What's Your Snack? -- Kandy Shepherd

Is it because I’m trying to lose weight that I keep thinking about favorite snacks? Not the delicious, low-fat meals I am enjoying and that, to be honest, are so filling I'm not hungry. Rather those delicious morsels that don’t seem to have a lot to do with hunger but with stress, want, and—yes—just plain greed!

On my Californian road trip this past July, I treated myself to a variety of toothsome snacks, some very difficult to get in Australia, where I live. First to be eaten with a great deal of pleasure was a double pack of Nestle Butterfinger, probably my very favorite of American candy bars.

Some swear by peanut butter cups--these are my peanut butter addiction.

 Next was a pack of Poppycock. I adore this sweet, nutty popcorn. I usually nibble on a pack—or two, or three—with my friend, author Cathleen Ross, when we share a room at the Romance Writers of America national convention. Sadly, Cathleen wasn’t able to come to Anaheim this year, so I bought a pack of Poppycock to take back home to her. Well, that was the intention. Greedy me succumbed to temptation on the plane home. But when I came back through Customs in Australia and declared I had some snacks, they specifically asked me if I had popcorn. If I hadn't eaten that pack, it would have been confiscated. What a waste that would have been!

I wonder if they put something addictive in this to  make me like it so much?

 Most of my snack passions tend to be sweet. But I was introduced to a new savory treat at a roadhouse in Burney, California. I thought I was ordering a side of fried zucchini but got served this amazing appetizer of crumbed zucchini sticks served with ranch dressing. How I love ranch dressing—and IMHO it doesn’t taste as good anywhere outside of the US.

I'm going to have to find a recipe to make this.

However, for all those scrumptious American treats, I have to say that the sweetest and most appreciated of all was the handful of blackberries gathered for me by my favorite little boys who live in northern California. “Eat them slowly, Kandy,” they admonished me, before they risked scratched arms and legs to go back for their own handfuls.

Picked and given with love--what a special treat.

And back home in Australia? Lovely Cathleen Ross just came back from a writer’s retreat with a gift for me of a pack of musk pencils. These are a hard version of the popular sweet, musk sticks, available only, to my knowledge in Australia and New Zealand. They’re mega sweet, have a floral type of flavor and a lurid color that probably isn’t very good for us at all! (And thanks, Cathleen, for not eating them on the plane before they got a chance to get to me.)

How to explain the appeal of such a sugary, brightly colored treat?

Of course the heroines I write in my novels also have a penchant for snacks. Cristy in  The Castaway Bride is stranded with a handsome stranger on a tropical island, their emergency food supply comprising chocolate bars. She thinks she’ll never eat chocolate again, but when things go wrong with Matt later in the novel what does she turn to? The chocolate in the hotel mini-bar. Allison in Something About Joe also turns to candy bars in times of stress. Heroines after my own heart (and sweet tooth)!

What about you? Do you have a favorite snack or treat? One that, perhaps, brings back happy childhood memories. Or one that you never want to eat again? I’d love to hear about it!

Please leave a comment to be in the draw to win a Love is a Four-Legged Word T-shirt.  Be sure to leave your email address with your comment if you want to be in the draw.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. Her books include The Castaway Bride, Something About Joe, Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is –they’re even better than a chocolate snack to relax with!

Visit Kandy at her website

 www.kandyshepherd.com

Between the (clean) sheets - by Kandy Shepherd

Can pegging sheets out on the clothesline be counted as a pleasure or a chore?  Yesterday, I came down on the side of pleasure.

The joy of sunshine-dried sheets!

 After a wet, cold winter in my particular part of “Down Under”, with the tumble dryer doing overtime, a glorious spring day presented a perfect opportunity to peg my washing out to dry naturally in the sun and blue sky. In no time at all, my sheets were crisp, fresh, and scented with fresh air and sunshine.

As I folded my clean sheets into my laundry basket, I remembered how much I missed my Australian clothesline—and Australian sunshine—when I lived in central London some years ago. I adored every second of living in England, but I didn’t like that my sheets always had to be dried in the tumble dryer or draped over radiators. Maybe that’s why I rejoice in this simple pleasure.

