Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

We snapped this shot during a visit to the Grand Canyon. This squirrel looked as if he was sightseeing and enjoying the view the same as us.

To view more animal shots visit Camera Critters

I’ve been thinking about sleep recently—mainly because I could do with more. Yes, I’m in sleep-debt. Our genes determine the amount of sleep we require. The average amount of sleep required by an adult is around eight hours, although people can fall either side of the scale. A child requires more sleep than an elderly person.

If we don’t get enough sleep we might experience all or some of the following symptoms.

• Daytime sleepiness
• Fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating
• Poor thinking
• Increased risk of accidents
• Other health complications e.g. weight gain
• Grumpiness

Source: Sleepdisorders.about.com

About eight hours seems about right for me, maybe slightly more. Anything less, and I start to get grouchy. Tonight I’m off to bed as soon as I finish watching Bones. I’m a morning person—the early to bed, early to rise thing works for me.

How much sleep do you need to function well? Are you a night owl or a morning bird?

Sometimes a few drinks at night can end up in a hangover the next morning. There are lots of theories and tried and true methods for curing a hangover. In truth, the only way to cure a hangover is limit the number of drinks you have.

Thirteen Hangover Cures and Hints

1. The hair of the dog – i.e. drink more of what you drank the night before.

2. The French drink thick and hot onion soup the morning after.

3. In Switzerland they drink a shot of brandy with a hint of peppermint.

4. In Russia they try heavily salted cucumber juice and black bread soaked in water.

5. In Norway they recommend double cream.

6. In Outer Mongolia they recommend a pickled sheep’s eye in a glass of tomato juice. Can I say yuck?

7. In Haiti they cure a hangover by sticking thirteen black-headed pins into the cork of a bottle that got you that way.

8. Don’t mix alcohol types.

9. Carbonated drinks affect people faster i.e. those bottles of bubbles.

10. Drink a pint of lightly-salted water before going to bed.

11. Drink an isotonic sports drink but not the fizzy, carbonated kind.

12. Eat a banana, honey and peanut butter sandwich. The honey and banana contain potassium and glucose. Bananas contain magnesium, which may help to relax the blood vessels in the head.

13. Go for a brisk walk or have a long and hot powerful shower. The powerful shower is to relax the muscles and helps if you’re a fiend on the dance floor between drinks. A hot bath will also help.

Do you have a favored hangover cure?

Source: Her Magazine, December/January 2011 and Hangover Cures by Ben Reed

Our puppy Bella is a real terror with her toys. She chews them and rips them to shreds until eventually I need to confiscate them for her safety. I decided I’d try to make her a chew toy.

I cut up this old blanket, using the checks as a cutting guide. I cut the fabric three squares wide and cut down the lines, leaving one end intact. I ended up with long tassel-like pieces, which I plaited and tied with a knot. The photo below is what I ended up with after the plaiting/braiding.

Bella took to it straightaway and had a fine time tearing around the house with her new toy. She ends up chewing it to pieces but has a few hours of entertainment. When she sees me making a new toy for her she’s there trying to chew it as I’m braiding.

Mr. Munro came home from hospital today. He has his right arm in a plaster and needs to wear a sling. He can’t drive for eight weeks and has four weeks off work. I can’t see the scar but hubby said it looks like a lightning zigzag – sort of Harry Potterish. Bella and I are pleased he’s home, but I can see that frustration and impatience will make tempers flare during the coming weeks. Mr. Munro is not good at sitting around doing nothing.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from Play of Passion by Nalini Singh.

The huge wolf beside Indigo, its tail raised in a gesture of dominance, closed its very dangerous teeth around the boy’s throat. Joshua stayed immobile, quiescent, until the tracker let go. Apology accepted.

page 7, Play of Passion.

Passion and reason collide with explosive force in the newest installment of Nalini Singh’s “mesmerizing”* Psy/Changeling series. As a conflict with Pure Psy looms on the horizon, two powerful wolves fight a far more intimate war of their own…

In his position as tracker for the SnowDancer pack, it’s up to Drew Kincaid to rein in rogue changelings who have lost control of their animal halves—even if it means killing those who have gone too far. But nothing in his life has prepared him for the battle he must now wage to win the heart of a woman who makes his body ignite…and who threatens to enslave his wolf.

