, and people are starting to ogle. She’s a character who definitely believes that her best revenge is living well, but she also can’t help but tell one of her nemeses off – so that is always fun to write. J If memory serves, we toned down that dialogue because I had her tee off a little too much!

But even more fun was reuniting her with her forbidden high school crush – and one time one-night stand – her best friend’s twin brother, who may or may not become the leading man in both Birdie’s story and the book. What was most fun about this scene was that there were so many moving parts between Birdie and Elliot: the electricity that they still share for each other, the fact that neither one of them wants to or can acknowledge this electricity, the fact that Mona, Elliot’s sister and Birdie’s best friend, doesn’t know about their fling, and then the general discombobulation that they both feel being back in their hometown after they’ve both chosen to flee. They each harbor secrets about their return, and they each harbor secrets about each other. Put all of those together, and I had an absolute ball writing that scene, moving the characters around like Birdie and Elliot were on a chess board, not to mention their dialogue. It also sets everything in motion for what’s about to come next for all three characters. Which is all you can ask for in one scene: a little humor, a little drama and a lot of anticipation for what’s to come.

Hollywood’s biggest rom-com star tries to recover from her damaged reputation by staging her own rom-com and following a lead on a lost love.

Birdie Robinson thought she’d gotten everything she wanted out of life: fame, adoration, and an A-list Hollywood career. But after an on-set feud goes viral, she leaves L.A. for the one place where no one would think to find her: her hometown. She’s startled to stumble upon a love letter from a former boyfriend asking for a second chance. And there’s just one issue: the letter was unsigned and she’s not sure which ex sent it. Still, a public reunion with an ex-boyfriend could turn the wave of public opinion back in her favor. Life imitating art. What could go wrong? 

Elliot O’Brien, star reporter, knows that life isn’t an actual rom-com. Case in point, he’s spent two decades repressing his long-simmering feelings for his twin sister’s best friend, Birdie. But with his journalism career cratering and Birdie back in their hometown at the same time he is, he realizes that chronicling her search for her long-ago ex may be his opportunity to right some wrongs.

As they hit the road in an ancient RV, Birdie and Elliot retrace her romantic history for clues to who wrote the letter and come face to face with their own romantic missteps, all while grappling with whether happy endings are found only on the big screen—or whether their own happier ever after could be closer than they both ever imagined.

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