Toby just grazes around the laundry, helping me mow the grass

 You may think I sound like a fanatic housewife—far from the truth. I lean more to the slovenly end of the scale and frequently bemoan how much I hate housework. I would carry the dishwasher on my back if forced to evacuate my house. When I speculate (as one does) what I would do if I won the lottery, high on my wish list, along with the tropical island vacations, is a housekeeper.

 But I do get a kick from fresh, line-dried laundry. And when my spring garden blooms, I’ll drape my sheets over my lavender bushes so they smell even better!

How apt! I found this on Facebook

Laundry—and other forms of housework—are inescapable for many of us. Such mundane chores rarely make it onto the pages of the books I write. And yet, when I created a heroine cast away on a tropical island paradise alone with a gorgeous, sexy hero in The Castaway Bride , I couldn’t resist having her worry about how she would wash and dry her only garments—the torn remnants of her wedding gown and some lacy thong panties. Oh well, they say you reveal something of yourself in everything you write…

What about you? Is there an aspect of housework you love or loathe? An appliance you couldn't live without? I'd love to hear it!

Please leave a comment to be in the draw to win a Home Is Where the Bark Is tote bag (fabulous to keep clothes pegs in!) Be sure to leave your email address with your comment if you want to be in the draw.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. Her books include The Castaway Bride, Something About Joe, Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is –reading one is a great way to escape the housework!

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Kandy Shepherd - Setting the Scene

How important is setting to you in a novel? As a reader, I’ve always enjoyed books set in different parts of the world. I’ve probably learned more from novels than I have from geography or history lessons!

I love to travel, and visiting places I’ve read about in books is one of my favorite things to do. Visiting new places also inspires my own writing—and helps me get the details of the setting right. How lucky we writers are to be able to travel and count it as research!

What kind of hero or heroine would live in a house in this amazing setting? Mendocino, California.

 I just returned from a trip to California, that turned into a fact-finding mission for my stories. We started off in Anaheim for the Romance Writers of America national convention, which was as fabulous as always.

An artistic water stop outside the Mountainsong Galleries in dog-friendly Carmel-By-The-Sea.  I like writing dogs in my stories--could this inspire a scene?

Then we set off on the road trip. We visited Santa Barbara (what a beautiful town!); the quaint Danish village of Solvang; charming Cambria; Carmel (my third visit); then drove north to visit friends in Shasta County via San Francisco.

The car he or she drives can help define a character. I love this one parked at Carmel-By-The-Sea. 

We drove on  the coast-hugging Highway 1 to make the most of the awe-inspiring scenery (when it wasn’t shrouded in fog, that is!) Point Reyes, Elk, and Mendocino were highlights.

This was the view from our room at the Greenwood Pier Inn at Elk, California.  I'm sure I'm not the first writer to be inspired by this delightful place with its magnificent views and beautiful gardens.

 It always amazes me the things can catch the writerly imagination—from the house a character might live in, to the work they do, to the pets they might have, or quirky details that can add life to a story.

This pony grazing in a field of daisies in the Fall River Valley, California, might be just the horsey character I need for one of my stories.

On this trip, I found just what I needed for the story I am currently writing—but I won’t jinx myself by telling you about it just yet. I also found a whole lot of inspiration for new characters and new stories.

This tells me the person who set this scene near their front door has a warm and welcoming heart - the kind of heroine I want to write.

We finished up in the beautiful Fall River Valley to stay with our friends who farm wild rice. They also produce a delicious chocolate bar made with puffed wild rice and Belgian chocolate. The crunch and flavor the wild rice adds to the chocolate truly is a taste sensation.

Wild rice growing in the Fall River Valley, CA. I love wild rice whichever way it's cooked but its particularly toothsome added to chocolate!

 Is there a setting you particularly like in a book, movie or TV show? Or one you don’t like? Have you visited a place you’ll never forget? I'd love to hear from you!

My friends produce this chocolate from the wild rice grown in their valley. I'm hoarding my bar, but I don't know how much long I can hold out until I eat it!

