There's something about September...

I don't know what it is about September - it's not as if I've children at home and I've got that whole back to school rush going on. You know how it goes, new shoes, new uniform, new everything...

I've just watched my daughter handle that with her oldest (5), while settling the middle one (3) into pre-school and coping with the littlest who's just discovered that he get where ever he wants to be the minute her back is turned.

September should be a time when I can ease off a little in the garden as the grass slows down, enjoy those last warm days that always seem to arrive the minute the children are back in school. It is absolutely lovely here in Wiltshire at the moment.

But...

Two more appointments have just gone into my September diary. The eye clinic (an appointment 40 odd miles away at 9 am is really not fun). There are two meetings at the U3A (University of Third Age) this month and I'm on flower duty at the WI. I've just booked in to have a manicure and pedicure before heading off to London for the annual Mills and Boon Author Lunch. And of course there's the hairdresser for a trim, ditto. I'm starting an Italian class and I'm hoping to get a place in the pilates class, too and there's an evening of fun in Southwick Village Hall with another group.

Most of it - apart from the eye clinic - is fun. But there's this other thing going on. The book deadline is looming. I told my editor that I was going to have it on her desk by the end of September

I'm stocking up on the chocolate...

Liz Fielding's latest book - the last of her Ice Cream Trilogy charting the lives and loves of Elle, Sorrel and Gel Amery - Vettori's Damsel in Distress is a Romantic Times TOP PICK.

"...as sparkling as the finest of champagnes and 
delicious as ice cream on a sunny day..."

Romantic moments — Kandy Shepherd

In the countdown to the most romantic day of the year—February 14 of course—I’m thinking of the most romantic thing someone has done for me.

It might well be my then boyfriend (we’d known each other for six months) going out to the airport to meet me from a work trip to India with a big bunch of flowers all ready to propose—and then waiting, waiting because the flight was actually due in the next day. So he went all the way home again, then the next day bought more flowers and went back out to the airport again. This time I got off the plane, he gave me the flowers, and then popped the question. Needless to say, I said yes and we were married as soon as we could organize it. We’ll celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in April.

Red roses for romance - we grow our own!

The romance is still alive but as we know each other so well, perhaps in a different way. My most recent gift from him was a speech recognition software program where I can dictate into the computer. All the typing I do causes quite a stress on hands, arms and shoulders. He’d heard me complaining and thought the software might help to take the pressure off. So thoughtful and, in its way, romantic.

Ah, the romance of Valentine's Day! 

 But I really knew the romantic in him was still flourishing when my daughter, out of the blue, asked us: “How do you know when it’s the right time to get married?”

Immediately I replied, “When you’ve completed your education, have a job, have travelled—”

Without lifting his head from whatever he was doing my husband replied, “When you fall in love.”

He was so right and put me—a romance writer!—to shame.

Chocolates are welcome any day of the year!

But this romantic husband of the thoughtful presents, doesn't celebrate Valentine's Day. "It's not for married people," he says. No presents, no flowers, no chocolates. To tell the truth, it doesn't bother me, though I like to tease him about his curmudgeonliness.  (Okay, so maybe I'd like chocolates but I'd like them any day of the year!)

Then I'm loving seeing the preparations my daughter's boyfriend (a romantic like her father) is making for their first Valentine's Day together. Sigh!

 My first novel for Harlequin, The Summer They Never Forgot was released last week and is an emotional reunion story.

Readers are telling me the ending, in particular, is deeply romantic. So as not to include spoilers, I’m sharing a romantic moment from earlier in the book with you:

“When Ben lifted his head from the wave and saw Sandy standing on the beach, it was as if the past and the present had coalesced into one shining moment. A joy so unexpected it was painful had flooded his heart. So here he was, against all resolutions, kissing her. Her lips warm and pliant beneath his, her body pressed to his chest. Her eyes, startled at first, and then filled with an expression of bliss. He shouldn’t be kissing her. Starting things he could not finish. Risking pain for both of them. But those thoughts were lost in the wonder of having her close to him again. It was like the twelve years between kisses had never happened.”

