Bell Bridge Books

The Pawleys

A brief episode in the British family history of Lady Toria Cash, the feline fatale of Downton Tabby

 by Sparkle Abbey

“Can you believe that alley cat?” Lady Meow Grandcatham lifted her whiskers in distain. “Thinking I’d simply fall under the spell of his gorgeous green eyes.”

I shook my head. “He does seem rather cheeky.” I’m Annakatrina, Lady’s Meow’s lady’s maid, and the alley cat she was referring to was Alexander Kittingham who’d apparently made a play for Lady Meow in a big way.

I carefully folded the lace frill she’d worn to dinner and reached for the brush I used every night on her silky black fur. Though I would never bring it up to Lady Meow, talk below stairs was that Alexander Kittingham was not actually a purebred British shorthair. He was often referred to as “Alley” in a disparaging tone, by Thomas Cat, Lord Grandcatham’s valet. Alexander was quite a handsome fellow and a favorite of the ladies around the dinner bowl.

He was nice looking with dark brown fur and deep green eyes, but I was not impressed. You see I’m madly in love with Mr. Bait. Poor Mr. Bait is currently locked up in the pound, but I had no doubt he would be freed.

“Beyond cheeky, I’d say.” Lady Meow lifted her paw to her neck. “Would you help me get out of this collar?”

I pulled on the diamond collar with my teeth and it snapped off easily. Carefully placing it in the ornate trinket box, I picked up the brush again.

Suddenly, there was a scratch at the door and I moved quickly to open it.  Lady Vi, Meow’s grandmother, stepped into the room. She was a formidable feline and referred to as the Dogwagger Countess because even the dogs at the neighboring estates were afraid of her. I don’t believe she’d ever actually bitten anyone canine or otherwise, but all it took was a hiss and the very slight unsheathing of her claws and it was clear she meant business.

“Grandmother.” Lady Meow purred. “What a surprise.”

“Not an unpleasant one, I hope.” The older feline stepped closer so Lady Meow could bump noses with her.

“I’ll leave you.” I moved quietly on soft paws toward the door.

“No, please stay.” The Dogwagger waved her tail in my direction. “I know Meow trusts you.”

“What is it, Grandmama?” Lady Meow dropped on her haunches. “Is something wrong?”

“What is wrong is my sources tell me someone is publishing a catty tell all tome about the Britain’s aristocats. I am told there’s a whole chapter devoted to the Grandcatham Family.” She leaned on the edge of Lady’s Meow’s bed and smoothed her fur.

Lady Meow began to pace. “Have you told Pappa’?

The Dogwagger shook her head. “No, nor your mother. It will be up to us to sort this out.” She gave a deep sigh and tipped her head to look at me. “We must find out who this low-life is and stop him or her before our good name is dragged through the litter box.” Sharp blue eyes pinned me in place.

“What can I do to help, M ‘lady?”

“My dear, you must be our eyes and ears.” The Dogwagger put her paws together as if it were all settled. “You can go places we must not and you will never be noticed.”

I had the thought that not being noticed was hardly complimentary, but knew she was right.

“You will help us, won’t you, Anna?” Lady Meow crossed the room in a single smooth leap to stand in front of me. Her golden eyes searched my face.

“Of course, I will.” I bowed my head.

And thus began my new career as Annakatrina, Cat Sleuth.

What would Mr. Bait think?

*

Downton Tabby, book seven in The Pampered Pets Mysteries by Sparkle Abbey, is now available for pre-order at Amazon. Visit Sparkle Abbey at sparkleabbey.com.

And don’t forget to grab your other favorite Sparkle Abbey titles, on sale til the 10th! 

Get into the holiday spirit with this yummy recipe

from Skye Taylor’s novel – TRUSTING WILL (The third

in The Camerons of Tide’s Way)

Blueberry & white chocolate Scones – from Sandy Cameron’s Kitchen

2 cups flour                              4 TBSP butter melted or veg oil

1 tsp salt                                   2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar                           ½ cup cream or milk

4 tsp baking powder                 1 cup frozen  blueberries (or raspberries​)

½ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°

Stir all dry ingredients together, then add butter, eggs, cream or milk and mix well.

Fold in berries and chocolate bits.

Spoon onto baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle tops with a little white sugar if desired. Bake for 20 minutes until bottoms of scones are lightly browned and top springs back with pressed with finger.  Eat still warm from oven or cool.

