Tasty: Thanksgiving, Highlanders and Cary Grant
Today's featured authors: Lynn Cahoon, author of If the Shoe Kills; H.C Brown, author of Highlander in the Mist; and Sheri Cobb South, author of Family Plot. They're sharing story inspirations and favorite movies.
Lynn Cahoon, author of If the Shoe Kills
Three things that helped inspire my writing and new release:
• I became serious about my writing after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Fighting cancer taught me that someday may never come. When I'm fretting about spending time at the computer, or letting social media waste away my day, I focus on why I want to write.
• If the Shoe Kills mixes some of my old life with my new. For close to 20 years, I worked at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Working with rules and regulations back then, I enjoyed making up several new agencies and businesses for the book. I loved working with the new to South Cove characters that were part of my fictional Work Today program. After college, I attended a work program that taught job search and interviewing skills. Although I didn't have a work experience section in my class, I enjoyed putting the participants and my South Cove regulars through some hurtles.
• My third inspiration for writing If the Shoe Kills is the time honored tradition of hosting your first Thanksgiving. Jill Gardner is finding out there's more to stress about when you're playing host to family and friends. As I wrote the book, I remembered my first Thanksgiving away from home. I'd flown to see my sister after a painful breakup with my one true love. Or so I thought at 18.
Later, my husband and I hosted our first joint Thanksgiving. Merging our families for a two-hour meal, the weeks before were filled with negotiations about food and tradition. Luckily, my family believes in potlucks, so my favorites had a place on the table, even if I didn't prepare them.
Oh, the holidays.
Here's the blurb about If the Shoe Kills:
The tourist town of South Cove, California, is a lovely place to spend the holidays. But this year, shop owner Jill Gardner discovers there's no place like home for homicide ...
As owner of Coffee, Books, and More, Jill Gardner looks forward to the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers. But when the mayor ropes her into being liaison for a new work program, 'tis the season to be wary. Local businesses are afraid the interns will be delinquents, punks, or worse. For Jill, nothing's worse than Ted Hendricks—the jerk who runs the program. After a few run-ins, Jill's ready to kill the guy. That, however, turns out to be unnecessary when she finds Ted in his car—dead as a doornail. Officer Greg assumes it's a suicide. Jill thinks it's murder. And if the holidays weren't stressful enough, a spoiled blonde wants to sue the city for breaking her heel. Jill has to act fast to solve this mess—before the other shoe drops ...
Find out more at lynncahoon.com.
H.C Brown, author of Highlander in the Mist
Three things that inspired the writing of Highlander in the Mist:
I think most authors will agree that we all have triggers, small things that fix the image of a character in our heads. We know everything about that character, from his scent, to the tick in one cheek when he is angry.
• The trigger for my sexy hero in Highlander in the Mist, Laird Alexander Murray, slid into my subconscious after watching an episode of The Vikings. In fact, my story and an entire series arrived in seconds after the first episode, but my heroes have nothing to do with Vikings. What my muse grasped was, in fact, the raw sexuality of warriors in medieval times.
• The second inspiration came in the form of a dream. The plots of my stories often come in dreams, and I have a notepad and pen beside my bed to jot down the details. In this dream, I was in the Scottish Highlands visiting one of the Faerie Trees and tying my wish to a branch. In the dream, I could see a Highland warrior like a ghost in the mist, an outline of long hair with warrior beads, the flash of metal at his waist and the sway of his kilt.
• My alarm clock woke me with Cher singing, "If I could turn back time," and voila my mind created the entire Highlander in the Mist story and a sequel in a matter of seconds.
I love living in the world of passionate, devoted, warriors, and I do hope you will join me in a sexy romp through time in Highlander in the Mist.
Here's the blurb for Highlander in the Mist:
Kate must decide to escape the horrors of 1425, or fight for the love of her delicious Highland warrior.
During a tour of the Highlands, Kate Mackintosh goes to the aid of a drowning boy and mysteriously slips through time to 1425. A stunningly handsome Highlander, who believes she is a faerie intent on stealing his brother, immediately challenges her and offers himself as the boy's replacement. Rather than remaining alone on an isolated mountainside, she follows the delicious, Laird Alexander Murray to his Broch Lavern home.
Alone in a strange, brutal world, the noble Alex, offers her not only his protection but a love and passion so great, her longing to return home soon fades. However, the fate of the clan rests on Alex marrying Mary Frazer, and his stepmother insists on the match.
Kate must leave the love of her life or remain and risk torture or death to fight for her handsome Highland laird.
Reader Advisory: This story contains a very sexy, auburn haired, kilted, Highland warrior in various stages of undress.
Find out more at www.hcbrown-author.com.
Sheri Cobb South, author of Family Plot
Three of my favorite movies:
I have a confession to make: All my favorite movies are older than I am. Well, all except for one, which was released the year I was born. I'm not quite sure what this says about me. Maybe it says more about the history of moviemaking itself: In a time before CGI special effects and computer animation, moviemakers were forced to rely on such primitive concepts as plot, characterization and clever dialogue to thrill, charm or terrify viewers. In narrowing my favorites down to three, I tried to select from a variety of genres, and avoided choosing more than one film featuring the same actors.
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Actually, I could have chosen almost any of the big MGM musicals of the '50s, but I decided to go with this one. Bouncy musical numbers, big-skirted dresses and seven(!) large red-headed men singing and/or dancing in glorious VistaVision. What's not to like?
• North by Northwest (1959). Mystery and romance, along with edge-of-your seat suspense interspersed with laugh-out-loud humor. Everyone is familiar with the scene in which Cary Grant is chased through a cornfield by a crop duster, but it's his disruption at the art auction that cracks me up every time.
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). In addition to its unapologetic patriotism and sweetly understated romance, this movie features my favorite type of hero: the one who's underestimated by everyone (including himself) until circumstances force him to step up and save the day. And get the girl — let's not forget that.
Here's the blurb about Family Plot:
In disgrace with her aristocratic in-laws, recently widowed Lady Fieldhurst is exiled to Scotland with her three young nephews in tow. On impulse, she and the boys decide to stay at an isolated seaside inn under an assumed name, where they can enjoy a holiday far away from the scandal that still plagues the family.
But trouble soon finds them when the boys discover an unconscious woman on the beach—a woman who bears a startling resemblance to the local laird's daughter, missing and presumed dead for the last fifteen years. Uncertain whether to welcome her as a returning prodigal or denounce her as a fraud, Angus Kirkbride sends to London for a Bow Street runner—which presents a dilemma for Lady Fieldhurst, since she has chosen to call herself Mrs. Pickett after the handsome young man who saved her from hanging for the murder of her husband.
Meanwhile John Pickett, hopelessly pining for Lady Fieldhurst, resolves to forget her by marrying another. When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun receives Kirkbride's summons, he packs Pickett off to Scotland before his most junior runner can do anything rash.
Upon his arrival, Pickett is surprised (though not at all displeased) to discover that he has acquired a "wife" in the person of Lady Fieldhurst. But when Angus Kirkbride dies only hours after announcing his intention of changing his will in his daughter's favor, "Mr. and Mrs. Pickett" must join forces to discover the truth about a family reunion suddenly turned deadly.
Find out more at www.shericobbsouth.com.