Aside from hot alpha males with attitude and heroines who whip them into shape? Travel. Exotic locations.
Finally, all that time in Europe is paying dividends! (Although it paid plenty of dividends when I lived and traveled there — priceless experience.) But now, I get to revisit those places I loved while I create the world of my Harlequin Presents story.
I didn't stay in the Gritti Palace in Venice, but it's the inspiration for one of my hero's hotels. The Gritti Palace starts around 500 Euros a night. Can you imagine?
There was a time, when I lived there, when that would have cost about $350. Today, it's nearly $800. I don't think I'll be staying there anytime soon. 🙂
But I can imagine it! I can view the pictures and see my hotel come to life. I can imagine the luxury of that place, the service, the gorgeous views from that terrace. I'm doing armchair traveling to write this story and I LOVE IT! Why didn't I do this sooner?
I always wanted to write for Presents. But I stubbornly kept putting it off. Until the Instant Seduction contest. I can't thank HM&B enough for having the contest. I'd still be saying someday, and I wouldn't be armchair traveling through my old guidebooks and getting inspired by pictures of sumptuous rooms and table settings.
What do you write and why do you love it? Do you love to armchair travel? What's the best vacation you ever had? The coolest place you ever lived?
**Best Vacation: Venice
**Coolest Place I lived: Toss up between Europe and Hawaii
I write paranormal because I just love the possibilities. When you throw it into your average contemporary story, it takes a twist that I enjoy. Having insight into the mind of a serial killer, having superhuman abilities, battling otherworldly forces…its just fun for me. I also throw this stuff onto characters that are normal and completely unprepared, so its like it happened to you. What would you do if you woke up a vampire? You grow with the character because you can relate to them.
I travel a lot but my best vacation ever would have to be our trip to Scotland. It was just fun to travel with friends to someplace cool. We have fun no matter what, but adding a foreign country made it that much more interesting.
The coolest place I’ve ever lived? Well, there’s only 4 choices – Tucson, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada, Flagstaff, Arizona and Alabama. I’m not going to go with the obvious – I’ll say Flagstaff. It was just a cool hippie town. It was funky and casual and I hate that I left so soon instead of enjoying it while I was there.
And I have to say, the way “heroes” lines up with the ammo belt, it does look like Hot Herpes. 🙂
Great thoughts, SP! Hmm, I like the way you do paranormal. There’s not enough of that kind, IMO. OTOH, I think you can tell from reading my stuff that I’d write dark if I did it. Therefore, I think I’m drawn to reading the more smart-alecky fun stuff. Well, except for JR Ward. *g*
Traveling to foreign places with friends is cool. I went to Venice with parents and hubby, and it was cool with them too.
I actually think living in Alabama is pretty neat. My mom tends to apologize for it (we aren’t from AL, though we’re Southern) and I tell her, why? It’s COOL. People who think this is the redneck sticks are stereotyping and who cares. That’s why we have a great cost of living and a good RE market — people don’t know about it. 🙂
And thanks for the herpes comment. You and PC have too much time on your hands. *GG*