The Fresh Fiction Podcast

Summer Reads, Road Trips & Real Talk: Four Authors on the Books That Belong in Your Beach Bag

Four award-winning authors — Nina Crespo, Misty Urban, Carrie Schaffer, and Debra Parmley — join host Samantha Tennant to pick their best summer reads, talk travel tropes, and reveal what makes their characters impossible to put down.

Love, Books & Battle of the Sexes: Sheila Roberts on Her Boldest Rom-Com Yet

USA Today bestselling author Sheila Roberts joins Fresh Fiction's Samantha Tennant to talk about her latest novel, Love on the Shelf — a bookshop-set enemies-to-lovers story that's anything but your typical rom-com. Sheila opens up about the real cultural moment that inspired Parker Black (yes, the man everyone loves to hate), why she believes love always wins, and how the romance genre is finally getting the respect it deserves. Plus, Fresh Fiction Facts — from bug collecting to designer purse opinions to the book that made her feel like a rock star. If you love women's fiction, booktok, and romance that makes you think, this one's for you.

Scientist, Artiste, Hoodoo Conjurer: Andrea Hairston on Genre, Afrofuturism, and Writing Like a Director

Samantha Tennant sits down with Andrea Hairston — novelist, playwright, Afrofuturist, and self-described "scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer" — to talk about her latest novel, THE REDEMPTION CENTER IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS, a genre-defying extra-dimensional murder mystery anchored by a Saint Bernardoodle dog detective named Una.

Andrea draws on her decades in theater — as director, playwright, and professor — to explain how she weaves mystery, romance, and science fiction into a single story without losing the thread of any of them. She talks about using the dog as a pivot point: Una doesn't recognize genre, she just knows the people she loves, which turns out to be the perfect lens for a story that spans dimensions.

The conversation moves into Andrea's background shift from mathematics and physics to theater (with a detour through lighting design and Ohm's Law), her long-standing research into animal cognition and dog behavior, and what Afrofuturism actually means in practice — not predicting the future, but understanding the present deeply enough to make real choices about what comes next. She uses Harriet Tubman and Einstein as parallel examples of people who imagined their way to something that didn't exist yet.

The Fresh Fiction Facts segment reveals she owns a "ridiculous" number of DVDs (including every Star Trek series), that she'd rather visit the future than the past, and that her most dog-eared books are Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, anything by Ursula Le Guin, and Momo by Michael Ende — which she re-reads in German.

Andrea closes with a peek at her work-in-progress: QUEEN FOR TODAY, a secondary world fantasy about a carnival queen of misrule whose single day of reign changes everything.

She Took a Surf Camp at 50-Something to Write This Book — Mary Ellen Taylor on THE SKY BENEATH HER

Samantha Tennant sits down with New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Ellen Taylor to talk about her newest women's fiction novel, The Sky Beneath Her. Set on North Carolina's Outer Banks — nicknamed the Graveyard of the Atlantic — the book weaves between 1942, when a ship full of desperate passengers crosses U-boat-patrolled waters knowing they may not survive, and the present day, where a scuba diver who lost her mother at sea is finally forced to return to the water.

Mary Ellen opens up about the history book that sparked the story, why she signed up for surf camp in her 50s, her seven-draft process, and the revelation that arrived mid-cookie-bake. She also teases her next book — a California-set story rooted in the early 1970s — and shares that The Sky Beneath Her is the June Amazon First Reads pick (free for Prime members, $1.99 for everyone else).

Steamy Regency, Morally Gray Men & the Busty Bodice Club — Kathleen Ayers on Writing Romance That Stays With You

Bestselling Regency and Victorian romance author Kathleen Ayers joins Samantha Tennant to talk about leaving a 30-year career in media sales to follow a dare from her best friend — and ending up with a romance career she never saw coming. Kathleen shares how classic gateway novels like SWEET SAVAGE LOVE and THIS LOVING TORMENT shaped her love of historical fiction, why morally gray men are still the most irresistible heroes in any era, and what it was really like to write alongside authors like Cathy Maxwell and Jenna MacGregor for the Busty Bodice Club anthology. She also opens up about her process as a self-described pantser, the one fictional character who refused to stop talking to her, and why she will never apologize for being an unapologetic Ruby Dixon super-fan. Plus: Buc-ee's Beaver Nuggets, Nine Inch Nails concert tees, and the mysterious ancestor named Barbara who just disappeared from the family records.

Ivy Cassidy on House of Spells and Secrets, Biddy Early, and Writing Without Rules

Ivy Cassidy — national bestselling author of more than 40 novels — joins Samantha Tennant to talk about her most ambitious book yet: House of Spells and Secrets, a sweeping historical fantasy rooted in the real legend of Biddy Early, the last woman tried for witchcraft in Ireland. Ivy shares how she balanced research with storytelling, why she set the book in 1971, and what it finally felt like to write completely outside genre rules. Plus: Fresh Fiction Facts, pen name Easter eggs, and a tribute to a beloved voice in the book community, Piper J. Drake.

Gregg Hurwitz | Orphan X, Anti-Hero & the Art of Keeping a Killer Human

The line that launched the entire Orphan X series — and Gregg Hurwitz joined us on the Fresh Fiction Video Book Club to talk about what it means, 12 books in. From mind control cult research to his debut novella The Delivery, this is a conversation you don't want to miss. Link in bio.

From Courtroom to Regency Ballrooms: Janna MacGregor on Writing, Mentorship, and Body Confidence

Janna MacGregor joins Samantha Tennant to discuss her story in the Busty Bodice Club anthology, The Curves for the Secret Duke — a Regency romance with fake marriage, friends to lovers, and a secret-duke twist she rewrote from the ground up. They also talk about the anthology's collaborative process, writing full-figured heroines in the Regency era, and how Janna's legal training shaped her approach to craft.

200 episodes, 1 missing author, 14 incredible readers

200: 14 Readers, 40+ Books, and One Missing CIA Novelist

Episode 200 of the Fresh Fiction Podcast is here.  200 episodes. Evolving from chat, to film and television, to books and authors. Hundreds of author conversations. Thousands of book recommendations. And one community that shows up, week after week, for the love of reading.  Thank you for being part of this. Here’s to the next 200.  → freshfiction.com/newsletters.php

25 Years, 40+ Books, and One Story She Wasn't Supposed to Tell Yet — Julianne MacLean on What Tomorrow Will Be

Julianne MacLean has been writing heartbreak and hope for 25 years — and she's just getting started. Host Samantha Tennant sits down with the USA Today bestselling author of What Tomorrow Will Be to talk about first loves, falling down and getting back up, and a brand-new chapter she wasn't supposed to announce yet. Plus Jane Eyre, Skittles, and a rescue dog named Rosie.