A Funny Thing Happen on Our Way to the Falls
This past September, hubby and I visited Buttermilk Falls in the tiny town of Ludlow, Vermont. A charming village surrounded by robust color emanating from the trees as they blasted the last hooray before the onset of winter.
Vermont holds a special place in our hearts—we honeymooned in Pittsfield. But more importantly, Vermont is a wonderful place to visit, where the air is clean—free of toxins and the water is pure—so pure, you can see all the way to the bottom of the babbling brooks. The smell of wood burning stoves permeates the air, the cheapest form of heat reminding you of its quaintness, family unity and neighbors who share camaraderie far beyond the norm.
This particular morning, the air was chilly, but we were prepared with warm coats. On our way out of town, we stopped for breakfast and picked up some homemade jams and syrups. There’s something very therapeutic about purchasing homemade items when you’re on vacation. It’s a reminder of a wonderful vacation that extends until you finish your goodies.
We finally pulled into the crowded parking area to begin our hike back into the woods to see the Falls. Hubby had decided to take a picture of me, but the camera was dead because he’d forgotten to charge the batteries the night before. Needless to say, there was no point in lugging the camera around, so I walked back to our rental car and decided to stash it on the back seat, along with my purse. I covered them both with our coats since it had warmed up a bit and headed toward the falls and my waiting husband. Having second thoughts about leaving my cell phone behind, I rushed back to the car with the keys and pressed on the fob. The doors would not unlock. I called out to Bob for help.
He just sighed and returned to the car, going through the same drill as me, repeatedly clicking on the fob to no avail. I began to panic, my heart pounding against my rib cage wondering what we we’re going to do. We were leaving for the airport right after we finished our hike into the falls. And seriously, visiting Vermont isn’t like living in a Metropolitan area with everything close by. I was sure they had AAA, but without a phone, how was I going to call for help?
As I stood watching my husband continually press the remote hoping to get it to work, my anxiety escalated as I worried about our flight home, and then it suddenly occurred to me that our purchased goodies were not on the backseat. Surprised because we hadn’t walked that far into the woods before I’d turned around to retrieve my phone, I couldn’t believe anyone from Vermont, our special place, could have stolen our treasures from our rental car.
Had I forgotten to lock the doors? I wasn’t sure. Fortunately, Bob didn't say anything to me except I did get that disappointed parental look. Yeah, he can’t help himself. And speaking of disappointment—this was my last day of vacation, and it had been sabotaged by some mean-spirited thief. I began to pace back and forth the crunching of the gravel beneath my feet driving my husband crazy. Nervous, I decided to do a bit of investigating by checking each car in the lot to see who had my jams and syrup while hubby fiddled with the fob key.
Fortunately, other than the parked cars, no one else was around to see me snooping. As I approached car after car, I finally found what I was looking for—the car thief’s car. I shook my head in bafflement. What kind of schmuck would steal our stuff and leave it in the backseat of his car. I called out to Bob who was several cars away and he came rushing over. Bob leaned up against the window and shielded the light so he could see inside.
“Can you believe someone would be so blatant as to leave the stolen goods right on the back seat?” I asked.
Bob backed away and gave me an odd look. “Hon, did you throw the wrapper from the cookie you had earlier on the floor?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I was waiting to throw it out in a trash can. Why?”
Bob pulled the fob from his pocket and clicked twice. All the locks popped simultaneously. Okay, so now, it suddenly occurs to us that we’ve locked our camera, coats, and my purse in the backseat of someone else’s car—a car the same color, make and model as our rental car.
Neither one of us could stop laughing at our stupidity. Especially me, because I’d gotten myself so worked up thinking someone ruined our trip to Vermont. So we waited, and we waited, and we waited by the car until the car’s owners returned from seeing the Buttermilk Falls—the falls that I most likely was not going to see since our flight would leave later that night.
Ninety minutes later, the owners came walking toward the car. Since I was the one to make the mistake, brave soul that I am, I approached the driver whose face was formed into a scowl wondering why I was standing by his car.
“Can I help you,” he said.
