Passport to Romance

         In my travels there’s been many unexpected and amazing things and the memories of those are only the beginning of the fictional adventure.  From earthquakes in Hawaii to being chased by enraged water carriers in Morocco to a deep-sea fishing trip gone slightly askew in Venezuela, it all happened.  While most of my trips haven’t been earth shaking adventures they are still incredible vignettes into another world. 

The scenes of foreign lands play vividly through my mind long after I return home.  And it is these scenes where my hapless characters land but soon it is not them but me who is hapless as they lead me through adventure after adventure.

            Like my travels, a story is a passport to live in another world and in someone else’s life.  But what do you love most about a story and what makes it unforgettable?

            I’ve always thought that it’s character that makes a story unforgettable.  One character that you remember long after you leave the book behind.  As a writer you always strive for that unforgettable story and a lucky few find it.

            I find that it’s setting that is the catalyst for my stories.  Is that the key?  What about character?  I don’t know but I do know that I love the setting almost as much as my characters.  In fact, in a way, it is a character.  I can hear the leaves brush on an ocean breeze, feel the sharp grains of sand roll under my feet and taste the raw ocean salt that so easily blisters lips.  The ocean whispers to my hero and terrifies my heroine.  It’s always there lurking in the background, providing that ambience, making it real for me as I write.   And it’s not just foreign lands, setting is everywhere, past, present and future.  Like a nickel, five senses - seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling and smelling it all.  For me that’s what takes me into a story – that nickel.  And for every author that gave me a nickel’s worth of setting and more and made the journey unforgettable, I like to give something back.  It might only be a nickel – I can only hope it’s more.

Ryshia Kennie

http://www.ryshiakennie.com/

Ring of Desire, November 2009

From the Dust, December 2007

This fall season has been a roller coaster of weather all over. The season has had some really warm days then it plunges into slightly cold, colder, and coldest. Also there has been the rain. Dressing appropriately for the weather has been a challenge. On day it is warm people start to loosen up and walk around with less layers to cover them up. But by the time it hits later in the day you need those layers as it gets colder. The Colder days get even more clothing added but by the end of the day you are stripping off layers feeling too warm. LOL.

Now on a day like a couple days, ago a rainy misty day I like. It wasn’t raining so hard yet that you had to rush for cover or walk like they were in a race. You could be a little slow and enjoy the rain a little.

As I strolled to get to my day job that morning I listened to the rain. There is a tempo when it its various objects. The car, street, lamppost or sidewalk. A sort of a melody that is interesting. It made my mind start to plan a scene for a book that takes place in the rain. It is everyday things that garner the best ideas. As I got inside my day job and got ready for the day I thought of this the rainy day melody and the things it has inspired me to do before. Take a long nap while it rained, bundle up and watch movies, organize my cupboards and any other number of things. Each time it rains it is a different melody that inspires me to do something according to what I hear in those drops of rain. The variety of stages of rain made me chuckle.

When I left my day job later that day it was still raining when I got home so the melody inspired me even more. Then it lulled me to sleep. Try and get out and enjoy the weather wherever you can. Listen for the melody around you and let it inspire you. Let me know what happened and type of weather you had. Have a great day.

McKenna Jeffries
http://www.mckennajeffries.com
…. sensual, edgy, unexpected

Blog: http://www.mckennajeffries.com/blog
Chat Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McKennaJeffriesList
Free Reads Site: http:/ /www.satinnotes.com/

Conquering Jazz - What’s a woman to do when she unwittingly makes a tantalizing proposition to her best friend?

Be brazen, bold and set some ground rules.Her offer. One night of carnal bliss. No emotionallowed.

His counter offer. A continued affair to fulfill all their sexual cravings.

His hidden agenda. Conquer to make sure their affair never ends.

Buy here at Liquid Silver Book.

Setting and Characterization Through Food
Victoria Janssen 

I love food, both eating it and reading about it, and that interest sometimes translates into my work.  I use food for several different purposes, most notably to establish setting and to deepen characterization. 

My December 2009 Harlequin Spice book, The Moonlight Mistress, is set in the early days of World War One, and there are scenes set in Germany, England, and France.  Not only did I take into account local cuisines of those places, and what people might ordinarily eat in 1914, but what might be available to eat in the specific situations I was portraying. 

For instance, in an early scene, two characters are trying to escape Germany.  They stop in a small town and buy “sausages, cheese, fresh bread, a thermos of strong coffee, and bottled beer and lemonade,” even though the French character would really rather have croissants.  This idea is revisited when they’ve arrived safely in France:  “She could really have croissants, with thick creamy butter and clots of strawberry jam.”  In fact, they get buttered rolls and an “omelette…dense with soft cheese and thin ham and fines herbes,” subtly giving an impression of safety through plenty of good, fresh food. 

So far as characterization goes, the character Crispin likes a particular kind of chocolate, “nutmilk choc,” and it appears several times, as a gift from his sister and when he shares his favorite with others.  This is a fairly simple use of food as characterization. 

I got a bit more complicated with a werewolf character, Tanneken.  Her appearance, a small woman in widow’s weeds, contrasts with her sometimes savage werewolf nature.  I tried to show these contrasts through the ways she eats while in a tea shop, and also show that she has recently been through a terrible experience.   

