Why Do We Like It Hot?

 By Maureen L Bonatch 

Happy Sidewalk Egg Frying Day! Yep, you thought I was going to say Happy Independence Day or 4^th of July for those of you who celebrate this holiday like I do- well, I’ll say that, too. But since I have the date of the 4^thof July every year here at Paranormal Romantics, I’ve talked about the fireworks in a story before. 

So, like you, I initially wondered exactly how Sidewalk Egg Frying Day came to be a ‘day’. Although it does seem there’s a day for just about everything anymore. 

Plus, most places are reaching that temperature this time of year that you probably could fry your eggs on the sidewalk if you chose to. 

Some Like It Hot 

Although as hot as it gets, and as much as people complain about the brutal weather, it seems most people prefer the hot temperatures over the cold. We’re looking for beach reads, or reading books where the characters are vacationing at the beach themselves. 

Even I’m currently planning for a beach vacation, despite knowing that I don’t tolerate the heat well. My pasty, Irish skin doesn’t care for the sun’s rays and my body seems to be constantly trying to cool itself—and failing. Yet like most of us, I’m still drawn to the sun like a bug to the light.

Winter Wonderland

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the colder months and the comfort that comes with them of reading next to a nice fire, or swaddling myself in soft blankets or comfortable clothes.

But it seems that if it’s cold, the books I read with that setting feature a story about Christmas, or other holidays. Why aren’t there more books that we could call a ‘cabin cozy’ or ones we can ‘hibernate’ with over the long cold winter months when it seems that we’d be more likely to want to escape with a story? 

Fall for You

Personally, fall is my favorite season. Not too hot, not too cold—just right. Although some years it seems that mother nature forgets about this season and lets summer drag on, or she rushes right into winter. 

To help me think about a cool fall breeze caressing my skin that wants to challenge the sidewalk today to fry an egg, I write, or read, about that season in most of my stories. 

Do You Prefer a Beach Read or a Cabin Cozy?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook& Twitter

Fabulous Fall by C.J. Burright

As sad as I am to wave buh-bye to summer, there are a few fall factors that make the slide toward winter less painful. If you’re having a hard time stashing your swimsuit and surrendering backyard barbecues, maybe you can find some comfort in one or two of the things that are getting me through.

Sweaters and Leggings

I love my snuggly sweaters, and the fact it’s acceptable to wear dressed up sweats around without feeling lazy? Score. I’ve been waiting to wear these particular leggings, stacked so patiently in my closet for months:

Aren’t they awesome? I can’t wait to wear them with a long black sweater and tall boots, no matter that the other, unfashionable people in my household think I’m weird. They clearly have no taste.

The Return of Favorite Shows

Supernatural - I’ve loved the Winchesters from the very beginning, and it’s so great to have a show that doesn’t get freakin’ canceled after two seasons. Anyone else an outraged Sense8 fan? That cliffhanger made me scream, and then to find out there’s only a two-hour finale that fans had to petition for? Not cool, Netflix. Not. Cool.

Stranger Things

Any trailer that uses Michael Jackson’s Thriller is an automatic in, right? *And if the link doesn't work, I apologize. Blogger wasn't cooperating with me. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgS2L7WPIO4
This show…gah! It’s the perfect blend of everything great, a combination of Goonies, Supernatural, and the Bourne movies. There is the totally loveable, geeky middle school tribe of D&D lovers who are into science and think girls are gross. The older, straight-laced sister on the verge of acceptance by dating the "popular" guy. The outcast, sensitive boy who adores the girl from afar...until danger draw them together. The emotionally-scarred sheriff who doesn't care until some serious stuff drags him back into life. The wound tight mom who works all the time just to provide for her boys and isn't about to sit around when one of them goes missing. The fenced-off government lab where a no-morals scientist conducts experiments...and the girl who escapes. Then there's the scary THING that ties everyone together. I don’t blog about shows unless they’re FANTASTIC. This one. It is. Go watch.

Hot Brews

Hot tea, hot buttered rum, hot chocolate (with or without peppermint Schnapps), Irish coffee, steaming apple cider…I can’t even pick a favorite. But no one wants to sip on a hot toddy when the sun’s blazing down, right? You have to appreciate these babies when it’s cool and crisp and your toes need warmed.

Assassin’s Creed Origins

If you’ve followed me at all, by now you know I’m a die-hard Assassin’s Creed fan, and Origins is due to be released on October 27. I demand an early Christmas present of the latest game, and if it isn’t waiting on the counter when I get home from work on release day, it’s couch city for hubby. Ubisoft made me wait an extra year for this one, so my fingers are itching to stab someone and I’m ready to climb buildings and dive from impossible heights into a measly haystack. It’s been said I get a little obsessed and snarly until I finish the game. Exaggerations, I assure you.