“Ah, yeah. Well . . . you’re not going to believe this, but . . . well, you see, we thought your car was our car, and well, your doors were unlocked, and we thought we forgot to lock our doors, so we put our belongings in the back seat of your car and locked the doors.”
The three other passengers, one being his wife is now laughing with me, but the driver with the scornful expression on his face wasn’t too happy. He immediately began to chastise his wife for not locking the doors, and reluctantly gave us our belongings.
As Bob and I walked toward our car with our tails between our legs, we rushed the last bit to get into our car before we busted our guts laughing. Needless to say, this trip to Vermont will have many years of entertaining memories. I love Vermont.
Hot and Deadly Blog Hop
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
WRITING TIPS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASY
Hello everyone at Carolyn’s blog! First I want to thank Carolyn for inviting me to stop by today. Things are about to get hectic with a brand new blog tour kicking off November 2 for Darn Good Cowboy Christmas, the third book in the Spikes and Spurs series.
Spikes and Spurs started off as a trilogy and grew to a four book series when my editor called and asked for a Christmas book.
Of course when I stopped squealing I said yes and asked which of my secondary O’Donnell characters she’d like me to write about. She gave me free reign and I picked Raylen because he had been pestering me to tell his story. I think what he really wanted was for me to find him a woman! LOL!
That very same day Husband and I were driving out west of town and there was a circus setting up and Lizelle (Liz) popped into my head. My first thought was, “Well Raylen, you wanted a woman. How about a belly dancing carnie?”
And so that’s what he got!
Then my awesome editor, Deb Werksman, bought another three books for the series, so now it’s up to seven books and there are about that many more cowboys who need their stories told. So the series keeps getting bigger.
In a trilogy I can pretty well remember names, dates, places, births and marriages. But seven is stretching my mind pretty darn thin so I’ve come up with some cheat sheets I’m going to share with you and they are very cheap!
First go to your local dollar store, flea market or Wal-Mart (as a last resort) and purchase a recipe box. It doesn’t have to be made of mahogany and have a brass plate on the front engraved with the name of your series. Mine is plastic and it cost a dollar at the Dollar Tree. Next you need some index cards and tabs. Label the tabs A-Z and make an index card for every single character that appears in your books. I alphabetize by first name to make it easier for me to find them. Name at the top, information about them on the card. Use the back if you need to.
I know there are special programs you can purchase for the computer to do this but I’d have to open the program, search for the name and remember what I read. By the time I’d get back to the story line I would have lost my train of thought! This way, I’m typing about Dewar and right there in front of me behind the D-tab I have it that he has black hair, green eyes, a scar on his cheek that he got when he was bucked off a horse and cut it on barbed wire when he fell, a cleft in his chin and he’s always had a thing for red haired women.
Or how about that secondary character from book four that has a cameo appearance in book seven? Garrett is Ace and Creed’s brother. He’s married to Megan. They have three sons who are named on the card. He has brown hair, gray-green eyes and Megan has long black hair and brown eyes. Simple! Cheap! Effective!
My second trick of the trade is a family tree to keep dates in the right order. Austin and Rye (Love Drunk Cowboy) have a daughter who is three by the time the first seven books are finished. Believe me, my readers would howl if I said she was four or five or still in diapers and talking baby talk. So I build a family tree on a manila folder…yes, I said a manila folder. It has not only the O’Donnells but the Marshalls and the Rileys and now the Pierces and the Colemans. It can be filed in the cabinet and taken out whenever I need to remember just when something happened in which book or better yet (and right now is the case) tacked up on the wall right in front of me and the whole gang is just a glance away.
Again, I know there are programs out there to build your own character trees on the computer and again, I’d lose my train of thought looking it up.
I worked in the newspaper business for many years before and during my writing career and my editor often shook his head when he saw my notes. It’s the same today. I still note by hand and it’s severely encrypted but I know that chapter seven is when Haley saw the airplane and wished to hell she was back home in Dallas and not riding a horse up the Chisholm Trail. And chapter sixteen is when they passed a cemetery and she wondered what story her life would tell when she was lying beneath a tombstone.