 What’s the most romantic thing someone has done for you? The most romantic gift you’ve been given? Or the romantic gesture you’ve made.

Please leave a comment—I’d love to hear about it!

I have two signed copies of The Summer They Never Forgot to give away. Please include your email address in your comment if you want to be included in the draw.

The Summer They Never Forgot is Kandy’s first release from Harlequin Romance in the US, the UK and Australia.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

(Photo of red heart © Caraman| Dreamstime Stock Photos)

Chocoholics Unite!

by Anna Campbell

It always surprises me what gets a strong reaction on social media.

Sometimes I'll post something I think people will find really interesting - and the punters kinda shrug their shoulders and go on with their business. Then I'll put up something that I think is either silly or dull or of interest basically only to me, and I get a really strong response with lots of people weighing in to share an opinion.

Oh, well, the world would be a dull place if it was always predictable, wouldn't it?

Just before Christmas, I posted a comment on my Facebook page about eating chocolate for breakfast and was it wrong. Now, I don't think this is a world-shaking issue (although I was feeling rather guilty for attacking the Ferrero Rochers at 7am!). Over 80 comments and a whole stack of people liking the comment.

I have no idea why people enjoyed talking about this - although I have to say I had fun confessing to my self-indulgence. By the way, just to let you know, EVERYBODY said there was absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of chocolate noshing at that hour, especially considering the time of year.

Perhaps it's the magic word 'chocolate'!

I know a lot of my writer friends fuel their creativity on chocolate. I'm not quite that bad but when I'm having a rotten time with the writing, I tend to raid the pantry for those little bits of luscious goodness. My next book A RAKE'S MIDNIGHT KISS was fueled by some lovely Toblerone that my critique partner Annie West sent to speed me on my way. There's definitely a blog in that.

All this got me thinking about preferences in chocolate. I have to say my current favorites are Toblerones and Ferrero Rochers although there's an Aussie company called Haigh's that makes the most beautiful high quality chocolate, well worth checking out if it's available near you.

I'm also partial to a KitKat. Do they have them in America? They're a wafer biscuit coated in chocolate (I like the wafer in the Ferrero Rochers too)and they're popular here and in the U.K. where I used to have one as a treat when I worked at Covent Garden Markets in London now and again.

Given how close we are to Valentine's Day, it's a great time to be talking about chocolates. I imagine tons of the stuff will be sold in the next week.

So Happy Valentine's Day! What's your favorite chocolate? Or can't you stand the stuff? Bleuch or nom, nom, nom? 

Three cheers for comfort food - Kandy Shepherd

What’s your favorite comfort food? I’m writing a story where comfort food plays an important role in the plot.

In talking with friends, I’m finding one person’s comfort food can be another person’s gross out—peanuts smothered in mayonnaise, anyone?
To me, there’s a distinction between “binge food” (did anyone say CHOCOLATE?) and nostalgic “comfort food”. My notion of comfort food is one where the taste evokes memories of happy times past and the special person who made it for you.

It’s not just any old comfort food we crave—it’s mom’s cookies, grandma’s soup, dad’s mac ’n’ cheese, pop’s spaghetti sauce. It’s all about nostalgia—the serving and the sharing.

As I child I seemed to spend quite a lot of time sick in bed. To cheer me up, my mother used to twine my hair with flowers from the garden and tell me endless happy-ever-after stories. To tempt my appetite she cut triangles of fresh white bread spread with butter and honey. Is it any wonder that the smell of honey conjures up a world of love and comfort for me? (Or that I became a romance writer!)

Have I created special memories for my daughter? She’s studying for her final high school exams and I asked was there anything I could cook to help ease the stress.