Halloween

Candy. Costumes. Terror. It’s my favorite time of year. I blame it on my love for all things that go bump in the night and my Celtic roots celebrating Samhain. No apologies. Any kids who dare to come to my house should prepare to be scared…for interrupting the premiere of Stranger Things or my Assassin’s Creed time. If they’re lucky, I’ll throw some sugar at them as they flee.

What are you looking forward to this fall?

Summer Settings

As a writer, I love getting out of my normal, day-to-day environment to experience new sights, sounds, sensations, or smells, and hopefully translate it all in my writing. Summer getaways are a perfect opportunity to recharge the creative mind. This summer my family and I went to Florida with a stop-over in New Orleans, giving me an opportunity to visit some old haunts and spend time with my family in Orlando.

Escaping the Phoenix summer heat is what many Phoenicians try to do. Granted, surviving the four or so months of excruciating heat is often worth the blissful weather we get the rest of the year, but I don’t buy the argument that dry heat is somehow better than the humidity. I guess it’s what you’re used to, but I find the urban heat in Phoenix rather monotonous, a heavy weight dragging me down. I once went to see Pearl Jam play an outdoor concert in the summer and Eddie Vedder compared singing in the heat to someone sticking a hairdryer down your throat. Only the rain brings a sweet relief, when it chooses to bless the desert.

Our first stop, New Orleans is certainly the warm, wet blanket draped over you, but for whatever reason, unlike other humid places, that blanket is sultry. It hugs you, caresses you, lulls you to sleep with a sweet lullaby. Maybe it’s the smells wafting off the Mississippi, the Magnolias draping over rooftops, the Southern charm blended with old European sophistication, or maybe I just watched The Big Easy with Ellen Barkin and Dennis Quaid too many times. Whatever that indefinable quality that is New Orleans, I bathe in it every time I visit. And every time I visit, I stop by the Lafayette cemetery to wrap myself in the mystery and spooky charm brought to life in Anne Rice’s Lestat books. Maybe I’m just hoping to glimpse something crawling out of a masoleum J Here’s a picture we took while navigating the narrow, overgrown paths between the bodies laid to rest.

However, it was our final destination of Florida and it’s coastlines that had my anticipation running amuck. I love my Florida: its beaches, with fine, bleached sand, perfect ocean water temperatures; her back wood rivers stained tea-brown by the over-flowing Cypress trees; clouds so thick and bulbous, and green, green, lushness all around. I grew up in Florida and I forget after living in the desert just how much of a swamp the Sunshine State really is. When you’re there, the atmosphere, the greenery practically grabs you in its velvet embrace (especially the bugs, but I don’t mind it so much). It is like living in a greenhouse, but the evenings are sweet and cool, especially after a fast, hard afternoon shower. It feels so alive to me. The sounds of cicadas, the crunch of the thick green grass under your bare feet, even the textures, like this picture of barnacles on a sea tree branch.

Not to say I don’t appreciate the quiet subtlety of the desert flora and fauna, almost respectful in its cohabitation. I love nature in all its shapes and sizes, which seems so alive in the summer, so vibrant, but I have a bias. I am a child of the salt water, the currents, and the wet sand flowing through my fingers. I grew up digging for clams, dipping for shrimp, undulating with the ocean currents. These are the sights, sounds, and sensations I love the most. Speaking of sounds—with meaning, one day we took off for a small island in one of the channel rivers on the coast on my brother’s boat. The moment we arrived, we heard thrashing in one of the small trees, finding a black bird stuck in the fronds, its foot caught on a fishing line. Fishing runs in the soul blood of all Floridians and some fisher people are more responsible than others. I like to think that my family is one of the responsible ones. We never tossed used fishing line in the environment and proof positive of our care was in finding the poor trapped bird that day. It was a joy, maybe serendipitous, that we happened upon the bird that day. The boys rigged a knife on a long branch and cut the line, freeing the bird. A great start to a perfect summer day.

Mimi Sebastian

Freeing The Muse

By Maureen L. Bonatch

~Happy Independence Day!~

Writers are often asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas from?”

Inspiration is different for every writer and sometimes that inspiration runs dry, or hits a wall and the muse becomes silent. Some call it writer’s block, others might say it’s a mental block, but most would agree in calling it frustrating when the faucet runs dry and the words that had flowed so freely have now sputtered to a stop.

Just as each writer has different methods of writing their story, most have their own method of getting their muse freed to keep the stories flowing.