It’s hard to argue with something that works and my system works for me. Plus it is cheap! And simple! And effective!
I just finished the rough draft for book six and now it’s on to book seven. If a tornado siren blows in our part of the country, I grab my lap top, recipe box and my manila folder and we’re off to the storm shelter!
What tricks of the trade do you have when you are writing a multi-book series?
Spikes and Spurs started off as a trilogy and grew to a four book series when my editor called and asked for a Christmas book.
Of course when I stopped squealing I said yes and asked which of my secondary O’Donnell characters she’d like me to write about. She gave me free reign and I picked Raylen because he had been pestering me to tell his story. I think what he really wanted was for me to find him a woman! LOL!
That very same day Husband and I were driving out west of town and there was a circus setting up and Lizelle (Liz) popped into my head. My first thought was, “Well Raylen, you wanted a woman. How about a belly dancing carnie?”
And so that’s what he got!
Then my awesome editor, Deb Werksman, bought another three books for the series, so now it’s up to seven books and there are about that many more cowboys who need their stories told. So the series keeps getting bigger.
In a trilogy I can pretty well remember names, dates, places, births and marriages. But seven is stretching my mind pretty darn thin so I’ve come up with some cheat sheets I’m going to share with you and they are very cheap!
First go to your local dollar store, flea market or Wal-Mart (as a last resort) and purchase a recipe box. It doesn’t have to be made of mahogany and have a brass plate on the front engraved with the name of your series. Mine is plastic and it cost a dollar at the Dollar Tree. Next you need some index cards and tabs. Label the tabs A-Z and make an index card for every single character that appears in your books. I alphabetize by first name to make it easier for me to find them. Name at the top, information about them on the card. Use the back if you need to.
I know there are special programs you can purchase for the computer to do this but I’d have to open the program, search for the name and remember what I read. By the time I’d get back to the story line I would have lost my train of thought! This way, I’m typing about Dewar and right there in front of me behind the D-tab I have it that he has black hair, green eyes, a scar on his cheek that he got when he was bucked off a horse and cut it on barbed wire when he fell, a cleft in his chin and he’s always had a thing for red haired women.
Or how about that secondary character from book four that has a cameo appearance in book seven? Garrett is Ace and Creed’s brother. He’s married to Megan. They have three sons who are named on the card. He has brown hair, gray-green eyes and Megan has long black hair and brown eyes. Simple! Cheap! Effective!
My second trick of the trade is a family tree to keep dates in the right order. Austin and Rye (Love Drunk Cowboy) have a daughter who is three by the time the first seven books are finished. Believe me, my readers would howl if I said she was four or five or still in diapers and talking baby talk. So I build a family tree on a manila folder…yes, I said a manila folder. It has not only the O’Donnells but the Marshalls and the Rileys and now the Pierces and the Colemans. It can be filed in the cabinet and taken out whenever I need to remember just when something happened in which book or better yet (and right now is the case) tacked up on the wall right in front of me and the whole gang is just a glance away.
Again, I know there are programs out there to build your own character trees on the computer and again, I’d lose my train of thought looking it up.
I worked in the newspaper business for many years before and during my writing career and my editor often shook his head when he saw my notes. It’s the same today. I still note by hand and it’s severely encrypted but I know that chapter seven is when Haley saw the airplane and wished to hell she was back home in Dallas and not riding a horse up the Chisholm Trail. And chapter sixteen is when they passed a cemetery and she wondered what story her life would tell when she was lying beneath a tombstone.
It’s hard to argue with something that works and my system works for me. Plus it is cheap! And simple! And effective!
I just finished the rough draft for book six and now it’s on to book seven. If a tornado siren blows in our part of the country, I grab my lap top, recipe box and my manila folder and we’re off to the storm shelter!
What tricks of the trade do you have when you are writing a multi-book series?
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
TO SELF-PUBLISH OR NOT—THAT IS THE QUESTION
Over the last couple of years, I’ve listened to a lot of traditionally published authors say negative things about those ‘other’ authors who are going the route of self-publishing.
