Laura Florand's Blog, page 13
February 16, 2015
Revising & making truffles–what about you?
Some days I enjoy revising so much. There’s something very therapeutic about it, like cleaning up a room before you show it off to guests. A little word trimmed here, a sentence cleared up there, shining it up.
[Ironically, cleaning up an actual room would be something I do not enjoy doing at all.]
What are you celebrating this week? How are you taking time to enjoy life? We’ve been making truffles this weekend, and I suspect tomorrow will be a snow day here and we’ll be doing even more baking, the type of celebration I enjoy a lot.
I hope this week is treating you well!
February 14, 2015
Book Valentine’s?
Valentine’s Day! A day which in regular life I have some reticence toward–if you’re in an established couple, hopefully you make time for each other (and chocolate!) without marketers telling you that today has to be the day, and if you’re single…doesn’t it just make you feel lousy?
BUT in books I have a *great* time with Valentine’s Day. When I think back on it, there have been quite a few Valentine moments in the Chocolate books in particular. I think that’s because once it slips into fiction, it’s so rich with symbolism that *of course* with all those chefs and chocolatiers I can’t resist.
So let’s celebrate Valentine’s in books! Do you have a favorite book Valentine moment? Or book boyfriend?
Happy Valentine’s Day! Love yourself today, too!
February 10, 2015
A Once Upon a Rose Teaser
A teaser from Once Upon a Rose for Tuesday! I hope you enjoy!
Once Upon a Rose
“What do you want now?” Matt growled at her, tightening his arms around himself.
“I only need directions!” Layla snapped back at him. “I can’t believe how unhelpful you people are being!”
Matt blinked. He slid the oddest glance toward the other men, almost—vulnerable? “They couldn’t give you directions?”
Tristan shook his head woefully. “Even Damien,” he said sadly, “proved unequal to the task.”
Matt stared at them for a moment. And then his sunburn seemed to get worse than ever, and he rubbed his chest, as if it felt strange to him. Clearing his throat, a rough growl of sound, he took her map from her. “Where do you need to go?”
“I’ve been lost enough around here, thank you,” Layla said. “I don’t need you to get me lost some more, just to punish me for inheriting a house.”
Matt scowled at the map. “Where do you need to go?” he growled again.
Tristan coughed a little into his hand. “Ahem, Matt. People skills!” he stage-whispered.
Matt glared at him.
“He’s really a nice guy,” Tristan told her out loud, cheerfully, as if Matt wasn’t even listening. “No, I swear.”
Matt transferred his glare back to the map.
Again, Layla fought the urge to just lay her hand against his chest. It was a really hot chest, that probably explained it. She kept imagining all that growly tension relaxing away from him in surprise. And then what would he be like? That cute, enthusiastic, uncontained man he had been drunk?
“Where?” Matt insisted. He cleared his throat again. And then managed to get words out that were still rough, but considerably quieter. “Where do you need to go?” he repeated, carefully.
“I don’t even know where I am.”
“You’re in the Rosier valley,” Matt said blankly and put a callused finger to her map. “Here.”
An excerpt from ONCE UPON A ROSE.
February 9, 2015
Take Time to Celebrate!
Take Time to Celebrate this Week!
So I’ve been thinking a lot about celebrating successes, and I would really like to have a space here that encourages us all to do that. I think it’s something a lot of us don’t take time to do.
And I think it’s *very important*. In fact, the more I’ve been reading about the visualization techniques of top athletes, the more important I realize it is. That celebrating strengthens you and motivates you and just enriches your life.
But I also think that we have to be careful to celebrate not just the Big Huge Visible Accomplishment, but those things we value the most–that we had a great day hiking with our families, maybe, or that we made cookies with the kids. (Because if those are important and yet we don’t celebrate them as successes, then we subconsciously undervalue ourselves for taking time to do them.) And sometimes we need to celebrate the tiny, tiny thing we managed to snatch out of a really bad week or month–every little victory.
So…I want to try to do a (perhaps weekly?) space here where people can take a second to celebrate.
What are you celebrating this week? How are you celebrating? (Sometimes I feel you can do it just by taking a deep breath and thinking about it for a moment.)
I am really, really grateful and happy that ONCE UPON A ROSE has been so well received. Thank you all so much! And I’m celebrating a weekend spent with friends and family making crêpes and playing outside in the beautiful weather we had.
How about you?
I hope everyone has a great week!
February 6, 2015
Friday Book Club: Language … and Hookers!
Friday Book Club! What is everyone reading this week?
Has anyone read THE HOOKER AND THE HERMIT yet? I know I have a lot of Penny Reid fans here, and LH Cosway is another fascinating author, so I’m excited to see what the two of them do together. (Plus…what a title.)
