Taste of Kiwi

1. Middlemarch is a small country town, in Central Otago, New Zealand. It is about 80 km West of Dunedin. It’s located in the Strath Taieri Valley.

2. Several suggestions exist about how the township was named. One is that Mrs Alice Humphreys, whose husband Edward Wingfield Humphreys owned and had surveyed for sale of sections in this new township, was reading George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch. Another is that the name is from the obsolete English term “march” meaning a boundary – in this case a middle area between two rivers.

3. Middlemarch is the setting for my feline shapeshifter series, Middlemarch Mates.

4. Each year Middlemarch holds a singles dance and a special train (nicknamed the Love Train) carries women and men to the dance from Dunedin.

5. HOW IT ALL BEGAN – the dance.

In November last year our Community Board was presented with some statistics about rural health and other services in this area. As part of her presentation, Pauline Carruthers, the local Plunket Nurse, District Nurse and at that time only local practise nurse in the area, noted that we needed more nurses and made the flippant comment that we should marry some of our bachelors off to some nurses.

The Community Board took the idea one step further and suggested to the local A & P Society that it would arrange for the sponsor of the Dance for its Centenary Show. We contacted Country & City Contacts (NZ) Ltd. They are an Amberley-based dating service that has had huge success in the rural areas, especially of the South Island. Henk & Joy van Leir were enthusiastic and supportive of the idea of publicising the dance as a good place for their clients to meet each other and also some of our bachelors.

6. The area has some rare creatures – the mountain weta, the Otago and Grand skinks and the NZ falcon.

7. The area is also home to the Sutton Salt Lake. The water in the lake evaporates during the summer.

8. There are also special clouds in the area called the Tairei Pet. A cloud formation reportedly found only in one or two places in the world. It is formed by high north westerly winds being forced upward over the Rock & Pillar range – spectacular and unnerving by its sheer size and its association with the high winds.

9. It is the start of the 150km Otago Central Rail Trail, a path that stretches from Middlemarch to Clyde. People can walk, cycle or ride horses along this path, staying overnight at stops on the way.

10. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a train from Dunedin. It travels through the spectacular Tairei Gorge and is popular with tourists.

11. Scarlet Woman, Peeping Tom and Stray Cat Strut are all set in Middlemarch and feature various members of the Mitchell family.

12. Go here to learn about how the series was born, plus there are photos. There are also Middlemarch photos here.

13. Assassin, Middlemarch Mates book 4 is coming on August 6.

Here’s the blurb:

Feline shifter Leo Mitchell is the pretty brother who attracts women with ease, but he’s turned picky. He suspects the mystery blonde hanging around Middlemarch is the one for him. If only he could grab the elusive female and seduce her. Oh yeah. He craves some hot, sinful lovin’ with the lady in black leather.

Assassin Isabella Black has harbored a huge crush on hunky Leo for ages. Because the timing sucked she’s watched him from afar, praying another woman won’t snatch the hottie away before she’s free to stake a claim.

Finally the pair meet. Isabella offers her naked body but Leo counteracts with a cup of tea. Seems Leo likes to call the shots when it comes to sex. A day later they’re finally dancing horizontally. It’s smokin’ hot, steamy, delicious—everything she’s ever wanted. Isabella is ecstatic until another assassin threatens to ruin her happiness. It’s life or death now. One wrong move and her secrets will destroy the Mitchells along with everything that has become dear to her…including Leo.

Do you like small town settings or do you prefer sophisticated city settings for your romances?

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My special guest today is Samhain author, Lorelei James. She’s talking about family trees and books. Over to Lorelei and her Western men!

Shelley contacted me after she’d finished, TIED UP, TIED DOWN, the latest book in my Rough Riders series from Samhain Publishing, wondering if I’d ever considered creating a family tree for the characters as a reference point for readers.

I’ll admit I hadn’t thought of it. I’ll also admit I have lots of characters in my books — no one really is an island, even in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. The Rough Riders books are a Western saga, if you will, featuring a large ranching family. Each book can be read as a standalone, but each book builds on the entire arc of the series, both forward and backward, and each one features a different McKay or West family member.