Go grab FALLING FOR ZOEY and LOVING  MEG today!

And make sure you grab TRUSTING WILL – coming soon! 

By Forris Day Jr. of Scared Stiff Reviews

Got Zombies? Dead (A Lot) does. Dead (A Lot) by Howard Odentz is fun book about a zombie apocalypse as experienced by a group of young teenagers. One day they are just doing the regular things that kids do then the next morning the world is forever changed when a strange virus is released into the world that changes most denizens of this Earth into slow moving and very hungry zombies. Unfortunately for our adventurers a shot to the head does not kill these decrepit bags of flesh as it does in most zombie stories. But a bit of fire seems to do the trick.

Odentz’s tale takes place during the fall season in New England. It is a time when people from all over come to drive the back roads admiring the foliage that this part of the country has to offer. Too bad many of the leaf peepers have now become a part of the landscape, dead like the leaves they came to view, searching for food to satisfy their never ending hunger.

Tripp Light and his twin sister Trina seem to be immune to the virus that has turned most of the world into a bad B-movie. As they go in search of their parents they meet up with other survivors who have their own strengths to add to their ever growing group. Alone they will die but together this ragged acne prone bunch of teenagers just might have a chance. Follow along as they travel from their destroyed home to go in search of their Aunts house where they believe their parents are hiding.

A fun and witty zombie apocalypse narrative that will bring a smile to your face as you discover (or remember) how the teenage mind operates in times of difficulty. The dialog is clever and the characters are realistic. The locations are based on real ones and that is pretty cool because they were recognizable to me as I am from New England and I know most of the locations really well. As a matter of fact the crew drives by the house I grew up in in Three Rivers, Massachusetts. Kind of a treat for me as I imagined the sidewalks that I rode my bike on as a kid, filled with all my neighbors turned zombie. I still think some of my neighbors I had as a kid were indeed zombies.

Dead (A Lot) is aimed at the “Young Adult” market but I feel it is an enjoyable read to anyone of any age who enjoys a good zombie story full of fun characters and entertaining zombies. Yes, I found many of the zombies funny and amusing because they could not get themselves out of many simple predicaments that us living folks take for granted everyday. For example turning doorknobs is beyond a zombies knowledge so if they are inside that is where they remain unless they can find some other means of egress. They are forever hungry and always have something up their sleeve…well the ones who still have arms that is.

Make sure you grab DEAD (A LOT) for only $1.99 through Friday!

And don’t forget about Howard Odentz’s new release –BLOODY BLOODY APPLE – available now!

Zombie stories are everywhere. Due in some part to the unbelievable success of shows like The Walking Dead,books like World War Z, and films like 28 Days Later andShaun of the Dead, everyone’s writing about the dead-but-ambulatory. Nice zombies, evil zombies, teenage zombies, Nazi zombies, zombie dogs, shark zombies, Jane Austen zombies. Zombies sell books. And movies. And television. And video games. It’s all out there.

The thing about the best zombie fiction, though, is that it’s not really about zombies, not primarily. It’s about the living. The Walking Dead, for instance, has gone entire episodes without showing zombies. This is true of most genre fiction, for that matter: The conceit of the story—what makes it “genre,” in other words—is just a clever way to “tell it slant,” as Emily Dickinson advised, of examining the human condition. Yes, zombies are cool and threatening, but what keeps us coming back to the story is the desire to find out how the people work around the threat.

Howard Odentz’s Dead (a Lot) does just this, coming at the zombie apocalypse tale from a slightly different perspective. Odentz tosses the reader directly into the story of Tripp and Trina Light, teen twins who’ve been left at home while their parents are away on a trip. Almost immediately, the Lights’ universe tilts, things go awry, and the dead, unsurprisingly, begin to walk, and to munch on the living. As the book’s narrator, Tripp guides the reader through the story of how the siblings set out to find their parents. These teens have never had to make it on their own, they barely know how to drive, and they’ve certainly never had to kill another human being, so they’re up against enormous odds here.

Since Dead (a Lot) features a first-person narrative, big picture revelations are few and far between, but that’s fine, since the characters and their ongoing conflicts are interesting enough to keep us satisfied. And when the larger revelations do come, Odentz finds interesting ways to reveal them. We know that the zombies–called poxers by the characters–are the result of Neropoxy, a parasitic disease that causes the zombie plague, and we’re also certain that the disease was created by humans. We know that some people appear to be immune to the disease, which creates yet another source of tension and conflict. And we know that the poxers can be destroyed, though it’s not an easy thing to accomplish. Good thing, that.