I guess what really bothers me the most is that they think because they have a contract with one of the BIG publishing houses it somehow makes them superior—or that they worked harder than the self-pub author. I don’t think so. And besides, the last time I checked we were all in this together. Bashing one another because you don’t agree with their choice doesn’t make you better—it tells the world what kind of person you are.
I’ve heard the argument that some of these books are poorly written, and given the current state of affairs in the industry everyone thinks they can throw some words on the paper and head to Amazon to publish it. Well, that may be true in some cases, but not all. The other side of that argument is this: there are a lot of books that have been published by those BIG houses that aren’t so good either, and the only reason the publisher released them was because of the author’s so-called status. The second fact is it doesn’t take our readers long to make the distinction between good and bad. Our readers are smart people—they can spot a scam when they see it.
Every time this subject comes up on one of my writing loops, I’m reminded of some of the college graduates in my class in culinary school. They’d enrolled because they couldn’t find jobs in their given fields so here they were all pomp and circumstance. Each time we’d take a quiz, they’d walk around the class to find out how the other students scored on their test and then brag about their grades, until one day, I’d had decided to give them a lesson in reality that I was certain they’d never considered. The fact is, when you’re hired by the owner of a restaurant, he doesn’t care about your test scores, all he wants to know is if you can cook and know the procedures. And so it goes with traditional publishing. Do you think readers actually care who the publisher is for their favorite author? I highly doubt it! I know I don’t. It’s my opinion readers care more about whether the author writes a good story.
Here’s a story you may have heard before, but I think it deserves repeating for you to share with the naysayers who haven’t heard about her experience. A writing friend of mine had a contract with a publisher when she decided to self-publish her first contemporary. She’d been writing for a long time and had written several books all of which were rejected from every publisher she’d submitted to. She never finaled in any contests and actually received some pretty negative reviews each time she entered. Fortunately, she didn’t toss those files out, nor did she lose sight of her dream. As she puts it, she was a nobody, her new contracted books had not been released yet, so she took the dive into self-publishing in the interim even though she was scared to death she’d find out others hated her work just as much. And learn she did.
On that one book, the one that hit the skids early on, from November to August of this year, this nobody made $31,000 on her self-published book. So when I hear other authors put down the self-pub industry, I chuckle to myself and am happy she’s laughing all the way to the bank. She now has 15 books self-pubbed and is making money hand over fist. She was recently offered a contract from a traditional publisher who’d heard about her success and she turned it down because she was doing so well. Her response was, why should I accept 15% royalties when I can make 70% from self-publishing. And I totally agree with her.
Sure traditional publishing is great—I’m thrilled to be on both sides of that coin. Avalon has been wonderful to me and I’ll stay with them for as long as they’ll have me. I’m even more excited our books will finally be available in eBook format as well, regardless of how much money I make. To me, it’s like free advertising –getting my name out there so that when I do self-pub, people recognize my name. Let’s face it, none of us is ever going to make a bundle of money from Avalon, but for me, it’s not about the money, it’s about being published. And yes, I do like money. :-)
So self-publishing may not be for everyone, and that’s okay too. But here’s the thing: just because you have a contract with a big fancy publisher doesn’t mean anything if you’re not bringing in the bacon. It’s a well-known fact that publishing contracts are written in favor of the publisher, so if you’re not pulling your weight, your contract can bite the dust as quickly as you can.
My first self-published book goes live on Monday and while I hope I make a lot of money, even making $20 is still better than having the file sit on my hard drive. My writing friends have already told me I’m the guinea pig for them, and I say, that’s fine. I hope I’m laughing all the way to bank too, but if not, at least I tried.
In today’s environment, my motto is To Thine Own Self Be True. And while I have no illusions about success, I can’t deny the huge opportunities we’re being given in the publishing industry today, so check your ego at the door and give yourself the opportunity of a lifetime. Why not take a bite of the apple—it’s not poison, it can be called sweet success!