“Those little cupcakes you always made for my birthday parties,” she replied, “and please let me lick the bowl.” Cupcakes coming up…

My English husband loves it when I bake him his own little jam “roly-poly” from scraps of pastry—just like his mother used to make. The best thing? His initial on the top.
I’d love to hear about the foods that are special to you. Leave a comment for a

chance to win a signed copy of my latest book from Berkley Sensation HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS. (It features a particularly delicious lasagna that stirs up all sorts of sensations in the hero…)

Please include your email in your comment if you would like to win the

book.

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

The Chocolate Tour : : Anne McAllister

Last month when I wrote my column here I was just about to head off to spend a week in New York City.

The one thing I knew I would be doing was attending a wedding. I fully expected to get lots of lovely research for my upcoming books from that experience -- and I am not disappointed.

But I was going to be there several more days and I wanted to get some research in. It was not specific to a particular story as the research I did in September was when I went there to spend time at Columbia University and get a feel for what my hero might be doing there (he taught physics after doing something far more dangerous in his previous life).

No, this time I was was trolling for future ideas -- sort of deliberately looking for those "ideas" that are everywhere that we authors ostensibly have no trouble finding when we are "getting our ideas."

Pretty much that's true. But sometimes a bit of judicious seeking out of venues and wandering around in neighborhoods primes the authorial pump, so to speak.

This time as no different.

One of the things I mentioned last month was that there were lots of walking tours of New York available.

Whatever you might think you are interested in about New York City, chances are someone has developed a walking tour that will help you learn more about it.

My friend Nancy and I had no trouble deciding which tour caught our eye. I mean, revolutionary war New York and Mark Twain's New York and The Ladies' Mile are all well and good. But really, would you take them instead of The Chocolate Tour?

No. Me, neither.

So we didn't. And bright and semi-early on Saturday morning we headed south to meet our guide and find out about some of the interesting specialty chocolatiers in Soho, Tribeca and the West Village.

As luck would have it, it was a blustery cold but clear day. A day in which 8 million or so other people had other things to do than go on chocolate tours. So Nancy and I got our very own guided tour -- just us!

We started out at Jacques Torres' shop in the West Village. It was the week before Easter and everyone at Jacques Torres's shop was in high gear preparing of the biggest weekend of the year. The bunnies were amazing. The baskets were beautiful. The chocolate was intense. We got a couple of deliberately chosen pieces which we took home to divide and savor. We were also given a small cup of extremely high content cocoa (like 68% as I recall) made with milk. It was powerful stuff.

But the most memorable part of Jacques Torres's shop was his take on Peeps.

They were dipped in chocolate, decorated with bow ties and dots for buttons and called Chirp N Dales. They were not only handsome, they were (trust me) delicious!

I didn't eat my Chirps there. I took them home with me. I might have left them to petrify on my kitchen shelf (next to my glass bottle of CocaCola from the 100th anniversary of the death of Judge Isaac Parker -- the hangin' judge -- of Fort Smith, Arkansas -- don't ask -- but the bottle has a longer shelf life than a bunch of peeps. And really, who could resist?)

Our guide, who was doing his first time at this particular tour himself, was a chef and had some interesting things to say about chocolate as we wandered from Jacques' across the bottom of Manhattan, stopping at a tiny Korean chocolate shop where five people could not fit in at the same time.

The owner and chocolatier was there to talk a bit about the very small batches of intense chocolates that she makes. And we chose, as a part of our bounty, a "creme brulee" chocolate that she insisted we would not be able to split.

"It is a single mouthful. It's too liquid. You will not be able to share it," she said.

But we brought it home, frozen it overnight, and split it very nice the next day. We are nothing if not resourceful. It was absolutely ambrosial.

Our next stop was a far cry from the tiny Korean shop. It looked positively European. Marie Belle's is full of exquisite chocolates of all descriptions, many decorated with tiny individual designs made by the her husband, a graphic artist. The rows of gaily colored chocolates in old-fashioned glass display cases were as visually appealing as they were mouth-watering.

