Sometimes a character jumps out at you. When I met Susie of Smoother Than Spumoni, she actually jumped out of the ocean at my family. Susie the Dolphin Shifter is inspired by the rambunctious dolphin of the same name who lives between Anna Maria Island and the mainland of Florida, USA. This dolphin’s favorite activities include knocking over rafts, smashing into the dolphin-watching tour boats, and splashing diners at the local oyster bar on the pier. Susie’s antics aren’t malicious. When you topple off your raft in the Gulf of Mexico, she swims away instead of attacking. It seems this dolphin does it all for sport.
My family travels to Anna Maria Island every September for an end-of-summer vacation. In 2018, Red Tide was at its height and the Florida authorities were recommending tourists limit their time swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Without the beach to entertain my 8-year-old, my family was scrambling for other activities. We went on a dolphin-sighting tour with Paradise Boat Tours where we saw dolphin pups, historical buildings, and Susie’s shenanigans.
I was brainstorming the perfect heroine for Strawberry Shifters Book 8: Water Under the Bridge. I knew I wanted to write new adult romances for all Rosie Paulino’s homeschooled boys, starting with Frank Jr. in Book 8. Frank had to step into his father’s shoes, run the family restaurant, and manage his five younger brothers at the beginning of Book 1: Bear with Me, so I wanted to give him a special heroine. Frank Jr. would go on his shifter internship in the Seagrass Island pack which I modeled after Anna Maria Island to find his aquatic shifter true love. But what creature would she be and how would her personality mesh with my workaholic, grumpy werewolf?
One of my favorite romance tropes is the ray of sunshine
meets the grump. Wild dolphin Susie checked all the boxes but somehow the match
didn’t seem right. I bounced the idea off my husband who doesn’t read romances
but surprisingly had strong opinions on the sunshine/grumpy trope. He pointed
out that true love means you fit without having to change the other person. He
asked why the grump must change to deserve the sunshine. He said he would find
a true “ray of sunshine” spouse annoying. I wasn’t sure how to take that—am I
not sunny or annoyingly happy?
I had forgotten my workaholic, type-A, stick-in-the-mud,
scientist spouse would identify with the typical grump, but he got my wheels
turning… Why can’t a grump be matched with a grump, a type-A workaholic with a
type-A workaholic, and a serious-stick-in-the-mud with a similarly dirty stick?
Susie, seconds before our boat was rocked.
Susie the trickster dolphin is a driven businesswoman in her
human form. She has dreams and plans on building a business empire out of her
parent’s small shop. The original Water Under the Bridge has her family as
oyster divers, but when The Wild Rose Press announced its One Scoop or Two
series, I revised the book. Susie and her family own Larkin’s Dairy Dip. Smoother Than Spumoni
is the front third of Water Under the Bridge, remastered with an environmental
mystery surrounding the red tide of 2018 in Florida, USA.
Celebrate the one-year book birthday of Smoother Than Spumoni by picking up your copy on sale for $0.99! (Grab your copy here for $0.99) This year, Smoother Than Spumoni was a finalist for Beach Read of 2021 by NN Light’s Book Heaven. Here’s more about Frank Jr, Susie, and Smoother Than Spumoni.
Susie Larkin is a dolphin shifter and heir to the humble Larkin’s Dairy Dip on Seagrass Island, FL. Pedaling ice cream from bicycle carts on the beach is just a stepping-stone for this future CEO of a frozen confection empire—or so she hopes.
3 comments:
An interesting post. I'm sure I'd love the dolphin shifters. Is the Strawberry shifters before or after Spumoni?
Hubs and I went on a tour of Tampa Bay and dolphins raced our boat. Such fun. In one of my stories, a former Type A tries to reform another Type A so she won't end up like he did--with a life-threatening illness. Sometimes, like attracts like. Your dolphin shifter sounds very interesting.
Technically Smoother Than Spumoni comes after Book 3: Go Scorch Yourself, but Frank Jr is such a minor character that you could start with Spumoni. Thanks for giving it a try!
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