***Complete disclosure; if I had it to do all over again, I would not have so many ‘C’ and ‘K’ names in this series – although it is something families do frequently out here in the Wild West, begin all offspring’s first names with the same letter. As sort of a wink wink nudge nudge to my readers and myself, in TIED UP, TIED DOWN, Skylar complains about the excessive use of the same consonant in the McKay family. And Kane asks his twin brother Kade why their mother gave them such similar names.***

I remember a series by a famous author in which the first couple in the series birthed one kid in the epilogue. Then in the next connected book that same couple were blessed with twins…but no mention of the first child. In the 3rd or 4th book, that same couple had triplets, not twins, still no mention of that poor little forgotten first kiddo. The inconsistency pulled me out of the story. Readers might think it is the copy editor’s job to double check facts and character lineage, but I wonder if the whole incident could’ve been avoided had the author created a family tree.

So I took Shelley’s suggestion to heart. Not only would an official roadmap be a bonus for readers, it’d be an easy way for me to keep track of my own characters. I checked a couple of author sites to see how they structured their family trees to get an idea of what I wanted. Then I posed the challenge to my readers loop, The James Gang, and two fabulous ladies volunteered to head up the project. Honestly, I think they’re afraid if I’m dinking around with working on a family tree I won’t actually be writing, and they’re sort of antsy for me to get the next book finished

These fans, Joy Roett and Carla Hartman created not one, not two, but three separate family trees. Immediately I sent the finished project to my website designer to post. Check out the results here.

Question of the day for readers: Do you look at family trees in the beginnings of books? Or skip over them entirely? Or would you go to the author’s website for more information?

Lorelei James writes erotic Westerns set in the modern day Wild West. For more information on books, contests and the James Gang readers yahoo group, visit Lorelei’s website: www.loreleijames.com

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Even though I’m on holiday I hope you’ll keep stopping by to see what I’m up to. All going well with internet connections, I plan to post a few photos and give you my impressions of the places we visit in the US.

I also have some guest bloggers during the month. The first one is due tomorrow. Guests include Lorelei James, JK Coi, Nancy Henderson, Nina Pierce, Josh Lanyon and Laura Baumbach. In September, I have Terry Spear coming to visit and also Joy Nash. I’m taking part in Joy Nash’s big promotion for her new book Immortal: The Crossing.

See you soon!

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I can’t believe it. Despite the weathermen telling us we’re in for yet more storms and rain, today is sunny and warm. Everyone is drying out a little after the weather bomb from the weekend. Me – I’m looking forward to sunshine and heat so that I can wear shorts. No one knows me over there in the US so it doesn’t matter if I dazzle anyone with my winter-white legs. I’m actually packed and very organized. I think I’ll even have time for a final bike ride tomorrow. We’re meeting up with friends at the airport. I can’t wait to see everyone.

It’s my nephew’s birthday today, and I spent the morning making cupcakes and updating my website. I have release dates for two Ellora’s Cave releases. Fringe Benefit will come out on 14 November and Cat Burglar is out on 31 December. That takes my total releases for the year to ten. Hard to believe I’ve done all these books, but I have worked hard. I’m ready for a six-week break.

There are blurbs and excerpts up for the two new books. Just follow the links from the coming soon page. I’ve also put up new articles- one for readers and one for writers. They’re under the extras tab.

I’m off to do a final few things. Be good!

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This story is a true one and comes to you from New Zealand.

A Family Court judge has ordered a girl be put in court guardianship so her name – Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii – can be changed. The judge said he had concerns over the girl’s name creating a social hurdle for her as she grew up. The judge made written findings on the issue public after discovering other names some New Zealand parents had called their children. (Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence, and for twins – Benson and Hedges)

Evidently the nine-year-old Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii was so embarrassed about her name she hadn’t revealed it to her friends. They call her “K”.

Parents must adhere to the following criteria when choosing a name for their child:
1. Must not cause offence to a reasonable person.
2. Must not be unreasonably long (less than 100 characters long including spaces)
3. Must not be without adequate justification, be, include or resemble an official title or rank.
4. Must not use punctuation marks, brackets or numbers.

A person’s name is such an important part of their identity. It’s something we carry with us throughout our lives. Growing up these days is hard enough without our parents saddling us with an embarrassing name. Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii? Hello!!! What were this girl’s parents thinking???? I’m so glad the judge had the good sense to rule she could change her name.