We chose chocolates infused with saffron and cardamom, and had another with a hint of dulce de leche and one with lemon. Here we also got our second taste of hot chocolate -- this a 70% cacao mixture made with water. Definitely intense. It still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

We also went back after the tour and had lunch at the small dining room in the back of Marie Belle's. Not chocolate, but definitely highly recommended. It was a treat.

A few blocks further on we were introduced to another chocolatier who introduced us to bacon and chocolate. Sounds rather weird, but was surprisingly tasty. Though I must admit that I was fonder of their take on what I would call English toffee.

The last stop was a little cheesecake factory -- not chocolate at all. But what they did with chocolate had to be tasted to be believed. We each got to pick a small one to take home. Nancy had one with all sorts of chocolate on it -- I think it was referred to as a "Rocky Road" cheesecake (though I don't remember marshmallow).

Mine was a key lime with white chocolate. I am not really a huge fan of cheesecake, but this could seriously have made me think I'd died and gone to heaven.

What exactly I'm going to do with all this wonderful information in a book remains to be seen. But I am confident I'll think of something.

I'm thinking a Chirp N Dale would make a good hero.

Chocolate and Other Indulgences – Annie West

I thought long and hard about an appropriate theme for my blog today. I was going to make it writerly, I decided, some deep insight into the process of creating fiction. Characterisation? Dramatic turning points? Conflict? Themes? Well, maybe one day. In the meantime, let me spare a word or two for a great writer’s aid....chocolate.

Now, I know not everyone is a chocolate fan, but bear with me. There are other similar writer’s aids. I try to avoid them but I’ve been known to indulge from time to time.

As a woman who leads a fairly sedentary life I decided long ago not to stock chocolate in my pantry. It was just asking for trouble and, though generally I prefer savoury to sweet, a really good quality chocolate is hard to resist.

I did well I thought until the day Ms V sent me a little thank you parcel. Sweet of her, I thought! I was working on my 4th book for Harlequin Presents and was almost half way through writing FOR THE SHEIKH’S PLEASURE. Then, out of the blue came the largest block of dark Lindt chocolate I’d ever seen in my life. Honestly, it was huuuuge. My solution was to promise myself I’d only eat a couple of pieces if I was writing new pages of my story (not fiddling with what I already had) and then to make it tough, only after I had a certain number of pages down. I was terrified I’d get addicted to the stuff and not be able to stop.

And the outcome? I finished the rest of that book in record time and the words just seemed to flow. Whatever I was doing right on that book really worked. I hesitate to say it but maybe it was chocolate inspiration. Since then I’ve steered clear of temptation as far as possible but the trouble is I have generous friends who appreciate a nice choccie as much as I do. I recently came home from Sydney with a box of choc truffles and a packet of Tim Tams (Aussie choc on choc cookies that are simply scrumptious) from friends. Now I’m back to rationing, aiming to help me through this current book.

I know a lot of other writers who allow themselves treats when they’ve achieved something. One author lines up M&Ms near her computer and lets herself eat one after a certain amount of work. Others describe allowing themselves to skive off and read a chapter of a good book as a reward for finishing a chapter, or going out to have coffee with friends. Another bribe...er, indulgence I’ve heard of is treating yourself to a new release movie at the end of a week if you’ve made your word or chapter count.

Writing is our bread and butter as well as our joy so you’d think we’d all be able to sit down and just write. But the truth is that sometimes it can be a hard slog and the promise of something nice can give that extra bit of enthusiasm on a day when we’d much rather be washing the dog or changing the oil in the car than working out why our hero and heroine aren’t cooperating.

Do you have favourite treats? Indulgences you allow yourself only once in a while – maybe as an incentive or just because you can? I’d love to hear about them!

Annie is currently working on her 10th book for Harlequin Presents. In the meantime, she has concurrent releases in Australia and New Zealand. THE THE DESERT KING'S PREGNANT BRIDE is out now and THE BILLIONAIRE’S BOUGHT MISTRESS is a December release. You can read excerpts and reviews on her website or buy the books from Harlequin Australia or Amazon UK.