For example:  She…ate a madeleine in one bite, then another.  She chewed, swallowed, and said, “You will not lock me up.  I would kill you first.”  She took one of the cream pastries and studied it a moment before popping it into her mouth.  She’s very hungry, but also somewhat detached from the everyday business of it.  Her words are at odds with her behavior. 

The waitress set down their plate of sandwiches.  Madame Claes took one and popped it into her mouth.  She did not appear to take any pleasure in the food, Pascal noted.  She simply ate it for fuel, like a soldier too long in the field.  The point of view character picks up on the above and learns something about her. 

“I prefer to strike directly whenever I am able, since my government will not allow me to be a soldier.  Even though I can rip out a man’s throat in less than a heartbeat.”  She picked up the last remaining madeleine and nibbled on it, delicately.  And, here, the contrast between manners and words is even more direct. 

Food detail also works wonderfully as contrast between the actual situation and what the characters feel.  A conversation about afternoon tea takes place in a shell hole, while the two soldiers are under bombardment:  “What was tea like at home, when you were a boy?  Cucumber sandwiches and little cream Napoleons?  Or beans on toast?”  We learn much more about the characters through this seemingly innocuous discussion than we would if they had simply continued to talk about the military situation. 

I’m only sad that my book is set too early in the war for me to include ANZAC cookies.  Which are delicious!

http://www.victoriajanssen.com/index.html

November 23, 2009

Since Thanksgiving is only three days away, I thought I’d write an unusual blog entry for today. It involves some of my fictional characters and how they’d cook a traditional turkey dinner.

How do you and your family cook yours? Is it just you, stuck in the kitchen for hours? Or does your husband fry or smoke the turkey? Do you make your sister or the kids peel potatoes? Who concocts dessert?

See, I imagine the characters in my current series as one big family, odd though it may be. Since the series is about an agency that recovers stolen art, I figure that one of them would probably have to recover the turkey first. Right? It only makes sense, since these people are recovery agents.

So here’s what I envision. Sheila, who is the ARTemis, Inc. office manager in all three books (TAKE ME IF YOU CAN, TAKE ME TWO TIMES and TAKE ME FOR A RIDE) buys the frozen turkey in the first place, probably with a company-issued grocery store gift card. Can’t you imagine Sheila, in some tight, leopard top that showcases her assets? With her teased blond hair styled seductively and maybe a pair of hot-pink reading glasses on her nose? Yup, I can see her, pushing a shopping cart around the local food-mart in some sprayed-on pants and high heels. She’s muttering and complaining and popping her gum while she loads the cart with sweet potatoes, bags of stuffing, cans of pumpkin and a huge, 22-pound turkey.

Sheila checks out and brings the load of groceries back to the ARTemis offices, where her husband, Marty (the firm’s accountant) complains bitterly about the bill. Sheila ignores him and sticks the turkey in the fridge to start defrosting. But in the morning,

it’s . . . gone!

Who has stolen the turkey?

There are several  prime candidates: Avy Hunt, kick-ass co-owner of the firm, who tends to shoot first and ask questions later. Sir Liam James, her (retired?) master-thief fiancé, who’s never met a luxury item that he didn’t like. (See TAKE ME IF YOU CAN.) Then there’s Gwen Davies, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but can now kill a man with a spike heel. Or her blue-collar turned white-collar hottie of a husband, Quinn—who’s a man not to be messed with. (See TAKE ME TWO TIMES.) And finally, there’s hard-living ladies’ man Eric McDougal, who’s got to learn that not everything in life is easy—including, to his shock, himself. (TAKE ME FOR A RIDE.)

Any of these characters could have stolen the turkey. But let’s say that it was Kelso, the other co-owner of ARTemis, Inc.—the guy nobody has ever seen. He operates out of the ether, using digitally-altered voices, and enjoys driving his employees crazy.

So, to keep this short and sweet, it was Kelso who stole the turkey and McDougal who finds it and steals it back. The problem is that it’s still frozen! What’s a bunch of art recovery agents to do on Thanksgiving morning, with a dangerously frozen bird?

Avy wants to hack it apart with a meat cleaver and then toss the parts into the microwave. (Nobody ever said she could cook.)

Liam offers to massage it for hours with warm olive oil. (He’s a sensual kind of guy.)

Sheila swears at it, pops her gum, and goes to the phone to call KFC for some fried chicken instead (while Marty protests the added expense).

Gwen raises her beautifully groomed eyebrows and contacts her favorite caterers while Quinn offers to barbecue on the backyard grill.

And McDougal? Well, he’s got several lady friends who’ve invited him for dinner, so . . . he’ll see them all later. That McDougal, what a player . . . 

Here’s where YOU come in, readers. Whoever supplies the best/most creative/funniest solution for this problem will win a full set of my TAKE ME series—all three books! I’ll stop back by during the day to see what you’re coming up with. Have fun! And have a fabulous Thanksgiving of your own.

(Please visit me at www.KarenKendall.com for more information, contest, newsletter, excerpts, etc.)

Karen Kendall