During their journey, the twins meet up with radio DJ Jimmy James (whose name, I suspect, may either be a nod to the station owner from the 90s sitcom Newsradio or just a happy coincidence), brother and sister Prianka and Sanjay Patel, and Andrew the Crow, Jimmy’s talking bird. Odentz imbues these characters with interesting qualities that make the story more interesting. Tripp already knows Prianka from school, and they have a ready-made adversarial love/hate relationship. Prianka’s little brother Sanjay is autistic and often consults a worn out stuffed animal, Poopy Puppy, obtaining and passing on relevant and often unbelievably detailed information to the group. Jimmy also has a limitation that I won’t reveal here, but I will say that it helps strengthen an already prevalent sense of reality and urgency.

One of the most interesting aspects of this novel, though, is that its characters possess an awareness of the zombie genre. Tripp, for instance, has played video games and seen films featuring zombies, and Sanjay refers occasionally to zombie films by name. A good deal of the conventional wisdom contained in the cited media turns out to be false, or at least not quite right, and the characters rarely call the walking dead “zombies,” but there are occasional references to George Romero and other staples of the genre. Is this unique? No, but it does lend Dead (a Lot) an interesting authenticity, making it seem even more plausible that these characters live in the same world we do.

Overall, this is a fun and quick read. The story is fast-paced with little room for breathing or lollygagging, and there are plenty of close calls and high stakes. After all, around every corner or behind every door lurks the possibility of death. Odentz deftly captures Tripp’s voice, and his narration is engaging and full of humor, much of it clearly deployed defensively. He’s not perfect–not by a long shot–but he’s certainly worth rooting for. He’s sarcastic, often to his disadvantage, but we’re nonetheless able to occasionally glimpse his vulnerability, giving us the feeling he’s never far from losing it. And who wouldn’t be?

There’s such a glut of zombie stories on the market that perusing the contenders can feel a bit like running a gauntlet manned by the unruly undead. So, as with most growing trends in genre fiction, unless you want to read the same zombie story over and over, it becomes necessary to look for writers who find a way to make it different somehow.

Dead (a Lot) is different.

Make sure you grab DEAD (A LOT) for only $1.99 through Friday!

And don’t forget about Howard Odentz’s new release – BLOODY BLOODY APPLE – available now!

An interview with Ben Cameron

by Skye Taylor

Today we are pleased to have Ben Cameron visiting with us at Blogging on the Beach. He is the hero of Skye Taylor’s latest book, Loving Meg and the third son (by mere minutes) of Sandy and Nathan Cameron of Tide’s Way. The baby of the family, Jake Cameron, was with us earlier when his book, Falling for Zoe, came out in April, and Will, Ben’s identical twin, will hopefully come for a visit next year when Trusting Will comes out.

Skye: So – Welcome, Ben. We know you grew up in Tides’s Way and come from a big family, that you’re married, to Meg, of course, and have two sons, Rick and Evan.  But who is Ben Cameron? Tell us about yourself.

Ben: You know, my wife and I had a discussion about that not so long ago. She seemed to think that my job was who I was, but I think I got her turned around.  At least I hope I have. Meg is the light of my life. She has been since I first met her. She was my best friend’s kid sister, and I had to pretend we were just friends for the first few years because I was way too old for her. But it was worth the wait. We’ve been married for ten years come next May and I can’t imagine life without her. Being a dad is another big part of who I am. Until Rick was born I never had a clue how terrific fatherhood could be. I have a fantastic dad of my own, but being a dad is even better.

Skye: What do you do for a living?

Ben: I raise and train German Shepherds for police work. It does keep me pretty busy, but I love working with the dogs, and I love seeing them succeed. I’ve got a new project in mind, too. It’s a long story how I got involved, and I’m sure that’s not what you’re interested in here so I’ll skip to the punch line. I want to enlarge my operation to include training dogs to work with returned veterans who are struggling with PTSD and other disabilities brought on in their service to our country. It’s be awhile before I can get it up and running, but eventually I want to have a home where the veterans will come to be paired with their dogs and training can happen. From what I’ve discovered having a service dog often can make the difference that all the drugs and psychiatric work can’t in helping these guys get their lives back, and I can’t think of anything more rewarding that making that happen.

Skye: Didn’t Meg just return from Iraq. She’s been in the Marines for most of your married life, but this was her first overseas deployment. That must have been difficult for you and the boys. What was the hardest part for you?