Please leave a comment to be in the draw to win one of three bars of Fall River Wild Rice Dark Belgian Chocolate that retail for $4.50 each. I'm sorry, but this prize can only be sent to addresses in the USA. Be sure to leave your email address with your comment.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. She is the author of The Castaway Bride (set on a tropical island in the Pacific); Something About Joe, (set on the harbor in Sydney, Australia); Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is (both set in San Francisco.)

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

The good, the bad and the way better than expected… Kandy Shepherd

Was 2011 a good or a not-so-good year for you? At the turn of the year, I was concerned by the number of people, both around me and on social media, saying 2011 had been a terrible year for them. It made me think about my year past. I concluded that—although the world situation was an ongoing cause for concern—it hadn’t been a bad year for me, though there were some ups and downs.

I like to think the beautiful rainbow over our farmhouse brought it good luck and saved it from destruction by fire.

DOWN

Last July, a fire at our farmhouse destroyed the kitchen and caused severe smoke damage to practically every possession. Thankfully, no human or animal was hurt. Months of angst, disruption and inconvenience followed. We are only just this week moving back in.

UP

The insurance company was fabulous. They provided a “disaster recovery” team who cleaned and restored what they could and a builder to replace the kitchen and make repairs. What can’t be restored we can replace. Looking around the beautiful new kitchen, carpets and window coverings in the newly-painted rooms, we think maybe the silver-lining part of this dark cloud turned out to be pretty substantial! 

Lots of rain plus sunshine equalled magnificent roses in my garden

DOWN

As a family, we seemed to catch every cold and flu going around—despite having flu vaccinations. I swear I felt ill for half the year! My teenage daughter had mononucleosis (glandular fever) twice. Would we ever get better?

UP

Of course we did. My daughter successfully got through her first year at university. Medical tests concluded that there is nothing seriously wrong with any of us. So reassuring!

I learned to cook Thai food--yum!

DOWN

After a long wait for confirmation, a two-book contract with a big publisher didn’t happen for me. Very disappointing. But that’s publishing for you.

UP

Excited by the surge in indie publishing, and with some trepidation, I decided to self-publish my contemporary romance The Castaway Bride. To my ongoing amazement and delight, it became a Kindle bestseller. The Wall Street Journal recommended it in its "Reader’s Guide to Self-Published Big Sellers". I’ve gained lots of wonderful new readers. Now that really is an “Up”! 

My Kindle bestseller

Over the course of twelve months, there was much to celebrate: ongoing friendships; my pleasure in my family; the joy from my animals; good books read and movies enjoyed; new recipes tried and enjoyed; the biggest and most beautiful roses I have ever grown. I’m hoping for more ups than downs in 2012—not just for me, but for you too. 

Happy New Year!

Just looking at them makes me feel happy!

What about you? Any particular ups and downs for you in last year? Any hopes for 2012? I’d love to hear about them!

Please leave a comment for a chance to win a signed trade paperback copy of my contemporary romance Home Is Where the Bark Is published by Berkley Sensation. Be sure to include your email address if you want to be in the draw.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

KISS, KISS by Kandy Shepherd

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" That’s what my teenage daughter and I chant when we’re watching a scene on television or a DVD where the build up of romantic tension between a guy and a gal becomes too much for us. We sigh when they kiss, moan when they miss. (At the moment we’re loving Downton Abbey and getting great enjoyment from both the Lady Mary & Matthew, and Bates & Anna relationships. Come on Bates and Anna—kiss!)

That first kiss is so vital in a romance—once they kiss everything changes for ever between them. Be it in a book or a movie, I adore a good first kiss scene. So why do I find them so darn difficult to write?
I can be heard muttering away at my computer that I hate writing kissing scenes! Yet I’m told I write them well. The thing is, a memorable first kiss isn’t just about the meeting of lips and tongues, the placing of hands and bodies. It’s about how my hero and heroine feel about the kiss—it’s about love and fear and joy and worry as well as physical sensations. It can be sexy, sweet, passionate, funny , awkward or deeply romantic. And, like all kisses it’s about the people doing the kissing—the unique characters I have created for my story who bring their own personalities to the kiss. Every kiss I write is different—because my characters are different.