Violence – it’s not a name I’d want, but she has a possible future in a paranormal novel or movie.

Number 16 Bus Shelter – okay, so the bus shelter where your child was conceived might have great memories, but saddling your child with this name? Having a permanent reminder of the fact your parents have sex? That’s just plain icky!

Please parents, think long and hard when naming your child. Your choice is with them for life.

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Back in 2002/2003, I was the newsletter editor for Romance Writers of New Zealand. It was fun getting the newsletter ready, and I had access to some great articles, shared by RWA chapters.

I still remember an article called First You Whack the Parents by Kathy Sims Flake. It was the title that initially attracted my attention, but after reading it, I thought the content was pretty good too. Kathy discussed the fact that in modern fiction parents are in the way and often writers will kill them off. I recall agent Kristin Nelson mentioning in one of her blogs that she was seeing a lot of orphan heroes and heroines, especially after the success of Harry Potter.

Ms. Flake mentioned that while killing off the parents in historical fiction was realistic, she didn’t always buy the scenarios used in modern contemporary fiction. Just think about it. How many books have you read where the parents have died in car accidents, plane crashes or house fires? In my Middlemarch series, I killed off the Mitchell brothers’ parents because it was convenient to the plot. I’m sure many of you have killed off fictional parents as well. Sometimes authors send the parents off on holiday or there’s an estrangement.

Ms. Flake suggested adding Mom and Pop to the story as enrichment – another layer of conflict. At the very least, she said, we need to strive for originality when shunting around characters’ parents and concluded right at the end, that if all else fails, the author could call in Tony Soprano.

What do you think? How have you managed parents in your stories? Do you ignore them, send them on holiday or simply kill them off? What’s the most orginal way you’ve used to kill off the parents? What’s the most original way you’ve read in someone else’s book?

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This year our lemon tree has produced heaps of fruit. Our fruit bowls are full of them. They’re a bright sunshine color and remind me of summer, despite the winter gloom outside.
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My special guest today is N.J. Walters. N.J has two new releases this month, and today she’s talking about Jackson’s Jewel, which is out on 25 July from Ellora’s Cave. She’s also talking about secondary characters so pour a cup of tea and come to chat with us.

Jackson’s Jewel—Secondary Characters Who Demand Attention

Secondary characters—what is it about some of them that makes us want to read more?
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When I first started writing, I learned there were specific rules to follow. This puzzled me because I couldn’t find a definitive list of these rules anywhere, yet fellow writers and contest judges were quick to fill me in.

No Rock Stars: I learned this one after I’d completed a story called Follow That Dream. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t have a rock star hero. No sports settings. Hmm, I had one of those, too. Evidently there are several occupations on the no-no list. Politicians and artists, please step this way.

The hero and heroine should meet in the first few pages. This one made a little more sense if the book was a short story or category romance, because we want the hero and heroine center stage. But what about a 100,000 word novel? Surely it wouldn’t matter if they didn’t meet straight away?
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We had a power cut toward the end of last week. The power went off without warning – I presume someone ran into a power pole or something blew. The next day our DVD recorder didn’t work, followed swiftly by our video player. On Saturday night Mr. Munro and I were watching TV and it went poof with one loud bang. Then, there was this horrid smell. I’m glad we were both there when it went poof because the smell was indicative of fire. I’m presuming all this is linked to the power cut and there was a surge or something. Luckily we have a small portable so we could continue to watch TV.

I like watching TV. I sit in my chair with my laptop and multi-task (watch TV, write, and talk to Mr. Munro and the dog). Life is very strange without TV. For some reason all my favorite programs are on the same night, at the same time. Tonight I have to make decisions since I don’t have a recorder to tape anything. Should I watch Brothers & Sisters or should I watch The Unit, which starts again tonight? The same dilemma will occur on Tuesday, so I’m hoping the repair shop works at top speed.

Do you watch TV? Which TV shows would you hate to miss?

I’m busy working on final edits. Almost done, and then I’ll be straight into packing. Everything is laid out on the spare bed. Mr. Munro is already packed. He’s so efficient he scares me. I need to spend time on my pitch, too. Maybe I can do that during the plane trip? Is your pitch done?

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