Ben: All of it. (Ben shakes his head and a cloud passes over his face.) I hated watching the news. It just made me more afraid than I already was. I knew she was out there, accompanying conveys along roads that those bas— sorry, terrorists love to booby trap with IEDs. So, I didn’t watch the news, and I tried to stay busy and not worry. But the hardest part was probably the nights. She tried to call as often as she could,and she’d time it when she knew I was climbing into bed. I’d lay there in the dark, clutching the phone to my ear, listening to her voice and wishing desperately that she was laying next to me instead, and that the nightmare of her being gone and in danger was over.

Skye: Have you ever told Meg that?

Ben: Yeah. I’ve told her, but I’m not sure she understood how really hard it was for me being left behind while she went off to conquer her world.  I told Will, too. He’s my twin you know. He’s the other half of me. I told him everything. Or most everything.

Skye: What’s it like being an identical twin?

Ben: You mean being the other half of me? (Ben chuckles) Will says the same thing. He thinks I’m the better half and if only he could be a little more like me, he’d be a better man. But I think it’s the other way around. Will is a lot like Meg and I admire that – that ability to strike out into the unknown – to take on a task that seems far bigger than it might have seemed at the start. Something bigger than just themselves, but they stick it out. They put themselves out there and do jobs others can’t. Me? I’ve been on the same path all my life. Everyone, including me, knew where I was going with my life since I was just a kid. And there wasn’t anything dangerous or adventurous about it.

Skye: What started you on your path in life so early?

Ben: You sure you want to hear this? It’s not all that exciting. Not when compared to the places Meg’s been.

Skye: We’re sure.

Ben: Well, when I was maybe nine or ten someone gave my dad this dog, Taffy. We’d always had dogs as long as I could remember, usually more than one at a time, and Dad was always the one who trained them. But Taffy just seemed like she was going to break him. I think she was a golden retriever, but so inbred there’s no doubt where her less than stellar brain capacity came from. She had one ear that popped up and flopped over half way up – the other hung down like a retriever’s is supposed to. It gave her this really silly goober look. Very fitting, considering.

Anyway, one day Dad was trying to teach her to stay. He’d take her out to this spot about 20 feet from the front steps and tell her to sit. She was great at sit. Then he’d give her the signal and verbal command to stay and he’d turn his back on her and come over to the steps. By the time he got there and turned around she was right behind him grinning up at him as if he’d told her to follow instead of stay. Finally, I asked Dad if I could try. He handed me the leash and said go to it. Neither of us really expected much. But I walked out to the magic spot and told her to sit, put my hand in front of her nose and said stay as sternly as I could with my little kid’s voice and headed back to the porch. Dad was sitting with his elbows resting on the step behind him watching, but even before I got to him, he sat up and looked from me to somewhere behind me. I turned around expecting to see Taffy right on my heels like she’d been on dad’s every time. But I was gobsmacked. She was still sitting where I’d left her. I called her and she dashed toward me so fast she ran me down. And that was when me and everyone else knew I’d end up training dogs for a living.

Marrying Meg was another thing everyone knew long before it happened. Long before Meg knew it anyway. I grew up in my parents house by the sea and I told them I was always going to live there too. I saw this spot of land when I was still in college. I didn’t have scratch for money, but I begged my dad to give me the down payment and I worked two jobs all through college to make the mortgage payments. So, you see, Will and I are like the other half of each other. He’s Alpha. I’m Beta. He’s the adventurous one. He’s impatient to see new things, go new places, meet new people all the while I’m living the life I planned out years ago. I’m so settled down I can’t imagine life any other way. Will’s still trying out every new extreme sport that catches his fancy and dating lots of really nice ladies but not settling for just one. Although I really hope he finds his Miss Right. I’d like him to have what I have with Meg.

Skye: I know you’re a busy man with things to do and places to go, even if they aren’t far from home or dangerous, so I’ll let you go. But we’ve enjoyed having you. Thanks for coming.

Ben: Thanks for having me.

Music to Write By

by Eve Gaddy

For many writers music is an integral part of their process. Just as everyone has their own method of writing, everyone has their own way of incorporating music into their process. Some writers listen to music while they write, either a playlist they’ve made for the book, classical music, or as Roz Denny Fox once told me, “I have to listen to kickin’ country music. My husband made a classical playlist for me one time and I fell asleep.” On the other hand, my editor, Pat Van Wie, is another who listens to music while she writes. She listens to only classical piano music, with no words, preferably Chopin. Our musical tastes are as unique as our writing.