Do you remember your first kiss? My first kiss with a boy was when I was six years old and came with a proposal! The first “proper kiss” was when I was fourteen at a school dance, it was sweet and tender and utterly thrilling. I was so excited I told my mother all about it when I got home—and so earned the unrelenting mockery of my friends! Funny thing is, though, when my daughter got her first kiss she came home and told me all about it and it was a very sweet moment.

I’d love to hear about your first kiss—or a screen kiss you found memorable. Please leave a comment for a chance to win a signed trade paperback copy of either HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS or LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD and include your email address and which book you would prefer if you want to be in the draw.
http://www.kandyshepherd.com

To peek or not to peek--Kandy Shepherd

Do you flip to the last pages of a book and read the ending first?

My answer is a resounding “never”. I start at page one and keep turning the pages in orderly fashion one by one until I reach THE END. The need to know what happens at the end is what propels me through the story. It’s all about the anticipation and suspense. I want to enjoy the journey all the way through those pages--particularly in a thriller or mystery; even in a romance when the genre promises a guaranteed happy-ever-after conclusion.

By staying ignorant of the ending, I want to give the author the opportunity to surprise me. That’s what keeps me up way too late at night promising myself I’ll just read to the end of the chapter. And then the next. That’s what has me saying, “Yes, I know you all want dinner but I really have to know what happens here…”

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a good ending or a bad ending—I don’t want to know about it until I’m meant to. I don’t like spoilers. I don’t like back cover blurb that gives away too much of the plot. I’m not much or a “re-reader”, rarely revisiting books unless it’s been so long I’ve forgotten how it ends.

But not everyone feels the same. On a quick, random survey of my avid reader friends, I was stunned to find how many of them often read the end of a book long before they finished the story. “First page, last page then the rest,” said one. “I just don’t want to wait to see what happens,” said another.

That’s not to say I haven’t flicked through a book I’ve found really boring just to see what happened before I threw it at the wall. And it’s not that sometimes I don’t nibble at dessert before the entrée...

As long as we enjoy the book it doesn't matter how we get there.

How about you? Do you read the ending first? Or not? Please leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of my contemporary romance trade paperback HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS (which has a fun ending that can be enjoyed at any time!) and include your email address if you want to be in the draw.

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

Never to forget-Kandy Shepherd

“What did we forget this time?” my husband asked me once we were on the road and too late to turn back home. Last weekend, we headed down the coast for a “mini break” to catch up with some old friends. For more than 13 years we’d spent a week of summer vacation with this couple and their daughter. Both girls are the same age, both only children so it was ideal.

Year after year we met up, hiring a holiday house as close to the beach as possible. We would often speculate on how long it would last before the teenagers would think the beach house break was way too uncool. But it was my friend’s battle with two types of cancer that halted our trips away. Now, after a break of three years, we were meeting once more for a long weekend at the beach (it’s early autumn Down Under). Just the adults this time, with one daughter overseas on a gap year and the other immersed in study.

But what did I forget to pack? The houses we stay at require you to bring bed linen, towels and essentials to augment kitchens stocked with just the essentials. It seemed that for each of those 13 years, I had forgotten something important. One year the towels. Another my underwear (yes, not one pair!) One summer I brought jeans and shorts but not a single T-shirt. Sunglasses. Swimsuit. Sunhat. All things I had to hastily purchase from supermarkets or souvenir stores using hard-saved vacation dollars I would rather have spent on something else.

My most memorable omission was shoes for my then three-year-old daughter. To avoid the traffic we left home at dawn, tucking a drowsy little girl still in her pajamas into her car seat. Her pajamas and no shoes. How could I have been so dumb? The only tiny sized shoes available where we were staying that she would consider wearing was a pair of fussy, patent leather mary-janes. They looked ludicrous with beach clothes and blistered her feet but that was it for a week. Thank heaven bare feet were fine on the sand.