I guess what really bothers me the most is that they think because they have a contract with one of the BIG publishing houses it somehow makes them superior—or that they worked harder than the self-pub author. I don’t think so. And besides, the last time I checked we were all in this together. Bashing one another because you don’t agree with their choice doesn’t make you better—it tells the world what kind of person you are.
I’ve heard the argument that some of these books are poorly written, and given the current state of affairs in the industry everyone thinks they can throw some words on the paper and head to Amazon to publish it. Well, that may be true in some cases, but not all. The other side of that argument is this: there are a lot of books that have been published by those BIG houses that aren’t so good either, and the only reason the publisher released them was because of the author’s so-called status. The second fact is it doesn’t take our readers long to make the distinction between good and bad. Our readers are smart people—they can spot a scam when they see it.
Every time this subject comes up on one of my writing loops, I’m reminded of some of the college graduates in my class in culinary school. They’d enrolled because they couldn’t find jobs in their given fields so here they were all pomp and circumstance. Each time we’d take a quiz, they’d walk around the class to find out how the other students scored on their test and then brag about their grades, until one day, I’d had decided to give them a lesson in reality that I was certain they’d never considered. The fact is, when you’re hired by the owner of a restaurant, he doesn’t care about your test scores, all he wants to know is if you can cook and know the procedures. And so it goes with traditional publishing. Do you think readers actually care who the publisher is for their favorite author? I highly doubt it! I know I don’t. It’s my opinion readers care more about whether the author writes a good story.
Here’s a story you may have heard before, but I think it deserves repeating for you to share with the naysayers who haven’t heard about her experience. A writing friend of mine had a contract with a publisher when she decided to self-publish her first contemporary. She’d been writing for a long time and had written several books all of which were rejected from every publisher she’d submitted to. She never finaled in any contests and actually received some pretty negative reviews each time she entered. Fortunately, she didn’t toss those files out, nor did she lose sight of her dream. As she puts it, she was a nobody, her new contracted books had not been released yet, so she took the dive into self-publishing in the interim even though she was scared to death she’d find out others hated her work just as much. And learn she did.
On that one book, the one that hit the skids early on, from November to August of this year, this nobody made $31,000 on her self-published book. So when I hear other authors put down the self-pub industry, I chuckle to myself and am happy she’s laughing all the way to the bank. She now has 15 books self-pubbed and is making money hand over fist. She was recently offered a contract from a traditional publisher who’d heard about her success and she turned it down because she was doing so well. Her response was, why should I accept 15% royalties when I can make 70% from self-publishing. And I totally agree with her.
Sure traditional publishing is great—I’m thrilled to be on both sides of that coin. Avalon has been wonderful to me and I’ll stay with them for as long as they’ll have me. I’m even more excited our books will finally be available in eBook format as well, regardless of how much money I make. To me, it’s like free advertising –getting my name out there so that when I do self-pub, people recognize my name. Let’s face it, none of us is ever going to make a bundle of money from Avalon, but for me, it’s not about the money, it’s about being published. And yes, I do like money. :-)
So self-publishing may not be for everyone, and that’s okay too. But here’s the thing: just because you have a contract with a big fancy publisher doesn’t mean anything if you’re not bringing in the bacon. It’s a well-known fact that publishing contracts are written in favor of the publisher, so if you’re not pulling your weight, your contract can bite the dust as quickly as you can.
My first self-published book goes live on Monday and while I hope I make a lot of money, even making $20 is still better than having the file sit on my hard drive. My writing friends have already told me I’m the guinea pig for them, and I say, that’s fine. I hope I’m laughing all the way to bank too, but if not, at least I tried.
In today’s environment, my motto is To Thine Own Self Be True. And while I have no illusions about success, I can’t deny the huge opportunities we’re being given in the publishing industry today, so check your ego at the door and give yourself the opportunity of a lifetime. Why not take a bite of the apple—it’s not poison, it can be called sweet success!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Another Shut Up and Kiss Me Excerpt
As an author of Avalon Books and an indie author under the pen name of K. T. Roberts, I’m really excited about how things are going in my writing life. With this book, and three more releases beginning in February which includes romance and recipes, I'm anxious to hear what you have to say about them. Shut Up and Kiss Me has had wonderful reviews not just from fans, but from Booklist and Romance Reviews Today, and I'm psyched.