Each writer’s process is different, so it’s no surprise each writer has a different way of using music to aid in his or her writing. I can’t listen to music while I write. It’s far too distracting. I can’t even listen to instrumental because I’ll hum the tune. But I listen to music, and my playlists, at all other times. In the car, when I clean (Stop laughing. I wash out my coffeepot. That counts, doesn’t it?), when I shower, before I sit down to write. And listening while driving seems to help when I’m stuck.

I make a playlist for every book. When I first started writing I would only have one or two songs I played for the book, but then I discovered playlists! Much better. You can get awfully sick of a song you play 10,000 times. For me the playlist has to develop. I may start out with one song that’s key, and as I write, others are added and become more important.

Cry Love, is a book unlike anything I’ve ever written. While it is a romance, it’s also a love story. There are subtle differences. Love stories don’t always end happily. Just read the first scene of Cry Love and you’ll see what I’m talking about. So, yes, there’s tragedy in Cry Love but there is also triumph. And a love that won’t die.

When I first heard the song Cry Love by John Hiatt, I knew it would be important in writing this book. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew it would be. For one thing, it’s a beautiful song. Then it dawned on me that Cry Love was the perfect title for this book. Haunting, beautiful, evocative, different.

My playlist for Cry Love includes songs about forbidden love, hopeless love, songs about mad, passionate, and dangerous love. One song, Andy Brown’s Ashes, I’ve yet to fully understand but it’s so beautiful I added it to the list. The Vivaldi Guitar Concerto by Los Romeros, was added just because I love it. Another song that really spoke to me was Jessica Andrews’ Helplessly, Hopelessly, Recklessly. Musical genres include Rock and Roll, Pop, Country, and Classical songs. Not every musical genre is represented in the Cry Love playlist. However, I cover a lot of genres in my playlists for upcoming books. I like variety. What can I say, I have eclectic tastes.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be tweeting, posting on Facebook and my website the songs from my playlist for Cry Love. Enjoy!

Here is my playlist for Cry Love, with links:

Cry Love John Hiatt http://bit.ly/1m0enN1

Ashes  Andy Brown http://bit.ly/1oVXJof

Helplessly, Hopelessly, Recklessly Jessica Andrews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKVJPnEbOkA

Wrong to Love You  Chris Isaak http://bit.ly/1ohIhfL

Forbidden Love Jim Verraros http://bit.ly/1pzJORx

Lips of An Angel Hinder http://bit.ly/1djs3T7

The Right Kind of Wrong LeAnn Rimes http://bit.ly/UGkHCx

Standing on the Edge of Goodbye John Berry http://bit.ly/1j4fbBF

We Can Be Together Jefferson Airplane  http://bit.ly/1ncB28A

Dangerously In Love Beyoncé http://bit.ly/1qy5ehK

Wicked Game Chris Isaak http://bit.ly/1qX4EMY

Midnight Confessions The Grass Roots http://bit.ly/1ldq4Ug

Endless Love Lionel Richie & Diana Ross http://bit.ly/1pAhQ9t

Concerto in B Minor for 4 Guitars & Cello RV 580 (L’estro armonico No. 10): I. Allegro Los Romeros Vivaldi: Guitar Concertos http://bit.ly/VvOX3F

Click the cover above to buy CRY LOVE – out now!!

A Long Time Coming

by Eve Gaddy

Some books are a long time coming.

I had the original idea for Cry Love in 1999.  I found the file not too long ago.  It was a one line description that I had saved in my idea file, many computers ago.  But it was a very different idea and at the time I was writing for Harlequin.  There was no way this book would fit what they wanted.  Since I am one of those writers who does best in total immersion, I filed the idea and kept writing other things.

I am also one of those writers who periodically experiences burnout.  I think it has something to do with being so obsessive.  (What, me obsessive?)

Anyway, every once in a while, especially when I was feeling burned out and battered by the business, I would pull the idea out and play with it.  I went to see the movie Hurricane and found it and Denzel Washington, who plays Hurricane Carter, very inspiring.  My husband and I were the only people in the theatre and it seemed as if it was playing just for me.

Several years ago, maybe around 2003 or 2004, I wrote the first scene.  I was at a conference and laid down to rest and the scene came to me.   A year or so later, I worked on the plot during an endless drive back from Savannah to Tyler with my daughter.  Then I put it aside again.