One of my best ways to free my muse is right in line with the Bad Boys of Summer theme…

You know the ones…loud, leather-wearing, tattooed, sexy, confident…

Bikers.

Of course I must point out that this is the Stereotypical (though hot) image of a biker as many biking groups are well known for their fundraising rides, support of military, retirees or for a social group.

Recently, I attended Thunder in the Valley, which is known to attract over 200,000 bikers and is one of the largest Pennsylvania biker rallies.

With bikes, bands, a parade, food stands and more...it attracts both bikers and those of the four-wheeled variety as well.

Lucky for me I have my own Bad Boy Biker. It used to be that I was a tad jealous of his love for her (which you can read about on my blog...here) but then decided…If I can’t beat her, might as well join them. It’s been one of the best ways for me to awaken my muse as I cling to my hero’s back and watch the world rush by. 

So for me requesting a ride on the back of his big, sexy beast of a motorcycle helps clear away the cobwebs of my story for it to flow freely through my mind. Thus why I have tiny tablets stashed everywhere to jot down ideas.  

So it came as no surprise to me to find that in my upcoming release, DESTINY CALLING, my Bad Boy happens to be a biker who despite/because of his bad boy persona, my heroine has a hard time resisting.

 Here are other strategies a few of my fellow Paranormal Romantics offered to help defeat Writer’s Block and Free the Muse:

Sometimes I take a step back; stop writing and watch TV or read a book and then hit the writing the next day. Normally stress is what's blocking me so have to take the pressure off of myself and approach things with a clear head. ~ Selena Illyria 

I listen to music, all kinds, which usually sets my creativity loose again! ~Veronica Scott  

When my Muse takes a hike, I watch movies—esp. a science fiction thriller. If it has a romance, all the better.~ Diane Burton 

I let things rest and percolate in the background while I concentrate on other things, such as figuring out how I was going to market  my upcoming novel. Promoting other authors. Writing short pieces for blogs. Reading books for fun!

I am a creature of habit, so I absolutely don’t like change and it appears change upsets the flow of my writing. So after the great hard drive crash of 2014, my muse hit the highway, and did not return until I had my laptop fixed, was sitting in my office cross-legged on the daybed at 3:30 in the morning with a cup of coffee beside me.~ Sophia Kimble

If I'm writing on the computer I will switch to writing long hand. Sometimes I can squeeze out several more pages just doing that. 
 ~Beth Matthews

Thank you for stopping by! 

Gloom and Doom

Does the weather ever effect your writing or what you choose to read? This is what it looks like outside my library today.

Yes...doom and gloom.

It was drizzling on my head when I took that picture. It's been raining on and off all weekend. It's cloudy, gray, and ugly out. I need some sunshine. Have you ever noticed that at least 90% of the time...it's always sunny in the books you read...in the books you write? Who wants to read about a heroine/hero in a thunderstorm or a tornado? You want light and happiness. Right?

Unless of course you're reading a thriller or a mystery. Gloom and doom seem to go hand in hand with that genre. But if you're a romance reader, you want to read about your hero and heroine going out on a date in a nice light suit, a summer or spring dress and enjoying themselves. Sure, every book you read isn't based in the spring or summer, but even in the winter or fall, they end of cozying up by a nice fire or having a snowball fight in the snow. It's rarely raining. At least, that's the way I remember it in books I read.

So, if you're like me and you need some sunshine in your life and you're in the mood for a nice evening walk on the beach, check out the second book in my Beach House Nights series, Something Wet available NOW!

Violet Tanner just had the shittiest week ever. She was demoted at work, her apartment got flooded, and the guy she's dating sends her an email to tell her he needs some space. When she gets an invite from one of her closest friends to a party at her beach house, her quick RSVP leaves her computer smoking.

Things start to look up when hottie Logan McMasters arrives. She's lusted after the ex-pro ball player for years. She's determined to have her weekend end on a hot and sexy note and stops at nothing less than full-on seduction to get her man. Before the night is over Logan is going to know what it means to experience something hot, something spicy and something wet.

Amazon / B&N

Summer Start

There are so many things I want to accomplish this summer. Every year I start the season with an idea of how we can spend the summer months then fall appears and I'm left empty handed wondering, "Did I do any of the things I wanted?"

So this year I decided to blog my TO DO list and at the end of summer I'll evaluate it.

• Go to Colorado to visit family
• Attend as many swim meets as possible and work at a timer.
• Hike Mont St Hilaire in Canada
• Go mining for crystals
• Go to Six Flags
• Attend Renassiance Fair
• Finish and submit present WIP

The list looks daunting but I think we can manage it!

What are your goals for the summer break?