What’s hotter than a summer in New York City? Two sexy Italian Chefs fighting over you, of course!
Hopeless romantic, Ellana Licari, has her sights set on the tall, dark and handsome, Nick Soranno. With the help of the two meddling Mamas, she’s determined to show him she’s The One - not that scrawny redhead who’s rapidly becoming more than his casual ‘flavor of the month’.
Convincing Nick to stop thinking of her like his sister won’t be easy, but Ellana’s about to up the ante to break up the relationship and leave this new one in a cloud of dust.
But is it working? Not as well as she’d expected. But that’s okay because now Ellana’s canoodling with the Italian stallion, Giovanni Cavallini, to make Nick jealous. Of course, Giovanni’s only too happy to oblige—he’s got his own agenda, but now that she has Nick’s attention, is it too late?
With the matchmaking Mamas doing their best to interfere, Ellana’s stuck in a quandary . . . which one of these tempting chefs will she choose?
I’m often asked what made me decide to write lighthearted contemporary romance. My response is simple. I’m a person who finds humor in life. That’s not to say that I’m always upbeat, but it isn’t often that you’ll find me down.
Life is about making the most of any given situation and trying to see it as a glass half full instead of half empty. While they both mean the same thing, it’s choosing to see things in a different light. Of course this post isn’t intended to be about inciting positive thinking into your minds, it’s just what I do to interject some of the things that have happened to me, or people I know, into my stories in a humorous way.
Shut Up and Kiss Me is set in present time in New York City. It’s about Ellana Licari and Nicky Soranno who have been friends since the day they were born when their mothers met in the hospital. And that’s just how long Ellana has been in love with Nicky—or at least that’s what the mamas told her. In the scene below, Ellana has just given up her apartment and job in New Jersey and moving back to New York because her Mama has called to tell her Nicky is getting married to someone else. Mama’s been trying to get her back in her grips for two years—this time it worked. In this scene Ellana is having a flashback of her childhood and how the mamas used brainwashing attempts to keep their dream alive:
My mind drifted to Nicky and me as kids, and the Cupid Mongers’ brainwashing techniques. I did have to admit thinking about us back then did give me a warm fuzzy and made me smile.
The memory of Mom using Bobbi pins to attach the top of a sheer white curtain to my head as a bridal veil, made me laugh out loud. Those two goofy mothers had decided right from the beginning they weren’t going to risk the event not happening. I could almost smell the tiny bouquet of wild flowers Mom would shove in my hand every afternoon. Then, as Nicky and I walked down the path towards Aunt Nan, who posed as the priest, Mom would hum the wedding march until we were pronounced husband and wife.
At the time, Nicky and I enjoyed “the game” but that was only because we weren’t aware of the mothers’ devious ways yet. Nicky just groans about it now, and me, well, I guess I’m still holding on to the dream. The thought of being Mrs. Nicholas Soranno has always given me comfort, but it’s never going to happen unless I’m able to change my status as his surrogate sister.
Both of these things happened in real life, I just enhanced the truth a tad.
If you want a good laugh, read Shut Up and Kiss Me available now at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. And while you’re at it, check out my reviews of which I’m very proud.
So what am I doing now? I’m writing the second book in a three-part series about romance and food that includes 32 recipes—one after each chapter that I’ve incorporated into the story. I have three more books to pitch to my publisher to keep the series going, because doesn’t everyone like recipes?
As a professional chef, I’ve always wanted to have my own cookbook, so when Avalon asked me to write this series, I jumped at the chance. The series is entitled Romancing the Chef’s Toque, and the first book, Dishing Up Romance will be out in February 2012. The other two books entitled One Menu at a Time, and Catering to Love will be released in June and October, respectively. I’m having a great time writing these books!
Find out more about me at www.carolynhughey.com or visit me at my blog http://carolyn-hughey.blogspot.com. You can also follow me on Twitter under ScriBLINGDIVAS or Facebook under Carolyn Esposito Hughey.
