February 26, 2007

SOUNDS OF SILENCE

Sorry I’m scarce — that silence you hear would be the sound of a new deadline looming.

As I write, I am drawing on images I have collected as inspiration. Pictured above is where my hero — a renegade unable to put down any real roots — lives. On the water. He has yacht, too. The area is Granville Island, one of Vanouver’s many treasures.

February 24, 2007

HOME TURF

Vancouver is where I’m setting my current Silhouette Romantic Suspense — DANCE WITH THE DRAGON (wt). This a photo of Vancouver’s Chinatown in winter, the season of my book. It’s where my heroine sees something that instantly plunges her life into danger and makes her a pivotal pawn in a deadly global game.

Of course, the only man who can help her is my recalcitrant and reluctant bodyguard hero.

I’m loving it:)

Do you feel a special something when setting a novel on home turf?

ABOMINABLE PROGRESS

See? It depends on perspective. Snowed under, or havin’ fun? This was today in Whistler’s backcountry … and front country, if you’d like to carry the metaphor into my office

And yes, I do know who that mobile snowball is ….

February 21, 2007

COOL ROMANTIC THRILL

Apparently, adrenaline is a very powerful aphrodisiac , and apparently, I live in a town that has been rated tops on the thriller-love scale.

Yeah — I knew I was doing something right penning romantic suspense in Whistler!

Whistler, British Columbia has been listed in Harlequin’s Romance Report 2007 as being one of the top “unconventional romantic destinations’ for The Thrill Seekers, along with Pamplona, Mount Everest, Oahu (yes!), and the Amazon – Ecuador.

I figure this is why there are no romance novels for sale in Whistler — too many adrenaline junkies out there just plain too busy seeking the ultimate love/rush to read. It’s true, I tell ya.

And the nightlife can be just as crazy … should one choose to partake.

Still — it makes me feel kinda cool doing my thing here. Even if no one reads my fiction, I can live the dream, right? I can now also check off Oahu, Whistler, and Pamplona as romantically thrilling destinations I have visited with DH. Nope, we did not run with the bulls, but I think Basque terrorist attacks still constituted a thrill.

Next up … the Amazon. (We might give Everest a miss.)

February 20, 2007

MAKING INROADS – NANCY AT THE WHEEL – FRONT PAGE NYT!

Nascar driver Carl Edwards with Vanouver romance writer (and fellow RWA chapter member) Nancy Warren, author of the new Harlequin title “Speed Dating” pictured on the front page of the New York Times!

Very cool, Nancy Check out the Story of Harlequin’s partnership with Nascar.

February 19, 2007

THE VIEW FROM HOME

Dh and I saw Blood Diamond last week. Very powerful movie. Very necessary message. I feel passionately about this film for many reasons, and think it’s well worth seeing if you can stomach the war scenes — what happens in that movie is not imaginary-Hollywood-apocalypse-special-effect …. it’s real. And it’s terrible. And we all play a part in financing that kind of agony in third world countries through our consumption of goods like diamonds and oil.

But essentially Blood Diamond is about the characters … a father’s pure and powerful love for his son, a mercenary’s struggle with greed, a journalist’s battle to change the world by perhaps changing just one man. And love is what alters them all.

I was moved by Djimon Housoun’s portrayal of the Mendi fisherman father, and the way he walked the line between naivete and heroic power. I think Leonardo Di Caprio’s South African accent was pretty damn fine. The journalist, I did not like. But the rest, for me, was perfect. Including the portrayal of the merc army that helped end the civil war in Sierra Leone.

In reality, that PMC (Private Military Company) was Sandline/Executive Outcomes. It was based in South Africa before Nelson Mandela made it illegal for mercenary outfits to work out of that country. And it’s the organization I used as inspiration for my FDS Shadow Soldiers.

Blood Diamond was also mostly filmed in South Africa. One scene with the mercenary boss and the ‘Danny Archer’ character was shot on the very farm we used to live. DH managed those vineyards, and we lived right amongst them.

The pic above was taken on that farm — Buitenverwachting — and the vantage point is from our old home. Those are the vineyards in fall, and the ocean beyond. Truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.

(P.S. Hearing actor Andre Vosloo — THE MUMMY, ’24′ — speak his native Afrikaans in a Hollywood production was pretty special, too )