Lieutenant Indigo Riviere doesn’t easily allow skin privileges, especially of the sensual kind—and the last person she expects to find herself craving is the most wickedly playful male in the den. Everything she knows tells her to pull back before the flames burn them both to ash…but she hasn’t counted on Drew’s will.

Now, two of SnowDancer’s most stubborn wolves find themselves playing a hot, sexy game even as lethal danger stalks the very place they call home…

Purchase Play of Passion

I have a new feline shapeshifter release. Lightning Strikes Twice is part of my Middlemarch Mates series. And, even better, it’s free. Download your copy from Ellora’s Cave.

Here’s the blurb:

Lisa Jordan lost her husband two years ago and now it’s time to start living again. At the Middlemarch singles’ ball, she’s attracted to a sexy shifter, but his identity is a shock. Years ago she used to babysit him and now she feels like a dirty old woman.

Sam Mitchell has harbored a crush on Lisa for years and is eager to stake his claim. A few dances turns into a one-night stand full of exciting, satisfying sex. Sam wants more but first he’ll need to persuade Lisa to his way of thinking.

Download your free copy of Lightning Strikes Twice

Easter isn’t my favorite holiday for reasons I’m not going to explain, but I’m always pleased when Easter is over. This year my husband was on call. On Saturday he opened a packing case to fumigate the contents and an engine part fell out. He managed to shove it back inside the case but crushed his finger in the process. He’s okay, but the middle finger on his right hand isn’t. Besides crushing his finger, he’s severed the tendons and needs an operation to reattach them.

So far, he’s spent three nights in hospital waiting for the operation. Since it’s a public holiday there have been lots of more urgent cases and his surgery keeps getting bumped. We’re hoping the operation will take place tomorrow because they can’t leave it much longer. Meanwhile, he has to go without food each day until they decide whether to operate or not. My husband loves his food, so he’s not a happy camper.

At least he’s not in any pain. He has a plaster from fingertip to his elbow to keep his fingers immobile and is on a drip plus antibiotics to fight infection. Here’s hoping he comes home soon. Both Bella and I miss him.

How was your Easter weekend? Did you do anything exciting?

This is one of our holiday shots from our last trip to the US. We visited Vancouver Island, which is actually in Canada, and did a trip over to Bute Inlet in Campbell River to search for grizzly bears.

We had two sightings, and this is one of them. Personally, I thought this was close enough. They have wicked looking claws.

To view more animal photos visit Camera Critters

My special guest today is author, Desiree Holt. Desiree is a writing machine and Downstroke, her recent Ellora’s Cave release is her 100th book. That’s pretty impressive. I asked Desiree how she keeps going, and this is her reply…

The realization that I was about to hit one hundred on my release list actually snuck up on me. My web mistress was revising my printable book list and asked me how many I had in release. Counting up to Romantic Times Booklovers Convention I realized that my first April release would be #100.

And I thought, Holy Cow! One hundred stories? I didn’t realize my brain was packed so full.

But for those people who wonder if my creative juices have stalled or my ideas are laying dormant, I say, nay, nay. I think I’ll be writing until my fingers don’t work anymore.

For one thing, almost every day a new idea comes to me. Maybe it’s in the newspaper, or from something I’ve seen on television. I have a very hunky UPS man and I’m considering making him the hero of one of my stories. Maybe he’s delivering a package with some kinky toys in it. Every single person I see or talk to or just pass on the street lights a bulb in my head.

I think it’s because I have such an insatiable curiosity about everyone and everything. Remember that old program, The Naked City? The opening gambit was a voice saying “There are seven million stories in the naked city.” Well, that’s how I feel. Everything and everyone becomes a nugget of a story to me.

One of my little tricks of the trade is that I work on more than one story at a time. That way if I hit a wall with one I can leave it for a bit and move to another. It also keeps the ideas in my head fresh and active.

I was a daydreamer when I was young and I think I still am. I carry a notebook in my purse so that no matter where I am, if the idea for a story strikes me I can jot it down. I no longer trust my memory for that. I tried that once and when I came back to the two lines I’d written I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I wanted to write.