What’s hotter than a summer in New York City? Two sexy Italian Chefs fighting over you, of course!
Hopeless romantic, Ellana Licari, has her sights set on the tall, dark and handsome, Nick Soranno. With the help of the two meddling Mamas, she’s determined to show him she’s The One - not that scrawny redhead who’s rapidly becoming more than his casual ‘flavor of the month’.
Convincing Nick to stop thinking of her like his sister won’t be easy, but Ellana’s about to up the ante to break up the relationship and leave this new one in a cloud of dust.
But is it working? Not as well as she’d expected. But that’s okay because now Ellana’s canoodling with the Italian stallion, Giovanni Cavallini, to make Nick jealous. Of course, Giovanni’s only too happy to oblige—he’s got his own agenda, but now that she has Nick’s attention, is it too late?
With the matchmaking Mamas doing their best to interfere, Ellana’s stuck in a quandary . . . which one of these tempting chefs will she choose?
I’m often asked what made me decide to write lighthearted contemporary romance. My response is simple. I’m a person who finds humor in life. That’s not to say that I’m always upbeat, but it isn’t often that you’ll find me down.
Life is about making the most of any given situation and trying to see it as a glass half full instead of half empty. While they both mean the same thing, it’s choosing to see things in a different light. Of course this post isn’t intended to be about inciting positive thinking into your minds, it’s just what I do to interject some of the things that have happened to me, or people I know, into my stories in a humorous way.
Shut Up and Kiss Me is set in present time in New York City. It’s about Ellana Licari and Nicky Soranno who have been friends since the day they were born when their mothers met in the hospital. And that’s just how long Ellana has been in love with Nicky—or at least that’s what the mamas told her. In the scene below, Ellana has just given up her apartment and job in New Jersey and moving back to New York because her Mama has called to tell her Nicky is getting married to someone else. Mama’s been trying to get her back in her grips for two years—this time it worked. In this scene Ellana is having a flashback of her childhood and how the mamas used brainwashing attempts to keep their dream alive:
My mind drifted to Nicky and me as kids, and the Cupid Mongers’ brainwashing techniques. I did have to admit thinking about us back then did give me a warm fuzzy and made me smile.
The memory of Mom using Bobbi pins to attach the top of a sheer white curtain to my head as a bridal veil, made me laugh out loud. Those two goofy mothers had decided right from the beginning they weren’t going to risk the event not happening. I could almost smell the tiny bouquet of wild flowers Mom would shove in my hand every afternoon. Then, as Nicky and I walked down the path towards Aunt Nan, who posed as the priest, Mom would hum the wedding march until we were pronounced husband and wife.
At the time, Nicky and I enjoyed “the game” but that was only because we weren’t aware of the mothers’ devious ways yet. Nicky just groans about it now, and me, well, I guess I’m still holding on to the dream. The thought of being Mrs. Nicholas Soranno has always given me comfort, but it’s never going to happen unless I’m able to change my status as his surrogate sister.
Both of these things happened in real life, I just enhanced the truth a tad.
If you want a good laugh, read Shut Up and Kiss Me available now at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. And while you’re at it, check out my reviews of which I’m very proud.
So what am I doing now? I’m writing the second book in a three-part series about romance and food that includes 32 recipes—one after each chapter that I’ve incorporated into the story. I have three more books to pitch to my publisher to keep the series going, because doesn’t everyone like recipes?
As a professional chef, I’ve always wanted to have my own cookbook, so when Avalon asked me to write this series, I jumped at the chance. The series is entitled Romancing the Chef’s Toque, and the first book, Dishing Up Romance will be out in February 2012. The other two books entitled One Menu at a Time, and Catering to Love will be released in June and October, respectively. I’m having a great time writing these books!
Find out more about me at www.carolynhughey.com or visit me at my blog http://carolyn-hughey.blogspot.com. You can also follow me on Twitter under ScriBLINGDIVAS or Facebook under Carolyn Esposito Hughey.
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