Right now, I’m reading THROUGH THE LANGUAGE GLASS, which Sara had recommended. I really enjoy this kind of analysis of language, and his whole first section on colors in language makes me think of Theroux’s utterly charming PRIMARY COLORS (three essays on the primary colors), which I read probably twenty years ago. (Theroux’s is more of a free-form essay on colors, not an analysis of language, but he brings up some of the language issues, such as how long it took for blue to be mentioned as a color in the development of language.)
What about you? What are you reading? what are you looking forward to?
February 2, 2015
The Chocolate Heart in Indonesia!
Love this Indonesian cover of THE CHOCOLATE HEART! Out this February (2015) in Indonesian!
February 1, 2015
Happy Crêpe Day! (la Fête de la Chandeleur)
A public service message to remind you that tomorrow (Feb 2) is Crêpe Day! La Chandeleur, in France, which is when, instead of waiting for a groundhog to see his shadow (or hopefully not), the French make crêpes and everyone flips one with a gold coin in his or her hand. (Preferably a louis d’or, but unlike my father-in-law, we don’t have any of those on hand and have to make do with a euro, which is at least gold in appearance.) This brings good fortune for the rest of the year.
And as I always say, making and eating crêpes with friends is good fortune in and of itself! (Also a good way to *make* friends, as my husband discovered early on living here. If you invite people over for crêpes, they will all come! And hungry. smile emoticon )
Our own crêpe party had to be postponed until next Saturday due to a sick child this past Saturday and Feb 2 falling on a Monday, but it will be fun.
Favorite crêpe toppings: just brush with good butter (from Brittany, if you can get it, but if not the Irish Kerrygold is a good brand usually found in the U.S.) and sprinkle with sugar, and fold in half and then in half again (so that it looks like the slice of a pizza in shape). Then eat. Or brush with butter and sprinkle with sweet ground chocolate, or spread with Nutella.
In Québec, they love maple syrup on their crêpes, combining the influences of two worlds quite deliciously.
Are you inspired? Who’s in?
(And I do realize vaguely that a lot of people are focused on the Super Bowl right now and not crêpes, but our football loving neighbors moved, so we have drifted back into complete obliviousness when it comes to the game. I know, I know…adrift from popular culture once again! I hope you have a great evening tonight, if you enjoy watching it!)
And Happy Crêpe Day!
January 30, 2015
Friday Book Club! Lean In, anyone?
Friday Book Club! What are you reading this week?
A friend of mine is really enthusiastic for me to read LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg. (I feel as if I really have very little hesitation to speak up and go for what I want, the two messages people always mention with regards to this book, so I’m interested to see what else is in here that makes her recommend it.) Have you read it?
And I just finished author Emma Barry’s PRIVATE POLITICS and Virginia Kantra ‘s “Upon a Midnight Clear”, a novella in TIED WITH A BOW. (When Virginia told me she had written a story set in the French Revolution, I had to read it! A lovely story of love and redemption and a fallen angel.) And PRIVATE POLITICS had the most adorable hero, very beta, totally gone for the heroine, and just an all round nice guy.
So lots of good reading this week. What about you? What are you reading? Anything you recommend? Anything you’re looking forward to?
USA Today (HEA) recs ONCE UPON A ROSE
Very honored that ONCE UPON A ROSE is a recommended read by USA TODAY.
“A sexy, sexy romance [and a] really fun book to read…I highly recommend it.”
Thank you so much!
And huge thanks also to For What It’s Worth and Smexybooks for the beautiful reviews on their blogs.
“You know that question where you have to name what books you would take with you if you were stuck on an island? Now I think I have my answer. Anything and everything by Laura Florand.” – For What It’s Worth
“A lovely, sexy book with two adorable protagonists.” — Smexybooks
January 29, 2015
“That Guy” (Mr. Darcy)
My daughter, as she finishes watching the last episode of Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version, of course–BBC):
Daughter: Sigh. “You know, I’d like that guy a lot better if he had a sense of humor. He’s always so…” (Sticks nose up in the air as only an eight-year-old can and acts frowny and haughty.)
Me: “Well…yes. I believe you’ve captured Mr. Darcy’s essence, honey.”
I think the whole appeal of Darcy in the BBC version is this subtle, simmering need the whole film to totally undo him. (And we never see him undone enough, do we? At least, I always find the second proposal and ending in that version very flat compared to the build-up.)
Which film version of Pride and Prejudice do you like the best? Or do you prefer the book?
We just finished working on this in our Romance Novel course (thus the re-watch with my daughter), and are now moving on to Heyer’s The Masqueraders. (I want to talk with students about how she uses the switch in gender roles to challenge traditional limits to heroine’s roles in romance. Plus, I just love that book. And of course, we do Heyer because she single-handedly created the Regency romance genre, even if Masqueraders is not itself a Regency.) I mention because people often ask me what we’re working on!