I couldn’t get going on it.  I would write random scenes occasionally but what I had in no way resembled a book.  I went on that way until I quit writing for about two years due to burnout, family death, twin grandbabies<g>, and life in general.  I played with my grandbabies, did a lot of needlework and didn’t write a word of fiction.  I decided if I never wrote anything else that was okay.  I’d published sixteen books and that was enough.

Then I talked to Debra Dixon, President of Belle Books, and a friend I’d known for many years.  The self-publishing boom had hit.  Although I thought I had retired, almost all my friends are writers and I was still a member of many writing communities.  I had the rights back to eight books and was toying with publishing them myself.  But I couldn’t figure out a number of things.  Formatting for one.  At the time I wrote in Word Perfect.  Everything now requires Word, which I loathe and use only when I absolutely must.

So I asked for help on one of my writers loops and Debra Dixon gave me some great advice.  She also mentioned I didn’t have to do this all on my own.  “I don’t?” I asked.  She said Belle Books was interested in reissuing my backlist.  I knew about Belle Books, of course.  I had always wanted to write for them, in fact.  But I hadn’t realized they had branched out from publishing only original southern fiction to more genres as well as reissues.  I was in heaven.  Belle Books bought my backlist in January 2011.  My first reissue, On Thin Ice, came out with Bell Bridge Books in August of 2011.  I love those books and it is such a pleasure to know they have a new life. I not only have a new publisher but I’m lucky enough to have a publisher and editors who are a dream to work with.

In one of our discussions about my backlist, Deb asked me if I had plans to write anything new.  She knew all about what had been going on with me and that I had mentioned retiring, but she let me know Belle Books would be interested in an original from me.  I said, “Well, I do have an idea for a book that’s unlike anything I’ve ever written.

That was what it took.  Not too long after I talked to Deb, I sent a synopsis of my new book to Belle Books. It was very vague and very short since I still had no idea exactly what I was doing, or even what exactly I was writing.  We decided I’d write the whole book and submit it.

Except I couldn’t write.  I had the synopsis but the book was so complex I couldn’t figure out how to write the thing.  I contacted the fabulous April Kihlstrom, published author and writing coach extraordinaire.  With her help I was able to begin seriously working on my book.  April was a lifesaver.  I truly doubt I’d have been able to write again without her help and encouragement.

My friends, many of whom I list in the acknowledgements, were essential to writing my Book of the Heart. I can’t tell you how many talks we had on every subject under the sun. Or how many times I’d call one of them up to try to hammer out a scene. Or email someone with a problem I couldn’t figure out. I’m pretty sure my friends were almost as glad as I was when I finished Cry Love. For that matter, so was my family. I might be just a tiny bit hard to live with when I’m writing.

Finally, nearly a year after I started writing it seriously, I typed THE END on Cry Love.  Thirteen years after the original idea occurred to me, I finished the book.  To call Cry Love a book of my heart doesn’t even approach how I feel about it.  This book was wrenched, sometimes agonizingly, from deep within my heart and soul.  I love this book.  I hope you will too.

TIKI ROAD TRIPS AND FLAMING COCKTAILS

by Jill Marie Landis

According to Wikipedia (and we all know how reliable Wikipedia is!) the tortured artist is both a stock character and a real-life stereotype. Artists who suffer for their work often succumb to self-mutilation, a high rate of suicide, hours of therapy and/or gallons of Ben and Jerry’s.

I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as a tortured artist, but I will go to just about any length in the name of research. When I wrote western historical romances, I rode horses and rounded up cattle. I watered down pigs. I’ve visited so many historical sites and museums that my husband now punches the car accelerator as we approach any building or rock that might be sporting an historical marker.

Since I began writing The Tiki Goddess Mystery Series for Belle Books, I’ve gone overboard doing research. I’ve devoted countless hours to paging through Pintrest, pinning photos with the subject heading “Tiki.”  I’ve shopped eBay for tiki mugs to add to my collection. I’ve spent many a night in the local watering hole here on Kauai writing notes on cocktail napkins and taste testing umbrella drinks. An author’s life is one of sacrifice. Believe me, I’ll go to any length to get things right on the page.