So what did I forget last weekend? Toothpaste, yes, but our friends were happy to share their tube. Not so comfortable was the single fitted sheet I brought for a queen-sized bed.

But the weather was perfect, the surf superb, and everything I loved about the place still wonderfully the same; the memories of our daughters growing up so vivid. Most joyous of all was the chance to share the company of a dear friend when we had all feared that might never happen again. (The pictures above are of the view from the vacation house we rented at beautiful Bawley Point, New South Wales, Australia and of some lorrikeet visitors.)

One thing I share with my friend is a love of reading—and one of the things we talked about was the books we have read recently. What I did not forget to pack was a selection of good books!

Have you ever forgotten to pack something important for a trip away? Please leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of my contemporary romanceHOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS and include your email address if you want to be in the draw.

A growing passion – by Kandy Shepherd

Any one else get a kick from growing your own fruit and vegetables? In the Meryl Streep movie It’s Complicated. I lusted for her character’s perfect French style potager vegetable garden (even more than I wanted her beautiful Santa Barbara house and amazing bakery).

My own veggie plot (that's it below the dream one) is a lot

more humble—but plans for an It’s Complicated garden are engraved on the “one day when I have more time” list.

In the meantime we get an ample supply of tomatoes, peas, beans, eggplant, zucchini (and zucchini and zucchini), sweetcorn and herbs, even though they are grown in a more haphazard—and dare I say less complicated—fashion than the movie one. Lettuce is something I haven’t been so lucky with this year.

When someone (and I’m glaring here at my daughter) let her horse Toby into the garden he made a beeline for the lettuces. Lucky I adore him and can’t stay cranky for long… Oh, and he does help with the fertilizer!

I was fortunate to inherit with the garden marvelous old fruit trees: apples, pears, sour cherries, peaches and an ancient gnarled plum. But it’s a battle between us and the birds to join in the harvest! I’m prepared to share, why can’t they?

My interests tend to sneak into the books I write. Food and animals are very much part of LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD and HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS. The book I am working on now also has heroine who likes to cook, and that dream vegetable garden has somehow found its way into the plot. Funny, that…

Do you have a green thumb—or the other kind? Please leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS and include your email address if you want to be in the draw.

Ending it right-Kandy Shepherd

A guaranteed happy ending is one of the things I love about romance novels. No matter what misunderstandings or differences keep the hero and heroine rent asunder, we know they will end the book happily-ever-after in each other’s arms. We can sigh happily, maybe even wipe away a tear or two, and know that all is all right for that fictional couple. We might even wallow in an epilogue showing they are still happy a year or so in the future.

As writers, we concentrate on getting the opening lines of a novel just so—but we also work hard on making sure we write a satisfying ending. In a non-romance book this might mean a thought-provoking ending or even a cliff-hanger rather than a HEA.

To get that ending right is so important. Don't you hate it when a TV network sees a blip in the ratings or gets a budget cut and ends a series before they should? I remember how annoyed I was at the rushed, unsatisfactory ending to one of my favorite television series, Gilmore Girls. We got to know and love single mom Lorelai and her daughter Rory, their friends, family and lovers. The way things ended with both Rory and Logan and Lorelai and Luke were anti-climactic after all we’d invested as viewers in their relationships. We felt cheated.

Same with one of my favorite television series, the British psychological thriller Wire in the Blood that centers around profiler Tony Hill. Not only did they write out the lead female role of Carol Jordan with just a sentence of implausible explanation but they abruptly ended the sixth series without any satisfactory resolution. Thank heaven the brilliant novels of Val McDermid (upon which the TV series was based) continue!

On-line fans were furious at the odd and abrupt ending of another of my favorites, the US version of Life on Mars (starring the gorgeous Jason O’Mara). The UK version finished off the original series in a far more satisfactory manner. (BTW it was a beautiful romance between time traveler Sam and 1970s cop Annie.)

Any books/movies/TV shows where you loved the ending or would have liked to end differently? Please leave a comment for a chance to win a signed trade paperback copy of my novel HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS. Include your email address if you want to be in the draw.

http://www.kandyshepherd.com