Also, I’m an avid reader and I usually read genres different from those I write. That way I give my brain a rest and I also don’t let someone else’s thoughts bleed into my head. What do I do when I want to read anything erotic? I shut down my computer for a couple of days except for email and take a reading break.

Then, when I’m back at it, my mind is refreshed and my stories come alive again.

I think another point is that I never get tired of creating and never run out of ideas. And I get input from many sources. I have great writing partners and we bounce ideas off one another. For my action adventure stories I can always count on my son (although we never discuss s-e-x). My younger daughter gave me the idea for my Night Seekers series.

So how do I keep going? I do it with pleasure and a voracious appetite for creating. As long as that adrenaline keeps racing through my body, my fingers will keep pounding the keyboard.

And I hope you all will keep reading.

Here’s the blurb for Desiree’s 100th release, Downstroke

It’s been twenty years since security specialist Charley Roper and country star Dallas Creed had their bitter parting. Now a killer has brought them together again, but neither is ready for a reunion—despite signs that their explosive chemistry hasn’t waned with time. She can’t forget the feel of his hands on her body. He can’t forget the hot touch of her mouth. When they finally tumble into bed, the sex is just as good as they remember, hot enough to singe the sheets. But is it enough?

Thrown together during an exhausting, frenzied concert tour, with a killer nipping at their heels, Dallas and Charley find themselves on a hot, suspenseful, erotic roller coaster ride. Can he convince her to trust her heart to him one more time, to reach out for a richer, deeper, more mature love?

More importantly—can Charley keep Dallas alive long enough for either of them to enjoy a second chance?

Visit Desiree Holt’s website

Recently someone told me the hero in my story wasn’t heroic and didn’t behave like a hero. He was unsympathetic. Instead of panicking or becoming defensive, I took another look at my hero and, to my horror, found the criticism was justified. While I still liked my character, I definitely needed to do something to make him more likeable to readers.

Most of us want to read about characters that have the qualities we see in our friends and family—the same qualities we like to think we possess. We want to connect with characters and be able to relate to them.

So how do we do this?

In his book, Writing the Breakout Novel , Donald Maass says we should start showing the reader that our character has heroic qualities right from the first page of our book. Even if our character is an average person, in an ordinary job, we need to demonstrate a special quality in them. At the start of a book, it will most likely be something small. They might help an elderly woman cross the road or rescue the next-door neighbor’s cat from a tree, but it will make us, the reader, sit up and pay attention. This is a character we would like as a friend, and we want to follow them through the course of the book, during the ups and downs, to the happy ending.

In my case, I looked at my character’s interactions with other characters. My hero snapped and snarled quite a bit, so I softened his language and the way he interacted with the other characters. I added some extra scenes, which I hope show my hero in a favorable light. I also looked at the inner conflict and checked I’d done everything I needed to in this area.

Fixing unsympathetic characters isn’t easy, and I hope I’ve managed to get the job done. I’m awaiting the verdict at present.

Do you have any hints for changing unsympathetic characters to ones that readers will love? And do you agree with Donald Maass—that we should see the hero/heroine doing something heroic almost as soon as we meet them in the story?

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser today comes from Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin. Butterfly Swords is a historical romance set during the Tang Dynasty in China. I’m busy saving to visit China next year, so I’m looking forward to reading this book. I’ve just started and have taken my teaser from the first chapter.

When she looked back, he was standing beside the toppled sedan, his shoulders sagging as if he carried a sack of stones. The secret he’d revealed to her two days ago weighed heavily on her as well.

page 8, Butterfly Swords

Blurb:

Journey to the very edge of honor, loyalty . . . and love

During China’s infamous Tang Dynasty, a time awash with luxury, yet littered with deadly intrigues and fallen royalty, betrayed Princess Ai Li flees before her wedding. Miles from home, with only her delicate butterfly swords for a defense, she enlists the reluctant protection of a blue-eyed warrior…

Battle-scarred, embittered Ryam has always held his own life at cheap value. Ai Li’s innocent trust in him and honorable, stubborn nature make him desperate to protect her – which means not seducing the first woman he has ever truly wanted….

Purchase Butterfly Swords