So, in the name of research, I’ve visited Tiki Bars on Kauai and on every other Hawaiian Island. When we’re on the mainland (you know it as the continental US), I refer to my handy dandy “Tiki Road Trip, A Guide to Tiki Culture in North America” by James Teitelbaum. I’ve been in tiki bars in some of the most unlikely, out of the way places in the world and lived to tell about it.

I’ll have to admit my husband and our dinner guests were surprised on evening when I walked into the kitchen armed with a long handled gas lighter and a fire extinquisher. I explained I’d decided to create a recipe to include in TOO HOT FOUR HULA, Book 4, the latest of the Tiki Goddess Mysteries and I needed assistance.

I handed my friend and fellow author, Stella Cameron, a fire extinguisher. As I recall, I said something like, “Stand back Stella, and if I blow myself up, use that thing!”

Stella laughed until I started lining up the ingredients which included chocolate candy kisses and three kinds of liquor, one of which was a bottle of 151 Proof rum, the liquor most mixologists recommended for igniting a flaming cocktail.

That night “The Flaming Manic Monkey” cocktail was born. The drink was inspired by a scene in TOO HOT FOR HULA when Uncle Louie relates a trek to the Amazon in search of the legendary Amethyst Monkey Skull.

Thankfully, Stella didn’t have to use the extinguisher after all because we later noticed that warranty on the thing expired ten years ago!

Do stop by and visit me at www.thetikigoddess.com and sign up for my newsletter and read other fun blogs.

Don’t forget to grab Jill Marie Landis’s newest release

– TOO HOT FOUR HULA –

out today!!

Just click the link above!

And make sure you grab the other fabulous books in the Tiki Goddess Series! Just click the links below!

BE CAREFUL WITH THE LITTLE DETAILS

by Melissa Ford

The first thing you need to know is that I don’t know a lot about television.  I watch whatever my husband puts on at night, and if he doesn’t turn on the television, then it wouldn’t occur to me to choose something myself.  One time my husband went to Berlin for ten days. When he returned and clicked on the television, it was still set to ESPN which he was watching before he left.  He looked at me and said, “you either missed me so much that you watched sports… or you didn’t turn on the television for a week and a half.”  Ding, ding, ding!  We have a winner.

The second thing you need to know is that when we were making Bermuda shorts in our Home Ec class in eighth grade, I didn’t align the front and the back properly so the fabric pattern went in two different directions.  I had hand-stitched my shorts together because I couldn’t get a hang of the sewing machine, and the fabric puckered strangely between the holes in the seam.

I know nothing about television and nothing about sewing.  So why did I make one character in Apart at the Seams a writer for a comedy news show, and the other a finisher for a clothing designer?

It was sort of by accident.  Noah and Arianna were supposed to be minor characters, meant to help hold up the plotline, but they were thrust into the spotlight when we decided to tell the same story over two books from two very different points of view.  If these two characters were a television writer and a finisher in Measure of Love, then they needed to have the same jobs when the story flipped over and was told from their point of view in Apart at the Seams.

The moral of this story is to be careful with even the little, throwaway details.

I was lucky in that a bunch of kind people in New York jumped in to teach me their craft so I could create a believable television writer and finisher.  Jill Katz at the Daily Show brought me to the set and taught me what goes into crafting a half hour comedy show from script to performance.  She didn’t even roll her eyes when I meekly asked her what the man working the camera was called.

And Brenda Mikel, the Atelier Director at Narciso Rodriguez, spent hours walking me through the process of designing clothing. It’s thanks to her that Arianna attaches sequins before the pattern is cut rather than after as she did in the first draft of the book.  There was no question too basic that Brenda didn’t take time out of her busy schedule to answer thoughtfully.

I’m grateful for all the people who stepped in to help bring veracity to the characters and storyline.  Though next time, I’m going to stick with what I know and make my character a women’s fiction writer, working out of her house.  Then again… it was pretty cool to see the Daily Show in action…

Make sure you grab Melissa Ford’s new release

– APART AT THE SEAMS-

out on June 14!!

Just click the link above!

And don’t forget to grab the first two books in this series – LIFE FROM SCRATCH and MEASURE OF LOVE!

Just click the links below!

We are RE-VAMPING the entire Vampires in America series! 

 RAPHAEL, SOPHIA, ADEN, JABRIL, and RAJMUND have all been given new covers…..

And now DUNCAN – Book 5 in the Vampires in America series is being revealed!

   Just click the links and you’ll be taken to Amazon where you can get this entire series with the new covers! Don’t wait! 

This series by D.B. Reynolds is just too good to miss out on!